This chapter pretty much prepares Black Friday's events...things are getting a bit more interesting and oh my gosh, I am looking forward to writing in vivid description David's hangover. So excited!

Anyway, thank you all for your follows, your faves and most of all your reviews :) Seriously...I live to entertain you now. And I can't believe that this has over 200 followers now...that just blows me away!

Disclaimer: I don't own a thing

Chapter 10 of Turkey Season: It's Love

Emma tried her best to keep her eyes open as she drove the short route down to the docks but the task was proving to be somewhat challenging, so much in fact that Hook started to notice.

"You alright love? You're not, dare I say it, drunk are you?"
"Psssh, no," Emma huffed in her seat, slanting her green gray eyes in a way so that her eyelashes weren't tainting her vision.

Hook reached over his right shoulder for the seat belt that Emma always argued that he should use whenever he got a ride in her odd carriage, for the first time feeling like it was actually warranted.

"Sleepy then?"

Emma shifted in her seat, her mouth setting in a frown.

"No," she replied but he noticed the stubborn edge to her tone and so he watched the road in front of them, feeling like having two sets of eyes on the road was somewhat mandatory. Like his seatbelt.

He spotted something small and feline like suddenly in the road up a ways and felt a sense of dread.

"Emma, cat."

But Emma kept going.

"Emma, there's a cat."

Still no response or slowing down of the dangerous weapon these people called transportation.

"Seven hells, Emma! There's a cat!"

That caught her attention and she yelped before catching a glimpse of fur as Hook reached over with his good hand and grabbed the wheel to jerk it around the animal but to no avail. They felt her front tire jolt as if going over a bump and Emma's face went grim as she pressed the brakes, a knot of dread building up in her chest as the car finally rolled to a stop.

They sat there for a moment with the car running and heavy silence between them before Emma looked over her shoulder at the road behind them.

"Is it dead?" she asked and Hook looked at her with a raised brow before undoing his seatbelt.

"Only one way to find out."

She watched him get out of the car and after a second undid her own seatbelt. When she got out of her car, his dark form was already slowing down several feet behind where and she faltered after several steps, not sure she wanted to see exactly the fate she had bestowed upon the cat.

"Is it okay?"

"Ummm," Hook hummed, hesitance dancing in his voice. "If wearing your gizzards inside out is consider 'okay' this cat is downright healthy."
"Oh my gosh," she gasped, "I killed a cat. I killed someone's cat."
"Someone's cat? Why would people own a cat? They're nasty creatures," Hook asked with a furrowed brow, his mind running back to a few memories where he hadn't had the most pleasurable experiences with the supposed superior creatures.
"Does it have a collar?"

There was a pause before he nodded his head. "Blue collar, orange colored fur."

"No, really?" Emma asked again, the blood slowly draining from her face.
"I don't jest."
"Oh, God, this is bad. This is really bad. We have to do something."

Hook looked over his shoulder to see that Emma was frantically peering at the houses around them as if to make sure that they weren't being spied on.

"You okay, lass?"
"Yeah, I just…I just know whose cat this is."
"Oh? Well, do tell."
"I will but first we need to do something with it."
"Why can't we just leave it?"
"Because then someone will come to me tomorrow about it at the office and I'll have to remove it. I'd much rather deal with it now while you're here."
"Oh, well then…bury it?" Hook suggested.
"Um…we can't do that. They have to know that their cat is dead or I'm going to have to deal with the Missing Cat posters all over town."
"Why don't we just go tell whoever's cat this is that it unfortunately met its end?"
"Are you crazy?!" Emma hissed at him, giving him a look that bespoke just how nuts she truly thought he was. "Yeah, Killian let's just go to so said person and ring the doorbell and be like 'Happy Thanksgiving, hope you enjoyed it. Here's your dead cat'. Sounds great."
"So you want to be dishonest," Hook stated and Emma stared at him for a long moment.
"Let's not judge here," she finally said and he just laughed.
"On the contrary, love, I do schemes rather well. Have you a bag?"

