Chapter Two:

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.

Hook had been searching for approximately 3 weeks before he spotted her.

It'd been a long week and he'd decided to treat himself to a drink in a nearby bar. When he'd finished he'd continued to scope out for a certain blond haired savior when he saw a woman who seemed to fit the description he'd been given, she had been exiting what he now knew as an elevator in an upscale inn with large glass walls that over looked the city and faced the bar he'd previously been drinking at.

She had been wearing a sinfully tight and short red dress. She looked just as Cora had described, the fair skin, the blond tresses, and the, begrudged as he was to say it, captivating green eyes. She appeared to be having dinner with a man that, if he'd said so himself, was not nearly as handsome as he, and was definitely not worthy of her affections. They'd looked to be talking but there was only so much he could see through his telescope at his spot in a narrow ally across the street. Upon closer inspection, he could just make out the words her plump pink lips were forming.

Her name was Emma Swan. It was her birthday, and she had no friends or family to spend it with. Bingo! This was his mark, she was the alleged savior. That must be why she's out with this wanker on what appears to be their first date. He thought, absentmindedly feeling strangely sorry for the lonely Swan-girl. Her date took a turn for the worse as the man quickly stood and flipped the table which in turn caused the glass of wine on the table to spill on her dress. She mumbled out a curse before she got up to. . . What, chase after her date? He thought confusedly. Surely the lass has more pride than that.

When the dark haired man stepped out of the building, the blond was hot on his heels. She maintained her calm and collected demeanor, as opposed to the man who looked flustered and panic stricken. Hook slowly neared the scene, stopping just close enough to overhear their conversation but not close enough to be seen. It was quickly made clear that the situation was not as he'd initially perceived it, in fact it seemed the lass was attempting to arrest the man.

The aforementioned man hurried to explain and worm his way out of his current predicament, but the blond would have none of it. Tough lass, he thought with a smirk. The man, clearly seeing his previous tactic wasn't going to work, and falsely figuring that there was no way cheap for him to get out of this particularly sticky situation, opted for a different tactic instead. At his offers of what Hook recognized as this realms currency, her face twisted into one of disgust, one which he was sure mirrored his own, and she immediately declined, saying he should give it to his wife so she could take care of the family that he was currently neglecting. The dark haired snarled calculatingly, "Yeah well what do you know about family?"

Strangely enough, Hook had to restrain himself from going over to the man and showing him just how dangerous Captain Hook can be. It was odd how in a matter of minutes he'd managed to develop a fierce protectiveness over the fiery lass, and he had yet to actually meet her. That, of course, by no means meant that he was ready to give up his revenge, in fact seeing her, merely excited him at the prospect of his vengeance being all the closer.

Nevertheless, it appeared that this lass could take care of herself because in one quick movement her hand was splayed on the back of his head and she launched it forward, knocking him unconscious on the dashboard. Hook was about to turn away and head back to the docks to tell Cora of the little yet useful knowledge he just gained, but not before he heard her chuckle bitterly and whisper an utterly broken, "Nothing."

Once he returned to the ship, Hook told Cora that he'd learned the saviors name and her obvious occupation, she'd demanded that he learn more. He had refused to outright tell her the information, needing to maintain some sort of leverage, but he did agree that they needed more information to go on than merely her name and occupation. So over the span of the next few days, he dug deeper, learned more about this intriguing Swan-girl.

She had lived alone in New York for nearly 8 years, and she wasn't lying when she said that she had no friends or family. Though she did have an occasional companion, one Rosie Taylor, but seeing as how they worked together, he figured that this Rosie was merely an acquaintance.

He'd been watching for any signs of her knowing about her destiny. His conclusion was that she was either really good at hiding it or that she didn't even know. He scoffed at the idea. Surely the girls parents weren't daft enough so as to let her go without telling her about her destiny, without indicating to her somehow that she was destined for something greater than what she was so unfairly given.

Then next day he went a step further than usual. Generally he would watch her every move through his telescope from a remote location where he could not be spotted. But that day he decided to get up-close and personal so he could get her address. He watched her get out of her work building and begin her routine walk home from work. He made an attempt to walk as nonchalantly as possible, calculating his steps so he didn't make much noise. His attempt obviously failed as he saw her previously bowed head rise abruptly and her quick steps faltered.

She turned her head to the side and seemed to smirk to herself. She stopped, he fumbled to stop in time with her footsteps, so as not to set her off, then she dug through her handbag then she grabbed an object he'd learned was called a cellular telephone. It was supposed to help keep in contact with people from faraway. Clever girl. He thought admiringly.

They walked in silence for the next few moments, he was quickly tiring with her act of false ignorance about the curse and her destiny. As he pondered this he looked down and fiddled with is false hand. When he looked back up she was gone. His fast paced steps faltered when his guide disappeared. He kept walking warily forward until he saw a narrow alleyway that led straight to her apartment. Strange, this isn't part of her normal routine. Ha! The lass knows she's being followed. She… bested me. He thought with a soft smile No mate! This is all for Milah! Remember her, the one who you've spent the last 300 years attempting to avenge? As Hooks face hardened as the memory of her untimely death, he internally scolded himself, they reached her building and she slipped inside.

