29. DAY ONE.

In the middle of the night, only two or three hours after having fallen asleep, Killian and Aurora were suddenly awaken by the crying of their son.

"My god..." the captain mumbled, rubbing his sore neck. On the bed, Aurora had sat down and was yawning. He got up from the armchair and, trying to stretch his poor muscles, he lighted up a candle and approached the crib. "Do you think this is funny, lad?" he complained while he was picking up Allan. "Ssssshhhh, calm down, my boy." it didn't work. "You don't need me to change your nappy, do you?" he asked worried. Aurora laughed.

"Bring him here." she said with a smile on her tired face. He did what she'd said and, when she'd had the boy in her arms for almost a minute without being able to make him stop crying, she spoke again "I think he's just hungry... Can you carry him for a second?"

"Of course" he said. Aurora prepared herself to feed Allan and, once the boy was eating, Killian walked towards the other side of the bed, lying there with a sigh. "Ouch, my poor back" he complained.

"If you had come to bed when I asked you..." she replied, looking at him.

"They should see me now... How many times I've slept on the floor and nothing's happened to me, but now I'm in pain just for having slept a couple of hours on an armchair."

"You're just untrained" she said smiling. "You'll get used to sleeping in uncomfortable places again when you return to work."

"Maybe... but the potential crew will have to learn to survive without me because I don't think I'll spend more than two weeks on the Jolly Roger now that I've got you two... Unless you come with me, of course."

"You're not thinking about making our son live surrounded by a group of sailors, are you?" she asked suspiciously, remembering the manners of their last crew (althought she hadn't had any problems with that men)... How were they, by the way?

"It's not precisely a good idea, is it?" he agreed. "But we can use the ship for private trips too, you know, just us three." On his mind, many possibilities of travelling with his family appeared, making him smile widely "I can't wait to bring him to the Jolly Roger."

"We'll do it as soon as possible" she agreed. "I want him to know it as well."

"He'll love it" he said very convinced. "And when he grows up..." he didn't continue "Whatever, we'll have time to see him playing on the deck... I promise to hide the bottles of rum." he winked at Aurora, making her laugh.

They didn't know how much time had passed when Allan decided that he'd eaten enough for the moment and was returned to his father's arms.

"That's it, my boy, you're a big eater, aren't you?" Killian said softly to him. Aurora rested her head on the captain's shoulder, looking at the baby.

"He's about to fall asleep again" she commented, looking at her son's half-closed eyes.

"That's good, I guess."

"It is, but Ella says that every night is different from the previous one, you can't know how it will be... maybe he doesn't fall asleep or cries a lot of times and maybe it's us who have to wake him up so he can eat."

"Alright, enough information." he said, making her laugh. He then saw clear that there would still be a long road for them to adjust themselves to the new situation.

"I haven't shared with you half of the information the girls have given to me" she commented. They spoke in whispers, so they didn't disturb Allan.

"You haven't told me about how these weeks without me have been" he said.

"Neither do you. We've been quite busy, don't you think?"

"Aye, we have." he agreed with a sigh and then looked at Allan, who had already fallen asleep "He looks good when he's sleeping." he observed.

"Like his mother and grandmother, according to people" she suddenly made a pause and sighed "I wish my parents were here to meet him."

Killian kissed her forehead, not knowing what to say to comfort her, a thing that rarely happened. He decided to change the subject.

"I'll bring this lad to the crib and then I'll tell you about my journey... If we don't fall asleep before." he said with a smile. Aurora caressed her son's cheek and Killian brought him to the crib as he'd done before. He finally turned off the light and joined the princess in the bed, hugging her.

Surprisingly, they weren't sleepy yet, so they spent a big amount of minutes talking about everything they'd done in the other's absence. Killian told her about what they'd done aboard the Jolly Roger and the time he'd spent with Eric and Ariel. Then, Aurora talked about the visit to her kingdom, the bedroom Jour had prepared for them and everything she'd done with the girls. "You have to see everything we've bought for Allan" was the last thing she said before feeling to sleepy and tired to continue. Killian nodded and kissed her, telling her goodnight. A minute after she'd closed her eyes, he was sleeping too.

Allan didn't wake them up during the rest of the night.

.

The golden sun was rising when Killian woke up. It reminded him of his past as a pirate: he would wake up very early after just a few hours of sleep if he had something important to do related to an adventure (or worse things). Very quietly, trying not to wake Aurora up, he got out of the bed and went straight to see how his son was. To his surprise, Allan was awake too.

"Good morning, lad" he whispered, leaning to the crib "You can't sleep either, can you?" he didn't know exactly what to do, so he decided to pick him up (wrapped in the blanket) and cradle him. Maybe he would fall asleep again in his arms. When he picked the boy up, he realized why he was awake so early "No, lad, no, no, no..." yes, the baby needed a nappy change.

What should he do now? He had no idea of how to perform that task and didn't want to try, afraid of spoiling something. And waking Aurora up was not an option... "Think" he said to himself, walking in circles with the baby in his arms. Allan complained a little with such a walk.

"Ssssshhhh... we don't want to wake mommy up, do we?" he whispered. The boy looked at him with that blue eyes of his. "Alright, your nappy's dirty and your old daddy has no idea about how to change it, so..." an idea popped into his mind "I'm afraid we'll have to wake auntie Snow up, yes, she'll know what to do... this is an emergency."

