A/N: For those of you on tumblr, just a reminder that I posted this chapter there as two separate scenes.
"Oh ow, my ankle ," Regina whimpers warningly unwrapping her arm from around Emma's neck. The action forcing Emma to grab the woman's waist afraid that the mayor's stubbornness will leave her unbalanced to the point where her face would meet the ground.
"Set me down gently!" The woman shouts angrily, elbowing her away and balancing herself on her good ankle.
"Seriously you're complaining about how I save your life?" Emma says with a raspy voice. She had taken in quite a few breaths of smoke and now she trying to speak was causing her to cough.
"The firemen are here. It's not like we were really in danger." The major points out snidely blatantly ignoring the fact that she had just been begging for Emma to save her life moments before.
"Fine," she swallows still having a hard time getting words out, "next time I'll just...I'll just...no, you know what," she walks back up to her, " next time I'll do the same thing, and the time after that because that's what decent human beings do. That is what good people do." And with that she walks away.
That insufferable bitch! She saves her life and not only doesn't she get a thank you but some bull shit anger spat complaint. She knows the woman just flat out dislikes her and that she is hell bent on driving her out of Henry's life, but her inability to hold any resemblance of a conversation without berating her is being coming increasingly annoying. She can't take any more of it. What she wants to do is get as far away from here as possible. Go home. Take a bath. Have a drink.
Suddenly a violent coughing fit hit her and she reaches out for the exterior of the fire truck to catch herself as she bends forward. Apparently her body has other plans.
"You all right lass?" An accented male voice asks as a pair of boots steps into view.
She nods through another cough before swallowing hard and bringing herself up to meet this stranger. Her heart flips at the sight of him and it takes everything left in her to not gape at him in awe. The man looks like he has just waltzed out of a photo shoot for one of those hot firemen calendars. He is leaning lazily to one side with his helmet under an arm. His suit is slightly undone at the top, revealing how truly gorgeous a neck could be. And then there is his hair. He has a full head of it, luscious and dark, that manages to be as sexy as it is messy. She finally meets his ocean blue eyes, taking in the stern concern laced in them before a smile creeps on his lips and playfulness takes over.
"Emma Swan, isn't it?"
"That's me," she says before her coughing returns which she quickly covers with the inside of her elbow.
"You still got smoke in your lungs. Come on then, let's get some oxygen in you" he tilts his head, his eyes telling her to take the lead.
"Oh, no really I'm fine," she puts her hand out in front of her brushing off the cough as if it was nothing.
"No you're not," he disagrees taking her outstretched hand and pulling her over towards the ambulance.
"Hey, what the hell?" she yells at him trying to free herself. Who does this guy think he is that he can just grab her like she is some damsel in distress. She can take care of herself, thank you very much. But try as she might, the grip on her wrist is iron strong, however, it doesn't stop her from stubbornly continuing to squirm anyway.
"You know," he spins himself in front of her tightening his grip on her wrist clearly aware she's aggressively struggling to piss him off, "smoke from fires is very dangerous, sometimes fatal. That cough of yours does not sound good. Now either you are going to take some oxygen or I'm going to give it to you myself." His overly serious tone surprises her. There is something in his eyes that tells her this isn't just about her and she even feels a little guilty for being so stubborn, a little.
"All right." she says suddenly realizing how close his face is to hers. Clearly this guy doesn't understand the concept of personal space. "Can I have my hand back please?"
He drops it but doesn't move back . She hold his gaze curious to how he could be so angry at her - a perfect stranger. She cradles her wrist against herself for a moment massaging the spot where the feel of his fingers lingers before turning away from him. Smiling politely at the EMT, she tells him who she is and that she was one of the people caught in the fire. As if on cue she begins to cough again and he hands her the oxygen mask while asking and examining her for any burns . She puts it over her mouth and takes a deep breath. A wave rushes over her body and she feels amazingly better. She swallows effortlessly and takes a few more deep breaths feeling both relaxed and annoyed. She really had needed the oxygen but she didn't like that he had talked her into it especially when she didn't know why he cared. She gazes over at him, his head is turned in her direction but he's looking straight through her, passed her, at something not in the physical world but in his mind. She thinks she catches a shadow of sadness in his eyes but it's gone before she can be sure. Whatever it was, it is replaced by intrigue which for him is borderlining on bedroom eyes. She tries actively not to be affected by it, refusing with no avail to blush. In attempt to hide the quickening her heart and the heat on her cheeks she goofily waves the oxygen mask at him regretting it immediately. Oh god, she probably looks like one of those approval seeking girls trying desperately to show him she's done what he asked.
