I'm told I need to add a tissue warning here. So this is me doing that.
David made his way through the station, flicking on lights as he went. Even with all of the windows it had, for some reason, the place always felt too dark without the fluorescent overhead lights on.
He stopped briefly on his way over to his desk to turn on the new state-of-the-art coffee machine. After checking over the filters and beans, he headed for the bullpen to wait for the beep that would tell him the machine was ready to go.
Emma's office was dark and empty, which wasn't unusual. With her taking the night-shift, he wasn't expecting to see his sheriff until the middle of the day. So as he prepared his first mug of coffee, David took a quick look through the call logbook, just to check on how busy Emma's evening had been.
It didn't take long for his gaze to drop down to the last logged call, that came in a little before three am. Emma had recorded a disturbance by the town line, with the caller stating that there was a possibility that someone had being injured. She had made a hastily scribbled note that she was heading out to investigate it.
But she hadn't recorded a resolution to that call.
David assumed that she'd probably headed straight home to get some sleep after making her investigations, but he sent her a quick message just to be sure, before going about his usual daily routine.
Killian sighed as he kicked off his shoes at the door, and stumbled his way through his apartment. The night shoot he'd just finished had been long and gruelling, with him spending a good few hours in a harness, suspended from a crane.
The only good thing about it had been Emma's call when they had broken for dinner. She'd been pulling her own night-shift at the station, and was a little bored when she'd gotten his message that he was finally free to talk.
Nothing failed to raise his spirits like speaking with his beautiful girlfriend. The two of them had been busy making plans for Emma's trip to Vancouver when he'd been called back to set, and they'd been forced to say goodbye once more.
Even over the phone, it was proving harder and harder to let her go with every day that passed.
When he eventually dropped down onto his bed fully-clothed, Killian pulled out his phone to send Emma one last message before sleep claimed him. He knew that his girlfriend would probably be sleeping off her own exhausting shift at that point in time, but he wanted her to wake to the beautifully loving kind of messages that she always made sure he woke to.
Finally home and exhausted, so I'm off to dream about you before I need to be back in the studio.
I miss you, Sweetheart.
I can't wait to hold you in my arms once more.
I hope you're having your own sweet dreams.
I love you. X
When middaycame and went without any signs of Emma, David began to worry a little. She hadn't returned any of his messages that morning, and it was unlike her to sleep late. He had tried calling her cell phone, but he was being sent straight to voicemail, which suggested that she had either turned off the device, or the battery had died. So David decided to head over to Granny's, to see if Ruby knew where their friend was.
"Hey, David," she called out easily, as he pushed his way through the door. Everything seemed perfectly normal inside the small diner. All of the regulars were sat in their preferred places, at their usual time of the day, sipping on coffee or enjoying a slice of Granny's legendary cheery pie.
"Usual?" Ruby asked.
"Um, not today," he replied softly, making his way over to the counter. This was definitely not a conversation he needed Leroy shouting around town. They all knew Gold had been searching for an excuse to relieve Emma of her position since she'd dumped Neal. And David didn't want to be the one to give him fuel for that fire.
"Ruby?" He beckoned her closer, and the waitress stood the small coffee pot down to make her way over to where he was stood, out of earshot of any of the other customers. "Have you seen Emma today?"
"No," she replied carefully. "I thought she was with you?"
"She was supposed to be in at midday, but I haven't seen her. And she's not answering any of my calls or messages. She's not…" He hesitated for a moment, hating himself for the accusation he was about to make. Because deep down, David already knew the answer to his next question. "She's not with her boyfriend, is she?"
"Killian? No, he's working. She's not going up to visit him for a few weeks yet." Ruby's face was starting to fall with her own concern. David wanted to tell his friend to forget about it, and that he was sure everything would be fine.
But in his gut, he knew that something was very wrong.
"Can I borrow your keys?" he asked quietly. "I just wanna check inside the apartment. Maybe she's overslept."
Ruby had already turned to head for her bag in the back room, before he'd finished speaking. She wanted answers just as much as he did.
"Call me no matter what happens?" she begged, as she placed her keys into his palm.
"I will do."
