Co-Written by Angelfan984

Chapter 20

Stretching awake, Emma's hand reached out for Killian's form only to find the spot cold and empty. Then her eyes opened fully and took in the light blues of her own room in the castle. That's right, they had fought and he still hadn't come to his senses. That man was frustrating and stubborn, oddly enough, two traits that she had as well. Sighing, she threw the covers off, She got out of bed and stretched. Her body ached today, she hadn't slept well and she attributed that to not being near Killian. She went to her wardrobe to get some clothes. Reaching out as she approached, the doors swung open on their own, with only the single thought from her head.

Emma stared down at her hand in shock. Had she done that? Was that her magic? Thank god she would be training with Regina later that day. She really needed to get it under control. This wasn't the first time that something like this had occurred. What would happen if she got mad at someone and thought something evil and it happened? What then? No, she couldn't hurt anyone; she had made the right choice to accept Regina's terms. Maybe their 'friendship' could unite the kingdom's, then something good will come from it.

Killian had been awake since well before dawn, because he had never gone to sleep. He couldn't tolerate being in his large bed alone. Not since Emma had been here at least. They kept the fact a secret from the rest of the castle, but he was sure some knew what had been happening. Pacing over to the balcony, he stepped out onto it and looked down at the sea. It was rolling today, the kind of day that meant a lot of hard and exhausting work on a ship. He almost wished to be out on his ship, while the waves beat against the hull and sweat poured from him with the exertion of keeping steady. Anything to occupy his thoughts and deter them away from Emma would be welcomed.

Pushing away from the railing he went to get breakfast. He was still undecided on how to handle the argument he had with Emma. The feeling of foreboding flooded through him when he heard her agreeing to train with Regina. His intuition had never led him wrong before. And what he knew about Regina and how felt about her, he couldn't ignore. How could he explain it to her without causing another fight? Until he figured it out he had to avoid her, as much as it pained him. Not seeing her was better than fighting with her.

He was surprised to find Snow White sitting at the breakfast table when he walked into the room. Even more surprised that she was alone. "Good morning Snow." He greeted her with a smile.

"Hook." She nodded and then took another drink of her tea. "You look as though you didn't sleep a wink."

"It's that obvious is it?" He replied wryly.

"That it is." She laughed. "Care to talk about it? I would think you would be in a happy mood since you will be marrying my daughter." She fished for a response, the way he held himself was almost defeated and in the time she had known the pirate, he had never seemed so forlorn. She disliked seeing him this way.

"Aye, I am happy. But it seems I've caused a bit of a fight. I came upon Emma agreeing to learn how to control her magic with Regina yesterday. Regina wants Emma to be her friend. I've known the Evil Queen for a number of years and she does not truly want to be friends with Emma. I know she has other evil intentions" Killian told her, the words flowing freely once he started. "And, I told Emma that. I even suggested she talk to you. Which made her very upset and was obviously the wrong thing to say—Now I don't know what to do." He sighed and his hand ran through his messy hair.

"Let her train with Regina." Snow said simply. As if the answer were obvious, really.

"You can't think this is a good idea!" He cried, confused at her reaction, Snow White of all people knew how evil Regina was.

"Regina wasn't always so evil, there was a time that she was very kind. Maybe Emma can find that in her." She replied her eyes had a faraway look to them, before she blinked it away and focused on Killian. "Besides, there is no one else that is as skilled with magic as Regina. Emma does need to learn to use it, I've seen it happen without her control on a couple of occasions, although I am not sure she even realized it was her that was doing it."

"I have a very bad feeling about this, that woman can not be trusted."

"But what about Emma, can you trust her? Don't you have any faith in the woman you plan to marry?"

Killian reeled back as though he had been slapped. Snow's words shocked him.

"Of course I have faith in her! I love her!" He exploded, but her words had him thinking, he hadn't thought about Emma in all of this, only his need to protect her.

"Well then you already have your answer." She replied calmly and picked up her cup of tea to take another drink.

Killian settled down at the table and started to eat. Snow's words echoed in his head, he already had his answer. She basically said either you truly love her or you don't. He didn't even have a thought that he didn't truly love her; Emma was the first person to make him feel anything in over 300 years. David came into the dining room and silently filled up his plate of food. They nodded to each other, but the room remained quiet except for the greeting between the King and Queen.

"Up for a bit of sparring after you are finished eating Charming?" Killian asked breaking the silence.

Smiling broadly, David looked across the table to the pirate. "You know I will take any chance I get to beat you." He said with a laugh.

"Hey now! You don't always win!" Killian chuckled an eyebrow rising with his teasing. "I've put you on your back more times than I can remember."

