Episode 2x22

"Turning Point"

Here they were again: Hook and Swan, facing each other down, pleading and refusing, fighting over the use of a magic bean, until one of them pulled a dirty sleight-of-hand to get it.

Hook had put the bean in a pouch when he stole it from Greg Mendel, and he had another one that was nearly identical in his pocket. So after Emma finished her pretty speech about being "a part of something," he swapped the pouches and handed her the empty one.

He did not relish the idea of Emma and the others dying, but if they were foolhardy enough to risk all their lives on the off chance that they could also save the Evil Queen's miserable life, then they deserved their fate.

"Quite passionate, Swan." Once the others started to disperse, he leaned in and asked her quietly, "Why are you really doing this?" If he could learn that, perhaps he could talk her out of this insane plan after all.

Emma's voice was hardened with determination. "That kid just lost his father. I'm not going to let him lose a mother too."

Hook was taken aback, and felt more than a little suspicious. Emma had never once alluded to the man who was the father of her child. Based on their past conversations, he had thought that it might have been a short-lived affair, or even a stranger. He had had no idea the man was still in Emma's life—but now, apparently, he was no longer. "His father? Who's Henry's father?"

Emma's eyes were wide, their gaze direct, as she answered, "Neal."

Hook had not seen the man himself—Emma had knocked him out before he could glimpse him in New York—but he had learned of him from Greg and Tamara. He knew who he had been in the Enchanted Forest, and the knowledge rocked him to his core. "Baelfire?"

"Yeah." Emma did not understand his reaction, and quickly followed the other townsfolk out of the diner, leaving Hook alone with his spinning thoughts.

The people he had been in league with, Greg and Tamara, had killed Baelfire.

The son Emma had been so desperate to return to, and Regina had been so desperate to retake, was also the son of Baelfire, and the grandson of Milah.

It was strange enough to think of Baelfire being old enough to have a lover, let alone for Emma to have been that person. But Hook supposed he could picture it: two lost children who made each other feel found.

He had wondered who it was that Emma once loved, and who it was that betrayed her, making her into the shrewd, prickly, mistrustful woman she now was. The Baelfire he had known so long ago would not have done such a thing. But what might have happened to him in between? After all, he had spent a long time among Pan and the Lost Boys … and Hook's last interaction with him had probably impacted him greatly, more than Hook wanted to acknowledge.

Memories Hook had long kept buried resurfaced in his mind: finding Baelfire in the water off the shore of Neverland; teaching him how to sail and navigate; the feeling of being a mentor, like a father or older brother, for the first time ever; the hurtful things Baelfire said when he learned of Hook's history with Milah; the look of betrayal in Baelfire's face when Hook handed him over to the Lost Boys.

He had tried not to think much about Baelfire during his centuries-long quest, even though he knew their paths might cross again as Rumplestiltskin searched for his son. Hook had told himself he did not care how Rumplestiltskin's death would affect Baelfire, that it might even make him happy.

Now, learning of Baelfire's connection to Emma and Henry, it was as though the truth that had been lurking just out of Hook's sight was finally in full view.

His mind said that it changed nothing.

His heart said that it changed everything.

While his mind floundered in the currents of these thoughts, his feet carried him in the direction he had originally intended: to the docks, to the Jolly Roger. To escape, survival, and freedom.

He performed the familiar, almost automatic tasks to launch the ship, steering her into open sea. All the while, though, something else felt familiar about his actions.

In a way, Hook was doing the same thing he had done so many years ago: putting himself before a young, innocent, heroic boy's welfare.

He had betrayed Baelfire, putting himself on the same despicable level as Rumplestiltskin.

Baelfire had then betrayed Emma, leaving her with a fatherless child and making her afraid to trust anyone.

Emma had then betrayed Hook, bringing the cycle of betrayal back to him.

And Hook was now betraying both Emma and her son, who was also Baelfire's son.

Since Henry had been born in this world, the boy would survive the town's destruction. But Hook's betrayal would cause him to grow up alone, just as his parents had.

