Thanks for all the reviews and follows! Love you all and glad you are liking the story! And in case any of you were wondering, this story takes place what would probably be late season 3 after all the Neverland stuff. But more on that later ;)
Chapter Five
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Feeling someone grab her from behind, encompassed by a hand over her mouth, Emma tensed and immediately began to struggle. Fucking Tamara. She should have jumped out of that car when she had the chance. She was better off on her own. "Shh, don't scream," a deep, resonating voice requested, whispering lowly in her ear. A voice that was definitely male. Okay, so not Tamara, but someone who had broken into her room without her noticing, which was probably worse. She was quickly spun around and came face to face with one of the men from earlier. The one who had kissed her. The pirate. Hook. Her heart started thundering in her chest and she still wasn't sure if him being here was a good thing or a bad thing, but she wasn't about to take any chances. It had already been a hell of a day. Hook's eyes darted over her before asking, "Are you alright?"
Emma darted as far away from him as possible, her back hitting the wall within a few steps. "How did you get in here?" she asked, her voice harsh and demanding in attempt to not show any fear.
His brows slightly furrowed, a brief flash of concern passed through his eyes as he attempted to take a step forward, "Emma-"
Eyes scanning the area around her for any thing that could be used as a weapon, Emma tried to back further into the wall, not that it was possible. "Please just leave me alone," she pleaded, a waver now making its way into her voice. She was still shaking from her dream and now that she had slept, everything about the day seemed to hit her with a huge, crumbling weight. "Whatever it is you want-"
Hook's eyes narrowed, suddenly looking just as dangerous as he had when she had seem him charge the crazy guy on the street. "What did Tamara tell you?" he demanded through gritted teeth.
"Enough," Emma snapped, surprised to find that like before and despite what Tamara had told her, she still wasn't scared of him, just desperate to get out of the overwhelming situation in general. And damn it, she was sick of all the surprises she had already gotten that day. Hook moved even closer to her and she began to panic, quickly ordering, "Stop."
"No, you have to listen-" Hook started to say calmly, reaching out to grab her arm. The moment he made contact, Emma did her best with the space she had to pull back her arm and punch him in the face. He staggered a little, but still maintained his hold, growling angrily, "Bloody hell, Emma, just-"
"Let go of me," Emma hissed, trying to shove against him.
He immediately let go, looking a little shocked. "I would never-" he began before Emma swung under his arm and headed straight for the door. She had to get the hell out of this apartment, or just even Storybrooke in general. It was a ghost town. Nothing was here. She would find Henry on her own. She was good at finding things and she was good at being alone. She didn't need suspicious people who picked her up in speeding cars and seemed to know way too much about her life or a pirate whose kiss was still branded on her lips. "Emma, please."
She was inches away from the door, but something in his voice made her stop. Emma slowly turned, swallowing hard and whispering, "What do you want from me?"
His blue eyes were wide, unblinking, and desperate, the tone of his voice taking on a broken quality she didn't quite understand, "I'm not going to hurt you. I'll stay right here," Hook held out his arms in surrender, standing firmly by the window, "on the other side of the room, just hear me out, love," he pleaded.
"I'm tired of hearing people out," Emma cried, her breathing becoming heavy, "everyone tells me something different and I-" she reached up, her eyes scrunching as she grabbed her head. An acute pain started to shoot through her temple. "I need to get out of here," she gasped, moving to turn toward the door again.
"Emma, look at me," Hook commanded breathlessly, his voice stirring her memory, which only caused the pain in her head to pound more profusely.
"I don't know what to believe," she answered shakily and no, damn it, she would not cry. Not in front of him.
Hook seemed to be in some kind of internal debate before he quickly blurted out, "Your parents sent me," he paused until she finally looked hesitantly across at him, "I'm here to get you back to them. I won't try to convince you of anything. I won't tell you anything you don't want to know," he bargained carefully, "just let me get you home. Henry will be there," he added with a hint of anxiety, "and your parents, they can help get your memories back."
