Disclaimer: I don't own Once Upon a Time or its characters; I only borrow.
During the week after The Kiss, as she was now thinking of it, Emma finally got around to taking care of the basic living stuff that she had been neglecting. After some creative truth-telling on Henry's part (and some lying on Emma's) she got Neal's landlord to reveal that the rent was indeed on some sort of auto-pay. It was much easier to find out that the cable and electricity bills were as well. Must remember to pay him back later. She also bought some pre-paid debit cards so that they wouldn't have to keep carrying around large wads of cash.
She and Henry convinced Killian to buy some modern clothes because he was starting to draw attention (mostly from the neighbors who saw him frequently enough to realize he probably wasn't going to a costume party every day). He still usually wore his boots and leather pants (yummy), but he agreed to wear the t-shirts and new leather jacket that they had picked for him.
Emma and Henry spent a full two days overloading Killian with information about their world. Despite only being in this land (and outside of Storybrooke) for a few weeks, he had actually adapted quite well. In addition to his agreement to wear something other than his full pirate garb (though the earring, rings, and eyeliner had also stayed) he had taken to doing much of the grocery shopping while Emma did her online research (the internet was something he hadn't bothered with yet). He watched TV ('bloody waste of time' though it was) and even made dinner every now and again. She wasn't terribly surprised that he knew how to cook, having been a solitary creature for some time, but for some reason it still amused her to see him in the kitchen; especially if he was microwaving something (that had taken a while to get. His first attempt had resulted in extremely overcooked food and his second involved a lot of sparks and smoke because Emma hadn't specified that warming up soup meant taking it out of the can first).
-.*.-.*.-.*.-
Three weeks in, a thudding sound could be heard throughout the apartment. With each thud Emma thought idiot.
"Mom, if you keep banging your head against the table you're going to dent it."
"The table or my head?" She asked without ceasing her self-berating. Idiot, idiot, idiot.
"Both."
Emma allowed herself two more thuds before lifting her head off the table. You know, I used to scoff at people who pulled out their smartphones to look up an address when there was a phonebook right there.
"Why so glum, love?" Killian asked as he entered the apartment with several bags of groceries. She took a second to appreciate the view (his t-shirt was very form-fitting) before letting her head fall against the table again. "I used to find people for a living! You know how I often did that? I used the internet! Have I done one search on psychics, seers, or anything of the kind in this city? No!" She had realized this right when she woke up and immediately did a search. She wouldn't be so upset with herself if she hadn't found six additions for their list. (People who advertised online only were a pain in the ass.) One was an 'alternative medical remedies specialist' whose website consisted only of hours and a phone number to make an appointment; this was the main reason she was denting her forehead. She had done more research on the guy and found review sites and blogs that sung his praises.
"Six more that we could've looked into by now. Six!"
"Isn't that the purpose of this large book with miniscule print?" Emma glared at Killian, who was holding up the phonebook (you know damn well what that's called, jackass) while trying, unsuccessfully, to keep a look of amusement off of his face.
"Ugh!" She got up from the table and threw herself onto the bed, facedown, and covered her head with a pillow. Killian and Henry exchanged a look, then played rock, paper, scissors (which Henry had introduced the pirate to during a particularly long wait for a faith healer). Henry won.
'Two out of three?' Killian mouthed. Henry rolled his eyes but agreed, then grinned when he won again. He mouthed back 'coward' when Killian suggested 'three of five?'
Killian sighed. "Put away the groceries, then," he told the boy before making his way to Emma. He laid next to her and pulled the pillow from her head. "Emma?"
"I'm a moron," she stated into the mattress.
"No, you're stressed."
"I'm stressed because I'm a moron."
"No, you're a moron because you're stressed." That earned him another glare. "That didn't come out right."
"I would hope not," she told him with narrowed eyes. Then she shoved her face back into the mattress.
"You're going to suffocate, love." When Killian didn't get a response he sighed again and started rubbing small circles on her back. After he felt some of the tension leave her body he tried again. Well, he tried to try again; before he could do more than open his mouth she flipped over and looked at him.
"Three weeks," she said, as if that explained everything.
"I'm sorry?"
