Hello everyone : ) I honestly have no idea where this chapter came from : ) I originally planned to just rewrite what I'd originally written, but as I started I suddenly thought - 'Screw this!' - and just wrote a whole new chapter in a couple of hours : ) It just seemed to come to me, so I hope you guys like it.

Anyway, please remember that Once Upon A Time is not mine.

I hope you enjoy this chapter : )

Wade Rogers

Wade Rogers loved his job.

Perhaps it wasn't much to aspire too - being a barman - but for him, it was the best job in the world.

All day long, he got to be around alcohol, his second greatest love in the world, and drunken sexy women, his first greatest love in the world.

Add in the fact that a high number of people, both female and the occasional male, would love to get into his pants, and Wade felt like he was on top of the world whenever it was his shift.

He worked in a quaint little place called the Rabbit Hole.

It wasn't some high-class night club like those in Los Angeles or New York, but for a hidden little town like Storybrooke it wasn't too shabby.

At least it got him away from his car-crash of a home like.

That was where Wade felt like he had hit rock bottom.

He couldn't remember the last time he had felt truly happy with his life. It was like something or someone had sucked all the joy out of it a long time ago and he'd never gotten it back.

Thankfully though, he wasn't there right now.

He was at his beloved bar in the Rabbit Hole, wholly enjoying being hit on by the local talent and the occasional drunk guy.

Wade was just in the middle of a particularly sexy conversation with a pretty little thing, when he heard a new customer calling to get his attention.

"Excuse me?" an unfamiliar female voice called, "Can I get some service here?"

Wade blinked to himself in confusion.

Whilst obviously not everyone in the whole town had ever been inside the Rabbit Hole, Wade liked to think he knew most people in Storybrooke, at least enough to be able to recognise a voice when he heard it.

But this one was totally unfamiliar to him.

Something about that was odd.

In all the time he'd lived in Storybrooke and worked at the Rabbit Hole, Wade could never remember anyone new arriving.

Shaking himself out of those thoughts, Wade turned to face his mystery customer.

He jolted to a stop and his eyes widened.

Wade sucked in a sharp breath.

Holy fuck.

It was her eyes that had Wade so mesmerized at first.

They were the greenest green he had ever seen, like a legendary green flash just before sunset. But more than that, Wade saw something of himself reflected in their depths.

He saw pain and loneliness.

Inwardly shaking himself, Wade forced his gaze away from her eyes so he could take in the rest of her face. Even an outrageous flirt like him knew that there was something different about this one.

The woman was stunningly beautiful.

Well-defined cheekbones, pale pink lips he'd bet many a man would love to devour, and locks of golden hair that burned like the sun itself. His eyes towards downwards on their own accord. Even sitting, Wade could tell that the woman was incredibly fit.

He swallowed hard.

Even with just one glance, Wade could feel all his blood rushing straight down to his cock, leaving him breathless and slightly dazed.

Okay, so that reaction in itself wasn't so usual.

He was only human after all, and a lot of pretty girls chose the Rabbit Hole as their watering hole, but somehow Wade just knew, without knowing how he knew, that there was just something different about her.

She was like an angel.

Wade knew straight away that she wasn't from Storybrooke. If a woman that attractive had been wandering around the same town as him, she'd have come up on his radar by now. Wade had lived in Storybrooke for... well, for as long as he could remember, and never once had he seen beauty such as her.

And being a man that never could resist a pretty girl, Wade eagerly bounded over to her.

"I'll be there in a second, love" he practically purred.

As if sensing just how intensely he was watching her - or perhaps just how many pick-up lines were currently chasing each other through his flirtatious head - the woman's eyes focused in on him so quickly Wade was surprised she wasn't seeing double.

Her jaw dropped as she took him in.

Wade did his best not to preen as he stood up straighter and grinned so widely his face just might crack. He would bet his right arm and leg that she was undressing him in her mind right about now. He knew when a woman was impressed by a man's looks and body. He had seen that expression on enough pleased girls' faces after all.

Hold on.

No.

Wade tried not to scowl in disappointment.

The woman wasn't checking him out.

Actually, the more he observed her reaction, the more it seemed like the woman was staring at him in... well, sheer disbelief.

Wade grinned again.

