As always, I am in no way a medical expert. What I have written here is based on hours of extensive research, but I'm happy to be corrected if any of it is wrong.
WARNING - This chapter does deal with the loss of a child, and the emotional fallout of that. If this is something you're not comfortable reading, you'd probably be best skipping over this update completely.
His head shot up from the bed as he stared down into the face of the woman he loved, horror coursing through every inch of his system, while his mind immediately supplied the obvious answer to that question.
What if the bullet had done more damage to her spine than Whale had initially thought?
"I uh… I'm gonna call Doctor Whale, okay? He'll be right here, Love. Try not to panic too much, yeah?"
Emma reached out to squeeze his hand softly as he rose from his chair. It was her way of pointing out that in that moment, he was probably panicking more than she was. But Killian wasn't in the right frame of mind to pick apart her motives just then.
"I'll be right back," he assured her, as he dropped a kiss to her cheek, before moving over to the door and pulling it open. Whale didn't appear to be anywhere around, but he spotted Janet as she was making her way out of another room, and she turned to meet his eyes. "Can you grab Whale for me, please?" he asked. "Emma has some questions for him."
"Already?" The nurse's own face seemed to pale as she considered what was coming next, but she nodded her head in understanding while she reached for the phone, to call down to Whale's office.
Killian took a moment to suck in a few deep breaths before he turned back around and closed the door to Emma's room behind himself. He wasn't really sure what to say to reassure his girlfriend though, so as he made his way over to her side, he reached for her hand to lift to his lips.
"It's okay," Emma whispered. "It's all going to be okay."
"Shouldn't I be the one telling you that?"
Emma simply shrugged her one good shoulder as she turned her body as best she could, to face the man she loved. "If this is something serious," she began carefully.
"Then it won't change a damned thing," Killian cut her off furiously. "Nothing will ever change the way I feel about you, Emma. That's a promise I can confidently make to you."
The two sat in silence for a moment while they waited for Whale to join them, just drawing comfort from being in each other's presence. When the knock on the door sounded, Killian fought back the instinct inside of himself that was already cringing at what was coming, as he turned to greet the man who had become a friend, over the last three weeks.
"Good morning." Whale offered each of them a carefully composed smile, but Killian could see the reluctance behind it. The doctor didn't want to be in that room, delivering the news he had, any more than Killian wanted to hear it again. "Your fiancé tells me that you have some questions for me," he invited, as he took a seat on the table opposite Emma's bed.
"I uh… I can't… I can't move my legs," she whispered softly, but the shock of her words had Whale out of his position and beside her bed instantly.
"For how long?" he asked, as his eyes flew over the monitors to her left, while he reached for her chart.
"Maybe since I woke up?" Emma wasn't sure when that had been. All she knew was that she'd tried to move over that afternoon, to invite her love to squeeze onto the bed beside her. She'd wanted him to hold her, and she knew there wasn't enough space for that, given where she was laying. But she couldn't seem to make her legs cooperate with her wishes.
Whale spent a few seconds reading over the notes on Emma's chart before he pushed aside the blanket covering the lower half of her body, and ran the end of his pen gently down her leg. "Can you feel that?"
"Yeah," she said, as both of the men in the room seemed to release a collective sigh of relief.
"I'm gonna start at the bottom and work my way up. Tell me if there comes a point where you can't feel my touch, okay?" The doctor moved down and positioned the end of his pen over Emma's ankle, before slowly and carefully making his way up her lower leg, and towards her knee. At Emma's nod he carried on higher, slowly dragging the pen up towards the top of her thigh.
He was about two inches away from where one of the carbon rods emerged from her hip, when Emma stopped him with a firm, "There."
"Okay," he declared, making a quick note in her chart. "I'm gonna ask a specialist to come in and see you, just to be absolutely certain there's no damage there that I've missed. But I'm pretty sure that your lack of sensitivity in this area is related to the injuries you sustained, and the lack of movement you've had since then."
At Emma's confused look, Whale grabbed one of the free chairs from the other side of the bed, and pulled it in close.
"David was the one who found you," he began softly, and Emma's eyes fluttered closed at the mere thought of her friend being put in that position. She hated that she'd be the cause of his nightmares for months to come.
