Chapter 26:
Rumors were already making their way throughout the ship. There was another fairy. They were starting to believe there was enough magic to extend the lives of every single member of the crew. Someone kept insisting that there must be more fairies to find.
Tala was growing increasingly uncomfortable with the things being said. She didn't like the implications of the crew's whispering, or the greed that underlined every word. The poor pixie had barely begun to sit up and eat again.
She decided to hide away in Hook's cabin after retrieving some more flowers from the island. Honeysuckle was their favorite, she had learned. Thankfully, it grew like crazy on every island in Neverland, especially the remote ones.
The new fairy was recovering with the help of Tinkerbell's dust and the honeysuckle Tala provided. She watched the little creatures with great interest, but interest soon turned to sadness.
How awful it is to be caged, she thought. They were trapped in a glass box, much the same as Tala had been trapped on Hook's ship when she was first taken. Nothing living deserved to be caged. She was meant to be wild and free, and so were the fairies.
Hook had Smee stand watch outside his cabin door while he sat below deck with a tankard of rum. He was becoming frustrated with the crew and their noise. They were talking as if they had a fairy, as if they had power. He was beginning to believe he'd have to make an example out of someone eventually.
Sebastian soon interrupted his violent thoughts as he plopped down on the barrel across the table from him. He wore a serious expression, which only irritated Hook more. Hook wasn't in the mood for a lecture, but he felt one coming.
"Ye need to deal with this."
"What are you on about now, boy?" Hook grumbled his annoyance, sipping from his rum.
"Pan is comin' after Tala because of that fairy," Sebastian angrily tapped his finger against the table to emphasize his point. "Ye got to decide which one matters more to ye. Because one of them is goin' away, and ye can't stop that."
Hook let out a long sigh, releasing some of his anger for a moment. What replaced it was worry. Sebastian was right that Pan was pulling Tala into the crossfire, and that the fairy was the root of the conflict. With or without the second one, Pan wanted a fairy for himself.
"What do you suppose I do, then?"
"Ye give that fairy back to Pan and ye live your life to its end like a man." Sebastian didn't mean to be insulting, but he couldn't see how Hook could choose to put Tala in danger over something as lonely as immortality.
"You're rather bold today," Hook grimaced. "Try to remember that I am your captain, whether you like it or not."
"A captain shouldn't be actin' like a coward. Now, ye know I care for Tala. She's something special, and ye know that, too. But I'm keeping my distance and staying out of the way because I know she cares about ye. She's in love with ye, as foolish as it is. Yet, you spit on her love by putting her in danger for what? More years? Is extending yer life worth shortening hers?" Sebastian completed his rant with a slow exhale.
He added, in a softer tone, "All I mean is that ye need to make a decision for her sake. Don't let yer greed get her into trouble with Pan. I don't want to see her hurt because of that damned fairy."
Hook didn't really have anything to say in response. He couldn't deny the truth of Sebastian's words. He couldn't deny his greed for life, for years, when he had fought for them for so long. He downed his rum quickly and rose to his feet.
"Take the rest of the night off, boy. Get some rest. We will have to be up early to catch the winds."
Sebastian didn't bother with a response. Hook hadn't earned one from him. He practically ignored everything Sebastian said to him. The two parted ways, both even more frustrated than before.
When Hook returned to his cabin, the first thing he saw was Tala standing beside his bed, sad eyes fixated on the two fairies behind the glass. Was he due for another lecture so soon? He wished he had had more rum.
"James," Tala said his voice so softly, looking over her shoulder at him after hearing him step out of his heavy boots. "This is wrong."
"I told the little brat he nearly killed her," Hook shrugged. "But kids are so irresponsible, especially with fragile things."
"I don't mean what that child did to her. I mean... What we're doing is wrong."
"We?" Hook scoffed. "We didn't capture those fairies. I did. You haven't done anything wrong."
"I'm watching it happen. I'm guilty, too," Tala argued, leaving the cage to approach Hook. She reached out and grabbed his large hand between her two little ones. "James, if I asked you to grow old with me, would you?"
"Please, little wolf, I've already had this lecture tonight. I know that giving Pan the fairies is the right--"
"No," she quickly cut him off with urgency. "You can't give them back to Pan."