"Thanks," she says to the EMT handing him back the mask. She wishes she could just leave right now but she walks back over to him, knowing full well that his eyes are still watching her.
"You feel a lot better don't you?" he smirks. She rolls her eyes. Seriously what is with this guy?
"Don't you have a fire to put out or something?" She asks purposely avoiding thanking him, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of being right.
"Ah, me crew can handle it. But speaking of which, where are my manners. Seems I've forgotten to introduce myself. The names James Barrier, but most people call me Jas. I'm the captain here, making sure everyone is safe and getting the care they need is also a part of my job description," he says before leaning in and dropping in voice. "Besides they seemed to have had a little help from blonde who knows her way around a fire extinguisher."
"How did you..?"
"You expect me to believe Mayor Mills laid a finger on a fire extinguisher?"
She sees his point.
" Also I saw you carry it out, with the Mayor over your shoulder too. Quite impressive." Smirking, anger, flirting, and now compliments, this guy is completely throwing her off. She just scrunches her face in confusion, not knowing what to say. Luckily she doesn't have to say anything because at that very moment their conversation is interrupted.
"Captain!" A man yells and they both look over at the mayor's office. There is no longer any sign of a fire but a man is standing on the threshold ushering the James or Jas over.
"Duty calls milady," he winks at her before heading off towards city hall.
-OUAT-
Emma shrugs her shoulders and shoves her hands deep in her pockets trying to keep herself warm; she has been here too long and isn't appropriately dressed to be outside for extended periods of time. Practically whole town has gathered at City Hall to discover firsthand what all the sirens and the commotion is all about and she finds herself surrounded by a group of faces she has become particularly fond of in her short time of being here.
"Did you really rescue Regina?" Mary Margaret asks her wide eyed.
Before she can reply Henry is standing next to her exclaiming, "She did. The firemen said it. They saw it."
She is elated. Henry is here and he's happy, something that she hasn't seen since Graham's death. She puts on hand on his shoulder finding herself looking over her own. Briefly she glances at the firefighters seeing Jas with his back turned to her. Suddenly she has the urge to ask Henry if it had been him that he talked to about her. Surely it had been, no doubt. But that was silly, ridiculous even. Why would it matter who told her son about her apparently heroic triumph? Goodness Emma. What's wrong with you? She takes a deep breath forcing herself back into the conversation.
"You are a hero." Ruby says looking at her with eyes full of admiration.
"We should see if they have a picture of the rescue," Mary Margaret lights up an idea clearly forming in the back of her head.
"We could make campaign posters." Granny jumps in with excitement.
"People would love that. That's a great idea." Archie adds before they all run off enthusiastically. Wow, maybe she can actually win this thing. Fate seems to be working in her favor and there are people out there actually rooting for her, trying to help her. It has been a long time since she has felt this happy. Her smile is so big it is accompanied by a small laugh. Maybe she has a chance. She kneels down wanting nothing more than to share this moment with her son.
"This is how good wins." She tells him. "You do something good and people see it, and they want to help you." Normally, she doesn't have this sort of trust in people but tonight she believes herself when she says it.
Henry takes a moment to contemplate her words before for smiling, "Maybe, you're right."
His smile softens her heart. Hopeful Henry is back and it is because of her, because of good. "See Henry, we don't have to fight dirty."
"Miss Swan, a word?" an Irish drawl calls out for her and she knows immediately who the voice belongs to.