"He called for an ambulance, and when the call came through and we heard who needed us and why, I insisted on going with the EMTs. You were in bad shape, Emma. There were three entrance wounds and no exit wounds. Which meant that we knew the bullets were still inside of you. My team and I worked fast to try and stabilized you and clean you up as best we could, before we loaded you onto a trolley to get you back here. You crashed before we could get you down to x-ray to see how much damage had been done, and it took us thirteen minutes to resuscitate you. Those were the longest thirteen minutes of my entire career."
He paused for a moment as the memories of that day washed over the two men in the room, and Killian's grip on Emma's hand tightened slightly at the reminder of how close he had come to losing her.
"When we finally got you into an x-ray, we got a better picture of what had happened. The wound to your shoulder was actually the least of our worries. If it had been an inch higher, it probably would have killed you," he admitted reluctantly. "But as it wasn't, we were able to remove the bullet and fix the damage to the muscle as best we could, during surgery. I can't guarantee that you'll ever have full movement back in that shoulder, but I don't think you'll lose too much range," he assured her.
Whale paused for another long moment as he allowed Emma the time she needed to absorb his words. All three of them knew that whatever was coming next would be worse, but she still needed time to process the fact that she might never be able to fully stretch her arm out again. Because for anyone else, that would have been a life-changing injury.
"I'm not going back to work, am I?" she asked softly, as the thought suddenly hit her in the gut.
"I wouldn't recommend it," Whale agreed.
Emma's eyes screwed shut at his words. It was her own way of trying to hold back her tears, and Killian reached out to run soft fingers through her hair as soon as he realized that. "It's okay," he whispered to her. "It's okay, my love. We'll work something out when you're back on your feet. I promise you that."
When her eyes eventually opened again they turned towards Whale expectantly, and he took that as his cue to continue.
"One of the bullets broke one of your ribs. We think that when we were transporting you back to the bus, we may have jostled you a little, as your rib then punctured your lung. This was one of the first things we fixed for you during the surgery. A chest tube was inserted to drain the fluid and air that had built inside the space, and I used a surgical method to fix the damage to your rib, just to prevent any further incidents while you were healing. The last x-ray we took showed that your lung had almost fully recovered from the damage it had suffered. But I have to warn you that statistically speaking, those who have suffered a punctured lung in the past are at risk of it happening again."
"What does that mean?" Killian interjected, his voice wavering with his concern.
"It might mean nothing. But if you ever feel a sharp stabbing pain over that side of your chest, or experience difficulty breathing, get to a hospital as soon as you can and explain that you've suffered a punctured lung before. Okay?"
Killian nodded his understanding while Emma did the same thing. She could feel the dull ache in her chest where Whale had indicated that her rib had been broken, but now that he'd told her that she'd basically fully recovered from that injury, it felt less scary than she thought it would.
However, the silence that followed Whale's statements had her concerns rising again. Especially when she saw the looks that he exchanged with her boyfriend.
"What?" she asked, turning worried eyes to Killian.
He looked absolutely devastated, and Emma had to swallow back the sob building in her throat at the thought of what could have put that look on his face.
"The last bullet did the most damage," Whale explained. "It broke your pelvis, which is a pretty serious medical condition."
"Is that why I can't move my legs?" she asked.
"I would say so. A couple of specialists from Boston came down to fit what we call an external fixator, in order to set the break." Whale took a deep breath in and held it, before he stood from his seat and gently pulled back the sheets covering Emma's midsection. "It looks terrifying. I know that. But I promise it's not. And it'll come off soon."
It took Emma a long moment to realize that he was talking about something on her. From her position in the bed, she hadn't been able to see down her body all that well. So as she pushed herself up to try and get a look at what he was talking about, Killian stood to help ease her upper body away from the mattress.
The moment her eyes landed on the frame around her hips, she turned to bury her sob into her boyfriend's chest.
"It's alright," he assured her, as Whale fiddled with the controls on the bed, lifting the top half a little so that Emma would be resting at more of an angle, rather than flat on her back. "It's gonna be okay, Emma. It's coming off soon. And as long as it keeps you from bleeding out, I'll take this frame over the alternative."
He dropped down into his usual spot on the bed, to make himself a little more comfortable, as Emma sobbed quietly into his chest. Whale looked like he wanted to leave and give the two of them some privacy, but both he and Killian knew that the worst was still to come.
And Emma deserved to know what had happened to her.
When her tears finally ran dry, Killian eased her back onto the mattress to rest more comfortably, tucking the sheets around her like they would physically shield her from the pain that was coming, before he reached for her hand once more.