Hook blinked down at her in confusion for a moment. "Then what are you asking of me exactly?"
"James, they are living and breathing creatures. They have feelings. Keeping them locked away and using them for magic is cruel. It's wrong to trap any creature like that," she frowned sympathetically.
Hook sucked in a breath, burying the anger that bubbled within him under the respect that he had for Tala. He wanted to shout, to curse, to ask her how she could be so foolish. Instead, he paced back and forth for a moment until he could lower his tone.
"You do know what you're asking of me?" He scoffed at her incredulously. "You're asking me to die!" Unfortunately, his voice rose without his permission. Tala frowned at him in response.
"Is living the life every other man is forced to live really so terrible? I'm not immortal, James, and I will never be. Do you want to outlive us all that badly?"
"I knew it. I knew you'd be the death of me, little wolf," Hook growled out his frustration, pacing the short distance of his cabin once more. He was growing restless, more and more so by the second, and Tala was only agitating him further.
"My people believe in dying with honor."
"There is no honor in dying, don't be stupid! They lie to you so that you fight for them, and you fall for it because it's all you've ever known," Hook rolled his eyes at her assertion. "To die is to concede, and I've never conceded. Not to Pan, not to Death, and I will not concede to you."
"Then, I am leaving."
Hook's feet halted, and his eyes met hers and only found sincerity. A chill ran down his spine.
"You're leaving?"
"I won't sit here and wrinkle and cripple until I am dead while you stay young forever," Tala said firmly with tears in her eyes. "And I will not watch you torment these poor creatures a moment longer."
"Tala--"
"You have to choose, Hook," Tala said with a fire in her eyes that he hadn't seen directed at him in a long time. "Will you be a good man or a selfish one? Stop trying to be both."
"You're driving me mad! You ask me to give up my power, my life, my leverage, and everything I've fought for as if it's as simple as taking a breath!" Hook shouted at her in desperation. "And when I resist, you want to walk away?"
"I'm asking you to choose me," Tala said with a saddened sigh, not wanting to agitate him any further. "But that doesn't seem possible. So live your endless life, and keep your monstrous power. I just don't want any part of it."
Tala held his gaze for a moment longer, waiting for a response. But he hesitated. He was speechless.
She opened the trunk at the end of his bed and pulled her furs from the bottom of it. After folding them over her arm, she grabbed her favorite blade, it's sheath, and the leather she used tied her long hair back with. Though it was not long as it once was, it would grow back. One day she would be able to braid it properly again. One day, she would once again become a savage.
With all of her things in her hands, she stood and faced Hook. His lips were parted as if he wanted to say something, but he didn't. He was trembling, but Tala couldn't bring herself to regret her choice. She knew it was the right one.
Hook stood still, frozen, locked in an internal battle. Even as she brushed past him, even as she opened his cabin door, he couldn't push his body forwards. Nor could he force his tongue to speak.
It wasn't until she closed the door behind her and her absence surrounded him that instinct finally pushed him into action.
Tala was nearly to the plank when the cabin door flew open and a frantic Hook came rushing towards her with something in his arms. She turned to him, hesitating one last time to hear the goodbye she was expecting.
Instead, he held up the glass cage that contained the fairies with one hand. With the other, he unlatched the door and let it open.
Tala watched with wide, surprised eyes as Tinkerbell pulled herself and the other fairy out of their cage. They flew closer to her, buzzed around her for a moment in gratitude, then flew off towards the island.
"There. I chose," Hook's chest heaved. "So don't you dare take one step off this ship."
He rushed her then, taking her little face in between both of his large hands and letting his lips crash down onto hers in a frenzy. He kissed her with such a hunger that she could have believed him a man starving for days. It was as if he meant to devour her in that moment, and Tala, for once, was prepared to let him.
Hook swept her, and her belongings, into his arms. He never let his lips leave hers for longer than a second, just enough time to catch a small breath I between.
By memory alone, Hook made his way back towards his cabin. He carried her through the door, closed, and locked it behind him.
Tala knew what was coming, and she was finally ready for it. He had earned her trust, and she no longer feared letting him conquer her entirely. Tala was ready and willing to give him everything: her life, her heart, her soul, her body.
And he planned to take it all.