Disclosure:  Once Upon A Time on Wed. by ABC.  Not me. 

Pre Edit Count –   2,467 Words

Song I listened to for this chapter: Thrive by Switchfoot.

Previous:

Smiling gently, he tells her, “True Love, darling.  I cannot explain it any better.  You’re mine and I am most certainly yours.  I will fight for you; die for you if it came down to it.  However, with this being True Love, your kiss alone would heal me of anything and mine would do the same; our children included.  Now love, for tonight, let’s just talk.  I told you my life story and nothing is more interesting to me than yours and we will keep doing this until we meet, however love, there is someone in this world that is very dangerous and someone in yours that is also dangerous.”

His eyes go dark as he thinks of the danger the Queen of Hearts and the Crocodile pose.  He will defend what is his, no matter what.

Emma chokes back a laugh as she feels him pick her up and seat them both back in his chair.  “Oh I think there is more than one in my world as dangerous and in this one.  Right now I am tied up and during the day I’m being dragged behind a horse along with my mother.”

Her voice is sarcastic, biting.  She had never been so humiliated in her life as the past day.  Not even when she was in prison.

Killian stiffens.  “What?”

Emma opens her mouth but he puts his finger across it. “No, I heard.  I will be trying to get to you faster knowing this.  Emma, I will free you.” He promises her; his eyes meeting hers and his mind busy behind them, planning.

She looks into his eyes and whispers, “And get me home to my son?”

This is her one wish, beyond any other.

He nods. “And get us home to our son. I promise.”

For now… Later he will bring them both to their real home.

Now:

Killian holds his Beloved in his arms; relishing in the feel of her here with him, committing to memory everything he can in the short time they have together. Remembering the time constraints though, he sighs and wishes for the thousandth time that night that she were truly in his arms at last.  Having waited for her for six hundred years he is impatient to know her, but not willing to risk her safety or her heart due to his anxiousness. He is willing to wait as long as it takes.  His hands memorize the feel of her, the weight of her, the way they recognize her even though this is the first time they have touched her and it takes all the will power he possesses to keep his hands from wandering.  Breathing deeply he memorizes her scent which is a strange combination of sunlight and the moon and a hint of spice; all things he has loved throughout his long life.  As he holds her he realizes that if this were the only moment they were to ever have together it would be enough, but he is joyful to know this will be the first of many.

As Killian is relishing this time together, Emma’s thoughts take her in a slightly different direction.  For the first time in her life she feels safe, loved and-dare she think it-whole.  She cannot explain this feeling of completeness she is getting from being in his arms but she can’t deny that this is the only time she can recall that the constant ache she felt in her heart has gone.  For as long as she could remember she had always felt as though something were missing from her, something important and crucial to her very being but she was never able to pinpoint what it was.  For a time Emma believed it to be feelings of abandonment or from not knowing who her parents were, but somehow she knew this was not the case.  Throughout her life there had been times she felt a pulling in her chest, a yearning to wander, to explore, to find the thing that would make the feeling go away and if she were honest with herself, was most likely the true cause of her rebellion throughout her youth.  There were times when she was a child and dreamed of her imaginary friend that the feeling would intensify but never in a painful way; simply as though the connection between her and whatever was causing her ache was being bridged and the connection made more complete.  If she were willing to admit it to herself, it was the same feeling she had felt from the moment she arrived in this weird place and the same feeling that had stopped the moment her dream began, being replaced by a comforting and satisfying hum.  She cannot deny that there is something about this man that makes her feel the way she’s feeling, but she knows it will take time for her to heal completely, to have the bruises and wounds of her past healed from her heart and, more importantly, for her to trust again.  For now, she will focus on getting home to her son and in time she will address these new feelings.  In the meantime, she will allow herself this moment in time to truly relax for the first time.

Looking down into her eyes, Killian tells her softly.  “I know, lass, I know.  We have a great many number of things to talk about.   For now the most important to me is if you know who has you??”

Curling up in his lap, Emma shrugs. “I think it is someone named Mulan and some Princess What-So-Ever, but the one who actually captured and is keeping us a detained is Mulan.”

His hand rubbing her back gently, Killian nods.  Mulan is known to him.  She is part of the camp that Cora had been deceiving in his dreams, the same camp she set out for once the curse was lifted.  Perhaps those dreams were more real than he realized.

