Hello my dears. I do apologize for the long wait—I had to deal with some serious health issues in the past few weeks, and I have not had the chance to write overly much inbetween. I hope you guys understand that.
That being said, I would like to point out to the rude reviewers and PM'ers that stalked me that I do have a life. It does not solely consist of writing fanfiction. I do not do this so 'you can stay interested with regular updates'. I love it when you guys leave me messages and reviews, and I appreciate every single one of you—but I need to make it clear that I am writing this for me.
I write because it makes me happy.
I love it when it makes others happy as well, but it is not a priorty in my life.
I work, I'm in college and I was seriously ill for the past couple of months. Fanfiction didn't have a place in my life then, and I hope everyone understands that.
Now, enough unpleasantness, and on to the story! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter—it is more of a filler than it was initially intended to be, but it was getting far too long, so I had to break it in two. I promise, more plot in the next chapter! Since it's my birthday tomorrow, I probably won't get too much time to finish the next chapter just yet, but I will get it out ASAP.
Thank you all for sticking with me! I love you guys!
Love, Annaelle
PS Thanks to DancingDoula and JustSmileBFF for beta'ing and putting up with my ridiculous antics when it comes to whining about plot bunnies and the benefits of a shirtless Killian Jones.
PPS Please tell me I wasn't the only one laughing and crying and shouting and giggling during the season finale? :D
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PREVIOUSLY ON SANDS OF TIME:
IN THE PAST, WE SEE HENRY STRUGGLING WITH HIS DUTIES AS KING OF TWO KINGDOMS, AND CONTEMPLATE HOW BEING ROYAL HAS COST SO MUCH OF HIS FAMILY ALREADY—WE SEE HIM FEAR THAT HE MIGHT NOT GET TO SPEND ENOUGH TIME WITH HIS SON, AND WORRY ABOUT HIS WIFE, NOW THAT SHE IS WITH CHILD AGAIN. HIS MUSINGS ARE INTERRUPTED BY LEIA'S RETURN TO THE CASTLE. HE IS OVERJOYED TO HAVE HER BACK AT FIRST, BUT GROWS A LITTLE WEARY WHEN SHE TELLS HIM SHE NEEDS HIS HELP AND APPROVAL OF A DANGEROUS PLAN SHE HAS CONCOCTED.
IN THE PRESENT:
EMMA, REGINA AND LEIA INTENTIONALLY LEAVE THE OTHERS AT THE SHERIFF'S STATION WHILE THEY HUNT DOWN GEORGE AND THE ICE QUEEN, PLANNING A SURPRISE ATTACK SO THEY CAN GET THE BOYS OUT. THE ATTACK HAS ITS DESIRED EFFECT AT FIRST, AND THEY MANAGE TO TEMPORARILY SUBDUE THE ICE QUEEN—UNFORTUNATELY, GEORGE GETS A HOLD OF HENRY AND THREATENS TO SLIT HIS THROAT. THAT IS THE MOMENT LEIA LOSES HER TEMPER AND KILLS HIM WITH HER MAGIC. EVERYONE IS SO SHOCKED THAT SHE ACTUALLY KILLED HIM, THEY FAIL TO SEE THAT THE ICE QUEEN IS ALREADY AWAKE AGAIN, AND THAT SHE HAS GRABBED ROLAND AS A HOSTAGE WHILE SHE ESCAPES.
MOMENTS AFTER THE ICE QUEEN DISAPPEARS, THE REST OF OUR FAVORITE HEROES APPEAR, AND LEIA FLEES THE SCENE WHEN SHE IS OVERCOME BY GRIEF AND DISGUST FOR HER OWN ACTIONS. KILLIAN CONVINCES EMMA TO FOLLOW HER, WHICH EMMA DOES—SHE AND LEIA HAVE A MEANINGFUL CONVERSATION THAT IS SUDDENLY INTERRUPTED BY LEIA CRUMPLING IN INEXPLICABLE PAIN.
AND NOW, ON WITH THE SHOW!