"Is that the worst of it?" Emma asked, her eyes drifting closed. The tears had worn her out, and she was ready to sleep again. But the tense silence that followed her question told her there was still more to come.
Whale exchanged another look with Killian, before he dropped back down into his own seat. "Emma," he began softly, and then stopped as he tried to think of how best to phrase what he needed to say.
"Sweetheart," Killian called out, drawing her eyes back to him. "Do you remember the weekend I spent here with you?"
"Of course." She nodded her head to emphasize her words, as he laced their fingers tightly together. There was no way she could ever forget that weekend.
"And the time we spent together at the station. You remember that too, right?" It had taken Killian a while to put the pieces of their weekend together, along with the dates that Whale had given to him. But now that he had, he could pinpoint the exact moment the two of them had conceived their child.
Emma simply nodded her agreement.
"We got a bit carried away that morning, and we didn't take the kind of precautions that we should have, as a result of that."
Emma's face screwed up a little with her confusion. She couldn't understand why her boyfriend had felt the need to bring that moment up right then, especially while Whale was still in the room with them.
"Emma, did you notice anything after that weekend?" Killian prodded gently.
"I uh… I don't understand." Her exhaustion was making the confusion worse.
What did their time together have to do with her injuries?
"Did… did someone see us? Is that why…?"
Whale jumped in to help out, not wanting to confuse Emma any more than she already was. "What Killian's trying to say, Emma, is that when you were shot, you were pregnant."
"No. I wasn't," she protested. She couldn't clearly remember the days leading up to the event, but she was certain that she'd have remembered finding out that she was pregnant.
"Yes, you were." Whale had never looked as serious as he did in that moment, which scared her more than she would ever admit. "I'm so sorry, Emma. That third bullet did significant damage to your uterus. I repaired what I could, but…"
He paused to scrub a harsh hand over his face, and Emma turned worried eyes back up to her boyfriend, who was biting down hard on his bottom lip to hold back his own tears.
The sob that left her at the sight of the two men's faces was heartbreaking.
"No."
"I'm sorry. I couldn't save your child," Whale whispered quietly. "I'm so sorry, Emma."
"No!" she protested more furiously, as she turned back to look at Killian, silently begging him to tell her it wasn't true. "Please, no."
"I'm sorry, Love," he whispered, bending forward to brush his lips over her brow. "I'm so sorry."
Whale turned away from the two lovers as Emma came to terms with the news that he'd just delivered, and cried for the loss of her child in the arms of her fiancé. He wanted to leave and give the two of them some time to process everything together. But he knew that he couldn't do so, without delivering his final blow.
So he waited in silence, his gaze focused on his feet, as Emma's harsh sobs turned to gentle tears, until she finally fell silent.
"There's just one more thing I need to tell you," he whispered into the stillness of the room.
"Can't it wait?" Killian demanded. "She's been through enough as it is."
Emma reached up to rest her palm against the side of his face, and her boyfriend twisted his head to press a kiss to the middle of it.
"I want to know," she told him. She looked exhausted… broken and defeated. Kilian hated seeing her that way. But he had never been able to refuse her wishes, so he simply nodded his agreement.
"As I said before," Whale began carefully, "There was significant damage to your womb. I repaired what I could, so that you'd have a chance of conceiving again in the future. But if I'm being completely honest, I'm afraid I don't think you'll ever carry another child to full term."
The room was deathly silent for the longest of moments as the news that had just been revealed hung in the air between the three people inside of it. Killian held his breath while he waited to see how his girlfriend would react.
"I'm so sorry, Emma," Whale offered genuinely, as he stood from his seat and headed for the door. "I'll leave you two alone. But you know where to find me, if you need anything."
Killian called out a rough thanks as he watched the door close behind the doctor, but Emma remained worryingly still and quiet on the bed.
"Sweetheart?" he asked, when he couldn't take the silence any longer.
Emma pulled her hand free from his and rolled as best she could to the other side of the bed, away from where her boyfriend was sat. It wasn't far, given how narrow the space was, and the fact that she couldn't move her legs, but Killian could feel that gulf opening up wide between the two of them, with every second that ticked by.
"Emma," he tried again, unable to keep the pleading tone from his voice.
"Go," she whispered. "I just… just need… leave me alone, Killian. Please."
