Emma woke up to the sound of persistent knocking, but before she could get out of bed she heard somebody open the door and answer before she even had to move. For half a moment, she relaxed again and snuggled back into her pillow, but then she realised with a jolt where she was as she heard two male voices talking at the door.

From what she could tell, Killian was arguing with an Irishman.

"Hello, I need to speak to Miss Emma Swan, I was told this was her room. Is she here?"

"Aye mate, but she's asleep. She had a long night last night. Can you come back later perhaps?"

"I'm afraid it's rather urgent that I speak with her now."

Emma decided to take that as her cue to 'wake up' and go see what was going on. She was still angry at Killian for pushing her so hard last night with his questions, but clearly now was not the time to chew him out for it when they had company.

Once she had come back out from the bathroom the previous evening, she had found him fast asleep on top of the duvet on his side of the bed. Clearly, he had managed to remove his heavy leather coat before passing out, but that was all. So, she had sighed and pulled off both his boots and removed his hook so he didn't roll over in the middle of the night and accidentally lacerate her whilst she was defenceless.

She wasn't sure why she took time to make sure he was comfortable before going to sleep herself, but she had an inkling that it was because she'd realised that he was just like her, alone in the world with nobody to take care of him. She wasn't the only one with that look in her eyes that he'd spoken about last night.

"Good morning, Sherriff," she had yawned, once reaching the doorway and realising who was stood talking to her 'boyfriend'. "What can I do for you this morning?" She had very briefly met the man before when she'd taken Henry home, but was not expecting to see him again.

"Sorry for waking you, Miss Swan," he apologised, looking slightly embarrassed. "I'm afraid Henry has gone running off again, I don't suppose you've seen him?"

"Not since I dropped him off last night," she replied with a sigh, of course the kid had tried to dodge his Mother again after all he'd said last night, and of course his Mother would accuse her of having something to do with his disappearance again. "Look, I was with my boyfriend all night, I didn't fancy the drive back to Boston in the dark, so we decided to crash here. And clearly, as you can see, I have only just this second woken up, so I've not been on any child-snatching adventures this morning."

She was suddenly very relieved she had a pretend boyfriend to cover her ass in situations like this…clearly, this Regina woman was a piece of work and not somebody to make an enemy of…which she suspected she had accidentally done as soon as Henry had shouted at her that he had found his "Real Mom".

"I see," replied the Sheriff looking between both her and the man she was now pressed up against as he wrapped an arm possessively around her, hiding the hooked one behind her body, using her as a shield and dropping an almost possessive kiss on her forhead. "Sorry to bother you, Miss Swan. Thank you for your time."

"It's Emma," she corrected him with a careful smile, holding out her hand for him to shake. The poor guy looked incredibly stressed and that was probably justified. She would not want to have to be the one to have to report back to Madame Mayor that her son was still missing.

"Graham," he introduced, shaking her hand returning her smile before turning back to her partner. "I don't think I caught your name, Pal?"

Killian looked as though he had to physically force a friendly look on his face before replying, eyeing up the way this man was smiling at the blonde woman next to him. He held out his good hand just like Emma had done seconds ago and said, "I do apologise, where are my manners? Name's Killian, Killian Jones."

Graham shook his hand, not seeming to sense the awkward tension that Emma could almost feel radiating around the room. "Well it's a pleasure to officially meet you both, but I should probably get going back on the search." He turned to leave, but something inside Emma compelled her to call after him.

"Hey, uh…did you check his computer?"

A few hours later found Emma, Graham and the Mayor all in the police cruiser heading towards the school. The tension within the car was so thick you could have cut it with a knife and the animosity was almost rolling off Regina in waves, what the hell was this woman's problem?

Killian had decided to split with Emma for a few hours, he claimed he was going to explore, but Emma knew – even without him explicitly telling her – that he was going to go and confront this Mr Gold/Crocodile man that they'd seen last night. She'd awkwardly wished him good luck, still not on good terms but she was at least trying not to come across too coldly.

She had also tried to delicately suggest that he think about losing the hook to wander around town with as it made him look like a serial killer, and at least try and find some normal clothes whilst he was at it; whether he would listen or not she had no idea, but she'd tried. He just stuck out like a sore thumb in his full leather getup and they had already drawn enough attention to themselves as it was.

Thankfully, after a rather short journey, they arrived at the school and Emma found herself following Regina down the corridors of the school as she almost marched determinedly towards Mary-Margaret Blanchard's classroom.

