sit yourself down, and meet the best inn keeper in town ( O P E N )

[checkingin]

Who: Everyone!
Where: The initial arrival rooms, the main lobby, all over the place.
When: February 3rd
What: Welcome, newbies.

ARRIVAL.

you wake up when you hit the floor in a dark room, and the air is knocked out of your lungs. the carpet is threadbare, worn with use, kind of dusty. and you're not the first person to endure this crash landing. nor will you be the last.

once your vision rights itself, you can see the well-lit hallway through the doorjam straight ahead of you. not to say there’s monsters in the shadows, but something propels you towards that door and out into the bright hallway beyond.

and once outside your room, you can hear it: the steady thrum of rain outside.

MAIN LOBBY.

there's a staircase at the end of the lengthy hallway you tumble out of. grab your suitcase and follow the dull green exit signs on the ceiling until you reach the disappointingly bland stairs that lead you down to the ornate old fashion hotel lobby.

to your left is a warmly crackling fireplace, to your right is a lobby desk. straight ahead are three large sets of doors, though only one of them is open to the public. and outside the few (curtained, permanently dark) windows is the continually steady hiss of rain.

welcome to the hotel.

FRONT DESK.

though there is a bell and a plaque designating the desk to be the main desk, the customer service desk, there are currently no staff members behind it. none shall answer your calls, either.

terribly sorry for the inconvenience.

SCREENING ROOM.

on a tall pull-down screen, a silent version of nosferatu will be playing on loop. at the back of the room, between the neat rows of fold out chairs, mounted on a wobbly table is the old timey projector, and mounted on the walls are some rather old speakers that warble out "terrifying" old timey music.

along the curtained windows is another long table, with a large bowl that looked like it once would have held popcorn. but is now unfortunately empty. same for the large hot drink dispensers labeled "hot chocolate" and "coffee".

OTHER.

the ballroom and breakfast hall are currently closed, grand doors locked.

there is no main door leading to the outside, good luck trying to find one.

the door to the courtyard is locked.

ROOMS.

you've a room key with your assigned room number on it. all the new guest residences will be located on floors one & two. while there is an open elevator in the main lobby, and the buttons light up inside, the doors will not close. all in all, you'd be better off taking the stairs.

while they're the same stairs you undoubtedly came down to get to the lobby, the door to the endless hall everyone woke up in will not reappear between the main floor and the subsequent residential halls.

there are twenty rooms per floor. feel free to get to know your surroundings; or your neighbors as they trickle in around you.

Comments

later

[sheriffing]

[Emma feels more like herself after a change of clothes, her date dress folded away and her usual layers and jeans back on. They should have known that their night of peace and quiet was going to come with a price. And she's not sorry that they're stuck (not yet, that'll come later) because it's new enough to feel like they might be able to get out of here and bring Neal home with them. If he's here, then it shouldn't take much to bring him back there, right? It's not much different than them carting Marion off before she could get killed - the timeline is preserved, and all that changes is the future. Henry having his father back would be a change for the better, so there's nothing wrong with fighting for it.

He fought to get back to them, now they have a chance to make that work out the way it always should have. It's not supposed to be possible, but if it is, then they need to find a way to make this work. They need a plan, it's just a little early for that. Not knowing what they're up against or why they're here has them at a disadvantage. There's no known motive, no hints of what's to come. It's eerily quiet in this hotel and the lack of answers has her itching to find out what these people are hiding.

There has to be a reason they were brought here. As random as all of it looks on the outside, she doesn't buy it. No one with this kind of power would just collect a group of strangers from different worlds for the hell of it. She's already accepted that she won't like the truth when it does come out, but any answers at all would be something right now.

Which is why Emma is off finding her own, wandering around on the second floor to get some answers. Once she's had some time to roam around and her eyes fall on the door to 207, she doesn't try to open it; she knocks. It's probably a neighbor and a fellow captive, and even just knowing who ended up around her would be more information than she has at the moment. It's not much, but it's a start, accidentally on-purpose bringing her right to Killian's door.]

