AN- I wrote this damn near ages ago. Like several months ago. I had the idea when I was listening to the song "White Rabbit," and instantly got the idea to place Captain Swan in Wonderland. However, this is a much different Wonderland from the show. It is very dark. I never published because I thought it was stupid. I just wrote it to get it out of my head but when I brought it up again everyone got excited about it so I will be posting the first two chapters.
Summary: CS canon divergence. Very dark. Set during the finale of season 3 when Hook confronts Emma and the two fall down the portal. Killian has a conversation with Emma about the time he spent in the sexually depraved and violent underbelly of Wonderland. His story changes their course and sends them to a much different time and place. Rated M for smut and violence.
Down the Rabbit Hole
Chapter One
"What can I say? My heart was destined for another," David beamed at his wife and their newborn son.
"You just had to find her first," Ruby chimed in.
David let out a knowing chuckle.
"She ran away and was living on a farm," Ruby explained to the group.
"Well it sounded like such a peaceful life at the time… Leave everyone and everything behind," Snow said wistfully rocking her infant son in her arms.
"Like mother, like daughter," Killian supplied.
"Hook," Emma warned as he raised his glass to his lips.
The group exchanged anxious glances before Henry finally broke the silence.
"What's he talking about?" Henry wondered.
"Should we read more stories?" David suggested nervously, turning his attention back toward the book.
"Actually, I would like to know what the pirate is talking about…" Regina said, sauntering over to the group.
"It's nothing," Emma dismissed.
"Are you planning on going back to New York?" Regina asked directly.
"Why would we go back to New York?" Henry asked his mother.
"You're not. Right, Miss Swan?"
"Actually, it's complicated," Emma said.
"Why would we leave? This is our home," Henry pleaded with his mother.
"Henry, this isn't the time or the place…" Emma said, trying to sweep the whole conversation under the rug.
"I think it is," Regina insisted.
"No, it's not," Emma said finally before storming out of the restaurant.
"I'll talk to her," Killian volunteered, setting his empty glass on the table in front of him.
David nodded his head in supportive agreement knowing the two had gotten closer since the Wicked Witch had come to town.
"Wait, take this. It might help her remember where she belongs," Henry suggested, handing the book of fairy tales over to Hook.
Killian nodded his thanks and swept the book from the table before taking off.
Killian found her sitting on a park bench, her legs crossed underneath her, huddled into a protective ball.
"You're making a mistake," he told her as he approached the bench where she sat.
"I don't want to talk to you about this," she told him, refusing to make eye contact.
"Don't listen to me. Listen to your son," he said, getting her attention.
"I thought this might remind you of what you're leaving behind… your family," he began to take the book out from his leather satchel and handed it to her expectantly.
"No. Henry is my family and I am taking him where he is safe," she insisted.
"No Swan. This safety first nonsense is just that. You defeated the bloody Wicked Witch. You defeated Pan! You broke the curse. You keep running. What are you looking for?" He wondered, searching her eyes.
"Home," she breathed.
"And that's in New York? That wasn't real," Killian shook his head patiently.
"The last year it was," she defended.
"Those were false memories. It was all based on magical nonsense," Killian reminded her.
"Now that I have my memories back we can make it real," she said, not letting up.
"Why can't you do that here with your entire family?"
"Because of this," she said, jerking the book from his hand.
"I don't see my family here. I see fairytales. I see stories of princes and princesses. That's not me. I was never part of any of this," she explained, flipping through the pages of Henry's book.
"Then what are you a part of Swan?" Killian asked, taking a seat beside her.
"Besides being with Henry. I don't think I've ever been a part of anything," she confessed honestly.
"But you could be," he said desperately
You could be with me, he thought to himself.
"Look," she said, slamming the book closed as she whirled around to face him. "When I was a kid I ran away. It's just what I did."
Killian was taken aback by her honesty, stunned even by the similarities between them – the recognition in her eyes that he too wore just beneath his own surface.
"But the first time I did it, I had the same exact thought 'I wonder what if I'm making a mistake? What if I miss this place?'"
"And did you?"
"Not the first time. Not any time…"
"So, you just keep running?"
"I learned something a long time ago Hook, home is the place that when you leave, you just miss it. So, I'm going to keep running until I feel that," she explained.
"So, you're just going to leave your parents then? Don't you even care about them? Or anyone… in this town?" He added, wishing his name to be the one that left her lips.
It wasn't that she was abandoning her family, it was that she had also chosen to abandon him. That he was a part of her life that wasn't worth staying for.
"Of course I care…" she responded, slightly offended by the assumption that she was too damaged to care at all.
*Everything at this point is canon divergence*
"You have a funny way of showing it," Killian shook his head in confusion.
"If I truly didn't care I wouldn't have come back with you when you came to retrieve me in New York," she defended.
"You forget very quickly that I know you Swan. I am you. I see the fear in your eyes that you have. It is the same fear I had. You're afraid to let yourself get too close because you're afraid it will all disappear and you will get hurt," he read her. "So instead, you would rather not even have it at all. Because how could you lose something you never had?" He added.
