It was Friday morning when Emma was finally given the news that she'd been expecting all week. Doctor Smith had made the arrangements to have her transferred to Boston on Monday morning. Which meant that Emma only had the weekend left in the one place she'd ever really thought of as home.
While a part of her knew that she'd sleep a lot better every evening when she was away from Storybrooke, Emma could see the heartbreak in her friends' eyes when they were told the news. A look that only seemed to deepen when David made an offer that would seal her fate for the foreseeable future.
"Do you want us to pack up your stuff before you leave?" he asked gently, as his wife choked down a sob at the thought of what his offer implied.
Emma was leaving Storybrooke for good.
"I uh… maybe?" She hadn't put much thought into packing up her own stuff. Emma had never really been a materialistic person. Growing up without nothing, and moving around as much as she had, taught her from a young age just how little someone really needed in their life. But when she'd started making a home for herself in Storybrooke, she'd begun to put down more roots. And there were a few things in her apartment that she'd miss if she no longer had access to them.
"My photo ops," she said suddenly, looking up to meet Ruby's eyes. "I want those. And uh… maybe some clothes. This gown is really scratchy." Emma pulled at the white fabric covering her chest in disgust. She wasn't actually sure if it was the gown she disliked so much or the fact that she hadn't bathed properly in so long. But as she could barely push herself up the bed she knew that showering would be out of the question for a little while longer.
"I can get everything boxed up for you and sent wherever you need it," Ruby promised. "As long as you don't mind if I keep crashing at the apartment, just until I find a new place?"
"You can keep it," Emma sighed. Being an orphaned, homeless teen had also taught her to save her money so that she'd never end up sleeping on a park bench again. Contrary to what Neal had believed, she had a nice amount tucked away to start the rest of her life with. And the last thing she wanted to do was make her friend homeless, now that she was leaving town. Emma had paid enough of the mortgage off to make sure that Ruby could survive comfortably there on her own, without her friend's financial help. "I'll transfer the deed over to you when I can hold a pen steady enough to sign the damned papers."
"Thanks, Ems. I'll um… I'll pay you back for it."
Emma was already shaking her head in protest before her friend had stopped speaking. Ruby and Granny had done more than enough for her over the years. This was the least she could do for them. Emma knew that their living arrangements had been the cause of one too many arguments over the last decade, so hopefully her gift to her friend would help with their relationship moving forward.
"I'll go back with David this afternoon and pack a few home comforts to take to Boston with us," Killian promised, as he tangled his fingers with hers. He might not have spent long in Emma's home before the incident, but he knew his girlfriend well enough to pick out her most comfortable pairs of pajamas and jeans for her to wear when the fixator came off.
"Thanks."
Emma's eyes fluttered a little with her exhaustion just as she felt Killian's lips brush over her brow. "Stop being so stubborn and get some more sleep," he whispered, before pulling back to join the conversation taking place around them.
Emma hadn't been awake long, but the nightmare she'd had during the early hours of the morning had kept her awake for hours. She knew it was stupid to be so scared of closing her eyes. The damage had already been done, and things couldn't get much worse for her. But it was an irrational fear she'd been struggling to shake ever since she'd woken from her coma.
Having all of her friends visit was always the highlight of her days, but it left her body feeling exhausted and weak in ways that Emma didn't even know were possible. She wasn't quite ready to sleep just yet, though, so she closed her eyes to listen as the small group of people in the room chatted quietly amongst themselves about mundane things, such as David's pile of paperwork and the messages Killian had received from his friends on set.
The last thing she could remember hearing before the darkness dragged her under once more was a whispered, "I love you," from the man still clinging tightly to her free hand.
When Killian finally left the hospital that afternoon with David, he took comfort in knowing that Emma would have Ruby by her side when she woke. He hated the idea of leaving her, but with the move ahead of them, he wanted to make things as easy and comfortable for Emma as they could possibly be.
