Act IV – Meant to be
Christmas was a disaster.
It was supposed to be their first one together, yet they spent it separated, not bearing to spend more time together knowing it wouldn't last. It was better that way. Yes, yes, it was a lie, but there was nothing they could do to change things.
Their break-up could seem strange, as if neither of them wanted to fight for each other, but it wasn't like that: Emma and Killian had entered a relationship knowing one day their shows would end, forcing them to decide where to go, where to search for a new role. They could end up acting in a tour, and that would separate them anyway.
What Emma regretted, though, was she hadn't fought alongside Killian to try to find a loophole, a solution, something that didn't involve them having to break up. After the first week, Emma had gone over her contract to see if there was a similar clause, but the fact that it wasn't didn't cheer her up, especially after she saw the no-pregnancy clause. Not that she wanted children right away, not so soon, at least, but on day. Unfortunately, pregnancies could happen at any time, and Emma didn't want to think what the consequence would be.
She'd been quick to banish the thought, not wanting to dwell on what might have been if Killian had stayed.
The painting Tilly had made for Killian still sat wrapped up in a corner of her closet. The calm before the storm, indeed.
New Year's Eve came and went by in silence, with a marathon of romantic movies she didn't really watch, her eyes too full of tears.
While it wouldn't be the first time she saw the ball drop, she had hoped she would be kissing her boyfriend at midnight. The only one she kissed at midnight was Odette, just as Buttercup and Westley reunited.
«Death cannot stop true love, all it can do is delay it for a while.»
Emma cried into her cat's fur at the words.
Focusing on her performances, Emma's life went on. Her friends often voiced their opinion, saying she looked like a shell. It was true, she was almost lifeless, hollow, and Emma didn't really care, she only wanted Killian back but knew it couldn't happen.
Tilly and Margot still kept in contact with her and Ruby, never actually talking about Killian – of which Emma was thankful – but it didn't stop Tilly from dropping hints about how he was faring. He too was miserable.
It didn't help. Emma wanted him to be happy, no matter how much she wasn't. Funny, though, somehow she knew he felt the same miles and miles away.
It was the middle of March, now, just days away from Killian's birthday, almost a month into the opening of his musical in London and Emma was still there, singing, acting, but not living. It was starting to irritate her, honestly: how were people able of moving on after a break-up? It had been months, and Emma still hoped her door would open and Kilian would enter or that he would be here, waiting for her after a stressful day. She was scared of how many times she'd crumpled to the ground at the realization he wasn't there, nor he would be ever again.
Tonight she didn't want to go outside, she didn't want to go to another Broadway Princess Party. Emma had denied Will too many times already, and the producers had decided to have her and Graham record At the beginning after the increasing demand from the fans, so singing it at the party wouldn't be so bad, would it? She just needed to put her usual mask on and face the world like the most coward of superheroines.
Emma sighed, looking into the mirror. Ruby had passed her a green and black dress, a nice one Emma would enjoy wearing hadn't she lost sight of any fashion lately. Around the middle of January, she had found one of Killian's shirt in the depths of her closet. She wore it for almost a week before Ruby almost ripped it off her to put it in the washer.
Oh, it had been a very rough few months indeed. What she hated the most, was that she didn't know how much longer she would keep feeling like this, how long would it take for her to feel whole again. Some days, Emma felt as if she would never be complete anymore; a look at the anchor dangling from her wrist confirming her suspicion.
She sighed again.
«Come, now, Ems, we need to go. I promise you I'll buy all the alcohol and onion rings you want. Chop chop,» Ruby came to stand next to her, reaching out with her hands to fluff up Emma's hair, the curls she'd carefully styled earlier not one of Emma's first priorities.
«Do I really need to do this?»
Ruby's expression was unreadable, yet it didn't show any pity. Nah, Ruby had never been one to pity people, she was more like an "act first, talk later" kind of girl, much like Emma, which was another aspect that tied them together: they were so similar but different at the same time, that's why they worked well together.
Emma's reflection squinted at Ruby. «Add one or two donuts on the way home and we're good.»
«Deal! Now, hurry up! Graham promised the first round if we could make it in time and you know how much I hate losing a bet.»
Emma couldn't help the snort that escaped her: Ruby was more worried about losing a bet, especially with Graham, than being late. She applauded Graham for finding the perfect bet for Ruby.
After gracing her with a tiny smile, Emma grabbed her coat and bent down to kiss Odette on the head. The cat growled a bit as she was sleeping curled up on a couch cushion, clearly not wanting to be disturbed. «Love you too, missy.»
One of the things Emma was glad of, was that Ruby hadn't tried to meddle with her love life. Honestly, she wasn't expecting her to do it, her friend must've seen how crushed she still was and decided not to try and introduce her to someone she would probably simply ignore. Or punch them in the face.
Graham greeted them with a Cuba Libre for Emma and a Hurricane for Ruby. «Right on time, you two,» he joked, kissing them on the cheeks before sitting back on his stool, offering a basket of fresh made onion rings.
