A/N: After seeing the promos with Ursula in them, I started to wonder how she got to Storybrooke, and thought that maybe she made a deal with a certain Blackbeard to borrow the fastest ship in the realms…

Killian stood on the docks and stared up at the Jolly Roger before him. When David had called him and told him to come down to the harbour, he never imagined that this is what was waiting for him. He wished Swan was here to see it, but with Ursula and Cruella teaming up with the Crocodile, he knew the town needed her more.

It didn't stop him from wishing.

"How did she get here, mate?" Killian turned to David who, for his part, had stayed silent as Killian gazed up at his ship. "When I gave her up I never expected to see her again – especially in this realm."

"We don't know for sure, but it looks like Ursula sailed it back." David gestured grandly up at the Jolly Roger. "You always said yourself that it's a special ship – and it's the only one I've ever seen that's able to travel between worlds."

"Fastest vessel in all the realms." Killian said proudly. "But how that squid got to it, I'll never know."

"How about we make sure she doesn't get back to it. Or has any surprises on it waiting for us. Then we can worry about the rest."

"Your lead, mate."

Killian and David walked slowly up the gangplank, David with his sword drawn, Killian armed with a small knife. David kept trying to convince him to carry a gun with him, at least when they were under threat – read: always – but he had never gotten the hang of the blasted contraptions. It was enough to have to keep up with the talking phone – It's just a phone, Killian, Emma's voice said in his head – much less anything else.

"Don't tell me she sailed here without a bloody crew." Killian said incredulously, surveying the empty deck before him. David, too, looked confused. They walked the length of the deck, David on the port side and Killian on the starboard, but there was no one to be found.

"I'll sweep the rooms belowdeck," David said. "But it seems like if anyone was here, they've left by now. Keep an eye on the docks."

"I'd better head below, Mate. You don't know the Roger like I do, and I don't think that," He nodded to the sword held loosely in David's hand. "Is the best weapon in close quarters."

"Fair point." David conceded. "But call up if you see anything out of place."

"Aye aye." Killian gave David a mock salute – ridiculous considering he was the Captain and this was his ship – and headed down below. This all felt surreal to him, climbing down the solid wooden ladder to the musty rooms in the belly of the ship. He thought he had lost her forever, this vessel, but walking around her now made him feel as though he had never given her up.

Of course, he would do it again in an instant, he knew. Give this ship up for Emma. For his Swan. This ship made his newly returned heart swell with pride, and resting his palm on the wood of her fittings felt so right, but the Roger had nothing on the warmth and love and sheer feeling of home he felt with Emma.

With the crew emptied out and their belongings gone, the ship's lower quarters were easy to search. It took nothing more than a cursory walkaround for Killian to be confident that the ship was, in fact, empty. That didn't explain away the issue of how Ursula managed to sail the ship between realms without a crew, but he greatly suspected the answer had something to do with magic and the deal she seemed to have made with the Crocodile.

"It's all clear, mate!" Killian called up to David, ascending the ladder as he did.

"Good. Living in this town, I'll take any chance for one less surprise."

"Aye. As will I."

"I called Regina while I was waiting." David said. "She's going to come down and put a protection spell on the boat, just in case Ursula does have any surprises waiting. I'd like to get it done before nightfall."

Killian glanced up at the darkening sky, and nodded once in agreement. The darker it got, the greater the chances that something would pop out from the shadows and start causing trouble. Having any sort of protection in place by then would be a step towards minimizing the danger facing the town.

"Think you can hold down the fort until then?" David asked, glancing at his watch. "I promised Mary Margaret I'd be home to keep an eye on Neal during her town meeting."

"If I couldn't keep ahold of my own ship, what kind of Captain would I be?" He arched an eyebrow at David. "Go, mate. Nobody's getting aboard this ship."

"Thanks, Hook." David said, already backing down the gangplank. "And hey, now that you've got your ship back, maybe Storybrooke can start the world's smallest Navy."

