"Alright, listen up." Chief Hunter strode into the room voice uncharacteristically booming considering the meager audience around the table wasn't talking. Killian was lost in thought and scowling as he often did lately. Robin's ever-present hood was pulled up, his head buried in his arms in an apparent catnap after an all-nighter. Annoyingly loud keyboard ticks came from Will's direction, undoubtedly shooting off a quick "got plans tonight" text to no less than half a dozen women to increase his odds of getting laid later. The only other sound was the faint sound of music coming from Zelena's earphones as she toyed on her laptop.
Emma had been zoning out herself, fresh off a crappy month on Will's couch with the saving grace of newly signed lease in a month-by-month apartment swooping in later that afternoon to give both her back and her sanity a reprieve, and she startled when the Chief came in.
"Jones, where are we?" He sprawled into the chair at the head of the table and turned to his Captain, motioning for Killian to stay seated when he started to rise to report.
"This week has been a real turning point. I'll admit some heavy apprehension over disbanding the task force and going down to a skeleton crew to give Dreamshade some breathing room but it's served its purpose. Milah needs to move and she needs to do it fast if she's going to retain her spot at the top. It hasn't been difficult to slide in as her number two or convince her I'm legit. She's desperate and desperate people do stupid shit."
Killian smiled slightly in Emma's direction as he repeated the assessment of the reason for Milah's gullibility she'd shared during one of their late night phone calls then gestured toward Zelena. "The witch worked her magic on the financials. Gold all but left the organization penniless, most likely to sabotage the chances of anyone carrying on without him."
"If he can't run it from the grave, no one can," Will piped in and earned a finger gun from his superior.
"That's it exactly. And what better way to stick it to his ex one final time than to leave his current and, by all accounts, completely un-corruptible wife every penny? It keeps his legacy intact and funnels the money away from Milah. She needs a big score to stay afloat and that's what we've been working toward this week. Thanks to some pre-organized heists," Killian air quoted around the word, "and the feds generously providing us some grease money, there's a huge shipment ready to be loaded and exported. Detective Swan was able to combine efforts with her own contacts along with some of Liam's old informants, and to Milah's eyes, it looks like I've paved the way to for Dreamshade to once again use the port Liam helped cut off."
Chief Hunter nodded, fingers steepled as he rolled it over in his head. "Okay. I'll send the info up the food chain." He looked toward Will and Robin. "Detectives, I'm assuming your street contacts are still in place to confirm when the load is being loaded to go."
"Yessir," Robin said. "The local recruiting efforts for the organization have dried up. Milah can't handle any more potential mutineers if this goes squirrely, so everyone we have out there is working in an adjacent capacity."
Will agreed, piggybacking off his partner. "Eyes and ears without fingers directly in the pot."
"Perfect." The Chief knocked superstitiously on the table three times and stood. "Keep up the good word. Stay safe. Let me know if you need anything. Otherwise, let's keep moving forward to shut this down."
Once the Chief left, Killian turned toward his shrunken team.
"Archer, get the fuck out of here and go home; Will can get some shit done while you take eight hours down then you can trade so he can go bang some random chick." He good naturedly returned Will's offered middle finger. "Zelena, if you don't mind getting back to those spreadsheets we talked about, I have a meeting with Milah at 2200 hours. Emma, if you don't mind sticking around for a moment, I'd like a word."
There was a shuffle of feet and some shoving as Robin and Will fought to follow Zelena out, leaving the door open at Killian's request. Once they were gone, he shot Emma a look and jutted his chin toward the only private space in the room thanks to a wall of glass. When she joined him in the cramped space behind the door, he wasted no time crowding her even more, dipping his head to kiss her messily and with the desperation of a man who'd become accustomed to regular, mind blowing sex only to have it ripped away by these ridiculous circumstances.
Emma gave as good as she got, upping the ante by canting her hips toward him, the thickening ridge behind his zipper fitting perfectly between her legs. Approaching voices made them jump apart and she cupped his bulge briefly with a whispered, "Call me tonight" before slipping around the door and out of the conference room.
It took a moment to compose himself and will his erection away, the latter aided by an incoming text on the phone Milah had given him. For someone with whom he'd had enthusiastic sex with once upon a time, it amazed him that nobody could kill a boner faster, not that she'd ever stopped trying to give him one. Killian had settled for empty promises and the occasional lingering, PG-rated touches, telling her they had all the time in the world to explore something more personal once the professional was handled. The mix worked well enough thanks to Milah's critical money situation. The drive to once again being flush with cash and maintaining the lifestyle to which she'd become accustomed was of utmost importance.
