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chapter 28: cold as ice
He's done enough and he should stay away. That's what he tells himself as he finds himself heading toward the hospital. He was sitting in Granny's diner when he overheard Regina telling Granny that Mary-Margaret was headed to the hospital and the baby was coming. He finds her in the hallway and only hopes the brief amount of time apart has lessened her anger.
"Swan."
She turns to face him, anger still flashing in her eyes and he knows this is not going to be easy. "I don't think it's a good idea for you to be here right now."
"I want to help." He says sincerely as her father comes out of one of the rooms.
They speak quietly about Emma being the one to take down Regina. David looks up at him. "Emma you don't need to do this alone. Hook, you're going with her."
He's nothing if not surprised. David and Mary Margaret had been the first to back Emma up on her decision not to trust him yesterday and he has no idea where the sudden change of heart is coming from. "I thought you didn't trust me."
David frowns and offers him what he believes is a contrite smile. "Zelena backed you into a corner. You did the best you could."
He knows he shouldn't push his luck but the obvious anger flowing through her veins spurs him on. "See, even your father gets it."
He can only roll his eyes when she argues that he has just one hand. Clearly she was pretending to forget all of the times she'd seen him fight with one hand. She argues with her father a bit longer before finally agreeing that he can come along. He makes a note later on to thank Dave for this.
-\-
He knows she is trying to pick a fight with him by the tone she uses, telling him that he manipulated her into returning to the town. They both know she made the decision to drink the memory potion of her own accord. "Your parents needed you. The town needed you."
"Henry also needed me. We were happy in New York. Once I'm done with this witch, I'd like us to be happy again." She says.
He sighs. "It wasn't real there. Like it or not, there's a big part of you and Henry that belongs here in this town."
She snorts at him. "Yeah the part of us that's always in danger. We're leaving as soon as this is over with."
He tries another tactic. "What does Henry want?"
"He's a kid. He wants chocolate milk in his cereal. I'm his mother and I know what's best for him." She says soundly.
"What's best for him? Or for you?" He asks, knowing he's pushing her buttons.
"Excuse me?"
"You've taken care of the boy quite well here. You can talk about danger all you'd like, but that isn't is. So tell me, what is it?" He stops ahead of her, turning back to face her. "Why are you so scared of staying? I think it's because you can see a future here, a happy one."
"Let me guess. With you?" She asks sarcastically.
"Aww. You two are so adorable!" Zelena's voice cuts through the cold air, sickeningly sweet. "But instead of looking for each other, maybe you should be focused on me. Although, without magic, that could prove to be a challenge."
He can feel the anger radiating off of Emma. They were both too caught up in conversation to notice they had wandered into the front yard of the farmhouse and directly into the waiting path of Zelena and Gold. Emma glares at the witch. "Next time you try to take my power, why don't you enchant the lips of someone I'd actually kiss?" She sneers.
Zelena offers her an exaggerated, shoulder-heaving sigh. "You've got a decision to make. You can keep your magic or you can save the man that you can't wait to run away from. Rumple."
The words just register in his mind but before he's able to wonder what that means, he feels his body being lifted from the ground and hurtling toward the pool of ice cold water in front of them. He tries to put his arms out to brace himself but he can't move. He barely has time to take a breath before he's being pushed into the cold water and held there.
Despite knowing struggling will not free him, it's a baser instinct to survive. His arms thrash through the cold water and he twists his head from side to side trying to break free of the hold. The invisible force holds him down harder as the bubbles of precious air escape from his nose and lips.
The pain begins to set in. The water is so cold it stings his skin, further taking his breath away. His head pounds, from the cold and the lack of oxygen. He can see the blackness at the corners of his eyes beginning to creep closer. He expects his life to flash before him, memories rushing through but nothing happens. It seems the frigid water creating so much pressure on his skull has shut down his brain to where even the memories can't come through. The last puff of air escapes his lips and he lets the blackness take over.
