A/N: Another update! I hope you haven't gotten tired of me yet :) Only pirate!Emma plot in this one, BTW. I won't make a habbit out of it, but it was important. It's a little longer than usual, though.

"Crocodile." Hissed Killian at the man he hated more than anything. The hatred didn't manage to make the fear for Emma's safety go away, though. The faceless creature did manage to defeat her entire crew, after all.

"Worried about the little princess, aren't we?" giggled the imp, summoning a crystal ball with flick of his fingers. "Oh, my puppet did quite a number on her."

"This creature was yours?" spat Killian, the cold, hard fear now spreading in his chest. His heart began to beat painfully faster.

Rumpelstilskin grinned as an image began to form inside the ball. Killian struggled with the ropes that tied him firmly to a metal chair to get a better look at it.

He could see Emma lying in a frightening puddle of blood that seemed to be practically flowing from two open wounds in her chest and arm. Her eyes were closed and she didn't move.

He couldn't help the choked sound that escaped his lips. The feeling was fairly similar to the one he never wished to feel again, the one he felt right after the same man took the first woman he loved.

Did he love Emma too? It was absurd, he had only known her for a couple of months, only grew closer to her during the past couple of days. So why was the pain so bloody real?

The pain and sorrow only grew bigger as Rumpelstilskin giggled again. He was probably thrilled, putting him through all this misery all over again. "I was right, then." He smiled wickedly. "I assumed you were begining to fall for your graceful little pirate princess." The pain was clearly showing on his face, for his nemesis grinned wider. He hated it. Hated the power this monster had over him. Hated the fact that he would never see her again. He would never hear her voice, hold her against him, kiss her, ever again. It was all so new, and now it was gone. The green fire of her eyes was gone from this world, forever.

"Although I do enjoy the lovely pain you must be feeling, I am obliged to tell you that fortunately for both of us, she is alive."

Killian's eyes shot up, the hope he tried so hard to block to avoid more heartbreak now uncontrollably filling his entire being. "What?"

"Yes, dearie, she is alive. She won't be any good for me dead, will she?"

"Leave her alone." He growled.

"Oh, but she is way too important to just ignore. She's the product of true love. She has magic. Powerful magic."

"Magic?" he asked. He was always repulsed by magic. Magic took his love from him.

"Oh, yes, light magic from the purest kind. She's probably not even aware to it's existance. Such a pathetic waste of time and ability, not begining the training at young age."

Somehow those words soothed the bitter feeling that began growing inside him. She had a different kind of magic, a better kind. Light magic.

"And I need her to be here when my curse strikes."

Killian laughed at that. "Well, she won't. By the time you'll enact your curse she'll be long gone."

"Oh, that's what I was afraid of," he said. "so I had to think for a while, and torture one of her sailors for hours- an exhausting business, I have to admit- to find out what will make her stay in this land and be a crucial part of my curse. And the answer, to my utter delight, was you, dearie."

"What do you mean by that, crocodile?" he demanded.

"Well, only that this… feeling you have towards her seems to be mutual, that's all." He flicked his fingers again and a cloud of red smoke appeared around them.

"What did you do?" Asked Killian after it disappeared, horror begining to form in his chest again.

"I'm sure you are familiar with the effect that drinking water of this lovely waterfall in neverland has." Yes, of course he was, it got his brother killed. "I studied this interesting phenomenon a while ago, and I succeeded developing something similar. You cannot leave this realm now. You'll die trying. The only way out of this realm is by the curse."

What? His brain wasn't able to follow. "Why not just use it on her?" He asked once recovered.

"Because I can't risk damaging the purity of her magic." He answered simply, then hit his prisoner in the face with a heavy, metal object.

Blood started to flow down his face as he gasped in surprise. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Enjoying myself before sending you back to tell your beautiful princess you can't come with her to Neverland." He spat before hitting him again.

-xxx-

When he appeared back on the deck of Queen Anne's Revenge, she wasn't there. He ran below deck to find her cabin's door opened and August sitting next to her bed and cleaning her wounds. He looked pretty bad as well, pale and weak.

"Hook," he called. "I have to go check on the other crewmates. Will you stay with her?" he nodded and August patted his back on his way out.

He sat next to her and examined her. Pale and weak from the major loss of blood, of course, but alive. He exhaled in relief and pressed his lips to her forehead lightly. Her eyelids fluttered.

"Hush, love, I didn't mean to wake you."

He felt as if his chest wasn't big enough to contain his heart when she smiled weakly at him.

"I didn't see you," she croaked, her voice failing her at the relief that washed over her from finding him next to her. "I was worried."

"You were worried about me?" his hand came to cradle her cheek. "Have you even looked at yourself?"

"I've been worse." She stated. "I kicked his faceless ass within minutes, with my good hand out of use. I'm completely fine." As he laughed, her unharmed hand came to brush his wounds lightly. "You, on the other hand," she said quietly, noticing the way his eyes closed for a little at her touch. "look like you've been through some stuff." Her eyes locked on his. "Where were you?" she whispered hoarsely.

"It doesn't matter, love. I'm here now." He almost choked on the truth that threatened to escape his lips.

"No, you're hiding something. Tell me." She propped herself on her elbows, fliching as her weight hurt the damaged arm.

And the dam was suddenly broken, the words flowing out of his mouth like water.

"I can't come to Neverland with you, Emma. I can't leave this realm."

"What?" she asked, shocked at the statement. "Why?"

"Because I'll die if I would. It's a curse of sorts. Rumpelstilskin casted it." Tears shimmered in her eyes. He couldn't bear the sight of them.

"I'm staying with you, then." She declared.

"No, love, you can't. I won't let you be cursed on my account." He said, upset. "This is exactly why he cursed me, he thought you'd rather stay here with me than go to Neverland."

"He was right." She said stubbornly. "I'll send my crew to Neverland on my ship to safety and stay here."

"But, why, love?!" he yelled in frustration, standing up in the heat of the moment. "Why the bloody hell would you choose to stay here and have any chance of a happy ending ripped away from you, instead of setting sail to Neverland to save your stubborn, stubborn self?!"

"Because I think you might be it!" she yelled back. "I think you might be my happy ending!"

"Emma…" He whispered, shocked, sitting back down. She grabed some of the material of his shirt and pulled him towards her, burrying her face in it.

"I'm not letting you go." She stated, weak and exhausted from the shouting. "I'm not."

"Emma," he whispered again, his defences weakening.

"I'll probably lose my happy ending anyway." She mumbled into his chest. "So I'm clinging to the possibility of it for as long as I can. I'm not going."

"Okay." He finally mumured, kissing her head. "Okay."

"Don't leave me." She whispered, and he didn't know if it was a request for utter loyalty or if she was just asking him to stay there for the night. He decided to refer to it as both. He stepped out of his boots and crawled to the bed next to her. Her lips found his quickly. She tasted his blood and didn't care much, then started to pull at his clothes in a gentle manner. He chuckled and helped her getting rid of his shirt, then tried as hard as he could to be extremely careful not to touch her wounds when he did the same for hers. While kissing her neck and sqeezing her against him softly, he tried as hard as he could to get himself to the basic understanding of what was going on.

He woke up to the gentle rocking of the ship on the water and to the overwhelming feeling of her in his arms. He couldn't stop himself from brushing his lips against her shoulder.

He wondered how could he possibly be confused about whether he loved her or not when it was crystal clear that he did. Completely and devastatingly did.

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