Pauley: Serious Illness & Hospital warning for this fic! You have been warned!
"Uh.. Is this the Swan residence?" Killian hadn't meant to sound so unsure, but the lady that had answered the door didn't look anything like Emma. Or Henry for that matter.
"Yes, can I help you?" She asked and he ran the fingers of his good hand through his short hair.
"I'm an old friend, is she in?" He asked, shooting this woman his most charming smile.
She bit her lip.
"You must not have been in touch for a while. She's not well." She spoke those last three words softly and Killian's heart dropped.
"She's been in the hospital for the last two months. Would you like to know which one?" He nodded dumbly, though in reality he wanted to demand to know who this woman was and where Emma's son was if she was indisposed.
She gave him directions, which he nodded along steadily before saying goodbye and making his move.
He found her room with ease, though he was shaking as he stepped within her curtained off area. She was unconscious, or maybe just sleeping, he couldn't tell. She had a strange mask like contraption affixed to her face.
"Oh what has happened to you Swan?" He asked, sitting himself on the hard plastic chair.
He got no answer other than a quiet rasp from the mask and a steady beeping from a machine next to the bed.
He pulled out the bottle of memory potion and fiddled with it anxiously. How on earth could he get her to drink this through that infernal contraption.
And how could he convince her to take it?
An idea struck him and he hurried away from her bedside, finding his way into a staff room, his old tricks serving him well as he procured himself a white coat.
Hurrying back to her room, he prayed that this would work, that she wouldn't question what he knew to be the mark of doctors in this realm.
She was awake by the time he got back, though she hadn't moved.
She blinked at him and he offered her what he hoped was a reassuring smile.
"Hello Miss Swan, I'm Doctor Jones." He moved to her side, noting how she didn't seem to argue with him. That have him relief, but also worried him. What had happened to his Swan full of fire.
"I have some new medicine for you. Can you sit up?" He asked. She nodded weakly, though in actuality she used the bed to prop herself up. He wasn't about to question it as he uncorked the vial, holding it out to her.
She frowned though she reached out for it anyway, her hand shaking.
She pulled the mask away gently and he noted a rise in how raspy her breathing was.
She swallowed the potion without question and he watched as her eyes blew wide and she nearly choked before coughing violently, a speckling of blood dotting her hand before she pulled the mask back up.
His concern mounted as he watched her. She breathed and he waited for a moment until finally she pulled the mask away and spoke.
"Hook."
He'd never been so relieved to hear her say his name, even if it was his moniker.
"Hey lass." He grinned and shucked the white coat before sitting back on the chair.
"Long time no see." She nodded and he could see her lips turning up into a smile under the harsh plastic.
"Why are you here?" She asked after a moment and he sighed.
"Well, it's a long story love..." And with that he began to tell her of the curse, how everyone was back in Storybrooke, about what he knew on the events leading up to the curse that had brought them there.
She listened intently and he noted sadly that although she was interested, her normal spark was missing.
He finished and she nodded again before sighing.
"I can't help Killian. I can't leave the hospital." He frowned.
"If you can't leave this place love, who's looking after the lad?" He asked and again she sighed.
"He's... He's been placed in a programme that will look after him, since I've got no family..." She admitted shamefully as she rested back against her pillows, pulling the mask back up over her mouth as she moved the bed back down slowly. Killian frowned deeper.
"But you've got family now love! You can go to them! I'm sure there's someone in that infernal town that can help you!" He couldn't believe she was giving up so easily. She shot him a look so like herself that it brought him hope.
"I have a lung that's failing, Killian! I have a week left at best before it gives in completely and I kick the bucket and the only reason I have that long is because I'm hooked onto machines and medication twenty four hours a day! If I leave here that's it for me! I won't make it to Storybrooke!" She was crying by the time she was done yelling at him and she was coughing again, more blood settling on her hands before she was able to relax enough to put the mask back on.
She's been coping with this for a year, he realised. On her own, trying to manage being sick and her son, making sure he wouldn't end up alone when she was gone, thinking she had no one in the whole world that cared about her.