Killian pushed himself to his feet with a sigh, but before he could make it to the end of her bed he found himself spinning back around to face her. The bubble of anger that had been growing inside of him since he'd found out that Emma had been hurt was rising up in his chest, making itself known. And he was too exhausted to fight it back down.
"No. You don't get to do that, Emma. You don't get to tell me to leave right now. Not now. Not after everything that's happened."
Emma screwed her eyes shut, almost as if she could block out the sound of his voice by doing so.
"Do you have any idea what I've been through these past three weeks, Emma? Huh? Do you know what it feels like to be told that the woman I loved had been shot, and might not survive long enough for me to even be in the same fucking country as she was? What it was like to sit in that pissing waiting room while we all tried so hard not to imagine what was happening to you, that was taking so fucking long? Even when you were out of surgery you weren't out of danger. And then Whale pulled me aside to tell me this. To tell me that on top of the fact that the woman I loved might not survive, a child I didn't even know existed - our child - had died during the attack. Do you think that doesn't hurt me the way it hurts you? Do you think that news doesn't rip me apart every fucking day?"
He could see the tears falling from her eyes now. But Killian had held so much inside of himself for so long, that he wasn't sure he couldn't have stopped, even if she'd begged him to.
"I think about her every damned day, Emma. About her being down in the morgue all alone, because I couldn't bear to let the hospital dispose of her body as medical waste. I think about the kind of life we could have given her, if this hadn't happened. And then I remember that instead of picking out colors for her nursery, now we have to decide if we want to bury or cremate her remains. And it kills me. It tears me apart inside that I might not ever get to see you pregnant with our child again. So don't you dare try and send me away right now, because this isn't just your life anymore. This is ours. And you don't get to make those kinds of decisions alone."
"You should leave now. While you still can," she whispered quietly. "You said it yourself, I won't be able to give you any children. Find someone who can. Find someone who's worthy of you."
"That's what you took from that?" he scoffed. "Fuck! Emma, I love you. I want you. I've just spent the worst fucking three weeks of my life worrying about how the hell I'd cope if anything happened to you. I don't care if you can't give me children. If it's a choice between you and no children, or someone else and having kids – I pick you, Emma. I'd pick you every damned day. What's it gonna take for you to finally believe that I love you? That I want you? That I'm the one who's not worthy of you."
He turned on his heels to make his way back around to the chair besides Emma's bed, and dropped down heavily into it. His little outburst had taken everything from him, and Killian suddenly felt exhausted.
"I know this hurts, Emma. I do. But please, don't push me away right now. I don't think my heart could take it if you did."
Emma rolled her head back around to face him as tears continued to stream down over her cheeks. "I wanted to have children with you," she told him. "I wanted your children, Killian."
"I know," he assured her, as his thumb rubbed soft circles into her cheek bone. "I wanted that too. But this doesn't mean that we can't have children, Emma. Whale said there's a chance that we could. So if you wanted to take that risk, I'd support your decision. And if you didn't… I'd support that too. There are other unconventional ways of having children, Sweetheart. We could look into surrogacy, if you wanted to? Or adoption. Thousands of kids in this country need a good home. You know that better than anyone else. We could be the people to offer a loving home to a couple of kids that really needed one. We have all the time in the world to work this out, Emma. I just need you to get better first, okay?"
He pulled back a little to make sure her eyes would meet his, and when they did, Killian gently learned forward to press their lips together. "I love you," he told her, reaching out to brush away the damp trails her tears had left behind. "I love you so much, Emma. The thought of losing you absolutely terrified me. I don't know what I'd do without you. I don't know who I am without you anymore."
"I'm sorry," she cried, because she really didn't know what else to say in that moment. "I'm so sorry, Killian."
"Hey, it's okay," he soothed, as he pulled the chair as close to the bed as he could, and then dropped his head down to rest beside her own on the pillow. "It's okay, Sweetheart. I love you. I love you so much, Emma."
When the awkward position had his neck twinging in pain, he pushed the chair back and pulled himself up to sit beside Emma, gathering her into his arms as carefully as he could, as she fisted her free hand in his shirt. Her grip was verging on painful, given that she'd managed to snag a few of his chest hairs along with the fabric, but Killian didn't care. Having her in his arms was all he'd wanted for the last three weeks, so he'd make it work for the two of them.
As Emma's tears dried to the occasional hiccupping sob and sniffle, Killian continued to whisper words of love to her, while his fingers glided gently through her hair.
