Killian has never actually been to Regina's vault. Magic isn't what he brings to the odd team that defends Storybrooke; that is Emma and Regina's area. However, today they are all meeting there because Regina has worked up a counter spell to defend against the latest magician threatening the town.
She has been very helpful lately, ever since her one hope of the Author fell through, but Killian sees through it. He can see the familiar darkness lurking behind her eyes, the hope gone. She tried being a hero and it didn't work out for her so she has become a weapon. No one else sees the difference because, so far at least, she is letting them point her at their enemies, but Killian sees it because he remembers being exactly the same.
"The Evil Queen's vault is in a crypt?" he asks.
"Technically I guess," Emma says. "I haven't noticed for a while."
"Actually it's beneath the crypt," Henry clarifies. "And there's a door in the mayor's office."
"Aye. So much better." He has no objections to being underground, but he fails to see the appeal of setting up a headquarters there. He prefers open sky and the wind on his face any day.
The inside of the vault is far more eerie, although the rest of the team appears familiar enough with it to be unconcerned. The strange pulsing sound just at the edge of hearing is setting his teeth on edge. It's strange. He isn't claustrophobic, never has been, but something about this place deeply unnerves him.
"You alright?" Emma asks quietly, squeezing his hand.
"Aye Love," he says honestly. "I'm just on edge."
She studies his face for a long moment before nodding. Regina has everyone line up as she starts the spell. His eyes keep straying past her, looking for the source of the noise.
"There," Regina says sharply. "You're all safe. We're about to win again." He doesn't miss the edge of sarcasm in her voice.
They turn to go and he spots something down one of the halls, red lights pulsing with magic. He freezes in the horror of realization when he sees. They are hearts. The walls of Regina's vault are covered with hearts.
"You're sure you're alright?" Emma asks.
"Aye Love. I just figured out what was bothering me and it is of no immediate risk. I'll meet you at Granny's," he promises, releasing Emma's hand. "I just need a quiet word with Regina first."
"You're sure you aren't in any trouble?" Emma asks.
"Aye Swan. I'm sure."
"Okay," she says, apparently accepting that he isn't actively in danger. "Don't be long." She turns and heads out with her family.
"A word Your Majesty?" he asks, stepping up beside her. "One former villain to another."
She stops walking and they both wait until the heroes are outside the vault.
"These are hearts," he says, keeping at least most of the accusation out of his tone.
"From a long time ago," Regina snaps. "I was a different person."
"Aye, but you still have the hearts."
"So that's what this is all about. You sitting on your high white horse, one of the heroes with your happy ending firmly in hand, looking down your nose at me because I can't keep mine so I can't possibly be one of you heroes."
"Not at all Mayor Mills," he says, the moniker carefully chosen out of many options to show deference while acknowledging the difference between the woman before him and the Evil Queen. "I'm hardly one of the heroes and I'm not in a position to say whether you have atoned for your past sins, or me for mine. I just…" he waves a hand at the wall of beating hearts, "take a special interest in stolen hearts."
"Oh I get it," Regina sneers. "You wanted to get me alone so you can blackmail me like you did Rumplestiltskin. Well, what is it you want?"
"Not my finest moment," he says with a brief smile that is nearly a grimace. "I don't want anything from you. Talking to you alone is a courtesy, one I hope you would extend if our situations were reversed. If you ever notice me holding on to the darkness from my past I hope you will bring it my attention rather than Emma's."
She nods, her face just a touch less defensive. "Thank you for leaving Henry out of it," she says evenly. "But what exactly are you suggesting? It's not like I do anything to the hearts. I didn't even take all of them."
"Inherited from Mommy Dearest?"
Regina rolls her eyes at him. "As a matter of fact, yes. I keep forgetting you knew her." She frowns, looking around at the hearts lining the walls. "She was a monster, wasn't she?"
"Aye, a bit," he admits. "But from what I've heard, only without a heart." Privately he isn't willing to give her a free pass on that because she chose to be heartless, but that isn't really relevant to his point.
"There's hundreds of hearts," she says, suddenly sounding very young and very lost. "I don't even know anymore where most of them belong."