"Emma?" David called out, as he pushed open the front door to her apartment. It felt strange being inside of his friend's home, without her there to welcome him.
He made his way carefully through the space, checking things over for anything that might have been out of place, or that would suggest that Emma was in trouble. There was nothing obvious jumping out at him. All of the furniture was exactly where it had always been. There was nothing broken, and there were no signs of blood on the floor, to suggest that there had been a struggle.
Everything looked painfully normal.
After making his way through the lounge, he paused just at the start of the dark hallway that would lead down to the bedrooms and remaining bathroom. While he and Emma had been friends for as long as David could remember, he'd never been inside of her bedroom before. And while he knew that he'd need to check inside of it to see if his friend was there, and more importantly - if her bed had been slept in, it felt like a huge violation of her privacy to do so.
As he made his way down the hall, the first thing that caught his attention were the pictures hanging along the wall. There were a couple of shots of Ruby up there, but the majority seemed to be professional pictures that Emma had taken with her boyfriend. David had to do a double take when he realized that in a couple of the images, the guy was wearing handcuffs.
What kind of kinky photographer was Emma using?
But all thoughts of photography fled his mind the moment he pushed open the door to his friend's bedroom.
It was a much brighter space than he had expected it to be. The walls were painted a light cream colour, with lots of artwork decorating them. Emma's bed had been dressed in plush red bedding, and was still perfectly made up.
David's heart sank at the sight of it.
Emma hadn't been home last night.
He briefly checked inside of her closet, and on the nightstand. All of her clothes were still hanging up, so she hadn't taken off somewhere in the middle of the night. And wherever she was, she appeared to have taken her keys and her phone with her.
David briefly checked through her nightstand, noticing that her badge was also gone, and he assumed that her gun would be too, (but like the responsible adult that she was, Emma had always kept her weapon locked away, and he didn't know the code to her safe). There was another picture of her in her boyfriend's arms on the nightstand, the two of them looking more relaxed together at what appeared to be Marco's place.
David couldn't stop himself from picking it up to examine it closer. While he had seen Emma smile before, he'd never seen the kind of pure happiness shining from behind her eyes, as the picture in his hands had managed to capture.
But there were no other clues as to where Emma could be.
David pulled out his phone with a sigh, bringing up Ruby's number and hitting call, as he sat the framed image back in its place. His friend had clearly been expecting him, as she answered before the third ring.
"Well?" she demanded.
"Her clothes are still here, but her badge and keys seem to be gone. And her bed wasn't slept in last night."
"Fuck," Ruby cursed. "What do we do?"
"I'm gonna head out to the town line and see if there are any clues there as to what that call was about last night," David told her.
"I'm coming with you," Ruby offered.
"No. Stay where you are. I'll call if I find anything."
"She could be lost in those woods," Ruby protested fiercely. "You're gonna need help to search them."
"If she's out there, then I will gladly accept all of the help I can get. But until then, we need to keep this quiet. I'm not letting Gold twist this into something he can use to push Emma out."
David could tell that Ruby wanted to protest. That like him, she was worried about her friend and she wanted to do all that she could to help find her. But the thought of protecting Emma's reputation from Gold was holding her back.
"I promise you, I'll call as soon as I have an update," David assured her.
"You'd better, David Nolan. Or I'll drive myself out there and kick your ass myself."
When Killian woke again, he felt like no time at all had passed since he'd fallen asleep. While he wanted nothing more than to rollover and bury his head in the pillows, his stomach had other ideas, as it loudly made its demands known.
He heaved himself up to a sitting position and swung his legs over the side of the bed, before reaching for his phone. Emma should already be back at work, which meant there should be a message waiting for him on the small device.
But when he woke the screen, he was a little shocked to find only a message from his mother there.
All thoughts of food were forgotten as Killian unlocked the device and quickly scrolled to his message chain with Emma, just to see if he'd accidentally read her reply in his sleep. But his last message from that morning was still at the bottom, marked as unread.
His brow furrowed in concern as he quickly pulled up her number and hit dial, only to be greeted by the robotic tone of her voicemail client.
Something didn't feel right, and Killian didn't like it.
He hoped like hell that her phone had simply died, and she'd been too busy to charge it.
