Return to Original Sin
Robin
I remember being told as a young man, by my father, that one cannot ride two horses with one ass. It was a play on words, a joke amongst him and his friends he was including me in. I appreciated the joke as any young lad would at the time. A horse, regardless of its worth, was worthless if unnecessary and a donkey or "ass" would not ride a horse. It was simple yet complicated in its meaning. Now, as I find myself in the trenches of yet another consequence from a powerful curse. I cannot help but find a newfound appreciation for my father's words.
II. Highway to Hell (Part 1)
Familiarity is a strange thing. Bias, positive or negative, is bound to exist where familiarity can be found. While the past was somewhat altered by Hook and Emma being transported to the past, most of the initial story remained the same. This being said, Maid Marian was brought back to Storybrooke in the present time but her reality is still largely what it was before.
"I tried to be forgiving, Robin but I cannot believe what you are telling me now."
"As you can see, this is all very complicated."
"You were with her?!"
"I knew nothing of what had happened to you and she has very much changed since the Enchanted Forest."
"Except for when you were familiar with each other in the year you all were returned."
"Her curse was broken but we were only beginning to investigate The Wicked Witch."
"So you came to an understanding then?"
As desperate as she was to understand both the world around her in physicality and reality, Marian was struggling with the duality of her beloved husband succumbing to The Evil Queen's allure. There had been mention of true love and a returned lost heart…second chances?
"You allowed her near Roland, knowing who she was….what she had done."
"No, not about your demise….or supposed demise."
"So what she has done to others was not enough to shield our son?"
"She has done nothing but protect him!"
"SHE IS A MONTER!"
"SHE HAS CHANGED!"
The heated discussion was beginning to venture into uncomfortable territory. As with most tales, the heart is not easily swayed away from what it believes to be true. While Robin Hood loved his wife he had gone through the agonizing process of grief and loss only to find a new peace within Regina. Feelings were never so easily banished or switched off and his comeback by way of raging outburst at his wife was proof of that.
"Do you love her?"
"Yes."
He breathed his response in misery, unwilling to lie to his wife but ashamed of his truth. Luckily, their young son was with Little John and the rest of the Merry Men who were "on patrol" along the outskirts of town. Marian and Robin's reunion and bliss was short-lived once she began to understand the complexities of the town and time she found herself in. Her husband had been happily gazing at Regina before his bewildered eyes found her own. The Merry Men had quickly scooped up Roland and ushered them all outside and away from the rest of the fairytale persons, after all this was a Loxley matter.
"You…you love her."
Marian's voice died off as she found a log to sit upon, staring at the dirt beneath her. The forest had once been a place of peace and adventure but now was a harsh reminder that it was unfamiliar and that this Robin was as well. He had been part of this world and part of this life where she had never been and had never been meant for it.
"What are we to do? What is it you plan on going from here? I cannot ask you to ignore yourself, but I cannot betray myself as to fit myself into something I know nothing of."
"Might I suggest I am as lost in all this as you are? Marian, I love you. Truly, I have never stopped and Roland is the dearest thing in this world to me. Nothing changes what we have had, but…"
"You cannot let her go."
"No, I cannot. I just keep thinking 'When the flood cometh it sweepeth away grain as well as chaff.'"
He signed at he looked at his overwhelmed, long-lost wife and decided to take his place beside her on the log she sat upon.
"I never once doubted our love, Marian. That is not what this is about but I fear there is something stronger and stranger here at work."
"Stranger than those odd growling carriages?"
Even after all this time and what they have been through she was herself. She made him laugh so easily and he felt a wave of emotion swell through his heart for her, but the guilt was unmistakable now as he was so very familiar with it.
"Yes, even stranger than growling carriages."
He nudged her shoulder with his own before taking one of her hands in both of his and clasping it tightly.
"We are fated, Marian. She told me so. The green faerie, Tinkerbelle, used her magic to seek Regina's true love out long ago, before the curse, and I was marked. I know little of the circumstances then. You and I may not have even met, but how can one have two True Loves?"
