"Good morning, mom! Can we go to Granny's for breakfast?" Henry walked into the kitchen of their apartment, looking around for Emma. He had only recently begun calling Emma his mother, but it was a welcome change. "Mom? Are you here?" he yelled, his voice echoing through the seemingly empty apartment. He was about to give up and make himself a Pop-Tart when he saw a note on the counter.

'Gone to the station. Needed to take care of some business early. Should be done by the time you get out of school. I'll pick you up and meet you at Granny's. Love, Mom'

"Well, that's that," Henry thought to himself. He grabbed his backpack and made his way out of the loft, mentally preparing for the daily grind of elementary school. The school was nice and he loved having Mary Margaret as a teacher, but the work just wasn't difficult enough. He wanted a challenge, maybe even an adventure. Luckily for Henry, adventure came to him that very morning in the form of a one handed pirate.

Hook sauntered down the main street sidewalk as if he wasn't totally lost and looking for a fight. He had just been released from the hospital half an hour ago. The dried blood on his shirt was starting to smell, but he really had nothing else to wear. After the incident with Rumplestiltskin and Belle at the town line, the majority of its citizens had not bothered to acknowledge him, let alone give him clothes to wear. It seemed that they didn't quite understand that he had nothing against Belle. All Hook cared about was hurting the Crocodile. Now that his revenge was taken care of, Hook decided it was time to go looking for his swan.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice a little boy with a brilliant smile and a mischievous look in his eyes heading toward him.

"Hey! Hey you!" the boy yelled. Hook turned around to see eyes as green as seawater looking back at him. The lad standing before him looked to be about ten years old, and he had a familiarity about him that Hook couldn't put his finger on.

"Hello, lad. What seems to be the problem?" He gave the boy what he hoped was a reassuring smile. He couldn't have the townspeople seeing him as a predator as well as a criminal. Hook's smile widened, however, when he heard the boy's next question.

"Are you Captain Hook?" Hook swallowed.

"Why yes, boy, that is my more colorful moniker. However, you may call me Killian." The boy's childlike innocence reminded him of boys he used to run with in Neverland. But that was a long time ago. He was a boy no longer. Love and loss was a transformative process for him, and Captain Hook was born in the process. "What's your name, lad?"

Henry could not contain his excitement any longer. "I can't believe you're really him! You're Captain Hook! You're in my story book! I've been waiting for you to show up!" He stopped, finally comprehending what the man had asked him. "Oh. My name is Henry. Henry Mills. Pleased to meet you." He held out a hand to shake.

"Good to meet you too, Henry." Hook shook Henry's hand. "I was wondering, Henry, while I've got you here, could you help me with something? An adventure of sorts?"

"An adventure? Sure! What is it?" Henry looked up at Killian with hope shining in his eyes. He hadn't been on an adventure since Operation Cobra with Emma and before that, his "mother", Regina, hadn't allowed him to do anything fun.

"I'm looking for a woman." Killian paused when Henry gave him a blank look. "Not like that. We'll maybe like that. Oh, bloody hell, I shouldn't have said that. I-" he clenched his teeth and cursed himself silently for cursing in front of a child. "How about I just tell you the whole story?"

"Uh...okay. Can we go to Granny's though? I'm getting hungry." Henry walked closer to Killian and grabbed his hand, pulling him in the direction of the diner. "Come on. You can tell me all about it on the way."

"And that's how I met Emma Swan." Hook finished. He had been telling his story to Henry for the last hour and a half, and he suspected that the raven haired waitress refilling Henry's hot chocolate was listening in on their conversation. "The last time I saw her was a few weeks ago when I was still in the hospital. She questioned me about Cora and told me she'd 'pick me' to be dead guy of the year, then proceeded to leave with Rumplestiltskin." He couldn't help feeling a little betrayed by her decision, now that he thought of it. Emma knew Hook didn't trust the Crocodile, but she went with him anyway.

"What if I told you I could lead you right to Emma?" Henry smiled at Hook like he knew something the pirate didn't. "But first, what if I told you that I could find out if she likes you? I mean, you're obviously in love with her and I really like you, so if she loves you too, there's no reason this can't work. Then we can hang out like this all the time!" Henry sent another brilliant smile Hook's way.

Killian couldn't help noticing their waitress's raised eyebrows at Henry's outburst. "Henry, let's take it one step at a time, okay?" He paused for a minute, letting Henry's words sink in fully. He squinted at the boy and murmured to himself for a minute. "Hold on. Is Emma your mother?"

Henry looked a bit guilty. He had sort of tricked Killian into telling him all about his and Emma's story. "Well, yes. She's my mom. But I'm still going to help you! I don't know you that well yet, but I do know that you seem perfect for each other. True love really exists; I've seen it, and I think you and Emma have it."

Hook's jaw dropped and he stared at the table for a minute. "Look lad, I really like you and I do want to find your mom, but true love? True love doesn't exist for me anymore. I don't deserve to have it." He thought back to all of the horrible things he had done after Milah's death and cringed. He certainly had a darker past than most.

"But-" Henry started. "If you could just hear yourself-"

"That's the last I want to hear of this 'true love' nonsense. Now, if you're ready, I'd like to go find your mom." Hook stood up and held his hand out to Henry. "Ready?"

Henry stared down at the table for a couple more seconds. He refused to accept Hook's brush off of "true love", and little did Hook know, he was going to make sure that he and Emma ended up together. 'And then we'll be one big happy family, like it's supposed to be.' Henry thought to himself.

"Yeah." Henry smiled up at Hook at took his good hand. "Let's go find her."