"I wish Emma Swan's wish be granted."

The light streaming through the windows woke up Emma like it always did when her godmother decided she couldn't wait for her to get up. Ruby had thrown the curtains open to let the sunshine illuminate the room. Emma rolled around on her back and buried her face in the pillows to allow herself a few more seconds in her comfortable bed.

"Wake up, wake up, wake up!" Ruby nudged her shoulder, willing to get her goddaughter out of bed already.

"This better be good, I haven't slept late in months, today was my only chance before the ball," Emma complained turning enough not to let her voice be muffled by the pillows. "You know my mom has been talking no stop about it."

Ruby tilted her head to the side, just like a confused puppy; when realization dawned on her she opened her mouth with a big "o". "Oh, right! The ball. That ball."

Emma nodded her head, the movement managing to somehow make her hair wilder than they already were. She pushed herself up with her elbows getting into a sitting position. "Yes that ball. What did you want?" she asked, her hands carefully folded on her lap over the covers and her back straight. Even with the sign of the cushion on her cheek and her hair sticking up in every direction, Emma looked every bit the princess her parents had raised her to be.

"You seemed dead set on sleeping, are you sure you want to know?" Ruby teased her with an half smirk.

Emma couldn't hide the grin blossoming on her mouth. Even though she wasn't a morning person, her godmother always managed to lift her spirit with her presence. Ever since she was little, seeing the she-wolf meant mornings out and playful days spent running around in the castle if the weather wasn't right for staying in the forest, and sometimes her parents would even join in if they could avoid the heavy burdens of the crown for a few hours.

"Well, now I'm awake. Might as well tell me, don't you think?" She couldn't deny she was also a little bit curious, the mirth in Ruby's eyes told her whatever her news was, it was good.

"There might be a certain lieutenant here to see you-"

Ruby didn't have time to finish her sentence before Emma's eyes grew incredibly large and she gripped the other woman's shoulders screaming, "Oh Gods, Ruby! Why didn't you tell me sooner?" She was out of bed in a matter of seconds, looking for a pair of comfortable shoes to put on.

The redhead giggled watching her goddaughter running around the room. "He arrived just a few minutes ago, he's been waiting for you in the main hall. I thought you might like to see him, it has been months."

"Two months and twenty-one days," Emma corrected from where she was with her head deep inside her closet.

"Yes, two months and twenty-one days. You'd think a mission in Arendelle would take just a few weeks… Emma?" Ruby had lowered her head to fix something on her gown, when she looked up the princess had vanished.

Emma run down the stairs with a muttered, "I'm sorry!" every time she bumped into someone. She almost knocked down a maiden who was bringing tea, probably to her mother; they all knew about the lieutenant's arrival, so they just smiled and watched as the girl rushed to the other side of the castle.

Emma reached the top of the stairs that lead to the main hall, at the end of the staircase was Killian, disheveled and tanned from the weeks spent at sea, his stubble had grown back since his last visit, but he was still as handsome as she remembered, particularly so in his uniform.

As soon as he saw the princess his smile grew incredibly bright and his good arm opened up to embrace Emma who had already sped up down the stairs, embracing him with force.

"Hi," Emma mumbled, her head buried in his chest. She could still smell the sea on him, it was refreshing.

"Hello, my love. Happy to see me?" Killian joked.

"Always."

They were interrupted by a loud, high pitched voice that called for the princess, "Emma! What are you doing up?"

The two separated, still holding hands – as much as they could do in public without being scolded, especially since the princess was wearing only her nightgown – and looked at the tall figure of the queen heading their way. Snow sounded angry, but there was a hint of playfulness in her eyes that Emma caught right away.

"Aunt Ruby woke me, I just couldn't wait until the maiden came to dress me up. I'm sorry, Mother!" Emma said bouncing a little back and forth on her toes like a child.

Killian took a moment to really look at her, he finally noticed the state his darling princess had presented herself in and smirked; That was indeed no way for a royal to be seen in any case. Her fervid manners only made him happier about coming back.

