A certain beta wants Captain Cobra in this AU, which I couldn't quite fit into this chapter, so I'm going to tack on an epilogue before I mark this complete.

Chapter Twelve: Cross Reference

If Emma held any hostility toward Tink, she forgave it all the moment she saw the wedding venue. She knew Tink had planned a beachfront ceremony, but the sandy expanse before her looked ready for a magazine cover shoot.

White wooden chairs stood in neat rows facing an arch made of driftwood and draped with breezy fabric. The wedding party circled the gazebo, the bridesmaids in blue-green pastels and the groomsmen in sharp tuxedos. The weather couldn't have been more perfect had Tink blackmailed a host of fairies to monitor every gust of the air or lap of the sea waves. The sun shone down bright but not hot, the wind only kicked up enough to send the bride's airy dress floating behind her as she walked through the sand. It tousled Killian's dark locks, too, as he handed Liam the ring, his hook replaced with a false, gloved hand. The couple exchanged rings, the vows said over them heartfelt and sweet, and kissed to the cheers of their loved ones.

-0-

"So how exactly did she pull all this together in four months?" Emma asked Killian while a photographer took shots of the happy couple drawing hearts in the sand with their toes.

"Months?" Killian chuckled. "Tink's been planning this at least a year."

"She started planning the wedding before she even asked Liam?"

Killian tugged at the glove on his false hand to check that it was secure. "Despite how Tink may embellish the story, there wasn't a chance Liam was going to refuse. He's been waiting for her to ask for ages."

"Then why didn't he propose?"

"And deny her the bragging rights? Why, Swan, what kind of man do you take him for?"

Liam waved Killian over, the photographer asking for shots of the wedding party on the beach as the sun dipped toward the horizon. He set up a scene with Tink and Liam dancing for the camera while their friends cheered on. Tink's temper had cooled with the release of the flawless day coming together and she laughed through Liam's joyful twirls. The photographer called some commands and the others backed away as the couple leaned in for a kiss against the pinks and oranges of the setting sun. As their lips met, it wasn't hard for Emma to envision herself in white, Killian's arms around her and-

Her phone buzzed in her purse.

And buzzed. And buzzed. And buzzed.

She finally pulled it out to check the screen.

Neal.

She let it go to voicemail and tapped out a text that she was busy and whatever it was would have to wait.

Her phone buzzed with a response before she could drop it back in her purse.

It's about Henry.

With one last glance at Killian, Emma put the phone to her ear and strode away.

-0-

Emma sat on the tiny porch of a small, weather-battered snack shack close to the ocean and away from the festivities. It was closed for the night, and quiet, which was why she picked the spot. She watched moonlight play off the waves and dug her feet into sand warmed by the sun that had set long ago as thoughts drifted in and out of her head.

"There you are," came Killian's relieved lilt, and she turned to find his dark outline walking toward her. There was a reception tent some ways behind him—the tent flaps pulled back to frame the light and laughter and chiming glasses of the feasting dinner guests. Torches stuck in the sand all around the tent posts burned against his dark outline. "Is everything alright?"

"Oh, yeah. Sorry," she replied. "I guess I got lost in thought out here." She realized by a glint in the night he'd exchanged his hand for his hook again, and that he was carrying something in it.

"Might I join you?" Killian asked.

She rose and quickly dusted sand off her dress. "I don't want to keep you from your Best Man duties."

"Liam's married now. If he needs help with anything else tonight, it's nothing I want to know about."

He was close enough now that she could make out his features in the moonlight, and when he held his hand out to her, she found a small bowl with a few scoops of ice cream and a spoon.

"You missed dinner. I had them box yours up, if you still want it, but these are rather time sensitive"

She took it from him. "Wow, I was out here that long?"

She knew she should have been hungry, but her stomach was too twisted up for anything but the comfiest of comfort foods.

"Aye," Killian turned his attention to the bowl in his hook, using a small spoon to draw patterns in the ice cream. "Should I ask?"

Emma tapped her own spoon in her dessert a few times. "Neal is moving up here—wants to be closer to Henry. I didn't think he had that kind of commitment in him, but something about that kid makes him—makes the both of us—want to be better people."

Killian let the words sit, scooping a spoonful into his mouth before asking, "And what do you think of that?"

"I think it's our second chance," Emma replied before wrapping her lips around a mound of vanilla.

"So you're getting back together?"

Emma almost choked on her ice cream. "What!? No! Our second chance to do right by Henry. Neal is doing good, he's changing for Henry-and that's good for Henry-but not good enough for me. When I left Tallahassee, I thought there was something wrong with me-"

"Swan, there's nothing wrong with you."

