One of the perks of having a pirate boyfriend is that he has his own ship. So no cramping up with her parents and baby brother every night in a loft that is not soundproof enough to Emma's liking. She obviously loves them, but there is only so much she can take. The calm in Storybrooke seems to be permanent, why not take advantage of it?
After sharing the same bed a couple of times, Emma has learned that Hook is an early riser. Actually that's an understatement. He's more of an "Come on Swan, the sun's up, so you should get up too " kind of guy.
He tried to wake her up at ungodly hours several times now and Emma had to teach him the hard way to leave her alone in the morning. Meaning that if he wakes her, she will hide the guyliner and apparently he's terribly keen on his man make-up, because ever since her threat, she got to sleep late every time.
Today is no exception.
When she wakes up, Killian's side is made up and there is a note lying on the pillow. Emma opens it up and reads the swirly handwriting.
Good morning, love. I hope you slept well. I've gone on a stroll and later I'm meeting Robin at Granny's. Worry not, I'll bring some breakfast for you around 8:30 a.m. See you soon.
-K
She smiles. 8:30. That means that she still has exactly 48 minutes before he's back.
If anyone were to ask Emma whether or not she was a curious person, she would completely deny it, but that's far from the truth. She loves snooping around and the perfect opportunity has come up to do so.
She starts with the walls. Looking closely at the maps of places she's never seen before and probably never will see.
Next up: the cabinets. Emma's surprised of how many stuff he has. Of course she's seen them before but she hadn't realized how many of them there actually are. There is a entire table full of cups and chalices. What does he even do with those? He drinks his rum straight out of the flask.
She turns around when her phone on the nightstand beeps and Emma, with all the elegance she possesses, knocks over some statues.
Typical.
She walks to her phone and sees that it's just an invite to a party Ruby is throwing. She returns to the table and rearranges the statues. A small door becomes visible. She moves some things around and there it is.
A vault with a peculiar lock.
Emma traces it with her fingers and it sparks recognition with her. The pattern. Where has she felt it before? And then it hits her. The hook is the key. The vault opens with the end of his hook. Sneaky pirate.
Her phone rings yet again with an invite for one of Ruby's parties. Honestly, how many social events can one girl host? Emma swipes to clear her screen and sees the time. The phone's digital clock shows that it's 8:18. She better start readying herself, because Killian is very precise and 8:30 means 8:30 and not a second later.
"Love? I'm here with breakfast." he calls.
"Good morning." she replies while walking towards him and kissing him on the cheek.
"What have you brought for me today?" He smiles
"A healthy fruit salad." Emma pouts.
"Really? I was looking forward to my breakfast and you bring me that?"
"I'm just kidding, Swan. I know you're not that kind of girl. I present to you: a bear claw" he says while opening the bag with some idiotic gesture.
This man . She doesn't even know how he's real and not a figment of her imagination.
"Let's eat!"
They eat, well Emma eats mostly, accompanied by a comfortable silence, but Emma's mind keeps going back to the vault. She wonders if she should ask him or if she should just ignore it. Her curiosity makes that decision for her and soon her mouth says the words.
"What's in your vault?" Boom, there it was.
"Ah, so you've been exploring, love." he says with an indecipherable expression.
"Yeah, I guess I was curious. Sorry."
"No worries. It's just some old trinkets in there." he says while shrugging.
Emma senses that that's not the case. She tries to make a joke.
"So just like the rest of the ship."
"Indeed." That was the last thing he says before saying:
"Sorry, love, but I totally obliterated the fact that I was meeting Will in the library in... well now actually. Will you excuse me? I'll see you later." and before leaving the Jolly.
Emma was still sitting there, surprised that he just left. And the thing he said about Will wasn't true, because since Belle dumped him, he has avoided the library, and also the pawn shop, with great care.
Why would he freak out over what's in the vault? It can't be that bad right? She has shown him her past with her box and he encouraged and supported her. Why didn't he trust her to do the same?
Emma head was flooded with doubts when she decides to go back to the loft. She leaves the breakfast on the table and goes upstairs.
"Emma, hi!"
"Hi, mom"
"Neal, look who's here. Yes, it's Emma, your big sister." Mary Margaret says while cradling the baby.
Emma really wants to see David but about three quarters on the way she realized that he was working at the station now. How could she even forget? That was the reason she stayed over on the Hook's ship.