He rested his hand upon hers.
"I'm sorry love, I didn't know." He said as sincerely as he could manage. She sighed and nodded, motioning for him to wait a moment until she could speak.
"Is there any of that potion for Henry?" She finally managed to ask and he shakes head sadly.
"I only had enough for one of you." He can tell she's cursing on the inside and she closed her eyes for a moment before sighing.
"There's nothing else for it... He can't go into this programme, not now. He needs family and Regina's in Storybrooke. So's my mom and dad..." She glances at him sheepishly.
"Wanna marry me Pirate?" This time it's him that nearly chokes and he blinks at her in both confusion and disbelief.
She laughed weakly.
"If we're married, you get custody of Henry. You can take him back to our family, find some way to get his memories back, look after him." She explained, taking his hand in hers.
"I know it's a lot to ask but... I need to keep Henry safe. He needs to be with people that love him. He needs to be with family!" She's so insistent that he knew he couldn't say no.
And so that was that.
She spoke to Henry that very day, explaining that Killian was an old friend, from when she was in Foster Care. About how he was gonna take Henry somewhere safe, where everyone knew him, even if she couldn't explain how. And Henry agreed. Because he'd not seen his mom this alive since she'd first gotten sick.
The ceremony wasn't much, performed by the hospital chaplain, with Henry and a nurse as a witness.
Killian even managed to get a kiss out of it.
Henry went to spend his last night with the woman who had been caring for him and Killian prepared himself for a night in the chair.
Much to his surprise, however, Emma was moved to a private room, with a second bed for him.
"Since I know Henry will want for nothing in Storybrooke, I don't feel bad using my savings to bag this room for... Well, for however long I'm here." She explained as he sat on his bed, pushed right up next to hers.
"You never did say love. What caused all this?" He asked, motioning to her. She sighed.
"A while back, I was diagnosed with Pulmonary Artery Catheter. Which, as far as I understand it means the blood doesn't pump round my lungs properly. I got a lung transplant after years of waiting, but there was a high chance that after five years something would go wrong. I knew this going in." She sighed and pulled the mask back to for a moment. It was getting harder and harder for her to function without it now and anything that exerted her lungs more than simply speaking sent her into spasming coughing fits that brought bubblings of blood.
"That was when I was twenty four. This should have started not long after the curse broke, but I guess my magic stopped it, or something like that anyway. And then, when Regina sent us here, well I lost my magic. So I started to deteriorate." She sighed and Killian nodded slowly.
"I wish there was something I could do..." He confessed and Emma offered him a weak smile.
"You're doing it. You're taking care of my son. That's all you can do." He took her hand again.
"I'll make sure he has the best life he can." He assured and she nodded gratefully.
They spoke late into the night and the last thing he heard her say before she drifted to sleep was
"I love you."
He left before she awoke that morning, meaning to collect Henry and bring him back to see his mom.
They arrived at the hospital in surprisingly good humour. Henry was surprised by how well he got on with Killian, even though they'd never met.
But their good mood didn't last as a sympathetic looking nurse pulled them aside.
"It happened quickly." She assured them. "She was asleep, so she wouldn't have felt a thing." She added on and Killian did his best to hold himself together as Henry started to cry, the boys shoulders shaking, his fists clenching as he stared down at his feet.
"Can I see her?" Killian hadn't been expecting the question from the boy but with a sigh, the nurse nodded.
"Come this way."
She led them through a maze of corridors and with every step the pirate questioned whether this was a good idea.
"Are you sure lad?" He asked as they stopped outside a room marked 'morgue'. Henry just nodded.
"Want me to come with you?" Again the boy nodded and Killian sighed, allowing the preteen to enter the room.
And there she was. As if she was still sleeping, laying upon a cold metal table.
Henry squared his shoulders and approached his mother, but his resolve broke when he got close.
"Mommy..." The tears started again and Killian stepped forward, resting a hand on his shoulder.
He knew there was nothing he could say. So instead he simply joined Henry in mourning the most amazing woman he'd ever met.
Emma Swan.