Hello everyone :) I know it has been awhile and I apologize. I just got so caught up with school and work, and then my muse left me and I got really insecure about my writing, but now I'm back and I hope you like the new chapter! More to come!

Chapter Seven

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"Did I miss the part where we would be backpacking through the Amazon?" Emma asked dryly, skeptically eying the large, full brown bag Hook was shoving into her hands. The ship had finally docked and while she was more than eager to get going, they had spent a good hour arguing over what to bring and what weapons she would get to have. She won, in the end. Not that there was ever any question that she would.

Hook gave her a blank stare. "The what?" he intoned, eyebrow raised as he slung his own satchel over his shoulder.

Oh, right. Different world. She didn't know how she was ever going to get used to that. But she guessed she had before. "Nevermind," Emma muttered, heaving the pack slightly to get a better grip on it. Admittedly, she didn't know what to expect from the Enchanted Forest, but she still thought he was being a tad overbearing with all these supplies. She might not remember being here, but she wasn't incompetent. Surviving was second-nature to her.

"Right," Hook stated flatly, his face forming into an unreadable mask as he gave a quiet sigh and turned to lead them above deck. He had been acting like that since their conversation that morning. Not cold, but just reserved, like he was afraid to relax around her. She quickly tried to brush away her musings of him that had been becoming more frequent and followed him. She shouldn't be trying to figure him out or let his behavior bother her. She had more important things to focus on, like getting home, finding Henry, and somehow getting her memories back. She could worry about whatever relationship they may or may not have had when she finally got her life back. Because she knew he had been lying about why he had that picture. After setting down the gang plank, Hook stepped aside and swept his arm out toward it. "Ladies first," he said, a slight smirk forming on his face.

Rolling her eyes, Emma wryly countered, "Oh, so now you're going to be a gentlemen?"

As she began to walk past him, she saw him tense and an odd look passed over his face, but it was gone so quickly she thought she might have imagined it. "I'm always gentlemen," Hook replied from behind her, his voice strangely subdued. When she got to the end of the dock, she stopped at the site before her. There were only two or three buildings before, all makeshift and looking close to falling apart. "Not what you expected?" Hook inquired, though it sounded more like a statement than a question, moving to stand beside her.

"I just expected more of a… town, I guess," Emma replied lamely, the realization that she really did have no clue what she was doing here making her uneasy. Not that she would ever admit it.

"The queen's curse nearly destroyed all the land," Hook told her, pointing her toward the forest. She wondered when he would finally run out of patience with her at having to retell all these stories. She was surprised he hadn't already. "It's only been a year since everyone returned," he glanced back at the buildings, a sympathetic note lacing his voice, "Most people are still trying to rebuild."

Once again, the curse. Henry's book had ended so abruptly, the final pages torn out, that she hadn't really grasped what all the curse had done. She could have asked Hook more about it, but her pride didn't allow her to, not wanting to see even more weak or incompetent in front of him. They walked a couple more hours through the forest, hacking their way through in a surprisingly comfortable silence, leaving Emma to her thoughts about the curse and life in the Enchanted Forest. She would often feel Hook's eyes on her, but every time she looked his way, he would abruptly turn away and act like he hadn't just been staring at her. In her peripheral vision, she suddenly saw him come to an abrupt halt. Furrowing her brows in confusion, Emma turned toward him, his posture rigid and his head turned slightly, listening.

"What is it?" Emma asked after a long moment of silence, staring at him expectantly.

His stance relaxed somewhat, but he still kept his eyes still warily searched the expanse of the forest surrounding them. "I heard rustling," Hook answered, his voice soft and trailing, preoccupied.

Emma let out an exasperated sigh, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. "We're in the middle of the Enchanted Forest," she said incredulously, pointing out the obvious, "It's probably Bambi."

"I don't know what the bloody hell a bambi is, but trust me when I say there are a number of things in this forest we should avoid encountering," Hook snapped indignantly. She could tell he was trying to hide his frustration, whether at her or the noise he had heard, she didn't know. His eyes flitted up to the darkening sky for a moment before landing back on her, "It'll be dark soon anyway, we should set up camp."

"No," Emma protested stubbornly. The desire to see Henry and her growing frustration at not having her memories were eating her from the inside out. Besides, it wasn't going to get dark right away, they could still make it a little bit further, "We need to keep moving."

"The castle isn't going anywhere, princess," Hook quipped lightly, his voice turning mocking at the pet name.

Emma could feel anger start to boil and curl in her stomach. She opened her mouth to snap a retort at him when he suddenly stopped again and turned toward his left, his jaw clenching and hand moving to the hilt of his sword. "What now?" Emma snapped acidly.