Snow looked at both of them, her hands on her hips. "I will let this slide. Just this once."

Emma hugged her quickly. "Thank you, Mother!"

"Now go, you really need to get dressed," the queen scolded her, but her own smile made her a little less believable.

"Yes, yes of course," Emma blabbed to herself. She left with a peck on Killian's cheek and a wave for her mother, dashing up the stairs the same way she had arrived just minutes prior.

Which left the lieutenant and the queen alone.

"So…" Killian tried, he raised his hand to scratch behind his head while he used his fake one as a hanger for his hat. "How did you manage to arrange the ball, Your Majesty?"

"Well you know, it has been difficult. Usually an engagement ball takes a lot more than two months to plan, but you didn't give us much of a choice." Snow seemed to think better of her words an rephrased, "Well, Emma didn't."

"Aye, she's a little spitfire. Isn't she?"

"Yeah."

An embarrassing silence filled the air for several minutes before Killian said, "I should…" pointing to the stairs.

"Yes, yes. Go," Snow allowed, if only to get out of the situation.

"With your permission, Your Majesty." Whit that, he hurried off to look for Emma, releasing a deep breath when he wasn't in the queen's line of sight.

"So, how's it been? Going back to the ocean after so long stuck here with me," Emma asked from behind her dressing curtain where a maiden was helping her get into one of her favorite morning dresses.

"I wouldn't call spending time with you being stuck, my darling," Killian corrected from the couch he was currently sitting in. His voice carried a fondness Emma knew was only reserved for her.

"You know what I mean," she replied emerging with her hair styled in a gentle up-do on the top of her head and a light blue dress. "Thank you, Emily, you may go now," she dismissed the girl with a nod, her composure changing drastically in the span of a second from playful to princess. Killian had yet to find another world to describe it.

As soon as the maiden left them alone, Emma fell into Killian's lap with a groan, raising one hand to gently play with the hair at the nape of his neck which had gotten longer during his absence. There was enough space on the loveseat for the both of them but they had almost three months of not seeing each other to catch up to, so she stayed right where she was.

"It was a nice voyage. Elsa says hi, she and her sister have told me in great lengths about their excitement regarding our engagement."

Emma hummed appreciatively both at the thought of her friends and the reminder that soon the man she loved would be her husband. She couldn't quite believe it yet.

They kept quiet for a while. It was comforting and calming, they stood there enjoying the presence of the other after so long, Emma rested her head on Killian's shoulder and closed her eyes while he moved his hand back and forth on the small of her back. It was nice being together again.

"Are you nervous about tomorrow?" Killian asked out of the blue. Emma furrowed her brows and shifted a little so she could look at him properly, her gaze was flickering across his face looking for any sing that he could be regretting anything.

"Of course I'm not, are you?"

Snow White had made sure to inform him that their engagement ball wasn't just that: it was Killian's presentation to the royalty of the other kingdoms, from that point forward he would officially be the prince consort, and everything that came with it. So yes, he was a little nervous.

"Not at all. Well, maybe just a tad."

"We could still elope," Emma suggested. He knew she was joking, she had brought that up many times, but that one seemed more serious.

"Nonsense. You are going to have a wedding fitted for a princess, and it still won't be enough."

She smiled, she had been doing it so much since she had woken up her cheeks were hurting. "Okay," Emma said with an air of finality. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

They were about to kiss, the first time after so long, but Henry came inside the room running like a little tornado toward Killian. "Hello, lieutenant!" he screamed, then he noticed the smile playing on the princess lips, her eyes watching his carefully, he remembered himself and he stood up straight, saluting with his left hand. The wrong one.

He was just a eight years-old child the king and queen had adopted as servant once they found him alone in a basket, crying his lungs out when he was but a newborn, and yet the princess loved him dearly and ever since he had entered the castle she had been taking care of him as much as she could, raising him alongside the maidens; the lieutenant had been totally enamored with the kid as soon as he had met him four years ago.

