The Price of Freedom ➸ Captain Swan

18. Birthday, Part II

I'm so excited to finally have this chapter out! I actually love it a lot, and I'm sorry it took so long, but I've had a crazy busy past month! Thankfully, though my life is starting to slow down so I'll have more time to write!! Enjoy this chapter everyone!!

XXX

The rest of the day seemed to go on as any other day. Well, besides the fact that it was the most beloved person on the ship's birthday, and that the captain was in an even more gloomy mood than usual.

Emma continued to ask around the deck about what was going on with Hook today, but no one seemed to want to tell her. She had given up on trying to figure out Hook's secrets, but now that they seemed to be piling up in thousands, she decided that she wouldn't settle for being clueless... Even if it meant arguing with Hook himself.

No one had seen him since this morning, but they could all hear his rages of fury from the deck. Occasionally, there were loud screams, glass shattering, and crashes against the wall, but everyone seemed to ignore it... Emma couldn't. She couldn't bear the thought that Hook was in some sort of pain, and she couldn't make it go away. She could only do so much, and unfortunately, mental well-being was not her expertise.

Everytime she heard a small noise from below deck, she cringed, thinking that a full-blown breakdown would occur. She was so swept up in her mind, worries inching up her sleeves, that she was becoming stressed and nervous... And though all this emotions had only started to break through the thick barrier that she had put up, it was coming in quickly, flooding her heart and mind like a river.

So, she channeled all of that into three very important things; helping Hook, saving the prince, and finding a way to fix the mess that she'd created.

By the dinner time, Hook had still not shown his face from his cabin, and Emma was partly glad. She was already having enough trouble as it was dealing the way that he made her feel, and trying to run away from those feelings. She hardly knew him as a person, but she has always felt like deep in her bones, she had known him her entire life.

For the cruel way that he had been treating her, and everyone aboard his ship, she was half-temped to leave him down there with his awful pain and let him rot in it.

But then, Emma's huge heart and moral compass took over. She decided to take him some food and a full gallon of water to help drain the alcohol that she was sure he consumed, and help lessen the pain he'd feel in the morning.

Smee tried to warn her about thirty-thousand times. The captain is in no mood to have conversation. The captain is having a rough day, but that it made her even more determined to go down and see him. Whether it was out of her motherly nature to help people, her rebellious spirit to go against Smee's warnings, or just out of all the things she felt about Hook, she knew she had to visit him.

Which is where she found herself right before she began preparing for bed, still hearing his painful sobs and racket.

She held her fist up to the door before knocking, hesitant, and wondering if maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. But before her thoughts actually processed, her fist was violently against the hardwood of the cabin. "Hook?" She asked carefully before opening the door to reveal him lying across his bed with a full bottle of rum in his hands, looking more intoxicated than a whole pub of people could ever be.

He turned his head, squinting his glassy eyes. "Swan?"

She gave a weak smile, sitting the bowl and glass of water on the nightstand. Her eyes scanned the room, looking at the disastrous state it was in. Clothes were scattered on the floor, more bottles of rum in every nook and cranny, and scratches from his hook were on every piece of furniture and wood she could see.