A/N: Hey all! It's Friday and this is the last formal chapter of this fic! You may have noticed though that final chapter count has gone up and that's because there is also an epilogue coming! I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to this little story and I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and what's to come. Thank you so so much to @superchocovian who was my fantastic beta for this. I've said it before but she came into this expecting to beta a little oneshot and it ended up becoming this huge monster that she didn't even get an eye at the length of. She really was amazing through this whole process. And thank you to @artistic-writer, my second set of eyes on this, smut guru, and fabulous artist for all the gorgeous photosets that accompanied this fic. And thank you to everyone who loves this fic and reads it still for going on this crazy little journey with me. I appreciate all of your reviews, reblogs, and love more than y'all know! And here we go!

Chapter 12

Emma rounded the corner just past their room towards the stairwell and pressed herself against the wall, chest heaving with barely contained sobs. Moments later, she heard the door open and shut. She waited and peeked around the corner to see her walking down the hall swiftly in the opposite direction where the elevators were. She clapped a hand over her mouth just in time to suppress a sob and retreated back around the corner again, sliding down the wall as two fat tears rolled from each of her eyes.

When the tears stopped flowing as heavily, Emma had made up her mind. Men were all the same. This was just a job for him, the things he said to her apparently just part of a sick game. He needed to leave. Right now. She was better off alone.

"Swan, I'm so glad you're back, love. You won't believe- wait, what are you doing?" Killian said hurriedly as she entered the room, letting the door shut firmly behind her. His eyes caught up with his brain and he watched her stalking through the room, a stern expression on her tear stained face. Her arms were full of his toiletries, retrieved from the bathroom on her way in, and she dumped them into his suitcase. She went to the dresser next, not giving him an answer, and began to pull his clothes from his drawer.

"Whoa, whoa, wait, love, what's going on?" he asked, stepping forward and grabbing her by the shoulders. She sidestepped him and piled his clothes in the bag.

"You're leaving," she said simply. "Contract fulfilled. I'll drop off the remainder of your payment on Monday."

"What? Swan, no, I don't bloody want to leave. What's brought all this on? Is this because I told you I'm in love with you?" he followed her as she dug the rest of his clothes from the dresser and put them into the case. She paused and squeezed her eyes shut, taking a deep breath.

"I understand you need money Killian, but you could have waited until our arrangement was over. And Tamara? Of all people?" she hated the stutter in her inhale as she fight back tears again. Killian's eyes widened in realization.

"Emma, no," he said in horror. "Bloody hell, no! I don't know what you saw but I can promise you, it was not as it seemed. You have to believe me, love. I was just going to tell you what happened right as you came in!"

"Oh, don't give me that shit," she spat, fury and heartbreak radiating from her. "You really had me going with the sweet nothings and the declaration of love. That was a low blow, by the way." She wagged a finger at him and sniffed sharply. "I fell for all of that, but you're not going to tell me that I didn't see Tamara in here stuffing a wad of hush money in your pocket! Get out!" She was almost yelling now, not caring in the slightest if anyone could hear. He gaped at her.

"Emma, you have to let me explain. It was hush money, Swan. But not in the way you thought. And I didn't take it," he insisted.

"Bullshit, Killian, I saw you take it. She must have some magical lady parts or something. Or she's just hellbent on never allowing me to love anyone ever. Either way, I should've known better. It's my fault, really," she said, clicking the highest of her walls back into place and zipping his bag. She drug it to the door and scooped up his shoes along the way.

"Did you just say love? You're in love with me?" Killian asked, jubilant surprise painting his words. Emma's eyes widened when she realized what she'd said.

"It was a figure of speech, a- a- a metaphor. I didn't actually mean love. I mean, we've only known each other for a month, and besides, none of this is real. You're a hooker, and I'm just the idiot who paid you to be here." She spun around and opened the door, pushing his baggage into the hallway and tossing his shoes on top.

"Fucking hell, Swan, stop this! I am telling you the truth!" he exclaimed as quietly as he could as he marched into the hallway, intent on retrieving his things. Emma was quicker though and shut the door behind him locking him out.

"Maybe you can stay with her and Neal. You all seem to have a lot in common," she suggested through the door.

Knocking sounded immediately, insistently but quiet enough not to disturb the neighbors.

"Swan, please let me in. Please talk to me," he begged, voice only slightly muffled by the door. She ignored him, retrieving her headphones from her bag and laying down. She put them in, drowning out the sounds of knocking and pleading, and cried herself to sleep.

