all is calm, all is bright: CS snowed in
The snow outside is definitely frightful right now.
Emma lets go of the blinds and sighs. She did not really expect this storm to be as big as it is, which is really poor planning because she's lived in the northeast for way too long to not be cautious of snowstorms that the local weathermen actually get excited about.
She does a quick survey of the station and determines that there are two packets of ramen in the breakroom cabinet, a few packets of tea and hot chocolate, and something in the fridge that is questionable. With a storm this bad, it would probably be best if she stay here and monitor the situation instead of going home. She'll call David and put him on alert too.
She sighs. At least there's a backup generator if the power goes out, and a full gas-can in the utility room.
The door slams and she turns, surprised to find Hook walking in. The snow is melting off his coat and she yells, "Hey!" before she stops to consider what he's doing here.
He has been distant lately and she has missed him in ways that she didn't really anticipate. Now he is here, cheeks pink from the cold, hair plasters to his face with melting snow, and her stomach flip-flops the way that it does when she sees him drinking with the dwarves at Granny's.
He freezes, and she gestures at him. "You're melting all over the floor," she points out but he doesn't seem too phased.
"I'm here to ensure that you make it home safe, my lady," he says. Emma frowns.
"I can't go home during the storm – I'm the sheriff, I need to make sure that people are okay," Emma says. Hook nods, and something crosses his face – an expression that she's seen very often lately. It is a look of resignation, a look that tells her that he is letting her make her choice (even if that choice is making him miserable in the process).
"In that case, I shall see you once the storm passes," he tells her, turning away and towards the door to head out into the snow.
She reacts purely based on instinct.
"Stay," she calls out. "Don't go out in the storm. Stay here with me."
Hook raises an eyebrow, shifts immediately into a grin and a wink. "I thought you'd never ask, Swan," he tells her, and she rolls her eyes.
"Go clean up the mess you're making – there's a mop in the utility closet over there," Emma says as she turns towards her office. She needs to call David but she needs to also process this.
Hook is here. With her. In the station. During a snowstorm.
If this isn't a fucking joke she doesn't know what is.
She calls David and tells him not to worry, that she'll be at the station being sheriff.
"Do you want me to come down?" he asks (she can practically see him grabbing his coat and gun).
"No, that's okay, Hook is here to keep me company," Emma tells him. She looks out the window of her office and sees Hook doing a fantastic job of mopping up the wet snow he tracked in. A joke about swabbing decks pops into her head and she bites her lip to suppress her laughter.
"Hook? Emma, are you – ?"
"We'll be fine," she says. "I'll see you in the morning."
When she leaves her office, Hook is still cleaning up the mess. He's taken his coat off and draped it over the back of the chair, leaving him in the vest and shirt she first met him in, wet boots still tracking water on the floor.
"That's it," she says. "I think we have some sweats in the back, you can change and stop tracking water all over the place."
Hook stops mopping and grins. "Why Miss Swan, you seem in a hurry to undress me."
Emma rolls her eyes and walks to the breakroom, where she knows there are extra uniforms. She finds a pair of sweatpants and a tee-shirt for Hook and tries not to think too hard about the fact that she's spending the night in a police station with Captain Hook.
"Here you go," she says, handing him the clothes as she exits the breakroom. "Knock yourself out. The bathroom is over there."
Hook takes the clothing and hands her the mop, sauntering over to the bathroom. Emma shakes her head and goes back to mopping the floor.
She's always been someone who thinks best when she's doing something, and mopping the station allows her to think through the fact that this is the longest that she and Hook have been together in the same room since they returned from Neverland. She had thought his intentions were pretty clear back then it's been radio silence in terms of him since then and now…
She puts the mop back into its bucket and rolls it back to utility closet.
When she turns, Hook is standing in the bathroom doorway. The sweats are low on his hips and the tee-shirt fits perfectly and she takes a second before she responds.
"Are you warm enough?" she asks, looking down and away as she closes the door. When she glances back, she takes him all in – the hooked arm, where she can see the strap that holds his hook in place, the tattoo in honor of his lost love, the way that he shifts uncomfortably under her gaze. It's moments like this that make her realize that he is more than his moniker, more than the person she first met.
"So what does one do if waiting out a storm?" he asks. Emma puts her hands in her pockets and shrugs her shoulders.
"Don't know," she says. "Usually I'm home when a storm hits so this is my first time being all official."
"And if you were home?" he asks.
