Consequences
It was supposed to be a simple task; get the women to trust him, learn of this Storybrooke and gain passage back there with Cora. But then he made eye contact with that bloody Swan girl. Emma, with her red leather coat and golden hair. His eyes almost welled up at the flashes of Milah that passed before his eyes. She went and made it more complicated for him by not buying into his rouse either. She wasn't having any of this talk of him being a blacksmith talk and was quick to lash him to a tree. She was a fighter by nature and full of passion for what she deemed worthy. The place where his broken heart lie clenched at the thought that he once had someone like her by his side.
She whistled for the ogres and he genuinely began to panic. Not because he was afraid to die, no, as he saw it he had died long ago. It was because he would be damned if she was going to leave him there to get torn apart without him getting to skin his crocodile. At least one of the other women was trying to save his life.
"What if he's telling the truth?!" she asked almost in a pleading manner.
"He's not," Emma deadpanned and kept a headstrong march forward. He admired her ferocity; he also wanted desperately to be rid of his bonds. He dropped the whiney voice and congratulated her for besting him with a lowly smirk. It got her to stop in her tracks and for that he was grateful.
"I can count the amount of people who've done that on one hand."
"Is that supposed to be funny?" she accused him, stalking over to him as he pulled against the ropes.
"Who are you?" she demanded and the pirate let out a sigh.
He didn't know why he did it. He could have simply said Hook and had it done and over with; after all it had been what he had gone by for the last few hundred years. Surely his reputation preceded him. But no, that bloody wrenching in his chest was back and he blurted it out without much thought at all.
"Killian Jones." He silently cursed the words as soon as they passed through his lips and continued speaking, hoping she'd forget the name. Killian Jones was a man of the past, Killian Jones had died on the deck of his ship the day they set sail for Neverland. "But most people have taken to calling me by my more colourful moniker…Hook."
Her eyebrows rose and she took a step closer. "As in Captain Hook?"
He grinned, so the leather clad beauty had known of him after all. "Ah, so you've heard of me."
The ogres groaned and rustled through the trees by the sound of it they didn't have more than a few minutes at best.
"You better hurry up, they're getting closer. So unless you wanna be dinner you better start talking," she demanded in a hushed voice
And so he told him of Cora's grand plans and of the sparkly dirt, or wardrobe ashes as now knew them to be. When they went to leave him again with no regard to his impending death by dismemberment he cried out in a tone that he hadn't heard escape his throat in a long time.
Fear.
Fear he would never get the chance to seek his revenge, fear that all his time in Neverland had been for naught.
He quickly divulged the information of the compass to the golden haired lass and even went as far as to agree to help them get the ashes from Cora. After all she was much better to look at.
.
.
Hook almost felt like his old self as they conversed, haphazardly making flirtatious eyes at her as they climbed, paired with his witty remarks. Naturally she brushed him off. She had been a wounded lass, with thick walls guarding her heart. Walls that would not easily be penetrated. He even dared so much as to ask her about love; her delay in her response was enough to tell him that her reply was a lie. Hook didn't need her special ability to tell when she wasn't being truthful to him, all he needed to do was take one look into her hazel eyes and she told him everything without so much as uttering a single sound. Speech isn't necessary for the tongue of a lost boy, or girl for that matter. They were open books. One glance into their eyes and you could read the pain that was etched onto their souls.
Emma had a troubled soul, and something stirred deep inside him wanting to aid her in soothing the wounds that lied there. Hook wanted to skewer himself at the thought, he'd barely known this woman a day and now he was wanting to help her? No, a broken pirate had no business helping a stranger from a distant land, let alone one that was slowly working her way beneath his skin.
She was bleeding by the time they reached the top, snagged on one of those bloody thorns no doubt, and now she was being stubborn still about letting him assist her.
.
The Captain snagged her wrist with his hook and Emma ignored the small bit of excitement that ran through her spine. No. I will not give in to his charm and wit. I will not let him in. she thought to herself as he drew out a flask and pulled out the cork with his teeth. He proceeded to pour the liquid over her hand and she jerked her hand away with a cry of pain.
"Ah! What the hell is that?!"
"It's rum, and a bloody waste of it," he replied, holding up her wrist and getting a closer look at her cut. Hook removed the scarf from his neck and began to wrap it around her palm.
"Now here's the plan: wait for the giant to fall asleep, and when he does we'll sneak past him into his cave. That's where his treasures are, where the compass lies."
He lowered his head and grasped the end of the fabric with his mouth, his lips brushing her knuckles only slightly. They were soft, and sent a chill throughout her, the fact that his ocean blue eyes never left hers as his mouth assisted his hand in securing the scarf didn't help matters any.
"And then?" she asked, trying to break the quietness between them.
Hook finished by tucking the last strand of scarf into the top of the fabric but kept hold of her hand. "And then we run like hell," he said simply.
"I don't have time for a giant to fall asleep. The powder Mulan gave us, we need to use it. We gotta knock him out," she pressed.
"Well that's riskier." He finally released her hand and let it hover in the space between them.
"Than waiting for a giant to fall asleep when we need him to?"
"Point taken."
He smiled at her then, a stomach churning smile that made her knees week and it took everything she had not to crack a grin back at him. She blinked a few times and willed the feeling away.
"Ooh, you're a tough lass." He reached into the satchel and pulled out the powder and offered it to her, her eyes catching a heart tattoo on the inside of his forearm with a dagger going through the middle. "You'd make a hell of a pirate."
Emma took the sack from him and her eyes traveled back down to his arm, "Who is Milah? In the tattoo?"