He was gone when she woke up, as she confirmed with a peek out of the door when her alarm went off. She changed quickly and went to retrieve her son from his father's room. She kept her tone curt but polite when dealing with Neal and (thankfully) Tamara was already gone or she would have scratched her eyes out on the spot, she was sure.

The wedding was beautiful, what she could remember of it. It all went by in a blur. The flower arrangements and decor screamed money at her and she just knew Neal's dad paid for all of it. She sat stoically in the back of the church. It felt like she was in a trance, numb to everything and everyone around her, except Henry. He was all that mattered. He was the only man she would ever need in her life. It took everything in her body not to jump out of her seat as Tamara's smiling face appeared at the end of the aisle and began her walk down to Neal, but somehow, probably through the crippling heartbreak she was experiencing, she managed to keep her cool. She sat stone faced through all the sickeningly sweet vows. She didn't flinch at the ring exchange and the kiss that sealed their union. She didn't dance at the reception. She didn't partake in any of the post wedding activities. The happy couple danced and ate and talked merrily with everyone but her. She had no one there. She was alone again.

Three days passed, and Emma tried to get back to some semblance of normal. Killian hadn't shown up at her home or at her work, for which she was grateful for and hurt by all at once, but she took it with a grain of salt. He did, however, call her and text her incessantly until she blocked his number. She ignored everyone else's calls and texts as well. Elsa was visiting her sister, who had just had her baby that weekend, or she was sure she would have broken down her door by now.

And speaking of breaking down her door, she was now rushing to the pounding that emanated into her apartment from the entryway, praying that whoever it was didn't wake Henry.

"You look like shit," Ruby said bluntly only a moment after Emma flung the door open to give whoever this was at 9:30 at night a piece of her mind. She blinked twice as Ruby pushed her way past the door in typical Ruby style, followed by Elsa (who was clearly back from visiting Anna; that must have been one of the messages she ignored oops) and, of course, Mary Margaret.

"Ruby," Mary Margaret admonished. "You look fine, Emma. I'm sorry we're stopping by so late, but we are worried about you!" She still hadn't responded and she felt her walls already crumbling as her sister-in-law wrapped her in a tight hug.

"You didn't even answer your phone, you never do that," Elsa chipped in, taking a seat on the couch.

"Yeah, so spill," Ruby said, flopping next to Elsa and kicking her feet up on the coffee table. Mary Margaret gently guided her to the chair nearby and sat her down in it, leaving immediately to the kitchen to get a glass of water for her.

"I'm fine," Emma said stubbornly.

"Bullshit," Ruby snapped, the swear coming out harsher than she was sure she intended it. "You look like you've been punched in the face with your eyes that swollen, so clearly you've been crying for days. Your boyfriend has been to Granny's two days in a row but he won't talk to me either. I can't make him talk, but I can make you," she threatened. Emma rolled her eyes and fixed them back on the nail she was currently picking at on her thumb.

"Emma, what happened, honey?" Mary Margaret reappeared and placed the glass in her hand, dragging the ottoman closer to sit next to her.

"Don't you think if I was ready to talk about it, I would have called you? Or at least answered one of your seven hundred calls?" Emma said, her voice catching on the last word. She sucked in a shaky breath, feeling her eyes impossibly fill with tears again.

"We didn't know what to think," Elsa offered softly. "Did something happen with Killian?"

Hearing his name was all it took for the dam to break, and she buried her face in her hands as the tears spilled over and a sob wrenched from her chest. In an instant, her friends were beside her, laying reassuring hands on her legs and arms.

"I was so stupid," she whispered.

"I'm sure it's not that bad," Mary Margaret said soothingly. "You guys seemed so happy at the lake!"

"It was all fake. None of it was real," she choked out.

"Those hickeys looked real enough to me," Ruby piped in and Emma glared at her. Elsa shushed her loudly.

"No, I mean it. I hired him. It was fake. He was never with me. I lied," she said and the women all stared at her, stunned.

"What the actual fuck?" Ruby said after a minute.

"Ruby!" Mary Margaret scolded. "I'm sure there's an explanation. Right, Emma?"

"Yeah, but you're not going to like it," Emma said and it all came pouring out. "He's… a male escort. I met him in a bar while Henry was with Neal and he hit on me. I just didn't want to go to Neal's wedding alone, but then I made the mistake of taking him to Granny's that day," she glanced guiltily at Ruby, "and it kinda spiralled out of control from there. What's worse is he told me he loved me, and I thought I was falling for him, too, after a while. But it was all a lie. I caught him with Tamara after the rehearsal dinner and she was paying him. Right after he had slept with me and told me he loved me. I was getting some air and processing some things, when Neal kissed me and I realized how I felt about Killian, too, but he was with her. It was a game. A sick joke." She sobbed audibly and pressed the back of her hand to her mouth.

