Sorry for the delay, especially to those who I said it would be up soon when I sent the sneak peek! I did think it would be soon at that point but school got in the way and there were revisions to be done with the chapter. Huge thanks to the mysterious Nugget lol as well as the lovely lupis93 and Lotte-Vos for reviewing the last chapter, it means a lot to me and a Special thanks to the lovely and extremely talented lookingforgrowth for providing great and constructive feedback! So so appreciated (and check out her work, you won't regret it) :D So we're finally going to see Emma confront Killian and this will be their first interaction post-shooting and Emma gets into a bit of a tiff with someone. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Don't own any rights to OUAT or Roswell. If only, if only...

Five miles northeast of the Jones residence, Emma sat in her bedroom flipping through her yearbook until she landed on the page she was looking for.

Killian Jones's image stared back at her in the monochrome filter. It was a shame really, the black and white image deprived her of his sparkling bright blue eyes. It was one of the things she had always

her noticed most about him. That, and the fact that he seemed to be shy, not talking to many other students besides Victor and his sister Regina. She wondered if either one of them knew about him or maybe they were like him too. It would make sense that they're the only ones that he lets himself interact with. But then again Regina was nothing like Killian and seemed to thrive under attention being the Queen Bee of Storybrooke High.

So many questions and theories swirled in Emma's mind trying to understand this anomaly she had fallen into. Her questions ran rampant that she was beginning to wonder if the Loch Ness Monster existed at this point. As soon as the thought crossed her mind Emma shook her head to snap out of it-there was no time to deal with more than one supposed mythical creature at a time.

She lightly rubbed her hand across stomach where the handprint still remained. She needed to get to Killian before school started so she could speak to him in private.

"Emma! Are you up yet?" David called out from the living room.

"Yeah, dad, I'll be down soon," Emma yelled back. She heard shuffling from the living room before there was a knock on her door. Closing the yearbook, she got up to open the door for her dad.

"Ruby's on the phone for you," he said holding the receiver in his hand. "Be quick so you can have breakfast before school."

"Oh," Emma said hurriedly, "can you just tell her I'm getting ready and I'll see her at school? It's just she's probably calling to ask for her sweater back and I haven't washed it yet and…it's a girl thing," she trailed off when her dad gave her an odd look.

"O-kay, whatever you say," he said before turning away putting the phone to his ear. She heard her father relay the message as she closed her door with a sigh.

Emma knew just what Ruby wanted but there was no way she was ready to attempt to lie to her best friend. She knew she couldn't avoid her forever, but looking over to the closed yearbook, Killian's face resurfaced in her mind. First Killian then Ruby.

0-0-0-0-0

Emma arrived to school twenty minutes early wanting to catch Killian before he made it to his first period class. She had her dad drop her off so that Ruby wouldn't spot her ostentatious yellow bug when she got to school. She still hadn't quite figured out what she was going to say. It would be easy to brush the whole thing off had it been anyone else, but Ruby had been her best friend since they were three years old and while Emma fancied herself a decent liar, she knew she couldn't get past Ruby.

The time ticked by as Emma scouted the parking lot as more and more students arrived to school. It was five minutes until first bell and there was still no sign of Killian. She spotted Ruby and Robin get out of her car from her place by the side of the school. She knew they wouldn't spot her there on the lunch bench since their shared homeroom class was on the opposite end of the school.

She sighed as she watched them swivel their heads clearly searching for her before heading into the school. Ten minutes later, Emma was late to homeroom and there was still no sign of Killian. She scanned the area one more time before trudging out from the side of school. Looks like she wasn't the only one avoiding people.

She walked into homeroom with a pass after leaving the attendance office having just given them an excuse, citing that she suddenly felt sick in the morning before making her way to school. She felt bad for lying when she saw their sympathetic and genuine concern. Of course Emma Swan wouldn't lie.

She had gone to homeroom fully ignoring Ruby and her astonished look as she walked past their table to sit beside Happy instead. The boy was smiling cheerfully at nothing as usual and while she was able to ignore it most days, it only soured her mood more at that moment. Not to mention, she was too concerned with Killian's absence to deal with Ruby's inevitable incessant questions and so when the bell rang signaling the end of homeroom Emma shot out of her seat and ran out the door, making her way to AP Biology where she knew she was safe from Ruby who was completely anti-biology. Earth science, she loved, but talk about dissecting and bodily functions and might as well have said "chlamydia" for all her reactions.