He wasn't sure when she fell asleep, but even when he felt her burrow her way a little deeper into his arms, he continued whispering those words of love, until sleep finally claimed him too.
Killian woke at the sound of a sharp rap on the door to Emma's room. He didn't have time to call out to ask who was there before it was pushed open, and Nurse Janet made her entrance.
"Sorry, Killian. Doctor Smith just wants us to get Emma's pelvis x-rayed once more, before he comes and takes a look at her. I promise I'll have her back with you as soon as possible."
"It's fine," he mumbled, as he scrubbed a rough hand over his face to try and wake himself up. "Can I uh… let me wake her and tell her what's going on?" he asked. Now that Emma seemed to be more alert, the last thing he wanted to do was have her waking scared, alone and confused.
"Of course." Janet stood back to give him some space, and then turned to speak with someone behind her, waiting in the corridor. It wasn't much, but it was the best she could offer, given the situation.
"Emma," Killian called out softly, as he dropped to a crouch beside the bed. "Emma, Love. Can you wake up for me?"
It took him a moment of softly calling out her name, as he ran his fingers gently through her hair, before she started stirring. But when she did, it wasn't long until those lashes were fluttering open once more, to reveal her beautiful green eyes again.
"The doctors just need some x-rays from you, Love. Janet's gonna take you down there now and get them done before Doctor Smith comes and looks at your pelvis, okay?"
Emma still looked a little drowsy, but she nodded her head to show that she'd heard what Killian was saying.
He offered her a small smile before bending forward to brush a kiss over her forehead. Janet seemed to take that as her cue to move, as she ushered some people into the room, and began the usual dance of unhooking and relocating all of the wires that were attached to Emma's body. But just as the team unlocked the brake on the bed and gave it a firm tug, Emma's hand shot out to latch onto Killian's arm.
"You'll be here when I get back, right?" she asked.
"Of course," he assured her. But Emma still seemed reluctant to let go of the grip she had on his shirtsleeve.
"Killian can accompany us down to the x-ray department, if you'd like," Janet suggested, lifting her head over Emma's own to meet the eyes of her worried boyfriend. "He won't be able to join you while we're getting them done, but he can wait outside and walk back up with us."
"I can definitely do that." Killian loosened Emma's grip on his sleeve to weave their fingers together, before turning around to follow in the direction that Janet was heading. "You know, I don't think I've been to this part of the hospital yet," he said, making small talk in an attempt to relax Emma a little more.
"It's not a very big hospital," Janet chuckled. "I'm sure you'll have seen it all by the time we get back to Emma's room."
"If I've missed a decent coffee shop, please point it out to me. I'm starting to feel my stomach lining rotting away with the stuff your café serves."
Emma chuckled a little even though it pulled painfully on the many stitches in her body. After everything she'd heard earlier that day, the playful banter between her boyfriend and her nurse seemed like a much needed aspect of normalcy in her life.
But all too soon the people around her began to slow down, and Emma's worries returned once more.
"Hey, it's okay," Killian assured her, already sensing where her mind had gone. "You've had plenty of these since you've been here. And I'm gonna be right in that chair, okay?" He pointed to the one sat against the wall at the end of the corridor, and Emma nodded her head in understanding. "I love you, Emma Swan." Killian leaned in to brush the lightest of kisses over her lips, and Emma responded with a much firmer press of her own.
"I love you too," she whispered back, finally let go of the grip she had on his hand, as the team around her gave the bed a firm push through the double doors.
Killian watched her go until they swung shut once more, before he stuffed his hands into his pockets and ambled over to the seat he'd pointed out to her.
While the nurses and technicians were busy running their tests, Killian pulled out his phone to fiddle with it. Ruby had messaged to ask him to let them know when they could come back and see Emma again, and he felt slightly guilty for thumbing away from their chat without sending a response back. But the truth was, Killian didn't know when Emma would want to see her friends again. It was painfully obvious that they still had things they needed to work through together, before they even thought about facing the people who had come to mean so much to them both. And the last thing he wanted to do was give her friends false hope.
His mother had also messaged while he'd been with Emma and Whale. While she didn't mention anything outright, her simple, I love you both, was more than enough to tell Killian just how much his girlfriend had come to mean to her, while she'd been in the country. After firing off a reply thanking her, he thumbed over to Robin's details and opened their message chain.
