I don't own OUAT, any of its cast/ characters or its plot. I wish I owned it cause then I'd beg Jennifer to come back, but you know that isn't happening! But I will admit that I actually really like season seven. Whoops, sorry if you don't agree.
Rude
3rd Person
Emma sighs softly to herself as she scans the barcode of the packet on the conveyor belt that moves the items in her direction.
She hates her job, despite the fact she's only been there two weeks. She hates the fact that her entire job is the most depressing thing on earth, and that people have a real tendency to be rude if she so much as opens her mouth.
Moving away from her hometown to be a big shot in the Big Apple of New York City didn't work out how she wanted it to.
When she left, she thought she had a plan, a good one. Despite the fact she was only seventeen, she had her boyfriend on her side, she had some savings, and she'd hoped her parents would have understood.
They didn't, they tried to keep her from going, saying it was a mistake and that she should stay home because she was too young to leave home. But being the stubborn girl she was, she still left with the man she thought she'd spend the rest of her life with.
That was four years ago.
Since then, many things have changed. For one, her supposed to be boyfriend, the boy she thought would be the love of her life, well that didn't work out.
Things were good between them for a while, they had big dreams, they could build their lives together in New York, parents be damned. However, when she couldn't get the big, high paid, job she'd always thought she could, he turned on her. He told her she was a failure, that she'd never make it, and it knocked her down bit by bit. Except she stayed, like an idiot because she thought that it would all work itself out.
She was wrong, as it turned out.
In the end, she was left with nothing but ten dollars in her pocket and a baby he'd told her she wanted, but never did. That was just another thing he'd taken from her in her relationship, her choice as to when things should happen.
Emma never told her parents what happened, too ashamed of herself to, and she was trying her hardest to get by in life. Since then she'd gotten herself two jobs, one as a waitress in this small diner near her apartment and then the store next door.
Busting her ass sixteen hours a day is hard for a normal person, but for a nearly five months pregnant twenty-four-year old whose bed is the most uncomfortable thing on earth, it's harder.
The man who owned the diner was nice enough, and normally he'd make Emma sit down at the till. His wife and him had children, so he knew how tired she was all the time, and Emma appreciated the fact that he cared (even a small amount) to let her have a rest for a few hours.
But the store was awful. Her bosses didn't care about her standing up all day, they didn't care about her feet hurting or the fact she's always dangerously close to falling over. They just care that she does her job, or she'd be fired. And she can't afford to be fired, she can barely keep up with rent and soon she'll have a baby to worry about on top of it all.
She can't pay medical bills for things such as sonograms and just random health checks, so she relies on feeling the baby's movement to tell her he's okay. She has no clue what she's going to do when the baby is born, though her heart knows what it wants, her brain says something very different.
"Hey, lady!" Someone yells in her face, making her head snap up out of her daydream, and she quickly scans a bunch of items headed her way.
"Sorry, sir." She mumbles softly, not feeling all that sorry, but she won't let him know that.
"Maybe if you stopped daydreaming about your life, then you'd be better at your job!"
"I'm sorry, sir, it's only my first few weeks here-"
"It's not that hard a job, anyone could figure out how to scan some things! Just because you're knocked up, doesn't mean you get a jail free card!" He yells practically in her face as she helps pack up his items.
"Sir, I apologize, I didn't realize-"
"No shit lady!" He scoffs at her. "Maybe if you spent less time in your own little world in your head then you wouldn't be knocked up and wasting my time!"
"I'm sorry, I don't understand how my being pregnant affects you-"
"Of course you don't understand." He chuckles horribly at her, gesturing at her. "Let me say it slowly for you, eh? Maybe if you spent less time in your head, then you'd do a better job at keeping your legs closed!"
She swallows softly, looking down at the scanner and just ignoring his comment, not wanting to dignify him with a response.
However that just irritates the man more, and he comes to stand straight in her face. "I demand a discount for having to put up with a slut like you!" He yells, making her flinch a little as she can see her manager watching.
"Oi, mate." A voice comes from the other side of the conveyor belt. "You're the one screaming in her face if anything she should charge you two times whatever your bill is for being an arse."
Emma's head snaps over to the man who spoke, her eyes slightly glassy as she looks at him. He's a little taller than her, with a light layer of stubble on his face, making his lips slightly pinker then they probably are. He's obviously freshly groomed, his hair falling in exactly the right way, his scruff very much kept. He's wearing a black leather jacket that moves as he does, and she can see he's also got on a pair of quite tight jeans that show off most of what he has to offer.
