CHAPTER FIFTEEN
"Hook!" Emma bellowed as he shared a dark look with Jukes who stood his back to the wall, observing the disturbing sight of Emma trussed up to the bed. In another situation, he'd have been thrilled, but right now he was more concerned with keeping her here.
Hook placed his hand on Jukes' shoulder. "Watch her. If she starts floating, or her shadow starts to make a break for it, hell, if her hair so much as sparkles, you have permission to use this to knock her out cold." He handed off the poppy seed powder to the burly tattooed pirate.
Jukes glanced at it and then back at Emma who was writhing on the bed trying to free herself and staring incredulously at him. "Killian!" she called, softer now as he turned back to stare at her giving her his most confident grin, it was telling that she was only half heartedly expressing her outrage, clearly she wasn't so sure she didn't need the restraints either.
"It'll be fine Love. Just have a small errand to run. You're in good hands."
"I swear to god, if you leave me here..." he slammed the door, cutting off the muted sounds of her threats. He didn't need them, if anything happened to her...
Starkey was waiting outside as he reached the deck. "Did you get it?" he waited expectantly for the old pirate to have come through.
"Corse." The gruff response came, as he reached inside his shirt and pulled out the item.
Hook lifted it into his eyeline, shaking his head, "This is it?"
"Not much to look at, but it's his treasure sure enough. That little bonny bookworm of his gets very chatty with the wolf girl when they think their alone."
Hook nodded.
"You want to do him damage, you should just gut his girl." Starkey told him quietly, eyeing him like he'd gone soft.
Hook felt his lips press into a thin line. "Sadly that is no longer an option. Keep a look out with Jukes, I am not losing Emma to that blasted land."
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Hook strode through the town, noticing more than a few of the good towns folk crossing the road to avoid him. He chuckled to himself, at least he was still able to strike fear into the hearts of the peasants. But his mind drifted back to the task at hand, he'd considered a lot of options for this, had dreamt of the moment he'd finally confront his Crocodile. In none of them had he considered the idea that he'd waltz straight through the front door.
The bell above the door jingled as he sauntered inside, idling along the glass cases like he had nothing better to do.
Rumple emerged from the back, eyeing him darkly, seemingly completely unsurprised to find Hook in his shop.
"Killian Jones." Rumple smirked, "To what do I owe this pleasure?"
Hook stared hard at his crocodile, feeling the ache of his phantom hand intensify; the urge to rend the flesh from this leathery beast and grind his bones into dust was so intense that he found it hard to breath past the feeling.
"Emma." Hook replied, trying to keep his tone light, to not let this evil repulsive creature know just what it cost him to stand here in front of him now, and just get straight to the heart of the matter.
"Miss Swan. Yes, I had heard you two were something of an item. And here I thought I'd cured you of such afflictions as love... Hook." Rumple sneered, taking a step closer, his cane in hand and wielded with enough menace to draw Hook's eye. He wondered if the old man was seriously considering beating him to death with it. There was a time when he might have considered that an option, to finally have it end, for it to be at Rumple's hand would have been almost poetic, a way for him to truly be with Mila again.
But not now, not when he had his very own Princess.
"And I thought you were too much of a coward to give your heart to anyone..." Hook smirked right back at him, reaching inside his shirt and pulling out the item Starkey had retrieved. "Honestly Rumple, you cradle snatcher. She's barely old enough to be your great... great... great granddaughter." He chuckled darkly, swinging the delicate chipped cup from his hook like it meant nothing.
Rumple took a menacing step forward, his cane clicking as it hit the floor, but the barb had landed, Hook knew how to wound a crocodile even now it seemed.
"Give me that." Rumple was calm, controlled, Hook smirked, tossing the cup to his hand and catching it deftly, seeing the old man take a sharp intake of breath, his hand curling tightly around his cane, genuine concern for the pathetic token of his one chance at love breaking through his artifice for a split second. Hook filed that away for later.
"All in good time Rumple." Hook leant back against the glass cabinet. "You see you and I, we have history, too much for this ever to be a simple exchange of barbs. I'm sure you long to rip my heart out as much as I long to drive my hook into your chest and carve out yours." They smiled thinly back at one another. "I had it all planned out." Hook admitted, examining the cup and sliding it back onto his hook too casually to make Rumple comfortable. "I was going to lure your pretty little book keeper to the edge of town, force her over the line... make her forget about ever knowing your leathery self."
Rumple was smiling, not the pleasant kind, "And your telling me this because?"
"Old news." Hook shrugged. "It was all too passive an act for me, so I changed tack, thought I'd follow you when you left to go in search of your boy." That had surprised him, Hook felt a deep sense of satisfaction at the thought that he'd uncovered one of Rumple's little secrets. "There's a poison you see; one I was fortunate to procure on my travels; I'm told it's an agonising way to die." He examined his hook, imaging what it would have felt like dipping it in the poision and sliding the tainted weapon into Rumple's flesh. "I imagined it would work quite well on you outside the magical walls of this town. Eats away at the heart you see. I admired the symmetry of it." Hook was calm as Rumple approached him, calmer than he ever imagined being when faced with this monster again.
"I assume then, you have an alternative plan... something far more likely to succeed than those half baked ideas." Rumple was taking it all surprisingly well, but there was an edge of unease to him, of menacing intent that Hook didn't miss.
Hook stood up straight. "Who would have thought it Rumple, that I'd spend centuries waiting for my revenge, seething in it. Only to finally get the chance to stand in front of you... and find we both suddenly have something too loose again."