Or maybe it had broken?
But he still found himself tapping out messages to send to her via text, Messenger, and to post to her Facebook wall.
I miss you.
I love you.
Call me!
The moment David spotted the cruiser parked on the side of the road, his heart sank.
There were only two reasons he could think of for why Emma would have abandoned her car that way. If there was something wrong with it, or if there was something wrong with her.
He prayed to every God he knew of that it was the car that had the problems, and not his friend.
"Emma?" he called out softly, as he parked his truck behind the abandoned cruiser, and climbed out of the cab. "Ems? Are you here?"
He wasn't a tracker in any sense of the word, but David knew Emma well enough to know that if she'd had to venture into the forest, she'd have stuck close to the road. The moment the road was no longer visible was the moment the darkness closed in, and Emma would never have gone much further than that, without some kind of backup.
He pulled out his flashlight and clicked it on, before withdrawing his weapon. David wasn't sure what he would find in the darkness of the woods, but he was determined to be prepared for it.
"Emma?" he called out again, walking the edge of the forest as he did. When he got no reply he headed in deeper, calling out for his sheriff once more.
David paced the length of the forest a mile away from the town line, heading in that little bit deeper with each pass he made, and calling out for Emma that little bit louder. When he could no longer see the road behind him, he pulled out his phone to call for backup, and cursed when he realised that he didn't have a signal.
He was just about to turn around and head back to his truck, when his flashlight fell on something that looked decidedly out of place on the forest floor.
"Emma?"
David pocketed his phone and holstered his gun, running a little to the spot his beam had illuminated only seconds before.
"Oh God."
The flashlight clattered to the floor as he took in the scene in front of him. For a moment, he was completely frozen, his eyes not quite believing what he was seeing.
There was so much blood.
But it didn't take long for his brain to kick in to action.
David dropped to his knees beside Emma, brushing her hair away from her neck, where it had been matted with her blood, to check for a pulse.
"Come on, come on, come on," he chanted, gently sliding his fingers around in the hopes of feeling something.
The soft flutter was slow and barely noticeable, but it was there.
"Oh thank god," he cried, relief washing over him at the feel of it.
David pulled off his jacket and wrapped it tightly around Emma's slim frame, hoping that the added warmth would help comfort her in some way, as he pulled his phone from his pocket to attempt to dial nine-one-one.
When the call wouldn't connect he swore again. He hadn't realised he'd been crying until he had to brush the tears away to see clearly. He didn't want to leave Emma alone now that he'd found her, but he knew that he couldn't risk moving her just yet either.
"I'll be right back," he promised, bending forward to brush a kiss to her forehead, before he took off running for the road. He kept his phone in hand, waving it around in front of himself until one small bar lit up on the side of his display.
David was already speaking loudly and clearly by the time the call had connected. "This is Deputy David Nolan with the Storybrooke Sheriff's Department. I need an ambulance sent to the town line immediately. The sheriff is down and bleeding heavily. She's in the forest. Tell them to park behind my truck and head straight in. I'll be with her, so if they call out, I'll be able to guide them to our location." He disconnected the call without waiting to see what else was said, turning on his heels to run back to where Emma was laying.
She was still on the ground, in a pool of blood that was far too large for someone as small as Emma was, lying deathly still.
"Okay," he mumbled, more to reassure himself than her. David gently pulled up the sweater Emma was wearing to see if he could spot the entrance point for the wound. There was so much blood, and without his flashlight he was struggling to see clearly. But when his fingers lightly danced over a particularly wet part of her body, he decided to take a chance. He ripped off the plaid button-down he was wearing and balled it up to press down firmly over the area, in the hopes that it would help slow the bleeding.
She'd already been out there alone for far too long.
"You can't die on me, okay?" he whispered harshly. "You just can't."
David wasn't sure how long he sat on the cold and damp forest floor, cradling Emma's head in his lap as he pressed against the wound on her stomach. But it felt like an eternity to him.
"David? David, are you here?"
"Over here," he called back, his voice scratchy from the tears that had fallen, and the fear that was wrapped tightly around his throat like a noose. "We're over here."
