Lullabies

Week 11: June:

The body: Due to the extreme hormones surging through your body, you will experience increased, and almost migraine like headaches, Savior, and you will maybe begin to suffer from constipation, and heartburn as well, but there's good news though. The nausea you have been plagued with will begin to wane. You're going to go through a lot of discomfort, but think of it this way; you're pregnant, and your body is cooperating with that. Nutrients are really important during pregnancy, especially; protein, calcium, and folic acid.

The baby: All of your baby's vital organs are now formed and functioning, so the risk of defects decreases this week as your baby becomes less susceptible to outside influences. The ears are now at their place, and the fingernail, and toenail beds are beginning to form. The head is nearly as big as the rest of the body. The testes, or ovaries are completely formed now, but the gender can't be told for yet a few more weeks. Your baby will begin to move its arms and legs and do somersaults, but you will not be able to feel that yet. Your baby now weighs a third of an ounce and about 2 inches long. That's about the same weight as two small Starbucks-sized sugar packets, and the length of one of them.

"Mate, I don't think it's fair to Emma. She deserves to know as much about this as we do," Killian augmented as he leaned back in his seat in the police car while David was driving.

"I know, but in her state I just don't think it's a good idea, yet, and I say we wait until we know more about that Mei girl, and what she and her friends are up to," David responded, and stopped for a red light. "-And in her state, I mean that knowing Emma, she wouldn't think twice, and she would jump right onto that girl before we know it," David interrupted before Killian could respond.

"I just don't like lying to her like that. We agreed on not keeping this kind of secrets from each other, even though it's because we think we're keeping the other safe," Killian answered as he let his arm slap limply onto his knee.

It was Thursday morning, and David had just arrived at the station about 20 minutes ago to take over from Killian, who had the night shift. A few days ago, Violet had told Killian about her knowledge of the potential thieves that had trashed both Rumple's and Geppetto's places. And while he had wanted to talk with both Emma, and David earlier, he also wanted to give the information in a way that wouldn't make both of them blame the young girl. But little did Killian know.

Violet had on the same day she had told him, also told everyone at Granny's, expect for David, and Emma. But Snow had spilled the beans for David yesterday, asking him if they had arrested that Mei-girl, and the man had almost crashed into the station with the news, and almost attacking him about already having knowledge like that. Killian had explained himself, and David had taken thinks more calm afterwards, and had offered to drive Killian home, and on the road, they discussed the fact that only one of the sheriffs were left out about the important hint Violet had given them.

At moment of silence had hit them both when David drove again for the green light, deep in thought. He knew that Killian was right. Emma should be informed as well, but after that night a few weeks ago when he, and the others found her on the ground blinded, and in pain from the pepper spray, he would give anything to not find his daughter in that kind of state again, and while he knew that that hadn't been as dangerous as previous events over the past years, he was just worried of what could happen to her, especially now when she was expecting.

"So, here we are," David announced, and broke the silence that had filled the sheriff wagon as he pulled the car up to the sidewalk just across.

"That's weird," Killian muttered as looked at their his, and Emma's victorian house. "Something's wrong?" David asked, and tried to see if he could spot whatever Killian had noticed. Killian didn't answer, instead he glanced back at the clock showing in the car, and looked back at the house. "The lights in our kitchen are not on," Killian explained still sitting in his seat. "Sure it's not because it's so bright outside now?" "Could be, but still," Killian trailed off slightly as he got out of the car, and began crossing the road.

David had originally planned to drop Killian off and go on patrol, but this was his daughter, and by the way Killian acted now worried him, and he turned off the engine of the car, got out, and jogged after the other man.

"Emma?!" Killian called out as he went inside to a completely silent and dark first floor. David went inside behind him, and glanced as well from the kitchen to the living room. No sign of anyone.

Killian raced up the stairs, and almost ran towards their bedroom and nearly flung the door open as he entered their room. Upon entering he noticed it was dark in here as well. Normal by this time, the curtains would have been pulled off to let the light shine in. Gazing towards the bed, he breathed out in somewhat relief when he saw the sleeping form of his wife lying underneath the covers.

Slowly he went to her, and sat down on the space beside her. Deep in sleep, Emma wasn't sensing anything, and kept lying still with her breathing steady. "Emma? Emma, wake up, please," he whispered and shook her shoulders gently. A groan came from his sleeping wife, "mmm...what?...Killian?" She muttered as her eyes opened and was met by only darkness for a moment before her eyes got used to it. "Yeah, it's me, is everything alright? Your still in bed," Killian commented, and lightly caressed her face.