[villainously]

[ he doesn't think it's random, either. this place reminds him too keenly of Neverland, makes him more paranoid and skittish than even Hook himself wants to admit. nobody seems to know a thing, and that just can't be. there has to be someone that knows, and if they're hiding it he'll find them, sooner or later. he's spent enough time trapped in his life, and he's very tired of the whole process. it's true that landing here has given them a gift, if they can bring Baelfire back to Storybrooke once they figure out the intricacies of this place, then it'll be worth all the frustration. he needs to remember that.

after leaving the conversation he interrupted downstairs, he did his damnedest to do exactly as he'd promised. he'd asked around, looked around, tried to see all there was to see. there wasn't much. the hotel was unimpressive, some doors were locked and no matter what he did he couldn't get through them. there wasn't an exit and there was at least one door that had disappeared — he was certain there was an extra door in the stairwell, he'd arrived in a room just off it, and now it was nowhere to be found. he'd checked around a few rooms, but not all of them. all the rooms for guests seemed the same, just from looking at a few.

when he finally hit his own room (supposedly, he'd found it in the case of his things), he'd torn it apart rather carelessly trying to find something. there wasn't a lot to be found. he was likely annoying all the neighbors he had with his intense attempts to get through a window. his lamp wasn't going to recover, and his shoulder was quite sore from trying to get through it of his own force. so far, not so much as a crack. what in the blazes was this window made of?

he nearly missed the knock, it comes just after the sound of the lamp impacting. he's had more than one visitor, now, he was just about done with socializing for the day, but he dropped the mangled remains of the bedside lamp on his stripped bed and wandered over anyway. he'd be grateful that he did, considering who was on the other side... though perhaps with a bit of sense he might have realized she hadn't been looking for him, she'd simply found him on accident.

she'd still found him, though. that did count for something. his expression softened from the grim determination he'd been using trying to beat his way through the window. he'd promised to find her if he found anything, and well, he hadn't. perhaps he should have found her anyway, but he'd been fairly sure Emma would be distracted with other things. Regina was around, her true love was back from the dead... trapped in a new strange place. her schedule was a bit full all considered. ] Emma. [ he did note she'd changed; he hadn't. simply lost the jacket to try and bust open the window. ] Something wrong?

[ other than, you know, the obvious. ]

[sheriffing]

Killian.

[Well that's...convenient. She was thinking the four of them were probably split up on purpose, but having Killian in the next room simplifies things. By her count, there are twenty rooms on this floor and at least forty other captives in the hotel. It's hard to get accurate numbers when everything they don't want them to see is "under construction". Too many things are locked away around here, and if she assumes the worst (just because she can), that means they'll only be unlocked with more arrivals. Whatever this trap is, they caught it in it's early stages. No matter how fast and loose their captors play it with the housing situation, none of this bodes well for them.

If she was with Neal, or Regina, Emma would put on a brave face. Neal needs someone to believe that they're all going to get out of here together. He's afraid to hope for that possibility, but she isn't. It's not the first time she's thought he was gone and found out otherwise, so maybe this makes it less final for her than it still is for him. Hang around with her parents enough and you start to buy into the idea of happiness, even if it's always just out of reach. She wants that for Neal and Henry and she intends to fight like hell to get it. She wants it for Regina too, although she's noticed that Henry's other mother is lacking her usual confidence.

Not having magic here is harder on Regina than it is on Emma. It's a struggle for Regina to lose it, and a struggle for Emma to have it. It'd come in handy here, but she's willing to bet that's why they took it away. No advantages allowed. For someone who doesn't have years of experience in using it, the loss isn't horrible. She can tell herself that it's temporary, that magic just doesn't work here, and that satisfies the nagging feeling that she's already lost a part of herself to this. She can live without it, so she'll deal. Regina hasn't really had to do that since the curse was broken, and twenty-eight years of peace and quiet on her own terms had to have been a lot more tolerable than being trapped and vulnerable.

