Here is the longest and final chapter. It has some steaminess but I kept it clean enough that I think I can stay under the T rating. Thank you for any and all comments.

After the crowd had finally dissipated, Emma and Hook had managed to wrangle a sleeping Henry into his bed and beneath the covers.

"The young lad really had his fill." She felt Killian's breath on her neck. She was leaning in Henry's doorway, Killian's arm was around her waist with his chin lightly perched on her shoulder. She could feel and hear him speaking, smell his sweet spicy scent, feel the faint tickle of his stubble against her ear. She was very aware of that ear and the warmth of Killian's body behind her. He was keeping a distance, not leaning on her but close enough to feel the heat waft off of him.

"It's the tryptophan." Henry curled into his blankets; his innocence in sleep belied his age, making her ache a little for the years she missed. He looked so like Neal when he slept yet there was still a little of her around the upturned mouth. What a gift he was.

"Whatever is trypto… what you said?"

"It's supposedly the chemical in turkey that makes you sleepy. But maybe it's just the four helpings he had and the two extra large pieces of pie."

"Aye. Though I rather think it's the many sleepless nights the lad had planning to make you happy, love."

"So you knew about this? All of this, all along?"

"Of course, love. Do you really think I would keep us from enjoying the intimacy of being alone in your bedchamber, with you begging for my affections, if I didn't think we would be rudely interrupted by the entire town?"

"How much did you have to do with planning all this?"

"Henry talked to me while we were mapping constellations. He said he thought you wanted the family gathering but it might be important to include David and Mary Margaret. But he felt he might be betraying your confidence. I encouraged the lad to speak to your parents. I told him your family has a way of fixing a problem and giving you the support you didn't even know you needed."

His arm tightened around her stomach. He felt like he was getting closer and it was getting harder to concentrate on his words.

"Then I agreed to distract you. It just so happens that turning the oven up to 600 degrees with you around is a lot harder than it may seem but it was my last resort to get you out of the kitchen."

"You sabotaged me?! I didn't ruin that turkey!?" She swung around intent on arguing but realized instead this put her into an embrace. Now both of Killian's arms looped around her and while she wasn't hugging him back just yet she was very aware of being mere inches from his face.

"Your lad and I were getting desperate, love. We worked together to bring this about for you. And no, I'm sure your turkey would have been bloody delicious, Swan. You are an amazing woman who can save an entire town from monsters. Seems to me, cooking a turkey would be well within your grasp." She stiffened, unsure and he countered. "The point here, love, was we wanted you to realize you don't have to do all this alone all the time."

"I wasn't completely alone. You and Henry were here." His grasp tightened and she was pulled closer. She put her palms against his chest futilely intent on keeping a hair of distance between them.

"There are a lot of other people around you who also want to help you. Sometimes you have to let them. It's a way of letting them in. Letting them connect to you." Killian's mouth inched closer to hers. "It would be easy to keep you all to myself, love, but I, like Henry, want you to have what you haven't had much of. A family." They were breathing into each other's mouths, sharing air, lips just hovering on the brink.

But at the exact moment she thought the kiss was coming, he stepped back, pulling her with him.

She stumbled forward, realizing he was taking her out of the doorway and pulling Henry's door shut behind them. She was tantalizingly trapped between a devilishly handsome pirate and Henry's bedroom door.

"I thought maybe we shouldn't scar the lad for life," he whispered. "He's only just decided he can confide in me and if he woke up while I was ravaging his mother in his doorway, well …"

Ravaging? Who said there would be ravaging?

These are all the things she would have clearly articulated aloud but what came out instead was just half of an "R" and an embarrassing squeaking moan as Killian's mouth forcefully clamped down onto hers with driving insistence.

Her hands were off his chest, tangling into his hair, pulling his mouth impossibly closer. He was crushing her into the doorjamb, pressing against her. His entire body thrust itself into the kiss making it impossible for her concentrate on anything but his warmth, his scent, his taste. When she couldn't get close enough, she began grabbing at his shirt with her fists pulling at him.

OK. This could definitely scar Henry for life.

Once again on the precipice, Killian pulled back to arm's length and held her at bay like she may be toxic. They were both gasping like they'd just run a marathon. She was using the wall for support; Killian's hands were also thankfully holding her shoulders in place because her knees and thighs were liquid.

"OK. Love. There's no one here. It's the end of the night and you have a bedchamber with excellent sound privacy. If this is stopping, you have to tell me now. I don't know how much longer I can hold back. This is probably the last time I can tear myself away from you."

"OK."

"OK?"

"Mmm hmmm."

"That's extraordinarily vague, Emma." He tentatively withdrew his hands. "You know what I mean here, love. For your honor I need a bit more to go on."

She stood up straighter, limbs still rubbery but began smoothing out her shirt and nodded.