«As if you were never late,» Emma retorted, hugging the basket to her chest and popping a ring into her mouth. Warm, crispy and delicious. She'd missed them, honestly, no matter how good Granny's were.
«Remind me when you're singing?» Ruby asked, not so subtly changing the topic, her phone already out and her fingers ready to fly over the keyboard. Emma wondered if she would finally meet her new girlfriend.
«We're last, nothing new,» Graham snorted, his finger tracing a path towards the onion rings basket.
Emma was swift to slap it and glare at him. «Try that again if you want to find out what's like lacking a limb.» Her voice was as cold as ice, just like her stare, but both knew she would never act on her threat. Probably. Hopefully. «You like fries better, order yours and don't steal mine.»
Graham rolled his eyes, but ordered two basket of fries, knowing Ruby would steal them anyway. «Will you stop with that phone?»
The glare he received from Ruby could've killed him on the spot. In fact, Graham blanched and gulped, ducking his head between his shoulders.
With her blood red lips stretched into a radiant smile at his reaction, Ruby turned to Emma. «So, have you fangirled over Nick Pitera already? Did he run away scared?»
Heat rose to Emma's cheeks. Nick was probably the actual reason why Emma had accepted to sing tonight. He was amazing and she loved his videos and his voice was perfect, how he could go from one octave to another. Oh, she looked forward for his duet with Jasmine; she'd even cried from laughter during the rehearsal, catching Graham's look of surprise and his fond smile. It'd probably been the first time she laughed since that fatidic day, completely out of nowhere. Perhaps she would be alright with time.
She laughed again that night as Nick and Jasmine performed, Nick stealing her part with his wonderful voice. As time ticked by, Emma caught Ruby's stare on her, worrying her when she started to bite down on her nails. Not once Emma had seen her friend doing that. «You alright?» she whispered, worried.
Ruby was quick to nod, a fake smile on her face as she munched on a fry. «All perfect, really. Dorothy should be here at any moment.»
Emma's eyebrow shot up. «We're going to finally meet her?» For someone so extroverted like her, Ruby liked to keep her personal life private, especially when it went past one-night stands, which she was really glad to gossip – or complain – about.
«Yep! She's just running late because of work, she's a vet and someone brought her a dog involved in an accident of sorts at the very end of her shift.»
«Hey, it's alright,» Emma calmed her down, laying a hand on her friend's arm. «Animals always come first, and if she can't make it you can still introduce us another day.»
The small smile Ruby conjured was tiny but grateful. It was strange seeing Ruby so insecure, and Emma somehow knew it was also her fault: Ruby had found someone to be happy with just after she'd lost the love of her life. Truth to be told, Emma felt awful herself for her selfishness, the least she could do was assure her best friend that she didn't need to put her life on hold because of her. Ruby deserved to be happy.
After one last sip on her cocktail, Emma stood, the Party now coming to an end. Graham had already reached the other side of the room, just like they'd planned. She couldn't help but remember the last time she'd attended the Party, singing with Killian, telling him she loved him.
Gulping down the lump that had formed in her throat, Emma faked a smile and stepped on stage just as Will presented her as the wandering Princess.
«I'm so excited to have finally arrived!» Emma lied, the mask she was wearing not giving anything away as she faced the crowd. She sighed long and loud for the act, one hand on her hip and the other holding the mic. «It's been a very long, long road to Broadway, Fairy Godfairy: Saint Petersburg, and Paris, oh, Paris. And Hartford, Connecticut.»
The fans laughed at that, her smile becoming more genuine. They deserved a good performance, especially after all the letters she'd received from fans saying they were sad to hear about her break-up.
She was about to go on with her piece when Graham cut her off earlier than planned. «Princess!»
Blinking in surprise, Emma followed the script. «Dimitri!»
Graham made his way to the stage wriggling his way between the tables and the many screaming fans. «Princess! I've finally found you!» He reached her, paying his respects with a bow that made her heart clench, memories of someone else bowing before her threatening to overwhelm her.
Forcing herself to stay in character, Emma widened her smile, her cheeks hurting from the stretch. «What took you so long?»
Graham shrugged. «Had to escape the police, train a girl to become a noblewoman, take a train, go to Paris, lose the girl of my dreams, then take said girl to a place called Hartford, then accompany her to Broadway.»
«Sounds quite the tale.»
«More like a very long journey.»
That was Will's cue to begin, his fingers pressing gently onto the keys as Emma brought the mic near her lips. «We were strangers starting out on a journey, never dreaming what we'd have to go through. Now here we are and I'm suddenly standing at the beginning with you.»
What Emma loved about that song was that she could see her and Killian's story as the lyrics went on. They both were strangers at the beginning, and wouldn't know how their journey would end, especially not so abruptly, not… forever.
She kept her gaze locked with Graham's, his eyes twinkling with mischief. But as the music went on, he didn't appear to be getting ready to sing.