It just turns out that even with the better end of the deal, Emma is struggling with all of this.]

No, - at least nothing aside from us being trapped here.

[She takes a breath and shoves her hands into her pockets, searching his eyes to try to get a read on him. Seeing Neal again couldn't have been easy, but she just keeps telling herself his death is something they can fix. They have to, it's what they do, isn't it?]

Can I come in?

[A quick peek behind him reveals he's as unnerved by this place as she is, but Emma hasn't used her room as the testing ground. There are plenty of other places in the hotel to take apart, she wasn't going to start with the place where she's expected to stay for the foreseeable future.]

[villainously]

[ he's certainly noticed all the locked doors and areas blocked off for construction himself. he's not sure what they mean, just that a very confusing attempt to pick their locks showed there was nothing to pick. he wasn't sure if they were new locks and he'd just never encountered them, or if something a bit more ominous was underfoot. a magic lock might not be capable of being picked, not even for a pirate who had never had a problem getting through a lock before. there's got to be something beyond it, the answer might be just waiting beyond reach, and he's never let a locked door stop him before.

maybe that's not something to be overly proud of.

she doesn't need to be strong for him. Hook is, relatively, on level footing. or at least, compared to the man suddenly risen from the dead and the queen stripped of her magic. he had his hand to worry about, but the last thing he wanted was to put an additional weight on Emma's shoulders. she was the savior, she always brought responsibility on her shoulders whether it was deserved or not. it was one of many things he loved about her, but it was also exhausting to watch her on occasion. she rarely had time to be herself, to do what she wanted. Emma was always fighting, always protecting, always... so if he could offer her even a moment of sanctuary, then he'd give it.

he steps aside so she can enter, not particularly flummoxed by the fact a small tornado had ripped through his room. he'd put it back together (more or less) once he had a spare moment. he was surprisingly orderly when given the opportunity, the navy taught lessons one didn't easily forget. the lamp was a goner, but he'd really been hoping to get through that window. perhaps it seemed foolish to tear apart the space that was supposed to be his, but to him it would have been foolish not to. he didn't trust anything about this place, and he wouldn't let himself be surprised by something hidden in his room.

he was used to Neverland, a place rife with traps and a very cruel demon calling the shots. this place didn't seem so different, just no Pan. ]

Is Baelfire... [ Hook stalled out, not knowing exactly what he wanted to ask. all right? well, he wasn't dead anymore, so that was better than he'd been in Storybrooke. that didn't mean things were much easier for him. nevermind, moving on. ] I should have found you, but I didn't find anything new.

[ however foolishly, he had hoped to find some good news to bring back to her. all he'd learned was they were even more stuck than originally thought. ]

[sheriffing]

[Is he what, alright? Caught up? Ready to take his own life back? Emma's not sure what the question is to have an answer - and most of them would be no. They need to take this one step at a time. There's no information available here, no one to even ask about where they are and what brought them to the hotel. There's no guarantee that if they get home, they won't be pulled back and dropped through the ceiling all over again. They need to know why this happened and how to get out of it, and they need to know that when they do leave, they'll be able to take Neal with them.

He can't go back to where he was, that's not an option. Either he's going to realize that too, or he's going to get dragged through a portal the same way they threw Marion into the present. For all the pain it caused Regina, seeing a son get his mother back was worth it. Next time, it'll be Henry and Neal. It has to be.]

He's dealing. It's gonna take some time.

[Time she'd rather he took in Storybrooke, instead of the Bates Motel. It's not real to him yet, Emma understands that much. It probably won't be real until he sees Henry again. If they can get back home and reunite him with Henry, maybe that'll make all the difference. This place is unfamiliar. It's dark, it's old, and they're trapped. It's hard to get someone to hope for the best when the worst has already happened. Alive is a lot better than what he was before they came here, but how is he supposed to think it'll stick when they have another fight ahead of them?]

