A/N: I would apologise in advance for all the feels in this chapter, but honestly I'm not sorry at all. I hope you enjoy the build up as there is only the final chapter left now!
Chapter Four
And I know, the scariest part is letting go
"But, princesses and pirates can't be together. It just... it doesn't seem right." Liam pointed out, flashing an apologetic smile at Mr. and Mrs. Swan just as the former finished his tale.
Before that, Killian had an incandescent look on his face as he watched his mother and his wee self listen attentively to the story of him and Emma falling in love, with alternated wistful sighs and aww's from the lady's part, and bright dimpled smiles from Killy's. Emma looked over at her pirate just in time to see his excitement fading away with Liam's comment. But before she could say anything, the youngest Jones brother was hitting his sibling's shoulder with all the force a nine-year old could muster.
"Don't say that, Liam. Of coursethey can if it's true love," Little Killian said, sending Liam a positively solemn look as he argued his point.
"And since when can a pirate and a princess have true love together?" Liam quipped back, and Emma could almost hear a piece of Killian's heart snapping out of place. She wasn't sure if she should say something to comfort the little boy who ran back to his mother, or the grown man sitting beside her with slumped shoulders and the most defeated look she had ever seen on his face.
"But anything is possible when it comes to true love. Isn't that so, princess?" Little Killy asked her in a shy tone, looking like he needed urgent reassurance that love was still the most powerful magic of all as he seemed to believe so deeply.
She knew it made no logical sense at all, but she could swear there was a great deal of Henry on young Killian. And for a while she let herself wonder just how many times Killian had seen the sheer innocence, faith and hope of his early years reflected on her son - if that was part of the reason why he'd always cared for Henry as if he was his own from the very start of their relationship.
"I'm sorry, Liam, but as a newly-proclaimed princess I have to say it is possible. Your little brother couldn't be more right." She said, taking Killian's hand and squeezing it under the dinner table.
"Younger brother." Both Killians said in unison, the younger boy blushing a little before turning to stick his tongue out at his brother, while the centenary pirate squeezed her hand back and nuzzled her cheek before placing a soft kiss there.
Killian pulled away to find Rose looking at the two of them with something of fondness in her eyes, who then quickly stood up, feeling more than a little embarrassed that he'd noticed her staring at them, and ushered Killy towards the room the boys shared.
"But mama, it's not fair. Liam is leaving tomorrow! Can't I stay a little longer with him?"
"Darling, if you don't go to bed soon you'll be too tired to say goodbye to him in the morning." Rose explained, kneeling beside the boy. "And you wouldn't want to miss that, would you?"
That was all the convincing the boy needed. He promptly started to bid them all goodnight one by one, leaving Emma for last and hugging her tight instead of the grown-up handshake he'd given everyone else, running off to his room with bright red cheeks immediately afterwards.
Liam was folding some last pieces of clothing on the dinner table before methodically and carefully placing them into his bag. Emma caught herself staring and averted her gaze, thinking it was probably safe to assume Killian had become the neat freak he is as a result of spending too much time with his former Captain. She then looked around for said overly organised pirate wondering if they should go to sleep, as Liam would probably want to spend some time with Rose on his last night at home. She realised he had other plans for the night when, from the corner of her eye, she saw him take a seat at the table right across from his brother - the same place where he'd sat for the entire night - even though he could have sat anywhere else as all chairs were vacant, Liam apparently preferring to fold his shirts standing.
She thought he only intended to watch his brother closely, tuck into memory a few more moments of him like this, at home and at peace, with many years ahead of him, full of hopes and dreams for his future. It wasn't until Killian cleared his throated and started asking Liam what made him decide to enlist so young that she realised he was up to something. She knew normally he would rather spend his last night with brother talking of anything but the profession that would bring his end much too soon (as well as Killian's own descent into a hazy, heedless path of bloodlust and revenge), but she still couldn't put her finger on the why, on where was he going with this.
And then it dawned on her, the abrupt realisation rushing into her mind and washing over her with the force of a thousand rising tides all at once, and she suddenly felt like she was struggling to keep her head above the water as she tried to teach herself the intricacy that is breathing again - only she wasn't the one drowning, it was him.
