"Come on luv, we've been at this for hours."
"Never took you as one for a quieter," Emma shot over her shoulder without looking. The sharp, cold metal caught around her wrist and turned her around much like it had that first day they'd met, but now she looked up to Killian's smile open and warm, the teasing light in his eyes the far cry from the indecisive man she'd met in that pile of bodies.
"Now you know better than anyone I love a challenge," he reminds her with that challenging smile that had never failed to catch her eye. "All I'm saying is it wouldn't hurt to take a break." The tone and his eyes glancing down even further her body made it clear what kind of break he had in mind.
She reached her hand up and brushed the hair right above his ear, her hand lingering down to trace along his cheek, before she pulled away from him completely, and he let both hand and hook fall away with only the slightest bit of disappointment. "Come on Killian, the faster we reach the trailhead and find what took Sleepy's axe, the faster we can go get lunch, and ah, have that break."
"What would a dwarf known for sleep even be doing so far out into the woods?" Killian requested even as he hiked along beside her now.
"You are asking the wrong girl on that," she burst out laughing. "But I'm sure, despite the name, he's-"
She stopped in surprise and reached inside her pocket for her phone, while Killian went on ahead, sure it was simply Snow again going on about some word she was sure Emma's toddler of a brother had spoken today or something.
"He what?!" The sharp sounds of distress in her voice had his hand automatically reaching for his sword even as he spun on the spot to face her and see what danger had creeped in. "I'm on my way!" she kept on in the same breath, and before the question could even begin to form what had happened, she'd grabbed hold of him. With a puff of white smoke, the two were suddenly standing in Regina's office before she'd even put the phone back into its cradle. "Where is he?"
"Ask your pirate!" It was moments when Regina seethed and flashed him that look that he recalled with the most ease how she'd earned the title of Evil Queen.
"What have I done now? What's going on?" The panicked look Emma shot him and the way Regina's glare only intensified led him to believe he'd much more recently led someone to the gallows than what was true.
In short, sharp words that made it clear she was restraining from strangling him by the very tips of her fingers, Regina burst out, "the Charming's just called, with Violet at their door panicking about a pirate aboard your ship, holding a sword to Henry!"
Panic was the first thing to crash over him, larger than any wave he'd ever faced. He'd cared for Henry like he would a kid brother, and it was slowly turning into more the closer he grew to Emma. His hook sunk into the edge of Regina's desk in protest, he was suddenly leaning over it right into her face with a cold black fury unrestrained in his voice. A tone that once would have sent any sane man feeling from his sight. "What are you on about?"
"Exactly what I said! I just poofed over there to check it out and your ship is not where you left it! So where is it, where is my son!"
"Our son," Emma corrected at once, her arms crossing over her chest, and between the three of them it was a small miracle every glass surface hadn't shattered from the tension building in the room.
Only one cur came to mind fool enough to cross him, but how had he traveled to this land to do so? Taking in a slow, careful breath, he turned only to face Emma, addressing her as calmly as he could. "I can assure you Swan, I have many enemies, but none that I would have hidden from you if they were in this land. I've no more idea what corpse we're soon to be dealing with."
She nodded once, accepting this while panic seemed to arise in her even more he had no clear answer. She turned back to Regina and the two quickly agreed to do a search of the town to see if anyone knew of any new-comers. He didn't listen to a word, lost in a swarm of past memories and still only one face flashing about on who he'd soon be sinking his hook into. He hadn't realized the conversation around him had ended until Emma's hand slipped back into his, and he only had a moment to catch her eyes before he was blinking about down at the docks.
"Come on, it'll be faster if we split up," and just like that her long blond hair was whipping out of sight, she didn't even take the time to pull it into a long tail.
Heading her, he went the other direction, his eyes keeping sharp for even he didn't know what. Something, someone out of place, anyone who could spot where Henry or his ship had last been.
