She should have known it would be impossible to keep her pregnancy quiet in Storybrooke. The way gossip spread, she figured it would get around outside their family pretty quickly. But she wasn't prepared for exactly how it happened.
When she stopped into Granny's for breakfast two mornings later, Ruby dropped a coffee cup, and it shattered on the floor as she spun around to look at Emma in shock.
"You're pregnant?" she shrieked at a volume that didn't miss a single ear in the restaurant.
"Ruby!" Emma hissed. "What the hell!"
Ruby slammed her hands on the counter and leaned closer, inhaling deeply. "Wow, no doubt about it."
"Are you telling me you can smell the baby? That's… weird."
"I can smell you and you smell different. You smell pregnant." Then she grinned widely. "Did you spring it on Hook yet?"
"Aren't you full of assumptions this morning?"
Ruby rolled her eyes. "As if it could be anyone else. And besides, I know you slept with him the night he got his heart back."
"Jesus!"
Ruby tapped the side of her nose. "You both reeked of pheromones the next day."
"I think I'm gonna start wearing perfume."
"Won't help. You can't hide anything from a wolf. So… a baby, huh?"
"I would ask you to keep it to yourself but I think it's too late for that." Emma could hear the low hum of conversation all around her and she could almost feel their eyes boring into her back. This would be all over town by lunchtime.
"Yeah, sorry about that. You just surprised me and it popped out."
"That's okay. I suspect I couldn't have kept it quiet for too long anyway."
"You're right about that. There are no secrets in this town."
Granny reached between Emma and Ruby to put Emma's breakfast on the counter. "Ruby, are you going to clean up that broken cup sometime this century?" Then she sniffed. "Congratulations, Emma."
Emma shook her head in bewilderment. "Umm… thank you?"
Trying her best to ignore the steady buzz of conversation all about her, she focused on her breakfast. But before she'd gotten the forkful of eggs halfway to her mouth, her stomach gave a lurch. She pushed the plate away in disgust just as her phone buzzed in her pocket with a text from David.
Belle called from the library. Lost Boy troubles.
She fired off a return text. On my way.
"Hey, Ruby, I think eggs are off my menu for a while. Maybe food in general. Can I just get a hot chocolate to go?"
"Sure thing," Ruby said with a wink.
Fucking Lost Boys. The little menaces had been nothing but trouble since they brought them back from Neverland. So much for gratitude.
Belle was beside herself because someone had defaced a book in the library with comically misspelled erotic cartoons. One of the Lost Boys— Nicely? Or maybe it was Tootles…she could never keep them straight— had been loitering about the afternoon before and Belle suspected him.
Emma was trying to puzzle out the caption on one when David and Killian arrived. "Killian was at the station looking for you when the call came in," David shrugged. More like David wanted his new buddy tagging along everywhere he went. But Emma wasn't complaining. She was glad they'd become close, especially since their lives were about to be entangled forever.
"A dwarf just congratulated me on the street," Killian said. "Have you shared our little secret, love?"
"Not on purpose. I got kind of outed at Granny's. It's pretty safe to say the whole town knows by now."
Killian grinned. "Well, it's not as if you can keep it to yourself forever."
"Quit looking so smug and make yourself useful. I think one of those hateful Lost Boys did this. Can you read it?"
"If you remember, I did advise against bringing them back. Those angelic faces are a lie."
"The last thing I need right now is an 'I told you so'."
Killian's eyebrows shot up but he wisely kept his mouth shut.
"Sorry," Emma sighed. "Hormones."
"It's all right, love. I'm prepared to weather any storm."
Then a new one blew in. The library door swung open and Gold limped in. "Belle, are you all right? I saw the police car out front—"
Belle held up a hand, stopping him. "I'm fine. Really. You didn't need to come over here."
The tension was thick in the room. Belle had walked out on Gold the night Emma retrieved Killian's heart and revealed his duplicity with the dagger. He'd been begging and pleading with her to come home but Belle was steadfast in her refusals.
"Of course I came," Gold said, trying to approach her again. Belle moved back several steps. "Belle, you're my wife and I love you. Your well-being is the most important thing to me."
Emma bit back a sarcastic retort but Belle didn't hold back. "You have an odd way of showing that, Rumple. I'm fine. Now you really need to go."