That didn't mean she didn't occasionally try to entice him, especially when she knew he would be around Emma. Her text leaned more toward suggestive than vulgar, painting a pretty picture of some after-meeting intimacy and he typed out a quick "perhaps" with a winky face that made him die a little inside and pull out his other phone, sending a message to Robin to call him half an hour into his meeting with Milah so he could feign a matter needing his attention.
"You don't play fair."
She hissed it at him and Killian would have given anything to see the look on her face but the burner phones they'd picked up to keep in touch while apart didn't include a video chat feature. He laughed and let his voice drop low into a husky drawl.
"And why is that, darling? See something you like? Or should I say want something you can't have?"
The dick pic he'd sent her broke the mold they'd poured over the last few months that included teasing each other mercilessly when together and engaging in phone sex just often enough to scratch the itch the nights they were apart, their dual sexual frustration and Killian's affinity for talking dirty quickly banishing any hesitation to connect this way. Tonight his meeting had run long, Robin's stunt call overshadowed by a sudden shift in Milah's confidence about the impending shipment, and by the time he drove home his thoughts were consumed by an overwhelming desire to risk blowing their cover, Dreamshade eyes be damned, and heading to Emma's apartment.
By the time he was in the door, he was hard and he wasted no time ripping open his jeans and shoving his boxers down far enough to pull his cock out. His own touch almost put him over the edge and he wrapped his fingers around the base, squeezing hard to stave off orgasm. A quick pic at the right angle made his dick look even bigger than normal and he quickly sent it to Emma. He had barely settled on the couch and didn't even get to a ten count before she called.
"You talk a big game for someone who isn't getting any, either."
There was rustling on her end of the line and he imagined Emma on her back, hair fanned out over the pillow with a hand between her legs, teasing her clit. The mental image made his cock jump and he took himself in hand again, lightly stroking with just his fingertips.
"Just you wait, love. When all this is over, I'm going to fuck you so hard you can't breathe."
"Is that so, Captain," she said breathlessly. "And what part of me would you be fucking? I know you love me on my knees but that still leaves so many options. My mouth? We both know how hard you can come when almost every inch of you is down my throat."
Killian's hand picked up the pace as he recalled the time Emma had blown him in his truck on the side of the road. He did love to wrap her hair around his fingers for leverage as he thrust himself between her lips and he mimicked the motion now, hips pressing up into his fist.
A faint buzzing sound reached his ears and he realized Emma was using a vibrator on herself. "Does that feel good, darling? Fuck, I'd give anything to bury myself inside you right now."
Emma keened in his ear and he pictured her in his mind's eye, back arched and using her toy to get herself off. Between the friction of his own touch and an active imagination, Killian felt a faint, familiar tug in his belly that went into overdrive when she spoke again.
"You still haven't said where. There's always my ass. I wonder…fuck…what it would be like to be completely filled, your cock stretching me while your fingers – oh!" The sound of Emma shouting as she came pushed him over the edge and he jerked his cock hard, pushing his shirt up out of the way and grunting through his climax as white ribbons landed on his belly.
"Jesus, woman," Killian said when he could breathe again. "We're going to need thirty-six hours, a padded room and a hydration station once this is all over." He shrugged out of his flannel and used it to clean himself up, dropping his head back and closing his eyes.
"Make it forty-eight if my ass is on the table."
"Your ass can be anywhere you want as long as I can have it." He purposely made himself sound as lewd as possible, reveling in Emma's answering laugh. God, he missed her, and not just the sex. He missed everything about her. How grumpy she was in the morning. The way she tucked in next to him after dragging her ass home from the night shift, dropping off just before his alarm went off and he had to get up. The petty fights about what to watch on Netflix and whose turn it was to pick pizza toppings.
He was about to get mushy when his Dreamshade phone rang in his back pocket.
"Swan, something's up. I gotta take this call coming in. It's Milah. Are you going to be up for a while? I can call you back."
"Yeah, I'm kind of wired right now anyway. And hungry. Love you."
The last part was second nature for her now and it didn't even bother him that she said it distractedly; Emma looking for food was akin to a lioness getting a bead on a zebra.
"Love you, too."
Emma swallowed a bite of post-orgasm Hot Pocket too quickly when her phone rang, hoping it was Killian calling back before remembering he'd use the burner phone. She was still thumping her chest to dislodge the food when she answered.
"Swan," her port contact said. "Hope it's not too late."
"The sworn promise to serve and protect doesn't exactly have banker's hours, Rodney." She took a sip of soda. "What's up?"