"Aye, but it doesn't matter," Killian points out. "They're hearts. Pick them up and command their owners to come and get them."
"That's an awful lot of people suddenly showing up hating me," Regina points out bitterly. "Can I afford to unleash hundreds of new enemies on myself?"
"Aye, but reasonable or not, you know Emma and her family have a remarkable tendency to fight for people who don't deserve it, people like you and I. They won't let your new enemies team up against you. Beyond that Lass you'll have to decide for yourself."
That isn't quite true. He wants her to choose well, but he won't allow hundreds of people to languish indefinitely in their magical prisons just because it should be Regina's choice. He wasn't lying about taking a special interest in missing hearts. But he will give her time before checking up.
"Killian," Emma greets him when he arrives at the diner. She looks just a bit relieved that he is there in one piece. "You look better."
"Aye Love," he says, kissing her lightly. Now is not the time for more with David and Henry both sitting over at the booth. And Snow. Snow is almost worse with her Aww, aren't they adorable reaction. "I believe Regina will resolve the matter that was troubling me earlier."
"I didn't know you are Regina were friends." They grab their food from the counter but Emma leads the way past the booth with her family, outside to their table.
"We're not," he says, thinking of how quickly she assumed he was blackmailing her. "We are…" he hesitates, trying to figure out what, if not friendship, makes him hope so fervently that she will make the right decision. "We are comrades-in-arms," he says finally. "We are both battling our past mistakes and our own darkness."
"What's going on?" she asks, searching his face for a clue.
"Something from Regina's past as the Evil Queen was becoming a problem. We discussed the matter at length, I promised discretion, and she is handling the situation."
"And you aren't going to tell me anything else?" she asks.
"I'm not." He takes her hand and meets her eyes levelly. He wants her to see that he isn't being evasive. It simply isn't his tale to tell. "She values your opinion of her Love, and there are parts of her history that are hers to tell you, or not. I would hardly be pleased if she were to take some matter from my past to you instead of me."
"Well," Emma says, hesitantly accepting. "The only trouble is, things from your past, and even more so things from Regina's past, have a tendency to show up in town and try to kill people."
"Aye," he says with a smile. "You forget I first came to town with one such thing from her past. But this is not that sort of problem. I highly doubt there will be no danger to you or any of your loved ones."
"Including you Killian?" she asks, holding his gaze.
He grins, a genuine happy smile that lights up his features. "Aye Emma. I'm not going anywhere." It's more than just a comment on relative lack of danger and they both know it.
"Good. Because neither am I. Just promise you'll be careful."
"Aye. I'll keep a weather eye on the situation," he promises, "and if I perceive it becoming dangerous, to myself or anyone else, I will fill you in."
"Why are you working with her? Do you really believe in Regina this much?"
"I'm doing this because you believe in Regina. And in me. You're the one who convinced me that sometimes villains truly can change. This is simply an opportunity to extend to Regina some small part of the grace you show me every day."
"You're seeing the best in her," Emma says with a smile. "This just proves I was right though. There's a reason I tell you you're one of the heroes now."
He glances away, not convinced it's entirely true.
"It's true," Emma murmurs, seeing the hesitation he always carries when people call him a hero. "And everyone sees it but you."
It is nearly three weeks later, after they have defeated the latest threat, before anything comes of it. He has given Regina time after the defeat of the magician and is just starting to wonder whether he needs to check in with her.
He is checking the rigging on the Jolly Roger after a storm when an old man he doesn't know comes up to the gangplank.
"Um, Captain Jones?" he asks hesitantly.
In his entire life, Killian has only been called Captain Jones once. The day Liam died, the day he turned pirate, one of the crew tried to call him that. Captain Jones was captain of The Jewel of the Realm, he had replied bitterly. He had turned to piracy for honor and for vengeance, for Liam, but even so, he felt unworthy of his brother's name. So it had been Captain Killian for a while, then Captain Hook.
"It's Killian," he corrects the man, but not sharply. "What can I do for you?"
"You've already done plenty. The Evil… the Mayor, says you're the reason I have my heart back. I just wanted to come by and thank you."
"I merely brought the matter to her attention," he says, brushing aside the man's thanks. "It was her call."
