Here's the 16th chapter. It's the longest I've written so far, but there were many things I wanted to tell in it.

Opinions, questions and constructive reviews are welcome. Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

16. MEETINGS.

Only three days after Phillip had left, Snow crossed the doors of William's castle and met Jour, who had been waiting there for her since he'd seen her approaching the place riding her horse, as Phillip had done days before. When he looked at her face, he knew he was in trouble. She hugged him as she always did (maybe a bit colder), but he could see in her eyes that she'd tell him off as his adoptive mother used to do.

"Where's your sister?" she asked.

"Come with me" he simply said.

He guided her to where Aurora was. He was going to open the door, but Snow put her hand on his arm, stopping him.

"After I see her, I want to have a serious conversation with you." she said. He just nodded.

When he opened the door, they found that Aurora had fallen asleep. Snow approached the bed to see her better, feeling happy to see her again and check with her own eyes that she was safe. At first, she hadn't believed that the love between the princess and the pirate was true but, after they'd left, Emma'd been the one who'd convinced her. If her daughter trusted the captain, she would do it too.

Snow observed Aurora for some minutes, as she'd done when she'd had 'nightmares' during their adventures together. A feeling of protection rised again inside her. Finally, she spoke:

"We should let her rest" Jour nodded "Let's have that talk" she added using a more serious tone.

During their way to a room where they could talk in private, the young king was preparing himself for what Snow was surely going to ask him about. None of them spoke until they reached the place and he invited her to sit down.

"So," she started "what the hell are you playing?" was the sweet Snow swearing?

"What do you mean?" he tried to delay his answer.

"Have you forgotten what you told me the last time we met, before you left to look for your sister?" she was using the same tone as his mother again "Do you need me to remind you?"

"It's not necessary."

"What's happened to you, then? What's made you change your mind?"

"I just don't want Aurora to be hurt. Pirates can't be trusted."

"Have you even spoken with him?"

"I've got nothing to talk with him." Snow was astonished.

"Has William brainwashed you or what?" she asked.

"He's right, you don't know what pirates did to him."

"But you can't be so narrow-minded about Killian for what he's told you. Do you believe him more than us? After all we've told you about how Hook has helped us?"

"I don't want to lose my sister again."

"Of course you don't. And you won't lose her." Snow was starting to suspect that William was using Jour's fears to manipulate him.

"I'll do if I let her be with the pirate. That can't be love." he replied.

"Jour, I didn't see it at first, but I eventually understood. Moreover, she's old enough to make her own decisions. And you are too. William is the crazy one here, not you. We know we generally can't trust pirates, but Hook has changed, believe me. Have I ever told you a lie?" he shook his head "I'm just asking you to make your decisions and judge him yourself, don't let anyone think for you. You're making a mistake, but you can still fix it. Think about it, right?" he nodded, looking at the floor. Snow smiled "I have to get prepared for the audience with William."

"I'll go with you" he said. He didn't say anything more because his mind was working, assuming everything Snow'd told him. He would need more time to think about it, but maybe she was right.

.

The meeting with William had been an absolute failure. She'd told him everything Killian'd done since they'd arrived Neverland and had reminded him that she and her husband had pardoned the former pirate, that they trusted him. But the king hadn't wanted to listen.

"Just let him show you he's not a bad person" she'd insisted.

"Maybe in your kingdom you are more flexible, but here we punish criminals." had been the cold answer.

"He's from my kingdom, whatever he did, he did it there, and it's where he has to be judged."

"Do you think I'm stupid? You would release him, and I can't let it happen."

After more frustrated attempts, Snow'd had to surrender. She'd warned him that they wouldn't let things stay like that and that there were more kings who thought the same as her. If he insisted on continuing with that madness, they'd face him together.

.

When Killian saw Snow's face approach him, he immediately knew that she hadn't managed to change William's mind. That wasn't something he hadn't expected, but still made his scarce hopes disappear almost completely. At least he had another visit, someone he could have a conversation with.

"So you've discovered that he's a hard nut to crack." he said as a greeting.

"We'll crack it." she replied "Maybe I've been unable to do anything, but together with David, Phillip and Eric we'll do it. Three kingdoms against one."

"I don't want you to start a diplomatic conflict only because of me" he said.

"We'll do it if we need to. We're not leaving you here. You're innocent and if he keeps you locked up is because he's blinded by his prejudices. A king who is like that is not capable to reign."

"Do you know why he is so blind?" he asked, although it didn't matter much to him.

"Not exactly. I just know that he had a daughter who was everything to him, but she died in a tragic way. He turned into ice after that."

"And in spite of that, he wants to separate another man from his child. Hypocrite." he said angrily.

"You'll get out of here." she said.

"Excuse me if I'm not so optimistic."

"I'll be for both of us" she replied. "He hasn't any evidence against you."

"He's determined to find them, but what will he find? I can be here forever."

"We'll stop him." she said very convinced.

