Standard disclaimer applies, I own nothing. This chapter has been part of updating to fill holes and streamline it. All errors are mine, particularly the grammar ones.

Chapter Thirty Seven

Killian secured the Jolly Roger quickly and ambled down the gangplank.

Two weeks was not a long time but the village and the castle beyond seemed different now. A small smile played across his lips as he remembered how strange the 'royals' had seemed.

Not now.

The Charmings' castle was an extension of everything he called home and he looked forward to teasing David, especially about missing the farm.

Killian had found some peace the night before from simply seeing and touching his Swan. Something was afoot and she had kept her distance, mostly, but he believed she had understood everything he tried to tell her. Later when he had examined the chain she had put around his neck, he smiled. Emma had given his ring back. Until he could return hers, he would wear both over his heart.

As he neared the castle gates, Killian crossed paths with David.

His wife wasn't the only person missing from his life. Without the memory of what once was, he had lost his friend as well, a friend he missed almost as much as his true love. Still, how to handle this – what to say or what not to say. Emma surely had explained. Bloody hell, explained what?

He needed to have a real talk with his wife.

Killian hesitated in the middle of the road and looked at David with slightly panicked eyes. The same panicked indecision was on David's face as well.

"Ahhh, good day there, your highness," he sputtered.

"Ah, yeah. Hi." David did no better and the two men stood awkwardly across from each other.

"Nice day?" Killian cringed, listening to himself.

"Yes, it is a nice day."

"So."

"You know. Uh."

Just two men going nowhere fast.

"You're back!" David scrubbed a hand through his hair. "Shall I, no. Are you coming to the castle?"

"I am still welcomed there, correct?"

"Of course you are," David said in a rush. "We would never ban you from it." He mumbled something more.

"What did you just say?"

"Nothing?"

"No, you were mumbling David."

"It's not important." David's eyes made a slow circle. "Really missed you at sword practice. We need to fight soon."

"Fight?"

"Spar, I meant spar. Why would I want to fight you?" He gestured awkwardly, hands waving in the air. "I mean there's no reason I could have to, say, want to punch you in the face."

"Really David?"

"Stop raising that eyebrow at me pirate." David huffed and mumbled again.

"Oh, now really, you'll have to tell me what that was."

"Twins!" David shouted as they stood alone in the middle of the road.

"That's not my fault," Killian shouted back.

"Oh really?"

"I am not the one here who has an evil twin brother. Am I Dave?" Killian threw the words at Charming with all the astonishment he felt at the announcement.

The two yelling men froze and studied each other. David took a step back, looking down at the ground. Killian scratched behind his ear.

A smile broke out on David when he caught the pirate's gesture. "Two hands?"

Killian sighed. "So, you remember?"

"Remember the second curse, we asked Henry to believe and gave him the storybook?"

"Aye."

"Worked this time too." A goofy grin broke across Charming's face. "Welcome home, Son."

Kilian closed his eyes with a groan before giving his father-in-law a disgusted look. "Dad." He swept his hand toward the castle indicating they should resume their trip. When Charming began to walk slowly, Killian matched his pace. "So, who knows what?"

"The family right now." David tilted his head as he listed people. "Regina, Robin, Zelena, Henry, Snow, Neal, Belle, Rumplestilskin." He turned his head to watch the pirate take in the news.

Killian's face darkened. "How thorough. Was I going to make the list?"

"Well, we were planning on telling the dwarves first." David rolled his eyes. "Come on, we were waiting to talk to you and your "wife" at the same time." He made air quotes with his hands and Killian winced.

"I can't." He stopped when Charming held up a hand.

"I don't know what's going on with that but from what Emma told us today, there are reasons."

"Aren't there always reasons?"

"Good ones and bad, mate," David replied flippantly.

Killian rolled his eyes. "Still, I was pretty low on the list huh?" He shrugged it off.

"Killian, it's not." David sighed. "I guess we have reasons as well, good and bad. What brought us here, part of it was about separating you from Emma. So, and I really don't like to think about this part too much, true love's kiss could fix it."

"And we aren't rushing to do that because?" Killian's question was angry but David glared incredulously.

"Robin and Neal…"

The truth dawned across the pirate's face. "And Milah," Killian conceded softly. "Sorry, mate. I gathered something was going on but I guess I let myself forget for a moment. I miss…"

"I know." David glanced at him and then away. "So."

"So."

"You're totally ignoring the whole twin thing right now, aren't you?"

"I mean really Dave? How much more melodrama can life toss at us right now. Lost memories, mistaken identities, long distance separations and a surprise pregnancy was quite enough on its own. You just had to add in that little tidbit as if I didn't already wish to get back on my ship and sail home to my wife."

