A/N: Heyyy, we're back! Sorry about the wait, this chapter just did not want to cooperate. I had to rewrite it three or four times until it worked and in the process had to toss out a lot of the following stuff I had written (although thankfully not all of it) But! The following three chapters are all done and I did get a bunch more outlining done so hopefully I'm in the clear a while longer now. ...hopefully.

Anywho welcome back to what I hope will be some more regular updates, and thanks for reading :)

"We can continue this tomorrow if you don't feel up to it," Emma said when she and Mulan returned to the interrogation room a little while later.

Dawn gave a halfhearted smile and shook her head. "No, I'd rather get as much of this over with right now. I want to make this right. Or at least as right as I can make it."

"Okay." Emma pressed the record button on her phone again, then turned her focus to her notes. "The fairy dust you used, and the one that Hook took from you – how did you get it?"

"Oh. I just, you know, maybe took some more than I should have."

"From where? Some kind of storage room?"

Dawn hesitated. "I'm not sure I should tell–"

"There's already fairy dust all around town," Mulan cut her off. "And if we wanted some, we could just use the one we seized from Hook. It's a bit late to be worried about secrecy."

"It's... in a storage room," Dawn said, shrinking away from Mulan's hard stare. "It's not locked or anything, since it's only us fairies who go there."

"Really?" Emma said, a little bewildered. "So anyone could go in there and take some if they wanted to? Do you keep track of how much you have?"

"No one would just go in and steal from us." Dawn looked indignant by the mere suggestion. "Besides, Blue knows how much there is."

Mulan scoffed. "And yet she let you steal some."

"Fairy dust doesn't belong to her; it belongs to all fairies. I can't steal something I already own." Dawn sighed. "And no, Blue didn't 'let me' take too much fairy dust. She trusts us to do what we should with it, and doesn't micromanage every little bit of fairy dust used here and there."

The memory of Nova taking some fairy dust to help with Emma's and Belle's investigation came to mind, and Emma nodded slowly. "So what should you do with it? Just what Blue tells you to?"

"Usually, yes."

"And that is?" Mulan asked.

"We haven't had to use magic all that much lately, to be honest. There aren't a lot of monsters or dangerous spells in Storybrooke, after all. But you should probably ask her about that instead."

As a short silence filled the room, Emma skimmed through her notes again. One thing in particular bothered her and she didn't have a good answer for it at all.

"Before we met out near the Toll Bridge, you said you met someone looking like Regina. Someone you thought was Hook, right?" When Dawn nodded, Emma continued. "What did that person say to you, specifically?"

Dawn frowned. "Something about keeping what I knew to myself and not involve the police, I think. He left pretty quickly after I promised not to say anything."

"But why would Hook pretend to be Regina? He had already assaulted you in broad daylight without any spell, hadn't he?"

"I don't know, maybe he was worried someone would see him?" Dawn replied.

"Late at night, out in the middle of the forest," Mulan pointed out, not looking particularly convinced. "And he's usually wearing black clothes."

"Did anything else stand out about the person?" Emma tried. Maybe some little clue to who it had been, something the impostor had missed–

"I don't know. It might have been Hook, or Regina, or anyone else!" Dawn insisted with growing exasperation. "All I know is that whoever it was, they looked and sounded like Regina, and the only one who had a reason to come after me was Hook."

"If there was someone there," Mulan said.

Two pairs of eyes abruptly turned towards her.

"What? Why would I lie about–" Dawn began, but Mulan didn't let her finish.

"To protect yourself and pass the blame onto someone else who either can't defend themselves or isn't trustworthy to begin with."

Dawn blinked, stumped for a moment. "But– I came here. I came here to make things right, to tell you everything!"

"We already have Hook locked up. Do you really think he wouldn't throw you to the wolves the first chance he got?" Mulan watched Dawn with badly hidden distaste. "He'd probably tell us anything we'd want to know about you if it would help him in some way. You getting here now could just as well be a way to try to get ahead of whatever he's going to tell us."

Emma watched the unfolding conversation in silence, content to let Mulan take the reins. Dawn seemed to waver between outrage and utter confusion, but she wasn't collapsing into tears like before.

"That's not true!" Dawn snapped. "I'm not lying. Fairies don't lie!"

"You pretended to be someone else when you met Emma, didn't you?"

"That's– that's different!"

Mulan just stared back, unimpressed.

