He stepped out of the portal, falling to his hands and knees as he barked a short shout of victory. He made it. He made it, finally after all this time just searching for a way, wallowing in the virtual impossibility of it all.

He flipped around and found himself alone, suddenly aware that Emma wasn't behind him.

"Emma?!" he called and started forward with a flash of dread when she suddenly stepped through just as the swirling purple oval disappeared behind her.

"Lass there you are! I was beginning to think I had to celebrate alone." he smiled widely, but slowly the playfulness dissolved into slow, burning dread as she staggered forwards.

He caught her in his arms as she knocked them both to the ground, pulling his hand away to find it crimson. Gathering her close, he pulled aside her jacket with his hook and felt fear freeze in his veins when he saw the gruesome hole blown clean through her side. Her pants fast as she sucked in breath raggedly and hands clawing against his chest.

"EMMA. EMM—"

He struggled to hold her upright and press hard on her side to stop the bleeding but her hand was hard on his cheek, forcing him to stop and look at her.

"Stop. It's okay." something resigned burned molten in her eyes.

Something that told him there was nothing left to save.

He choked on his breath and felt the air squeezed out of his lungs, suffocating him.

"I won't let you stop me— I can't. You can't!" he was pleading with her, desperate. If she would just listen. If she could please just god damn listen and not be so bloody stubborn.

"I won't let you Emma. I love… I can't lose again I'm bloody begging you. I CAN'T LOSE YOU. I CAN'T…" he had to wake up. This was a recurring nightmare he'd kept from her several times when he woke howling her name. This time shouldn't be different. It was just another nightmare.

"You're forbidding me to die Killian?" she gasped in pain as she clutched his forearm painfully, "Ha- I'll try for you okay— can't— can't promise you anything."

She cried out sharply, muffling the sound in his chest as she buried her face in the front of his shirt. She was inhaling deeply, rocking slightly because he shook as he tightened his arms around her shoulders, filling the caverns in his chest.

It burned. The hot trails of moisture across his face, the loss. The black loss that consumed him. He had no hatred left to light the darkness. The light had gone out of him.

He held her and rocked her like a small child, listening to her ragged breath and her quiet sobs of pain. He wouldn't take his eyes off of hers, staring hard at the blue. Seeing only blue. No fucking scarlet or haunting black. Serene blue. Ocean and sky blue.

Her hand began to slacken and he held it to his face, begging her incoherently watching the blue in her irises fade to grey.

Her hand dropped to her side as a ghost of a smile graced her lips. He began screaming then, drawing people out of the buildings lining the street. Every cracking sound was her name, bellowed again and again until he was reduced to silent tears.

He pressed his forehead to hers and held her. Close, she was still warm. Her blood still pooled around them. His tears on her cheeks and his, his lips pressed to the corner of her mouth.

Their story had only just begun, and she hadn't even the time to say goodbye.

This wasn't Neverland. Time stopped for no one here.