A/N Okay, so here's the thing. I was reading through my work and I decided it needed expansion so while the story is still coming to an end – it's been postponed for a couple more chapters. I'm so sorry it took so long to come out – I did have it ready but then I was constantly editing and for the last week I have had exams, assignments and no time to spare. P.S. Lovin your reviews and reactions!

ANYHOW! Killian's speech was heavily inspired by Spike's speech to Buffy when she was feeling down in the last season. If you guys are Buffy fans you'll know the reference and the link. If not, I hope you enjoy his little spiel anyway. It doesn't come straight away but it basically starts when he says "I've been around a lot longer than you."

I love this chapter. Jus' sayin'.

Chapter 36: Killian's Speech

Killian moved to sit beside Emma on the double bed and she quickly grabbed the bruised fist, cradling it in her hands as she inspected it. Her eyes were unwilling to meet his.

"Seriously though, what did you do?" she asked apathetically, trying to decide how best to treat his injury. He pulled his hand away and used his hook to lift her chin up. Her eyes finally landed on his stunningly blue ones. He pulled his hand up and touched the soft skin of her cheek under her eye.

"You've been crying," he said simply, dropping his hand into his lap. Emma looked away, she hated being this weak in front of him. The woman quickly pulled her hands up and wiped her eyes just in case there was any residue from the tears that had been slowly streaming since he left. She stood up, walking across the room and closing the door to her bedroom. She leaned on it heavily and looked down, playing idly with her knuckles.

"Why were you crying?" he asked, not so much soft as curious. His Irish tinted voice was like honey, cradling her and prompting her to answer.

"Why are you here?" she replied, her eyes rising up to meet his. As much as she hated to, she had told him to leave for a reason and allowing him reprieve so quickly wouldn't do well to ensure her safety. He ought not to have come back. Killian smiled ruefully at her, shaking his head softly.

"Didn't you hear me when I left, love?" he asked, standing up and walking over to her, "I'll never be done with you." As was his style, the pirate was quickly invading what others would consider personal space. But then again, they had shared a bed the previous night. Perhaps all considerations for personal space were now irrelevant.

"People often say things they don't mean," Emma replied, maintaining his gaze. Her voice was crackly and rough, another subtle indicator that she had definitely been crying. The man opposite her narrowed his eyes for a split second as if trying to discern his best course of action.

He opened his mouth to speak and the blonde moved away from him, unable to concentrate on being resilient with such close proximity. Especially with his mouth moving so close to hers. As she walked to the other side of the room, she heard him sigh.

"Lass, you would know if I'd been lying," Killian said and began walking towards her again, dipping his head slightly as he looked at her, "you would know now if I was still lying. So tell me, am I lying? Am I lying when I say I'm not done with you? Am I not being honest when I tell you I love you?"

Emma looked down at her feet, wishing there was a hint of untruth in his eyes or his voice or his mannerisms. But there wasn't and she sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. He stepped closer again and she considered moving away but decided to maintain her position.

"How do you know if I love you or not?" she asked abruptly, her eyes snapping up to his. A flash of hurt crossed his bright eyes and he flinched a little as she said it. The thought had crossed his mind but now, looking at her with all her defences up, he knew there was more. It wasn't one sided.

"Because I know you… and even if you try to deny it… you forget I can tell when you're lying too."

She stepped around him and sat on the unmade bed.

"Why do you keep saving me? We argue all the time. I'm constantly pushing you away and you… you just – you keep coming back. I don't understand. You're freaking Captain Hook and you're meant to be heartless and cruel and a womaniser… you aren't meant to be… to be… you're not meant to be like…" Emma looked up at him and flayed her hand in his direction, "this."

He chuckled, walking slowly over to the bed and sitting beside her. She was looking down at her hands again.

"You never told me why you were crying," Killian said, studying her face.

"I don't know… because I'm an idiot?" she suggested, cracking a weak smile and shrugging as she looked up at him again. So much for not letting him in again, she thought dryly.

"No, well I knew that, love. But that's no reason to cry," Killian retorted sarcastically, returning to the charming pirate that tended to comfort her more than anything else. It had always seemed odd that his infuriating persona was the one that always seemed to lift her spirits. At his comment she laughed lightly and looked up to the ceiling.

"You're right… but I cried anyway."

He looked at her carefully, "Why do you think you're an idiot?" She didn't answer, seemingly unable to form coherent speech. "Emma, love, I'm not angry at you. As ridiculous as your accusations concerning my feelings were… I'll attribute it to being temporarily mentally blinded by Neal's stupidity."

Emma chuckled a little again, her hand finding his on the soft mattress. He curled his calloused fingers around her slender ones.

"Why do you keep coming back?" she finally asked, her voice breaking on the end.

