a/n: I saw this quote on Facebook after watching 3x11 and this just came to me.

distance is just a test

"Distance is just a test to see how far love can travel." ~ Unknown

Emma eyed the small blue vial skeptically, her eyes darting over to the leather clad man in front of her. Jones watched her with an expression that she would have called desperate were it not for the hopeful gleam in his too blue eyes.

"Please, love," he urged her gently. "Everything will make sense if you drink this. You just have to trust me."

Emma expelled a deep breath. "I don't know why, but I do," she told him. Everything about this was crazy. Jones's story was crazy, but that didn't explain the gut feeling in her chest that told her that everything he'd said was true. She had a thing about lying; could always tell when someone wasn't telling the truth, and Jones had not told her a single lie.

Emma raised the little vial to him in a mock toast. "Bottoms up, I guess," she said, and had the distinct feeling Jones was holding his breath.

She downed the vial in a single gulp, and his gaze drew her in as he watched her anxiously. She didn't even register the shattering of the glass upon the ground as her whole world righted itself. Everything came rushing back instantaneously, her mouth opening wordlessly at the onslaught of memories. And there he was, standing before her, widly searching her expression for some sign that the potion had worked, that she remembered.

"Hook?" she breathed, panting slightly as if she'd crossed several realms to get there.

A shaky laugh escaped him. "Emma," he whispered, not standing on ceremony as he cupped her cheeks with both his good hand and his fake one.

She wasn't surprised to see tears in his eyes, no more than she was to note that her vision was being blurred by her own tears. He'd done the impossible. He'd found his way back to this land, spent months looking for her, and finally found her, only to have her push him away at every turn. A tear escaped her eye and slid down her cheek, only to be brushed tenderly away by his thumb. He hadn't given up on her, not once, and she knew it was because he loved her.

Emma smiled up at him, laughing through her sniffling.

"I was hoping it'd be you."