A/N: This is the final part! Thanks so much to everyone who's read/reviewed/favorited/followed. There's a chance I might write some short drabbles that also take place in this universe, but I'm still not sure. As always, I don't own OUAT, or it's characters. Please let me know what you think!
He is furious. He is furious for a handful of reasons – mainly because she has gotten under his skin so keenly in the two days that they've known each other. No one has done that to him. No one has intrigued him as much as she does, not for a long, long time.
He knows that she has trust issues; he could tell that from the moment he met her, but he also knows that they have a connection. They worked well together, that much was obvious during the duel against the Black Knights, and damn it all if he's still curious about why they would be after her.
"You shouldn't be out here alone," a voice from behind him says, and he grips the hilt of his sword quickly, spinning around to face the stranger. He can't tell if it's a man or woman, the cloak shrouding their face and unusual accent doing nothing to help him get his bearings. "The forest is a dangerous place at night."
"Who are you?"
"The question you should be asking yourself, Captain, is who is she?"
His brows furrow in confusion, "What the bloody hell are you talking about?"
"Be careful of the company you keep. It could put you in more danger than the path to revenge that you are on."
"I think I'll take my chances," he says sarcastically, taking a step closer, only just then noticing the faint traces of blood on the stranger's hands.
"Not to worry. At dawn, she will be gone, and you will be free to pursue… other ventures."
Killian's heart starts to race at the implication behind the words, and in a flash he has the stranger pressed against the tree, his hook pressed to their throat. "What have you done to her?" In the struggle, the stranger's cloak slips, and he realizes that the stranger is a woman. She has dark hair and dark eyes, but lips painted ruby red, and her smile is not inviting, but cruel, and he knows that whatever she's done, Emma doesn't have much time left.
"You better hurry, Captain," the woman sneers, and when he hesitates, she disappears into thin air, leaving only her cloak behind.
Killian doesn't pause to consider his options – he only spares a millisecond before he is racing back to where he and Emma parted ways, and he hopes that he isn't too late. Somewhere over the course of the day, Emma has managed to affect him in a way that has not occurred in nearly all his years of pirating. He has perfected the art of refusing to care for anyone, in the off chance that something should happen to him or her. For whatever reason, his guard is let down around the blonde enigma, and he finds himself wanting to know everything about her – what makes her tick, what makes her so distrusting… everything. The thought is equal parts terrifying and thrilling, but he can't think about that now. He needs to get to her.
Racing through the trees, he wills himself to relax, to be calm, because gods, this is not what Emma needs right now. Emma doesn't need him to panic, she needs him to be levelheaded and to be able to help her, and he forces his heart to stop racing before it nearly beats right out of her chest.
"Emma!" He shouts when he rounds the corner and sees her, facedown in the clearing where they had last spoken to each other. She doesn't move, but he can hear her whimpering and it nearly breaks him, but he forces himself to move forward. "Emma, love, come on…" He turns her over and is gratified to see her eyes open, pupils darting about wildly until she settles on him. "There you are, darling, that's it," his voice falters slightly when he sees the large wound in her side, and the way she is curling in on herself.
She is so different than the spitfire of a woman he has come to know over the course of a day, and it jars him into action. Seeing her so vulnerable makes him feel off balance. He presses his hand to the wound in her side, watching as she winces and tries to roll away from him. "It hurts," she croaks, "There was a woman—"
"Don't waste your breath love," he says gently, turning her onto her back once more. "Just stay right there. Don't try to move. I'm going to try and stop the bleeding, savvy?" He takes his scarf from around his neck and winds the soft fabric around her stomach, tying it as tight as it will go, allowing her little motion, but still able to breathe.
"My satchel—" She breaks off her sentence, moaning pitifully in a way that has his heart clenching in his chest, "—There's a bottle in my satchel, you have to—" She groans again, and he reaches for the bag that is lying not too far from her body. He wonders why the woman who hurt her didn't try to steal whatever it is she's bringing to the Crocodile, but shoves the thought to the back of his mind as he begins to root through her bag, looking for a bottle of something that can help her.
