CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
Hook returned to the ship stone cold sober. Emma was lying on the deck, staring up at the night's sky, imaging what it would be like to look up at another sky again. Neverland's sky had always unnerved her, now she understood why, it clearly spoke to the wild magic inside of her, it's complete untamed, unyielding and ever changing colours and features luring her in.
Hook's heavy foot falls across the deck growing closer were comforting and Emma found herself raising her hand to her stomach almost absentmindedly. He came to stand over her, it was a sign of his unease that he didn't open with a quip, didn't take advantage of her position by sliding his lithe, sinfully attractive form over her. He simply stood, watching her watch the dark sky and stroke her still flat stomach.
She knew he was sober, there was no tell tale trace of rum clinging to him, no stale smoke from a bar, wherever he had been, it wasn't drinking.
Emma sighed "I take it you've reconsidered how this little mutiny is nothing but a good thing for us?" she asked, keeping her eyes on the dark sky.
She heard him huff, but he took her words for the invitation they were and slid down to sit with his back propped up against the side of the ship as he reached out, brushing his fingers through her splayed hair the way he always did when deep in thought. Emma closed her eyes against the feel of his hand sliding to her scalp, feather light and yet somehow reassuringly solid.
"I'm sor..." he started and Emma cut him off grasping his wandering fingers and squeezing.
"Don't say it Killian, don't make a liar of yourself, not now." She muttered, her voice softening fractionally as she let go of the anger that had been so quick to flare with him earlier, after all, she understood, she'd seen his reaction to the last mutiny, if anything she should have been pinning a medal onto his chest for the restraint he'd shown this time. Emma slid her fingers across his palm staring up at him as he gazed down at her like she held the secrets of the Universe; or at least his Universe. It was a look Emma had spent a lifetime searching for and never truly expected to find, least of all with a man like Killian, yet here it was. "You can't help what you are." Emma told him softly, remembering exactly how he'd said the same thing to her when she'd been at her worst. "But you try anyway, for me... I know what that means Killian, and I'm not fool enough to throw it away."
Hook fell quiet, his fingers only momentarily stilling before he slid them up to her scalp, brushing through the golden tumble distractedly a soft smile playing across his face as his hand shifted, tracing down the length of her neck slowly, down the hollow of her throat and between her breasts causing her to suck in a breath against the sensation as his warm hand flattened over hers, held in place over her own hand.
"So, my Lass is having a little Lass." He breathed, leaning in to press a searing kiss to her lips that she felt right down to her toes as he slid his body down beside hers, the feel of the leather he wore was so achingly familiar against her that she couldn't imagine not wanting him there. "Perfect." He breathed, breaking the kiss to ensure that she could see his face, unmasked as it was... to share the joy he was feeling.
"I know, I kind of feel bad, the poor thing is going to have no chance sneaking a guy in." Hook smirked.
"Oh I'd be fair Love, give a suitor a sporting chance at least." It was Emma's turn to smirk, fair was really not in his vocabulary.
"You think we can do this then?" Emma asked, her pensive mood sliding back over her unbidden as she stared up at him, feeling his hand tighten reflexively over hers. "Be a real family, raise a kid?"
Hook was still beside her, his fingers linking with hers. "We're already a family Love. What I feel, there's nothing more real than that. This," he moved her hand, sliding his beneath her shirt and placing his firmly against her skin. "This is our magic, our adventure and I'll fight for it... always."
Emma pressed a kiss to his stubbled chin, trying to convey everything she was feeling and barely managing a fraction of it, but he seemed to appreciate the gesture as he dropped his head to her chest, listening to the rhythmic pounding of her heart.
"The news about the portal has hit the town." He informed her quietly, pulling her slightly out of the moment as she refocused her brain on their other issues. "It seems your mother has called a town meeting, wants to give the people the choice the Curse stole from them."
Emma sighed. "I know, she was here. We came to some agreements." Emma informed him, smiling to herself at the memory.
Hook inched forward propped his head up with his arm beside her, he reached into his shirt and pulled out the pendant, holding it aloft over her chest a question on his lips.
"I don't need it." Emma informed him quietly of what she suspected he already knew, she was certain he could sense the change in her. The pendant glinted and Emma tried not to flinch, every fibre in her being telling her to get away from the thing... to protect the 'bad burrito' she'd been so willing to dismiss only yesterday.
