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The Orphan Jones	By : RueRambunctious Category: M through R > Once Upon A Time Views: 1478 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own OUAT and make no money from this.

Chapter List
- 1-One
- 2-Two
- 3-Three
- 4-Four
- 5-Five
- 6-Six
- 2
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- 4
Hook would probably have liked the small and close-knit nature of Storybrooke, if it wasn't for how dysfunctional his family is.

He doesn't want to talk to anyone. He just wants to trudge through the snow with his daughter, a towel draped over her soaking, cold hair, and go home.

Meeting Regina on the walk back puts his nerves further on end, and the knowing look she gives their wet appearance makes him feel annoyed and inadequate. Yes, taking his daughter to swim in this hellish weather means things are bad at home, but she doesn't need to acknowledge it.

It's not like there aren't enough opportunities for Emma to screech out reminders to the town – and Iridiana- as it is.

“Hmm,” Regina says.

Hook narrows his eyes at her.

She brushes her manicured fingers with familiarity through his daughter's sea-and-wind-tangled mane.

“I'm surprised the colour hasn't come out,” Regina comments with what might be a tactful skirting of the bigger issue, or a prelude to something worse.

Iridiana barely glances at the pastel colours streaking her milky-blonde hair. “It's the salt in the water,” she says.

Regina's lips twitch, because she can recognise Iridiana's magic anywhere, even if Emma can't. It isn't lost on Regina that Iridiana is doing as much as a twelve year old girl can to not resemble her mother.

“David mentioned Emma's been in an interesting mood all day,” Regina comments.

She is unsure whether Iridiana or Hook flinches hardest in response.

“Would it help if Iridiana stayed at mine tonight?” Regina asks.

Hook looks to his daughter for a response. The girl likes Regina, but the woman's niece Robyn makes Iridiana miserable.

Iridiana shrugs and looks at her father.

“I think I'd rather keep her close after yesterday,” Hook states, settling his arm over Iridiana's damp shoulders. She leans her forehead against him.

“No problem,” Regina replies, trotting along towards the Jones home with them.

Hook doesn't question it. Henry's probably asked his mother to keep an eye out for his younger half-sister, and it might just be possible that Regina is worried on an immediate level.

“Go get warmed up,” Regina orders, letting them into the house. “I'll cook.”

Hook doesn't argue. He's tired of arguments, and there's going to be a big one between himself and Emma soon enough already.

Iridiana goes upstairs and pulls on yesterday's dress, hoping to cut down on her laundry as a way of avoiding getting caught in a close space with her mother.

Hook spares the dress a glance, but as long as she's clean he doesn't really care about reused clothes. He's more impressed that it isn't crumpled.

The dress is a thin, shapeless, grey shift with a small amount of iridescent beading. Although hardly vintage, the frock looks like something a slight girl in the 1920s would have worn with the hopes of drawing no one's attention.

Iridiana chooses most of her clothing with the hope of it not drawing anyone's attention. Her wardrobe is filled with various shades of mottled grey as though she wishes for nothing more than to melt into the shadows.

When Iridiana was born Hook had thought of her shock of pale blonde hair as luminous and striking, but these days it just adds to her ghostly appearance. He does not understand why she cannot seem to develop a tan from all the time she spends outdoors (and especially in the reflective waves). Iridiana's skin has a sickly blue-grey pallor, and nothing seems to diminish her waif-like appearance.

Hook follows his daughter downstairs, and she is noticeably more quiet than Odette or Jack. Even Henry, who is basically grown, cannot help but chatter in domestic settings.

Iridiana seems to fade.

Regina knows it too, and instructs the girl how to help set the table to try to pull Iridiana into the moment. Including her.

Which Emma seems incapable of doing.

Hook steps forward to help as well, but Regina silently grips his hook and pushes it away, indicating his daughter smiling a little as she places cutlery at three places.

Hook smiles back at Regina. Swallowing, he wonders whether he will have the same support network if he really does leave Emma.

The meal goes along without issue, and of course tastes better as it has been prepared by Regina. Iridiana offers to clear up, desperate to feel useful.

“I wish Robyn was as helpful as her,” Regina smirks to Hook.

Hook smiles a little and watches Iridiana somewhat sadly. He wishes his daughter had even a fraction of the maternal love Robyn receives from Zelena.

It's quiet in the house after Regina leaves, but it's nice to actually spend time with Iridiana in a communal space in the house, and even more so with the girl feeling at ease enough to take up space or speak.

“Iridiana?” Hook asks her eventually. “How would you feel if we lived somewhere else?”

The girl turns to him immediately, looking surprised even though she has sensed something about her father had been off recently. “What- what do you mean?” she asks.

Hook regards her with sad blue eyes. “This doesn't work. You're miserable. Everyone's tense. Maybe it would be better if… you and I lived somewhere else, and Mom and the littles stayed here. Or… we could think of something else, but something has to change. Don't you think?”

Iridiana looks stricken and guilty. “Did Mom tell you to bring this up?”