"I'm hearing some shit I don't like the sound of down here by the water. Some yahoo was talking big in one of the warehouses just now when I was making my rounds, sayin' they don't – and this is a direct quote – trust that bitch and the pig she brought in. I couldn't stick around without them seeing but it sounded like there might be trouble."
The chair in the guard shack shifted under Rodney's considerable weight, the squeal of protesting metal on metal coming through the phone much louder than his hushed whisper. Emma cringed, and not just at the sound. Her mind started racing, thinking it was no coincidence that Killian got a call from Milah around the same time Rodney heard some nefarious shit.
"Hey, thanks for the call. I need to look into this." She was already making her way to the bedroom where a suitcase full of clothes was waiting.
"No problem detective. I owe you. Thanks again for coming to talk to my daughter's Girl Scout troop. Half of them want to be you for Halloween and the other half want to be cops. Take care."
Emma tried to call Killian back on his burner and when he didn't answer, she switched tactics, throwing on jeans and a sweater, and calling Robin instead, surprised when he skipped his usual pleasantries.
"You get a call, too?"
"Yeah, my guard guy at the port. What the hell did you hear?" The phone was cradled between her cheek and shoulder as she pulled on socks and boots.
"Will's C.I. at the container company phoned him. Said someone from Dreamshade called to move the delivery to the dock from tomorrow afternoon to, oh, about two hours from now but it wasn't the guy who made the original call. Off-hour deliveries aren't unheard of but it's unusual for this crowd. What's up on your end?"
"Rodney overheard some warehouse talk about not trusting the bitch or the pig. And just before I heard from him, Killian got a call from Milah and I haven't been able to get through to him even though he said he'd call me right back. I think some shit is about to go down and Milah and Killian no longer have the upper hand. Where do you want to meet?"
There was a voice in the background Emma recognized as Will's before Robin came back.
"Why don't you just come here? If Dreamshade is splitting into two factions, it's impossible to know who could be watching and listening. Just make it look casual. Don't rush. Stop for donuts. I'll call the Captain."
It took every ounce of self-control Emma had to take Robin's suggestion but once she left the all-night bakery and saw the same headlights in her rear view mirror that had followed her out of the apartment complex parking lot, she knew he'd been right. The walk from her car to the building was excruciatingly long thanks to the radar sense her fellow officers had for donuts. They came out of the shadows to talk her out of their favorites and by the time she reached the guys in the task force room, there was only one left.
"Okay, so we can't get a hold of Jones. Fuck!" The expletive served a dual purpose: conveying Will's worry over the whereabouts of his captain and his extreme displeasure at Emma slapping his hand away from the single remaining bear claw so she could stress eat it. "Protocol says we go up the food chain and call the Chief."
"Yeah…I wouldn't do that." Emma almost choked for the second time in an hour, startled by Zelena's voice coming from the doorway. Their tech guru came in without invitation and shut the door behind her, pulling a sheaf of papers out of an envelope and laying them out on the table Robin and Will shared. "Those spreadsheets the Captain had me working on? They weren't all to collect financials on Dreamshade. They were to collect them on Chief Hunter, too."
"The fuck?" Will grabbed one of the papers and scanned it, his face turning a whiter shade of pale while his partner did the same. When he was done, he thrust it in Emma's sticky hands and picked up another.
"It's all there. He tried to hide it in offshore accounts but I have a friend who works for the government tracking terrorist money. Once the thread was pulled, the entire sweater unraveled. The Chief not only took regular payouts that can be traced back to Gold, there is a pretty telling pattern of bonus payments, the largest of which coincide with Liam Jones' death and the kidnapping of Detective Swan, but those are not the most recent."
Will's fist hit the filing cabinet at full force, denting the front even more. Robin dropped into his chair, jaw ticking with fury. Emma could barely see through her rage and the sudden fear at Zelena's last words.
"He's setting Killian up the same way he set Liam up? To die." Zelena's arm came out as Emma sagged against her, overwhelmed and furious.
"Well, he'd be in deep by now, wouldn't he?" Will's tone was clipped. "What's one more Captain Jones out of the way when there's another payout coming?"
Robin spun in his chair, pinching the bridge of his nose. "He pulled you off the early investigation," he said to Zelena. "Remember?"
Gently pushing Emma upright, Zelena nodded. "I do. And in hindsight it was for absolutely no good reason. He played it off like they needed me upstairs; that it was a tough choice to pull me given my skill set. He was just trying to buy himself some time."