"I don't know what I'm looking for, Emma."
"A blue bottle. There are leaves inside, herbs." Her breathing is growing shallow, and a bolt of fear strikes him when he realizes that she might not make it. No. "Those herbs can be used to—" She gasps for breath "—To speed up the healing of a wound…"
"Emma, please. Just… just let me help you." His hands are shaking somewhat as he twists the stopper out of the bottle, and pulls out the small leaves.
"Get them wet—"
"I've got it. I've treated many a wound in my day," he tells her, trying to keep the mood light. He sets to work, wetting the leaves with water from his canteen and placing them on her wound. In order to see it better, he rips open her thin shirt slightly with his hook, apologizing all along.
"I don't care what you do, as long as you make it stop hurting," she says, gritting her teeth.
A short time later, her wound is dressed, and all there's left to do is wait. Emma falls into a restless sleep, and Killian barely sleeps a wink.
.
.
.
The morning comes with a jolt from Killian, who bolts upright to check on Emma after he remembers the events from the day before.
In the place where she had slept, there is a note.
Hook,
Thank you, and I'm sorry.
-E.
Killian crumples it into his fist.
.
.
.
Emma makes her way up the cobblestones to Red and Granny's cottage, a feeling of home washing over her so strongly she fears her legs might give out. That might be the blood loss, she thinks, in a voice strangely like Hook's. No.
She can't think of him.
He saw too much of her, and she saw too much of herself in him. When he dressed her wound, she hadn't even thought to ask what made him come back for her, only had time to be thankful that he had. She wasn't sure what the blade that sliced her was laced with, but she is sure that she was poisoned. That could be the only reason for her immobility after she had been hurt.
He had come back for her, though, that's all that mattered. She knows that he kept watch over her during the night. She thinks she might have felt the burn of his gaze on her, even in her sleep, and the thought terrifies her.
"Emma!" Red's voice is shrill, and the brunette is instantly at her side, supporting her weight as Emma limps up to the front door, "Where the hell have you been?!"
"It's a long story, do you think it can wait?"
"You're hurt," Red's tone is full of fear and anger, and Emma feels guilty. She hadn't even told Red or Granny that she was leaving; couldn't stand the thought of telling them she was working for The Dark One. "Come inside, Granny can help."
Emma doesn't protest, just looks forward to a warm bed and a home cooked meal. Ruby helps her inside, and after receiving the full strength of Granny's wrath, Emma succumbs to Red's questions and tells her the entire story.
"You know he's going to go there with or without you—" She mentions casually, as she changes the dressing on Emma's wound, "—He's going to get himself killed."
Emma sighs, "I told you, I can't do anything to help him. I was going to get what I needed and leave, anyway."
Red makes a noise of amusement, and Emma narrows her eyes at her. "What?"
"Nothing, just that I find it hard to believe you would have just left him there. You did save his life once already, and he yours."
Emma is silent, letting the woman who has become a second mother to her change the subject. She thinks about Hook, thinks about his revenge plot that can only end in death, and thinks about how gentle he had been when he had cared for her. She knows there is good in him, or else she wouldn't be so afraid of their connection. He has he ability to make her trust him, and the idea that it could happen so easily, and become so second nature… it makes her jumpy.
He is the last thing she thinks of before she falls asleep.
.
.
.
Killian tromps around the forest angrily for nearly three days after waking up to find Emma gone, and by pure luck, spots a castle in the distance in between the trees late on the third night. The lights are bright, but the castle is all dark spires and oddly shaped turrets, and the presence of magic almost makes itself known – a faint buzzing in the air that Killian can feel all the way to his toes. His eyes narrow in determination and he begins his descent down the valley. It takes him quite a long time to get down the crest without killing himself in the process, but when he reaches the bottom, he can practically feel his revenge staring him in the face.
