Ghosts of a Chance

Chapter Nine

Meanwhile, inside Emma's and Killian's home…

Emma awoke later than most of the others had, after she and Killian had gone to bed later on account of last night's events. It took her a little time to regain her bearings, but it wasn't long before she sensed something was off and upon realizing she no longer felt Killian's body against hers, or his arms wrapped around her, her instincts told her something was terribly wrong. The Savior quickly turned around and found that the man she loved had turned to face away from her sometime within the night. However, when she leaned over him until she carefully pulled him onto his back, she let out a small cry in fear upon seeing an ugly bruise across his left cheek, then immediately struggled to wake him only to find she couldn't.

The Savior laid one hand over his right cheek and the other down over his chest as she fearfully whispered, "Killian? Please… please wake up. God… I knew I should have gone after Hyde last night. This never would have happened if…"

Before she could continue blaming herself for whatever was happening to him, Emma suddenly heard her mother call out to her from downstairs and she quickly kissed Killian's forehead, stood up from the bed so she could pull on her robe, then rushed downstairs to ask her parents for help.

When David and Snow saw the distress in their daughter's eyes and on her face upon seeing she had been crying, the older Princess quickly ran to her once she made it down to the bottom steps of the house's stairs while she asked worryingly, "Emma… what is it? What's wrong?"

"It's Killian," she urgently replied as she stepped down the last of the stairs once her mother pulled her into her arms, until Emma pulled away from her again in frustration. "There's no time for that. Something's wrong. I can't wake him up. I've tried and what's worse… he has a fresh bruise over his left cheekbone that wasn't there last night after Hyde's assault. I would have healed it if it was. There wasn't even a hint of one."

"It's gonna be okay, Emma," David responded to her in concern as well, although she just ignored him as she quickly turned and ran back upstairs, while he and Snow then followed her so they could get to their daughter's boyfriend. "Was there anything that happened during the night which might have alerted you to there being something wrong? Anything strange…?"

Emma walked around to Killian's side of the bed and knelt down on the floor beside him while she laid her hands over him again to try to heal whatever might be wrong with him other than just the bruise over his cheek like she had the night before, but to no avail, then glared up at her father as she answered crossly, "Don't you think I would have called you that much sooner if something had? That I would have stopped whatever or whoever might have attacked him if I did notice something off with him?"

The Savior then shook her head and breathed in and out as she looked down at Killian's ashen face, then she spoke again apologetically saying, "I'm sorry. I know you're only trying to help. I'm just… I'm scared. I should have gone out to find Hyde and the Evil Queen last night after that monster attacked. Whatever's happening to him, they must have used his hook in order to do it. But what? How can I help him?"

"We're going to help him, Emma," Snow replied assuredly when she walked around the bed to try to comfort her daughter as she laid her hands down on her shoulders, then David sat down on the empty side of the bed and laid his fingers to Killian's neck to feel for his friend's pulse to find out if they needed to get him to Dr. Whale urgently, or if they had time to keep him with them so they could try to help him themselves. "You won't have to do it alone. We can call Regina."

"His pulse is steady, but… his skin feels warm," David responded in concern when he looked again between the two women in front of him. "He's beginning to burn up, and it might not be long before we have to get him to the hospital. Especially if something worse than this bruise appears somewhere along his body."

Emma gently began to caress the side of Killian's face that wasn't hurt as she answered quietly, "First… let's call Regina. Maybe she can help him. If the Evil Queen did do this to him… whatever this is, then Regina might be able to heal him. And wake him even."

Snow pulled out her cell phone and sent off a message to Regina asking her to come over to Emma's again while she replied to her daughter, "I'm sending her a message now. I'm sure that she'll be here as soon as she can. I'm just glad we came over so early. Your father wanted to make you breakfast this morning."

"I should have sensed something was wrong with him sooner," the Savior whispered sadly as she continued to look down at the man she loved while caressing his face. "I felt that he was in trouble as soon as I woke up. That he was in pain and afraid, but I… I don't understand why I couldn't have felt it sooner. While I was asleep. Maybe… if we shared a heart like you and Dad do, then I might have. Mom and Dad… you always, always know when each other are hurt or are in trouble."

"We only share a heart because giving your father half of mine was the only way I had to bring him back," her mother responded to her when she laid her hand down on Emma's back after she sat down on the floor beside her. "Doing so wasn't an option for you to save Killian because…"

Emma glanced over at her, as well as at her father when she interrupted, "Because Hades said he had been dead too long. But after he betrayed us like Killian always knew he would, I've always suspected he had been lying about that. I firmly believe Hades did something to prevent me from being able to save him when I could have. Some kind of spell he cast over Killian maybe? I'm not sure. I'm grateful Zeus saw that he owed it to us to bring him back to me, but a part of me wishes my heart would have been able to save him. It belongs to him."