She sighed heavily resigning to the fact she wasn't going to see Killian today when she noted his usual seat beside her empty. She rearranged her lab station, taking out the required agents and slides and setting them up next to the microscope as her teacher began his lecture.

"Alrighty class, so last week we spoke about genus and phylum in order to understand the differences in species and organisms. What genes and characteristics that are unique to the species and separate them from others. So for today's lesson we're going to-"

The classroom door suddenly opens and in walks a flustered Killian Jones mumbling an apology for his tardiness before sitting beside Emma. He shuffled his books around as he stuck a pencil in his mouth, pointedly keeping his gaze away from here. Emma quietly observed him as he fiddled with the pencil in his mouth, something she had come to recognize as a nervous habit. She was all too familiar with the sight every time she'd help him with a concept he didn't understand in lab.

"Your tardy slip, Mr. Jones?" Mr. Conlon asked nodding at the yellow slip of paper that had teetered to the edge of the table.

"Oh." Killian snatched the paper before it fell and got up to hand it to the teacher. He cleared his throat as he returned to his seat uncapping his half pint water bottle before gulping it down.

"So to do this experiment everyone on the left side will get a sample of a vegetable root and everyone on the right will get a sample of their cheek cells."

A violent cough interrupted Mr. Conlon once more. Emma looked over to Killian as he choked on his water and spat it back into the bottle. She pulled out a tissue from her backpack and offered it to him, smacking his back a little. "You okay?" she quietly asked.

Killian nodded as he rasped, "Yeah, fine, thanks." He took the tissue from her but wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his sweater. He raised his hand "Could I get a—"

"A bathroom pass?" Mr. Conlon finished, already walking over with it handing it over. "Just be sure to help Emma with her sample when you get back," he said in an easy manner.

"Yeah, of course," Killian replied glancing briefly at Emma before leaving the class just as quickly as he had arrived.

Mr. Conlon turned back to the class. "Grace is going to hand out the lab manuals to you guys and I've got the salt samples and detergent all ready for you guys. Test tubes, tape, and markers are under your lab table. For those of you using cheek samples, you'll need to swab your cheek and swish the salt solution around your mouth. Once you get your manuals you may begin and ask me any questions if you need it."

Emma's eye darted to Killian's abandoned pencil. She barely gave it a thought before she reached over and plucked it from his notebook, replacing it with her own. She dug through her bag and took her lunch out of the ziplock bag and put the pencil in there before straightening up. She figured she'd have enough of a sample from the pencil but she couldn't help but eye his water bottle. Taking the dixie cup she was supposed to drink from, Emma dumped its content into the waste jar and poured a bit of his water into the cup all the while looking over her shoulder for anyone watching her. The rest of the class was busy talking to each other and moving about while Mr. Conlon was busy conversing with a group.

She didn't know what she was going to do with his water sample but she placed it discreetly on the shelf under the table until she could take it out later when the coast was clear.

"Hey Swan, falling behind?" her teacher called from the other side of the classroom.

"No, just reading the manual."

She checked to see that Killian's side looked untouched and that his bottle didn't look depleted before turning back to the lab manual and setting out to extract her own cheek sample. There was no possible way she would be able to analyze Killian's sample in class and it was clearly why he left in such a haste.

She had gotten almost halfway through the lab when Killian finally returned. He cleared his throat as he slowly walked toward their lab table.

"Sorry about that, rough morning," he said quietly.

Emma shook her head, "Don't worry about it. Do you mind helping me with my samples though? It would probably go faster," she said giving him an out.

He nodded carefully peering at her through his thick lashes. His bright blue eyes were darker and tired today and she couldn't help but stare for a bit longer before he nervously looked away.

Emma had a hard time focusing after that. She and Killian worked seamlessly together to get the lab just as they had always done but every so often she couldn't help but look at him in wonder, the questions she wanted to ask just at the tip of her tongue. He was always quiet and seemed shy with her but now she couldn't help but be more aware of it and she wondered if it was because of his secret all this time.

When the bell rang at the end of class, Emma took her time slowly packing up her books while Killian rushed to leave. She felt his gaze on her for a moment before he walked out the door. She waited until Mr. Conlon left the class for his next advisory class until she was the only one in the room. She knew this class was empty next period and took advantage of the unguarded supplies.