He walks cautiously towards the castle acutely aware that The Dark One's magic is not to be trifled with. Gods know there could be all types of traps laid out for intruders, but Killian doesn't care, not anymore, not when he is this close to getting what he has wanted for nearly three hundred years.
The front doors of the castle creak open loudly when Killian approaches one, and he swallows thickly, the feeling of being watched creeping up on him. "Bloody hell…" he groans when he takes in the majestic looking foyer, wondering how in seven hells he's meant to find the Crocodile in this maze of a castle.
"Over here, dearie!"
Killian whirls around, but sees no one, just hears the echo of that voice. He takes a few steps in the direction he thinks it might have come from, but stops in the middle of the room, anger bubbling up inside of him. "Come out and face me, you coward!"
"You always were impatient, Captain," comes Rumplestiltskin's voice from right behind Killian, who unsheathes his sword instantly. "Now, now, let's not be hasty!"
"I'm going to kill you, Crocodile," Killian growls, before lunging at the sorcerer, who disappears in a puff of smoke, leaving Killian sprawled out on the ground, the grip on his sword almost painful.
"You didn't actually think I'd let you come to my own home and kill me, did you?" The man giggles, a high-pitched manic noise that instantly has Killian on edge.
Suddenly, the door to the castle bursts open, and there stands Emma, the light behind her giving her an almost ethereal glow. Her dagger in hand, she is every inch the warrior that Killian has come to know, and he feels the icy clench of fear around his heart that she would come here now, when magic is heavy in the air. "Hook!" She shrieks, and he turns around just in time to duck a fireball The Dark One has thrown.
"You shouldn't have followed me," he hisses at her after she crosses the room to stand near him.
"I was coming here first, you idiot!"
He rolls his eyes, "Now is really not the time for this, love."
"How cute," The Crocodile sneers, "The princess and the pirate!" He claps his hands in glee as Killian freezes.
"Stop talking," Emma demands, but the imp keeps grinning.
"What is he talking about?" Killian asks, the feeling of having the wool pulled over his eyes not one he enjoys. "Emma-"
"Now, don't tell me you've actually started to care for this pirate? Whatever would your parents think?"
"Shut up," Emma nearly growls, causing Rumplestiltskin to giggle again. "Just take what I have for you, and hold up your end of the deal."
"And let the pirate live? No, I don't think I will."
Killian watches as the fire in Emma's eyes intensifies, "We had a deal!" He can hear the emotion in her voice, and wonders what it was exactly that the Crocodile had promised her.
"Oh, a deal!" He grins, but then suddenly schools his features into nonchalance, "too bad."
Killian lunges forwards once more, but is stopped by Emma's grip on his arm. He looks back at her briefly, trying to gage the emotions he sees present in her eyes, and when she whispers, "please don't…" he almost forgets how angry he was with her only a few hours ago.
"I will hold up my end of the deal, as long as you give me what I asked for…" the Dark One taunts, "and then leave the pirate to me."
.
.
.
Emma tenses, her mind whirring as she tries to think of a way out of this situation she's found herself in. She's still doesn't know where she stands with Hook, and suspects he's still just as angry with her, but she certainly doesn't wish him dead, no matter how annoyingly perceptive he can be.
On the other hand, she needs The Dark One to hold up his bargain. He has promised her coin, that much is true, but he has also promised some information that could help her parents defeat the Evil Queen, and he has also promised to teach her a protection spell. After all these years, she could go back home and be with her parents. After all these years, they could finally be a family and be together.
It was what she wanted more than anything, but was she willing to sacrifice another life in order to make sure that happened? Hook's feud with Rumplestiltskin had nothing to do with her, but all the same, she knew that The Dark One would kill him painfully. Hook had no chance, and even worse, she thinks that he knows that. He knows that he would die in a fight with the sorcerer, and the thought makes Emma profoundly sad.
