22. FINALLY

For Killian, being aboard the Jolly Roger again was like to be home, but he didn't pay attention to that feeling since he was focused on reaching the spot where Aurora was, just a couple of metres from him, who had run out of patience and had gone to the ship to find her himself, before she could get out of it.

She was waiting for him, smiling with a sparkle in her eyes, and, when he finally hugged her, he felt that, after a long time, everything was truly fine. He was where he was meant to be again, with her, without anything or anyone standing in their way. He allowed himself to get lost in her warmth, in her smell, not wanting to release her, until she looked up, putting her hands on his cheeks, with teary eyes but her happy smile still on her face, and kissed him, putting her arms around his neck. It wasn't a dream, he was right there, with her. It was real. None of them wanted to separate from the other, as if they wanted to make up for the lost time and were afraid of losing each other if they did it, so they let the kiss last until they were unable to continue.

He hugged her again. She rested her head on his shoulder while his good hand was stroking her hair.

"I love you" she whispered in his ear.

"I love you too" he said, kissing her head's side. They were too excited to say anything more... it wasn't really necessary since they knew each other so well.

They looked at each other's faces again and Aurora observed that Killian had the same happy expression she'd seen the first night they'd kissed. She felt really glad to see it again, specially taking into account how he'd been the last time they'd seen each other face to face. Unable to contain himself, he kissed her one more time, making her giggle.

Once again, nothing else mattered, just them two... well, now they were three.

"What has been that?" he asked wide-eyed, finishing with the kiss and looking down to where the slight kick he'd just felt against him had come, taking time to realize for the first time how Aurora's body had changed since the last time he'd seen her.

"Have you felt it?" she asked. It was obvious that he had (it had been a strong kick), but he didn't even answer. He was still hugging her with his left arm, but he'd put his hand on her belly, looking at it as if he were hypnotyzed. She didn't tell him anything more, letting him deal with his thoughts, something that he really needed because if he had felt strange the first (and, until that moment, only) time he'd touched Aurora's belly knowing what was inside it, that second time was a hundred times more strange. Their son/daughter was there, he could feel it. It wasn't an undefined cellular structure but a tiny human being... who moved. And he loved that child, he'd done it from before, but then everything was so real that that feeling surfaced more than never.

It was then when Aurora realized that they had been left alone in the Jolly Roger. After some moments, Killian returned to reality.

"Are you two fine?" he asked with a slight smile, feeling how their baby moved under his only hand.

"Yes, we are" she answered. Suddenly, Killian's mind was filled with a lot of questions about the last months, but they had to wait as he'd realized that she had to be tired from the journey and he shouldn't keep her standing there. There would be plenty of time to talk about everything. For the moment, he was with Aurora (with his family, which was fine) and that was all that mattered.

"Let's go." he simply said and, without saying anything more, he guided her by her waist to the harbor, where the rest of the group was waiting. Charming was hugging his wife with one of his arms, both with a wide smile. Jour and Mulan were standing at their side. Snow released herself from her husband's embrace and went to hug Killian, while David approached Aurora to greet her too.

"When I met you I didn't thought I would say this" Jour said, shaking Hook's hand after Snow finished hugging him "but I'm glad to see you again." he clapped his shoulder.

"I was thinking exactly the same" he replied with a smile. "Thank you for everything."

"Don't thank me" the blond said "Just take into account that if my sister has any complain about you, even the most insignificant one, you'll have to face me."

"And me" Mulan added.

"Deal" Hook said smiling (and regretting immediately the word he'd just said). On his side, Aurora couldn't hide the joy for finally seeing her brother and her love being nice to each other.

"Alright, enough talk" Snow interrupted them "This girl needs to rest." she said taking Aurora's hand.

The queen leaded the way to the carriages which were waiting to take them to the castle. It wasn't a long journey and in just twenty minutes, Aurora and Killian were left alone again in one of the guests' rooms. She immediately lay on the bed and, after having walked around the room for a couple of minutes, Killian joined her.

"Tired?" she asked when he lay on her side.

