Standard disclaimer applies, I own nothing. I'm beginning to update the chapter to fill holes and streamline it. All errors are mine.

Chapter Ten

Emma had a plan, a plan to channel her mother – to be sweet, or at least polite, maybe a dash of Regina's snooty attitude to refine it. She wanted to keep and create plenty of space between her and Killian. She was not going to let him bait her nor, more importantly, challenge him in any way.

You know, most men would take your silence as off-putting, but I love a challenge…

She remembered when he said it, remembered tying him to the tree, trapping him with a giant and having to handcuff him to the hospital bed. Every step in their, she grinned to herself - 'cause it was his word really, courtship played on a loop in her head. A challenge didn't sum up everything they came to mean to each other but it was there at the start and she wasn't ready to let it happen again.

If it even would.

If.

If she didn't have to avoid rum right now, she'd be downing shots one after another. The plan imploded last night the moment she saw the compass in his hand. Their compass, the one she used to punch him. She rolled her eyes at herself.

Emma Swan the romantic.

When everyone had awakened here, they thought the big issue was suddenly appearing in the Enchanted Forest. Sure, a common complaint was a vague feeling of wrongness. Neal never experienced it and neither had Robin. Emma figured they were simply less afflicted by a past they hadn't experienced and lives already lost.

Emma didn't know how things were for Killian and Milah.

If it was the same for Milah then Killian probably shared the same reaction as Rumple and Regina. Both admitted to sometimes finding little things giving them a tinge of wrong but everything else felt overwhelmingly right, so perfectly right. Emma knew this second chance, the return of their loved ones, held far greater power than a tiny detail, like a baby's name changed to Leopold, ever could.

Maybe she was comparing apples and oranges. The life they built wasn't a tiny detail, but Emma wasn't going to destroy Killian's second chance. If he wanted it.

She wiggled restlessly in her chair as she ate a bit of bread. Maybe there was a tiny part of her, a tiny corner of her heart which remembered being an orphan and never anyone's first choice for so many years, messing up her head. Even Neal, in the past and before she had broken the curse, had chosen himself and chosen Tamara before her. This tiny corner of her heart wasn't sure Hook would be any different.

Fear was a bitch and mixed with pregnancy hormones an asshole as well.

Emma concentrated on the now, on taking tiny bites of food and not missing someone actually directing a question or comment her way. A small smile crossed her lips as she picked up on her family keeping the conversation directed away from her. She scanned the faces around the table, hoping to boost her fake involvement and caught blue eyes staring at her from under a lowered brow. It took more than a few heartbeats before she managed to tear her eyes away and stopped holding her breath. Neal placed his hand over her fist on the table between them. She smiled at him in thanks.

Then the mutton came from the kitchen.

Emma bolted from the table the second the meaty smell hit her nose and ran for the nearest window. Every bite she had managed to get down came rolling back up. Someone pulled her hair back out of her face and held it as they rubbed gentle circles against her back.

The hand was too small to be really comforting.

Emma leaned against Snow when she finished, her tired eyes meeting her mother's. Snow pulled Emma into her side as a cup appeared in front them.

"Drink, please" her father urged her. Emma took a small sip and swished it in her mouth before leaning back out the window to spit it out.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "The smell."

"No apologies." Her mother kept Emma in her embrace as she walked her out of the hall. "I think it would be a good ideal for you to go upstairs and rest. We'll bring you up something later." Emma looked up at her mother and tilted her head with a grimace to the room behind them. "Guests do not matter as much as your health. Henry, come escort your mother to her room."

Henry leaped from the table and hurried over. Snow gave Emma push toward him, her cheeks red in embarrassment over her behavior but Henry had his head angled in his worrying way. She cupped his cheek in one hand and smiled at him. With a nod, he offered his arm and she took it. As they passed close to the table, she pulled him to a stop. Without looking all the way up, Emma mumbled an apology before letting Henry pull her along again.

She leaned into him a bit. "Did your mom roll her eyes at me?" she asked.

He laughed and slowly they left their troubles behind them.

It was as if all lights were dimmed.

At the start conversation around the table was lively. With three thieves and two pirates at the table, the tales of adventure and near misses got competitive. Except.

Except the princess, who said nothing and her silence bothered Killian.

He kept staring at her down turned head till he finally caught her. Her green eyes widened when she met his, oh so briefly, before she looked away with a frown. Baelfire was now a problem as far as he was concerned. She smiled at him, let him provide her comfort, his bloody hand holding hers. That one gesture making Killian imagine standing and running the man through.