Emma wasn't answering as the headache that had plagued her this morning after her usual sickness, and had made her go back to bed, came sneaking again and soon it was back with full force. She never suffered from migraines, but with this headache, she had a pretty good idea of how it must feel to have them.

Thinking that her groaning and slight whimpering was just Mrs. Emma Swan waking up, Killian stood up, and went over to pull the curtains off.

The sudden light in the room added more pain to Emma's head, and now Killian realized there was more to it than he thought when Emma almost fell back in bed with her hands covering her forehead, and now groaning even louder. "Emma? What's wrong?" He asked worried as he went back to her, sitting down beside her again. "The, the light," she almost whimpered back, and Killian quickly got it, and went back to close them off again.

"Killian! Is everything alright up there?" David's call made Killian suddenly realize that they weren't alone in the house. Even though the shouting came from downstairs, the volume for Emma seemed to be as if he was standing right next to her.

"I'll be right back, love," Killian told her, and went out to the hallway and towards the stairs, where he could see David standing at the bottom. "What's going on?" David asked as Killian went down the stairs towards him. "I think that headache she was plagued with yesterday is still there," Killian told David and looked up towards their bedroom. "Oh, I see, is it getting worse?" David asked slightly worried as he looked up the same way as Killian.

"I'm not sure, but I'm letting her be for now, I will go up and check on her occasionally," Killian told David scratching his neck. "Are you going to tell her?" David asked eying the man in front of him while crossing his arms. "As I said, I'm going to let her be for now. When she wakes up, and if she seems more healthy, I will inform her," Killian explained while David nodded along. "Okay, then, I'll go on patrol, and I'll drive by the address Violet gave you to see if that Mei-girl's parents are home. At least those teens haven't been on rampage ever since the robbery at Geppetto's. but you never know," he sighed, and patted Killian on the shoulder. "Sure you don't want some back-up, mate?" Killain asked as he followed David to the frontdoor. David stopped up as he held the doorknob.

Perhaps, Killian had a point. Who knows how involved the people of that small part of Storybrooke were, and no one knew, what they were up to with that book about coping magic. "If you're on it, I'll call Snow to be with Emma, she has her day off today, she'll be here in minutes" David told him, and fished his phone up. "Aye, I'll go up to tell her," Killian announced and went upstairs, leaving David by the front door as he called his wife.

"Emma, love?" Killian whispered as he opened the door to their bedroom. Once again he was met by darkness and complete silent, except for Emma's deep breathing, and once again, he went to her side, but this time, he just sat there, and watched her. She was sleeping so peacefully, and he didn't want to disturb her. Instead, he bent down, kissed her on her forehead, and gently brushed her covers off to caress her stomach. "Sleep well, both of you," he whispered, and covered her up again, before leaving the room quietly.

"Did you tell her?" David asked as Killian came back downstairs. "No, she's completely out of it, I couldn't get myself to wake her again," he explained. "Okay, Snow will be here in a few minutes," David told him, and without further ado, they both went outside and towards the sheriff's wagon.

A few moments later, inside their bedroom, Emma was still in deep sleep;

"The Valley of Peace some, including myself would say it is the most precious place on Earth. Right now you are standing by the Jade Palace, on Jade Mountain," a disembodied voice told her as Emma looked around and gazed mesmerized at the sight of the golden dragon carved in the red pillars supporting the roof of the great building in the same way she been for days now, but now, she was joined by this unknown voice. It sounded like an elder wise man, and she stopped up to look around to see if he was with her, but he wasn't. "But what am I doing here?" She asked out in space to see if the voice would answer her, but nothing came. Around her, a few people walked around, admiring the place, the same way they had since this dream began showing in her sleep. Emma knew what was coming. Soon the part the scared her the most would come, and quite right. The sky would go red. Not even a star would show above them, and now the people began walking towards her. "There she is! The Dragon Warrior! Help us, the Dragon Warrior, help us!" They pleaded as they went to her. Once again, Emma knew what was going to happen, or so she thought. Normally during this part, she would be handed a golden, but broken, mechanical bird, but this time, she was handed a brownish bird. It was alive, but barely, and the poor thing was trembling in her hand. "Help us, Dragon Warrior, help us, Dragon Warrior," they began to shout. Emma looked nervously around, and down on the bird. "I don't know what to do," her voice almost broke keeping her glance at the small creature in her hand. "Listen, Dragon Warrior," a voice whispered. It was the same voice as before. Listen? Listen for what? Emma was beyond confused, and the pressure from the people around her didn't help at all. "Stop, please," she whispered at them, but nothing helped. "Help us, Dragon Warrior, HELP US!" "STOP!"

