"Next time you try to take my power away, why don't you try enchanting the lips of someone I'd actually kiss?"
"See, Emma, you've got a decision to make – you can keep your magic, which makes you oh, so sad," Zelena strode closer towards them, "or you can save the man that you can't wait to run away from."
It happened too quickly for Emma to even react. One moment he was right there - and the next she heard the vague sound of Gold's moniker being spoken followed by him not being there. All coherent thought had left her mind as she saw his body being forced under the water of the well. It took her a second to react before she raced towards him.
The yell of Hook's name was heard, only later realizing the sound had come from her. She tried, and tried, and tried to pull him out but a force stronger than her – magic – was keeping him under.
"Choose wisely," she heard Zelena taunt over the sounds of splashing and her rapid heartbeat, "Try all you like," she sneered as Emma ignored her and continued to attempt to pull him out, "– you can't free him." A high-pitched cackle erupted from her, "Oh, and a little heads up? He may change slightly if he wakes up."
When Emma turned to Zelena about to yell or do something, the last thing she saw was a wide sadistic grin before green smoke clouded the two figures and then they were gone.
It felt like hours before the magical force holding him under the surface of the water vanished, but the moment it wore off, Emma managed to pull him out and succeeded to cushion his head from the fall with her hand in time.
"Hook, Hook, Hook – wake up!" she tried yelling at him into consciousness but to no avail. "Killian – Killian, come back to me," she tried again.
It felt like her heart was going to beat out of her chest any moment now. She continued to shake his lifeless body but he wasn't waking up.
'He may change slightly if he wakes up'? Zelena's last words replayed in her head. What did that even mean?
Rationally, there were two choices: keep her magic and defeat Zelena once and for all; or lose her magic and save him. Realistically, there was only one choice.
She had to save him, 'changes' and her magic be damned.
"Please, please wake up," she whispered as she leaned down and touched her lips to his softly but insistently, willing him back to consciousness. She squeezed her eyes shut, her hand clutching on the collar of his coat as she silently prayed for him to wake up.
She felt the magic drain from her and vanish into the air, but she couldn't care any less. At that moment, it was just him.
Eventually, she pulled away. When he didn't wake up immediately, she panicked, shaking his body to get anything from him.
Come on, come on, she repeated in her head over and over again.
She let go of a breath she hadn't known she was holding when he started coughing out the water. She tilted his head to the side to help accommodate him.
When he stared at her, those blue eyes she never knew she could miss so much meeting hers of green, something was off.
He sat up slowly, his only hand clutching his chest as though it was hard to breathe (it probably was) as he contemplated his surroundings and the situation.
"What the bloody hell happened?" he managed to get out before coughing out the last bits of water.
She didn't know what to tell him. I kissed you to save your life but in turn lost my magic and lost any hope in defeating Zelena? She opened her mouth searching for something to say to him but at that moment she was just so relieved. He was alright and that's all that mattered.
Against better judgment, she leaned forward and pulled him into a hug that he hesitantly responded to.
"I thought you died," she breathed as she held onto him tightly. "I- I had to save you."
After pulling away, he smiled at her, "Well then, thank you for saving me, Ms…?" he trailed off in a questioning tone as if to ask her to finish his sentence for him.
She studied his face, searching for what on earth he meant by that. He was being an idiot, just one of his bad jokes, her mind tried to rationalize with herself, but when she found no lies in his eyes, the warning bells sounded.
He continued to look at her questioningly when she still hadn't answered. "Your name, lass?"
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. He was probably just playing around.
"Emma – Emma Swan," she finally managed to get out without stuttering.
"Emma," he repeated with a small smile. "Killian Jones," he introduced.
I know, she had wanted to say, but she was too stunned by what was happening.
He began to stand up slowly. When he was fully upright, he ran his hand through his damp hair, before offering his other hand to Emma to pull her up. When he noticed the hook, he pulled it back, holding out the other hand instead. "Sorry, lass. I usually wear my prosthetic," he apologized, grinning embarrassedly.
She shook it off with a small smile, trying to play everything coolly as if this was completely normal. "Hey, we better go and get you checked out at the hospital," she mentioned while straightening out her coat.
Regina would be there and right now, she really needed her to tell her what the hell was going on with Killian.
"I'll give you a lift," she smiled.
