Standard disclaimer applies, I own nothing. I'm beginning to update the chapter to fill holes and streamline it. All errors are mine.
Chapter One
The glare of the sun demanded she get up.
The bed itself was beyond comfortable and the sheets were smooth but crisp, the blankets were light but warm. If only the drapes pulled over the windows were just as wonderful.
Being a princess of the Enchanted Forest was better than Emma imagined. In Storybrooke she had pictured corsets and curtsies and being nice to everyone but that hadn't become her life. It'd been three months since the entire town of Storybrooke woke up back in the Enchanted Forest.
Her mom and dad were thrilled. Hell, Henry was thrilled. As she pulled herself away from another restless night's tossing and turning, she really wished she felt thrilled as well.
Emma's entire family were settling in. Her parents worked on restoring their kingdom and were really good at it. Regina was nearby, snuggled up to her thief, mending bridges with her witch of a sister and even worked together with the Charmings on restoring the kingdom as the dowager Queen Mother (which she was entirely too young to be). Gold and Belle had taken up residence at the Dark One's castle after being separated for so long.
Emma rolled over on her stomach and pulled a pillow over her head. Then there was Neal.
Every time she thought about him, about them, all she had were questions and no good answers. If only it was more like Henry's story book then everything would be simple and easy. She rolled back over on her back and stretched out taking up as much of the bed as possible.
Once upon a time Neal and Emma were in love but life happens. Yes, he was there when Peter Pan kidnapped their son, and there again to help fight against the wicked witch of the west. So Emma had put the past behind her, resolved not to punch his lights out for Henry's sake and they really were friends now. Except that everyone in the kingdom expected them to be so much more than friendship. Love maybe.
Emma sometimes wished it was love. Every day for the past three months, she had woken up and felt emptier and more alone than ever before. At first she spent more time with Neal, trying to reconnect but it just made the ache worse. The feeling made no sense. Her family, her entire family was here and all the sudden attacks and villains popping up that plagued the Maine town just stopped happening in the Enchanted Forest. The only person not living happily thereafter was her.
Someone knocked on the door.
"Yeah?"
"Hurry Mom, we have sword practice today!" Henry called out from the other side.
"On my way kid." Emma responded sitting up. The room spun around her and she launched herself across it to empty her stomach into a chamber pot. Panting over the bowl, she wondered how much longer she would be able to hide everything from her family.
Two weeks ago it was as if a light bulb had gone off in her brain and she put her tiredness together with her inability to wake up without vomiting and got four, or to be more specific, the future addition to the family growing inside her.
Emma was not prepared, not for another kid and not for telling her family. There was only one explanation that made sense.
Three months ago everyone woke up back in the Enchanted Forest and while it all seemed fine, their memories must have been altered. Because unless it was a miracle, the memories she woke with could not provide any details on who, what, or when she ended up pregnant.
Once she figured it out Emma's dreams filled in some of her blanks. Part of her was shocked to think it but two weeks of dreams plus her morning vomit routine had left her with three solid facts. One: she was pregnant. Two: she had been with the father of her child, as in married to him in fact. Three, the dark haired scruffy almost remembered face in her dreams wasn't Neal.
Next to her superpower, Emma's main skill was running and it was her first impulse in this as well. Oh god, did she want to run. From her family, from these people who depended on her, and from Neal who hadn't given up on wanting something more for them.
Instead Emma just kept moving forward.
She got up and changed into what had become her daily outfit: breeches (she rolled her eyes just thinking the word for the skin tight pants) shirt and vest (her mom kept saying it was a doublet, eh no). She faced the mirror and tied her hair back; waved her hand over her face and let the magic remove any evidence of sleeplessness, fatigue and morning sickness. Emma went to her weapon's chest, possibly her favorite part of the Enchanted Forest world, and armed herself.
Emma looked into the mirror one last time before grabbing her star off her vanity. False memories, missing husband and a baby on the way didn't change the fact that Emma Swan was her kingdom's sheriff and savior.
The sky had begun to lighten and Killian was already at the wheel. He told Milah it was old navy habits haunting him since their return but he remained honest with himself and knew it was his desire to shorten the nights spent by her side. He either spent a long time at a tavern or on deck up before dawn could touch any piece of his beloved ship.
His ship soaked up his attention happily. Milah, on the other hand, didn't comment on it and they both kept going as if nothing had changed in the last three months.
After over three hundred years of life Killian expected that some memories would remain while happily some faded with time but then he woke three months ago back in the Enchanted Forest aboard his ship with his love by his side. Every other bloody thought at odds with his feelings.
He remembered running from the crocodile, running to Neverland where he and Milah made a deal with Peter Pan. Three hundred years of safe passage back and forth to Neverland in return for carrying supplies for the eternally young arsehole. And thus they lived, searching for clues to skinning the croc.