The beams from the flashlights were dazzling in the darkness of the forest, and he had to blink a few times to get rid of the bright spots that were dancing behind his eyes. But when he did, they immediately fell down to Emma, and the grizzly scene that surrounded them.
In the harsh fluorescent light, everything looked worse.
And Emma looked deathly pale.
"Shit," came a familiar voice. David lifted his head to see Victor Whale staring down at the two of them. For a moment, the usually calm and composed doctor looked scared. But he shook his fear off quickly, slipping easily into that commanding persona he exuded inside of the hospital.
"Okay. I need you to head back to the van and bring me back some fluids and the trolley. We need to get her out of here and back to the hospital as soon as possible," he barked at two paramedics that David didn't know by name. "Keep those lights focused down here so I can see what I'm doing?" he told two more people, as he dropped to his knees besides Emma's body.
Whale made quick work of cutting away Emma's sweater and cleaning down her torso, in his hunt for the wound that was still steadily bleeding onto the ground around him.
What he found made them both recoil in horror.
The wound that David had covered was still bleeding heavily, but there was a second close to Emma's left hip that was also adding to the pool of red on the floor beneath them, with a third over her right shoulder.
"Jesus Christ. How is she still alive?" David gasped out.
"The human body is a remarkable creation," Whale murmured, already packing the hole that had been left in her abdomen, in an attempt to stop the bleeding. "But if we don't get her out of here soon, she's gonna be in trouble. There's every chance infection has already set in." Even as he spoke, another of the paramedics he had brought with him was moving over to David's side, pulling on a pair of latex gloves to begin packing the wound in Emma's shoulder, as a third set to work doing the same on her hip.
"Fuck. What can I do?"
"Nothing yet," Whale told him, bending a little closer to listen to Emma's breathing. "I don't like how that sounds," he declared to the people around him, already pulling off his bloody gloves.
"What?" David asked. "What do you mean?"
"I'm gonna intubate her to help get oxygen into her lungs. Her breathing is far too shallow for my liking," the doctor explained, already sliding his hands into a fresh pair of gloves, as one of the paramedics riffled through their bag to pull out everything that he would need.
"Shouldn't this be done in a hospital?"
"I'm trying to save her life," Whale barked back. "Shut up and let me do my job."
David nodded his understanding as he watched in horror while a rather severe looking metal instrument was placed into his friend's mouth, to hold her tongue down. Whale began carefully feeding a tube down her throat, as the paramedics around them made sure to offer him the best lighting they possibly could.
The sound of metal rattling its way through the trees caught their attention, and they both turned to watch as the other paramedics returned with more supplies, and a trolley to transport Emma back to the van on.
"Okay, onto the spinal board as carefully as we can, then up," Whale instructed forcefully, as he watched his team manoeuvre themselves into a practiced position. "You might want to step back and give us some room," he told David firmly.
"Yeah… um… yeah." David nodded his head as he took two large steps back, giving the professionals the space they needed to work, whilst still keeping himself close to Emma.
With an ease that only came from experience, he watched as Whale gently rolled Emma onto her side, while the others slid the rigid red board under her. When it was in place, Whale gently eased her back onto it, and immediately began strapping her down. The medical team made sure that she was fully secure, before taking their next positions.
"Okay. On my count," the doctor instructed clearly. "One, two, three."
As one, the five men carefully lifted the board onto the trolley that was stood just to one side.
"I'm putting this line in first, and then we're moving," Whale declared, as he bent back over Emma's body with a needle already in hand. "Jason, I need you to call back and tell them to prep an OR for me. We'll also need blood, and lots of it. Make sure the best of the best are scrubbed in and ready for me by the time we get back."
Jason took off running the moment his boss had finished speaking, as the others carefully gathered up their supplies, and took a corner of the trolley. Before he let them move, Whale gently fixed what looked like a large blue balloon to the end of the tube now hanging from Emma's mouth. One of the EMTs reached for it as soon as he'd finished, and began squeezing it rhythmically to help with Emma's breathing.
"We move slowly," Whale told everyone gathered, offering the guy at the front the bag of fluids he had just hooked up to Emma's arm. "If there's something large in the way, we pick the trolley up and move her over it, so as not to jolt anything. I didn't see any exit wounds so those bullets are still inside of her. We can't risk knocking one of them when we don't know where they are. Got it?"
