Author's Note : Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed up to now, especially my regular readers. I'm not a fan of retconning character development, but I'm desperate to get our dashing pirate back so here's a fluffy companion piece to the last one with a bit of CBT for him once the day is saved to try and get him back to his roots and cheer him up. No spoilers. Let me know what you think.

…...

"This has been exactly what I needed but I have to get back to work," Regina sighed, giving Robin one last soft kiss before she reluctantly pushed herself from her office sofa to walk back to her desk. It'd been so long since someone had put effort into romancing her and the prince of thieves turning up at her office with a surprise lunch had given her warm fussy feelings she hadn't had since she was a young girl. It was ridiculous how easy he seemed to be able to do that to her.

"But we haven't finished our coffee," he said smiling wide and waggling his eyebrows at her.

"Don't try and play the scoundrel Robin," she said laughing at his pout. "I actually have an appointment due any second and knowing him he'll be-" A sudden roar of male laughter outside her window interrupted her. "What was that?"

The sharp rapping of metal on glass drew their attention back to the office before she could investigate.

"Hook," she sighed. "Exactly on time."

"Punctuality is next to-" he started to say but the noises outside escalated again and drowned him out.

"Who is that?" Regina growled as she turned towards the window but Hook's guilty face made her stop and give him back her attention.

"I ah, may have unconsciously carried a few other souls back from the netherworld with me," he said wincing and scratching behind his ear.

"What?" Regina demanded surging up from her chair as Robin bounded across the room to join her at the window.

An eclectic group of men were slouched in a loose gathering in the small ornamental garden in front of the town hall. The only feature bringing them together as a unit was their air of menace... and untidiness.

"Are they?" Robin half asked as an innocent passer-by absent mindedly strolled close to the group while texting on his phone. A very hairy man at the edge of the group shot his leg out at the last minute tripping him and sending him sprawling only to be caught by his collar with his nose an inch from the ground by a large fist attached to another bald hulking man. Frozen in surprise the man was righted and patted down, a small spidery man handing his phone back with a toothless smile. The group then waved the random man away with cheerful smiles.

"My crew," Killian sighed.

"They didn't even pick his pocket," Robin marvelled. "They just tripped him for fun?"

"They are bored, and a trifle claustrophobic, " Killian said sighing again. "The prospect of remaining in this little town for the rest of their days is not one they are ready for yet. In their defence they have just been reborn and that does make one want to chase adventure."

"And the particular adventure you're suggesting is?" Regina asked suspiciously.

"Just a short trip down the coast to collect whatever supplies the town needs from the realm outside." Hook stated breezily. Regina raised one perfectly shaped eyebrow. "They've no encounters with this realm since the early nineteen hundreds I'm sure the experience will be enough to sate their curiosity for a time," he continued, starting to sound nervous as Regina remained silent her eyes studying the pirate captain.

Killian felt his jaw clenching in annoyance and forced himself to relax. The queen must have realised he was only here making a show of asking for permission. Now the town border magic was down he could have just loaded up his ship and crew and been halfway around the world before she even realised he'd left town.

After nearly destroying everything good in the world he was attempting, however hollow this gesture may appear, to become a good man and a valuable and cohesive member of their town. Didn't she of all people understand? She couldn't believe this was a smokescreen for a raid or bounty hunt could she?

"Actually," Robin broke in. "There are a few items the Merry Men could use. I know Granny was complaining about being low on paprika." He gave a Regina a puppy dog face which was met with an unimpressed glare which she threw at both of them.

"Fine," she relented. "I'll send a message out to the trades people and see if there's anything else. This has nothing to do with you wanting to escape our little town does it?" Oh, Hook winced, maybe she understood a little too well.

"Maybe I do need to feel some freedom," Hook agreed.

"You don't feel freedom here?" Emma asked sharply from the doorway. Hook glared at Robin and Regina for not warning him of Emma's presence. They both looked unsympathetic.

"Now Swan, before you go feeling all betrayed, let me say one thing," he said as he turned to face her.

"What's that?" She asked, the and this better be good implicit in her tone of voice. Suggesting she was going to over react before she did, really wasn't the way stop her being angry.

"I haven't been able to look in the mirror for more than two seconds at a time since we returned." The surprise showed on her face before she could hide it. "I have doubted myself, hated myself, been furious at my own existence but I have never been afraid of myself, until now. I know you've told me the darkness wasn't my own, that it's gone now, that I'm a man worthy of your company but I'm finding it difficult to believe the evidence. You understand, don't you love?" She couldn't hold his eye and looked towards the empty wall as she sorted through her emotions.

"So leaving will help you find yourself again?" she asked eventually.

"Not leaving," he corrected. "I'd be going on a trip, for two days, to get..." He picked up the paper Robin had been hurriedly scrawling on as they talked. "Those fruit drink things Roland likes that I can't remember the name of," he read out loud. He gave Robin another cold glare. "Maybe three days," he amended. "I just want to feel like Killian Jones and maybe a little bit like Captain Hook? And sailing the Jolly Roger will accomplish that. It might be good for you to spend time just as Sheriff Emma Swan too?"

"Without each other," she nodded giving the idea some thought.

"More like apart from each other," he replied. "You shan't be getting rid of me after all this." The air between them became heavy with the memories flying between them as they lost themselves in each other's gaze.

"You've really not been looking in the mirror?" Emma asked, a smile breaking out on her face as she flicked the hair lying against his forehead.

"Ah, it doesn't show?" he asked, waving smugly at his handsome face.

"No," Emma admitted, the reappearance of his usual vanity making her smile wider.

"Smee has been helping me. What is the point of having a man around if he has nothing to do? Speaking of which, that is my next point. An honest man needs honest work and there's none more honest than being a sailor. You don't want the sort of husband who just lays about the house getting underfoot do you?"

"Certainly not," Emma replied without thinking. Neither of them noticed Robin and Regina both perk up at the direction their conversation had taken.

"Three days maximum, I'll be back before the weekend."

"I'll be waiting."

Their kisses weren't the fight for supremacy or passion they'd been at the start, now they were soft and filled with promises of safety. Robin coughed to remind them they weren't alone.

"Now, I think it's fine time you were introduced to some pirates," Killian declared pointedly ignoring the thief and giving Regina a barely acceptable nod of good bye.

"I thought they were honest sailors?"

"Give them some time Swan."

…

Author's Note: Hmmm I'm not sure about this one. Too much? Not enough? I'm pretty sure poor Hook's not going to bounce back from this season, if at all, which'll be sad because the sexy confidant pirate is who we fell in love with not the tortured hero. Please leave a review and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading.