A/N: Sooo... I'm back! Again. This time I've got four chapters finished (literally written and not to be edited anymore cause otherwise I'll never get anything done) another 90% written and a couple more outlined. So at the very least, I'll be uploading the next 3-4 chapters after this one the coming weeks or so.
As always, thank you very much to all of you who stick with this fic (and the new folks) and I hope you enjoy the new chapters :)
Mulan grunted in pain as she hit the ground, her sword clattering against the asphalt next to her. Her ears rang and she tried to get back to her feet, but had to brace herself against the nearby wall to try to make the world stop spinning. That blast had been a lot worse than she had expected, throwing her off her feet like she weighed nothing; maybe charging at it with her sword hadn't been the best plan after all.
When her head finally started to cooperate again, she could see just how right she were. There was a shallow crater where the portal had been – almost a foot deep – and rubble and pieces of asphalt were strewn all across the street. As bad as it all looked, the portal thankfully seemed to be gone.
Emma, on the other hand, was still glowing.
Sheathing her sword, Mulan pushed off from the wall and made her way across the crater on shaky legs. The closer she got, the more uncomfortable she felt, but it wasn't until she was a few feet away that she realized it wasn't just the aftereffects of the blast. Emma's magic was making Mulan's hair stand up and somehow both feeling like fire and ice against Mulan's skin in a way that was anything but pleasant. The magic was still as bright as before, too, making it difficult for Mulan to even look at Emma's hands and arms without shielding her eyes.
"Emma? Can you hear me?"
She didn't even move.
"Emma?"
Without any options left, Mulan reached for her phone. She scrolled through her contacts page, cursing the fact that she barely had any numbers saved. What good was calling emergency services when she was half of it and the other half was knocked out on the ground?
An odd, repeating hum – just barely audible – made her look up. It was coming from Emma, but it wasn't the magic. She recognized it, somehow, but at the same time it wasn't exactly familiar–
Suddenly, she realized what it was. She crouched closer to Emma and carefully reached for her pocket, ready to quickly pull her hand away, but the light didn't seem to hurt her beyond the discomfort. After some more fumbling, Mulan managed to pull up Emma's phone, still buzzing in her hand.
Perhaps she shouldn't have been surprised that Regina Mills was the one calling.
"Emma, what's going on?"
"This is Mulan. Emma is hurt. She tried to–"
"Where are you?"
Mulan looked around, trying to find any street signs or landmarks. "Somewhere on Blue Bay Street, near an old warehouse. We're not too far from the water." She was about to continue, but Regina cut her off again.
"I'm on my way." The call ended as quickly as it had started.
Mulan stared at the phone in confusion. How had Regina known something had gone wrong? Before she could dwell on it, though, Regina arrived in a cloud of purple smoke, and Mulan had to quickly summarize what had happened.
"Ruby needs to get to the hospital, fast, and Emma... maybe you can fix whatever is happening to her," Mulan finished. "I need to go after Hook."
"Seems like a running theme here," Regina muttered, crouching next to Ruby. "If Emma managed to hit him, he shouldn't have gotten far, though. I assume you can deal with him?"
For a brief moment, several ways of dealing with him popped up in Mulan's mind – each less honorable than the next – but she pushed them aside. "He won't escape."
"Good. I'll take Ruby to the hospital and then come back for Emma." With that, she and Ruby were gone in another cloud of smoke.
Mulan wasted no time heading back to the site of the blast. Emma was still there and the light streaming out of her skin showed no signs of stopping, but Mulan couldn't focus on that now. Instead, she hurried over to the other side where Hook had been thrown by Emma's magic. Footprints in the dust led away from the crater, uneven and smudged as if he was stumbling more than running.
She took off with one hand on her sword, jogging lightly along the tracks with soft, controlled footsteps, hoping to hear Hook before he could hear her coming. No one else seemed to be out here besides them, and it suited her just fine. No one to get in the way.
When the tracks turned a corner into a narrower alley, Mulan slowed down. The memory of Ruby turning that corner was still uncomfortably fresh in her mind, and Hook likely still had some fairy dust left. Maybe her sword could stop it, but she couldn't take any chances. Crouching down, she grabbed a fistful of sand, peeked around the corner, and then continued when the alley looked clear.
Another corned turned, and she could hear faint rustling ahead. Soon enough, she could make out uneven footsteps among the noise. It wasn't long before the footsteps suddenly grew frantic, and Mulan knew she had been heard.
She went into a sprint, sliding on the gravel and nearly slamming into the wall as she dashed around the next corner. Hook was already halfway to the next corner but he was limping even as he ran. A wild-eyed look over his shoulder and he spun around, grasping for that pouch on his belt, but Mulan was faster. She threw the sand in his face and tackled him to the ground as he clawed at his eyes, cursing furiously. A few seconds later, he was face first on the ground with double zip ties around his wrists and the pouch of fairy dust safely in Mulan's pocket.
