"Islands in the Stream"
Chapter Two: Behind Bars
"I can't live without you if the love was gone,
Everything is nothing if you've got no one,
You'll be lost in the night,
Slowly losing sight of the real thing…"
The door of Rumplestiltskin's abandoned cell swung shut in her face with a heart-sinking clang of finality. Emma had sensed what was going on just a second too late, lunged for the door, but only been pulled up short as Cora had flung it closed with her magic.
Along with the fact that the ink appeared to be nowhere in this place where Rumple had promised, they had now lost the compass, been trapped, and allowed the worst being she had ever met to gain a portal to Storybrooke. Emma's thoughts raced frantically, careening from one awful scenario to another like some awful mental movie. Her son was there, and she wouldn't be able to protect him from whatever mayhem Cora had in mind. Chances were that he was with Regina – which was exactly where Cora would head first. She had to stop them!
Wrapping a hand around the dirty, aged, metal bar of their prison, she jerked against the barrier. It didn't budge, but it made her feel she was doing something other than panicking. She wasted no time or energy on the older woman, knowing begging would do no good and not wanting to give the sorceress the satisfaction of her distress. Instead, she leveled a glare at Hook, who was standing by Cora and had clearly once again realigned himself with the person who seemed to be coming out ahead. It should not have bothered her so much that he was choosing the side of a villain. Wasn't that why she had left him on that beanstalk – because she wasn't sure she could or should trust him? Yet, she had never wanted so badly to be proven wrong than in her mistrust of him. Somewhere inside, where the Princess who had been born in the Enchanted Forest and should have enjoyed an idyllic life as the child of Prince Charming and Snow White still wanted to believe in happy endings, she had hoped that the pirate captain would catch up to her and finally prove himself trustworthy in a way she could no longer doubt.
As if partially reading her thoughts, Hook paced idly back toward the row of bars where she stood. His movements were calm, calculated, like the prowl of a jungle cat, and every bit as predatory. Those blue eyes in his dark, mysterious face were not playful, as they usually appeared, but cold chips of ice, making her realize that she might have turned him from her side much more completely than she had intended. He leaned in to speak to her, his voice low and controlled, but with bitterness floating along in its wake all the same. His words were hard when he informed her that the promise – the possibility – between them was gone and he was finished with her.
Emma was stung by his vehemence; even if she knew there was no one to blame but herself, and she jerked back from the cell's gate where she had been standing close to speak with him. The pirate's eyes were deep and hooded – darker than she had seen them yet, and she could feel how ravenous his thirst for vengeance truly was. So far, she had thought him a poor excuse for a legendary villain, but suddenly his menace was clear, and she couldn't help fearing that her betrayal had brought it to the fore once again.
Hook turned to leave them, and Emma wanted to cry out – to plead, apologize, explain – both for the sake of his tarnished soul turning dark again, and to do anything to stall Cora, if only for a minute more. An opportunity was leaving her as his tall, graceful frame stalked across the shadowed, cavernous space back toward the Queen of Hearts. Emma had not figured out yet just what the sense of excitement and hope she had felt around Hook meant, but she had wanted to explore it. She couldn't say she had felt that way about any man for years. Instead, she had turned her back on him in fear, and had justly earned him now turning his in spite.
Emma bowed her head in defeat, sensing that Snow had come to stand behind her, put a maternal hand on her shoulder, and assure her that they would find another way. Emma knew though that she had lost a precious chance. Hook might truly fear Cora. He must have feared being left behind in this world…and she had exacerbated that by forcibly leaving him on that beanstalk for no good reason other than a moment of panic. He had been the first to notice their kindred "lost-ness"; he had nothing and no one, just as she had spent her whole life until Henry showed up on her doorstep. Had her abandonment made him turn from the real connection that had both felt upon first meeting?
Coming to a stop just behind Cora, Hook nodded as if to say he was ready, and the true Evil Queen in return gave him a small, approving smile, then turned to go – no longer even questioning if he would follow. Hook – Killian – glanced back over his shoulder, finding her eyes unerringly with his own. There was still anger on the surface, but underneath Emma could read the regret and longing he felt as well.
'Don't go,' she mouthed silently, so no one else but him could see or hear. Her heart leapt and stuttered at his moment of hesitation. He didn't want to do this, didn't want to side with Cora, not really. Hood stood a moment longer, obviously torn, but then, with a curt shake of his head, he turned from her and was gone.
She let her head drop to rest against the cool metal of the bars, deflated by her failure to reach him in more ways than the rest of her traveling party could know. She determined right then that they would find a way out of this. Cora would not get to her son, and that witch would not hold Hook's heart either. Before squaring her shoulders and turning to address Snow, Mulan, and Aurora, her eyes burned with fierce resolve. 'Watch out, I'm coming for you, Captain,' she whispered into the dark.