My attempt at Captain Swan. I apologize if I got the characters wrong; this was much more of a challenge than I was expecting it to be. I had to throw Regina in there to save the day. Thank you, Jenny for flooding my brain with CS moments and V_EvilRegal_ 's absolutely amazing video "Those Three Words" for inspiration. Check it out here: /-sN7Facih40

Thank you for reading!

The whiskey burned its way down his throat. It wasn't the rum he consumed like water and he welcomed the effects that his fourth shot was providing. Or was it his seventh? It didn't matter; he had no intentions of stopping anytime soon. Emma was gone; bound to the Dark One because he couldn't convince her to stay. He wasn't enough, was never enough. The small glass flew from his hand and shattered against the wall. "Useless," he swore to himself as he began swigging from the bottle. "What more could I have done?" he yelled to the empty diner, to the woman that was too far gone to hear him.

He'd chased her through realms, through time. He traded his ship for a way back to her. But what was that? Wood and metal. It was his whole world, his life. It was nothing. He would trade a thousand Jolly Rogers for the chance to hold her in his arms once more, to win her heart. But when she can finally tell him that she loves him, its only goodbye he hears on her lips.

He'd left the dagger with Regina. He trusted the queen after all their years of misadventures, but more than that Killian didn't trust himself not to summon the newly formed Dark One; consequences be damned. He knew he couldn't bear to see his Swan perverted by dark power. His Swan, who locked her heart up in an impenetrable fortress to avoid the pain loss and betrayal she experienced over and over again, who denied him to protect him, who gave herself to the darkness to protect them all. He wanted to keep the image of her bright, apologetic eyes in his heart.

She had become his compass and without her he was lost. He didn't know how to be the person she needed right now: a hero. He'd spent far too long playing at the dashing rapscallion hiding in sarcasm and leathered regalia. Fate had made it all to clear. He was a villain, worse, a coward and not worthy of his happy ending, not worthy of her.

He fell back onto the bar stool bringing the bottle back to his lips, but instead of the comforting burn his taste buds were confronted with something that tasted like tar and smelled worse. "Bloody hell!" He spat the vile liquid across the bar and stared at the blackened bottle in his hand.

"Instant cure for a hangover."

Hook knew the voice; he didn't bother turning around, just grabbed another bottle and tipped it back. It vanished in a whirl of purple smoke before the liquor reached his lips. "You have to have stopped drinking to be hungover, love."

"How is this helping?" Regina asked accusingly as she took the stool next to him.

"It's helping me to not think about what is happening to her right now." It was a lie and Hook knew that Regina saw right through it. Emma was all he could think about, all he could see. Regina didn't push him. They sat in silence for a moment, Hook staring straight ahead avoiding the eyes that were burning into him. When he finally relented and met her stare, he was taken aback by what he saw. "You look like hell."

"Thank you. So do you." Regina tried to smile, but didn't quite get there. She pushed back dirty hair that had fallen from her ponytail and slouched lower on the bar.

"Yes, love, but I'm a pirate and you're a queen. I'm supposed to look like hell; it's part of my persona." Hook reached behind the bar, grabbing a fresh bottle. He raised an eyebrow and Regina, daring her to dissolve all the liquor in the place.

"You're a pathetic excuse for a pirate," Regina said. "You're a pathetic excuse for a man if all you're going to do is drink yourself stupider while the rest of us are trying to find a way to get Emma back!" The queen took the bottle from his hand, took a long swig and slammed it back on the counter. It shattered, covering them both with the warm amber liquid. "I thought you loved her," her voice full of venom and dangerously close to his face, "but you obviously haven't learned to love anyone but yourself." Regina slid off the stool, but before her feet could hit the ground Hook was on her.

"Do NOT question my feelings, your majesty!" he spat as he spun her. His hook was at her throat, his body pressing her against the bar, and his wretched breath was hot against her cheek. Regina didn't react until she felt the tip of his hook break the skin at her neck. She wrapped her hands around the appendage and slowly pulled it away.

"Nice to see you're still in there, pirate." She held his gaze, knowing he'd back down.

Killian held her prone another moment before the adrenaline of the moment wore off then he leaned heavily on the counter, hiding his face. "I wanted her to be safe," he says more to himself than the woman standing beside him. "I wanted her to be happy with me, to love me, but more than anything I wanted her to be safe and now safe is the farthest place from where she is." He sat back down and offered the neighboring stool back to Regina. "I should have stopped her."

"You couldn't have," Regina was absently shaking her head and Hook once again took in her disheveled appearance. "Believe me, Killian. I've been over it a thousand times. I haven't slept in days. I look like hell," she paused a moment to appreciate the slight chuckle she got from the defeated man.

"And what conclusions have you reached that drug you out in the middle of the night to track down a drunken pirate."

"That Emma Swan is a goddamn hero." Regina grabbed a fresh bottle and took a long pull. "And that she's my friend. And that it's going to take every person that she loves to break her out of that darkness." She put her hand on Hook's shoulder, making sure she had his full attention. "When we were trapped in the Author's sadistic play land she talked with me right after you were killed. The pain in her eyes, Killian…" Regina rubbed at her temples, haunted still by the events of that other world. "She loves you. She begged me to go to Robin just so she would have the chance to tell you so."

Hook nodded to the queen and closed his eyes, honing in on the memories: the look on Emma's face when they danced, the sound of her laughter, the feel of her lips, the confidence in her eyes and she stared into his while the Dark One took her. She knew they'd get her back; she knew he'd find her as he always had. In the end he'd done what he'd set out to do: he'd won her heart, not because of any trickery, but because she wanted him. Him. He wasn't fool enough to believe that his love, his need for her alone could bring her back to them, but he was willing to try.

He took the bottle and placed it between himself and Regina. "Instant cure for a hangover?" Regina waved her hand over the bottle and the putrid smell of the black liquid filled the space between them. Killian grasped the neck of the bottle, swirling the liquid. "How did the likes of us find true love, Regina?" he asked with a sincerity the queen had never heard in his voice.

Regina stared at the black potion whirling around the bottle and blinked back tears of the memories that haunted them both. "Emma," she whispered because she didn't trust her voice not to break.

"The things we do for love," he raised the bottle in the air before downing the putrid potion. "To Emma."