"You're under arrest," Mulan said as she got to her feet, pulling him with her with a not too gentle yank. "You have the right to remain silent and I suggest you use it."
"Fuck you," Hook spat, stumbling and straining against the cuffs but not really putting up a fight.
They walked back to the crater in tense silence, as fast as Mulan could force Hook to move.
Emma was still glowing, but Regina was next to her now, her hands held out towards Emma and her brows knitted together in concentration.
A dry chuckle. "Not doing too well there, Your Majesty?" Hook drawled.
Regina looked up, her concentration turning into rage in an instant. "You did this!" Her hands flexed as she stormed over to them. "I should end you right here." Her voice was barely more than a growl.
Pulling Hook back a few inches with one hand, Mulan wrapped her free hand loosely around the hilt of her sword. "He's under arrest, Regina."
"Let's hope he stays that way." Regina glowered at Hook for another second before scoffing to herself and heading back to Emma. "I don't have time for this. I need to take her to the hospital. I'll come back to get you two afterwards."
"Thank you, but I'll take him there myself. It's not that far." Although she had no personal issues with Regina, she wasn't entirely comfortable with magic, especially something like teleportation. Besides, considering the bad blood between Regina and Hook, she supposed it would be best to keep them apart as much as possible. Who was to say there wouldn't be some kind of "accident" just when Hook was poofed?
Regina studied her with an unreadable expression. "Suit yourself." A moment later, she and Emma was gone.
When Mulan and Hook arrived at the hospital later that afternoon, she had started to regret her decision to walk. Hook had spent most of the time trying to get Mulan to talk, despite being getting nothing but clipped word and brusque shoves in response. She supposed it was better than him trying to run, though.
A nurse almost ran into them in the waiting room. "I'm so sorry, are you hurt as well? Mayor– ah, Miss Mills said you'd come here."
Mulan could practically feel the grin instantly smeared all over Hook's face at the sight of the worried woman in front of them. "Well, love, I'm–"
"I'm fine. I think his leg is hurt," Mulan cut him off.
The nurse's expression grew wary as she noticed Hook's cuffed wrists. "You're the new deputy sheriff, right? I take it you'll need to keep an eye on him?"
"Unfortunately, yes."
They followed the nurse to a room close by where she began to address Hook's leg wound.
She had barely gotten started when Regina and David entered the room.
"May I have a word, deputy?" Regina asked, pointedly ignoring Hook. "Alone."
"I'll make sure Hook doesn't do anything," David assured her. When Mulan hesitated, he continued, "look, I'm not going to do anything to him. I want to see him face proper justice as much as you do. He'll be fine."
"Alright." Regardless, it was good to be away from that constant smell of old alcohol and leather. With a last glance behind her, Mulan left the room with Regina.
"I assumed you'd want to know that I've managed to stabilize Sheriff Swan," Regina told her when they were out of earshot. "She should be okay in a few days. More or less."
Mulan allowed a little of the tension in her shoulders to dissipate, letting out a quiet sigh. "That's good to hear."
"Ruby, however... she's in surgery right now, but Doctor Whale is a fairly competent surgeon and it takes a lot to kill a werewolf, so her chances should be good," she continued with a forced smile.
An uncomfortable silence ticked by before Regina continued, her expression softening. "I'd like to thank you, as well. For calling me. I know you and I don't have the same... colorful history as most people in this town, but regardless, I appreciate it. I'm not sure how long Emma could have made it like that."
Mulan wasn't quite sure what to say to that, so instead she asked, "do you know what happened to her? Did Hook do something to her?"
"I'm not sure what happened, but as much as I hate to say it, I don't think he meant to do this. It's more likely that the bean interacted with her magic in some way." Regina made a disgusted noise. "He probably just wanted to get Emma alone in whatever place that portal lead to, and didn't expect her to react fast enough or use her magic to stop the bean."
Further down the corridor, a door opened and Hook stumbled out with David close behind.
"Alright, he's all good now," David said when they joined Mulan and Regina. "Where do we put him? The station or the cells in the hospital?"
Mulan frowned. "This hospital has cells?"
"The hospital's psychiatric ward – it's the closest thing to a prison we have here," David explained. "And it's got a better track record keeping people behind bars at the station."
"I would suggest the cells here, too," Regina said, then added with a hint of a smile, "but it's your choice to make, Deputy."
With the only other option being keeping him in the station, the choice was an easy one. "We'll put him here."
The next morning, Mulan returned to the crater. With Emma still unconscious in the hospital, the station had felt far too empty and quiet for Mulan's liking. Some field work would probably be a better use of her time anyway, she had decided.
At first, she wasn't exactly sure what she was supposed to be doing there. "Recording the crime scene" had seemed like a good plan at first, but how big of an area should she cover and how detailed should she be? She still didn't know all the ins and outs of this world's legal system, but she did her best and photographed the scene, taking care not to trample any tracks or disturb anything as best she could. Hopefully rain and wind wouldn't wipe it all clean before Emma could take a look at it herself.