Hook shot her an annoyed glare. "There's something out there," he whispered through grinded teeth.

"You're being paranoid," Emma said with an exasperated roll of her eyes.

"Quiet," Hook hissed, throwing his hand over her mouth before she could stop him. If looks could kill… But since he really did seem serious and on edge, she stayed frozen, watching and waiting. After a long, tense moment, the rustling got louder and just as Emma was regretting her choice of not listening to him and her heart was leaping up her throat, a serene deer stumbled out of the bushes, sniffed at the feet for a moment, before hopping off into the forest once more.

Emma bit her lip, trying to contain the smugness on her face. She could feel frustration radiating off of Hook in waves now, who was avoiding looking at her, his mouth in a grim, straight line. "Would you look at that?" Emma couldn't help but quip, "Bambi." With a sigh, she stepped forward and indicated that he should follow, "Now can we please-"

Hook suddenly lunged toward her, "Swan-" But he was a second too late. Before she realized what was going on, Emma's feet were being thrown out from under her and her body tangled with Hook's. With a yelp, she began to reflexively try to pull away from him and flair her limbs, but she soon realized her actions were useless when she saw the rope of a net around them and the ground feet below.

"What the hell," Emma snarled, trying to find a better position. She was on her back, her knees bent and practically scrunched up by her shoulders, with Hook on top of her. Yeah, this position was precarious at all. Of course this is how they would end up tangled together.

To his credit, she could tell Hook was doing his best to try to accommodate her. "Bloody fantastic," he eventually growled.

"What did you do?" Emma hotly accused, irrationally wanting to blame him for this.

Hook stared down at her, stunned outrage shining in his eyes. "This is my fault?" he sputtered indignantly.

His face was much to close to hers now. She could feel his breath fanning over her cheeks and almost make out every shade of blue in his eyes. Heart pounding, she tried to look anywhere but him. "Maybe if you hadn't been too busy fretting over the big, bad deer-"

"Fretting?" Hook spat the word like it was the most insulting thing he had ever heard, "I was simply trying to-"

"Shut up," Emma hurriedly gasped, an abrupt, sharp pain in her abdomen dissipating any of her other concerns. She looked down and saw that his hook was dangerously pressed against her stomach, the net pinning his arm in place, preventing him from being able to move it away, unless of course he wanted to stab her.

Hook followed her eyes and if she hadn't already been so close to him, she might have missed the panic that flickered through his. "Don't move," he whispered warningly.

She could feel her anger begin to surface once more at his comment. She had already figured out that much on her own. "That's perfect," she muttered under her breath. Their position and his proximity was making it hard to breath, she somehow had to get out of this. She just wasn't going to sit here and do nothing either, when she had a son and family she had to get to. With determination, she carefully tried to raise her body and reach toward her boot for the knife hidden there.

She felt Hook stiffen at her movements. "What are you doing?" he asked, a tint of nervousness in his voice.

"Don't get too excited," Emma said with a bit of taunting her voice, though by the way his eyes kept flickering toward his hook, she figured that's where the nervousness was coming from, "I'm reaching for my knife."

Understanding what she was trying to do, he studied the net they were trapped in for a moment. "Try cutting behind my feet," he suggested.

Emma tried, but if she reached any further, his hook would definitely impale her. "I can't reach that far," she told him before slipping the knife under her to slowly cut at the ropes.

She had only gotten a few of the ropes severed when the commanding tone in Hook's voice made her freeze. "Stop." Twisting her head to see what he was going on about now, she looked down and saw the most bizarre looking creature she had ever seen, as far as she could remember, circling below them. Just by looking at it, Emma knew it was something she didn't want to mess with. At first glance, one could mistake it for a lion, but there was another head protruding from it's back, and it's tail hissed, almost like a snake… "That is what I heard," Hook announced, a smug smirk on his face, breaking her out of her thoughts.

"What the hell is that?" Emma demanded, eyes wide, suddenly not minding being stuck up here with him.

"That, my dear, is a chimera," Hook told her, his infuriating smirk still in place.

The words were out of her mouth before she knew what she was saying, her eyes glazing over as something pulled from inside her brain. "Like turducken?"

"Like what?" Hook questioned, his eyebrow going up in confusion.

"I don't know where that came from," Emma said quickly, shaking her head and brushing off whatever had just come over her. She glanced down at the beast still stationed below them, "So what, we just wait for it to leave?" Before Hook could answer, though, she heard a faint ripping and felt her butt sink further toward the ground. Panic shooting through her fast, she reached up as best she could and tried to grab tightly on to Hook.

"I'm flattered, darling," Hook said, letting out a slightly confused chuckle, "but this net may prove to be difficult for such activities."