“Mulan is actually not that bad a person to be captured by.  She is honorable and will bring you to the camp that holds the survivors to this land.  I need to warn you though; the Queen of Hearts is truly in charge of the camp. She is the definition of evil.”   He leans his head on Emma’s shoulder, remembering the years he spent allowing Cora to believe he was in her service.  “Love, there is too much to warn you of and not enough time.  I need to get to you.  Once I do however, there is much that we need to keep hidden.”  The pain is evident in his voice.

Emma leans her head against his and allows herself a moment to be comforted by his warmth.  Avoiding his gaze she says quietly, “I am sorry.  This is normal for me and my fucked up life.  If I were you, I would stay away.”

Chuckling into her shoulder Killian turns his head and captures her eyes with his own vivid blue ones.

“Stay away?  I could no more stay away from you than rip the stars from the sky.  You are my Promise, my Beloved, and my True Love.  You are the one I have waited for all these years and have spent all my time preparing for.  There are things in my past I am ashamed of but they were necessary to becoming who I am.”  Killian pauses, looking for any sign that she will run from him, deny him and deny his feelings.  Seeing none he continues, “As for your “fucked up life” as you call it, darling, you did hear my life story earlier, right?  I was born without parents, I have a vendetta against the Dark One, the most powerful force for evil in all the realms and I just spent 28 years living a life that only existed in my dreams.  Heck, I don’t even have a hand! ”

Frowning, Emma pulls back slightly and gently traces her fingertips across his palm as she asks, “So how is it you have one here?”

“Dreams, Emma my love.  Everything is possible in dreams.  I would not be shocked if when we finally meet in the real world, a miracle should occur.  With everything I have learned about us over the years it will not surprise me at all.  Now, back to the subject at hand…”

Grinning at his own pun, he arranges her on his lap so he is able to look into her eyes more fully. “No one can know about my birth.  That information alone foretells of the prophecy and every source of evil in the Realms has been trying to discover the ones the prophecy speaks of.   Learning this information will begin a chain of events we are not yet ready for.”  When he sees that she is taking this all in he continues, “You are being led to a refugee camp; a camp that holds the citizens of this realm that were able to escape the Curse.   At this camp is a woman named Cora, known as the Queen of Hearts, but she has hidden her identity from all who have met her.  Do NOT say anything about me.  For the last 28 years I have worked carefully to make it appear as though I am in alliance with her; nothing could be further from the truth.  I hate it, but it was necessary as it was the only way I could think of to find you, to get to you.  Now, I am using my place as her follower to keep abreast of her plans.”  He shakes his head in an attempt to rid himself of the memories of the things he has done in his time as her slave, when he was Hook and required that vengeance be his goal, though he knows that everything he has done has facilitated him being where is now; holding his Beloved in his arms.

Grinning widely, Emma says, “So the guy who is supposed to be my True Love is working for the other side?”

Killian laughs at this unexpected display of humour from his Love.  “No. Never!” He pauses.  “Well, ok, I guess I am, but I rather call it intelligence gathering behind enemy lines.”

Emma’s laughter rings through the forest.

Reveling in the sound and the feelings of mirth through their Bond, Killian grins.  “However, for now, why don’t we agree to ‘work against’ each other?”  He wiggles his eyebrows playfully.  His expression turning serious, his eyes begin to smolder and grow dark as he looks upon his Love.  “When I can kiss you, when it won’t give everything away, I will be laying one on ye, lass.”

Her breath hitches from the pure sex dripping from every word.

“Why does it have to wait until then?”

Searching her face, he tells her, “Because it will be our first kiss, Lover. And I intend for it to be memorable.”

Dumbstruck, Emma just stares at him.

Killian allows a few minutes to pass to allow her to work through whatever it is on her mind.  When he senses she is ready, he continues, “Will you tell me about your life, Love?”

The moment the words leave his mouth, he regrets asking the question as he can feel her body physically tense beneath his touch and the bond stretches tightly from the tension coming from his Love.  Hating feeling her withdraw from him, he holds her close to him and he murmurs softly into her ear, “I’m here Emma and I will be here for the rest of our lives.  I simply wish to know my Beloved more intimately and to know what she has gone through in her life.  I am more than willing to fill in any blanks you may have in regards to my life and history.”  He winces from the pain of memories.  “Though you may not want to know about the time from before I was aware that you were coming…”

Emma just shakes her head.  “I guess I cannot hold it against you since I had my own relationship before meeting my supposed True Love.”

Staring at her for a few moments, he fights the feelings of anger and rage building inside of him.  “When I meet the person that put that doubt in your eyes, made you distrustful, I promise you I will be making sure that they will not be doing it again.”

