Never Letting Go || CS

Chapter Ten: Friends?

The next morning, Emma woke up. The events of yesterday came flooding back to her immediately. Emma thought she could trust Hook, but it seemed she was wrong. Or was she? He had scared her in that moment, but she remembered the look in his eyes. Yes, it was murderous, but she saw past that. What she saw was something else: hurt. She did something that had brought back a lot of hurt and pain for him. She realised that his outburst wasn't just pure malice, it was because he was hurting inside. He wasn't evil, he was just broken.

That made Emma curious as to what caused him so much hurt. She didn't want to pry into his business, but maybe she could fix him. She wanted to. She didn't know why, but it hurt her to see him hurting. After what he'd done to her, she couldn't find it in herself to hate him. No matter how hard she tried to think otherwise, she just saw him as a lost soul in need of help.

Thinking back, she was a little hard on him. She didn't give him chance to explain and she should have. So she decided to go and talk to him. As she opened her door, she noticed food and water outside her door. She hadn't noticed how hungry she actually was until now, so she picked it up and ate it quickly. She sighed in content and went up to the top deck in hopes of finding him there.

Instead of Hook at the wheel like she thought he would be, there was a short man with a brown beard and he was wearing a red woolly hat on the top of his head. Emma thought this was strange because it was quite a warm morning. She approached the man hoping he would know where to find the captain. "Excuse me sir. Do you know where I could find you captain?" The man looked quite shocked that she had approached him, but replied anyway "Uhh just go down that hall, miss, he'll be in the second room on the right." He pointed towards the door she went through yesterday. "thankyou sir." She said politely and headed towards where Hook would be.

As she approached the door, she took a deep breath and knocked softly on the dark wood. A muffled response of "Come in" was heard before Emma cautiously opened the door to reveal Hook sat on a bed, seemingly looking out of the window.

When he turned his head, he wasn't expecting to see Emma so he looked a little shocked. "Swan." Was all he said when he saw her. "Hey. Can I come in please?" She asked timidly.

"Of course." He said with a small smile as he gestured with his hand to enter. His expression was blank, but his eyes were full of regret and Emma could see this, but she didn't say a word as she closed the door behind her and walked towards him with caution. He motioned for her to sit beside him, so she did, but she made sure to keep some distance between them.

They sat in an awkward silence for a while before Hook finally managed to say "About yesterday-" but he was cut off by Emma saying "I may not know why you snapped at me, but I clearly upset you and I'm sorry for that. If you want, we could talk about it? You don't have to though." He looked into her eyes and he could tell that she wasn't angry with him so he breathed a sigh of relief. "Those clothes you found. They belonged to a-a friend, and seeing you wear them just brought back memories that I'd rather forget." He was confused as to why he had decided to open up to her, even if it wasn't the whole truth. Those clothes did in fact belong to Milah, Hook's first love. Her heart was crushed by none other than The Dark One. From then on, he vowed he would avenge her death no matter how long it would take him. After that day, every waking hour was spent trying to find the crocodile's weakness. He had to have one, everyone did.

"I'm so sorry. I had no idea. I-its just that I needed a change and I didn't think you'd mind because it's not like you need them, you know?" Hook smiled at her rambling whilst Emma looked really guilty and she didn't want to look him in the eye. He took a deep breath in and replied with "I shouldn't have snapped at you, you weren't to know. And I think I'm the one who should be apologising." He reached towards the cut on her neck and she flinched so he lowered his hand and looked away. It hurt him that she flinched away, but he fully understood why. He knew she would no longer trust him, and it was all his fault.

They fell back into an awkward silence for a while, each not knowing what to say next. They just looked around, avoiding eachother's gaze. "Would it be okay if we became....friends?" Hook asked nervously. Emma looked up with a smile. "Of course." Hook sighed in relief. This was his first friend in centuries. Sure, he had an entire crew, but they weren't his friends, they just worked for him. He'd never got to know any of them really, so that's all they were; shipmates. "Well then, I'd better go up and check on the crew. They can get lazy if I'm not around to watch them." He smiled and got up to leave. "Oh yea, feel free to have a look around the ship, after all, you're going to be on here for a while." With that, he left the room to take the wheel of the ship.

Emma was still smiling to herself as she went to explore the ship a little more. She went into every room she could find, most of them being sleeping quarters. She came across a room with several long wooden tables and benches surrounding them, which Emma presumed was where the crew would eat, and a small room attached to the dining room led to a kitchen lined with stoves, cupboards and drawers. There wasn't much light in this room, but there was enough for Emma to see properly. Copper pans hung from the low ceiling along with some kitchen utensils.

She left the room to see if there were any more places she had yet to explore, but she didn't. By now it was nearly dusk and everyone was about to go and eat dinner. Hook approached her and let Emma know that it was almost time to eat.

They headed down to the dining room together and they were the last to enter. Everyone had already started eating when Emma and Hook entered. Hook sat at his usual place at the head of the longest wooden table. The only vacant seat was the one to the left of Hook, so that's where Emma sat. Throughout dinner, Hook laughed and talked with his crew all dinner, whilst Emma didn't say a word. She just silently ate, not knowing how to join their conversation. She just sat thinking to herself whilst she ate.

She wondered what her parents would be doing at this point. If they knew she was okay, or if she was even alive. She worried for her mother because she knew how protective she was of her. Snow and Charming loved their only child with all their heart, and she loved them too. She didn't realise how much she missed her old life until now. She hated how many restrictions she had, but she knew her father only enforced them to keep her safe.

"So, what do you think, Swan?" Emma was pulled from her thoughts by Hook asking her a question. She wasn't listening to their conversation so she replied with; "Huh?" She looked up to see most of the crew looking in her direction. "I said this ship is marvelous, isn't it? How are you finding it, love?" Hook questioned. "Uh yea its great. A lot cleaner than I expected a pirate ship to be." She smiled at him. Hook chuckled and said "I'll take that as a complement." Again Emma noticed that glint of pride in his eyes whenever his ship was discussed and she loved it. She laughed along with the rest of the crew.

They stayed in the dining room for hours after they'd finished eating. They were all laughing and talking once more, but this time Emma joined in on their conversations. She heard many stories of their time in Neverland and lots of tales of their many adventures on the seas. She listened in awe at the life they had, and could help but feel a little jealous. She wished she could join in with their fantastic endeavors, it sounded like a lot of fun. She was never allowed to have any real fun, just what her mother called fun. It was basically reading, sewing and only things that a 'proper lady' should be doing. The only adventures she ever got close to having were when she read the many books that were stored in the palace's vast library that she visited frequently. They were her escape from reality. Whilst she was stuck being a princess and having duties, she could be whisked away into a land where she could be what she wanted and all she had to do was imagine.

When Hook saw Emma yawning, he knew it was time to end their fun. Although he loved how Emma's eyes sparkled when he told of his adventures, he knew it was getting late and she had to sleep. "I think that's enough tales today, love. Why don't you go and get some rest." He smiled at her as she nodded and left the room, bidding goodnight to the crew that she had grown quite fond of.