Hook glanced down, his arrogance disappearing in an instant as he shook down his sleeve. "Someone from long ago," he muttered. Even his voice had lost its charming lilt that she had become accustomed to in the past day.
"Where is she?" she asked gently, pressing her luck even more.
"She's gone," the pirate answered flatly, brushing past her and heading towards the giant's home.
There was more to this faux blacksmith than he led on, he wasn't just some tyrant of a ship Captain that pillaged and hunted for treasure. He had love in his life once, love that had been lost in a terrible way. She recognized that pain in his voice, for it was all too familiar.
"Gold," she called over her shoulder to him and he froze, his head tilting down and nodding slightly. "Rumplestilskin. He took more from you than your hand didn't he?"
He turned to her then, a hard look in his steel colored eyes.
"That's why you want to kill him," she continued."
"For someone who's never been in love, you're quite perceptive aren't you?" he snidely replied.
She honestly felt bad for him then. She had been betrayed by the one she had loved but Hook, Hook had had the one he loved taken from him by force.
"Maybe I was in love. Once." What the hell is wrong with me? she thought to herself. I don't know him; I shouldn't be sharing anything with him! He's a pirate for god's sake! But she had told him anyway, because he had that look of hurt behind his once brilliant and shining eyes and she only wanted that back. But why? Why did she want that back so badly? What did it matter to her that this pirate she barely knew had loved and lost? So was the way of life for most people. But he had seen through her all along, he was able to see through her wall and slowly he was tearing it down.
.
.
"Swan! SWAN! SWAN!" Hook yelled after the woman but she kept walking briskly away from him. He had seen the flash of regret behind her eyes when she stuttered out that nonsense.
"I…I can't take a chance that I'm wrong about you." The words stung him, probably more than they should have. He had trusted her so easily and at the drop of a hat she abandoned him at the mercy of a giant. She had told him upon their first meeting that she could tell when people were lying, if that were true than surely she saw the truth behind his eyes when he demanded her look to look at him. His voice waivered at the request and even he heard the weakness in it. The begging of a man fragmented and torn. Pirates don't beg, yet there he was, pleading with the flaxen haired lass.
He sighed and slumped down against the pillar, his chest heaving with each rattling breath. Not hours ago she was pulling him back from that trip wire; her arms tightly around his waist if only for a moment. Hook took the opportunity to swoop in and gather her in his arms as well, shamelessly turning on the charm.
"It's about bloody time."
The seconds might as well been hours, or days at that matter. It had been centuries since Hook had held a woman in his arms. Hook was no fool, he knew how to play the cards and Killian Jones for that matter…well dear old Killian was a force for women to be reckoned with. Many women at that. As for Hook; he played his part as blacksmith well. Kept quiet and to himself, was polite and did share a meal or two with the occasional woman, but he simply wasn't interested. And along came that bloody Swan girl. With her fiery attitude and leather to match.
He remembered how her hair flowed like silk through his fingers, and her jacket was cool to the touch. He wanted more, he wanted to run his fingertips down the planes of her cheeks and taste the inevitable sweetness beyond her lips.
He groaned and kicked his boot out along the floor. "You bloody fool!" he cursed to himself. "She left you here, left you here to fend for yourself while she runs back to her beloved Storybrooke." Hook sighed. "And here I thought that wall was finally chipping away."
Maybe he wouldn't even bother climbing down that beanstalk when the giant finally came round to set him free. Maybe he would in fact let him crush his bones after all. Cora sure as bloody hell wouldn't be happy if she caught up with him and the chances of catching the Swan girl were thin.
No.
He made a promise to himself and he very well intended to keep it. He would track down the lass and they would go back to her land. Twice she had bested him, he would not allow it again, he would be sure that much was clear.
What he wasn't expecting was Cora waiting for him at the bottom and he had been right, she wasn't exactly pleased to see him.
It was a matter of keeping alive now, just to get back to Storybrooke. He felt a twinge of remorse that he would be giving up his aiding Emma if he gave in to Cora, but he had the feeling that the lass would find her own way back to her son.
"You chose her, and the consequences of that decision," Cora had smirked.
She was right, he did choose her, and it didn't take long either. As for the consequences, well…they were beginning to feel all too familiar.
He told her he could get it back, that she needed him after she had threatened to leave him behind with his thirst for vengeance. Cora only laughed and left him behind in a cloud of purple smoke to fall in the dirt. Again he had been bested, the third time today by a woman, more times than ever in any of his pirate adventures.
.
He had walked for a steady hour or two, deciding to go after Swan after all. She would be difficult to deal with but he was running out of options. Besides if Cora caught up to them first he couldn't bear to think of the consequences.
You chose her, and the consequences of that decision. Her voice rang out in his head and he picked up the pace. He had to get to them first. No doubt they would be stopping to rest; if he hurried he should reach them within a few hours. Hopefully it wouldn't be too late.
.
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A/N: I apologize for the repetitiveness of Tallahassee, but it's going to be that way until they veer from that path. I'll add some extra time for them in SB I love me some CS hospital scenes, so yeah, I'm sorry, but it's a point in their past that needs to be done. I can't just skip it or else it wouldn't be a path now would it? Now...whose excited about the Tamara/Neal news! Even if most of us knew it was coming it makes it all that much better to have it official. Thanks to all you lovlies for reviewing, and my fabulous guest reviewer. And all you followers...don't be shy, perhaps if you drop a word or two in that box Killy will come out and shamelessly flirt with you.