This is less Mary/Hook, more Mary/Rumple interaction with a dash of Mary/Matthew. And I'm sorry if it gives you feels. It needed to be written!
After the fireflies had left them, Mary and Killian had stayed in the clearing, kissing softly and wishing that their time together would never end. It had been his idea to make camp, leading her gently by the hand back onto the forest path and wandering until they'd found a suitable spot. It was an out-of-the-way part of the forest, with a path leading to a small lake nearby. Killian falls asleep almost immediately, stretching out like a cat as his breathing becomes steady and even. Mary, on the other hand, is restless. She watches him sleep for a few minutes before getting up as quietly as she can, careful not to wake him as she crept down to the lake and sat down on a piece of driftwood on the shore. She watches the moonlight dance upon the waves for a few minutes, until she suddenly realizes that, without her noticing, her eyes have become too full of tears to see.
What was she doing? She replayed the kiss over and over in her mind, the taste and feel of his lips on hers, so different from Matthew's. When she closes her eyes, it is Matthew's face she sees, the look on his face when he had proposed to her in the dining room all those years ago, the agony of his disappearance during the war, the joy she'd felt upon seeing him walk again for the first time after his injury. But Matthew is realms away, and she is still trapped, unable to get to him. More than that, Matthew has already chosen Lavinia.
Tears pour down Mary's cheeks as she sits there, clenching her hands together so tightly that she can feel her fingernails digging into her skin. Has Matthew and Lavinia's wedding already taken place without her? She has no idea of knowing how much time has passed for the friends and family she left behind. What if she made it back home to find that years had gone by while she'd remained unchanged in the Enchanted Forest? And…underneath all of this, the ache in her heart remains…the ache that tells her what she already knows to be true—she is no longer even sure that she wanted to leave Killian behind.
Her mind drifts back to him, his face replacing Matthew's in her mind. She thinks of the feel of her hand in his, his hook on the small of her back as they kissed. She thinks of how he'd risked so much for her already, saving her life from the Black Knights, volunteering to help her even with his hatred for Rumpelstiltskin. Killian Jones thought himself a heartless pirate, but he had more heart, more goodness, hidden inside him than perhaps anyone Mary had ever known.
What am I going to do?
She is crying in earnest now, one hand pressed to her mouth to stifle her sobs in order to avoid waking Killian. She can't bring him into this, not yet—not when she was already in too deep. But the sudden snapping of a twig snaps her back into the present, and she whirls around to see not Killian standing there, but…
"Rumpelstiltskin."
"In the flesh," he trills, eyeing her gleefully. "Why the tears, dearie?"
Mary quickly wipes the offending tears away, trying to compose herself. "What are you doing here."
"Just checking in," he replies breezily, coming to stand before her. "Making sure everything is going according to plans…" His eyes rove over her form, and Mary stiffens. "But it isn't, now, is it, dearie?"
She drops her gaze, but that doesn't faze him. "No, it isn't at all. Something has changed, hasn't it? Something has…"
He leans in close to her, and Mary bites the inside of her cheek, fighting every instinct within her that is telling her to recoil back away from his gaze and his touch. Those strange golden eyes search hers intently, and his breath is warm and sickly-sweet on her face as he whispers. "You're thinking about not going back." Mary bites her lip. "You're thinking you might want to stay. Here. With him."
Mary can not answer. But her silence speaks volumes.
Rumpelstiltskin's eyes narrow, and he leans back away from her for a moment as if suddenly disgusted with her. Tears burn her eyes as her gaze slides to the ground again, not sure whether she, too, should feel shame or disgust. How could she even be contemplating this? To leave behind her family forever…how could she be such a monster as to have even let this thought cross her mind? How can I leave them all behind…but how can I leave him?
Without warning, the Dark One lunges forward. Mary gasps as his hands clos around her throat, his claw-like grip like a vice she can not escape from. She chokes and pries feebly at his hands as he squeezes her tighter, venom in his eyes. "We had a deal!" he roars as her blood pounds in her ears. Mary can not move, can not breathe, can not do anything but stare in horror at the man who now seems hell-bent on killing her right then and there. "We had a deal!" he repeats, squeezing tighter until Mary feels she will pass out at any moment. The edges of her vision are starting to go black, and her fingernails scratch against Rumpelstiltskin's scaly hands, desperate for release. desperate for air…
"Please," she manages to choke out.
A wicked smile crosses over the Dark One's face, and Mary feels pure terror. He finally relinquishes his hold just enough to allow Mary to take a pitiful gulp of air, and then his hand leaves her throat and instead is on her face, holding her steady and keeping her eyes locked on him as he squeezes her jaw. "I see what's happening, dearie," he whispers dangerously. "And it's not going to work. We had a deal, you and I, and no one breaks a deal with me. Do you understand?"
Terrified, Mary nods. Her breath is still coming in shallow gasps, and her neck aches enough that she knows she's going to have bruises later from his touch..bruises that she will have to explain to Killian. "Good," he croons sweetly, and Mary almost shudders. "Now, dearie, let me tell you something. This is what's going to happen, all right? You are going to get back to your quest. You are going to find those magic beans, and you and I are going back to your land so I can search for my son." Mary's eyes widen. The Dark One has never before volunteered his motives for wanting to go to the Land Without Magic. She isn't sure whether the knowledge that he, too, is looking for someone he's lost makes her pity him or fear him more.
"And if not…" He giggles then, a sound that chills Mary to the bone. "Then I will kill your pirate." He moves away from her then, nearly clapping his hands with glee. This iss Milah all over again, and he and Hook both know it…and that made everything so much more fun.
"No," Mary whispers as her blood runs cold. "No, no you can't—"
"The choice is yours, dearie."
And then he is gone, vanished in a puff of purple smoke, and the only sounds are that of Mary's tearful gasps for breath and the calming sound of the waves gently hitting the lakeshore.
Not him. Not him, please.