Maybe she just never believed a guy could be quite so dashingly handsome as he was.

He was just thinking about which of his best chat-up lines might work on her and get him lucky tonight, when the woman spoke up before he could try any of them out.

"Hook?!" she blurted out.

Wade quirked an eyebrow in bewilderment.

Judging by the way she was looking at him as if his entire existence surprised her, Wade knew she had to be talking about him.

Well, Wade had no idea who this 'Hook' person was, but whoever he was, he was one lucky bastard.

But perhaps if 'Hook' wasn't there, then this woman would be in need of someone else to keep her warm tonight.

Grinning like a cat with the cream, Wade all but pounced into action.

Emma simply couldn't believe her eyes.

This wasn't just unlikely.

This was completely impossible.

The barman was Hook, there was no doubt about it.

But how could he possibly be standing in front of her right now?

Her first thought was that this was some kind of cruel trick.

After all, Emma knew for a fact that Hook had never been cursed into Storybrooke like her parents and so many other people had been.

He had been protected by Cora, and stayed in the Enchanted Forest, frozen in suspended animation for twenty eight years.

So how could he here now, almost a year before the curse even broke?

Emma's eyes raked him over for any sign that something was amiss here. She simply couldn't believe the evidence standing in front of her.

Her eyes landed on his left hand.

Not a stump like she would have expected, but an actual, honest-to-God flesh-and-bone hand.

Okay, that wasn't right.

As the barman that looked so much like Hook swaggered towards her, Emma took care to scan his face was any sign of recognition in his eyes.

He licked his lips and gave her the once over.

Emma swallowed hard.

Judging by the lack of warmth in his eyes she'd grown accustomed to seeing when he looked at her, Emma knew there and then that the man before her had no idea who she was.

Her heart clenched in pain.

She was a stranger to him now.

Just like everyone else she had grown to love so dearly.

This was just wrong.

So incredibly wrong.

But how could this have happened?

Emma had long since learned to trust her instincts, and right now they were telling her that despite the abnormalities, the man standing behind the bar was in fact Hook.

Not some imposter like one might have thought.

But how could he have his hand back?

How the hell was he even here in the first place?

And what the hell had happened to him to make him forget all about her just like everyone else?

"Well hello there" the man that looked like Hook greeted her with a sexy wink, "What can a guy like me do for a woman as beautiful as you?"

Oh god.

That was so cheesy Emma was seriously having to work hard not to puke.

But at least that reinforced the fact that he had no idea who she was.

Not like that wasn't painful, nope, not at all.

Emma's mind was quickly going into overdrive as she tried to work out some form of explanation for what she was seeing.

Obviously the Time Portal had to be involved somehow.

Hook must have fallen into it after she had.

But why did he get sent somewhere else to her if they went through the same portal?

Was it like other portals, directed by thought?

Maybe that was it.

If Hook had been thinking about something else than what she'd been thinking, maybe that was why he'd been sent somewhere else in time to where she'd been sent.

It seemed logical to Emma at any rate.

And if Hook was here, than that meant that something had changed at least twenty-eight years ago, because the only way he could have got into Storybrooke whilst it was still trapped under the curse was if he was brought along with the curse.

Realisation flooded Emma and she felt the blood drain from her face.

It wasn't just something that had changed.

No.

He had changed something.

Oh Killian, what the hell did you get yourself into?

But Emma already knew the answer to that.

He was cursed.

Emma just knew it.

Killian Jones had been a victim of the Dark Curse and his identity had been erased because of that.

She'd bet her little yellow bug on it.

Perhaps that also explained why the man before her also had his left hand back. It would have been slightly odd for him after all if he just woke in Storybrooke on the day it was created without it. Perhaps it had been stuck back on with magic so that he wouldn't remember anything about being Captain Hook.

That made just about as much sense as everything else that had been going on after all.

Knowing she couldn't avoid talking to him, Emma did her best to keep her voice steady as she replied to him.

It was so hard though.

Just hours ago she had been opening up - for the first time in years no less - to this man, and now he had completely forgotten her.

Emma wasn't an idiot after all.

She couldn't deny that despite how hard she had resisted it, Hook had managed to slip past her so carefully crafted walls, and she had began falling for him.

