Finally Home: Chapter 9

The next morning, Emma woke to a very lonely bed and a throbbing headache. She had hardly slept at all last night, and what sleep she did get was haunted by regrets. The minute she walked away from Killian last night she felt guilty. She knew that she didn't really mean anything she had said to him.. Seeing Walsh again just brought back so many heartbreaking memories that made her feel cornered.

"Mom?"

Henry said, cracking her bedroom door open slightly. Emma sat up and gave him a weak smile, patting the bed in front of her telling him to sit down.

"Hey kid.. everything ok?"

She said with a falsely happy tone.

"That's actually what I came in here to ask you. Last night was, well weird."

Henry said with a laugh. Emma laughed along with him, trying to think of what to tell him without getting into major details.

"Yeah.. didn't think I would have to deal with Walsh again, that's for sure."

"Um.. I was actually talking about Killian mainly. I don't think I've ever seen him that mad before."

Henry said. Emma sighed heavily and looked back to him

"Yeah.. What Walsh did doesn't exactly sit well with Killian, I guess. He hurt both of us, Henry. And Killian just wanted to protect us."

Henry studied her face and smiled at her before saying

"Wait so, if you get where he's coming from, why are you mad at him?"

Emma gave him a slightly confused expression, and Henry continued

"Come on Mom, you two were fighting last night.. And I know it's none of my business, I just want to make sure you don't push him away. I don't want you to be afraid to let your walls down. He makes you happy and that's a really cool thing."

He said with a confident smile. Emma looked at her son with an open mouth, amazed at how he was speaking. She shook the stunned expression off her face and ruffled his hair as she smiled at him.

"When did you get so wise huh?"

She asked, feeling legitimately old for the first time in a while.

"Somewhere between fighting peter pan and getting attacked by flying monkeys I guess."

He said jokingly. Emma laughed at his words, realizing how incredibly crazy they sounded.

"What even is our life?"

She said with a laugh as she got out of bed, putting her hair up into a messy ponytail to get ready for the day.

"Defiantly weird.. but good. Really good."

Henry said with a smile. Emma looked back at him and couldn't help but grin at the complete sincerity in his eyes. She gave him a nod, and wrapped her arm around his shoulders as they went downstairs, heading for her much needed coffee.

Once they had both gotten ready for the day, Emma decided to drop Henry off at her parents' place. They were completely exhausted from taking care of the baby,(still kinda weird to call him Neal), so the help from Henry was greatly appreciated. After receiving questioning looks from both of her parents, Emma started to head for the sheriff's station. She certainly was not looking forward to being around Walsh, but if he knew anything that could help her deal with Elsa, the awkwardness would be worth it. Emma took a deep breath before entering the station, very surprised when Killian was sitting at her desk clearly waiting for her. He looked up from the paper once he saw her, his eyes dark and clouded, showing that he didn't any more sleep than she did.

"Killian, how did yo-."

"Your father let me in. He figured I would come here anyways I suppose."

Killian said with a small smirk as he rose to lean against her desk. Emma crossed her arms, eyeing him curiously.

"I guess I should ask why you're here.."

She said as she walked over to the coffee maker, giving herself a reason not to look at him. She heard him sigh before responding

"For you."

Her breath hitched at his words, unable to move at the guilt that flooded over her body.

"I just wanted to make sure you weren't alone when you talked to him.. Just in case you required a hand."

He said with a chuckle, sensing that his previous statement had shocked her. Emma couldn't help but smile at his words, thankful that he couldn't see her face at that moment. She turned to face him, smiling at him before handing him his coffee. He looked back at her with a sparkle in his eyes that Emma couldn't help but he mesmerized by. Surprisingly he didn't step closer to her or even make a comment about her staring. He just stood there, happy to be looking at her without tears dawning her face. They stood in front of each other in silence, though it wasn't an uncomfortable silence. Their stares were broken at the sound of a throat being cleared, both of them turning quickly to the source of the disturbance. Walsh stood awkwardly, trying to forget how he saw them looking at each other. Emma moved away from Killian blushing, while he moved back to his spot behind her desk. Walsh smiled faintly as Emma motioned for him to sit, while she was leaning against the front of her desk with crossed arms.

"Thank you for hearing me out, Emma. I'll do whatever I can to help you."

Walsh said truthfully. Emma nodded at his words, building her walls up for the conversation ahead.

"So tell me about her. How you know her and all that."

She said in a professional tone. Walsh shifted uncomfortably, looking back and forth between Emma and Killian before saying

"I thought we would be talking in private.. I would prefer it that way to be honest."

Emma felt Killian tense behind her, and decided that she did want him here.

