Disclaimer: The last chapter, and I still own nothing but a heart swelling with love for my readers.:')
"True Love doesn't GET a happy ending...
Because True Love doesn't end."
~Unknown.
"The winds, in the first time he can ever remember, become still, and he closes his eyes.
For a moment, he almost imagines Emma's broken, watery voice say, "I love you," as the last petal falls onto his broken chest.
The end."
...
Emma sobs onto his chest. She sobs and sobs and no one could ever stop her, even if they tried.
David watches as his daughter, his baby, his full grown warrior of a woman breaks into shattered fragments of a person.
Mary~Margaret watches sadly as Killian's Spirit struggles to rid its earthly and broken shell and meet her.
The winds lie still.
Killian sleeps.
Emma can not think of an ending worse than a broken heart.
...
An hours later, the sobs have turned to whimpers and snifflings.
David shakily walks up to his daughter. He clears his throat. "We should bury him."
Emma does not look up, shakes her head, and grips him tighter.
She can't let go of him, not even she wanted to. Burying him would be the equivalent of burying half of her.
She feels a sort of presence behind her, and it almost feels like a hand stroking her hair with the love and brokenness only a mother could have.
Emma looks at her Killian, and closes her eyes. It's time to go.
"I'm so sorry I didn't find you in time," she whispers. "It's all my fault."
She presses a goodbye kiss against his lips and turns to leave, a fresh batch of tears welling up in her eyes, when suddenly a burst of bright white lightening shoots through her, through everyone and everything, and she falls to the ground, landing on Killian's unmoving and cold body.
...
Mary~Margaret smiles triumphantly. She had wondered why he had not come to meet her.
But she knew.
Looking at her husband lovingly, she sees his mouth drop, his eyes searching her face.
"Mary~Margaret?"
"The doors," she whispers, tears of joy falling freely from her opaque face. "They're opening for True Love, David."
...
Killian hurts. He hurts everywhere, but mostly his heart. It burns, and freezes, and hardens, and softens, and breaks, and fuses. It hurts.
He hurts.
Eyes still closed, he pulls a hand to his heart, to try and still the beating. If Death was meant to be an Eternity, he did not want to spend it in pain.
He hears a gasp.
"K-Killian?"
His eyes fly open. Emma? Had he killed her, too? His heart clenches even tighter as he takes in her tear streaked face.
He had cursed himself, and taken her down with her, just like he had feared he would.
Pushing himself up, he reaches out a hand to stroke his Spirit-Love-
and sees a large, sure hand reach for her as well.
He stops his hand.
The hand stops.
Emma's eyes are wide.
Killian turns his hands. His hands. So steady.
Quickly glancing down, he sees a strong, sturdy body, one fit for the prince he used to be. Running his hand through his hair, he finds it thick and unruly.
Just as he reaches for his face, Emma does too.
He pulls short, staring at her, and her eyes stay focused on his. "Killian?"
In that moment, his heart clinches, the transformation complete, and he knows he's alive, so very alive, because no dead heart could swell with the joy and love his does now.
"Aye, Love," he says thickly.
Reaching for her still outstretched, shaking hand, he encompasses it with his own large ones and brings it to his face.
Her cold fingers, guided with his warm calloused ones, stroke his cheek, close his eyelids, smooth his eyebrows, and stop on his lips. "You found me, My Love." He gives a large beaming smile, and she matches with one so glorious his barely fixed heart skips a beat. "You saved me."
Removing her hands, she laughs through tears and burbles, "IloveyouIloveyouIloveyou," until he stops her words with her lips.
He doesn't stop.
She doesn't complain.
Neither of them notice as the lightening zips about the castle, turning all dark corners light, all winds human, and all hearts-
Fixed.
...
"Must you go?"
Mary~Margaret smiles sadly.
"I'm not leaving, not really." She presses a hand against his trembling chest, tracing his heart, and smiling into his eyes, the one Emma wears as well.
"I'll be with you. I will always be with you."
...
A woman, fierce and beautiful, stands from afar and watches the scene unfold in front of her, her own True Love at her side.
She watches as the Shepard's daughter misses the way her Spirit Mother whispers "I love you," before jumping.
She watches as the Shepard smiles up to the Heavens, then as his daughter.
She watches as the Prince becomes a man in the truest sense.
She watches as every single broken heart flies about fixing the others, until each heart is whole, with pieces of everyone inside.
She watches as the curse, the spell, the blessing she cast so long ago turns from a prison to freedom.
Beside her, Robin pulls her closer, tighter. Resting her head on his shoulder, he says, "Well, My Love, I must say that this truly is a most beautiful Happy Ending."
Watching as the Heavens open to let the Angel back, who casts one last smile at the family she never knew but always loved...
Watching as the world reaches that one beautiful point where each life is in perfect harmony...
She smiles and says, "No. This is only The Beginning."
A/N:
Well, it appears we have reached our Beginning. Our beautiful, happy, hopeful beginning, and I don't want to go.
I will honestly miss you all individually, and hope we can PM every now and again.
Stay perfect, dear Munchkins.
"Parting now is such sweet sorrow,
That I'll say 'goodnight' until 'tonight' becomes 'tomorrow'."
~Shakespeare: Romeo to Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet".
Signing off until we meet again at the soonest tomorrow;
~Mrs Killian Jones: Pureblood.