AN: Thank you for the reviews! I'm honestly sorry to have made some of you cry but there WILL be a happy ending. You can't enjoy a rainbow until after the storm you know.

.-ONCE. UPON. A. TIME.-

He wasn't the man he used to be. The man that she'd first met under a pile of corpses and tied to a tree and threatened with an Ogre was a man with darkness in his eyes and poison on every word that slipped off his tongue. Captain Hook. The ruthless captain of the Jolly Roger with his humanity carved out of him as if that was what Rumplestiltskin ripped out on that fateful day instead of Milah's heart. A man hellbent on revenge and uncaring who got hurt in the way, wither it was Aurora or Belle or anyone else who crossed his path.

Day by day, like sunlight trying to peek through a filthy window, little bits of Killian Jones started to escape Captain Hook. It was in the way he looked at her when he thought no one was looking with such a soft longing in his ethereal blue eyes. It was in the way he reached for his flask less often and found himself by Emma's side more often.

When Emma thought of Killian Jones, it was easier to think of him as Captain Hook. The villainous pirate with the devilish grin and the hint of madness in his eyes as blue as the ocean he sailed on. But that was Captain Hook. The man so blinded by loss and vengeance that he buried the man he used to be. That was the man that she climbed the beanstalk with. But Killian Jones was the man she left tied up with Anton atop that beanstalk. The glimmer of redemption that she turned her back on because she was too afraid to see past the fairy tales she'd been told as a child. Over that past year, she'd been thrown into a world of magic and fighting the Evil Queen and Rumplestiltskin. She had been tricked and burned by hoping there could be some good in them more times than she could count. Captain Hook would not be another mistake like they were. She couldn't take that chance.

In the Enchanted Forest, Emma just had to hope she'd never see him again. Wrong, oh so very wrong, since the pirate turned up at every corner she rounded, being the missing piece of every puzzle that needed solving and even somehow succeeded in following her back to Storybrooke with Cora. From there he was escorting her to Neverland, bringing her entire family back safe, finding her against the impossible odds in New York, bringing her home over and over again as he fought with her to show her that Storybrooke WAS her home and not New York.

But all of those memories seemed so far away now. Like another life not even lived by herself, but out of something she'd read in a book or watched on TV. Even with her memories back, her year in New York with Henry and the false memories of the life they hadn't truly had together as mother and son were still too embedded in her mind. She kept opening her eyes and expecting herself to have dozed off in front of the TV again. But each time she opens her eyes, the world around her is only all the more clearer.

The only clear memory when she opens her eyes in Archie's office is the painful one of him pulling away as she let her walls down and tried to kiss him last night.

Archie waits patiently, as if he's expecting her to say something as she awkwardly sits on his couch an looks around the room, wondering if this was how Henry felt when he had to have therapy. Except, Henry knew why he had to have therapy. It was Regina's way of trying to keep her curse in tact but trying to convince Henry that he merely had a wild imagination. Emma had no idea why she was here.

All she knew was that her parents relentlessly asked if she needed to talk to them or Archie. When Ruby and Belle joined in, Emma finally caved. She'd agreed to talk to Archie even if she didn't know what about.

"So... How have things been for you since the final fight against Zelena?" Archie finally breaks the silence and tries to get things started. His hands are pressed together and there's no chart or timer in sight. He's not timing Emma, writing anything down or asking for money, he simply wants to help her and she almost snorts as she remembers that he's Jiminy Cricket.

It's almost amusing that he wants to talk about Zelena when most of the town just wants to forget but it's a somewhat nice change of subject from Killian. From how she can't stop thinking about how he's changed and how much it hurt when he pulled away from her last night.

"Not too bad I suppose. The town's been pretty quiet at least. Seems colder than usual but y'know... Maine..." She presses her lips together and looks up at the ceiling. "Have you talked to Regina about her white magic? Impressive, right?"

Archie tried to smile but his lips twitched only a fraction. "Regina's come a long way, yes. But is that really what you want to talk about right now?"