"Wait, Neal kissed you?" Ruby asked incredulously.

"That's what you got from all of that?" Emma retorted, just as disbelieving.

"Yeah, yeah, hot male hooker, lying to all your friends, I'm caught up on that, and super pissed, don't get me wrong, but fuck Neal right in the face. And fuck Tamara, too." Ruby was furious with the whole situation.

"Does Liam know?" Elsa asked quietly and Emma shook her head.

"No, and please don't tell him. Killian might be an asshole, but no one deserves to lose their family," she said. Elsa nodded softly.

"Okay, so, you lied. And hired a… an escort…" Mary Margaret said with a blush. "And those are bad things, but not so bad that we would hold it against you. I know, we all know how hard love comes for you. And that's what's important here. You can say it was a game, or a mistake, but I'm telling you Emma, that man was in love with you. I heard it in the things he said, saw it in the things he did, and the way he looked at you. And you love him, too. Love… love is strength. And it's absolutely worth fighting for."

"I know what I saw, Mary Margaret," Emma said gruffly. "And it was inexcusable."

"Maybe it was something else. There are two sides to every story. Don't be so quick to villainize someone when you don't have all the facts, Emma. Maybe, just talk to him and see where it goes," Elsa said gently and Emma furrowed her brow.

"I just want to let it go. That's all," she murmured.

"Well at least come in to the diner and tell him to stop moping up the place. It's depressing," Ruby said. Emma sighed heavily.

"You guys aren't going to let this go, are you?" Emma said with a sigh.

"Nope," Ruby replied, popping the P on the end and hoisting herself to standing. "Anywho, I have breakfast shift tomorrow, and it's getting late. We just wanted to make sure you were alive."

"We really should get going," Mary Margaret agreed reluctantly.

"I'll stay here tonight and we can go to the diner in the morning, how does that sound?" Elsa said.

"Like literal hell," Emma snarked and Elsa tutted. "Not the you staying part, but the diner….part…"

"Good," Ruby said and planted a cherry red kiss on her cheek. "I love ya, girl. We all do. And we want what's best for you. I'll see you in the morning."

Morning came too quickly and Elsa was bundling her and Henry into clothes and out the door Mary Margaret style by nine a.m. Emma was a ball of nerves the whole ride to the diner, Elsa insisting on driving her so she couldn't change her mind. She wasn't ready for this. She didn't know how to act with someone after a breakup, her only experience with this sort of thing being with Neal, the bastard, and look how that turned out. She resolved that it was still over between them, but she could at least get him to stop going to the diner. That's all this was.

She repeated that thought in her head over and over as Elsa marched her and Henry up the sidewalk. He was waiting outside at a table, stirring a cup of tea absently, but not drinking it. He looked up and his eyes locked to hers, making all thoughts fly from her mind.

He looked terrible, like he hadn't slept in days. His beard had grown out past its regular scruff, but his eyes lit up the second they had found hers.

"Swan," he breathed and stood up, banging his knee on the table. He broke eye contact briefly to save his tea, but set his eyes back on her as soon as he could.

"Hi, Killian!" Henry said cheerfully and Emma froze as his eyes landed on her son.

"Hello, lad, how have you been?" he said with a tremulous smile.

"I'm good. Why do you and Mom look so sad? Mom's been crying a lot," he told him freely and Emma felt like she could melt into the sidewalk. Killian looked like someone had stabbed him, but he still managed to give Henry a kind smile.

"Why don't we see if Aunt Ruby and Granny have some hot chocolate they can spare?" Elsa said and promptly steered the small boy towards the restaurant, leaving Emma and Killian alone.

"I tried to call," he began.

"I got them," Emma cut him off. He nodded and they stood in silence for a moment.

"I've missed you," he tried again softly, holding her gaze.

"Heard that before. Look, Killian, I'm only here to tell you to stop hanging around here. Ruby said you've been here every day," Emma said and Killian nodded again.

"I didn't think it was appropriate to come to your home or work, in case you had Henry with you," he said. "Swan, I promise, I will leave, and never return if you wished it, I just wanted a chance to explain. And to give you this." He held out an envelope that she recognized as the one she had given his money to him in almost a month ago. It looked rumpled, like it had been hidden away for a month, but otherwise completely untouched.

