Chapter 6:

David Nolan sat at his desk, the computer screen bright in front of him. He pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers, willing the head-ache that was starting to develop to dissipate. He was on the verge of something. Everything in him felt it. However it was nearing one o'clock in the morning and Mary Margaret had been calling every fifteen minutes for the last hour. Every time he told her that he just needed a little bit longer. The last time though she had been insistent. So insistent that she had told him that if he wasn't home in an hour the doors would be locked when she got home. He clicked on the link in the web browser and a screen with Robert Gold's face popped up. He searched the page and found a link that led back to an old name at the bottom. Clicking on it a name appeared, a name he recognized. Milah Stilts. He clicked the link and was directed to an adoption certificate with both her name and Robert Stilt's name on it. It all clicked into place. He must have had his ties to the mafia way back before he became Robert Gold. Robert Gold was Robert Stilts, husband of Milah Stilts. Somehow Killian had known. He didn't know how but he was impressed. Which menas that Robert and Milah had a son out there. Going from that point the information just started to fall into place. Page after page he found some nugget of information until he stumbled on one that threw him for a loop. He had been under the assumption that Robert and Milah had only ever had one child, the child that had gone missing but now it appeared there was a second child that had been put up for adoption. He used his security clearances to get around some of the red tape hoping to find the name of the adoptive parents. Perhaps if he could locate them he could ask them some questions about the people whose child they had adopted. After another fifteen minutes, and yet another phone call from Mary Margaret, he finally found what he was looking for. Clicking on another link he found the name of the couple who had adopted their child from Robert and Milah Stilts. He continued reading through the page and in ten minutes had stumbled on a wealth of information, and a buried secret.

Killian woke to the phone ringing. Clicking on his bedside lamp he sat up, grumbling as he reached for his phone. "Mate, do you know what time it is?"

"I do. And you know that I wouldn't have called you if I didn't have something major to tell you that couldn't wait until morning."

"Spill then."

"Are you alone?"

"Yeah, it's the middle of the night."

"So I guess things with Emma aren't progressing then? I had kind of hoped that there might be something between you by now."

"Mate, I don't think you called me at this time of night to talk about my relationship with Emma, which is progressing fine if you must know. Just because we're not sharing a bed doesn't mean things aren't going well."

"Right. So anyways, what I found. So I stumbled across some old records and found out that Robert Gold is Robert Stils and that Robert and Milah Stilts had another child, a child that they put up for adoption."

"Did you say Robert Stilts had another child? Or just Milah?"

"Robert and Milah. There were two copies of an old birth certificate. One with no father listed and one naming Robert as the father."

"Which was filed first?"

"The one naming Robert as father." Killian felt his heart drop. He knew what that meant.

"Go on mate."

"So once I found that I tried to connect it to the case that we're working now."

"Did you find anything?"

"Oh yeah. But Killian it affects you."

"Then I suppose you should tell me."

"When the police were investigating Milah's death they spoke to the neighbors, Bryce and Lorrinda Bailey. They were pretty quiet, especially since their neighbor had just been murdered. They didn't want the police to come into the house. Which wouldn't normally have been a cause for concern but at the moment Robert and Milah's son, Neal, was missing."

"You think he was at the house. I know he was. A few weeks after Milah's death Bryce and Lorrinda moved away and ended up in a small town in Connecticut. They had documentation giving them custody of Milah's son in the event of her death."

"She knew he was going to kill her."

"I don't think she knew it but it seemed like she thought it was a pretty good possibility. It's possible we'll never know all the details about what happened but about a month before her death a lot of her legal documents changed. Robert was removed from the birth certificate of both Neal and her baby that had been put up for adoption. She must have talked to the adopted parents because they had to have given her access to their child's legal documents. Do you know who that child was?"

"Aye. But why don't you say it."

"It was you Killian."