Taking out the Dixie cup of Killian's water, she figured she'd make do without the salt solution and quickly went to work, pouring it into the test tube with the detergent mixing the elements. It took her nearly the entire period with his swab sample added to it but when she finally placed the slide with his sample under the microscope she knew it was worth it.

She had saved her own sample and while it had shown normal squamous epithelial cells, Killian's was anything but.

Her heart thudded in her chest as she let out a gust of breath. Logically Emma knew Killian couldn't have been normal, of course not-no human in this world is capable of healing a gunshot wound within seconds as though it never existed to begin with and not a scar to show for it. But, seeing the confirmation, seeing the evidence of what she had suspected but couldn't consciously think about jarred her. She hated the feeling that washed over her because this was Killian Jones. The sweet, quiet, and harmless boy she had known since she was a child. He never, not once caused any trouble or hurt anyone, but Emma's greatest fear was always the unknown and as of this moment, Killian Jones was the greatest unknown. She needed answers.

0-0-0-0-0

Killian nervously jiggled his leg under his desk watching as the clock ticked by. When he woke up this morning he was determined to carry on like any other day as though nothing had changed and was fully prepared to face Emma and her questions, but when he walked into AP Biology late and saw Emma there looking as beautiful as ever but with a new careful gaze toward him, all his planning had gone out the window. He didn't know why he was still so nervous, Emma hadn't acted strangely toward him or tried to confront him and it almost felt like any other day, like the incident at Granny's never happened.

When the bell finally rang, Killian quickly packed up his bag eager for a moment of solace during his lunch period. He had already decided he was going to skip going to the cafeteria that day not wanting to give Emma the opportunity to confront him or have to suffer through seeing her across the lunchroom. Now was not a good time to be pining when the girl he loved was potentially afraid of him.

But, it seemed his planning was all for nothing because just as he was about to escape to the erasure room, he heard a voice call out to him.

"Killian!" Emma shouted across the hallway. Killian barely had turned back to see Emma meandering through the sea of students getting out of class before she was already at his side and out of breath.

Emma had been walking out of the bio lab and spotted Killian across the hall. After what she had just seen there was no way her questions could wait any longer. "I need to talk to you. It can't wait," she said gripping his elbow and leading him through the hall.

"Emma!" someone called out. They both turned to see Graham Humbert waving over the heads of people. "Where are you going?"

Emma could barely formulate a thought, let alone an excuse to give to him, so instead of bothering to reply she turns away and continues toward the music room ignoring Killian's confused glance. Emma walks into the music room but continues toward a small hallway that lead to another larger room. She finally let go of him when they entered as she closed the door behind them.

"Isn't he your boyfriend?" she heard him quietly ask.

"Er no, not really. We just kind of just went out on group hangouts and like one date," she explained distractedly. "Anyway, it's not important."

She faced the closed door for a brief moment, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath before exhaling loudly and turning to look at Killian. She stood still and watched him for a moment as he took in the room they were in.

"I didn't know you played an instrument," he quietly mused looking around the room. "I've never been here before, didn't know it existed."

"Oh, I don't," she corrected, nervously tucking her hair behind her ear. "I just kind of found it."

"How?" He asked curious. His question was an innocent inquiry but even so Emma could feel the blush creeping up and she was glad that he was still looking at the instruments around them. She definitely didn't want to get into how she had found it with Graham when they went to sneak off for their first kiss just three months ago. She had liked him so much then and even imagined that he could be someone she finally opened up to but that day felt like years ago, as though she was someone else entirely. A girl who was pleasantly surprised that the beloved jock would find her interesting enough when hardly anyone ever did.

"Oh just stumbled through one day, I don't even really remember anymore." She said instead. For someone relatively new to lying she was quickly becoming an expert. She took a deep breath before turning back around to face him.

He had been looking around the room but now he was staring at her curiously as though she was the one carrying a fascinating secret. And while she looked back at him she couldn't help noticed the ease in his shoulders. It was such a stark contrast to his fidgeting in class.

"You're different," she observed quietly.

He looked at her startled but didn't say anything.

"I-I mean you're different here with me than in class or just around campus."

He shrugged slightly looking as though he didn't know what to say.

"It must be hard going to school and carrying this weight. Where you have to act like everything's normal but feel anything but. Only you're not really like that with me."

The look in his eyes as he stared back at her was undefinable but it made a warmth settle in her chest. "You make it easy," he finally said.

Her breath got caught in her throat before she cleared it. "Killian, there's something I have to show you."