Without an answer Emma wordlessly stepped back to her car and knelt in the driver's seat as she bent over to peruse the back. She had to have a plastic grocery bag somewhere. She finally found what it was she was looking for as well as a towel that she wasn't completely sure how had found its way into her car but it smelled stale.

Hook heard her slowly approach and he stood up and reached for the items in her hands so she wouldn't have to come any closer and see the work she'd accomplished. She was already looking away with her eyes squeezed shut as he took the offered towel and bag, the view so comical that he had to work hard to hold back a chuckle.

"So what's your plan?"
"Does the owner live far from here?"
"Just around the corner."
"Is their vehicular transportation in the driveway?"
"I guess we'll find out when we get there," Emma responded and he could feel the question coming up before she actually said it."So what are we actually doing with the cat?"
"We're going to plant it," he answered as he eased the cat onto the towel and wrapped the material around the body that was still warm.
"Come again?"
"Frame the owner…make it look like they ran it over in the driveway."
"Oh, that's sick," she said as he placed the rolled up towel in the grocery bag.

He stood up and turned to face her, noting that despite her words there was hope and appreciateion blooming across her face. He smiled at her coyly and motioned toward her car.

"Is that approval I see, love, shining in your eyes?"
"Shut up and let's go," she said with a smile as she walked a foot away from him even though the bag carting the dead cat was being held by his hook on the other side of his body. "But for the record, you are my hero."
"Ah, my heart. Now where are we taking this poor creature?"
"Other side of the block."
"Well," he said with a motion of his head. "Lead the way, love."

Five minutes later after they'd parked her car a block away, Hook was standing in front of the building Emma had led him to with disbelief shining in his eyes.

"Emma, really? The Dark One has a cat?"
"He bought if for Belle," she explained, her voice taking on a tone of regret. "He kind of grew fond of it, though. I caught him actually hauling the damn cat around and petting it like there was no tomorrow several times."
"You killed the Dark One's cat. I'm not sure what kind of curse has just been unleashed on you."

She rolled her eyes and led him around the pawn shop toward the back where Rumpelstiltskin kept his car parked.

"No time for dramatics, let's go."
"So what was its name? Fluffy, Darling, Snow Belle?"
"Belle named the cat Lucy and Gold called it Lucifer."
"Ah…double personalities like one of its owners?"
"Shhh, there's his car."

Hook looked around the corner of the building and sure enough, the monstrosity he'd seen his used to be enemy drive around sat parked on a slab of concrete just several feet away. He stood there for a long minute before he felt Emma poke him in the ribs.

"What are you waiting for? Just go do it," Emma whispered from beside him.
"I won't get caught?"
"You shouldn't if you hurry," she said pointedly but he still didn't move.
"You're the sheriff, you come with me. If one of them sees us you could tell them we're just looking for some thief or something and they'd believe you. If he just sees me messing around his car, he'll think I'm letting the air out of his tires or something."
"And I wonder why," she drew out, remembering back to the time when she'd had to put her now boyfriend behind bars for slashing Gold's tires when Cora had still been running amuck in the town. That had been more mayhem than she'd been willing to deal with at that time.
"That was a long time ago and I think you should keep your judgments to yourself, cat killer," he said with narrowed eyes.
"Fine," Emma sighed. "I'm coming with you."

As one form they broke from the shadows that separated the pawn shop from the neighboring building and quickly made for the car, Hook already taking the cat out of the bag so to say when light flooded the entire back car pad.

Both of them froze and Emma cursed at herself for not thinking to look for a flood light. Of course they would have a flood light. This was Rumpelstiltskin after all.

"Hurry, just do it, hurry, hurry," she hissed at the pirate who still stood there frozen, her words immediately snapping him into action.

She watched the darkened windows to make sure no one turned any lights on while Hook unwrapped the towel and slowly lowered the furball behind the front tire of their car. He nudged the body at just the right angle, standing up just when Emma saw the back office light turn on.

"Killian, get your ass over here," she whispered harshly, panic ebbing into her voice and he quickly ran toward her, pulling her back into the shadows around the corner of the house.

