The characters belong to Kitsis and Horowitz. Let's get to it.

"Killian!"

Emma dropped her head to his chest, pressing her ear down over the place where his heart was. Any hope that her sense of touch had failed her evaporated as no sound reverberated through the warm body beneath her. She could feel tears coursing down her cheeks, falling onto Killian's still chest.

"Not like this, dammit," she fumed.

Standing up she angrily dashed the tears from her eyes. Regina, Whale, and an unlucky nurse were still lying unconscious on the floor. The heart monitor was still going off, a cruel reminder that Killian's heart had stopped. Emma ignored them all and concentrated on what she needed to do.

She placed both palms flat on Killian's chest in an imitation of all the medical dramas she'd ever watched on t.v.. Closing her eyes she felt the hum of magic dance under her skin. Regina was right, she really only used her magic when force was necessary, sending it hurdling out and hoping that it did what she needed it to do. In all fairness she'd never been one for subtlety anyways, with or without magic.

Taking a deep breath she focused on Killian's heart. She remembered when she held it in her palm, the bright red glow only slightly dimmed by the black swirling within. Impossibly it had felt light as air yet heavy and dense as a rock simultaneously. A pulsing heat had warmed her hands, making her palms tingle as though they had fallen asleep and the blood was rushing back into them. Emma held onto these images and feelings as she flexed her hands, fingers pressing into his chest.

The lights in the room dimmed, casting the room in shadow. One of the bodies on the floor stirred but Emma took no notice. A warbling sound filled the room as the beeping of the heart monitor wound down into silence. Furrowing her brow, Emma concentrated harder, screwing her eyes closed even tighter and picturing Killian's encouraging smile.

"Come on Swan, you can do this."

Later she would swear it was a trick her mind had played on her. That the stress and panic had caused her to hear things. When they asked later how she did it she would never tell them that Killian's voice had told her she could.

A bright white light seeped from her fingertips. It wasn't like any other time she had done magic, where it had erupted out of her full force with no sense of control. The light spread down her hands causing her palms to glow. For a moment it appeared as if she had trapped two balls of light under her hands. Tendrils of pure white light snaked out from her hand and danced their way across Killian's chest, meeting halfway and coiling around themselves, forming a single band of magic.

Emma saw none of this. Her eyes remained closed, not wanting anything to distract her. She was acting on pure instinct and the overwhelming feeling that she was using her power in the way it was meant to be used. As she gently gave her magic a final push, the command to restart Killian's heart, the light she could sense behind her closed eyes peaked in brightness. She was sure that if her eyes had been open she would have been temporarily blinded by its intensity.

In an instant the light from her magic faded and the overhead fluorescents flickered back to their full luminosity. Emma carefully opened her eyes, her wide, tearful gaze set unwavering on the form in front of her. She hardly dared to breathe, taking in shallow gulps of air.

A moment passed, then two, until she felt it. Her fingers clenched the hospital gown under her fingers involuntarily as she pressed her right palm more firmly over Killian's heart. She felt it again, the beat drumming steadily and unfaltering in his chest. She moaned in relief and sagged onto the bed, her legs unable to keep her standing.

Emma leaned forward and buried her face in the crook of Killian's shoulder. She could feel his warm breath stirring her hair but there was no sign of awareness from him. A shuffling noise drifted up from the floor, followed by a groan. Loathe to break contact but needing to reassure herself that she didn't permanently injure the others in the room she sat up. Her hands remained over Killian's heart as she looked around the room.

Whale was the one Emma had heard moving around. He was slowly getting to his feet, rubbing the back of his head, and seemingly trying to piece together what had happened while he was unconscious. His eyes snapped up to the bed and darted between Killian's prone form and Emma sitting by his side.

"What happened?" He quickly walked over to the bed and grabbed Killian's wrist, checking for a pulse. His mouth dropped open in surprise and he looked up at Emma with awe.

"What do you remember?" She asked hesitantly.

He shook his head and frowned. Emma was sure he was trying to find a way to rationalize what he thought happened. She recognized the look from when Henry first brought her to Storybrooke. She almost smiled at the memory but she desperately needed Whale to examine Killian and tell her that everything would be alright.

"Killian downed whatever was in that bottle and everything went to hell," he said unaware that his professional manner had deserted him. "The heart monitor was going off and I called in a nurse to help me with the crash cart to get his heart started. Regina was trying to pull you out of the way and I came over to help… and that's all I remember."

Emma drew in a breath. She wasn't sure how much she could tell Whale about what she had done. He begrudgingly accepted magic as a reality but his mind was still fixed on finding a scientific explanation for the world around him.