Killian winced good naturedly at the suggestion. "Respectfully, mate, I think you'd best focus your wits on what's happening in town."

"You just don't want to give up the pirate's life." David teased. "But remember – you are dating a princess now!" With one final wave over his shoulder, he strode back to his truck. Killian smirked at his mate's back, knowing that as much as David called his daughter a princess, she was really a pirate at heart.

And now they had a ship of their own.

—-

"Hook?" Killian heard a voice coming from the ladder. He had gone back to the captain's quarters after David had left, and was looking through the various compartments for any hints of what the ship's trip here had entailed. If he was being honest with himself, he was more reacquainting himself with the ship than anything. As much as he cherished his life with Emma and their new home together, this ship had been a part of him, once – had made him the man he was. Looking around here brought a lot of memories, and only made him more anxious to start making new ones.

"Is that Swan?" He said, poking his head out the door and into the larger cabin that would house a crew. He grinned when he saw Emma standing at the base of the ladder – a grin she promptly returned. She closed the distance between them and walked straight into his arms, allowing him to give her a quick peck on the cheek before pulling away to look at him.

"So. Your first love has returned." She knocked the wood of the doorframe casually, and looked around. She looked like she was seeing the ship for the first time, and he guessed that she was, truly. There had been so much going on the last time she was on this ship, so many things vying for her attention, that she probably hadn't gotten much of a chance to truly see the ship. Not the way he did. He supposed maybe it was just another ship to her, simply a vessel, but he wanted her to see it like he did. Love it like he did. And maybe, just maybe, want to spend time here with him, away from her parents and brother and son.

"Jealous, Swan? Surely after all we've been through, you cannot imagine I would leave you for another. Even one with such beautiful curves." He waggled his eyebrows at her with a devilish smirk on his lips as he rubbed a hand over the wood of the walls. She raised her eyebrows at him, and a smile played at her mouth.

"Relieved, actually. Finally, you have a friend here who's as old as you are."

"Bad form, Swan. You wound me." He placed a hand over his heart in mock sorrow, pouting at her. She just laughed.

"Oh please. After all the trouble I went through to get that back in there, I'm not going to do anything to it." She placed her hand over his heart as well, covering his, reminding him of how gentle she had been the last time her hand had been in that spot, his heart cradled softly in her palm. They stood like that for a moment, both remembering, until she shook her head lightly and stepped back. "David mentioned something about a protection spell?"

"Yes, love. But I thought Regina was casting that."

"She was, but she sent me. Something important came up, and she taught me that spell a long time ago." Emma hooked a set of finger quotes around "important" to signify that it meant "Robin". Hook, for one, was glad that Regina was otherwise occupied. If anyone should cast a spell over this vessel, it should be Swan. He started to lead the way back up to the deck, but she placed a hand gently on his arm and shook her head.

"Problem, love?"

"You stay down here. I can cast it by myself."

"But what if you –" Killian protested. Emma was talented, but her magic was still so new to her, and after the incident at the station and Emma's subsequent struggles, he was wary to leave her alone when magic was involved. He didn't doubt that she could cast any spell she chose, and cast it well, but he almost lost her to magic once, and he wouldn't do it again.

"Hook. Killian." Emma saw the fear in his eyes and gave him a soft smile. "Nothing's going to happen. It's just…you're…" She looked down at her feet, and he saw a blush creep across her cheeks. "I need to concentrate, and you're kind of…distracting."

His eyebrows shot up and he smiled slyly at her. "Is that it, love? Do my devilishly handsome features lead you astray? Do they distract you from your one true path? Do they – mmph!" His words were cut off as she pressed her lips to his, firmer than before. He wrapped his arms around her, pressing his hook to the small of her back, and drew her closer to him. Her hands came up to grasp his collar, and he could feel her inhale sharply as she pulled herself up, bringing their faces level.

