Chapter 25: All I Want Is Honesty

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A/N: S. Carey's "Fire-scene - alt version" is perfect mood music for this chapter. If you're into that.

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Emma Nolan and Killian Jones were married in the forest where her parents met and fell in love. A candlelit procession of courtiers and commoners alike led them to a wide clearing and there they said their vows for the second time, surrounded by witnesses, with the blessing of the privy council.

She couldn't possibly explain it, but Emma had the strongest sense that her parents were there as well, in the wind that blew through the birch trees and gnarled oaks and fragrant pines. She felt their love, their light, and their warmth shining down on her in the darkness, in the soft glow of the candles all around. And she smiled, breathing in deeply and reveling in the feeling. She always thought her parents would approve of Killian, that they'd have no trouble seeing what she saw in him. Now she knew it beyond any shadow of a doubt.

Killian's hands were trembling. Could this be real? Could it be true? Was he really going to marry the love of his life? Had he really found some kind of redemption for a life of piracy and selfishness and revenge?

He smiled as he looked into the radiant face of the woman he loved.

He didn't deserve it. But he was grateful beyond words.

They sealed their promise with a lingering kiss, soft and slow.

The end of a season of loneliness and strife for each of them. And with any luck, the beginning of something entirely new for both.

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It was late.

By all rights, the two of them ought to have been utterly exhausted. It had been the longest, worst, and most wonderful day of their lives, but they didn't seem to feel it.

When they'd first come back to the castle after the wedding, it had been a frenzied blur of emotional intensity. Crashing into the room together, desperate kisses and searing heat.

Now, they had settled into a blissful, hazy calm. Emma lay stretched out naked on her stomach on the bed, while Killian lay on his side next to her, running his fingers through her long blonde hair, searching out and untwisting a number of tiny braids her ladies had put there before her first attempted wedding of the day.

Killian teased her about how many times one woman could get married in the span of a week.

"Why did you come back?" Emma asked, her voice soft.

"I should think that's fairly obvious, Swan," Hook replied, pausing to place a gentle kiss on her shoulder blade before resuming his work.

"Tell me anyway," She said. "You were hurt. I'm the one that hurt you."

"That's hardly true," KIllian interjected. "That foul git Arthur was the one who trumped up the fake evidence and riled the angry mob."

"But I didn't stop him," Emma confessed, wrapping herself in the top sheet as she sat up. "I could have fought back. Silenced him. Banished him. Pointed out the obvious."

"You couldn't have known," Killian said dismissively, looking up at her. "I never told you about Regina or about taking Pandora's Box with me to meet the Dark One. For all you knew, he was telling the truth."

"But I did know," She replied, closing her eyes and trying hard to swallow the hard lump in her throat, "I may not have known everything, but I knew well enough you were innocent. That even though you were owning up to every charge he brought against you, it was only out of some demented sense of duty. Yes, you met with Regina and you listened to her plan, but you didn't have any intention of actually going through with it." Killian raised an eyebrow at this, as if to question her judgment. "Alright well maybe you might have gone through with it if I'd agreed, but you knew I never would."

"Perhaps," He admitted.

"Perhaps?"

"Aye, perhaps," He repeated, sighing. "You have far more faith in me than I deserve, Swan. Always have."

"And I always will," She said, running a hand through his thick, dark hair. He closed his eyes and captured her hand in his, sliding it over his stubbled cheek and kissing her palm, luxuriating in the simple feeling of her touch. "But why did you come back?"

"No getting around, it eh?" He laughed. She smiled and shook her head, stroking his cheek gently. He sat up and gathered her in his arms. She nestled herself snug against his side, resting her head in the soft curve of his shoulder, her fingers splayed out across the scarred and tattooed skin of his bare chest. He placed a soft kiss on top of her head and took a deep breath, enjoying the soft scent of lavender and cedarwood in her hair.

"I sent you away," She confessed.

"Aye. And leaving you willingly was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. No surprise I wasn't very good at it."

She narrowed her eyes at him.

"You're avoiding the subject."

"Well it's bloody difficult to talk about, Swan," He confessed. She settled back into his side and began absentmindedly tracing patterns on his chest with her fingertips. He sighed deeply, scrubbing a hand over his face and tried to muster the courage to say the words he didn't really want to say, but she needed to hear.

"I wanted to fight for you. I would have fought the whole bloody world for you. And I know you thought you didn't have a choice and that you had to be strong for your people." He trailed off.

"But…" She whispered, sure there was more.

"But it didn't feel like that's what you were doing. I've seen you be strong, Emma. I've seen you be so fierce and determined and reckless in your pursuit of what you want, it's bloody frightening to watch." She couldn't help but smile at that. "But sending me away like you did- that wasn't you fighting. That was you giving up."

She nodded, smiling sadly as a tear rolled down her cheek.

"And it hurt you," Emma said softly. He nodded, agreeing.

"I came back to fight for you, to fight for us."

"Why?" She asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Well, what else was I going to do with that bloody bean?" His voice is gravelly and low, and he speaks as if it were a nuisance he was eager to be rid of rather than a priceless treasure. Emma laughs darkly, pushing herself upright.

"I don't know, gone to a new land? Started over, like I said? You had your ship and your freedom and a magical bean that could take you anywhere in any world you could have ever wanted to go-"

"Aye and it did," Hook says, placing his hand on the back of her neck, gently pressing on her jaw with his thumb and leaning forward to catch her eye. "It brought me to you. There's nowhere else in all the realms I'd rather be."

She lets out an exasperated sigh.

"But Killian, you could have been killed." He can't stop the lazy grin that spreads across his lips.

"You should know by now, Swan, if there's one thing I'm good at- it's surviving."

She smiles softly at that and presses her forehead to his.

"I'm sorry," She says.

"Me too," He agrees.

And they kiss in the darkness as the candles finally gutter out.

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A/N: Aaaaaand I'm out. I felt like they deserved a little more resolution than just ending it at chapter 24, but I feel like this is a good stopping point for them. If you have an idea of something you'd like to see as an afterthought… a little one-shot style chapter that shows some sort of picture of their lives together in the happily ever after world that really inspires me, I might be open to taking a stab at it. But I'm overall happy with ending this here. Five years, guys, I've been trying to finish this thing. Thank you for sticking with me. Thank you for reading. :)