Unfortunately, Killian never could have prepared for what would happen while he was away from her side that afternoon.
Neal had spent the best part of four days camped out in his car, waiting for his moment. News that Emma was awake had spread through Storybrooke just as fast as the news about her shooting, but that was all the town seemed to know. Nobody spoke about if she could remember what had happened to her, or how her recovery was going. And the lack of answers had driven him slightly mad. So the day after he'd overheard Leroy and Granny whispering about her in the diner, he'd raced back to his car and driven to Storybrooke General with the intentions of seeing her for himself.
However, the moment he stepped through the front doors, Neal knew that visiting Emma would be much more difficult than he had first thought. She was always surrounded by either her friends or the actor that had managed to steal her away from him. And he knew that none of them would let him anywhere near her.
He'd tried waiting them out in the small café, hoping for a moment where he could be alone with her when they left to do other things. But the people around Emma never seemed to leave the hospital grounds, and he knew that the few brief moments where they did leave her side would never be long enough for him to say what he needed to say.
So Neal had waited, praying that they would finally have to leave for something.
He couldn't believe his luck that afternoon when he saw the actor stroll out of the front doors with David at his side. The guy had his hands stuffed into the pockets of his jeans and the two men were deep in conversation, but as they walked, Neal took a moment to really look him over. He supposed the actor must have had plenty of money, given how much Emma had thrown at him while she was at those events. But he really couldn't see anything else about him that was all that special. He wasn't much taller than Neal was, and he didn't have big, bulky muscles to drive the women wild with. His hair was just as dark as Neal's was, and styled not much different than how he kept his own. The only real differences Neal could spot were Jones's Irish accent and his blue eyes. And as far as he was concerned, they certainly weren't enough to encourage someone to cheat on the man they were supposed to be marrying.
Must be the money, Neal thought to himself, as he watched the two men climb into David's truck. He waited for the engine to roar to life and the vehicle to disappear from the parking lot before he finally climbed out of his own to head for the main entrance.
It had been easy enough for him to find out where Emma was. While he hadn't been into the hospital much since that first day, his father had been keeping tabs on the Sheriff's condition, and Neal had learned as a teenager how to break into his dad's study. However, when he finally made it up to the room that Emma was in, he froze outside of the door when he noticed a dark-haired figure moving around the space. He hadn't been expecting Ruby to stay behind.
Luck was still on his side, however, as when Doctor Whale came up to check on Emma twenty minutes later, Ruby finally left with him, giggling at one of the doctor's crappy jokes as she did. He waited until they'd both left the ward and were out of sight before he slipped into Emma's room.
Once he had the door safely shut behind himself, Neal turned to survey the space. Emma was resting in the middle of a hospital bed in the center of the room, with her eyes closed. He assumed that she was sleeping, given the steady rhythm being displayed on the monitors beside her, so he took a moment to really look her over.
He'd been expecting lots of wires and tubes and bandages, given the solemn looks on the faces of the people in town, after they'd heard what had happened. But she didn't look too bad to him. Emma's right arm was clearly resting in a sling, bent at the elbow to drape across her chest. And the blankets seemed to be laying funny around her hips. But other than a few wires attached to her chest, Neal thought she looked pretty good for someone who had almost died.
When he was finished assessing Emma's condition, he turned his attention to the room at large. There was another bed pushed up against the wall under the window, but it didn't look like it had been used for another patient. The sheets on it were rumpled, even though it appeared that some attempt had been made to make it up. But it was much smaller and not as well dressed as the one Emma was sleeping in. It took Neal a long moment of staring at the piece of furniture to realize that it was where he had been sleeping.
On the little stand beside the head of Emma's bed was a half-full bottle of water and a charging cable for an iPhone. Neal assumed that it was for his, given that his father had told him Emma's phone had been seized as part of the Boston PD's investigation. Unless the rich fucker had been out and bought her a new one. He wouldn't put it past the guy. Jones clearly gave no fucks about anyone but himself.
