Killian was hiding something.
The last few days Hook just had been off.
His smile didn't reach his eyes. He seemed distracted, his usually healthy appetite had waned, she had barely seen him eat anything.
She tasted rum on his breath. His normally passionate kisses had lacked their fire.
He wasn't sleeping well. She had woken up last night to find him staring out his telescope at the window.
Seeing him standing alone in the dark, a feeling of cold dread had settled deep in her chest and stayed there.
Which is how she ended up here. Snooping in her own home. She didn't even know what she was looking for. But she was doing it anyway.
If he was going to break her heart, she needed to face it head on.
She had never peeked inside his sea chest. She had asked him what a sea chest was, when he had first moved in. He had smiled and explained that it was a sailor's chest for their belongings, that the seafaring life didn't call for much for possessions. She had recalled with strange feeling of crating around her own few possessions. First in a backpack her young life, and later a few cardboard boxes.
The seas chest itself was beautiful, lid of curved wood and bold brass fixtures. She loved seeing it on his side of the room in the morning. Like a reminder that he was there. Emma was careful with his old possessions. She treated everything gently and with reverence. Everything in it was older than she was.
It was then she saw it. A small black box.
Inside was a beautiful ring.
A woman's ring.
An engagement ring.
Emma held the ring in her hand, her heart fluttering against her ribs.
He wasn't going to break her heart. He was going to propose.
Emma felt giddy.
That had to be what had him acting so strangely. He was scared of her reaction.
Of course he was scared, she had freaked out on him in Camelot when he had given her Liam's ring.
Mrs. Killian Jones.
She giggled out loud, her smile hurting her face.
She wanted to put it on so much, but she also wanted him to put it on her for the first time.
Besides, Emma knew that when she did put it on, she would never want to take it off ever again.
She heard his accented voice call her name from the front room.
Emma clutched the ring and ran to meet her future husband.