He watched each window closely for the next few moments, watching for any telltale signs of life in an apartment that would no doubt be hers. He waited for the next few minutes when a bright light suddenly erupted from a window. He quickly calculated the floor and room number then he produced the notebook, in which he had been documenting any and all information that he obtained about the Swan-girl, then he quickly scrawled out her residence information next to what he already knew.

He turned abruptly on his heel and headed back towards the preplanned meeting place, where he would wait for Cora to appear. When he reached the alley that the clever blond had gone through, he paused and turned his head just slightly and he saw the light in her apartment was off and a shadow was coming out of the front door.

It was actually a few minutes before he actually heard her following him. She was good, he'd give her that, but they both knew she wasn't even putting much effort into being discreet. Hook smiled to himself, hoping that her seeing his little rendezvous with Cora would help shake her out of her ignorant act and spur her into action so she would break the curse and he could finally exact his long awaited revenge on the crocodile that killed his love.

He walked the rest of the way until he finally reached the spot that Cora had no doubt cleared out beforehand, and he waited. He was hoping that the show that Cora would no doubt put on, viewers or not, would help state the fact that they were there to attempt to coerce her into breaking the curse.

After a few moments of pondering how the blond would react and of ways to go about it once she did, Cora was standing in front of him, shaking off the remainder of the smoke that always surrounded her when she 'poofed'. She always had been all about maintaining ones status and, to her, flamboyance was just part of the job description. She hadn't even changed out of the attire she had been wearing when he'd left her several weeks ago. He signed warily, eager to get the conversation started just so it would be over all the sooner. "Cora." He acknowledged.

"Hook." She said with a nod. "Is the object secure? Do you have the information I require?" To anyone but the select few that actually knew Cora, she may have sounded sweet, but he could detect the underlying threat beneath the statement.

"Lass, have you ever known me to fail?" he asked with a self-loathing chuckle, remembering the one time he did fail to protect his beautiful Milah.

She smirked cruelly at his self deprecating smile. "Of course not Captain. That's why I chose you for the job." She said putting what she must've thought was a seductive emphasis on his title, but really it just sent a rush of shivers to go down his spine. He attempted to cover up his discomfort with a smirk.

With a disbelieving quirk of his eyebrow and a tilt of his head, he slowly turned and reached into his satchel for the notebook where he had been collecting the information he'd been gathering over the last few weeks. He was just about to hand it over when an idea came to him. As she lifted her arm to grab it, he quickly pulled it out of her reach, "Ah ah ah Cora. You know what I want." He said in a condescending tone.

Cora signed, picking up on what he desired. She reached her and out and touched her forefinger lightly to his forehead. He was enveloped by a thick black fog and when it cleared up, he looked down to see he was back in the comfort of his pirate garb. Though it was nice and familiar, he knew that she knew that that wasn't what he had been asking for. He voiced his thoughts out in a growl, but he couldn't hold himself back when the opportunity arose to compliment himself.

Though his mood was good considering his current company, it plummeted when she reminded him that the alleged daggers whereabouts were still unknown to them with the tone of a mother chiding her misbehaving child. This time when she asked for the information, once again holding her hand out expectantly, he handed it over with an aggravated sigh.

"And this contains everything I need to know?" Cora asked sternly.

"Yes of course, Majesty." He spat between clenched teeth. "Her occupation and its location, her address and other excess information that maybe of your use."

"Good, then we can get started." She said with a morbid kind of glee that was oh so very Cora. Before he could even blink, they were back on the deck of his ship and Cora was standing at the helm.

Ignoring Cora's angry cries for him to 'come back here at once', he walked off below deck, retiring to his quarters, which he had missed dearly. He removed his jacket and vest before he began working off the contraption that held his hook in place. Once finished, he collapsed onto his bed with a tired sigh, his thoughts drifting to the Swan-girl. He would have to find a way to speak with her about what she'd seen so he could help her get a jumpstart on her destiny to break the curse. And he knew this had to be soon as well, because it was likely that if she did in fact know about her destiny and she hadn't broken the curse or made any attempt to find the town that held her parents captive, then chances where that perhaps she didn't want to break the curse at all. And if he'd gotten to know her at all in the past few weeks, which he did, then he knew she wouldn't come willingly to chat with a complete stranger. So he would have to find a way to catch her alone to make her understand that it was imperative to his sanity that she break the curse as soon as possible so that he could finally give the crocodile what was coming to him.

Once he had a basic plan formulated in his mind, he slowly drifted off. Except that night rather than seeing his long gone dark haired seductress, his dreams were filled with hair as delicate as gold and smiles that shone like the sun.

A/N: So sorry for the late update! Unfortunately the last few days of the semester caught up with me and they were spent with me vigorously doing any last minute work I could get my hands on so as to raise my grades, but now they are all fixed and the new semester has begun and I've finally found the time to upload another chapter. Again, it's another short chapter with next to no Captain Swan interaction, but don't worry! It's coming and when it does, I promise it'll be worth it! I'm going to try to update as regularly as I can so about every 2 days. And I've already got the first half of the next chapter done! Thank you my lovely wonderful readers! Review Please!