Her contractions started somewhere around six in the afternoon. Henry was sitting by the table, doing his homework, when he heard a loud crash in the other room and his mother gasp his name, "Henry!"
So many times he had been the man of the house already….
The boy rushed and found his mom on the floor of her bedroom, lying in a puddle of what looked like… gooey water. "Mom!" he shouted and ran to her. "Mom!"
Emma looked up into his eyes and grinned from the floor. "It's your sister… she's coming!"
"Oh, god, you don't… I can't…"
"Oh cut it out…" she chuckled and held her hand out for him to pull her back to her feet. "I don't want you to be my midwife, just call the number over the phone by the keys!"
"Oh!" Henry smiled, relieved. "Ok. The ambulance?"
"Yeah… and please grab my bag! It's under the coat rack by the door." She huffed as he steadied her and sat her on the bed.
"Ok! No problem! Operation Duckling begins!"
"Sure does, kid…" She started to pant mildly, grinning to hide the pain that had started to swell within her tummy… and her heart.
Henry ran out to make the call.
She thought of Eddie. She thought of how much he would have loved to be a part of all this… and how she and henry returned to find him dead on a stretcher, after inhaling vast amounts of smoke from the fire in Boston.
A tear trickled down her face and she no longer new if it was from the pain that was starting to spread physically or from the sadness of her loss.
She had managed to soldier on…. But Henry had lost his only father figure and she had lost the one man who had offered her love, roof, loyalty and a family. She saw dark hair and blue eyes in her mind through the haze of the contractions that seemed to intensify with every passing minute. How she wished for him to be helping her stand, walking to the bug and driving her himself to welcome their little one.
But no. He was gone. She had said goodbye a year earlier.
An hour later, she and Henry were at St. Vincent's. The boy practically begged to be there, but being underage, he was not allowed, so he just waited outside in the hall, where one of Emma's work friends, Jessica, showed up to lend a hand. "Henry!" She called. The boy leapt from his chair and hugged the woman.
"She's in there, they won't let me in!" He whined.
"Oh, believe me, darlin' you DON'T wanna see your mother push a baby out her hoo-hah…" Jessica shrugged with a chuckle. "You'll need therapy for ten years. I'm a girl and even I'm not too sure if I'll want to breed after today!"
"The thing is…" Henry sighed. "She's still kind of… sad."
"Oh…" Jessica sat down and pulled him to sit beside hr. "Because of your dad?"
Henry shook his head. "He wasn't… my dad. Not exactly. But he really wanted to be. And my mom loved him, and they were happy." He shrugged. "I really hate that my mom's had such a tough deal in life. I sometimes think even I'm not enough for her to be completely happy…"
"Ok, now, you don't get to say that at all, ok?" She held both hands up, showing perfectly manicured red nails. "You are a great kid and your mom adores you."
"I know that… but she's missing something." He shrugged. "She's missing him."
Jessica sighed. "Of course she does. But today's a happy day, sweetie, you'll be going home with a new little sister!"
Henry grinned. "Yeah… that's the coolest thing!"
"So, what are you going to call her, do you know?"
Henry shrugged. "My mom insisted on Neve. It means snow… in latin." He wrinkled his nose.
Jessica chuckled. "Not a fan of that name, are ya?"
"No." He shook his head vehemently. "I like Lilly."
"Lilly, huh…"
"Yep. I think Eddie would have liked that. It's a nice flower, it's simple, it's sweet… it's very girlie."
"Y'know what, kid?" Jessica smiled in her thick, Brooklyn accent. "I actually agree with you. Lilly is a great name." She stood up and sighed. "Listen, I gotta go in there, to the battle field. You stay here, ok?"
Henry huffed. "Sure. Where the heck would I go?" He shrugged and sat back, pulling a comic book from his backpack.
Jessica frowned; the comic book looked like… a fairy tale comic book.
She shook her head and walked to the lounge desk. "Strange little boy…"
oooooooooo
It was almost three and the little one was finally ready to come out. Emma had been in heavy-duty labor now since one pm and felt terribly drained, achy and terrified. Henry had been an easy delivery in comparison. She was in for delivery and out after two hours. But this little one was proving to be a little bit more of a princess.
Now she lay on the bed of her little room, pushing a new life out of her.
"Come on Emma, you need to give me one hard push, the baby's already crowned, if we get the head out we should be ok after that."
Emma moaned through gritted teeth, sweaty and flushed and feeling like this would be the death of her.
