One more chapter today…A special thank you for your follows, favorites, and feedback. It is truly a great Christmas gift for me.

Elsa sat in the middle of the living room floor with her back to the door, carefully addressing envelopes with an old fashioned script that Emma admitted was beautiful. She frowned at her work, diligently dragging the fountain pin through the curves and lines of names and addresses with pure focus.

"Wow," Emma said, lifting one of the finished products with her gloved hand. "That's beautiful." She smiled down at her friend. When she received no acknowledgement, she looked curiously at Anna.

"She's in a bad mood," Anna explained, her eyes never leaving the television. "Someone called her a few names and then she had the snowflake thing. It wasn't a great day for her."

"I'm sorry," Emma said, sliding down next to her friend. Removing her gloves, she reached out to touch Elsa's arm gently. "I don't know what is going on in this town today, but it is crazy. Please don't take it personally. People have threatened Killian. I've had strange looks coming my way since dinner."

Elsa glanced up, her eyes red from tears. "You know I'd never hurt you, right?" she asked in a soft voice. "I've been hearing that I've hurt you or done something to hurt you." She waved her hand in front of her face to rid them of the snowflakes that had started to form. "You would tell me if I did something."

Emma leaned forward and hugged Elsa from their awkward position. "You haven't done anything to hurt me," she assured her. "I don't know what's going on, but I'm going to get to the bottom of it. I can't stand to see you like this or the town going nuts. There has to be an explanation." She felt some of the tension leave Elsa's body as she hugged her, a sign that maybe she wasn't quite so traumatized.

Anna reached over to rescue a stack of invitations that were threatened by Elsa's most recent snow incident. "You don't think it is a curse or something, do you?" Anna asked. "I couldn't go through that with the wedding and the invitations, the dress fittings, and..."

"I thought about that," Emma said, holding a hand out to stop Anna's diatribe. "But I think it is more than likely just some sort of misunderstanding. I'll get it all straightened out."

"Good because I don't want it to ruin everything," Anna declared. She looked troubled for a moment and then launched herself into the hug as well so that the three of them formed one large heap in the middle of the room. Emma's laugh and Elsa's choked sob were joined by Anna's rambling voice.

"It won't," Elsa guaranteed with her head still on Emma's shoulder. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let it get to me. I shouldn't have cared."

Emma patted her friend's back as they continued to hug. "You have every right to be upset about it," Emma told her. "I would be too."

When Killian, Henry, and Kristoff entered, they weren't quite sure what was going on, but they simply left the women there in a ball. Henry held both men back as they took steps toward the women, explaining that sometimes you just had to let people hug it out. They weren't sure what that meant, but since all the women seemed to be smiling now and not in any distress, they simply assumed it must be okay.

The next morning Elsa was still troubled by the comments she heard and said she'd prefer to stay in for breakfast rather than head to Granny's with Mary Margaret and David. Emma had eaten a muffin and hurried herself and Henry off to work and school respectively. So that left Killian, who told Emma he would drop her off a coffee for her mid-morning break. So with plans in place, he headed into the diner.

"You have some nerve," Ruby told him when he sat down at the counter. "I would think you'd be hiding like a coward." She shot a quick look around to see if one of the other waitresses would take his order, but none acknowledged her.

"Would you mind telling me for what reason I have to be cowering?" he asked, genuinely perplexed by her reaction. She was clearly a good friend of Mary Margaret and Emma, but the woman had always been polite and sometimes friendly to Killian.

"Men," she grumbled, pouring him a cup of coffee and placing his order with the cook without actually waiting for him to make up his mind. He normally ordered the same thing so it was not that big of a deal, but she did it with such wrath that he truly wondered if she would try to poison him. "Now what part of this situation confuses you?" she asked when she reapproached. He could not help but notice that the coffee pot she held was inching closer to his lap.

"I simply wondered what I have done to offend you," he said. "If you could tell me, I might be able to make amends."

She frowned at him, red lips almost disappearing in the tightness of her expression. "You should know," she seethed, but changed her words as she saw the confusion on his face. "You and Elsa."

"Elsa?" he said quietly.

"Yes, the blonde you live with who isn't the sheriff," she answered with a roll of her eyes. "Seriously, you are cheating on Emma with her roommate. This isn't college."

"Cheating?" he answered just as dumbly. He was looking at Ruby, but he could feel the eyes of the room on him.

"Oh my God," Ruby said, placing the coffee pot down on the counter and crossing her arms over her chest. "You think playing dumb guy is cute? Everyone knows, buddy. Everyone! This place was going nuts last night because people saw you at the jewelry store with Elsa. She was hanging all over you and you kissed her. Emma was freaking across the street, you moron. How could you?" Using a menu that he had discarded, she smacked him in the head with it. "Moron!"

"Wait a second," he said, rubbing the spot where she had hit him. "People are saying that Elsa and I…She was not hanging all over me, nor did I kiss her."

