A/N: Sorry this chapter was a little late...but also, I need to warn you all that updates will be a little random from now on, because I'm moving back to school and I'll be pretty busy. However, the story will definitely still continue!

Enjoy =).

Wearily, Hook stumbled onto the beach, feeling his sodden leather coating pulling him off balance in the shifting sands. Next to him, Emma was pulling her heavy, water-laden skirts out of the water and gathering them into her arms to make it easier for her to move.

They walked in silence up the beach until they were close to where the forest started and the sand ended, but then Emma nearly fell over from exhaustion.

"Maybe we should rest," Hook suggested, his voice cold.

She agreed with a tired nod and dropped to the sand, her wet skirts fanning out around her legs. Hook fought the urge to groan as he lowered his weary body onto the warm beach next to her. The pounding in his head coupled with his exhaustion made it hard to think, but one thought stayed clear in his mind - Emma was a princess. A bloody princess.

"You lied to me," he finally grunted, feeling the heat from the sun start to soak through his leather clothing and warm his cold, wet body. He shifted in the sand so that he could see her out of his peripheral vision. Her eyes were closed, but he could still see the fear painted across her features. That sight eased his anger at her slightly - he found it difficult to be upset at her when she so clearly was frightened.

"I said I wasn't a lady."

Hook's mouth turned up slightly of its own accord. "Aye, love," he sighed, "I guess you did at that." But, he thought to himself, you didn't mention that you were the princess. If he was being honest, it bothered him more than it should that she had lied to him. Normally, he wouldn't really have cared. People lied to him all the time; he did the same to them. But for some reason, Emma's lack of honesty wounded him.

"I guess I owe you an apology, Hook." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Emma rise to lean on her elbow and face him, a look of deep sadness on her face. "I lost your ship. And crew. And," she gestured around with her free hand, "I managed to strand us on this island. This is all my fault."

"Can't argue with that," Hook softened his statement with a playful wink in her direction. Even though any hopes of a romance with her had been crushed when he discovered that she was a princess, he still couldn't stand to see her so depressed and afraid. "However, since I saved your life, again," he stressed the last word, "I think you owe me an explanation."

"Saved my life?" she demanded indignantly. "That's not how I remember it. You were-"

"-attacking the evil magical woman with only a sword, all in order to protect you," he finished, cutting her off.

"But I got us here," she protested, but he could see a spark in her eyes and he knew that he had managed to distract her from her fear and guilt, at least for the moment.

"Fine," Hook waved his hand in an airy, gracious motion. "We'll call that one even, then. But you still owe me for the other two times I rescued you."

She laughed at that, and the sound made Hook smile. No matter how bad the situation was and how fragile his heart was, at least he could enjoy her company before it was all ripped away from him again, just like it was with Milah.

"My parents are Snow White and Prince Charming." Her sudden statement surprised him; he had assumed that she wasn't going to share anything about her life that would shed light on their current situation. "And I ran away from them and from my little brothers because I was sick of being a princess." She hesitated, then added, "And I didn't want to marry the idiot they picked for me."

Carefully controlling his look of surprise, Hook asked nonchalantly, "You're engaged?"

Emma grimaced. "Depends how you look at it. According to my parents, yes. But I'm not marrying him."

"Good. That's a good choice," Hook sighed in relief. He knew that he should try to stop caring about her and whether or not she was actually engaged, but it was still hard to wrap his mind around her as a princess, and even harder still to convince himself that he didn't have feelings for her. "And so you ran away?"

"I decided that I wanted to go on an adventure, that I wanted to do something with my life other than embroidery, so I left." She wrinkled her nose ruefully. "I wasn't very smart about it, though, as you found out."

Chuckling, Hook agreed. "Aye, lass, I can attest to that." He remembered finding her, sprawled on the ground, unconscious and dehydrated only miles from Alenfey. "That woman in the storm - she was the Evil Queen?" Her tyrannical rule hadn't really affected him much, as a sailor or as a captain, but he had heard rumours of her grudge match with Snow White and her eventual banishment.

"I think so," she confirmed his suspicions.

Ignoring the sense of dread in the pit of his stomach, Hook dug his fingers into the sand and felt the hot granules trail through his fingers. "She certainly lives up to her terrifying reputation."

Emma said nothing.

Finally, tired of the silence, Hook stood up and brushed the sand off his coat and clothing. Offering his hand to her, he shot her his characteristic charming grin. "I think a bit of exploring is in order, don't you?"

Biting her lip enticingly, she accepted his hand and he pulled her up and into his arm to steady her as the sand shifted under her weight. Automatically, his other arm came around her waist, pulling her closer to him despite the warning alarms sounding in his brain, trying to remind him that this was a bad idea. He ignored them and breathed in her scent, a light floral aroma mingling with the salt and sand encrusted in her hair. The moment lasted for only a couple seconds before she pulled back. He could tell that she was just as conflicted as he was; her inner struggle, clear in her eyes, mirrored his exactly.

She took a deep breath. "So, exploring?"

…

"There's a reason I chose to spend my life on the ocean," Hook grumbled, swatting at yet another mosquito that had decided to target him. "No bugs."

A couple steps ahead of him in the forest, Emma pushed a branch aside out of the way of their rough path. "I hear water," she said, ignoring his complaints. "If it's a stream, then we'll have fresh water."

Hook shut his mouth. Fresh water was much more important than his plight with the mosquitoes, although he felt like he was being eaten alive. A stream would prove invaluable to their survival on the island.

Suddenly, Emma froze, then bent down to inspect something on the forest floor.

"Emma?" Immediately, Hook thought of every poisonous insect and reptile he had ever heard of and imagined the worst. "What is it?" Against his better judgment, he moved to stand beside her and bent down to see what she was looking at.

"The flower," she muttered absent-mindedly, reaching down toward the plant. The flowers growing on the stem were black, with saw-edged petals.

"Don't touch that," Hook yelled right in her ear, pushing her to the ground with his shoulder before she could make contact with the dangerous plant. "It's not safe."

"What the-" Emma seethed hotly, pushing herself to her knees and trying to brush off the damp dirt that clung to the side of her body.

"Saving you. Again." He glared at her, his anxiety feeding off her anger.

"Well, stop. I need that flower." She reached for it again, but Hook grabbed her wrist and jerked her away from the pant and towards him.

"Why are you obsessed with that plant?" he demanded, meeting her glare with his own. "Do you know what it does to you?" She tried to pull her wrist out of his grasp, but he held her firmly. "Tell me," he roared, feeling bad when she flinched back, but not bad enough to leave the issue.

"I promised to get it for someone," she finally shot back. "Let me go."

"No." Now, he was trembling with fear and rage, both directed at whatever person was forcing her to get this flower. However, he made himself take a couple deep breaths to calm himself down before he explained. "That flower," he started, licking his lips nervously, "gives away free will."

Emma stopped fighting as all her rage left her at once. "What?"

"If you pick that flower and give it to someone, they control you. Completely." His voice was sad and entreating, begging her to listen to him. "No more freedom."

"No." She wilted and he caught her against him as she fell forward. "I made a deal." The words were forced out of her mouth with distaste.

Ice settled in around Hook's heart. "With who?" He phrased it as a question, but he already knew the answer. There was only one person who would make that kind of deal.

There was no answer. Hook looked down at the woman in his arms and realized that her eyes were closed and her breathing was shallow - she had passed out.

Hook needed to find out more about this deal – he suspected that it was affecting Emma more than she admitted. And this time, he had to keep the woman he cared for out of Rumpelstiltskin's clutches.

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