"How?" Emma asked in a flat voice, trying not to get her hopes up. Her memories. If only…
"There's magic there. There has to be a way," Hook stated fervently. Emma was a bit staggered by his ferocity, but seeing her face, he quickly shut his eyes from a moment, getting a hold of himself. "Look at me, Emma," Hook repeated, his eyebrows raised, "am I lying?"
Searching his open and honest expression for a moment, Emma could see he was telling the truth. She could feel it. But then again, how would she ever know for sure? "Tamara, she-"
"Tamara's lying," Hook interjected acidly, his eyes flashing dangerously, "She's the one that brought you here against your will in the first place."
Her memory of flying down into a whirlpool flashed before her eyes. The brief flash of a mocha skin… "What?" Emma muttered to herself, her head swimming.
"Do you remember something?" Hook asked, his face suddenly black and impassive, snapping her out of her thoughts.
"No," she stammered out quickly, shaking her head. By the look on his face, though, she could see he didn't quite buy it. "What does Tamara want?" Emma asked hurriedly, wanting to get off the subject.
"A bean," Hook answered with a tired sigh, waving his hand in the air, "There is one hidden here in Storybrooke, in case someone accidently ended up stranded here."
Like her. Too bad she hadn't remembered. And then she remembered reading about people using beans in the book, how they were portals. "Why only one?" Emma challenged knowledgably.
"Only three grow at a time. It's a long story, one I suggest we save for the road," Hook told her, a teasing smirk on his face. When she still looked up at him hesitantly, unsure if going with him would be the right thing to do, he looked her more seriously and steadfastly, "You can trust me, Emma."
Could she? Surely her parents wouldn't have sent him if they didn't trust. If anything, she could trust him to get her to the Enchanted Forest at least. "Why would you help me?" she croaked, her voice at a whisper.
Hook studied her for a long moment before his eyes flitted down to the ground, his jaw clenched, "I made a promise to someone that I intend to keep."
His eyes snapped back up to her, but she was focused on his arm, trying to ignore the small pang of jealousy that had bubbled in her stomach when he mentioned 'someone'. Because she shouldn't care. Not at all. She didn't. "Where's your hook?" Emma asked.
His eyes moved down to his left arm, shrugging a little sheepishly. "Earlier, I saw you looking at it. I didn't want to scare you," his mouth tipped up at the corners but annoyance soon washed over his face, "but our dear friend Tamara apparently took care of that. I still have it," he added and motioned to his coat pocket.
"You can wear it, if you want," Emma mumbled, suddenly feeling embarrassed. That was suppose to be his hand after all, right? Without a word, he pulled it out and clicked it back on.
"Can I?" Hook murmured, his arms moving in a forward motion, silently asking for permission to move from his spot rooted by the window.
"Yeah," Emma replied indifferently, closing her eyes with an apologetic gesture. She was slightly impressed he had still stayed over there the entire time without saying anything. He strode over to her and she hated that she suddenly got a little breathless, "So you have a way to get there?"
"Yes-" Hook began a noise coming from downstairs interrupted. He immediately tensed with alertness, grabbing Emma's arm in the process. She looked at the door with wide eyes, anticipating Tamara entering the room. After a moment, though, nothing happened. "Let's get out of here," Hook ordered, pushing her toward the window. When they passed her bed, he suddenly stopped and picked up the picture of Henry that she had been sleeping with. "Do you want to take this?" he asked quietly, holding the picture out toward her.
Without saying anything, Emma grabbed it from him and quickly removed the picture from the frame so she could stick it in her pocket, trying not to get annoyed at the way he was watching her. "Okay," she sighed, "let's go."
With one last look at her room, she followed him out the window and down the fire escape to the street below. Nodding his head to the left, he motioned for her to follow him.
They both froze at the click of a gun. "Well what do we have here?" Tamara questioned with feigned amusement.
Her and Hook turned simultaneously to see Tamara standing there with a gun pointed straight at them. She tried to ignore how Hook suddenly moved so that he was standing in front of her. "Tamara," Hook stated with a fake, charming smile, "lovely to see you again."