"It's not my fault," Dawn insisted, her cheeks increasingly flushed, "that whoever threatened me that night didn't tell me who they were. I was trying to do the right thing."

"You tried to do the right thing until you thought you would lose something by doing it," Mulan scoffed.

"Killian said–"

Leaning forward, Mulan pushed away her notes and linked her hands together in front of her on the table. "Do you think Blue could have protected you from him?"

A tense second skipped by. Dawn licked her lips, hesitating.

"The answer is yes," Mulan filled in. "He's some pirate and Blue is powerful magic user. If she would have wanted to protect you, she could have. Right?"

A stiff nod.

But Mulan wouldn't let it go that easily. "Is that correct?"

"Yes," Dawn finally bit out, barely loud enough to be audible.

"Then why didn't you tell her after Hook threatened you the first time?" Despite her calm voice, there was a dangerously sharp undertone to her words. "Or after you thought Hook had threatened you again that night? Why did you run away, shooting magic at the sheriff of this town instead?"

Dawn swallowed and looked to Emma with pleading eyes, but Emma stayed quiet. Mulan was doing just fine on her own.

"If Blue had learned about what you had done, would she have hurt you?" Mulan continued.

"No," came the quiet reply. "She would... I would have lost my wings. She wouldn't have trusted me anymore."

Mulan leaned back, her disgust plainly obvious. "So you wanted to do the right thing as long as you could keep your standing with her."

Dawn shook her head and clenched her fists. "You don't understand. I would have lost my wings! I probably wouldn't have been allowed to stay in the convent, I–" she swallowed thickly before adding, "at least if I had my wings, I could still make up for how I messed up with Hook."

"Well, neither of us have wings," Emma remarked. "Tink was without wings, too."

Dawn didn't have a good answer to that.

"By the way, when wanted to meet by the bridge, were you planning on telling me all of this or were you going to keep out your own part so Blue wouldn't find out about you?"

The blush in Dawn's cheeks grew hotter and she stammered as she tried to come up with a response. "I– I hadn't really planned, uh, anything specific–"

Suddenly, Emma's phone started buzzing. Swallowing a curse, Emma paused the recording after seeing who was calling her.

"I've got to take this, so let's take a short break."

Stepping out of the interrogation room, Emma made a beeline for the exit.

The fresh air outside was a very welcome change from the stuffy interrogation room and Emma took a deep breath, thoroughly enjoying the cool feeling in her nose and throat, before finally answering her phone.

"What's up, Regina?"

"I think we should talk. Again," Regina said.

"More than we're doing right now?"

"In person." Emma could practically hear the annoyed frown.

"Oh, okay. About anything in particular?"

The brief pause before Regina replied was rather telling. "It's about that month."

Emma licked her lips. "What part?"

"All of it."

"Already?" She was too surprised to even feel excited about it yet. The last time they had spoken she'd had to threaten to go see Mr. Gold before Regina would tell her anything, and now – only a few days later – Regina wanted to tell her everything? "I'm not opposed to it, just surprised."

There was a sigh, and then Regina continued, "I realized I had been too optimistic. But like I said, I'd rather have this conversation in person. There is a lot to talk about."

"Yeah, I bet," Emma muttered. "What about tomorrow evening?" As much as she wanted answers, she still had to deal with Dawn. Besides, it was already getting pretty late. "Unless I should be panicking and we should talk right now."

"Tomorrow sounds fine. I'll let Henry stay with your parents."

"Okay. I guess I'll see you then."

"Yes. Until tomorrow."

Emma ended the call and stared down at her phone again, trying to make sense of it all. It wasn't urgent, so that was good, and Regina had been the one to contact her for once, so that was good too. On the other hand, if Regina had given up on fixing whatever it was she had been trying to fix, that was definitely less good. She hadn't sounded particularly upbeat on the phone, after all.

Eventually, the cool evening air made itself increasingly known and Emma had to head back inside. No need to waste any more thoughts on something she'd learn the next day, anyway.

The next morning, Emma and Mulan met outside the interrogation room again, but this time it was Hook on the other side of that one-way mirror instead of Dawn.

"Any problems getting him here?" Emma asked.

Mulan pursed her lips in distaste. "Nothing unexpected. He wouldn't stop talking, though."

Emma let out a halfhearted chuckle. "Figures."

"Any ideas on how to do this? I doubt he'll be particularly eager to help us."