On the floor by the cabinet was a bag of men's clothes, clearly for him, and Neal sneered in their direction before quickly turning his attention to the different floral arrangements that decorated the space. Three large and bright bouquets had been placed around the room, and all three looked reasonably fresh. He had been hoping to find a card in each of them, to tell him who had sent them, but only the bright yellow bouquet contained one.
"Belle," he mumbled to himself, as he turned the card over in his hands, hoping it would provide more information. He'd never heard the name before, but given how much Emma had hidden from him during their relationship, he probably shouldn't have been surprised by that.
"She's a friend," a small voice whispered from behind him. Neal turned so quickly at the sound of it that he almost knocked the flowers off the table with his elbow.
"You're awake."
"Yes."
"How uh… how long have you been awake?" he asked, a little sheepishly.
"Since Ruby left." Which meant that she'd caught him snooping around her room. That was absolutely not how Neal had intended to start their conversation. "What do you want?" she asked with a sigh, finally peeling her eyes open to fix him with a hard glare.
Emma might have been confined to a hospital bed, but she still had the ability to make him feel like an idiot with just one look.
"To see how you are," he told her, moving a little closer to her bedside.
Emma raised a brow that said she didn't believe him, and Neal huffed out a sigh as he dropped down into the seat that Killian usually claimed as his own.
"We were together for years, Ems. Is it really so hard to believe that I'd want to know how you're doing? That I'd be worried about you?"
"They talk about you, you know? When they think I'm sleeping," Emma began carefully, as she turned her head back around to stare up at the ceiling above them. "They talk about a lot of things when they think I'm sleeping. Things they wouldn't normally say while I was awake. Like how you called me a whore while I was fighting for my life on an operating table."
Emma's head turned back around to fix him with an icy stare once again and Neal shrank back into the seat. He'd been hoping that nobody would have told her about that moment of weakness.
"So… yeah. It's a little hard to believe that you'd care," she finished, before turning back away from him. Neal wasn't sure if that was her way of dismissing him from the room, or if she just genuinely couldn't keep her head turned his way for that long, after her surgery.
"I didn't mean it," he told her, as he leaned forward a little in his chair. "I was just… I was angry, Ems. Your… he made me angry, what with all the shit he was spewing about how superior he is compared to me. I lashed out. I wanted to hurt him the way he was hurting me. And I used you to do it."
Emma snorted out a laugh, but there was absolutely no humor behind it.
"He is superior when compared to you. Don't you see that yet? He flew from another country to be here when he heard what had happened. He's been by my side through all of this. Even though he probably should be back in Canada working right now. I've tried to send him away. I've tried to do what was best for him, but he's stuck by me through it all. Where were you when I needed you most?" she asked, turning back to meet his gaze.
"Where were you when I used to ask you to run to Granny's and grab me some soup because I wasn't feeling well? Or when I used to ask you to clean up after yourself around the apartment, because David was off and I was the only person running the station? You were never there for me when I needed you, Neal. So you have absolutely no right to come here and make excuses for why you weren't here for me this time."
Neal wanted to argue. He wanted to point out that he was the best boyfriend he could have been to her, and that Emma had known what she was getting into with him when they'd started dating. But he couldn't seem to force the words out.
Had he really been that bad of a boyfriend?
"You should go before Ruby gets back," Emma said suddenly, startling him out of his own mind. "I don't know how long David and Killian will be, but neither of them will be happy to see you here when they get back."
He opened his mouth to protest. To tell Emma that he wasn't scared of either of them finding him in her room. But his nose was still sore from where that fucker had broken it. And Neal knew that David would never take his side if it came down to an altercation. He didn't much feel like spending the night in a jail cell just because he didn't want to wound his pride. So Neal reluctantly pushed himself back up to his feet.
Emma had her eyes closed as he made his way back around to the door, but he was pretty certain that she wasn't sleeping. At least, not yet.
