Inner Child

After being alive for over 200 years, there wasn't much of Killian Jones' childhood that he could remember. And what he could recall wasn't necessarily good. Being sold into slavery by your own Father did that for you. Apart from Liam's ring which Emma still wore on a chain around her neck, he had only kept one item from his childhood. A wooden ship. He wasn't sure if his Father had carved it or not, but it was something he treasured and had kept with him and remembered how excited he had been when he had been gifted it.

When he moved in with Emma, it had taken up space on the bookcase along with the books he had kept in his cabin on the Jolly Roger. Emma hadn't kept much from her childhood either, so they had made a conscious effort to fill the house with recent memories.

Photographs were the oldest items not from their childhoods and the most likely to hold happy memories. Photos of them out on the Jolly Roger together. Sometimes just the three of them, other times with Charming, Snow and baby Neal. Some of them at Granny's and just sitting on the dock.

Even though Henry wasn't his son, he had taken on his love of sailing and the ocean. Because of this, Killian had asked August if he or his Father could crave a model of the Jolly Roger for Henry. He thought it might ease the burden of being the Author for the lad if he had something to remind him of a happy memory where he wasn't having to help save Storybrooke.

The burden of their roles as Author and Saviour were something the Mother and Son took very seriously. If all he could give them was a happy memory of his childhood to make their lives a little easier to bare, then it was worth it. Perhaps it would redeem him a little for his past as well. That past that continuously popped up to remind him of what he had been and done.

It was over dinner one night that he finally handed over the gift. He had seen Henry staring at the model on the bookcase. When the boy had asked for the story behind it and seen his face fall, he remembered that although he had not had the best of childhoods, he had still had more time with his Father than Henry had. Hell, Killian had spent more time with Henry's Father than the boy had been able to.

Despite the way his life had turned out, up until the moment he had found out what his Father had done, he had idolised his Father. Especially after his Mother had passed away. Which was why the betrayal was that much harder to face, when he had realised what his Father had done and later to discover that both he and his Brother had been so easily replaced by another son.

The relationship between Killian and Liam the second was still full of tension as clearly their Father had made changes when it came to his third son. Killian couldn't help but feel a little jealous but then reminded himself that he was now the older (not big) brother. He couldn't change what he had done in the past but he had hope for the future.

He would never forget the way Henry's face had lit up when he had unwrapped the gift. Nor the tug at his heart when the lad had placed the ship beside his on the bookcase. In that moment he knew that it was not only his Swan that he would go to the end of time and space for, but also her son. They were his family.

Of course the look of amusement on Emma's face when later on they recreated one the Jolly Rogers many battles on the coffee table, would convince him that letting his Inner Child out was an acceptable piece of his past to keep.