Hey everyone! I know I haven't updated in a while, I'm really sorry! I've done 9 exams over the past two weeks and I still have another 12 to go... but by the end of June I should be updated once, maybe twice a week, so please stick with me. As to a question written by an anonymous reviewer, yes there will be a little bit of Killian's POV in this chapter, but I plan on exploring that a lot more because of thee whole Graham and Emma situation that happens in canon. I hope you all enjoy this chapter, don't forget to review or pm me with questions or criticisms or anything really, I crave knowledge of what you all think of this! Is that weird? Maybe a little...
Chapter 5: Green Eyed Monster
Emma was the first one at Granny's the next day, her legs bouncing up and down in anticipation. She was being ridiculous; Emma Swan was actually nervous about seeing Killian again after last night. She tried as best she could to keep him out of her thoughts for the whole night, but the moment when he told her he would wait for her just kept replaying over and over again in her mind. If she wasn't careful, she would end up saying yes to that damn date. But then again, would that really be such a bad thing? Emma had kept people out for so long, never really letting anyone in after Neal had betrayed her; maybe it was time that she should start trusting people again. After all, she was beginning to let Henry in, and it was the best decision she had made in the past few years. Maybe she should take a chance with Killian, once she was ready. The bell above the door tinkled, causing Emma to look up from her cocoa. Speak of the devil and he shall appear.
Killian slid into the booth opposite Emma, greeting her with one of his effortless smiles.
"Alright, Swan," he said, completely relaxed, as if he hadn't been rejected by her last night. This caused Emma to raise an eyebrow.
"We need to talk," Emma said, deciding to get straight to the point.
"Yes, I'm fine, thank you for asking, love," Killian quipped as he rolled his eyes. "Alright, Swan, what is it? Is it about last night?"
Emma took a deep breath, bracing herself for what she was about to say. "I said yesterday that I don't date, and I was telling the truth. The last date I went on was on my birthday, and it was a set up so that I could get the other half of the guys bail money. Needless to say, I'm not the best at dating and I doubt I ever will be," she began, looking from her cocoa to Killian, wondering if he had changed his mind about her. Surprisingly, she saw understanding reflected in his eyes and a silent signal for her to continue with her speech.
"What I mean is, I've tried this kind of thing before, and I… it ended badly for me. After that I decided that dating just wasn't for me."
"Well, then I'd really like to give the guy that did that to you a well-deserved punch in the face," Killian interrupted her. Emma looked at him in confusion. "I don't know what he did to you that could possibly put you off relationships for life, Swan, but I know he was a bloody idiot and you didn't deserve it, whatever it was," he said with a smile. "Plus, if he's ruined my chances of even having one date with you, then I'm really going to punch him," Killian added sarcastically.
"Well that's just what I was about to say. I thought about what you said yesterday, and you're right. New town – new life. But I don't think I'm at the whole dating stage just yet," Emma confessed.
"Well, you let me know when you are," Killian told her.
Emma put her elbows on the table and leaned in. "Tell you what, how about we just continue being friends for now. I haven't exactly had a lot of those either. Then maybe – and this is a big maybe – we can go on one date. Just ask me again in a couple weeks," Emma said.
Killian leaned back in the booth and sighed. "Swan, you could turn me down every day for a month and I would still ask you again every day of the next month – but that would be bloody hard work so I'm really hoping you're not gonna do that," Killian told her, shoving his hands into his jacket pocket.
"Why?" Emma asked.
"I'm sorry?" Killian said, her question catching him off guard.
"You could probably go on a date with any girl in town, some you probably know quite well. Why are you asking me when we've only just met and I'm such hard work as you say?" she elaborated, curious as to why he was so interested.
"I honestly have no idea," he answered truthfully as he gazed into her eyes, making her head spin. "But anyways, I think you just admitted that we are indeed friends. Admit it, Swan, I'm going on you," Killian said with a mischievous smile.
"Watch it, Jones," Emma said with a mock glare as picked up her coffee cup and took a sip, still holding the glare she was giving Killian.
Killian's chuckle was heard throughout the diner as Henry entered and slid on to the seat next to Killian. "Hey, guys," he said.
"Hello, lad," Killian replied, ruffling Henry's hair like he usually did.
