Sorry this one didn't update over the weekend. Work dropped into my inbox that distracted me.
"Please close the door behind you, Miss Swan."
Emma fought back the shiver that was inching up her spine, at the thought of being alone in a room with Mayor Gold. He'd always had that effect on her, from the moment they'd first been introduced. And from what the rest of the town told her, she wasn't the only one that felt that way.
"I trust you had a good vacation?" he offered conversationally. It would have been almost polite, if Gold had bothered to lift his head to address her. Instead, he kept his eyes trained on the papers before him.
"I did, thank you," Emma replied, keeping her tone as even as possible. "Did you enjoy your weekend?" She couldn't really care less about how his weekend had been, but Emma knew that it would benefit her, and the majority of the town, to keep up the pleasantries.
"It would have been better if my son wasn't constantly moping around the house, after his fiancée had kicked him out," he muttered, his pen still flying over the page in front of him.
Emma wanted to roll her eyes at his sly dig, but instead, she held her ground firm and offered, "Maybe you should kick him out too? It might do him some good to learn to stand on his own two feet."
Gold's eyes finally lifted at Emma's words and locked on hers, hard. She forced herself to keep his gaze, to show she wouldn't be backing down.
While Emma was ashamed of how things between herself, Neal, and Killian had transpired; after her weekend in Vegas, she couldn't bring herself to regret the decisions she had made.
Just the thought of Killian had a small smile pulling at corners of her lips.
While she hated that there was once again such a great distance between them, Emma had returned from her run, that morning, to find the sweetest of messages waiting on her phone, from him. They'd exchanged a few more texts before she'd had to leave for her meeting, and Killian had needed to head to set. But he'd promised to call as soon as he had some downtime.
"I think that would be what is commonly known as kicking a man while he's down, Miss Swan. After all, he's simply waiting for you to come back to your senses. What would be the point in taking out a new lease if he won't be using it?"
Emma folded her arms over her chest, hoping it would help her remain calm, as she turned her attention back to the Mayor. "With all due respect, Sir, your son will be forever moping around your home if he's waiting for me to invite him back. Things between us are over. I have no intention of changing that."
"We'll see about that," Gold mumbled, before finally capping his pen and sliding his papers away. "Now, I didn't bring you here today to discuss your private life, Miss Swan, so, please, take a seat."
The childish side of Emma wanted to refuse, simply because she hated the idea of giving in to the creepy imp's wishes. But the logical side of her knew that Gold was not a man she wanted to be picking a fight with. Instead, she made her way over to one of the chairs sat in front of his elegant glass desk, before sitting down gracefully.
"Now, let's talk about those objections you had at the last town meeting, and see if we can come to some kind of agreement, shall we?"
"Ugh. A whiskey. Neat. Please, Ruby?" Emma requested, as she slid onto one of the bar stools at Granny's.
"It's Wednesday," Ruby stated, as if that answered Emma's unspoken question. "It's also eleven-thirty am. And you're working."
"I just spent three hours with the mayor," Emma countered. It was a lame excuse but it was all she had.
"Best I can do is slip some Baileys into your coffee, Sheriff."
"Deal," she agreed.
As Ruby busied herself preparing Emma's usual order, Emma picked absentmindedly at a napkin that had been left on the counter. "Did you know he expects me to take Neal back?" she asked quietly.
"Most of the town does," Ruby called back, over her shoulder. "They have no idea that you've replaced him with one of the sexiest men alive."
"Keep your voice down," Emma hissed. "And I didn't replace him. Things with me and Killian… he's not… I mean… it's just not like that, okay?"
"It's okay," Ruby soothed. "I know that. And it's okay to have chosen Killian over Neal. You don't need to keep beating yourself up over that decision, Emma."
"Yeah... well… as much as I'm enjoying this thing I have with Killian, I still don't feel good about how it all started. So, can we just leave off the jokes, for now?"
"Of course," Ruby agreed, sliding Emma's drink over the counter to her. "Now, tell me all about what Gold wanted. I'm gonna guess it was to do with the construction plans he has?"
"Yeah. He wanted to come to some kind of agreement between the conflicting interests." Emma sighed, as she took a long sip from her coffee. The Baileys was barely noticeable, but it was definitely welcome. She knew when she took the job of sheriff that she'd be acting as a liaison between the rest of the town, and the mayor. But it didn't mean she enjoyed that part of her unofficial job description.
"Did you pitch him the ideas we came up with, during the alt-town meeting?"
The alt-town meetings were what Ruby had officially named their informal gatherings, when Granny closed the diner on Wednesday evenings. They were a way for the rest of the town to express their own thoughts and feelings, without fear of retaliation from their corrupt mayor.
"Yes, Ruby," she chuckled. "I've been doing this for years now. I know the drill."
Emma spent most of her day catching up on paperwork from the weekend. Contrary to Killian's belief, her job was nowhere near as exciting as he believed it to be. The town was so small, and intimate, that rarely was there ever a need for her to step in. Sure, Leroy would get himself arrested every now and then. But, having a resident drunk wasn't quite the same as what she was sure he pictured her doing on a daily basis.