"If there's something that might be stronger than his ego or his..." Emma made a face, "hormones, I'd say it's his self preservation. I mean, he has switched side multiple times just to try to come out on the winning side. Just follow my lead."

The way Hook's face lit up with a smarmy smile when Emma entered made her skin crawl, but she had dealt with enough assholes during her time as a bail bondsperson to not let it show.

"I was wondering when you'd grace me with your presence, love," Hook said, raking his eyes across Emma's body as she and Mulan sat down opposite him.

"Sure." Emma pressed record on her phone and put it on the table, a decent distance away from Hook just in case he'd decide to get cute. "Let's just get on with this. Where did you get the fairy dust?"

"Send away your little friend here," he nodded towards Mulan, "and I'll tell you anything you want to know."

Emma smiled. It wasn't a friendly smile, and it wasn't a happy smile, but one that came from the knowledge that talking shit was all he had left. "That's not going to happen. And just so we're on the same page here: you're not talking your way out of this. The best thing you can do right now is to answer our questions and maybe the folks in charge will appreciate your cooperation when they decide what to do with you."

Hook's grin dropped a little, just enough for Emma to notice. "And who would these other people be? Are the good people of Storybrooke going to take out their revenge on me in the street?"

"Elected officials," Emma said. Sure, she wasn't exactly sure which officials or what the procedures would look like, but it wasn't like he had a firm grasp on the ins and out of the justice system to begin with, either. "We don't do mob justice here. But if you cooperate, I'll put in a good word for you–"

Hook chuckled. "Well isn't that considerate of you. Maybe I'll get a new pillow for my cell or a good meal before they hang me." Leaning over the table, he lowered his voice, his eyes never leaving Emma's. "If you want me to help you, you'll get me out of Storybrooke. I'll get far, far away from you and your little town and your queen–" the word dripped with disgust– "and I'll tell you everything I know."

Sighing, Emma checked the time on her phone. "Look, it doesn't work like that. We have to follow procedures and that means we've got to get this questioning done with before we can move on."

Silence was the only response she got.

"Okay." She thumbed through her folder until she found the paper she was looking for. "Then I'll just tell you what's going to happen. Right now we've got you on assault, attempted murder, attempted kidnapping, theft, breaking and entering, extortion, and arson. Since you're the main suspect for the library fire and considering your history with Mr. Gold, I'll try to have Blue or Regina double check the magical protections on your cell, just in case."

By now, Hook's smile had faded significantly. "You expect the Evil Queen to protect me?"

Emma shrugged. "It's the best I can do. My own magic isn't really an option after what you did in the harbor. And, well, after what you did to that fairy, I doubt Blue is particularly eager to help you either." The corner of her mouth twitched up in a wry smile. "Maybe you can use you charm to convince her."

For once, Hook didn't have a quick comeback. "Fine," he said after a couple of seconds. "If you want whoever burned down the library, you've got the wrong man."

"You had plenty of motive, and you had enough fairy dust to do it," Mulan said.

Scoffing, Hook sent a dark look Mulan's way. "Everyone's got fairy dust in this place. Those insects in the convent spread it around like it's nothing." He chuckled. "I barely had to ask to get some. And I'm not the only one with a grudge against that crocodile."

"So how did you get it?"

"I used my charm," Hook leered. "That lovely lass didn't need much convincing; I probably could have gotten a lot more from her than fairy dust if I had wanted."

Pointedly ignoring Hook's looks towards her, Emma asked, "is this the fairy named Dawn we're talking about?"

"Yeah. Quite the sight, much like her name."

"Did you learn any spells from her?"

Hook's grin widened considerable. "You've already felt my spell, love."

Emma made a mental note to take an extra shower as soon as she got home. "You're talking about the freezing spell?"

"That too."

Thankfully, Mulan took over before Emma succumbed to the urge to rip off her bracelet and see just what that kind of spell did to Hook up close.

"Do you know any magical spell other than the freezing spell?" Mulan asked flatly.

"I don't need any others."

"What about Dawn; after you took the fairy dust from her, did you talk to her again?"

"Why would I?" Hook scoffed. "Besides, she had probably gone to hide in the convent after she got scared."

Mulan's eyebrow raised. "She 'got scared'? Because of how you got her to give you that fairy dust?"

Hook shrugged. "I asked her nicely first. She was the one who wouldn't give it to me. So I had to make it clear what would happen if she didn't share. Turns out she was almost as scared of the Blue Fairy as she was of me."