"I may have knocked everyone out," she said chagrined. "There was too much going on and I didn't stop to think that you were trying to help. I just wanted to make sure Killian was okay."

"But he wasn't?"

"No. I couldn't find his pulse," her voice shook as fresh tears gathered in her eyes. "His heart wasn't beating. I…I..."

"Brought him back?" Whale sounded impressed and shocked.

"Yes," she whispered turning back to look down at Killian.

His chest was rising and falling with every breath and his heart beat steadily under her hand. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Whale begin a more thorough examination. She made no move to get up but Whale surprised her by working around her, not even asking her to remove her hand from Killian's chest.

"Magic can't bring someone back from the dead," Regina's groaned from her position on the floor. She was sitting up and was looking at Emma through narrowed eyes. "Even if you're the Savior."

"And yet Mr. Jones is alive and well," Whale's voice dripped with scorn. "In fact I'd go so far as to say his recovery is almost miraculous."

Emma looked up at Whale with cautious hope. He was smiling down at her and nodding his head gently.

"He's going to be okay?" She asked in a small voice that sounded nothing like her.

"I think he's going to be fine. His pulse is strong and steady, there's no sign of a fever, and probably most telling of all is the fact that his lungs sound healthy and clear. I can't be sure without an X-ray but I have a feeling you won't be leaving his side any time soon."

Shaking her head she looked back down at Killian. His skin is no longer grey and waxy but pink, warm, and healthy. She blinked quickly, realizing that his cheeks are fuller than when she first entered the room. Even without Whale's diagnosis she could tell that Killian was on his way to recovering. The only damper on her excitement is the fact that he was still unconscious.

"Why isn't he awake?" She tried to keep the panic out of her voice and barely succeeded.

"I can't be sure but the fact that he drank some magical concoction, had his heart stop, and then was resuscitated by the Savior might have something to do with it," Whale said jokingly. His smile softened as he continued. "He has gone through the gamut of his illness in a little over twenty-four hours and then cured in less than five minutes. The fact that he's not awake is encouraging, in fact. It means his body is truly healing itself."

"None of this explains how he's alive at all," Regina said as she stood at the foot of the bed looking at them. "We all saw what happened and heard that damn heart monitor go off. Are we just going to ignore the fact that something is not right here?"

Emma could feel her happiness draining away. She wasn't sure if she wanted to be mad at Regina for her callous remarks or worried that there was something else that could go wrong. In the end she let her anger win out, she was tired of being trampled over by feelings of helplessness.

"Unless you have some sort of magical diagnostic tool we don't know about can't you just accept what your eyes are telling you?" She rounded on Regina, fire dancing in her veins. "You were so eager to help and now you're not willing to believe it worked? Have a little faith Regina. I would think that Henry would have helped you with that by now."

Regina looked like she had been slapped but Emma didn't care. She was tired, exhausted really. Taking a deep breath she kept her gaze on Regina but let her shoulders relax. Regina opened her mouth several times before squaring her shoulders and meeting Emma's eyes.

"Look, I'm not trying to rain on your parade," she said with caution as Emma rolled her eyes. "I'm not. I just don't understand how you did it. I tried for years to bring Daniel back with magic and it never worked. Until…"

"Until I did it for you," Whale supplied.

Emma and Regina swung around to look at him. He was bending over the nurse who was still unconscious on the floor. Seemingly satisfied with what he found he straightened up and faced the women.

"I believe what happened here and what happened with Daniel are similar," he said slowly.

"What are you talking about?" Regina said narrowing her eyes.

"I was unable to complete my life's work until I received a heart that could withstand the procedure. For that I needed a strong heart, a heart from your realm, one taken from its owner by magical means," Whale unknowingly slipped into the cadence of whatever land he had come from. "Rumplestiltskin was the one who showed me that it could be done, that it could be a success. My brother was the first to be resurrected."

"Wait, do you mean to tell me that your brother was the," Emma's mouth snapped shut before she could utter the word monster. She wasn't sure Whale would take kindly to that.

"Yes. It was my brother who died due to my carelessness and whom I brought back because of my selfishness. I foolishly thought that science alone could perform miracles and that magic was just a means to an end. Perhaps they are more intricately entwined than any of us previously thought."

"What does this have to do with Daniel or Hook for that matter?" Regina asked impatiently.

"With Daniel, as with my brother, I needed a magical heart to complete the procedure. A scientific experiment that was impossible otherwise. The blending of magic and science seems to be able to perform feats never before thought possible. I have used it to bring back the dead, although they were much changed from the men they used to be.