Graham had offered to wait by the car and Emma found herself regretting not doing the same as Regina chewed up and spat out the sweet school teacher before storming out in the same fashion that she had stormed in, also managing to knock a stack of books to the floor on her way out the door and snapping too Emma: "Have a nice trip back to Boston".

Emma couldn't really understand why Regina had been so aggressive to Mary-Margaret; yeah, she'd given Henry a storybook that filled his head with ideas of real-like fairy tales, but she had not given him her credit card details enabling Henry to pay for someone to find his birth Mother…she'd been a victim of theft by a ten-year-old, and instead of apologising for her son's behaviour, the Mayor had literally thrown an adult temper tantrum when she realised the teacher had no idea where Henry was either.

The more Emma saw of Regina Mills, the more she disliked her and she could almost see where Henry had got the Evil Queen thing from. Obviously, she was no fairy-tale character, but she was undeniably a royal bitch.

Emma immediately started to help Miss Blanchard pick up the books from the floor, feeling partly responsible for inflicting the Mayor's wrath on the woman. "I'm sorry to bother you."

"No, it's…it's okay," Mary-Margaret replied, sneaking a glance up at Emma almost as if she was in shock at seeing her there kneeling on her classroom floor. "I fear this is partially my fault."

"How was the book supposed to help?" Emma found herself asking, the whole speech Mary-Margaret had just given Regina about Henry needing the book because he was lonely still ringing in her ears.

Mary-Margaret smiled as they both climbed to their feet and made their way out of the classroom, "What do you think stories are for? These stories, the classics…there's a reason we all know them. They're a way for us to deal with our world, a world that doesn't always make sense. You see, Henry hasn't had the easiest life."

"Yeah, she's kind of a hard-ass," Emma replied, thinking back to Regina and her attitude problem.

"No, it's more than her," the woman tried to explain. "He's like any adopted child. He wrestles with that most basic question they all inevitably face: 'Why would anyone give me away?'" Suddenly, she seemed to realise what she had said and who she was talking to and a look of horror passed over her face as she stopped walking and turned to Emma. "I am so sorry… I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to judge you."

Emma physically felt her heart drop in her chest as if it were made of rocks and she felt an awful kind of nausea pass through her whole body. That was what she had done though, wasn't it? She had given him away…just like her parents had done to her. It was a vicious cycle and it was only now in the last few days that she had really begun to regret the decision she had made all those years ago.

However, she managed to squeeze the smallest of smiles onto her face and briefly look up at Mary-Margaret and mutter out a quiet, "it's okay", because what else did she really have the right to say in that moment. She could have tried to defend herself, but what good would it have done?

"Look, I gave the book to him because I wanted Henry to have the most important thing anyone can have. Hope. Believing in even the possibility of a happy ending is a very powerful thing," Mary-Margaret tried to explain and for a second Emma could almost understand the reasoning. How was she supposed to know Henry would take all those fairy-tales so literally anyways?

She wasn't sure if it was just the look in her eyes or the way that she spoke so affectionately about her son, but Emma realised in that moment that Mary-Margaret had been able to help Regina out all along, but had chosen not to. "You know where he is don't you?"

"You might want to check his castle," she admitted with a small smile.

It took a bit of searching for, but less than an hour later that was where Emma found Henry, just sat by himself on top of a small wooden castle on the beach. She smiled to herself sadly, if there was anything she'd have wished to not pass onto her kid it would have been loneliness, but unfortunately, he seemed just like her in that moment.

"You left this in my car," she said, moving to sit next to Henry, dangling her legs off the side of the castle just like he had done. He took it from her without a word and they just sat there in silence for a few minutes, looking up at Storybrooke.

Emma followed Henry's eye-line and found him watching the boats at the harbour, thinking about the strange 'pirate' she was bunking with for the time being before she glanced up at the clock tower—the tallest building in the town's skyline.

She felt her eyes widen in disbelief.

"Hey, kid…what was it you said about the clock tower again last night?"

"It's not moved in all the years I've lived here, why?" he replied quietly, still looking at the boats.

"Well that's weird, because it's reading the right time right now," she pointed out, checking her watch to make sure.

Henry gasped and his eyes flew up to it in excitement. Sure enough, as soon as he looked at it, the minute hand moved, almost as if to prove a point. "I knew it! I knew things would start to change when I brought you here!"

"Kid, it's just a clock. They probably just got it fixed or something." Emma tried to shrug it all as if it was no big deal, but something inside her was telling her that maybe she had started to believe at some point, even though it made absolutely no sense at all.