«No one told me I was going to find you, unexpected, what you did to my heart.»
That voice.
That voice didn't belong to Graham. Emma turned around, her eyes meeting deep blue pools that could only belong to one man, the man that had left her and should be an ocean away, the man that, somehow, was in front of her.
«When I lost hope-»
«You were there to remind me: this is the start.» Emma was singing by inertia or something: she couldn't believe Killian was really here. There were at least two million questions swirling in her mind she wanted an answer to, but right now, all that mattered, was that Killian had finally come back to her.
Taking a careful, disbelieving step towards him, Emma reached out a trembling hand. With her fingertips, she traced his scruffy cheek, passing with the thumb over his faint scar under his eye. Killian lifted his own hand, tucking a strand of golden hair behind her ear.
«And life is a road that I wanna keep going, love is a river I wanna keep flowing, life is a road, now and forever, wonderful journey.»
Killian smiled softly at her, his knuckles brushing her cheek and drying the tears that had started to fall. It was a miracle her voice wasn't affected by hiccups, and she wondered for a brief second if crying out of joy was completely different than crying out of pain.
«I'll be there when the world stops turning, I'll be there when the storm is through, in the end I wanna be standing at the beginning with you.»
Emma launched herself into his arms, Will thoughtfully improvising a longer bridge to allow them to allow that reunion to happen.
«I love you,» Killian whispered in her ear, his face buried in her hair, his thundering heart beating beneath the hand she'd placed on his chest.
«I love you.» God, she'd thought she would never say those words ever again, that she wouldn't be happy anymore, yet here she was, in her true love's arms.
Neither of them moved to kiss the other. Instead, Emma stepped back a little, catching the right note to continue the song. They had a show to continue, and it would be bad form to cut it off now.
«We were strangers on a crazy adventure,» she sang, reaching out for his hand and squeezing it. Yes, they'd been strangers on the craziest adventure of all.
«Never dreaming how our dreams would come true.» Oh, how she'd missed Killian's warm voice; not even her dreams could do it justice.
Emma shook her head slightly. Despite the pain, somehow fate had decided to make their dreams come true: they were together, now, and this time Emma would never leave him walk away. «Now here we stand, unafraid of the future, at the beginning with you.»
There was no storm they couldn't outrun, not if they stayed together and fought for their love. Once before they'd made that mistake and it nearly cost them themselves.
They kept singing, their eyes lost in each other's, the crowd of fans now forgotten. It might sound like something happening in a cheesy rom-com musical, yet it was real, they were doing exactly that, they were letting what had separated them reunite them.
«I knew there was somebody, somewhere, like me alone in the dark. Now I know my dreams will live on, I've been waiting so long, nothing's gonna tear us apart,» they vowed to each other, promising they would never be teared apart again.
After one last chorus, the song ended, but neither Emma or Killian left the stage, not even stepping away from each other.
«You're here,» Emma breathed, her eyes wandering all over his face, taking in all the minor changes: his hair was a bit too long, his face hollowed and dark rings circled his eyes. He probably had just arrived from the airport. «How are you here?»
Killian smiled, Emma's heart dancing in her chest. «I couldn't stand away from you anymore.» He turned serious, taking her hand in his and dragging her down the stage towards a more secluded corner. When he turned around, his showed his nervousness. «I paid the fine. It wasn't much, not as much as a movie would require, probably, but-»
«Killian,» she stopped him, dreading where he was going. «What did you do?»
He gulped, closing his eyes for a brief second as he exhaled. «I sold the Jewel.»
The Jewel as in the Jewel of the Realm, the last link to his brother he had. And he gave it up. For her. «Killian-»
«I don't regret it,» he said, looking her dead in the eyes, blue irises shining with honesty, «I would do it again. Liam always wanted me to follow my heart, to be happy, and if he'd been here he would've sold the boat himself. I'm here, Emma, and I'm here to stay. Forever. If you still want me, that is.»
Mouth agape, Emma kept shaking her head as he explained what he did, something nothing in a thousand years she would've ever wanted him to do, knowing the Jewel meant so much to him and making her wonder how he could just trade his boat for her. She knew he loved her, she did, but he'd found a way to go back to her, not caring he would have to lose the last physical thing that tied him to the other person he loved the most.
Being the usual Emma, she didn't reply with words: she gripped the lapels of his leather jacket and brought him closer, their mouth crashing against each other as they desperately kissed as if they were divers gasping for air.
Hands wandered, caressing and pulling one against the other, the time spent apart catching up with them. In that moment, though, the last months were forgotten, only the present mattered, along with the promise of a future together.
Tongues danced and twisted around one another, teeth sunk onto lips and pulled, quenching the hunger they had for each other.
At one point, their straining lungs forced them to come up for air. Emma smiled, suddenly whole once more. «Killian,» she sighed, resting her forehead against his and breathing in his scent, «take me home.»
«As you wish.»
What's meant to be,
is meant to be,
I see it at a glance
Fin.
