Emma paced impatiently in front of her father's study. The heavy oaken door had closed behind Charming and Killian close to twenty minutes earlier, and they still hadn't sent word for her. She didn't know what was happening behind that door—if her father would give Killian his consent, or if they were fighting, or…she couldn't even try to imagine what might be going on, she didn't even want to imagine what might be going on. With a resigned sigh, Emma crossed the hall and slid down the wall facing the door so that she was seated on the floor, her violet skirts spread all around her, catching and reflecting the vivid orange rays of the setting sun shining through the large windows behind her. She pulled her woolen shawl tighter around her shoulders and leaned her head back against the wall. Emma closed her eyes briefly, and let the small warmth of the winter sun slowly lull her to sleep.

. . .

King David sat and watched the young man in front of him, the young man who had just finished asking him for his permission to marry Emma.

"So, you want to marry my daughter."

"Yes, your Majesty."

"You love her."

"Yes, your Majesty."

"And you are absolutely, positively, one-hundred percent completely convinced that she loves you in return?"

"Yes, your Majesty."

"Mhm…" Charming looked over the young naval lieutenant.

True, Jones was only a lieutenant, which meant that he definitely wasn't as "well-suited" for Emma as, say, a prince or some other peer of the realm, but David tended to think that those types of things didn't really matter when it came to True Love. He didn't have to look far to see just how true that really was, after all. He was enjoying making the Lieutenant squirm, if only because this was the first time Emma had ever had a suitor she was actually interested in. Finally deciding to take pity on him, David let a smile break out on his face and stuck his hand out towards Jones. "All right, boy, you have my consent. I do however, have a few stipulations."

Any hesitant happiness that David saw on the Lieutenant's face disappeared quickly at the older man's words. "Stipulations, sir?"

"Yes, stipulations; first, you'll be promoted to Captain. It's the only way you can get enough money to properly support Emma and any family the two of you might eventually have. Second, you and your brother will sail at dawn tomorrow morning, Emma in tow."

"Sir?"

Charming looked hard at the newly-appointed Captain. "My daughter is the key to breaking this curse. I don't want anything, and I mean anything, to happen to her before she can do so. For this reason you and your brother will leave the Enchanted Forest to escape the curse and take Emma with you. You love her with the inimitable strength of True Love. Rumplestiltskin said it himself, it's the most powerful thing in the universe." Charming stood and pointed at Killian Jones, "you are the only one in this world and any other who can best and fully protect Emma from danger. Which is why you need to leave, so that you can keep her safe until she's ready to break the curse, until she's figured out what to do so that she can save everyone. Do you understand, Captain?"

Killian nodded his head once, sharply, "I understand, my King, and I swear to you with everything I am that I will guard Emma with my life. I will not fail you."

"Good. Now go and send someone to find your brother and bring him here to me. I need to make sure that the three of you and your crew will be able to leave first thing in the morning." David moved around the corner to stand behind the large mahogany desk, his dismissal of Killian clear. In doing so, the King missed the flash of confused hurt on the boy's face—hadn't he just been named Captain? Wasn't his counsel useful as well?

Charming glanced up to see the young Captain's brows knit together slightly, and sighed quietly. "You realize that the girl you love has been waiting outside this room for at least half an hour? And that she has a hellcat temper ready to break free at any moment when she gets frustrated? And that anyone unlucky enough to be in her path at that moment gets the full brunt of her anger? Even if it's one of the people she loves most?"

Killian winced almost comically at the thought of his fiery blonde princess on the other side of the thick oak doors, not knowing at all the happenings within the study. "Point made. I'll let the guard outside know of your summons for my brother. Good day, and thank you, sir."

With that, David watched the boy he'd one day call son-in-law walk away from him. And all of a sudden thought of a whole new set of "stipulations" he should have enforced…

. . .

Killian walked out the door and stopped short. For there was Emma, seated on the floor, her head lolled back against the wall, snoring softly. With a small chuckle, Killian crouched so that they were at eye-level. He reached out a tentative hand and smoothed a lock of hair away from her face. Cupping the back of her neck, he leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips. Emma's eyelids fluttered as he pulled away, and then snapped open, revealing confused grey-green eyes. "Lieutenant?"

"Actually, it's Captain now," he corrected her with a crooked grin.

Emma's eyes widened as his words took on a full effect. "Does…does that mean…?"