"Belle, please—"
He took another step towards her and Belle jumped. Emma stepped in between them and pushed against Gold's chest. "Hey. She said you need to leave, so just go."
Gold cast her a withering glance before looking back longingly at Belle.
"Look, mate, the lady wants you to leave," Killian interjected.
"Oh and I suppose you'll rush to her defense, will you, pirate?"
"If she needs it, aye, I will."
"And here we are again," Gold snarled. "With you getting between me and my wife."
"If I need to, absolutely," Killian snapped. Gold was getting to him and his temper rose.
"Gold, get out of here before I charge you with harassment," Emma said.
He glared at her again, but admitted defeat and turned towards the door. Just as he made to leave, the door opened again and Snow came in.
"This is a hell of a lot of people to deal with a defaced book," Emma muttered.
"Granny just congratulated me on becoming a grandmother again. I didn't know you'd decided to announce it already, Emma." Snow did a very poor job of hiding the hurt in her voice. No doubt she'd planned on making the announcement at a ball or something.
Emma rolled her eyes. "I didn't. It kind of got announced for me."
Gold swung back around, looking from her to Killian and back again. "Am I to understand you're starting a family?"
"It's not really any of your business but yeah."
He narrowed his eyes and glared at Killian. The look made Emma's blood run cold. They'd thwarted Gold's grasp for complete power, but he was by no means helpless and he hated Killian with a fervency that terrified her. She'd do well to never let her guard down around him.
"Well, I wish you all the best," Gold said, making it sound more like a threat than a blessing.
Emma found the perfect apartment almost by accident. It was that freaky kismet that always made her suspect magic. She was down at the waterfront following up on a call about a missing dog (the non-storybook-villain-related crime rate was ridiculously low in Storybrooke) when she spotted the two-story building facing the water. The ground floor was storage space for a boat building business, but the upper floor looked to be an apartment, and a realtor's sign was in the window. She called the number on the spot and the agent told her the whole building was for sale and that yes, the top floor was an apartment.
She came right away with the keys and the place made Emma's heart stop. It was three bedrooms, with a large low-ceilinged open living space with huge windows that faced the water.
Killian would love this, she thought, and instantly redirected her thinking. She loved everything about it, the aged dark wood floors, the huge exposed beams in the ceiling, the spacious modern kitchen, the cozy bedrooms tucked along the back of the apartment... And the tenant downstairs was stable and long-term, so there would be rental income to offset the mortgage.
The glitch came when she made an offer. The building belonged to Gold.
Of course.
At first he flat-out refused to sell to her at any price. That message came back to her via the flustered real estate agent. So Emma went to see him in person.
He very nearly rolled his eyes when she walked into his shop. "What can I do for you today, Sheriff Swan?"
"How about you explain why you won't sell me that building when your agent says it's been on the market for a year without an offer?"
"How I dispose of my property is none of your concern."
"It is when you're only doing this to be petty and vindictive! Why do you even care if I end up living there?"
"I could care less where you live, Miss Swan. But I refuse to lift a finger to help the pirate build his love nest."
"Killian's love nest? This has nothing to do with him. I'm the buyer."
"Spare me the weak protestations, please. With your Savior's spawn on the way, the two of you are settling into your happily ever after. And I'll be damned if I play any part in making it happen."
She sighed. Playing dirty wasn't her first choice, but Gold didn't necessarily deserve any better.
"Belle's going to be so disappointed."
"What are you talking about?"
"When she hears you're persisting in this vendetta against Killian…" Emma shook her head sadly. "She might never forgive you."
"And I'm sure you're ready to fill her ear with all of my moral failings, aren't you, Miss Swan?"
God, she hated it when he called her 'Miss Swan'. It was so fucking patronizing. "I won't have anything to tell her if you just sell me the damned building."
Gold let out a weary sigh. "All right. You have a deal. It's a wasted piece of real estate anyway. I'm glad to be rid of it. Enjoy your love nest with the pirate while it lasts, Miss Swan. That man destroys everything he touches and you'll be no different."
"That's quite the accusation coming from you."
"Remember, villains never change. And they don't win. Let me be your lesson in that."
"I think I can manage things just fine on my own, thanks. Pleasure doing business with you, Gold."
She left his shop and tried to focus on her new home and not on the unease Gold's words sparked in her.
