This ficlet was written for Secret Santa exchange over at tumblr, in which Emma and Hook play truth or dare and she tells him how worried she is about Henry, so it veers off canon after the diner scene in "The New Neverland". I hope you enjoy, and happy Christmas everybody!

Henry leaves the diner with Regina and Emma spends a while mingling with Storybrooke residents, talking to everybody but Hook; she's always aware where he is, though, aware of his eyes on her, but it takes her half a night to muster up the courage to go to him.

She doesn't let herself think about the reason she's afraid.

Finally, at little after 1 a.m., when the diner is all but empty, Emma slides on a stool next to Hook and they sit in silence for awhile.

"Tell me that the rum isn't gone", she says, glancing at him from the corner of her eye; Hook reaches in his pocket and takes the flask out, wordlessly handing it to her.

Their fingers brush together and when his eyes meet hers she's a little taken aback seeing pain in their blue depths; he looks away quickly, staring at the bar and tracing the edge of his beer glass with his index finger.

"Are you okay?" Emma asks after she takes a sip of the rum, sliding the flask toward him and resting her head on the back of her hand, her eyes never leaving his face.

In the quiet of the diner she finally lets herself acknowledge just how beautiful he is despite all the broken bits, inside and out.

"Why wouldn't I be?" He says softly and reaches for the flask, holding it in his hand as if it's something precious.

"You tell me."

"I'm fine, love."

Emma covers his hand with hers and he looks at her steadily, almost daring her to keep holding on.

"Do you wanna play truth or dare?" She blurts out, and Hook slowly pulls his hand from under hers, leaving her holding the flask.

"I'm not really in the mood for games", he tells her and finishes his beer, but he doesn't stand up, and she takes that as an invitation to try and convince him.

"You did promise me fun", Emma says and a corner of his mouth lifts up a little.

"That's not what I meant", he says, and when he looks at her it's her turn to avoid his all-seeing eyes.

"I know, but... please", she says, her voice coming out soft and tentative because she needs him again, needs him to take her mind off the pain she had felt when Henry decided that he wants to sleep at Regina's tonight; everybody says that there's nothing wrong with Henry aside from the stress of what he went through in Neverland, but she still can't shake the feeling that something is off.

"Lass? Are you alright?" Hook asks her and she realized that she had spaced on what he had told her before.

"Fine. Are we playing or what?" She asks and takes another sip of rum.

"Very well. How do we play?"

"Do you want truth or dare?"

"Dare me", he says and gives her an easy smile that doesn't really reach his eyes, and even though she wonders why, even though she had seen him talk to Neal before her ex asked her out again, she doesn't waste time trying to figure it out.

"I dare you to kiss Granny", she says and he looks appropriately stunned; it makes her giggle, and she'd be ashamed of acting like a teenager if it wasn't for the fact that her laugh makes him smile, truly smile for the first time since… since the lighter incident, since she said that she chooses Henry.

"As you wish", he says and winks at her, then slowly saunters over to where Granny is, serving drinks for the dwarves. Emma watches him talk to her, and she feels her jaw drop when Granny smiles and turns her cheek for him to kiss.

Hook walks away and Granny sizes him up, smiling to herself before she turns back toward the dwarves.

"What did you tell her?" Emma demands when he sits next to her again; this time he turns toward her and his knee presses against her thigh, warmth shooting through her veins unexpectedly, but not unpleasantly.

She doesn't move her leg, and neither does he.

"I can be charming when I want to be", Hook says as if it's a secret and she rolls her eyes and tells him she picks truth.

He regards her silently and the heat in his forget-me-not eyes makes her squirm.

"Are you happy, Emma? Here in Storybrooke, right now, are you happy?" He asks, and she shrugs, tipping the flask to her lips once more before she answers.

"Those are two different questions", she tells him, meeting his gaze and waiting, hoping, praying that he gets what she's trying to say without her having to say it.

"You have Henry back, you're home. What's making you unhappy, then?" He asks, and she smiles, feeling like a weight had been lifted; nobody had ever understood her like this, and it makes her feel safe and fearless and lucky.

"Henry doesn't seem like himself", she says, and Hook nods, capping the flask and waving his hand in the air to urge her on. "I gave him his storybook, the one Mary Margaret had given him last year and he hadn't gone anywhere without since, and it looked like he hadn't even recognized it, and then he chose to sleep at Regina's, and I just feel like something is wrong."

"You're his mother, lass. If your gut says Henry is not well, then we should do something about it", Hook tells her, and for a moment it looks like he's going to reach out and lay his hand on her shoulder, but he stops himself at the last second and stands up, putting the flask back in his pocket.

"Where are you going?" Emma asks, and she almost flinches at how small her voice sounds.

"We're going to go see Rump- Gold", Hook says and tilts his head toward the door, smirking at her because she must look surprised. "I don't have anything better to do tonight."

"What is he gonna do?"