"Come on, honey!" Jessica held her hand. "Just give it one hard, solid push, you heard the doctor…"
"Ok, ready?" the doctor smiled. "Here we go… One, two… PUSH!"
Emma roared and decidedly continued pushing even after the doctor told her to stop; she was going to get that damn baby head out of her if it killed her trying.
"Ok, Emma, take a break, breathe, and…"
"HELL, NO, YOU GET THIS BABY THE HELL OUT OF ME RIGHT NOW!" She growled back at the doctor.
The man laughed out. "We're working on it, Emma, but you can't strain yourself like this or you might tear and…"
The monitor of the baby's heart suddenly sped up. The doctor turned his head and shook his head. "Dammit…"
"What? What is it?" Emma asked.
"Ok, Emma, listen to me, the baby is in distress, her heart just accelerated, so we need to get her out, ok? You can do this."
Panicked, Emma squeezed her friend's hand (and chipped her perfectly red manicure) and nodded. "Ok! Ok…!"
"So, come on… ready? One… two… three… aaaand PUSH! Push Emma, push!"
She pushed and pushed and pushed, and felt herself tearing.
"Doctor!" A nurse exclaimed.
"Yeah I saw that, we'll tend to that in a minute. PUSH EMMA!"
And she pushed again.
And the head was out.
"Emma, please, just keep pushing, we need to get her out!"
Jessica shook her head at the doctor. "Are you insane?"
The doctor looked up at the mother and her friend. "Listen, Emma, the baby has her chord around her neck…"
"What? NO!" Emma turned white, all the flushed redness disappearing in less than a second.
"We're almost done, just keep pushing so we can get her out, now!"
"Okay, honey…" Jessica turned and caressed Emma's hair out of her face. "Just do as the doctor says, and Lilly will be out of you in no time and she'll be fine and…"
"Lilly?" she turned to her friend, sneering.
"Yeah!" Jessica smiled. "Lilly. Now focus!"
"Okay… okay!" Emma panted. "OKAY!"
"Ready? Here we go, let's get this baby out!" The doctor smiled. "One… two… three… PUSH!"
Emma didn't recall how long she pushed for before she felt her daughter's entire body leave her own. The doctor and the nurses frantically muddled around the child, and a haze of activity trying to get her to breathe made Emma's heart nearly pound it's way out her chest.
"Lilly?" LILLY!" she shouted from her bed, almost attempting to get up and run to where they had taken her child, to the other side of the room, in a frantic effort to save her. She felt tears sting her eyes. "No… no, no, no, please NO!"
"She'll be fine…" Jessica squeezed her hand. "Just stay calm, Em, she's gonna be ok…."
For another minute, the doctor did everything in his power to make the little girl come around… until a loud squeal pierced the very foundation of Emma's heart.
She lived.
Emma, still breathing hard and sweating even more than before, leaned back on her head rest, her eyes fixed in the general direction of where the doctor helped stimulate her child.
After a few minutes, he finally turned to Emma with a smile. He held the little baby girl, now wrapped in a pink blanket and a little pink beanie, and walked to her. "She's fine, she's perfectly ok now. All toes, all fingers, no health issues." He placed the little one on her chest. "You are a trooper, Emma. Here's your baby girl. Congratulations."
Emma trembled; she remembered holding Henry for the first time and how amazing it was to see his little face for the first time; holding the tiny girl in her arms, looking so weak, so fragile… and after being so close to fading away and joining Eddie, she was more than just thrilled. Smiling and crying at the same time, she looked at the baby, and was thrilled to see a very full head of black hair atop two very prominent dark eyebrows.
She was going to have Eddie's looks, and Emma couldn't have been happier.
"Hi there! Lilly!" She smiled as she kissed the little head. "Oh, my god…"
Jessica leaned in and kissed Emma's head. "There, you see? She's gorgeous girl! Look at her!"
"She looks just like her daddy…" Emma wept through happy-slash-sad tears. "Yeah, you do, don't you?"
After the baby was finally cleaned up and Emma was holding her, nurse came in soon after, with Henry dressed in scrubs. Emma smiled at her boy. "Hey kid…"
"Mom, are you ok?" Henry frowned.
"She's fine." The nurse smiled at him. "She's just really tired, but she and your sister have a perfect bill of health."
"Come on over, kid!" Jessica called over. "Meet your sister, Lilly!"
Henry's eyes glowed. "Lilly? You're calling her Lilly?"