"In Mr. Jones' case his heart was wholly his own but had stopped. There is a window of time where we are able to resuscitate a patient when this happens. The nurse and myself were about to do this when Emma knocked us out. Who knows if it would have worked at all, considering how the medical treatments had been ineffective up to that point. Whatever Emma did was precisely what needed to be done in the time she was afforded. It may have been that her magic was the only thing that would have saved him."

Emma sat back in shock as Whale's words sunk in. She hadn't acted with any purpose other than to keep Killian alive. The fact that she could be the only one who could have done it was almost too much to take in.

"She could have done this all along?" Regina asked incredulous. "Then why did I have to figure out how to alter my protection spell at all?"

"I'm not claiming to know all the intricacies of magic. I still consider myself a man of science above all else," he said defensively. "I do believe, however, that your protection spell is what saved Mr. Jones from dying from his illnesses and Emma is what saved Mr. Jones from dying altogether."

A heavy silence filled the room. Emma couldn't decide what to do and settled for watching the other two. Regina was shifting from foot to foot in a gesture of unease that Emma had never seen from her. Whale had bent back down over the nurse who was showing signs of finally waking up.

"If you'll excuse me ladies I'm going to take Nurse Helen here to be examined," Whale broke the silence as he helped the nurse up from the floor. "Mr. Jones is going to be fine and I have confidence he'll wake up fully recovered. If you need me I'll be in my office for what will most likely be a long night."

With that Whale guided the nurse out of the room leaving Regina and Emma alone with the unconscious Killian. Emma kept a wary eye on Regina as she examined the room she would be spending the night in. It was almost an exact replica of the room she had visited earlier but the only window in the room just showed the hallway instead of a view to the outside. There's also a chair, a weird cross between a lawn chair and recliner but definitely something that she could collapse into as soon as Regina left.

Regina, for her part, was still standing awkwardly at the foot of the bed. Emma could tell that she was trying to push through an apology, one that Emma realized she didn't really need to hear.

"Don't worry about it Regina," Emma said tiredly.

"You don't even know what I was going to say," Regina rebuked.

"Yeah, I do," she countered. "But you and I both know it's easier to just nod our heads and move on."

"True. That doesn't mean that it should go unsaid. I'm sorry that I..." Regina paused to find the right word. "Doubted what you had done. Seems like even with how long I've been using magic there are still some things I need to learn."

Emma gave her a tiny nod, accepting her apology. A small smile graced Regina's lips before she returned returned the nod. As she turned to leave Emma stopped her.

"Can you tell my parents that everything is okay and I'll call them when Killian wakes up?"

"Is this your way of punishing me?" Regina asked without heat.

"Please, you're going over there to get Henry anyway," Emma said with a wave of her hand. "Don't mention the details, just that the spell, potion thing worked and not to worry."

"I thought you said you'd call them yourself."

"I will," Emma said turning her gaze back down to Killian. "I just want to..."

"Be here in case he wakes up," Regina finished for her. "I understand. I'll let them know."

"Thank you, Regina."

Regina hummed her response as she left the room. Emma wasn't left alone for long, however. A nursing team, one blonde and one brunette, entered the room shortly after Regina left to do another check on Killian and to replace the defunct heart monitor. When they were satisfied that all was in order one of them turned to Emma.

"Visiting hours are over miss. You are welcome to come back when they resume tomorrow at eight," the blonde one said authoritatively even though she didn't appear to be much older than Emma

"I'm not leaving," Emma said walking around the bed to the chair and dropping into it. "Go ahead and call Whale to ask him about it. Even if you called the authorities to force me to leave you'd just be calling me or my dad. Might as well just let me try and get comfortable because I'm not going anywhere."

The brunette nurse snickered behind her hand as the blonde one stood staring at Emma aghast.

"Oh, just let her be Judy. You obviously didn't listen to Doctor Whale when he said that the sheriff's boyfriend was here and she'd be around the rest of the night," the brunette, Betty her name tag read, pulled on the one called Judy's arm. "Sorry about that Sheriff Swan. We'll leave you be."

Judy left reluctantly, a look of offence still etched on her face. Betty winked at Emma before she pulled the door closed behind her. Emma laughed to herself as she inched the chair closer to the bed.

It wasn't an ideal set up. Sitting in the chair meant that the bed came to chest level and had rails on the side that prevented Emma from leaning on it comfortably. The rails stopped halfway down the bed at the point where the mechanics to raise the head of the mattress were. It was still in the upraised position, propping Killian up but not too much to seem uncomfortable.

