Author's note: Hey guys! Sorry again for not posting yesterday :( I hope you'll like the chapter :) I'd like to thank you all for all the views on this story but also on The Pirate Princess for those who read it or are currently reading it :) Also thank you for all your reviews you're like my second family you know :P Sorry too for the title, but I coudn't think of somthing better ^^

One more week until OUAT… Can't wait! :DD

Disclaimer: I unfortunately don't own anything, characters are the property of those two guys named Edward and Adam…

Chapter 17: Knowing you

It was good to be back home with her son. Emma had missed her home town, and, even though it was just for the promo, and that it was not just her and Henry, she was glad to be in Boston again. During the flight she had asked Killian if he had ever been to Boston, which he answered positively and smiled at her, telling her she probably knew the town better than he did. Things were oddly going great between them. They did not talk about what Emma called the "Paris incident" in her mind, again and things went back to normal between them. Even if they were behaving like friends and not just screen-partners. The one things Emma was excited about was the fact that, for once, they wouldn't be living in a hotel room for the three days they were in town, but at her mother's house. She couldn't wait to see her again.

When they arrived at her house, Henry jumped out of the taxi and ran into his grandmother's arms, leaving Emma and Killian behind him with the suitcases. Speaking of Killian, Emma would have bet anything that he had been nervous when she introduced him to her mother. And Killian was never nervous. Never. When Emma introduced him to her mother, she thought about the last time she had introduced a man to her. This time had been way more fun and pleasant. They went to bed early, as they had to go promote their movie – again – the next day. If Emma was honest with herself, she would say that she loved her job. She loved being an actress, and at the beginning, the promo was great, it was fun and all, but it was really starting to get on her nerves. They always had to answer the same questions, always have to deny the same rumours they did a week or so ago. And, she seriously loved the movie they had filmed, she really did, but she was also really tired of seeing herself on screen. She wondered how Killian was doing so calmly, how he could possibly handle all of this. "Experience" she thought "He must have gotten used to it with time".

Flashes. Smiles. Questions. Answers. Movie. Speech. Autographs. Flashes. Smiles. Home.

The first thing Emma did when they got home was hugging and then rushing to the shower, leaving Killian alone in the living-room with her mother. He was awkward. Really. So he looked around at the pictures on the walls, spotting the ones where a younger, happier and smiling Emma was on. She was really beautiful at the time. Not that she wasn't now, but it was another kind of beauty. She must have been fifteen on the pictures, a teenager, while she was twenty-seven now. A grown woman.

"Something caught your eyes yet?" he heard Eva – Emma and Mary-Margaret's mother – ask behind him and he jumped a little.

"Just looking the pictures, they are really nice" he answered.

"Emma was really carefree at that time" she smiled a nostalgic smile.

"I'm sure she still is, deep inside" Killian tried to reassure her "I think we just need to get past the walls she built around herself Mrs Swan" he said and she chuckled.

"It's Blanchard actually, but don't worry" she smiled and Killian couldn't help but ask the question that was burning his lips.

"I'm sorry if it is indiscreet, but I was wondering why Emma and you don't share the same surname. I mean, was she…"

"Adopted?" she cut him off, still smiling "Yes, she was. I adopted her when she was fourteen. She and Mary-Margaret had been great friends for at least two years. Emma was in the foster system, jumping from one family to the other, keeping her until the parents got a kid on their own. Sometimes, they were violent and Emma came to school with a black eye or belt marks on her back. One day, Mary-Margaret came home crying, upset and she told me everything. She couldn't stand the sight of her best friend being abused, of her starting to drift away from the right path. So, that day, I talked to my husband who, like I loved Emma like his own daughter and we decided to take Emma out of this system" she paused for a bit "It was complicated with her at first, even though she and Mary were good friends, Emma was mad at her for what she did. Telling her she should have kept what she knew a secret, that she didn't need anybody's help, that she was good on her own. It took her four months, but she finally let herself admit that people could care about her, a thing she was not used to."

"Where did she get her last name from?" Killian inquired.

"The first foster family she had. The Swans were great people you know, loving and caring. They never raised a hand on Emma, they really loved her. But when they were able to have a child on their own, they couldn't afford two children, so they sent Emma back into foster care. She felt this as a betrayal. Like she was being abandoned again."

