Enchanted Forest, present day
"Regina!"
Robin Hood rushed into the tent where is seven-year-old son lay sleeping. Roland had been having the old nightmare more and more frequently in the last few weeks, and when he did, he always called out for the woman they both missed more than words could say.
"Roland, lad, wake up," Robin said gently taking the little boy into his arms. "It's nothing but a dream. You're safe. Papa's here."
Roland continued crying, burrowing into his father's chest. "It was awful, papa," he murmured. "The Wicked Witch took me to her castle. Her monkeys were going to kill me."
"Sh," Robin said, stroking the boy's dark hair. "She's gone. She can't harm you anymore. It was but a dream."
The little boy raised a tear-stained face to Robin. "I miss her papa," he said, lip quivering.
"I know lad," Robin said heavily, knowing his son was not speaking of witch. "I miss her too."
So much it felt like his heart had been torn asunder. When his Marian had died many years before, Robin thought his chance for love had died with her. Then he'd met Regina and found a love so deep and true, he'd never seen its equal—except perhaps that felt by the Savior and her pirate.
But Regina had been taken from him…ripped back to Storybrooke in the Land Without Magic.
Robin had spent every spare moment during the six months she'd been gone trying to find a way he and Roland could return to her, but to this point his endeavors had been fruitless. It would appear every last method of opening a portal was gone.
Robin eased Roland back onto his sleeping pallet, brushed a kiss against the sleeping boy's forehead, and stepped back into the waiting night. A less persistent man might give up, but Robin knew he never would. When it came to reuniting with his True Love, Robin would never stop until he accomplished his goals.
….
They attacked at dawn. Vicious men armed to the teeth, blood-curdling yells in their wake. Robin Hood jumped from his sleeping pallet, throwing on his clothes at break-neck speed.
"W-what is it, Papa?" Roland asked, eyes round with fright.
"I don't know, lad," Robin said, snaring his bow and quiver of arrows.
Robin crouched before the boy and looked intently into his eyes. "Roland, listen to me."
"Aye, Papa,"
"You must hide," Robin said insistently. The harsh sounds of waged battle were coming closer and closer. "No matter what you hear; no matter what you may see, you must remain hidden! Do you understand me?"
Roland nodded slowly. "Aye, Papa."
Robin hugged his little boy and then headed into the fray.
It was like something out of a nightmare. Their foes fought like madmen, switching effortlessly from sword to cutlass to revolver.
But it was their leader that nearly froze the marrow in Robin's bones. The man wore a vest weighed down with every sort of weapon. He fought like a fiend, his eyes wild, his long, black beard wreathed in smoke and flame. If Robin didn't know better, he would swear he was facing the devil himself.
Robin notched an arrow to his bow and let it fly right at the leader's heart. The arrow hit its mark with a dull thud…and then continued on until it burrowed into the ground beneath him. The man turned furious eyes on Robin and then continued on his way, seemingly completely unfazed.
What was going on here? That blow should have been fatal!
Robin watched, jaw hanging slack as the demon-man moved inexorably forward…directly toward Robin's tent…the tent where his precious son hid.
"No!" Robin croaked, rushing forward. But Robin had only moved forward two steps before he felt a blinding pain at the back of his head. He sunk heavily to the ground, and then darkness closed over him.
Storybrooke, present day
"C'mon Mom! Rise and shine!"
Emma swam slowly from the realm of dreamland as Henry insistently shook her shoulder. It was too early. Way too early.
"Mom!" Henry said again, drawing out the single syllable.
"Alright, kid," she said, reluctantly opening her eyes and rising to a seated position. "I'm up. What's so important that you had to get me up so freaking early?"
"Early?" Henry asked with a laugh. "Mom, it's 10:00! Since when do you sleep so late? And especially today!"
"10:00?" Emma asked, dragging a hand through her messy hair. "That late already?"
"Yeah," Henry said again, "and you never sleep that late. You're not sick or anything, are you? You can't be sick! It's your wedding day!"
Her wedding day! Emma's grin blossomed into a full-blown smile. In only a few hours she would become Mrs. Killian Jones!
Emma hopped from her bed, and began tugging up the sheets. "Nothing to worry about, Kid. I just got in late last night."
"Yeah," he said, plopping down on her freshly made bed. "You weren't home when I went to bed. What were you doing last night?"
