Chapter 3

Emma

Emma slammed the front door open as she stormed into the house, followed by a very drunk Killian, tripping over the threshold and stumbling over himself as he attempted to close the door with his good hand.

"I can NOT believe you are wasted right now, Killian. It's Christmas Eve for Christ sake!" Emma screamed, as she ripped off her jacket, throwing it on the couch in anger.

"I had to. Rum is the only thing that makes spending any sort of time with your infuriating family bearable." Killian said, slamming the door behind him. "I swear, Swan. As soon as we are married, I'm cutting us off from those pathetic people. There's no way I'm going to look at them everyday for the rest of my life." he spat, the alcohol clearly lowering his already thin verbal filter.

"I can NOT believe you just said that." Emma screamed. "You need to sleep it off, Killian. Before you say something else that you'll regret in the morning." Emma said, giving him the benefit of the doubt.

"I wouldn't mind you sleeping it off with me." Killian laughed, gesturing sexually, trying to pin her against the wall with his large body.

"I can't stand the sight of you right now, Killian. Go to bed, before you get yourself into even more trouble than you're already in." Emma says, pushing Killian away and towards the stairs that lead to their bedroom upstairs.

"You coming love?" Killian asked from the bottom of the stairs, winking at her as if he hadn't just insulted her family several times.

"You're kidding right? I can't be around you right now. I'm sleeping on the couch tonight." Emma screamed, her voice cracking with strain. Emma was so angry she was seeing red, and the last place in the world she wanted to be was in bed with Killian Jones. Killian stormed off following Emma's third rejection of the night, tripping up the stairs drunkenly, slamming the bedroom door behind him. Killian Jones is not used to that amount of rejection. She knew she was going to get an earful in the morning when he remembered how she treated him the night before.

As soon as Killian is gone, Emma flopped down on the couch with a sigh, pulling off her boots and tossing them in the corner, not even caring if they were in the way. She eventually moved to lay on her back as she tried to make herself comfortable for her long night sleep on the lumpy couch. She stared at the ceiling for what felt like an eternity, waiting for the anger to subside so she could eventually fall asleep. It wasn't even there yet, and already she knew that Killian had ruined Christmas for her. She could count the number of happy Christmases she had experienced on one hand, and she was hoping this year would be different. It appears she was wrong.

A few hours later, she was awoken by a hand shaking her shoulder hard.

"Killian, I swear to God, if you're waking me up for sex, I'm going to break your nose." Emma growled, attempting to swat Killian's hand away, not even opening her eyes.

"It's not Killian, Emma." a familiar voice responded. Emma's eyes shot open to find Lily crouching down next to the couch, a wide smile on her face.

"Lily, what the hell are you doing here? I haven't seen you since you found your mother. Where have you been?" Emma asked, sitting straight up, staring at her friend.

"Im not Lily. I'm The Ghost Of Love That Hath Come To Pass."

"What the hell are you talking about? Are you drunk too?" Emma asked, struggling to understand what Lily was telling her, wondering if maybe she was the drunk one.

"I'm not drunk and I'm telling the truth. You will be visited by three people tonight, the first being The Ghost Of Love That Hath Come To Pass." Lily said, matter-of-factly. "Now shut the hell up and take my damn hand so we can get started."

Emma stared at Lily for a few moments, trying to comprehend what she is being told. "Maybe I am drunk." she thinks to herself. But there was something about Lily's appearance that made her suspect that maybe she was right. Something in Lily's voice sounded off, slightly different than the real Lily's voice.

"Clearly I'm dreaming." Emma said, as she reluctantly took Lily's outstretched hand, immediately being pulled off the couch and led to the front door. Lily pulled the door open and pushed Emma through it, laughing as the blonde tripped over her own feet.

The door no longer led outside. Instead it now led to a generic looking hotel room. Neal Cassidy lounges on the bed, his back propped up with pillows against the headboard, flipping through the channels on the crappy TV, as the sound of the shower turning off in the bathroom could be heard in the background.

"I remember this. Neal and I were in Phoenix, I think. We squatted in this hotel room for a few hours to take a shower...and do other things…" She laughed, blushing slightly. "This was the day we decided to go to Tallahassee to start over." she explained, as they heard the bathroom door open, and a younger version of herself walk out in nothing but her bra and panties. Neal looks up, his eyes wide, as he watches Emma walk over to him and climb onto his lap, kissing him passionately. "Not long after this though, Neal left, I went to jail and found out I was pregnant with Henry." Emma frowned. "I trusted him and he stabbed me in the back. I can't believe I was ever that stupid" Emma said, clearly angry at her younger self.

"You loved him though." Lily said, a strong statement.

"I did. He was my first love." Emma answered, her voice sounding slightly less angry.

"And a love that was bound to end eventually." Lily explained.

"That's the understatement of the century. It ended when he let me take the fall for his crime." Emma snapped, anger once again rising in her voice.

