I Will Stand By You

Closer To Her

Killian's Pov

"This way," I wince at the voices vibrating around my head.

David follows me as I walk quickly across main street. The whispers are getting louder by the second, which means we are close, but my head is pounding as the noises infiltrate my head. I stop in front of Gold's Pawnshop.

"The daggers in there," I squeeze my eyes shut at the impossibly loud whispers.

"How is that possible? Gold said the dagger was missing?" David stands beside me in front of the building.

"I guess the dark one has retrieved his dagger." I clench my teeth against the pain.

"Or maybe Regina is right. We shouldn't trust Gold," David looks at me.

I scowl angrily at the door, "I'll kill him if he did this to Emma, Dark One or not."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves Hook. Let's see what he has to say," David places his hand on my shoulder "You good?".

I nod, "It's just the dagger's whispers. I'll be fine once we figure out what the Dark One is hiding." I hiss as David opens the door. The whispers flood out of the small shop. I grit my teeth and force myself through the door.

"Gold," David shouts through the empty shop, Gold nowhere to be found. We walk up to the cashier desk. The whispers penetrate my skull more than ever. I collapse against the glass counter. My firm grip on the ledge is the only reason I remain standing. When I was bound to Excalibur, the whispers were never this loud. Maybe it was the potion I drank. Or maybe it was the dagger itself. The dark one captured both Emma's and my magic. Maybe the increased power made the whispers louder. There is a moment of silence, but it is interrupted by the sound of a cane knocking against the wood floors, along with a set of footsteps.

Gold pushes back the curtain, as the crocodile emerges from the back room, "Hello gentlemen. What can I help you two with?"

"We know you have the dagger," I speak through the head-splitting pain.

"Yes, that I do. I don't know why that should be a surprise to either of you," Rumplestiltskin replies.

"Last time we checked it was missing," David responds. I can see his own anger building.

"Well as you can see," Rumple pulls out her dagger from his coat pocket, "all is as it should be."

"How? How did you get it back? Do you know something?" I look the crocodile dead in the eye. If looks could kill, he'd be a pile of ash on the floor.

"Take it easy Captain. You don't look so well. And it seems that the next villain we are after only needed my dagger for a short period of time. For what they used it for I wouldn't be able to tell," Rumplestitskin explains.

I don't buy it. David is unsure too, "Then why not keep it, control you and use your power for their own."

"For all we know, it could have something to do with the curse your dearly beloved daughter is under," the Dark One stays calm, but I can't help but remember his track record of making deals with the villains that come to this town.

"I'd just like to remind you that your grandson's mother is under a curse she can't be woken from just yet. So if you know something, you know where to find us. And if you are somehow associated with this villain, we will find out if you were conspiring together. And then you will pay for what you help them do to Emma," I push away my pain, growling at the old man.

"I will certainly let you know," Rumple says collectedly.

David and I walk out of the shop together. It's a relief to get just a few feet away from that bloody dagger, the whispers fade the more I walk. And yet I can't help but want to go back in, to find if the dark one is hiding anything that could help up. But if he didn't want to talk, he wouldn't. So we'd have to find a reason to make him.