"Whatever you were planning to say in front of me, you can say in front of him too. He's staying and that's not up for argument."

She said sternly. Killian tried to hide his grin behind her, causing Walsh to roll his eyes.

"Fine.. but don't blame me when he runs off to tell Elsa. Pirates can't be trusted."

Walsh said bitterly. Killian shot him a cold glare, trying to restrain from punching him again.

"And flying monkeys can?"

Emma questioned, raising her voice slightly. She stood from the table and moved closer to Walsh, but was stopped by Killian's gentle hand on her arm. She turned to face him with a confused look, wondering why he wasn't letting her be more forceful.

"Don't do what I did, Love. Take a deep breath."

He said softly. Emma looked up to him and gave him a grateful smile, turning out of his touch and back to Walsh. She breathed deeply like Killian said and looked at Walsh with a neutral expression.

"You going to help us or not, Walsh? I'm not going to sit here all day and wait for you to stop pouting."

Emma said mockingly. Walsh sighed and looked up at her with a smile.

"First of all, she's from a small kingdom in the Enchanted Forest, Arendelle. She is- was the queen for a few years. She has a sister named Anna who is a couple years younger than she is. She's an orphan too.. Her parents died when she was a teenager."

Emma's expression fell at his words, knowing that being an orphan could really mess a kid up. She nodded at Walsh as a silent conformation to go on.

"Apparently, she was born with her powers. Her parents hid her abilities from everyone her entire child, so she was pretty isolated. She hardly even saw her sister for 18 years. Then once she was old enough to become queen, she lost control of her powers and sent her kingdom into an eternal winter. Arendelle begged the Dark One to help them, but he refused. Eventually Elsa returned and unfroze the kingdom, and everything was fine for a while. After a few years, Elsa's powers started to consume her. She lost control again and she went on a rampage basically.. It wasn't like her at all. The people of the kingdom forced Anna to trick her into making a deal with Rumplestiltskin and she ended up getting locked in some magical prison. I haven't seen her since she was imprisoned."

Emma listened to his words closely, looking for any weakness the ice queen may have had.

"Wait, so her own sister had her locked up?"

Emma said confused.

"Anna didn't want to imprison Elsa, but the kingdom made her. Elsa killed 14 people because she couldn't control her powers.. and they thought she was too dangerous to leave free. So Anna didn't really have a choice."

"You said she killed people with her powers.. how?"

Emma asked curiously.

Walsh gulped and looked away from her, a flash of hurt hitting him when thinking back.

"By freezing their hearts. A ball of light and ice she conjures is very dangerous.. If it hits your heart, it can kill you within days or even hours."

Emma's eyes widened at his words, causing her breath to hitch.. If he was talking about what she thought he was, it was the same thing that Elsa fired at Killian. She wanted to look back to Killian, but was afraid she would start crying if she looked at him.

"Emma? You alright?"

Walsh said, causing Emma to snap out of her daze, nodding at him.

"Of course it's just.. I've seen it before. The weapon she conjures."

She said with a faint tremble in her voice.

"You have? Who'd she kill?"

He said with sadness in his voice.

"No one.."

Emma said with a relieved sigh. Walsh gave her a puzzled expression

"It was me. She was planning on attacking.. someone else, but I jumped in front of them. The ice hit my shoulder instead of my heart."

Killian stated. He didn't know how Emma would react if he said it was her that he saved, so he decided to leave the person nameless. Walsh scoffed and glared at Killian

"The pirate actually has emotions other than greed and selfishness. How noble."

He said mockingly. Killian had to bite his tongue to refrain from snarking back at the bastard.

"Yeah, it was, since he saved my damn life."

Emma said sending a glare Walsh's way. His smirk faded and he looked at Killian then to Emma, realizing that she was serious.

"Emma I-."

Emma held up her hand before he could continue, tired of hearing his sarcastic comments to both her and Killian.

"That's enough for today, Walsh. Leave, before you have a chance to piss me off even more."

She said with a final glare. Walsh thankfully didn't argue, holding up his hands in defeat before leaving the station, slamming the door on his way out. Emma scoffed at his behavior, and silence fell over the room. Emma could feel Killian's eyes on her, but couldn't think of anything to say. Sensing she was uncomfortable, Killian reached for his jacket and turned back to her, a small frown dawning his features.

"I guess I'll leave you to it, Swan."

He said with a sigh. He searched Emma's face again for any sign of her talking to him, but found nothing. He reached for her hand, relieved when she didn't pull away. He pressed a gentle kiss to it, lingering for a moment longer than necessary. Emma shuddered at the touch, but she still refused to look at him. She felt him drop her hand delicately, and then he was gone.