"This is none of your business." The rude customer states simply.
"It is my business when you insult my girlfriend." He lies, his eyes moving to Emma's as if asking her to play along. "I think it's time you leave now, mate." He states, sounding quite angry despite the fact he's never met her before.
The other man raises an eyebrow like he doesn't believe him but just backs off. He's smaller than the leather-clad man, and it's quite obvious he just wanted to bully someone, not expecting someone to stand up for her. So he just throws the money he owes at her before grabbing his things and storming off.
"Are you alright, love?" The man who defended her asks quietly, his eyes looking at her with something akin to concern.
"I…" Emma swallows softly, glancing up at the man, but out of the corner of her eye, she can see her manager directing her to go over to him.
"Excuse me." She whispers, before walking away with her head hanging.
She's fired.
She saw that coming from a mile away. Apparently, the fact that she apologized wasn't enough and even though it was him who caused the scene, it's all her fault.
The next morning she heads into her job at the diner, defeated and already accepting the fact she's going to lose her apartment, therefore meaning she'll probably also have to give up her baby. What baby deserves a mother that can't even provide for it? She wants the baby to have its best chance, and that's not with her.
After thoroughly complaining to her boss, who's sympathetic and vows to kick the ass of whoever did that to her, she feels a little lighter over it. Well, only because she knows her boss is joking. Liam Jones is one of the nicest men she's ever met, and she knows he wouldn't hurt someone purposely.
In the afternoon, she's still at work, just calculating someone's bill, when she glances up at the bell jingling on the door to see the man who defended her the day before.
He spots her just as her other customers leave, and makes his way over. "Emma?" He asks, and she wonders how he knows her name before he points at her nametag to explain himself. "I'm Killian, Killian Jones." He offers her his hand. "I didn't know you worked here."
Emma stares at him for a few moments in shock, not having expected to ever see him again. "Hi." She says softly, gently taking his hand and giving it a shake before quickly taking her hand back.
"If I'd of known you worked here, I would have spoken to you more at that bloody shopping place. How did everything go with your manager? I saw you speaking with him."
"I, oh, uh…" She looks away at the till. "I got fired, actually. I suppose it was for the best, I didn't exactly enjoy it. It was just so I'd be able to pay for my rent."
"Oh. I'm so sorry to hear that." He bites his lip, deciding that maybe a change of subject might help. "Uhm, have you seen my brother by-"
"Thank you, for what you did." She cuts him off in the middle of speaking. "No one has ever stuck up for me before, I've kind of forgotten that people could. I was just going to let him continue, give him what he wanted."
"Bad form." He says softly. "To speak to a woman that way, especially one who's with child. If I was your boyfriend I'd have the right mind to have punched him."
Emma bites her lip. "No boyfriend to do that for me, no one at all actually. So you could have punched him, I'd have loved to have seen him with a black eye."
He chuckles softly, nodding slowly. "I would have punched him had you asked."
"And gotten kicked out of the store, and I'd still be fired."
"But at least it'd make you smile." He blushes and he looks at the floor. "Sorry, that was cheesy. You probably get that all the time, guys trying to make you smile."
"Sure, cause every guy wants a five months pregnant runaway." She states drily, finding herself actually able to joke at her sorry state of a life for some reason. Something about Killian putting her at ease, she's not sure why, maybe it's just his manner.
"Well, not every guy is me." He looks down at her stomach for a moment before looking away again. "Besides…I like kids."
"Doesn't mean every guy wants one, I'm hardly used to being hit on." She shrugs. "I've forgotten what that feels like, my ex was the kind of guy that never really made a girl feel good about herself…hence the being alone and pregnant thing."
"Well…what if someone was hitting on you and you didn't realize it?"
"Then that would be a first, most men aren't all that subtle when they hit on a woman, besides…who would hit on me?"
"Me."
Her head snaps up and her eyes meet his for a moment, and in her head she knows she probably shouldn't be as shocked as she is considering they've just been (kind of, sort of) flirting. "Oh…well then, if you were…I'd say thanks." She grabs a mug and pours some coffee into it before offering it to him over the counter.
"What's this for?"
"A thank you." She offers him a small smile. "For making me feel like I could be hit on...and for not being a pig about it." She shrugs. "Besides, you have a nice smile too."