"I know. I know that now. Because of you and Robin and David, and Ruby, and Mary Margaret, and even Henry. And talking to Neal after having some distance, I realized now in a way I couldn't vocalize then that the problem was never me, it was Neal. He could never accept how much I loved him. Like he was unworthy. Which all sounds romantic in theory but in practice-every little bump in the road made him more skittish, thinking I was ready to dump him. He couldn't be loyal because he couldn't believe I could be loyal.

And when I told him I couldn't do it anymore, do you know what I felt? Relief. A lot of suck, too, but such relief that I never want to put myself in that situation ever again."

"I'm proud of you, Em-"

"You don't get it, Killian," Emma cut him off. "All this time I've been the one with a foot out the door. And that's not fair to you. I can't do this anymore," she said, motioning between the two of them.

Killian's hand went to her arm, just grazing her elbow, his voice low and pleading. "No, Emma, please. You can't tell me that we don't have something."

"Of course we have something!" she replied.

"Then why end it?"

Emma blinked at him.

"End it? Killian, I'm not saying I want to break up. You're the one that believed in this from the start."

She couldn't see it in the dim light, but by the way his body tensed, Killian's cheeks were probably as pink as her dress. "So what are you saying?"

Emma took the bowl out of his hand and, along with hers, set them gently in the sand.

"I'm saying," she said as she took a short step toward him, then another, digging her feet into the sand between his, and taking his hands in her own. "Killian, would you like to meet my son?"

He answered by catching her lips with his own, and she decided deep kisses under the moonlight beat sweet kisses in the waning sun. But maybe she was biased.

"Besides," she breathed as they broke for air."Neal couldn't have my heart back even if I wanted to give it. Someone else stole it."

"Really, they must have been quite the thief."

"A pirate, actually."

"Ah, but you stole his first. Turnabout is fair play and all that."

This time she pulled them together, lips chasing lips, and she tilted her head for a better angle and-

Killian's butt buzzed insistently.

He peppered her lips with a few brief kisses before pulling away and checking his screen.

"The band is taking the stage. Sorry, love. Best Man duties."

"I thought you were done with those," she replied, tugging him back by his tie for another kiss.

He broke away, his cheshire grin spreading. "Just this once more. And I suppose it's incumbent upon me to confess I might have told you a bit of a white lie."

Emma narrowed her eyes, but did not tense as he leaned over her ear.

"I finished the manuscript over a month ago."

She leaned back to catch his eyeline. "Then what the heck have you been doing with Tink all this time?"

"Trust me, you'll like it."

-0-

Killian pulled Emma back toward the dining tent. A portable dance floor had been installed just outside, lit with torches stuck in the sand. A small stage sat nearby and a band was just settling into their instruments. The guests had gathered around the edges, clapping, and Killian had to make soft apologies as he gently pushed his way through. He left Emma at the edge of the dance floor, parting with one last kiss to her cheek.

Tink, hand in hand with Liam, looked relieved to see them both, and he called an apology to her as he leapt onto the stage.

One of the band members handed him a microphone and he took it, cracking a joke at his own expense and introducing the new couple to the dance floor. Liam and Tink took to the floor, all smiles, and Emma was anxious for Killian to jump down and rejoin her on the sidelines, but after he set the mic back into the stand, he turned around to speak with the band. One of them pulled a small contraption out of a shoebox and Emma stared in surprise as they pulled off Killian's hook and swapped it out with a new appendage-one that looked like a guitar pic secured between two prongs.

He wasn't going to… No.

Another band member brought out a guitar and, sure enough, slid it over Killian's head.

Killian rubbed his hand along the neck of the guitar like he was greeting an old friend, then whipped around to face the audience. Liam let out a surprised grunt from below before Tink, biting her lip against a smile, tugged his attention back to her. Killian struck a chord, the band joined in, and a familiar song drifted over the dance floor. Liam and Tink started to sway as Killian's voice filled the night air.

"You're just too good to be true," he started, and Emma's heart melted, because she knew exactly how long he had been planning this stunt. "Can't take my eyes off of you..."

It may have been Liam and Tink's first dance as a married couple, but Killian didn't take his eyes off Emma for the rest of the song, shooting her a particular grin and and a determined swipe of the chord every time the chorus hit, "I loooove you, baaaby!"

The song ended too soon for Emma, the crowd cheering for both the couple and the younger Jones, who, not wanting to take too much attention from the bride and groom, bowed quickly and jumped off stage, pausing only long enough to switch his pick attachment for his hook. The rest of the audience pushed onto the dance floor, sweeping Emma and Killian on with them.

But if Emma was completely honest, they spent very little time doing much that counted as dancing, unless you counted the way they swayed this way and that while they kissed and kissed and kissed.