She wouldn't quite call it love yet.

But she had been getting there.

And now once again, just like it always did, it had all been yanked out from under.

And it hurt.

It hurt like hell.

Part of her just wanted to curl up into a ball and cry. Cry for her family and friends who no longer knew her. Cry for her son who had to put up with so much crap for one so young. Cry for Hook or whoever this man was that had taken his place.

And cry for herself.

She had never asked for a life like this, and yet she constantly seemed to be getting punished for it.

But Emma knew she couldn't afford to let herself fall apart right now.

So she did what Emma Swan did best.

She forced her emotions back and placed her walls around her heart.

Plastering a fake smile onto her face, Emma grinned at the man that had once been Captain Hook.

"Well, that depends" Emma smirked flirtatiously.

"On what?" the man that wasn't Hook practically purred at her.

"On what a guy like you is offering" Emma winked.

'Not-Hook's' face lit up in excitement.

"Oh love, I think you'll find there isn't much that this man isn't willing to do" he grinned that oh-so-charming grin at her.

Emma felt genuine butterflies dancing around her stomach.

Okay, so this flirting was rather cheesy and she knew it, but hell, Emma had always liked Hook's smile.

Even if right now it was on another man's face.

But at this moment Emma wanted some more information, and since she currently had his undivided attention, she decided to put her advantage to good use.

"Maybe you'd be willing to give me your name then?" Emma asked innocently.

"I thought you'd never ask love" he beamed at her, "Wade Rogers. And what might a beautiful lass like you be called?"

"Emma Swan" she greeted him.

"Swan" he breathed her name like it was a prayer.

Emma swallowed hard.

Her façade almost broke upon hearing her name, his name for her. When she had fallen into the Time Portal, a small part of her had feared that she'd never hear him say it again.

"Well" the man - Wade - looked her up and down again, "It's very fitting. A royal name for a royal lady".

Emma smirked.

In his cursed stated, Hook had no idea just how appropriate those words were.

"Thank you" she smiled warmly at him.

"So, what will it be tonight Miss Swan?" Wade grinned wickedly at her, causing her heart to skip a beat, "Or do I get the pleasure of calling you Emma?"

Emma knew that flirting with Hook when he wasn't Hook wasn't a good idea.

Hell, this Wade persona he'd received from the curse was just as annoyingly charming as the pirate captain was, and already Emma found herself drawn to him.

But right now, she honestly had no idea how to approach this situation, so she decided to continue with what she was currently doing.

"I'll make you a deal Mr Rogers" Emma enticed him, and Wade grinned at her eagerly, "If you let me call you Wade, I'll let you call me Emma. So what do you say big boy? We have a deal?"

"Sound fair to me, Emma" Wade purred her name.

Emma felt her cheeks heat up as the man reduced her to blushing, blushing!

"So, what's your drink?" Wade asked her curiously, "I've never seen you in here before so how's a guy to know?"

Emma let out a genuine laugh at that.

"I'd have thought someone as witty as you would be able to guess" she playfully teased.

"Oh, I'm witty am I?" Wade chortled, "Okay Emma, how about we make another deal then? If I can guess in three tries what your drink is, you give me your phone number?"

Emma bit her lip thoughtfully.

Whilst she normally made a point of not handing her phone number out to guys, in Wade's case it might be useful to make an exception.

Wade Rogers was a completely unknown quantity in Storybrooke, and if Emma ended up staying in this time - which was getting more and more likely - then it would be helpful if she established a friendship with him.

At least she could keep an eye on him at any rate.

Inwardly nodding with her thoughts, Emma decided to run with it.

"Alright, but if you don't get it in three tries, you'll never get it" she winked.

She didn't mean that of course. She just didn't want him to think she was easy or something.

Either way, he'd end up with her phone number tonight.

Wade's grin got even wider.

"Oho! Raising the stakes, eh?" he chuckled, "Well now I'll have to try my best. Can't let a lady like you slip through the net after all, can I?"

"No you most certainly can't" Emma smirked.

"Okay - guess number one" Wade braced himself, "White wine?"

"Nope" Emma said, popping the 'p'.

"Damn. Alright, guess number two" Wade bit his lip thoughtfully, "Rum?"

