Aaaaaand have another chapter, this time filled with a bit more Captain Swan! Hope you enjoy it as well!
The first thing Emma notices in the morning is a little note next to her bed. It has EMMA written on it, then a.k.a myself right under that. Though she recognizes her own handwriting, it still seems weird.
The apartment seems to be empty. She picks up the note and opens it.
Whatever you think the date is today, it isn't.
It's the 21st of October. You were cursed by Tamara six days ago. Basically, you're going back in time.
Greg and Tamara ran away. They want to take Henry to Peter Pan.
Neal's dead. He's actually Gold's son, Baelfire. You went to Manhattan to find him, and he came to live in Storybrooke before Tamara killed him. I'm sorry.
Regina's on your side. Henry's with her all the time.
Hook is okay, too. You can trust him. He's actually helped a lot, you should thank him.
Emma sighs. This is propably a joke.
She puts the note in the drawer and stands up. She reaches for the phone and dials her mother.
"Emma, honey, you're awake?" she says on the other end.
"Yes", she answers. "Um, I apparently wrote myself a note that says I'm cursed?"
"Yeah, that saves the explaining we had to do every morning", Snow answers slowly. "I'm really sorry, honey. We're at the shop, trying to figure things out."
"Did we find anything in the last few days?" Emma asks, trying to process what she just read. Neal's dead. Hook's helping. You're cursed. What a good morning, isn't it?
"Well, you did find a good book two days ago, we're searching through that with your father as we speak. We are much closer to a solution than we were at the beginning."
"Here, look at this", Emma hears David saying.
"I'll jump in later", Emma says quickly. "Gonna get some breakfast first."
They say their goodbyes and she hangs up. The apartment is really silent without her parents, or without Henry. She yawns, puts the phone down and goes down the stairs to the kitchen.
Only to find Hook there.
And she definitely smells smoke.
"What the hell?" she runs down the last of the stairs, bypasses him and opens the oven. A wave of hot smoke hits her right in the face and she coughs. She turns it off and stands up. Her hands and her face are propably black.
"What are you doing?" she asks, but she can't help her smile. He's wearing a simple, grey-blue t-shirt and jeans, she recognizes they are from David. He looks too casual without any jewelry or weapons.
"I'm sorry", he says. "One day I'll figure that thing out."
Emma points at the oven. "You mean, you do that every morning?"
"Aye", he nods. "And you help me every time."
"That must be weird."
He laughs and leans to the kitchen counters. "It's not. I know you never remember the previous time."
"But it's still weird. Thinking that I've done this before."
"We even had the same conversation yesterday. But I really don't mind."
He crosses his arms. There is something unusual about them.
She grabs his left hand. "What the –"
Killian just keeps smiling at her as she runs her fingertips across his skin, staring at his hand like it's some kind of miracle.
"The Crocodile", he says. "He gave it back. Said I might need it."
Suddenly, she feels stupid. "Do I do that every day, too?"
He shakes his head. "I only got it back yesterday. Cooking with a hook was really hard, actually."
Emma nods. She turns his palm and touches the scar around his waist.
"And it still… works?" she asks.
He raises an eyebrow. "Would you like to find out, lass?"
She looks up at him – and bursts out in laughing. The look in his eyes, the way he smiles, it's just too much.
Killian laughs with her and she lets go of his hand. She tries not to yawn again.
"So, what's for breakfast, Captain?"
Killian's actually really proud of himself. He managed to crack the bloody eggs, like Emma taught him, and even though she doesn't remember, she also taught him how to make an omelet. He still needs to work on the lunch, like baking a whole chicken for example, but he did make some great breakfast.
"It's really good, actually", Emma tells him. "I'm serious, even I couldn't do it better, and that's something."
"You're an expert in omelets", he says, pointing at her with the fork. "I know."
"Did I tell you that before?"
He gives her a smile and – she blushes?
He can't lie to himself, he likes the affect he has on her. They had talked many times in the previous days, and even if she doesn't know about them, he feels how her trust is growing. But a blush?
"You taught me how to make these things", he says. She bites her lip and turns back to her plate.
He reaches out his hand to grab hers. It's unusual to use that hand for kind things like this, he was used to killing people with the hook he had there. And now he has fingers, made out of warm flesh, and he caresses her hand gently.
He almost forgot what gently meant, but then Emma came into his life.
"It's not your fault", he says. "You forget about yesterday, and the day before, but it doesn't really matter. We'll find a solution, and until then, I enjoy talking to you like this."
She sighs but doesn't pull his hand away. "But what if I go back… too much? If I forgot who you are, or my parents, or…"
She swallows. She tries so hard not to think about that, he can see it.
"Henry?" he asks. Emma nods.
Killian takes a deep breath. "When was the last time we met? As you can remember?"
She blinks a few times. "At the hospital. You were hit by a car. I asked you about Cora, then you asked me about Jell-O."
He smiles at the memories. "Did you trust me back then?"
She tilts her head. "Well… not so much. I mean… I don't know."
"Do you trust me now?"
Emma looks him right into the eye. "Yes", she says.
He pulls his hand back and gives her a smile. "You see? Maybe you don't remember what we've been through since then, but something made you trust me. And if you happen forget who I am, I will be glad to introduce myself to you every morning."
Emma feels something warm inside her chest. He's right, something has changed. In her point of view, it's been a day since she saw him at the hospital. She has some blank memories of Gold telling her to help him find his son. So that's when they went to Manhattan.
She needs to add Hook being in the hospital to that note.
"How much do I forget by one night?" she asks out of the sudden. A thought starts to form in her head.
"Five or six days, why?"
"Have I ever been up until midnight?"
"No –"
"Alright, I need to call Mary – I mean, my mother."
She stands up and pick up the phone from the bar. Her mother's number is the first in the list.
"Emma, what –"
"I have an idea", she answers him. Her mother picks up a second later.
"Emma, is everything okay?"
"Yes, of course", she says. "I just had a thought."
"What is it?"
She takes a deep breath and glances at Hook – Killian – for a second. "What is it exactly that makes me forget?"
"I don't… I don't know."
"Okay, is Regina there?"
She hears her mother sigh then call for Regina.
"Emma, what is it?" she takes the phone. It's weird how she calls her Emma and not Miss Swan. When did that change?
"Do we know what makes me forget?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well", she takes a breath, "every midnight I just go a few days back in time, or what?"
"Um", Regina sounds a bit confused. "I'm not sure. You haven't mentioned it before."
Emma cleans her throat.
"I mean", Regina adds, "there are many ideas you come up with every day, but this is something new, and we haven't thought about it before."
"How about we make a test?"
"A test?" Snow asks in the background.
"A test", Emma repeats. "I'll stay up until midnight and we see what happens."
"That's actually very good", Killian tells her. She nods with a smile.
"Gold says it could work", Snow yells at the other end.
"We'll keep looking", Regina adds.
"We're coming, too", Emma answers before hanging up. She runs upstairs and writes two more things to her note. She sighs as she read it again. You should thank him.
She goes downstairs and grabs her coat. Killian already has a jacket on, another from David's closet.
"Thank you", she tells him.
"For what?"
"Everything."
So, how was it? Leave a review!
I'll post chapter five tomorrow!