"Well…I think I'd like to see more of your smile, lass." He leans on the counter. "If you'd be open to maybe grabbing a bite to eat sometime, to a date type thing…then I'd like that."
"Are you asking me out?"
"That was the general idea, yeah, did I mess it up?" He blushes, looking adorable and shy, not at all like her ex. The way he'd asked her out was by getting her drunk and having sex in his car, things kind of just moved along from there.
This was new, a guy actually asking her what she wanted. She liked it, more then she cares to admit. "Yes, I would love to go on a date with you…but no seafood, the baby doesn't like the smell."
He raises an eyebrow. "The baby or you?"
"Is it acceptable to say both?" She giggles softly, playing with her hands for a moment. "I like water, I like swimming, and I even like fish when they're alive. Just not seafood, maybe it's me, maybe it's the baby, we'll never know."
"Well, I would like to know. One day." He says softly, his gaze holding hers for a moment. "If you'd let me."
She offers him a smile. "Let's start with a date and see where that takes us."
Their date goes well. He takes her to an Italian restaurant before they take a walk around the docks. She tells him about Neal in small parts, not ready to reveal all, and he tells her about his brother. She learns her boss is said brother and that lead to a different subject entirely. She finds out that he's a doctor, and that his left hand is basically useless since he was in a car accident. He can barely move his fingers and the limb acts more to look regular then for any actual use.
(Yet somehow he still pulls out her chair for her and opens doors, just like a gentleman.)
By the time she's seven months pregnant, two months into dating, Emma finally agrees to move into Killian's place temporarily until the baby is born, as she can't walk down the stairs anymore and she's so tired all the time she's nearly falling asleep at work.
His place is far bigger then hers, he has a spare room he made into a nursery just for the baby, and he even offers her a guest room but it turns out they both sleep much better when she's in his arms.
Killian is by her side, holding her hand and whispering words of encouragement when she goes into labor, never leaving her even for a moment. If he has to go to the bathroom he says he'll hold it, but in the end, she made him go. He rushed to get back even though the bathroom was an en-suite, but he hated leaving her, and his pants fly was still open to show exactly how fast he'd gone.
She gives birth to a baby boy, who they name Henry David (after her father) Swan.
Emma finally comes clean to her parents about everything a month after Henry is born, as Killian had gone with her back to Storybrooke and sat there by her side with Henry in his arms as she told them everything.
Her parents understood, of course, they did, and her father was more than happy to kick Neal's ass but her mother talked him down from doing that.
(Killian and David may or may not have made plans to do it if they ever saw him, but they don't need to know that.)
Within three weeks of telling her parents everything, Emma and Killian look at houses in Storybrooke and move there when they find the most perfect, blue, Victorian styled, home right by the docks but also close to her parent's home. Killian gets a job at the hospital and Emma works part-time as her father's deputy.
When Henry is nearing six months old, Killian finally asks Emma the question he's wanted to since he met her, the ring burning a hole in his pocket. He dresses Henry in a little onesie that says 'Mommy, will you marry daddy?' and when she sees it her eyes widen and she quickly nods at her boyfriend.
They'd taken to referring Killian as daddy for Henry since he was two months old, which he couldn't be happier about, but as soon as they're married he signs the papers to adopt him fully, and Henry's name is changed to Jones to match his parents.
Killian asks Emma about having more children five months into their marriage, but she tells him she wanted to wait until she was at least twenty-nine before they had another, which he understood, as he was already twenty-eight and she was only just turning twenty-seven.
On the day of her twenty-ninth birthday, she'd come into their bedroom after tucking Henry into bed with a wide smile on her face, and she'd sat him down before telling him she was nine weeks pregnant, something he's never been happier about.
He dotes on her every day of her pregnancy, never letting her overwork herself or stress too much. He makes sure she always feels loved and he showers both her, Henry and the baby the exact same affection, if not more, then she ever thought was possible.
Killian treats Henry no differently, not that anyone expected him to, even taking him on more and more trips out just so he feels the exact same amount of attention he had before he still has, that he's still loved.
His actions around her make her mother swoon and her father beams with pride over the fact his baby girl has found someone who loves her just as much as he does and shows her every day exactly how much.
(They have a baby girl, if you were wondering.)
I know I've been gone for fucking ever, I'm so so sorry. I just...life. That is my only excuse but I am 100% devoted right now to start a multi-chaptered fic and I hope I'll be able to explore some more sad themes for Emma and Killian, giving them shitty pasts is kinda fun.