"Let Pan out of the box so we can ask him what he did to Henry", Hook says, his eyes darkening with well-controlled rage, and Emma hops off the stool and follows him out of the diner.

Now that somebody believes, she's more frightened than before, but at the same time she's more at ease because she's not alone; her shoulder brushes against Hook's arm as they walk, he looks at her, and she knows everything is going to be okay.

She never fails with him around.

Emma knocks on Gold's door and turns to the side to look at Hook, who's leaning on the porch rail feigning nonchalance; she knows it's an act, his hand balled into a tight fist at his side even as he gives her a reassuring smile because despite the fact that he had given up revenge on the man who took his love, he didn't forget, and he never will.

"Miss Swan. It's the middle of the night", Gold says when he opens the door and sees her standing there, his eyes flickering to Hook only briefly.

"I need to talk to Pan", Emma says, her voice much calmer than she feels.

"Rumple? Who is it?" Belle calls from deeper in the house and pokes her head around a corner; Emma gives her an apologetic smile and tries not to think what will happen if she's wrong.

"Go back to bed, darling, I'll be right there", Gold says and Emma glances at Hook to find him standing closer to her than before, and she shifts her weight so he's closer still. "Pan is staying in his box."

"There's something wrong with Henry and we need to ask him what that devil did to him", Hook says, surprising her a little with his intensity; he sounds almost as desperate as she is and for some unfathomable reason it makes her feel better.

"What is he talking about?" Gold asks Emma and she moves a little so she's partly in front of Hook, just to make sure that the two of them won't jump at each other's throat.

"Henry doesn't seem like himself. We were thinking you should open the box at the town line, where Pan won't have his magic", Emma tells Gold and he thinks about it for a long minute, his quick eyes assessing her carefully until he finally nods and steps back into the house.

"I'll meet you there in half an hour", he says curtly and closes the door in their faces.

"That went better than I had expected", Hook says as they walk back to the car, then proceeds to walk around it and opens her door.

It makes her smile because ten minutes ago she had to show him how to do it and now he's doing it for her.

"We need to stop by the Sheriff's Station", Emma says as she drives back into town and fiddles with the heating because she can't look at him when they are in such close quarters and not think about the kiss.

"What's there?"

"My gun."

Even when she thinks about shooting Pan for hurting Henry and making them all miserable, she's still painfully aware of the way Hook is looking at her, the words he'd said in Neverland ringing in her head.

When I win your heart, Emma.

When, not if.

"He might not respond well to threats", Hook tells her softly, and she shrugs, gripping the wheel a little bit tighter.

"I don't plan on threatening him", Emma says and looks at Hook steadily before she continues, "I plan on killing him."

To his credit, Hook doesn't even look surprised.

"Did you ever kill anybody, Swan?" He asks her, and she shifts her eyes back on the road ahead because his gaze is a little too intense.

"No", she replies softly, and in the silence that settles on them she can hear what he's thinking. "Hook-"

"I'll make sure you don't have to do it now", he tells her, and it's only then that she realizes how much she hated the idea of taking somebody's life, even if it was Pan's.

They reach the station, and she runs in to get the gun, holding it tightly as she walks back to the car and handing it to Hook when she gets back behind the wheel.

"Thank you", she says when he takes it, and he inspects it carefully before he responds.

"You're welcome, love."

In the end, nobody ends up shooting Pan because he never was in the box in the first place; Henry was.

Emma hugs her son and he clings to her the way he hadn't for a while, and even though it's strange seeing him in Pan's eyes, at that moment she honestly doesn't care; she just needs him to be safe.

"How do we put me back?" He asks Gold enthusiastically and Emma catches Hook smiling to himself, looking surprisingly giddy all of a sudden.

Emma turns to Gold expectantly, feeling Hook shift a little so he's standing just behind her shoulder, not touching her, but offering her silent support.

"I can do a spell, but we need a wand that's in Blue Fairy's possession", Gold says and Emma starts walking Henry back toward the Bug. "I don't think it's wise if all of us go running around Storybrooke."

"What do you suggest, then?" Emma asks, smiling at Henry to make sure he knows that everything is going to be alright.

"Belle and I will get the wand, and you wait for us at Regina's, but don't go in. We don't want Pan to figure out that we're onto him", Gold says, glares at Hook and limps away holding Belle's hand.

"He really knows how to make people feel good, doesn't he?" Hook says and Henry gives him a shy smile before he climbs into the back seat of Emma's car.

"Do you think we can trust him?" Emma asks, and it feels like she's in Neverland again, wondering if she's going to get her son back.

"He is the boy's grandfather, and I think he proved already that he's got Henry's bet interests at heart", Hook says and opens the door for her again, his eyes never leaving hers and giving her hope and strength the way they did in Neverland.

It's only then that she realizes that since they sailed to Neverland, every time she had turned around, he was always there, giving her whatever she needed without Emma having to say a single word.