"Is that a challenge?" David laughed again.

"I do love a challenge." He replied cheekily then he stood up. "I will meet you out there."

David watched the pirate walk from the room. "Something is up with him this morning."

"Emma and him had a fight. They will work it out, True Love always comes out on top." Snow replied smiling at him.

"That it does my love." He leaned over and kissed her lightly on the lips and her hands immediately came up to hold him to her and deepened the kiss. David smiled against her mouth before he pulled away slowly. "I see you didn't get enough last night."

Emma stopped in the doorway taking in the scene and hearing her father's words. "Seriously guys? Didn't get a chance to scare me as a kid so you are going to do it now?" Ruby followed her into the room and she laughed at her reaction.

"At least you have your family now." Ruby told her, nudging her over to the food.

"Sleep well honey?" Snow asked as they approached the table with their breakfast. "You look a little tired."

"Not really. It was a long night to be honest." Emma replied and then filled her mouth so that she couldn't talk anymore.

"Let's talk about the wedding plans!" Ruby suggested happily breaking the silence that fell.

"Well that is my cue to leave. I will see you ladies later." David stood and with a quick kiss to his wife he left them to talk about it.

"How soon can we have the wedding?" Ruby gushed after the door closed behind him. "I know you want to get married soon. So—" she looked towards Snow, "how much time is needed?"

"Well, if we rush it, probably in about a month's time at the earliest."

"I don't want anything fancy guys, just you guys being there will be enough for me. I only need the people I love to share it with." Emma smiled at them both.

"Oh hush! You only get married once Ems and we are doing this right!" Ruby exclaimed almost bouncing in her chair with excitement.

"I think you are more excited than I am to plan this thing." Emma laughed.

"We can have invitations made up and sent out by the end of the week, how about an early fall wedding? It really is a pretty time of the year and you won't be overly warm in a dress." Snow suggested and Ruby did bounce in her chair then.

"YES! That will give us a little over a month to plan it. I am thinking the bridesmaids should wear emerald green." Ruby gushed. She thought about how the green would match Emma's eyes.

Emma rolled her eyes playfully. "You only want that color because you look amazing in it. You do know you aren't suppose to outshine the bride." She teased.

"You've got me!" She responded with a laugh. "But I do think green would be nice with all the fall colors."

"Well I will leave you two to discuss it. I have some things I need to take care of." Snow told them as she stood. "But I expect to hear all of the details."

"Why are you so slow this morning pirate?" David jeered teasingly at him as he knocked him onto his back for the fifth time that day.

"Omphf" Killian groaned as the air was knocked from his lungs once again. "I'm letting you win Charming."

"I doubt that. You always give it all you've got. So care to talk about it?" David leaned on the hilt of his sword and offered him a hand up. Ignoring the hand Killian climbed to his feet.

"Not particularly." He responded as he swung his sword at David catching him off guard.

"That was not fair play Hook." David laughed.

"Right." Killian paused for effect then he pointed to himself, "Pirate, mate."

"How could I forget, a pirate is marrying my princess of a daughter." Then he lunged towards him again and swept his feet from beneath him once again. Killian landed with a loud thud and David looked down at him shaking his head. "I am thinking that you need to talk about what is bothering you."

"It's Emma, we had a disagreement." Killian finally admitted as he got back to his feet.

"I heard."

"Then why the bloody hell do you want me to talk about it?"

"Because you may not realize it but I care about your happiness, because it affects my daughters happiness. So when you're not happy chances are neither is she." David informed him. "Now let me tell you something."

"Go on." Killian replied grudgingly.

"Emma is a strong woman, like her mom. You can't control her, no matter how hard you try, I don't think you'd want to control her." David paused and looked at Killian. "So what you will need to do is protect her when she falls. Because you and I both know when dealing with the Evil Queen that is what will happen. It has happened with Snow more times than I can count. But she has a good heart and wants to see the best in people; Emma is like that in many ways. So take my word for it and support her, just bite your tongue and support her. Even if you know in your heart of hearts that her decision is wrong." He patted him on the shoulder before stepping back and holding his sword aloft once again. "Now shall we?"

Killian stared at the man before him. Between Snow's words of trust and David's words of support it gave him a different outlook. He had been viewing it completely different than this before, and he was right, he didn't want to control Emma, he only wanted to protect her from harm. As any man in love would want to do.

"Well are we going to stare into each others eyes all day or are we going to spar?" David inquired tapping his sword to Killian's lightly.

Grinning Killian raised his sword and proceeded to put David onto his back for the first time that day.