"Well, don't tell your grandparents," she said sitting beside her son, "but I was hanging out with Killian."
"Well, it's hardly a secret you two like to spend time together," Henry said with a shrug. "I mean you do have true love and you're about to get married and everything."
"Yeah, well," Emma said heading for the stairs that led to the loft's first floor, "that's one visit I'd just as soon keep between us. Mary Margaret insists it's bad luck for the bride and the groom to see each other from the end of the rehearsal dinner until the wedding."
"Bad luck!" Henry scoffed, standing up to follow her. "You guys just beat Morgana Le Fay and the Wicked Witch of the West! You two could take on 'bad luck' with your hands (and hook) tied behind your backs!"
Emma brought Henry's head over for a kiss. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, but you know how your grandma is. Wedding traditions have to be followed."
Emma climbed down the loft stairs and found her father stirring eggs as they cooked on the stove, and her visibly pregnant mom setting the table.
"Well, look who finally got up!" Mary Margaret said with a smile. She set down the last fork and then rushed over to greet Emma with a motherly hug.
"Hi mom!" Emma said awkwardly hugging the other woman, trying not squash her baby brother who lay in her mother's protruding belly. "Mmm! Something smells good. You guys didn't have to go to all this trouble. I could have just had cereal like always!"
"Of course we did, Emma!" Mary Margaret said earnestly. "This is the most important day of your life. We wanted to make it special. Besides, this will be the last opportunity we have to have breakfast together as a family."
Emma saw tears shining in her mother's eyes.
"Come on mom," she protested. "Don't be silly! You're not losing me. Killian's just joining our family. We'll still have meals together and everything."
"But it won't be the same!" Mary Margaret insisted, waving Emma to the table and pouring her a mug of strong, black coffee. "After today, you and Killian and Henry will be living at your new house by the docks. We won't have these leisurely family breakfasts together anymore. It's going to be so quiet around here without you and Henry! Your father and I will get bored."
Impulsively, Emma embraced her mother again. "Don't worry. Killian and I will visit all the time. And as far as it being quiet and boring? Enjoy it while you can. This is Storybrooke after all. It's only a matter of time before the next evil villain descends on us trying to take over the world."
…..
Killian shifted nervously, staring at the clock on the convent wall. He started pacing, adjusting his prosthetic hand, tugging at his coat. Five minutes. The ceremony was to start in five minutes.
He was five minutes from getting everything he had ever wanted—his true love, a family, a home of his own. Not two years past this day had seemed an impossibility. Who would have believed the fearsome Captain Hook, the terror of the high seas, the man utterly consumed with vengeance could find himself standing before the altar, waiting for Emma Swan to vow to love and honor him until death parted them?
Killian felt a companionable hand on his arm, and looked down into Swan's lad's eyes.
"Don't worry, Killian," Henry said with a smile, "everything's going to be great!"
Killian smiled down at his soon-to-be stepson. "Right you are, lad!" he said bracingly. "After all the work your grandmother and the dwarf put into making this day perfect, nothing would dare to go wrong!"
Henry laughed. "I still can't believe Grams asked Leroy to be the wedding planner!"
Killian tugged at the bowtie that was in a fair way to strangling him. Bloody uncomfortable this realm's fashions!
Henry must have noticed the movement, as he turned a critical eye toward Killian's wardrobe. "The tux looks good, Killian," he said after a moment. "How did Mom convince you to lose the pirate clothes for the day?"
Killian grinned, vividly recalling the conversation. Emma had insisted he wear "normal clothes" to the wedding. After all, there would be photographs taken. Killian had flatly refused. His leathers had served him well for three-hundred years; he had no intention of changing. Emma had gone on to promise him that if he'd wear her clothing choice for the wedding, she would spend the honeymoon insuring he had no reason to wear clothing of any sort. Needless to say he'd agreed with alacrity. And so here he stood in something called a "tuxedo", his red vest his only homage to his pirate past.
"Never you mind, lad," Killian said, ruffling the lad's hair. "Suffice it to say your mother can be quite persuasive when she chooses to be."
"Let me guess," Henry said with a theatrical sigh, "her form of persuasion involved kissing?"
"Aye," Killian grinned, "but not nearly as much as I would have liked."
"Ew!" Henry insisted.
Killian laughed. "It's high time you get used to it, my lad. From today on, I intend to passionately kiss your mother every opportunity I get."