"… No."
"What was that, dearie?"
"I said no," she says firmly. "I give you what you want, you hold up our deal, and I leave here. With him," she adds, pointing at Hook.
"I don't believe you're in any position to negotiate, Princess."
Emma flinches at the sound of her title, but Hook doesn't react, not like he did the first time she was called that. She squares her shoulders and looks back at the man who spent so much time imprisoned in the castle that she grew up in. "I still have the item you want. If you don't hold up the deal, I'm tossing it right back to the dragon and you'll have to go get it yourself."
"Dragon?!" Hook's voice echoes around the room.
"Technically she's a sorceress."
"This is madness," Hook mutters, and Emma suppresses a snort. Now is not the time or the place to remember that Hook, for all he annoys her, can also be amusing.
"Enough!" Rumplestiltskin waves a hand, and Emma and Hook are both tossed against the front doors, held there by his magic. "Maybe I should, quite literally, kill two birds with one stone. I can take what you owe me, Princess, and kill the pirate."
Emma struggles against the invisible binds, and sees Hook doing the same. She knows it's futile, but she doesn't like the idea of going down without a fight, either. "You promised me my family would be safe," she growls, "I got you what you asked for! You said it would help them!"
"Oh, but Princess there's still so much you don't know!" He giggles once more, the sound raising the hairs on the back of Emma's neck. She doesn't know what he is talking about, but she suddenly doesn't want to know. It's too much. He must see the look on her face, because he laughs and claps again, "Don't tell me they left the most important part out!"
"Spit it out, Imp," Hook growls, but is silenced by an invisible clamp on his throat. He struggles for air until Emma shouts for Rumple to stop.
"As I was saying—" He continues, and Emma has never wanted to hurt someone so badly in her entire life, because he is toying with her, and she has no choice but to listen to this, to listen to someone who knows more about her life than she does, and she hates it. "—Your parents left out the most interesting part! You see, Princess, there's a prophecy. A child born of True Love will be the Evil Queen's downfall."
Coldness rushes through Emma's veins at his words, and she is completely unwilling to believe what he is telling her. She couldn't be the key to this… she couldn't be.
"Emma, we have to keep you safe, do you understand?" Her mother's eyes, usually so full of warmth, were filled with tears, and Emma bit her lip hard to keep from crying herself. "You are so important."
Emma hears the unspoken words not just to us, almost as clear as if her mother had spoken them aloud, and suddenly everything falls into place. They didn't just send her away for her physical safety; they sent her away so she could fix things when the time came. This was all out of her control, out of their control… a prophecy.
"No…" she hears herself saying, feeling detached from the moment.
"Emma, what is he talking about?" Hook asks her, desperation in his voice, and she doesn't even spare him a glance before she is fighting frantically against her binds, nearly screaming at the top of her lungs.
"Let me go, let me go!"
"Emma, Emma stop, he'll hurt you… Emma!" Hook shouts, finally breaking through the fog that is coating her thoughts.
"You want to go, Princess?" Suddenly she is dropped unceremoniously to the ground, "Then by all means—" Rumple points to the door behind her, "Go."
Emma is tempted, she is so, so tempted. She locks eyes with Hook, and underneath the cool indifference that he tries so hard to portray, she sees a man. She sees Killian Jones. In that moment, she knows she can't leave him behind. In a split second decision, she's on her feet, her satchel in hand. She reaches inside and grips the dragon's egg, trying to convey with her eyes to Hook that she has a plan. "Take it," she says to Rumple, who is eyeing the object as if he didn't believe it really existed.
He takes the egg from her, and waves his hand over it. As he does, it begins to crack, and Emma takes a quick step backwards in fear. As she moves, she can hear that in Rumple's distraction, the magic keeping Hook suspended against the wall has faltered, and Hook is on his feet, one hand reaching out to steady her.
