A/N: A guest commented that I had "forgotten about David." I have not. His role in the story is about to increase, but you have to be patient with the story. There is some progress here and a little bit more of the Jones brothers.
Emma's arms ached for her little brother, the small weight that rested there so comfortably and companionably. She had reluctantly handed him back to Ashley, rushing to Liam's side and getting Ruby to help her return him to his room. Dr. Whale had been called, as had Archie. Both men argued over whether the issue was psychological or neurological while Killian had questioned her to death on what Liam had said about Mr. Gold.
"He mentioned a ship?" Killian asked her again, ignoring the fact that she was exhausted and had already had to make excuses to Graham for her tardiness.
"Yes," she said warily. "For the one hundredth time, yes." She was frustrated, annoyed at his insistence that this was some great moment, as she had already lived it.
"It means something," he insisted. "I know it must."
She threw her jacket over her arm and stood on her tip toes to kiss his cheek. "I have to take my leave," she reminded him. "I'll be back later. Try and get some rest." It was futile request, as he was probably going to pester his brother. She turned to look back at him, Killian already digging into the drawer for their notes.
It was like him, she decided. He'd been so studious on the ship. He'd studied every map, every book, every note his brother had left. Even on the island he'd studied the charts and night sky for clues. It was ingrained in him. He was doggedly determined, a man with a mission. She could not compete with that. So when he slammed the door a bit too hard and chased after her to find her on the stairs, she was surprised.
"You are remarkably patient with me, love," he said, stroking her cheek. "More than I deserve."
"Why do you do that?" she asked, tilting her face toward his palm. "You always make yourself sound worse than you are truly."
"Guilt," he answered with no second thought. "I feel guilty for not wooing you properly. A princess should have a better life than I have been able to show you."
She shook her head, reminding him that such titles did not really matter in their current circumstances. "I'm Emma," she told him, her voice soothing. "I'm just Emma here. You're just Killian."
He didn't respond with words, lightly touching her lips with his and smiling against the end of their kiss. There was a lingering moment where she stayed so close that he could feel her breath on his mouth, sweetly caressing without even touching him.
"I will see you later?" she half asked and half stated, her smile hesitant as she readjusted the jacket on her arm. "I hope you get what you want from him."
Killian nodded, promising to see her later. If he closed his eyes he could still see her, the hair on head piled high and the delicate tiara of a princess nestled amongst the curls. Some women were born to wear such finery, their very essence craved it. Others seemed to repel it, preferring simpler pleasures. Emma was a cross between the two, he decided. Her every movement seemed to call attention to her status, but she was not one to dwell upon it. It made her all the more special in his eyes. He waited until she disappeared down the stairs, the thud of the side door shutting as she dashed away.
Ruby met him at the door to his brother's room, a glass with water and straw in her hand. He'd been fascinated the first time he saw such a straw, the plastic folded and bending like an accordion. Killian placed the plastic bendy straw in the glass of water that Ruby had shoved into his hand as he walked back into his brother's room. Her concerned tone telling him that she had to return to work and tell her if anything else was needed. She had given Victor a quick kiss on the cheek and mumbled well wishes to Liam whose eyes remained closed.
"He seems calmer," Victor told him, the therapist behind him nodding solemnly. "I wouldn't suggest pushing him too much. It could set him back a bit."
Killian nodded, taking a step toward the bed. "He's just sleeping, correct?" There was a worry in his eyes and a fear in his tone that contradicted the calmness he tried portray.
Victor seemed confused, as the man was clearly resting with his eyes closed. Suddenly it dawned on him that the man before him was worried that Liam had returned to his comatose state. "Oh, he's going to wake up. I only sedated him since he seemed so agitated."
There was a moment of relief as Killian noted that his brother was lightly breathing with the blankets pulled almost up to his neck as he used to sleep as a child. The doctor and therapist both patted his shoulder as the left, noting medication and suggestions for his ease back into life.
"To snore would have been a bit much for the ruse, would it not, brother?" Liam said, his blue eyes flying open and staring knowingly at Killian. "I didn't think it was good to talk in front of them."
"You…"
"I remember," Liam said matter-of-factly, his captain's demeanor apparent as he sat up in the bed. "It came as a flash. That horrible man was the impetus, I believe, but then I saw Emma and it clicked. The ship, the curse, the awful illness, the storm. It all made sense."