The boy shook his head. "You two really are disgusting, you know that?"
Killian laughed. He opened his mouth, preparing his next retort when the sounds of Pachelbel's Canon floated through the air.
"Come on Killian," Henry said, pulling at his arm. "That's our cue. Ceremony's about to start."
In years to come, Killian remembered very little of his wedding ceremony. He couldn't have described the dresses the bridesmaids—Ruby, Belle, Ariel, and Tinker Bell—wore. Nor could he recount the words Regina, the officient, spoke.
From the moment Emma stepped into his line of sight, holding tightly to her father's arm, looking every inch like the princess she was in her delicate white dress and filmy veil, she was all he saw, all he could focus upon. When she caught sight of him and smiled, he would have sworn the sun shown a little brighter. When she spoke the vows that would bind the two of them together for the rest of their lives, he only wondered why all the birds in all the forests of every realm known to man didn't burst out into ecstatic song. And when it was his turn to repeat the vows himself, he looked into her beautiful green eyes, now sparkling with happy tears, and poured his very heart and soul into the words he spoke.
"By the power vested in me by the city of Storybrooke," Regina said solemnly, "I now pronounce you husband and wife."
Killian waited a heartbeat. Then another. Finally, he turned back to the former Evil Queen. "Pardon me, Madam Mayor," he said with a saucy grin, "but it seems you've forgotten the final line of the ceremony."
Regina rolled her eyes. "I was hoping we could be spared this part."
"Not a chance, Regina," Emma insisted.
"Fine," Regina said with a sigh. "Go ahead, Hook, and kiss your bride."
Killian flashed her his old pirate grin. "With pleasure, your majesty."
Turning back to Emma, his wife!, Killian's face softened. He raised his shaking hand to cup her cheek.
"Lass," he whispered softly, reverently.
Her hand came up to cover his. Her eyes reflecting back all the emotion he was feeling, she murmured "Killian, I love you."
"And I you."
"So hurry up and kiss me already!"
"As you wish."
Killian leaned forward, intending to merely caress the lass's lips with his own. The whole town was watching, after all. But at the first touch of her silky lips to his, love and passion exploded. Suddenly he was crushing her to him, kissing her as though he were a drowning man and she was water. This was his wife! Emma Swan, no, Jones! was his wife! After three-hundred long years of hell, heaven had finally opened up before him.
Notes:
-Well, here you have it, the first installment of a new multi-chapter story that I'm sure will prove to be LONG. Curious about the new villains? This story will have two—and the title of this story gives a clue about the more formidable of the two.
-This story is a sequel to my previous stories "A Wish Your Heart Makes" and "Getting To I Do." As you can tell, I'm sure, this story is AU. A few notable divergences from the canon of the show: Neal is still alive (and somewhat interested in a certain green fairy). Mary Margaret has not yet had her baby. At the start of this story, she's around 6 months pregnant. Six months before the start of this story, Emma, Killian and the whole gang defeated two powerful (and evil) villainesses—The Wicked Witch of the West (who didn't really resemble Zelena all that much, to be honest) and Morgana Le Fay. In the lost year, Killian stayed with the Charmings and everyone else until Rumple found a way to get him back to the Land Without Magic. Killian did not have to trade the Jolly Roger to get back to Emma. Regina was forced to return with the whole gang to Storybrooke…but she couldn't bring Robin Hood and Roland with her. One of the main purposes of this story is to remedy that!
-So this story started a little suspensefully with…someone…attacking the merry men and going after Roland, but then it dissolved into an almost sickeningly sweet bit of Captain Swan fluff! Because I'm not thoroughly evil, I decided to let Killian and Emma actually get married before everything starts hitting the fan, but be warned. Fluff at the very START of a story usually cannot last. The peace and tranquility the two have enjoyed for the better part of half a year must, sadly come to an end. But at least they're married, and they're in love, and whatever battles they're going to have to fight, they'll fight together, side by side.
-Up next: Regina returns to her office after the wedding and finds a very enlightening letter from an unlikely source (btw, for those of you who read "Getting To I Do" and saw the "preview" at the very end, this scene should look VERY familiar!). Meanwhile, Killian and Emma settle into the "bridal suite" at Granny's fully prepared to enjoy their first night as husband and wife. They soon come to the conclusion that planning to spend their wedding night at Granny's bed and breakfast was not the brightest idea they ever came up with.