#2: Saving Henry (rating: K+)

Two missing SB-scenes recounting what Hook was up to during the final meeting at Granny's (AUJ chapter 59). Based off of the original script.

Present Time

Storybrooke, Maine

Rumplestiltskin had caught him off-guard, though for someone with his magic that was not exactly a hard thing to do. This thought, however, did not quell Killian's annoyance as he was bound, gagged and thrown into the trunk of a car, which his captor then drove who knows where. He knew the Dark One was bringing him to his mistress, but where she might be waiting for them was another question entirely.

The car pulled to a stop and Killian strained his ears.

"A rose", he could hear Rumplestiltskin say, his muffled voice tinted with irony. "How lovely."

"Have you earned it?" came the accented response from the Witch. The trunk hatch opened above Killian's head with a squeak and, despite only being kept in the dark for a short time, he squinted at the light streaming in. Rumplestiltskin and Zelena were looking down at him; the former unemotional and detached, the latter triumphant. Zelena was dressed in a dark, short cape, held together by her green emerald at the neck, and, as usual, also sported a pair of green gloves. In her gloved hands she held a red rose.

"It appears you have", she said, sounding pleased, before she reached down and ripped the gag away from Killian's mouth. He let out a small, displeasured grunt at the pain in his jaws, but the contempt he felt for the Witch looming above him soon made him forget about that.

"We're in Storybrooke", he growled. "You've never heard of a telephone?"

Zelena giggled in amusement and brought the rose down, allowing the petals to glide across his lips. He fought the urge to throw his head up and bit her gloved hand.

"Such pretty lips", she mused, "and so wasted."

She straightened up again.

"Why haven't you used those luscious lips and kissed Emma?"

"Well, a fella likes to be courted", he replied and gave her a sarcastic smile. Zelena's eyes hardened at once.

"This isn't a joke!" she spat. "I need to have her magic removed. If Snow's baby is born before your kiss, I'm going to have no other option."

Her lips tilted somewhat upwards in a new, triumphant smile.

"I'm going to have to start killing people; people that Emma loves. Starting with her son."

She threw the rose onto his chest and he tried to shoot her a murdering glare, though the cold hand clutching his heart might have taken some of the strength out of it. Henry. He liked the boy, even without his real memories, and knew with utmost certainty that even if he had not been Emma's son he would not have let him be killed. Now he just had a stronger motivator as to why he should save him.

"Take away her magic, Captain", Zelena said, "or the next rose will be for her little brat's grave."

Rumplestiltskin drove them back to town and dropped him off, cutting his ropes by magic and then disappearing again. Killian hurriedly collected himself and made for Granny's. He got there from the back, just in time to see Henry sneak past the windows on the side of the building and, while crouching, trying to unlock Emma's yellow car. Killian would not have been able to mistake the look in the boy's eyes even if he had tried to; Henry was trying to run away.

"Where're you off to then, mate?" he asked after sneaking closer. Henry jumped and spun around, trying to hide the keys he had obviously stolen from his mother behind his back.

"Nowhere", Henry quickly responded and put on a smile. Killian fought back a smile of his own; the boy was trying to trick him, a pirate, the legendary Captain Hook. If only he knew.

"You're in quite the rush to go nowhere", he pointed out. Henry lowered his gaze.

"Fine", he sighed. "I'm... going home."

"You're running away", Killian corrected and walked closer.

"Whatever", Henry replied, shrugging his shoulders.

"So you're planning on driving all the way back to New York?" Killian asked, nodding at the yellow car behind Henry. "One lesson and you think you're ready for that?"

"No", the boy muttered, "just the nearest bus station."

If it was not for the fact that there were no buses going out of Storybrooke, Killian might have liked that idea. Now Henry would end up waiting for the bus by the side of a road, completely unprotected and unknowing of what plans Zelena had for him. And that was something Killian could not allow to happen.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that. It's too dangerous."

"I don't care what you think!" Henry exclaimed and turned back towards the car, grabbing onto the handle and yanking the door open. Apparently he had managed to unlock it after all.

"Well, you should", Killian said and closed the door again. Henry glared up at him, then frowned as he noticed that the man he saw as some friend of his mother's smiled.

"I've got a better way", Killian continued, then waved the boy along. As they walked it started to snow and, silently, the pirate hoped that the snow would slow Zelena down. They needed to make it to the docks and onto a ship before she figured out what he was doing.