Her life was certainly not an episode of Criminal Minds.
As if he'd known that she'd been thinking of him, Emma's phone began to vibrate on her desk, with Killian's name and picture flashing on the screen.
She answered the call with the greeting, "Sheriff Swan," as was her habit, when she was working.
"Damn, that's sexier than it has any right to be," he groaned. "Do you always answer your phone that way?"
"During working hours, yeah. Plus, I kinda figured you'd get a kick from it, given how much you seem to like my job title."
"I'd ask you always answer my calls that way, but it might get a little embarrassing in public," he chuckled.
Emma had to fight down her urge to giggle at his words. She loved knowing that she had such an effect on him. And that he wasn't ashamed to admit it. After so many years with Neal, who would grunt out an occasional, "you look nice," before she went out, it was a refreshing change to have someone offer compliments so freely.
"How was your meeting with the mayor?" he asked.
"Interesting. But it always is." She paused for a moment before adding, "He's Neal's father." Emma had promised herself not to withhold anything else about her past relationship with Neal, from Killian, after the mess it had caused. He deserved the truth.
"Huh," Killian mumbled. The line was silent for a few agonizing heartbeats, until he added, "He doesn't hold that against you, right? I mean, he was professional with you?"
"Gold's never really been the most professional of people, but he was okay. He didn't really treat me any differently to how he used to, when I was engaged to his son, if that's what you mean?"
"That's good," Killian assured her. "But if he does begin to treat you differently, you'll do something about it, right? I mean… just… don't let him walk all over you, Emma."
"I won't," she promised. "As hard as it might be to believe, when I'm not around you, I can actually be a fairly strong and confident woman."
"Oh, really?" he teased. "You mean all that word-vomiting is saved just for me?"
"You're that special," she giggled. "How was your day?"
"Cold," Killian chuckled. "This leather jacket only offers so much protection from the elements up here. But we got the shots we needed, so at least I won't be stuck out on a ship all day."
"A ship?" Emma couldn't stop the fangirl inside of her from perking up at that small spoiler. "Hook gets his ship back?"
"I didn't say that," Killian hurried to clarify. "It could be a flashback, for all you know."
She deflated a little at the idea of that. Emma had been hoping Hook would get his beloved Jolly Roger back all season. But maybe, if she kept asking, Killian would slip up again one day, and let a few small spoilers slide.
"Well, either way, I'm glad we're going to see Hook and the Jolly again. You look sexy on a ship."
That first week back in Storybrooke, Emma and Killian settled into an easy routine. Every morning, after her run, Emma would find a good morning message on her phone, from Killian. They'd exchange brief texts throughout the day, while they worked, and if there was time, Killian would call during his lunch break. Each evening, at around nine pm, he'd call again, and they would stay on the phone for hours, learning a little more about each other.
While Emma hated that she couldn't see him while they spoke, she loved that they were getting to know each other better. Killian would share things with her that she couldn't find on Google, and in return, she would tell him a little more about her background.
Emma started small. Talking about herself had never been one of her strong suits. But she knew that, piece by piece, she was feeding him more information about herself than she had ever told anyone before. Killian made her feel comfortable in a way nobody else had ever managed to achieve.
As the first week morphed into the second, Emma and Ruby also began to settle into a routine of their own. While Emma had been used to living with Neal, living with Ruby was something else altogether. Her friend was much louder, and more present, in the apartment, than Neal had ever been.
The first Thursday Emma came home to find the kitchen stocked with groceries, she had to do a double take. Neal had never once been grocery shopping, in all the years she'd known him. It was usually a job left for her, when she finished work Sunday evening. Ruby, however, had felt it only fair to stock the cupboards for them both, given that she'd been eating food, purchased by her friend, for the previous week.
And she did so, during her day off, without needing to be asked.
Ruby also cooked, which made a nice change. Emma couldn't remember the last meal she'd eaten, in the apartment, that she hadn't cooked for herself, or ordered in.
Eventually, the two of them slipped into a routine, which allowed for them both to contribute equally to the upkeep of their home, and gave them more time to spend together, at the end of the day. As much as Emma enjoyed her evening chats with Killian, she also loved being able to come home, and curl up on her sofa, to talk with her best friend.
"So, tell me how things with Killian are going?" Ruby asked, on Sunday night. They'd ordered pizza for the evening, and opened a bottle of wine to share, while they waited for Fairytales to start.
"Well… I think?" Emma replied. "We talk every day, which is nice. He tells me about work, Canada, Ireland, and his family. I tell him about my job, you, and my lack of family."
"That's good. I mean, your phone seems practically glued to your hands these days, so I took that to mean it was going well." Ruby paused to enjoy another slice of pizza, before she asked, "When are you going to see each other again?"
"Um… Chicago," Emma stated, like it was the most obvious answer in the world.
"Isn't the Chicago event like six weeks away?" When Emma raised a questioning brow, Ruby added, "I Googled it."