"I'll be right back kid," she stands up, once again patting him on the shoulder before turning in the direction of the fireman. Her face is still ablaze with a well deserved smile and she doesn't even consider suppressing it as she walks over to him.
"What is it, Captain?" her hands find her hips while her smile turns into a smirk. Woah, what did she just say? Apparently being happy is making her...flirty. She doesn't have time to process the her actions any further because although she catches the wave of smugness that washes over his face, she realizes that it had come from a more serious demeanor.
"I think there is something you need to see." The sparkle in his eyes and the upturned lips disappears, which make her lips thin press into a line. "Come on." He waves for her to follow him to the edge of the building where the fire had already been completely extinguished.
"We found the source of the fire." he explains as she catches up with him. "Normally, there's not enough evidence to suggest that a fire wasn't an accident but in this case, the cause is rather intriguing."
"Let me see it boys," he walks up to a group of fire fighters gathered in a circle.
"Ah, here it is." he turns to reveal a rope half brunt giving off a disgusting but familiar smell.
Emma's brow quickly turns in with shock and disbelief. She knows exactly where she remembers that smell from, Mr. Gold's shop. That bastard. The fire wasn't an accident. Gold had done this. The man she had aligned herself with to help her get elected sheriff. Her heart sinks along with her body. She knows this is all her fault, he did this for her campaign. Way to ruin her high, her hero moment. She is no hero, she apparently is just like every other campaigning skiver playing dirty just to win.
"Interesting," Jas comments staring at her intently cocking one eyebrow.
Fuck. Her heart begins to race. Her usual ability to keep a poker face has failed her. The last time she had been this caught off guard was when Henry showed up at her apartment, at least then she had a bathroom to excuse herself to in order to assemble one. Here she is left wide out in the open with nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide. What is she going to do? If Regina finds out the fire wasn't an accident. Well, even Mary Margaret couldn't bail her out of that situation.
She takes a step forward fumblingly rebuilding her wall. "This is what caused the fire?" she asks him reaching out and grabbing the rope slowly beginning to tighten her grip around it. If she could just...
"Ah." he pulls the rope out of her grasp. "Nice try, love, but it's going to take more than that to cover up that look you just displayed."
"What look?" She asks. Her confidence rolls back in and she deflects his accurate observation with a challenge. "What you're talking about?"
"Don't lie, lass. It doesn't suit you." He replies without hesitation.
Frustration begins to fester within her. How dare he see through her walls. She glares at him, angry he is able to spot her lie. He shouldn't be able to do that, that's her superpower. "Ok I'll admit it," she caves. " I was horrified." She caves a little. "Are you happy? What's the big deal? Is it a crime to be shocked that someone set fire to City Hall?"
" No, it's not; but it was more than that." he says looking at her as if she is a puzzle. Then securing the rope behind his back, he takes a step closer once again invading her personal space. "You know something. tell me what it is."
He saw right through her walls, again. God he is an infuriating handsome face. A handsome face with pretty ocean view eyes, she notices. Suddenly her breath is swept up in his beauty and her heart is throbbing from his proximity. He is so close she can feel him even though they aren't touching. Focus, Emma. He takes one step toward you and you've completely lost it. You are not going to let him win. You can't. " I don't know anything and if I did, I am under no obligation to tell you. Now how about you stop withholding evidence and hand it over." She sticks out her hand.
He searches her face and it takes all her strength to keep her eyes locked with his because she for some unexplainable reason he is able to read her like an open book and that makes her uncomfortable.
"Fine," he sets the rope in her hands but before he lets go he leans in smiling. "It was nice meeting you, Emma Swan." he draws out her name, caressing each syllable, which sends an pleasurable tingle through her body. She turns around and walks away without saying a word pulsating with all the emotions he's igniting in her. Not a good day to be Mr. Gold because she is sure as hell ready to give him a piece of her mind.
So there it is. Sorry for the end. It was just not cooperating.
Next chapter is going to be amazing. A little bit of Jas's (Killian) POV and Emma's victory party (which someone is going to attend and attempt to buy her a drink)
Also a big thanks to trick-of-life for working out the idea for this story!
Until next time, review?