With the crime scene documented as best she could, Mulan turned attention to the surroundings. The one remaining loose end was Hook's hideout, which probably was somewhere nearby. Although she hadn't remembered to question Hook about it earlier, she highly doubted he'd give her an honest answer, and either way, she wasn't particularly eager to spend any more time around him. She'd simply have to do it the old-fashioned way instead.
She started with the big building with the loud machine Hook had used the day before, even though she doubted Hook would lead them this close to where he lived. The inside of the building was more cramped than she had expected, with the air still thick with the smell of whatever fuel that machine had run on. Besides the large metal husk of said machine, there wasn't much of interest, just some footprints in the dirt and the occasional dead rat.
After doing one last sweep of the building, Mulan left, thankful for the fresher air outside. She followed the path she had taken the day before, still able to make out both her and Hook's footsteps as they wound through the alleyways. Here and there she'd stop to take a look inside a window or poke her head inside the door of some moderately interesting-looking building – just in case Hook had tried to throw her off – but unsurprisingly, she mostly just found dust and old leaves covering concrete floors. Human signs of life of any kind were few and far between.
When she got to the place she had caught up to Hook, she stopped and looked around. She seemed to be at the edge of the harbor now; the houses up ahead looked a bit more well-kept. Frowning, she stepped out of the alley and into a small, empty parking lot. Where had he been going? To her left and ahead the more populated parts of town took over, and to her right there were only boats and piers. Someone would have been bound to see him if he had been living somewhere here, but then–
Looking out over the piers, a thought hit her. What if he hadn't lived in some warehouse, but in someone's boat? He was supposedly a captain after all, and with winter not too far off, there had to be plenty of boats put away and left alone for the season whose owners wouldn't notice. With that thought in mind, she headed for the water.
Investigating boats turned out to be harder than it looked, however. Trying to glean anything useful by looking from the pier turned out to be almost impossible, so Mulan had to climb onto each boat and look through the windows of their cabins. As someone who had barely ever set foot on any kind of boat or ship, it was something of a steep and unwelcome learning curve. She liked it when the ground wasn't moving.
She had finished inspecting three boats and was on her way to a fourth when someone yelled in the distance.
"Hey!" A man came jogging towards her, red faced and clearly not in a good mood. "What are you doing!"
Mulan met him at the base of the pier, her hand sliding onto the hilt of her sword for a moment before she stopped herself. Habits died far too hard sometimes.
The man slowed down as he approached, breathing heavily. "What the hell were you doing on my ship? That's private property!"
"I'm sorry, I wasn't aware. I'm Mulan, the new deputy sheriff," she said with her best attempt at a diplomatic smile. "I'm investigating someone who might have used one of these boats to hide out in during the last few weeks."
"Name's Burt Andersen," the man grumbled. "And I don't care who you are. Nobody's been on my ship, I could've told you that. No one gets close to her without me knowing it." He made a sweeping gesture towards the pier. "I've got cameras all over here, you know. No one gets close."
"In that case, I suppose you know who owns each boat? Have you seen anyone else around here recently?"
"Like squatters?" Burt shrugged. "Not really. A couple of joggers, that shrink guy and his dog. Can't imagine why anyone would want to hide here." He gestured vaguely in the opposite direction. "There's plenty of forest over there to get lost in. Besides, lots of people don't even bother taking care of their ships anymore after the curse. Just the last storm that passed by sank another one. A god damn waste is what it is."
Mulan smiled politely. "Right. Well, I'm sorry for intruding. Thank you for your help."
Burt nodded and mumbled something inaudible before shuffling off towards his boat.
Not too eager to run into another territorial boat enthusiast, Mulan lingered at the base of the pier, peering out across all the boats in the harbor. Burt seemed to be right; when she looked closely, she could see a few masts in odd angles and ships that looked to be far too low in the water. The ships pulled up on shore didn't look like they had been safe from the storms either, with one looking especially beaten where it lay tipped over in the dirt.
The ones on shore were a lot more shielded from view, however. After one last glum look at the horde of boats out in the water, she headed for the shore.
She passed the first boat quickly – it had fallen over and didn't look like it had any kind of easy way to get inside – but the second one lay far enough from the water that one might be able to get in and out of it with a decent chance of staying out of sight. It was fairly big, too, and considering the buildup of junk and old leaves around it, it looked like it had been there a while. Mulan circled it carefully and soon enough she found a piece of the cover that wasn't as well secured as the others. After some fiddling with the fabric, she managed to push it away and get to the door beneath.
Locked. She grumbled under her breath and pulled away more of the cover until she found a window. At first it didn't look particularly interesting: some bottles on a counter, a couple of small boxes, and some leaves and dirt on the floor. Then she noticed a few yellowed pieces of paper, and smiled to herself. The pages had strange, elaborate symbols and looked very old, possibly ripped out of some old tome. This had to be Hook's place.