Anger was not an unfamiliar emotion for him but this constant up and down was getting ridiculous. Milah had kicked him several times already and they weren't that far into the meal. In fact, the mutton had just come out of the kitchen when the princess ran from the table. Again, Killian found himself on his feet without thinking, a need inside him to run to her side.

A sharp tug on his arm got his attention away from the window. He looked down into Milah's frowning face. She jerked her head toward the others in the room calling his attention to the fact he was the only person on his feet. A downward tug and he fell into his chair before anyone else noticed.

Previous dinner conversation halted as everyone watched the princess and her son leave. Killian followed them until they disappeared through the doorway. The moment the king and queen sat back down, everyone seemed to speak at once.

"We're going to have to keep an eye on her," Regina pointed out. "Your daughter does not know how to slow down."

"What do you want us to do Regina? She's a grown woman who makes her own decisions and has for a long time." Snow looked down the table at her husband. "You're going to have to find a good reason to cancel sword practice."

"Snow," he started and stopped, not knowing what to say.

"No David," she smacked hand on the table. "This we can do. We'll have to watch her run herself into the ground otherwise because she doesn't know where…" The queen trailed off as she blinked at the newest residents of her castle.

Killian glanced at Milah to get her take on the royal's drama but she was studying Bae with a hurt look on her face. Glancing around the table he found more meaningful looks passing between the others. Robin and Baelfire tried to rekindle the past conversational ease but the royals couldn't pick it back up. Killian refused to help as well, smirking without humor at every attempt directed at him.

Henry came back into the room and immediately stopped at the threshold to study the adults in the room, catching Killian's smirk and rolling his eyes at the pirate. He took his mother's seat next to his father and began to load the plate in front of him.

"Grandma," he addressed the queen. "Don't forget to bring Mom some food. I don't think she's eaten much today." He offered a platter of mutton to Killian who just shook his head before the lad piled a large piece on the plate. "Apparently, mom didn't inherit any of your shepherd genes Grandpa. She said the mutton smelled awful." He took a large bite of the meat.

"It's a tad dry really," Killian added. He decided he liked the boy and his straightforward attitude. Royals always had secrets to hide but if Milah and him stayed here nothing would stay hidden for long. "A fairly common occurrence in royal households." Killian tipped his wine glass to his hosts as Milah smacked his arm.

"Don't be rude," she commanded.

"Love, I don't think that was me." Killlian tilted his head to the end of table and smiled at the queen.

"mwah mwom's…" Henry began to say around his mutton.

"Dear God, Henry." Regina looked aghast at her son. "Could you be a bit more refined? I did not raise you in a barn."

"What's wrong with being raised in a barn?" Charming asked, smiling at Regina. His wife laughed into her wine while Henry choked around the mutton.

"I don't know how I put up with you people." Regina huffed and walked off into the kitchen area. The tension around the table finally eased.

Henry grabbed a cup of water and drank. He looked around the tabled and shrugged. "My mom's pregnant," he said bluntly. Killian's teeth clenched and his knuckles whitened around his knife.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Milah asked her son.

"Woah, slow down there." Bae held up his hands then pointed at Henry. "This one is mine. The new addition is not. I'm not the father."

Killian looked down, tracing the pattern on the table and scratched behind one ear. "Well, someone seems to be missing then? Or is it a bloody miracle?" The reactions varied from uncertain to uncomfortable. He glanced at the king then caught Milah's eye shrugging with a raise of his brows. "Does it have anything to do with the whole showing up here out of nowhere problem?" No one looked happier to hear his question.

"Henry," Robin spoke up. "Would you mind taking Roland to the library to pick a book?" Henry sighed, unhappy at being asked to leave. He was saved when Regina came back through carrying a tray from the kitchen.

"Roland can come with me," she said, crouching next to the little boy. "We'll visit Emma and then hit the library." Roland rushed to join the queen mother and the remaining adults exchanged questioning looks.

"Our memories were altered," Henry began, speaking directly at Killian. "So when we woke up there were things we didn't know, but mom's the savior and I guess that means she kept some memories." He paused, opening, and closing his mouth before finally looking away from Killian. "Mom is, was, no, is married. None of us remember her husband and she said she doesn't know where he is."

The silence that followed was grave.

"I think." Killian considered the expressions of everyone around the table. "That it's time for me to leave you to this. Milah?" He stood by her chair waiting for her response.

"I need to speak with Bae." Milah's gaze was unwavering and on her son.

"Of course." Killian walked away without looking back. His anger driving him on and out of the room. Married to bloody hell who?