"Ha! I bet that's your drink, not mine" Emma laughed.

"Well, I'm partial to it now and then" Wade shrugged playfully.

"One more try" Emma reminded him.

"Bloody hell" Wade grunted. He was determined to get her phone number after all, "Okay, okay... err... Vodka Shots?" he said slowly.

Emma threw back her head and laughed.

When she didn't reply straight away, Wade grew somewhat fidgety.

"Well?" he asked hopefully.

"Well... I'd say you earned yourself a phone number" Emma winked at him.

"Yes!" Wade whooped and punched the air.

"Easy there big boy" Emma raised an amused eyebrow at him, "It's just a phone number. It isn't a promise. It isn't an I-owe-U. It's just a phone number".

"Gotcha" Wade nodded his understanding.

Smiling, Emma picked up one of the small business cards that littered the bar, took out a pen from her pocket, and jotted down her phone number. She then held it out to him.

Wade took the piece of paper like it was a priceless treasure.

"So, seeing as that number isn't a promise and I might not get another chance to ask" Wade said, pocketing the card with her number on it, "What brings you to our little town of Storybrooke? It's not exactly a tourist spot after all".

Emma let out an exhausted sigh.

Wade looked at her, worried that he had somehow put her off by asking that.

"Sorry" he apologised, "None of my business. I was just making conversation".

"No, it's not that, it's fine" Emma shook her head, "It's just sort of complicated, and not the kind of thing you tell a guy when you've just met him and he's coming on to you".

Wade couldn't help but laugh at that.

Oh this was one hell of a woman, he thought to himself.

Beautiful, clever, not afraid to speak her mind, could match him at each step of the way, and most importantly, no ring on her finger.

If Wade was a betting man, which coincidentally he was, he's say he'd just struck gold.

"So I've been coming on to you now?" he chuckled.

Emma couldn't help but scoff.

"Sorry buddy. You might be dashing and charming but you're not subtle" Emma informed him.

"But I'm still dashing and charming and that's good enough for me" he told her.

Emma laughed and fondly shook her head.

As loathed as she was to admit it, she really liked this Wade part of Hook. He was sweet and funny and a little bit dorky, but in a cute way.

He had an attractive personality, even if in a way Emma knew it wasn't exactly, well... real.

Still, he wasn't too far off of Hook.

And even though Emma knew it might sound a little strange, she was actually glad that Hook had somehow ended up changing the past and getting sent to Storybrooke with everybody else.

In a way, it made her feel less alone.

What with her family, her friends, and her son having never developed those so cherished true relationships with her right now, at least having a version of Hook with her right now made her feel a hundred times better about this whole situation.

She felt like she finally had someone in her corner again.

Not that she'd ever tell him that of course.

The smug prat would never let her hear the end of it.

Still, he was her smug prat at any rate.

And that was more than enough to bring a bright smile to her face.

"So is a girl ever going to get a drink in this place?" Emma asked, pulling herself out of her musings and back to the present.

"I know, the service here is terrible" Wade smirked, making her laugh again, "Vodka Shot?"

"Hit me" Emma nodded.

Within seconds, a shots-glass full of Vodka appeared in front of her.

"Whoa, pretty quick off the mark there buddy" Emma commented.

"What can I say, I serve the fastest drink across the entire eastern sea-board" Wade grinned.

Emma went to remove her wallet from her jeans to pay, but Wade quickly shook his head.

"Don't worry about that love" he told her, "This round's on me. I couldn't live with myself if a pretty lass gave me her phone number and I didn't even buy her a drink".

"Oh, well we can't have that" Emma graced him with one of her best smiles, "Thank you very much Wade".

As demented as it might sound, she was actually beginning to enjoy herself.

At least flirting with the cute bartender was taking her mind off the mountain of troubles she knew she'd have to face at some point or another.

"You are more than welcome Emma" he winked slyly at her, "So tell me, if whatever brought you here isn't so pleasant, are you planning on sticking around town for long?"

Emma downed her shot before she answered him.

"Why?" she asked as she smacked her lips together, "Worried you won't get a chance to call that phone number you just bought a drink for?"

Wade scoffed in amusement.

"Well that wasn't quite what I was thinking about, but aye love, that too" he replied.

