A/N: Okay so this chapter I had to look at it from both Emma and Killian's POV. The next chapter will be the precinct party where everything will be put on the table. Thanks so much for the continued interest and kind words! Hope you enjoy!
Typically on an afternoon like this, busy with happy customers and with business doing well, Emma would be content with the life she'd built herself. Today though, things were different. She'd managed to get over the nasty bug that had gripped at her system, fueled mostly by the need to see Killian as soon as possible and remedy the confusion. While she had promised to tell him how she felt on Saturday, she was growing impatient, and wanted to at least clear the air about the ring before then.
Only one problem… it was now well after lunch and Killian had yet to appear in the café. As soon as the clock struck nine Emma had begun to worry, and the sad feeling that she'd already made too grave a mistake hung over her like a dark cloud throughout the rest of the day.
To make matters worse, the town was consumed with gossip about something happening at the police precinct. It didn't matter that no one knew for sure what it was (in the past hour alone Emma heard claims ranging from gas leak explosion at a neighboring department to half of the squad being sentenced to a mandated retreat after getting on Chief Nolan's bad side). Emma couldn't escape talk of the notably missing segment of the small force. The tumult of emotions in her stomach had her worrying for Killian's safety one minute and mourning their could-have-been relationship the next. Long story short, Emma's nerves were frayed and she was just about at wits end.
"Hey, Ems, everything okay?" Ruby's question brought Emma's thoughts out of her own mind and back to the café in front of her.
"Yeah why?"
"You've been rearranging the same three cupcakes for ten minutes now," Ruby replied. "Is this about Cap-" Emma glared at Ruby quick before looking out at the scattered busybodies throughout the café. Then she simply nodded, because yeah, who else would it be if not Killian.
"He's probably just gotten swept up in whatever craziness hit the squad today. Belle just told me that the other librarians think it's a disaster preparedness session. They're likely all training out in the woods prepping for zombie warfare or something." Emma knew that Ruby was trying to lighten her mood, and the ridiculous claim helped a bit. She couldn't keep from chuckling at the crazy thought, but still, while Emma could guarantee that it wasn't the walking dead come to end the world, there were dozens of other possibilities, none of them particularly great.
"When did Mary Margaret say she'd be in again? She should be done discussing the party tomorrow with David by now." No sooner had Emma spoken the words than in walked the lady in question.
"Hi guys. Did I miss anything?" Mary Margaret asked as she took off her jacket only to find Emma and Ruby standing next to each other. The former retained that hazy aura of anticipation and anxiety around her while the latter looked damn close to fainting with relief that she had backup in the game of heartsick bosses.
"He hasn't been in yet today," Ruby informed Mary Margaret, and understanding flooded the smaller woman's eyes.
"Oh well that's a problem with a simple answer – he's been on an overnight stakeout over by the docks. The department got a tip about a smuggling operation. People from other counties are overfishing and bringing the hauls through here since the port authority has been so understaffed." Mary Margaret's easy demeanor as she made the announcement instantly calmed Emma. An overnight stakeout was a damn good reason to keep someone away. She hadn't pulled an all nighter since college, but she could remember the unbearable drag she'd face the next day plagued with exhaustion. Her relief must have shown on her face and Mary Margaret took advantage of the continued quiet to go on.
"He was here yesterday you know."
"No! You didn't tell me that." Emma gripped the countertop tighter waiting for Mary Margaret to go on.
"He thought you were dating Graham. You can imagine his surprise and anger at finding Graham and Ruby flirting when he got here."
"He thought I was dating Graham?!" Emma practically yelled right as Ruby asked "He thought I would do that to Emma?!"
"I mean give the man a break. He's only been here about a year so he doesn't actually know that you and Graham grew up together. Different last names, extremely friendly relationship, coupled with the ring and…"
"God this stupid ring," Emma pulled it off her finger and nearly chucked it in the trash when Mary Margaret cried out.
"No! Don't do that! Wearing it the right way tells him your single. Not wearing it could mean any number of things, and since we work in a bakery he could very well think you just took it off so it wouldn't get lost or dirty." Mary Margaret was right, so Emma slipped it back on again.
"I don't understand how I went from patiently feeling him out for a full year to this crazy sense of needing to set things right," Emma confessed.
"It's all a state of mind," Ruby mused. "Before you were hesitating – living in this state of waiting for life to happen to you because it was safe and easy. Then this week you made a choice to tell him and the Universe is messing with it. I get that."
Emma blinked at Ruby's very apt assessment of her feelings. Not that her friend wasn't brilliant, she was, she just didn't usually put that towards emotional analysis. It was channeled more towards how to arrange displays to boost sales and thus tips or juggling a ridiculous amount of social commitments in one week and never forgetting a single one.
"Yeah, that's exactly it," Emma replied.
"Well, I think that the best thing for you to do now would be to make the choice of taking the rest of the afternoon off and distracting yourself. Go get a massage or a mani/pedi. Spend the week's pay on a shopping spree. Anything to help you take your mind off it." Emma liked the sound of Mary Margaret's suggestions. She'd been doing a good of saving for a rainy day for a while now and could afford to splurge a little. She deserved an afternoon to treat herself.
