(I don't have much to say to introduce this one, other than that, after the tiny glimpse of Killian we were afforded last night, and the state we saw him in, I'm going to have to focus on when they get him back, the payoff, and the two of them healing together. In that spirit, enjoy this little post-UW spec bit…)

I still don't own them, obviously. They would have already found Killian, and Emma would be nursing him back to health if I did. Apparently, I have very little patience when our pirate appears to be in such pain!

"Yours"

By: TutorGirlml

Standing in the master bath off the bedroom in their house with the view of the sea, Emma Swan studied her reflection in the mirror over the sink with a frown. Objectively, she knew she looked better than she had; the gaunt desperation had begun to fade from her face, and some of the pink had returned to her complexion where it had gone pale with grief, but the dark circles still ringed her haunted eyes, and she feared that wouldn't change any time soon.

Three days. It had been three days and three nights since they'd made their way back from Hades' cursed domain, Killian in tow and alive once more, but in that time, it didn't seem that an hour of those nights had gone by in which either she or Kilian had not jerked awake screaming or gasping for breath with tears in their eyes from a nightmare. They were curled around each other in the same bed, holding on tight enough to bruise, and though nothing had happened beyond sleeping – the exhaustion and sheer relief overwhelming anything else – neither one could rest at all if the other was not within reach, if one of them couldn't put a hand on the other's chest and feel their halved heartbeat. She was genuinely glad that after the first night Henry had agreed to stay at Regina's for a bit. The poor kid had been like a shadow in Killian's wake until they had gone to bed that first evening, and had sat solemnly beside the former pirate as they had breakfast the next morning – Killian's first back in the land of the living – and then trailed him into the living room, where the two of them had sat silently on the couch, staring at, but not really watching, some kitchen gadget infomercial.

Emma knew her son had to have been awakened by Killian's bloodcurdling howls of fear and pain in the wee hours that morning, but – to her loyal, beautiful boy's credit – that only seemed to make him more determined to stay right at her love's side. In the midst of all the pain they had been through – that they were still going through – it sent one sharp, brilliant pang of joy to her heart seeing that their son, her first True Love, clearly adored the man who was her other half, even more than she had already known. Still, she figured allowing a fourteen-year-old to accompany them on a rescue mission to hell in the first place had to have been trauma enough; she wanted to avoid scarring Henry any further.

Beyond that, she and Killian simply needed some time. A little precious time for the two of them – alone – to heal and to find one another again.

A watery smile stole across her reflection's face in the mirror, tremulous but present. 'He's still here, still with me,' Emma told herself once again, as if repeating the comforting mantra enough would make her worst fears go away. At least she could sleep now; she had done nothing but lie awake in her clothes on the couch, staring at the ceiling with sightless eyes and worrying his ring between her fingers until she had realized there was the possibility to go after Killian and bring him back.

Trying desperately not to remember her own nightmares – where she woke cold and alone, with not just Killian, but everyone she loved, gone, or the one where Killian was there with her, but as she reached out for him, he crumbled into ash and blew away, vanishing on a hot, desolate wind. Grasping almost blindly as tears blurred her vision once more, Emma fumbled until she could clutch the ring hanging from its chain around her neck, Killian's gift to her that had once belonged to his beloved older brother. Her fingers brushed against the open collar of one of Killian's old pirate shirts as it opened along her collarbone, soft and light as silk against her skin and black as night in contrast to the pale color to which her skin had returned in her distress. The feel of the cool, solid, metal circle pressing against her palm grounded and steadied her, as it had since Killian put it in her care.

Just as her breath began to even out slightly, a hand stole around her waist, tightening gently, snugly across her middle and pulling her closer into the solid form which had come to stand behind her.

Emma's eyes rose from Killian's warm, bare arm wrapped around her to see his chin resting on her shoulder, unshaven cheek roughly comforting again hers. His eyes were squeezed tightly shut, and she sensed he was trying to breathe her in, to ground himself in the same way she had just been doing. When those heart-stopping blue eyes blinked open, Killian stared nearly into her soul, concern for her writ large in his gaze. Pressing a tender kiss to her temple, his voice rumbled low and rasping when he murmured against her skin, "It's early yet, Love. Are you alright?"

