Chapter Text
As Henry hits the water, Hook’s heart slips from his hand. He tries to kick down after it, but it’s beyond his reach. Henry watches the pirate’s heart sinking into the depth, helpless.
Impossibly, a hand reaches out and grabs it.
A flick of a tail, a trail of bubbles, and a glimpse of flowing red hair, and Hook’s heart is back in the boy’s hand.
----
Emma had no idea where they were, or how long they’d been in the water. Hook must have hit his head as he tumbled overboard because he was unconscious and she had to swim pushing him along in front of her. It was dark, but the sea was calm and she could see the shore ahead, not far away now. Henry bobbed alongside her, apparently at ease in the water. She silently thanked Regina for making sure the kid knew how to swim.
They finally reached the beach and Emma was surprised at how soft the sand was, the sound of palm trees rustling overhead. The air was warm and heavy, wrapping around her like a blanket, and she realised they were in the tropics. How on earth did we get here? she wondered.
She and Henry started to drag Hook up the beach, beyond the tide mark. He was still unconscious but Henry could see his heart beating and glowing in his hand.
“We have to put it back.” he said.
“Why?” asked Emma, almost without thinking “It’s safer where it is.” If we have his heart, we can control him. Keep Gold safe. Keep ourselves safe.
“You don’t mean that! That’s something Regina would do. You still don’t trust him?”
“No.”
“But he tried to save our lives! You saw him resisting Cora.”
“He’s a pirate, Henry! The one thing he wants more than anything else in the world is to kill your grandfather! The only person he’s looking out for is himself. He helped Cora before, how do we know he wasn’t doing it again, won't do it again?”
“But he told you to jump, to get away from him. He was trying to protect you, protect me!” Henry looked at his mother curiously. Why couldn’t she see this? It was like getting her to believe in the curse all over again. She just wouldn’t let herself see what was right in front of her. A man turning to wood. A bad man becoming good. “You have to put it back.” He placed Hook’s heart in her hands.
She held it like it as though it was something dangerous, as though it would burn her. “Why me? I don’t know how it’s done.”
“You have magic. It will show you what to do.”
“I don’t know if there’s any magic here.”
“Why can’t you just believe?” Henry sighed in frustration.
Emma was exhausted, this was all too much. She glanced down at Hook’s heart in her hand, holding it like it was cursed. She half expected it to be shrivelled, rotten, dark, but it glowed brightly and pulsed strongly in her hand, just as she’d seen Aurora’s do. Maybe hearts don’t show our deeds, our wounds, she thought. But when she dared to look at it properly, she started to see the fissures and scars and dark bruises within it.
It was too much. She didn’t want this power, this responsibility. She didn’t want to be holding anyone’s heart in her hands. But once again, she didn’t have a choice...
Emma took a deep breath, and positioning herself beside Hook, thrust it back into his chest. There was a moment of resistance, as though his body was trying to reject it, and then it slipped back into place. With a gasp of pain, Hook’s eyes flew open, Emma’s hand still on his chest.
He started coughing up seawater and Emma helped him onto his side.
“Thank you” he said, trying to smile but only succeeding in coughing up more seawater.
“Don’t thank me, thank Henry. He’s the one who rescued your heart.” The words came out automatically. Emma sank down on the sand beside him, profoundly shocked by the whole experience, relieved and apprehensive at the same time. Another damned thread binding them together.
“Thank you, Henry” coughed Hook.
“You’re welcome." he smiled, "You saved my Mom!”
“Did I? I thought she just saved me.” he said, watching Emma curiously, unable to read her expression.
“Well then, I guess we’re even.” She got up abruptly, turning her back on him so he couldn’t see the confusion she felt sure must be showing on her face.
Hook frowned, but said nothing.
Henry went to give her a hug, and she held him tightly, “Hey kid.” she said, brushing away the tears that were starting to well up in her eyes.
Hook turned away, embarrassed to be intruding on a private moment between mother and son, but it didn’t escape his notice that it was Emma who needed comfort, and Henry who was providing it. He slowly managed to push himself up off the sand, his hand flying to his chest as he winced in pain.
Emma took a moment to compose herself, before turning to him. “Where are we?” she asked “’Cause I’m pretty sure this isn’t Maine.”
“No,” he said slowly, looking around. His eye caught something a little way along the beach and he drew in his breath in surprise, “Well, this is interesting…”
“Do you recognise this place, Hook?” she asked sharply.
He winced again, but this time at hearing his moniker, “Killian, Emma. It’s Killian. A few moments ago you had my heart in your hands. Surely we’re passed the whole Hook thing, now?” Emma didn’t respond and he sighed in exasperation.
“Yes, I’ve been here before.” He started up the beach, with Henry eagerly following, Emma trailing behind. “I never thought I’d see this place again…” he turned to Emma “We’ll be safe here. Cora will never find this place.” His expression sobered. “But we could be here a while.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, alarmed, “How long is a while?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“Look, Emma, I don’t know how this place works. It’s one of the strangest lands I’ve ever been in. It’s like a gateway between other worlds, except there’s no portal. It just kind of exists on the margins of other lands. It’s like a safe haven, a place you wash up to, quite literally. It provides you with everything you need…”
“Like the Room of Requirement!” cried Henry, excitedly.
“The what?” Hook looked confused.
“In the Harry Potter books… oh, never mind.” He said realising how long that would take to explain. “It’s a place that provides the things you need, as long as you know what to ask for – beds, bathrooms, weapons, whatever it is, you only have to ask.”
“Treasure?” Hook asked
Henry looked uncertain.
“Well, it sounds lovely, but unfortunately that’s not quite how it works here. I meant this place will provide us with what we need to survive – food, water, shelter, but we’ll need to work for it, need to build it, catch it, and so on.”
“Oh. Like camping!”
“Exactly.”
Emma groaned, thinking back to her time in The Enchanted Forest. “Great.”
“Look, this is where I camped last time I was here!” Hook gestured to the remains of a small shelter, and what looked like it might once have been a fire pit. “We’ll be safe here ‘til morning.” he said. “Get some sleep and we’ll start rebuilding tomorrow.”
“Whoa. Wait. Start rebuilding? How long are we going to be here, exactly?”
“Well, that’s the problem, love. I don’t know. It depends.”
“Yes, you said that before!” Emma was tired and exasperated “But what on?”
“Which one of us brought us here, and what they were running away from.”
“Well, that’s obvious isn’t it? We were all running away from Cora because she was trying to kill us!”
“Aye, that we were, but,” Hook hesitated “That’s not necessarily how it works. Last time, I thought I was escaping from a witch, but it was really something else, and it took me a long time to figure that out.”
“How long?”
“Seven moons.”
“Seven months?! You were here for seven months?!”
Hook looked sheepish. “It was quite a hard lesson, but I learned it eventually.” He could see Emma wanted answers, but he wasn’t going to let her ask any more questions. “Get some sleep. You’re exhausted. We can talk more in the morning.”