#OUAT 6x06

[vasfasan]

hook + gardening

[lumadreamland]

[ctarchangel542]

I’m just gonna leave this here 🥵

[happy-emmdings]

Sins of Our Father

on AO3

Tags: gen, half-siblings, patricide, implied/referenced child abuse, redemption arc

Summary: Killian pays a visit to his younger half-brother the day after the Nautilus incident in hopes to affirm their reconciliation. Liam demands answers and Killian reveals more than Liam ever imagined he would learn about his father's past.

Set the following day after episode 6x06 (Dark Waters)

Word count: 2 128

Author’s note: I felt like these two needed to talk🤷‍♀️

Killian knocked on the door and took a deep breath as he waited to be invited in by the voice of his brother, whose face still didn't match his name in Killian's head. He was a little concerned when he found him still in the hospital. As if he hadn't hurt the poor lad enough, he managed to knock the lights out of him just after he swore not to fight him. But he hoped the sharp edge of a knife pressed against his throat counted as an extenuating circumstance. Enough blood has been shed between the Joneses. Maybe he could find a way to mend some wounds for a change. He still felt like he owed the young man an apology. Deep in the darkest corner of his heart, he still believed he had killed a man that could never really love anyone, no matter what comforting lies he poured into his son's ears. But that didn't change the fact that he had made an innocent boy an orphan and once again, a boy named Liam Jones had to pay for his father's sins. He kept asking himself if it made him worse than the man, he spent his whole youth despising.

"Come in," an impassive voice invited him to enter.

"Hello, brother," he tried to smile at the man sitting in a chair by the window. Liam gave him a fleeting glance and turned his eyes back to Nemo, who was sleeping in a hospital bed next to him.

"Hello," Liam responded with only a hint of coldness.

"I... came by to see how you were doing. I didn't hit you that hard, did I?" Killian raised an eyebrow.

The mood in the room was murkier and heavier than he expected. Something told him there was still a long road to travel from sparing someone's life to accepting them as a brother.

Liam snorted. "I'm fine. I'm staying here with Nemo until he gets well."

"Right."

"Do you... want to sit?" Liam frowned at him, as he was just standing there, unsure of how welcomed he was.

"Aye," he cleared his throat and settled in a seat next to him.

"So..."

"How are you doing?" he attempted to initiate a friendly conversation. Suddenly, he had no idea what he was going to say to him. And the distant, cold attitude wasn't making it any easier.

"I already said I was fine," Liam said flatly.

"Aye, you did. Sorry."

He wanted to get to know him. But when he looked at him all he saw was a stranger that has only now decided to let him live. He tried to call him Liam in his head, but the dissonance between the name and those scornful eyes and cold voice made his head hurt. It was all his fault, he knew. He deserved every speck of that disdain for ruining this lad's life. Apparently, it was a curse to be his father's son.

"What do you think about Storybrooke? Curious place, huh?" he tried again.

"Here's what I don't understand..." Liam turned to him with a flickering hint of bottled anger and it didn't seem like he was going to ask him about the world without magic. "Pirate or not, how could you have done that? He was your father just as much as mine. How could you have killed your own father?"

Killian's heart tripped and picked up its pace as if it wanted to run away from that question. He looked down at his hand and hook in his lap. Suddenly, they felt numb and heavy as if they were both made of metal.

He remembered his hand thrusting the knife in his father's side in a mockery of an embrace, a fitting way for them to part ways. He remembered his father's hand reaching for him as he sank to his knees. He remembered recoiling from it as if that hand's touch was poison and dirt. He remembered his father's face as he used his last words to try to raise a son he had irrevocably given up so long ago. The audacity. He had looked away from those glassy eyes thinking those are crocodile tears.

"I killed the man that sold me for half of a boat," he answered quietly. His throat has become rough from trying to swallow down all the pain the memory of his father dragged behind itself like a ball on a chain. Wetness blurred the edges of his vision.

A strange silence fell between them. Killian glanced up at his half-brother to meet his narrowed, perplexed eyes.

"Sold you?" Liam repeated as if he thought he heard him wrong. He shook his head like it made no sense to him and stared at Killian like he was lying. Like he was spinning some crazy tale.

"Wh- what... What would one do with a half of a boat?"

"Nothing," Killian scoffed wryly, "that's why he paid with two sons. Did you know? That you were named after him?"

"Who?" The lad's confused frown deepened.

"Liam. My older brother," Killian explained.

