Thank you for your feedback on the last chapter. I'm so happy to know I'm not boring you all silly with the royal trivia.

"Ugh, I can't believe I'm saying goodbye to you again," Killian groaned, as he watched Emma pack her suitcase once more.

She leaned in to press a sweet kiss to his lips, before pulling back to stroke his cheeks with her thumbs. "Seventy-Seven days and then I'll be with you as much as possible," she promised.

"Trust me, I'm counting them."

Emma leaned in for one more kiss, before she pulled away and turned back to her case. Killian wasn't happy to see her leaving again, but as he glanced around the bedroom, he was happy to notice the additions that Emma was leaving behind. In fact, she was barely taking anything back to London with her at all.

"I'm sorry I can't be with you next week."

Emma had been doing her best not to think about the rapidly approaching anniversary of her father's death. The day was hard enough to deal with as it was. Being without the man she loved was only going to make it worse.

"It's okay," she soothed. "I understand why you can't. Besides, I'm not exactly going to be the best of company that week anyway."

"I don't care about that. I just want to be there for you," he mumbled.

"You will be," Emma assured him. "Just knowing that you're thinking about me will be enough. I promise."

Killian pulled her back into his arms, hoping that she would hang on to the feeling when he couldn't physically be there to hug her.

The knock on his front door made them both groan.

"Anton needs to start being late every so often," he mumbled into her hair.

"He'd probably be fired if he were," she chuckled into his shirt. Emma squeezed him a little tighter before pulling back to look up at his face. "I love you."

"I love you too," he whispered back, dipping his head to give her one last, lingering kiss, before pulling away. "Call me as soon as you land?"

"As soon as the plane stops," Emma assured him. "I'll see you again soon, Handsome."

By the time Emma had made it back to London, she was exhausted both mentally and physically. All she wanted to do was check in on Rogan, before heading up to bed.

However, the moment she walked into her lounge, she wished she'd just gone straight up to bed.

"Emma," Liam gasped, sitting upright on the sofa. "I forgot you were coming back tonight."

"I'm um… I'm just gonna grab a drink and head to bed," she told him, trying not to look at the way both his shirt and trousers had been unbuttoned and certainly refusing to look at Ruby who had been underneath Liam when she walked in. "Where's Rogan?"

"He's upstairs in your room." Clearly, Emma wasn't the only one who didn't wanna see what she was currently seeing. "Okay. We're just gonna…"

"Don't need the details," she called, backing out of the room quickly. "Just…. Maybe use a bed or something… so I don't have to burn my couch."

"Please… like you and Killian haven't?" Liam yelled back.

When Emma made it to her room she found Rogan curled up on his bed, at the end of her own, fast asleep. She ditched her bag in the closet, promising herself to unpack it the next day, and quickly stripped down for a shower.

Rogan was awake by the time she had finished, so Emma spent some time playing with his ball on the floor. She'd managed to speak to Killian briefly when her plane landed, before he'd been called back to set, and she knew she wouldn't make it until his finishing time to speak longer. So instead, she decided to fire off a quick tweet for him to come back to.

Having a big brother is everything I expected it to be! Thanks for loaning me yours KillianJones1

Liam left early Monday morning to fly back to Ireland. Waking up to see Ruby still in the apartment wasn't as odd as Emma thought it would be. Ruby and Liam seemed to fit together the same way she and Killian did, working together to fix coffee and breakfast for the three of them before they left to shower and dress. Ruby had offered to drive Liam to the airport and he was more than happy to get that little extra time with her.

When the apartment was empty once more, Emma quickly set to work, sorting through the mail that had built up for her while she was away, and emailing her personal assistant over details of charities for donations to be made to in honour of her marriage to Killian. When her mail had been sorted, and responded to, she took a small break for lunch, before deciding to pay her mother a quick visit.

Mary was on the phone when Emma let herself into the apartment, so she fired off a few messages to Killian while she waited for her mother to finish up.

"Emma," Mary greeted, pulling her daughter in for a tight hug. "How was Canada?"

"Beautiful and cold," she replied honestly. "How are you?"

"I'm wonderful. I was up in Leeds last week for some public engagements and people are so happy about your up-coming wedding, Emma. They were even congratulating me."

Emma laughed a little at her mother's enthusiasm. "The people in Canada I met were just as happy."

"You're going to be such a beautiful bride." Her mother reached out to fidget with Emma's hair a little before dropping her eyes. "Your father would have loved Killian."

"Yeah, he would have," Emma agreed.

"I wish he were here to see you now. To see how proud you make me."

Emma didn't know what she could say to make her mother feel a little better, so instead, she pulled her in for a tight hug, not letting go until Mary had stopped sniffling into her shoulder.

"Okay," she announced, with false cheer. "We should talk about your engagement party."

"Engagement party?" Emma asked. "Can't we just write the New Year one off as the same thing?"

"You're a princess, Emma. No. We cannot."

Thanks for reading.