When he concentrated on that time it was all very fuzzy. It had happened but it was a footnote in some larger tale and the details were lost to time. His heart was of no help either.
Killian woke up that day and looked at Milah breathing beside him and a wealth of gladness spread through his body. But as he studied her sleeping face, he waited for the passionate love he felt for her to flood his body but all he got was remembered pain and sorrow, rage and a memory of hate darkening his heart as if she was no longer there. He experienced flashes of it every time she spoke to him and woke with it every night he tried to lay beside her.
Eventually, Killian had a new feeling to add to his turmoil - a deep loathing for his own self. For as happy as he was to see her, he no longer felt the deep love he remembered. Sometimes while watching the dawn light up his ship, he tried to bring it back through memory alone. Milah showed up on his ship, asked him to take her away and he did, whisked her off on his next adventure. How he had to ignore the image of her left behind son but it wasn't that hard truly and didn't that little bit of darkness feel good. Consoled himself with the thought of someday returning for the boy.
The wheel creaked as he moved it a notch toward port, the sails snapping with just a bit more wind in them.
Once upon a time, it was love, strong and passionate if not true but time passes doesn't it. Through the haze of the last three hundred years he couldn't remember what happened or when but his heart proclaimed he was no longer the man who ran away with her.
Killian didn't know why he would let that love go in favor for this emptiness that now filled him.
He heard footsteps on the stairs as Milah came above deck. The wind tossed her long brown hair into her face. When she pulled it away he caught a glimpse of her face. He flinched.
"It won't be that bad."
"Really love, just say it."
Milah sighed. "We need to talk Killian."
"I've found when a woman says that I'm rarely in for a pleasant conversation." He fussed more at the wheel as if that would convince her he was so busy steering the ship that now was a bad time to talk. "Just give me a second…"
"No, we do this now." Milah stood next to him, turned so the wind blew her hair behind her and body swaying with the ship. "We can talk now or you can remain in denial till exhaustion sails the ship into land."
"Oh good, a choice." Killian looped a line around the wheel and moved off down to the captain's cabin.
Her steps followed behind him. "You keep up like this and it will happen. You'll end up killing yourself avoiding me." Milah closed the hatch and bolted it before standing right in front. "And yes you could escape out of here in any number of ways but you won't."
"I don't know what happened three months ago." Killian grimaced and flopped into his chair. "I truly don't, I simply woke up…" He waved a hand.
"No longer in love with me." Milah continued blandly. "Fine."
"No, not fine." Killian sat forward leaning his arms on the table. "I have no explanation; this was no gradual death of feelings. I just bloody woke up and while I love you, I don't love you." He flung both hands in the air and leaned back in the chair again, arms crossed. "And it doesn't bother you?"
Milah looked a bit uncertain. "It is oddly sudden but it's like." She took her own seat and leaned toward him. "I woke up three months ago, happy to see you but I wasn't in love anymore. Nothing is what it was."
Killian sighed. He had ignored so much when he fell in love with Milah. The feeling of being together out shined the desertion of her son. So if it wasn't love anymore, what were they supposed to do, how were they to gain forgiveness for their sins.
"I think, I think I need to move on from here," she started to explain but the words seem to tangle up in her mouth. "With your help."
He looked at her. "Anything that is within my power."
"Killian Jones, you are a good friend and I need you with me," She paused, grabbing both his hands and looking him directly in the eyes. "I need you to take me back to Misthaven."
"You're counting on the rumors?" He raised an eyebrow.
Milah threw his hands back at him. "We've been to over five different ports and the story is the same." She paced around the cabin, grabbing this item and that then throwing them into an opened chest set out on the floor. "The Evil Queen's curse in not only broken but the people have returned. With them are the Dark One and his family."
"Family is rather vague."
"Specifically. We have heard of his lovely wife." Killian waggled his eyebrows at that and Milah just rolled her eyes. "And his grown son as well as his grandson."
"Which rumor has it, he shares with the Evil Queen and the missing daughter of Queen Snow and King David." He began shaking his head. "Really love? You want to go home to the crocodile, the evil queen and the annoying goody goody royals. Oh, and wait for it, you want me to go with you?"
"Yes." Milah closed the chest and looked around the room and Killian followed her glance. For being together over three hundred years she was able to collect and remove her belongings quickly. He sighed, stood and took her by the shoulders to look into her eyes. Milah's head tilted up and her shoulders pulled back. He lifted a hand to her cheek and she closed her eyes.
"I wish," he said.
"Who doesn't," she replied. "Killian Jones, are you ready for a new adventure? Ready to find what happened to us three months ago?"
He rolled his eyes. "We'll make port in two days." Milah's mouth dropped open. Killian kissed her on the forehead and shrugged. "I am a bloody brilliant pirate."