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Chapter Nine—With A Little Help From My Friends—Part I
What do I do when my love is away?
How do I feel by the end of the day?
No, I get by with a little help from my friends
I get high with a little help from my friends
Going to try with a little help from my friends
(Do you need anybody?)
I need somebody to love
(Could it be anybody?)
I want somebody to love
—A Little Help From My Friends, The Beatles
Charmings' Royal Court, the Enchanted Forest—20 years into the future
Anyone can feel the tension lingering in the air—it feels thick, difficult to breathe. Henry's voice is loud and incredulous in Leia's ears, and she's afraid to look up at him. She might be an adult, but he is still her older brother and she trusts his judgement (sometimes more than she trusts her own).
"Leia," he says sternly, complying her to look up at him, "this is dangerous. Time travel is prohibited by all magic users for a reason. When Mom and Killian accidentally fell through Zelena's time portal, they nearly destroyed the entire future! It's far too precarious!"
He continues, but her thoughts wander, like they usually do—Leia's never been good at keeping her mind focused on one thing for too long, even her brother's compelling, strong voice. She understands her brother's concerns—there's not a single one of them that she hasn't considered herself—but she believes she can change their fate, and it aggravates her that he cannot have faith in her.
He is supposedly the Truest Believer, and Leia feels a little hurt that his faith seems to falter when it comes to her abilities to bring back everyone's Happy Ending.
And not only does he doubt her ability to succeed, he seems to question everything even remotely connected to it—from her grief over her mother's and grandfather's deaths to why she feels she needs anything else in her life.
She has everything.
And perhaps, on some level, she does.
She's the future Queen—she has gold and jewellery and a seemingly endless supply of material wealth. She even has love in her life—she has Roland and her brother and uncle and Ruby—but there has always been something she has missed.
And though she knows that Roland and her brother and Ruby love her as much as she loves them, it never quite seems to fill the void in her heart.
She's been told before that you can't miss what you don't know—that she can't miss her father's love because she hasn't known it… But the matter at hand was that she does know, and that she does miss it.
And she knows exactly what kind of love she is missing out on.
She wants a parent that would never feel that showing her love and compassion in public was inappropriate—she wants a parent that is happy and free and not burdened by so much grief she can barely keep herself alive.
She wants a family that doesn't feel broken beyond repair.
She needs someone she can feel free with—someone that would laugh with her and play with her and that would never make her feel as though she is acting too childish.
And that's why she truly wants to do this—not simply because she can, or because it is the right thing to do, but because she knows they all need this. It feels like the only way they can obtain that which she knows Henry desires most too—a Happy Ending for everyone they loves.
For her mother and father, her grandparents and Graham, Regina and Robin and Roland…
She knows she can fix it.
She has the ability to grant a Happy Ending to every single person she loves—what possible reason could be good enough not to do it then?
Slowly, her thoughts guide themselves back to the conversation at hand, and she realizes that pondering and brooding over her situation will do her no good if she doesn't know the options that are handed to her.
It is not simply Henry that needs to agree to the plan—she needs the Blue Fairy's acceptance as well, and she is well aware that it will be far more difficult to convince that woman to break the number one rule of magic.
Henry has moved to kneel before her now, both of his hands grasping hers—she can read the desperation and fear in his eyes, but she also sees the smallest spark of hope in there, and it's that little spark that feeds her determination.
She is not the only one that wishes to see their family whole once again.
"Leia, please,'' he begins, "reconsider. This entire venture is ludicrous—you could get killed! I cannot bear to lose you as well, Lee." Leia's throat feels oddly restricted at the honesty behind his words.
She has never seen her brother like this before—he'd never begged, never spoken of his own feelings so directly, and though she'd wished for it to happen someday, the directness and the raw tenderness in her older brother's voice still surprises her.
"I don't have another choice, Henry," Leia replies quietly, vaguely wondering what he would do with the information, "I need them—you need them. They fought for years and years to get their Happy Ending, and then it was taken away from all of them because of one man's greed. I know I can do this, Henry. I don't know how to have my own Happy Ending without them."