I figured you'd have found me if you had anything worth sharing.

[Emma steps into the room and lets her eyes dart around to all that he's torn apart. She can feel his frustration just through looking at it, desperation seeping into the attempted destruction. He must feel helpless, because she does too. No way out, no answers, and no magic. Even in Neverland, they had the last one. Here, it's like it's all been wiped away. She's not the savior anymore, but she's stuck with a hotel full of people who still need saving.]

I was going to look for you, but I thought I'd get a look at this place first.

[Might've just scratched the surface, but it's a carefully protected one. She hesitates for a second before reaching out, taking his new hand in hers. Changed his ways, huh? Emma might've bought that in the moment, when the excitement of something new had gotten the better of her. Now, it's a lot more obvious that the Dark One didn't restore anything without him having to pay the price.]

What you said before about your hand - I don't buy it, Killian.

[And she didn't expect...this. She didn't even notice it was there until Mary Margaret pointed it out.]

Are you alright? Rumplestiltskin doesn't own your soul, or have some vital organ locked in a jar somewhere, does he?

[villainously]

[ well, she doesn't need to know the answer, because he doesn't really know his question anyway. just a very base answer that he's all right might have to be enough. Killian can't imagine how Baelfire feels at the moment, and he doesn't think it's his place to get involved. things are strained between them and they might always be, that doesn't mean he doesn't care. it's quite fair that the boy (still, even though Neal has gone a bit gray, he thinks of him as the boy) be overwhelmed, but dealing is better than not. he's been given a gift, they just need to figure out how to make sure it's not a temporary one.

Hook just can't help but thinking that there is surely a price for his revival, and he doesn't want Emma to be left paying for it. they need more information, they're agreed on that, yet maybe the Charming mindset is starting to infect him. there must be an answer, and well, if Emma needs him to carry Neal through a portal then he'll bloody do it.

hopefully it won't come to that, though. he has to think that Baelfire wants to see his boy again, that he wants to live. they're going to give him that, somehow.

he nods idly at the answer and doesn't press more. they're of like minds but talking to Emma about Neal was uncomfortable, likely for both of them. he closes the door behind her, only realizing how badly the disarray of his room looks to an offhand observer. ] Just seeing if there was anything suspect, there wasn't anything I could find. [ not much of an excuse.

she doesn't need to worry about finding him. he knows she will when she needs him; she's got more than enough to worry about, he won't be one of those things if he can manage it. her subject change, therefore, is a bit unexpected, and exactly what he hoped to avoid. his expression colors a bit with regret — she shouldn't have to carry this. the savior always takes on everyones ills and nobody is to blame for his situation but himself.

her touch wraps around the hand that he is constantly questioning, and even now he looks down like he expects it to hurt her somehow, completely beyond his control. it doesn't, just lingers in her grip. he wants to twine their fingers together, does that qualify as evil? he looks back at her as she presses, battling with himself on what he should tell her. he'd managed to shade the truth a bit before, but now? he's not sure he could manage. when Emma suspects he's hiding something, he never manages to get away with it. she reads him better than a book.

and really, she should know the truth. that he could be dangerous, whether he wants to be or not. he doesn't want her to take his woes on, he'll have to figure it out on his own. he still has to tell her. after everything that happened with Zelena, after betraying her trust already? he needs to tell her the truth, he owes it to her. ]

No, he doesn't, but... it still came with a price. [ he can't quite look at her as he tells her, though. ] It's cursed. My hand. [ that revelation is enough for him to pull his hand back, like he's certain that saying it out loud will cause it to lash out and he doesn't want her to be the one suffering for it.] I didn't believe it, at first, I thought he was playing a trick... it isn't, it's the truth.