"For what it's worth," he offered quietly, "I'm sorry about all of this. I really hope they find the sick bastard that did this to you, Ems."
He couldn't be sure, but Neal thought he saw a rogue tear slip from her eye at his words.
"Goodbye, Neal."
"Yeah… bye," he whispered, before stepping back out onto the ward and closing the door softly behind himself.
That was the last time Neal Gold would see Emma Swan that year.
The darkness was closing in, making it harder for her to breath as it pressed down upon her.
She tried turning… to call out for help… but she couldn't move.
She couldn't even tell if she was standing or laying down.
Every breath she fought for hurt her lungs in a way she didn't even know was possible.
The sound of something snapping pulled her attention to her left, but before she could call out for help a searing pain shot through her right shoulder.
As Emma struggled to find her way back to consciousness, Ruby stood beside her best friend's bed with tears streaming down her face as she watched Janet attempt to talk her through the nightmare she was battling.
She had never felt quite as helpless as she did at that moment.
It was obvious that whatever was happening inside of Emma's mind held her trapped, and with every violent jerk of her upper body, she would howl with pain.
"You need to hit the call button for me," Janet instructed calmly, as she attempted to pin the struggling woman to the bed. "Ruby! I know how it looks but if we don't get her calmed soon she's going to do some significant damage to herself and I can't do both," the nurse barked out, as she tried to get through to the other woman in the room.
That finally seemed to snap Ruby out of her trance as she rushed over to the wall Emma's bed was resting against to slam her palm down on the emergency call button. It didn't take long for the space to fill with medical professionals, each rushing into the room and taking stock of what was happening in seconds before they moved to help Janet.
Ruby slipped out of the busy space as quietly as she could. The tears continued to stream down her face, making it hard for her to see where she was going until she finally gave up and collapsed against the wall to her left.
"Ruby. Ruby, what's wrong?" Victor asked, shaking her shoulders a little to get her attention. She hadn't even seen him approach her, and she had no idea how much time had passed since she'd left that room.
"Emma," she gasped out. "She's…"
"She's okay," Whale assured her. "I just came from her room. She's okay, Ruby."
"I froze. I didn't… I haven't ever seen her like that before. I just didn't know what to do," she babbled, as her boyfriend pulled her into his arms. "I'm sorry."
"Hey, it's okay," he whispered into her hair, while he ran a soothing hand down her back. "We all have moments like that. It's okay to be scared, Ruby. It's okay to panic."
"But what if she'd hurt herself because I froze?" she protested.
"That wouldn't have been your fault either. The only person to blame for what's happening to Emma is the person who pulled that trigger. And Emma will tell you that herself. So don't you dare beat yourself up for this." He pulled back to smooth down her hair before cupping her face between his palms. Victor waited until her eyes met his before he leaned in to press a soft kiss to her lips.
What had happened to the Sheriff had gotten under everyone's skin in town. Victor knew that the nurses had been just as scared of failing Emma as he had been. Emma Swan was very much loved by the people she'd accepted as her own, even if she couldn't see that herself. And it pained them all to know just how much she was currently suffering.
"I uh… I should call Killian," Ruby stated, as she reached up to brush away her tears. "She'll want him here. He'd want to be here."
"I'll call him. You should get back in there. I don't think you're the only person who's scared right now, Honey. Emma needs her best friend just as much as she needs her fiancé."
Ruby nodded her agreement but instead of moving past Victor she wrapped her arms around his waist to squeeze him to her tightly once more. "Thanks," she whispered into his chest, before adding, "I love you," a little quieter.
It was the first time either one of them had uttered those three small words. But Ruby knew that she never would have gotten through everything that had happened to Emma over the past few months without having Victor by her side. It was his constant and reassuring presence that had kept her grounded, and it had helped her to realize just how much the town's doctor meant to her.
