It was too much and all at once, not enough – never enough – emotions a chaotic maelstrom beneath skin as they came together, fingers grasping and brushing, stroking and cradling. The wind blew soft through the windows around them as the sunlight fled and darkness crept up from the horizon, leaving them bathed only in the light of the moon, bodies entwined.
"What if it doesn't work," she whispered, her fears soft and reverberating against his chest.
"If it doesn't," Killian murmured, feeling Hook's lips tighten and still against his back, "Alice will still have found her family, and you'll still have each other – and it will have been a sacrifice worth making, love."
"It has to work," Hook echoed, his words taut with desperation and fear as he pressed himself closer, needing to capture every breath of heat between them. "I can't lose you, either of you."
"You won't," Killian promised the both of them. "I'm a survivor, remember?"
"You've said that before," Emma muttered, rolling her cheek against the soft, curled hair of his chest, her fingers roaming across his body and clasping Hook's wrist where it rested at Killian's hip. "Just...come back to us."
"Nothing will keep me away – I'll always fight for us." His lips brushed her mussed curls as he settled further into his place between them, Hook's fingers curling around his arm.
This was where he belonged, and he knew that after everything they'd been through to find one another, to lay here in each other's arms, tomorrow wouldn't be enough to steal him away.
/
There were only a handful of steps between Emma and Hook – no more than they'd closed to share a kiss over coffee that morning, or in falling into each other's arms the night before, the three of them a tangle of limbs – but in this moment, it felt like an entire world.
There was a fourth person among them that morning in the quiet of their home, Regina's eyes drifting up to meet her worried gaze, asking for permission – asking if they were ready for this.
Killian stood next to Emma, his arm tightening around her waist as they both shifted their attention to where Hook waited just behind Regina.
He swallowed heavily, nodding, and just like that, it was time.
They'd put it off long enough.
Emma's world narrowed to where Hook stood, his hair soft and silvered and falling against a heavily drawn brow, stubbled jaw clenching. She barely felt the sharp dig of Killian's nails in her waist as Regina moved, her hand disappearing as she shoved it indelicately into Hook's chest – as if he were nothing more than a ghost – and pulled out his heart.
It wasn't the first time Emma had seen a heart like this, nor Killian's, but anger surged through her at the sight of it, cold rage nearly swallowing the terror that had all but consumed her this past week. It was brilliant and red with soft swirls of darkness, but all of that – the beauty of who he is – was eclipsed by a sheen of something green and noxious that slid across its surface like oil. Hatred for the witch who'd done this to him made the magic burn beneath her skin, but the weight of Killian's arm slackening around her body pulled her back to herself, reminding her of what came next, of what they stood to lose if this last, desperate act didn't work.
Emma's eyes snapped away from Hook's heart and to Regina as she turned and closed the distance between them. Her instincts reared up, wild and panicked, and she had to stop herself from physically moving in front of Killian, knowing that she can't protect him from this.
"It's alright, love. Everything will be alright," he murmured, his blue eyes finding hers one last time, full of love and reassurance and certainty, and then he shifted – one step closer to Regina, Hook's poisoned heart still in her palm. "I'm ready."
Emma's heart was beating chaotically through her body, keening, the taste of blood pooling on her tongue from where she'd bitten the inside of her cheek to hold back the flood of magic that wanted to stop all of this – she couldn't, they couldn't.
It happened too quickly.
Killian hissed, his shoulders rocking forward as Regina thrust her other hand into his chest and yanked it free, its flesh beating and pulsing brightly between her caged fingers. His stomach turned, memories racing unbidden back to a time when Rumplestiltskin held his heart and commanded him – how it felt to be without it, to be used at the whims of another once more – but then his eyes slipped to where Hook was waiting, and all of his fear and loathing was washed away in why he was doing this to begin with, why they were all standing here, risking everything – so a father could find his daughter, so the man both he and Emma loved could be truly happy.
"I don't know what will happen, but – "
"Aye," Killian muttered, cutting off Regina's uncertainties – this was a risk they'd all decided to take together, and there was no reason to tread the dark waters of it any further.
This was their only way forward.
Hook nodded solemnly across the space between them – they'd already said what was in their hearts the night before when all was silent and caught in a time all their own, shared their fears and hopes, love whispered in words and caresses.
There was nothing more to be said now.
Emma stepped forward, her grip tight around Killian's arm, needing to touch him, wanting to hold him, wishing there was something more they could do, something that hadn't led them here.
"Do it," he snapped at Regina, and she turned, barely waiting long enough for Hook to step forward before she was plunging Killian's heart into his chest – the only sound the echo of Hook's boots as he stumbled back, sucking in a deep breath that almost seemed pained.
The moment he did, the poisoned heart still held in Regina's hand – his heart – crumbled to ash and fell uselessly to the floor.
Emma didn't see the cascade of dust, only Killian – his eyes rolling upward, lifeless and staring as she struggled to catch his weight and bring him down beside her gently, every sound gone from the world as her vision blurred and narrowed to how still his chest was, how silent his lips, no echo of laughter or reassurance.
It shouldn't have been a surprise, the way he was there and then just as quickly gone – they knew this would happen, that once Regina gave Hook his heart he would be – but knowing it didn't stop the sob that tore itself from her throat, or Hook as he crossed the space between them in two long strides, cradling Killian's head on his lap and snapping his gaze on Regina, who was already crouching to get on their level.
"Emma."
The voice floated to her from someplace far away.
"Now, Emma," the voice insisted, more urgently, hard and demanding.
It pulled her back from the overwhelming sense of nothingness that had risen around her like a fog – Killian needed her.
She nodded, letting go of her husband and reaching up, her fingers brushing against the soft knit of her sweater before plunging deeper, finding that place where her own magic stemmed from and wrapping around it. It sat, shining and red and only tinted with shadow, in the palm of her hand – her heart – and she pushed it hastily into Regina's grasp.
"Hurry," she rasped.
Emma expected the pain and fear of losing Killian to be dulled, smothered by the absence of her heart in her chest, but of course it wasn't – not with true love. She still felt every painful, burning breath that he wasn't with them.
Concentrating, Regina gripped her heart and twisted. It snapped in two with ease, each piece beating in unison. Not even waiting for Regina to pass her own half back to her, Emma snatched the other and shoved it forcefully into Killian's unmoving chest, her face a vision of anguish as she waited for him to breathe, to come back to her – to come back to them.
She barely noticed the moment Regina's hand sunk into her chest, returning her own half-heart back to her, eyes only on Killian as they waited.
He was a survivor, her husband. He had to come back. This was where he belonged.
And then he did, sucking in a tremulous gasp of air and startling where he lay across Hook, his back arching and legs jerking as he came back them.
Emma sobbed, falling over him even as he struggled to sit up with Hook's help.
"Killian," she cried, stroking his cheek and kissing each part of him she could reach before letting her gaze settle lovingly on Hook, "it worked."
Killian was half lounging across his chest as they all took a few moments to absorb what had just happened, what they'd just managed together with a little help.
"Aye, love," Killian laughed, crushed between them both as Hook ducked his head and nestled his face, stubbled cheeks damp with tears, against him, "and now there's nothing stopping us from being a family – all of us."
Hook trembled as the burden of years fell from his shoulders – his Alice, they would finally be able to save her, to bring her home.
"Alice," he whispered, and it was a promise.
They would find her.