He vaguely feels weightless until his body slams into something hard and is momentarily surprised that even once dead the body can still feel pain. The upper half of him is being jostled around and it finally dawns on him that he must still be alive. He's caught somewhere in between, feeling his body being shaken but unable to hear or see anything. It's still cold and he just wants the shaking to go away so he can sleep.
There's a jolt of electricity pulsing through his body that brings him fully back into this world. Turning his head to the side he spits out a stream of pool water before flopping back down again onto the hard ground. She's hovering above him, blonde hair fanning out around her face like a halo. His lips tingle again and he realizes they are no longer cursed. "Swan! What did you do? What did you do?" He chokes out, too overwhelmed with anger that she lost her magic for him to see the tears of relief in her eyes.
-\-
He lets her walk into the hospital first, stopping into another room to first wring the rest of the water from his clothes and hair. He finds her in the hallway, having just met up with her son, father and Regina and comes up to them just in time to hear her ask if her brother was taken because she failed.
His heart goes out to her. "We're all here. You haven't failed yet." He says softly.
"Hooks, right, come on." David says, making to move toward the exit.
"No wait, Zelena took my magic." Emma confesses.
"How the hell did that happen?" Regina demands.
He opens his mouth to speak, to weave some lie that will not allow Emma to feel like a failure for saving him, but she speaks first. "Doesn't matter how. It just happened. So we need to find another way."
"There is no other way." The queen says.
"That's not true. You can do it." Henry pipes up, looking at his adoptive mother. "Zelena only beat you before because you were using dark magic against her. When you kissed me and broke the curse that was using light magic. You have both. You need to use the light magic to defeat her. Once upon a time you were a villain, mom. But you've changed. You're a hero now. And defeating bad guys is what hero's do. I believe in you. Now, you need to believe in you too."
Emma tells him to stay back, to get checked out at the hospital but he waves her off saying he'll not let them go into battle against the witch without all the help they can get.
They find the witch and crocodile in an old barn and it doesn't take long before Zelena is commanding Rumple to disarm them all. He's momentarily knocked out as he slams into the bales of hay. When he comes to again, he sees white balls of light and magic forming in Regina's hands despite being held in the air by her sister.
Regina manages to defeat her, shooting the light magic toward the green woman and snatching the pendant from her neck. Regina, Gold and Emma take Zelena to the Sheriff's department and David takes his new son back to the hospital. He decides to return to Granny's taking a hot shower to remove the last chill from his bones and finally gives in and allows the widow to show him the modern appliance they use to quickly dry their clothing. He knows remaining in damp clothing in this cold weather will mean he'll likely catch his death and a dead man won't be able to convince Emma to stay here.
He returns to the hospital and finds Emma standing in the hallway, looking at her parents and new sibling from a distance. Despite the distance he know she has put between them purposely because she feels as though she doesn't deserve to be too close to them, a small smile is on her face.
"Never thought I'd see one of those." He says softly.
She turns to him, offering him an amused grin. "It's called a baby."
Of course she'd assume a fearsome pirate had never seen a child before. He blinks at her unimpressed. "No, Swan. A smile."
"We won." She says simply.
He glances around, fingers coming up to the back of his ear. "In all of the chaos I never got a chance to say thank you." He says rocking on his heels.
She offers him an incredulous look. "You really think I'd let you drown?"
He can't help but grin at that, knowing there is at least some small part of her that cares about him. He latches onto it, hoping its enough that he'll be able to convince her to stay. "Given our history, can you blame me for being uncertain?"
"Has your magic returned now that the witch has been defeated?" He asks.
"No." She says, shrugging.
"I'm sorry, love."
"It's okay. I won't need it in New York." She says with a bright grin before turning to look back at her parents, unaware or uncaring that she just caused great pain to the man standing in front of her. Part of him wants to stay, to pretend her words have meant nothing just so he can be in her presence but he forces himself to leave, not to intrude on her family time knowing they'll miss her even more than he will if she really does leave.