"No, it's because you're here! It's your destiny; you're going to bring back the happy endings!" he insisted, lifting up the book as if to reiterate what he meant.

"Can you cut it with the book crap?" she retaliated tiredly, looking at him, trying not to feel herself freaking out.

"You don't have to be hostile. I know you like me, I can tell," Henry replied with a shit-eating grin and Emma couldn't help but to roll her eyes at his optimism and give him a teasing shove.

They then continued to sit in silence, both deep in thought before Emma heard Henry mutter quietly. "You just keep pushing me away because I make you feel guilty."

She looked at him, not quite sure how to react, but there was no denying the fact that for a ten-year-old this kid was very perceptive.

"But it's okay," he carried on, giving her another small smile. "I know why you gave me away. You wanted to give me my best chance."

Emma felt her chest tighten and before she realised she was crying, she felt her own tears dropping onto her clenched hands on her lap. He was right, of course he was, he was a smart kid, but she had to ask. "How do you know that?"

"It's the same reason Snow White gave you away," he explained and suddenly Emma had a rush of gratitude for the book that Mary-Margaret had given him, clearly it had helped him kind of in his own way come to terms with being sent away, which was something she'd never been able to do.

However, her parents had in no way attempted to give her her best chance...

"Listen to me, kid. I am not in any book. I'm a real person. You were right about one thing though…I wanted you to have your best chance, but it's not with me." She could still feel the tears streaming down her face but she didn't really care. Ever since Henry forced his way into her life he had turned it upside down and even Emma was struggling to understand what was real and what wasn't anymore.

But she was not good parenting material. She had never known what it was to be loved, to have a family or to even have a Mother at all…how would she have ever been able to work that one out all alone, fresh out of jail? No matter how nasty his adopted Mother was…Regina was still better for him than she was.

"Come on, let's go," she said sadly, jumping down from the 'castle', waiting for Henry to follow.

"Please don't take me back there, you don't know what it's like with her…my life sucks!" he exclaimed and Emma could see tears starting to appear in his eyes.

"Oh, you wanna know what sucking is? Being left abandoned on the side of the freeway! My parents didn't even bother to drop me off at a hospital. I ended up in the foster system and I had a family until I was three but then they had their own kid so they sent be back." She managed to stop herself before she said anything else, not wanting to cry anymore in front of Henry, not wanting to upset him.

She forced out a trembling smile and bent down to his level. "Look, your Mom is trying her best. I know it's hard and I know sometimes you think she doesn't love you…but at least she wants you."

"Your parents didn't leave you on the side of the freeway, that's just where you came through," he insisted, trying to rub away his tears on the sleeve of his jacket.

"What?" Emma found herself asking, did he have an answer for everything?

"The wardrobe. When you went through the wardrobe you appeared in the street. Your parents were trying to save you from the curse!" he explained as if it all made perfect sense to him and should do to her as well. But it all just seemed too unrealistic and fantastical to be true.

"Sure they were," she laughed shakily, trying to wipe away a few tears of her own. It had been years since she'd cried and it almost felt liberating to let some form of emotion out now. "Come on, Henry."

To Emma's relief, he came with her without a fight and after walking a few steps towards where she'd parked her car she felt him slip his small hand inside hers and squeeze gently whilst they were walking, almost as if he was doing what he could to comfort her. "I spoke with your teacher today, uh, Miss Blanchard? She seems nice," Emma started as they got in the car, trying to strike up a different topic of conversation.

But Henry just grinned and sat down in his seat, holding his book close to his chest as if it would just disappear if he didn't. "She is nice," he agreed after doing his seatbelt up.

Suddenly, curiosity got the better of her and although every part of her was screaming not to bring the curse up again, she couldn't help but ask. "Who is she supposed to be then? In this whole fairy-tale thing? Who is she really?"

"Can't you work it out?" he asked back with a smirk that for half a second she worried he'd picked up off their travelling companion from the night before.

It was that look, however, that told her exactly what she needed to know and she understood what he was getting at immediately. "You think she's Snow White, don't you?"

"I know she's Snow White," Henry corrected, obviously thrilled that she'd guessed it right on her first try though. "She's your Mother. She just doesn't remember."

"Isn't she a little young to be my Mom?" Emma asked, one eyebrow raised in question, this curse didn't make a whole lot of sense and it appeared to be very complicated from what Henry was trying to sell.

"Like I said, time's frozen here. It only just started moving again when you arrived."