Henry knew he could allow himself to enter the room of the princess as he pleased, but they had to set some ground rules for the times Killian was there with her, or he could walk in far worse than just Emma sitting on his lap.

"At ease, boy," he ordered with a fake commanding tone.

"It's nice to see you again, lieutenant. Look, I've grown a full inch since you left!" he explained eagerly puffing his chest out.

"I see, you will be as tall as me in no time."

Henry looked upset by the affirmation, so he specified, "I wanna be as tall as the princess."

Killian and Emma both giggled at that. He took his hat from the table in front of the couch, where he had deposited it earlier, and put in on Henry's head. "Run along, now. Be a good boy and I'll see about getting you some treats from the buffet tomorrow, eh?"

"Aye, aye!" Henry closed the door behind him but not without doing a little curtsey.

"Now, where were we?" Emma teased, her heart full of joy.

Emma felt like every single person who mattered even just a little was waiting for her in the big room of the castle. She had spied the room for a second, and the amount of people waiting for her and her fiancée scared her so much she started to shiver.

David noticed his little girl was going to panic if he didn't do anything, so he approached her with slow, calm steps and posed one hand on her shoulder. "Everything alright?"

"I thought it was! I mean yesterday Killian was panicking so I calmed him down and I thought I had everything under control, you know? Which I do, I do have everything under control. It's a ball, I've attended thousands of these things, what could go wrong. Right? Right?" Emma stopped her babbling, watching her father with big, scared eyes. When she got nothing but an amused smile as an answer she fell against the nearest wall and brought one hand to her forehead. "I knew we should have eloped."

"You… what?" David grew a bit concerned at that, he crossed his arms in front of his chest and stared a little shocked at his daughter.

"It's a long story," she clarified with a glance to the stairs she would have to descend alone in just a few minutes.

David hugged her with one arm, pressing her gently to his side and kissing her temple. He couldn't believe his baby girl was about to get married, she was three just the day before, he could swear it.

"I felt the exact same way when I married your mother. You know I wasn't born into royalty, and when she presented me I was… so nervous, and she was, too. We helped each other through it, even if we were already married, as you know." They laughed. "You are a strong, beautiful, smart woman and I am so proud of you. I know you are going to be amazing out there. Killian will help you, we will help you. Okay?"

"You know we weren't actually going to elope," Emma whispered, her head bowed down.

"I hope not," David said under his breath. He gave one last squeeze at Emma's shoulder and left her with a parting smile to go and take Snow's side.

Once her parents had reached the dance floor, it was her turn. Killian was already waiting at the bottom of the stairs, his smile genuine and full of love, so bright she could see it from where she was waiting for her name to be presented.

"Emma Ruth, Princess of Mist-"

At once, the ballroom's door opened and a woman with a black, fitting dress appeared, her arms open wide and a smirk on her face. "Sorry I was late," she said, loud enough for everyone to hear. The woman started to walk toward the royal family.

Emma had already grabbed her gown to rush to her parents' side, but Killian had blocked her with a hand on her arm before she could throw herself at the unexpected guest. David and Snow had made their way to the couple anyway, Henry was hiding behind the queen's gown, too scared to get further away.

"Regina," Snow whispered, unable to move or do anything beside stare. "It's not possible." They had banished Regina almost twenty-five years prior, she should have been gone and powerless.

"My, my. How wonderful it is to be here in this gleeful day," Regina mocked their happiness with incredible ease. "It would be such a shame if someone were to ruin it." She commandeered a fireball and pointed it straight at the king and queen.

When Emma understood what was going to happen, she screamed, "No!" and put her hand forward; a blast of white emerged from her palm, Regina was promptly thrown across the room and deemed unconscious, between the gasps of the audience.

Snow and David managed to evacuate the castle, trying to limit the damage to a minimum. They didn't have time to drag Regina to a cell because by the time the last guest had fled she was already awaking from her magic inducted stupor.