"I know. Well, I knew part of it. I accessed the documentation that didn't have Robert's name on it. I knew Milah Stilts was my mother and I had a sneaking suspicion that Robert Gold was her murderer. I didn't know he was my father though. I didn't know who she was married to."

"You understand what that means? Neal Stilts is your brother."

"Well, yes but he's been long missing."

"Not so much. It wasn't really that hard to piece together once we got his real name. I think there must have been dirty cops in the department that investigated your mothers death because it wasn't really that hard to get the information."

"I've been looking for years."

"You don't have the same security clearances I do. I've been doing this for a lot longer than you."

"This is true. So tell me about Neal Stilts. You said that he's not missing? Do you know where he is?" For the first time Killian began to feel excitement build in him. It had been a blow learning that Robert Stilts, aka Robert Gold, was his father but if he had a brother out there it would more than make up for it. He had missed having a brother. Someone to care for, someone that cared for him. The world was a lonely place. Emma felt like family, and he guessed she was since she was his wife, but they were still just starting to develop their relationship. It was so tentative. Neal would never be able to take the place of Liam but family was family. A relationship could develop, although him being undercover for the rest of his life definitely put a damper on that. He would probably never be able to know that he was his brother. "I do know where he is Killian. When Milah gave custody of Neal to the Bailey's they changed Neal's name so that Robert wouldn't be able to find him. They named him Bobby."

"Bobby Bailey. You mean...?"

"Amazingly he lived here in Storybrook, right under Robert Gold's nose. He had a live in girlfriend named Belle. He was murdered in the parking lot of his apartment complex after an altercation with Robert Gold, who used to be involved with Belle." Killian felt sick to his stomach and for a moment the world went black. How was this possible? He knew that there was likely a connection between the two cases. They were eerily similar. Had Emma not seen Robert commit the murder he had no doubt that he would have gotten away again. "Killian are you okay?"

"My brother is dead. And I'm married to the woman who watched him be murdered."

"She couldn't have done anything Killian. Please don't hold this against her."

"Why would I hold this against her? She's not to blame."

"I thought you might think that she should have done something to stop him."

"I didn't think that before I knew that he was my brother so why would I think it now?"

"I don't know."

"It was just a statement Dave. I mean it's all really weird right? That somehow both my brother and I ended up in the same town as our father and that the woman that became my wife watching my father kill my brother."

"He killed his own son and he doesn't even know it. I wonder if Bobby knew it."

"I guess we'll never know. Is there more Dave?"

"Isn't that enough?"

"Aye mate. I guess it is." They hung up a moment later and Killian sat on the edge of the bed. It was still the middle of the night but any thoughts of sleep had been chased from his mind. How had all of this happened? Here he thought he was just helping a stranger by marrying Emma and somehow it had led to his mother's murder being solved and the realization that Robert Gold had taken more than just her from him. He got to his feet and padded to the bedroom door, intent on getting a drink. Water was the plan but somehow he found rum in his glass moments later. Sitting on the couch he downed the first drink and poured another. One after another until finally he felt numb. It was too much. There was hope and like always it was snuffed out. A chance at family and it was gone. In an instant. He heard a noise at the doorway and turned toward the sound. "Killian? Is everything okay?"

"Aye lass."

"You're sitting here drinking in the wee hours of the morning in the dark and you're trying to tell me that everything is alright? Really? That's the story you want to go with?" She walked into the room and settled on the couch next to him, her leg tucked underneath her and her fingers carding through his hair. He had never had this before. Someone to be there when he was hurting. "Killiian, talk to me."

"Do you remember when I said earlier that there was an additional motive for why I chose to protect you?

"Yeah. You said you'd tell me about it another time."

"I guess another time is now. I just got a call from Dave and I feel like you have the right to know what the call was about." Concern flashed across her face and for a moment she considered telling him not to tell her. She was just starting to settle into this new life. Just starting to enjoy it and trust it. Whatever he was about to tell her she was afraid would disrupt that. "Okay?"