Emma opened her mouth to speak but closed it. No, she wouldn't give him the dignity of knowing that he was right.
"You have been waiting your whole life to feel like you belong and now that it's here, you are too afraid to accept it. Trust yourself and you'll never get hurt, right?" He repeated the words she had spoken to him before they left for Neverland.
Emma sat stunned that he had chosen to use her own words against her.
"That is what you said to me. You gave me a choice to be part of something or keep running. I chose to be part of something. I chose you. Since then, I've been fighting like hell to be the man that deserves you." He revealed.
"Hook…" Emma moved toward him.
"Don't," he snapped back, jerking away from her. "When are you going to start believing that you deserve something more for yourself? That you are worthy of happiness? You have a family here that loves you! A man who…"
Emma swallowed hard, straining to hear the words she knew were soon to follow.
"Did I ever tell you about my time in Wonderland?" He asked sheepishly, an uneasy smile on his lips as he scratched his head.
"Briefly," she said, vaguely recalling how he came to end up with Cora.
"No. The first time I went to Wonderland," he amended himself.
"You never told me that you had been twice before," she told him.
"Aye. I suppose it is a time I wish to forget," he hesitated for a moment before diving into his tale.
"It was right after I lost Milah. Before I went on the journey to exact my revenge. Before I added the hook to my missing appendage. I was in mourning," he began to explain.
Emma gave him a quizzical look wondering where he was going with this story.
"200 years ago, Wonderland was a very different place," he hinted. "A place where people went to escape their problems…"
Emma was getting anxious with anticipation and her eyes drifted toward the book beside her before returning them to Killian's.
"You won't find this story in Henry's book. This time was a well-guarded secret in our world and wasn't very well documented for good reason," he lamented.
"Just tell the story Hook," she said impatiently.
"200 years ago, Wonderland was a world of social debauchery. Every single human custom was thrown out the door when you were there. It was complete anarchy," he recalled. "Pirates roamed the waters dealing with all manner of illegal substances that grew on the land. Wonderland's most powerful families were caught up in a war for the vacant seat of power when Wonderland's leader was overthrown," Killian set up the backstory.
"Why would anyone want to go there then?" She asked him.
"I'm getting to that part," Killian said. "There was no way to summon a portal at this time. However, one was created by a family of rabbits, also known as time-keeper. In times of great emotional distress, particularly when one suffers a great loss, the rabbit would summon a portal and bring that individual to Wonderland."
Emma listened intently, waiting for the point of his story.
"While you're there it's like you're in a trance-"
Killian was caught off guard when the barn behind them in the distance blew it's roof off, a bright beam of light radiating from the hole.
"What in the world is that?" Emma asked, turning toward the source of the sound.
"I don't know…" Killian said.
"Let's go," Emma told him.
Killian nodded his head in agreement and the pair made their way toward the barn.
"Whatever is going in there can't be good," Killian noted as they came up on the barn.
"It's Zelena's time portal, David left a message. Somehow she died and triggered it…" Emma began to close the distance between herself and the barn.
"Wait, we need to get out of here," Killian hesitated, seizing Emma's arm to protect her from harm.
"Not until we find a way to close it," she insisted.
"Do you have your magic back?" Killian asked.
"No…"
"Then we're not bloody well messing with any of this. Let's go!" Killian shouted over the sound of the time portal.
Killian and Emma turned to leave when the doors parted open suddenly, dragging them to the ground and across the floor of the barn toward the portal. Before reaching the edge of the portal, Killian reached out with his hooked arm, burying the appendage into the ground to keep them from falling, Emma tethered to his only good hand.
"Hold on!" He screamed, straining to keep themselves out of the portal.
"I can't!" She told him, teetering off the edge of the portal before slipping and falling into its depths, taking a piece of Killian's sleeve with her.
Killian watched her helplessly as she fell and disappeared. If he was going to do something, he had to act soon before the portal closed and Emma was gone to him for good. If anyone was going to save her it was going to have to be him.
"One of these days I'm going to stop chasing this woman…" Killian said to himself, dislodging his hook from the ground and letting himself fall into the portal, which closed behind him.
Killian fell face first into a small body of water, soaking his clothes and hair, coughing as he swallowed saltwater.
Lifting his head, he took a few strained gasps of breath, the water dripping off the ends of his hair blurring his vision. He found that he was able to extend his elbows into the water, meeting a shallow depth and crawled his way toward the not too distant shoreline before he met sand.
Killian pushed himself onto his back with a grunt, staring up into the cloudless purple sky above and noticed there were no stars in the sky to be found.
In the water there were two fleets of ships, their cannons raised above the water and poised to strike, the crimson flag hoisted above their sails giving their intent away.
Pirates…
Killian felt the rumble of the ground as the cannon fired and heard the splinter of wood as it made contact with its intended target. He cowered into the sand, his hook and hand pressed against his ears to muffle the ringing in his head.
A rival gang of pirates in the heat of battle? A starless sky? There was only one place they could be… Wonderland.