"Watch movies and eat crappy food," she tells him. "I guess we do have ramen and internet access…"
Hook raises an eyebrow and Emma shakes her head.
"I'll educate you."
...
She makes them both ramen in the microwave. Hook leans against the doorframe, arms crossed, watching her as she works. Emma glances down at his bare feet.
"Aren't you cold?" she asks, and he shakes his head.
"I've been colder," he tells her. When she raises her eyebrows, he continues by saying, "our realm does not have the comforts of your realm. And I've spent a great deal of my time in that realm in places were comforts are a secondary concern."
Emma nods, handing him a mug of ramen and a mug of tea. He puts his tea down and opens his bottle of rum. She shakes her head when he offers her rum as well.
"If something happens, I need to be alert," she says.
"So what exactly does someone in your position do during storm such as this?" Hook asks.
Grabbing her own mugs, she brushes past him and heads towards her office. "I guess I'm supposed to be a first responder – I respond if there's an emergency. I suppose I should go out and patrol in a little bit, just make sure everything's okay."
She sets her mugs down on her desk and proceeds to find some blankets, indicating to Hook that he should pull up another office chair. When the blankets are obtained and they're wrapped up in them, she fires up her computer and finds Netflix.
"So when I was in Boston and I wasn't working, I used to spend snow days inside watching tv and drinking way too much cocoa," she tells Hook. "It's a good way to pass the time."
They eat and drink in companionable silence only punctuated when Hook asks a question about something in the movie ("why is everyone upset that the small child is left alone, Emma? He sees to be doing quite well for himself at such an age") and she finds that she enjoys this – being with Hook. He was such a comforting presence in Neverland and she wonders if it's because he knows how to be there without invading her personal space (Mary-Margaret could use some lessons on that subject).
She's missed this so much – just being with someone in a moment. Just being with him in a moment.
She's missed him.
Emma sips at her tea and glances over at Hook, who is spellbound by the action on the computer screen. There's a small smile on his face, a look she hasn't seen in quite some time, and it makes her heart hurt to think that he's making himself miserable for the sake of her.
She's read enough trashy romance novels and seen enough movies to know that this is an old story – caring about someone enough to sacrifice your own happiness for their own. She's just never seen it in action, never had someone who cared enough about her to let her try to be happy even if they weren't happy themselves. Her parents could count, she supposes, but the curse impacted her more than it did them, frozen in time as they were. Neal definitely doesn't count.
And then there's Hook.
This is new and frightening, having someone hellbent on your own personal happy ending with the coda that it might not include them.
Their shared kiss in Neverland lingers in the back of her mind every time she sees him. His words, his confession, linger beyond that, as a balm for her wounded soul every time she tries to catch a breath (things happen in this down at a ridiculous pace and sometimes she just wants to feel something other than absolute frustration). She can always trust him, on the rare occasions they see each other these days, to make her feel better in a way that hot chocolate and Henry's hugs cannot.
And that is a new feeling.
The movie ends and Hook stands up, walking towards the kitchen area. Emma just sits there, trying to determine what to do next.
Patrol. She should probably at least pretend that she's sheriff instead of hiding in her with him all night.
She puts her jacket on and bundles up with her hat, gloves, scarf, until she's certain that most of her extremities are covered. She grabs her gun and two flashlights, clipping her radio to her belt and grabbing her cellphone.
Hook is waiting for her by the door, dressed in leather again.
"It would be less than chivalrous of me to allow you to go outside on your own," he tells her sincerely, and she smiles.
"Looks like the storm's died down some," Emma responds. "Let's go walking in a winter wonderland."
Storybrooke is silent as the grave, the snow falling in a gentle way that is nothing like it was hours ago when Hook first walked into the station. It's maybe three inches deep right now and no one is out in the weather. Instead, everyone seems to be bundled up inside, which Emma is grateful for because it means she doesn't have much work to do if no one is out causing trouble or wrecking cars.
"When it snows in the Enchanted Forest, do people normally just say indoors?" she asks Hook, who is walking quietly beside her.
"That they do," he tells her. "They spend time with their family, or engage in other more amorous activities." He wiggles his eyebrows and she smacks him (gently) with her gloved hand. The smile that lights up his face is so different from the look he's been carrying with him and it makes her smile too.
"We should hang out together more often." Emma bumps him with her shoulder. "I know what you're trying to do."
"Do you now, lass?" he asks. His voice sounds too careful, like he's trying to not let his emotions out.
