Chapter Eighteen
Belle slows the fishing boat when pieces of wreckage begin hitting the hull. Henry tentatively stands and steps around Belle to look at her face.
"Belle?" he asks cautiously.
She turns to him and studies his face with her blank eyes for a moment before smiling sweetly at him. Then they both turn to survey the wreckage of the Jolly Roger.
Long boats from the 'Queen Anne's Revenge' are coming towards the wreck and David can be heard shouting for Snow. Maggie holds an unconscious Regina with one arm while gripping a floating piece of wreckage, her eyes scanning the water.
"MOM!" Henry yells when he spots Regina in the water.
The sun glints off something in the water making Henry squint. A few seconds later Emma bobs up beside the fishing boat and grabs the side.
"Mom!" Henry exclaims as he leans over the side to help grasp Ruby's arm that Emma has pushed up.
"Grab her. I need to find the others." Emma says as she pushes Ruby up so that Henry and Grumpy can haul her over the side and into the boat.
"Be right back, kid." Emma says as she flips backwards into the waves.
Belle raises her hand towards Maggie and Regina and they slowly start floating towards the boat. Henry and Grumpy seize them when they get close enough pull them up beside Ruby.
Belle turns towards David to pull him towards the boat when her head snaps towards the sound of a pistol.
"They're shooting at my Mom!" Henry says as he grips the side of the boat with anger, glaring at the enemy longboats. Belle narrows her haunting eyes and flicks her hand, sending all the longboats from the enemy ship flipping backwards and spilling the pirates into the water.
Emma barely spares them a glance as she searches frantically in the water.
"MOM! KILLIAN!" she screams above the gurgling and creaking of the sinking ship.
Emma dives down to search the sinking pieces of ship and she glimpses a pale hand caught in some rigging and swims hard towards it, throwing magic ahead of her to vanish the rigging holding her mother down.
Emma grabs Snow's hand and pushes towards the surface.
"SNOW!" she hears David yell from the fishing boat as Emma pulls her mother that way.
Several hands reach down to pull Snow onto the boat and David frantically starts CPR.
"I need to find Killian." Emma says to her father, fear shining brightly in her eyes.
"Go." He says and she dives deep into the water to find her lover.
Snow spews water up from her lungs and coughs as David sits back and breathes a sigh of relief. With Snow breathing and awake David looks around to assess what next needed his attention.
Maggie sits in one corner of the boat holding Ruby, Henry is kneeling by a barely conscious Regina and Grumpy crouches on the other side of Snow, helping her to sit up.
David's eyes fall to Belle who is facing away from him and looking over the water.
Grumpy leans over Snow to speak low to David.
"Yeah, there's something weird going on there." He says, motioning to Belle's back.
David gives him a confused look as he helps Snow to the edge of the boat to vomit sea water over the side.
"What's weird?" he asks but before Grumpy can answer, David sees Belle raise her hand out of the corner of his eye and turns to watch.
Pieces of wreckage start to move in the water, snapping together slowly, like pieces of a puzzle.
David looks back to Grumpy who just nods and then looks at Snow who is also watching Belle with wary fascination.
oOoOoOoOoOoOo
Killian's pain is fading. He always thought that he would die this way: as a captain, going down with his ship. He had fallen into the collapsed captain's quarters when the ship blew apart and now he was trapped inside the wreckage, sinking to the bottom of the sea with what is left of his beloved ship. He had returned to consciousness moments before the water had come up over his head and now he waited for the blackness to take him again.
Suddenly there is a flash of light beside him and his beautiful Swan is there; swimming up to him, throwing her arms around him and pressing her lips to his.
Emma breathes oxygen from her gills into Killian's lungs and his body gives a jerk as his brain clears slightly. She holds onto him by his arms and pulls him through the hole she has blasted in the side of the cabin to get to him. They are a fair way under the water and she stops once more to give him oxygen.
Emma presses herself that much tighter to Killian while she gives him a few more breaths before she pulls away to offer him an 'ok' signal with her fingers, which he returns, so she recommences swimming them to the surface.
When they brake the surface, a cheer goes up from the fishing boat and Emma smiles as she drags Killian though the water, towards the fishing boat.
Killian sits on the diving platform at the back of the fishing boat, holding Emma's hand as she swims beside him. He looks out at the flotsam in the water that used to be his ship and despair squeezes his chest. Killian grips Emma's hand tighter.
Belle steps onto the edge of the stern and holds one hand towards the 'Queen Anne's Revenge' and the other to the swirling water in front of her. Everyone stops to watch her as she turns her head to smile at Killian before turning back to the water.
Killian watches agape with the others as the enemy ship begins to dissolve before their eyes. The wreckage around them starts to snap together with increasing speed and they watch the hull of the Jolly Roger bubble up from beneath the water.
As one ship is reassembled, the other falls apart and they watch the enemy pirates abandon their ship for the water and the longboats.
Belle is visibly tiring but she holds her shaking hands as steady as she can as the Jolly Roger finishes reconstructing itself. Killian stands and blinks several times at the sight before him as he walks to Belle, not taking his eyes off his ship until he sees Belle go limp in his peripheral and dives to catch her before she falls.
He lies Belle down on the floor of the small boat and the others gather around her in concerned awe.
"Belle? Darling?" Killian says, gently shaking her shoulder she doesn't respond and he checks that she is breathing before he looks up at the others and asks,
"What the bloody hell is going on?"
Everyone looks just as baffled as him except Henry who speaks up.
"She was watching the Roger go down and then she screamed and then she glowed blue and her eyes turned white and then she… had magic… somehow." He finishes with a shrug.
"Let's get her to shore. Call the doctor again. Something is not right." Killian says, sending Grumpy to the controls of the boat to steer them home.