"Hey, kid. What's in the bag?" Emma asked, as he began to rummage around in his backpack.
"A shirt for you, figured since I dragged you from Boston without you planning on staying you wouldn't have anything with you," Henry said. Emma smiled at him when he handed the shirt over, touched at his thoughtfulness.
"I'll be right back," Emma said, and she got up to change her shirt in the bathroom.
Killian's eyes followed her as she left the main area of the diner. "Smart move, lad," he said, smiling down at Henry. "C'mon, I'll get you some cocoa," Killian offered, putting an arm around Henry's shoulders as he walked them over to the counter.
"Thanks, Killian," Henry said with a smile, which Killian returned immediately. It was no secret to anyone in the town that the pair were inseparable, not even the mayor could really prevent them from seeing each other. Killian was good for Henry, not just as someone who endorsed his fantasies, but as a friend. Henry didn't have many, if any, friends of his own age, preferring to hang around the older members of Storybrooke. Everyone else thought that it was because Henry just didn't have a knack for making friends, maybe because he seemed wise beyond his years, but Henry knew the truth. It was because his entire life he had grown up and progressed through school when every friend he had made when he was younger stayed in the same year group, not ageing because of the curse. So Henry had decided he should wait until the curse was broken before he made friends his own age, because at least with the adults it wasn't as obvious that they weren't ageing. Sometimes he did feel a little bit isolated from the other children at school, knowing that he was the black sheep of his class. But Killian never saw him like that, he saw him as… well, just Henry.
"So, how's Operation Cobra going?" Killian asked him once they were both settled back into the booth, Henry now sitting in Emma's seat opposite Killian.
"So far, it's going really well," Henry said enthusiastically. "We know that Miss Blanchard is Snow White, John Doe is Prince Charming, my mom is the Evil Queen and Emma is the Saviour. They're the main people we need to worry about because they're the most important. It's vital that we make Emma believe but we make sure my mom never finds out who Emma really is."
"And how do you propose we get Emma to believe? Because believe me, Henry, she is definitely a stubborn lass," Killian said, recalling their earlier conversation about how she would keep him waiting until she was ready. Not that he really minded, he enjoyed being around Emma, even if it was just as friends. But Killian could be just as stubborn as Emma, and he was determined to get at least one date from her – maybe that would answer some of the questions he had about why the damn woman was infecting his thoughts after knowing her for barely a week.
"That's where you come in," Henry said mischievously.
"Henry," Killian said warningly.
"Emma likes you Killian, I can tell! You guys are good friends; if she won't believe me, then maybe in time she'll believe you. In the meantime, I'm gonna be working on restoring everyone else's memories so that we can all help to convince her."
"While Emma and I might be friends, Henry, I doubt she'll be persuaded that easily," Killian said, cautious of the fact that Henry was building his hopes up.
"I said in time, didn't I?" Henry replied with a cheeky smirk. Killian rolled his eyes with a smile, seeing how much of himself was reflected in Henry's expression.
"Just don't expect me to work any miracles, alright?" Killian said, raising an eyebrow at the boy sitting opposite him.
Henry nodded at Killian, to which he responded with a wink once he was sure that Henry understood that Emma would not be easily persuaded.
"Thanks for the shirt. Hey, is this your mother's?" Emma asked, once she came back dressed in a silvery-grey blouse, sliding into the booth beside Killian since Henry had taken her space.
Henry and Killian shared a look. "She'll never notice," Henry said with a smirk. Killian snorted at this, causing Emma to look at him with a raised eyebrow. He just simply shrugged in response.
"Where does she think you are, anyway?" Emma asked Henry.
"Playing Whack-A-Mole."
Emma's eyebrows shot up at the same time Killian began to chuckle. "And she bought that?" she asked incredulously.
"She wants to believe it, so she does," Henry elaborated.
"Oh, imagine that," Emma responded sarcastically.
"She's here," Henry said as he spotted Mary Margaret entering the diner, visibly getting excited.
"Hey, don't get your hopes up. We're just getting started, okay?" Emma told him, not wanting to see him too disappointed when Mary Margaret told him that nothing had happened.
Mary Margaret slid into the booth next to Henry, looking perplexed.
"He woke up," she said simply.
Emma's jaw dropped and she blinked a few times in rapid succession while she began to comprehend what the teacher had said. "What?!" she and Killian asked together.