He went out of the bedroom (Aurora was still asleep) and walked through the corridors, protecting Allan from the cold of the morning with his arms. The boy didn't seem to be uncomfortable, in fact, he seemed really pleased with their 'little adventure' and looked curiously at everything around him.

When he arrived Snow's bedroom, he knocked discretely on the door, hoping to only wake up one of them two. The queen opened the door with sleepy eyes, but her face brightened when she saw who her visitants were.

"Snow, I'm sorry, I didn't want to disturb you" he started as an apology "But we've got an emergency." the former teacher, who was too busy cooing to the baby, looked up to meet his eyes.

"You need help with the nappy, don't you?" she guessed. Killian nodded. "Let's go."

Snow guided him back to his bedroom, asking him about how they'd spent the night. She even seemed to be enjoying that, in spite of having been waken up so early. Being very quiet, they entered the room and found Aurora still sleeping (Killian sighed with relieve). He finally watched how Snow performed the task, trying to memorize every step.

"It's... slightly disgusting" he observed.

"Don't be silly" the queen replied. "Here you are" she returned the baby to his arms "If he's not hungry, he'll fall asleep again, as I'll do now. See you later, daddy."

She squeezed his arm and, after caressing Allan's cheek, she went out of the room. Once they were left alone, Killian looked at the boy.

"You're not hugry, are you?" he whispered "Or is it that you don't want to wake her up?" he asked, looking at Aurora "Aye, always a gentleman, like your daddy" he looked at his son as if he hadn't seen something so beautiful in all his life... it was, indeed. 'They should see Captain Hook now' he thought. "Look at your mum, nothing can disturb her sleep. She's beautiful, isn't she?" the baby yawned "You're sleepy... Do you want me to tell you a story?" it seemed stupid, in fact, Allan didn't understand a single word, but he felt good talking to him and it was like a natural thing to do with his son "Let's see... Once upon a time there was a mermaid called Ariel... or auntie Ariel, well, we'll come to that part later... so Ariel was the daughter of..."

Five minutes later, Allan was completely asleep. Killian kissed his forehead carefully and placed him in the crib.

.

When Aurora woke up, the first thing she saw was a tray with her breakfast on the nearest table and Killian sitting on the other side of the bed.

"Good morning, beautiful" he said with his best smile.

"Good morning" she smiled. "Is this all for me?"

"All for you" he confirmed. "Is everything to your highness' taste?"

"Idiot" she shook her head "You know it is." she looked at the crib where their son was sleeping. "Has he been there all the time? Hasn't he waken up?" she asked surprised.

"He was awake when I woke up" Killian explained "He needed a nappy change" it would be quite suspicious if he didn't tell her the truth.

"And...?" she inquired, really wanting to know what had happened.

"Snow did it" he explained, slightly annoyed. She couldn't help giggling a little. "But now I know how to do it." he changed the subject "I've also told him a story... Ariel's story. We must let her and Eric know about the news, now that I think about it."

"We must" she agreed. "I can do it after finishing with this." she added, taking a cupcake.

"We should wake Allan up before you write them, you know, he hasn't eaten for hours."

"That's true" she agreed "Wait a minute... you're behaving as a responsible father."

"Of course, what do you thing I'd do instead? Well, it can be quite shocking if you think about it."

"I like it." she said "You'll be a great father, you know."

"I hope so."

"You know you've got me. We'll learn to do this." he kissed her.

When the kiss was becoming more passionate, Allan woke up and started to cry. Killian couldn't avoid laughing.

"We'll need to get used to be interrupted" he commented. "I'll pick him up."

"No, wait, I want to do it myself" Aurora stopped him "I can't be in this bed forever, I need to walk even if it's just a few steps."

He didn't try to stop her, knowing that it would be useless. He observed as she walked towards the crib, picked up their son with a smile on her face and, talking kindly to him, she returned to the bed. Killian had to be looking at them as if he were stupid, but he was thinking again that he hadn't seen anything so beautiful and that made him feel so good in all his long life.

.

During all that day, the whole group (Phillip, Jour, Mulan...) had spent as much time as they could with the little family, although Jour had had to go to their kingdom to share the good news with their people. Snow had been to the land without magic after breakfast and had brought Emma, Neal and Henry to visit them in the afternoon. The blonde had almost started to jump when they'd asked her to be Allan's godmother. Killian had even started to question that decision seeing her so upbeat... she was a little scary. It seemed strange then, but he'd been in love with that crazy woman once, before he'd met the real Aurora... and she'd met the real Killian. It seemed so long ago...

That busy day was coming to its end and Killian was lying on the bed beside Aurora, who had Allan in her arms. The baby was in the process of falling asleep again and there was such a good weather for being in November that they'd opened a couple of centimetres of one of the windows. A soft wind was entering the room through it, but it wasn't enough to feel even a bit cold.

The minutes passed and that wind was becoming stronger with each of them. Killian got up and closed the window. When he was returning to the bed, he had a slight smile on his face.

The wind again. As in their first kiss, as in their first night in Neverland.

"What's on your mind?" Aurora asked.

"Doesn't the wind bring good memories to you?" was his answer. He lay on the bed again, hugging her with his left arm and their son with the other. Aurora nodded, knowing exactly what he was thinking about. "And do you know what I associate it with the most right now?"

"With what?" she looked him in the eyes.

"Freedom."