The car ride was unexciting. He'd made small talk, but she didn't find out much. All she knew was that somehow he believed that there was some sort of costume party last night at his 'mate's' place when he apologized for his odd attire.
When they reached the hospital, she managed to steer him clear from any talk of magic and time portals and flying monkeys.
She found Dr. Whale and pulled him aside to explain their situation, begging him to have Killian checked out while promising him to not mention a word about supernatural things. He gave her a curt nod before ushering Killian into the examining room whom managed to get out a 'thank you, Swan!' before the curtains were drawn on him.
A distressed pair of Regina and David came thundering to her asking her what had happened at the farmhouse. She was just about to answer the numerous questions when David cut her off with another question.
"Wait – where's Hook?"
"Yeah, that's the thing," Emma winced and both David and Regina looked at her confused.
She went into a full account of what happened, ignoring the 'But Emma, your magic!' her father had interrupted with, and continuing with Killian's (she caught herself and made sure to call him Hook) condition.
"He doesn't remember me," she said, ignoring how much it hurt to speak the words. "All I know is that he thinks he went to some costume party last night."
"She really covered all her tracks, didn't she?" Regina scoffed, folding her arms in the process. "From what you're telling me, he seems to be under a curse."
"A curse?" her and her father asked in unison.
"It seems that my beloved sister managed to not only curse his lips to take your magic away, but to also put him under cursed memories when he kissed- you kissed him," she explained. "Kind of like how I gave the town fake memories when I enacted the curse," she added quickly after.
"So, what do we do?" David chimed in.
Regina shrugged her shoulders. "Seeing as the Savior here wasted her powers on her on our local pirate-"
"Wasted?" Emma's voice cracked. "He was going to die. I had to save him. I didn't have a choice."
"Sacrifice is a choice too-"
"I was not going to let him die – he was the only one who came back for me. So don't talk to me about damn sacrifice and find us another way to defeat your bloody sister," she snapped, effectively shutting her up. Good, Emma thought, as she stared coldly back into Regina's shocked face.
She felt Henry come to her side before he spoke. "You can do it, mom – you can defeat Zelena."
She was just about to tell him how she didn't have her light magic anymore and that was Zelena's only weakness, when she looked down at him to find out that he wasn't talking to her. He was talking to Regina.
"Henry," Regina coaxed, "I don't have light magic, Emma's the only-"
"When you kissed me that was light magic. I know you can do it, and you do too. You're just scared," Henry stared at her with his big hopeful eyes.
"Henry-" Regina tried again, but was cut short when Robin's hand fell on her shoulder.
"You can do it," he convinced her firmly.
Emma stared at her, giving her a small nod, and Regina sighed. "Alright then – let's end this."
Henry was right about Regina being able to defeat her.
Zelena had set everything up, ready to activate the time portal when they showed up. She cackled obnoxiously when she saw that Killian wasn't part of their small ensemble. With two flicks of her wrist, David, Robin and Emma were thrown down, while she pulled Regina into midair.
The look on her face when Regina had conjured up every ounce of light magic in her was (for lack of a better word) priceless.
Everything happened rather quickly after that. Gold managed to regain control over his actions, Regina got her heart back, and David got his baby back.
Regina silently told Emma that she could handle this and that she should return to the hospital with David with a small nod and smile.
Emma had managed to pull Henry aside before leaving for the anti-climatic 'final battle', making him keep Killian occupied. He gave her a sweet smile accompanied with a "Funny how I'm protecting him from the truth now, huh?"
She followed her father to see Snow with the baby for a short while before dashing across the level to the other side of the level where she assumed Killian still was preferably with her son. When she pulled aside the curtains, she found him sitting on the edge of the hospital bed, his legs dangling, while Henry lounged on the visitor's chair.
"Mom!" he jumped off his seat. "You're back!" he rushed over to her and hugged her.
Emma put her arm around Henry's shoulder, squeezing him to her side.
"Your son is good company," Killian mentioned, bringing her attention to him. He smiled softly at her with his bright cerulean eyes, and her heart nearly stopped at the memory of how she thought she'd never see those eyes again.
"I- I hope you're feeling better," she managed to get out after a moment of silence. He nodded, smiling softly once more at her. "I'm going to have to steal Henry away for a moment."
She and Henry walked away from the room and she pulled him aside so that Killian wouldn't be able to hear what they were saying.