"Would it help if I have something else for you to do?"

"I have something to do." Killian picked up the pace and Dave matched him. "Nothing comes before clearing my path back to Emma."

David winced and looked away.

Killian caught it with a quick side glance and stopped. "What is it?"

"We kind of need you two to, ah, well."

"I get that and fine, you have a little mission you want me to go to keep us physical apart till you all bloody well solve the problem. I'll go." He paused, drawing in a deep breath. "But this has to happen first. I can't go on without Emma knowing I am fighting my way back to her."

"She knows." Charming reached out and squeezed his arm. "For Regina and Rumple, it's a second chance they never dared dream of and maybe, for a second Emma thought."

"That this was my second chance?" Killian kicked a rock down the path. "It's not the same. Who I was then, isn't who I am now and it changes everything."

"Which you didn't know until?"

"Fine, recently."

"For what it's worth, she might have been scared about what you wanted but she believed in the end you'd find her." Charming smiled slowly. "Also, you'd be surprised what pregnancy brain can do."

"Do I really want to know what that is?"

"You don't have a choice." David wrapped an arm around Killian's shoulders. "Twins."

The two men smiled at each other in understanding and continued home.

Regina slipped through the chalk doorway into Snow White's bedroom. Snow had heard the scrap of stone across the floor and stood waiting, tapping her foot with her arms crossed.

"This is just awkward." Regina glared at the piece of chalk in her hand.

"You aren't done playing with that?" Snow crossed to the hallway door and waited for Regina.

"I am sorry. I didn't mean to end up here, here," she said as they exited the room. "Really it's your own fault. I thought about you, next time I'll think of the library."

The two women walked side by side through the halls. Snow waited patiently for Regina to get to her reason for visiting but she remained silent.

"How's Robin?" Snow prompted.

"Fine."

"Really Regina," she scoffed. "Fine is the best you can do when for some wild reason you took the quickest way here and now I just get a fine."

"Yes. That is all you get."

"You'll feel better if you just talk about it." Snow deliberately slowed her steps and let Regina get in front of her before turning down a different hallway. She could hear Regina's groan of frustration and the quick staccato of her footsteps. "Grumpy came to tell us the Jolly Roger was spotted pulling into port."

Regina did not reply.

"David went down to meet Killian." Snow peered over at her friend. "Now we just have to get his wife over here and we can tell them they're in the same boat as the rest of us."

"You need to stop sneering when you call her his wife

"You just did." Snow shot back.

"Fine." Regina rolled her eyes. "I too need to stop sneering when I say it. It's not the woman's fault."

"And yet none of us want to say her name out loud."

"No one's perfect." Regina sighed and tugged Snow out onto a balcony. "We've found nothing so far in any of the other realms."

"Oh, Regina."

"Henry's just weighed down by all this guilt but I know, we all know, there has to be something else. Magic bean fields weren't even in his little fanfic." She leaned on the balcony's stone railing and rested her head in one hand. "Something else had to have happened but I can't find it."

"You need to take a breath." Snow wrapped an arm around Regina's waist and leaned against the railing with her. "The story world has to be infinite, there's no way you've checked everywhere."

"True, and not that I can. But, but with the effect it had on us, it can't be that far away."

Snow looked out over the castle grounds, out over Misthaven and tried think of something. "Is there absolutely anything I can say to make you feel better?"

"No." Regina started to say more but two voices, shooting words back and forth caught her attention. "Oh God, it begins. Just look at that will you."

Snow turned her head to see what Regina was complaining about now and there was Killian and Charming making their way home. She hadn't see Killian this at ease since Storybrook. The two were arguing, happily and it made Snow giggle.

"That'll just encourage them." Regina sniffed. "And those are the two men we're letting take my son and my thief off on some bro-trip to Storybrooke. The number of things that could go wrong are endless."

"Maybe." Snow considered. "But we'll talk to the "couple" then send the boys off. When they come back we'll know more and figure out a solution."

"What if the solution's not for the best, but for the worse?"

Snow hugged Regina and smiled down at her husband and son-in-law. "I don't believe that but I also think it wouldn't be a bad idea to have that wedding Robin wants waiting for him when he returns."

Regina nodded and the two women watched Killian and Charming bicker. Eventually the two men looked up to see them standing there. Snow smiled at her husband and started to greet Killian when he shouted out to her.

"Mummy!"

Charming howled with laughter.

Regina and Snow turned and walked away from the idiots at the castle doors.