Emma just shrugged in defeat. "I guess we could all cope with that."
Henry walked over and held his arms out as Emma handed him the tiny little girl. As soon as she was in his arms, Henry felt involuntary tears sting his eyes, and Emma beamed. "Happy, kiddo?"
Henry nodded and grinned as a tear fell from his eye directly on the baby's cheek. "Yeah, She's awesome!"
He then handed the baby back to his mom and Jessica took a photo of the three of them. "For the baby album", she had said.
oooooooooooooooooo
Emma tapped on Killian's door softly. It was seven in the morning. "Killian?" She mumbled. "Come on, get up, Henry's about to wake…"
He opened the door and she was pleasantly surprised that he was cleaned up, dressed and ready. "Wow… you're an early bird."
The captain smiled back at her. "Sea captain, love. Even with the worst of hangovers, I'm the first to rise and the last to sleep. Part of the job."
She nodded.
An awkward yet eerily comfortable silence fell between them, and she looked into his eyes. "You know… it's strange how curses work." She shook her head. "I was so sure Eddie had died and…"
"Eddie?" Hook frowned, confused.
"Hmm, you know…" Emma shook her head, dismissively. "The guy I … thought was Lilly's dad."
"Oh."
"Anyway, I was sure he had passed away, the most horrible death you can imagine…" she shook her head and swallowed. "But it's strange. I never questioned it. Never doubted for a second that those memories were real, and yet…" she looked up into his eyes. "I never had as much as a photograph of him. Or a video…. Or of Henry growing up, either." She chuckled and shook her head. "I knew something was off, all along, but I never questioned it." She looked up into Hook's eyes. "I was about to marry a guy that never existed. I supposedly had his baby, Killian, and not for a second did I ever wonder about why I never had as much as a photograph."
Killian simply stared silently, knowing she was probably just trying to be listened.
"It's just as well…" she grinned, looking at her hands. "I only remember his face. I guess that the curse does work according to your situation and your thoughts." She grinned. "I became pregnant that very last night. So… the curse gave me a fitting memory to explain it. Killing off the baby's father was a way to explain why the heck I wound up pregnant with no guy in sight."
Killian nodded. "I agree…"
She sighed and raised a grin to him. "At least I know the real father's not dead."
He side grinned and cocked his head to a side, taking a step closer to her. "Glad to have me around then, Swan?" He flirted, soft-spoken.
Emma rolled her eyes, but still smiled. "No matter what, Hook, I wouldn't wish you dead."
The ban bit his lower lip. "Well, that's a start."
Another comfortable silence. "So, tell me, Savior…" He spoke quietly. "Was your 'Eddie' nearly as striking as I?"
Emma swallowed. "Wouldn't you like to know…"
"I do." He shot back, completely serious.
The girl grinned. "Holy crap… you're jealous of the guy that doesn't exist?"
"No. I am jealous of your fabrication of him." He replied softly. "Much as it makes sense, I…" He swallowed. "I spent a whole year, Emma, dreaming of the day I'd see you again and while I know this wasn't your doing I can't help but feel that I…"
She put a hand on his lips. "Stop ranting, pirate, he isn't even real… Or actually…" She shrugged. "He kind of… is. Was. Whatever."
He swallowed a very audible gulp and Emma hated to admit that his little hissy fit of jealousy gave her a small thrill.
"If you must know… he was every bit as 'striking as you are'." She sighed and looked into his eyes. "He was you."
Killian frowned. "C… come again?"
"Yep. He was you. Some weird, parallel, American-accented, baseball-playing version of you." She tilted her head sideways. "Do you really think you were the only one crushed by that stupid curse? Do you really believe you were the only one who felt heartbroken?" she pressed her lips together. "We may not be my parents, Hook, but that night wasn't entirely devoid of meaning for me, ok? I was the one to look for you, remember? I wanted it, I asked for it! The curse gave me a memory of a man with YOUR stupid face, for god's sake, and then killed you off, so believe it or not, I am actually glad he's not real, because then you'd be dead, and as much as we've bickered and argued over the past, I don't want you to die! I mean, you did still come back for me and you did father a child with me and you d…"
Kiss. Yeah, that was him, kissing her again. Sudden and harsh, A 'shut up, you're rambling', kiss.
And it worked. When he pulled away, she took a few seconds to open her eyes again, to meet his somewhat annoyed yet deeply satisfied grin.