Emma paced restlessly in the courtyard for Regina to arrive. She was late. Not that Emma had a clock handy; she just knew that by the sun she was not on time. How had she grown so accustomed to keeping time with the light of day? Truly, she had adjusted to the Enchanted Forest much easier than she had expected. It was dangerous of course with the random demon attacks, but that was now a part of daily life. Having a sword on her hip was a common occurrence now and she knew how to use it thanks to all the sparring lessons she had had in her dreams.

She turned back to pace the length of the courtyard yet again and she bumped into Regina right behind her as she turned. "Whoa! You can't be doing that! If we are going to be 'friends' then you can't just appear from out of nowhere!" Emma exclaimed.

"I'm sorry princess, my entrance was a bit off. I'll work on it." She smiled as she took a step back. "Sorry I'm late, something came up at the last minute that I had to take care of. So shall we get to the first lesson?" Regina inquired getting right to the point.

"Uh, yeah. Let's just move out of the main area so we don't get in anyone's way." Emma told her and led her over to an empty sparring field. Regina went through the explanations of how to use magic and how to feel it.

"You feel that in the air?" She asked seconds after making a pulling gesture with her hand.

"Yes, it feels like you just sucked all the oxygen out of the air." Emma replied gasping and a little breathless.

"My dear, that is magic I just pulled from the air." She smiled seductively, the magic coursing through her body affecting her mood. "Now you do it." Regina told her as the air felt like it filled back up with the magic.

Emma attempted the same movements as the woman had a moment before but she felt nothing, well except for a little silly. "It's not working." She grumbled.

"That is because you are thinking about it too hard, just feel it. You felt when I pulled it from around you, so I know you can feel it around you now, just gather it too you." She patiently explained.

Giving it another try she did it again without thought and immediately she felt the magic fill her. Gasping out her eyes flew to Regina's in surprise and shock.

"That's it. Now press your hand against this tree and bring it back to life. Think spring."

Regina instructed. Emma did as she was told and the tree started to bloom to life, purple flowers opened and spread an amazing scent on the wind.

"Oh my god! I've done it." She cried in joy. Looking at the tree she breathed in deep. If she could do this, what else was she capable of?

"You did, I think that is a big enough lesson for the day, don't you think? The magic may leave you a little tired at first, it's normal and it will pass with the more you use it. Now you're part of the deal, tell me something about yourself."

Emma looked at her, a feeling of calmness spread through her limbs and she thought she could lay down on the grass and nap right at that moment. "I had a really hard life until a few years ago, growing up without a family." She told her trying to be as honest as possible to keep up on her part of the being friends thing.

"I am sorry about that, truly I am. You grew up like that because of me, it was my fault." Regina said and Emma thought she heard a lie in her words but she knew them to be the truth so she shrugged it off.

"It's okay, everything turned out okay in the end. I also wouldn't have found Killian if I wasn't in that other world."

"Captain Hook? Ah yes, he would have been your parent's age. At least some good came from it." Regina settled onto the lush grass and patted the ground next to her. Emma found it strange that the woman was just casually sitting on the ground; she didn't strike her as the type.

"So tell me about you." Emma asked as she curled her legs beneath her. After that the conversation flowed between them as though they had been old friends. Maybe everyone had been wrong about Regina, stranger things had happened.

Making up his mind, Killian strolled down the corridor of the castle to the courtyard to find Emma. They really needed to talk. He needed to tell her that he would support her, in whatever she needed to do. Then when or if Regina betrayed her, he would be there to protect her. That was all that truly mattered. Stepping out into the waning sunlight he looked around for his princess. He found her sitting under a blooming tree with the Evil Queen herself. Walking over to them he heard Emma's laughter carry on the wind. He stopped in front of her and looked down at them both. Ignoring the Evil Queen he looked to Emma. "I thought we could talk—" Killian told her.

"Uh, Yeah." Emma replied and glanced to Regina.

"Don't worry my dear princess, I have to go anyways. I enjoyed our talk. Until tomorrow." Regina told her and got to her feet.

"Okay. I will see you tomorrow. Thank you for teaching me, I really appreciate it."

"No thank you." She replied and then strolled away. Emma looked back to Killian and her heart beat a little faster. She didn't want to fight; she was too calm and relaxed from the magic use to fight.

"Emma, love, I'm sorry. I will support you and trust you in whatever you decide you need to do. Even if I don't agree with it." Killian told her and offered her his hand. Reaching up she smiled and placed her hand into his letting him pull her to her feet.

In answer she drew him to her slowly tugging on his hook to do so and then pulled his head down to hers. Kissing him her lips slid along his and she felt her magic spark to life, spreading through her and out of her.

A/N - What do you think? =D