"Good gods, Emma, yesssss."
Emma reared up over him, head thrown back, hair tickling his thighs. Killian gripped her hip as she moved.
"I'm close," she murmured.
"So am I. Touch me," he begged.
She chuckled and he groaned because he could feel it everywhere. "I think this constitutes touching." Her hips twisted and he hissed in pleasure.
"No, your hands. Just a little, Emma. Come on."
A wicked grin curled her lips and she placed her hands, fingers splayed, on his chest. Her fingertips glowed softly. Magic hummed through his body, magnifying what he already felt, the unraveling that had already begun.
"Like that?" she said.
"Yes," he bit out through clenched teeth. "Just like that, darling."
The rest of him came apart and moments later, Emma did, too, dropping down onto his chest when her strength gave out.
"That was magnificent," he said some time later, pressing a kiss to her sweaty temple.
"You always say that."
"It's always true, love."
Emma slid off of him and curled into his side. Finally having her own place was fantastic. Killian still kept a room at Granny's but he spent nearly every night with her, mostly because once they had the freedom to be together whenever they wanted, they were pretty insatiable. Part of that might have been Emma's crazy pregnancy hormones, but it had more to do with how amazing the sex was. Every. Single. Time.
It was all so…perfect. Her great new place, her hot, sweet, sexy boyfriend, the baby on the way…. She was more content than she'd ever been before and on nights like this, when he held her in his arms like he'd never let her go, the happiness was almost frightening. If something ever happened, if she lost him or he left her… it was too painful to contemplate.
Not that she thought he'd leave. He seemed as happy as she was. He loved spending time at her place, learning Henry's video games and figuring out how kitchens worked in this world. He slipped so easily into a domestic life with her that it was hard to remember all the twists and turns of his past. But sometimes she'd catch him staring out the windows at the sea and she worried. He'd given up everything for her. What if she couldn't be enough?
When Killian came back to bed after cleaning up, he curled himself around her back, nuzzling into the hair at the nape of her neck. It gave her goosebumps in the best possible way.
"Are you sure you're okay with this?"
"I love holding you."
"No, not that.This."
"Emma, I've told you how happy I am about the baby."
"Not the baby. Everything else. Your life here. You gave up everything to follow me here. And it's so different for you. Do you... miss it?"
Killian was silent for a moment and a burst of cold dread bloomed in her chest. What if he said yes? What if he hated everything about his life here? What if he regretted staying in Storybrooke and wished he'd stayed in the Enchanted Forest? What if the baby had trapped him here when he'd rather leave?
"Honestly? I only miss the Jolly Roger. She was my home for hundreds of years, so yes, I miss her a bit."
"That's all? You don't miss your life there? Piracy's got to be more fun than chasing after delinquent Lost Boys."
Again he paused, and then she felt his lips press against the back of her neck. "Darling, just because I spent centuries doing it, that doesn't mean I was happy. Yes, there were moments when I enjoyed myself. Perhaps I would have even said I was content. But I was never happy. I fell into that life after I'd been betrayed by my country and lost my brother. I let my anger craft me into something hard, cold and ruthless. That was my way of protecting myself, ensuring I wouldn't feel that kind of pain again. Of course, I did anyway, when I lost Milah and then lost my chance at a life with Bae. And again when I lost you to Pan's curse. Meeting you showed me that I'd been lying to myself for centuries. I was lonely and miserable. You were the first bright spot on my horizon in a hundred years, and for the first time, I wanted to lead a better life, to be a better man. So no, Emma, I don't miss it. I don't regret following you here. This life with you is everything I never dared hope for for myself. And you, darling, are the love of my very long and wicked life."
Emma twisted in his arms to face him, reaching up to run her fingers down his cheek. "Killian, that's..."
He smirked. "I know. I'm terribly good at melting your heart."
She laughed, because it was true, and rolled her eyes. "And there you go spoiling it," she teased.
"Well, I can't have you thinking I've gone completely soft, now can I? I have some shred of a reputation as a fearsome pirate to uphold."
"Your secret's safe with me."
"My heart is, too."
"Oh, my God. Stop gushing and go to sleep!"
Killian chuckled and pulled her close, tucking her head under his chin. "You know you love it," he murmured into her hair.
She sighed. "You know I do."