"Did you push her against a wall?"

"I may have gotten a little... physical," Hook admitted with a smirk. "Nothing much, really."

More eager than ever to get this over with, Emma moved on to the question that had bugged her ever since the incident in the harbor.

"Where did you get the bean?"

"That little thing?" Hook chuckled. "I wondered when you'd ask about it." He seemed to consider it for a moment, before answering, "would you believe me if I said I got it from a friend?"

Emma stared back at him, entirely unimpressed by whatever it was he was trying to do now. "No."

"That's what I thought. You don't want to believe me, so there's not much point in me telling you, is there?"

"Fine," Emma said with a roll of her eyes. "Does this 'friend' of yours have a name?"

"I don't know. He never gave me one."

"He?"

"I'm not usually just friends with the ladies, love," he said. "Besides, I only got a letter from him. I never met him in person."

Emma perked up at that. This sounded way too mundane to be made up. "A letter with the bean? Do you still have it?"

"I do." He nudged his coat open a little more as best he could while being cuffed. "It's in one of my inner pockets."

"Really."

"It's not my fault your deputy here didn't do a thorough enough search of me when she threw me in the dungeon, is it?"

Mulan got up with a huff and rounded the table. "Don't try anything."

Hook smiled up at her, smarmy as ever. "Wouldn't dream of it, love." He held up his wrists with his hand open towards her to emphasize it before moving them down into his lap.

A few seconds of searching resulted in a folded envelope, slightly crumpled from Hook's pocket. Sitting down again, Mulan handed it over to Emma, who cautiously opened it. To both of their surprise, it turned out to be just a regular envelope with a completely ordinary piece of paper inside.

"'A little something to help you on your way'," Emma read. "Someone just dropped it off at that boat you stayed in?"

"Aye."

"How did they know you were there?"

"I'm afraid you'll have to ask them that."

Emma read the paper again a few times, but it didn't help much. It was indeed only signed with the words "A friend" and nothing else, and the text looked drawn by hand with some nondescript pen. Nothing really stood out at all.

"Well, I think we're done here."

"You'll tell the people in charge of my cooperation, then?" Hook asked.

"Sure will." Emma reached over to her phone and stopped the recording, then looked to Mulan. "Let's get him back to the cell."

Mulan rose again and Hook shifted in his seat, angling towards her. Then there was a faint click, and a flurry of motions.

As Mulan went around the table, Hook shot up from his chair and aimed a punch with his hook towards her head. She barely had time to get her arm up in defense, but stumbled back and nearly lost her balance in the process. Realizing what was happening, Emma jumped to her feet fast enough to tip her chair over.

Turning towards Emma, Hook leapt at her. His hook slammed into the bracelet around her wrist, and she matched it with a hard kick to his leg, hoping it was the one she had shot him in earlier. Considering the gasp of pain, it looked like it was.

He lunged at her again, his face scrunched up in anger and pain, but with his injured leg, his aim was much worse this time. After missing Emma and nearly stumbling into the boxes stacked by the wall, Emma sent him gasping to the ground with a punch to his gut.

She wouldn't take any chances this time, so she wasted no time shoving him over and re-locking his handcuffs, this time behind his back.

"Put another one on him," came a muttered suggestion from behind as Mulan crouched next to her, holding out a second pair of handcuffs. Her other hand was pressed to the side of her forehead, the edges of the palm red with blood.

"Shit. Are you okay?"

Mulan pulled down her hand and winced, although it wasn't clear if it was due to the blood or the pain. "He managed to scrape me with the hook, but I don't think it's anything big. I caught most of it with my arm."

Emma grit her teeth together. She had talked about his sense of self-preservation and not even thought about him trying to escape. Not like this, at least, not this desperate of an attempt.

"Let's take this waste of space back to the hospital and get you checked out while we're there, then." Emma got up, pulling Hook to his feet with her. "What the hell did you think would happen?"

All hints of Hook's usual nonchalance was gone. "If I'm going to be killed in my cell, it doesn't matter what I do now, does it?" He spat on the floor in front of Emma. "Just remember one thing, Swan," he bit out. "When the queen or the crocodile comes to finish me off, my blood will be on your hands, just as if you had killed me yourself."

"Less talking," Mulan grunted, shoving him along out of the room. "Let's go."