"When Dave first told me about the case he was just sharing. I didn't really expect to do anything about it until he told me about how the murder happened. Stabbing to the gut repeatedly and the murder weapon taken. For some reason I had this feeling that it was somehow connected to another case I was familiar with. Milah Stilts. She was killed years ago, and she was my birth mother."

"Your birth mother was murdered?"

"Aye love. For years I've searched for her killer, to no avail. Then your case comes up and it just felt familiar. I wasn't sure there was a connection but honestly in my gut I just knew there was something. I asked Dave to try and find a connection, and then I agreed to our marriage. Which is a decision I have not for a single second regretted. Tonight Dave called to tell me that he found information on Robert Gold. Although his real name is Robert Stilts."

"He's related to your mother?"

"He was married to her. He's my father."

"Are you kidding me? How is that even possible?"

"They put me up for adoption and then a month before her death she must have contacted my adopted parents because she had my birth certificate amended, removing his name. But there's more. They had another son, Neal, who was two years older than me. At the same time she had my birth certificate amended she did the same to his and gave her neighbors, the Bailey's, custody of him should anything happen to her. A month later she was dead and they disappeared with Neal. They changed his name and no one ever heard from Neal Stilts again. He became Bobby Bailey." He waited for a moment while she thought over the name. Since moving they hadn't discussed the case much. The focus had been on creating a life together and now the case was encroaching on that life in a way that he wasn't comfortable with. He liked this life that he had now with her and he was hesitant to remind her that it had originally been a part of protecting her from the reach of a killer. "Bobby Bailey. You mean the Bobby Bailey that I watched get murdered."

"The very one."

"I watched your brother be murdered."

"Aye, the man you saw murder was my brother." She bit her lip and looked away, before reaching for the glass of rum that he had in his hand. She downed the contents in one swallow. "How much did you know before tonight?"

"Just that Milah Stilts was my biological mother. Once David found the proof that Robert Gold used to be Robert Stilts it all started coming together."

"Are you okay? I mean this has got to be a lot to take in." Her hand settled on the back of his head, eyes filled with concern. Earlier she had been concerned that he had been keeping something from her but now all she could think about was him. To learn that his wife had witnessed the murder of the brother that he never knew at the hands of their father was more than any person should have to deal with.

"It is but I'm managing. Having you here makes it easier."

"How's that?"

"For one with you here I know that Gold can't get to you. But more than that I haven't had this in a very long time. Dave and Mary Margaret try to be there for me but they're friends. Not family." In the darkness he saw her shift and instinctively he knew what had affected her. As unusual as having a family was for him it was even more foreign for her and he couldn't be sure that she viewed him that way yet. For him though she had become all the family he needed. "Family. Wow I haven't had that in a long time. I mean I get what you're saying about David and Mary Margaret. Granny and Ruby were like family to me but no matter how the tried to include me I was never really a part of it. They were family and I was like family. Which is not quite the same."

"Emma, you're my family lass. For a second tonight when Dave first told me about Bobby, before I knew he'd been killed, I got excited. I had a brother again. He could never replace Liam but it was someone that was mine. Then I found out that he had been killed and you were the first thing that came to mind because there's still someone that's mine. He was my last family, no matter how short a time I knew about him, but losing him didn't really mean anything because I still had you. I hope someday I'll be family to you love. I really do." She leaned forward and pressed her lips to his and he felt, rather than saw, a small smile play on those lips. When she broke the kiss she leaned back and clicked on the light at the end of the couch. "You're my family Killian. It's not conventional but it's ours." She didn't say more, but instead moved to put a DVD on. Without saying a word she knew that sleep wasn't on his register but that continuing to talk about it wasn't in his nature. This wouldn't be the end. There was more getting to know each other that they had to do, and Gold's trial still hadn't been put on the docket. Still for the first time in years he felt like he was home and it was all due to the blonde woman who settled herself back down on the couch next to him.