"Does that mean what, love?" Killian teased. "That I get my own commission, a larger salary…a bigger hat?"

"Hmm, is it a bigger hat because it needs to fit over a bigger head?" Emma cocked her head to the left, sarcastically pretending to give the question serious consideration.

Killian's eyes narrowed mockingly, "it's taller-bigger not wider-bigger and you know it, you little minx."

"Well, if you had answered my question seriously—"

"Who's to say I didn't?" Emma spluttered, trying to reply, but he cut her off. "And besides, you didn't even finish the whole question."

"Mm, yeah, and we both know that you had absolutely no idea whatsoever what I was clearly asking about."

Killian exaggeratedly rolled his eyes at her. "Perhaps you should be a tad bit more precise with your enunciation next time, Princess."

"And maybe, Captain, you should just give it up and tell me what the hell happened already before I leave and go ask my father myself." Emma glared at him.

Apparently relenting, Killian glanced down at her hands resting lightly on her lap. He reached down and started playing with her fingers before lifting her hand to his lips. His frost-blue gaze locked tight onto her stormy green one, and with a voice no louder than a whisper, he told her, "he gave me his consent."

For a moment, time felt suspended. The air was heavy and something unnamed hung between them. It was a moment as powerful as the first time they met, but even more so. Neither blinked, as if both were afraid that the other was merely an apparition, and one brief flutter of eyelids would make them disappear forever. Killian could feel his heart pounding against the inside of his chest, the beats drowning out each of his surroundings but the girl in front of him. He wasn't sure how long they sat there staring at each other before Emma's face slowly broke into a grand smile that lit up her face from within. Killian's eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled back at her, the left side of his mouth tilting a bit higher than the right.

Suddenly without warning, she launched herself at him, her slender arms wrapping around his neck as Emma hugged him fiercely. Instinctively Killian's arms wound around her back, and he held her tightly to him. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, who knows), they had both forgotten Killian's precarious balance on the balls of his feet, and the two fell to the stone floor with a thump. "Oof," came the Captain's muffled voice from underneath the thick waves of Emma's blond hair.

"Oh my goodness, are you all right?" Emma rose up and put her palms on either side of his head so that she was looking directly down at him.

"Oh, I think I'll live—oh, no, don't…move…ahh!" Killian's grunt of pain interrupted his speech as Emma put her weight onto her knee as she tried to move off him, not noticing the…inconvenient…place where it was located.

She scrunched her eyebrows, trying to figure out why Killian's face was screwed in pain. Then her eyes widened and her face colored as the realization of where her knee was located dawned on her. Thoroughly embarrassed now, Emma moved the offending appendage to the floor, and with that her Captain breathed a shaky sigh of relief. "Are you okay?"

Chuckling weakly, he reached up his hands and rubbed them up and down her arms. "I'm fine, love, no worries." He tilted his head up and smiled at her, enormously pleased when she tentatively smiled back down at him, her cheeks still tinged in pink.

She leaned down and pecked him quickly on the lips before rolling off and lying on the floor beside him. They turned their heads sideways to face each other, as if neither wanted to lose sight of the other even for a second. Killian stood up eventually and reached over to haul his Princess to her feet. She stood and swayed towards him. He righted her and threaded her arm through the crook of his elbow. Before he led her down the hall through the fading light, Killian gave the guard standing outside the door the King's message for Liam. Having completed that, the pair slowly meandered down the corridor, taking all the time in the world.

. . .

Emma felt as though her heart was about to burst. Her father had said yes. Her father had said yes! She was almost giddy at the thought. With a smile on her face, Emma turned to look at Killian, only to see that his eyebrows were slightly furrowed and a small frown had tightened his mouth. She stopped walking and her hand tightened around his elbow. "Killian?"

"Hm?" He returned distractedly before turning to face her. His electric eyes came back into focus as he shook his head and a smile lit his mouth. "What, love?"

"Are you okay? You seem a little…distracted."

Killian bit the corner of his lip before he motioned towards a wide stone arch that provided them a spot to sit. "Emma, there's a bit of a catch."

"What do you mean a catch?" Her eyes narrowed with her voice full of suspicion.