Emma worked for the rest of the day, thinking that keeping herself occupied would be the best thing for her. After a while she couldn't stand to stay at the station, so she decided to go on patrol around town. While driving around town she was doing her best to keep her mind off of Killian. But somehow, her thoughts always drifted back to him. She thought of his smile, and the ridiculous smirk he would give her after making her laugh. She thought of his eyes, and how they were so beautiful. She thought of his arms, and how safe she felt when she was wrapped in them. She thought of his laugh, in other words one of the most comforting sounds in this or any world. When he was with her earlier, there was a part of her that wanted to apologize for everything so badly, but she just couldn't listen to it no matter how hard she tried. Drifting out of her thoughts, Emma realized that she had ended up driving to the docks. "How painfully ironic" Emma thought to herself with a laugh. Just as she was about to turn the bug around, something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. She rolled down the window and realized that it was a path of ice.. that looked strangely familiar. Emma opened the door to her car cautiously, making sure no one was around to catch her by surprise. Seeing that no one was around, she walked over to the ice to inspect it, and turns out, it had the same ice carvings in it that Elsa's had. Emma's gaze followed the path, seeing it led into the boat house. Emma pulled out her phone and called David right away, deciding he needed to see this.

"Emma? Hey what's up?"

David said in a slightly worried tone.

"Hey.. I found a sign of Elsa by the docks. Can you get down here?"

"Yeah I'll be there as soon as I can.. And Emma, please stay put until I get there."

"Yes sir"

Emma said with a laugh as she hung up the phone. When she turned back to the bug, she heard a noise from inside the boat house. She reached for her gun right away, noticing the chill that went up her spine. "Elsa.." She thought to herself. Out of instinct, Emma walked cautiously to the boathouse, forgetting David's request to wait for him. She stopped right in front of the door, and then kicked it open with a loud bang. To Emma's surprise, there didn't seem to be anyone inside. She took a few steps inside, making sure to not let her guard down. She sensed her before she saw her, spinning around quickly to point her gun at her. Once face to face with Elsa, Emma's gun flew out of her hand with a painful twist. The doors of the boathouse all slammed shut, a thick layer of ice covering the handles. Emma summoned a fireball to her palm and shot it towards Elsa, who managed to duck out of the way just barely in time. Elsa gave her a grin and bowed to her.

"I'll admit, you're very powerful Emma."

"Tough enough to take you."

Emma said confidently. Elsa smirked at her and started to form a ball of razor sharp ice crystals in her hand

"We'll see."

Elsa spat as she sent the magic flying towards Emma. She ducked out of the way and reached for her gun, but was knocked back at the last minute. Before she could get up, Elsa froze her in place to the floor.

"Look, Emma, I don't want to hurt you.. but I happily will if I have to. Tell me where Rumplestiltskin is and I won't have to destroy you."

Elsa said as she closed the ice around Emma's body. Emma gasped for air as she felt the ice getting tighter and tighter around her. She felt her vision start to become dark as the ice nearly smothered her. She focused as hardly as she could on her magic, and broke the ice with a loud gasp. Elsa staggered backwards and held up her hand to summon more ice, but was stopped by an arrow wizzing just past her head. Emma lifted her head to see her Mother and Father running towards them, yelling for her. Elsa looked back and forth between them, leaning over Emma with a fiery expression.

"This is NOT OVER, Emma!"

Elsa shouted as she vanished in a cloud of frost. Emma dropped her head back onto the cold floor, trying to catch her breath.

"Emma!

"EMMA!"

Snow and David yelled just before they reached their daughter. Snow fell next to her daughter and held her head, as David crouched beside her.

"Emma are you ok? What happened to waiting for me?"

David said in a shaken voice. Emma sat up with help from her mother, still trying to breathe properly.

"I heard something from inside here and had to check it out. I didn't want to wait."

Emma said out of breath. David leaned forward and pressed a kiss into her hair as he helped her stand.

"Well next time, don't be so eager."

He said with a chuckle. Emma smiled at both of her parents and allowed them to help her into her father's truck. She ended up going back to her parent's apartment so that they could watch her to make sure she was alright, and she practically collapsed on her old bed when she saw it. The fight with Elsa had left her completely exhausted, from both the physical and magical factors. Just before she fell asleep, she heard the bedroom door open. Emma murmured softly and attempted to lift her head but was halted by a familiar hand on her forehead.

"Rest, Love. I'll be here when you wake."

Killian whispered as he leaned down to kiss her forehead. Emma couldn't help but smile at the sound of his voice, and drifted off to sleep thinking of her pirate.