I miss the reviews, guys! I'm gonna be in the car for the next two days so I might not be updating much unless I can get something written in the hotel. I hope you enjoy this little last minute story!
Emma wasn't good at being with people. Everyone knew that. Neal knew that, her parents' knew that, Henry knew that, the whole town knew that.
It wasn't because she didn't want to be and it wasn't because she just preferred solitude, but it was because she was scared to give someone the impression that she belonged to them and that they could tell her what to do. That might have also had to do with the reasons she never listened to anybody, but that was beside the point.
The first day that Emma told Neal that she was with him and that she was his was on a Friday. They had been running around all day, both of them going to different places and stopping to help people in different ways and she had run into Killian. Emma had been with Killian before for about two or three months before she realized that she had chosen the wrong guy and broke up with him.
Since then, Hook had been in and out of town, going to travel the realms and find a real cure for dream shade, hoping that once he did he would be able to inform the rest of the Lost Boys on Neverland and nobody else would suffer the fate that Liam had. She spent a little time with him and talking in Granny's before she decided that it was time to go and got up, leaving him to sit in his booth by himself.
Neal had come by when she was talking to him, and for whatever reason, he felt a pang of jealousy. Yes, he knew that Emma broke up with Killian to be with him, but that was almost a year ago. What if she'd changed her mind? He knew that he couldn't tell her what to do and that he wasn't the boss of her, that he didn't own her, but he wished that she was his again instead of with the stupid pirate.
He looked down at the counter as he picked up his coffee and left Emma with her ex-boyfriend, the one that had stolen his mother away from him and was now taking the love of his life, as well. He walked down the street to the sheriff's station and sat at his desk, taking out his drink and filling out his paperwork, trying not to think about the way he could hear his heart shatter in his chest at the diner.
He turned around as he heard the door open, seeing Emma walk through the doors of the station and go over to his desk, sitting on top of it much like she had done many times before. "Hey," she said, sitting up on the desk and looking over at Neal, who nodded at her before going right back to his paperwork.
That's when Emma was automatically able to tell that something was wrong. Neal was normally one to go into a conversation about anything and everything, especially when he had paperwork to finish. "What's up? You're being quiet," she said and looked over at him, half-tempted to reach across the table and steal his pen out of his hand when he didn't even look up at her, instead just sat and shook his head. "Hey, seriously," she says, closing the little paperwork booklet and looking over at him. "What's going on?" she asks and he looks at his desk, closing his eyes and leaning back against his chair.
She waits for him to look up at her before she reaches over and takes his hand. He looks over at the clock before looking back at her. She looks at him promptingly, waiting for him to give her an answer. "You were with Hook," he says and her eyes widen. She chuckles a little bit and she nods, looking over at him. "Why?" he asks and she tilts her head to the side, closing her eyes tightly for a second before she responds to him.
She looks over at him and shakes her head, squeezing his hand tightly and closing it in her other hand, as well. "I'm not with him. You know why I broke up with him. We were just catching up," she says, looking him in the eyes and he nods, looking down at the desk drawer to avoid her eyes. "Why don't you like him?" she asks and he shakes his head, looking back up at her. She squeezes his hand tightly in both of hers, awaiting a story as to why he considers Hook to be the devil's incarnation.
He looks up at her and she nods, smiling at him encouragingly before he begins to tell her what's going on with the pirate. "He's the one who took my mother away. He took her with him on some quest and she never came home. I ran into him a while later and he took me in until I found out and he dropped me in Neverland after I used a few choice words to describe what I thought of him," he says and Emma looks at him with her eyes wide.
Then, he can literally see the lightbulb go off in her head and she looks down at the ground, much like she does when she's thinking or talking about something that matters to her. "That's why you don't want me to be around him. It's because you're afraid like he'll take me away from you and Henry like he did with your mom," she says and he looks down at the desk drawer once again, nodding a short response before she looks up at him and sighs, looking him in the eyes and sighing.
She reaches over and cups his cheek in the palm of her hand, smiling sadly at him. He leans into her hand a little bit and she rubs his cheek with her thumb. "I'm not gonna go with him. I'm staying here with you. I'm your's, not his. He can't have me. I won't let him take me away from you, no matter how bad it gets here," she promises, hopping off of his desk and wrapping her arms around his side, closing her eyes and sighing. "You're my home, not him. I love you, not him," she whispers and he nods, reaching up to wipe away a few tears that had collected in his eyes over a few minutes.
He reaches over and kisses her cheek before responding to her as best he can without breaking down into a blubbering mess. "I love you, too," he whispers, taking her hand and kissing it before reaching up and planting butterfly kisses across her face. She smiles, giggling a little bit and getting up to go and grab her paperwork before joining him at her desk with her coffee and paperwork to fill out.