Victor bent his head to brush his lips over her hair as he whispered, "I love you too." He gave Ruby one more gentle squeeze before he released her with a soft smile and gestured to the room she'd just fled from. "Now… go and tell your best friend you love her too. She's in a lot of pain right now, so she's probably gonna want to hear those words just as much as I did."
Ruby nodded her head in understanding and offered him one final smile before she slowly made her way back down the hall, and through the open doorway of Emma's room.
Victor knew that she was going to miss having Emma around when the Sheriff was transferred to Boston. So he was determined to make sure that the two women spent as much time together as they possibly could before that happened.
"Anna, can you dial Mr. Jones's number for me, please?" he asked, as he made his way over to the nurse's station. He was pretty sure the women that worked on the ward had that number memorized by now, given how quickly the handset was passed to him. But he said nothing as he pressed it to his ear and waited for Killian Jones to answer his call.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm the one who should be asking you that," Ruby huffed, as she dropped down into the chair next to Emma's bed. She'd spent a good ten minutes fussing over the way the sheets were covering her friend's legs, and finding the perfect place for Emma's pillow when she'd returned to the room.
Emma knew it was her way of trying to apologize for what had happened, so she let her friend fuss. Not that she thought Ruby had anything to be sorry about.
"I'm okay," Ruby eventually whispered, as she reached for her friend's hand. "I just… you scared me a little, Ems. I'm not used to seeing you so…"
"Helpless?" Emma supplied for her, keeping her gaze determinedly fixed on the cracked ceiling above her.
"I was gonna say vulnerable," Ruby corrected. Even when she was fighting for her life on an operating table, Ruby wasn't sure she'd ever thought of her best friend as being helpless.
A large part of her didn't want to sour the mood in the room any further by asking the question they both knew was on the tip of her tongue. But Ruby also knew that it was hanging between them both, and the atmosphere wasn't likely to improve until someone voiced it. So after a few moments of painfully awkward silence, she eventually worked up the courage to ask, "What did you see, Ems? In your dream?"
"Nothing," Emma replied tonelessly. "It's just darkness. But…" she trailed off and the room remained quiet for so long that Ruby wasn't sure her friend would ever finish that thought. When she did, she kind of wished that Emma hadn't. "It's the darkness that scares me the most," she whispered softly. "The thought of being trapped alone in there terrifies me."
"Oh, Ems," she sobbed, as she threw herself gently into her friend's arms to hug her as tightly as she dared. "We won't let you be trapped there alone. I promise you that. We will always do whatever we can to bring you back to us."
Emma lifted her arm as high as it would go to fist her hand in the back of Ruby's shirt as she allowed herself to cry through her fears with the person who had always been there for her when she needed someone most.
That was the sight that greeted Killian when he finally arrived back at the hospital that afternoon. Although he was desperate to hold his girlfriend in his own arms after what she'd been through, Killian forced himself to hang back. Instead, he lingered in the doorway to the room, giving the two women the time they clearly needed to hold on to each other as they sought comfort from their best friend. It was only when Ruby finally pulled back with a wet chuckle that he decided to make his presence known.
"Ugh, I bet I look a mess," she declared, as she swiped a finger under her eyes. Ruby cringed when she pulled it back to find a black smudge across the pad. Even the best waterproof mascara in the world wouldn't have saved her face that day. "I'm uh… I'm gonna go and clean up a little. Do you want me to bring anything back with me?" she asked, looking between Emma and Killian, who had stepped up to the side of his fiancée's bed.
"I'm good thanks, Ruby."
"Me too," Emma added, offering her friend a small smile she hoped would convey all of the words that were currently stuck in her throat.
"Okay. Well…" Ruby turned to search the room for her jacket as she tried to find her own words to ease some of the discomfort she was feeling, after spending so long crying. When she found the garment draped over the table opposite Emma's bed, she took a moment to fuss with it while she collected her thoughts. It was only when the coat was safely wrapped around her shoulder that she finally turned back to face her friend. "I'll be back soon," she promised, detouring to Emma's side to press a soft kiss to her friend's cheek before she turned on her heels and walked straight out of the open door.