Emma let out almost a hysterical laugh. "Honestly? I don't know what I'm supposed to be talking about. Unless it's how weird everyone's been acting lately."

"Everyone?" He uncrosses his legs and leans closer in his chair to look at Emma and the concern swimming in his eyes makes something nervous stir in her stomach. "I've been hearing quite the opposite. Everyone is really worried about you Emma."

She was floored with confusion. Was this how a mouse felt when it ran into a dead end and felt trapped, lost and confused all at once as it struggled to find an exit? As he leaned forward, Emma leaned back, trying to keep a casual space and look for her exit.

"Why? Zelena's gone, nothing horrible is happening for once... Why can't everyone sit back and enjoy it?" Liar. Why can't YOU enjoy it, a whisper echoed in her mind betraying the fact that it's been impossible to let her guard down.

Archie leans back as well, sighing in what seems like defeat as he wrings his hands together, clearly nervous about what he has to say next.

"Because... It's been over three days Emma. Dr. Whale is being a patient man for you, everyone wants to wait until you're ready to make the arrangements but you're the only one who really can. You're the only one who really knew him and the hospital doesn't usually keep a body past three days. It's been a week... Whale agreed to wait another week but after that...well, The body won't keep forever..."

Emma listened to him at first, waiting for him to say a sentence that made sense and would fit this entire weird puzzle together. Her mind echoes back to her earlier thoughts that this would be easier if Killian were here. Killian was always the missing piece to puzzles...

Her mouth opens a few times as she tries to find words through the confusion but all she can manage is a weak, "What?"

"Captain Hook, Emma-"

"His name is Killian." She almost growls back with a defensiveness to him that she didn't know she possessed. It took a long time for her to get past Captain Hook and find Killian Jones but now that she had, she just needed the others to see him as well. Starting with his real name. "Killian Jones."

Archie honestly looks startled and holds up his hands in defense, letting a few seconds pass to tame her anger back down. "Killian Jones..." He agrees with a wistfully sad hint in the tone of his voice. "His real name is a good start to making a grave marker."

That last sentence hits Emma like a punch to the gut and she jumps to her feet, her heart hammering before she has to convince herself that Archie of all people is not the type to threaten Killian. "And what the Hell is that supposed to mean?!"

Archie remains seated, although nervously. "I just thought... Neal had a grave but, like I said, you knew Ho-...Killian... Best. Are you thinking of a burial at sea?"

"What the HELL are you talking about?" Emma almost screams and her heart is hammering in her throat and trying to choke her words before they can come out. Archie's speaking as if Killian's the one whose been in the hospital mortuary for the past week but that's impossible, she's seen him every day. He's been by her side. He's ALWAYS by her side.

Somehow, she doesn't know how, but Archie remains calm and seated, readjusting his glasses. "I was Henry's therapist you know." He looks up to Emma who is trying her best just to breathe and can only nod. She remembers all too well. "When you first came here, I asked you to indulge in his fantasies. He's just a kid and there was no harm really to him thinking that fairy tales were real, especially since he ended up being right all along but... This? Emma? This is different. You can't do this. Everyone is worried about you, your parents and son are scared for you. You have to do this for the people that are still here with you. You have to move on."

Confusion is a whirlwind in her mind but her heart is aching and begging her to not make sense of what Archie is trying to tell her. She reigns in her emotions and levels her gaze to Archie's, meeting his eyes and making absolutely sure that whatever he tells her next is the truth.

"Why... Are you trying to talk to me about burying Killian?"

Jiminy damned Cricket with the patience of gold has no irritation in his voice when he has to repeat his words. Just a soothing plea for her to let the words sink in. "I already told you. Because you knew him best..."

"But he's not dead!" Was her voice always that shrill or was it only when panic sets in? "He's still here! He's always here!"