"He'll be fine, Swan", Hook says and she sits behind the wheel, letting him close the door and watching him walk around the car, then focusing her attention on driving back into town so they can put Henry back into his body and get rid of Pan once and for all.

It would be lying if she said she's not thinking about what's going to happen after that.

When they reach Regina's street Emma parks the car well away from the house, then turns around to check on Henry; he gives her a bright smile and asks how much longer they have to wait for Mr. Gold.

"He should be here soon", Emma says, and hopes she's right because even though she loves her son, she'd rather not see him in the body of somebody who caused them all so much pain.

"How come Dad and Grandma and Grandpa weren't with you?" Henry asks and Emma glances at Hook; they are both hearing Henry's question loud and clear.

"We weren't sure what was going on, so I didn't see the point in waking everybody up", Emma tells him and he contemplates that for a while before leaning forward between the seats and surprising them both when he asks Hook the next question.

"How did you become a pirate?"

"Henry-"

"It's quite alright", Hook says and winks at Henry. "I became a pirate because I didn't want to serve a corrupt King anymore; I stole his ship and sailed away, doing what I pleased."

"Did you only steal from the rich people?" Henry asks enthusiastically and Emma chuckles; it's fun watching Captain Hook squirm under an eleven-year-old's scrutiny.

"He's a pirate, not Robin Hood", Emma says and Henry looks at her like she's a little slow on the uptake.

"You can be good and a pirate at the same time", he says and opens his storybook, quickly losing himself between its pages.

Emma wants to ask Hook more questions, wants to know everything about his past because her father had only told her bits after he returned from their trip to get the sextant, but now is not the time, and it's certainly not the place with Henry in the back seat.

"Finally", she mutters when Gold parks behind them and they all sneak into Regina's house; Emma picks the lock and Gold disarms the magical protection spell, but her heart is hammering with adrenaline because she keeps expecting something to go wrong.

Thankfully, Pan doesn't put up a fight, sleeping soundly until the moment Gold puts Henry back in his body; still it's too late for him to fight, and he ends up where he belongs, locked in the Pandora's box, unable to hurt anybody else.

It's only when it's over that Regina comes out of her bedroom, and she looks both bewildered and relieved when they tell her what had happened.

"I can't believe I never noticed", she whispers as she hugs Henry close, and Emma feels the strongest urge to reach out and hold Hook's hand; she doesn't even want to think about what would've happened if she had chosen to go home instead of talking to him. "Thank you, Emma."

"Thank Hook. He's the only one who listened to me", Emma says and when he gives her that shy, beautiful smile she'd only seen once before, she finally lets herself feel everything she'd been denying in Neverland and smile back at him the way she hadn't smiled at anybody since Neal.

She doesn't reach for his hand, but she shifts a little bit closer to him, and when Henry comes to embrace her, she can feel Hook's arm pressing against hers, as he silently lets her know that he's there for her.

Just the way he always was.

Henry falls asleep in his old bed and Emma drives Hook to the harbor; they end up just sitting in her car, both of them reluctant to say goodnight.

"I suppose I should go; your parents are going to worry about you", he finally says, but he still doesn't move, and Emma shrugs, turns up the heat a little and scoots as close to him as the gear shift allows.

"I'm a grown woman. And besides, we didn't finish our game", she says and she can't believe that it's possible for her to make somebody so happy just by staying with them.

But then again, staying with him is making her happy too.

"Let's hear it", he says, his eyebrow shooting up in challenge.

"You didn't say if you wanted truth or dare", she tells him and he smirks.

"You know me, lass. Always daring", he says and Emma leans into him, her hand falling on his arm, her fingers digging into the worn leather.

"Kiss me."

It's clear he hadn't expected that, but she forces herself to stay still and patient instead of just grabbing him again and pressing her lips against his.

"I can't tear another family apart, Swan. I can't", he says and looks away, staring out the windshield as if he can see some other time and place through it.

"Neal stopped being my family the moment he let me go to jail after he'd promised to be my home", Emma says, her voice breaking a little because even after all this time, it still stings, it still makes her feel so fragile when she thinks about the night everything went to Hell; she loves Neal, but she can never be with him again because she'd never be able to fully trust him.

Hook looks at her for a long time, then covers her hand with his, his thumb rubbing her palm gently, the same way it had on the day they climbed the beanstalk before he put the bracelet on her wrist.

"Are you sure?" He asks her softly, and there's such guarded hope written all over his face that her heart feels like it's going to fly out of her chest; she'd never been more sure of anything in her life.

"I'm sure. I dare you to kiss me, Killian", she says, and his name on her lips tastes sweet, his eyes lighting up and letting her know how much such a simple thing means to him.

"As you wish", he says and releases her hand so he can slide his fingers into her hair, and then he's kissing her, healing her, showing her the one thing she never imagined she'd experience for herself.

The magic of true love.

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