After the man leaves, still brimming with thanks and with all the emotions he hasn't felt for years, Killian has the chance to think about what he said. No one calls him Captain Jones, so where would the old man have picked it up? It was Regina, it had to be. That was the only way the man knew who he was in the first place. She told them that name for the same reason he had taken to calling her Mayor Mills; giving him the title he earned and the respect that goes with it, while acknowledging the sharp difference between the man he was and the man he is now. He still doesn't deserve it, but this time at least he might be headed in the right direction.
The next day he runs into Regina. She is out with Henry and he doesn't go over to talk to her, but gives her a smile and a nod of approval. She returns the gesture.
The old man was hardly the only one. Over the next several weeks strangers keep showing up to thank him. He still doesn't actually discuss it with Regina because they have only seen each other in company with various others, but they always share the same nod, acknowledging their shared secret.
And even though they haven't discussed it, he quite enjoys watching her work. He enjoys meeting the strangers that show up at the Jolly Roger to thank him for their hearts, although he always tells them their thanks would better go to Regina. He enjoys watching the way she has started looking to him whenever they meet, hoping for his slight approving nod. He enjoys seeing how she is becoming more open with everyone, actually taking Emma up on her offers to join the group for dinner sometimes. He enjoys how much freer she is with her smiles the more hearts she returns, like maybe she is the one being freed.
Emma notices too, and she must suspect it has something to do with Killian because she is always making comments to him about how Regina seems happy. She doesn't actually press him for answers but she keeps guessing what Regina's secret is. Sometimes she isn't far from the mark, other times she makes wildly random guesses, that he is teaching Regina to sail so she can become a pirate, that Regina is going on a game show and Killian is helping her prepare, that she and Killian are going to become a modern day Bonnie and Clyde but geographically limited to Storybrooke. He always refuses to answer and her guesses always make him smile.
Regina must have asked the people she was freeing not to say anything, perhaps not wanting to remind the rest of the town of just how many hearts she took in the first place, because it takes weeks for rumors to start. Entire wars have started and ended in Storybrooke in less time.
It's just him and Emma and David in the sheriff's station when she brings it up. He is technically the head of the Storybrooke Harbor Patrol. That was the compromise between David, who wanted him to head up the Navy, and Killian, who felt he had turned his back on any right to call himself a part of any Navy by committing mutiny and becoming a pirate. Most of his job consists of being a backup sheriff and hanging around the now joint Sheriff/Harbor Patrol station with Emma and David, and of sailing the coastal border of Storybrooke, usually with Henry who has made himself a sort of unofficial deputy.
"I heard a weird rumor on patrol today," Emma says. "Apparently people are showing up in town with hearts."
"From where and whose hearts?" David asks. Killian does his best to hide his smile.
"From town I think. And their own hearts."
"That sounds pretty normal."
"Says the guy with half of someone else's heart," Killian points out.
"Okay, so I'm an exception," he says, rolling his eyes at Killian, who smirks back. "But why is it interesting that people have their own hearts?"
"Because they didn't have them before. My guess is that Regina is returning the hearts from her vault." She turns her eyes on Killian. "And I think you are helping her."
"Not really," he says, not denying that is what is going on. Emma is already aware of the general situation so Regina can hardly begrudge his giving her more credit. "This is her own doing."
"But this is what you were working on with her?"
"Aye."
"Why is she keeping it a secret? It's a good thing she is doing," David points out.
"Aye. But it is in response to a bad thing. She can either admit to both or none and she decided on none," Killian explains, understanding Regina's position all too well.
"Still," Emma says. "She should be proud of the good she is doing." The way her eyes linger on him, Killian suspects she isn't just talking about Regina.
After that, word spreads. Killian finds it a nice change of pace to see someone else be the one made awkward by the heroes' praise. As soon as they find out, Henry and Snow heap lavish praise on her heroics. Killian isn't sure heroics is the right word for working to right your own wrongs, because that is what he does and he is certainly no hero. Or maybe he is. The whole thing is giving him the chance to analyze his own actions from another perspective. Because the truth is, he is proud of Regina, he does think she has done well, perhaps even heroically, although he is more reserved in his praise than the rest. He knows she would likely be annoyed if he became just another person singing her praises from the rooftops.