"Was that so hard, Princess?" The Dark One is taunting her again, and she grits her teeth to keep from acting out too soon.
"Just tell me what I need to do to stop her." She doesn't bother telling him who she means.
"Simple," The Dark One meets her eyes, and for once, she is afraid of him. The look he gives her tells her that he knows much more than she ever will, even about her own self, and the thought makes her stomach clench. "You need to harness your magic."
"Excuse me?" Hook croaks, and Emma elbows him to keep him quiet. The egg continues to crack, and when it finally breaks, Rumple pulls out a vial, filled with what looks like two strands of hair, glowing and woven together. He waves a hand over it and when he does, the vial turns a dark purple, a purple that reminds Emma of the mist that seems to shroud Regina wherever she goes.
"Think about who you want to protect. Think about why. You are the product of True Love, dearie. You are the Savior."
Emma's entire world tilts on its axis at those words, and she vaguely registers the force of magic pushing them both out the front doors of the castle, and only comes back to the moment when she lands in a heap on the ground, half on top of Hook.
"He let us go," Hook mutters, "What the bloody hell was that about?"
"He told me nothing," she mutters. "He told me nothing! All he told me was what I already know; that I'm a Princess!"
"Come again?" Hook stumbles to his feet, and appears to be checking her over for injury, his eyes lingering on where her wound was (and has seemingly disappeared).
"I'm royal, okay?" She nearly yells, taking two steps forward and shoving him hard in the chest, "I'm the daughter of Prince Charming and Snow White, and they sent me away when I was younger to protect me from the Evil Queen."
"A princess," he repeats, sounding out of breath.
"Yes! A princess, who apparently is the key to stopping this stupid war, and I don't even know what I'm supposed to do! Harness your magic," she mocks in a high-pitched voice.
"You left," Hook's voice breaks through her thoughts and she looks at him in disbelief.
"You want to talk about that now?!"
"Yes, Princess," he sneers, "I do."
"You don't understand—"
"Then make me!" He shouts, and for the first time, Emma sees that he might be more vulnerable in this moment than even her.
"I couldn't take the chance that I was wrong about you." She whispers, and wonders when they got so close to each other.
"Why?"
"Because I trust you," she says, her voice sounding foreign to her own ears. "I trust you, and trust is dangerous, especially now that I'm supposed to fix everything."
Hook—Killian – seems frozen in place, and she wonders what he's thinking about, until he takes two strides forward, slides his good hand into her hair, and then he's kissing her. She feels warm and cold all at once, and kisses him back seemingly without hesitation; feeling gratified when he sighs into her mouth and pulls her closer. Suddenly a jolt spikes through the both of them, filling her with warmth, and when they break apart, she can almost literally see the sparks filling the air between them. "That was…" he breathes, his voice barely above a whisper, and she can't respond, can barely stand on her own two feet.
She starts to pull away from him, but his hand is still in her hair, and he pulls her back to him, talking to her in that low, rough voice of his. "Please don't run from me," he says, and Emma shuts her eyes to block out the look on his face.
"Emma, you don't need to be afraid of me. I… I'm a pirate, yes, but you… I've only known you for a short time, but already you've made me rethink everything."
"How can you say that?"
"Perhaps it's true that you're the Savior, love. You seem to have saved me, anyway."
.
.
.
It takes them three days to reach her parent's castle, accompanied by Emma's pseudo family – Granny and Red. Killian likes them well enough, and likes them even more when he sees how Emma is around them. She laughs more, smiles more, and her shoulders don't seem to carry the burdens of her position anymore.
As they get closer to the castle, her fingers loosely tangle with his, and he glances down at her, ready to make a quip of amusement, but he stops himself when he sees the look on her face. She looks terrified. He tugs her to a stop, frowning when she refuses to look at him.
He sighs, and only grows more frustrated when she tries to let go of his hand, trying to put distance between them in more ways than one. "You can do this, Emma."