Killian took a moment just to settle the bag he'd brought back with him on the floor, next to the one containing his own stuff, before he made his way over to Emma's side.
"I had a nightmare," she whispered, as he took a careful seat on the edge of her bed, and then reached for her free hand. "It scared Ruby."
"I know, Sweetheart. Whale called and told me what had happened. I'm sorry I left you here to deal with that alone. That you both had to deal with that alone."
"You can't be with me every time I fall asleep," she sighed. But the look on Emma's face told Killian that she sure as hell wished he could be.
"No, I can't," he agreed. "But I can be with you when you sleep while you're recovering. So take this as my promise to you that you won't have to face those dreams alone again any time soon."
Emma frowned when he dropped his grip on her hand and stood from the bed. She craned her head as far as she could to follow Killian's movement and relaxed back against the mattress when she saw him pull the small cot away from the wall. It took less time for him to push it across the space until it was touching her own, than for Killian to get himself situated comfortably beside her. But Emma was soon wrapped tightly in his embrace, feeling safe and secure in a way that nobody else had ever managed to make her feel.
As Emma's body relaxed further into his arms, Killian assumed that she was slowly falling back to sleep. So when she eventually spoke up, her words shocked him in more ways than one.
"Neal was here."
"Excuse me?" he asked, because Killian couldn't have possibly heard that right.
"Neal. He was here. While you were gone."
"Why the hell would Ruby let him anywhere near this room?" he fumed, struggling to sit up. Emma's hand against his chest didn't exert much pressure, but it was enough to have him drop back down to the mattress and pull her in just that little bit tighter.
"He waited until she left to grab something to eat with Victor before he came in. She couldn't have stopped him because she didn't know he was here."
Killian allowed those words to sink in for just a moment while his fingers began tracing idle patterns over her arm. "Is that what triggered the nightmare? Did he say something to upset you? Did he…"
A cold sense of dread began to fill his gut as an idea started creeping into the back of his mind. Neal was a bastard, of that Killian was certain. But he wasn't sure he was a murderous bastard. Still, now that the idea had taken root, Killian was struggling to shake it. And he knew that he'd never fully relax until he voiced that question on the tip of his tongue.
"Emma… he wasn't there that night, was he?"
"What? No," she assured him, twisting her head in an almost painful fashion to meet his eyes. Emma wanted him to see the truth behind every word she spoke that afternoon because as much as she disliked her former boyfriend, she didn't think him capable of shooting someone. "He wasn't there, Killian. At least, if he was, I have no memory of it. He just… he came to see how I was doing."
Killian didn't look like he was buying that explanation, but Emma couldn't exactly blame him for that. "I know. I didn't believe him at first either. But… I think he was being genuine. I believed him when he said that he was sorry this had happened to me and that he hoped we caught whoever was responsible."
Killian still didn't look entirely convinced about Neal's motives for visiting Emma while he'd been away from the hospital. There was absolutely no way that it had been a happy coincidence that he'd shown up just as Killian had left. Which meant that Neal had clearly been watching the building. But if Emma believed what he'd said, he'd try his hardest to believe it too. After all, she knew the man much better than he ever wanted to.
"Let's hope this gave him some closure," he offered softly, as he dropped his head to brush his lips softly over her hair.
"Yeah. I hope so too."
As the weekend wore on, Emma's little hospital room was busier than it had ever been before as word of her transfer to Boston spread. Killian remained by her side through it all, watching as Nova and Mother Superior visited from the convent, bringing homemade cakes for their Sheriff and all of her visitors to snack on. Archie stopped by with a promise that he would always make time for Emma if she needed someone to talk to, and a small stack of puzzle books to help keep the boredom at bay, while Emma was confined to a hospital bed. Mr. Clarke popped in on his lunch break with a bag full of candies he knew the Sheriff would never publicly admit to loving, and gave his most sincere thanks for all she'd done for him. (Killian had watched with a smirk as his fiancée attempted to stuff one of the sweets into her mouth without it being seen when the older man left the room.)
