Bane of His Existence

Chapter Eight

In Neverland…

Once Henry left Regina alone with Hook to gather the wood they needed to make a fire with, the Queen immediately got to work in helping the wounded man lying on the ground in front of her, as she carefully pulled back the lapels of Hook's leather duster, as well as his shirt covering his chest to try to get a closer look at the wound around the arrow still protruding from his chest. She tore the cloth away as gently as she could. Unfortunately, his blood seeped out around the shaft while she struggled to stifle it the best she could so he wouldn't lose quite so much, making seeing the wound difficult.

"I'm so sorry, Hook," Regina whispered sadly, not actually expecting him to hear her talking to him as she ripped away a large part of the skirt of her gown she was wearing to turn it into rags she could use to put over the wound, especially for once she finally pulled the arrow out and his blood would begin to flow far heavier than it was now. "I really need you to keep on fighting and to not give up. Because Henry can't lose you. Neither can I for that matter. You've become a much better friend than I ever expected you could. I'm afraid that's mostly my fault really, because I held such a grudge against… well against the other you for so long. Until he sacrificed his life to save all of ours from the darkness that is. I know you're not him, but sometimes I see him in you and I almost forget you're two completely different people."

"Hook and I have had this conversation before ourselves," Henry said quietly when he returned with a pile of sticks and branches in arms, having heard most of his mother's one sided conversation with the pirate and his closest friend. "I asked him once if it bothered him that we often compared him to Killian. Hook said he was flattered and honored that he reminded us of such a hero."

The younger man quickly got to work in building a small pyre out of the wood he brought back with him, then to ignite a fire without the use of Regina's magic since Pan had rendered her powerless, as he glanced over at his mother and asked, "What happened up on top of the peak? Did you get the waters from the spring?"

Regina continued her own duties to help him while she responded, "No. If I had, we could have used some of it to heal this wound. But like I said, we weren't the only ones who came to Neverland. Gothel followed us here. She somehow knew what we planned to do and destroyed the magic of the spring before I could do anything to stop her. I failed and now I can't do anything to help Hook."

"You're helping him now by tending to his wound," her son replied, then finally managed to get a small fire going that would hopefully be enough to give off a little heat their friend now so desperately needed. "Speaking of, we need to…"

"We need to heal him," the Queen curtly interrupted, then lowered her hands over the arrow wound and struggled to spark her magic enough to do so. "I've always used my magic to heal anyone. I don't know if I can help him without it."

Henry reached out to take her hands to stop her efforts as her powers continued to fail her, then he looked into his mother's eyes and answered, "You can, Mom. We can together. He's going to be fine even if you can't use your magic."

Regina smiled at him sadly and then she responded, "I want to believe you. We may not be able to use magic to help him right now, or the magic beans to get home, but you saw that demon as well as I did before he disappeared. He was weak and he said that Neverland was dying. This spell he used on us ought to wear off eventually."

"I hope you're right," he replied worryingly, then moved to kneel at Hook's other side and carefully helped Regina to lift Hook's upper body off the ground so they could see if the arrow had embedded itself most of the way through his chest, or if it wasn't in too deeply so that they could pull it back out the way it entered.

"Damn it!" she cursed in frustration upon seeing that its head was barely sticking out from the skin covering his back. "It struck most of the way through. We're going to have to push it the rest of the way and then pull it out through his back. I need you to hold him as tightly against you as you can."

Henry carefully got ready and held their friend close while Hook continued to remain unconscious, and finally Regina snapped the feathered end off, shoved the shaft deeper through his flesh until the arrowhead came far enough out for her to grab hold of, then continued to pull it the rest of the way out of him. Sadly, her efforts to help him was painful enough to awaken him and Hook couldn't help but scream out from the agony from having his flesh torn open deeper until the arrow was out at last.

While Henry laid Hook back down against the ground and continued to hold him to offer him any strength he had, Regina immediately stifled the blood that was now flowing much heavier like she expected it to with the torn cloths, then she looked into her son's eyes as she pulled a dagger she carried on her and stated quietly, "Henry, I need you to take this and heat it until it's blazing hot. We have to cauterize this wound, or he'll die from blood loss. No amount of rags will be enough even if we had more. Hurry."

Hook finally opened his eyes weakly and looked into hers the best he could through blurred vision, then through his pain he answered, "It's… it's okay. You ca… can do what… you have to do. I've felt the pain… from having a wound caut… cauterized before. When I lost…"

"When you lost your hand," Henry finished for him when Hook couldn't speak any longer. "The same thing was done to Killian when he lost his hand as well. On his own orders to his men. He would have died if he didn't."

"We'll do it as quick as we can," Regina responded worryingly when Hook closed his eyes once more, though she knew he was still conscious despite his anguish. "We need you to stay strong, Hook. You're going to be alright. You're a survivor, remember?"

Meanwhile, back in Hyperion Heights once again…

Gold arrived back at the police station around ten o'clock after he had met with another of his other street informants aside from Tilly looking for any information at all on either Victoria's, Anastasia's, or Ivy's whereabouts now that all three of them appeared to be missing since Gothel's attack at his evidence locker. Unfortunately, the only lead he thought he had turned out to be useless and the women continued to remain missing.

The Dark One wasn't inside his private evidence locker for any more than a few minutes when Regina suddenly stormed in and angrily slammed her hand down against the table as she shouted, "Rumplestiltskin! I don't have time for your games, or to stand here being insulted by you as you continue to pretend not to be awake. Rogers is in trouble. He needs you to have his back for once."