Finally standing so he can look her level in the eyes, he gently grasps her shoulders. "Denial is a cruel trick of a broken heart, I know, and he'll always be in your heart but it's time to let him go. There are stages to grief and-"

"I know the damn stages Archie." Emma snaps coldly, jerking out of his grasp and remembering all too clearly how hard it was to get past Graham and Neal. She glares at the ginger therapist and her mind is trying to tell her that some of this makes sense to everyone's strange behavior around her but her heart is begging her to remember that she's seen Killian every day. She's not going to stay here and sink deeper and deeper into confusion, she's going to go and find Killian and smack the hell out of her pirate until things start to make sense.

She whirls around to storm out the door when she's stopped dead in her tracks by the pirate himself blocking the door and she doesn't even have time to wonder when he had snuck in here so quietly or why.

"What-...? WHAT are you doing in here?" She struggles to keep herself from shouting at him, just relieved to see him again and barely hearing Archie asking who she's talking to behind her. "Why is he trying to talk to me about a funeral for you?"

"Emma? Are you...talking To Killian?" The worry and a bit of fear for the poor girls sanity can't keep itself out of Archie's voice and Emma hears it this time as she rolls her eyes and turns to look at him.

"Who else? Do you know any one else who wears this much leather?" She tries to crack a joke but something in Archie's expression reaches through to her as he looks around his office and finds a camera sitting on his desk to pick up. Emma slowly turns to look back at Killian who has the most terrified and griefstricken expression that she's ever seen on his pale face. Except he wasn't supposed to be this pale. He'd been pale the past few days but never this pale before. How long had he looked like this? A week? Since Zelena...

"Swan, love, I'm so sorry..." Killian tries to tell her but she's backing away from him now as there's a click of a camera behind her and Archie's footsteps as he walks towards her to hand her the camera.

"Emma... No one's there." The cricket says quietly as he hands her the camera with the picture he just took displayed on the screen. A picture of her blonde hair facing the empty door where Killian should have been standing.

. .-

Archie cancelled the rest of his appointments that evening as Emma sat on his couch with her knees pulled up to her chest and her hands in her hair in silence, just trying to wrap her head around the situation. Was she crazy? Was she hallucinating because her heart refused to go through this break again? Her eyes darted up to Killian who was sitting on the other end of the couch, not looking at her but keeping his eyes on the ground as if he was ashamed that he had died, allowing her time to let the horrible truth sink in. Archie sits back in his chair with his elbows on his knees as he mirrors Killian's position and if the situation wasn't so serious Emma would find it funny that he couldn't even see Killian but was mimicking him.

Both the men allow her time to think wither it's minutes or hours that pass, she can't tell. All she can do is go over her previous encounters with Killian over the week. Alone and always away from the group or anyone else. Keeping himself from touching her. So distant and she wishes she didn't know the reason why now. She hates that it makes sense. She hates it so much she wishes that she could grab the truth and crush it into dust but unfortunately truth isn't a physical form that can be taken away the way that he was taken from her.

When she does break the silence, all she can ask is; "Am I being haunted?" She doesn't look at Archie but at Killian instead. "Are you haunting me?"

"Haunt is such an offensive term, love." Those damned blue eyes keep avoiding her gaze and how can there still be so much tension between them when one of them isn't truly here?

"So when I tried to kiss you..." She starts out slowly, hating that Archie is overhearing this conversation. At least half the conversation.

"I didn't want you to find out like that." He looks up at her and there's nothing but unspoken apologies in his eyes although she doesn't know what he has to apologize for. She's the one who failed him. She's the savior that couldn't save him.

It's then that the unshed tears start burning behind her eyes and her voice wavers. "I lost you?"

"No love, you could never lose me." He's kneeling beside her suddenly and she doesn't know anymore if he's moving silently or if he has some sort of ghost-teleportation. He lifts his hand to brush it against her cheek but she feels nothing. Absolutely nothing. And that possibly breaks her even worse than before.

"So when Zelena killed you..." She trails off, knowing that he'll finish her sentence.