"Because I can't stay away from you," he replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"But I'm a shitty person," the blonde said. Killian shook his head, almost angrily, before stepping off the bed and kneeling in front of her. She turned to face him as he looked up at her, his hand and hook resting on either side of her.

"Shitty people attract shitty people, by that logic you're calling me shitty, love?" he said sardonically. Emma smiled lightly at his comment. "Why is it that you only ever seem to respond when I'm putting on the ass façade?" he asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

She didn't take long to reply, "When you're being an ass you're being you. You're not trying to spare my feelings or tip-toe around me like I'm made of glass… not like everybody else does. When you do that… it reminds me that you'll never treat me differently." Killian smiled as she finished, resisting the urge to kiss her passionately right there.

Make no mistake, he intended to do that. But he had some things to say first; some things he'd been thinking for a while now.

"You can't keep second-guessing yourself, Emma. You can't let people do that to you," he said sincerely. She shrugged and smiled morbidly.

"Why not?"

"Because you're needed – the people here… they look to you, they need their saviour," Killian replied. The woman before him looked down from his eyes and shook her head.

"But what if I don't want to be the saviour? What if I'm not the saviour they need?" she asked defeatedly, turning away from him. The pirate waited until her eyes were squarely on his before he began to speak.

"I need you," he replied, using his hand to manoeuvre her chin so she was facing him. There was silence before he spoke again.

"I've been around a whole lot longer than you, and in that time I've seen a lot of things. I've done a lot of things; the majority of which I hope you'll never hear about or even think about."

Emma was about to interrupt when he put a finger to her lips and continued talking.

"I'm not exactly the most rational individual, as you might be able to tell since we've been on opposing sides more than once… I've suffered a lot too, and it's forced me to go to hell and back. Over three-hundred years and there's only thing I've ever been indubitably sure of… you."

His hand moved from her lips to her knee which he grasped gently.

"You've seen me at my absolute bloody worst and brought me back to my best. You've forced me to try harder, even when I wanted to throttle you. When I say I love you, it's not because I want to bed you or because you're a challenge, which you undoubtedly are. It's because of who you are, I love who you are... We've fought together and against each other, I've seen you at your downright lowest and your stunning best. And after it all I still can't force myself not to care about you. I can read you like an open book and it hurts sometimes because you love so fiercely and hurt so deeply. Gods, Emma, you're a bloody brilliant mother and a fantastic daughter. You're a loyal friend and the hope in this town. And I love you for it…"

He waited a moment for the words to sink in, "I love you Emma Swan."

It didn't take long for her to pull him roughly up towards her. Emma gripped him tightly as she kissed him, trying to convey the love and gratitude she could feel swelling up within her. Killian leaned over her as she settled down on the bed, her back on the mattress as he hovered over her. He kissed her passionately the way he'd promised himself he would.

His hand moved to cradle her neck as her own hands pulled his face toward her with animal desire.

She pushed him upwards abruptly but only by an inch. For a worried second, the pirate thought she may have returned to rejecting him and was about to turn the cold shoulder once more. But instead, with her breathing heavy and her eyes no longer filled with tears, she looked him straight in the eye.

"I love you," she said like it was a revelation, the words weighted with meaning and honesty. Killian smiled genuinely as the words left her lips a second time and she pulled him back to her. It meant more to him that she said them now, when she was absolutely and completely and undeniably certain of her feelings.

Emma shuffled backwards, never breaking the kiss as the two of them moved further into the centre of the bed. He was kneeling over her, kissing her as his hand found hers and their fingers intertwined.

Killian manoeuvred his hand from hers, tracing with feather-light touch down her shoulder and her arm until he reached her waist. As his hand landed there, he abruptly gripped her waist to pull her around on top of him. She smiled as she landed on his chest, tucking her hair behind her ear.

He smiled too, sitting himself up so that she was sitting in his lap, her legs now wrapped around his hips. The fading afternoon light through the window glinted off his hook as he brought it up to the neck of her shirt. With deliberately slow movements, he tore through the front of it. She let her arms drop so he could ease it off her shoulders gently. The second she was free from it, he flung it across the room where it landed on the floor.

Emma cupped his face and kissed him once more before trailing her slim hands down to the hem of his own shirt. With much more urgency, she began pulling it up until he had to raise his arms. He chuckled slightly at the difficulty she had in raising it up over his long limbs. Eventually though, the blonde managed to get it off and the piece of grey material followed the path her torn shirt did.

As she looked back down to him, she noted the amused smirk tilting his lips. Narrowing her eyes in challenge, Emma rolled her hips once. Killian's reaction was immediate, the smirk disappearing and replaced by concentration as he growled.