"Yes," she said with an exasperated sigh. "From what I heard it was a very cozy moment between the two of you. Good grief, man. Couldn't you have snuck around a little? Better yet, not cheated on Emma. You do realize life is going to be hell for the two of you. There isn't a person in this diner who wouldn't beat the living daylights out of you for hurting Emma."

"I haven't…" he began, anger seeping into his voice.

"Don't lie," she said, backing away with her hands up in disgust. "It isn't very becoming on you."

"Now see here," he said, his confidence and irritation growing a little stronger. "I have done nothing to hurt Emma. I would never." She opened her mouth to protest but he continued on anyway. "What your emissaries saw at the jewelry store yesterday was in no way a liaison with Elsa. She was there with Emma's own mother and son. Do you really think me so crass and insensitive that I might begin or continue a dalliance with another woman with Emma's family as witness?"

"Snow and Henry were there?" Ruby said, her voice dropping about two levels. "He didn't say that."

By the time Killian arrived with Emma's promised coffee, he had set the record straight with Ruby, Granny, and six of the seven dwarfs. But even with this newly established truce of peace, Killian admitted that he precious little time before any hope at a surprise proposal would be ruined.

"Coffee delivery," he said, placing the cup before her. She nodded her head, scribbling another note on her pad and reaching for it absently. His hand reached out to cover hers, effectively stopping her from taking a drink. "You seem troubled," he said. "And I would bet it has something to do with…"

She finally met his eyes, her smile a bit forced. "I'm not worried about the rumors," she said. "Yes, I heard all about it this morning on my way in to work."

He smirked, his hand still covering hers. "As did I, love," he told her. "I was accosted at Granny's this morning by half a dozen people out to defend your honor. You should be very happy to know that people in this town love you so much that they would threaten bodily harm to me."

"It should be a warning to you," she said. "If you ever do anything…"

"I wouldn't," he declared. "I wouldn't dare. Not because of a few dwarfs threatening me with axes and dismemberment or a she-wolf reminding me that she knows where I live. I wouldn't hurt you because I wouldn't want to see the pain on your face. I wouldn't want to be the reason for your tears or for your anger. Even without your guards, you are quite a fearsome woman. Even if I wasn't in love with you, I'd be frightened of your ire."

She chuckled, keeping her hand under his. "I know you," she said, shaking the forefinger of her other hand at him. "And I know Elsa, so no I wasn't thinking the rumors were true. I think you might be smart enough not to cheat on me with someone we both live with and in front of my son, no less."

"But you are still a bit wary," he noted, releasing her hand so that she might have a sip of her coffee. "You're doing paperwork, which usually means that you need to think about the latest monster on the loose, or you are upset and need mindless drudgery to distract you."

She rolled her eyes, taking a long sip from the cup and licking the remnants of her lips. "I've lived a lot of places," she said to him after she had taken another sip of coffee. "Boston, Portland, New York, Tallahassee, Phoenix, and in more homes than you can count. But I've never lived in a small town until I came here."

His palm was flat on the desk, tapping a bit against veneer of wood. Without speaking, he prodded her for more information, tilting his head down and watching her carefully. She knew the look well, as he had been doing that since she first met him.

"When you live in a city where there are millions of people," she said looking toward the windows. "It's different. You're alone. Even when you're surrounded by all those people, you just blend in and you don't matter to anyone. You protect yourself and everything in your life because if you don't, nobody else is going to do it. I'm used to that life. I have lived it." She sighed again, hoping that her words were making sense and her message getting through to him. "But here it is different. It's so different. People know things about me. They ask questions. They care if I'm crying or upset. Ruby knows what I want to eat. Mary Margaret can tell you my favorite color, song, and article of clothing. And I won't even start to list what you know about me because you'd proudly list some more. People knew about us before we were even officially an us. I'm not saying it's bad. It's just disconcerting because I can't live my life the way I have lived it for 28 years."

"Would you want to change the way things are here?" he asked.

"No," she admitted after a pause. "I wouldn't. It just takes some getting used to after the life I've led. You aren't the only fish out of water here."

He laughed. "You know that these rumors and threats were only because people do care about you?"

"I know," she said. "It's sweet that they do. But that's not what scared me."

"What has scared you, love?" he asked, truly perplexed as to what had upset her if she did not believe them to be true.

"I didn't believe them because I trust you," she said softly. "I'm not used to trusting someone so much and not getting hurt from it. You just wiped out my theory that I am a magnet for horrible, awful men who will lie, cheat, or abandon me."

"And that's a scary thing?" he asked.

She bit her lip and nodded. "Very scary," she admitted. "It means I'm not an idiot for loving you."

"You'd rather be an idiot?" he asked, still smiling at her.

"No. I'm glad I was wrong about you, but it hurts the ego. You know how much I hate to be wrong." She laughed, punching his shoulder playfully. "I hate it almost as I hate saying you're right."