A/n:Sorry! My car was struck and totaled last week and though I didn't receive any injuries that sent me immediately to the hospital, my life has been rather busy with insurance, doctor visits, and car shopping. It also shook me pretty badly and rattled my sense of safety, thus ability to write gooey romance. ;-) I want to give my readers something I'm at least happy with and I've been finding that difficult. The updates will be coming slowly and I apologize.
Emma swiped at her tears and decided sitting here alone wasn't gong to solve anything and she had no idea when Killian would be back. She picked up the phone and dialed the first few numbers of her mom. Pausing, she thought back to the conversation in the park and deleted them. She then pulled up Regina's contact. Would it alarm Penny or Henry if she called during their sleep-over?
She heard it ring a few times before Regina's voice picked up. "Emma, she's fine! She's stayed the night here before and Henry's here."
Laughing, Emma tried to sound cheerful, "That's great, Regina. That's not actually what I'm calling about. Do you have a minute to break away from the chaos?" Emma heard the laughter die down.
"I'm in the next room, what's going on? What's happened?"
Emma took a deep breath and then started speaking rapidly, as though saying it quickly would make it better. "August kissed me this afternoon, and I didn't exactly stop him, but I made him leave right after. I told Killian."
She could picture Regina's face on the other end of the line, but the older woman kept her voice even, "and how did our dear Captain take that? Not well, I'd imagine."
"He got angry, understandably. He left, he came back in and kissed me, and then left again. I'm not sure where he is, but he said he would be back." Emma sighed.
She could hear Regina's temper getting short, she knew that she was cutting into time with Robin, Roland, Henry, and even Penny. Regina wanted a family and now she was being taken away from this family time by something she probably saw as trivial by Emma's description. "Emma, you know guys. He had to blow off some steam. He's crazy about you and the whole town knows it. You two will be fine. But why call me? What happened to your mom/bff? We don't exactly get together for cocktails and to braid our hair."
Emma had to think for a moment. Why had she called Regina? She had other friends and she and Regina, though closer still weren't close, as she had just stated. "I guess I actually wanted to ask you about that spell. It brought back your true love and I was wondering if you had any thoughts on why it brought August to me."
"Oh, is that all? Emma, it didn't bring back my true love. That's not what the spell was for, no matter what Robin is to me, the spell was to find someone I love who is lost and bring him back. If you read the words and look at the potion ingredients, it's all about loss. I had to make sure it wouldn't bring back anyone who is dead. So it brought back someone who each of us loved, but who was lost. It wasn't going to bring Hook to you since he wasn't lost." She paused, "You were growing concerned that you might love August more than Hook?"
Emma shook her head, but she knew Regina couldn't see her so she said, "Not really, I mean, yeah it bothered me, but I know I love Killian more and I was wondering what it meant that August would appear. Thanks, Regina."
"No problem, Emma, now if you'll excuse me, our son and your daughter are creaming Robin and Roland at Pictionary and I want to get back out there."
Killian walked quietly into the Rabbit Hole. He wasn't looking for a fight necessarily, though he was angry enough for one. He spotted the wooden-man-child at the bar and made his way over. He would not start a fight, but he had a few choice words and figured that he would be here. Nodding to a few of the townspeople that he knew either from his time at port in the Enchanted Forest or those with whom he'd become familiar during his time here, Leroy, Red, Whale among them, he wove around the tables until he plunked himself down on a barstool. The barkeep came over and all Killian said was, "rum, neat."
August hadn't even looked up. He swirled his amber liquid around his own glass. "Thought I might get a visit from you tonight. I take it Emma told you?" He downed the little that was left in his glass and signaled for another one. Their drinks arrived at the same time. Killian still hadn't spoken. "When she told you, did she make it sound like she was completely innocent in it? That I forced the kiss on her?"
Taking a slow sip, Killian considered his words, "She told me that she knew you were going to kiss her and she didn't stop you. She also said that she asked you to leave right away." Killian turned sideways in his seat and August lifted his head so the two men could look at each other. "I would ask if that's how you remember it, but you see I trust the woman who married me to tell me the truth, even if it's less than honorable." He was sure to emphasize the word married.
Both men took a drink before August spoke again, "I suppose that is something Emma's always had going for her, she doesn't lie often. Unless it's to spare someone's feelings. As much as she wants to deny it, do you really think she can be happy with you now that I'm back?"