"They don't, Robin."
Tears welled in Marian's eyes. Robin finally met hers and he was worse off than he had been all night. The longer they tarried on the subject the worse it got. There was no right answer for what he wanted and what he needed were far different. He wanted everything to be simple and truly completed while he needed to address Regina himself. He needed to speak with her.
"What is it you are saying to me?"
"Go to her, Robin. You need to see her, but not now. Not so soon as to ruin this. Take the night and allow some time to clarify what needs it."
"How was I ever so lucky as to attain the heart of one such as you, Fair maiden?"
"You are a theif, Robin Hood of Loxley. It is simple, you stole it the moment I laid eyes on you."
Her soft, sad smile only emphasized their dilemma but he was grateful regardless. He would not trade what he had with her in past of present for a thousand lifetimes or anything else a genie or God himself could offer. He would work to right this wrong they found themselves dealing with, regardless of what the happy ending at its finality might look like.
Hook
I am and always have been a pirate. Even from my conception and childhood years I was a scaliwag, though I was not always aware of that. My father was a fugitive who abandoned me upon a vessel to save himself. He was a pirate and being his son, as was I. My brother, Liam, was a good and honest man who worked hard to make me the same. The greatest irony of his loss was that I wholeheartedly embraced my piracy heritage with vigor, though I retained the code I had always nurtured in myself. Form, there are all types of form but I believe in good form above all else.
II. Highway to Hell (Part 2)
"You went to see Regina?!" Emma shouted as she followed him down the sidewalk to Granny's the next day.
"Aye, that I did. She seemed out of sorts that one." He offered by way of quip as he sauntered in the door to the small but homey diner.
"Killian!"
"Settle, love. There's no need to be jealous. I simply needed to have a word with the mayor."
"Sure, right after I tore her happy ending out from her fingers and torched it in front of her."
"Not your fault, love. Things happen."
"Says the man who told me not to interfere."
They both took a seat at the usual booth as they caught sight of Mary Margaret and David coming in from the back with Ruby and Henry in their wake.
"Oh, Emma." Mary Margaret offered in sympathy as she sat with the baby seat.
"I know, I know. I'm The Savior, all I did was save someone, blah blah blah."
"You can't hold yourself responsible for consequences of a curse you did not create." David added, hands on hips and in full understanding-supportive-dad-mode.
"But I might as well have, I took us to that place, that time. Zelena's curse took that from me."
"But you didn't want this to happen. You didn't plan any of it." Ruby piped in as she sat behind them and sent Henry to get a milkshake.
"I have been telling her that this whole time." Hook sighed.
"After repeatedly saying how I should have left it alone." Emma groaned, tears in her eyes and her lip quivering.
As he looked over her from his seat beside her he realized this is how it would always be now. The two of them would be partners in matters such as this but she would always find a way to blame herself for the greater happenings in this town and the world. She was the reason she was abandoned time and again and she was the reason the happy endings kept coming only to be taken or destroyed over and over. He found himself clanking his hook on the table mindlessly when Henry returned with two chocolate milkshakes and sliding one down the table to Emma, Henry smiled.
"It is going to work out."
"How do you know, kid?"
Emma opened her straw and stuck it in her milkshake, playing with it before taking a long pull off the straw as if it contained more than chocolate ice cream and milk.
"Like you said, you're The Savior. Everything will work out. Even my mom knows and respects that now. She's just having a hard time."
Henry sat beside his new nephew and took a drink of his own milkshake, smiling up at Hook as he did so. The boy was truly a marvel. Not just because he was the product from the product of true love and great magical heritage but because the boy truly believed in all he saw around him, in those around him.
"Besides, if The Savior was powerful before she's definitely unbeatable now that she has true love."
Henry added this last bit so nonchalantly that it took everyone a moment to understand what he was getting at and the reactions were priceless. Emma spat milkshake all over the table and a stunned Mary Margaret was left to wipe chocolate drips off of herself while David started pacing the floor while Ruby burst out in laughter. Hook was the only one who seemed calm about it all though he felt an intense heat in his face and chest at the notion. He merely took Henry's words as a segue into his own.