He had just pushed her against the wall when they heard the back door open, the screen screeching with the motion. It creaked as the door was held open for a moment and Emma could imagine Rumpelstiltskin standing on the back porch surveying the back area of his house with his sharp brown eyes. It was hard to believe that just several hours prior she had sat across the table from him, sharing the same food and commenting on conversation.

Finally they heard the door close and both of them exhaled the breath they had both been holding.

"Ready to take me home?" Hook asked and Emma nodded, feeling more awake now than she had been before.

She looked from around the corner of the house to Hook who still had his hand and hook bracing the wall on either side of her face, his blue eyes bearing into hers. They stood like that for a moment, the air growing thicker between them before Hook leaned in closer, his lips brushing against her ear.

"Want to take me home, love?" he repeated, sending chills down her spine and her mind thought back to the game they had joked about before, her memory recalling the gleam in his eye when he'd opened the car door for her the first time, the excitement she'd seen there.
"Let's get you home," she finally whispered and he slowly, achingly pulled back from her, his hand folding hers into his grasp.

Mary-Margaret stood at the kitchen counter, pouring herself a glass of something special. Getting David to bed had been most challenging and after the events of the night she was feeling the need for something stronger than sparkling cider so whiskey it was. She tilted her head back and let the liquid course its way through her mouth and down her throat, clanging the glass down on the counter as she swallowed it down.

What a night.

She glanced at the clock and furrowed her brow, wondering what could be taking Emma so long. Then again she didn't want to know but it would help to at least get a call telling her if she should lock the door or not.

After a moment's contemplation she picked up the cordless phone off the counter and dialed Emma's cell number, having memorized it by heart.

It rang five times before it picked up and she heard the sound of footsteps before Hook's voice came on the line.

"Hello, this is Emma's phone."
"Hey, Killian, this is Mary-Margaret," she greeted feeling a bit more relaxed. "Is Emma coming home tonight."
"Um-" there was a long pause and then the sound of more footsteps before the squeaking of a door. "I would have to say no to that."
"Oh, well then I'll just uh…I'll lock the doors for tonight."
"Right then, good night, Mary-Margaret. Have sweet dreams," he said in a farewell before the line went dead and Mary-Margaret stared at the phone in her hand before hanging her head.

Her daughter wasn't a baby, she knew that but David struggled with that more than she did. She could only hope as she poured herself another glass, that her husband's hangover was massive enough to keep him in bed for most of the day or at least until mid morning when she could come up with some excuse for Emma's absence.

Despite her first misgivings she was fond of the pirate. She'd hate to see what him and her daughter had going on end with his demise.

Hook stood at the foot of his bed, Emma's phone in one hand and her purse hanging from his hook as a smile curled on his lips. He had left for five minutes, seriously five minutes, to fetch her purse from the car for her since she had claimed she would be busy "setting the game up" only to find that she had fallen asleep on the top of blankets.

He studied the way her eyelashes shadowed the rosy blush in her cheeks, the way her lips parted as she breathed slow and even breaths, and how her blonde hair splayed across the silk pillow case, effectively framing her face in a most flattering way. Slowly settling her things on a nearby chair he made his way toward her and sat down on the corner of the bed, gently lifting her foot towards him so that he could take her boots off and settle her in for the night.

"At least she got to the first part," he softly said under his breath as he caught a glimpse of a deck of cards in her hand as he freed her foot from one boot and moved onto the next.

When he was done he slowly worked the covers back from under her sleeping form, only causing her breathing to hitch at the movement. Yeah, no doubt about it, Emma Swan was out for the count. He eased the blankets around her and stepped back for a moment if only to shake his head at her before bending and bestowing a kiss on her forehead and then the corner of her mouth.

"You may have avoided losing the game this time, love, but I assure you the best part is yet to come," he whispered against her lips before pulling back, a smirk dancing across his features.

They would relinquish their love on each other he was sure. It was just meant to be at another time on another day.

So what'd you think? I know the cat thing...random but then again this whole fanfic is random. Fun but random.