"I knew it! I knew you could do it!" she beamed at the royal family who all held a sword in their hand now, pointing it in direction of the sorceress.

They knew the blades couldn't do much, even if they were enchanted the only thing they could do was to avoid her spells, but killing her or even beating her… they didn't know how to manage that without any magical help from the fairies. They were all slightly stunned by her words.

"What are you talking about?" Emma demanded, her whole body ready for battle even if her hand still tickled from what had happened before.

"That thing you did earlier? That was magic. You're the Savior, Emma. Don't you remember?" Regina pleaded. It made everyone uncomfortable.

"What- that's not- I don't-" Emma muttered, even more confused than she had been before.

Killian stole a glance in her direction. "Are you alright, Emma?" he asked, still not glancing away from the Evil Queen completely.

"Yes… actually no, I'm not. What are you talking about?" she said, talking to Regina with her brow furrowed. She had heard every kind of story about the woman: starting with the gentle girl she had been before Cora killed her lover, ending with the way her parents had defeated her months before her birth.

Regina's words sat weirdly on her chest, like a weight she couldn't quite get rid of. The Savior. Why did that role sound so familiar to her? She shifted on her feet, gripping her sword with a little more force.

Regina's eyes widened, she looked between Killian and her with a strange look in her eyes. Suddenly a vial filled with blue liquid appeared in her hand with a cloud of smoke.

"Drink this, and you'll understand. I'm not the bad guy here, I swear."

No one believed her. Not even for a second.

Regina rolled her eyes. She surrounded herself with another cloud of smoke, when it disappeared she had other clothes on, a far cry from anything you could find in the Enchanted Forest, and her hair was fairly shorter. "You can drink it, it's not cursed."

They still couldn't believe her, but her words were running around in Emma's head. She had been having weird dreams lately; dreams about another life where her parents were younger, Henry was older and Killian wore leather. She had never told anyone because it just seemed so stupid.

"Give it to me," Emma commanded lowering her sword.

Her family looked at her with a judgmental eye, but she just nodded and assured them, "Trust me, I know what I'm doing. If something happens you can help me, with True Love's Kiss." She was so determined no one dared argue with her when she took a step forward, taking the vial from Regina's hand and opening it up.

She took a deep breath and downed it all in one go.

The truth came crushing through her like a wave. For the second time in her life she discovered everything she thought real was nothing but an illusion.

She almost grimaced at the bottle in her hand, willing it to disappear so she could pretend her mind had tricked her. She was happy in that reality, she was about to get married to her True Love, her parents got to raise her and she had raised Henry.

But it wasn't real, it was wrong. As much as she would have liked to stay in that perfect illusion forever, she had a town to protect and people who needed her, she couldn't just stay in her dream life forever.

Emma started to tear up, the vial fell from her grip and shattered on the floor, the sound of it breaking was soon followed by the one of Killian's sword rattling on the ground. He was by her side in an instant, meanwhile her parents still had Regina as their target.

"Love, what was it?"

Emma turned towards her family, her eyes red and her cheeks stained with tears. Even with Killian's arms carefully wrapped around her, she was able to see Henry hiding behind a column far away from the struggle. She smiled sadly at the castle and the careless life she was going to leave behind, and said, – with the little voice she could master – "We need to go back home."

A.N.

Here is what I thought they should have done with Emma as a princess. This is basically my favorite trope ever and they ruined it by making her OOC beyond every possible immaginaion. I have been let down once again, shocking! *insert sarcasm here*

Therefore, I think this is how the episode should have gone, with a bit too much of Lieutenant Duckling because WHY NOT? It's my fix-it fic, and in my fix-it fic my babies get to be happy. How about that? I might even write a second part if the muse strikes.

I'm sorry for any and every spelling mistake, English is not my first language and I don't have a beta, I've been working on this for the past three hours and I just want to get it published already! I'm bleeding from the eyes.