Hello

I haven't written in a couple of years but I came across this TV show and I completely fell in love with it. It's not my best but I just had to write something after that last ending in Swan Song so yes this story does contain spoilers, because I needed to do something to assuage the grief of my favourite ship sinking (for now). This is a Captain Hook/Killian Jones story so please try not to hate.

This is set about a couple of hours after the result of Swan Song in the Underworld and what I imagined it would look like based off of the promo videos I've seen so far. I am from England and I use the British spellings so it becomes less confusing for me.

Disclaimer - I do not own any of the characters (except maybe the nurse). All the rights belong to Adam and Eddy. But if I did own them, it's safe to say, Robin wouldn't need to be rescued all the time...

Enjoy!

Once Upon A Time

Reunion

"Oi Pirate, you gonna wake up anytime soon?"

Killian groggily opened his eyes and found himself lying in a hospital bed, bathed in red light coming from the window above his head. The side of his neck was throbbing and there was a deep hollow pain in his chest from where he was…wait, he was stabbed, wasn't he? Gingerly he touched his neck to find the skin split apart and oozing blood.

"Finally, I was beginning to think you were gonna snore for the rest of eternity." Killian winced and slowly turned towards the voice. A middle aged woman dressed in a tattered nurse uniform was scribbling on a clipboard at the side of his bed. Her lips were pursed in concentration as she glanced at him with shrewd eyes through her half moon glasses underneath a mop of greying hair.

"Where the bloody hell am I?" Killian groaned as he tried to sit up.

"I'll give you three guesses." The nurse replied dryly, putting her clipboard on a nearby bed. "Charon brought you in about two hours ago, with a laceration to the neck and a clean stab wound through your chest. Do you remember what happened? The details of your death are still being written up at the moment."

"I was…uh…" Killian frowned as the hazy memories slowly came back to him. "Swan…Emma stabbed me."

The nurse nodded understandingly. "Ah, did you cheat on her?"

"What? No! I love Emma." Killian bristled glaring at the nurse. His neck throbbed once more as he moved. "Ow!" The nurse pursed her lips in contempt and shuffled over to her desk on the opposite end of the ward. Two minutes later she came back with a small nondescript pot in her hand and she slapped some sour smelling gunk on Killian's neck. "Hey, what is that stuff?"

"It's just a salve that'll help heal you. It will start working in a couple of minutes. Right, open your shirt." The nurse replied.

"With pleasure, love." Killian joked half heartedly, as he popped open the buttons on his blood soaked shirt. The nurse gave him a look before she carried on with her job. Emma's mouth would have tried to stop a smile from appearing on her face if he had said that to her. "How long will it take before I can get out of here?"

"Depends. Are you going to try and get back to the land of the living?"

Killian's head shot up in surprise, different ideas flying through his head as fast as if he was sailing on the Jolly Roger. "Is there a way back?"

"Not for you. Well, not unless you want to damn somebody else down here instead." The nurse shrugged as she picked up her clipboard and clicked her pen. "Now, have you been to the Underworld before?"

"No…"

"Have you killed anyone in your life?"

Killian shifted in the bed. "I might have."

"Ok, we'll have to have a demon tail you for a while for your protection." She scribbled a note. "Right, basic rules of the Underworld. Don't eat anything, don't drink anything. Don't try to barter your way back to the world above, Charon will take it personally. No fighting. No pillaging. No piracy. Oh, sucks to be you Pirate." The nurse smirked at her own little joke. "And finally, all souls in the Underworld must attend the town meetings in the town hall when summoned. Any questions?"

Killian shook his head. The nurse nodded and slipped her pen into her pocket. "Oh, one more thing. If you come across Cerberus, try not to get eaten. Hades is sick of having to scrape body parts from between the hound's teeth. Have a nice afterlife."

Killian was left to his own devices as the nurse shuffled away.

"Same old Storybrooke. Some things never change it seems." Killian shook his head as he observed his surroundings and immediately spotted the clock tower in a heap in front of the library. He slotted his hook back into his arm brace, watching it glint in the red sunlight. The town was almost unrecognisable. Burning pyres littered the roads, old buildings had become ruins, and shop windows were smashed in, including Killian noticed with glee, Mr Gold's shop.

He began to explore Storybrooke, slowly making his way down towards the harbour. He hadn't come across anyone yet but he was sure that would change soon. He felt very unsettled and decided he needed to see the horizon to help calm him. He tried to come to grips with what happened to him. He was in the bloody Underworld. He was dead. And yet, the worst part was never seeing his Swan, his beautiful Emma, ever again. Whenever he saw her face in his mind, her tears as she thrust Excalibur into his chest, it brought up all of the pain he had experienced in his life. It wasn't just Emma he missed though. He had always coped with being on his own, but since he had arrived in Storybrooke hell bent on his revenge against the Crocodile, he had acquired friends. Close friends who had somehow become a family to him. He missed everybody he had left behind. Henry, Emma, Robin, David, Mary Margaret, Belle. Even Regina. He still hated Gold but that will never change.

Killian turned a corner just past the dry cleaners and stopped in his tracks. Parked up ahead on a set of bricks, was Emma's bug, its yellow paint blackened with soot and the windows smashed in. A lump tried to push its way up his throat but he swallowed and looked away, pushing forward on his path until her car was out of sight.