Hook shakes his head, and tilts her chin gently with his namesake to persuade her to meet his eyes. “This is my idea. I'm worried about you,” he explains.

“But you love Mom,” Iridiana points out. “And Jack and Odette.”

“Of course I do,” Hook says sincerely. “But I need to protect my children and this environment… it isn't healthy. For you or the littles. You can't grow up amongst all this tension...”

“Dad,” Iridiana says softly. “Don't say anything to Mom, okay?”

“Okay, not yet,” Hook says soberly.

Iridiana bites her lip as though she wants to say, 'No, not at all.' Worse yet, she desperately wants to throw her arms around her father's neck and beg him to take her away right now, forever.

She leans against Hook, still chewing her lip.

Hook strokes her pale hair. “You've always got me,” he murmurs.

Iridiana feels sick.

She withdraws back into herself as soon as Emma's finishing time approaches, and disappears upstairs.

Emma juggles Jack, the diaper bag and Odette as she lets herself into the house. She had once thought she would love this house.

She knows she loves the littles, and Hook, but the situation is… hard.

Hook greets her, taking the kids because she looks tired and besides, he wants to spend as much time as possible with them.

Hook has absolutely no desire to leave any of his children -or even his wife, if he is really, truly, honest with himself- but what else can he do?

Iridiana doesn't reappear until prompted to at dinner time. She gives Hook a pleading look in hopes that he'll permit her to take her meal to her room, but Emma is likely to be mild after yesterday's failure, and he wants Iridiana to have a chance to spend some more time with her siblings. Hook shakes his head.

Iridiana deflates, and Hook is filled with deep, burning guilt not only because he has caused the reaction, but also because the prospect of being in the same room as her kin makes Hook's daughter grey even further.

“Is Idanna bad?” Odette asks conversationally.

Emma flinches, looking between her family members. She's unprepared for her toddler starting to pick up on their issues.

“No, Iridiana is <i>not</i> bad,” Hook answers shortly, swallowing the urge to shout, because it's hardly his baby daughter's fault that the family is deeply disfunctional.

Odette seems deeply confused by the assertion, looking at her older sister and then their mother skeptically. Emma looks away.

Iridiana, meanwhile, looks like she might just disappear into the grain of the table and chair if she just chews that little bit quieter.

Hook takes his gaze from Iridiana and moves it around the table. Only Jack seems oblivious to the awkwardness, but even he understands some of the tension around Iridiana because he tends to cry whenever she is close.

At least Killian Jones had his brother Liam. Hook's heart aches.

Emma gathers up Jack and Odette, taking them through to the living room to watch a cartoon movie. She hardly looks at Iridiana, but there is an expression of dislike on the mother's face when she does.

Hook remains at the table and wonders what to do.

Iridiana watches him with an intensely thoughtful look, and Hook wonders if she is considering his suggestion.

She gets up from the table and steps past him, heading for the door.

Hook reaches out with his hook, lightly catching her elbow. “Are you okay?” he asks hoarsely.

Iridiana gives him one of those somber looks of her's, where she seems like the one about three hundred years in age.

“Love you, Daddy,” she says softly, then turns and disappears out the door.

Hook gets up quickly and hisses out a question, not wanting to alert Emma in case his wife wades in and causes calamity. “Where are you going?”

“Relax, Dad,” Iridiana says with faux cheerfulness, trying her best not to stare at her father too urgently lest he somehow surmises her plan.

Hook leans against the doorframe and watches her. “Be back in by ten thirty,” he warns, his tone still muted.

Iridiana smiles back at him, and feels utterly, incredibly guilty.

As soon as her father is out of sight, Iridiana clasps her fingers around a small, black box that she has kept carefully for two years now, almost three.

She heads to the pawnbroker's shop and presses the bell, even though it's closed. She doesn't like going around to the house door. Gaston has a habit of answering that, and he asks too many uncomfortable questions. Worst still, he is sometimes accompanied by Neal or Robin. Or both.

Mr Gold answers after a pause, not looking particularly surprised to see her so soon. “Shall we put the tea on, dearie?” he asks, leading her inside.

“No,” Iridiana says urgently, reaching out and grabbing the sleeve of his suit jacket to halt his step.

He turns around and looks at her assessingly, a modicum of concern clear in his eyes.

Iridiana fumbles for the box and holds it up with a shaking hand. “I… I need help,” she says shakily.

Mr Gold freezes upon seeing the box he had gifted her for her tenth birthday. He glances over his shoulder almost automatically at the trunk she had hid in that day, refusing Henry's entreaties to come out. The trunk seems to mock him, because what the hell was he thinking to give such a gift to a child?

Mr Gold looks back reluctantly to Iridiana's desperate face. The answer was there of course: her need for help was undeniable.

Before Gold can caution Iridiana, the girl opens the small box and takes out the meagre scrap of expensive paper within.

Nervously, she reads out, “Rumplestiltskin...”

Mr Gold puts his hand on her shoulder urgently to stop her, but her words are too swift.

“Rumplestiltskin. Rumplestiltskin.”
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The Orphan Jones