A Piece Of My Life (Captain Swan)

Chapter 2

"He's passed out on the dock again," Emma said to David as she opened the door to their home on her way home from the sheriff's department.

David sighed disapprovingly, "Has anyone talked to him since the fight?"

Snow shook her head, she had since been filled in on the events that had taken place two weeks before.

"I haven't been down there either, it smells like vomit." Emma shuddered a bit at the horrendous odor.

"This can't keep going on," Charming continued, "he's going to hurt himself if he hasn't already. He's completely mad if he thinks that drinking will fix what he said."

Snow absent mindedly rubbed his arm before turning to Emma. "I am in no way excusing what he said to you to begin with, but maybe you should go down there to see him."

Emma cocked an eyebrow, "And do what?"

"When you two fought, your walls were down so you both knew right where to aim your daggers. Whereas you put your walls back up--don't deny it--Hook's completely crumbled. I don't think he knows what to do with himself anymore. This drinking could be a cry for help, and I think you may be the only one who can answer. I think if you go down there, you'll know what to do."

"And if you're wrong and he hates me?"

She shrugged, "Well then come back here and we'll talk again."

"I'll think about it," Emma muttered and after saying goodbyes, left to take a walk to the only person she could think of to talk to.

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"So you want my advice? About how to deal with a man who tried to kill me twice." Belle looked baffled at even the notion.

Emma nodded, "I know, I'm sorry, this is weird for me too. I just don't know what to do."

Belle smiled empathetically, knowing how it felt. "You have to look past the beast and see what's truly under there; for Hook I think it's a scared boy who has lost many people. The walls will come down with time, but he has to trust you first, you'll see, and you have to trust him. That's really the main point, he has to know you trust him; trust him to keep your secrets, be there, and, most of all, that you trust him not to hurt you. It's hard, I know," she added, seeing Emma's face, "but it's worth it if you think there's a good man under that hard, pirate shell."

"I think there is, but I guess we'll find out. Hopefully he's not too drunk when I finally get over there." Their food came, Belle got a hamburger and Emma a salad, and they lapsed into silence.

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She'd seen the monster and she'd stared right back at it without flinching, but Hook wasn't a monster. Disturbed and someone who had some problems, yes, but he was not a monster, not in her eyes at least. This drinking and their silence had gone on long enough and since it seemed Hook was in no condition to end this, she knew she had to do it.

The smell was god-awful and Emma could see vomit on the dock from the sidewalk. Hook was prostrate on the wood and bottles of various alcohols were strewn around. Upon getting close enough to see his closed eyelids, she had to put a hand over her mouth to block some of the odor. Kneeling down when she was next to him, she felt his forehead. He seemed to have a high fever, but who knew how much alcohol he had consumed and how it was affecting him. "Hey," she said and hit his cheek none too lightly. "Wake up, enough getting drunk every night and passing out." 

Hook groaned and Emma stood as his eyes began to flutter open. When his eyes finally opened they widened dramatically and took on a panic look. He stood up quickly, but shakily. "Don't hurt me!" He started back away, toward the end of the dock, with a wild look in his eyes. "Stay away!" He yelled as Emma took a step forward.

She held her hands up in defense, "Hook, what's wrong?" Slowly, she started moving her hand to her back pocket where he phone resided.

He backed up even further, about five feet from the edge of the dock, "Don't come any closer!" She had dialed and started a three-way call and could hear Regina and Dr. Whale mumbling into her hand. Hook backed up again when Emma took a step forward, despite her better judgement, and went flailing back into the water. Regina came in her purple smoke just in time to pull him from the water and immobilize him as Dr. Whale came rushing in his lab coat from the hospital.

"What happened?" Dr. Whale asked, staring at Hook's prone form, only his eyes given indication that he was unaware of what was going on.

Emma shook her head, "I don't know, he just stared freaking out and telling me to get away from him."

"Any other symptoms?"

She shook her head, "No, I haven't seen him since we fought two weeks ago and he started drinking excessively."

"Do you normally fight?"

"No, what does this have to do with anything?"

"Probably nothhing," he strided forward and pulled a syring from a pocket. Regina held Hook forzen as he injected something into his arm that made his eyes close and as soon as the magic went away he sunk to the ground. Dr. Whale turned to Regina, "Mind sending us all to the hospital?" The next moment we were engulfed in the familiar purple smoke.

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Dr. Whale took a sedated Hook in for a CT scan and had a nurse take some blood, but after that he was checked into a room  to wait off the sedative before more testing could be done. Emma was sitting in the waiting room when Dr. Whale came to find her. 

"Do you know anything yet?" She asked immediately while fiddling with the coffee a nurse had brought her. 

"Well, his blood counts are low and we detected something on the CT scan, but we won't know for sure anything until we do a bone marrow aspiration," he shook his head.

"Don't those hurt?" Emma asked, recalling something she may have read in a book or online.

Dr. Whale nodded, "Very much so. We scheduled it for this afternoon. Um, Hook woke up an hour ago and is coherent. We have him on something called a 'banana bag' and it will introduce the vitamins and things he hasn't been getting the last two weeks. He was severly dehydrated when we checked him out and now he's groggy from the sedative, but you can go see him if you would like."

Emma nodded and left toward a room she assumed was Hook's by how many nurses were in and out of there an hour ago. 

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