"Is it bad that I kinda wanna beg you to stay for a few more days?" Emma pouted, as she fiddled with her best friend's fingers.

"Nope. Because I kinda wanna tuck you under my arm and run off with you right now," he chuckled. "But at least we know we'll be seeing each other again soon. It's not like you're about to jet off to Europe for months on end again."

"No, you're the one doing that this time," she teased.

"For a week or two," Killian corrected. He loved his family, but there was absolutely no way he could tolerate a month or two of staying with his parents. He'd sold his own home back in Ireland to fund his move to LA all those years ago. And as his stays were often only for a handful of days at a time, he'd always opted to stay with his family, rather than buying a new home that would stand empty most of the year.

"You know you can actually afford to buy a second home now, right?" Emma chuckled.

"I do. But I was thinking of waiting until after the divorced was finalised to do that," he sighed. In recent months, he'd found himself missing home more than he ever had before. The idea of having a place to call his own back there was hugely appealing, especially when he needed time to escape the brightness of LA. But the last thing Killian needed was for Milah to find out about his newest purchase, and start demanding half of a home she'd never stepped foot in before.

"Good plan," his friend quickly agreed. "I'm surprised she's not demanding half of the clothes on your back."

Killian chuckled a little at his friend's statement. Emma wasn't wrong. Milah had wanted almost half of everything he owned so far. Her lawyer had argued that it was what was due to her, given how much she had sacrificed to support her husband's career. But Killian got the feeling that her demands were more about trying to hurt him, than they were about getting what she deserved.

At first, he'd been angry about the whole situation. But now, he was just over it. Killian would gladly give her everything he owned, as long as it got her to sign those papers, and out of his life once and for all.

Emma flicked a look over to the clock on her kitchen wall and sighed once more. The days before Killian's visit had seemed to crawl by impossibly slowly. But once he'd arrived, their time together had flown by at an alarming rate. As much as she knew that the Jones family would appreciate seeing their beloved son, brother and uncle once more, she was reluctant to say goodbye to him again.

It seemed like every time they parted, it just got harder to do.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come to the airport with you?" she asked.

"I'll be fine." Killian would have loved nothing more than those precious few additional minutes with his friend, before they were forced to say goodbye. But Emma didn't have a car in the city. And he didn't want to force her to take a taxi with him to the airport, and then back home again, just to say everything the two of them could say to each other in the privacy of her apartment.

Emma's eyes were beginning to fill with tears, and she blinked hard to try and chase them away. She tried telling herself that she was behaving ridiculously. That she'd be able to speak to him when his plane landed. And that they would be seeing each other in less than two months.

But in that moment, two months had never seemed so far away.

"I want all of the pictures from that DC movie," Killian told her, attempting to lighten the mood a little.

"Of course you do," she snorted. "You just want pictures of me in a white spandex leotard."

The mental images that hit Killian at that suggestion were not at all what he needed with a six-hour flight to the other side of the country ahead of him.

"Yeah," he croaked out awkwardly. "You know me, I'm a huge nerd at heart."

"It's why we all love you." Emma looped her arms around his neck, as she smiled softly up at him.

"You're gonna reach out to those studios to pitch your script before you come out to LA, right?" he reminded her sternly.

"Yes, Sir." Emma let out an exaggerated sigh as she rolled her eyes a little. "And you're gonna pass along my love to all the other Joneses back home, right?"

"I will indeed. I wrapped your gifts for the boys in my jeans, so they should survive the flight back to LA."

For a moment, the two of them stood in comfortable silence, just savouring those last few minutes of contentment that only the other could bring to them, as they waited for the call to say that Killian's car was ready for him. When it came, Killian silenced it immediately as he pulled her fully into his arms, to offer her a warm and tight embrace.

"Take care of yourself, Ems."

"You too," she whispered into his chest.

"I love you."

"You too," she mumbled back.

Killian gave her one last squeeze, before pulling back to take her hands into his again. "I'm really proud of everything you've achieved, Ems. Thanks for letting me celebrate some of that with you."

"Thanks for wanting to celebrate it with me," she countered. "You're a much less embarrassing date than my mother is."

"Well… you can count me in for any future events you might need a date for, okay?"

"I'll hold you to that, Jones." Given how excited he'd been to see her small indie flick, she couldn't imagine how the guy would react when she asked him to join her for the premier of the DC movie she was filming next, or the Spielberg piece after it. She had a feeling she'd be winning the award for best-friend-of-the-century after those two. "Now… go before you miss your flight."

"Yes, Ma'am," he chuckled, leaning forward to press a firm kiss to her forehead. "I'll call you when I land."

"Call your mother first," she reminded him gently. "You know how Cathleen worries."

Killian finally let go of her hands to grab his bag from the floor, as Emma made her way around him to pull open her front door. She knew that the longer they stood in her living room talking, the greater the chances were of Killian missing his flight. And while it wouldn't be the end of the world if he did, they both had lives to live outside of each other.

"Goodbye, Emma."

"Bye, Jones," she smiled sadly.

He left before either one of them could say anything else, knowing that everything that needed to be said already had been, and anything else could wait until he called her, when his flight landed.

Emma shut the door softly behind him, turning her back to it to sink down to the floor, as she hugged her knees to her chest.

Being around Killian while he was married had been easy. He was forbidden fruit back then, and she had come to accept that. It hadn't changed the way she'd grown to feel for him, but it had made it easier for her to push those feelings aside, and focus on being the best damned friend the man could get. After he'd caught Milah cheating, Emma had continued to push those feelings aside, focusing more on being the friend he so dearly needed in that time, more than anything else. Dwelling on her own desires had only succeeded in making her feel like a terrible friend, when Killian was clearly hurt and angry at the situation he'd found himself in.

But now that he was an almost-free man, and clearly starting to move on from his wife, it was getting harder to push those feelings aside. Feelings that only seemed to grow with the more time they spent together.

Which was why, in that moment, Emma realized that spending the entire summer with him while she filmed her movie, might not have been the best plan she'd ever made.

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