"You guys don't mind?" Both women assured her that they most certainly did not mind and within minutes, Emma had hung up her apron and gathered her things, exiting the back door to her little, yellow bug. As she drove out of the parking lot and around the corner off to go find her well deserved distraction, Emma couldn't have possibly known that the object of today's obsession was making his way to her currently. And, in fate's strange sort of joking humor, his squad car pulled around to the street on which Saviory Sweets resided just before hers turned out of view.
…
"Was that a flash of yellow, mate?" Killian asked Robin Locksley (his partner for last nights stakeout) as he looked further down the street to where a too familiar car had just potentially driven away.
"Didn't see anything to be honest. A bit consumed with the promise of one of those heavenly cinnamon buns inside." Killian shook his head as he drove his car into the parking lot. His hopes came tumbling down though as he saw that Emma's small yellow bug was missing from it's usual spot.
"Aren't you going to come in?" Robin asked when Killian had parked in front of the café yet made no movement to exit the vehicle.
Before Killian spoke, a call from the bakery front sounded to interrupt him.
"I see you in there Killian. Come inside. We need to talk." Mary Margaret nodded at Robin before turning around back inside. Now caught, Killian reluctantly removed himself from the vehicle and ducked into the café, awaiting some sort of scolding from the small pixie-haired owner.
"Care to explain why you drove all the way here after a nearly twenty four hour shift just to wait in the car? Or should I just assume I'm right in thinking that it's because Emma isn't here?" Mary Margaret's blunt words caused Killian to scratch his ear in embarrassment.
"Definitely Emma," Robin affirmed. "The entire stakeout he was either silently thinking of her while feigning interest in my chatter or was speaking of her directly. Don't try and deny it." Killian continued to feel uneasy, but at least the café was empty of Storybrooke's more nosey citizens.
"She's going to be here Saturday night," Mary Margaret chipped in.
"So what are you going to do about it?" Ruby finished off Mary Margaret's thought with a hand on her hip and looking critically at Killian.
"Nothing – I mean – you said that someone still has her heart." Killian hated how flustered and unsure he sounded and in his current mental state he wasn't prepared for Ruby to break down into a fit of giggles. When she managed to come back up to air she pointed out his error.
"Yeah and that guy is you. So again – what are you going to do about it Captain Jones?"
Him?! The man that had Emma's heart was him?! Surely these women, her best friends, wouldn't lead him astray, but the thought managed to simultaneously clutch too tightly at his heart strings while also setting him free. He was overwhelmed with the possibility and at the moment and all he knew was the he needed to speak to Emma. Mary Margaret as much as read this on his face.
"Trust me, tomorrow will be perfect. But Ruby's right, you should have some sort of plan. She'd never admit it, but Emma is a romantic at heart and a big gesture wouldn't be turned away."
"Why don't you sing that song you couldn't seem to stop humming on shift?" Robin prompted good-naturedly. "Seems Mary Margaret has equipped the space for some sort of band." He turned to Mary Margaret who nodded and this was leave enough for Robin to continue.
"Sappy as it is mate, you do have a decent voice and I've seen your guitar at your house from your college days. Surely the woman would love a serenade. What could be grander?" Ruby broke out into an excited clap at the idea.
"Emma would love that! What's the song? Oh never mind, don't tell me! I want to be surprised about something too! Wait until I tell Graham!" Ruby pulled out her phone, likely to text the man himself, and for the first time in a long time the mention of Ranger Huntsman didn't cause that puncturing sadness in his gut. No the root of his uneasiness now was the idea of standing up not only in front of Emma, but in front of the precinct and their families and singing a bloody song.
"I don't think –" Robin held up his hand and took the radio off of his waist calling into the station.
"This is Officer Locksley for Chief Nolan."
"Chief Nolan reporting." David's voice could be heard throughout the room.
"Chief – seems Emma Swan is just as interested in Captain Jones as he is in her. Your lovely wife and Miss Lucas have requested a grand gesture."
"Sounds up to code so far, Locksley. What appears to be the problem?"
"I've advised the Captain to serenade the lady with the swagger and charisma we all know him to have and he appears to have lost his balls about it." Mary Margaret and Ruby laughed while Killian stood there still awestruck at the thought that everyone seemed to have known except for him.
"Is Jones in hearing distance, Locksley?"
"Yes, sir."
"Killian, you will be singing Emma the song."
"Is that an order, Chief?"
"Let's call it a barter. You man up and ask Emma out and I give you three extra days of PTO."
"Sir," Robin interrupted. "For three more days I'll sing to anyone in town you want." Mary Margaret and Ruby laughed but not the Chief.
"Locksley, Captain Jones takes roughly two days off a year out of his allotted fourteen. Giving him the leave isn't much of a risk. Giving you the leave would be. Now are you going to go through with it Jones, or do I have to come down there in person?"
"Yes, if it's something Emma would like," Mary Margaret and Ruby vigorously nodded again. "Then yes I will."
"Good. I'll also throw in me putting the fear of God in anyone who tries to poke fun. Including you Locksley. Now get your asses home, you're off the clock."
"Yes, sir."