"Have you seen Aurora?" he asked.

"She was sleeping when I went to visit her but she seemed to be fine." he nodded. "I don't know how I'll do it, but I'm not leaving her alone. She must be so scared..."

"Thank you" he said really thankful. It was a relief that Aurora'd have someone close to a mother by her side "You can live in our cottage if you want."

"That sounds good" she agreed. "Oh, I almost forgot, I've brought something for you. Wait a minute." she disappeared upstairs and appeared again with the prosthetic hand he'd been using before recovering his hook when he was in Storybrooke. "Here, it was among a lot of things we brought from Storybrooke and I thought you'd find it useful."

"Sure it is" he said, putting it where he'd had the hook.

"When Emma comes on holidays with Henry and Neal she'll surely want to pay a visit too."

"More company... great" he commented "Now, seriously, thanks for everything."

Suddenly, they heard footsteps approaching them. They turned their heads to see that Jour was the one who was making the noise. Hook wondered what did he want now.

"Snow, do you mind going to see if Aurora's awake?" he asked. The queen squeezed Killian's right hand to encourage him and, thinking about how she would tell Aurora the bad news, left them alone.

The captain waited until the other man spoke, but he seemed to be thinking about how to break the ice. He finally found the way.

"So you've changed." he started. After having been thinking for a while, he'd decided to see who Killian was with his own eyes. Snow was right.

"I swear" Killian answered. Did that mean that Jour had finally changed his mind (or started to)? Had Snow something to do with that?

"I'll give you an opportunity to show me who you are. I still don't trust you, but if you show me that you're... one of us, I'll reconsider my position."

"What do you want me to do?" he was willing to do whatever it took.

"I don't know yet, but when I do, you'll be the first to know" he answered and, without saying another word, he left the room.

.

"So I leave you two alone for less than a year and when I come back I find this" Emma said, looking meaningfully at Aurora's baby bump.

"It's nothing we'd planned." she answered.

"I think I've heard that before" she commented with a smile. Aurora smiled too and the two women kept talking while walking in the gardens.

Emma and Neal had appeared there two weeks after Snow's arrival. During all those days, her presence had been really helpful to Aurora: Snow behaved as a friend and, at the same time, as a mother, taking care of her and keeping her company. She felt much better now that she had someone who had already been a mother to talk to. Jour was also there, quieter than never, as if he was thinking about something all the time. They didn't have any news about Killian (she tried to think that maybe in that case no news meant good news) and Snow had advised Aurora not to insist her brother to tell her and was also doing her best to distract her from her thoughts about the former pirate, who she missed more and more everyday. The queen, as Jour himself, avoided talking about Hook, althought Aurora knew it was because she wanted to protect her. But with Emma she could speak about everything.

"I can't stand it, Emma. Living in the same building and being unable to see him, knowing he's so depressed and that I can't do anything for him" she said, trying not to cry.

"Who's said that you can't?"

"Everyone." she answered "Everytime I ask someone what I can do to help, they say 'you just have to rest and take care, we'll do everything'"

"Well, it's what you have to do, but knowing how the father is, I'm sure the baby will survive everything." they both smiled "Anyway, there's something you can do."

"What?" Aurora asked, willing to do whatever Emma had in mind.

"If you made him a visit, you'd be able to make him feel a lot better."

"There's nothing I want more than seeing him, but how would I do that? Even your mother's not allowed to visit him anymore."

"Let Emma perform her magic." answered the sheriff with a mysterious smile.

.

The following day, Killian was eating his scarce lunch when something strange happened to the guards: they were eating too (a healtier and bigger meal) when, without knowing why, they all fainted. He didn't have time to think about a possible explanation when he saw a blonde he knew by heart approach him. He got up immediately and couldn't help staring at her as if he was stupid.

"Swan? What the...?" he asked, walking towards the bars.

"Sleeping pills, very useful." she said proudly.

"And very subtle." he observed.

"There's no time to talk, get ready, you've got a visit." she tried to comb his hair with her fingers "This is a lost cause" she said with frustration. "Wait a second."

She disappeared from his sight and, when she returned, she wasn't alone. Aurora was coming with her, holding Baelfire's arm. When she saw him, thinner and pale, she couldn't do anything but letting go of Neal's arm and going straight to kiss him, cupping his cheeks with her hands. The kiss lasted what seemed to be an eternity, none of them wanting to separate from the other, feeling each other's sadness and, at the same time, the joy of seeing each other again. He felt how her tears rolled down her cheeks and kissed her more passionately, his hand on her cheek too, wanting her to know how he loved her and how much he'd missed her.

"I've missed you" she whispered and he kissed her again for many seconds, trying to hug her through the bars, without taking a fact into account. "Killian, the baby." she reminded him, finishing with the kiss.

"Oh, sorry, have I hurt you?" he asked with a worried look, putting instinctively his good hand on her belly.