"I hadn't imagined she had such a hard childhood. I believe it had been better after you adopted her no?"

"Oh yes. Considerably better. Until she started dating Neal…"

"Neal Cassidy?" he asked.

"You know him?"

"I met him, once. He was with Emma"

"Oh right, it's true he came back a few months ago. I never like him. He was the kind of guy that would pull you by the hand and take you with him in his fall. But Emma was in love and I couldn't do anything about it. She was already quite stubborn at sixteen" Eva chuckled and Killian did so with her "She never had problems with him, she always avoided going on his planned thefts with him. She was a great student, really serious about her homework and especially her drama class. It was all good until that one day. The day she found out she was pregnant with Henry. It was an accident, she went to his flat to talk with him about it, just to discover he had left, leaving her with just a simple note and a baby. She knew she wouldn't be able to attend to the school she had applied to if she kept the baby. But she did. She said she wouldn't abandon him the way she had been abandoned sixteen years ago."

"She is a great mother you know, for the bit I've been able to witness, she loves Henry more than anything else in the world. She could do anything for him"

"Emma would dedicate her life for those she loves" Eva smiles, looking at him knowingly and he raised a confused eyebrow "She likes you"

"I doubt she does in the way I like her…" he answered, not thinking his words before he spoke them.

"Maybe not now, but, I know my daughter, and when she will be able to see past her trust issues, she might surprise you" she winked and chuckled at Killian's expression, so did he a few seconds after.

"Henry," Emma said, covering the mike of her phone "Go help grandma with dinner would you?" she smiled at her son.

"Yes mom" he answered and went down the stairs.

"Sorry, mother duties"

"I know, don't worry" Ruby's voice told her through the phone. "How is it going?"

"Can I be a kid for a second and tell you I want to stay here?" Emma inquired, in an amused tone.

"Emma, dear, I'm going to tell you this because I'm your best friend and that, as being so, I must be true and honest to you. You are always a kid" she laughed.

"Pfff… Not true. I'm a perfectly mature person you know"

"Yeah, say the girl who went to Disneyland and who will be going to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in a bit more than a week?"

"I perfectly assume this fact you know" she laughed.

"To get back on more serious subject, how is it going with Killian?"

"Ruby" she complained "Do we really have to talk about this now?"

"Yes we do, because, knowing you as I do know you, if I don't do this now, you'll always have something else to do. So, how's it going?"

"Good" she simply answered.

"And what more?"

"Ruby…"

"What more?"

"Oh no lad, trust me, you'll regret it if you do that" Killian warned Henry, grinning, as the kid was about to put whipped cream on the actor's face. But Henry, as his mother's son, was a stubborn one and put the cream on Killian's face. "You asked for it lad" he said and went after him. When he finally got him – because, he was a fast runner – he pushed him on the couch and started tickling him.

"Killian?"

"Yes Mrs Blanchard?"

"First, please, for the hundredth time, call me Eva, and can you please go and fetch Emma please?"

"Of course" he nodded "Until next time kid, I will have my revenge" he ruffled the boy's hair.

"You wish"

Killian climbed the stairs and when he was about to knock on the slightly opened door, he heard Emma on the phone.

"I don't know Ruby… It's just, he came into my life and, once again, I'm a mess with my feelings. He just did what he had to do you know, messing with my mind and then he'll be gone again"

"But what do you feel about him, right now?" he heard Ruby's voice ask.

"I… I think I'm in love with him. But Ruby, I can't. Not again, I won't let myself being fooled once again" Killian was feeling weird at her statement. "Once again" she couldn't possibly have been talking about him, and all his hopes were blown away. When he realised she had hung up, he eventually knocked.

"Yes?"

"It's time for dinner" he said smiling and she nodded. Emma went out of the room first, Killian holding the door for her as the gentleman he was.

Once she had left, he closed it and promised himself that he would win Emma's heart. Because eavesdropping her conversation made him realised something. He didn't just like Emma Swan. No, he was desperately in love with her.

Author's note: Heyyyy! Hope you guys liked the chapter, and Killian's realisation at the end… Unfortunately, and please, don't hit me for it, but they're not close to be together just now… And I'm sorry about that… I still love you guys *big apologetic smile* Please, leave a review below, that would be awesome :D xx