Like Sands through the Hourglass
It had been a quiet few months in Storybrooke that in itself should have been a sign of what was to come. Hope had just begun crawling so Killian was frantically childproofing the house. Emma was wishing she had never told him about child proofing.
"Killian! Hope is crawling not scaling the walls." Emma freed the plug socket so that she could plug the coffee machine in. It wasn't as though their daughter could reach anything above waist height.
"We can never be too safe Swan." Killian carried his daughter into the kitchen and sat her in her highchair. "Besides, you never know if our little princess is going to develop powers."
He had a point. Although Hope hadn't shown any sign of having powers. But when your mother was the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming and your father was Captain Hook, with you being the product of true love: magical powers were to be expected.
"I would like to have my coffee before having to wrestle anything in the morning." Just because he had a point didn't mean she would agree with him. She sighed in appreciation at her first sip of coffee.
"I do love the way you enjoy your morning coffee Swan." Killian had never envied a beverage so much.
"It's nice to be able to drink caffeine again." Another side effect of Killian's thirst for knowledge was that when he found out she was pregnant; he read every book that Belle could find for him in the library and then took that information to the extreme.
"Danger! Danger! Giant hourglass in the centre of town." Grumpy was his usual subtle self running through town.
"Time to go to work." Killian rolled his eyes. "I'll drop Hope off with Ashley and meet you in town. " Clearly it was going to be one of those days. Kissing his wife he picked up his daughter to get her ready for day care.
Anywhere else Grumpy could be thought to be exaggerating, but not in Storybrooke. Although the dwarf did like to cause his own excitement. Sure enough in the centre of town was a giant hourglass which was clearly counting down to something. "Well that's new." Emma joined her parents. "Do we know anything other Grumpy's panic enticing announcement of the obvious?"
"Not really." Charming pointed towards the bank. "Marjorie said it wasn't there this morning when she opened up but appeared when the first customer arrived."
"So shall we prepare for impending doom or wait for it to return to wherever it came from?" Emma wondered if they should be expecting some monster to appear from the sky when the sand in the hourglass ran out.
"Why don't we wait and see what happens. It looks as though we have time." Snow the eternal optimist.
Killian joined them. "Why have the Greek Gods of time left their hourglass in the middle of Storybrooke?" Where were they?
"There were multiple Gods of time?" Killian never ceased to amaze her.
"Three." Killian nodded. "Chronos represents empirical time like the past, present and future. Aion represents eternal time so the afterlife. Then there's Kairos is the embodiment of opportunist time, so moments when action must be taken to achieve a task."
"How do you know all this?" Charming's jaw had dropped. "Do you think someone stole the hourglass?"
"You learn all sorts of things in the Navy." Killian raised an eyebrow as he smirked. "It seems a rather heavy thing to steal. Chronos must be around here somewhere."
"What would anyone gain from stealing it?" Emma couldn't see how anyone would even carry it. "Apart from a back ache."
"Has to be magic." Snow looked around them. "It's the only way it could have appeared with no one noticing."
"Everyone is assembling in the bunker." Grumpy ran up to them out of breath and full of self importance.
"Why? And when did this town get a bunker?" Emma seriously wanted to throttle the dwarf. She was considering getting his name changed from Grumpy to panic.
"It's under the library." Grumpy spoke as though it were obvious. "It's not as though Maleficent is still using it." She didn't often turn into a dragon these days.
"That's hardly a bunker." Charming could easily see the town crumbling in on top of them. "And what makes you think there is any danger?"
"There's a giant hourglass in the middle of town." Grumpy rolled his eyes. "What else could it be?"
"Killian! There you are." A strange voice boomed out of nowhere. Three men approached them.
"Chronos, Aion and Kairos." Killan nodded to them. "What brings you to Storybrooke?"
"Monsters!" Grumpy tired to run off but Killian caught him by the collar. It wasn't as though he could insight any more panic when the four of them were the last people left within earshot.
"Gods. Not monsters." Killian corrected. "I believe the hourglass belongs to them. Try not to annoy them." It would be just like the dwarf to offend the three Greek Gods of Time.
"We were hoping to catch up with you Killian. Megara mentioned you were of great assistance to her in the underworld." Chronos ignored Grumpy completely.
"No more than she was to me." Killian remembered the sweet girl. She had managed to get word to Emma after he helped her escape. He recalled thinking at the time that she didn't belong there.
"Still, you could have saved yourself but didn't." Aion pointed out. "That is why Zeus gave you another chance. And he does not grant those to everyone."
"And I am most grateful for it." Killian had never spoken truer words. Because of that second chance he had a family and a job and a home. Three things he thought he'd never have.
"We are aware." Kairos glanced over at Snow. "We also know you helped Hercules."
"He's a friend. How could we not?" It seemed so obvious to Snow. "Help is always given to those who ask for it."
Chronos nodded to himself. "Zeus chose well." Holding out his hand, the hourglass shrunk and appeared in his hand. "It is time for us to go." It appeared that was what the hourglass was counting down: the length of their visit.
As quickly as they arrived, the three Gods of time disappeared. While it was an honour, it certainly wasn't worth the drama Grumpy had created. The dwarf was quite disgruntled to have to tell anyone who had taken shelter in the bunker, that there was no danger.
"Perhaps we need to re-enforce the caves under the library if they are to be bunkers." Charming shook his head at Grumpy stomping off.
"Let's take a look at it this weekend." Killian figured it couldn't hurt to have a bunker. You never knew what or who was going to turn up in Storybrooke on any given day.
Another crisis in Storybrooke averted.