She can feel Roland stiffen next to her and sighs—she is aware that it hurts him to know that he alone is not enough for their Happy Ending, but she knows he understands too. More than anyone, Roland understands what it was like growing up with a parent who was only half there.
Henry's soft sigh and the warmth of Roland's hand on her arm snap her from my thoughts. "I understand," Henry mutters quietly, "and I do wish we could save mom and the others from their fate, but Leia… The spell is practically impossible to achieve. Trying to cast the spell alone might kill you. Is it worth that risk?"
She looks up, tears burning in her eyes as she meets Henry's intense gaze with her own. "I have to try. I owe them that—I owe myself that."
Henry's expression does not change, and Leia feels the gravity of the moment weigh down on her. Whatever Henry decides today, would decide the course of their future—and their past.
And that thought has a terrifyingly strong hold on her.
After a brief, yet not entirely uncomfortable silence—that lasted far too long to Leia's taste—Henry speaks, carefully choosing and weighing his words before they roll from his lips, entrancing Leia with his deep, rasping voice, and not for the first time, she understands how her brother became such a strong, powerful and loved King so quickly.
When he speaks, one can't stop listening.
"It will be a dangerous undertaking, Leia. One that has to be planned and prepared before you can even begin to attempt it—you need to be sure before we do this."
"I am," Leia interrupts, getting to her feet and facing her brother determinedly, "I've been thinking about this for years, Henry. I know it's dangerous, but I also know I can do it. It's my turn to save the Happy Endings."
A smile flashes across Henry's grim features before he turns serious again. "You are going to be the death of me one day, little sister. To think I thought you were only here to ask for my blessing for your marriage."
At those words, they can hear Roland choking, and her own cheeks flame bright red. "Well," she drawls, biting her lip coyly as she looks up at her big brother, "About that…"
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The Charming's Loft, Storybrooke—present time
Emma tightens her arm around Leia's waist as she helps her daughter up the steps that lead to the loft. It had taken ages to get Leia from the little alcove on the beach to her car, and even longer to drive back into town because Leia kept slipping, losing control of her magic as she tried to take as much pain from little Roland as she could.
Emma's sure that the Sheriff's Station will be flooded with calls about fallen trees, blown electricity stops and small trashcan fires.
She's still not quite sure how Leia knows that Roland is being hurt, but she'd put her own curiosity aside in favour of getting Leia back to the loft and making sure they'd get to Roland as fast as they could.
"Come on, Leia," she pants, wincing when Leia moans in pain again, "just a little farther."
"I know," Leia groans, taking a few more steps forward, her breath laboured and heavy, "I know—I just.. I need to find him."
Emma swallows thickly, once again suppressing the urge to demand answers from Leia—she now knows Leia could feel her feelings when she was trapped in the ice because she'd been pregnant already; everything that happened to baby Leia happened to grown up Leia as well. But this… Emma doesn't have to ask Leia to know that whatever connects her to Roland is different.
It's like nothing she's ever seen before.
"We will," Emma finally responds firmly, "We will find him. And the Ice Queen isn't going to hurt anyone anymore." She desperately wants to believe her own words, but the ruthlessness of the Ice Queen is starting to terrify her—the woman is torturing an innocent child, for God's sake.
Granted, she knows Roland probably doesn't feel a thing—Leia is channelling all of her magic into making sure that the only one who'll feel anything is her—but the idea that the woman is willing to hurt a child to get what she wants (whatever the hell that may be) chills her to the bone.
She doesn't want think about what the woman might have done to Henry had they not been able to get him out when they did.
She feels nauseous and guilty when she remembers letting the Ice Queen slip through her fingers with Roland—the first thing they should have done, before engaging in a fight, was getting the boys out and to safety, and they hadn't, and now little Roland was being hurt—by extension, Leia was being hurt.