Leroy came to visit on Saturday evening, brandishing a small bouquet of flowers that were half crushed and likely stolen from someone's front yard. Emma wasn't sure she'd ever seen such a beautiful gesture from him before and instructed Ruby to place them in one of the vases already inside of the room. The surly older man didn't stay long, but when Emma pressed a soft kiss to his cheek and told him to take it easy on David while she was gone, she could have sworn she saw a blush work its way up his cheeks, underneath his beard.
"Are you okay, Sweetheart?" Killian asked, when it was finally just the two of them, curled up on their beds together for the night.
"Yeah. I just… even though a part of me can't wait to get away from this town after what's happened, I'm uh… I'm gonna miss it. Or at least, the people in it, you know?"
"I do," he agreed, because Killian certainly knew what it was like to leave behind everyone he loved and move to another country to start over. "If it helps, it does get easier. Hopefully this time next year, you'll start to see Vancouver as your home."
"As long as you don't have to move for work, right?" she teased, dropping her head down onto his shoulder.
"We should be there for at least a couple more season," he chuckled. "And then when we no longer need to be, I have enough in savings for us to live wherever you want us to be, for at least a few more years."
Emma turned her head as best she could to meet Killian's eyes, before leaning in to brush her lips over the soft skin of his collarbone. "I don't want you to give up opportunities for me. I told you before all of this started, wherever you are will always be my home, Killian. No matter where you need to be."
"Do you um… do you think you'd ever wanna come back home with me?" he asked, running his fingers through her hair to gently untangle the knots that had formed there from Emma's lack of shower facilities. "To Ireland," he clarified. Killian had always imagined himself returning home at some point in the future. But that future had never contained Emma before, and now that it did, he wasn't so sure that was what the future held for him now. "Maybe not permanently, but long enough for me to share some of my best memories with you."
"I'd like that," she sighed, pushing her head into his fingers to encourage him not to stop what he was doing. "Your mom says she has some cute baby pictures of you that she can't wait to share with me."
Killian groaned at the thought of what his mother had been hoarding for that particular moment in time. He had vague memories of the way Liam had turned bright red when his mother had whipped out a box of memories with his name on, after bringing Wendy home to meet their parents for the first time. Killian could only hope that his lack of rebellion as a child would at least preserve some of his dignity for that occasion.
"I'd uh… I'd take you to the places I spent time in as a child, but the stretch of road I was found on is now a busy highway, so it'd probably be a bit too dangerous to do that. And the group home I spent the longest in was demolished a couple of years back to build an apartment block."
Killian's fingers paused in their movements as the weight of her words sunk down and into his bones. He'd never really considered himself privileged as a child. In fact, he could distinctly remember occasions where his parents had refused him toys or trips because they couldn't afford them, and at the time, he'd consider himself to be one of the poor kids at school. But hearing Emma talk about her own childhood, and everything that she'd lacked, really helped to drive home just how fortunate he'd always been.
Killian knew that after everything they'd been through together that year, he'd never again take that privilege for granted.
"It's okay, Love," he assured her, as he began working his fingers through her hair once more. "All of your best memories are here. We'll come back when you're feeling better and you can tell me about a few more of them," he promised.
"I'd like that," Emma whispered, as she closed her eyes and snuggled herself down into his embrace once more. It was the soft, rhythmic movement of his fingers through her hair, and the brush of his lips to her forehead that finally lulled her back to a peaceful, dreamless sleep.
I am so sorry about the delay getting this update posted. Between tech issues and falling sick, I had to take some time away from the fandom. But hopefully, this is the start of me getting back into the swing of things. I only hope this update will be worth waiting for.
Thanks for reading and all of your wonderful reviews.