"I'll meet you there." Emma says from the water and then shoots off before Grumpy starts the motor.
Regina is sitting at the side of the boat holding a deep cut on her forehead and looks out over to the longboats floating a few metres away. Shocked pirates are gaping at the Jolly Roger and rowing towards it.
"Not today." Regina whispers with a small smile as she sends magic over to the boats, encasing the men in purple smoke and moving them to the Storybrooke sheriff's station. Then she leans back beside Henry as the fishing boat speeds towards the docks.
oOoOoOoOoOoOo
As Grumpy pulls the boat close to the dock, Killian scoops Belle into his arms and jumps onto the dock. Doctor Whale is waiting for them after having received another frantic phone call from Henry's cell phone. Killian lies Belle down on the bench seat on the docks and Whale kneels to check her vitals as Killian steps back.
Belle begins to stir and Whale holds a hand on her shoulder to keep her from getting up.
Emma comes walking up the dock with her parents, holding the mermaid cuff in her hand. She stops beside Killian and places a hand on his arm.
"Is she alright?"
Killian looks at Emma with a concerned expression.
"I've no idea what's even happened." He says, running a hand through his hair in exasperation.
"That makes two of us." Belle says with a shaky voice.
"That makes all of us!" Emma says with a smile as she kneels beside Belle with Killian standing behind her.
Belle shakes her head and looks at Emma in disbelief.
"It was the baby." She says and everyone glances down to Belle's obviously rounder stomach.
"She has magic. I could hear her in my head telling me that she would make it all better."
Emma looks up at Killian and then back to Belle.
"Your baby is talking to you and is using magic through you?" she asks, trying to sort it out.
Belle sighs.
"I guess. I was upset when the ship was going down and I touched my stomach and… it was like she just took over my body but she was talking to me the whole time; asking me what needed to be done to keep me safe."
Belle sits up with the help of a few different hands and nearly keels over the other way.
"I think I could sleep for a week." She mumbles.
Snow interjects from behind Emma.
"Maybe you should go back to the hospital." She says with concern.
"No. I'm alright. I just need rest, I think."
Snow reluctantly nods at Belle.
"Well go to the apartment and rest, Belle. [looking to the others] The rest of us can meet at Granny's in a few hours."
Everyone nods in exhausted agreement and then start to scatter.
Whale and Henry help Belle to her feet and start walking her back to the Charming's apartment.
Emma turns to see Killian staring out to sea at the Jolly Roger.
"Hey. You okay?" Emma says as she snuggles into Killian's arm and looks out to the ship with him.
"I honestly don't know, Love." He says shaking his head with a small smile.
"I don't think my mind has fully embraced everything that has happened in the last few hours."
Emma pulls him closer.
"I know. It's almost like a strange dream."
They stand watching the ship and the waves for a while.
"I think Belle will probably be resting for a while before we can talk to her about what happened. Care for another swim?" Emma asks, looking up at Killian with a devious smirk as she fingers the mermaid cuff in her hand.
"I did relish the thought of checking the ship over to make sure everything has been put back in the right order." He says, bringing Emma flush against his chest and dipping his head to brush soft kisses on her lips.
Emma pulls away to lead Killian by the arm to the edge of the dock and slips the bracelet on her wrist as she pulls Killian down into the water.
Killian grins at Emma when he pops back up above the water and tosses his hair from his eyes.
"Didn't think I would want to get back in the water for a while. You are a bloody siren." He says as he tries to grab her. Emma laughs, swirling around her pirate before she slides her arms around his chest and pulls him into a deep kiss as they fall beneath the surface and she kicks her powerful tail to push them forward towards the Jolly Roger.
When they reach the ship Emma magics the rope ladder down from the deck and Killian takes the cuff off her wrist so she can climb up before him.
Jumping down over the side of the ship, Killian meets a grinning Emma.
"Well Captain. It looks like everything is back the way it was."
Killian tentatively walks around, shaking the water from his hair. He walks over to the mast and runs a hand along the smooth wood.
"Right down to the scratches in the wood." He says smiling at the small hole in the mast from his hook.
"It's really back. Just like it was." His voice is slightly choked but he walks over and puts his hands around Emma as he studies the ship with disbelief. After a few minutes he looks down at Emma and she smiles up at the new sparkle in his deep blue eyes.
He starts a lazy kiss, swaying them with the ship as he starts peeling the wet clothes from her body.
"I suppose we should check below deck that everything is alright." She murmurs as Killian's kisses travel down to her throat. And he starts walking her backwards to the Captain's quarters.
Once there, it doesn't take long for Killian to strip Emma naked and toss her on his bed.
"I'm sorry darling but having you both back in my life suddenly when I thought you both lost, has sparked a certain amount of urgency in me." He says as he crawls up Emma's body, his erection brushing against her mound as he leans down with a deep kiss.
Emma returns the kiss but pushes Killian's shoulder back to flip him over onto his back. Looking down as she straddles her pirate, Emma watches his eyes as she slowly sinks herself down onto him.
Killian groans with pleasure and digs his fingers into Emma's hips as she begins to ride him. Angling her hips forward, she rises and falls on him at a steady pace until they are both close to climax.
Killian is running his hands all over Emma and as they approach orgasm, he presses firmly between her legs with one hand and grips her breast with the other, sending them both tumbling into ecstasy.
Panting, Emma falls forward onto Killian's damp chest and snuggles into him as his arms come around her.
"We have time for a nap before meeting everyone at Granny's, right?" she asks with a yawn.
"We're going to make time, Love." He says before adding,
"One request, darling. We take the ship back to the docks. I've had quite enough swimming for one day."
Emma laughs until they contentedly drift to sleep to the familiar sounds of the Jolly Roger.