"She did.", he replies softly and Emma closes her eyes against his voice, wanting to hear the voice but not the words. "You know that Swan. But when your magic came back you did something. I don't know what, but you brought me back." Her green eyes flash open to study his face and search for truth it what he was saying. "Well, not entirely back but... I'm here. Not gone."

"Not entirely gone." She tries to smile at him and looks over at Archie who is only hearing half the conversation but not interrupting or asking questions either. The tears don't fall and she blinks her eyes rapidly, trying to rid herself of them. He wasn't entirely gone and that was what she had to cling to. If he wasn't entirely gone, maybe she didn't have to let him go. Maybe she could bring him back to her somehow.

Standing up and brushing off her jeans more than necessary just to give herself something to do, she smiles gratefully at Archie for being patient and polite through this and trying to help her. It wasn't his fault that he didn't know entirely what was going on.

"Thanks for your time Archie. But I think I need to go talk to Rumplestiltskin." She ignored Killian's groan at the name as she excused herself from the office.

. UPON. A. TIME. -

When Emma walks outside the office building, she's half expecting Killian to appear out of thin air and she's right. She left him behind in the office but when she exits the door, there he is standing by a parking meter on the sidewalk as if he was never inside and she has to wonder if he's been practicing this whole ghost thing in secret over the week. However, what she's not expecting, is David's truck and her parents waiting outside for her.

As she sees Mary Margaret open her mouth, Emma holds up her hands and takes a deep breath. "Wait. Before you say anything... I'm not crazy." She shoots a distressed look at Killian but she can tell from her parents expressions that they can't see him just like Archie couldn't. "He's haunting me."

"For the last bloody time Swan, it's not haunting." Killian lets out an exasperated breath and she can almost smile at the back and forth between them that never changes, no matter the situation.

Her mother mouths a few wordless sentences and looks all around the sidewalk, clearly unable to say what she was going to originally say but not knowing what else to say. "Ha-haunting? Like a ghost?"

"Not haunting." Killian persists although she can't hear him.

"Is he here now?" Mary Margaret asks carefully and Emma nods, pointing to the right of them where the parking meter is. It looks like it takes all of Snow's restraint to not leap away from where she points but instead she nervously smiles at where she thinks Killian is. "Oh. Hello Killian... I'd say it's nice to SEE you but..."

Emma laughs, actually laughs and some of the tears she's been fighting back escape because for a second everything seems normal and fixable and she can only hope that it is.

"I'm sorry I can't talk, I have to go see Rumplestiltskin." She ignores the way Killian rolls his eyes or the way David still hasn't said anything and looks unbelievably uncomfortable. "My magic...when Zelena was defeated. It did something. It kept him here and..." Emma's eyes widen. "You guys have to go to the hospital and make sure Whale doesn't get any ideas about cremating his body." That sentence was horrifying to say out loud but it spills from her lips and she doesn't need to beg her parents or think too long about Killian's body being lifeless somewhere in the dark. "I'll see you later tonight."

Her parents nod and give each other helpless looks as Emma runs past them and to her yellow bug. Killian's already in the passenger seat when she gets there and it's insane to say that she's getting used to the way he pops up next to her no matter where she goes.

.UPON. .-

AN: I actually did have to research how long hospitals and morgues keep bodies before funerals and the hospitals may refuse to keep them past 3 days but a mortuary can keep them up to a month as long as they're keep at a certain temperature. Weird to think about, I know.

Thank you to everyone reading. I have a vague outline of what's going to happen but if you have any opinions or ideas on little scenes, let me know.

I don't know how many of you have seen Odd Thomas AND Being Human (or either, some of you may have no idea what I'm doing here) but the ghosts in Being Humans can see doors to the afterlife when they're supposed to move on. As long as they don't go through the doors, they can stay in this world but the things on the other side of the doors get pretty persistent about bringing them through and start turning on TV's and radios to communicate and drive the ghosts crazy until they give up and give in. I'm definitely bringing the doors in, but should I bring the poltergeist harassment activity too? Make Emma a bit rushed to save her pirate and make the stakes a bit higher than just waking him up?