Regina didn't trust him and she knew from the torn look in Emma's eyes that she didn't trust him either. The events that unfolded from the moment Emma had kicked down the cabin door swirled in her mind, from the way Hook reacted at first to the one-eighty he displayed after they'd found Henry and brought him out of the cellar safely. While she was overcome with emotion and joy at seeing her son alive and well, albeit exhausted and dirty and in need of a warm, home-cooked meal, her focus was now on Hook and what his true intentions truly were.

She knew that if she were in his current predicament, she'd say anything to save her own life, even if it was stemmed in lies.

She gently rubbed Henry's shoulders, smiling as she took in the sight of her son. She could hardly believe her eyes that he was truly there and alive. She leaned in and placed a kiss on his forehead, one he didn't back away from like he normally did.

"Mom? What's going on?"

"We'll explain later," she whispered as her eyes drifted over to where Emma still stood in front of Hook. "I promise, we'll explain everything later, Henry."

"I know you don't trust him," Henry said softly. "But he kept telling me he'd take care of things. He told me I was safer here. He told me he had to let her think he was on her side when he's been on your side all along."

"What do you know, Henry?"

"I know that Lily isn't who I thought she was," he said quietly. "Is she really evil?"

"Yes, she is, Henry."

"And she's locked up in your vault?"

"For the time being, yes," she replied with a nod, wondering now just how much Hook had told Henry, but she knew it wasn't much or else Henry wouldn't have asked her what was going on. She ran her fingers over his head and sighed. "We'll explain everything when we get home, okay?"

"Are we going home now?"

"In a moment," Regina nodded. "Just stay right here, Henry."

Regina walked towards Emma and placed a gentle hand on her tense shoulder. Emma turned to her and teary eyes locked with hers in an intense gaze. "I don't know what to do," Emma murmured under her breath. "I don't know what to do, Regina."

"Trust yourself because I think you know exactly what you are going to do," she whispered and she ran her hand from her shoulder down her back in a soothing manner. "Or rather," she said with a pregnant pause as she shifted her gaze over to Hook, "what he is going to do."

Emma sighed as she reached up with her left hand and ran her fingers shakily through her hair. She shook her head before she placed the gun into the back of her jeans and pulled her jacket over it, concealing the weapon once more. She turned to Hook as Regina's hand fell away from her back and glared down at him.

"If this is all just some kind of a sick game you're playing, next time I pull my gun on you, you're dead, do you understand?"

"Yes."

"How do I know I can trust you?" Emma asked. "One moment you're acting like a sleaze and—"

"I've had a bit too much to drink, love," Hook chuckled dryly. "You should know me by now when I've taken to my flask, things get a little washy and the Captain comes out in droves."

Regina saw the way Emma rolled her eyes at his answer and she moved to the back of the wooden chair, her hands hovering just over the tight knots in the rope that bound him. Regina stared into Emma's eyes, feeling her swirling emotions as if they were her own. Emma knew what had to be done, but she didn't trust the pirate just as she did not trust herself.

"Come on, love, you know me. You can trust me. I'll take care of Lily, make her pay for all that she has done."

"I told you not to call me that anymore," Emma said lowly and Hook tried to turn to look back at her and gave up with a sigh when he found it impossible to. "If I let you go and trust you when you say you are on our side, you don't move until I tell you to. Understand?"

"Yes."

Emma looked over at Regina again and upon her slight nod, Emma pulled a pocket knife out of her jacket and made quick work on cutting through the rope to release Hook. He rolled his shoulders once he was free, but he didn't move and his eyes were trained on Regina for those few lingering moments before Emma stood at her side.

"Before you say a word," Emma said as she held a hand up to him, "you are going to come with us and you are going to explain everything."

"Going to let me talk this time, Swan?"

"Yes," Emma said through gritted teeth. "I'll let you talk this time and no games, Killian. I want to hear everything and nothing but the truth."

"But not in front of the lad, hmm?"

"No."

"Can we go home now?" Henry asked, his voice sounding tired and weak. "Mom?"

Regina turned to look over him just as Emma did. "Yes, we can go home now. Emma?"

"I got this," Emma said. "Go. Take him home. We'll be right behind you."

With a nod, Regina reached out for Henry. "Close your eyes," she whispered to him as she wrapped her arms protectively around him. "Don't open them until I tell you to."

"Okay."

[X]

Emma watched as the slate grey smoke surrounded Regina and Henry quickly and in the blink of an eye, they were both gone from the cabin. She turned to look down at Hook and motioned for him to get up from the chair.

"You're going to tell me everything right now, Killian, starting with why the hell you agreed to work with Lily in the first place."

"Don't you think we ought to follow them?" Hook asked and Emma shook her head and tried to fight the urge to punch him. Again.

"You're going to tell me right now," Emma said tightly, her hand moving to her back and ready to reach for her gun. "Why?"