It isn't just family praising her actions either. Random strangers are coming up to thank her for the return of the heart of some family member or other.
"It makes no sense," Regina complains to him. "I tried to avoid this whole… spectacle."
"Why? You certainly haven't minded recognition before," he points out.
"Yes, but this is ridiculous."
"Maybe, but one good deed can be overlooked, however much you announce it to the world. Three hundred some odd good deeds, that's difficult to hide."
"I'm not sure these should count as good deeds," she admits quietly.
"You don't think systematically making some three hundred people happy, capable of happiness, is a good deed? No wonder you've had trouble figuring out where you stand on the hero/villain thing."
She narrows her eyes at him. "Of course it's good. And it would count as a good deed if one of the heroes did it. I was the reason they were miserable in the first place."
"Then returning the hearts you took is righting a wrong, like getting the people out of the Hat. The whole town seems to think I deserve credit for that one. Returning the hearts Cora took, those you can be proud of. As far as I can gather, righting other people's wrongs is kind of what heroes are for."
"Like you getting the fairies out of the Hat," Regina says.
He grimaces. "I put them there too."
"While your heart was being controlled. Trust me when I say I know a few things about the power holding someone's heart has over them," she says with a wry smile.
He smiles. "Maybe," he admits. And he realizes that, for the first time, he maybe believes it.
"You wanted to see me?" Killian asks, stepping into the mayor's office.
"Yes Captain. Actually, I wanted to show you something. She picks two white roses up off the desk before opening a hidden door and leading the way into the depths. The vault is strangely silent and the walls are still and dark.
"I returned the last heart today," she says with a smile. "I just thought you might want to know."
"Aye. Good work. Who are the roses for?"
"The hearts I can't return," she says. She turns and heads upstairs, to the upper portion of the crypt. He hangs back a little, giving her space to say her goodbyes.
The first rose is for her father's grave. Killian knows the story there, how she crushed his heart to enact the curse. He has read it several times in Henry's book. He can see she has made peace with this a long time ago, and although there is still sadness it doesn't haunt her.
She takes the other rose into the larger graveyard and stops in front of the fallen Sheriff Graham's headstone. It would not be fair to say Killian actually knew what happened, but neither is he surprised. Even Emma had said as much when she explained the shoelace tied around her wrist.
"I think that was the last truly evil thing the queen… I… did," Regina says softly. Everything that came after was either accidental or unsuccessful."
She searches his face, trying to gauge his reaction. He spent centuries seeking revenge for nearly this exact crime and she knows it. Even so, he understands exactly what she means. Belle still has a scar from his last evil act.
"Aye," he says finally. "The Evil Queen is dead. Long live Madame Mayor?" he asks with a genuine smile.
"Something like that I hope," she says. "Although I could say something similar to you Captain Jones."
He doesn't correct her. He knows he doesn't really deserve the name, probably never will, but he is heading in the right direction. And this time he finally feels like maybe Liam would be at least a little proud of the man he's become.
"However, I'm not getting rid of the vault in the crypt," Regina continues.
"And I'm going to go right on living on my ship named for a pirate flag."
"So if we aren't quite heroes, and have stopped being villains, what does that make us?" Regina asks.
"Henry told me about something called and anti-hero," Killian says. "I think we are both exceedingly well qualified."
Emma is waiting for him on the Jolly Roger with takeout from Granny's and the latest news from the Sheriff's station, which between crises is more like town gossip than actual news. She tells him the little things about her day, how she had to stop the Merry Men and the Sheriff of Nottingham's men from brawling, a fairly common task since the second curse.
He tells her about his day too. Starkey decided to take up piracy again and Killian had to dissuade him from raiding the coast of Storybrooke, and he helped Regina wrap things up with the returned hearts.
"Still comrade-in-arms-ing with the Evil Queen?" she asks with a grin.
He chuckles softly. "Something like that Love. Although there don't appear to be any battle to fight at the moment. And somewhere along the way, I think I accidentally became friends with Mayor Mills."