Emma looks away before retorting; a slight hint of anger in her voice, “Well some of us were thrown away when we were born, not even having the excuse of no birth parents; just parents you believed abandoned you at birth.  Then, you’re put into a system that takes everything from you and once you get away from that system, you find someone you think cares about you, fall in love only to have that person set you up to take the fall for a crime he committed which leaves you in prison, alone once more and pregnant with his child.  Then, right when you start to open up to someone, let down the walls you carefully built to protect your heart from the world, he dies, simply because he got close to you.  So tell me, at which point in that story exactly do you see me learning to trust anyone?”

Grabbing Emma by the shoulders he holds her away from him slightly so he can look her fully in the eyes.  Angrily, he demands, “What the bloody hell is this?  You were thrown away?  Didn’t you just tell me you are being dragged behind a horse along with your mother?”

Crossing her arms, Emma stares Killian down as she answers defensively, “According to “Pinocchio”, my parents are Prince Charming and Snow White.  To protect me from the curse, they sent me through a wardrobe and instead of finding myself in Narnia and meeting Mr. Tumnus, I landed in a world without magic and no-one but a six year old child as my only protector.  I grew up being told I was left on the side of the road, thrown out with the refuse.”

Picking her up and placing her in his chair, Killian starts pacing angrily, his face twisted in rage.

“Bloody hell!  What were they thinking, sending you alone with just a wooden boy as a protector?  I should have fought harder to get to you.  I should have found a way to delay the curse or at the very least bring you inside the bubble.   I would rather have taken you to Neverland until the curse was broken and then brought back to the forest to grow.  I’d have rather waited longer for you than to have had you experience all that pain. When I get my hands on whoever came up with that idiotic plan…”

Emma watches him with her mouth open.  She has never had anyone get this angry over her past before; not even Snow or Charming had reacted like this when they regained their memory, but this literal stranger, this man, comes into her dreams and tells her he is her True Love, that he has been basically waiting for her for over 600 years, has a vendetta against Gold and he is consumed with rage over her childhood?

Still pacing, unaware that his eyes are literally glowing with his fury, Killian thinks that he would give anything to have the ability to go back in time.  He is not kidding.  He would have taken Emma away from them all, taken her to Neverland to wait out the curse and then bring her back only when it was safe and she could age.  She would have been happy; he would have seen to it.

Finding her voice, Emma tentatively states, “The curse wouldn’t have ended if I hadn’t been there.”

He swings around to her and arching an eyebrow, asks, “What?”

Swallowing, Emma tells him, “I broke the curse.  Regina, who I guess is the Evil Queen, made a turnover for me to eat using a poison apple.  Instead, Henry, my, our…” She shakes her head, “My son, ate it to prove he was right about it all being a curse and that magic is real.”  A tear falls down her cheek. “He was dying.  I went to Gold who told me he couldn’t cure him but gave me Charming’s sword and had me fight a dragon in the basement of the town hall for a potion he made from True Love.  Only he stole it by tying up Regina, who is Henry’s adoptive mother and who was helping me.  When we got back to the hospital we thought Henry had died and I felt so angry at myself for not believing him. I kissed him goodbye and suddenly he woke up saying it was True Love.  That kiss broke the curse, but Gold then brought Magic into the World.”

It was now Killian’s turn to blink at her slowly.  His mind running over everything she just told him, he finally asks, “So, to make sure I have this right… Our son is the Evil Queen’s son also.  And Gold is some bastard that told you that he could help you, but instead stole the cure, only to have you share True Love’s kiss with our son, breaking the curse.  Emma, what the hell is up with your home?”

His hands are clenching and unclenching in anger; fury written across his features.  His son had been poisoned!  And it was only because of the love Emma had for him that the curse was able to be broken?  Killian is becoming more and more resolved that he will be doing everything in his power to get them home to their son and will take care of those that even thought to hurt either of them.  He is not one of the most feared pirates for nothing.

Emma nods, her eyes filling with tears because of how much she had failed Henry by not really believing him.

Not being able to stand her tears, Killian moves toward her and falls to his knees at her feet and draws her face close to him.

“Now, now my love, I am here and we will take care of everything together.  I will rain hell down upon all those who have ever treated the two of you unfairly.”  His eyes are still glowing with his rage, but his hands are gentle with Emma.

