53 Days Later
It was Thursday night.
Emma had done a poor job of sleeping the last 2 nights so tonight she decided to venture out. Sitting in her hotel room was doing nothing for her anxiety. And her lack of sleep was no affecting her work.
So tonight she was wandering the streets of the Tribeca. It was just after 9pm and the streets were still busy. The hipster neighborhood was the perfect place to find a quiet dive bar where Emma could drown out the voices in her head and the hole in her heart
She had been walking around for more than an hour now and couldn't find what she was looking for. Emma was about to give up when she heard the low rumble of a drum set being played. Looking around there was only a dark metal staircase disappearing below street level. Stepping closer, she almost missed the small metal sign at the top of the tucked away stairs-The Rabbit Hole
Perfect.
The name fit the bar perfectly. It was small, dark and mysterious. As Emma entered she sat at the empty table in the back corner. To her left, there was a bar counter with a man handing out drink orders. Farther towards the center of the far wall, was a small stage with a set of drums and a stool behind the single microphone. The rest of the place was scattered with small round tables and chairs. The place was fairly busy for a Thursday late night, but maybe it was the size of the room that made it seem that way.
As Emma did her best to blend into the gray brick wall behind her, a waitress approached her table.
The woman was uniquely pretty. Her long ashy blonde hair was pulled out of her face in a high ponytail leaving Emma to admire her large doe eyes and full red lips.
Her nametag read Anastasia. "Evening darling, what are we drinking?"
The Lancashire accent took Emma by surprise but she answered nonetheless, "Whiskey. And keep them coming." Her voice was low and she tried not to make eye contact.
"Rough week?" The woman looked down at her sympathetically.
Emma glanced up embarrassed, "Something like that." she grumbled.
Then the woman was gone, only returning every so often to refill Emma's glass tumbler.
Emma was enjoying the atmosphere. A few people had ventured onto the stage to sing a song or two. Nothing outstanding, but it was entertaining. Just as she thought the music was done for the night, the bar tender walked to the stage and crouched down to the microphone awkwardly.
"Ok lads and lasses we've got a right treat for you tonight. All the way for the homeland, my mate Killian Jones is here to serenade your eardrums. Give the tosser a hand or he might not come up."
Most of the crowd clapped, some cheers and a few even whistled.
Emma only shrunk further into her seat against the wall. What were the fucking odds? How could he be here? How had she not seen him in this tiny place? Why were the fates so against her?
And then there he was, the man that had been plaguing her nightmares for weeks. The urge to run overcame Emma but she knew if she moved now he would clearly see her. Her best bet was to wait until he was done and distracted and then she would make her exit.
Until then, she admired him. He was trying to hide his wide smile as his ears burned red with embarrassment.
It had been weeks since Emma had seen him happy. She hoped that he was unaffected by her untimely departure from the Plaza. Yes, she had left things…unfinished but he was a young, rich bachelor. Their fling (could she really even call it that?) should have meant nothing to him.
But that look he gave her Tuesday morning…
Dread filled her stomach just thinking about it. Not wanting to relive that, Emma refocused on the man on stage.
He was holding a guitar in his hand as he sat down and readjusted the microphone. "Aye, did he promised you lot a free round if you clap?" Multiple customers hooted at that comment.
Killian continued to fidget until he found a comfortable position with his guitar. There were a few beats of silence as he mentally prepared. A woman towards the opposite wall wolf whistled at him, which only burned his ears brighter. Some people in the crowd laughed as they prepared for him to start.
"We'll start with a classic tonight."
His hands and fingers moved so quickly that Emma didn't know how he kept track of the strings. Emma thought the beat was familiar, but it wasn't until Killian sang the chorus that she recognized the Rod Stewart song.
"All right now, baby it's all right now
All right now, baby it's all right now"
It was a classic but Killian was singing it wonderfully. Besides Robin's birthday, this was the first time she was really hearing him sing. And now she didn't even think the couple of whiskeys she had downed would help her sleep tonight.
The song ended and the people surrounding the multiple tables erupted in cheers and applause.
"I've been working on this next song for a few weeks now." He said softly into the microphone before he looked back down at the instrument in his hands.
It's just another night
And I'm staring at the moon
I saw a shooting star
And thought of youI sang a lullaby
By the waterside and knew
If you were here,
I'd sing to you
You're on the other side
As the skyline splits in two
I'm miles away from seeing you
But I can see the stars
From America
I wonder, do you see them, too?
So open your eyes and see
The way our horizons meet
And all of the lights will lead
Into the night with me
And I know these scars will bleed
But both of our hearts believe
All of these stars will guide us home
I can hear your heart
On the radio beat
They're playing 'Chasing Cars'
And I thought of us
Emma's chest tightened all of the sudden as she remembered the Ed Sheeran concert when he played the cover of Chasing Cars.
Back to the time,
You were lying next to me
I looked across and fell in love
So I took your hand
Back through lamp-lit streets and knew
Everything led back to you
Flashes of the two of them walking hand in hand to Roxbury Park and then laying on the grass, staring up at the night stars shot across her mind.
So can you see the stars?
Over Amsterdam
You're the song my heart is beating to
So open your eyes and see
The way our horizons meet
And all of the lights will lead
Into the night with me
And I know these scars will bleed
But both of our hearts believe
All of these stars will guide us home
Tears pricked the back of Emma's eyes as Killian sang the last line. As his fingered ghosted over the last few cords, he scanned the crowd. She was too shaken to duck her head down to avoid his gaze. She just sat there like an idiot and prayed he would not see her in her dark corner.
But, yet again, the fates were against her.
She could not stop the single tear that fell over her cheek as his piercing blue eyes finally met hers through the dim lights. The smile on his face faltered and he sat frozen staring at her for what felt like an eternity.