"Aye, the boy is right, and if you must know…that is the reason I sought out Regina today."
Again the group was left to react to words they were astounded by. David pulled up a chair to the end of the table and spun it around to sit, because he certainly needed to sit after all of this. Mary Margaret let out a startled noise that was between a gasp and a grunt while Ruby groaned, leaving Henry to stare fixedly at Emma and Hook.
Emma stabbed her milkshake as if it was a perp and shoved the glass away to glare at the man she now knew more as Killian than Hook.
"She needed to be aware of a few things and I felt especially qualified to notify her."
"So you threatened her?!" Mary Margaret blurted.
"No, I merely reminded her that we aren't so different after all."
With that, Hook stood and left the diner, unable to look on them any longer. The scene was far too happy even with the intense uncertainty weighing on them. It was all true, he had threatened Regina but with more than just words. He promised her. He understood her all too well and was making her aware that he was as determined and dedicated to the cause as she was. As she sought to be good and hold onto that good part of her that flourished when in love, as did he.
He had become the pirate he was feared and revered for when he partnered with and lost Milah and now he was the Killian of old and present days because of Emma and those around her that reminded him he was capable of much more than single-minded fury that harkened to revenge.
"Hook! KILLIAN?!"
He continued on until he felt a sharp tug on his hooked side. Emma was panting and staring up into his face with desperate fury.
"Where are you going?"
"To my-I need a walk love and the diner was becoming something of a confining space and even for a seafaring man I was feeling somewhat trapped."
"Come off it, you wanted to get away and the diner had nothing to do with it. It's what Henry was saying."
"Yes."
"You're all supportive partner?"
"Are you surprised?"
"Not at all. I'm used to it."
He had no immediate retort for that. His brow furrowed before rising in surprise out of habit of being in her presence. The woman never ceased to amaze and stun.
"What I'm still not used to it my twelve-year-old son spouting off about true love."
"Aye, strange lad, though perceptive. Reminds me of someone I know."
"Neal."
"He was another young lad that seemed far beyond his years. Bad form what I did there, but I won't do such a thing again."
"So you're just up and leaving?"
"And where would I go, Swan? Not much for a 300-year-old pirate in your world. I know, I've looked."
"So then, what?"
"I was merely avoiding the upcoming insight that would come from your parents. I don't need another reminder of who and what I am. I already know, as I assumed you did."
"The pirate thing doesn't bother me. I know that's not all you are."
"Yes, but do you know the how little all that matters?"
"What do you mean?"
"Regardless of what I am, do you know why that fails in comparison to what we are?"
Emma opened and quickly closed her mouth. The idea of her finding her true love was shocking enough without the idea of it being him. It wasn't like she didn't understand or appreciate the depth of such a thing. Her parents were true love and she saw what that was but she also saw Rumplestiltskin and Belle and the complexities of it all were enough to drown someone, especially her.
"I….I think we just need to think about all this. There's no need to go crazy."
"After all this, you still doubt? Bad form Swan."
Hook pulled his arm from her grasp and sauntered off, unable to face the intensity himself. The worst of it was that despite his feelings for her he was beyond that. He was beyond simply loving her or understanding her but he felt her in his soul. It was as if he felt her in his essence, like she had always been there he just ignored it somehow. Ignore something like that as someone might ignore a freight train barreling down on them. It was inevitable, but he realized the resistance that also existed there for her because it was mirrored in himself. True Love seemed to signal lack of choice. You don't choose the person but rather everything does for you. The pairing is vital to existence and happiness and every other abstract idea.
Emma being his true love only seemed to make his past more tragic where Milah and Neal were concerned. They were mangled pieces to a puzzle that was as beautiful as it was challenging. While the Jolly Roger was lost to him, Hook still found himself heading to the docks to embrace the sea air and familiar scent of salt that had always brought him quiet even as a young boy. He was accusing Emma of bad form where he was falling victim to it as well where the ideas of heroic tropes, such as fate and true love were concerned.