The baffled expression came back to Killian's face as his brother looked at him with the earnestness and pride that had been a part of their relationship for years. "You remember," Killian answered, a breathless pause halting his speech.
***AAA***
Graham had not given her much information, only stating that Mr. Gold had called and requested a report be filed after something went missing from his shop. "He's not asking that you investigate," the man said to her. "Just look around. Write down what he says. Come back here. Simple?"
She rolled her eyes, grabbing the forms she needed and hurried from the station toward the pawn shop. It wasn't that far of a walk and her feet hurried along the sidewalk with determination she had admit was a bit addicting. The adrenaline and the rush of feeling needed and important was one that she did kind of enjoy. She'd watched her father rescue people, save the kingdom, and fight side by side with her mother. She'd seen her mother's strength and prowess on display, but never had she experienced anything of the kind when it came to herself.
If Mr. Gold was surprised to see her instead of Graham, he did not express it. In fact, he expressed the opposite and told her that he had requested her presence rather than the sheriff.
"I'm not sure I understand," she said, brushing her hair back from her face with her hand.
"Discretion, my dear," the man said, offering one of his sickeningly sweet smiles. "You are capable of that, but the sheriff is not. He has not even been able to fully hide his intimacy with the mayor."
Emma frowned at the reminder, not sure why that bothered her so much. "Why do you need discretion for an act of petty theft against you?"
Mr. Gold's long fingers seemed to brush her concern aside as he flipped through the pages of a dusty tome and looked for all the world to see as a man searching for something. "I wished to ask about the young man first," he said. "He was quite upset when he saw me. Kept mumbling something about illness and a ship. He did not seem well."
"He's resting," Emma offered, not knowing what else to say.
"Perhaps that was it," Mr. Gold said, looking up briefly from the book. "It must be quite exhausting to try to put together a life when you have been unconscious from the world for quite some time."
Emma cleared her throat, unwilling to discuss with him Liam's journey or the fact that all of them were living different lives than they should. That was a discussion for two people who trusted each other or at least had understanding. It felt too much like he was attempting to extract information rather than share it. "You said that there had been a break in?"
He chuckled at her blatant attempt to change the subject. "I deal in antiquities," he said as though the evidence around them did not already spell it out. "People assume, and rightly so, that most of them are worthless and useless little trinkets."
Emma pursed her lips and looked about the cluttered shelves and displays of the store. "You don't seem to do a great deal of business," she noted. "And most of the items are not really that useful here in this…place."
He smiled at her, his hands leaving the book and running along one of the shelves with a few oddly matched items. "Do you recognize any of them?" he asked. "Anything that speaks to you?"
She again frowned, the lines of her forehead digging a bit deeper. "I don't know what you mean, Mr. Gold," she said. "You called about some sort of theft, but you don't wish to report it to the sheriff because of the need for discretion. You don't seem to even be telling me what item was stolen."
"My dear," he said, patience seemingly oozing from him. "The object and perpetrator are linked. One cannot say the name of one without the other."
She let out a frustrated sigh. "Let's try this again," she said. "What is missing?"
***AAA***
"Rumpelstiltskin?" Killian looked to his brother incredulously, his elbows resting on his knees and his hands cradling his own face. "That man can't be…"
"But he is," Liam said with little emotion. "I did not realize it in that little village, but he is the man who disguised himself and told me of a curse that inflicted those who visited the village. It seemed strange at the time, as nobody else ever spoke of it. Wouldn't you think that a bar keep or a trader would have spoken of it? But then when we set sail I was living it all again. The illness that we could not explain took over so completely."
Killian closed his eyes. "But if he was in disguise…"
"I know what I should like," Liam said, his fists balling up the blankets around him. "I know what you're thinking. I'm just telling you that this Mr. Gold is Rumpelstiltskin. He cannot be trusted."
"Of course he can't," Killian muttered, his face pale with the realization that he had actually suggested Emma get to the bottom of the man's hidden agenda. He might have sent her into the mouth of the lion simply out of desperation for some answers to this unending riddle. "He's the bloody Dark One."
"Aye," Liam answered. "He has few weaknesses, but he surely knows those of his foes."