"I was named... after an older half-brother I didn't know I had?" he raised his eyebrows as he tried to process the new information. Then a quiet question flickered in his eyes. "Is he-"

"In a better place," Killian said firmly. He hoped the melancholy in his voice wasn't as audible as it felt. At least now he knew for certain that it was true, he told himself. At least he got to say goodbye. Now that he had witnessed Liam reaching well-deserved eternal bliss, he could stop missing him. He sighed. He wished they had phonebooths in Elysium too.

"Damn, he got so little of life," he whispered to himself.

Liam took a moment to absorb that and then he shook his head again, as if trying to clear his confusion.

"I still don't understand," he said. "How could he sell you?"

"I wonder to this day," Killian remarked with an old, weary bitterness.

Liam continued to stare at him and he realized the nature of the question was a little different that he thought.

"Oh, you mean the specifics?" he lifted his eyebrows.

Whatever glorified illusions about his late father this Liam had, were fated to clash irreconcilably with the story Killian was about to relay to him. He felt like he was back on that ship the night when a storm raged around them and put all the lanterns out, the night his childhood and his innocence were sold for such a lousy price. He had to tell yet another brother that their father was the kind of man that would sell his children and never look back.

He kept it short and simple. There was no need to describe the depths of despair the little boy he once was had touched that night. And yet, it poured out in the tone of his voice like a flood as he recounted the events of that fateful night.

He made sure to praise his older brother and give him credit for never leaving his side, even when he could have. He admitted that he probably wouldn't have survived long without him. That he probably wouldn't have had a reason to.

To not end the story on such a depressing note, he added that thanks to Liam, they eventually managed to seize their stolen freedom, though he omitted the part about deals with the devil.

When he was done, there was something disturbed and broken about the way his younger brother looked at him.

"But how... what..." Liam fumbled. "There must have been some kind of a mistake..."

At those words, Killian frowned at him perhaps a little too harshly. He had spent so long trying to believe just that as a little boy. Though he knew it was just disbelief, it felt like salt in the wound.

"I'm sorry," Liam shook his head. "I just can't believe he did that. My father... Was he... was he going to leave me behind? That night when he said we were going away?"

"He said he wouldn't," Killian conceded. "I'd sooner believe the devil's word than his. He told me I should be a better man. I- I just- I couldn't... Your name... I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Now I feel like I didn't know him at all," was all Liam said.

Killian put his head in his hand and closed his eyes.

"I'm sorry." It came out as a broken whisper.

"Why did he name me after a son he abandoned?" Liam asked, his voice strangely hollow.

Killian had asked the same question back then.

"He said it was to honour him," he muttered. For the lad's sake, he tried to keep scorn out of his tone.

"However flawed father's idea of honour and making up was," he added to offer some consolation, "it is a good name. You can bear it with pride. You were named after an honourable man. A true hero at heart. I wish you could have met him."

"I wish so too," Liam nodded. "Tell me more about him," he added softly.

Killian smiled. That he could do. With his words and memories, he painted a vivid picture of the noble, loyal, caring man that had been his light in the darkest days of his wasted youth. He spoke of a loving brother, a good captain and a tragic hero. In his reminiscing, his late brother's presence filled the room like the sun's warm light breaking through water surface. A heavenly light from another world. The younger Liam listened to him intently, yet Killian felt like he couldn't quite convey what his older brother meant to him through words. Every tale fell short of what he felt when he told it. Perhaps that love couldn't be explained. Perhaps it was for him and him only to keep and treasure in his old heart, a hall of fame for the lost heroes he had known.

"I don't know why I imagined you so heartless," Liam said quietly after a brief (this time more comfortable) silence that followed Killian's reminiscing. "You speak of your brother like he was a saint."

"He wasn't but... he came close," Killian smiled.

Liam shook his head in amusement. He examined him with thoughtful eyes again. Killian could feel the icebergs around the young man's heart starting to thaw.

"So... you have a son now?" Liam asked.

"Sort of. Almost. I hope," he said, looking down with a quiet chuckle. "I am not sure what I am to him right now, but he is a son to me."

"You'll have to elaborate on that."

"I hope to be his stepfather one day," he explained. "He's the son of the woman I love."

"So, you did find a family in the end."

"I did."

"I'm glad. It's what Nemo wanted for you and... I want it for you too."

"Does that mean..." Killian looked up at him hesitantly. "Can you forgive me?"

"I think I can, Killian," Liam sighed. "I surely don't want to kill you anymore," he said with a smirk.

"I'm sorry I made you pay the price of my grudges," Killian apologized sincerely. "I want to break that cursed cycle. Vengeance makes grand promises but in the end it leaves you drained and still broken and wishing you had dug a grave for yourself as well."

"Do you regret it? Killing our father?" Liam asked quietly.