As he held the bean in his hand, pondering where he should go, Hook's eyes fell upon the initials carved into the helm: P for port and S for starboard, a guide for Baelfire as he learned how to sail. Hook had tried to strike them out after Baelfire's departure, but the mark had remained, no matter how much he tried to ignore it.

Hook rarely ever acknowledged any of his misdeeds, even to himself. But the truth was, he had caused Baelfire's loneliness twice. First, he had taken Milah away, which robbed Baelfire of a loving parent and contributed to his father's descent into darkness. Then he had betrayed Baelfire to the Lost Boys, condemning him to years of torment and isolation in Pan's kingdom.

Hook was guilty of many horrible things, but betraying Baelfire had been one of the worst. Their mutual rejection had hurt more than most other kinds of wounds, because they had truly cared about each other.

The initials seemed like points on a compass, or markers at a crossroads, indicating that he had a choice to make—again.

Was fate giving him a chance to make up for what he had done, and failed to do, with regard to Baelfire?

Tamara and Emma both wanted Hook to believe in the righteousness of their respective causes, and throw his in lot with theirs, come what may. Self-preservation seemed like the only sensible response to such dire circumstances and reckless plans.

But Emma and her family were acting out of love, trying to save people, whereas Tamara and Greg acted out of hate, trying to destroy. Hook had spent many years—most of his life, in fact—driven by that kind of darkness. It had taken priority over anything and everything else, even to the point of betraying the one person who had ever looked up to him.

He had told Baelfire that he could change for him. Baelfire's rejection had hardened him, made him retreat back into his hatred and vengefulness.

But maybe it was not too late to change.

He could break the cycle of betrayal. He could do for Emma and Henry what he had failed to do for Milah and Baelfire: save the mother and keep the boy's family intact.

It might have been too late to save or reconcile with Baelfire, but it was not too late to do what he would have wanted.

Hook put the bean back in its pouch, pocketed it, and changed course.

An entire party was at the docks when he pulled into Storybrooke. Henry was not among them, but Emma and her parents had been joined by Regina, Rumplestiltskin, and Belle, whom Hook had not seen up close since the night he shot her. Fortunately, neither she nor the Dark One seemed particularly upset to see her attacker.

When Emma informed him that Henry had been kidnapped by their enemies, he did not hesitate. "I offer my ship and my services." It was the most open-ended and profitless offer he had ever made, but he was resolved upon it, come what may.

He had been willing to give up his quest for revenge in order to preserve his own life. Now, it seemed, he would have to put his hatred aside in order to save Henry. Evidently, he was the one person that all of them—Emma Swan, Snow White, Prince Charming, the Evil Queen, the Dark One, and Captain Hook—cared about.

His resolve did not waver, even when Rumplestiltskin's globe—clearly an instrument that utilized blood magic—revealed Henry's location: Neverland, the place Hook had spent most of his life, and the place he hated more than any other.

Hook was probably the only one on board who understood the dreadful significance of that destination. He knew who must have ordered Henry's kidnapping, and what the boy would probably be forced to endure. He knew that the island would test them all in horrible ways, and there was a fair probability that they would not all survive.

Twice, he had left that realm vowing never to return. He had broken that vow the first time in order to pursue his revenge on Baelfire's father. Now, ironically enough, he was doing so in order to save Baelfire's son. He supposed there was something fitting about that.

At least if they died, it would be for a worthy cause: saving a young boy's life. That might mean different things to each of the people on board, but in spite of their deep differences and bitter rivalries, they were united in purpose in a way that none of Hook's past crews had ever been.

He could only hope that he would not lose as many of them this time.

Author's Note: In the series, it is unclear how Hook found out that Baelfire and Neal were the same person. A deleted scene indicates that he knew Neal was Emma's former lover and Tamara's fiancé, and his strong reaction suggests that he knew Neal was Baelfire; but that does not really track with his reaction to learning that Neal was Henry's father.