"So? Did you find out anything?" she asked when it was safe.
"Well apparently, he thinks he lives in Portland and that he stumbled upon Storybrooke after a drunken costume party," Henry shrugged. "He doesn't remember any of us, so he got really confused when I told him I had two moms."
"You did clear that up, didn't you?" Emma asked quickly, her heart nearly jumping out of her chest because having two moms could be vastly misinterpreted.
Not like he has to know you're single or anything, a small voice defended.
"Yup," he smiled up at her.
"Do you know if he thinks he's planning to stay?"
"I think so," Henry shrugged. "He said he'll stick around for awhile. You're going to fix him aren't you?"
"I lost my magic – you know that-"
"You'll find a way," her son said confidently. "Especially since it's him," he added shortly after.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Emma raised a questioning brow.
He shrugged. "I mean, after all he's done for me- you- us, I think we owe it to him. You know," he added when Emma's expressions remained the same, "he helped save me in Neverland, then he came back for us, and he did stop me from running away."
Emma nodded, her brain processing what her son had just told her. He was right, of course, he had done all those things for them. He did more than just help save Henry, he never stopped believing they'd find him and he managed to put his jealousy aside to finish the job. It wasn't only that, he was bringing them back to the place he hated the most, with the person (who he had sworn not to try to kill) he hated the most.
And then of course the curse came, and she had a year of plain normalcy. But from what he'd mentioned, she couldn't imagine what he went through in that year. Then he came back for her. He saved her.
He'd done that and so much more, and she was so ready to jump the gun on him. She realized now how harsh she had been to him before when he'd made a small mistake.
'Why don't you try enchanting the lips of someone I'd actually kiss?'
Those were the last words he'd heard before being thrown into the well. And now, he didn't even know who she was. If she could take it all back, she would in a matter of milliseconds. But she couldn't, and now she'd lost the man she'd come to care for.
Of course there was also the time when he stopped Henry from running-
"Running away? When was this?" She went into full maternal mode, and Henry grimaced at the slip of information.
"I was angry at you and I just wanted to go home. He stopped me. He protected me."
Great, now she felt like even more of an asshole.
"We'll talk about this later," she warned Henry, "Now go meet your uncle," she said as she ushered him into the direction of Snow's room.
Taking a deep breath, she reentered the room.
"So since you're new here and I'm the sheriff," she started off confidently, "I feel obligated to help you get settled in – you are sticking around, aren't you?" she added quickly.
"For awhile, it all depends. I don't really have anything to go home to, so I could stay while," he smiled, but she saw the sadness he was hiding beneath it.
Hearing those words made her heart hurt, because even in these alternate memories Zelena had created for him, he was still alone. She hurt for him. He couldn't even get a moment of peace, could he? His smile was soft, but the tired look she'd tried ignoring before still remained.
"Yeah well, our little town have limited accommodations, so there's this little inn by the diner," she trailed off unsure of what she was really saying. "I'm staying there too, so I could give you a lift," she suggested.
"Lovely," he replied cheerily, hopping off of the bed and landing on the ground. He picked his coat off the bed and shrugged it on.
She led him to her car, and he asked normal questions – questions Hook would never ask. Selfishly, she wanted this, she wanted normal.
And she wanted him.
In the back of her mind, she contemplated not ever telling him. Maybe they could go back to New York together and be normal. But that was selfish.
Also, he didn't know her. He wouldn't move states for a girl he's had three conversations with.
"Love?" he asked, pulling her out of her thoughts. He cocked his head to look at her, but she continued to keep her eyes on the road. "I asked why you live in the inn, when you're the sheriff. Shouldn't you have a place already?"
Shit, she didn't think he'd pick up on that. "Well, I used to stay with Mary Margaret and David, but when her due date was approaching, I thought I should leave them to it," she lied coolly.
Technically, it wasn't a full lie. She did live with them, only the reason she stopped was a lie.
"I see," he replied unconvinced, but didn't push the matter.
Damn him for always being able to see right through her.
It was one of the things she hated most about him. The fact that no matter the circumstance, he could always read her got on her nerves. Or the fact that he always believed in her, even when she didn't. Or the fact that he always got her to admit the things she didn't to admit.
Like your feelings for him, the small voice came back.
"We're here," she murmured as she parked the car after a moment of silence.