"I knew it!" Henry exclaimed, looking slightly smug.
"I mean he didn't 'wake up' wake up, but he grabbed my hand," Mary Margaret elaborated, her story becoming more bizarre with every word she said.
"He's remembering," Henry implored.
"What did the doctor say?" Killian asked, taking on the role of being the rational one in the situation.
"That I imagined it, but I'm not crazy. I know it happened," the teacher said. Emma sighed and looked towards Killian, who returned a similar gaze to her own. Convincing Henry that the curse wasn't real was gonna be a hell of a lot more difficult now.
"We have to go back, you have to read to him again," Henry said to Mary Margaret.
"Let's go," Mary Margaret nodded before Emma or Killian had a chance to intervene.
"Wait, wait, what?" Emma said, confused by the other woman's behaviour. Emma slid out of the booth and stopped Mary Margaret in the middle of the diner, halting her pursuit of Henry who was already at the door waiting for them. Killian also got out of the booth, but hung back to answer his phone when it started ringing.
"If I got through to him, if we made a connection…" Mary Margaret began.
"You don't believe…" Emma said, really hoping hers and Killian's plan hadn't backfired.
"That he's Prince Charming? Of course not," Mary Margaret finished for her, much to Emma's relief. There was only so much pretending she could cope with. "Somehow, someway – I touched him!" she said with a hint of excitement to her voice. And with that she turned around and paced back to the door to follow Henry, leaving a flabbergasted Emma behind her. Emma stood with her mouth open and blinked for a few seconds, before she shook her head and turned around to see Killian.
"Well, that was insane. Looks like convincing Henry is gonna be a little harder now that we have to convince Mary Margaret, too," Emma said as she rolled her eyes and stood next to Killian. The dark-haired deputy looked at her with trepidation. "What?" Emma asked, already knowing that she wasn't going to like the answer.
"That was Graham on the phone. Turns out that John Doe is missing," he said, looking her straight in the eye. Emma's eyebrows shot to her hairline.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me. C'mon, we better catch up to them," she said, automatically grabbing Killian's hand to tug him out of the diner.
The hospital wasn't too far away from Granny's, so by the time Emma and Killian had caught up to Mary Margaret and Henry they were already entering the hospital. The first thing Mary Margaret noticed was how there was lots of staff around, more than usual, and they seemed almost… panicked about something.
"Hey, listen, we have some news," Emma said, Killian shortly following behind her.
Mary Margaret turned to look at the pair, seeing worry etched on to their faces. "What's going on?" Mary Margaret asked, sensing that something was very wrong.
"You're right – he's waking up!" Henry said, and that was when Mary Margaret finally noticed Graham standing in front of the private room of her coma patient.
"Henry, you should stay back," Graham said, holding an arm out so Henry couldn't pass. Graham looked up from Henry to the rest of the group, noticing how Killian and Emma were standing quite close to one another. "You took your time," he said towards Killian, maybe a little more aggressively than necessary.
"I got here as quick as I could," Killian said with a defensive shrug.
"What's going on? Is it John Doe? Is he okay?" Mary Margaret asked, paying no attention to Graham and Killian. Her mind was racing at a million miles an hour; she needed to hear that he wasn't the cause of all this activity, that he was safe.
"He's missing."
The words hit her like shards of ice being stabbed into her heart. Mary Margaret's mouth went dry, and she felt the overwhelming urge to sit down. Which was utterly ridiculous, of course. She naturally felt concern for people, it was her nature, but what she felt when Graham had uttered his simple statement was sheer panic that was bordering on hysteria. She hadn't even known the man, only seeing him when she'd brought him flowers, but last night, reading to him, it was as if she had known him for years.
"Oh, bloody hell," Killian muttered under his breath, and Mary Margaret, Emma and Henry all turned to see what had elicited his reaction. Regina was standing with the doctors in the private room, and had spotted them through the transparent wall.
"What the hell are you doing here?" she demanded as she stalked towards them, her eyes burning like coal. "And you – I thought you were at the arcade. Now you're lying to me?" she addressed Henry, having the gall to look hurt.