Killian had promised to keep his best friend updated about Emma's condition, and now that she was awake and talking, he wanted to share his news. But he also knew that if he placed a phone call at that moment, his friend would be able to tell that there was something wrong. That there was something that Killian had been keeping from him. So instead, he tapped out a simple message to explain that Emma was awake, and he was still with her, before he turned his phone off and slipped it back into his pocket.
After that, all he could do was wait.
"Killian?"
He hadn't realized that he'd fallen back to sleep until Janet's voice startled him awake, as she made her way back out into the corridor, tugging on the end of Emma's bed.
"Sorry," he replied sheepishly, before standing up and stretching out his muscles. "I feel like I've aged a decade this last month."
"You're not the only one," she assured him, with a brief squeeze to his arm. When Emma's bed was fully through the doors once more, she declared a little louder, "She's a bit sore, and very tired. But you're still with us, aren't you Emma?"
"Killian?" she mumbled sleepily. The syllables were blurring together with her exhaustion, making his name sound unlike anything he'd ever heard before.
"I'm right here, Sweetheart. Just as I promised I would be."
"Hurts, Killian," she whispered. And what was left of his tattered heart shattered.
"I know, Love. I know. Just hang on for a moment longer. I'm sure once we get you back to your room, Doctor Whale will give you something to take the pain away."
He wrapped his fingers tightly around her hand and lifted it to his lips, to brush the softest of kisses over it. Emma was too weak to do anything more than flex her fingers a little inside of his grip, just to show him how she felt.
The walk back to her room was done in tense silence. While Janet spoke with Whale about Emma's pain, and handed over her most recent x-ray films, the team she'd been working with quickly moved Emma back to her usual position, and began reconnecting all of her lines and monitors. Killian kept a tight hold on Emma's hand as they did, even though he knew that he was in their way. He didn't want to let her go while she was in so much pain, and he knew that she didn't want him to either.
"Emma?" Janet called out softly, as she stepped back into the room. "Doctor Whale's just reviewing your x-rays with the specialist. They'll both be in to see you as soon as they're done."
"Can you not help her with the pain first?" Killian begged, as he glanced down to the woman who held his heart.
"The medication should kick in again soon," she assured him, checking over the line that was connected to the IV in Emma's arm. "She was jostled a little during the x-ray process, unfortunately. But it will pass."
Killian didn't look terribly convinced, but he took his usual position beside Emma's bed once more, to wait for the doctors to return.
"I'm sorry," Emma whispered softly, drawing her boyfriend's attention away from where he'd been staring down at her hand in his, and up to her face. "I'm sorry for everything."
"You have nothing to be sorry for."
"I shouldn't have gone," she mumbled. "I… I should have known. I should have taken better care of her. I…"
"No!" Killian cut her off forcefully. "Don't you dare blame yourself for what happened, Emma. This isn't your fault. The only person to blame is the one who did this to you."
"I don't remember," she sobbed, as she turned her head to face him fully. "I keep trying, but I can't remember anything. The last thing I remember is talking to you. And I don't even think that's the same day."
"It's okay," he soothed, as he reached out to run his hand softly over the line of her jaw. "It's okay, Emma. We'll find him eventually. I don't care how long it takes, we'll find him. I won't ever stop looking, no matter how little you remember."
Emma moved into his touch, soaking up as much of it as she could get. It was a far more effective painkiller than the drugs that were slowly working their way through her system and easing her discomfort once more.
"The.. the baby. She was a girl?"
"I don't know," Killian whispered back quietly, as he blinked away the image of a beautiful blonde haired and blue-eyed child. "In my mind, she was."
"Can we uh… where will bury her?"
"My um… my mam suggested having her cremated. She said we shouldn't bury her somewhere that doesn't have meaning to us both."
Emma nodded her agreement as a single tear rolled free from the corner of her right eye, and down over her cheek.
"I've um… I've been looking at places that deal with babies that small for us," Killian told her. "And there are some that… there are some places that can take a small portion of the ashes, and turn them into glass keepsakes. If it's okay with you, I'd like to do that. I like the idea of keeping a small part of her close to me at all times."
Emma nodded her agreement because she couldn't find the words to give to him right then. Killian had already thought of so much while she'd been unconscious, and if what Janet had said was to be believed, he'd managed to do it all from beside her bed.
"I love you," she whispered, just before the medication swept her back under once more.
Thanks for reading and Happy New Year.