Putting out this update a couple days later than planned due to a very busy week but I didn't want to wait until Monday to post it. I know I ended the last chapter on a pretty big cliffhanger (and just might do it again...) so I didn't want to delay the resolution. Emma has just learned that her mother, Ava, was Cora's sister making her a cousin to Regina and Zelena. It's not a surprise she's going to take lightly...
Anger.
Betrayal.
Confusion.
Emma's emotions were reeling and amplifying with every second that passed. Ruby wanted to say something but she didn't even know where to begin so she chose to remain quiet, close by should Emma reach out, but also just out of reach should her friend decide instead that she needed to punch something.
They had to have known. Regina and Zelena had both been old enough to have known that Ava was related to David had to have known that his step-mother had also been their aunt. Why would they have kept something this important from her?
Emma had so many questions swirling inside her head for her newfound cousins and even more for her brother, questions she wasn't even sure how to ask. All she knew right knew right now was that she was seething and then she heard the voices echoing from the stairway.
"Everything is set up," she heard Zelena announce, but Emma no longer harbored any interest in the planned rituals for the full moon or even for anything related to magic in general. She was hurting and the secrets that had been withheld from her were the cause.
The moment Regina's visage rounded the last corner and came into view, Emma lashed out, holding up the photograph that had tumbled out of Gold's book. "When were you going to tell me?" she growled, practically shoving the picture into Regina's face.
"Tell you what? Zelena just said that everything was ready. Let's get upstairs…," Regina responded, barely glancing at the old photograph.
"Seriously? I'm not talking about your damned rituals!" Emma glared as she waved the photo into Regina's line of sight again. "This! When were you going to fill me in on this little secret, cousin?"
"Cousin…," Zelena repeated knowingly, although she was more than happy to fade into the background and allow her younger sister to take the brunt of Emma's ire.
"Emma…," Regina began, hands raised before her defensively as she sought to defuse the situation that they had indeed created. "Emma, we always intended to tell you when you were ready…"
"When I was ready?" Emma scoffed. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? Why would I need to be ready to find out that we were related? Why did it need to be such a secret for me to find out who I'm related to around here?!"
"Okay...that's my cue to leave," Ruby said shyly as she threw her crimson cape on over her shoulders as voices raised which was probably going to lead to tempers flaring. She flipped the hood atop her brunette hair and eased her way back a few steps past Zelena. "I'm outta here…" she whispered, grimacing at the thought of what was to come. "Em, call me later if you need to chat…"
Regina ignored Ruby's exit as she attempted to plead her case. "You needed to be more confident in your magic first," she explained. "You needed to trust us as your teachers so that when the time came, you'd understand…"
"Understand what? I don't understand anything right now except that all of you lied to me!" Emma shouted back angrily. "This doesn't have anything to do with magic! You knew that my mother was your aunt and that I was your cousin the moment we met. Why would you keep that from me?"
"You may not believe us, but we did it for your own good," Zelena interjected. "It wasn't supposed to be a secret, but you had to be ready for the truth…"
"My own good? You sincerely expect me to believe that? Hell, why should I believe anything that either of you tell me now? Did you only sign on to tutor me in magic because I was your cousin?"
"It's not like that, Emma…," Regina sighed exasperatedly. "You being our cousin was only a tiny part of the reason we agreed to tutor you in the magical arts. Storybrooke's future depends on it…"
"What?" Emma asked in confusion. How was anything in Storybrooke dependent on her? "You're making absolutely no sense…"
"We can explain…," Zelena offered, but she knew Emma was aching far too much and wasn't in the most receptive mood at that moment. There was too much history to explain. So much that Emma would need to be educated about before she'd understand and this night wasn't going to be near enough.
"Oh, I'd love for you to explain it all to me, but not right now," Emma spat "Right now, I can't even look at the two of you without wanting to punch you in your faces, and I still have to decide how to go confront my brother about his role in all of this!" She snatched Gold's potion book from the stool she'd rested it on and tucked everything that had fallen from it back inside the leather bound cover.
"Don't be too hard on David," Regina stated dejectedly, lowering her chin to avoid eye contact. "None of this was his decision…"
"Doesn't make him any less complicit," Emma reminded her cousin as she tucked the book beneath her arm before stabbing an index finger into Regina's face with a stern warning. "We're not done with this conversation. All of you owe me some answers and when I calm down enough, I'll be back for those answers. Right now, I'm getting out of here before I do something I might regret!"
She stomped up the steps into the mausoleum and stepped out into the moonlit graveyard with Regina on her heels. Regina could plead for her to listen all she wanted but Emma had already tuned her out. All she wanted right now was someone she could vent to - someone who wasn't family and who wouldn't jump to judgement.