She led him inside and told him she'd handle getting a room for him.
Earlier, she managed to text Ruby to tell her to clear up his room, and leave them in hers.
Emma got to explain their situation to Granny in quick hushed words, and she simply smiled and played along. She mouthed a 'thank you' to Granny before turning back to Killian.
"Here are your keys," she handed them to him.
"How much are the-"
"Granny's nice – we don't get many new people, so the first three nights are free," Emma cut in before Killian could finish asking. He looked confused, but nodded anyway. She brought him to his room and opened the door for him. Peering quickly inside, she saw that Ruby had gotten her message and cleared the room nicely. "This is you," she gave him a controlled smile.
"Aye, thank you for everything, Sheriff Swa-" he began as he stepped into the room and turned around to face her.
"Emma," she corrected him. She couldn't bear walking around hearing him call her Sheriff. "And if you need anything, Henry and I are just down the hall," she gestured in the direction of her room.
"Thank you, Emma," he said again, a bright smile on his face that made her lips involuntarily curve up too.
He didn't shut the door, instead, he stood there, staring at her with his soft blue eyes – eyes that she never wanted to look away from – but she knew if she didn't move, they could stand there for hours.
Eventually, she walked away, not daring to look back. Only when she reached her door she heard his close.
After locking the door, she trudged
over to the couch and collapsed onto it.
It wasn't supposed to be like this. They were supposed to defeat Zelena together, and then she'd stick around for a day or two before going back to New York. It was selfish that she still wanted to leave, even after everything, but that was exactly why she wanted to get out. Henry could have had a normal life back in New York if he never regained his memories back.
"Still thinking of leaving?" A familiar voice spoke, making her jump up into a sitting position on the couch. He was there in all his pirate glory.
You're not really here, you're not really here, she repeated, screwing her eyes shut. He's in his room, and he doesn't know who I am, she reminded herself when she felt a rough hand cup her face. Involuntarily she leaned into it, as his thumb stroked her cheek.
"I'm here, love," he spoke softly, making her relax and open her eyes. He was sitting on the coffee table in front of her now so she was looking straight into his eyes. "Not the real me, but this is as good as it gets," he smiled ruefully.
"What're you doing here?" she asked as she felt the tear she was desperately trying to blink away roll down her cheek. She didn't want him to see her cry, not even if this wasn't the real him.
"You needed me, lass – I came."
"Would it be so bad?" she asked, answering his original question, "For me to still want to leave?"
She saw the flicker of hurt in his blue eyes, but he shunned it away. "No," he answered and his lips curled into a forced smile, while he wiped away the stray tear with his thumb. "If that's what you really need, love, then by all means if it makes you happy, leave. It won't be easy for any of us here, even the git over there who doesn't remember you," he nodded his head in the direction of Killian.
"You never got to answer my question," she said softly, when he began to look away from her eyes. He looked back up at her confused. "Did you think that I could have a good future here," she asked quietly before adding on, "with you?"
Whatever his answer would be didn't scare her. She wasn't really asking him. This was a hallucination. She could let down her walls just this once.
"That all depends on you, Swan."
"I'm sorry," she murmured and she felt him wipe away yet another tear off her cheek.
He felt so real.
"It wasn't your fault, lass."
"How do I get you back?" she asked, and he looked at her sadly.
"That," he sighed, "I couldn't tell you even if I knew. You have to figure that out for yourself."
Several more tears betrayed her and fell, "I don't know if I can," she whispered.
"I've yet to see you fail, Swan," he repeated his words from what felt like years ago. Just the memory of it made her smile.
She let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding before asking, "Will you just sit here with me? It's been a long day and-"
She didn't know why she felt the need to explain herself. Even if he wasn't real, it scared her how deeply he felt for her – and how deeply she still refused to admit she felt for him.
"You don't have to explain yourself," he spoke the words she was thinking.
He rose from his spot on the coffee table and moved to the empty area next to her. He put his arm around her, and she leaned her body against his chest. It was the most innocent of acts, but it felt so intimate.
She knew that when she woke up the next day, he'd be gone, confirming that this was all just a figment of her imagination, but she couldn't help hope silently that he wouldn't – that he was real and she'd wake up in his arms, and that everything was okay.
But he wasn't there the next morning.
And things weren't okay.