The Swan Princess

-8-

Killian Jones sighed quietly as he clawed an X into the tree he'd just been sleeping next to. A week of nothing, getting nowhere in his search for his children, has drained almost all of his energy. The pirate captain was losing hope, and quickly.

It had been a week since he'd left, and in that time he hadn't seen Emma at all. He wondered if she was thinking of her husband, or if she was as distraught as he was. Of course not... he thought to himself. There's a reason she left.

Was it true, what she said before she had left him? Did he really not care about his own children? No. Impossible. Evil as he may have been at one point, he had a heart and his family was all that he cared about.

His heart ached thinking of his wife. A memory from a previous time when his grief had almost matched the grief he was feeling now, a time when a woman named Mila owned his heart, rose into his mind. Mila... She had been nothing compared to the Savior, true, but he'd still mourned her. He'd emptied taverns at every port he could find if it meant getting her death out of his mind. If that was less than the pain he was feeling right now, he wasn't sure what he was capable of doing to himself if he were to ever lose Emma Swan.

"Are you okay?"

Memories of his long lost lovers faded as his mind was drawn to the child standing a few yards in front of him. Across the pond from where he was getting water, she leaned out from behind a tree, brilliant blue eyes narrowed at him.

He stood up straight and narrowed his eyes back at her. "Aye. Are you lost?"

The child was momentarily silent as her eyes flickered to the hook where his hand once was, then back up at him. Sensing no immediate danger, she stepped out from behind her hiding spot and stood at the water's edge.

"No." she said confidently. "I'm just waiting for my brother to come back with more food."

"You kids shouldn't be out here. It's fairly dangerous, or so I've been told." he warned. Her eyes... he swore they looked so familiar.

"It's not dangerous." the child protested. "Just because these enchanted woods have enchanted secrets, it doesn't mean they're dangerous."

"Eva? Who are you talking to?" a young man's voice called out, and Hook's heart dropped when he saw the boy. The boy, in return, dropped almost all of the food he was carrying.

"Dad?"

"Henry?" the crocodile gasped. The two stared at each other, mouths agape, for a few moments before the stunned child broke the silence.

"Dad?"

Hook turned to look at her again. Of course he'd recognized the eyes. It had been so long since he'd looked in a mirror, he wouldn't have realized that the child's eyes were a perfect copy of his. The hair should have been a dead ringer. She was more like Emma than him.

"Eva? Love, is that you?" he whispered. Her eyes widened a little, still trying to comprehend what was happening.

"Henry. Was I right?" she said calmly, never breaking eye contact with her father.

"Yes." the prince replied. "I've been dying to tell you."

At this, Eva finally looked away, tears forming in her eyes. She wiped at them with her sleeves, looking from her brother to the man he had called father.

"I knew it. She was too young. She didn't love us the right way. It didn't feel right." she mumbled, mostly to herself. Then she looked back at the leather-covered King of the Sea again. "You're my father, then."

Hook was so caught up in the whole ordeal that he almost didn't realize she was talking to him. "Aye." he said quietly. He felt almost ashamed. This was his daughter, his own flesh and blood. She didn't know who he was, and he hadn't recognized her either. Should he embrace her? What was the right thing to do?

Before he could make his decision, a pair of small arms tightly wrapped around his waist crashed his train of thought. The little girl embracing him buried her face in the leather of his jacket. Henry ran over to join them, too, and gave them the biggest bear hug he could muster up.

Overcome with such joy, Hook sobbed. Now all that was missing was Emma.