The others murmured their agreement as they slowly made their way back through the forest, headed towards the harsh light of the day. David followed close behind them, not wanting to take his eyes off Emma just in case something happened when he did.
It seemed to take an eternity to break through from the trees, but when they did, he heaved a sigh of relief as the paramedics set to work loading her into the ambulance. Her small body was hooked up to more tubes and wires, as medication was pumped into her system.
David had to swallow back the bile rising in his throat at the sight of it all.
"Are you coming with us?" Whale asked, hopping in beside Emma. The doctor began checking everything over himself, as the rest of the team quickly loaded themselves back into their own emergency response vehicles, before taking off for the hospital.
"Yeah," David stated, climbing up to sit in the only seat left in the van, as Jason shut the door firmly behind him.
David had never seen the hospital as busy as it was when they arrived. Whale had prepped everyone well, and he disappeared quickly to scrub in for surgery, while Emma was whisked away behind a set of double doors that security wouldn't let him follow her through.
One of the nurses - he thought her name was Janice, but he couldn't be certain in that moment - handed him a clean pair of scrubs, and gently guided him over to a bathroom where he could shower and change.
He hadn't realised until that moment how he looked.
David's jeans were a dark red in colour from all of the blood they had absorbed. His hands, arms and face were streaked with it, and his t-shirt was completely ruined.
He was covered in the blood of his friend, and it was that realization that had him emptying the contents of his stomach into the nearest toilet.
When he'd finished vomiting, he finally stripped himself down and pushed his clothes aside to bag for evidence, before stepping into the small shower stall to scrub the blood from his body. As the water sluiced down over him, David allow himself a moment to cry.
He knew that the instant he stepped out of that room he'd need to call his wife and Ruby, to explain what had happened to them. And he also knew that they would need him to be strong, while so much was still uncertain.
When he eventually stepped back out of the small stall, it was with the resolve to hold himself together, no matter what happened in the next few hours.
A part of him knew that this was news he should be delivering in person. But David didn't want to leave the hospital. Even though he couldn't be by her side in that moment, he didn't want Emma to be alone anymore. She'd been out there in the cold and dark on her own for long enough.
So instead, he took a seat in the small, empty waiting room to place two of the most difficult calls of his entire life.
"Hey Honey," Mary-Margret greeted. "How's work going?"
"Are you alone?" her husband asked carefully. It would be better for her to hear the news with someone else close by, but he couldn't risk word getting out about Emma's condition just yet.
"Yeah. Unless you count Leo. We just got back from the Mommy and Me class."
David took a deep breath in and held it, as he scrubbed a harsh hand over his face to dry his tears. He'd promised himself that he would be strong for his wife and Ruby. But that promise was proving difficult to keep.
"There's been an incident," he began carefully, hating the way his voice cracked on that last word. "Emma's um… she's been shot."
Mary-Margret's gasp of horror shattered his soul. David hated being the one to break this news to her. He should have been the one sat by her side, holding her hand as they heard it together.
"You um.. you should come to the hospital. She's in the OR now, but it's not looking good, Honey. There was so much blood."
David had to bite his own lip to stop himself from crying, as he heard his wife's sobs clearly across the line. He didn't know what to say to offer her comfort. He couldn't promise her that everything would be okay, because he wasn't sure it would be.
"I'll um, I'll sort Leo out and we'll be right there," she assured him.
"I'm in the waiting room. I didn't want to leave her," he offered softly.
"No. Don't. Don't leave her," Mary-Margret agreed forcefully. "She shouldn't be alone right now. I'll be there as soon as I can. I love you, David."
"I love you too."
When he ended the call, David clutched the phone tightly to his chest as he allowed his tears to fall silently.
"Deputy Nolan?" a soft voice called out, pushing into the room. David turned to face the nurse who was making her way in, brushing away his tears as he did. "I brought you some coffee," she offered softly. "I know it's not much, but I thought it might help a little."
"Thank you." Her small, kind offer in that moment meant more to David than he would ever be able to explain. The nurse left him with a gentle squeeze to his shoulder and a kind smile, as she made her way back out of the room to give him some privacy.