"Fair enough Love. Nice souvenir though, for a rainy day." He added, smiling wanly as he slipped it inside his shirt, Emma smirked; doubting Gold was ever going to see that again. And maybe he was right, better to have it than not in case she ever relapsed.
"So are you tempted... by the hat?" Emma pressed, curious, because she might find it difficult to stay in this world, but she couldn't very well leave without him.
"A Universe... maybe an infinite one, of infinite possibilities?" he smirked. "All under the control of my very own Queen..." He winked seductively at her, "I'm upgrading you lass, Princess is for the 'little burrito in your belly'," he pressed a kiss to said belly. "Oh I am most definitely tempted Love." He lifted his head, pressing a kiss to the end of her nose, his playful side one of his rare gifts to her, "I'm a Pirate. Somewhere out there is a world made entirely of ocean, just waiting for me to tame."
"And you think your Queen's going to traipse after you, the 'little burrito' slowly turning her into the size of a small whale." Emma quirked an eyebrow at him, half serious.
"Please, like you could watch me sail off into the distance and not follow me to the end of the next Earth." Hook teased.
"You gonna ask?" Emma asked pointedly, turning her head to look at him her breath catching as she stared at him now, illuminated only by the moonlight and the distant glow of a streetlight from the town. He was truly one of the most beautiful men she'd ever met, her fingers rose unbidden and she traced his features his eyes fluttering shut as she did so. Emma just wished that his outward perfection extended inwards... but then she supposed it was his contradiction that attracted her so much, besides she suspected that if he was that beautiful inside she highly doubted he'd still want her. Not as damaged as she was.
"What would you have me ask you Love?" he leant in his eyes opening and searing her with the intensity and mischief dancing in them with equal measure.
"Where I want to go?" Emma quirked an eyebrow at him, seeing his lips quirk fractionally.
"And I thought you wanted another kind of question altogether Love?" He pressed a longing kiss to her lips and Emma couldn't resist reaching up and holding the back of his head, keeping him close.
They broke away naturally and Emma smiled up at him, trying to let him see the difference now her insides weren't a roiling seething mess of madness. "I was fairly sure we'd already sealed that particular deal." Emma smirked, seeing his surprised face, "What?" she teased, "You didn't mean it when we said those midnight vows at spear point?" Her parents would certainly never of approved of those particular nuptials... or the groom she imagined, in fact they'd strenuously argued it when he'd let it slip the last time, maybe that was half the fun of it.
Hook's honest smile was heartbreaking in its rarity as he kissed her softly, finally taking advantage of her position as he rolled her over him, drawing her into his embrace and holding her closer and softer than she could ever recall him doing. They were rarely tender with another, probably she suspected because it left them both horribly vulnerable to the other, even if they trusted each other implicitly, it had always been that one wall they found hard to breach.
"How about I give you this anyway, you can consider it a promise." He whispered, pressing a kiss to the end of her nose and holding up a delicate gold ring that now held the perfect pearl that seemed to have become their talisman.
Emma stared down at him, sitting up so that she was straddling his hips as she considered. "I thought you were going for a necklace with that?" she teased and he ignored her, reaching for her hand.
"Like I'd tell Jukes my plan, the pair of you are like nattering old nags when you get together with the rum." He paused, holding his breath and meeting her eyes as he slipped the ring onto her finger.
"Does this make me yours?" Emma half joked, throwing his earlier words about the crew back at him.
"Please Lass, you've been mine since you tied me to a tree and held a blade to my throat just to keep me at your side."
"Pirate." Emma muttered with affection, admiring the ring for a fraction before she leant forward, wondering if perhaps a Pirate King could ever trump a Fairytale Prince? Personally she thought it was a no brainer.
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They voted yes.
They voted home.
Emma stood in front of the whole town her hat in hand, struck down with the worst case of performance anxiety she'd ever experienced. Every single person silent, waiting for her to rescue them, to send them to the one place in the world that was theirs.
Regina, Rumple and her extended family were beside her, the two formerly most powerful people of this realm she was opening a portal to, powerless to do nothing but stand by and watch.
There had been only two people that had chosen 'no', chosen to stay in this world that had been her home for 29 years. Rumple and Belle. Rumple had promised to stand by Emma now to make sure that what little help he could be in returning them was offered, but that was all. His bastard son beside him, beaming like everything was finally right in his world as his father finally made the choice her should have made hundreds of years ago... family over magic.
