"Stories to Help us Sleep"
"Come on, Buddy, stop wiggling," Henry Mills chides gently, brushing light fingers over his much-younger uncle's forehead. "I promised Grandma and Gramps I'd help get you to sleep – not get you all wound up."
Snow and Charming's little boy has no such illusions however, squealing with glee and kicking his pudgy arms and legs wildly at his nephew's words.
"Now…where was I?" Henry murmurs to himself, keeping a hand in the crib lightly patting baby Neal's tummy, but turning to look back at the storybook spread open in his lap.
"I believe you were right about where Charles and Leia begin their first dance at the engagement ball for Prince James and Princess Abigail, and Charles discovers that Leia is a natural…" a deep voice interrupts fondly from the door of the nursery, causing Henry to turn and look over his shoulder at Killian with a knowing smirk.
"Well, you should know, shouldn't you, 'Charles'?" he teases affectionately.
"Aye," the captain nods, coming forward into the room until he stands beside Henry, looking down into the young prince's crib, with a chuckle at his own expense, "true enough, Lad."
Tentatively, not wanting to scare or startle the infant, the pirate, with more gentleness than most would assume he possesses, taps a finger on little Neal's nose, causing the baby to giggle ecstatically, a wide, gummy smile breaking across his face. It almost takes Killian's breath away, seeing the little one grin so broadly for him, and then reach out a curious hand, probably intrigued by the large ring on his finger with sparkling red stone, and clutch the digit tightly before the captain can withdraw his hand. Continuing to gurgle contentedly, oblivious to the way he has made a notorious, hardened figure of legend melt, Neal settles somewhat and gazes up at both his babysitters serenely.
Before Henry can resume the bedtime story from his beloved book though, Killian touches his shoulder, nodding again at the baby before them. "I can see your mother in him when he smiles so," Killian says softly, his words weighted with both awe and wistfulness. "I find it strangely comforting, even that small a reminder…"
Neither of them speak for a few minutes, until Neal begins to fuss and they break out of the mostly peaceful trance they had slipped into while gazing on him. Henry clears his throat to begin reading once more, but looks steadily at Killian before he does so, adding only, "She smiled like that a lot more often once you came into her life."
Killian's chest expands with the impact of Henry's words, and he finds he has no words to offer in return to such a precious statement. He merely stands sentinel over Swan's brother and her son as the story continues, happily listening once more as their trip to the past unfolds, and reminding himself that just as they had found a way back to their current time, he will find a way to reach Emma wherever she has gone. Perhaps the book will soon hold another story of the princess and her pirate.