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Chapter 2: Hook…

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Emma smiled as she chased after the toddling terror who was clutching a now squished dandelion in her little hand. Catching the little blonde, she lifted her daughter into the air while the child gave a squeal of delight. Squeezing her into a cuddle and blowing raspberries into her neck, Hope laughed while simultaneously trying to get away.

'Just like her mom,' Emma thought to herself as her eyes sought out the pirate for whom she was always trying to wiggle away.

But he wasn't paying any attention to either of them. Instead he stood transfixed eyes on the vast water stretched out in front of him. His arm twitched as if he wanted to reach out for the gently lapping waves.

"Killian?" She called to him while still trying to wrangle Hope and keep her from running off.

The little girl giggled and called out "eee-yan!"

"Killian?" Emma ignoring her little echo, repeated again, louder this time but still he didn't react.

"EEEE-YAaAnnn!"

Emma picked up the wiggling toddler and plopped her on her hip as she walked over to the pirate and waved her hand in front of his face. His eyes never moved but as she watched them she noticed an odd red and blue light swirling around in them. Grabbing him in concern, she shook him and yelled, "Hook!"

"What?" He finally responded to the loud chastisement, confusion evident on his expression.

"Ook ook ook…" Hope repeated in a sing song voice while rocking her head back and forth before deciding to shove the smooshed dandelion in her mouth.

"Oh no matey, you don't want to eat those! They're so much better when you make them into wine first!" He pulled his daughter from her mother's arms laughing when the child gave him a petal filled smile. He threw his head back and laughed.

"What was that about?" Emma asked her brow furrowed.

"Oh right, no alcohol until 21 in this realm," leaning into his daughter's ear he whispered loudly "savages!"

"No, not that," Emma rolled her eyes at both his ridiculous opinions on childhood drinking (way to many prior arguments rolled around in her head about why they couldn't add rum to Hope's bottle so she'd sleep all night and allow him to 'plunder her treasure chest' as he so colorfully put it), and his seeming dismissal of the real point of her question. "Your gazing at the ocean like…" she gestured toward the water, "there's a dozen topless women with a casket of rum."

Seeming to ignore the question, he chomped onto the remainders of the dandelion that his daughter offered him before turning to smile at Emma with plant parts and a few leftover petals on his teeth. "Aren't we a gorgeous pair?"

While her daughter threw her head back and laughed at his ridiculousness, Emma frowned. Once again she realized she was raising two children. More and more lately she wondered how she had ended up with such an asshat. Raising Henry had never been like this.

But that was because of Regina, her heart reminded her, as the ever present pang at the absence of the woman made its presence known. She found herself wondering, for what felt like the hundredth time that morning, what the 'Good Queen' was currently doing (and whether she was thinking about Emma).

Sighing, she watched as her two children started ripping up dandelions by the roots, then masticating the flowers before spitting them out in a shower of chewed petals and stalk parts. It was utterly disgusting.

At least he isn't staring at the water lost in thought, she reminded herself. It seemed to be happening more and more frequently. Two nights ago had been the worst.

After Smee had phoned, Killian had taken the call out on the porch. An hour later, she found him with the phone dangling from his hook completely oblivious to the shouts of his first mate, blue and red lights swirling in his irises. Smee informed her Hook had stopped responding a few minutes into the call when Smee had told him about a new journey to plunder an uncharted island in some realm or other.

It had taken her several tries and finally dousing him in cold water to get him to respond. Emma wondered if he missed the Jolly Rodger and sailing. So she had asked him if he wanted to go with his crew, and he told her that nothing was more important than his wife and child.

The words she supposed should have made her feel better, but his tone has been so flat it had almost sounded like someone was speaking for him. Wanting to take the high road, she had reminded him that it was perfectly normal to spend time apart and that she was ok with it.

He had instantly shut her down, questioning why she would want him gone, which had ended in a giant fight with him somehow blaming Regina. It was pretty much how all their fights went, even though Regina didn't even live in Storybrooke anymore, not that the fact seemed to matter to Hook at all.

They had slept separately that night. Something she was becoming more accustomed to lately.

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