Emma shot up in bed as she shouted out, and began panting heavily with wide eyes looking around. She became somewhat relieved to see that she was in her own bed, in her bedroom, but she had to lean back and close her eyes for a bit. This was the first time the dream had woken her up like that. She would always wake when the mechanical bird was placed in her hand, and it would seem 'natural' for her to wake up, but this time it was with the shock effect as if it had been a nightmare. She looked up towards the ceiling. The dream itself had changed with the voice now, and a real living bird. What could all this mean?

"Emma! I heard you screaming, are you alright?!"

She was pulled out of her thoughts when her mother suddenly came into the room. Emma furrowed her eyebrows. What was her mother doing here? And where was Killian? How long had she been sleeping? What the hell was going on?!

The questions in her mind seemed to take any sense of reality from her. She didn't even sense her mother sitting by her. It was first when a firm hand grabbed her arm that Emma came back to. She blinked a couple of times before she eyed her mother who looked at her, deeply worried.

"Emma, Emma, sweetheart, what's going on with you? Honey, you're trembling," Snow gasped as she felt her daughter's body shake in her grasp. "I don't know, mom, I don't know," Emma's whispered, tears now streaming down her cheeks. The tiredness, and the headache that had plagued her to sleep what she would assume now would be all day was slowly returning though, and a small whimper escaped her lips. Couldn't all of this just stop?

Snow had never experienced Emma having this sort of panic attack like that. Knowing the stress was neither good for her or the baby, Snow did everything she could to calm her down. She pulled Emma into a tight, loving and motherly embrace and held her here while she kept whispering soothing words and rocked her back and forth while she sung the lullaby she always used for Neal;

"Come stop your crying
It will be alright
Just take my hand
And hold it tight

I will protect you
From all around you
I will be here
Don't you cry

For one so small,
You seem so strong
My arms will hold you,
Keep you safe and warm
This bond between us
Can't be broken
I will be here
Don't you cry

'Cause you'll be in my heart
Yes, you'll be in my heart
From this day on
Now and forever more
You'll be in my heart
No matter what they say
You'll be here in my heart
Always"

The singing made her and slowly calm down, and soon her breathing became normal. Snow could also feel Emma getting calmer, and while she wanted to know what had made her daughter so upset and scared, she also wanted Emma to calm down and even fall asleep again.

While Snow knew from her pregnancy with Neal that it was very limited for pain medication for pregnant women. Instead, another idea came to her mind. "Okay, honey, just lay down, I'll be right back," she whispered as she helped her daughter lying down. For Emma, this was going to be an all stay-in-bed day. Literally.

Quickly, Snow got up, and went downstairs and got a bunch of washcloths from one of the kitchen drawers. Finding a bowl, she filled it with water. Not too cold or too warm, just in between and when she got it right, she let the water fill the bowl before she turned it off and got upstairs with both bowl and cloths. Thank heavens for Zelena being able to take care of Neal now her other child was down for the moment.

Meanwhile, Emma laid back down on her bed trying to breathe deeply through the pain that filled her head. Another thing that would happen after she would have that weird dream was that the sound of a bird singing would fill her mind. She had yet to figure out whether it was actually a bird outside or in her mind, but the singing was so beautiful and so calming that Emma could feel the headache disappear a bit, and she slowly drifted back to sleep without that dream haunting her.

Silently the door to the bedroom creaked open, and Snow slowly peeked inside the room, and quickly sensed that Emma had fallen back into sleep. With bowl in one hand, and cloths held underneath her armpit, she slowly walked towards the bed. Only the small sound of creaking as Snow made her way, and she slowly squatted down when she reached her sleeping daughter. She sat the bowl down and wetted one of the cloths and squeezed the water out and gently laid on Emma's head. Emma only but gave a small relieved groan when the cloth hit her skin, but it didn't wake her up.

Snow smiled to herself when she could see that her small non-medical treatment helped, and for now, she just sat herself down on the wooden floor by the bed and silently watched her daughter sleeping peacefully.

