Warning: Again minor spoilers so if you don't like them please don't proceed further. Thanks for all the kind reviewers!

"You CANNOT go with him."

Emma crossed her arms across her chest stubbornly. "Why not?"

Snow gave her daughter the look, the one Emma was getting quite used to by now considering her mom threw one her way oh every hour or so. Snow waved her hand in agitation in the general direction of the man casually leaning against a tree several feet away. Leaning and smirking. As usual. Emma didn't think he knew how to do anything else but lean and smirk. She called it his GQ pose. The idiot probably thought it was sexy or intimidating or something. She so wanted to tell him it was neither and instead he looked like he should be hawking cologne in Disneyland.

"Need you ask? He's Captain Hook. Evil. Not to be trusted."

Emma sighed. She was getting tired of hearing the word evil. So ok, her mom was right about Cora, and the ogres, and the Siren, and the poisonous berries that had looked so delicious but for heaven sakes the man had on guyliner! And his hair! Always tousled just right so that it framed his face perfectly. Not to mention his clothes that looked like they had been tailored just for him. Add the accessories on top of all of that and she bet he spent more time in front of a mirror in one morning than she did in a month. But despite all of that she really was trying to take her mom's words to heart. Lesson well and truly learned and all that jazz. It was just that she couldn't see any other way.

"I know! Believe me I'm listening. But we have no choice. That compass can get us home. Aurora's sick and you and Mulan need to find that magic plant to cure her. There's no time to waste. You know what the plant looks like and Mulan can guard you both. I'd be useless. Promise, I'll be careful."

Snow closed her eyes briefly. Emma had a point but she was worried. She didn't want to be separated from her daughter again, not for a second and certainly not to the infamous pirate. But left with no choice she was going to trust in her daughter's ability to take care of herself for once.

"Ok but remember please be careful and watch your back. He's not to be trusted!"

As Emma approached him, he gave her a sweeping mocking bow that made Emma roll her eyes.

"Ready to climb that beanstalk my lady?"

They walked for some time before Hook abruptly stopped. "This is the spot." He strutted around for a bit before reaching into his pocket and dropping a bean on the ground. "Here we go."

Emma's eyes practically bugged out of her head as she watched a beanstalk suddenly appearing out of thin air and started to grow beyond her view.

"Ladies first."

Emma approached the beanstalk and grabbed ahold of the vine twisting around it to hoist herself up so that she could grab onto a branch. Looking down she could see Hook doing the same on the opposite side. At least the stalk is wide enough to avoid seeing his smirking face she thought.

They had climbed for a bit when Hook had a mischievous idea. With a flick of his wrist he made it so that Emma missed the next hand hold and slipped. And of course being the gentleman that he was, with impeccable timing, swung around on the vine to her side of the stalk just to catch her in time.

"Got you." He had one of his arms around her waist and pulled her back so that her backside was practically plastered to his front.

"Ooof." That was a close call Emma thought. She thought she had that branch but it must've been slippery or something. Wiggling a bit to catch her breath, "Thanks but you can let me go now." Of course he ignored her imperious command.

"Jones, let me go now," she growled at him again.

"Not a chance. What if you slip again? Your mother would call for my head. I'm already missing a hand, I'd like to keep my head, thanks."

"I take it you fairy tale people have no concept of personal space?" She tried to wiggle out of his grasp again but his arm remained tightly around her waist and now his legs had settled on either side of her, caging her in. She turned her head around to give him a blistering set down but hadn't realized how close his face was to hers when she turned. Whoah. His eyes were so blue with flecks of silver around the edges, like the bottomless depths of an ocean.

While she was mesmerized by his eyes, he was busy staring at her lips. Moving his head downwards slightly towards his only goal at the moment, Emma came out of her reverie at his movement and whipped her head back around. "OMG, he was not about to kiss me was he?" she thought to herself. "Of course he wasn't you idiot. You're delusional. It must be this damn fairy tale land, and this damn beanstalk in these damn clouds." Hook's voice pulled her out of her inner crazy dialogue.

He had missed her lips and instead got a chunk of her hair. But still for a consolation prize it was nothing to sneeze it.

"Your hair smells wonderful. Like a piece of heaven."

"Why the hell are you sniffing my hair?" Emma asked in an outrage.

"It's such a unique smell. I can't place it."

At that Emma laughed. "Yeah it's called shampoo. Cost me 5 bucks from the drugstore. But considering I haven't washed my hair in about a week, I'd say your nose must be seriously defective. Or you need new pickup lines."

"What is this pickup line?"

Oh lord, Emma thought letting her forehead hit the beanstalk in exasperation, leave it to the guy to pick up that one phrase to ask her to explain amongst all the other modern day talk.

"It's um what you say to women to you know."

"No I don't know."

"Arghh, when you want women to pay attention to you, be interested, or attracted to you."

"What? I don't need these so called pickup lines for wenches to be attracted to me." He sounded seriously affronted at the thought.

"I cannot believe we're having this conversation! Oh forget it, I don't care what you do or do not need." Personally she'd need at least a case of beer she thought. "We need to climb this damn beanstalk and no more talking!"

With that she started scrambling up the beanstalk, with Hook right on top of her.