Hook sighed as he ran his hand over his head slowly. "You got questions and I have a few of my own, Swan. How about I'll answer yours if you answer mine, hmm?"

"We're not playing this game, Hook. You're going to tell me why you agreed to work with Lily or so help me I'll tie you back up and leave you here to rot!"

Hook sighed again. "Just after the unfortunate tragedy, I was approached by this beauty down at the Rabbit Hole. She was new in town, knew that right off from the get go and you know me and beautiful women, I couldn't resist laying down some of my charms on her," he chuckled and it faded at the pointed look Emma shot his way. "I knew she was one of the ones that came in on that bus that caused that accident even before she told me. Put two and two together, but after a few drinks, it became clear to me that there was a reason she'd come there and that there was a reason it was I she approached and not another."

Hook paused for thought and pulled his flask out of his jacket pocket. He took a swig and offered it to Emma and she shook her head no and crossed her arms over her chest. "At the time I was curious as to how a stranger knew so much about me, who I am or rather who I once was. One drink turned into more and she told me that she knew you intimately when you were young. Got to say, it sparked a jealous rage inside of me, knowing that you once lain with such a beautiful woman and that rage grew when she told me she had plans to take you as hers once more."

"I was never hers."

"Because your heart has always belonged to another," Hook finished for her and as Emma's mouth fell open, he laughed quietly. "Can't say I haven't always known, however at the time, I wished to steal your heart for myself. I never did, did I?"

"Hook, we're not—"

"I know," he sighed and took another swig from the flask. "In the coming days, she'd come to me, talk to me. As I said, you know how I am with beautiful women and I had at first thought she was coming around for my charm and dashing good looks," he smirked and shrugged as he placed the flask back into his jacket pocket. "After you threw her out, she came to me. I'd never seen a woman so scorned, so angry, and I thought at first the things she told me were out of spite. Now, when she told me of her plans to break the barrier and release magic into the world, I was convinced I was now dealing with a madwoman, but a part of me believed her and feared the consequences of releasing magic into the rest of this world."

Emma's patience was wearing thin, as it normally did around the pirate, but she was intrigued and wanted to know more. She wanted to hear everything and even though he wasn't telling her what she needed to hear, she tried to remain patient and ignored the itch in her hands to ball them into fists and beat him senseless.

"I can't say I agreed with her plan, but she told me it was necessary. We made the switch that night and I was taken to the woods, instructed to stay here until I was retrieved. I only wanted to protect your boy, Swan, because I know if it wasn't me, she would've truly killed him and not that Lost Boy she cast the glamour spell upon. I knew then the moment she left that she needed to be stopped, but how would I stop someone as powerful as she?"

"Do you have any idea what I've been through because I thought my son was dead?" Emma asked and as Hook began pacing, she reached for her gun and pulled it out, keeping the safety on as she tried to steady her shaking hands. "Do you have any idea, Killian, what I've been through because of her?"

"I know she gave you the dark magic that resides inside of you," he said quietly as he slowed his pacing down but didn't stop. "I know that she and the crocodile had you under a spell and you killed that man. I know that you and Regina have been sharing a bed."

"I don't want to talk about Regina."

"That complicated, love?" Hook asked and Emma started to raise the gun and he held up his hand and hook in surrender. "Sorry, I'm still trying to figure out how you two ended up together."

"And I'm trying to figure out if you're just wasting my time right now. Why did you ever agree to work with her in the first place?"

"I told you before, you hurt me, Swan, and I was still feeling that pain. At first when she told me of this plan, I thought of many different ways I could use it to my advantage, to come in and save the day and win your heart."

"I'm not some prize to be won!"

"I realize that now," Hook spat and he sighed, moving to sit down in the wooden chair heavily. "I was going to bring him to you when I found out she'd been captured, but I found it impossible to leave. She cast a spell, a curse of sorts, forcing me to stay here in this cabin."

"How did you find out?"

"What's that?"

"How did you find out she was captured and I swear to you, if I even think you're lying—"

"Now calm down, Swan," he said lowly. "You told me you'd let me speak."

"Your mouth is moving and I'm hearing words, but you're not telling me what I need to know right now and my patience is wearing thin really quickly."

"You think that I'm the only one Lily approached in the short time she was here before she was captured? You think that I'm the only one who gave in to her demands, whether it be by my own terms or not? She has more on her side than you can even begin to think of."

"A name, Killian. Give me a name."

As the name stumbled past his lips, Emma stepped backwards, her whole body growing numb in shock. And then she turned and ran, her emotions too wild to transport herself out of the cabin safely. She hit the ground running, not stopping even when her legs felt like they were about to give out and her lungs burned with every strained breath she took.

