"A kiss for a dying man?"

Emma rolled her eyes, "Must you be so dramatic? You've got a few broken ribs – you'll live. Unless I kill you."

Killian made an effort to gasp in shock, only hurting his ribs in the process. "I thought you said I only had to worry about the Crocodile killing me. Now I see through your reasoning for cuffing me to the bed."

"Because you tried to kill Belle?"

"I didn't intend for it to hit her – it was more of a scare tactic to get her over the line." He shrugged his shoulders, "If you don't mind, I'll just continue believing you cuffed me to the bed because you have other plans for me in the future."

"Well, unfortunately as much as I would like to see you locked in jail – can't really do that here. People who have killed are actually walking around town uninhibited." Emma pursed her lips, shaking her head at her own words. "Talk about a corrupt system."

"Well then love, do a one handed man a favor and take the cuff off. It's chafing."

A little too quickly she examined his wrist; it was red and slightly swollen around the cuff. "If you'd stop fidgeting with it you'd be fine."

"I'm in enough pain."

"It's your fault you're in here right now."

Killian shook his head, "Actually blame the fates. I had every intention of dying."

Emma's brows creased, her eyes training on his. "You meant to die? The driver of the car says it was his fault. That he was on his phone and not paying attention to the road."

"Sorry to break it to you love, but I saw that thing barreling down the road and my first thought was 'that will kill me'." The pirate looked away from her, a shadow of shame on his face.

"You tried to kill yourself?" Emma stared at him in a strange mixture of disgust and disappointment. "Killian?"

He turned, meeting her eyes. "So that's what it had to take to merit you saying my name?"

"What?" Emma flustered, stepping away from the bed to put distance between them.

"You called me Killian."

Nope, nope, no – she wasn't letting that name mean anything for him. It was a slip – he was Captain Hook. "Well it's your other name isn't it, Hook?"

"Only when you're around." He smirked up at her, enjoying how flustered one little thing made her. "So how about that kiss?"

"No. I'm not kissing you. Why do you want a kiss?" Her hands went to her hips and she scrunched up her nose. "And if it's because you delusionally think you're going to die then no."

"That's not why.." He trailed off, huffing loudly. "Dammit Emma." Killian jerked, trying to sit upright, but in effect he cried out in pain.

Emma cringed as she walked around the side of his bed, to where the little button was for pain medicine, "Do you want another dose of morphine?"

"I want your lips on my lips. Savvy?" He really sounded like a petulant child.

"Seriously Killian?" She did it again, she slipped and said his name.

Killian's blue eyes met hers, "Do me this favor, love. Uncuff me, kiss me and then you can do whatever the hell you have to do with a criminal like me. But, for the love of the gods, let me kiss you."

"Why?" There was a strident tone to her voice, the warring parts of her mind saying to do it and the saying she was an idiot if she did. "Why is kissing me so important to you suddenly?"

"It was the last thing I thought of when the thing hit me." Killian admitted, looking up at her, from her eyes to her lips and back again. "My one regret – and after three hundred years bravo to you – was that I never got to kiss you."

Emma's lips parted and she gasped, taking a step backwards. He thought of her as he was dying? Or trying to die? That was what this was? She was his last thought. What the hell was going on with her life anymore? "I-.."

"Unlock me."

The sheriff's hand went to her pocket, where the key was, and she paused. No. She shouldn't just let him go because he had some romantic dramatic thought of kissing her as he hurled himself in front of a car. But something about that fact made her heart skip a beat. He thought of her. "You have like two minutes free from the handcuff." She warned as she unlocked his hand, her eyes looking up at him. She could arrest him for the way he was looking at her alone.

"Two minutes is perfectly decent amount of time to kiss you." Killian pushed himself more upright in the bed, ignoring the pain in his chest as he moved. It could wait – this could not. "Emma."

"Yes?" She breathed out, wondering when in the world she let herself be this close to him. Had her body just willed her to lean close him – so close that their noses were brushing? Her gaze flickered down to his lips and she caved. She didn't need his reply – she knew what he wanted.

Emma leaned forward and pressed her lips against his, gasping at the initial contact. The last man she'd kissed ended up dead on the station floor and maybe that was why Killian's 'kiss a dying man' statement stung so sharply. And she surprised herself at how willing she was to kiss him once she was. Killian's fingers loosely tangled in her hair, holding her close as she leaned over his bed, trying her best not to put any weight on his battered body.

Killian reluctantly pulled back from her lips, taking in a raged and painful breath. "That was-" He barely got his words out before Emma kissed him again, making him grin against his lips. He should have known it wouldn't last much longer as he felt the cold metal slip around his wrist again, locking it in place against the bedrail.

"I'll see you later Killian," Emma whispered, brushing surprisingly tender fingers over his cheek as she pulled away. She needed time to herself, to think over what the hell had just happened. She was an idiot, but she wasn't going to regret kissing him.