Hook's Daughter

Welcome to New York

The busy streets, grumpy people rushing to work, and tall building immediately signifies that we are back to New York. The portal took us into an alley behind some buildings, the same alley I met August in.
"And we're back," I say.
"We need to find Emma," Hook replies quickly, to the point.
"Okay well New York is a bit too big for us just to look around randomly and search for her and Henry."
"You lived here, where would she stay?"
"I don't know, depends on how much money she has. Probably a safe apartment building near a school since Henry is still a teenager but even then that doesn't narrow it down much. I don't even know if they'll be here in Manhattan like before. This is just where I stayed, and Neal stayed here too and there is a pretty nice school downtown but we can't possibly find them just walking around."
"We can try," Hook says.
"Or, we could go to the schools around and ask to see if a Henry Swan is enrolled. Which might be quicker than walking around crowds of hundreds of people."
"How many schools are there in this town?"
"Three," I say. "We can check Summerhill first, it's the largest of the three."

When we actually get to the school, I say,
"Maybe you should let me handle this."
"Why?"Hook asks.
"Because you're wearing all black leather and have a hook, dad. I don't think that's going to be welcome in a public school. Just wait out here, I'll go ask."
I walk inside the school. A middle age woman is sitting at the desk.
"Excuse me," I say as she looks up at me from papers she is writing on.
"May I help you?" she asks me.
"I'm here to pick up Henry Swan for a early dismissal."
"Henry Swan?" She swings her chair around and clicks buttons on a computer. "I don't see a Henry Swan in the system. Is he a new student?"
"No, he's been here for about a year. Well, thank you anyways I'll call his mom. I probably just got the day mixed up honestly. Thank you," I say again and walk out of the school.
"Is he there?" Hook asks as soon as he sees me.
"No, not at this school. We only have two more schools to try if they are in Manhattan."
"Let's go," Hook says. "We have all day."
When we get to the next school, its about time for school to be let out.
"Are you going to go inside?" Hook asks when we are outside the main doors.
"No, the school is almost out. We can look for Henry when everyone comes out. It will look too suspicious to be asking about a student when they have already left the school."
When the doors unlock and a bunch of kids rush out, Hook and I stand against the wall where the kids can not see us immediately, but we can see everyone coming out.
"Look," I point to one kid leaving from the school who has a red plaid backpack and black coat on. "That's definitely Henry."
"Let's follow," Hook says.
"Whoa, wait a minute. You can't just follow a teenager. You don't know how far he will walk and if he does walk far he's going to notice he is being followed by two people."
"What do you suggest?"
"Either you follow or I follow but not both."
"I'll go," Hook says. "And I'll be careful."
"I'm not sure if I believe that. Meet back in the alley where we came, okay?"
Hook nods and walks along the street a safe distance from Henry. I would be more worried about him in all black leather looking as an actual pirate for what most people believe, but it's New York. If you can not be who you are here then I do not know where you can.

It takes a long while for Hook to finally get back to the alley.
"What took so long?" I ask.
"Emma has no idea who I am," Hook says.
"You saw her?"
"I knocked on the door," he says, completely casual.
"I would say that's crazy but it doesn't even make the top one hundred things you've done that are insane and/or stupid. How are you going to convince Emma to take a potion that'll make her regain memories she doesn't know she has lost when you just knocked on her door and, what did you do exactly?"
"You don't want to know," Hook replies.
I shake my head,
"What do you suppose we do now?" I ask him.
"I'll have to find her again somewhere and get her to take the potion somehow."
"What's your plan for how to do that?"
"I heard she has a date tonight, I guess I'll just have to be there and wait for a moment to interrupt."
"Okay, have fun with that. How are you going to get her to listen to you and not believe you're an insane stalker?"
"I'll apologize, let her know her family is in danger, say something to let her know I know her other than being a stalker, and...what is Neal's address?"
"Well, that's one way to jog a memory." I write his address down. "Good luck. Where are you going to go after?"
"Central Park. Good place to meet where she will know I'm not going to kidnap her or something ridiculous."
"And when that doesn't work, I'll be in my apartment thinking of a way for me to fix you being weird, okay?"
"She'll listen to me," Hook says. I am not sure if he said that more to reassure me or himself, but he leaves the alley.
"Dad, don't get yourself arrested this time, okay?" I tell him.
He manages a slight smile, "I'll try, Ash."

Hi I'm so bad at updating I'm so so sorry. This chapter does not have a good flow and it sounds choppy because I have really bad writers block and summer homework and it's been hard to update. I wanted to get a chapter out tonight but this sounds so bad when I reread it so please don't be too judging, I really am trying to get through my writers block as soon as possible without writing really badly :(
Liz xx