Only one person's name came to mind and she could only hope that he'd answer his phone at this late hour.
Emma didn't even bother heading back to her car in her haste to escape the cemetery and the growing frustration gnawing away in the pit of her stomach. She'd ended up taking a very brisk walk toward the harbor, wishing that the evening air would help clear her head and calm the maelstrom building within. Nothing she'd done yet had been successful to quell her fiery temper so she was pinning her hopes on someone else.
Killian Jones had answered her brief late night call seeking a drinking buddy and, sensing her unspoken yet audible distress, had agreed to meet her at the dock. Something was definitely not right with his new friend, the deputy, but he was chivalrous enough to lend a damsel an ear and allow her to vent all she needed.
"Is everything alright, Swan?" he asked stupidly, mentally kicking himself for such a ridiculous query when she was obviously visibly upset. "You sounded quite vexed when you phoned so I'm concerned…"
"Vexed would be a severe understatement right now," she grumbled as she neared. As she drew closer to his position, even in the pale glow of the moonlight, he could see that her eyes were reddened and her cheeks dampened with trails of fallen tears.
"Why don't we take a stroll away from here and find somewhere private where you can relay to me everything that's weighing down your heart, Love?" he offered. "I believe you are in need of a patient, singular audience right now, not a noisy, crowded tavern…"
"As long as there's alcohol involved, I don't care where we go… I'm good with heading down to the Rabbit Hole, but if you have a better suggestion… I just want to drink until I can't feel the betrayal anymore…"
He slid his hand inside his hip length black leather coat and withdrew a little piece of history - a weathered, dark brown glass flask topped with a cork plug. "There's a small park that's perhaps a five minute trip from here, right down by the beach. The sea has always been a calming influence on me. Perhaps tonight, it will be for you as well? I've plenty of rum here for whatever level of numbness you desire."
"Rum, huh?" she chuffed. "Should have known you pirate types would have rum around…"
"Shall we then?" he offered, tucking the flask safely away until they reached their destination while simultaneously gesturing to the boardwalk that led away from the docks and down to the waterfront. "You can freely relinquish whatever is on your mind tonight, Emma. You'll find me to be an excellent listener."
As they sat side by side on a concrete park bench, Killian proved true to his word, allowing her to air her gripes without commentary, breaking her monologue with only a few questions here and there for clarification. Simply having him here by her side had already done wonders to lighten Emma's mood, and although she was still bitter, Killian Jones had managed to temper the sting of betrayal with his mere presence. Most of the men she had encountered in her life had been dismissive - her former bosses, former lovers and even her brother at times, but Killian had shown a keen interest in all she had to say, no matter how trivial her ramblings might seem. Neal's interest had been purely physical, as had most of her one night stands that came after that failed relationship so it was unexpected to have a man who actually wanted to hear her thoughts and legitimately cared about how she felt.
He'd patiently allowed her to unload everything on him as she relayed the tale of how she had grown up wanting to know all about her absent family and how she'd always felt she had a much larger lineage, despite her mother's denial. She told him how she'd come to find David through her research and made the decision to move from Boston to Storybrooke, hoping she'd learn more once she could immerse herself into her birthplace. Then, she admitted for the first time tonight that she never imagined that the rest of her family would conceal the truth from her. Regina and Zelena could have told her that she was their cousin, but the simple fact that they hadn't left her to only wonder what else they might be keeping from her.
"Do you think I'm overreacting?" she finally asked him directly after bombarding him for nearly thirty minutes with her woes, fingers tapping nervously atop Gold's book that rested on the bench to her right.
"Well, I suppose it comes down to precisely what their reasoning for withholding the information from you may have been. I'm not privy to their thought process, Love, but perhaps they felt as though they had your best interests at heart?" Killian replied with a shrug of his leather-clad shoulders.
"Best interests of what?" she retorted. "What interests would it serve to not reveal that I was related to them?"
"I wish I could answer that for you but I think you know that only your family will be able to provide those details for you."
Emma sighed in defeat as she slumped back against the bench, taking a pull from Killian's flask of rum - and damned good, strong rum it was. In her head, she knew he was right, but her heart still burned and she wasn't anywhere near drunk enough yet to desire another confrontation with Regina or Zelena. Or to confront David for that matter. She was probably angriest with him right now because they'd been working side by side and even living under the same roof for months and he hadn't even dropped a single hint that Emma might be related to the Mills sisters. There was absolutely no way that he hadn't known as a child that his stepmother was a member of the most powerful family in town.
