Hi, readers! Here's another chapter for you! I hope you enjoy! Feel free to let me know what you think.
It's Not Easy Being Green
Emerlyn stood in front of her father, her back against his chest and dressed in black like everyone else as Neal's glossy wooden casket was lowered into the ground. She was trying desperately not to cry again. She felt like she'd done that plenty.
She took a soft, shaky breath to calm herself down, and Killian squeezed her shoulder softly, reassuringly, like he was letting her know she wasn't alone in how she felt.
She almost didn't feel like she had the right to mourn him. It wasn't like with Emma and her family, or Mister Gold and Belle. He'd been important to her, but he wasn't family. So many of the others there were his family. It felt wrong to be upset beside them.
She was pulled from her barrage of thoughts when Killian kissed the top of her head. Somehow, he always knew when she needed reassurances and comfort, even when she tried not to show it.
Once the casket was settled in the ground, Killian squeezed Emer's shoulder one more time, and stepped around her. He picked up the shovel carefully, and scooped dirt into with his single hand, pitching it into the hole with an almost lost look on his face.
Emer wished there was something she could do to help him.
He turned and passed the shovel on, giving it to David next, who pitched in a scoop of dirt for himself and Mary Margaret.
Killian stepped back beside Emer, and she turned to wrap her arms around her father, hoping the embrace would help them both. The pirate returned it, ever-cautious of his hook.
The pattern continued as people scooped in dirt to toss into Neal's grave. Regina, then Belle, but the most heartbreaking one was Henry, who tossed dirt into the grave of a father he couldn't even remember. Emma followed just after him, the last scoop of dirt tossed in to cover the casket in a complete layer.
Emer was sitting in a booth at Granny's with Henry as they watched Emma hurl dart after dart into the bullseye of a dartboard on the wall. She'd been trying to distract Henry and herself from what they'd just experienced, but it didn't seem to be working for either of them, so she just settled beside Henry, waiting in silence while they watched his mother. Emer knew that sometimes the best form of comfort was just to be there, no words required.
Killian strode up to Emma, and Emer listen to the conversation that she was sure Henry was too distracted to hear. "Perhaps I should paint a bullseye on the Wicked Witch's back."
"She'll get more than a dart when I find her," Emma said coldly as she raised her arm to hurl another small projectile.
Killian had to throw his head back to keep from getting punched by Emma's throwing action. "I know you're hurting, Swan," he tried again, his tone softer, "but there are better ways to grieve Baelfire's death than letting anger overcome you."
Emma turned toward him with a flat expression. "Let me guess, rum?"
Killian shrugged and lifted his glass bottle wrapped in leather. "Never hurts."
"I'll stick with anger," Emma told him simply. "At least until I deal with Zelena."
"Take it from me," the pirate told her quietly, almost too low for Emer to overhear. "Vengeance isn't the thing that's gonna make you feel better."
"It's gonna make this town safer," the Savior corrected quickly. "And I promised Henry I'd find the person responsible for his father's death." She glanced back at her son, where he was sitting quietly beside Emer. "It's really all I can do for him right now."
"That can't be true," Killian said softly. "Have you tried talking to the boy?"
"As far as he's concerned, I haven't seen Neal since he left me in jail," Emma told Killian sharply, though her tone was still quiet. "So anything I tell him about his dad being a hero sounds like I'm making it up just to get him to feel better."
"Perhaps I could talk to him," Killian volunteered with an almost nonchalant shrug.
Emma blinked at him in surprise. "About what? Leather conditioner and eyeliner?"
Emer had to try very hard to keep a straight face.
Killian seemed far less amused. "I knew Bae as a boy," he reminded with a serious expression and tone. "Perhaps Henry would like to hear what his father was like when he was his age."
Emma's expression softened. "You'd really do that?"
"Aye," the pirate agreed softly. "It could help the boy make peace with his father's passing. And me." The last sentence had an added, almost sheepish light chuckle attached to it.
