Running. Just keep running.

Emma's legs hurt and she was out of breath but if she could just get a little farther she could hide. She stopped suddenly to catch her breath and threw a glance over her shoulder in the direction she came from. They hadn't turned the corner yet. But they would. That was all the motivation Emma needed to start running again. To her right was the blacksmith and the left was the way back into town square. Ahead of her were the docks. Maybe she could get on a ship!

The sound of wood hammered under her feet as she took off down the boardwalk. At the end she could see a very large ship, maybe a naval vessel, maybe a pirate ship. At this point it was her last hope at escaping.

She'd reached the edge and was about to walk the gang plank when a young man approached her from across it. He must be on guard making sure no one was to board without permission.

He was very obviously a pirate – a wave of jet black hair, a hint of chin stubble, and the bluest eyes she'd ever seen. He couldn't have been more than a few years older than her - 17, 18 maybe? He towered over her petite 15 year old frame.

"Oi! Where do you think you're going? This is a private vessel. No stowaways!"

"Please," she panted, hands on her knees looking back up at him, "I have to get away. They're coming for me!" She threw another glance over her shoulder and there they were, thundering down the boardwalk.

"'Who are you and what do they want with you?"

"My name is Emma Swan, I am princess of this kingdom and they are coming after me. Right. Now."

"Emma Swan, my name is Killian Jones and I will help you." He scooped her up into his impossibly strong arms for his age and carried her across the gang plank. But it was too late. They were already there.

In an instant Killian was struck down and Emma tumbled out of his grasp. She was instantly scooped up by one of them and thrown over someone's shoulder. She could hear Killian scrambling to get up and come after her but one of them subdued him.

"I'll find you Emma Swan! I'll come for you, I promise!"

17 years Later Emma woke to the sound of her alarm clock buzzing and the sun streaming into her New York City apartment.

She went into the kitchen to make a bowl of cereal where she found her son Henry. She mumbled a good morning to as she sat down at the tabled next to him with her breakfast.

"Did you have that dream again?" He asked as he flipped through his Avengers comic.

"Yes." She answered as she began to eat, remembering how real it felt. For months she'd been having this same dream about a pirate and a ship. She was just a girl and it was all very Pirates of the Caribbean. "It was different today though. This time he said 'I'll find you Emma Swan! I'll come for you, I promise' right before I woke up." she recalled to him.

"Maybe it's your subconscious telling you that we should do to Disney." Henry joked.

There was a loud rapping at the door and Emma nearly jumped out of her seat at the surprise. She wasn't expecting anyone and no one usually came over on Saturday mornings.

"Stay put," she instructed Henry as she made for the door, grabbing a baseball bat. She looked through the peep hole but saw no one. She cautiously crept open the door.

Standing in front of her was a pirate, a very handsome, very real looking pirate.

When he sees her, his entire face lights up, he's so happy to see her, it was as if his life depended on it. Before she can gape at him any longer she slams the door and runs back to the kitchen. She hears Henry ask who was there but she's lost in a daze. If she didn't know any better she would say that it was the pirate from her dream, just about 15 years older.

But she did know better and that was not possible. Was it? No.

She wasn't paying attention until she saw Henry walking towards the door. She heard herself telling him not to but there was no fire behind her request and Henry knew it.

He was at the door and opened it in one swift motion expecting to see a giant bug or one of their crazy neighbors his mom was always telling him about. But he was shocked to find a pirate pacing the hallway.

"Hello?"

Startled, the pirate looked up and was noticeably stunned. He clearly did not know what to make of the 13 year old boy standing in the doorway.

"My name is Killian Jones. I need to speak with Emma Swan. It's incredibly important. Please." Henry nearly slams the door as well when he hears the name of the pirate. Killian Jones. He recognized the name from Emma's dreams. He told himself it must be some kind of prank; someone was playing a prank on them. But he knew his mom was too embarrassed to tell anyone about her dreams.

No. Something in his gut told him to listen. But he also knew how stubborn his mother was and it would take a lot more for her to listen.

"Okay, pirate-man, my mom eats lunch every day at 12:30 in Central Park on Saturday's while I'm at hockey practice. Maybe she'll listen to whatever you have to say when she's not so freaked out anymore." The pirate looked so relieved, like a happy puppy. Henry quickly told Killian exactly where to find Emma. He thanked Henry excitedly and left.

When Henry returned to the kitchen Emma's gaze shot up from her cereal bowl, asking him what happened. Henry just told her that he sent the crazy pirate-man away. That didn't exactly sooth her but it would have to calm her down until they met again.

Fresh air, fresh air is what Emma needed. It had been a long morning after the pirate incident and the dream changing and how she couldn't stop thinking about it. It was all very strange and somehow Emma could not get this guy out of her head.

She was walking in the park for her Saturday afternoon lunch ritual while she waited for Henry to get out of Hockey practice. It was a beautiful September day; she was definitely starting to feel better. She found her usual bench and sat as she begun unwrapping her sandwich.

This is not happening. She thought she must be hallucinating because she swears she just saw the pirate walking towards her. No, this was not happening.

But it was, he appeared from behind someone again and was heading right towards her.

"Emma Swan, please just hear me out before you run away."

"Who are you, you crazy person?" She was halfway into her purse already looking for her Taser when she heard him answer.

"Killian Jones."

That got her attention. "This is a prank. Someone is playing a prank on me. Did Henry put you up to this? I'm so to kill that little – "

"I assure you, this is not a hoax. I have come a very long way to find you."

"This is not possible. You did not just say that." But Emma put her Taser back and wrapped up her sandwich. She was speechless.

