Leaving the apartment after Henry and her parents had given Emma a warm goodbye, and Regina reveled in the brief hug that Henry had granted her, the women set off in search of Hook.
As anomalous as it was, their partnership went unnoticed as they walked through the streets of town-they were emptier than usual with the news of Cora having spread. Most of the citizens of Storybrooke didn't know Cora save the few in the older generation who had heard of her own rise to power and the few from the younger that had heard tales of a crazy Queen in a place called Wonderland. But everyone knew that someone magical enough to impersonate Regina and conjure Archie's dead body was not someone they cared to be around.
Just how evil was the Evil Queen's mother?
They walked in silence, matching the streets around them. Regina had wanted to say something, to thank Emma for her help with Henry, for her support, but if she wanted to thank her, that meant that she had appreciated it, and appreciating it meant that it was wanted, or worse, needed, and that was not something she was willing to accept. Emma had expected nothing from the brunette, content to allow her unhindered thoughts until they reached the road towards the ocean.
"Might as well start at the docks?"
"I suppose so." Regina allowed her mind to turn to the slimy turncoat they were seeking.
"Though the only reason I can think of why he hasn't made his move yet is because he is still attached to my mother somehow."
Emma scoffed. Hook was attached to whatever could benefit him the most.
"Yeah, well, I think we can change his alliances."
"Even if we do, if she's nearby, she'll know, and it won't help us."
Regina was direct, bordering on dismissive, but Emma was getting even better at reading the poised brunette beside her and could see her eyes were tinged with fear.
"We'll play it safe. Don't—" She paused. She couldn't say, "don't worry" because who was she to tell Regina that, and she knew that both of them would worry anyway because this was Cora, and even with Emma's True Love magic they were in for some dangerous shit. She tried a different tack.
"You know her, Regina. I'm starting to get a sense of her. We can figure this out."
Regina was still wary but intrigued by the blonde's not pure optimism but reasoned determination. This wasn't "love will find a way" like her idiotic parents, this was "we have the tools to fight and we're going to win."
She was going to respond when they turned the corner of the pier to find the pirate standing straight off of a Captain Morgan label, taking swigs of rum. Spotting them, he hollered his greetings as they approached.
"Looking for your mother, your Majesty? You're out of luck." He leaned forward as he continued, the disdain in his tone replaced with sleaziness. "But you, Swan, what are you doing here? Looking for me, perhaps? Wanted a second go around with my sword? Most women do."
Emma was mid-gag when Regina spit out her response for her.
"Shut up, pirate."
His focus returned to the brunette, Hook didn't lose any of his innuendo, just as happy to imagine a torrid rendezvous with the beautiful former Queen.
"Ah, the Evil Queen is lacking a bit of her usual sway. Or perhaps you are jealous, your Majesty? It is a shame we never had a chance for some proper swordplay—perhaps you'd like a try for yourself? I do hear your moves are exquisite. Though I'm sure I could get you on your back."
This time, Emma was the one to recover, already feeling in need of a shower. "Ew, Hook. God. Does anyone ever go for that? Or do you just practice double entendres on yourself in the mirror?"
"Miss Swan, you've wounded me." Hook grasped at his heart as he straightened from his perch and bridged the final gap between them. "If it isn't my charm or good looks, and it isn't your mother, than what does bring you ladies down here?"
"We need information." Regina wished she had thought of something to hold over him to make this questioning less painful for them and more, way more, for him.
"And you think I am going to give it to you?" He derided. "Have you got me wrong, love. I'll admit that I have a soft spot for Swan here, but being left at the top of a beanstalk will temper that sort of thing."
"Hey, you helped Cora with Aurora and tried to keep us from getting back here, so I think we're pretty much even." Emma was not in the mood to play games with a pirate. Would it really be so hard for him to act like a normal person the majority of the time? She knew she had seen some redeeming qualities along the way, though they were increasingly difficult to remember.
As expected, he almost instantly reverted to gracious flexibility.
"Touché. I've never been much for loyalty after all. Ask, and I shall consider."
Emma couldn't help but start with the obvious. "Why are you here, Hook?"
He chuckled, still charmed by the blonde. "I believe your scowling yet lovely companion already knows the answer to that one, Swan."
Emma turned to look at Regina, whose frown only deepened as she considered his response.
"You're here for your crocodile?"
"Excellent surmise, love. Looks like you're still at the top of your game." Hook was gleeful, but Emma was more in the dark than before they had started talking to him.
"Crocodile?"
Emma's expression perfectly matched one that Henry had sported countless times before. Regina found herself instantly treating the blonde with the patience she typically only afforded her son.
"Gold. As Rumplestiltskin, he had a sort of…scaly look about him."
"Why do you want to kill Gold?"
That Regina could explain later. They had already spent too much time for her liking in the pirate's company. She took over the interrogation.
"Why haven't you done it yet?"
"Ah, now there's the real question. Your mother, your Majesty." Hook took real delight in the blonde's confusion but more in the brunette's.
