Title: Permanent Measures

Part: 5/?

Author: Roguie – and all my other alternate personalities.

Fandom: Once Upon A Time

Pairing: Hook/Emma

Rating: Eventual M.

Spoilers: Up to and including 3x20 – Kansas

Summary: Hook never stopped to realize the damage inflicted on his soul with each of his Swan's casual rejections until bitterness threatened to turn his love for her into something less than pure. Nothing worth fighting for comes without pain; tonight, he's ready to go to war.

Disclaimer: Once Upon a Time most certainly doesn't belong to me. If it did, Hook would be showing Swan over and over exactly what he can do with his one hand, preferably somewhere Charming can walk in on; a mild trauma just to make up for the canon fodder comment. But since it's not on HBO, and well, I don't get paid for anything I do with it, I can truly say, not it!

A/N: And we pick up right where we left off. Oddly this part was written prior to Hook actually calling Emma out in Kansas – made me giggle a bit at the whole being happy with you comment. Had to wave my notebook in my husband's face Sunday night and point it out to him, possibly shrieking slightly, until it was taken from me for apparent safety concerns. LOL Enjoy!

I thoroughly apologize for not responding to reviews - I'm normally don't suck quite as hard at it, I've just been stupid busy real time, and then every second I sit down I've been writing lately. That said, this chapter's reviews will be answered as I've a few days off work on my horizon. \o/