Without saying another word into the microphone, Killian stood, put his guitar down and made a beeline for her.
Emma's mind screamed at her to run. She had to get out of there. The small bar was all of the sudden too hot and she needed the fresh hair of the early autumn night to clear her mind.
But his eyes never left hers and froze her to her seat.
Not waiting for the invitation, Killian sat in the chair across from hers. His face had lost its earlier light and was now masked and stony. His eyes though, they gave him away. They burned fierce as they searched her face. For what, Emma did not know.
"I didn't know you played the guitar." She was embarrassed by how small her voice sounded.
"Looks like there is a lot we don't know about each other." His tone was cold.
Emma deserved that. But it didn't make it hurt any less. What was she supposed to say? No, she knew she had a lot to say to him. The real question was how was she supposed to say it? No amount of words could make him understand, could make up for what she did. But she had to try.
"I know this is all fucked up and I lied to you about who I was but—"
"Was any of it real?" He cut her off. She was sort of thankful because she had no idea where that sentence was even going.
Emma's throat constricted again as she felt the painful stinging behind her eyes. She knew her forest green eyes were glassing over but she could not cry in front of him.
"Yes." She whispered as she swallowed thickly and looked away.
Killian did not say anything. He just continued to bore his gaze into her until she broke.
"It wasn't supposed to happen like this." Courage was slowly returning to her. She had imagined this conversation over and over again in her head but it was nowhere near as easy in reality.
"And how was it supposed to happen Emma?" His voice was softening from his earlier harshness.
She covered her eyes with her hands, her mouth still exposed to explain.
"I wasn't supposed to see you for years, I don't know? Decades even. And, by then, you were supposed to have forgotten who Emma Swan was." She unveiled her eyes to gauge his reaction.
"You do realize that I am never going to forget anything about this summer?" She couldn't help but look into his deep blue eyes. They were like a raging ocean and she was just fine drowning in them. His dark brows were furrowed deeply and conflict flashed across his face.
"I gathered that after hearing your song."
Killian blushed and scratched the back of his ear, "You weren't supposed to hear that." He muttered, clearly embarrassed.
His reaction was so…Killian. For the first time since she had left California, Emma chuckled, "Looks like no one is getting their way tonight then."
There were so many more words to be said between them. But at that moment they were content with silently sitting together, in a dingy pub, listening to amateur artists play on the tiny stage.
It was well past 2am when Will and Ana finally closed up The Rabbit Hole but Emma was not ready to go back to her hotel just yet. Back on the street level, Emma shoved her hands deep into the pockets of her peacoat. Killian was coming up behind her but was preoccupied by shrugging his shoulders into his own leather jacket.
Awkwardly standing with him on the sidewalk, Emma took a shot in the dark.
"There is a diner down the street who makes the best grilled cheese. My treat?"
Killian looked around, internally debating his choices, "Aye…ok".
There food was long gone now but the milkshakes still remained. Their conversation up until now had been awkward, to say the least. Killian did not want to end the night without answers to the questions he had been obsessing over.
"So tell me the real story of how Emma Swan came to be."
Emma stirred her milkshake, refusing to look at him. "My father probably thought I was going to have an aneurism if I kept up my work load any longer. He knew I was stressed with the impending date of his and Uncle Henry's retirement so he came up with the brilliant plan of sending Regina and me to Beverly Hills for his idea of, I don't know, a family "work" study." She made the air quotes around the word.
"It was a joke really. Probably just a good way to get me off of his back for the summer and try and get me to relax. We had been there a week when you showed up. I warned Regina against befriending you two but the idea to...steal the stuff from your room kind of just came about instead." It was hard to finally say the words to his face. But she pressed on
"Regina has never been fully invested into the business. I was just excited that she wanted to be involved in some way. I don't know what we were thinking. I should have nixed the idea from the get go." It felt good to finally come clean. But hearing it all out loud sounded so fucking stupid. It sounds like a harebrained scheme high school girls come up with in a made-for-tv movie.
Fidgeting with her hair, Emma finished, "I wanted to keep you at arms length to save us both the trouble."
"And what about the last night I saw you?" Killian asked the one question Emma was hoping to avoid.
Her face heated in embarrassment, "I gave into temptation." She said lowly, looking up at him through her lashes.
His face was stern, his dark eyebrows furrowed. "Then why run?"
"If we had-" she paused to look away, unable to say the words, "I was not prepared for Emma Swan to give you a very real part of me."
"So where does this leave us?"
Emma looked back at Killian, fully now. Her stomach flip-flopped as their eyes collided. He looked as tired as she felt. She guessed he hadn't been sleeping well either. But, despite the dark circle under his eyes, he was still the most attractive man she had ever met.
"I don't know."
AN: Ed Sheeran is the one who performed that song irl. If you've never heard it here is a link: watch?v=nkqVm5aiC28
On another note—I JUST finished season 6. Yeah, yeah I know I'm a little late. But tbh I hated the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde storyline and was thinking the entire season was going to revolve around them. So I stopped watching the new episodes on ABC. Then, after months of not watching it, I decided to push through with them on Netflix and those two died literally the next episode lol. The season was just ok. There was some more humor and I appreciated that. But OMG that freaking signing episode? Wtf was that? Like the writers jumped the shark on that one. I know its still Disney but they chose the wedding episode to do that? HOOK AND EMMA'S WEDDING? YOU HAD THEM SING A DUET? WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.
Like so corny.
So cheesy.
So lame.
I have literally been waiting for that moment since Hook showed up. And now it is so tainted.
I'm interested in what season 7 is going to look like. I know Jennifer didn't take her contract extension but Hook is supposed to be a regular. Which is literally the only reason why I'm watching it. We'll see how that goes after October 6th.