"No, don't worry, I'm fine" she answered, wiping away the new tears which were emerging from her eyes.

"Wow... this is so strange" he said when he realized where his hand was. It was real, they were having a baby "How's everything going? Is it fine?"

"It seems so. She's a fighter" she answered.

"She? Do you already know...?" he asked.

"No, not really. It's just that I've got used to thinking about it as a girl. Maybe because it's what I prefer." she confessed.

"So it still can be a boy" he said hopefully, smiling for the first time since she'd arrived.

"It can." she agreed and smiled too. "Let's see who wins. I hope you don't have anything against the name Rose."

"Like your mother?" she nodded "Of course I don't." he caressed her cheek again. "You must be so scared... and I can't be there with you."

"It's not your fault." she replied "We'll come through this, alright?"

"Aurora, if something happened to me..." he started with the same tormented face she'd seen when she'd arrived.

"No way. I don't want you to think about that for a single second. You'll get out of here and we'll be free." she said, trying to convince him. He didn't say anything for a couple of seconds. "So you're not allowed to be depressed, are you listening?" he smiled again.

"As you wish, your highness" she smiled.

"I can't be fine if I know you're feeling so bad."

"Don't say that" he replied taking her hands and trying his best to avoid crying too. "You have to cheer up too, for Rose or... well, I'll think about a name just in case she turns out to be a boy" he crossed his fingers, making her laugh. "Hey, that's it. That's how I want you to be." they kissed again.

They heard a cough outside of their little bubble. When they looked on its direction, they saw Emma standing a couple of metres from them.

"I hate interrupting these kind of things, but Snow's sent the signal" she said "We have to hurry up."

Aurora nodded and turned to Killian. She could see in his eyes the same feelings she was experiencing: the grief for having to separate again after all that time being apart and so few minutes to be together.

"I'm going to wait for you" she said. He nodded and they kissed again. "We both will." she added, putting one of her hands on her belly. He put his own one over hers, feeling the lump on his throat grow stronger.

"Take care... and tell him... or her that his father loves him." he said. She wiped away another tear and nodded too.

"Always" she said "But you'll be there to tell her personally, alright?"

"Guys" said Emma with a strange voice. They kissed for the last time and Aurora turned to join Emma and, with a last glance to her love, she disappeared from his sight.

In the darkness, he did what he'd been avoiding all the time: he let a couple of tears scape from his eyes.

When she went out of the dungeons, Aurora was feeling happiness and pain at the same time. Emma was hugging her with a suspicious sparkle in her eyes.

"Emma," said Neal "are you crying?"

"Of course not, I've got something in my eyes" she answered knowing that, if she'd been the one who'd asked, she would have detected the lie in less than a nanosecond. Neal didn't say anything and Aurora was too lost in her thoughts to notice anything else.

.

King William's last weeks had been horrible. First there was the damn pirate issue, whose resolution was still on hiatus and, to make everything get worse, now he had Snow White against him, who could be joined by more kings. That could mean not only that he probably would have to set a filthy pirate free, but that he could lose his crown too. To make things worse, there was a dragon threatening one of the isolated villages which were under his protection. He'd sent a group of soldiers to kill the beast, but very few had survived and he was planning the following group's recruitment when someone knocked on the door.

"Did you want me to come, your majesty?" the visitor asked, using the most educated tone he could.

"Yes, I have. I need to know your opinion about the pirate's issue." the king answered.

"I've heard Snow White is pressuring you."

"That stupid girl doesn't understand anything." he said as a response. "You helped me to catch him, what can I do now? How can I avoid the conflict?"

"I think we both know the answer" answered the young man "There's a quick way to get rid of every threat."

"Are you suggesting that we kill him?" the king asked with her usual cold voice. His interlocutor nodded. "Won't it be too obvious?"

"Not necessary. He's weak and depressed... and prison isn't precisely the healthiest place on earth. If we plan it carefully, nobody has to suspect anything. And if they do, how will they prove it? When a couple of months have passed, almost everyone will have forgotten him. He's just a pirate after all" in the king's face appeared something which looked like a smile. He stood up and picked up a portrait from a table.

"Your daughter?" the visitor asked. "She was really pretty."

"Indeed... She meant everything to me... you know the rest of the story. Pirates can't be trusted, when you turn your back, they steal what you love most and bring it to your worst enemy so he can cause its death. No matter how much they pretend to be good, they are just lies. But now..." he looked at her daughter's drawn eyes and kept talking "we've got one of them, Odette, and we're not letting him hurt somebody else." he turned to the young man again "Should we tell anyone about our plans?"

"No."

"So, how do we get rid of our dear friend?"

At the other side of the door, Jour was petrified. He'd come to ask William something that, on that moment, had lost every importance and he'd been unable to avoid listening to the conversation. Still in shock, he kept listening to everything he could. How blinded he'd been. There were lines which mustn't be crossed, no matter how tragic a man's story was, and William had crossed one of them.