This is my first for Once and my first fanfic on this site so I hope its ok. I hope you enjoy it. I had issues with getting Snow and Emma right on an emotional level sometimes but Killian is an open book so if it comes off a little weird please don't hesitate to tell me in the comments. Please comment when you've read it as well. I would love a review! Be awesome and stay happy, guys! xx
I had an original idea but it had no conversation the story was very much expositional. I was advised to add some conversation and try to follow some sort of "proper story" within the piece. At this point I have to thank my two beta readers, my sister (also a Oncer) and my friend (not a Oncer but good at English). It's set after the season 6 finale but this isn't really referenced, it just makes sense it's part of their happy ending. So, this is where the idea came from originally and the I have the edited story with the conversation added in but I wanted to show both parts not showing the editing process but because I am quite proud of both parts and its some of the best writing I have done in awhile. I also wanted to show the original story so it makes more sense where the later part comes from. So without further ado, the story:
How has all this changed in such a short amount of time? Most people will say that 6 years is a long time but in comparison to the 28 years, I spent alone, jumping from house to house, family to family, without ever counting it as my house or my family. 7 years of continuity, of belonging to someone and something special, something more magical that any of the films or books I feasted on in a vain attempt at escape, in those years where everything felt dull, set in stone, a monotonous beat leading one day into the next.
The only sparkle was that year with Neal. I was still young, a teenager, a child really, but I had always had light fingers and such an innocent face no one ever looked my way twice and I think that mistaken innocence is what called out to him. As we got to know each other it became more and as our relationship changed and grew we grew with it but in the end, I think my desperate urge, my need to fit in took over. I had to do anything to keep his attention to make him proud of me, that's why I was willing to get those watches, that's why we never found Tallahassee. I still regret my choices that day but I will never regret the consequences of our actions together. Together we made the world turn, joy thundering through our veins, flowing into each other with each loving give and take of the other's body. Together we made life, new life: new meanings, new stories and most importantly new happy endings, new hope. He built me up so high if only I knew then that he would knock me so low, leave me with nothing but this chance, a chance I let slip through my fingers due to naivety and real innocence. I tried to shut it out, to shut the world out after that and to a degree I succeeded. Until he turned up on my doorstep. Until he brought my mundane existence crashing down around my ankles. Until he took those broken pieces of the half-life I built for myself and made them into something new. A family, a home, a job, a group of friends, a country, a fight for good, a guy even. My family, my home, my job, my friends, my fight, my man: my husband. That last one is one of the weirdest. After everything that happened. After years of being alone. Suddenly, I have this man, a pirate no less or even weirder, Captain Hook, flirting with me. You told me a pirate was flirting with 10 years ago I would have laughed, for a very long time. He implied he was falling for me very early on but I took my time hesitant after all the times I had been built up just to be let down in my life before. But he won me over, with his smiles, with his flirts, with his kisses, his massive gestures, his respect, his love, his support, until I was his and he was mine entirely.
People say you remember your wedding day as the happiest moment for the rest of your lives. I want to believe that is true but recent events will always try to eclipse it. The day little Neal spoke for the first time ("ru-ru") which Mum tried desperately, her eyes shining with joy, to tell us is him talking to his favourite toy, a little kangaroo, and we excepted and celebrate whilst silencing Henry with "the look", stopping him saying what Killian and I, privately, agreed with, that it was probably after Ruby, he had always liked her, his hands wrapping into her the long curls of her hair every time she came close. He would have liked his mother's hair if we had been brought up in the Enchanted Forest.
But the day even better than that was the day Megan was born. Megan Hope Swan- Jones. Our beautiful, blue-eyed wonder. Princess Megan of Misthaven's birth was nothing spectacular. Killian and I were prepared so when I felt my waters go we left for the hospital. Her arrival was nothing big. And something so big all mixed into one. I clung desperately to Killian's hand on one side and my mother's on the other. And when the time came I rode the pain out through my hands and screams, I pushed and waited and pushed until suddenly everything loosened, the pain lessened somewhat and there was a surprised whimper. A tiny little mewl. And then there she was. My little girl. In my arms, staring up at me and Killian with the same swirling deep blue eyes that she shared with her daddy. Breathing us in as much as we were taking every beautiful inch of her in. I looked up at Killian and his bright blue eyes feed into me as I whispered, "we made her" and he responded, "Aye, love, we did". Life never felt better than it did in that moment.