"How do you know?" She snaps, and it takes all his strength not to let it get to him, to not let her words cut him like he knows they're intended to.
"Emma, you have bested me again and again, and there is not a doubt in my mind that you can get the better of the Queen. You have to trust me on this one, love."
"Look, just because we've… we've kissed, it doesn't mean you know me at all." She says the words so firmly and with such a cold tone that he physically recoils from her. In seconds, she's walking away from him, and he's left standing there with his fist clenched, wondering when on earth her opinion of him started to mean so much.
As they continue to walk, he grows more and more angry with her – for pushing him away, for making him care, and he starts to wonder why he's even still following them. If she didn't want him there, he could leave. He could leave and never see her again, if that's what she wants (although the thought of it leaves an ache in his chest).
"She'll come around," a voice says near his ear, and he turns to see Red there, looking at him knowingly. "This is what she does. When her emotions get too close to the surface, she hides." He clenches his jaw and ignores her, choosing to keep walking before he says something he would regret later.
By the time they arrive at her parent's castle, she is already inside. He hesitates for a moment, wondering if this should be where they part ways, but before he can turn away, Red grabs him by the elbow. "Snow and Charming should like to meet the man who saved their daughter's life," she says, pulling him along inside the grand entrance.
The halls were lined with lavish fabrics and tapestries, and the entire castle had almost a golden hue to it. He is pulled from his thoughts by the sight of Emma, embracing her parents. There are tears on both the Prince and Princesses faces, but not on Emma's. She looks… relieved, he supposes, but also tense and uncomfortable, and he fights the urge to go to her side and take her hand again.
"I imagine we have quite a lot to talk about," Emma says, her tone somber.
"I think you're right. But first we need to show our guests to their rooms," her mother says, turning to embrace Red and Granny both in turn. When her gaze lands on him, she stops, forcing a smile onto her face. "Emma, who is this?"
"Captain Killian Jones of the Jolly Roger, milady," he introduces himself, forcing his confident swagger to be on full display. The façade is the only way he'll get through this ordeal, especially when Emma still refuses to look at him.
"The Jolly Roger? That's a pirate vessel," The Prince interjects, a frown on his face.
"That's right, your highness. Most people have taken to calling me—"
"Captain Hook?" Snow asks, and he nods in the affirmative.
"I met your daughter while she was on her quest for The Dark One and…" He ponders just how much of the truth he should tell them, and meets Emma's eyes briefly. "… I accompanied her to the castle."
"We are grateful, Captain," Snow says, turning her back to him. "Emma, why don't you show the Captain to a guest room?"
Emma doesn't say anything, just restrains her glare until they're out of sight of her parents. As he follows her down a long corridor, he grows more and more uneasy. He feels terribly out of place here, and even more so now that it seems Emma can barely tolerate his presence. If he wasn't sure before that he didn't deserve her, he is quite sure now. He will never fit in with this type of world, not in a world of royalty.
"Here," Emma mumbles, "You can stay in here."
"Emma…" he trails off on a frustrated sigh, "Can we please talk about why you're being so difficult?"
The shock on her face almost makes him laugh. "I'm being difficult?! You brooded the entire way here!"
"Because you're shutting me out!"
"You have no idea what I'm going through—"
"I never claimed to share or understand the burdens upon you Emma," he says with fervor, taking a step closer to her, "I only wanted to help you. That's all I've been trying to do. Do you have any idea how hard this is for me?"
"If it's so hard, then maybe you should go back to your ship."
"Dammit, Emma!" He curses in frustration, taking a step forward and cupping her face in his hand, claiming her lips in a bruising, angry kiss. She matches him breath for breath, her own hand sliding into his tousled hair, scratching at his scalp lightly. He pulls her tight against him, the magnetic pull between them once again crackling in the air. He can't make sense of her, can't make sense of what he's gotten himself into, but in this moment, nothing makes more sense than this – her lips on his, her hands on him, breathing in her breath as if it was his own. "You bloody stubborn, impossible woman," he breathes when they pull apart. "The minute you saved my life from that godforsaken ogre, I knew there was no going back. I'm here for you until you tell me to leave, and that's the truth, Emma."