For a moment, she thought about brushing her fears aside and saying that she was fine. Truth be told, she still felt a bit as if she deserved her hurt after all the suffering she had caused him and how much worse his pain had been. She stopped herself though. They would never be healed and happy together if they didn't trust each other with their scars – and the truth. Besides, Killian read her too well for Emma to think saying she was fine when she wasn't would work with him. Shaking her head gently and blinking rapidly to hold back more tears, she huffed out a breath and managed to say, "Not really…but keep holding me like that and maybe I'll get there."

Despite the battered look of newer cuts on his cheek and jaw and the gone-yellow bruising on his face, Killian grinned wider and the effect was almost pleasantly comic for a moment as the smile transformed his expression. He carefully brushed an escaped tear from her cheek with his finger and caught her eye in the mirror. "I shall be more than happy to fulfill that request, Lass."

Twining their fingers together and pressing their joined hands to her chest, Emma hesitantly moved to pull the ring on its chain over her head with her other hand. She realized suddenly that it was well past time she returned it to him – now that she had actually met Liam, she knew how much it must have cost Killian to be parted from it, even for her. And she had Killian himself to hold onto again, instead of a keepsake, however precious.

As though he sensed what she intended to do, Killian stopped the motion, encircling her wrist with his hook. He shook his head gently, pressing her hand back down.

"But Killian…" Emma floundered, biting her lip and trying to put her words together calmly, "this was Liam's. I understand now what it must mean to you. You're here with me again, so – as grateful as I was to have it when you weren't…" she had to pause for a shaky breath at the memory, but carried on, "I thought you would want it back…"

Instead, Killian lifted her free hand with his hooked one, bringing it to his mouth to kiss the pad of each finger tenderly, reverently, then he disentangled the fingers of his good hand from hers in order to take the ring for a moment and hold it up as he spoke. "On the contrary, Emma lass, I wish for it to be yours, always." His eyes twinkled merrily for just a moment, the way they had done so often when he teased or challenged her what seemed ages ago now, before his stint in the Underworld and her time as the Dark One.

Then, he gaze went intense and earnest once more. Easing himself gently, still wincing as his knees make contact with the tile floor and an elbow drawing in against obviously tender ribs, Killian knelt in front of Emma before she could come up with a coherent response to his words. A gasp of surprise and shocked awe escaped her lips, as she stared at him wide-eyed in awe.

Her pirate hero gazed up at her with love in his eyes, love like she had never known before he sauntered into her life. He licked his lips and only added simply, "Emma Swan, you must know that I have been yours since the moment your face burst across my darkened heart like a ray of light. You put that knife to my throat in the Enchanted Forest and threatened to leave me for the ogres, but in reality you cut away the shadows I had shrouded myself in for far too long. Along the road we have traveled together…" his voice faltered with emotion for only a moment before he collected himself again, and Emma gave up and let the tears fall when she realized they were flowing unchecked from her eyes once more, "somehow I…I found the man of honor I always wished to be. My love, my heart, you have done more for me than I can rightly say, but I can ensure that you never doubt I am yours for the rest of our lives, and I will spend mine endeavoring to repay you and see that you are never left alone again. Allow this unworthy pirate his most precious treasure and tell me you will be my wife."

After Killian's beautiful, heartfelt words, Emma was completely incapable of speaking at all. Not wanting him to wonder or fear her acceptance for a moment, she nodded vigorously, hoping the happiness shone from her face as she felt it spreading from her heart, her cheeks actually ached from the strain of smiling so widely. Sinking to her knees before him, Emma slipped her arms around him, breathlessly excited but trying not to squeeze so hard as to pain any of his still-healing wounds. Finally, laughing and crying in equal measure, she cupped his cheek in her hand, pressed a chaste kiss to his lips, and found her voice enough to say, "Yes, Killian," as she slipped her finger through the metal circle of the ring, then clasped their hands together. "Of course. I'm yours."