"Yes." She said breathily, breaking the kiss and resting her forehead against his. They were both breathing harder, and he grinned. "But as distractions go, I've had worse."

"Don't I know it." He said. "I would remind you of your dalliance with a flying monkey, if I were so inclined, but I have high hopes that after your spell is cast you might assist me in getting…reacquainted with the captain's quarters, hmm?" He ran a finger over his bottom lip, a gesture he knew she loved, and was pleased to see her swallow heavily.

"We'll see, Captain." She said, turning to climb back to the upper deck. He watched her go with a smile.

—

Later, the two of them stood side by side on the upper deck, leaning back against the big wheel of the ship. They had both spent a fair amount of time rediscovering the captain's quarters, and afterwards Emma had made coffee in the galley with some ancient looking beans and a little bit of magic. Hook had been wary – he remembered those same beans from a long time ago – but the flavour wasn't marred by time, and he had to admit that the warmth was nice. Not quite as nice as the warmth of Emma's body nestled under his arm, but still pleasant in the cool night air.

The sky was clear, and the stars were out by the thousands. Down here, there were no streetlights blocking the view, and it reminded Killian of many nights on the high seas when he would navigate by the bright, clear stars, his crew sleeping below him. Liam had taught him everything he knew about constellations and navigation, right here in this very spot, and then Killian himself had taught Bae. There was a legacy, of sorts, ingrained in the wood of the ship. He had been a Captain, yes, but the crew of the Jolly Roger had been a family to him after he had lost his own. He looked down at Emma, and watched her watching the stars with a soft sense of wonder in her eyes. He imagined that living in the city, shuttled from home to home, she hadn't had much time to stare up at the sky and imagine the worlds beyond what they could see. He followed her eyes up to the sky, and allowed himself to get lost in the stars. He had spent a lot of time searching the skies for things he never found, and that's not something he had thought about for a long time.

"Hey," Emma elbowed him gently in the ribs. She was looking at him in a way that told him she had probably said his name at least once already. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, love." He smiled and pulled her even closer, so she fit perfectly beneath his chin.

"I know that face, Killian." She grumbled a bit, but didn't move away. "You're thinking about something. Tell me."

"I was just thinking," He said, "About the time I spend at the helm of this ship, years after I lost Milah, seeking answers in the sky. You grew up in a world without magic, love, but I didn't. I grew up in a world where travel between realms was very possible, where everyone from the mightiest king to the poorest peasant knew that there was more out there than what we could see, than what we could ever know. I was angry back then, Swan, and heartsick, and I captained this ship all across the realms – sometimes recklessly so – hoping to find the one realm, the one place, where my love hadn't been taken from me. Where there were no Dark Ones, where there never had been. Of course, I never found that world." He could feel her sink into his chest, and knew without looking that he would find sympathy on her face. She, of all people, knew what it was to wish for a world where you could change the past.

"When my brother taught me to navigate," he continued, using the tip of his hook to guide her fingers to the spot where he had carved a P and an S for Baelfire so long ago, such a rudimentary start to navigation, but proof that the legacy his brother had left with him had been passed on, even if Bae himself was no longer here. Hook thought of Henry, of the resemblance he bore to his father at that age, and wondered if there was still time to continue the line of great Captains. "He taught me to always look to the stars, because in every world, they are the only things that remain the same. But never did I imagine that I could follow those stars to a world where it was possible to find what I've found with you."

"And what is that?" She whispered. He leaned down and pressed his lips to her temple, leaving them there as he drew his hook once again over the wood of the steering column, tracing out a K and an E. He waited until she looked down, until she saw those new letters standing out in sharp relief against the old wood, until she understood that this stood as proof that the man who wrote these letters – the man he was now, the man he tried to be for her – was a different man than the one who had written the other two. That man had been angry, hurt, vengeful, and lost. This man, the man she had made him, was home.