"Yeah," Emma sighed. "But we're both busy. And Killian hasn't mentioned anything else about visiting. I don't wanna push my luck."
"I don't think you'd be pushing your luck, Ems," Ruby reasoned. "You guys are in a relationship. It's only natural that you'd wanna see each other, in a time frame of less than eight weeks. Why not ask if you can go up and visit for a long weekend?"
Emma fiddled with the box their pizza had come in, and Ruby was able to use that time to piece together what her friend wasn't saying. "You're worried he's going to say no," she realized.
"Well, wouldn't you be?" Emma snapped. "Everything is still so fragile and I don't want to risk this by pushing him too far, too fast."
Ruby turned in her seat, facing away from the television and towards her friend. "Emma, you can't let what happened before hang over your relationship forever. If you keep hesitating because you're scared, things are never going to move forward. And then you guys are going to end up in a stale relationship, going nowhere. Take a chance. I'm sure if Killian wasn't ready for this, he wouldn't have suggested it in Vegas."
"You really think so?" she asked softly.
Ruby's heart broke a little, for her friend, in that moment. She looked so doubtful of herself, and this new relationship she had formed.
"I'm positive. If you're not sure, though, you can always drop some hints. We women are notoriously good at that, I hear."
Emma chuckled at her friend's words, before the sounds of the familiar strain of music, for the network, caught her attention. She turned her body back towards the television, before warning, "Shush, it's starting," unnecessarily.
"So, what did you think?" Killian asked, as he sank down into his couch. He'd been at work while the episode aired, but he knew that Emma would make the time to watch the show.
She always did.
"I loved it," she replied, enthusiastically. "I mean, for me, personally, there wasn't enough Hook in the episode. But I loved how the storyline moved forward. I feel like I sort of have this idea about where you guys are going, but then, I've felt that way before and been wrong."
Killian chuckled at her obvious excitement. While virtually every fan he spoke to often gushed over the show, and what they loved about it, he'd never cared as much for their opinions as he did for Emma's. Since meeting her, he'd wanted her to be happy with the way the storyline was progressing for the season. But, more selfishly, he wanted her to be proud of his own performance.
"I'm glad you enjoyed it. But I am curious about just how much more of Hook you would have wanted to see in the episode? I think I was in like three-quarters of the scenes we shot for it."
"Well, ideally, you should be in all of them," she answered honestly. "I mean, even if you just stand in the background, looking pretty, I'd be happy. And I'm sure a lot of your fans would too."
"Ahh, I see," he teased. "So, what you're really trying to say is that, you just want to objectify me throughout the episode."
"Of course," Emma scoffed. "I mean, have you ever seen the E!News Tumblr blog?"
"I can't say I even know what a Tumblr blog is," Killian chuckled. It was true, too. He'd heard the term before, mainly at conventions. But he had absolutely no idea what it involved.
"You're missing out," Emma chuckled. "Although, fans can be brutal. So, maybe don't Google it? You might get all the shit instead of just tailoring your search to the good stuff. I'll send you some screenshots instead. Let's just say that E!News are very complimentary of your performance each episode."
"That's good know. I'll have to thank them next time they interview me."
"So, how are things going with this new mystery woman?" Robin asked casually, as he dropped down into the chair next to Killian's, in the makeup trailer, Monday morning.
"I thought you were going to drop it," Killian questioned, keeping his gaze fixed on the newspaper in his hands.
"I can't ask how my best friend's love life is going?" Robin protested.
"It's going well, thanks. We're taking it slow, and enjoying getting to know each other."
"Sounds good," his friend encouraged. "You seem happier. Certainly, happier than you were before the Vegas weekend."
"Yeah, there was a, um… a misunderstanding… that needed to be cleared up."
"And she did that while you were in Vegas?"
Killian wasn't really sure where Robin was going with his line of questioning, but he had to admit, he'd been dying to talk to someone else about Emma all week. Even if he was only giving vague responses.
"Yeah. She flew out to talk to me about it. We sorted things out, cleared the air, and now we're good."
"Cool. Having you moping around here wasn't really much fun for any of us," Robin chuckled.
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that." Killian brought a hand up to scratch behind his ear. Something he often did when he was nervous, or embarrassed. "It um… I think she could mean a lot to me. So, when we misunderstood each other, it hurt. A lot."
"Well, I'm glad you managed to get it all straightened out. And when you're ready, I can't wait to meet her. If she's got you so torn up, she must be one hell of a woman."
"Oh, she definitely is," Killian agreed.
As the makeup artist finished with his eyeliner, Killian stood from his seat, stretched a little, and reached for his phone. The alert from Emma was already waiting for him, and he couldn't stop the smile from breaking across his face as he pulled it open.
"Hey, can I ask one more thing?" Robin wondered.
"Sure," Killian muttered, already distracted by Emma's words.
"Do I at least get to know the name of the woman that can put a smile like that on your face?"
Killian locked his phone, and quickly stuffed it in his pocket, resolving to reply to Emma's message when he was alone, in his trailer. "It's Emma," he told Robin. "Her name's Emma."
Thanks for reading.