For colinodamnoghue, Mrs Sparky & Guest

A/N: Not exactly like the prompt, but I hope you enjoy it anyway :)

036:"A thunderstorm is rolling through town and you're scared of lightening/thunder so I'll protect you."

It was the same nightmare every time.

As soon as he'd sensed the shift in the wind and the electric sparking in the air, he'd known a storm was going to roll in that evening and that's when he'd felt the first stirrings of trepidation. Although, it wasn't the squall itself that frightened him, but what it portended that he really dreaded.

As he prepared for bed that night and slipped under the covers next to Emma, he tensed as the first sounds of thunder rumbled in the distance. He knew that staying awake didn't help. The memories of Liam and the shipwreck would just plague his dreams and unrest his soul the following night anyway. There was no getting away from it, whatever he did.

It'd been happening ever since he'd left the Underworld. Every time there was a storm, he had the nightmare. He assumed it was because there had been just such a tempest the evening that Liam had made his deal with Hades.

All magic comes with a price and this, it seemed, was his for defying death – he was cursed to watch his loved ones die. Again and again.

He fell into a fitful sleep hoping against hope that this night it wouldn't be quite so bad. That maybe having suffered through it a few times now, it wouldn't hurt quite so much – but it did.

Because it wasn't just the shipwreck that he dreamed of – as always, that was only the beginning.

Soon the image changed, segueing seamlessly into Neverland with its cloying heat and dense forest. His desperate pleading with his brother turning into desperate cries of grief. The feeling of loss as acute now as it was then.

Another shift, another time, the same outcome. The death of one love followed by the death of another.

Milah.

The fear, the helplessness, the despair. The guilt. Her final words of love. How he wished he'd said them too.

And then, in the midst of all the pain, there was sudden comfort. Warmth. A voice. It called to him - and he reached for home.

Emma stirred, the restless movements of her bedmate rousing her to wakefulness. A clap of thunder sounded outside and seconds later a flash of lightning seared across the sky, briefly illuminating the room and Killian's tortured features.

He was having another nightmare. They'd been happening on and off since his return but he'd never spoken of them to her and she'd not pressed, figuring that he'd tell her when he was good and ready. She just hoped that'd be sooner rather than later. Maybe if he talked about them, they'd go away.

He shifted restlessly again, his face contorting in distress as he uttered a hoarse denial to whatever he was seeing. Emma immediately moved closer and touched a gentle hand to his flushed face, seeking to comfort as she softly called his name.

He awoke abruptly and stared at her with anguished eyes. Slowly the pain faded and he suddenly wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against him in a fierce embrace. With a quick move, he rolled her onto her back and settled against her, his face buried in her hair as if trying to blot out the rest of the world.

"Do you want to tell me about it?" she asked quietly.

"Not really," he whispered, his breath tickling her neck where she held him tightly to her.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" she tried again.

"You're already doing it," he murmured, relaxing slightly as the distress of the nightmare began to wane.

She held him a little closer at that then turned her head to place a tender kiss upon his cheek.

Snuggling in even more, Killian sent a silent prayer up to Zeus, because while there was a price to pay for living again, having Emma right by his side made it one he was more than willing to pay.

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