Her body desperately craved air. Her chest screamed in pain as she kicked frantically to the surface. Almost there. Almost there, she kept telling herself. Almos... the thoughts were slipping away from her, just out of reach. The darkness was closing in around her. She wasn't going to make it. No. Not after she fought so hard to be back. Just as she thought all hope was lost she reached the surface. She came up coughing, her lungs expelling the salt-water she had inhaled while in the depths, retching as the remainder of the water left her. Finally, though her chest practically throbbed, she could breathe normally. She floated on the surface, willing her heart to calm as she took her first breaths in what could possibly have been years. She had no idea how long she had been down there, there was no way of measuring time while under a sleeping spell, it was simply endless nothing. Once she had calmed herself, well as calm as one could be under her situation, she looked around. Eyes desperately seeking any sight of light in the darkness. It was all too possible that she was in the middle of the ocean, without any land nearby. She knew that would spell out certain death for her. She couldn't die, though, she fought too hard to live and she wasn't about to give up that easy. Finally, she saw it. It was as quick as a flash, but it was a light.
"There we go." She murmured, uttering her first words in years. Her voice sounded foreign to her but she didn't have time to ponder on such things. She huffed loudly as she began swimming, as best as she could, toward the shore. It had been who knows how long since she had really swam anywhere. Except for the ascent she made from the ocean floor a few moments earlier that had been fueled by adrenaline, of course. It didn't take long for her teeth to begin to chatter and her arms and legs to grow numb, she had to stop and place a hand over the parts of her body that were cramping, gritting her teeth through the pain. The journey was exhausting, and a couple times she briefly considered letting herself sink to the bottom again. No one would be the wiser, would they? She wasn't dumb, she knew that everyone who had known she was alive at the time of the curse had now probably thought her dead. The thought pained her as she glanced down at her left hand, the simple gold band on her ring finger still there. Him. She was doing this for him. She had to go back to him.
The journey to the shoreline was arduous and many times during her swim she found herself questioning whether or not the light she had seen was a figment of her imagination. Every time those dark thoughts passed through her brain she would see another flicker of some sort of light. No, this is right. She would tell herself over and over again until, finally, shapes started taking place. Buildings, a ship, a dock. She was so happy she could cry. Instead she laughed, her head falling back into the water. She did it. The last part of the journey flew by, once again fueled by adrenaline. With one last heave she made her way up onto the dock, collapsing stomach down onto the wood. She lay there for what felt like hours, trying to get her body to stop shaking, her breathing under control. Breathe, she told herself, Just breathe. Really, the hard part was over wasn't it? She would find her husband and all would be well, right? She couldn't have been under -that- long. Once she was certain her body was back under her control she tried to stand up on shaky legs, but the effort was futile. Too long had she been unmoving at the bottom of the sea. Too long had she had tentacles where there were once legs. Too long.
It's okay. She repeated the mantra over and over again. She was here, she was on land, that was one step closer to -him-. She could stay here, wait til dawn, couldn't she? Yes, she could. She nodded to herself, resting her head against the wood, she would wait. She wouldn't sleep, though. No matter how exhausted she was, there was something in her that just wouldn't let her sleep. She had done far too much of that and was ready to be awake. Her eyes peered through the darkness, looking at the buildings far off, wondering who or what might occupy them. Her head turned slowly to take a look at the ship, it reminded her of him. He was a sailor, who had dreamed of nothing more than to have his own ship. Her stomach flipped at the thought that maybe she had been under the curse long enough for him to have reached that goal. To become captain of his own ship. No, she refused to believe it.
She had been lying there for less than an hour when she heard the unmistakable sound of some drunken chorus she had learned when she was younger. A smile slowly played across her lips as she hummed along. Maybe she really was home. Maybe things would be easy from here on out.
"Oi Cap'n! Get out here there's someone down there!" The voice was harsh and startled her. She sat up, putting a hand over her hammering heart and looked up toward the ship into a darkened face of a man, " 's probably a mermaid or summit!" He added.
She strained to hear the captains response, "For the last time, there are -no- mermaids in Storybrooke." Another voice responded, annoyance practically dripping from the speakers lips. She heard a second pair of feet moving across the deck and squinted up to try and see the second face but was having no such luck.
"Yes, yes, just go ahead and stare at her." The second voice said dryly, sighing loudly as he moved away from the thick little man who had found her and toward the gangway to go inspect the non-mermaid.
The girl swallowed hard as she watched the captain move toward her. What on earth was she supposed to say? "Enjoy your late night swim, m'lady?" The captain asked as he approached her.
"There was nothing enjoyable about that experience." She replied, her throat still burning from her earlier efforts.
"Now why on earth were you out there swimming?" He asked, finally reaching her, crouching in front of the girl, head tilted.
"I didn't want to be out there," She said as if that would explain everything, "I woke up an-" The words caught in her throat as she looked up at the man. No, it couldn't be. This wasn't him. This wasn't -her- Killian. Without realizing it she reached a hand up to touch his cheek, hand running over his stubble. He looked like the man she had last seen and yet he didn't. This man looked hard, angry, scary. The man she had known was much different.
The captain moved away from her touch in almost as much disbelief as her. "No." he said, almost falling back. He wasn't one to hallucinate and this was almost too much for him.
"Killian," She said, the words coming out as a whisper, maybe life did, sometimes, hand you good luck. It was about time, too much had happened to her. It was about damn time life worked in her favor.
Killian's face softened as he stared at her, his hand reaching to touch her wet hair, almost as if making sure she was tangible. "Ursula." He said, his voice coming out strangled. "But how?"