"Be careful," Emma warned softly. "Zelena's still out there."
"I assure you," Killian promised, "nothing will happen to the boy while he's in my charge. I'll protect him as I would my Emerlyn."
Emma declined her head in a slight nod before she turned to walk toward Henry with Killian following her, where he and Emer's comforting silence had been interrupted by his grandparents checking on him as the boy sipped on his hot cocoa with cinnamon.
"Henry," Emma said softly as she stopped beside her son. "You remember Killian."
"Hello, Henry," Killian said with a small smile.
"Hey," Henry said softly. "You're Emer's dad, right? Not just the guy that got my mom the job in Storybrooke."
Killian nodded. "That would be me, aye."
Emer rolled her eyes, but waited patiently for Killian and Emma to get to the point.
"There," Killian announced as he walked down the dock with Emer bouncing along in front of him, and Henry by his side. Nothing made Emer quite as happy as the smell of the sea and the sight and sound of rolling waves. "That one will do."
She was too happy to even wonder where the Jolly Roger was.
"Another boat?" Henry asked, a small sigh in his voice.
"You don't like the sea?" Killian asked as they walked onto what looked like a lobster or crab boat.
"No, it's not that," Henry said quickly, cracking a slight smile at seeing how excited Emer was to be on the water. That was almost enough to excite him. "It's just, my mom always seems to pawn me off on her friends that have boats when she's working her case."
"Your mother didn't pawn you off on me," Killian assured him quickly. "I wanted to bring you here."
"Why?" Henry asked suspiciously. He wondered if it was because Killian could tell that he was developing a massive crush on his daughter. Boy, he hoped not. But he'd brought Emer with them, so maybe that was a good sign.
"Well, you might not believe this," Killian told Henry as he continued down the boat ramp. "But your father and I were mates long before he met your mother."
"Really?" Henry asked, his tone carrying some heavy surprise. "You knew my dad? What was he like?"
Killian tossed a bag onto the boat and motioned for Henry to follow him, laughing a little at his daughter, who was already anxiously onboard. "Hop aboard and you'll find out."
Henry climbed on after him.
Emer grinned at both of them. "This is gonna be fun," she promised Henry with a large smile.
"You like sailing?" Henry asked, almost rhetorically as he smiled at her excitement, the emotion almost contagious.
Emerlyn nodded quickly. "A lot."
Henry hoped he enjoyed is as much as she did.
Emer scribbled in her star journal as she sat between Henry and Killian, on a log beside the fire they'd started in the sand. She had so much work to do on mapping the stars in Storybrooke, she hoped she could at least put a fraction of it down that night.
"I think I've tied every knot in here," Henry announced after a moment, putting down the book he was using for knot-tying instructions, and smiling slightly at Emer. Her blue eyes glowed in the light of the fire when she looked down to scribble in her leather-bound journal, and glittered like the sun's reflection on a clear, calm ocean when she looked up at the stars again. Shadows caught her long, dark eyelashes and were cast across her face, and the sea breeze pushed her hair around into windblown tangles that seemed to fit her adventurous, mischievous personality much better than the neat hair she kept up in town.
Killian looked up at the stars and back down at his daughter with a small smile. He could've watched her draw in that journal for the rest of eternity.
"When do we get to the part about my dad?" Henry asked after a moment, tearing his eyes away from Emer.
"Just a few moments longer," Killian swore as he watched the night sky carefully overhead until he found what he was searching for. "There," he said suddenly, motioning Henry over quickly. "Come here."
He handed Henry a familiar old sailor's tool that made Emer smile at the sight.
"What's this?" Henry asked as he looked up at the pirate.
"That, my boy, is a sextant," Killian explained as he looked at the brass tool he'd placed in Henry's hand. "It's a tool used by sailors to navigate."
"Like a GPS?" Henry asked, raising his eyebrows expectantly for an answer.