"What happened to John Doe? Did someone take him?" Mary Margaret blurted out, all traces of feeling intimidated by the woman in front of her seemingly gone. At the minute, Mary Margaret felt as though she could look the devil in the eye and demand the same thing if it would mean getting some answers, which wouldn't be so different than asking Regina anyway.
"We don't know yet," Graham answered. "His IVs were ripped out but there's no sign for sure there was a struggle."
"What did you do?" Henry asked Regina accusatorily.
"You think I had something to do with this?" she replied incredulously.
"It is curious that the mayor is here," Emma said with narrowed eyes.
"Aye, especially when she has no connection to John Doe, and no connection to the police department. Well, at least not to my knowledge, anyway," Killian said, throwing a knowing look at Graham who had the decency to look slightly guilty.
"I'm here because I'm his emergency contact," she told them icily.
Mary Margaret's heart sank. "You know him?" she asked, trying not to let her disappointment seep into her voice. If Regina knew him, she would make sure that he had nothing to do with Mary Margaret if they found him – no, when they found him.
"I found him. On the side of the road years ago with no ID. I brought him here," Regina elaborated, making Mary Margaret feel slightly better despite everything. At least the man didn't have the misfortune of being connected to the mayor in any way.
"Mayor Mills saved his life," Dr Whale said, appearing behind Regina to join the group.
"Will he be okay?" Mary Margaret asked.
"Okay? The man's been on feeding tubes for years on constant supervision," Whale said.
"Well, obviously not bloody constant enough," Killian said to the doctor with a glare, not liking the way he was talking to Mary Margaret as if she was stupid.
The doctor shot him a look but said nothing about it. "He needs to get back here right away or, quite honestly, 'okay' might be a pipe dream."
"Well then, let's quit yapping and start looking," Emma interjected.
"That's what we're doing! Just stay out of this, dear. And since I clearly can't keep you away from my son, I guess I'm just going to have to keep my son away from you. Enjoy my shirt, because that's all you're getting," Regina said, glaring at Emma, who just glared right back at her. "Sheriff, find John Doe. You heard Dr. Whale, time is precious," she addressed Graham. Then Regina took Henry by the hand and led him out of the hospital.
Graham turned back around to talk to Whale about some more details of John Doe's disappearance, leaving the three remaining members of the group alone.
"She's a bloody Rottweiler," Killian said, looking towards the door Regina had just exited with disdain.
"Hey, don't get yourself worked up about her, she's just being her usual self, we have bigger things to focus on," Emma said, placing a hand on his shoulder to get him to look at her. When he eventually did look at her he smiled, realising their role reversal – usually Killian was the one to reassure or calm Emma down, but just now she had done the same for him. They really did make quite them team.
Emma let her hand slide off his shoulder as she returned his smile, just in time for Graham to see their little interaction, causing a spike of jealously to rise up inside of him. Shaking the thought away from his head, he addressed the group, telling them that they should take a look at the security tapes for the last twelve hours. He guided the group upstairs to the security room, placing a hand lightly at the top of Emma's back and making sure that Killian could see it.
In all honesty, this behaviour sort of scared Graham a bit; he'd never been spiteful with anyone before – especially not Killian – and he'd certainly never felt jealousy, at least not on this level. He didn't want to fall out with his best friend, which was inevitably where this little feud would lead to, but there was just something about Emma Swan that compelled Graham so much. Was it any wonder that Killian wasn't the only one to fall under her spell?
After Emma had cleverly spotted that they were looking at the wrong tape, the unlikely group discovered that John Doe had somehow woken up and walked out of the hospital on his own. That was the good news. The bad news was that the door he walked out of led straight to the woods. So there they were, trekking through the trees with flashlights in their hands, trying to find the mysterious coma patient. Suddenly, Graham let out a frustrated sigh.
"What is it?" Emma asked.
"The trail runs out here," Graham said, raking a hand through his hair.
"You sure? Because I thought tracking was one of your skills," she replied with a raised eyebrow.
"Just give me a second. This is my world, I got it," Graham said, sounding slightly stressed.
"Right, sorry," Emma said, deciding to take a step back and let the sheriff do his job. Graham continued on ahead of the group and Killian followed him, turning round to give Emma and Mary Margaret a slight shrug at Graham's stressed behaviour before he quickened his pace to catch up with his friend.