"I do," Killian said and it was the truth. Despite all the scars in which his father's betrayal remained scrawled on his skin, despite all the sleepless nights and hopeless days... he found deep regret in his heart for what he had done. In the end, wounds could never be healed by creating more wounds. It took him way too long to learn that... to accept that.

Liam nodded. It wasn't going to give him back the lonely, lost years he had spent drowning in spite, but hopefully it was enough to help him find peace. However, coming to terms with his father's appalling past was something new to struggle with.

"I want to break the cycle too," he said.

Killian put his hand on his brother's arm in a gesture of gratefulness. Something quiet and promising passed between them, an acknowledgement of truce.

A few moments later, Killian stood up.

"Tell Nemo I said hello."

"I will," Liam nodded. The name still didn't quite fit. But at least it didn't hurt as much anymore.

"Take care... brother," Liam murmured when Killian opened the door. He glanced back.

"You too."

He wasn't quite sure whether he imagined it or not, but he thought he caught a glimpse of a smile on Nemo's sleeping face.

[exhaustedpirate]

What the hell is Liam II's age?! 'Cause he seems like 6/8 or something when Killian kills Brennan and then the boy is alone and I guess he grows up while Killian gets frozen with Cora for 28 years - which Liam couldn't have been stuck on otherwise he would still be a child and we know he didn't go to Storybrooke. And then Killian meets Nemo and Liam II during season 1's events I'm guessing since Cora's spell would have been done and he's grown but does that mean that he's supposed to be like 28+6/8? So, like a maximum of 36 years old?

Looking like this?

Which yeah, not exactly looking like a teen but like mid-20s, right? Specially since we know he was in the Land of Untold Stories which I think works like a sort of Neverland since they say their stories are paused, and Nemo's injury is still the same as it was in the season 1 timeline when they are in season 6.

Because, you see him in scenes with Killian and they look like they have a difference of age but if you allow my headcanon idea that Killian is like 2 years older than Emma, it would mean that Liam II is older than him now!

I know that OUAT's timeline is weird and inconsistent but this is getting ridiculous!

[dinneratgrannys]

REGINA MILLS 6.06, Dark Waters

[horsechestnut]

Genuinely starting to think whoever was in charge of the Once Upon a Time timeline quit after season 5.

[likehandlingroses]

OUAT Rewatch 6x06 - Dark Waters

I know your heart is filled with hatred, seeking revenge. This harpoon is enchanted to help you find wayward souls like your own. And then what? Fill it with something else? Yes, Hook. With the one thing missing in your life - family. No one will ever replace what the Dark One took from me. I know it feels that way now.

[thepirateandhisson]

— Once Upon a Time, 6x06 “Dark Waters”

AKA the one where the writers test how many times they can have others perceive Killian & Henry as father/son in a 44 minute time span.

[sotangledupinit]

Rumpelstiltskin, who hates Captain Hook with a passion and still blames him for Milah dying, whose son is Baelfire aka Neal Cassidy who is the biological father of Henry Mills....

...saying this about Killian Jones and Henry.

We love to see it.

[justsomewhump]

[vasfasan]

also while we're at it talking about 6x06,

Wow, Rumple. A way to show where your priorities lie, that's for sure. He could've just as easily said "The pirate and my grandson". But he didn't.

[lumadreamland]

[ctarchangel542]

She’s such a teacher pet

She was insane for this

[disney15ish]

OUAT: Henry’s response to Hook in 6x06

OUAT has seemed to be in a resurgence of popularity recently and it made me remember the general Hook fan reaction to 6x06 about Henry that bothers me.

Everyone seems to complain that Henry is acting unreasonably mad at Hook “because of PopTarts” but it’s not that.

The reason why Henry gets mad at Hook in that episode is based on 2 things:

1) Hook is trying to change the dynamic of the house too fast - deciding what is and isn’t okay for Henry to eat. Since S3B, I’ve believed Henry has always seen him as an adult friend to hang out with that happens to be with his mom. Him throwing away the Pop-Tart is him making a “father” type decision for him. Just imagine: You have a friend stay the night, in the morning that friend doesn’t like what you’re eating, picks it up and throws it away with no discussion. I’m guessing everyone mad at Henry for getting mad at Hook for doing that would be completely ok with that, right?

2) Henry getting mad at Hook for lying about the shears, I think it just shows Henry has a really bad reaction to anyone directly lying to him, because of his past: Regina lied to him for his first 10 years of life, Emma lied to him about the truth about his father, and now Hook for lying about the shears. 

[florida3exclamationpoints]

I thought Belle was gonna walk in. If Belle had walked in i would've killed everyone and then myself.