"I suppose I'm not going to have a whole lot of options except to confront them, am I?" she asked rhetorically as he wrapped a reassuring arm around her shoulders, eliciting an involuntary shudder from her at the unexpected, yet not unwelcome touch. His eyes met hers for a second, ready to apologize and pull away from her, yet she responded with a smile and leaned into him instead. "Thank you for letting me rant like a madwoman tonight."
"Anytime, Love, although if I may be honest, I'm actually surprised that you contacted me I would have thought that you'd have reached out to a friend in this situation, not to someone you barely know…"
"I don't know… That's the thing, I guess. I don't have a lot of friends here that I feel like I can turn to. I feel like no one really knows me around here and yet there's a part of me that feels as though I've known you forever. I feel like you probably know me better than anyone else and maybe it's because you haven't lied to me yet."
"Why would I lie to you, Swan? I want to get to know you - the real you - not push you away. I can't speak for the others, but there are times when honesty becomes a double-edged sword. I'm quite certain that your family held what they believed were valid reasons for not being upfront with you. When you're ready to ask them, I'm certain they'll provide you with the answers you seek."
"I suppose...," she replied, sounding both dejected and hopeful at the same time. "But not tonight. Tonight, I just want to not think about anything… Oh - and I guess I'd better figure out a place to crash. I don't want to see David's face tonight or I might punch it and assaulting the Sheriff, even if he is your brother, is probably frowned upon."
"You're welcome to join us on the Jolly Roger, if you wish. You can have my quarters and I'll bunk with with the crew…"
"As lovely as that offer sounds, I really don't need the town talking about me spending the night on a ship full of sailors. David already thinks you're a bunch of dirty pirates so I'd rather not give him ammunition. I'll probably just go sleep on the sofa at the station. Even though Graham's working tomorrow morning, he won't care."
"As you wish," Killian replied with a mock curtsy before snatching his flask back from her hand and frowning when he discovered it to be nearly empty. "One might wonder who the pirate is here…" he commented with a sinful smirk as he took a swig.
"It's good rum," she stated with a dismissive shrug. "I'm usually more of a beer and whiskey girl but that stuff isn't half bad."
"And more than half gone," he scoffed sarcastically before bursting into laughter. Even in her slightly inebriated state, she couldn't help noticing how his blue eyes sparkled in the moonlight. Forget whatever ritual Regina and Zelena may have had planned, here was the real magic of the full moon and her drunken little soul almost didn't want the night to end.
Even though she was feeling only slightly tipsy, Emma consented to allow Killian to walk her to the Sheriff's station, recalling only as she was fumbling for the key to the building's rear door that she had left her car parked over by the cemetery. Oh well, it would be fine there for the night. She'd go get it tomorrow after she sobered up. Everyone knew that the beat up old Volkswagen belonged to the Deputy so there was no fear that anyone would dare steal it.
At least she'd been alert enough to remember to grab Gold's potion book before they'd left the park. She was already questioning the veracity of his actual ownership of it and had added the shady pawn shop owner to her list of people she needed to confront over the course of the coming days. Before settling down on the break room sofa, she placed the book safely inside her locker with the incriminating photograph and letter still pressed beneath the cover. Had it been merely a fluke that those telling items had fluttered out of the book when she'd dropped it? Did Gold know they were inside already, sending her on a hunt to locate that specific volume intentionally?
Those were questions that would have to wait until daybreak though as she yawned and stretched out on the faux leather sofa, pulling the royal blue and dark red plaid woven blanket off of the back to cover herself. It didn't take long for her to drift off to sleep, replaying the night in her mind. She knew she'd probably regret some of the evening's actions when the sun rose but she dozed off believing the hangover would be well worth it.
As Emma was making herself comfortable in the station's break room for the night, Killian Jones was taking a leisurely pace on his short trek back to his ship at the harbor, grinning like a complete fool the whole way. He has no idea what to expect from his burgeoning relationship with Emma Swan but he fully intended to relish every moment spent in her company. He tried not to think about the fact that he'd be setting sail in a few days, not looking forward to the departure. He could only hold onto a glimmer of hope that should Emma reciprocate his increasing fondness for her, he would immediately start planning his return voyage to Storybrooke.
By the time he scaled the gangplank well after the midnight hour, he knew only a handful of crew would be awake so it wasn't at all surprising to find the top deck of the Jolly Roger deserted. He crossed to the hatch above his quarters in a few long strides as he felt the growing chill apparent in the sea breeze. Stooping to raise the hatch, his fingertips scarcely grazed the handle before finding himself struggling to breathe. Eyes widening, he frantically scoured the deck to find the owner of the unseen hands tightening around his throat but found himself still alone under the moonlit sky. He struggled against his invisible assailant, attempting to claw away whatever might be strangling him but to no avail. Unable to even shout for help, he succumbed to the darkness, falling unconscious atop the unopened hatch.