She focuses when they finally manage to reach the landing and forces the door to the loft open with her magic, so she won't have to let go of Leia, and is a little startled by the sheer amount of people in there—not only are her parents, Regina, Killian and Henry there, but also what looks like most of the Merry Men, Robin and Marian.
Everyone falls silent for a split-second when she drags her daughter inside before Killian is suddenly by her side, gathering Leia up in his arms with the most endearing, sweet, concerned look on his face as he carries her to the couch, quietly asking her a thousand and one questions while Leia just moans quietly and shakes her head.
"Are you okay, Emma?"
Emma sighs and offers her mother a tired smile. "Not really. Leia thinks the Ice Queen is trying to hurt Roland—she's been able to shield him from the pain so far, but I'm not sure how much longer she can keep doing it."
Snow frowns, eyeing Leia speculatively—and Emma's well aware that she nearly spilled the beans on who Leia is again—before turning to Emma again. "Do you think…" She breaks off and shakes her head, "Do you think she knows him? In the future?"
Emma opens her mouth to deny, to tell Snow that there is absolutely no reason to suspect any sort of future relation between Leia and Roland, but the words die in her throat when she catches sight of her daughter once again, writhing in pain on the couch while Killian holds her hand and the Merry Men, David and Henry look on worriedly.
She remembers Leia's insistence on keeping her future husband's name a secret because Leia was afraid that she and Killian might subconsciously try to push them together. Leia had made Emma promise that if she ever did find out who he is, she would let Leia find her way to him on her own time.
And why would she insist upon that unless they already know the boy?
The realization that little Roland Hood is going to grow up to be her baby girl's True Love is more than a little mindboggling, and Emma feels a little sick to her stomach when she realizes that Leia is feeling Roland's pain because their True Love's bond is so strong it can span across time and space.
"Yeah," Emma breathes, still feeling a little stunned at the revelation about who Roland is to her daughter, "I think she does know him. That's probably why she's in pain—she's been shielding him all along, and I don't think she even knows she was doing it."
Snow nods, a thoughtful frown rippling her forehead. "Do you think we should tell Robin and Marian? They are his parents. Maybe they should know."
"No," Emma shakes her head, "No, they shouldn't. This isn't anyone's business but Leia and Roland's. As long as she's protecting him, it doesn't matter who she is to him in the future."
Snow looks sceptical, but Emma doesn't really care.
She knows she's right.
She swallows thickly when Leia cries out in surprise and pain, her eyes widening when a long, thin cut appears on her upper arm, immediately drenching her entire sleeve with blood.
"Bloody hell," Killian curses, immediately reaching to grab Leia's arm, his eyes wide and fearful, "Little love, you'll be no use to the lad if the Ice Queen manages to kill you without even touching you." Emma sinks to her knees next to them, her hands shaking as she tries to cover the wound with a bandage she'd managed to conjure, trying not to be sick at the sight and smell of blood.
"I don't care," Leia gasps, her jaw clenched and her hand balled into a tight fist, "I'm not letting him feel what she's trying to do to him."
"Wait," Robin interrupts, stepping forward, his eyes locked on Leia, "She's hurting him?" He looks positively aghast at the mere thought and Emma can't blame him—she still feels nauseous in a way she knows has nothing to do with her pregnancy.
"She's trying," Leia pants, looking up at Robin pensively, "He doesn't feel anything, I promise. I won't let her hurt him."
And in that moment, Emma swears she sees something click in Robin's eyes—a kind of understanding and realization, not unlike the one she herself experienced only minutes before—before he nods, reaching out to squeeze Leia's hand. "Thank you," he offers sincerely, "Thank you so much for protecting my boy."
Before Leia can respond in any way, Marian steps up beside her husband, her face twisted with grief and worry that Emma can understand all too well—it is a kind of despair she had felt when she had heard George had taken Henry. "I too wish to thank you," the woman adds in a trembling, raw voice, "for taking care of our son when we cannot. If there is a way we can repay you, I—"
"I don't want anything from you," Leia spits heatedly, snatching her hand away from Marian's before it can touch her, "just stay the hell away." Killian jumps when Leia's hands glow with deep red light, and Emma can feel Leia's power simmering through the air—barely restrained.
