"Do you wanna talk about it?" Zelena asked, as the two women headed for their lockers ready to start the school day.

"I dunno. I do, I just…"

"You need some time to work out how you feel about everything before you can put it into words," she reasoned. "I get that. Just know that I'm here when you're ready, Emma."

Emma leaned in to wrap her arms around her friend. She wanted Zelena to know just how much she appreciated having the redhead in her life, even if she wasn't yet ready to open up to her.

"So, what did you pick for the topic of your history paper?" she asked, as she straightened back up to head down the staircase towards their chemistry class.

"I think I'm gonna go with the Salem Witch Trials," Zelena replied gleefully. "I've been reading through some of the Watcher's journals that Gold has, and apparently they burned a couple of actual witches during that period of time, but most escaped and framed those who had previously wronged them. Obviously, I can't write about that. But it would be so much fun to have a genuine excuse to continue researching the real history, and to see how much of it has been covered up to keep the existence of the supernatural unknown."

"Wow. That's uh… wow."

"I know. I'm a nerd."

"No. You do you," Emma assured her. "Maybe if Gold actually started training me properly I'd be a little more interested in the history of this stuff."

"I'm sure he will soon. I think he was a little jealous when he realized that you were going to Killian for help."

"Yeah, well… that won't be happening again, so he has nothing to worry about there."

"It'll get easier, Emma. I promise."

Emma didn't have the chance to thank her optimistic friend for trying to lift her spirits. But she hoped that the small smile she sent Zelena's way as they took their seats in the already packed class would be enough to do that for her.

Her friend had been right about one thing, as when the small group was reunited in the library on their lunch break, the space was full of workout equipment that she was pretty sure had been found in the depths of the storage closet of the school's gym.

"What's all this?" Emma asked, as she dropped her bag onto the desk and then flopped down into the seat behind it.

"It's for this evening. Before we start training with weapons, we should begin with hand-to-hand combat," Gold called out, as he hauled an old punching bag into the room to rest against the call desk.

Killian had suggested the same thing, but Emma did her best to push the memories of that night aside and focus on her watcher instead.

"Excellent news. I'll grab my gym stuff after last period and head straight back here."

"Question - Do the rest of us get fight training too?" August asked, as his eyes darted over to the weapons cage against the wall, and settled on a rather mean looking crossbow hanging on the back wall.

"You shouldn't need any. Slayers typically work alone."

"Yeah, I think we all know I'm not gonna be a typical slayer," Emma chuckled. "But I do think the slayer should probably know how to, you know, actually slay vampires before anyone else jumps in on this."

"Good point," August conceded. "So… I guess the rest of us are stuck on research duty for now?"

"Yes. I need to know as much about this vampire Hook as you can possibly find. While the accounts on The Master are sketchy, there are many on him. So I think he might be the best place for us to start our investigation."

"What uh… what do they say? About Hook?" Emma asked as casually as she possibly could.

The slayer had her eyes fixed on one of the straps of her bag so she completely missed the look her new friends threw her way. Zelena and August seemed to be waiting for Gold to answer her question, but he had his head buried in yet another book.

Emma had to clear her throat to grab his attention. "Hello? Earth to Gold? Why is this Hook such a big deal?"

"He's um, he's been around for a while," Gold replied carefully, marking his page with what looked like a battered piece of leather before he set the book down on the counter. "Nobody has heard from him in the last century, so he's presumed dead. But before that, he was quite the prolific vampire."

"Huh."

"I haven't taken a life in almost a century, Emma."

The words echoed through her mind as she considered what Gold had just said. If Killian hadn't taken a life in almost a century, that could explain why Hook was presumed dead. But Emma still wasn't willing to believe everything he'd said that night. He'd spent every moment of their time together before that lying to her. She had no reason to believe that he'd told her the truth when he'd spoke of his past.

"What do you mean that he was prolific before that?" she asked instead.

Gold's eyes darted over to meet Zelena's, who dropped her gaze to the book open in front of her, and then over to August. But neither of them seemed to want to help him answer Emma's question. And he couldn't exactly blame them for that.

"He's um… he's killed at least two slayers that we know of."

Emma's stomach dropped once more at Gold's revelation.

Killian had always known what she was. He'd acted like he wanted to help her, but now she was even more certain than ever before that it had all been a lie. All he wanted was to add yet another slayer to his growing tally. Killing an untrained one wouldn't give him much in the form of bragging rights, but killing a slayer he'd trained, one that he'd made to believe was safe with him – well that would be something.

"Emma?"

"Yeah?" Her head snapped up to meet Zelena's eyes and a quick glance around the library showed her new friends and watcher staring back at her with the same look of concern on their faces.

"Sorry. I was uh… I was just remembering a promise I made to my dad," she lied. Nobody looked like they were buying it, but the shrill ring of the bell stopped her from facing any more awkward questions.

Zelena waited until they were sat down in their seats for their math class before she slid a note over for her friend to read. Emma took a moment to appreciate that she was old-school enough to still pass notes in class before she opened it up to read what had been written inside.

It's Killian, isn't it? He's Hook.

She swallowed hard around the lump in her throat that wanted to protest the allegation, but maybe having someone to talk it all out with would help with the confusion swirling around in her mind. Because as much as she wanted to hate Killian for what he'd done to her, a part of her was still struggling to do that.

So instead of ignoring the note, or writing out some kind of lie to her friend, Emma pulled out her own pen and scratched three simple words underneath Zelena's question.

Yes. He is.

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