"Ah, okay, I see. So, if she's Snow White, and my Mom…where's Prince Charming in all this? Huh? Just please don't tell me it's Sheriff Graham cause I think he was eyeing me up earlier and that would just make everything weird."

Henry just started laughing, his smile lighting up his whole face as his shoulders shook with mirth. "No, he's not your Father. But I know where he is! Can we just take one little detour before you take me home? Please?" he begged at her, looking at her pleadingly with big eyes.

She didn't know what made her do it, maybe it was the fact that she wasn't ready to take Henry back to Regina yet as she wanted to spend even just a little bit more time with him, or maybe it was because he'd got her intrigued with the notion of her parents being fairy-tale characters – but not remembering that that was what they were – but she turned to him and smiled.

"Where to, kid?"

"This is your Father, Prince Charming," Henry announced as they made their way through the hospital ward and into a separate room in the back and Henry made himself comfortable on the side of the bed and Emma, unsure of what to do, just awkwardly perched by the door.

"Are you sure we're supposed to be in here, kid?" she asked, looking around for any nurses that could come and throw them out.

"Anybody can come visit him at any time because he's all alone. He doesn't have a family and nobody knows who he is. Miss Blanchard comes to visit him sometimes though," he explained, as if that one little fact was enough to make him certain that this man was in fact Prince Charming.

"Henry…" Emma started, not sure how to respond to him. When he said, he'd found her father, she thought it would entail doing some kind of brief stakeout to watch a man from across the road live his daily life, but she was definitely not expecting a coma patient.

"Look, see the scar?" Henry asked, holding out the storybook for Emma to begrudgingly take off him to examine. "He has one too, see?"

"So? Lots of people have scars," Emma replied, handing the book back without even glancing at the man on the bed.

"In the same place?" Henry insisted, reaching out to grab her hand and pull her begrudgingly closer to have a look.

Yet again, Henry seemed to have a good eye and not only did the man's scar match the picture in the book, he looked identical from what she could see – an exact likeness, like she had also seen between Killian and the illustration of Captain Hook.

"Well…maybe you're right," Emma muttered before she could stop herself and Henry grinned, clearly pleased he was possibly starting to get through to her.

"I knew you'd see the resemblance! I just haven't been able to figure out how to wake him…I think it's the curse keeping him asleep cause Dr Whale says there's nothing physically wrong with him," Henry said almost as if he was in deep concentration.

Emma glanced briefly at the clock on the wall of the ward and sighed, she'd been with him for almost an hour now, it was time to get him back to his Mother. "Okay, kid. Let's get you back home."

"Okay, fine. But you'll help me? With the curse?" Henry pleaded with her with his big eyes.

"I'm staying in Granny's until the end of the week, so we have until then," she explained with a smile, seeing his whole face light up with excitement, she couldn't ever remember anybody looking at her like that in her whole life.

She gave one last confused look at John Doe before they left the room.

Regina opened the front door to the house just as Emma and Henry got out the car. Henry wished her a goodbye with a whispered promise to see her tomorrow before running past Regina into the house without sparing her so much as a glance.

The Mayor went to follow Henry inside before realising that Emma was still stood on the path, waiting to speak to her. She allowed a small smile to appear on her face before begrudgingly speaking. "Thank you."

"No problem," Emma replied just as awkwardly.

"He seemed to have taken quite a shine to you," Regina observed, taking a few steps closer to Emma and even though she appeared to be trying to be friendly, Emma knew better.

However, she laughed quietly to herself, almost as if she couldn't believe it either. He was a great kid. "You know what's kind of crazy? Yesterday was my birthday and I when I blew out the candle on his cupcake I bought myself I actually made a wish. And then Henry showed up," she smiled, trying to gloss over the fact that he wasn't the only person who showed up seconds after that candle was blown out.

Regina, however, did not smile. "I hope there's no misunderstanding here."

"I'm sorry?" Emma replied, a little confused.

"Don't mistake this as an invitation back into his life. Miss Swan you made a decision ten years ago and in the last decade while you've been doing…well, who knows what you've been doing? I've changed every diaper, soothed every fever, endured every tantrum. You may have given birth to him, but he is my son."

"I was not—"

"No, you don't get to speak. You don't get to do anything. You gave up that right when you tossed him away. Do you know what a closed adoption is? It's what you asked for. You have no legal right to Henry, and you're gonna be held to that. So, I suggest you get in your car and you leave this town, because if you don't, I will destroy you if it is the last thing I do. Goodbye Miss Swan."