Emma swallows thickly, startled by the pure hatred in Leia's voice, and stands up slowly, holding up her hands to appease Marian and the rest of the Merry Men, who all look quite affronted by Leia's angry words. "Okay," she drawls, "let's all stay calm. We need to focus on getting Roland back and taking out the Ice Queen."
"I can hold her off," Leia winces, "for a while—I won't be able to do anything else though. It'll take everything I have to hold her off and to make sure she can't hurt Roland."
"Well," Killian suggests slowly, "perhaps it is not a smart move to take yourself out, even to protect the lad." Emma swears that if looks could kill, Killian would be no more than a little pile of ashes on the floor—Leia's eyes are dark and stormy and flashing green with barely restrained magic—but Killian doesn't even look phased and merely smiles charmingly.
"Hear me out, little love," he tells Leia calmly, "if this woman is indeed so vile she would resort to harming an innocent child, perhaps we will need your expertise. You are the only one who has been able to muster the kind of power capable of defeating the Ice Queen."
"I don't care," Leia sighs quietly, "I won't let her hurt Roland."
Emma sighs, shaking her head a little—she wants to argue, but if Leia's anything like her and Killian, she's well aware that there won't be a damn thing she can say that will change Leia's mind.
"Please," Robin steps forward cautiously, eyeing both Leia and Marian—who looks confused rather than threatening, to be honest—warily, "We couldn't ask you to do this. Knowing you are willing to fight for my son is enough, I couldn't ask you to exchange your life for his if the Witch attempted to—"
He breaks off, looking vaguely nauseated by his own words, and shakes his head. "I couldn't ask this of you."
"You're not," Leia winces, pressing her hand to her stomach, "I'm not even offering. I'm telling you. I am doing this." And Emma wants to protest, wants to tell her daughter not to do this, but she knows that it will be futile.
She doesn't miss the death glare Leia sends towards Marian, and she once again wonders what on earth happened between Leia and Marian for the older woman to inspire such rage within the girl.
Marian wisely doesn't speak up again and lets Snow guide her to the kitchen—Leia visibly relaxes once the woman is out of sight—while Emma watches Killian gently pull Leia towards the stairs while she whispers about how to make sure she's okay while she's under the spell to protect Roland from harm.
"Go look for him," Emma finally tells Robin and the Merry men, "Start on the outskirts of town—caves, abandoned houses, somewhere where she could do whatever she needs and wants without being disturbed." She turns to Regina and asks, "Did the tracking spell work?"
Regina bristles angrily and hisses, "Do you think we'd still be here if it did?"
"Regina," David chides her gently, "We're all worried."
Emma just sighs and shakes her head, rubbing her palm over her forehead tiredly. "No, it's alright. Just… Try again? I'm going to see what Leia needs for the spell before I come back to help you."
Regina nods curtly, turning to give Henry a brief hug, before she leaves the loft with a cloud of purple smoke.
Emma frowns when she notes just how much Marian relaxes when Regina disappears, but decides that it is something that can wait until a later date—she guesses she would be relieved to see a rival for her love's heart leave the room too. She knows she's lucky with Killian—his attentions are so singularly focused on her that she knows she'll never have to worry about him straying.
It makes it a little easier to let him in and trust him.
She nods to Robin and sighs when Henry sidles up to her, attaching himself to her side as she follows her daughter and Killian up the stairs. "You okay, kid?" she asks quietly, pausing at the top step to give them a modicum of privacy—she knows Henry must feel a little overwhelmed, with everything that has been happening lately.
God knows she is.
"Yeah," Henry nods, "Just worried, you know? The Ice Queen is even crazier than George, and the only way to stop him was to—" He swallows thickly and Emma curses every villain in existence for forcing her little boy to see things he should never have been exposed to, especially not at his age.
