Sorry for the delay. I got it into my head that you all were going to hate how I ended this so I kept trying to re-write the last couple of chapters, but nothing that I wrote worked out as well as my original ones. Maybe there will be some one-shots added onto this for future tales of Killian and Emma.

chapter 35: you traded your ship for me?

Knowing Regina has found out her prisoners had escaped by now, they didn't dare take the main roads back to the Dark One's castle. Instead they trudged through the forest, following nearly overgrown trails from the time before the road had become widely used.

It took a few hours longer than if they would have followed the road, but both were okay with the extra delay knowing it wouldn't be much longer until they were back in their own time again.

"We did it!" Emma announced letting herself into the great hall of the Dark One castle.

"Your parents are together?" He asks.

"They're right back on track. We're ready to go. So how's the portal coming? Can you open it?" Emma asks impatiently.

"I cannot."

"Then what are you working on?"

"Ah, this is for me. A forgetting potion. I know too much about my future. The only way to protect it, is to forget it." Rumple explains.

"Well what about this wand?" Emma asks, picking up the gnarled black wand. "You said that could help us."

"Oh that." Rumple says evenly. "Well, apparently, only those who used the portal can reopen it. So unless you can wield magic, I'm afraid you're not going anywhere."

"So you expect us to just stay here?" Emma asks incredulous.

"No. I mean to put you somewhere safe." Rumple says and before Emma can yell out his name and tell him he needs to fix this and return them right now, they're being whipped up in a cloud of smoke.

When the smoke fades they're standing on the bottom floor of a very tall vault with no doors or windows. Hook crosses the room and catches his reflection in a mirror. "Well, at least he did us one favor. I'm devilishly handsome again." He says grinning at his reflection.

Emma turns to see him opening a cabinet. "Don't touch anything!"

"I'm trying to find a way out." Hook says.

"I don't think there is one." Emma replies had come so far and now they were just going to perish in a vault belonging to the Dark One.

"He said all we need is magic. You're the savior, Swan. You can do it." Hook says, coming over to stand in front of her.

"Not anymore. I lost it."

"When Zelena died, all of her spells were undone. Your powers should have been restored."

"Believe me, if I could make it work, I would. You think I'm faking it?" She asks him angrily.

He frowns at her. "I think not having magic makes it easier for you to run back to New York and pretend to be someone else. You're not. It's time to stop running."

"I know." She says shocking him. "Yes, I run away. That's how I've always survived. But believe me, I want this to work. I want to go back. I want to stop running."

"What changed your mind?" He inquires.

"Watching my mother die." She says, her eyes filling up with tears all over again. "Thinking she was dead. You saw what happened. I was so relieved when she was okay and I hugged her and nothing. She didn't even know who I was. I had saved her and I lost her too. And I realized that's what I've been doing to her since I met her. When Henry brought me to Storybrooke it wasn't just about being the savior. He was bringing me home. Neal was right."

His eyes softened. "About what?"

"You don't have a home until you miss it. Being with my parents these last few days but not really being with them? I've never missed them more. Storybrooke. That's my home...what?" She stops and questions him at the knowing smile he is giving her.

"Look down."

Her eyes follow his and find the one black and gnarled wand in her hand is now glowing with white light just like her magic. She steps to the side and concentrates on opening the portal. Hook steps through the portal first and she nearly dives in right after him, not wanting to take any chances that it will close without her.

They land roughly on the hard ground outside of the barn, right next to where she dropped her cell phone. The portal closes immediately after them, no further traces of fiery streams shooting into the sky.

She allows him to pull her up but turns away quickly. "There are some people I need to see." She says, grabbing the storybook from his satchel and taking off in the direction of the diner, not even bothering to wipe the dust from her clothing.

The second her eyes land on her parents in the diner, she's practically tripping over her own feet to get them, wrapping them both up in a hug. "You weren't answering your cell phone, we were worried." Her father says.

"I'm fine. I'm home." She replies, putting emphasis on the right word.

"Does that mean you're not leaving?" Her mother asks cautiously.

"No. I'm not going anywhere." Emma replies, pulling Henry in for a hug. "I hope you found some good apartments."

After hugging her parents once more she allows herself to be pulled into the booth, Henry immediately grabbed the book back from her and began reading through the stories again. She takes it from him, flipping through a few pages before she finds one of her (well, Princess Leia) and Hook dancing together at King Midas' ball.

"Wait." Her mother cuts into her thoughts. "You were Princess Leia?"

Henry snorts. "Nice alias."

Emma laughs. "I was in a pinch."

"Well there you go. You're officially one of us." David says smiling down at his family.

"And as my first princessly request, I would like to know the name of the baby."

Her parents exchange a smile. Her father taps on a glass to get everyone's attention. "And now the reason why you are all here, to find out the name of our new son. After much deliberation and some arguments on my side that he'll be teased mercilessly, we have decided to name our son after Snow's father, King Leopold. But we're calling him Leo." David announces.