He looked up at her and then somberly replied, "I have his back. And you're right. I shouldn't go on pretending to be the dirty cop Drizella turned me into when she and Gothel cursed us all here in this vile town."

"Well… it's about time," the former Queen and Mayor answered sternly. "Listen, you have to help me to protect Rogers from Gothel, Gold. He's in far more danger than either of us know."

"I know that when the curse fell over us, the witch added a little something extra into it that has made him irrevocably drawn to her, much like a love potion you see in a number of movies would," Gold responded with concern for his partner. "However, I have also seen him resist her advances on him, which means he still has the instinct inside of him that tells him she is a danger to him. Hook is still in him fighting to break free, only he's buried so deep inside that right now, Gothel's winning."

Regina let out a sigh of frustration and then continued, "His fight alone isn't going to be enough. We have to do more to help him. I've tried to warn him that Eloise isn't the innocent woman she pretends to be and yet he can't seem to grasp it. He's so desperate to help her as though Eloise was his daughter, or like Gothel clearly wants… his lover."

The detective continued to go through the files of those he had on throughout the town while he replied, "I too have attempted to warn him that Eloise wasn't really the woman he's been searching for all this time. But like you've seen, it's as though he cannot believe her to be the villain you and I both know she is."

"When we were in Neverland years ago, Hook had been wounded by Pan protecting Henry," she continued. "However, Pan made it so we were unable to heal him when he neutralized my magic. My point is, we were able to tend to his wound, but when Henry and I slipped away for a moment to talk where he wouldn't be able to hear us, Gothel appeared again and we came back in time to see her kneeling over him. As far as I know, she only helped to heal the wound just enough so that Hook would survive, because he almost didn't. But she threatened him too. She told him she had plans for him that we wouldn't know about until it was too late."

"You've had his hook this whole time?" Regina then uttered when she became distracted from their conversation as she found his metal hook within an evidence bag, mostly buried underneath the piles of papers, files, and other collected items spread out all over the table before them. "Do you think we could use it to wake Hook up somehow?"

Gold reached out to take the hook from her and then answered, "Even if I could somehow convince Rogers that this hook belongs to him and that it's a replacement of the prosthetic he wears rather than a wall ornament, it wouldn't be enough. If we're going to succeed in waking Hook, without the elixir Drizella used on you and you in turn used on Zelena, then I fear it's going to take something dramatic, even traumatic, if we wish to do so. Gothel's hold on Rogers is dangerously strong and waking him through belief is far more difficult when we have no magic to help us. Unfortunately, her magic is strong and growing stronger every day. You know that as well as I. Like I said, I have attempted to warn Rogers of Eloise's dark intentions, but it seems that every time I try, she's one step ahead and somehow always knows when I do. But no more distractions will refrain me from proving to him the truth about who and what she really is come hell or high water. At least to the extent that I can warn him without completely destroying the trust formed in our partnership."

Regina looked at Gold again suspiciously as she asked, "Why is it you've come to be so protective of him? I mean, you've never been all that fond of either version of Hook even if you have taken Alice and Tilly both under your wing. You and Hook never fully trusted one another and yet you seem to trust him now. Why?"

A few nights ago…

"I really don't have time for you right now," Gold grumbled curtly when Rogers walked up on him within an alley as he was busy looking for Lucy he night she had fallen ill.

"Well, make time," the younger detective retorted curtly as he pulled a piece of paper out from his back pocket revealing a crude drawing of the Dark One's dagger when he showed it to his partner. "Who the hell are you looking for?"

Weaver grabbed the drawing from Rogers' hand and tore it up before gruffly shoving the pieces back at him while he coldly responded, "This is my business, and, therefore, none of yours."

Rogers glared at Gold as he replied angrily, "Says the guy questioning witnesses in my case.I've been in your locker.You have files on half of Hyperion Heights.Now, I can't tell if you're a dirty cop or the best one I know. One minute, you're speaking to me in riddles.The next… the next, you're shutting me out.Yet I can't shake the feeling that there's something that you want to tell me, so spit it out!"

"I'm looking for someone," the older man finally relented after he hesitated for only for a moment while he considered whether or not he could fully trust his partner standing now before him. "Much as you were with Eloise Gardener."

"What does Belfrey have to do with that?" the younger detective asked in confusion.

Weaver answered, "I thought she could help me.I was wrong.Look, this is… This is really hard to put into words.But I've been separated from my wife… Belle.And I would do anything to get to her.I don't know how else to put it.But this… all of this… is in service to that."

Detective Rogers just stared at his partner as he responded, "That is the least believable thing you've ever said to me."

"And yet… And yet I believe it," he immediately continued while he quickly reached out to grab his arm when Weaver started to walk away from him believing that Rogers still didn't trust a word he said to him, despite him finally speaking the truth the best he could, then Gold just stared at his partner with surprise at the next words out of his mouth. "Just let me help you."

"Yeah, okay," Gold replied simply without having to consider it any longer, now fully trusting Rogers like he hoped he could since he first awoke as himself once again.

Gold stared down at the pirate's hook still in his hands and answered, "Because Rogers trusted me even when I made it incredibly difficult for him to do ever since he became my partner. And Hook… for whatever reason he always seemed to trust me to look after his daughter despite me being a doppelganger of the crocodile who wronged him, as I wronged the other Hook in love with the Savior."

He was about to say something more until his phone suddenly buzzed in his pocket to alert him to a message he received from another of the officers under him, then after reading the text, Weaver looked once again at Regina as he spoke saying, "It appears I have to go. There has been a murder down at the hospital. I suppose it's time I go and find my partner and get him working on something other than these cold cases that are only helping Eloise."