"Not even a bit" he answered.

"Lucky you" she commented. Snow'd told her that tiredness was something normal in her condition, but in that moment, she was more than that and her feet and legs were hurting terribly. It seemed that her body was using the occasion to complain about everything that it had been lacking while being on the ship.

"In more than one way" he looked her in the eyes, and she understood what he meant.

"I thought I'd lost you" she said softly. He put his arms around her and gave her a brief kiss.

"Don't think about that anymore." in his embrace, she felt better.

"Don't dare to do anything like that to me again... or I'll sent Mulan to chase you, stupid pirate." he laughed. It had been a while since she hadn't called him that.

"I should be scared then."

"Yes, you really should." she smiled.

"Why don't you sleep for a while?" he asked.

"I don't want to. I want to be with you. Moreover, I'm fine just being like this... and I'm afraid that he or she doesn't have any intentions to let me sleep." she said, caressing her belly.

"So... she does it everytime?... moving, I mean... doesn't it disturb you?" he asked, remembering all the things he wanted to know and feeling quite stupid about the scarce information about the subject he had in his brain.

"It seems she's as quiet as her father" she answered ironically. They both smiled "I've got used to it ..." suddenly, she realized something "Wait, have you said 'she'?"

"I had a dream during the quest" he didn't want her to know that it really had been a nightmare "I saw a girl in it and when I woke up after the accident I felt quite... in agreement with the idea of having a girl. So I think you ended up convincing my subconscious." she smiled.

"I have to confess that my point of view has changed too. I wouldn't mind if we have a boy. Whatever it is, I just want it to be fine" she made a pause "Killian, don't get offended, but I'm uncomfortable" she said.

"Oh, sorry." he said taking his arms out of her, who accomodated on the pillows.

"Doesn't matter, it's something that happens to me quite frequently lately."

"Living in the Jolly Roger mustn't have been precisely a pleasure to you" he observed.

"It's been tiring, but hasn't been so bad" she said "He's been a good boy (or girl) and has behaved really well... I think he's liked the sea."

"Aye, of course he has" he commented very convinced with a naughty smile "You love it, don't you, lass?" he said, talking to her stomach, making Aurora laugh.

"This lack of information about the gender will drive us crazy" she commented. "It's a girl, then a boy and then we return to the girl again." he laughed too.

"Well, we can solve it easily" he said. She looked at him suspiciously "Whatever it is, it's a little pirate, isn't it?"

"So you suggest that we call it 'the little pirate' until it's born" she guessed. He couldn't help laughing again when he looked at her sceptic face. "Don't do that!" she said, shoving him slightly "I refuse to call our baby like that. With one pirate we have enough."

"One ex-pirate" he corrected her. Aurora smiled at him.

"That's true" she said. "Killian..." she called him softly after a couple of minutes in silence.

"Hmmm..."

"Hug me again."

"As you wish" he said, putting his arms around her again, glad to be finally able to spoil her.

All the suffering they'd been through seemed far away, like a bad dream. They knew they would eventually have to talk about it, about everything they'd lived during all that months. It would happen soon, but not that day, which was entirely for them.

After a while, Aurora was unable to contain a yawn.

"Sleep now, I'm not going anywhere." Killian told her.

"I can try" she agreed. To her astonishment, the former pirate put his good hand on her belly again and, approaching his head to it, he spoke:

"Hey, lad. Be good to your mum and let her sleep for a couple of hours. Will you?"

She couldn't help giggling. If anyone who had been under the orders of Captain Hook saw him like that he would lose all the authority he had in a second.

"What's so funny?" he asked. "Me behaving as if I were Charming?"

"Exactly."

"Why don't we let it stay in this room?"

She nodded smiling, too tired to keep up with the conversation. He got up to let her accomodate however she felt the most comfortable and, after kissing her, he sat in an armchair and looked at the landscape. When he got tired of doing it and looked at Aurora again, she was already asleep. She was so beautiful... He stared at her, looking at how she breathed peacefully, still unable to believe how lucky he was.

How he'd missed his Sleeping Beauty.