She placed her books and backpack on the table beside her before reaching for the hem of her sweater. She couldn't look at him as she pulled it up to reveal her bare stomach, exposing the silver handprint. She heard his breath hitch as she pulled her sweater up higher.

Emma finally looked up from her stomach to gauge his reaction. His eyes had widen in shock and was glued to her bare skin.

"Yeah," she breathed. "That was kind of my reaction too at first. And now I think I'm just on autopilot or something because it's the only thing that's keeping me from passing out or something and I just—I just need answers Killian."

Emma slowly let her sweater fall back down to cover the handprint, her eyes on him. She wanted to communicate that he had nothing to be afraid of and that he could trust her but the words were trapped in her throat as she waited with bated breath for him to finally speak.

"Um, oh," he said softly, still seemingly stunned. "Wow."

"Oh, so that's strange to you too then," Emma said trying to seem calm with a casual shrug. She was bobbing her head and looked off as she began again, "Look Killian, I scraped your cells from your pencil and took a sample from your water bottle and well, the cells weren't normal. So, I figured we could go back to lab, re-do the test because I clearly suck at this lab and it's just for my own benefit too, you know, I need to get an A in AP Bio or my GPA is going to drop like crazy and colleges are just not going to admit a student who flunked out of AP Bio and I can prevent all that from happening if we just go back and do it all over."

Emma knew she was rambling and needed to take a breath but she couldn't help but let the frantic words slip out of her mouth, trying to make sense of it all. Killian watched her quietly, letting her finish before finally speaking.

"You're not going to flunk out of AP Bio," he reassured. "Because what you saw was right."

Emma spoke slowly, enunciating her words. "Er, no I don't think you understand, Killian. I worked on my cells first and then yours and it looked nothing like mine. Or anyone else's for that matter. So, no I don't think what I saw was right."

"Emma," he said carefully. "You know the truth. That you did the lab correctly, that what you saw wasn't wrong."

Emma huffed in frustration. "Ok, fine, say hypothetically that I am right, that those really are your cells, what's your explanation for that? I mean how do you explain it, hm? What is it, Killian?" She raised her eyebrows expectantly.

Killian looked conflicted for a moment before taking a breath, a sudden calm falling over him as though readying for something.

"It's hard to explain but I suppose you can say I'm not from around here."

"What do you mean, where are you from?"

There was a pause before Killian slowly pointed up, Emma following his finger with her eyes in confusion. "Up north. Canada?"

Killian shook his head once imperceptibly raising his hand higher.

No. No way. He could not be saying—of course not.

"Come on," she scoffed. "You're not telling me—you're not saying…that you're an alien."

Killian looked back, a nervous smile on his lips. "Well, I prefer the term 'not of this earth,'" he tried to joke, falling flat.

"Hah, right sure…" she trailed off, stunned. "Right, ok, yeah that's…logical…or something…" Emma paced around in a daze muttering words of rationale trying to wrap her head around what she had just heard. It was the confirmation that she had been looking for she supposed, but she had hoped it would have made a little bit more sense than that. I mean, was there a possibility of aliens existing? Sure, but that news was supposed to come from scientist as some kind of novel invention or something, not from Killian Jones, her childhood schoolmate.

She could feel the onslaught of a headache coming on as she felt Killian's gaze following her nervous movements, patiently waiting.

"Well, anyway so I have to go to my U.S. Government class so, I'll see you around or something," she mumbled out trying to keep her breathing in check. She turned toward the door not looking back to Killian.

"Emma wait," she heard him call out before hurrying over to her and grabbing her arm just as she got to the door.

"Killian, I have class and I just-I just need to…process and I…" she trailed off, the buzzing and whirring in her head beginning to cloud her mind.

Killian brought her close trying to catch her eye. "Look I know this is all hard to swallow, believe me, I know but Emma it could be really dangerous if anyone found out and I need you to trust me. Please, Emma."

Emma remained stiff looking down and away from him.

"Now my life is in your hands," he uttered in a whisper before letting her go.

Emma looked up at him once more before pushing through the door, leaving him behind.

0-0-0-0-0

It was finally the end of the day and Emma was on her way out of the school when someone suddenly grabbed her arm. Fear gripped her and she was preparing to scream as someone pulled her into an empty classroom.

"Relax, it's me," she heard Ruby's voice. Turning around Emma spots Ruby moving to sit on the edge of a desk with her arms crossed.