She's quiet for a long time, and he kicks himself for being so honest. He can't pinpoint exactly when it happened, but he knows that trying to claim that Emma means nothing to him would be futile. She's a tsunami, sweeping into his life so fast that it's all he can do to stay afloat and not drown from the weight of what this could mean. He isn't blind – he saw what happened when they first kissed outside of the Dark One's castle. There's no going back, not for him.
.
.
.
She had assumed that knowing Killian's intentions towards her would have made her feel burdened, or guilty somehow, but it's proving to do the opposite – his words from earlier leave her feeling lighter than she's felt in days.
She's still not ready to give herself over to him, not yet, not when the looming threat of a battle with Regina is hanging over all their heads. Sleep doesn't come easy for her, however, and she spends most of the night tossing and turning.
Her restlessness is ended for her forcibly, however, when she hears screams coming from the Great Hall. She is up and out of her bed in seconds, not even bothering to change into something other than her nightgown, and when she bolts into the hallway, she can see flashes of what she assumes is magic coloring the walls – blue (the Fairy, she knows), combined with a sickly purple that she knows is Regina.
When she runs into the hall, she sees her father locking swords with Black Knights, and her mother up on a balcony, firing arrow after arrow into the fray. She stands horrified, wondering how in the world they could possibly defeat this kind of army, but then she remembers The Dark One.
Think about who you want to protect.
Think about why.
You are the product of True Love.
You are the Savior.
Almost if she's read her thoughts, Regina stops where she is standing and turns to face Emma, her face breaking out into the widest, cruelest grin Emma has ever seen. "You," she says, and Emma barely has time to duck before a curse is sent her way, causing part of the stone wall behind her to explode into bits. "Don't hide from me, darling girl. You and I have unfinished business!"
Emma runs, runs as fast as she can, trying to get to her father. She knows if she can get there, she can take his sword, and she can protect him… she can end this. She can kill Regina and she can use whatever it is that makes her the Savior to fix all of this, and end the fighting.
"Emma!" She hears Killian, but she can't stop, can't turn, and when she finally reaches her father, his face is pale with fear, and when she opens her mouth to ask him what's wrong, she sees her mother, in the Queen's grip.
"Don't do anything hasty, dear." Regina says, her tone dripping with evil.
"Let her go," her father growls, and Emma tenses.
"I don't think so." Regina begins to sink her hand into Snow White's chest, and someone screams (Emma thinks that it's her), and it all happens in a split second – Emma shuts her eyes tightly and thinks of her mother reading her bedtime stories. She thinks of her father teaching her how to wield a sword, she thinks of the both of them taking her for walks in the nearby village and buying her flowers to wear in her hair. She thinks of Granny, and Ruby, and how they had taken her in when she had nowhere else to go as if she was their family. She thinks of Granny's homemade soup and kind smiles, and thinks of Ruby's laugh.
She thinks of Killian. Hook. Whoever he had been when she met him, he was Killian Jones to her now, and she thinks of him. She thinks of the look that was in his eyes right before he kissed her for the first time – how he had looked at her like she was something precious, something to be treasured. She thinks of how her heart beats faster whenever he's near her.
After that, warmth spreads throughout her entire body, and her vision tints white. Soon after that, everything goes black.
.
.
.
"Why isn't she waking up?!"
"Emma, Emma love, please—"
"Her heart rate is slowing, we have to—"
"Please wake up…"
Broken, fragmented sentences are all she can hear as she drifts between sleep and consciousness. She tries to answer, but nothing comes out, and she feels a sharp pain near her heart as sleep overtakes her again.
.
.
.