[sheriffing]

[ A price. There's always a price. She's already started to wonder if there's any escaping that here. Magic seems to be in short supply, and the thing she thought was a part of her has already faded into nothing. If she can't get it to work, that means whoever brought them here gets to deal with the cost of all of this, even bringing Neal back. Or maybe there isn't one in this world, and that's why the person in power is being so careless with who gets dragged along for the ride. Emma would like to believe that it's more than that; maybe it wasn't his time, maybe this isn't a full-on resurrection as much as it is righting a wrong.They'll find out eventually, whether they like it or not.

But with that too-obvious subject change comes the truth, and it's not exactly what Emma was expecting. She looks skeptical before she says anything, eyes lowering to his hand as he pulls it away, one eyebrow raised to the explanation itself. Cursed? How could it be cursed? It's a hand, it's not like it can function on it's own.]

How do you know it's true?

[He gets the question instead of the denial she immediately wants to offer up. What happened at the restaurant felt a lot more like his temper getting the better of him than a curse. It wasn't just his hand that reacted, it was a response that the rest of him was totally on board with. And if there's anything Emma does understand, it's being pissed at how rudely they were interrupted. Killian wasn't the only one who nearly gave in that time.]

Because I have to tell you, a cursed hand doesn't sound likely. [And before he can remind her of his previously cursed lips, she takes his hand back into hers, just to be stubborn. To call his bluff and see if there is a chance that this could be real.] Especially not here. I can't get my magic to work, and neither can Regina. If your hand was cursed, don't you think whatever dark magic was used on it would stop working with everyone else's?

[And that's if his hand is cursed, which is already a tough sell. Emma threads her fingers with his, grip tightening around him just enough to prove that he'd push back against this if his hand was as cursed as he says it is. Whatever they have, it's good. If his hand has been cursed, that's dark magic. If it was at work here, there would be some kind of a reaction.]

I think he played you; he put the thought in your head knowing you'd obsess over it. There's nothing wrong with you, Killian. You're just overthinking this.

[villainously]

[ how does he know its true? Emma has yet to see the mess he's made of the Knave's face, yet Killian remembers. striking a man out of nowhere does indicate foul play. it started with grabbing him at dinner and it spiraled further. he doesn't want to hurt Emma especially, and he can't trust himself anymore. he frowns as she takes his hand. nothing happens, his hand is not a snapping viper after all, but it seems too dangerous. he'd been so pleased to have it back, to finally be whole again, and it'd fallen apart so quickly and so spectacularly.

he shakes his head at the rebuke that such things don't work in the hotel. that very well may be the case, but that doesn't mean there's no magic around, period. ] It's not worth the risk, Emma. He told me the hand was of the man I was before. I know it's true after I nearly broke the nose of that punk that interrupted our dinner. [ the drunk had been trying to break into the library but it was safe to say Hook had not been trying to do his civil service.

it's true that nothing happens when her fingers twine with his. he looks hopeless, convinced that his hand is a curse and not a blessing. it's better to believe that than resign himself to the fact he might not be as good as he keeps trying to convince people he is. he had believed it was a trick at first, but after how quickly and heatedly he reacted to pointless things, even in the hotel he was jumping to anger faster than usual. she'd seen it first hand twice now (first with the Knave, and angrily separating her from Baelfire hadn't been missed, either) and she still thought nothing was wrong? ] What if I'm not? I could be dangerous. [ he doesn't say it but he hopes the implication is obvious. he doesn't want to hurt her. ]

[sheriffing]

[He could be dangerous. Isn't that way he tried so hard to prove back in the days when he'd ally himself with Regina's mother to get what he wanted? Her lips twitch up at the thought, not a smile - not when he's worried, but there's still warmth in her eyes when brushes the pads of her fingers across his knuckles affectionately. It's not that she blames him for being scared. Killian being afraid of his own hand isn't that different than the way she hesitates when it's time to use her magic. She has something inside of her that could help or hurt people if she isn't able to control it. Sometimes it feels like a gift, but others... it's not all that different than the cursed hand that Killian is claiming to have.]