"You want me to be happy." Emma feels heat coursing through her veins, making her unafraid to speak her mind right now. "You think that by staying away that I can be happy."
There is a pause as he gathers his thoughts, and Emma is almost scared of what he is going to say.
"Aye," he says finally. She looks at him and he is looking back at her, eyes expectant. She stops walking.
"Are you happy, Emma?" Hook asks. Snow falls on his face and melts, creating tracks that look like tears down his cheeks. She reaches up with her gloved hand to wipe the water away, and he catches it with his own.
"I am now, Killian," she says softly. She feels his exhale through the leather, watches his eyes close.
"I wanted to give Henry a chance to have this family together, after all that he had been through." Emma smiles.
"Families come in all shapes and sizes in this realm," she tells him. "We'll figure it out."
Hook smiles, opening his eyes. "As you wish."
Emma rolls her eyes at the familiar refrain but that doesn't stop her from stepping forward and kissing him. It is gentle, his lips arm despite the cold air. He wraps his hands around her waist and pulls her towards him easily, letting her wrap her free arm around his back.
She breaks the kiss before she can deepen it when a snowflake slides down her nose and she practically coughs in his mouth. He does not seem phased though, kissing her forehead, and wrapping his arms around her tighter.
"I think Storybrooke is rather safe, love," he tells her. "Perhaps we should return to the station?"
"Perhaps we should," Emma says, removing her arms from him (the loss of warm, of contact, hits her sharply and for someone who isn't so big on touch, it's staggering how she fells now without him touching her).
She slips her hand into his as they walk back to the station, and he squeezes it gently.
"You know, there's a sequel to that movie," she tells him. "They leave the kid in New York City."
Hook Killian scoffs. "Dreadful place. That poor lad."
Emma laughs at his unhappiness in his tone, and snuggles closer to him.
Neither of them are idiots; they're not going to be paying that much attention to the movie when they get back anyway, regardless of where it's set.
...
Morning dawns bright.
Really freaking bright.
Snowstorm. Right.
Emma blinks her eyes open as the phone on her desk continues to do its little vibrating dance precariously close to the edge. She wants to move but there's an arm around her waist and she doesn't really want to disturb its owner, who looks really adorable when they sleep.
But she does anyway, because the last thing she wants to be caught by either Neal or her parents. This means shifting herself out of his arms and standing (even in socks this floor is cold - Killian's either a badass or a liar).
It's David, so she answers.
"Is everything okay?" he asks. "You didn't answer my text."
"Oh, sorry," Emma responds. "I stayed up late last night just in case of an emergency and then I guess I slept in. Sorry. Everything is okay, situation normal."
"Well, in that case," David says, "Henry wanted to go sledding. I can take him if you have things to wrap up at the station."
That bastard.
"I'd appreciate that," she says. "I should be home before lunch."
"Great, I'll let your mom know." There is a pause, then, "Enjoy your snow day, Emma."
"You too." She hangs up, then turns to face the cot where Killian still sleeps, covered in grey blankets. She's surprised that the two of them managed to fit on it, it's clearly for one person but Killian can be very persuasive.
He has changed back into the sweats and tee, and while she wants to wrap herself around him again and go back to sleep, she's also the sheriff and at any given point in time someone could come walking through that door looking for help.
She does it anyway, fitting against him in a way that is just right and rewarded for her recklessness with a sleepy kiss against her hair.
"We need to get up," she says, and Killian groans. She props herself up on an arm and looks at him, slowly blinking his eyes against the glare from outside. When they do open, he looks at her with a slow smile.
They have done nothing more than make out and she feels heat gather low in her belly when he looks at her like that, eyes wide and smile bright, that tells her that any way they might choose to spend this day would be fun.
And isn't that what he told her?
She laughs, and he frowns, probably thinking that she's laughing at him, so she reaches down and kisses him, slowly at first then deepening the kiss, appreciating as his fingers card her hair to bring her closer, changing the angle, meeting her kiss for kiss enthusiastically.
Eventually Emma breaks the kiss, realizing that standing up is far better if she wants to not be caught by some citzen who needs the sheriff so she sits on her chair and pulls her boots back on.
"David is going to take Henry sledding," she tells him. "I'd like to go home and shower first, but I was thinking you could come with us if you wanted to."
Killian smiles. "I'd like that," he tells her.
"Great," she says. "Then let's enjoy this snow day."