Your favorites, follows, likes, reviews, comments, bookmarks, re-blogs, etc, mean the world to me and to my muse, who is a slave to knowing people are enjoying what she's provided.

~~~?~~~

They ran through the dark corridor for several long minutes, shoulders brushing rock walls, feet catching debris that threatened to knock them to the floor. When they'd felt they'd run far enough to evade the monstrosity that was Maleficent for the moment, Killian drew to a stop, turning to catch Emma in his arms as they fought to catch their collective breaths.

"I haven't heard her in a good minute or so, lass. She's likely retreated back to her chamber in an attempt to wait us out."

Emma groaned quietly, sliding to the ground, using the tunnel wall to support her as she rested. "Seriously, what's it going to take to put her down for good?"

A low chuckle was her response. "I can't honestly say. The last time she and I parted ways on poor terms. I don't think the dear has forgotten."

Emma snorted quietly. "Yeah, well she and I aren't exactly BFFs either."

"I cut random pieces off of her, apparently for no reason at all as she reassembled near immediately."

"I ran her through with my father's sword and left her here to rot."

"Impressive, love."

"I try."

Emma concentrated for a moment and brought back the little ball of light to give them some relief from the darkness.

"Any ideas on how to escape here, Swan?" Hook glanced down the corridor, sighing as it seemed to carry on through the darkness endlessly.

"Not a clue. The last time I had to drag myself up an elevator shaft by my fingernails. It wasn't the most fun I've ever had."

"You must have come down here with Regina, then," he quipped quietly.

Emma laughed sharply. "Oh, you're joking, right? She did the same to you?"

"Practically learned to fly that day. She knocked me straight off the cliff's edge and into Maleficent's waiting arms. Arm? Well, torso, anyway. Quite unpleasant. I walked with a limp for ages afterward."

"You walked with a limp because you were hit by a car trying to kill Rumpelstiltskin," Emma teased.

"All the same, it's not an experience I care to repeat." He paused, glancing around again thoughtfully. "There's bound to be an alternate escape to this demonic cavern."

"If there was, you'd think Maleficent would have found it by now."

"That, love, is the one good point to being betrayed by Regina," he winked teasingly. "She talks non-stop when she considers you as good as dead. As it happens, she had spelled this entire underground prison to contain Maleficent. Even provided an escape, she'd not be able to use it. Now, as I see it, if there weren't more than one entrance, she wasted a great deal of energy spelling more than just the lift shaft."

"So you think that if we follow this tunnel…?"

"It has to come out somewhere, doesn't it, now?"

"You realize it could be nothing more than a dead end, right?"

"Come on, love, where's your sense of adventure?" His eyebrow lifted and his eyes sparkled with mischievousness as he goaded her with finesse, offering his hook to help pull her to her feet.

"I left it in my coat pocket. What a shame whoever did this to us didn't think I could use it."

He chuckled quietly before his face grew serious, and he tapped his hook against the rock wall. "You know, I may have an idea how all this came about."

"Oh please, enlighten me."

"Your sarcasm is unwarranted, Swan, though no less an aphrodisiac than ever." His hand moved to tug at his earring as his eyebrow rose again.

"How about we concentrate on the issue at hand, hmm?"

He chuckled again, shaking his head gently as they began walking deeper into the darkness. "I received a rather unwarranted visit from a concerned parent yesterday," he began, only to be cut off with Emma's understanding groan.

"Of course she did. Of course she couldn't keep her mouth shut until I had a chance to tell you myself."

His gaze darkened immediately, his emotions shifting dangerously as his eyes narrowed. "When would that have been, love?"

"I don't know, but it would have been better than hearing it from Regina."

"Aye."

She watched his fingers curl into a fist, his jaw setting firm with anger and hurt so deep that his shoulders shook with the effort to control it.

"Killian…"

"I'm fine, love."

"No, no, you're really not fine, buddy. You are so far from fine that it would take a year just to find something resembling fine."

He sighed quietly. "Aye."

"Really? Aye?"

"What would you have me say, love? I cannot begin to explain my reactions to you. I have never felt so bloody out of control in all my years."

"There has to be a reason why! I mean, what's changed in a week that could do this? Come on, Hook, you're unpredictable, sure, but you're never this bi-polar."

He forced himself not to react to her words as he ground his teeth together forcefully, reburying the hurt and hanger that swelled free. "Regina."

"Regina?"

"I'd bet my ship that she's behind this confinement. Perhaps my behavior as well."

"But why?"

"Open your eyes, Swan. You informed her that you were to steal Henry back to New York just when they'd reunited. She's desperate, love, and desperate people take desperate measures. Believe me."

"Okay, I understand why I'm here based on that theory, but why would she take you, too?"

He twisted somewhat uncomfortably, tugging at his earring as he shrugged, relieved when the aching hurt that had been there mere moments before failed to resurface. "She was somewhat under the impression that your leaving was due to the rather vast distance between us in the past week. This could be her way of trying to assist."

Emma lifted an eyebrow in disbelief, unable to stop the scoff from escaping her lips. "Seriously? Why would it even occur to her to try and fix us?"

The hurt and anger that came with her callous words was more familiar now, and easier to pack away. He managed to hide every emotion that followed her complete inability to accept him into her life as more than a companion on an adventure as he stopped walking, reaching out to place his hook against the wall, leaning upon it heavily. Even still, his words were colder than he liked when he finally met her inquiring gaze.