He took a deep breath and swiveled to face her head on. "Look, Emma, your father made me promise that I'd take you from the Enchanted Forest and keep you with me…until you figure out how to break the curse and, save, everybody…"

Emma slouched down at his words, leaning slightly on the stone arch next to her. Leave the Enchanted Forest…"but, I don't, I don't understand…" her brows knit together and she looked in the general direction of the floor near his feet. "If we have to leave, then…where are we supposed to go?"

Killian sighed deeply and looked up at the darkening sky, "I think that's rather up to my brother and your father, actually."

"But, don't you have a say as well? I mean, you were just named Captain."

"Yes, well, I've got a feeling that I was only named captain so that I could have the higher salary. Not that I think your father much cares for that sort of thing, but—"

"I should hope not," Emma scoffed. "He started off even worse than you."

"Sorry?"

"He was a shepherd."

If this were some other time, and if it didn't feel as though her world was coming very close to falling, then she might have laughed hysterically at Killian's face. His eyes widened comically as his head dropped and turned to look at her, one silky black eyebrow raised high and jaw down low. As it was, she managed a small smirk at his incredulity.

"He was—what?"

This time she did chuckle a little bit as she answered him. "I don't remember the particulars, but King George apparently made a deal with Rumplestiltskin for a son, and so Rumplestiltskin brought him a baby boy, James, but never told George that James had a twin or that the boy came from a poor shepherd's family who had also made a deal with Rumplestiltskin and had had to pay in the form of their son. Then years later, when James died before he could marry King Midas's daughter Abigail and therefore save the kingdom from debt and destitution, Rumplestiltskin made a deal with the other son, and in exchange for my grandmother being taken care of for the rest of her life, he would go and pretend to be James for the rest of his."

Killian sat next to her with his lips pursed and his blue eyes narrowed as he followed her story. "Wait, so then where does your mother come in?"

"Ah, well, that's where the story gets exciting. My mother was on the run from Regina and committing highway robbery in order to survive, and one day she robbed my father's carriage, and he swore that he'd get her back for it, and well, as they say, the rest is kind of history," Emma finished with a shrug.

The Captain beside her nodded his head in understanding and with a small smile on his lips. He reached over slowly and slid his hand over Emma's. He played with their fingers for a moment and then intertwined them before bringing their joined hands up to his mouth and placing a feather-soft kiss on her knuckles. "Emma, I want you to know something."

"Yes, Killian?" She said, her voice slightly breathless, though her face betrayed nothing.

"I, I know that you hate the idea of leaving your parents and your friends behind, but I'd like you to know that I promise to do anything and everything so that you find them again." His voice grew earnest and rough and he grasped both of her hands in his and looked at her head on.

"I will go to the ends of the realms to help you find a way to break the curse and save them. I know this maybe wasn't the best way to change the topic, but, well, I…I just wanted you to know," he finished lamely.

Emma's lips curved up in a smirk, her eyes flitting back and forth between his and she squeezed his hands tightly. "I know. I trust you, Captain Killian Jones, with all my heart I trust you."

. . .

"Sir?"

"You heard me."

"I, well, yes, but, certainly…"

"Certainly what? Certainly I'm joking?" David looked up from the large map spread over the dark mahogany table to peer at the curly-haired naval captain in front of him. "I can assure you, Captain Jones, I most certainly am not joking. This is my daughter we're talking about."

"But Killian—"

"Loves her and she loves him and that's all I need to know. True Love doesn't stay within silly social boundaries like Princess and Lieutenant, Captain."

Liam scratched his mop of brown curls, still slightly confused but willing to recognize it would do no good to argue. "So you want Killian and I to escort the Princess Emma out of the realm on the Jewel tomorrow morning? Isn't that a little early?"

"Yes and yes. It's early for a reason—we don't know if Emma would be affected by the curse or if it would pass over her in a way, and Snow and I aren't willing to take the chance that she could be and then maybe be unable to find a way to break it. Plus, we don't even know what exactly is going to happen to us, and I'd rather she be safe and out of the realm than not."

"Very well, sir. Do you know where you'd like for us to sail?"

David looked through the tall window at the dark-blue-almost-black sky above and closed his eyes, praying that he'd made the right decisions. "Neverland. I want you to take Emma to Neverland."

**A/N: I thought I'd make this one longer to make up for my crap updating and the super short chapter 8...and look! I figured out how to get that line in here! (You don't realize how much I struggled to figure that one out...) anywho, like I said, I don't own anything but the plot...enjoy!**