David wanted nothing more than to take his time drinking the hot beverage, before he placed his call to Ruby. But he knew that it wouldn't take long for word to spread of what had happened. And Emma's best friend deserved to hear it from him, not from Leroy over coffee.
"David?" she answered immediately, not even allowing the first full ring to complete. "Tell me you found her."
"I did," he began slowly. "Ruby she's um… she's been shot," he continued, cringing at the way her breath hitched at the word. "You should get to the hospital. It's um… it's not looking good."
"We're on our way," was all Ruby said before she disconnected the call, leaving David alone to wait for the people he loved the most.
Mary-Margret was the first to arrive, pulling her husband into her arms the moment she did, as she sobbed into his chest. Neither one of them knew what to say, so they simply held each other tightly, seeking comfort from the one person they knew could offer best it in that instant.
Ruby and her grandmother arrived a little after, both looking incredibly flustered as they rushed into the room.
"David," she sobbed, falling into her friend's arms to cry a little more. David had never seen the brunette looked so awful before. Her makeup had been ruined by her tears, and her hair was in complete disarray, likely from the way she'd been worrying it all afternoon.
"How bad is it?" she asked when she finally pulled back. Granny had a fresh handkerchief waiting for Ruby to dry her eyes with, but her own looked red and misty behind the lenses of her glasses.
"Bad," he admitted reluctantly. He didn't want to worry his friends, but he couldn't lie to them either. "She's um… there were three entrance wounds." The other women in the room couldn't hold in their cries of shock at that detail.
One was a possible accident.
Three was a deliberate attempt to kill.
"Whale packed and dressed the wounds on the scene, but she's lost a lot of blood. There was so much of it everywhere." David closed his eyes as the images of his friend's body, laying cold and still on the ground, flashed behind them. "He's worried about possible infection. And um… he said there aren't any exit wounds, which could cause problems. That's about all I know, though. He had her rushed straight down to an OR as soon as they arrived."
"That's good," Granny offered seriously. "Whale is the best at what he does. He'll fight for her. He won't give up on her."
The others nodded their agreement as they took their seats in the small room, settling in for however long it would take for them to get some answers.
The silence of the room was shattered an hour later when someone else pushed their way into it.
"What the hell are you doing here?" David yelled, rising from his chair to face the newcomer.
"I'm Emma's emergency contact. They called and said she'd been involved in an incident."
"You're not welcome here," he continued.
"Really, Deputy Nolan? Because the last time I checked, my son was your Sheriff's emergency contact, which means he has more right to be here than any of you do," Gold stated smugly, as he pushed past Neal to take a seat along the opposite wall of the room.
"Shit!" Ruby's sudden declaration broke the tense showdown happening between the two men, as all eyes swung round to face her. "David, I need Emma's phone."
"It's um… the nurses have bagged it for evidence," he told her, shaking his head to clear it of the red haze that had descended at the sight of Neal.
"I need it."
"I can't break that seal," David explained softly. "It's evidence in what's looking like a case of attempted murder."
"Someone's missing from this room," Ruby explained. "Someone who has more right to be here than any of us. I have to call him. He shouldn't find this out through watching the news, or on Facebook. He deserves better than that."
"Call who?" Mary-Margret whispered, looking incredibly confused by the whole situation.
And then it clicked in David's mind.
All of those pictures he'd seen in Emma's home. The pictures of her smiling so easily and so widely in the arms of one man. The person she had been so excited to visit earlier that month.
"Her boyfriend," he sighed, dropping down into his seat. "Don't you have his number?"
"No. And he's probably not gonna answer a call from an unknown number. David please, I know you shouldn't, but he needs to be here for this."
David nodded his agreement before pushing himself back to his feet to try and track down one of the nurses who would be able to give him Emma's belongings.
"I'm sorry," Killian apologised, dropping his accent and breaking character, as he fished his phone from his pocket. He'd been waiting all day to hear from Emma, and when she hadn't made contact before he was called to set, he'd smuggled his phone into his costume to keep a close eye on it.
Now that the device was finally ringing, he didn't want to ignore it.