His heart nearly stops when Emma collapses. The Queen has been gravely injured, that's to be sure, but nothing else exists for him after Emma almost hits the ground, her father catches her before her head hits the stone floor.
He sees the other woman (a fairy, he thinks) approach Regina slowly, attaching some type of cuff to her wrist while she is unconscious, but his attention is drawn back to Emma when Snow clamors over to her daughter, stroking her hair. "Is she…" she asks shakily, and he is interrupting before he can stop himself.
"No," he says firmly, "No, she… no."
"Her breathing is slow," Charming says, and something in Killian's stomach twists and turns at the idea that he might never see her green eyes again, that he might never again hear her laugh or get the chance to tell her how much she has grown to mean to him.
"She used magic," He whispers, and Snow's gaze snaps to his.
"She's the product of True Love. It was foreseen that she might have… capabilities."
It's hard for him to wrap his head around, but he saw it with his own eyes. Emma has concentrated, and shot the most brilliant white light he had ever seen out of her hands, and Regina had fallen. It was as simple as that. The Savior.
"Emma, Emma love, please wake up," he says quietly, kneeling at her side. He ignores the look he is getting from her parents, and continues to whisper to her, "Emma, you need to come back."
"Her heart rate is slowing, we have to move her!"
"Please come back," is the last thing he whispers before her father lifts her into his arms and carts her away, Snow hot on his heels. He follows as well, but at a distance, still unsure of himself in this castle.
.
.
.
When Emma wakes, her chest feels tight, and her throat is sore. She aches everywhere, really, and she sputters out a cough. When she tries to sit up, a cool hand presses gently to her shoulder, urging her to lie down slowly. "Easy does it, lass."
"Killian—"
He shushes her softly, "Don't overuse your voice, Emma. You seem to be making a habit of near-death experiences," he tries to joke, but his voice sounds rough with emotion. After a beat, he adds, "The woman who poisoned you in the forest… it was Regina. I didn't recognize her then, but today… it was her."
Her eyes grow wide of their own volition, "Regina, is she—"
"She's alive."
"No! She can't be, she'll—"
"Emma, stop. Listen to me." His voice is gentle, but firm, and he takes her hand and begins stroking her fingers seemingly without noticing. "She's alive but she's powerless. She's in the dungeon. The Blue Fairy attached some type of device to her wrist that prevents her from using magic."
Emma sags bag against the bed in relief, her hand still entwined with Killian's. "It's over?" She asks, and her voice sounds small even to her own ears. His eyes soften considerably as he gazes at her, and he nods.
"It's over. You saved everyone, love." He's looking at her in the way of his again, so full of awe and admiration, and she nearly jumps when she feels him trail a finger down her cheek. "You've gone red, Princess," he teases, and she ducks her head to hide a smile.
Emma loosens her grip on Killian's hand slightly, and spends a minute watching their tangled fingers. She fiddles with one of the rings that he's wearing, the rich red stone bright in the candle light of the room. "I'm surprised my father hasn't kicked you out of here," she jokes, and he chuckles quietly.
"He tried." The words are so simple, but they say so much. He stayed with her.
Unable to do anything else, Emma leans forward, and when Killian realizes her intent, he meets her halfway. Their lips meet in a kiss that is probably too passionate for someone who is meant to be recovering after using magic for the first time, but she doesn't care. Her arms wind their way around his neck, and he sighs, tugging her closer. Slowly, their kiss becomes unhurried, and she revels at being this close to him and not feeling panicky. She doesn't want this moment to end.
"You should rest," he murmurs, his forehead still pressed against hers after the break apart.
"Be here when I wake up," she says, in the most Princess-y tone she can manage. He laughs softly, and her heart clenches at the sound.
"As you wish, love."
She falls asleep to the feeling of his fingers tracing patterns on her hand, and she thinks he's imprinting himself on her heart, as well.
If you liked this AU, please check out my other Captain Swan AU's, which you can find on my Tumblr! Thanks again for reading! - Katie xx