Emma shakes her head. “Killian, I took care of it.  I don’t need someone to come along and sweep me off my feet, rescuing me like I’m some damsel in distress.  My parents might be characters in some fairy-tale but my life certainly hasn’t been one! I have survived the last 28 years on my own and I plan on protecting myself and my son for as long as I need to.”

Looking into her eyes, he stares at her, his hands gently cupping her face as he tells her, “And I am not looking to take away your independence.  Bloody hell, Love, I wish to encourage it!  But I will not allow you to deny me, the man who loves you and loves our son, my revenge on those who have wronged you!  Would you allow yourself to be denied your vengeance on anyone who hurt Henry?”

Opening her mouth to speak, she shakes her head but before she can say anything, Killian continues, “I have known of you for a hundred years.  I felt our Bond burst to life the moment you were born and felt echoes of it from the moment you were conceived!  I have had 28 years trapped inside my dreams plus the time difference between the realms when I travelled from Neverland to here to get used to the idea of you. Everything I have done, everything I have learned and dreamed and wished was so I could be with you.”  He chuckles.  “I even learned how to enter your dreams because I could not allow myself to be parted from you even one day longer.  I will give you all the time you need to come to terms with everything you have learned tonight however unfortunately for you, but fortunately for me,  the mystery that is True Love will work to bring us together.  I will never hurt you. In fact, it is impossible for me to do so.  I am literally incapable of harming you.”  Pausing, Killian rubs the pads of his thumbs along Emma’s cheekbones. “ So, accept that I love you, accept that I love Henry and accept that I will react toward our son the same way you would.  Furthermore, accept I will react this way when it comes to you also.”

Emma tilts her head to the side watching him as she uses her little quirk to test the truthfulness of his words and is shocked to discover no deception in him.  It is hard for her to wrap her mind around the fact that this man has loved her for her entire life; longer even! As he has stated, however, he has and he will give her the time to care for him and if she is being truthful with herself, (and if you can’t be truthful in your dreams, where else can you be?), she can already feel herself beginning to care for him.

He is purely and simply, filled with animal magnetism.  Those dark eyes, so blue they appear almost black at times, are truly the mirrors to his soul; reflecting every emotion he feels as he has them.  Then there is the accent and his voice, which to be honest with herself once more, do things to her body she has never felt before.  His body, his walk, his mannerism are the definition of male sexuality and she has to admit that the whole package that is Killian Jones is more than appealing to her.

It is what is inside the package that is becoming most attractive to her however.  There is absolutely no question in her mind that he is attracted to her, more than attracted and knowing that this man in front of her is dedicated to her, and to her son, whom he has never even seen, blows her mind.  What she had with Graham can in no way compare with what she is already feeling for this man holding her and Neal is the closest she has ever come to love and she knows now that was puppy love when compared to what Killian feels for her.

She would be lying if she denied seeing the Love between the two people who turned out to be her parents.  All through Regina’s manipulations and schemes they fought to be together, unable to deny the feelings they had for one another.  Charming when known as David was nowhere near as strong as Snow was, but still he loved her and gave up the life he knew, the life he thought he wanted in order to be with her, even in the face of ridicule and scorn from the town.  Perhaps their love in the ‘real world’ did not play out as love should but even as confused as he was, he still loved Snow and only her.

What woman wouldn’t want a man to fight for her that way?

Killian watches her face, committing to memory every flicker, every twitch, every expression in order to learn to read her thoughts.  She is an open book to him, but then he has never read any book as avidly as he is reading her now and he will do everything in his power to woo her the way his True Love deserves to be.  Even if she were not his, even if she were destined for another, he would treat her like the Queen he knows her to be.  This woman is his, his other half and he will make sure she knows it for the rest of their lives; every second of every day, for the rest of eternity.

Emma finally comes out from her own inner monologue to find those blue eyes she is growing to love trained on her with a startling depth to them.  Sighing, she finally says, “Ok.”

He smiles, drops his hands to hers and raises them to his mouth, never taking his eyes off her.  Kissing them with all the tenderness he is feeling he says,  “Thank you, Emma, my love.  You will not regret it.”

Hating to ruin the moment, Killian once more leans his head forward to rest on hers and sighs, “It is almost morning and we will be waking soon.”

Nodding, Emma revels in the feeling of him so close to her once more and says, “I guess we should make good use of the time we have left then.”  She smirks as Killian’s eyes twinkle in mischief.

“Oh, that we will My Love.  That we will”.

Final count: 4, 189 words

Fairfarren~ Wendy & Sharon

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