Sharply setting his glass back down, Killian started to stand, "Why you arrog-"
"Gentlemen!" at that precise moment, David came between the two men and placed his hand heavily on Killian's shoulder. It had a clear meaning: sit down and calm yourself. "Buy you each a drink?" He sat down on Killian's other side.
"I think August here has had enough, but I would take another." Killian's voice was tight. He resented David's sudden appearance because it felt like babysitting, but he was grateful that he had shown up before he had broken the formerly wooden nose instead of after- this would not be a fun night to spend at the station if David had needed to break up a fight.
Smiling smugly, August replied for himself, "nonsense, Captain, I'm just getting started."
"David, what are you doing here?" David pulled the cash out of his wallet and paid the bartender for three drinks before picking his up. Killian wondered briefly if Emma had known where he was going and had called her father with the hope of precluding any violence.
He smiled, took a sip, and moved farther down the bar to sit by Leroy, "Me? Oh, when August came to the station this afternoon and Emma left with him, I figured something like this might happen and I called Leroy here to see if he wanted to have few drinks on me and to call me if the two of you showed up." He smiled his annoying Prince Charming smile, "Have a pleasant evening, fellas."
Rolling his eyes, Killian turned back to August, "Now, where were we?"
"I think you were about to commit an act of violence against me, but now that dear old Dad is sitting right there, you might be reconsidering."
Had he been? He couldn't remember why David's presence would make him any less likely to knock the smug look off of August's face, just then. "Look, I came down here to make some things quite plain. Emma and I are married and happily so."
Picking up the glass but stopping it an inch from his lips, August interrupted, "Until I came along, don't you think that's significant? I'm here and I'll be getting my family back, pirate." He knocked back another portion of the drink.
Anger rising, Killian worked hard not to show it, "They're not your family. Emma has vowed to spend her life with me and I don't see that changing. As for Penny, yes, you're her biological father, but you've been exactly as useful as a coffee table carved from the wood you've been for her whole life. You've got, what? A few hours on a playground? I've got years of bedtime stories, rocking her to sleep, chasing away all of the monsters under the bed and in the closet, sneaking cookies after Emma's told her no more, dolls, dress-up, numbers, colors, you name it and it's been me."
August seemed to be trying to control his anger, "You've got her past, but now that I'm here, I'll be her future. And as for Emma, I won her away from you once, I can do it again. If it does come to that, would you roll over and let her go a second time as easily as you did the first?"
This man really had no idea how Emma felt and Killian was all too happy to enlighten him. "Aye, we'll not keep you from Pen. She's your child and you should get to know her. Emma, well, if she decided she wanted to leave me, I would let her go, again, yes, but there are things you don't know. Things that, as her husband, I do." He turned back toward his drink, expecting August to interject, when he didn't, Killian continued, "You see, when you're married, you see each other at your worst and at your best. I've seen Emma quite drunk a number of times and sometimes she talks about you." It was true. A time or two when Snow and David or Regina had Penny, he and Emma had imbibed a little more than properly advised. It was in those moments that Emma divulged information that she wouldn't tell him sober for risk of hurting him. She never remembered and he always assured her that she was fine the next morning in whatever she had said the night previous.
August's smile was back. "She talks about me drunk and you think that's a good sign? Well, whatever trips your trigger, I guess." He took another swallow.
Chuckling softly, Killian kept on with his story, "She talks about your time together and how she was constantly second-guessing everything. How you would just walk away for an evening with no contact and it always brought up her abandonment fears, which your leaving as soon as she found out she was pregnant only multiplied. She would talk about how lying next to you, she never felt truly at peace, no matter how much she thought you loved her. She would wonder if there was more than that feeling for her. Then she found me and discovered that, aye, there is more."
August had frozen in his place. He looked up, looked at Killian. A dismissive noise came from the back of his throat, but he didn't say anything. Draining his drink, he stood up and put his back to Killian who spoke again, "Look, I know you didn't want to hear that, Mate, but if you truly think you love her, isn't that what you should want for her?"
August slung his jacket over his shoulder and slunk out of the bar without another word.
David came up behind Killian and clapped him on the shoulder, "So, I suppose you heard that."
Nodding, David whispered, "You're lucky it's so slow tonight, because I think half the bar was listening. Again, fortunately, half the bar is only Leroy, me, and Red by this point." David clapped him twice on the back and made his way toward the door, throwing a quick, "You'd better get home to Emma" over his shoulder.