Hook tossed the cup at him, Rumple caught it deftly, far too deftly for a human man, his eyes flashed revealing the lizard behind them.
"What makes you think I give a damn about you or the things you have to lose Killian." Rumple hissed. "You have no bargaining chip here."
"Oh but I do." Hook smirked. "You see, I know a secret Rumple, something a little Pixie told me once, about a Lost Boy... called Baelfire."
Rumple turned his back to him, placing the cup down gently on the counter, but Hook saw it, the unmistakeable shake to his hand.
"What do you know of my Boy?" Rumple snarled, refusing to look at him.
"You mean Mila's boy?" Hook pressed, and Rumple spun, his hand outstretched lifting him off the floor without ever laying a hand on him, the unmistakeable feeling of an invisible hand around his throat. This was why he loathed magic, no such thing as a fair fight.
"You do not speak her name in front of me Pirate!" Rumple spat, clenching his outstretched fist and making Hook's heart pulse painfully in his chest. "That woman, abandoned my Boy. She was no mother."
Hook tried to choke out a laugh, not easy when you were being starved of air, but he thought it got the message across as he felt the grip lessen slightly. "Just like you abandoned him? I guess Bae really belonged in Neverland."
Rumple dropped him to the floor like he'd been burned, but as Hook raised his head to stare at him, he could see the white hot rage dancing there, barely contained.
"I have ears everywhere." Hook smirked, "and men free to come and go as they please, they were never cursed you see, which means the boundary of this little town means nothing to us. You see that little Pixie had a thing for me, was just dying to spill her pretty little secrets into my willing ear." Rumple was inching forward, as if sensing Hook finally held something of real value. "Pan was fond of this world, and of his little Lost Boys, especially those that rejoined it. He liked to see them fail you see, without him. So he'd watch them in their new lives, and my Little Pixie would watch him." Hook reached into his pocket and held out a piece of paper between his fingers to the Crocodile.
"That isn't..." Rumple trailed off, seemingly unable to take his eyes off the simple slip of paper held tantalisingly in front of him.
"It is." Hook flipped it through his fingers, "The address of your boy. Apparently he stopped running some time ago. Right around the time he met a mutual blonde friend of ours."
Rumple's eyes went wide and Hook sighed deeply, finally free to tell someone the secret that had been eating him alive. "That little Minx of a Pixie never forgets a face you see. Especially not when they show up on her doorstep, making moves on her Pan."
"Emma... and Bae?" Rumple reached out and grasped the counter as if for support. Hook could relate, taking pleasure in spreading this unique shared misery of theirs.
"How do you think I feel Grandpa, it turns out I'm shagging my Step-Daughter in Law."
"You're lying." Rumple snarled, forgetting all magic and just grabbing him by the front of his shirt, raising his cane as if to bludgeon him into taking the words back.
Hook sneered back at him, detaching himself and straightening out his shirt. "If I were, I'd come up with something more believable than this. Trust me, no one could make this twisted little family tree of ours up."
"What do you want?" Rumple straightened, snatching the paper from his still outstretched hand and tearing it open, his eyes scanning the scrawled New York address like a dying man offered a reprieve.
"Emma is in trouble, I need a talisman, something to keep her here and ward off the effects of Neverland, just until she can get control of this magic thing." Rumple lifted his eyes from the paper.
"And why would I do that Captain? It seems you have already given me what I require." He turned away, as if dismissing him.
Hook snorted. "Baelfire has a son he doesn't know about with a woman he's been pining over for ten years. You want a way in... a way to get him to spend more than a moment in the same room with you. Then you need Emma and her boy."
Rumple's lip quirked. "I don't need you for that." Rumple snarled raising his palm, which was filled with fire.
Hook lifted his chin. "Right now, I'm the only thing in the world keeping Emma tethered here. I imagine she's not of much use to you from Neverland." The ball of fire didn't hit him. "Besides, we both know that you have a plan for Emma. You didn't go to all this trouble of manipulating the very circumstances of her birth, just to have it all backfire now."
Rumple lowered his hand "We aren't done." the flames went out. "You and I," he pointed between them, "We'll deal with this one day soon."
"Looking forward to it." Hook countered with feeling.
Rumple turned, stalking behind the glass counter and pulling out a key, which he used on a small ornate box he pulled from thin air. He opened the little and reverently pulled out a golden chain that held some sort of gem like pendant. Rumple dangled it in front of him, letting the object glint in the light, revealing a speck of pure sunlight trapped inside an amber case.
"Stardust." Rumple spoke softly, admiring it. "Distilled down into a single grain; it holds enough raw power to disintegrate this whole town, or counteract our Young Miss Swan's own, rather potent magic." He tossed the pendant at him, Hook snatched it from the air, surprised Rumple would tell him it had that kind of power, clearly he'd underestimated just how desperate Rumple was to see his son.
"Just like that?" Hook queried, not trusting this Crocodile in the least.
"Just like that." His smile was taunting, "As you say, it seems keeping Miss Swan in Storybrooke has become something of a mutual goal."
"And in return?" Hook loathed saying it, the idea that he'd contemplate making a deal with this creature was repellent.
"When the time comes, I'm sure you'll find a way to convince Emma to take a short trip to New York with me. I'm certain she and Henry would be thrilled to have a little family reunion." Rumple knew what he was asking, what Hook had offered in desperation on Emma's behalf.
But Hook knew how he felt, knew what Emma felt.
Bae was her past. He was her future. He had nothing to fear from a little Lost Boy.