Eventually he arrived at the docks and sat on the familiar bench by the water. Thankfully, the bench was the same as it has always been. He stared out at the sea waiting for a wash of calm to fill his soul but nothing came. He sighed in frustration, feeling agitated that he couldn't even take solace in the sea. What he would give to have a sip of rum right now.

He sat there for what felt like hours, but he couldn't tell. The red sun above never moved from its perch in the middle of the sky, an uncomfortable heat beating down on his skin with no wind to take the edge off. There were very few boats in the harbour and they looked like they had never been used anyway. It was incredibly bad form to leave a ship tied up and never to let her sail on the open seas, to never let her have her maiden voyage. It left a sour taste in his mouth.

"Killian, is that you?"

Killian jumped up at the voice, his heart pounding in his chest as he recognised it. Standing a few feet away was a man he had never thought he would see again. Killian felt his eyes well up with unshed tears as he saw his brother staring at him with grief. "Liam," Killian breathed as he ran and embraced his brother in a tight hug. "Oh brother, I've missed you so much."

"And I you, Killian," his brother returned, his voice muffled by his shoulder as he hugged back. "But so sad that you're here."

"Aye," Killian pulled back reluctantly to look at his brother. Liam had not changed since the day he died. He was still wearing his Captain's uniform, which brought back memories from when he lost him. "I'm so sorry that you died. If there was any way I could go back and change things, we would never have set foot in Neverland."

Liam shook his head. "What's done is done. There's no use raking up the past, we've got enough of that here as it is. Besides what have you got to be sorry for? I am the only one at fault for what happened."

"I know but -"

"Enough." Liam stepped back and took in Killian's appearance. "Despite the circumstances, it's good to see you. But, what on earth are you wearing? And what's that stuff around your eyes?"

Killian looked away quickly brushing his eyes with his good hand, feeling his cheeks warm under his brother's curious stare. "Nothing. A lot has changed since we last saw each other."

"I guess, but you look like you've been in a fight and you know my views on that brother." Liam said sternly. The two brothers made their way back towards the bench and sat down.

Killian smiled at him with his eyebrow raised. "I've discovered that women find it quite attractive for some reason. And you can't exactly engage in piracy without throwing a few punches at some quivering cowards."

A look of shock appeared on Liam's face. "Killian, tell me you didn't become a pirate. That is extremely bad form brother."

"I couldn't help it, Liam. I couldn't carry on working under that wretched King's service after you died." Killian sighed with grief. "So I took the Jewel for myself, renamed it the Jolly Roger and then took my revenge on every ship in the King's navy."

"Oh Killian…" Liam shook his head in despair. The brothers continued to talk about Killian's life after Liam died. Killian told him about all of the adventures he had, his encounter with the Crocodile, his torment in Neverland and when he discovered their father was still alive and murdered him. He even told him about what happened to him in Storybrooke, from battling the Lost Boys to releasing the Dark Ones on his loved ones. It felt good to talk to his brother after all of these years spent apart. It felt like old times when he could tell his brother anything.

They fell silent and stared out at the horizon. Liam wrapped his arm around Killian's shoulders and pulled his brother into a one-armed hug. "I'm so sorry about what happened to you. That was not the life I wished for you when I brought you with me all those years ago. Your heart must be such a burden."

"Aye, but it wasn't all bad. I fell in love with Milah," Killian said lifting his right sleeve to show the tattoo on his arm. "And then I met the love of my life."

A smile crept up on Liam's mouth. "This "Swan" you were telling me about. She sounds like quite a woman."

"She is. We didn't start off great but she eventually warmed up to me. She and her son Henry helped heal the hole that appeared after you passed on." Killian nodded, feeling the lump grow in his throat again. "I love them so much Liam."

Liam nodded and squeezed his shoulder consolingly. "The Underworld was designed to be hard, but being away from loved ones is even harder. You won't believe the amount of times I wished I could break out of here and find you. But we're together now. We can help each other through this."

"Aye, we can."

A loud siren echoed across Storybrooke, making Liam jump. He sighed and stood up, smoothing out his uniform as he went. "That's the town hall. There must be a meeting. Come on, brother, let's go. We mustn't be late."

"Why does this place look like Storybrooke anyway? It keeps reminding me of Emma." Killian grumbled as he joined his brother.

"So that's what this place is. I guess the Underworld appears as everyone's own personal purgatory. We all have unfinished business here and until we complete that, we can't move on."

"Granny's must be packed then." Killian sighed. "Where are you staying at the moment?"

"There's a loft a few streets away from here that I stay in. It's not much but it's the best there is in a place like this. Anything to keep you sheltered from the furies is good in my book." Killian caught a look in Liam's eyes that sent shivers down his spine. "You can stay with me. It'll be like old times. We can take it in turns protecting each other from the other residents. This town is filled with the most despicable people you could ever come across. The Blind Witch owns the café down the road, I wouldn't try her pies if I were you by the way Killian. They are most definitely not steak and kidney. Not that you should eat anything here anyway. There's this completely psychotic woman tearing around town in this ridiculous vehicle and the worst of them all is that young boy named Pan."

Killian stopped in his tracks. "No, that demon cannot be here."

"Don't worry Killian, he usually keeps to himself. We all have to behave here or else Hades will know and send Cerberus to hunt us down." Liam said. Killian reluctantly continued on. "The Underworld is not the same place you have heard from stories. It's a lot worse." Killian swallowed and followed his brother closely. Hopefully, things wouldn't get any worse than it already is.