Emma had been surprised that Regina hadn't elected to make a similar choice, given her history and the bad feeling of the townspeople. Plus Henry wasn't really cut out for a world of magic and danger, he was far too curious a kid, far better for them both to stay here in Emma's opinion, after all, she had the hat now, she could return to this world as easy as hopping on a bus to see him. But apparently Regina wasn't done with her redemption bid, she had stood before the town, told them she knew their forgiveness was not a thing she could ever ask for, but that she would try and help rebuild the world they were heading back to. That if nothing else she would see to it that her mother and the ogres running amok wouldn't trouble them.
It was a nice thought, Emma just hoped that with the temptation of her rampant magic back in the enchanted forest Regina could live up to it... but then she'd have Henry to help her. The kid had categorically chosen Regina. He'd taken Emma's hand, stood there his eyes dry, looking far too grown up for his twelve years and told her he was going with his real mother and that he hoped she would still be there to see him grow up, because he wanted her in his life, even if she hadn't wanted him... that had stung and Emma's eyes hadn't remained as dry as the kid's, even Regina had looked uneasy with his statement. But it was his choice, even if right now it was being made out of anger and disappointment, Emma was sure it was the right one. And if Regina failed him... failed to be nothing other than the best of herself, for his sake, then she'd have nothing less than an army of Royal guards and some seriously pissed family to deal with.
It made her choice easier. For the time being, Emma and Hook would follow with their family, they would help rebuild this world that Emma was certain would never be her home, she and her mother would stay side by side, slowly swelling with their respective pregnancies. But she was under no illusions that it would just about end Killian, to stay in one place so long... she wasn't so sure it wouldn't do the same to her, but they owed it to the 'bad burrito' to at least try and give her a normal few years, at least until she was old enough to go wandering. Killian had already taken a jaunt into her little hat before the others, poking his head through what appeared to be endless series of doors to see the possibilities within and planning just how he intended to explore and potentially plunder each one of them... one day, just the three of them.
Emma tossed the hat into the centre of main street, pushing her will and seeing the Enchanted Forest in her mind, feeling her thoughts and very self reach out and touch the other place, its magic suffusing her and pulling her inwards as she resisted, until the magic exploded outward, the hat engulfing the floor of main street, one giant swirling hole of magic, limited only by the size of her ability to control it. It pulled and she pushed, holding it in place.
"Now." Emma called out. "Everyone in, because honestly I have no idea how long this will hold."
Snow and David went first, a leap of faith for their lost Kingdom, leading their people one last time, and slowly and entire town of people emptied, whatever they could carry in hand, a few chests of medical supplies, some technology, books that might change the way they did things over there for the better... or not. Personally she wasn't so sure that the modern world would be a benefit to them, that it would just bring more problems than it solved, but who was she to tell them not to bring the penicillin and the knowledge of how to make it again.
Everyone went through, Regina and Henry were last, the kid gave his deadbeat father one long hug, whatever whispered words they shared, were between them alone. It hurt to see him accept the man as his father, when she was being pointedly rejected. But at least he wasn't coming with them, if it was a goodbye, then that she could handle, she supposed the kid deserved a decent one of those at least with the bastard father he'd be unlikely to see again, because she sure as hell wasn't going to be making him a portal to visit anytime soon.
Henry looked at her across the portal, his hand gripped in Regina's, and he smiled. Emma smiled back, trying to imagine what it was he was thinking and coming up blank, but he gave her a small nod, and without hesitating they jumped together into her portal... maybe they'd work it out after all, in time.
"Ready Love?" Killian slid his hand into hers, looking across at Rumple and his long lost family, his desperate desire to rend them even now, still clearly etched into every inch of his features. But he resisted, his hand tightening in hers, as he chose to give up his chance at revenge, for what might well be the last time.
"For ogre's, magic and castles that lack central heating..." Emma sighed, "Why not."
They jumped, hand in hand, the portal closing behind them, leaving nothing but a ghost town, full of the now silenced history of another world that would become little more than stories to this one.
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Author's note: There will be a brief epilogue, so stay tuned, and thank you all for coming on this journey with me, hope you enjoyed it.