He was the one trying to talk Liam out of joining the Navy, desperately wanting to convince him to do something else entirely with his life, anything that wouldn't result in his tragic death. And she could tell he was on the verge of spilling out the truth by the deep crease on his forehead and the way the usual itch behind his ear had now piqued him into scratching his scalp with a visible agitation bordering on aggressiveness.
Killian was two breaths away from telling a fifteen year old boy that Mr. Swan, the man Liam thought was no more than a stranger with an odd, striking resemblance to his younger brother, was in fact this same brother; only this stubbled-chin-and-roguish-look version of Killian had come from the future and knew precisely how Liam was going to die in less than twenty years from now, and wanted nothing more than to stop him from jumping on the wagon that would take him and his fellow sailors to the harbour the following morning.
And even though half of her heart knew she would probably feel the urge to do the exact same thing if she were in his shoes, she couldn't silence the other half that was screaming for her to stop him from doing it. Because as much as Killian had the chance of gaining Liam quite a few more years right in front of him, doing so would mean changing everything else. He would never have become a pirate captain, would never have fallen in love with Milah and sailed away with her, losing his first love and his hand when the Dark One found them; he would never have met Baelfire in Neverland; would never have allied with Cora to exact revenge on Rumplestiltskin 28 years later when-
He would never have met her.
She knew it was selfish but her biggest concern wasn't that he might change the entire timeline and the consequences of such a reckless choice could include things like her parents never meeting and her never being born, or that Regina never casting a curse because she never had a grudge against Snow White, since Cora never ripped out Daniel's heart in the first place, or that Henry never got to exist because Neal never became Neal, Baelfire would have grown up at home with both his parents - none of which were one the darkest wizards that ever walked the earth.
No, self-centred and childish as it may seem, her main concern was that he would have never met her at all. That they never got to climb a beanstalk together and share much more than an adventure on the very first 24 hours of their acquaintance. That she never left him chained up at the giant's castle because, even though she'd never admit it to herself - and much less to him - she knew from the very first time he stared into her eyes and saw the same lost look he found on his own that there was something almost inconceivable pulling them towards one another. She could still remembered how for her it all started with that initially quiet buzz just beneath her breastbone, growing stronger and stronger every time she recognised something in him that somehow felt a lot like herself.
She still remembered her ragged breathing as he tended to her cut, his blue, blue eyes never leaving hers as he used his wicked mouth to tie his scarf around her hand, making her mind go straight to the gutter while her heart started doing a certain jumpy routine she never thought she'd feel it dancing again in her chest - every step conveying the same insistent message: trust him. Which was exactly why she thought that was the last thing she should let herself do.
And now she couldn't, she simply couldn't let him obliterate their future together like this.
But maybe she should. Maybe no matter how hard he'd worked to become a better man (for her, as he would always add), no matter how much he truly was a hero now, maybe nothing would make him genuinely happy as never having lost everything, never having gone astray from his original hero's journey. So Emma thought twice of it and begrudgingly accepted that this was not her decision to make.
She might be the Saviour, but she couldn't take away Killian's chance of saving himself and his own brother, even if she thought she knew what was best for him.
But, they definitely had some talking to do before he did anything, and that thought spurred her on as she approached the table and interrupted their conversation as subtly as she could, gently placing her hand on his shoulder. "Ki- Charles, can we-"
"Perhaps we should leave our men to discuss their business, don't you think Emma?" Rose gently interrupted her, sending Emma an inconspicuous wink and smiling fondly at their boys, before wrapping her arm around Mrs. Swan's shoulders and leading her towards the other end of the living room. "I'm sorry, Emma. I know it might be a bit strange to you, but your husband seemed happy to have a serious talk with Liam, you know, man to man. I thought you wouldn't mind it. And they seem to be getting along so well, I couldn't believe it when Liam started telling Charles about his father. I've never seen him talk to anyone about it, apart from me or Killian occasionally."
"He did?" Emma asked, feeling her chest tighten with the painful feeling that maybe she was being too selfish thinking only of her side of all this.
"Did you not hear it?" Rose asked, and Emma told her that no, that she must have been too lost in her own thoughts to actually listen to any of their conversation. "I'd hate to see Liam go away with the Navy at such a young without having discussed his future plans with a single masculine figure before. I think my son really needs this moment, Emma."
Emma sighed, absolutely refusing to let the tears swelling up in her eyes roll down her cheeks. "I think they both need this."
What do you think is going to happen on the last chapter? (✿◠‿◠)