"What does he mean 'his world'? Isn't finding people your thing, too?" Mary Margaret asked her, as the two women fell into step with each other.
"Sure, just people I find usually run places like Vegas. Not a lot hit the woods," Emma said, her discomfort at being out of her element coming through in her voice.
"That's an interesting job – finding people," Mary Margaret commented. "How'd you fall into it?" she asked conversationally.
Emma faltered briefly, her question bringing up painful memories of cold trails and dead ends. "Looking for people is just what I've done for as long as I can remember," she replied with a sad smile, clearly wanting that to be the end of that particular topic of conversation.
But, of course, Mary Margaret wasn't taking the hint.
"What made you start? Your parents?" she asked bluntly before she could stop herself. Emma wheeled round in shock at her words, not expecting her to guess that. "Henry told me that you're… th-that you were from a similar situation to his own," she elaborated, choosing her words carefully. "Did you ever find them?"
Despite everything, Emma found it quite comical that her supposed 'mother' was asking her if she'd found her parents. "Depends who you ask," she replied slyly, amused at Mary Margaret's confused expression.
Meanwhile, up ahead Graham and Killian were still trying to find something that could keep them on the trail of John Doe. To say that things were tense between the two men was a slight understatement after their unusual icy encounter back at the hospital. Knowing that they would need to sort this out soon – they did live and work together, after all – Killian walked over to Graham.
"Don't worry about the cold trail, mate, we'll find him," the deputy said, placing a hand on the sheriff's shoulder.
Graham looked up at his friend, immediately feeling a wave of guilt wash over him. "I'm sorry, Killian, about the way I've been acting recently," he said sincerely. He'd known being petulant about Emma back at the hospital had been a dick move. For all he knew, Graham could be getting jealous over nothing, Killian might just want to be friends with Emma. But Graham didn't know that Killian was also hoping the same thing about the sheriff and Emma's relationship. "I know that I haven't been the easiest person to be around recently. It's just… I feel like everything is screwing with my head at the minute; I mean, everything that's going on with Regina – it's like, I thought that I wanted what I have with Regina, and that everything was fine, but then Emma comes along and I've realised that I don't feel anything with Regina," Graham explained, turning away from Killian so he could continue looking for a clue to John Doe's whereabouts. He didn't see the deflated expression that Killian wore when he mentioned Emma.
"What's Emma got to do with it?" Killian asked, trying to sound curious rather than jealous.
"Hell if I know, Jones. Like I said, everything is just screwing with my head. It doesn't help I've been having these really weird dreams for the past week – I've barely slept for four hours each night," Graham said, rubbing his free hand over his face. Killian could see how much distress his friend was in, and decided that worrying about Graham's feelings for Emma would have to be pushed to one side for now – his brother needed him, and he wouldn't let a woman, of all things, get in the way of their friendship. Even if said woman happened to be Emma Swan.
"Bloody women, mate, they'll drive you insane. Maybe you're better off away from it all at the minute. Break things off with Regina, or at least distance yourself a bit. She's suffocating you," Killian said seriously.
"Yeah, maybe you're right," Graham said, reassured by his friend's words not only by what he said, but in the knowledge that he still had his back even though he'd been an arse recently.
"I'm always right, there's no 'maybe' about it," the dark-haired man said with a wink.
"Piss off, Jones," the sheriff said with a smirk to match the deputy's. Killian's face fell in the knowledge that he was still pending a date with Emma, but he was interrupted before he could tell Graham anything else.
"Henry!" came Mary Margaret's voice from behind them, the other's finally catching up to them.
"Did you find him?" Henry asked. Killian rolled his eyes. Of course Henry would sneak out and follow them.
"Henry, your mother would have a fit if she knew you were here," Killian reprimanded.
"So let's not tell her," Henry said, which had the deputy resisting a smirk.
"C'mon kid, you really shouldn't be here," Emma said, obvious concern lacing her tone.
"I can help, I know where he's going!"
"And where's that?" Mary Margaret asked him.
"He's looking for you," Henry replied to her, looking her dead in the eye. The group looked at each other over Henry's head. Tonight possibly was the craziest night Storybrooke had ever seen. So far anyway.