"I did and it's very true. May I?" He gestured to the empty space next to her. She was too flabbergasted to do anything but nod. Something was definitely going on here. And something was telling her to listen to whatever he had to say. It was completely crazy but she almost couldn't help it.

"Lass, I know this won't make sense to you but please just listen. You are in terrible danger. Have you been having any funny dreams of late? Anything that felt so real and then you just wake up."

Emma's mouth hung open slightly at his words.

"I thought so. Emma, everything you know in this life is a lie. You are living in a dream world that you created. When you were 15 years old you were put under a terrible sleeping curse that alters your sub consciousness and tricks it into believing you're still awake in order to keep your unconscious self alive."

"I don't understand. This is real, how can you say it's not real?"

"It's an elaborate dreamscape and that is all. But now the real world, the world in which you are asleep is crumbling around you and you are in very real danger. If you don't wake up soon you will die in both worlds."

"What do my dreams have to do with this? If I'm in a dream-world now, why would I be having these other dreams?" All this of this was completely crazy, she knew that. A dream-world? Seriously? Things like this just did not happen. Not to her, not to anyone. But something just kept urging her to listen.

"Because it is the real world collapsing and reality bleeding through into your dreamscape. Those dreams feel so real, do they not?" Emma simply nodded. "What are your dreams like?"

"They're of me when I was a teenager. I'm running towards a pirate ship. And you're there. You promise to help me right before someone takes me away." She looks up into his impossibly blue eyes, completely in awe. Could this actually be real? "I've been having them for months. At first they were fuzzy and then they started getting clearer and it was every night, always the same. Until last night – you said 'I'll find you Emma Swan! I'll come for you, I promise!' just before I woke up."

"Emma, that really happened. It is a memory of the last thing that happened to you before you were placed under the sleeping curse."

"But you were supposed to come for me. Why didn't you come for me?" She was speaking as if she believed all of this. And maybe part of her did.

"I did Emma; I looked for you everywhere I could. And when I did finally find you it was too late. You were already under the curse."

"So how are you here now?"

"A great and terrible sorcerer told me where to find you in our world and how to find you in this world. He said it was foretold that I would break your sleeping curse; that I would find you and we would survive this but it would come at a great cost to us both. We must give us the thing that we love most for each other."

"I don't understand. This so unbelievable." Somehow she was still asking questions but he mind was drawing a blank. "The thing I love the most, I have to give up? What thing do I love most? What thing do you love most?" The words fell from her lips carelessly and when she saw the broken look on his face she knew he'd already done it, he'd already given up whatever he loved most to find her. So what was she supposed to give up?

"Emma we must break the curse. We must, or else you and I will die."

He was avoiding her gaze, evading the question. What did she love most?

"Killian? If this isn't real and you and I will die in the real world, what about Henry?" It was beginning to dawn on her. Not what, but who did she love most.

"Henry's not real, love. He's a creation of your mind."

"No. That's can't be. I have memories, real memories of him. And scars to prove it! He is my son."

"Emma, I am so so sorry, but he's not. He is a part of your subconscious. He's also the part of your subconscious that told me how to find you here and allowed me another chance to convince you of you knew to be true."

"He's right mom." Henry suddenly appeared, out of nowhere it seemed. Emma could feel the tears threatening to fall as Henry walked closer to them. She stood up frantically wrapping her arms around him, tears finally falling. "It's okay mom, it's time to go."

"No, Henry I can't leave you. I love you, kid."

"I love you too, mom." She crushed his small frame closer to her as his she would never let him go. But when her lips kissed his forehead her arms where empty and he was gone.

"No, Killian, no! This can't be happening," she repeated with tears now streaming down her face.

"I'm sorry Emma, but you're accepting that it is happening and that it is very real." He stood up to face her, cupping her slippery cheeks with his hands.

"What did you give up Killian?" she whispered.

"My ship." He rested his forehead against hers in attempt to sooth her. After a moment she sniffled and sighed.

"Alright, how do we break this curse?"

Killian hesitated for a moment looking uncomfortable, he shuffling his feet back and forth before he answered, "True love's kiss."

"Seriously? I just met you." But even as the words came out of her mouth she felt them to be untrue. She had known Killian since she was 15 and she had dreamed of him for long. He was literally the man of her dreams.

"It was foretold, it was to be you and me, Emma. Don't you believe it? All those years I spent searching for this girl I met when I was 17. Finding you gave me hope, finding you and saving you became everything. I could never let that go."

He was cupping her face again and she felt it. She felt it all rushing to her like finding something you didn't know you had all along. She'd waited for him all this time to come rescue her. Her subconscious mind knew he was there and he was coming for her, it was trying to tell her for weeks.

He was leaning in, his lips nearly an inch from hers and she suddenly pulled back.

"Killian, one more question. Last one I promise. If you're here in this dreamscape with me, where are you in the real world? The world where I'm asleep?"

The corners of his lips slightly perked up in a sad smile. "I'm there with you, Emma. Right next to you, asleep."

Then their lips were crashing together and something hit them like a tidal wave nearly knocking them off their feet but they remained intertwined as chaos attacked them. The earth shuddered and quaked and then stopped all at once.

Her eyes were closed. She opened them and looked around, disoriented. She was in a dark room with stone walls and no windows. She was on a bed. She looked to her left and there he was. Suddenly she sat up straight and Killian did the same on his own bed.

She ran over to him and embraced him for a long while, remembering everything – the day at the docks when she ran to him, and everything he said to her in her dream-world.

She was so elated to have him here they didn't immediately feel the ground shaking. But when they did she looked at him, alarmed.

"Killian, what do you we do now?" His bright blue eyes shone crazed in the absence of light.

"Now, we fight."

~The End~