"Always."

Outside of Storybrooke, later, same day:

Ever since the people from the Land of Untold Stories had come to Storybrooke, many of them had spread out, and created what you would call small villages outside of the town.

One of them was what people in the town had been calling the Asian part, and while that could sound a bit discriminating there was some truth to it. At this part of the town, all of people with Asian background had gathered, and it certainly showed on the buildings. The small houses had a traditional Chinese and Japanese look to them, and it was very quiet. This was certainly not the part of Storybrooke that any of the Sheriff's would be called out to stop a party that had gone too wild.

"So, it must be one of these houses," David concluded as both him and Killian looked out of each side window while the sheriff's car slowly drove along the gravel road. Killian unfolded the paper which Violet had written down the address and looked at the house numbers, but yet none of them was matching. Hopefully the girl hadn't send them on a wild goose chase.

"There!" Killian suddenly spoke up as he spotted the match between note and number on the mailbox. Quickly, David pulled the car up to the street, and parked it before they both went out.

"Let's get this over with," Killian whispered to himself as they made their way to the frontdoor. While he wanted to help David here, he also wanted to be at home, taking care of his sick wife.

The house was a small, traditional Chinese village house on two levels. The walls outside were of white limestone. The roof was black and slightly curved upwards

"Okay, so it maybe be that the girl is not finished at school, but maybe her parents are home. If not, we will break in and search the home for any clues," David informed as they stood at the door. "Here we go," he spoke out as he hit the doorbell.

It didn't took long before they could hear voices on the other side of the door, and soon it opened up to reveal a Chinese woman who looked to be about the same age as Snow. "Hello there, can I help you?" she smiled friendly at them, and widened her eyes when she saw who was standing by her doorsteps. "Oh, the Sheriffs, why are you here?" She asked them becoming a bit worried of why they were here. Hopefully it wasn't because some of her family was hurt.

"Hello there, Mrs, does a Mei Ling live here with you?" David asked politely. The woman in front of them nodded, and her expression turned into clearly confusion. "Yes, yes, Mei is my eldest daughter, and I'm Jun Ling, why? Has something happened?" She asked them worried.

"No, Mrs. Ling, nothing has happened to your daughter, but we need to speak with you, can we come in?" David asked as politely as before, and Jun only nodded and opened the door more for them to enter her home.

The small entrance they stepped into had black tiles on the floor, and the entrance was connected to a small hallway that led further into the home. Jun led them into the small dining room. From what they could tell, at least five people lived here. Jun had disappeared into the kitchen and not before long she came into the room with coffee and cups.

"Okay, there you go," she smiled. She tried to hide her nervousness for them and wanted to take care of them as any other guests. "My apologies," she started out as she sat down. "My husband is at work, and both of my daughters are at school, and my father is upstairs unwell, so I haven't cleaned up," she told them nervously, and Killian just waved his hand at her. "Don't worry about that, we're not here to check on your ability to clean up," he told her, making her laugh a bit, but became serious when David cleared his throat.

"No, Killian is right about that, but we are here to talk about your daughter, Mei, as we have got some heavy clues about her being involved in a couple of robberies that has been happening, and the last one ended up in a attack against the third sheriff of this town," David trailed of, and eyed the woman for any hidden knowledge, but the woman in front of them was clearly shocked, and she only nodded for him to continue explaining. "One of Mei's friends, who happens to be close to our family had lost her pink scarf, and on the night of the first robbery at Mr. Gold's pawnshop it was found, so we also have reasons to believe that Mei have tried to set another person up," David finished off and waited for Jun to talk.

Jun was speechless. Never in the world would she have imagined her daughter doing something like that. On the other hand though, it definitely fitted with the fact that Mei had been gone on both nights the robberies had happened. Jun remembered having heard about the thefts during her grocery shopping at Leroy's, and had along with the rest of the townspeople wondered who had done it, but never would she have thought of her own family being a part of it.

Slowly she explained to them what she knew. The two men in front of her kept silent and only nodded, and David took up his notebook to list down her explanation. "I will of course talk with Mei when she comes back home from school, but I can't guarantee that she will be honest with me. She's a smart young girl," she told them honestly.

David, and Killian only nodded, and Killian cleared his throat; "have your daughter ever talked about magic or copying it? You see, at Mr. Gold's shop, a book about duplicating magic was stolen," Killian explained and waited for the woman to respond. Jun thought back. "As far as I can remember, she hasn't," Jun answered them honestly and both men nodded at her. Apparently the mother was as confused about the situation as they were, but at least it seemed like she was willing to cooperate with this situation.