But she figured it still couldn't hurt to go to the loft and that's how she had her mother talk her into temporarily babysitting on Neal, while she went to the market.
"I don't even know how mom did it, kid, but let's make the best of it." Neal looks at her full curiosity and with the blue eyes he clearly inherited from David, as if he's encouraging her to continue. "I mean I don't really have anyone else to talk to right now. Your nephew, which is still a very weird to say, is at his other mom's house and dad is working and Killian... never mind him. He doesn't trust me enough to tell me things. I did tell him nearly everything about my past."
The big eyes keep on staring at her.
"I just thought seeing that he asked me, I could ask him and it wouldn't be a problem, but I thought wrong. He took off. But I remember when he asked me I almost freaked out and it took me a while to calm down before showing him. What if he was just as afraid? Emma, you idiot! It wasn't about you, it was about him. Fuck!"
Suddenly she's reminded that she has Neal in her arms by his little shriek.
"Oh, sorry, little bro. But I've been quite dumb. And now mom needs to return so that I can fix some things."
After about 15 minutes Mary Margaret returns with the groceries and Emma takes off, after saying goodbye. She runs back to his ship, hoping that he has returned. She goes down below and yes, there he is. He'd unlocked the safe and was staring at the content.
"Killian?" she says, while knocking on the door opening. He quickly turns around and the surprise is easy to read on his face.
"Can I come in?"
"Of course! Emma, I wanted to apologize for the way I acted before. I was should not have ran away, but you caught me off guard. And I'm afraid I may have angered you, and I need to say that that was never my intention. I wasn't really with Will at the library, but I went to the beach to think. I'm truly sorry, love."
He stands up and slowly walks towards her, but still giving her enough space. She closes the space.
"Killian, don't worry. I get it." Emma takes his hand and hook in hers.
"I get that you weren't ready to tell your whole past to me. It took me a while as well."
"Aye, but you've told me all your tales about Baelfire and that girl from your childhood and I ran away because I was scared. A bloody coward."
"Killian. Look at me." The blue eyes slowly look up.
"It doesn't matter. Tell me about your past when you're ready." Emma smiles and continues
"You want to get out of here and go take a walk? "
"If you don't mind, Swan, I would like to show you some things."
As a reply she repeats the exact words he once said to her.
"Go ahead, I'd love to know more about your beginnings."
Killian pulls out a necklace and starts telling.
"This is the necklace of my mother Nora. She was an amazing woman with eyes even brighter than mine. Her eyes are one of the only things I recall, but also her kindness and generosity towards everyone and her unbelievable love for Liam and I. One winter night she got a bad fever and two days later she was gone. I was about 5 springs old then."
Emma listens to him tell stories of his father and their hard life after the death and while he talks, they both go sit on the bed. He pulls out a rather normal looking stone.
"This stone was a stone from the first beach I set foot on during my first naval mission. I was so proud of myself that I was actually a part of the Royal Navy and with Liam nevertheless. And I think Liam was also joyful, but with him it was because I hadn't thrown up once the entire journey and that perhaps I was indeed destined for a life at sea." he says with a smile on his face.
" I thought you weren't the sentimental type." Emma intervenes .
His smile becomes softer. He continues.
"I was a complete wreck after Liam's death and I threw away so many things of his. I regret everything now, but I was so consumed by anger back then, that I didn't even understand what I was doing. I found some of his maps under a secret cabinet in the floor. He wrote all kinds of directions on them."
He takes one of the maps and points at a sentence written with a handwriting as elegant as Killian's.
Dear Killian, keep your filthy paws of my maps and go swab the deck.
"Bloody Liam." he looks at her and she sees the tears starting to form in his eyes.
He tells the story of his feud with the Dark One. He talks about how he met Milah and shows the charcoal drawing. He talks about their life on the Jolly Roger and how she was his first mate. Emma can't even feel jealous, because she hears the sorrow in his voice and hates that he feels this way. She crawls closer to him to provide him some comfort.
"I've now showed you everything in my vault, love, except for this. It hasn't been in here as long as the rest, but it is as significant to my being as the rest."
Killian walks back to the vault and pulls something out of it.
"What is it?" Emma asks. He comes back and suddenly she recognizes her and Henry's smiling face at Granny's.
"The most important people in my life."
"How long has that been in there?" Emma asks.
"Since the night you showed your box. I just felt as if you should have a place in there."
"Thank you, Killian."
"For what?"
"Everything."