Emer giggled a little. She wasn't sure what that was, and she was sure that her father didn't know either.
Killian was trying to figure it out as he nodded slightly, turning back to the stars a moment later with an affirming, quick, "Aye."
Emer giggled again.
"It measures our position using the stars," Killian finished with a smile as he turned back up toward the large waning moon.
Henry looked at Killian with a confused expression. "Not sure that's what a GPS does, but what does it have to do with my dad?"
"Well, I taught him to navigate with one," Killian said simply. "Just like I taught my daughter, and just like I'm going to teach you."
"Were you both in the Navy or something?" Henry asked, still confused.
"No," Killian corrected. "Bae…"
Emer looked up warningly.
"Neal," her father corrected, "was just a boy when I taught him."
"Wait," Henry said suspiciously. "Aren't you the same age?"
Emer winced a little. She knew her father was trying not to lie to Henry, but this all had to be a confusing prospect without remembering the truth about Neverland or who his family was.
Killian was trying to come up with a way to fix it.
"It seems like the more you guys tell me about my dad, the less things make sense," Henry told him simply. "I don't want to learn how to navigate. I just want to hear something about him that doesn't make him sound like he's made up so I'll like the guy."
"You're mother isn't keeping things from you because she doesn't want you to know the truth," Killian assured him quickly.
"I know," Henry interrupted, "she's doing it to protect me. But how am I supposed to feel anything about him being gone if I don't know what he was like while he was here?"
Killian nodded slightly, smiling a little. "Fair enough, mate." He looked down at the sextant in his hands for a moment. "What I haven't told you is why I taught your father to sail. It's because he'd just lost his father. I thought the sea would help ease his sorrow."
"Wait," Henry said slowly. "He lost his dad, too?"
"Aye," Killian replied softly. "To something dark and evil. When he wasn't much older than you."
"Really?" Henry's voice sounded a little shakier, and Emer put down her journal, ready to be there to comfort him if needed.
"Indeed." Killian leaned a little closer to Henry. "You see, you might not think you know much about your father, but you have more in common with him than you realize."
Henry nodded a little, lips turning up slightly in the corners before he turned back to look at the starry sky.
Emer slowly walked to his side, and held his hand.
Henry interlaced their fingers where they stood.
"Thanks, Killian," Henry said as he walked back onto the floor he and Emma were staying on at Granny's, smiling brightly at Emer before he turned back to the pirate. "Maybe all three of us can go out on your boat again sometime."
"Any time, lad," Killian agreed as Emma stood in the doorway of their hotel room, waiting on her son.
"Hey!" the Savior called to her son, putting both hands on his shoulders and squeezing as he ducked inside the room after one more lingering goodbye to the former Lost Girl.
She blushed a little as she waved him off. "See you later, Henry."
He smiled one more time before he disappeared behind the door.
Killian looked slightly uncomfortable at the notion of how well the two teens got along.
Emma turned back toward the pirate, and he asked the question that was on his mind and his daughter's. "How did the Queen fair against the Witch?"
"She survived," Emma replied. "But the rest is definitely more than a doorway conversation."
Killian nodded, saying nothing. He knew now was not the time to push. Not for him, not for Emma, and not for Emerlyn. Their deal was in place—let the chips fall. He wouldn't pressure anyone on anything.
"Thanks for taking him," Emma said softly after another moment.
Killian nodded slightly. "There's more of Bae in your boy than you realize. He needs to know about his father, Emma. You can't just take him back to New York when this is over and pretend like none of this was real."
The thought made Emer uncomfortable. Would Emma really just let Henry leave not knowing the truth? Pretending like none of this happened? Like he'd never met her?
How could anyone want that for someone they cared about when they knew the truth?
Emma looked away for a long moment before turning back to Killian with a small smile. "Thanks again." She turned back into their hotel room and closed the door.
Emer sighed a little.
Her father took her hand, and they left.
Maybe he and Emerlyn could read a book or two together like she'd suggested.