"Believe me, the pleasure's all mine," Tamara quipped back, unfazed, "Now where's the bean?"
"Ah, right," Hook answered, his smile becoming more taunting. He pulled a small, black bag off of his belt, holding it up in the air, "This?"
"Hook, what are you doing?" Emma hissed frenetically. If the bean was in there, he couldn't just hand it over it over to her or taunt her with it. That was their way back to the Enchanted Forest. To Henry. She tried moving up beside to reach for the bag, but his arm shot out and pushed her back again.
"Hand it over and save me the trouble of shooting you," Tamara sneered, her voice raising in anger when Hook made no move, putting extra emphasis on her gun, "Hand it over, Hook."
"If you insist," Hook grinned lazily. The second his tossed the pouch, he gripped Emma's arm, almost pulling it out of socket as he harshly commanded, "Run."
She sprinted after him, following him through the abandoned streets of the town until they came to a cannery. He stopped them behind a dumpster, hiding to make sure the coast was clear. The hardly any light, the sun barely peeking over the horizon. "You just handed it over to her!" Emma accused him incredulously, reproachfully poking him in the chest.
"The bean's not in there, darling," Hook countered with a haughty smirk.
"Why are we running from her?" Emma continued on snidely, glancing down at that sword that hung from his belt with a raised eyebrow, "Unless you keep that sword for show."
Hook gave her an unimpressed look. "Because she knows how to kill magical creatures" he hissed sharply, pointing a finger at her, "which includes you."
"So now I'm magical?!" Emma sputtered out incredulously, her frantic eyes wide. Just another day in the life of Emma Swan, apparently. He rolled his eyes at her reaction and grabbed her arm in order to keep moving.
They slid along the cannery wall, both of them getting tenser. As they got closer the docks, there were less buildings to hide behind, everything was more open and exposed. Seconds after they passed the cannery, a figure jumped out from the dark and hit Hook over the head with a crowbar, causing him to fall unconscious to the ground.
Emma gasped and charged Tamara without any hesitation. She jumped on her back, trying to tackle her to ground. They both went down, Tamara landing on top of her and Emma flinched when she felt a sharp, stinging on her neck but she ignored it and reached her hands up to claw at Tamara's face, kicking her legs to get her off of her. Tamara yelped when Emma got in a good kick, jumping up to her feet to grab the crowbar that fallen out of Tamara's hands a few feet away. Within two steps, though, dizziness washed over her at a staggering amount and she started to stumble, almost falling to her knees. Emma looked up to see Tamara breathing heavily on the ground next to her, attempting to get up with a syringe in her hand. Emma fell to the ground on all fours.
"No use fighting it, Emma," Tamara told her with a smug smirk that made Emma want to punch her all over again before she got so dizzy that everything went black.
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Emma's eyes fluttered open, the room above her spinning and making her dizzy. The room was dark and smelled terrible. With a groan, she tried to sit up but found that she couldn't. She had restraints on her legs, arms, and stomach, all with wires attached to them. She could also feel two things taped to her temples. "Perfect," she muttered. She glanced to her right and saw Tamara standing over a machine, flicking some of its switches. Tamara looked over at her, but said nothing. "I don't know where the bean is," Emma snarled through gritted teeth, her fists clenching. She had no memories. Trying to torture any information out of her was pointless.
Still fiddling with the large machine, Tamara just shrugged, answering her with a bored voice, "I know you don't."
"Then what's with the restraints?" Emma snapped weakly, trying to wriggle free. This was beginning to turn more into a bad horror movie every second. And what had happened to Hook?
Tamara turned toward her, coming to stand directly over her. "This torture isn't for you," she said with some condensation before looking up and across at something with a smirk on her face.
Then who was it fucking for? Emma's blood started to boil. "Why do you really want to go to the Enchanted Forest?" she asked, now knowing Tamara's previous answer was a lie.
"Magic is unholy," Tamara stated sternly, her right hand on one of the machine's knobs, her left holding something black and shiny, "and I will never stop trying to destroy it."
Without any pause, Tamara twisted the knob and Emma was suddenly overcome in pain.
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