Still Time

"Very well," replied Hook, aristocratic sneer making itself at home in his expression. "Keep him." With that, he turned away from the mermaids and towards the crew manning the oars of his longboat. "Turn us about, Smee," he ordered, raising his hook almost lazily as he spoke. Then he extended his arm, pointing with prosthesis to the vessel that anchored nearer the sunset. "It's time to return to the Jolly Roger. We're done here for the night."

"What?!" rang out several voices around him, pirate and mermaid raising a simultaneous cry of confusion.

Captain Hook snarled. "I gave an order, gentlemen," he said "gentlemen" just such a way to make it clear he thought of his crew as anything but, "one that should be comprehensible even to wit-deficient ninny-cocks such as yourselves." Hook's elbow bent to bring his metal claw nearer to his face as he looked down upon his crew. His scowl deepened further. "Or do I have to find some way to make myself... clearer." With the last word, there was a movement, a slight but suggestive twist of the cruel weapon that replaced his hand, and it seemed to say, 'Put enough holes in something, and it becomes very clear indeed!'

Smee managed to give the impression of scrambling backwards despite the fact that he was already on the opposite end of the small boat, and he sat down heavily next to the tiller. "Oh, no, sir! No need for that, sir!" he sputtered out as he grasped the tiller. "You heard the Captain, men!" the bo's'n shouted. "Row! And put your backs into it! Hurry now!" By this point, however, the pirates hardly needed Smee's encouragement! They each were already rowing as hard as they could!

Still, after they had sufficiently distanced themselves from the mermaids, Mullins finally voiced the curiosity that gnawed at them all. "Sir. Beggin' your pardon, Captain, and with all do respect..." he muttered out between grunts.

James Hook sighed heavily. "Spit it out, Mullins," he said wearily.

"Well, it's just... I was wondering..." a glare finally pushed Mullins to the point, "why'd youse just let them mermaids keep you from Pan?"

The Captain chuckled lowly, a deep, slow, eerie sound that filled the gathering darkness. "They're not keeping me from Pan, Mullins. They're keeping Pan from me. They think to keep him safe, but imprisoned in safety is still imprisoned. They won't keep him long; by the time we'd have finally found a way down to wherever they're holding him, he'd have already found a way back up here. No, lads, our time will be better spent preparing for his re-emergence."

Furtive glances and brief nods were exchanged amongst the crew. It did make sense, and for all that Captain Hook could be a seething inferno of rage one moment, more a force of nature than a man, so he could often be quiet, manipulative, and scheming the next. Hook was not all temper. He did pick his battle. He had time.

His clock had not wound down yet.

End.

Author's Notes: I don't imagine I'll ever write the circumstances that lead up to this scene. They're really not that important to it.

This mini-fic was written as part of a fiction/fanfiction challenge. I had to choose from the following prompts to write a flash-fic:

1. Captain Hook and mermaids

2. Trapped in safety is still trapped

3. some sort of "when world's collide" drabble: what happens when the Neverland from Fox's PP&P meets the one from the 2003 movie (in other words, Crisis on Infinite Neverlands)

4. Constructicons... on the moon!

I combined both 1 and 2 for this.

This fic was originally posted in my LiveJournal at sapphirebreeze-dot-livejournal-dot-com-slash-105690-dot-html