'Daddy, Daddy! Wake up, Daddy!' the boy yelled, shaking me by the shoulders.

This made no sense at all. There was a man lying bloodied on the floor and… he looked exactly like me…

'Daddy, please!' Tears fell from the young boy's eyes. 'Please, you can't leave me! We haven't had our adventure yet!'

I fisted my hands. This didn't look good. 'You promised, Daddy! You promised we'd go to sea and have an adventure!'

If the man was me… that meant the boy was my son. I didn't have a son. This was getting stranger by the minute.

'Hey,' I whispered as I reached out to him. My hand went straight through his shoulder. 'Listen.' The boy paid me no mind. 'Listen, kid.'

No. He wouldn't listen to me. He didn't even look at me.

'No, Daddy. This isn't fair. You can't promise something and leave me.'

I tried to swallow down the lump in my throat before the tears fell but it was too late. I was crying.

If this was true (which was probably absurd) my boy was watching me die.

'No! Daddy!' He seemed to give up. He took the man's hand and wept. I would have done anything to take him into my arms and comfort him. 'I love you, Daddy,' he whispered. 'I love you.'

My eyes opened and I lay there, trying to figure out what had just happened. My hand drifted up to my face and my fingers came back wet. The tears were real.

'Killian?' I heard a voice whisper from beside me. 'Are you okay?'

I smiled as I rolled over onto my side to face Emma. 'It was just a dream,' I reassured her.

'If it was just a dream, why are you crying?' she asked.

I took a deep breath, wiping my eyes. 'Emma, I— I saw myself. I was— I was dying… and… there was a boy. He was trying to wake me up—' I explained.

'Henry?'

'No,' I replied. 'No, I don't think it was Henry. This little lad was only ten at most. And…'

'And what?'

I sat up, pulling her with me. 'He— he called me – or the man, whoever he was – daddy.'

Emma frowned. 'If the man looked like you, then… does that mean…' she looked down at her stomach.

I grinned, taking her hands. 'I hope so, Swan. I hope so.'

'If your dream is real, then… we can start a family. We can finally be parents together!'

I smiled. 'Steady on, Swan. We don't even know that it was real,' I reminded her.

And it was at that moment that we heard a scream coming from Henry's room.

My eyes widened as I rolled off the bed. 'I'll go check him out,' I told Emma.

I opened the door to Henry's room to find him sitting up in bed. Using the light from the crack in the blinds, I could see the beads of sweat lining his forehead as he tried to catch his breath.

'Henry? What's wrong?' I asked, closing the door as I entered.

The minute he caught sight of me, he flung himself off the bed and into my arms. 'Oh god, Dad, I thought I had lost you!'

I raised an eyebrow, hugging him tighter. 'I'm okay, Henry. I'm fine,' I told him. 'I've got you.'

'No, you don't understand!' he exclaimed, looking up at me. 'You were dying! You had bruises and blood was everywhere and I tried to wake you up but it wasn't working!'

He started crying and I discovered the dread that set deep in my stomach. 'Hey. Hey, son, shh.' The word 'son' came naturally from my mouth, as if I'd always been Henry's father. 'It was just a nightmare.'

I pushed him away to look at me and held his shoulders. 'Just a nightmare,' I emphasised. 'I'll be fine. I am fine. Got it?'

He nodded, the tears still falling but finally silenced. 'I'm sorry,' he muttered.

'What for?' I asked, confused.

'For— for calling you Dad. I—'

'Henry,' I interrupted. 'It's okay. It's all okay.' After a pause, I said, 'Hey, can I tell you something?'

He nodded. 'I actually like it when you call me Dad. I know I can never be your real father but I'd be very happy to step up to the role. If you'd let me.'

He grinned and hugged me again. 'I love you, Dad.'

I had to fight extremely hard to stop myself from tearing up again. 'I love you too, son. Come on, I'll tuck you in.'

I let him get back into bed and pulled the covers around him. 'We're okay, Henry. We're gonna be fine,' I told him.

He smiled before closing his eyes. 'Sleep well, son,' I whispered before silently making my way back to Emma.

'Is he okay?' Emma asked instantly.

'He's fine,' I assured her, climbing into bed again. 'He had a nightmare. Rather creepy but he's fine.'

'What do you mean, rather creepy?' Emma asked as she took my hand.

'It was— from what he told me, it was the same nightmare I had.'

'Okay, that's a little weird. Why would you both have pretty much the same nightmare?'

'I… don't think that's the most important thing right now,' I said.

'What are you talking about?' she asked.

'I mean, the first thing he said… he— he called me Dad,' I told her.

'Really?' Emma's voice carried a hint of surprise. 'What did you say back?'

'Well, after he started apologising for it, I told him that it was fine. That he could call me Dad if he wanted to. That I actually liked it.'

I looked up at Emma to see her smiling. 'What?' I asked her.

Her eyes brimmed with tears before spilling over. 'The kid's nearly twelve,' she whispered through her tears. 'He never knew his real father. It's time he had a father figure in his life.'

I took one of her hands in mine, and wiped her tears away with the other. 'And I told him I was very happy to be that man.'

Emma wrapped her arms around my neck. 'I love you, Killian,' she whispered in my ear.

I smiled as I held the back of her head. 'I love you too, Swan.'

We laid down, hands still entwined and I closed my eyes. Pretty soon I was fast asleep.

The man's eyes opened slowly and he looked up at the boy, smiling. 'I'm okay, son. I'm fine,' he told the boy, lifting his arm up gingerly to hold the boy's cheek. It was obvious he was in pain. Alive but in pain.

The boy smiled through his tears. 'Daddy!' he exclaimed. 'You're awake!'

'I never went to sleep, Henry,' the man explained. 'I was always here. I will always be here. Always.'

I finally understood.

The man was me. And Henry was my son.

YOU DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH FUN I HAD WITH THIS. I'm writing this with only 5 episodes of Season 5 left so I'm going to have to rely on fanfiction to control my withdrawal symptoms.

Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Leave me a review?