You're Captain Hook, you're definitely dangerous.

[She's seen him in a fight, been the opponent, and realized there's a reason for the reputation. Although if breaking someone's nose is what makes a person evil, she might have to rethink her past as a bailbondsperson. Bones were broken in the pursuit of a paycheck, although usually the other guy did something to deserve it. Whatever Killian did to Will doesn't sound all that reasonable - but isn't an evil hand an excuse to be unreasonable? Especially to a pirate.]

And so what if it is the hand of the man you used to be? It's just a hand, it's not your head and it's not your heart.

[One of these things is usually in the right place, even if the other's been infected by Rumpelstiltskin's lies. Emma wishes he hadn't messed around with trying to get his hand back to begin with, but she can't tell him that he's wrong to want it. It wasn't her loss, so as poor a choice as this was, it's not her place to judge. Now that he has his hand back, she doesn't want to see him do something stupid for the sake of protecting her. An evil hand is the least of their worries here, and it's just about the only problem she's been presented with today that she knows how to deal with.]

I trust you. Hook or hand, it's never mattered to me.

[She releases his hand but not his gaze, holding on to that on the chance she might get through to him.]

This is what we have now, so we'll work with it. It'll be okay.

[villainously]

( he is dangerous, he hsn't forgotten that. he's quite capable of causing damage if and when he wants to. that's just the thing, though, he feels as if he's no longer under his own power and that is what terrifies him the most. he does want to be a better person, and the idea of a hand he asked for that would constantly undermines his efforts, that will make him back into the man he no longer wants to be? he can't shake that fear, because he's already seen it at work.

he wants to believe her. he does. Killian has an easier time believing in Emma than he does in anyone else, he'd certainly rather believe in Emma than Rumpelstiltskin. he just can't entirely shake the concern. perhaps because he knows the Dark One and that he'd take any opportunity to ruin his happiness. cursing his hand would do just that. and perhaps he just doesn't want to wrap his head around the reality that if his hand isn't evil, that means he is the one to blame for all the terrible thoughts in his head, and the awful things he's already done at the behest of an evil hand. more like an evil head, wasn't it?

they do have a knack for reading the other for the truth. he's never been able to hide much from Emma, and he does like to think he can read her decently. better than most, in fact. he'd know if she was saying it just to say it. he can see reflected back that she means what she says, she trusts him. and if she trusts him, he needs to try and be worthy of it. he's already betrayed her trust once, after the witch, he'd be wise not to do it again. whether his hand is cursed or not, he needs to work with what hand he's been dealt (pun unintended).

if he hurts someone because of a cursed hand, it'll still be at least partly his fault, because he wasn't strong enough to prevent it.

he nods, slowly. the last thing she needs, besides, is to worry about him. ) As you wish, then. ( there's at least a slight weight off his shoulders, knowing that she has the truth; even though she doesn't seem to believe it. it's a problem they can't solve right now, anyway. she might even be right, it's just hard for him to accept at the moment. ) It's far from our most pressing concern. ( he pauses to look at her, try to read off her face and off her posture how she's feeling. he's more worried about her than he is about an evil hand. )

We will be all right, Emma. We'll get out of this, all of us. ( he can only guess how much she misses Henry, her parents... but they'll get back, and they'll have Baelfire in tow. for all the awkward and discomfort this place has brought them, it has also delivered a great gift. )

[sheriffing]

[Emma should be happy that someone in this place is willing to tell her what she wants to hear, but it's too soon for the assurance to feel anything more than hollow. She can appreciate whatever logic led Killian to tear the place apart for answers, but in trying to maintain her sanity, she'd agreed with Neal's suggestion of settling in for the night. That means unpacking, taking another useless walk around, and maybe looking over the crap they'd put in with her clothes. They just got here and she's already restless, and theres nothing that anyone can do about it. It's like she said, this is what they have to work with.