Emma was more than a little shell shocked at the verbal attack and threats that Regina had just thrown around and it did nothing to help ease her troubled mind that there really was something wrong with this woman. But just before Regina closed the door she managed to call out. "Do you love him?"

"Excuse me?" Regina replied, whipping around angrily, clearly ready for another attack.

"Henry. Do you love him?" Emma forced out, trying not to show weakness in front of her.
There was a moment of silence between the two women where they just eyed each other up, both looking for cracks in the other.

"Of course, I love him," Regina finally replied before walking back inside and going to slam the door, however, she is immediately stopped in her tracks at the sight of another figure walking up towards the house, heading to where Emma was standing.

"There you are, love, I wondered where you'd been all day."

Emma had never been so damn happy to see anybody before in her whole life and she turned to smile at Killian before she had the wind knocked out of her.

If she though he was attractive in his 'pirate' get up, that was nothing compared to how he looked dressed in regular clothing. He was wearing black jeans, a black shirt and waistcoat and had a regular black leather jacket thrown over the top—he still looked smart, but he looked every part a normal member of society now, and there was no denying that his jeans did wonders for his ass, she noticed as he turned around and bent over to pick up the room key to Granny's that 'accidentally' fell out of his pocket as he spotted who she was talking to, making a big show of twiddling it in his hand as he got closer.

As he approached Emma, he threw the key to her and she caught it easily.

"Thanks, handsome," she smirked, winking back at him. Clearly, they were making a show about their room in the B&B and the fact that they weren't going anywhere just yet, no matter how many threats Regina threw around. Her confidence soared and she immediately felt so much more in control of the situation.

Killian smirked as he walked up behind her and put his arm around her, it took Emma a few seconds to realise that it was the one with the hook and that the cold metal was resting on her stomach in plain view of the Mayor, who seemed to have completely frozen in shock. Killian dropped a slow kiss on her cheek and before moving back slightly to subtly whisper in her ear.

"Trust me."

And in that moment, she did.

"Who is this, Swan?" he asked a little louder, looking at Regina was a gleam in his eyes that seemed to have her retreating backwards into her home in fear, eyes focused on his hook.

"This is Regina Mills, the Mayor and Henry's Mom," she replied with a smile that she did her best to keep neutral before she, too, began to smirk like that cat that had caught the canary. "Regina, this is Killian Jones, my boyfriend."

If possible, Regina got even paler, all her bravado from moments ago faded away in seconds. Although Emma didn't fully understand what was happening, even she was able to work out that this was not a first meeting between the two of them.

Killian let go of her and walked up to the porch of the house, extending his good hand out to the shaken woman at the doorway, almost as if it was a challenge he was daring her to take.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Henry from inside the house, watching all that was going on with a broad smile filling across his whole face from his perch on the stairs. She wasn't sure whether he had realised that she had spotted him yet, he was so entranced watching Killian approaching Regina.

Regina seemed to put a calm and collected mask on long enough to quickly reach forwards to take his hand and shake it in a professional way. "Welcome to Storybrooke, Mr Jones."

"Thank you, Milady," he replied, his smirk slowly starting to make itself even more evident on his face. "Emma, love, would you mind meeting me back at Granny's? I just have a few questions to ask the Mayor," he asked, glancing back at her giving her another wink that almost pleaded with her to just do as he'd asked.

"Oh, um…Sure thing," she replied, trying not to let her apprehension and uncertainty be apparent on her face as she turned and left them to it, finally catching Henry's eye as she was about to turn. He nodded at her enthusiastically to leave; clearly, he approved of her decision to trust the man that she'd known less than twenty-four hours—at least that made one of them.

As Emma was just about to reach the hedge, she heard Killian address Regina again in a low voice, this time, however, he did not sound so light-hearted.

"What's wrong, your Majesty? Not happy to see me? Aren't you going to invite me for a drink this time?"

She had not heard him speak like that before, his voice dark and threatening and that, combined with the question he'd just asked Regina made her throat almost close up, blocking her airway as the gravity of the situation began to really settle in. She hid behind the hedge as she disappeared from sight, listening carefully to see if she could pick up anything else from their conversation. She was only able to hear a bit more before they walked inside the house and closed the door and even then, she had to strain her ears to pick up anything from their hushed tones.

"What are you doing here, Hook?"

"That's 'Captain' Hook, thank you, love."

"This is a land without magic and I know you didn't come over with my curse, so how the hell are you here?"