"I hear the reptile will be quite easy to deal with once he is over your town line, but Cora won't even let me have a go until she can get her precious daughter back."
"Cora doesn't want you to kill Gold—which by the way, we're coming back to—until she has Regina back? Why would that make any sense?" Emma was increasingly displeased with the fairly common sensation that came from fairy tale characters only making things more complicated for her.
"Uh, uh, uh, Swan, I think I've afforded you more than your fair share of questions. Unless you were inclined to continue this conversation in a more comfortable setting? Perhaps in my quarters?"
Emma was not having it. A wicked witch wanted to steal her son to manipulate the one person other than him she needed to help. She probably wanted to destroy the town. And she could only be stopped by Emma's untried magic, that, by the way, she still had to get used to the idea of. The lack of sleep and random portal travel wasn't helping either. And now, yet another sleazebag was trying to keep her from her work and get her into bed.
Her bondsperson instincts kicked in as she grabbed him by the collar.
"Look, Hook, you better start talking—"
"Let him go."
Emma was very surprised to find Regina's hand covering her fist, the brunette looking at her calm but determined.
"He's not worth the effort."
Emma did let go, but was not about to leave things the way they were.
"But, Regina—"
Regina took Emma's arm to pull her slightly to the side, and the proximity was not lost on the blonde when Regina started quietly.
"He's playing us. He doesn't know any more than we do. And I'd rather not spend a minute more in his presence lest I feel the need for more bathing than I already do. Gold can take care of himself if Hook does decide to try something without Cora's blessing, but if she truly is preventing him from it, she'll kill him first."
Regina let go of her hold only when she had felt the fight fade from Emma, which was new to them both. They had gotten closer in the Enchanted Forest, but ever since their return, the comforting effect they had on each other had grown. Something had shifted. Something they would have to talk about when death wasn't so imminent.
Accepting Regina's assessment, Emma changed tactics, almost purring in her dismissal.
"Alright, Hook. No more questions. But if you ever come across something you think might be useful to me, you may want to consider sharing it." Once again, it was her previous job's training that came in handy when trying to con something out of a crass drunk by acting open to his advances.
Hook was swayed by the posturing, forgetting all about being manhandled just seconds before.
"Of course, anything for you, love." He winked and headed back to the column he had been standing on before, resuming his position and his drinking as the women walked away underwhelmed by their fact-finding mission.
Once they had reached the end of the piers, Emma turned to questioning her companion.
"So. Any theories?"
Regina was flustered. She had been trying to figure out her mother's logic since Hook had spilled what he knew, but once again it seemed she was lost in her mother's elaborate machinations.
"No. I have no idea why she would want to keep the pirate around. Or why she would want to keep him from killing Gold. Or why Hook would even agree to these terms."
Regina's lack of an answer and apparent distress at the fact was more than a little unsettling. Emma had hoped for more success from this trip, mostly because she couldn't bear the alternative of Cora permanently having the advantage. Worse was, there was nothing she could do to help. If Regina couldn't figure her mother out, there was no way Emma would be able to.
"Does he have something? I mean, is there anything he could do that could do that would make you have to join her? Does he know anything she could use against you? Against the town?"
Normally Regina would have balked at the impertinence, the prying, but Emma presented a valid point. Still, Regina knew better than to reveal anything to the pirate that he could sell to the highest bidder, and there certainly wasn't any personal connection there.
"No. He has nothing. There's no reason she should be working with him. The only reason to keep him from killing Rumplestiltskin is to keep him from killing Rumplestiltskin."
"You mean like she just went back on their deal because she needed to promise him something to get him to take her here? Or to help her with Archie? But she doesn't want Gold dead because she, I don't know, likes him? Needs an evil ally?"
Regina considered this for a moment. Her mother and Rumple had been close, but that was a long time ago, and neither looked too fondly on betrayal.
"Maybe. She certainly wouldn't care about breaking her deal with Hook…but I don't think she wants Rumplestiltskin around just for the sake of it."
Emma sensed Regina's hesitation and saw there was a history there she didn't even begin to understand. But then she remembered. How Regina's introduction to Gold had been through her mother's book. How Gold had helped her send her mother off into Wonderland. And how despite the whole evil thing, that didn't seem like the kind of thing a former mentor did. That seemed like the kind of thing a former lover did. Emma shuddered at the thought.
"They weren't…?" She couldn't bring herself to say the word, but the meaning was clearly implied. Regina was even more disgusted.
"No!" Her answer was as forceful as it had been all morning, but with the seed planted, she couldn't help note the plausibility of it, even off of the little she knew. "No, they—I don't think they were," she softened for a moment before returning to her convictions.
"Anyway it wouldn't matter. There is no love lost between him and my mother. He's the one who wanted me to banish her to Wonderland in the first place."
Emma accepted this. Especially because it meant she wouldn't have to think anymore about Gold's love life with his female counterpart.
"So why would she need him alive?"
They were back at the beginning. And with nowhere else to go to find answers.
"I don't know. But it is part of her plan."