"Perhaps, love, she felt that if you were happy in Storybrooke then you'd be less inclined to run off with the boy she holds so dear."

"And my happiness hinges on being with you?"

His eyes never wavered as he held her gaze, pushing her to see past everything that lay between them until nothing remained but the truth. "It isn't so far fetched, is it, Emma? My happiness exists only when I'm next to you."

There was no trace of a lie.

No half truth.

No obscurity.

Nothing in his eyes betrayed his words as anything but the stone cold truth. She sucked in an unsteady breath, her fingers trembling as she lifted them to cup his face gently, unable to miss the near immediate release of tension that flowed across his entire body.

She couldn't say the words he wanted to hear, she knew that. Staying in Storybrooke and hinging her happy ending on a pirate she'd really only known for a few months in the grand scheme of things, that wasn't a decision she was ready to make.

Henry was her happy ending. Her entire life revolved around keeping him safe, keeping him happy, trying to see that he grows up as normal as humanly possible. In this town, with this family, with all the history surrounding them, she couldn't guarantee anything. She certainly couldn't give him normalcy. How could she, as a mother with a child's best interests in mind, stay where they would never be safe based on the pure possibility of a second chance at love? Hell, she'd barely managed to get over the damage Walsh had inflicted on her heart; trusting it again so soon, no matter how loud it was screaming at her to invite Hook behind her walls, was a non-option.

She held his gaze bravely, letting him see everything, knowing even if it hurt them both that he had earned the right to see into her battered soul. For better or worse, she let him in and offered him the only words she could, praying they'd ease a bit of his hurt.

"I believe you," she whispered before dropping her hand, glancing back down the tunnel, evaporating the moment before the tears she could feel building could begin to burn.

She watched him from the corner of her eye as he pieced himself back together, closing off, packing it all away while he thought her otherwise engaged.

"We should move on," he said, flatly, turning to step off into the darkness, only pausing as he noticed the bone deep shudders that suddenly began to pass through her as the increasing cool dampness of their cage began to chill her in her half dressed state. "Bloody hell," he groaned, shrugging out of his coat and holding it open for her. "You'll catch your death in that state," he muttered, "You should have said if you were cold."

She took the coat gratefully, sinking into the leather warmed by his body, the essence of pure Killian filling her every sense. "I wasn't until just then. It's almost like we passed through whatever was keeping out the nastiness down here."

He nodded thoughtfully. "We've likely passed the extent of Regina's barrier."

Emma flexed her fingers, concentrating for a moment before her little ball of light near exploded, rising from her hand and illuminating the entire corridor. "Huh. Works better out here."

"Magic suppression, I would assume. With Maleficent's particular talents, Regina would have been lax to overlook something so important."

Emma eyed him carefully, noting how in control he'd been through their entire difficult conversation. "You seem… better."

He nodded. "Aye. We've passed whatever cursed hell was placed upon me." His back burned warmly as she fell into her place beside him, shoulders bumping as they walked.

"So. You really think Regina cursed you? Like some kind of anger curse?"

He chuckled ruefully, reaching up to brush his fingers across his earring as he carefully considered his words. "If a guess need be made, love, I'd say it had more to do with control than simple anger." He saw the confusion on her face and sighed, looking straight ahead. "I rarely find myself out of control. Even while facing the crocodile, though seeming desperate, my actions were always carefully calculated. I've had near four centuries to perfect that control. You… try me, Swan. Every insult, every misspoken thought, every time you pull me close only to leave me behind. I lose a little more each time, but I've always managed to maintain. By removing that, Regina effectively set me loose to speak my every thought. Thoughts often shared by the others in your life. Perhaps she considered that you may be more prone to listen to me if I spoke with honesty rather than my veiled attempts to protect us both from the depths of my feelings for you."

Stunned, Emma blinked slowly, swallowing around the sudden lump that grew in her throat. He felt her retreat into herself, felt her shoulders stiffen and her step falter. Every wall she possessed slammed into place between them as she forced the corners of her mouth to turn up into a well practiced smirk.

"Well, she obviously doesn't know me very well, does she?"

He was spared having to respond as their leading light stopped just ahead, its progress ended by the debris of an obviously recent cave in.

"Bloody hell," he muttered quietly, testing the density of the collapse with a few tugs of his hook against rock.

"So much for Plan B," Emma joked without amusement. "Don't suppose Plan C involves finding a cell phone you forgot you had in your coat pocket? We could just call for help?" At the forlorn look on his face, she had no choice but to laugh dryly. "Guess not. Plan D, then? Let's go make a friend."

"Your definition of friendship is appalling, Swan," he teased quietly as they began retracing their steps.

"Friendship, murderous intentions, it's all the same, right?"

She was rewarded with a sharp bark of laughter. "Remind me never to ask for your definition of romance."

Truth be told, he had a sinking feeling that if asked, her answer would be terrifyingly similar. As an inaudible sigh passed his lips, the ink under his skin burned hotter, forcing him to step closer to her if only to ease his sudden discomfort.

To her credit, she remained silent for the remaining distance back to Regina's barrier.

~~~TBC~~~

Much like magic, every muse has it's price. My muse's price is the little box down below. Please don't make her chase you for payment, it's such a bloody awful waste of her time.