"The lass you just gave an ear bashing to seems to have a little bit of magic inside her that you weren't able to snuff out completely by ruining her life, as it would seem."

"Emma Swan? What are you talking about, pirate?!"

"She's not much of a conventional Princess, more a pirate actually…but you can't deny she looks just like her parents."

That was all she heard before she heard the tell-tale sound of the front door slamming. Then it was silent.

Emma sank down to the concrete in shock, her head hurting and before she realised what was happening she had drawn blood on her hands due to her nails digging into her palms so hard as she shook violently. After a few minutes of deep breathing, she was able to calm herself down enough to get into the bug and drive back to Granny's B&B.

Just as she went to get out the car she realised Henry had left the storybook in her car again and she just sat and looked at it stuffed in the foot-well where it wouldn't have been immediately obvious. Clearly, Henry kept leaving it for her in the hope that she would take the initiative and educate herself.

Filled with a sudden burst of determination she grabbed the book and climbed out, marching down the path to the B&B.

She wasn't going to leave that room until she had read the whole of this damn book.

It was getting late and Emma could feel her stomach growling aggressively by the time she turned the last page and finally leant back on the bed. She wasn't sure how long she'd been sat reading for, but Killian was still yet to have come back.

She shut the book closed again and just sat looking at it. How could the stuff written on these pages be true? There was no possible way for things such as dragons, magic and curses to be real; it just didn't make sense. Never mind the crazy idea of True Love's Kiss…

But then again, nothing else seemed to be making any sense recently either in the real world.

Every bone in her body was rejecting the idea that any of this was even a little bit true, but there was a small part of both her head and heart that quietly asked: 'but what if it is true?' and Emma didn't know what at all to believe.

She had spent a long time staring at the page which showed a picture of Prince Charming cradling his new-born daughter and as though she was the most precious thing he'd ever seen in his life and although Emma wasn't sure why that one page had drawn her in more than all the others, it made her heart rate pick up as soon as she saw it.

She had never known her parents, never experienced a loving embrace from either of them from what she could remember and she'd certainly never been able to find out whether she'd have been a Daddy's girl or not. Any foster Fathers she'd been put in homes with had been either cold or even abusive towards her and it was only after staring at the illustration for that length of time that she realised she desperately still wanted to find her family.

In the past, the thought of finally finding her parents had always seemed impossible and like it would take a miracle, but here, in Storybrooke she almost felt like she was the closest she'd ever been in her life.

"Are you in there, Swan?" called a muffled voice from behind the door. "Can you let me in? My one hand is preoccupied at the moment."

"Took him long enough…" Emma murmured bitterly to herself, but nevertheless got up to help. She threw open the door and then retreated back inside without so much as glancing at him.

"I bring gifts!" he announced cheerfully, dropping the takeout box on the dresser in the room and then reaching inside his jacket pocket to pull out his hook and re-attach it, clearly having taken it off since he left the Mayor's house. "Lady Lucas saw me re-entering the premises and stopped me, saying she'd not seen either of us eat anything since our arrival, so she gave me this. She mentioned something about rings of onion and whatnot…I hoped you'd make more sense of the whole thing…Swan, are you listening to me?"

"How was your secret meeting with Regina?" she asked sharply, not quite sure what to make of the jealous sounding twinge to her voice, but it was too late to retract it now.

"It went as well as could be expected…" he replied, looking at bit unsure of what he was supposed to say.

"You've been gone hours, what were you even doing in there? Did you climb in bed with her or something?" she muttered in retaliation, still not looking straight at him, instead making a beeline for the onion rings and whatever else was in the box Granny had given him.

"Of course I didn't climb in bed with her, Swan," he shot back, reaching out to grab hold of her wrist to stop her rustling through the brown paper bag she'd just found with a cheeseburger in it. "Will you just look at me?"

So, she did, with quite a lot of aggression admittedly, but she still looked at him all the same. He didn't seem phased by it however and looked directly into her eyes before letting a soft smile spread over his face, then doing that thing where he brushed her hair back out of her face with his hook carefully.

"I'm sorry I was absent for so long, I just needed to talk to her about some things."

"About the curse?" she asked raising one eyebrow, not accepting his vague answer.

"Aye, about the curse. I promised not to go around poking holes in the locals if she'd give me some intel on the crocodile."

"That's not what it sounded like from where I was standing."

All of a sudden he looked uncomfortable, scratching behind his ear awkwardly and stepping away from her to shrug off his leather jacket. "I don't know what you heard love, but none of it concerns you."