They should probably be moving on to talk of some kind of plan, but she's out of ideas. There's no suggestion she can think of that doesn't involve waiting around to see what happens here. They need to know their enemy before they can fight it. If they're going to find a way out, then they need to know where they are and what pulled them in. Their magic is either gone or blocked, and they're going to have to find out which one it is. Right now, playing it smart means collecting the pieces and seeing how everything fits together.

It also means there's time to let themselves be distracted, so -]

... You still haven't said what you have on him.

[Is she supposed to believe that Gold gave him his hand back for free? Because he could taunt him with the suggestion of a cursed hand that's probably the same as the other one? The Dark One doesn't offer up freebies. Whatever Killian did to get the hand must have taken more than a friendly conversation and an offer to bury the hatchet. If he's a threat to them, even from a distance, they need to know it.]

I know that we'll get out, and I know that we can't do it tonight.

[She's resigned to that now, looking more tired than she has a right to be and pushing a hand through her hair. Hopefully they'll get home sooner rather than later, but right now, there are no guarantees.]

Which means there's plenty of time for you to tell me what you used to get him to put your hand back in the first place.

[That thing about him being a changed man was bullshit. It'd be one thing if they were the only ones who are going to have to deal with whatever Gold is up to, but they're not. They have a chance to bring Neal home, and he deserves to know what he's going to be walking into.]

[villainously]

( if it makes her feel better, he's not sure what they can really plan with so little information to go on. sleeping would be the wisest course of action, it's just that the pirate really doesn't sleep that well in the best of situations, evil hand stacked with spontaneous kidnapping really isn't going to bode well. he'll sleep around the time he can't move anymore, and that's not right now. if she can manage some sleep, she should...

but of course the sheriff decides to interrogate him more. unsurprisingly.

in a lot of ways, he feels like he's already told her too much. he hadn't wanted to tell her about this at all, it's just too late now and he could be a danger and she deserves to know. still, telling her his collateral? well, that could cause her danger back in Storybrooke. there's a reason Rumpelstiltskin didn't want it out... and he really doesn't want to see Emma at risk because of what he told her.

his reluctance is marked in his face. someone is going to pay for this secret getting out, and well, the only thing that really reassures him is that the Crocodile wouldn't go after his own son's true love, not without damn good reason. people cared about Emma; well, not too many people would care about Captain Hook suffering a little. if this blows back, it'll blow back on him. Gold isn't stupid enough to go after Emma without an escape route, and he's trapped as the rest of Storybrooke. )

You realize the sort of thing the Crocodile would do to keep this a secret, Swan. ( as in he's telling her something very potentially dangerous, and as strong as Emma is? he doesn't want her tangling with the Dark One, he's already seen one woman he loves not make it out of that fight. ) He's lying to his wife, the dagger she has is false.

( really, Hook isn't sure why anyone believed that Rumpelstiltskin would give away his power in the first place. they really don't know the monster very well, the pirate is sadly not that lucky. it shows his game to get his hand back was less a request and more blackmail, everything he didn't want her to know. he can't quite look her in the eye, because he's already gotten the lecture about her not being able to trust him. he'd just earned it back, finally had a chance at her heart, and he started it on a lie. he can only guess she won't react well, and can he really blame her? he's always taking one step forward, three steps back.

he wasn't making the right choices, even before an evil hand had been reattached to his stump. )

[sheriffing]

[There's a lot Emma could say to Killian's warning, because a dangerous secret is nothing new to her. Gold's gone from evil to a necessary one at times, because he's not just the Dark One, he's also Henry's grandfather. She's fallen into the trap of thinking of him as one of Henry's last connections to Neal - the one who can fill in blanks that even Killian can't. He's an ally when it benefits him and a thorn in their side when he wants a deal, but she was thinking, hoping, that his marriage to Belle would mellow him out.

Turns out that instead of helping him, it's going to end up hurting her. For her part, Emma's first thought is that the woman deserves better, and her second is that Killian knows that, too.]