"A person falls in love three times in their lives. Each love has a significance in their lives, and prepares them for their final love. The first love often ends with a mess. It's intense. But although the love is strong, the end is even harder. It's messy. But it's doomed to fail from the start. Of the three great loves in our lives, the first one is always the hardest when it's over."

"Yeah, I would say this break up was exceptionally messy." Emma laughed. "I ended up in jail for eleven months."

"But it was also necessary. You had to have your heart broken to make room for the second love." Lily explained.

"I guess you're right. We were probably doomed from the start, no matter what we did." Emma said. "And to think, if things didn't go the way they did, I would probably have ended up marrying him, staying together for Henry's sake."

"You wouldn't have. I guarantee it."

"And it probably would have been even worse than the clean break we had when I went to jail." Emma said, surprising herself when she thought that going to jail was easier than the inevitable breakup.

"Now you're starting to understand." Lily laughed, as the bathroom door opened behind them again. Emma jumped, knowing there wasn't anyone else in that hotel room with them.

"Henry? What are you doing here? How did you get here?" Emma asked, as she watched Henry emerge from the bathroom, crossing over to the friends, completely ignoring Younger Emma and Neal as things began to heat up between them.

"I'm not Henry." Henry smiled. "I'm the Ghost Of Love As It Is Today. I'm here to show you the disaster that you call the love you have right now." Henry explained, rolling his eyes slightly.

"Killian? Wait, what's wrong with Killian?" Emma asked defensively.

"Follow me and find out." Henry said, reaching out for Emma's hand. She takes it, and they quickly walk out of the hotel room, leaving Lily behind with her younger self.

The door opens into the Charming's Loft during the Christmas Eve dinner they had just shared. Emma and Henry watch as Killian rolls his eyes for the hundredth time that evening, sighing with discontent as he listens to the lively chatter of the Charming family. He taps his hook against the table in annoyance, shifting in his seat like a child who can't sit still. He makes a face as he sips the wine that Mary Margaret spent half an hour picking out, quickly grabs for his flask from his coat and rudely taking a deep swig of the rum inside, not even caring if anyone sees him anymore.

"Seriously Swan, how much longer do we have to stay here?" He whines, glancing at the clock on the wall.

"Killian, it's Christmas Eve. I'm spending time with my family. We'll go in a little while." Emma says, taking another bite of Regina's famous apple pie.

"Swan, I am your fiance, and if I say it's time to go, it's bloody time to go." He growls, keeping his voice low. His eyes filled with anger as his good hand squeezed Emma's knee so hard she could feel the bruise forming already. "If we don't leave now, I'm going to show you exactly why people are afraid of my hook." He adds, thinking only Emma could hear.

He was wrong.

Henry listens as his mother's fiance threatens her with his ridiculous hook and begins to wonder how often he threatens her harm. Or worse, if he had ever followed through with said threats. Emma takes a shaky breath as the pain in her knee shoots up her leg, trying her hardest not to wince. She places her fork on the side of the plate before wiping her face with her napkin.

"Well, I hate to eat and run, but it's getting late. I think Killian and I are going to call it a night." she says, standing calmly.

"So soon? It's still early." Snow protests, trying to convince her daughter to stay a little longer.

"It's been a long day and I'm really tired." Emma lies, as she makes her way around the table, saying good bye to people on her way. "We'll see you all tomorrow at Granny's for dinner." She promises. The Henry seated at the table can tell that she is fighting back the tears that are threatening to escape from her eyes as she says goodbye to everyone, hugging Regina a little longer and a little tighter than everyone else. He continues to watch as she and Killian leave, Killian's good hand firmly gripping Emma's shoulder as she walks out.

"Do I really have to explain what's wrong with Killian?" Other Henry asked, turning Emma's attention back to him.

"He's drunk. Everyone says and does things they don't mean when they are drunk." Emma defends.

"Emma, seriously? I'm pretty sure he just threatened you." Henry said.

"Killian's a pirate. They are always a little more aggressive than most. But hey, I can take it."

"Until you can't. Until the day he makes good on his threats. Until the day he has you so scared of him that you can't leave the house." Henry said, trying to knock some sense into Emma.

"He did tell me when we got home, that when we're married, he's essentially cutting me off from my family." Emma admitted, taking a deep breath. "Ok, so he's not good for me. So what? It's not like there is a line of suitors waiting for me. Killian may be rough, but he's here." Emma sayid, trying to defend Killian once again.

"Killian is your second love. The second love is hard. The hardest of the three loves. It takes work to survive. Hard work. But, in the end, when it's all over, it has the biggest rewards of the two unsuccessful loves. You leave with an understanding of what you need from a lover, and what you don't. You grow as a person the most with this love than the first love. And it helps to build the person you are meant to be, preparing you for your third and final love." Henry explained.

"Yeah, and who might that be?" Emma asked, laughing slightly to cover up for the fact that she's feeling so sad that Henry was right. Killian wasn't right for her, no matter how hard she tried to convince herself otherwise.

"Follow me." Henry said, grabbing Emma's hand before she can run away. He lead her out the front door of the loft, directly into a dark room.

"Emma, thank you for joining us."