"Oh, is that so? Then how come I heard you talking about me?" she fired at him, standing with her hands on her hips.

"It's like I said before, Swan, you need to trust me!" he replied with just as much frustration.

"How can you expect me to trust you? Nothing that you've said to me so far makes any sense! I still don't understand how you got into my damn apartment last night!" she almost yelled, incredibly tempted to haul the bag of onion rings at his face. She'd tried to trust him, but it felt like they were constantly doing a dance of one step forward two steps back. After all, how could she trust someone she literally knew nothing about.

"Nothing makes sense, Swan, because you're too stubborn to really see what's in front of you! Why won't you just bloody believe everything you've seen and been told?!" he insisted, grabbing the abandoned storybook from off the bed. "Everything you need to know is in this book!"

"It's just a bunch of fairy-tales, none of its real! How can it be real?" she cried starting to feel tears of frustration appearing.

Killian slammed the book back down and stormed towards her, pulling her into his arms, not giving her a chance to back away. "Tell me, Emma. Tell me, do I feel real?" He then grabbed for one of her hands and put it on his bare chest over his beating heart. "Can you feel that? Does that feel real?"

"Stop it! You're a real person, not a fairy-tale character!" she shouted, trying to wriggle out of his hold, the tears streaming down her face in full force now. "You aren't Captain Hook for god's sake! You can't be!"

At her statement, Killian let go of her with a growl and pushed her backwards so that she fell backwards against the bed and started stripping off his waist coat and shirt before she could even tell him to stop. He tore the fabric away from his body and stood in front of her shirtless and all of a sudden it was as if Emma's heart had stopped.

He had a beautiful, toned and muscular body covered in mouth-watering dark chest hair, but his whole torso was scattered in scars, cuts and bruises some that looked more recent and fresh than others. He also had one tattoo on his right arm, the word 'Milah' was inked there and it looked like it had been there for a very long time as it was faded in places; Emma couldn't help but quietly remember that Captain Hook's lost love from the book was called 'Milah'.

But all of all of that wasn't the most shocking part of it.

He had the most incredibly complicated harness strapped to his body that went over his left shoulder and down his arm, attached with several metal buckles and at the end of the whole thing was the single silver hook. She watched as Killian yanked and loosened the buckles expertly until it was slack enough for him to remove it completely. Whilst he worked he was trying to keep his mouth clamped shut, but Emma could still hear the occasional gasp and groan of pain that managed to slip through. With one final yank, the contraption hit the carpet with a heavy thud and Killian finally looked up at Emma.

"Try telling yourself that this isn't real."

The parts of his body which had been strapped up were bruised and dark, the skin looking sore and red too, clearly from the device having to be constantly pulled tight so it didn't fall off. There were even deep looking lacerations over his shoulder where it had been cutting viciously into his skin. But without a doubt, the most harrowing thing was the hack-job that had been done when removing his hand. The scar tissue was enflamed and shiny, the skin was uneven and it was a miracle that it had even healed with the state it was in.

She now understood why he had gotten so angry when she suggested this was a costume…the pain he must have endured and still seemed to feel… It was like something from a horror movie, never mind a fairy-tale.

"Killian, I…" she started, not even sure what she was supposed to say.

"I didn't want to have to show you this, but you need to start believing, Emma and there's only so much your boy and I can do. You have to want to believe it yourself."

Suddenly it was all too much and she couldn't take any more.

Killian noticed the exact second that Emma decided that she was going to bolt and he stepped in front of the door, blocking her exit from the room, but still keeping his distance so as not to spook her. "Please, love. Don't run from this, don't run from me," his voice sounded broken.

"I just need some air," she choked out, rummaging around the room looking for her keys.

"But…you'll come back afterwards?" he asked quietly, sounding more like a wounded child than the fierce man he had proved he was and the legendary pirate Captain she was starting to believe he was.

She wanted to say no and drive off and away from Storybrooke forever, but she knew there was no way for her to do that now. So, she turned to Killian, her keys now in her pocket and cautiously walked up to him and very slowly lowered her hands so that they were pressed flat against his chest.

His breathing was incredibly ragged and loud, so much so that she wondered when the last time somebody had even allowed themselves to touch him like this was. He was also shaking, something that had nothing to do with the temperature in the heated room.

"Emma," he choked out, his voice breaking half way through her name as her hands moved to his shoulders and started to run down his arms. His eyes closed slowly and she felt his whole body tense up as her right hand neared the place where his left one should have been if life had been kinder to him.