"What were you thinking about then?" Emma asked coyly.

"Just that if you were planning on sticking around, perhaps you'd allow me the honour of showing you around town" he suggested hopefully, "There's more to see here than meets the eye".

As he said this, he licked his lips, pressed his hands against his body, and ran them down to his thighs.

The implication wasn't lost on Emma.

"Oho! In your dreams buddy" she scoffed.

She only ever allowed things like that on the first meeting when it was a one-night-stand.

And with Hook, she knew she'd never have just a one-night-stand.

"Most certainly love" he winked, "All night in fact".

"You seriously don't have an off button, do you?" Emma couldn't help but laugh.

"No love, sorry. Just one that turns me on" he retorted playfully.

Emma burst out laughing at that one.

God, she knew she was up to her eyeballs in shit, but sitting here and flirting constantly with Wade was really helping her deal with the nightmare her life had become over the past twenty-four hours. It might not be the healthiest way of dealing with it, but hell, whatever worked she'd take.

But alas, it was getting late, and she didn't exactly fancy spending the night in her car right now.

After the day she'd just endured, she wanted a bed.

Somewhere to basically collapse and just pray that when she woke up in the morning, all of this was just a bad dream, and they could laugh about it later when she told Hook how cute and funny his dream counterpart was.

All of which meant, it was time to say good night.

"Well Mr Rogers, on that note, I think it's high time I went and found myself a bed for the night" Emma regretfully informed him.

For a moment, Wade looked extremely disappointed, however almost immediately he perked right up again.

Emma braced herself.

She knew exactly what he was going to say after all.

"Oh, I have one at my place if you're interested" he grinned wickedly at her, "I mean, it sort of comes with me in it too, and I do have a 'no clothes' rule, but the offer's there if you want it".

Yeah.

She had been spot on the mark.

Emma chuckled fondly.

"Another time maybe" she smirked.

She turned and walked towards the exit.

"Is that one a promise?" he called from behind her.

A wide smile crept its way over Emma's face, but she didn't turn back to face him as she replied.

"You'll just have to wait and see" she laughed.

Behind her, Wade beamed and punched the air again.

He might not be her companion for the night, but at least he was in with a chance.

That was enough for him for now.

Plus the thrill was in the chase.

Never in the capture.

Grinning to himself happily, Wade turned away from the door as another customer approached the bar.

He had no idea why, but Wade had the strangest feeling that his life was about to take a turn for the better.

And all because of a swan in the night.

Oh yes.

Wade Rogers loved his job alright.

Emma exited the Rabbit Hole in much higher spirits than when she'd entered.

Although seeing a cursed version of Hook in Storybrooke was something she'd never imagined she would see, Emma couldn't deny that she'd felt an attraction to his cursed persona.

Emma knew that Hook had his reasons, good reasons, for all the anger and the hatred and the desire for revenge that had burned away in the man she'd first met. And she liked to think that she had played a part in getting him past those feelings, and had helped him become a man she'd started being drawn too.

But to suddenly see all those negative traits gone, leaving just a gigantic happy flirt in his place, well it just wasn't something Emma had been expecting to see.

She wasn't regretful over it though.

He had really given her a pick up there, and he didn't even know it.

Although this little surprise had stirred up some rather troubling thoughts however.

Namely - Emma knew now that the chances of her going back to her own time were slim-to-none by this point.

It wasn't as if she could just leave Wade - no, Hook - she couldn't leave Hook behind after all. And in this state, he was unlikely to believe her if she told him about magic, let alone follow her into a Time Portal even if she could find a way of reopening it.

No.

Until she figured out a way of bringing Hook's memories back, Emma knew that there would be no leaving this time.

Yet as she walked towards her yellow bug, Emma came to an important realisation.

She didn't even want to.

And there's another one : )

Like I said, I have no idea where this came from, and I was hoping to move the pilot episode along a bit with this chapter, but sometimes these things just write themselves and don't work out how you originally planned : ) Most of this was inspired whilst I was watching Emma flirting with Past-Hook in the season 3 finale : )

Anyway, please leave a review telling me what you thought of this chapter, Wade's character, and how his meeting with Emma went : )

Until the next time, keep on reading : )