Just a quick update to let you all know surgery went well and I'm home recovering.
Returning home felt strange. Emma had been in a fandom bubble all weekend and that definitely popped the moment she stepped through the door.
"How did it go?" Neal called out, jumping up from his spot on the sofa and making his way over to her.
"Not bad." Emma stood her luggage in the doorway and met him halfway, allowing him to pull her into his arms.
"Did you get a dress?" he asked, dropping a kiss to the top of her head.
"Um.. no," she hedged. "I found a few styles that I liked, but nothing that wowed me."
Neal grunted his acknowledgement but otherwise said nothing else. His affection had thrown her off and Emma felt uncomfortable in his arms, knowing that she had lied to him.
"I'm gonna go and check my emails," she told him, pointing in the direction of her office. "Just to see if anything important came up while I was away."
"Okay, Babe," Neal muttered, a little despondently. Emma leaned up to give him a sweet kiss, hoping to chase away his sadness. It wasn't his fault that she'd lied to him.
She always kept her office locked, due to the nature of some of the documents she kept inside of it. So, after unlocking the door, she hurried inside to boot up her computer. While it was loading, Emma took out her photo ops with Killian Jones and slid them into a plain envelope, which she then locked inside of her safe. She knew Neal would never find them there.
A quick scan of her email account showed that nothing important had come up while she was away, so Emma decided to use the time to send off a quick request for the digital copies of her photo ops.
She pulled up Twitter next, scanning through all the tweets she had received from her fandom friends. Neal often joked about how naïve Emma was for making people she'd never met in person such a big part of her life. But she knew he was wrong now. She'd met some of these people over the weekend and they were just as sweet in person as they were online.
Finally, she pulled up Killian's Twitter page before she logged out, scanning through his tweets. A few were retweets of promotional shots and videos for the next episode. There were a couple of backstage pictures of him with some of the other guests from the convention. But there was one message that grabbed her attention.
Had a fantastic time in Boston! Even got to meet a local Sherriff. Sadly, no handcuffs were involved… this time. :-P
She had a message in reply to Killian's already tapped out when common sense caught up to her. Neal knew all about her twitter presence. She'd shown him messages far too often for him not to. If she replied, there was a chance he'd see the message and know that she had lied to him. So, instead, she logged out of the social media site.
Without really meaning to, Emma found herself back on the convention organiser's page. They ran events for a few different shows with the Fairytales one being their most recent addition. Because of that, there were only four other dates online for events that year.
The next one was a little under two months away, in New Jersey.
Emma had no idea what possessed her to do it, but before she knew it, a gold pass for the New Jersey event had been purchased with her credit card, along with three photo ops with Killian Jones.
"Fuck," she whispered, relaxing back into her seat. Now she just needed an excuse to give to Neal.
"So, I did something stupid," Emma whispered, leaning over the counter so Ruby would be able to hear her.
"You? Really? I doubt that, Ems." Ruby threw her a disbelieving look before taking Leroy his coffee.
When she returned Emma continued, "I booked a gold pass for New Jersey con."
"What?" Ruby yelled, almost dropping the mug, in her hand, onto the floor.
Emma sent her a warning look as she glanced around the dinner. Thankfully, it was almost empty at that time of the morning. "I don't know why I did it," she confessed, draining the last of her own coffee.
"I do," Ruby snorted. "I'm pretty sure it has everything to do with Killian Jones and how hot he is for you."
"He's not hot for me. He was just being friendly." Emma sat in silence for a little while, allowing Ruby to serve Sydney, who had just entered, before she finally worked up the courage to ask what she had been thinking about all night.
"Hey, Ruby? Do you think you could do me a favour? I told Neal we didn't find the dress this weekend, so we were going to be going a little further away that weekend to look again. Do you think you'd mind keeping up the ruse for me?" Emma couldn't look at her friend as she asked. She hated that she'd put her in that position to begin with.
"Of course not," Ruby agreed. "I wanted a weekend to myself at the cabin anyway, so I'll just escape up there. Hopefully it will help inspire me to write a little more."
"Thanks." Emma finally looked up to send a grateful smile her friend's way. "I owe you one."
"I'll think of a way for you to repay me," Ruby assured her, a devious smirk lighting up her face.
The first weekend after the convention, Neal decided to take a trip of his own, with some of his friends from high school. While Emma was a little annoyed that he didn't want to spend the time with her, she didn't say anything. After all, how could she? She'd done the same thing the weekend before.
So, she resigned herself to a quiet weekend alone, curled up on the sofa.
When the buzzer rang for her apartment, she hauled herself off the sofa, searching through her bag for some cash to pay for the food she'd ordered. She wasn't expecting to see Ruby waiting for her on the other side of the door, with Mary-Margret stood just behind.
"I have your food," Ruby announced, brushing past Emma and into the apartment. "Should just do the three of us, if we wash it down with plenty of wine."