Very gently and lightly she let her finger tips gloss over the scar tissue on his wrist, not wanting to hurt him, but any complaints of pain never came.

Killian grasped hold of her left hand in his right one, interlacing their fingers, and squeezed tightly, a sign of comfort, a sign to tell her that everything was okay.

"Nobody's touched me like this since my hand was taken," he admitted quietly as she explored his skin wordlessly. "People are usually repulsed. But I don't know why I'm surprised that you're not…you're different…you're my t—"

"Shhh," Emma cut him off, something inside her already knowing what he was about to say next and she didn't want to have to think about that as well right now. She removed both of her hands off his body and instead put them on either side of his face, letting them drop down to his neck.

Then he was kissing her as if he was a starved man and she was the only one who could quench his need. She curled herself up against his chest and kissed back, letting him feel all the emotion that was pulsating through her body.

But then she realised what she was doing and pulled away. "No, I can't do this," she said harshly, half to him but also half to herself. A reminder that this path would only lead to more heartbreak, she'd been here before with Neal and she didn't need to put herself through it again.

"Swan—I" he started before Emma cut him off.

"I'm going out, I need some time to think. I'll be back later."

In some sort of whim, she grabbed the storybook off the bed before leaving and let the door slam shut behind her before either of them could utter another word.

She wasn't sure why she had ended up back in the hospital of all places sat with John Doe. It was completely silent throughout the ward apart from the sound of the monitors beeping and her quiet sobs.

She clutched the storybook to her chest just as she had seen Henry do countless times since she'd met him and closed her eyes, just trying to calm down and focus her emotions again. She was sat on the edge of the bed her free hand only a couple of inches away from where his lay next to his body.

Suddenly she had the urge to talk to this man, just to talk to him about how she was feeling… there was still part of her that was adamant that the curse wasn't real, but somewhere in her heart she couldn't help but feel connected to this coma patient, whether he was or was not Prince Charming and her Father.

"I've been alone by whole life you know…" she started, trying not to feel silly or self-conscious. "I never knew my Mom or Dad…I grew up in foster care and never got to know what it was like to have a family. And I guess I still don't know. Yesterday was my 28th Birthday and it was just like another day, but then Killian and Henry showed up and suddenly my life got a whole load of crazy pretty fast."

She laughed quietly to herself before deciding to open the book to the page of Prince Charming and his child and propped it open the chair next to the bed so she could see it. Having one moment of bravery, she reached forwards and let herself take hold of the man's hand whilst she continued to talk.

"I'm so confused right now, nothing makes an awful lot of sense. Henry claims everyone in this town, including you, is a fairy-tale character…I know, crazy, right? Something about an Evil Queen and a curse…I read the book and everything, but I'm still confused because, well, it's just a book, isn't it? There's no way that the man I've grown to care for is actually Captain Hook or that Henry's foster Mom is an Evil Queen or even that you are my Dad, because it's crazy and well…the stuff of fairy-tales."

"But I suppose that the really crazy thing is that, despite everything, I think I believe it? Does that make me crazy? I know none of it makes any logical sense and if I said any of this aloud to anyone else they would lock me up in a mad-house or something…but I guess I want to believe it. I want it all to be true. Because if it is, I would have found my family and I wouldn't have to go back to my apartment in Boston and be on my own anymore. And I think that was what my birthday wish was all about. Not a short-time company thing, or the potential for a dirty night with a pirate, or even about finding my son…it was about finding a home."

By the time she had finished speaking, she was crying again, but more out of admission; she had finally decided to believe and although it was kind of liberating, it was also terrifying and set her up to fall.

"I should probably go now…Killian is unquestionably waiting for me, he'll need help putting his damned hook contraption back on- there were lots of complicated buckle things…Trust me to fall for a goddamn pirate, honestly…But yeah, uh, thanks for listening, I guess."

She squeezed his hand one last time and stood up. She didn't know what came over her, but before she could stop herself she was leaning down to press a kiss on the man's cheek. "Goodnight…Dad."

She straightened up and turned around to pick up the book and grabbed her car keys off the table before she heard some movement from behind her.

"Emma?"

She spun around again in shock, her eyes wide as she looked into the now open blue eyes of the man on the bed staring back at her, a wide smile on his face that could rival one of Henry's; which shouldn't have been such a surprise as they were in fact related.

"Just so you know, I refuse to let my daughter court a pirate."