"I just," he finally continues, "I'm worried what it'll take to defeat her."
"Yeah," Emma sighs heavily, catching sight of Leia lying on her back on the bed, Killian hovering by her side like the overprotective daddy they all know he's going to be, "Me too, kid. Me too."
Leia looks up when Emma and Henry walk into the room and smiles weakly. "I need you to cast a protection spell over my body while I'm under the spell," Leia says immediately, obviously not in the mood for small talk, "essentially, I'll be leaving my body an empty husk while my spirit protects Roland. It sounds far more mystical than it really is, but that is the easiest way I can think of to explain what will be happening."
Emma nods shakily—she's still not sure she can believe what is happening—but is unable to suppress an amused grin when Henry bounds past her and jumps to sit on the bed next to Leia, all but shoving Killian out of the way to ask Leia about spells and magic and what else she can do.
"She's going to be okay, love," Killian whispers to her as he joins her at the other side of the bed, "she's ours… I do believe she's more stubborn than the both of us put together. She won't fail."
Emma sighs a little and leans into his side, curling her fingers in the back of his shirt, and rests her head on his shoulder. "I know," she whispers, "I know." She watches as Leia smiles at Henry one more time before she turns to them with a serious expression.
"Are you ready?"
Emma laughs nervously and shrugs. "No. But let's do it anyway."
Leia chuckles quietly and lays down, wiggling around a little before she settles, her blue eyes already ringed with bright green as she begins muttering something—Emma can only assume it's the spell that will bring her to Roland—under her breath.
"Stay away from Marian," she says suddenly, her eyes locking on Emma's, "She's dangerous. Don't trust her."
And then, before Emma can even think of an appropriate response, Leia's entire body arches up, off the bed, her lips parted in a soundless scream as the lights flicker and baby Graham begins wailing in his crib downstairs, and every little hair on Emma's body stands on end as the near electric current of magic in the room intensifies—
And then it's gone.
Leia collapses back on the bed, her eyes closed and her body limp.
"Wow," Henry breathes, eyes wide and impressed as he stares at Leia, "That was awesome!"
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Charming Family Loft, Storybrooke, Maine—A week later
"I'm worried about her," Emma whispers quietly, her hands shaking as she and Killian stand by Leia's bedside, studying their daughter's pale form, "she hasn't woken up once—" and she knows Leia had said that she wouldn't until she was sure Roland was safe, it still worries her, "and we're still no closer to finding Roland. I don't know how much longer she can keep taking his pain from him without succumbing to the injuries, and the lack of food and water."
They'd only managed to get Leia to drink little amounts of water, but since they weren't exactly sure if she'd need it, they'd refrained from getting Whale to put in a feeding tube.
She sighs and sinks into Killian's arms when he steps up behind her, wrapping his arms around her and resting his hand and hook on her belly.
"She's strong, love," he replies steadily, though Emma can hear the tenseness in his voice, and she knows he is just as worried as she is. Everyone is worried—Robin and Marian and Regina are all frantic, ransacking the entire town in their search for the Ice Queen and Roland—, and even though Elsa is just as eager to find out what happened to her sister, she too has stopped searching for Anna until they can find Roland.
When Robin had tried to tell her they couldn't ask her to not look for her sister, Elsa had just said that that's what Anna would want her to do—she would never leave an innocent child in danger if she could help, and Elsa won't either.
And so, she and Elsa resumed training their magic—unfortunately without Leia's help this time.
Emma sighs and rubs her hand over her belly, where baby Leia is growing. They have their first doctor's appointment today, to confirm the pregnancy and to make sure the baby is growing properly.
Emma had refused at first, unwilling to take even a minute of her time away from searching for Roland, until Killian had pointed out that they had to take care of baby Leia as well as the adult version—if something were to happen to the baby, there would be no Leia at all, and that had been the point that swayed Emma's decision.
Killian is right, they need to take care of both versions of their daughter.
"We have to go, darling," Killian whispers in her ear, "your mother has assured me she and Elsa will stay by Leia's side the entire time we're gone."