"Emma, Love? What's going on?" he asked, as he stepped away from his mark to try and grab as much privacy as he could, given the number of people in the studio that afternoon.
"Kil… Killian. It's Ruby." The stutter to her voice sent a chill through his body, as Killian asked, "Ruby? Where's Emma?"
"There um… there's been an incident," she croaked out. "How soon can you get to Storybrooke?"
"What kind of incident?"
"You shouldn't hear this over the phone," she replied softly. "Just please, get here as soon as you can."
"Tell me what the fuck is going on," he demanded, his voice sounding deadly with the calm that had settled over it. From the corner of his eye he noticed as everyone else on set stopped their own conversations, and dropped whatever it was they were doing to turn his way.
"She's um… she…" Killian could hear Ruby suck in a harsh breath as she snuffled a little, and his heart lurched. "She was responding to a disturbance call near the town line." There was a heavy pause, and before he could demand more answers, Ruby added, "She didn't come back. David saw the call logged this morning, but no resolution for it. So… he went to check it out." When Ruby paused once more, Killian wanted to yell at her to just spit it out already. His stomach was beginning to churn with the acid that was building inside of it. "He found her. She'd um… she'd…" Ruby's sniffles were coming harder and faster now. Killian could hear the tears that were behind each word she was forcing out, and he hated himself a little for putting her through that. "She's been shot, Killian."
"Oh God."
"She's um… she's in surgery right now. But it's not good. You should be here. You need to be here."
"I'm coming," he promised, ending the call immediately to empty the contents of his stomach into the empty barrel to his left.
"Killian?" Robin asked carefully, approaching his friend like he would a frightened animal. "What's going on?"
"I need to leave," he stated emotionlessly, as he ripped off his hook and coat. "I have to go."
He took off running for his trailer before anyone could say anything else.
Killian wasn't sure how he made it to the airport that afternoon, or onto his flight.
All he could hear were Ruby's words, ringing in his ears.
She's been shot.
It's not good.
You should be here.
You need to be here.
Shot.
Not good.
You need to be here.
You need to be here.
He didn't trust himself to rent a car when his plane touched down in Boston. And he knew nobody would ever lease one to him in his current state. His eyes were bloodshot and puffy, and his hair was a riotous mess. He wasn't even sure if he was wearing matching shoes. So instead, he called for a taxi.
The driver didn't seem too happy about the four-hour journey to a town he'd never heard of before. But the fistful of hundred dollar bills Killian threw at him soon changed his mind.
By the time the car pulled up outside of Storybrooke General, seven hours had passed since Ruby's call, and Killian's stomach was churning once more. He'd been lucky enough to find a seat on one of the fastest direct flights to the state. But the taxi driver hadn't taken too kindly to being asked to drive faster all the way to town.
"Where's Sheriff Swan?" he asked a rather harried looking nurse at the front desk.
"I'm sorry sir, I can't give that information out," she replied, with what he imagined was supposed to be a sympathetic smile.
All it did was enrage him.
"Where's Emma Swan?" he asked again, that deadly calm seeping back into his tone.
"I can only give information on patients and their current conditions to next of kin and direct family members," she explained, giving him that fucking smile once more.
"Emma doesn't have any direct family," he shot back, bringing his fist down heavily on the desk. "Anyone who knows her, knows that. I'm the closest she's got. Tell me where she is."
His voice had risen with each word he'd spat her way, and he could see the nurse eyeing the distracted security guard in the corner of the building. The last thing he needed was to be kicked out of the hospital before he could even get to Emma, but he would never find her without any help.
"Look, she's my fiancée," he lied, fishing his phone out of his pocket to show her the picture that he'd set as his lock screen. It was one of himself and Emma, laughing for the camera during their pirate tour of Lake Michigan, taken only a few weeks before. "Please. Ruby told me what happened to her. I just wanna see her."
The nurse cracked, either at the photographic proof he was providing of their close relationship, or at the look of absolute desperation on his face. "She's still in surgery," she told him softly. "Come with me and I'll take you to the waiting room."
"Thank you. Thank you so much."
Thanks for reading and reviewing.
Special thanks go to Luna, Alexa, halfkender and the other guests.
See you next Sunday.