The Window Left Open

Chapter Three: We Can't Both Have Her

Storybrooke - Present

"Everything. He's Peter Pan."

Killian still couldn't believe it. A day had passed since his initial meeting with Isabel, and he could not wrap his brain around what she told him. His son was the young boy he spent hours plotting the demise of. Then there was the bit of news that really didn't sit right with him. Isabel was Tinkerbell. They survived the years in Neverland along with him, and yet she never once tried to let him know they were there. She allowed him to do awful things to them. The thought caused bile to ride in his throat. He tried to kill both of them on numerous occasions just for annoying him. He didn't want to believe Isabel would ever let him harm the two of them, but she had. Just like she had left. Before her so-called death, he believed Isabel was the last person who would hurt or betray him in any way. As it turned out, she ended up being the one that hurt him the most.

He supposed she was punishing him for leaving her in the middle of her pregnancy. Killian was supposed to be giving up piracy, but Harry asked that he go along for one more trip out; a last hoorah for Killian before he settled down. The trip also looked very promising for finding her locket. He had no choice but to go. There was no way he was going to let one of his shipmates get all the glory of actually locating and obtaining the locket. No, it was Killian's quest and he was going to see it through. Still, leaving Isabel obviously wasn't the right move. He believed her when she said that her mother talked her into going. Something about the whole thing actually seemed truthful. Something told him that she really thought she had no other choice but to leave without him. At the same time, Killian knew how Isabel operated. Not entirely vindictive, Isabel did have a mean streak in her. It struck at the oddest of times; leaving behind the sting of her words. She couldn't verbally lash out. He wasn't there to hear it so she left. Of course she would pretend that the money promised from his share of the treasure would help them out greatly and she wanted him to feel the salty air on his face one last time before he became a slave to the tiny person growing inside her. Of course she would do that. For the entire month of his absence, she probably let her anger stew and fester. Her mother showing up out of nowhere, alive and with the gift of great magic, provided Isabel with the perfect punishment.

But something told him it wasn't just that. Isabel stood firm in her belief that she did it to save him. Her definition of "safe" was a little askew if she thought his progression from the man she married to the feared Captain Jones to the ruthless Captain Hook was saving his life. Maybe she did save him from some sort of disastrous fate, but her actions also led him down a destructive path. In just a few hours of discovering their home in fiery ruin, he put his thievery skills to use. He stole a sword from her father's shop, one that could have gotten William a lot of money. Then he betrayed the man who took him in and raised him up. He stole the Jolly Roger, leaving Harry shipless. And worse, he took Harry's crew with him. Before the night was over, he went from pirate thief to a murderer. Two men tried to overtake him, start a mutiny because they refused to serve under a lowly cabin boy; ignoring the fact that Harry had promoted him to first mate a year before. Those two men were at the bottom of the ocean by morning. If Isabel thought that was a better fate for him than seeing his son born and living a happy, somewhat normal life with them, then she needed to sort her brain out.

Then there was Milah. He wasn't sure if Isabel knew about her or not. Killian guessed that she did considering three centuries passed for them in Neverland. He wondered what all she saw in Neverland. He didn’t care if she saw her husband or the man trying to pin her to the wall. What he wanted to know was if maybe seeing he had moved on was punishment enough for her. Oh he was sure his presence alone was pure torture for her. Having to keep up the pretense that she knew nothing of him or his crew. Good, he thought. At least the bitch squirmed. If he had his way, she would be squirming for quite some time. He liked the idea of Isabel being jealous of Milah a little too much. Killian used to enjoy when she would get jealous because she would do everything in her power to remind him just who he belonged to. Property. He was her property, and for the longest time, he believed she was his. Not in the commodity sense. They had been married after all. Neither one of them had been with anybody before. He once hoped he would be able to say that they hadn’t been with anybody since. Many believed a portion of his time grieving Isabel was trying on different women to see who could make the pain stop. Nobody knew he’d get piss drunk and pay the women to pretend he’d given it to him good. It wasn’t until Milah that sex and love became viable options again. It took him two years of pretending and killing those he thought were responsible for Isabel’s death. Meeting Milah was a happy accident.