Rumple and Belle come over to congratulate her parents and Emma pulls Rumple aside. She quickly fills him in on what happened, asking him if he thinks that they managed to fix everything. "Ah. So that explains the day I found myself in my secret vault with no idea how i got there. Yes, Miss Swan, aside from your adventure with the pirate, everything has gone back as it should have."

She slides back into the booth, smiling at her parents. Her mother is rocking baby Leo and her father is standing behind her mother, fingers running affectionately over her shoulder. Her eyes fall back on the storybook where she is dancing with her neck, she finds him sitting outside of the diner at one of the small tables Granny never seems to put away even if it's too cold to eat outside.

There's no reason for him to be outside alone. With a quick nod to her parents, she stands up and heads out the door. She slides into the chair next to his. "So, do you think Rumplestiltskin was right? I"m in the book now. He said everything besides our little adventure would go back to normal. Do you think that it is?"

Hook laughs. "He's right. Otherwise I'd remember that damned bar wench I kissed."

Emma smiles, rolling her eyes at him. "How would that prove anything?"

His voice lowers. "I know how you kiss. I'd have gone after her. But I didn't. My life went on exactly the same as before."

"Mmm. Must have been the rum." Emma says teasingly.

He nods slightly. "Everything's back to normal. You're a bloody hero Swan."

She shakes her head, brushing off the compliment. "So are you." He snorts and she waits a beat before continuing. "I wanted to thank you, Killian." She pauses again. This is the first time she's called him by his given name since Henry got his memories back. He sits up a little straighter at her use of his name. She continues. "For going back for me in the first place. In New York. If you hadn't-"

"It was the right thing to do." He interrupts her.

"How did you do it? How did you get to me?" She asks sincerely curious.

A flicker of something she doesn't catch crosses over his face. "When the curse was coming, I ditched my crew and took the Jolly Roger as fast and as far as I possibly could to outrun it."

"You outran a curse?" She interrupts.

He smirks, trying to lighten the conversation. "I'm a hell of a Captain. Once I was outside the curses purview, I knew that the walls were down and transport between the realms was possible again. All I needed was a magic bean."

"Those are not easy to come by." Emma says.

"They are when you have something of value to trade." He says, faltering a bit on the last word.

"And what was that?" Chests of treasure, maps of uncharted lands, buckets full of gold, various riches flash through Emma's mind as she tries to picture Hook trading his hard earned loot for a magic bean. But what he says is something she never could have imagined.

"Why the Jolly Roger of course." He says, self-deprecating smile in place as though he expects her to argue with him over it.

She finds herself leaning closer to him, unable to take her eyes off his. "You traded your ship for me?"

"Aye."

Her mouth falls open a little at his confession, almost expecting him to smile and tell her no he traded something else of value. The words pound through her brain. You gave up your ship for me? Aye. But it wasn't just his ship. The Jolly Roger was also his home. The man so intent on getting her to realize what home was gave up his own for her without a second thought. No one had ever done anything like that for her.

And at that moment Emma decided she didn't care at all if this Killian was not the one she knew previously in Boston or if she would ever see him again. This was the man who gave up his home for nothing but a slight chance that he could find her again and bring her home to hers.

She leans further forward, her fingers trailing up his arm and coming to rest in his hair, allowing her to pull him the rest of the way towards her until her lips are against his. It's nothing like when he kissed her in the Enchanted Forest hoping it would jar his memories, nor is it anything like the kiss in Neverland, full of fuel and fire. This is different. Even more different than when she kissed him in the Enchanted Forest, hoping it was the man she once knew. This was a different kind of hope, one that came from the possibility of new beginnings. As her lips part, deepening the kiss, she tries to express how sorry she was for the way she treated him over the past few months.

His fingers tangle in her hair, angling her head to the other side. She slides her hand to the side of his face, her thumb rubbing over the scruff of his cheek. He breaks the kiss and pulls back slightly. She opens her eyes immediately meeting his blue ones. She can't stop the corners of her lips from curling up as he offers her a small grin, thumb coming to graze across the dent in her chin. And then it was as though he realized she was still in front of him and not backing away from the kiss. As though he was just realizing she wanted to be kissing him. With eyes as light as the happiest man in the world, he leans back in and kisses her soundly again.

She has no idea how long they sit out there kissing, both oblivious to the bitter cold. At some point she drags her chair closer to his, wanting to be as close to him as possible. His hand travels from tangling in her hair and curling around her waist to pull her even closer to him. Eventually he breaks the kiss again, forehead against hers as they both pant for air. She finds herself nudging her nose against his, eyelashes fluttering against his because the thought of the loss of contact with him makes her anxious.

His voice is rough and low when he finally speaks, making her shudder. "As much as I'd like to continue this, perhaps we should join your family inside before they come to find us."