***AAA***
Emma crossed the lobby of the hospital and was for once glad that Killian was not there. She knew that Victor had told Killian to watch over Liam, hoping that the two could reach some understanding and quietness rather than the tension of the past few days. The hard soles of her boots echoed on the floor as she realized again how few people actually frequented the halls of the hospital.
The few times her father had spoken of the impending curse, she remembered him saying that her step-grandmother had intended it to separate loved ones from each other. Emma supposed that the separation meant that most had no realization that their soul mates and true loves were actually there.
"I'm looking for Dr. Whale," Emma said, her fingers drumming on the information desk in front of a bored looking volunteer. "Can you retrieve him for me.?"
The woman seemed annoyed and pressed several buttons of a telephone that looked to be the color of dried clay. Emma rolled her shoulders back and lifted her hands in an almost prayer like pose as she waited for the woman to successfully find him. "Dr. Whale, this is Nancy," the woman said a bit too formally, breaking out into a giggle at something the man said. "Yes, well…you have a visitor here. A miss…?" She looked expectantly at Emma.
"Emma."
The woman cleared her throat. "Emma is here to see you."
Victor must have agreed as the woman laughed and said something about waiting for him. Pointing to a group of chairs, she directed Emma to wait for him.
"You didn't have to page me," Victor said, his hands resting on the stethoscope around his neck. "Most people…"
"My last experience giving myself a tour of this facility led to my arrest," she reminded him. "I thought it better that I announce my presence this time."
Victor chuckled and waved her into the staff lounge, offering her a coffee before pulling a chair up to the table across from her. "You wanted to see me about something?"
"I know that you must be quite suspicious of me," Emma said, her eyes dropping to her hands. "Apart from my behavior here, I know that Killian and I have not been quite…"
The doctor tilted his head curiously, his eyes narrowing in judgment. "Emma, I'm not sure what you're getting at here," he said, "but I feel I must stop you. I don't want to hear a confession. I'm a doctor, a physician, not a priest. I don't want to know what sins you have committed, nor can I grant you some sort of absolution."
Emma shook her head. "I'm not asking for absolution, Victor," she said. "I'm asking for answers. I'm asking for your help."
***AAA***
Liam and Killian discussed the situation most of the afternoon, but it was not until Ruby had brought them dinner that Emma's name was even said. Casting a warning glance at his brother, Liam waited on the confession that he was sure was to come.
"You don't listen, brother," he said, testing a bit of the food before sinking his teeth into it. "Curse or no curse, she is a princess and our job was to protect her. You think that means that you get to share a bed with her every night and touch her as though she was just some…"
Holding up a hand, Killian shook his head. "Emma's not helpless or naïve, Liam," he said with a stern look. "I care about her a great deal and she cares for me."
"Does she?" the older of the two brothers asked. "I realize that the circumstances here, on the ship, and on that island where you both stayed meant that you were alone with each other in situations that weren't always proper. Sometimes a woman might cling or align herself with a man simply out of need."
His blue eyes closed as he heard his brother verbalize the fears that had been churning inside of him. "It's not like that," he repeated. "Emma's…"
"I don't want to see you hurt," Liam said. "I don't want her to hurt you because that's the only conclusion to this. She was born to break this curse. She will succeed. Where will that leave you? When she is reunited with her parents and they have taken her back to one of their fine palaces? What of you then? Will they invite you back with them? Is that what you think? You'll be welcomed into their lives because their daughter sought comfort in your arms?"
Killian did not answer his brother. His shaking foundation felt even more unstable with the images that Liam was painting.
"They are royalty," Liam said as though the words were bitter tasting. "She is high born and meant for a life so much more luxurious than one a lieutenant can provide her. Do you think that her parents would want their royal blood mixed with a commoner's for their grandchildren? She will rule a kingdom someday. So will her children. You cannot think that her family will allow you to have any role in that."
"Liam, please…" The collar of his shirt felt tight and the fabric of the denim pants scratched the skin of his hands as he tried to steady them against his thighs.
"No, brother," Liam said with an emphatic shake of his head. "You must separate yourself from her. You cannot let this continue."
Spoilers - Next Chapter -
Emma encourages her mother to help her wake David.
Killian and Liam seek out an upper edge with the Dark confronts Liam about her relationship with Killian.
