Since it appears that I'll be playing taxi driver and cook tomorrow for a family meal, I thought I would go ahead and post an update while my cookies and cake are in the oven. Please note that I have not included the heart stealing, as I did not want that to be a part of this story at this point. Too bad I don't own the characters or the show. I wouldn't have to worry about this then.

The loft was warm and cozy when they arrived, Killian supporting Emma and Mary Margaret trying to support David without him objecting too much. Henry had scavenged the place for pillows and blankets, even borrowing a bell from Granny so that Emma could rest upstairs and ring it when she needed something else. He and Elsa had shopped, buying food, magazines, and a deck of playing cards to keep the patients' entertained so they wouldn't be in a hurry to return to work.

"Good to be home," David mumbled and sort of threw himself on the couch. "If I had to eat one more hospital meal, I was going to throw a tray at someone."

Mary Margaret snickered and kissed the top of his head. "You're a horrible patient," she told him. "Emma's just as bad. I see where she got it from."

Emma sat down next to her father gingerly, pulling one of the blankets on top of her and closing her eyes for a moment. She was physically fine, but the fatigue and soreness were still an issue. "I promise," she said. "I'll be a good patient if you promise not to bother me every five minutes."

The group laughed at her desire to make a deal. Henry reached his arm out to adjust the blankets again, happily showing her the magazines he had bought and the DVDs of her favorite movies he'd unearthed from the closet. "See," he told her, "It'll be like a mini-vacation. You get to order us around and veg while watching movies and eating junk food."

"No junk food," Mary Margaret proclaimed, already headed to the bedroom area to check on the baby and Belle. "I am not about to almost lose the two of you only to load you up with pop tarts and potato chips."

Emma's eyes rolled and she stared back at Killian who stood in the center of the room a bit perplexed by the whole scene. "Killian?" she asked softly, wanting to check on him.

"Perhaps some junk food is in order," he said with a faint smile. "After all, you seem to enjoy it and you've been through an ordeal."

Clattering a cupboard shut, Mary Margaret grunted at the suggestion and began to consider all the fruit that Elsa and Henry had bought. There was a ton and quite a variety of everything imaginable, except apples. Henry had refused to buy them.

"The pirate has the right idea," David said, winking at his daughter. "I could use some potato chips, maybe a hot dog, and a beer. That would certainly help."

"A dog?" Killian asked, looking disgusted. While Mary Margaret slammed her hand down on the counter at the suggestion of a beer.

Had Emma felt up to it she might have giggled at the ridiculous situation unfolding. "I'll explain later," she said to Killian. "It's not what you think." Then she promised her mother they could discuss menu options later and promised Henry that they would plan a movie marathon as soon as the pain medication had left her system.

She pulled herself up from the couch and shuffled toward the stairs. "I'm going to be upstairs," she said, giving a slight nod to Killian to join her. The good news about pain medication and injuries was that her father did not even protest that his daughter was taking a man to her bedroom. Maybe he would not have protested, but she was grateful at that moment that he didn't raise so much as an eyebrow at Killian's heavy footsteps behind her on the steps.

Killian shifted his weight as she dropped on the foot of her bed, pulling a quilt over her eyes and staring straight up at the ceiling. "You should get some sleep, love," he told her, taking two steps back and leaning against her dresser. "You look tired."

"I've been sleeping on and off for 24-hours," she said. "And is that your way of saying I look like shit?"

He beamed. "Never," he promised her. "I am only concerned for your well-being."

She rolled to her side, groaning a bit as muscles stretched and pulled. "I think we need to talk," she told him. "I don't even know where to begin or what to say, but I'm going to try this, okay?"

Nodding, he followed her hand gesture and sat next to her on the bed. His back was to her, his head down. She ran a hand down his back in a slow motion and then back up again. "You want to know why I was there." It wasn't a question as much as a statement.

She bit back a sarcastic remark. "Yes," she said. "You were in Gold's store and you didn't so much as explain or offer me a clue."

Clearing his throat, his hand went to the back of his neck. His fingers kneaded his own flesh as she waited for his response. "Do you remember when Elsa and I disobeyed your orders to go to the station?" he asked, peering at her over his shoulder. "When we found the Snow Queen?"

Emma nodded, realizing that while it was only a few days ago it seemed like a lifetime.

"I had realized that the Dark One was not being candid about the bloody dagger," Killian continued. "He has two of them, one of which is a fake. The one he gave Belle is the fake. She's no more in control of him than she was previously."