Emma turned the chair so that she faced Killian instead of just sitting beside him. His hand was resting at his side, covered in bandages. She hadn't noticed when it had been done but she was thankful to see that it wasn't anything more than superficial cuts. Gingerly she cradled it in one hand and ran the other over the bandages and roughened palm in between them.

It was quiet in the room, even the various machines seem to whisper as they monitored their patient. Unlike the other times she'd had a quiet moment there was no sense of dread or foreboding hanging over her. Whale had told her that Killian would be okay and she had to believe that because worrying would drive her out of her mind.

His hand was warm in hers but there was no response to the paths her fingers traced over his skin. She didn't know what time it was but she knew it was late. Her exhaustion pulled at her bones, screaming for her to rest. Fighting against it, unwilling to lose a second of time where he could wake up and smile at her as though nothing was wrong, she began to talk instead.

"Looks like we won't be going sailing tomorrow after all," she started quietly. "Or is it today? I don't even know what time it is. Which is fine, Henry has a history project that he's been avoiding. How he can pour over his story book time and time again but not have any interest in what happened in the world he grew up in I have no idea.

"I'm sure Mom has something to say about that but seeing as how she's going back to teaching soon we'll have to leave that discussion for parent teacher meetings. God, how is that going to play out, especially with Regina there. It's not like she handles criticism well."

She paused wondering if she was talking for his sake or for hers. In the end it didn't matter, it was keeping her from dwelling on the darker thoughts floating through her mind.

"My parents were here earlier. Well, not here here but in the hospital. Turns out they kind of approve of us being together. My mom a bit more than my dad but isn't that how it usually works out? Not that I know or anything. I wonder if I'll be the same way when Henry starts dating, not that he will be any time soon, that's for sure.

"Oh, I almost forgot! Henry downloaded this app on his phone for you. He told me that you've been teaching him how to navigate by the stars and I guess the app does something similar. Henry was so excited to show you he was practically ready to run to your room to see what you thought.

"I didn't know you were actually teaching him things when you took him out sailing. He must like it if he's putting stuff on his phone for you."

Realization slammed into Emma almost before the thought could form. How Killian had ingratiated himself into their lives with Henry, her parents and most of all herself almost without notice. He was an integral part of her life and had been since he returned her memories in New York. Her heart clenched painfully when she grasped how close she had come to losing him completely.

"He was so excited to show you and I didn't know how to tell him that he couldn't. That you were so sick and Whale didn't even know what was going on."

Her voice started to waver and tears formed in her eyes but the floodgates had opened and she was helpless to stop.

"I was so scared Killian. It all happened so fast I barely had time to breathe. I still feel like I can't breathe."

She took in a shuddering breath, grasping at Killian's arm to avoid injuring his hand further.

"You have told me so many times that you're a survivor and I believed you. So you have to survive this, please, for me. Don't leave me alone."

Emma broke down into heaving sobs dropping her head onto the bed. She had always shut down her emotions before they could run away from her but it was too much. Killian had unlocked a part of herself she thought she had lost and it was aching for him to pull her into his arms and whisper that everything would be okay. That together they could conquer realms.

Eventually her sobs quieted to a steady stream of tears that only stopped when she fell asleep from pure exhaustion. Even then her sleep was fitful and lacking the rest she truly needed.

Hours later she woke with a start as one of the machines started beeping. Automatically her eyes turned to the heart monitor, horrified to realize it was the one going off. Despite having no medical training she recognized the tones as the ones that she had heard earlier, when Killian's heart had stopped. She quickly shifted her gaze to the bed truly afraid of what she would see.

The sight of Killian holding a bunch of wires in his hand with a sheepish grin on his face was the last image her mind was prepared to see. She sat stunned watching his grin falter as his hand lowered to his side.

"Sorry about the racket, love," he said ruefully. "Couldn't seem to get comfortable with these bloody wires attached to my chest."

Relief flooded through her body in a tidal wave. It was so overwhelming that a laugh burst through her lips. The laugh was so unexpected and unlike her that another followed. Soon she was holding her stomach as her laughter pealed loudly in the small room. When Whale came banging through the door with Betty and a crash cart in tow she found herself gasping for air and she was unsure if she was still laughing or crying from it all.

Waving off Betty, who was asking her if she was alright, Emma finally got ahold of herself. Killian was watching her with amusement as Whale looked him over. As their eyes met Emma felt the last of her tension and wariness leave her. He was awake and looking at her with eyes clear of illness or pain. He had survived, just like she asked him to.