Emma glared up at him. "I'm falling through," she replied through ground teeth.

He studied their surroundings, his eyes calculating and pondering before he nodded his head toward the top of the ropes. "Grab that."

Surprising herself, she did what she was told without any extra thought and lifted her arms above her head and gripped the ropes tightly. "What are you doing?" she asked when he reached under her and began to resume cutting.

"Change of plans," Hook said, a grin flitting over his face, "We're going kill the bloody beast."

"If the landing doesn't kill us first," Emma muttered, studying just how far the ground was from them. At least she would be able to somewhat control her fall, to be able to hold on to the ropes and tumble down the way she wanted while he would fall and be at the mercy of gravity. He ignored her comment, though, and continue to saw through the ropes, so apparently he wasn't that concerned about it.

"Which end would you prefer to take on, love?" He asked just as she felt the ropes starting to give way, "The lion or the snake?"

Both ends lacked appeal, and even though she had one memory of handling a sword, killing a dragon no less, she wasn't sure she could take on a lion so she finally stammered out, "Snake." She could do this, she was Emma Swan, damn it. Memories or not.

Hook gave her a reassuring smile, surprised when for some reason it did reassure her, a new feeling of confidence running through her. "On three," he stated, but before any numbers came out of his mouth, the ropes snapped and they unceremoniously flew toward the ground.

Emma heard him let out a pained groan as she landed on top of him. She quickly rolled off of him, momentarily forgetting the situation they were in, and reached over to apologize and see if he was okay when she heard a menacing growl come from across from them. Mouth glowing with fire, the chimera tensed and looked ready to charge. Glancing at one another, they both darted to their feet and simultaneously unsheated their swords.

Raising her sword, Emma let out a growl and charged toward the snake, swiping furiously at it. It hissed and dodged her strikes, causing her to yell out in frustration. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Hook faring better than she was, his movements with his sword precise and fluent. Feeling jealous at the ease he had dealing with the creature, Emma furiously began to blindly swipe her sword at the snake with vehemence. She heard a yelp and she briefly registered that the sound meant Hook had probably finished the lion part off, but she was so focused on the damn snake that she forgot there was still a third part itching to attack them, the goat. It's eyes zeroed in on her and she could see it start to brace itself, its hind legs tensing to snap up and buck her. Emma braced herself for impact, only it never came. Instead, she felt herself being shoved to the ground and looked up just in time to see the beast kick Hook right in the head. His head snapped to the side and he fell unconscious to the ground.

An anger she didn't know she possessed consumed her and she shot off the ground with a fierce determination. Without thinking, she charged toward the creature and stabbed it right in the gut. It let out a yelping cry and the snake hissed and darted toward her. She quickly twisted her body and didn't miss this time when she made to swipe off its head. When it fell to the ground, chest heaving, she struck her sword in the ground in victory. After catching her breath, she turned toward where Hook was laying and hurriedly knelt down beside him.

"Hook," Emma stated, panic and concern squeezing at her chest upon seeing the red gash running across his forehead. She reached down to brush the hair out of his face, her other hand going to his shoulder to shake him. "Hook," she tried again, her voice higher and shakier than before.

Relief shot through her when he began to stir, a quiet groan escaping his lips. "Emma," he breathed, eyes still closed as a small, confused smile formed on his lips as he reached up and gently grabbed her forearm, his thumb caressing it, "Why are you calling me that?"

Emma furrowed her brows, confused. What else would she call him? "How hard did you hit head?" she asked nervously, inspecting the cut more thoroughly than before and trying to ignore how heart had begun to speed up at his sudden affection.

He opened his eyes slowly and the brightness in them suddenly dimmed as he looked over her confused features, realization dawning in them as they briefly flicked over their surroundings. The way he schooled his features into indifference and tried to hide the emotions storming in his eyes made her chest clench in a way she wasn't sure she wanted to understand. "I've had worse," Hook muttered, attempting to sit up as he reached a hand up toward his head, wincing when he probed at the cut.

"That was stupid," she grumbled, quickly getting to her knees to help him stand.

"You're welcome," he shot back, sending her a glare that didn't have much heat behind it. She expected him to pull away from her once he had gotten to his feet, but he didn't. Instead, she felt the arm around her shoulders tighten briefly when he noticed the dead chimera lying on the ground.

Seeing blood start to run down his face, Emma started to pull him away from the scene. "We should clean that."

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A/N: Hope you liked it! I have all of the dialogue written for the next chapter so hopefully I will have it out soon! Also, after the next chapter, I was thinking of adding one from Hook's POV that flashes back to a day during the year Emma was gone and they were all stuck in the Enchanted Forest if you all are interested in that? Let me know :)

Thanks for reading!