"What could you possibly think I would want to hear from you now?" she said, snatching the envelope from his hand, and dammit, she was not going to cry. He stared at her a moment longer, seemingly trying to find the words to say. Emma huffed and started to walk inside.

"She's an escort," he blurted, stopping Emma in her tracks. She spun on her heel and looked at him with wide eyes. He took a step forward. "That's where I knew her from. Tamara used to be Jade, which I know now was a pseudonym. She worked for an agency I used for a while. She recognized me immediately when we met and assumed I had her as well. The money was to buy my silence, but I swear on my mother's grave, I returned it as soon as she put it in my pocket."

"What?" Emma asked, and if she would have been struck by lightning at that moment, she didn't think she would have been any more surprised than she was right that second.

"It's true. I knew I recognized her from somewhere. Love, I have never told you a lie, in all of our time together. You are probably the only one I've never lied to in the last few years. I can prove it," he said earnestly. There was a war raging in Emma's brain now as he dug a paper from his back pocket and thrust it at Emma. She took it tentatively and opened it. It was a flyer.

"'Your deepest fantasies come to life, private entertainment options available'," she read aloud, her voice shaking. There were several thumbnail pictures of different women adorning the front and down at the bottom, hair teased into an afro, was Tamara's face staring back at her.

"As soon as I realized who she was and you'd thrown me out, I went to Regina, the madam I worked with, and she had this on file still. Emma, please believe me, love," he said, his voice strained with the effort of holding back his emotions as well. She blinked up at him, not quite believing what she was seeing. She believed him, of course, how could she not with the truth staring her in the face. She looked back up to him, her face burning with shame and sorrow. He stepped closer to her once again and took her hand in his. Electricity jolted through her at the contact, and it was like she could feel again after being numb for days. "And I've told Liam everything. I'm done with this life, Emma. I've spoken to Jefferson, and he is going to start me on as a bartender this weekend. I wanted to be a better man for you. A better man for myself. I regret many things I've done, but losing you, I regret the most." Emma's tears were rolling freely down her cheeks now.

"You told your brother?" she asked.

"Aye," he chuckled. "He, uh, took it better than I expected. But he did smack me in the back of the head a few times. And then a few times more when I told him how I'd mucked things up with you."

"Killian, you didn't, that was me and I… you don't know how sorry I am about all of this," she started and he couldn't hold himself back any longer, sweeping her into his arms and cradling her head to his chest. "Wait, what about your brother's medical bills? It's going to be hard to pay those off now, won't it?" she asked, looking up at him and taking a small step back, feeling the loss immediately. Killian reached up and scratched behind his ear.

"Not if you have something of value to sell…" he replied evasively.

"And what would that be?" she asked, curiously.

"Why, the Jewel of the Realm, of course." He smiled, but she could tell it had hurt him to sell the ship that meant so much to him and his brother.

"You traded your ship for me?" she whispered.

"Aye," he said solemnly and before Emma knew what she was doing, she was pulling him down into a earth shattering kiss. Holding her close, like she was breakable, precious, his hand slipped through the strands of her hair as they kissed and kissed and kissed. His hand slid around the edge of her jaw, the other arm looping around her waist, and he thumbed at the cleft in her chin. He pulled back and Emma paused, looking up at him to see why he had done so. His eyes were searching her face, looking down on her with a love so fierce that she couldn't help but smile at him. He smiled back, a little half twitch of his lips, before he dove back in, kissing her fiercer than before. His hands drifted up into her hair again, angling her head to kiss her deeper, and hers slipped around his waist.

"Yay!" a small voice exclaimed from behind them and Emma looked back over her shoulder to where her son was now standing with Ruby, Elsa, Granny, and of course a crying Mary Margaret. Emma laughed and buried her face in Killian's chest, feeling the rumble of his laugh there as well.

"It seems we have a cheering section, love," he murmured, placing a kiss on her head.

"Are you sure you wanna still stick around?" she asked, her voice teasing.

"For as long as you'll have me, Swan. I love you so much," he said.

"I love you, too, Killian," she said and he grinned, placing another kiss on her lips.

"Quit scarring the neighborhood, you two, and get inside. I've got your orders in already," Granny said with false irritation, given away immediately by the smile she tried to suppress, and went back inside. The rest of them followed, laughing and talking with one another.

It wasn't perfect, their story. Certainly no fairy tale. But it was real and it was theirs. As Emma met Killian's gaze as he held the door open to the diner and their future, she knew that was more than enough.