Emma fidgets a little when she hears Robin's voice drift through the open door—if Robin's here, it means Marian is too, and after Leia's reaction to the woman, Emma isn't sure what to think of Robin's wife anymore.
Killian sighs when he realizes where her thoughts have wandered and presses his lips to her temple wordlessly—she knows he understands. They'd all been taken aback when Leia practically tried to curse Marion out of the loft when Emma finally managed to get Leia back there.
"Your mother knows how Leia feels about Maid Marian, love," Killian says softly, "I do not believe for a second she would leave Leia's side if there was a chance Marian would harm Leia."
Emma sighs but nods, turning around to face Killian, biting her lip at the downright exhausted look on his face—she is not the only one who's been looking for Roland with all possible means. Killian has proved, once again, how resourceful he had been in his pirating years, and showed that his tracking skills rivalled or even surpassed her mother's.
He had jokingly stated that it was years and years of treasure hunting—but Emma knew better.
She knew it was a skill his brother had taught him—he had mentioned it in passing, once. Apparently, Liam had been an excellent hunter as well as a naval captain. She supposes that having to fend for himself and his younger brother from a young age required Liam to become quite adept at finding other means of acquiring food when they were short on money.
She never bothered to correct Killian though, when he told her father that it was the pirate in him.
She knows he is still quite self-conscious about his past as a pirate—a villain, as he keeps telling himself—and she knows talking about Liam hurts him. The last thing Emma wants is to hurt Killian in any way.
"Come love," he finally whispers in her ear, "We must go, lest we shall be late for our appointment. I do look forward to seeing our child."
She chuckles a little—he had been mesmerized to learn of the concept of an ultrasound, and she knows he's spent some time on Henry's iPad to look up things on 'the Google'. "Yeah, me too," she replies quietly, turning in his arms to press a soft kiss to his lips, "Let's go."
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Storybrooke General Hospital, Storybrooke, Maine—ten minutes later
She tries her best not to think about how weird it is to have Whale do her exam—she is not thinking about his onenightstand with her mother, she is not—and her ultrasound, but it still feels a little awkward. Killian does not help matters; he nearly put Whale through the wall when the man asked Emma to take off her pants for the physical part of her examination.
Apparently, his research on Google had not prepared him for pap smears and pelvic exams.
He is now sitting sedately on a chair next to the examination table, his fingers entwined with hers as he waits for Whale to get a decent image of the little bean in Emma's womb.
"So, Sheriff Swan," Whale drawls slowly, pressing down the wand on her belly a little harder, "everything seems to be in order—your baby is still really small, but it looks like she's right on track. Right there," he points to a small round bubble on the screen, "That's your baby."
"Gods," Killian breathes, and Emma doesn't even have to turn her head to look at him to know his eyes will be wide and stunned and slightly glazed over—her pirate is a bit of a sap.
Before Whale can offer to print the pictures for them though, the door slams open, and Emma nearly falls off the table in surprise when Belle strides in, the Dark One's dagger clutched firmly in her fist and her eyes watery with unshed tears.
"I'm sorry," the young woman stutters, "I didn't want to interrupt, but this can't wait. Rumple made a deal with the Ice Queen—he gave me a fake dagger…" A tear rolls down her cheek at the confession and Emma's heart breaks for this beautiful woman who fell in love with a monster.
She exchanges a glance with Killian, reluctantly shoving aside her feelings of surprise to see Belle standing in the doorway while she's lying on an examination table with her pants off and her stomach bared. "What deal did the bloody Crocodile make, lass?" Killian stands up, eyes glued to the dagger in Belle's hand, "And how do you know?"
Belle shivers and swallows thickly, flexing her fingers around the dagger's handle before she meets Killian's intense gaze with her own. "I think I should tell everyone at once, so I won't have to go everything a million times... But I—" she sniffles a little, "I overheard them. It's bad."
She looks at Emma, her lower lip quivering, "They want to kill everyone."