He cocked an eyebrow watching her as she took tentative steps toward the front door. She could feel his eyes burning through her skin as she put her hand on the door knob and looked back at him with a wholly unreadable expression.

"OK. I see, love. That's probably for the best." His eyes cast down to hide his disappointment, working on quick recovery of breath and countenance. He'd given her the choice. "It's been a long day. You wouldn't want to rush …"

The deadbolt clicked loudly into place. His gaze snapped immediately to her face, a small telltale smirk beginning to play on his lips.

"Emma?" There was hope in the lilt of it.

"Yes?"

"What are you …?"

"What does it look like, sailor?"

He stood frozen in place but a hungry grin was beginning to spread across his chiseled face. "It looks like you locked us in for the night, love."

It should be illegal to be that handsome.

She leaned her back against the front door, heart pounding, blood swishing madly in her ears. Her fingers shook a bit as she began to very slowly unbutton her blouse. She concentrated on each button as she spoke, ignoring him, agonizing over not looking as nervous as she felt.

Open the buttons slowly. Don't shake.

"You know, Killian, every time I think you're having trouble figuring out this world, you just go and have an observable breakthrough." Her voice a little breathy but didn't wobble at least.

"Do I now?"

Of course he was right there. He could move so quietly. He could be graceful and powerful like a panther, skulking unheard. Only his slightly ragged breathing was giving him away.

His bright eyes raked up her torso where her shirt hung open loosely, still partially tucked into the back of her skirt. A simple bra was visible under the sheer cotton camisole that was edged with the tiniest of lace. Her blouse had a slight shimmer, was filmy enough that she thought the camisole would layer without too much bulk. But now she felt positively naked.

Their eyes locked and she could feel a blush crawling up from her belly covering her in prickling heat.

Was the room spinning? Was this the flu?

Without looking down he gently slid the tip of his hook into the waistband of her skirt and inched her forward so they were chest to chest. The cold shock of metal through the sheer material on her torso made her gasp.

His hook arm went to the small of her back. His good hand gently slid into her shirt and sat at the junction of her waist and stomach with a delicate heat. Her stomach fluttered in response. She put her arms around his neck.

"I think you're sending me a bit of a signal here, love." He caressed her softly, sliding his fingers slowly across the bottom edge of her undershirt.

"Mmm…" She kept staring at his mouth as it formed his words. "You'll work it out. I have faith in you."

She kissed the right corner of his mouth, then the left. He licked his lips. "You're not actually going to say it, are you?"

"Say what, love?" She parodied his accent badly.

"Say you want me to stay."

"Need an engraved, gold embossed, hand-delivered invitation do you? What kind of pirate are you?"

"Emma… I just… I just don't want there to be any regrets or misunderstandings, love." He pressed her against the door, leaning his forehead against hers. "Not this first time. Well not ever but … "

For all his desperation in speech, his slightly calloused fingers had still managed to find the smallest patch of bare skin along the waistband of her skirt and were caressing in soft circles as he spoke. It was getting more and more distracting every moment.

"Killian," She sighed.

So many rules for a pirate.

"Emma." He leaned his head to look her directly in the eye.

"Don't just stay." She pushed him back and grabbed his hand.

"Love?"

"Don't just stay. Take me into that soundproof bedchamber of mine and ravage me to within an inch of my life. Then follow me naked out into this very kitchen where we will giggle like teenagers while I introduce you to the joys of picking at cold Thanksgiving leftovers by the light of the fridge. Then take me back into my room and sleep beside me."

He stopped her from dragging him by his hand across the floor to her room and swooped her up into his arms in one move as she squeaked in surprise.

"OK, love. That's a very specific request I can completely comply with. There are only two problems with this flawed plan of yours." He kicked open her door.

"Two?" He placed her gently onto the slightly mussed covers of her bed and she sat up instantly. "What two?"

"First." He slid his vest off his shoulders and let it fall to the floor and began to step out of his boots. "You seem to think either of us will have the ability to actually walk to the kitchen after I'm done ravaging you."

"OK" Same old Hook. She snorted and kicked off her shoes as he walked over to softly shut her door. "What's the second?"

Making good on the panther analogy, he climbed up to her from the bottom edge of her bed on his hand (hook) and knees predatorily with the hungriest expression of want she had ever seen on his face. It made her ache in pure physical torment.

Braced on his elbows he hovered above her. His arms and legs were on either side of her. She could feel him all around her but agonizingly he was not quite touching her. He was in the air, rum, spice, leather, musk, Killian.

His nose teasingly brushed the tip of her own.

"And Second, Swan," His breath hit her lips. "You're suffering under the delusion that I will ever let you sleep again."

Then he claimed her mouth as his weight slid down on her and their bodies began to tangle together furiously. Her last coherent thought was why she had ever let it take this long.