"Hey Emma," Mary-Margret greeted softly. "This was Ruby's idea."
"I guessed," she chuckled, ushering her friend in and closing the door behind her.
Ruby was already in the kitchen, dishing out an equal serving of food on to three plates. "Grab some glasses, we brought wine," she told Emma, pausing to lick the spoon she'd used, before tossing it into the sink. Emma did as she was asked, pouring three glasses and taking them through to her lounge, before grabbing the extra bottles. She had a feeling they were not going to survive the night with their corks intact.
"I also brought entertainment," Ruby announced, digging through her bag to pull out the first season of Fairytales on DVD.
Emma groaned slightly, but didn't protest. She'd planned to re-watch some of her favourite episodes that night anyway.
"Oh, isn't that the show with the hot guy that plays Captain Hook?" Mary-Margret asked, surprising them all. "What? I watch TV," she defended, at the twin looks of shock on Emma and Ruby's faces.
"Yes. Yes it is," Ruby answered, sliding the disc into the player. "What kind of girly night would it be without a little mutual perving?"
It took Ruby four glasses of wine and three episodes to realise that someone was missing from the first season. "Emma, why didn't you tell me?" she whined.
"Because you have no patience, you'd skip straight to season two and completely miss the key plot points."
"I'm patient. I thought last weekend proved that," Ruby replied.
"Ugh. I do not envy you guys that. Finding a wedding dress is hard work. I'm sure you'll find the one soon, Emma."
Emma and Ruby shared a look behind Mary-Margret's back. Neither of them enjoyed lying to their friend, so they'd resolved to speak of what had happened as little as possible around others. But Ruby's tongue always became a little looser when she'd had a few drinks.
"How is baby Leo?" Emma asked, hoping to take the focus of the conversation off her non-existent wedding dress hunt. The change of subject worked wonders, as Mary-Margret launched into an hour-long talk about her son, and all of the wonderful things he'd been learning to do in his short life.
It was close to two am when Emma finally locked her front door behind her friends, after watching them climb safely into the back of David's car. She had to admit, as much as she'd been upset with Neal's plans for the weekend, she'd enjoyed her time with Mary-Margret and Ruby. She didn't often get to see the two of them together, now that Mary-Margret was busy with the baby, and with Neal and Ruby's mutual dislike of each other often kept her away from the apartment.
Emma cleaned up the lounge a little, putting the dirty dishes and glasses into the dishwasher, before grabbing her phone and heading for bed.
It was only when she was showered and in her pyjamas, tucked up under the duvet, that she checked the screen, to see if Neal had been in touch.
He hadn't, and Emma really wasn't surprised. He never did bother calling while he was away for weekends, preferring to get drunk instead.
There was, however, a message through her Facebook messenger app from a name she didn't recognise. She tapped open the app, fully expecting to see yet another lewd proposal from some stranger in a far off land. (She'd had far too many messages like that already). However, the short question stopped her short.
Is this Sherriff Emma Swan of Storybrooke, Maine?
Emma sat for a while, reading that one line over and over, unsure of how to reply. It could, of course, just be another creep, going about his proposal in a different way. It could also be someone that Emma had met before, but lost touch with. The name John K Jones wasn't familiar to her at all, though, no matter how hard she thought about it.
In the end, Emma realised that she wouldn't be getting any sleep that night if she didn't at least reply to find out what this person wanted.
It is.
Who is this?
Her reply was short and simple. She didn't want to be accused of leading him on if it was one of the usual creeps.
When her reply went unread for ten minutes, Emma decided to call it a night. She locked her phone and slid the device onto her bedside table, switching out the light.
Within ten minutes she was fast asleep, dreaming of Captain Hook sailing into Storybrooke Harbour and whisking her off into the sunset.
When she woke again at five am, her head already starting to pound from the alcohol she'd consumed the night before, Emma decided it was time for a bottle of water and some aspirin.
When she stumbled back to her bed, she flicked on the screen of her phone. It had become a habit to check it whenever she could, just in case she'd slept through an emergency call at the station.
There were no missed calls, but there was a reply from her new mystery man on Facebook. Against her better judgement, Emma opened up the app to see what he'd typed, already preparing herself to block him.
Instead, her heart flew into her chest at what she saw.
Killian Jones.
It took her a moment for logic to catch up, before she tapped out a reply, taking out her anger on the touchscreen.
Haha.
Very funny, Loser.
One last chance before I block you.
Who are you and what do you want?
This time, the three little dots, signalling a reply was being typed out, flashed up almost immediately and then disappeared just as quickly.
Emma sat waiting for a moment longer before she decided to get some more rest. Her creep could wait until the morning.
It was just as she'd turned off the light that her phone flashed, brightening up the dark room.
Emma grabbed it, unlocking the device and quickly opening up the app.
What she saw in reply made her drop the phone in surprise.
Thank you for all your messages and reviews.