"Well, I guess that there's not much more we can do for now. We will let you speak with your daughter for now, and we will both return to our duties. Please call this number if she tells you anything," David spoke up as he stood up and handed Jun a small piece of paper with David's personal phone number. He wouldn't risk in Jun calling the station and accidently get to the one sheriff who didn't had any knowledge of what was going on as of now.

Jun nodded and took the paper. She stood up as well and went out to the hallway to led her guests out, when a loud cough and footsteps could be heard from the stairs out in the hallway, she turned around and sighed a bit when she saw her father slowly making his way downstairs and towards them. Both David, and Killian looked at the same direction as she did and raised their eyebrows a little when a elder Chinese man came towards them. "Jun, my dear, you could have told me we had visitors," the man spoke, and made his way to greet them both. "This is my father, Wūguī Ling," Jun introduced, and smiled slightly when both men shook his hand politely. "Hello sir, we were just on our way out," Killian told the elder man, and Wūguī only nodded at them, "I see, I see," he smiled at them widely and took a few steps back.

Both David and Killian nodded at them and was about to leave, when Wūguī spoke up; "you are the Savior's family aren't you?"

That made both men stop up and turn slightly shocked towards the elder man. Jun could only look with question at her father, not knowing where he was going.

"Yes, yes we are, I'm her father, and Killian is her husband, what is it? How do you know her?" David demanded trying to sound as calm as possible. Why would that man suddenly ask about Emma in that way?

"She hears it, doesn't she?" He asked them, and didn't seem to take notice in the confused faces of all three people around him. "Hears what?" Killian asked also trying to sound none-threatening at the elder man, but what was he talking about? What would Emma hear?

"She hears it. The Savior. She hears it. Don't let her shot it out. It will guide her. It will heal," Wūguī continued.

Jun was all but confused. She had no idea what her father was talking about, and she could only smile nervously at the two men in front of her who clearly was affected by her father's words.

David, and Killian eyed each other worried. What was the man talking about?

Wūguī seemed like he was about to answer, but a sudden coughing hit the elder man, and he had to bent over. Jun helped her father by holding him and patting his back. She didn't know what to do. Her father was sick and had been for a while, and he would often get hit by these coughing attacks, they could become quite severe, and he needed to go back in bed and drink some warm tea to help him, but at the same time, it was clear that the two sheriffs wanted to know more about what he had just spoken about.

"I'm sorry, but my father needs rest," she told them, and hoped it would be enough for the two men to accept. She slowly started to help her father turn around and walk back towards the stairs. "It's alright, dear, they don't need to know more," Wūguī spoke in a hoarse voice, and before David, and Killian could react, the front door was closed in front of them.

"Hey!" Killian shouted and was about to knock on the door with his hook, when David grabbed his arm, "no, don't!" "But I need to know what that man was talking about!" Killian almost hissed back and tried to struggle against David. "I know, I know, I want to know too, but the man was clearly sick, and perhaps he wasn't speaking with a clear mind. Quite a lot of people in this town, including those out here knows about Emma's title, it could be nothing," David suggested and let go of Killian's arm when he could feel the man calming down.

"Aye, mate," he whispered and shook David's hand off and both of them went to the car and headed back to the station in silence.

Back inside the Ling's house, Jun helped her father upstairs, and slowly, they came to his room where she gently helped him lying down. "Father, what happened down there? I have never heard or seen you like that," Jun asked her father as he laid down.

Wūguī closed his eyes deeply before looking up towards the ceiling. "Jun, the Savior hears it, I saw her in my dream," he told her. Jun raised her eyes and suddenly it hit her. No way! Could it be?

"Do..do you mean that she? Really does she really?" Jun stumbled in her words, not being able to speak clearly. Hope suddenly washing through her.

"Yes, yes, dear, she does, and she's getting closer to understanding," and with that the elder man closed his eyes letting sleep come to him.

Jun stood up as her father drifted off, and went downstairs to prepare his tea. While making the tea, Jun could feel happy tears stinging in her eyes. If the Savior could hear it, then it meant that maybe her, her family, and her people in this town could get it back. Smiling widely she whispered the words she didn't think she would whisper again;

"Sing, little Nightingale, sing!"