Time had always been a curious thing to him. His hundred years spent in Neverland truly had felt like a lifetime, but a torturous one, always knowing the next moment and just waiting patiently for it to take him to that bloody crocodile. Things had changed when he met Emma, he'd finally no longer known what was coming. Finally time was back in some semblance of a working order in his life, and he never knew what was next. This morning had dragged on, but his evening flew past so fast he couldn't recall every person he stopped, every ship he inspected, every speck of wood he scraped his hook across desperate for it to reveal some clue of what had happened to the lad.
"Hey, err, Hook, right?" He spun on the spot, hook indeed at the ready to find an unfamiliar lass cautiously approaching him. His unease lingered, as he'd recognized if not known the name of every person he'd spoken too today, this area of the town quite honestly the part he knew best. She didn't look to be much of a seafarer though, as out of place down here as he would be at the helm of Swan's car. Dressed in an emerald velvet gown, with fine, delicate features that all came to sharp points, a long braid down to the heel of her boots. Quite lovely, under other circumstances, almost resembling an elf he'd seen depictions of.
She must have come over in the last curse, he decided, not yet accustomed to this world. She carried herself with confidence even as she continued a cautious and weary approach as if knowing a rabid dog to be near.
"Aey," he finally agreed. Her eyes were distracting, constantly flickering in colors in the fading sunlight.
"I, ah, heard people were down here looking for the Savior's son, and I wanted to help. I'm Jane, by the way." She held a slight accent he knew not, and his thoughts this was some princess waiting to be swept away seemed more likely by the moment. There was a time he would have lavished at the idea of such a woman, her orbs brimming with the color of the sea one moment, and then to the exact shade of Emma's the next which was somehow even more distracting.
"Well, have you seen anything?" He finally asked, hating how his voice cracked, more from surprise than anything he told himself. Such a vision deserved at least that.
Her smile was delightful, though it held no real warmth. He felt a shiver crawl up his spine as she stepped towards him, offering her hand. "From up there," she gestured with the other hand to a lighthouse not too far down the coast. "I saw something off in the distance. Didn't seem odd to me at the time a ship that large was around, you know how things are around here." Her laugh was like a soft sea breeze, with the hint of a storm on the horizon.
His own hand was now twitching for his blade far more than her delicate fingers, but this didn't seem to deter her. She simply dropped her hand and beckoned him instead, leading the way.
She didn't seem like a siren, and he'd had his fair share of dealing with those. There was no enthrallment, he could just as easily walk away from this lass. The one idea very clear in his mind was to call Emma, but he was loath to drag her away on some fools errand if this didn't pan out to be anything more.
He disliked the idea even more of being up somewhere so high and isolated with this unknown person, but he steeled himself that he would face any danger this is. What if Henry were up there and his ship missing was all a ruse? So he followed, fighting off every sense telling him not too.
The trek was uneventful, and they reached the top without any fanfare. Nothing lunged out and attacked him, no powerful magic brought him too his knees. Nor was Henry, or anything of note here at the top except the woman now leaning casually against the rails. His hand now resting on his sword openly and still waiting for the anchor to drop, he stepped cautiously to her side and let his eyes scan the horizon, and yes, there in the far off distance he could indeed make out a ship quite large, certainly the Jolly Rogers portions. He wished he had his spyglass on him, but alas he'd left it aboard the ship herself this morning.
"Thank you," he said, dragging his eyes away from looking for some sign of recognition back down to her. She hadn't changed position, her expression as serene as the calm waters below.
"Oh, you're quite welcome," it came out almost as a pur as she looked at him through her lashes, her eyes now almost the same shade of brown as Henry's.
He took one cautious step back, then the other, and still nothing happened. She turned back away without a care, humming some tune to herself he didn't recognize. Without waiting any longer he pulled his phone out and sprinted back down to the docks for a boat to pillage, already telling Emma where to meet him.
For the record, though I don't usually do this, I actually do have an actor in mind of who Jane is. Evangeline Lilly, because come on, we all know this show needed another Lost cameo. That's all the knowledge you're going to get until the next chapter though.