Emma nodded again, remembering her conversation with Belle. The brunette had said she suspected as much and that the mirror had confirmed it too. Despite his protests, Gold's behavior was not that of a man under his wife's control. "You decided to confront him?" she questioned.

Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes briefly. "I told him what I knew," he said, his voice soft. "I told him that I would tell Belle and everyone if he did not help us locate the Snow Queen. He agreed and that was that."

With the way his shoulders slumped and his furrowed brow, she knew that was not the end of the story. "What did he do?"

Killian's hand circled around the base of his hook, running his fingers on the metal. "On the day we were to have our date," he began, unable to hold back a smile at the memory for a moment. "I went back to him and demanded that he reattach my hand. It was a vain and rash move for me. I should have left well enough alone, but I didn't. I thought I would be a complete man if I had my hand back. I thought I would be better for you. I wanted to hold you with both of my hands and not worry that the hook was in the way or that you were at all repulsed by it. I didn't want you to see me as the pirate with one hand. I wanted…"

Her hand smoothed down the back of his jacket, willing him to turn to face her so she could read his expression. "You blackmailed him?" she asked then shook her head. "You know that you didn't have to do that. You know that I have never had a problem with the hook? If I ever made you feel that I did…"

"It's not you," he said sadly. "I pressed my luck with him, which was a gaffe of great proportion. He claims he has switched the daggers back and now has blackmailed me into helping him." With calculated words, he explains about the apprentice and the hat. His face clouds as her frown deepens. "I'm sorry," he said finally. "I know that I have betrayed your trust and that of everyone in this town. I thought I was stronger. I thought I could manage to be better than this."

She breathed in, noting the pain as her lungs expanded. "Is that everything?" she asked, pulling herself into a sitting position, as she was not about to have a conversation with his back. "No other deep dark secrets? You're not hiding a secret marriage? Love child? You haven't robbed a bank? You're not secretly a woman?"

He finally lifted his head and gazed at her as though she'd lost her mind. "Isn't it enough that I've been lying to you?" he asked. "I somehow imagined that you would be more livid at my contraventions."

"I'm pissed," she said. "I never said I wasn't. I'm trying to understand."

"I am sorry about all of this," he said. "I never want to hurt you and now I have done just that. I want to be the one to wipe away your tears, not cause them."

She leaned her head on his shoulder, burying her face against his chest. "I am not happy that you kept this from me," she said. "But I'm also aware that you didn't set out to hurt me. You didn't blackmail Rumpelstiltskin with the intent of lying to me. In fact, you did it to make yourself better for me, which is another issue all together."

"Issue?" he asked, loosely draping his arms around her.

"I make you feel like you have to be something you're not," she said. "And I never even noticed it. Neither one of us is perfect. We're broken and completely messed up. On paper we're better off in therapy than in a relationship. But somehow I think we work. And if you think I'm asking you to be something else than you, then I've done something wrong." She turned her head so that her voice was not muffled. "So maybe I owe you an apology too."

"Darling, you are wrong," he said. "You bring me nothing but complete and utter happiness."

She shook her head slightly. "No, I don't," she said. "I'm aware of how you feel about me because unlike me you can actually express that. You give me compliments that make me melt. You tell me how I look and I become a 12 year old girl who stutters. While I appreciate it, I'm also in awe of it. I have never been able to do that. I can barely manage to tell people that I'm upset. I mask it all by being sarcastic or annoyed."

"And that is somehow equal to my fraudulence?"

"In a way it is," she said, tilting back to look at him. "You weren't honest about what you were doing to be the man you thought I would want. I haven't been honest with you either. I haven't told you that you are the man I want. I haven't told you that I care about you because I see the man who came back for me more times than anyone else. I neglected to tell you that I think about you so much that I have to force myself to pay attention to anything else. I have been scared to tell you that I want to spend time with you so I call you with all sorts of excuses to see you. But if I was honest I would just say how I feel and be confident that it was enough. We've both been dishonest with each other. So that leaves us with the decision of where we go from here."

He looked back at her disbelieving. Taking a ragged breath, he closed his eyes. "You mean that there is a chance I haven't lost you?"

She shook her head. "No, you haven't lost me," she said softly. "I want this to work."

"Me too," he said, leaning his face closer to hers. "I have only wanted that."

Thanks for reading. I hope you feel compelled to leave a comment/review. Thanks!