"Learn when to be quiet, Swan…" He joked, touching her cheek with his index. "You really didn't need to be so jocular about it. A simple yes or no would have sufficed." He pushed past her and grinned ruefully, knowing she was now standing stunned, much like he had in Neverland.
Romance, it seemed, was a game of cat and mouse. And for now, he felt like he had the upper hand.
He walked past the door of her room and peeked in, grinning at the little bassinet, before continuing to the door. Seconds later, he heard Emma shuffling silently behind.
"What will you do, from now till eight?"
He turned to her with a grin. "Tis the city that never sleeps, said some strange banner…" He shrugged. "I'm sure I can kill an hour sitting on a bench with a few warm gulps of rum."
Emma heaved with a grin. "You'll get arrested."
The pirate's eyebrow went way up before he sighed hard. "Well, then I'll just sit and wait."
"Sounds like a fun plan."
"Waiting for you? Always." Again, she was silent. He nodded his head and opened the door. "See you in a while, Swan."
As he closed the door behind him, Emma turned and huffed softly, touching her lower lip. "Idiot…" She whispered, an impish grin suddenly curving her lips upwards.
She was drawn back to reality by the sound of Lilly crying.
When she reached her room, she found Henry, disheveled, still clad in his pajama, pulling his sister out of her crib.
"Oh, I was just going to wake you…"
"Done." He replied softly. "Was there someone at the door?"
"Yeah, Mr. Cribbins, from downstairs."
"The usual?"
"Yeah, same complaints about the piping making noises."
He handed the baby to his mom and Emma greeted her with a "Hi you!". She then turned to Henry. "Ok, let me bathe her and myself and I'll get started on breakfast, kid."
Henry nodded and went to his room, also ready for a nice, hot shower and a trip with his mom.
Killian sat on the bench across the street, fighting the urge to drink from his flask with everything he had. He looked around him; this wasn't a bad realm, in fact, the city looked promising… if he had been there as a much younger, adventurous pirate, that is. Still, as a flock of pigeons flew over his head, he smiled, looking straight at the building where Emma, Henry and his little bairn resided. For the first time in his entire life, he felt truly blessed and lucky. That kiss could have gone far worse. Her reation to it was by no means what he still dreamt of, but not getting shoved away was a good standing point.
He'd already won her heart once… he'd do it again. And he was already on the right track.
An hour flew by and he was once again climbing up to the third floor, and taping on door 311. He heard shuffling and found Emma opening the door again with a grin. "Hi…"
"You ready, Swan?" He smiled as he let himself in, his eyes looking around the apartment.
He was stunned to see Henry… and glad. The boy had grown at least an inch and was starting to resemble a little man, not so much the wee boy he had helped save from Neverland.
Henry, however, was deeply impacted by Killian's rugged, 18th century appearance… and the fact that he looked so much like Eddie.
"Henry, this is Killian…" Emma grinned. "He's a… he's, I'm… helping him… with his case."
Henry eyed him from head to toes. "Did you skip bail?"
"Why, he's still a little spitfire!" Killian smiled at Emma.
"Still?" henry looked at Emma confused.
"No honey, he's not a perp, he's a client." Emma smiled at her son.
The boy still let his eyes travel from Killian's fuzzy hair to his funny winkle picker boots on his feet. "But… why are you dressed like that?"
"And why are YOU dressed like THAT?" Killian responded in annoyance.
Men could be children, that much was for sure, Emma thought as she stood between the two. "All right, all right, Killian, make yourself useful and help with the bags, Henry, you lend him a hand…".
Emma went back into the apartment as the pirate and her son pulled the bags out. When she emerged, Killian beamed with pride: She held the little girl in one arm, fully awake, and a small carry on in the other… and wore her trademark red jacket.
"So, I was starting to wonder where Emma Swan might have gone to!" He smiled and then touched the baby's cheek with a grin.
Emma grinned at him and turned to Henry. "Come on, kid, we gotta get these to the bug. Let's go."
"What's the name of the place we're going to, again?" Henry shrugged.
"Oh… Storybrooke."
"In Maine?"
"Yep."
He turned and looked at them. "Is that a real town?"
Killian nodded. "Aye lad, that it is, and we'd better get a move on, if we want to make it in good time. We've a lot of work to do."
Henry shrugged and kept on walking ahead of them. Emma turned and mouthed a silent 'thank you'.
So after adjusting little Lilly to the baby seat and placing all the luggage in the front compartment, they boarded and left back for the enchanted town… unknown still to all of them that it would be their last day in New York.