Everything about him is false, I can't say I'm surprised that it also goes for his accessories.

[Belle would be, because she wants to believe he's changed. She wants to believe he's good; good if you grade on a curve, but better than he was. Take away everything else, and the least she'd expect is for him to be honest with the person he claims to care about. And for a moment, a painfully quiet one - Emma can't help but relate.

It was easier to believe that the newly restored hand was a peace offering than to call him out on another scheme. She should have, instead of letting him think he was going to get away with something, but the explanation he gave her was the one she wanted to believe in. It would've been nice to see Killian get back what he lost without having to sell his soul for it, but that isn't how Gold works. It isn't how Killian works, either.]

Don't you think you should have told her?

[Not for revenge, and not to piss off Gold... just because it was the right thing to do. Theirs is one relationship Emma is happy to steer clear of, but something like this deserves a little consideration. Killian knows better than anyone that the women in Gold's life are the ones who pay for his mistakes. How could he let that happen again?]

I know what Gold would do if the truth came out, but that's exactly why you should have said something. Belle's a good person, she should know who she agreed to spend her life with.

[Emma would like to know Killian for who he is, too, but one lie isn't the kind of thing that earns a comparison to the Dark One. She shakes her head to the thought of it and tugs her lip between her teeth, too disappointed to work her way up to being annoyed with him.]

You're better than this.

[He doesn't have to believe it, she assumes that he probably won't. Emma, on the other hand, can recognize progress when she sees it. He's made that, but setbacks happen. She's had those, too.]

[villainously]

( had he considered telling Belle? no. not even for a moment. he could make an excuse if he wanted, that she wouldn't believe him. and it's a good excuse, Belle likely wouldn't have believed him. that doesn't really excuse anything, though. he should have told the girl, instead of trying to manipulate a bad situation to his advantage.

he's used the information to get help finding the ice queen the first time. the second was all greed, and perhaps he'd deserved the punishment he received. a hand he couldn't control, and trapped in a situation he should have been able to see from a mile away as the wrong choice. Emma sees progress, well, he just sees that he's not so different from the lying, dangerous man the supposedly evil hand came off of, the one he's supposedly left behind. the one that was quick to take advantage of a situation to get what he wanted, and not think much about what it'd do to the people caught in the crosshairs. perhaps he would have done the right thing, eventually. . . once he'd gotten something out of it. which doesn't much sound like progress, now does it?

he'd have much preferred anger to quiet disappointment, actually. anger he understands, it's easy to be angry. disappointment requires a certain degree of trust and faith, disappointment comes from caring and not seeing what you hoped for. it stings worse than the many times she's beat him over the head, for one reason or another. how many disappointments does one man get before she decides he's not worth the trouble?

chances are already slim, considering the father of her child is back from the dead, the scant margin he had is closing, like a door shutting out the only light he has, and it's not a comfortable sensation. he can't really lose Emma, he never really had her, but he surely can lose the right to a chance. he disappoints her and battles for another shot and she breaks and gives him one and yet they always end up at the same place.

this isn't a time, or a place, for self pity. it's more important to focus on getting out of here, than it is to focus on the fact every time Emma gets a little closer, she finds she doesn't like what she sees. he keeps his eyes set on the carpet, not managing a response to being better than this. ) She'll know the truth when we get back.

( perhaps with his son in the equation the Crocodile will be forced back into line. Baelfire was the only one that ever managed to really curb him; Belle had never been able, even if she thought she was. the truth was officially out, and his chance of getting the dark one to aide him taking his evil hand off had completely stalled out, but there was more than one way to take off a hand. he just wouldn't use magic to do it. his jaw clenches for a moment, but he forces himself to meet her eye. ) Unless there's something more, you should rest. ( it's not exactly a dismissal; it's just easier to push people away before they walk away on their own.

saviors aren't the only one with that defense mechanism. )