"Three weeks. That's how long it will take to get in to see that 'alternative medical remedies' guy. If I had bothered to look things up when we got here, we might already be done with him! And we'd probably be done with everyone else next week, so we could move on if we needed too, but now we're here for another three weeks at least. That would mean we've been here a month and a half. Which would give us two and a half left before the shield sends everyone back, if the shield even held. And we need a month to make the potion. So, after seeing this guy we'll have only a month and a half left to find someone if he, or the others we still need to see, isn't legit. A month and a half!" Yeah, she was probably close to being hysterical at this point. Stop smiling, jackass. "This isn't funny!"
"I never said it was." He kissed her forehead. "Though you are beautiful when you get worked up."
Emma scowled at him. "I haven't forgotten about the moron remark."
"You said it first. Dinner will be ready in twenty minutes, if you'd care to interrupt your wallowing to join us." Emma flipped back over and muffled a frustrated yell with a pillow. Killian shrugged at Henry when he entered the kitchen area.
Maybe a minute later they heard a muffled "what's for dinner?"
Much as she appreciated the camaraderie that Killian and Henry were building, she really didn't like it when they ganged up on her. As she picked at her spaghetti Killian pointed out that they still had plenty of other people to check out, as well as ingredients to procure (three of them were proving to be particularly difficult to find). Henry said a couple of things to try and cheer her up (it didn't work) then sternly told her that she had another hour to be ridiculous and then she had to act like a grown-up.
When did my son start scolding me on irrational behavior? I didn't think that'd start until I hit my mid-life crisis years.
Beyond mentioning reminding her of the things that they still needed to do (which very well might take three weeks, though she certainly wasn't going to admit that out loud), Killian didn't try to cheer her up or curb her impractical behavior (because when does having an I'm an idiot and therefore must do nothing but lament my idiocy party actually accomplish anything?), only brushed her hair back when it came perilously close to dipping in her spaghetti sauce.
Emma didn't allow herself the full hour, instead silently soothing her wounded pride while she finished eating.
Henry and Killian had a heated discussion over some TV show they had watched that morning while she'd made breakfast.
Emma tuned in to their discussion after her pity party was over. "How could painting a hole on the side of a mountain create a tunnel for one creature, but not another, without the use of magic?"
"Killian, it's a cartoon. It's not supposed to make sense. It's just supposed to be funny."
"A coyote repeatedly trying to murder a road runner is an acceptable form of children's entertainment?"
"Yes. Shut up and eat."
Emma held back her laugh. After they all finished eating she took over kitchen duty to do the dishes (Killian put them away as she dried them) and Henry spread out on the couch to watch TV.
Killian touched her shoulder. "Doing better now, love?"
"Yeah. Sorry I've been so melodramatic. A mixture of stress and hurt pride, I guess." She gave him a sheepish look in recognition of her melodrama.
"Have you found something to fill the time you were so worried about?"
"I'll do more digging online and make some calls about those last ingredients. Then I'm going to start making up lists on other cities we might need to visit."
"Where would we go after here?" He followed her to the table and helped her finish clearing it off and setting back up the maps.
"New Orleans, maybe? Probably a whole bunch more charlatans to weed through, but maybe some of the Voodoo practitioners can point us in the right direction."
"What is Voodoo?"
"It's a religion that incorporates magic. Spells as prayers, that sort of thing. I think, anyway. I don't actually know all that much about it. I guess that goes on the 'to research list' as well." Emma flipped to a new page in the notebook she was using and wrote To Research across the top. Might as well add it to an actual list, rather than just my mental one.
"So we'll drive to this New Orleans if we can't find everything we need here.
"We'd take an airplane, actually. Since I'm the only one who knows how to drive it'd probably be a two day trip just to get there." She was sort of excited to see how Killian would react to a plane. Then again, he has traveled across realms through portals in his pirate ship, so maybe he wouldn't see intentionally taking to the sky in a large metal tube as a big deal.
"I captain a pirate ship, love. I'm sure I'd be able to handle your car." Yeah, yeah.
"Yeah, not happening."
A/N: Later than I'd intended and not flowing nearly as smoothly as I'd like, but I should be able to remedy that next chapter. Finals are over, so at least I won't have to waste time lecturing myself on responsibility before working on a chapter.
Reviews are fruit and constructive criticism is a giant bowl of in-season strawberries and peaches (with whipped cream on the side for dipping, of course).