After another fifteen minutes of hearing Henry harping on about his fairy tales, Emma was beginning to admit that she was getting a little tired of it all. I mean, she was hardly one to be responsible or to give lectures about it but Henry was a bright kid; he knew that he could have been hurt coming out in the dark on his own without anyone knowing where he was. He could have fallen and broken something without anyone around to help him, or worse! Emma couldn't bear the thought of anything happening to Henry, she really needed to get him home.
"But he loves you!" Emma heard Henry telling Mary Margaret. "You need to stop chasing him and let him find you!"
"Kid, you need to go home," Emma said reluctantly, wanting to spend time with Henry but knowing that it was still dangerous for him to be out there with them. Even with two police officers, nothing could protect them from the dangers of Regina's wrath, and Emma really didn't want to be on the receiving end of that. "Where's your mom? She's going to kill me and then you… and then me again," Emma added, pulling a face.
"She dropped me at the house, then went right out," Henry explained. His words caused Emma's gut to twist with a mixture of guilt and anger. How dare Regina leave him in the house on his own for hours at night, the kid was barely ten years old and he was already getting used to the idea of his adoptive mother leaving him on his own. It made Emma feel all the more guilty for giving Henry up, just another item added to the list of things that Regina was supposed to provide for Henry that she hadn't.
"Well, we need to get you back immediately," Emma said, trying the stern approach.
"No!" Henry protested.
"Guys!" Graham shouted, interrupting them. He held up a blue wristband from the hospital that was tainted with a dark, shiny liquid.
"Is that…" Mary Margaret tailed off, not wanting to entertain the possibility.
"Blood," Emma and Killian said in unison, the atmosphere around the group dropping about ten degrees.
After continuing on with a newly developed sense of urgency, the group made their way towards the old toll bridge, which someone had comically vandalised so the sign now read 'Troll Bridge'.
"Where is he? Can you see him?" Mary Margaret asked, sheer panic seeping into her voice.
"The trail dies at the water line," Graham said. At his words, they all looked at the lake, hoping that the worst wasn't true. But a figure of a body lay in the shallows of the lake, interrupting its smooth surface.
"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!" Mary Margaret exclaimed, sprinting over to the man lying in the water.
Emma was just about to rush over to the others to help when she felt Killian grab her arm. "Stay with Henry," he told her, and she nodded in agreement.
Killian ran over to Graham and Mary Margaret and helped them carry John Doe out of the water. As soon as he was on dry land Graham got up and rang for an ambulance.
"Is he gonna be okay?" Henry's small, scared voice asked. Emma felt for the kid, this was not an easy thing for him to be witnessing and she really didn't want him seeing this.
"Henry, don't look, okay? Don't look," Emma said, rushing over to him and hugging him close to her, cradling his head as if to shelter him from the crisis that was happening in front of them.
By the edge of the lake, Mary Margaret was not only panicking, she was hysterical. "No, no, no, no, no! No, no, no – I found you!" she argued, as if that should make all the difference in the world whether he lives or dies.
"It's gonna be okay, the ambulance is on its way," Killian reassured her. He looked up to see that Emma was holding Henry close to her, trying to shield him from all of the trauma, and figured he should go over to help distract him, so he got up and left Mary Margaret alone with the coma patient once she started doing compressions on his chest.
"Come back to us!" she begged John Doe. "Come back to me…"
She pressed her mouth to his to try and resuscitate him, but it soon turned into more of a chaste kiss than CPR. She knew that she should be trying to return the air to his lungs, but at the minute her gut instinct was telling her that she had to kiss this man, that she needed to kiss him. But it seemed to do the trick; the coma patient began to cough and splutter the water back out of his lungs and inhaled deeply. He looked up into Mary Margaret's eyes and the sight took her breath away. Blue eyes, he has blue eyes, Mary Margaret thought, after wondering the previous night.
"You saved me," he breathed. "Thank you."
"Who are you?" Mary Margaret asked gently.
"I don't know."
"It's okay. You're going to be okay," she smiled at him, her fingers gently curling through his hair.
"She did it, she woke him up," Henry beamed at Killian and Emma, both of whom had one hand each on Henry's shoulders.
"Yeah, kid, she did," Emma said in disbelief. Could it be…?
"Bit of a reverse version of Snow White," Killian said with a wink in Emma's direction. Convincing Henry that the curse was not real was definitely going to be a lot more difficult now.