"Emma," he chided under his breath as he pulled her towards him. He kissed her neck, paying special attention to her pulse point where he knew her to be sensitive. The saviour bit her lip and roughly gripped his head, pulling it back up to her face. They became a maelstrom of lips and teeth and tongues, fighting for dominance as they always did.

She pulled her legs back from her around his hips, pushing him down onto the bed now. They were both lying down and he paused to study her face, cradling it with his one good hand. She smirked slightly at the gesture, also studying his face. The moment ended and her lips descended down upon him once more. He traced phantom patterns on her back, sending shivers up her spine as she tried to concentrate on his lips.

Killian flipped them over once again so he was hovering above her. Without hesitance, he began inching down the jeans that were impeding his path. She held the headboard of the bed to assist him and laughed when he nearly fell off the bed in his attempt to rid her of the material. He stood up at the end of the bed and was about to move back onto it when she looked at his own jeans.

She lifted an eyebrow, silently demanding that his pants be removed. He smirked and proceeded to pull down his jeans. As he crawled back up the bed, Emma couldn't help but admire the way his shoulder muscles rippled with each movement. When he was finally hovering over her, they both grinned.

"I love you, Killian," she said gingerly, making him close his eyes for a moment.

"Say it again," he ordered.

Emma raised her eyebrow in defiance, "Say what?"

"My name," the pirate growled headily, rolling his hips down to emphasis his point. The woman beneath him had to close her own eyes, biting back the moan at the sensations the friction had caused. She didn't say a word, simply looking him in the eyes as if it were a secret challenge.

"Emma," he said in a cautionary tone, rolling their hips once again. She bit back the moan again and he smirked. A challenge, she was.

Carefully placing his weight on his hooked arm, Killian began tracing his fingers down the hollow of her throat. Every inch of skin he touched was set aflame, and she kept her eyes on his icy blue ones. He was watching her expression as he continued dragging his calloused fingers down, through the slope between her breasts, around her belly button, across to her hips. He fingered the material of her underwear before roughly pulling it down. She maintained the eye contact up until the point his fingers landed on her core.

"Killian," Emma groaned in defeat, tipping her head back. He traced her body once again, eliciting his name from her lips once more.

She was writhing beneath him as she hastily grasped his own member. Killian growled in response, a heady rumble of his chest, and immediately let her push down his undergarments. They took no indulgent time to align themselves and he soon thrust downward into her. Emma gripped his shoulder blades as he set an unforgivable pace. This was not at all like the first time where they had been slow and tender. This was the act of joining that two creatures commit when they are unrepentantly in love.

He claimed her lips in a heated exchange, managing to breathe out her name as he propelled into her. With one final movement they hit the pinnacle of ecstasy, lost in each other's arms as he momentarily let his full weight fall on her in his exhaustion. Killian pushed himself off, lying next to her. She pulled the sheet up from the unmade bed and curled into his side, resting her head on his chest.

His stubble tickled her forehead but she didn't mind. The pirate played idly with her hair as their breathing slowed. She tilted her head up to look at him as he tilted his head down.

"I'll never get used to you saying that," he said gruffly, blue eyes alight with bliss.

Emma smiled, "What? That I love you?" He nodded in response. "Why?"

Killian looked up at the ceiling, trying to organise his thoughts into one line.

"Because I lived the type of life that no one should. I was a pirate, Emma. I never in my life considered it an option that I would… find someone I wanted to… be with. Indefinitely." She didn't reply and he looked down to watch her. She was smiling tenderly.

"Killian, I don't think you really understand… you aren't Captain Hook. Technically, you are. But… Killian Jones is the guy in front of me right now. Back in the Enchanted Forest… Captain Hook kidnapped me and Killian Jones made a deal with me, Captain Hook slapped me but Killian Jones protected me from Grimes and treated me equal after it, Hook was the one who made a double deal with Cora, Killian chose me over an easy way out. Hook was the one who sought revenge through Belle. Killian was the man who broke down when his revenge collapsed. Captain Hook was the pirate who helped Cora after everything; Killian Jones was the person who ultimately put his life on the line to save me and my son. Killian Jones saved me from Grimes and Talice more than once. Captain Hook fought with Gold on the Jolly Roger; Killian Jones followed his worst enemy's orders to keep me safe. Killian saved me from myself. You aren't a monster… you've only ever shrouded yourself with the mask of one…"

He pulled her closer to him, kissing the blonde with urgency and longing. She was oxygen and he was drowning. As their lips broke apart, he watched her intently.

"You're bloody brilliant," Killian said, pressing his forehead to hers as he entrapped her in his muscular arms. She relaxed in his embrace, letting her head fall on the pillow they were on. They slept like that, wrapped in each other's warmth.

Did you guys like it? I hope I crushed your hearts with feels when he was giving his little spiel – not to be sadistic but it was kind of my goal with this chapter. Reviews are Easter eggs!