"Geeze Ruby, was that really necessary? You scared the hell out of me." She was catching her breath with her hand over her chest while Ruby looked at her unamused. A sense of dread filled Emma as she looked at her friend's determined gaze, knowing what was inevitably to come.

Before either could speak again, the classroom door opened to reveal their friend Robin Hood. "Hey guys, sorry I'm late. Had to tell the guys that we're pushing band practice. Did I miss anything?"

Emma looked between Ruby and Robin. "Ok, seriously what's going on? Because this oddly feels like an intervention and it's been a long while since any one of us needed that."

Robin shrugged, "I dunno, I'm just here on Ruby's orders. Said something about you being weird and sitting next to Happy? Now, personally I don't think that's odd behavior but I am curious, why did you sit beside Happy?"

Ruby put up a hand to stop his ramblings, "That is so not the point. The point is that something is going on with Emma and now it's time she starts talking. No more avoiding," she directed to Emma. "What the hell happened yesterday at Granny's? Because one minute you were standing and fine and the next minute you're on the ground with Killian Jones on top of you."

"Whoa, what?" Robin exclaimed looking over to Ruby. "You failed to mention that in your story earlier."

"Well, that's exactly what happened. Then he suddenly scrams and that freaky friend of his, Victor something-or-other is waiting for him outside and they screech outta there like they're on some getaway car or something."

"Ok, that I know nothing about," Emma pointed out. "I don't know anything about Victor, but yes, Killian did come up to me, but it was because he had thought I'd been hurt, but clearly I'm not." Emma spread her arms wide, gesturing to her unharmed body with her head. "See? Perfectly fine."

"I don't think so. You've been all cagey today."

Robin was watching the exchange with semi curiosity. This was nothing new to him and figured he's supposed to play the judge and jury at some point and patiently waited for the cue. That was before Ruby pulled out Emma's order book.

"Why does your order book have blood on it, Emma? Before you try to feed me any more excuses, explain that to me."

Emma went still, her arms still spread before she slowly brought them down. Her mind spun trying to come up with an excuse while simultaneously telling herself to keep calm and not give herself away.

Robin slowly stood up straight from where he was leaning on the desk. "Whoa, Emma." His eyes were glued to the order pad Ruby was holding up, clearly stained with blood. "What the hell is going on?" he asked, his gaze slowly drifting to Emma.

"That's not mine," she finally said.

Ruby balked at her. "Are you serious?" She flipped her red-striped hair behind her shoulder before walking toward Emma, order pad still held up. "You're seriously trying to tell me this isn't yours. Those are imprints of your handwriting, Emma. I know it well enough at this point, don't you think?."

"Look, I don't what you think happened, but that's not my blood." It looked like denial was what she was going with until she could figure something out.

"Then who's is it?" Robin cut in. He stayed frozen on his spot, looking over to her cautiously. "Where did it come from, Emma?"

"I don't know!" Emma exclaimed defensively. "I don't know what kind of explanation you're expecting from me, but I'm fine. That's not my blood, I'm not hurt, and I'm not acting cagey."

"Ok, then where did this blood come from?" Ruby shot back.

"Again, I don't know! That could just as easily be one of the cook's blood. You know, Anna is always cutting herself up with the knife. It's why we were talking about making her a waitress instead. Just the other day, she sliced up her hand and bled all over the counter just from ripping open a bag of frozen burgers. That didn't become some investigation then, did it? And you weren't even there when it happened!"

They were both looking at her suspiciously for a long moment before Robin sighed. "Ok, I think that's enough. Emma, if you say it's all good then I'll take your word for it."

"Thank you, Robin," Emma said gratefully while Ruby exclaimed, "No, I won't take her word for it!"

"Ok, you know what, I'm done here. You're acting so weird Ruby and I just don't have the energy to deal with it right now. I'll see you at work." Emma hefted her backpack over her shoulder and without a looking back turned walked out the door. She tried to swallow down the guilt of turning on Ruby as she walked away with no other choice.

"What did Killian do to you?" she heard Ruby call out. But, she kept walking on leaving her best friends behind.

He saved my life. And now I have to protect his.

Thanks for making it to the bottom. Hope you like it and let me know what you think!

Side note, I wonder if anyone picked up on who the science teacher is and what movie I got him from. Hint: It's a JMo movie (I feel like that basically gives it away :P ) Guess away!

Next chapter: suspicion falls on Killian and he has another chat with Emma but with new information. Stay tuned...