"A happy ending." He whispered into her ear. She tipped her head until his forehead was pressed into her hair, and he watched as she traced the new letters with a single finger. He wondered if this was too much too soon, this confession, this proof of their relationship inscribed somewhere that held so much history not only for him but, in a way, for them both. But before he could think too much about the ways in which he may have overstepped, Emma took his hook gently in her hand, and pressed the point of it down into the wood between the letters of their names, guiding it to draw the smallest – but most perfect – heart.

"It's kind of selfish." She said quietly. "Because it's my happy ending too."

She turned in his arms, and for a long moment, they simply stood with their foreheads tipped together, and he could see the soft smile on her lips that reflected his own feelings back at him – that this was everything he had ever wanted, but thought he couldn't have. Then his lips were on hers, and even though there was always passion simmering right below the surface, the kiss was soft and sweet. They had a lifetime together for passion, but this was so much more than that. She was so much more than that. She was the one in front of whom he could bare his soul, she was the one for whom he would travel to the ends of the earth and time, and she was the one who had held his heart in her hands – the one who still did – and never let it fall.

"You said," She whispered, pulling back to rest her forehead against his once again. "That Liam taught you the stars. Could you – would you – teach me, one day? It feels like a part of you, this. And I'd…" She chuckled a little, fondly, as she recalled his words. "I'd love to know more about your beginnings."

"It would be an honour to share them with you, Swan." His heart sang for her, for this remarkable woman who had let him know her and, what's more, wanted to know him.

"If you teach me," She said, pulling him down to lie on the deck with her. "I could find us a world just for us. A world where we would be the only two people."

"Would we live there?" He murmured, drawing her close. "In this world with just us?"

"Only sometimes." She whispered back, tracing shapes on his chest. It felt like a map to this world they would live in together. "I'd miss Henry, and my parents, but we could go back and forth as much as we wanted on the fastest ship in the realms."

"If I'm not careful, I may lose you to the Jolly Roger."

"No, she's yours. I know that." Emma paused for a moment, and propped herself up on an elbow so she could look at him. "Thank you, Killian. For this."

"For what, love?" He searched her eyes as if the answer would be written out there, plain as day. "I didn't bring the Roger back, I didn't find it – all I did was show up. You should be thanking your father for this, and yourself for everything else."

"For this." Emma said significantly, gesturing with one hand to the ship and the sky and to herself and back down to him. "I know the Jolly Roger is your ship, Hook. I know how much you've been through here. And I know that you didn't have to let me stay here, didn't have to tell me about your past. I could have cast the spell and left. You could have let me. But you didn't." She swallowed heavily, and were those tears he saw in his Swan's eyes? "I know, Killian, the sacrifices you've had to make for me. Dealing with my messes, every villain, my magic, my family – God, my crazy family – and giving up this ship…" She placed one palm flat on the deck of the ship, and he felt as though she was saying something to it, to him, without speaking a word. "You have given me everything, Killian. Everything I thought I wasn't allowed to have. Everything I thought an orphan, and a criminal, and a saviour, couldn't have." She lay back down next to him, and he pulled her in close. He felt in that moment as if they were in that other world, the world with just them. And he never wanted to leave. "There is no one to thank for that, Killian, more than you."

"I love you, Swan." He said, his voice full. He didn't look at her as he spoke, but he didn't need to.

"I love you, pirate." She murmured back, her voice fading into a comfortable silence as they lay there together.

Killian tipped his head back to look up at those familiar constellations, imagining teaching their names to Emma, imagining travelling the world with her for the rest of his life. He found one particular group of stars right away: Cygnus, the Swan. It's a wonder that he never knew she was coming – it was printed right there in the sky. It's only right that she would be there among the stars that had always guided him, the ones that eventually guided him here. The ones that eventually guided him home.

A/N: And there you have it. These two make me want to write all the fluff, and I hope you liked this. Reviews are always appreciated, comments and critiques alike! Thanks for reading!