She turned back to Killian again and added, "Perhaps I could have stopped whatever's happening to him now if we did share one heart."

"Maybe so," David answered quietly. "But then maybe you wouldn't have been able to either. All of these maybes are painful conjectures to drive yourself crazy over, Emma. Don't do that to yourself. Let's just focus on the here and now."

"I'm sorry for interrupting," Regina then stated, when at last she appeared in the doorway, then walked into the room upon seeing Hook lying unconscious on the bed and looked down at him in concern. "What's happened to him now?"

Snow stood as she looked across the bed at her and replied, "We're not really sure, but we have a pretty good feeling the Evil Queen's behind it. That it's why she had Hyde steal Killian's hook from him in his attack. They've done this… for some reason."

When Regina stepped closer to the bed and leaned down as she began to use her power to try to sense what might be wrong with the Captain, Emma looked between them while she questioned, "Can you sense what's happening to him? Can you help him?"

"I'm afraid… there's a reason why I can't," the Mayor responded calmly while she continued to work and to try to heal him, unfortunately finding she couldn't do that either. "It's like my magic is being blocked, only… I can barely sense thoughts that aren't his own inside of Hook's mind. I'm not really sure, but I think his body's become possessed by strange, dark entities. More than just one."

"What?" Emma uttered fearfully upon staring into Regina's eyes in shock once Regina looked up at her again when she finished doing all she could for her friend. "No… We have to do something. There has to be something we can do."

Charming reached across the bed to lay his hand down on Emma's hand that was still laying over Killian's chest and answered, "There is. We can confront the Evil Queen and find out exactly what she's done to him."

Regina turned to him as she retorted sternly, "And you really think that she's just going to admit everything to you because you ask her nicely?"

"It's the best option we have right now," he replied in frustration. "Unless there's something else you have in mind?"

"Unfortunately, I don't," she then responded in frustration and turned her attention back to Emma and Hook. "We'll get to the bottom of this, Emma. I'm sure of it. We just have to be smart about how we do it."

The Savior quickly raised her hands up to her eyes to wipe away the tears threatening to fall and she laid her hands back down over the man she loved while she took his hand into her own, until the one she laid again over his chest began to shake when her tremors returned, then she struggled to get it back under control as she answered fearfully, "Maybe. But how long does Killian really have before something worse happens to him than just a bruise over his cheekbone? What if… what if he's wounded again as badly as he was last night and this time we can't heal him?"

Regina looked down worryingly and then replied, "Something tells me that these things inside of him want something other than just to hurt him. That they're going to draw out his pain for as long as they can until the Evil Queen gets whatever it is she's after."

"What if we were to find Hyde and then figure out a way we can get him to talk?" Snow suggested when she finally spoke again. "I'm not sure how. I mean… he's impervious to pain and he can absorb whatever magic is thrown at him..."

"But he's not invincible," the Princess' stepmother responded, then tried to come up with an idea on how they might be able to pull Snow's idea off. "He may be able to absorb our magic when we've tried to use it to hurt him, but he might be susceptible to a sleeping spell. It could work."

Emma shook her head, then she answered, "And even if it does, it doesn't mean he'll tell us what we need to know to save Killian. Trying to capture Hyde is only going to be a waste of time. Time Killian doesn't have."

David looked at his daughter again sadly while he replied, "I'm not so sure we have a choice."

The Savior was about to say something more as she looked down upon the man she loved again, until all of a sudden she froze when she noticed blood soaking into the sheets beneath him and Emma immediately yanked off the blanket covering the lower half of Killian's body, then she carefully lifted his blood soaked shirt to reveal multiple deep and bloody lacerations across his chest and his stomach which looked more like strange claw marks than the lashes created by a whip like the many old scars she knew covered his back from being whipped a number of times when he was still young and a slave so long ago.

"What the hell are those?" Regina rhetorically questioned, since she knew no one could answer her on account of them all being just as in the dark as she was.

"I can't just wait around here and do nothing while this is happening to him," Emma responded angrily and stood up once she gave up trying to heal him again when she failed to be able to do so, then started towards the bedroom door to leave.

David swiftly reached out to grab her and pulled her back as he turned her around to face him again, then pleaded, "Emma, don't. You won't be able to help him if you try to confront the Evil Queen or Hyde when you're this angry. Hook needs you right here. With him. Let us go out and do what we can to help him."

Snow agreed with her husband and whispered, "Your father's right, Emma. I'll stay with you. Please, let them worry about the rest. Trust them."

"Fine," the Savior finally answered in understanding and agreement. "Just… just please find something we can use to help him."

"We will," her father said to her assuredly, then he tenderly kissed her on the top of her head before he and Regina finally left the room again to see what they could do elsewhere to try to help their friend.