[X]

Regina ran her hands over Henry's damp hair as he lay on his bed, showered and dressed and wanting nothing more than to get some sleep in his own bed. They hadn't had a chance to speak since leaving the cabin and upon their arrival at the mansion, Regina instructed him to shower and not to mind his cast, as she would mend it with magic after he had washed and dressed.

"You really thought I was dead?" Henry whispered as he looked up at her with such innocence in his eyes. "Mom, I—"

"It's all right, my little prince, you are here now, safe and sound."

"Who was he? The boy that looked like me?"

"He was you, Henry. That's what a glamour spell is all about, it's meant to be another right down to every last freckle and that slight squeak in your voice when it breaks," she said as she placed a finger on his nose and smiled at him. "But it wasn't you."

"But who was he?"

"One of the Lost Boys, I'm uncertain as to which one," she replied quietly. "Tell me of that night. What happened when you were taken?"

"Ma had just left to go see you and I got up to get some water before bed. There was a knock on the door and I didn't think nothing of it, you know? Nothing has happened here in years and I thought maybe it was Ma and she locked herself out or something," he said with a slight shrug, one that made him wince and clutch at the newly mended cast on his arm. "It was Hook and Lily and they didn't say anything. She just waved her hand and everything went black and the next thing I knew I woke up in that place, in that cellar, and I could hear them talking above."

"Do you remember what they were saying?"

"Kind of," he replied and he shifted in the bed until he sat up and leaned against the headboard. He sighed as he trailed his fingers over his cast. "She was telling him that she'd come for him later and he told her he didn't want to be a part of whatever plan she had up her sleeve. I remember her laughing and it felt so…evil, Mom. It made me feel sick."

Regina nodded and stroked her fingers through his damp hair. "Do you remember anything else?"

"I remember waking up a little while later, wishing that it was all just a bad dream. He opened the hatch, came down with a bag of food from Granny's, and told me to eat. I kept asking him what was going on and he wouldn't tell me, he just left me down there in the dark. I think it was two days that passed before he said anything more to me other than telling me to eat."

"And every time he brought you a meal, it was from Granny's?" Regina asked, finding it to be rather peculiar. Upon her son's nod, she dropped her hand from his head. "What did he tell you, Henry?"

"He told me what Lily wanted to do, to break the barrier so that she and Gold could release magic into the world. He told me that he agreed to her plan, to kidnap me and keep me there in that cabin because he wanted to protect me. I didn't understand, Mom, I still don't."

"What don't you understand?"

"Why did she need you and Ma to think I was dead?"

"It's complicated, Henry."

"Then help make it uncomplicated!" Henry said, his voice rising and breaking partway through. He shook his head and cleared his throat. "Is it true what he told me about her?"

"What did he tell you, dear?"

"That she's what people call the devil. Satan."

"Yes."

"That's ridiculous."

"Is it, dear?" Regina asked. "Is it really that ridiculous if fairytales are true?"

Henry frowned. "No."

"She is what he told you and she went to great lengths to attempt to succeed in her and Gold's plan to break the barrier and release magic into the world."

"It didn't work, did it?"

"No, it didn't."

"Why?"

"I do not know," Regina sighed. "And we perhaps never will. Gold has otherwise been detained, as has she. As of this moment, neither is a threat. You needn't worry about them, Henry. Nobody is going to take you or harm you in any way. I won't allow it to happen. Not this time."

"There is something else," Henry said, his voice but a whisper. "Someone else came every day, the same time every morning. I think they're the ones who brought the food from the diner."

"Did you—"

"See who it was? No," Henry shook his head. "But I heard them. Her."

"Who—" Regina was cut off by the sound of the doorbell chiming throughout the house. She rose from Henry's bed with a heavy sigh. "I'll go and see who that is. Stay right here, Henry."

"Okay."

"When I get back, you and I will continue, that is, if you're feeling up to it," she said with a soft smile and he nodded his head again. She bent down and placed a kiss on his forehead before she hurriedly walked out of his room as the sound of the doorbell chimed for a second time.

Regina barely made it down the stairs before the doorbell rang for a third time and she smoothed her hands over her blouse as she looked out the side window and let out a soft sigh of relief to see who stood there on her front porch. She unlocked the door and pulled it open with a smile.

"Tink, I wasn't expecting you."

"Regina, we have a problem," Tink said, out of breath as if she'd ran there as quickly as she could. "We have a really big problem."

"What is it?"

"Lily is gone," she gasped and Regina gripped on to the edge of the door tightly.

"Gone? What do you mean that she is gone?"

Tink shook her head. "That's not the only thing," she said in a rush. "I know who let her out."

"Who?"

Tink shook her head again and inhaled deeply, struggling to catch her breath. Regina gasped as she watched the arrow sink through Tink's chest, the tip just poking through where her heart was. She reached out to grab the fairy as she slumped forward and her eyes grew wide as she saw who stood behind her.

"It was me."