"And we're about out of it." Snapping out of her moment of fragility, Emma bounced on her toes. "So we know there's an 'us against them' thing going on within Dreamshade. We know Killian received a call from Milah and is now MIA. And that the container drop-off has been moved up significantly. It sounds to me that the group Rodney overheard is going to swoop in and steal the heist right out from under their noses and, at the very least, cut out the two at the top. How literal or metaphorical that ends up being remains to be seen, but we can't take any chances. That's a lot of money up for grabs and somebody's going to come down holding it."
Robin nodded. "So how do we want to work this? Divide and conquer? Cavalry? Brass? Feds?"
"I'm thinking motley crew," Will chimed in. "If we start bringing in all of Bangor PD, it'll be like sending up a flare. Same thing if we bring in the brass. Who the fuck knows how far up the tarnish goes. We all have that one guy at the feds: the one crazy enough to tag along when the shit hits the fan and has a couple of friends willing to do the same. Call 'em and I'll call my C.I. at the container supplier. This is some high level fuckery by some unsophisticated assholes that probably aren't used to calling shots. It could go downhill fast and the priority has to be getting the Captain out of there before it does."
Killian rolled his eyes as Milah sobbed behind him. He'd never been more certain the mutinying subsection of Dreamshade had learned all of their moves from watching bad spy movies than he was right now. He and Milah – christened the pig and the bitch - were tied back-to-back, messy, cracked-out Boy Scout knots that would make a sailor weep securing them to a support post in one of the dock warehouses.
His fists were clenched to keep Milah from twining her fingers in his; he was completely unwilling to provide her any solace. Her phone call had lured him to the water where he found her held at gunpoint and bereft of any continuing authority within Dreamshade. To spare her life – at least for another hour or so – she had served him up on a silver platter, telling their captors his own Chief of Police wanted him out of the picture and would stop at nothing to boot Killian into the grave alongside his brother, confirming his fears about Chief Hunter's bone-deep involvement.
At this point, he needed a miracle. The newly delivered container was at the water's edge and being packed as he sat on his ass, hands literally tied. He'd been in dire straits before but this time he was unsure at how wide the safety net Emma and the other detectives had cast was. He was weaponless, anchored to a woman he loathed with every fiber of his being and dealing with a group drunk on newfound power and the promise of a huge payday.
And it just kept fucking getting worse.
"Captain Jones."
Chief Hunter's voice rang out and Killian banged his head against the metal pole in frustration that he couldn't get up and put his fist through his superior's face. If he'd been angry at Dreamshade's involvement in Liam's death, the Chief's had him nearly blacking out with fury.
As Hunter crouched down next to him, Killian didn't give him the satisfaction of turning his head. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see he was in his normal garb, a look Emma had once described as the fashion version of a Subaru Outback. Even though it was familiar and meant to evoke comfort and a sense that he was just one of the guys, Killian could see now that it was all a ruse. There wasn't a speck of dirt on the lug-soled boots and the creases in his khakis and flannel were ironed. There was a stone coldness in Hunter's eyes he hadn't seen before and Killian realized with complete certainty that he was going to die.
Four goons lurked nearby and Hunter stood, motioning them forward.
"It's time."
He and Milah were separated, their hands retied before being dragged outside. The night was crisp and he found himself looking up at the stars and thinking of Emma.
The future he'd been dreaming of was being ripped away and Killian couldn't decide if it was better for her to find the ring buried in his sock drawer so she would know he'd wanted to spend the rest of his life with her or be none the wiser. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he was forced to his knees next to Milah on a large plastic tarp at the water's edge.
"Now remember, you have to get out of the Gulf and weigh them down so they don't come back in with the current. There are pier blocks on the boat. Use the GPS and make sure you're in Atlantic waters."
Instructions done, Hunter went silent and a bang broke the quiet, muffled by a silencer. Warm blood and God knows what else sprayed onto Killian's face and Milah dropped to the ground next to him, shot execution-style in the back of the head. Hunter's lackey stepped shifted behind him and Killian didn't move as he addressed his Chief.
"Wait! Hunter, you're a fucking pussy." Terrified his words would get him shot with no preamble, Killian was proud when his voice didn't waver. "Too afraid to get your hands dirty? Have some actual blood on them instead of just pulling the strings? If you want me dead, at least have the balls to do it yourself."
With seconds left on his life, Killian was going to go out on his own terms. He squeezed his eyes shut as he heard shuffling behind his head and whispered to Emma under his breath as the barrel of a gun was pushed against the back of his head.
I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.
A single shot and much like Felix and Gold, Hunter crumpled to the ground then all hell broke loose. Divers came up out of the water as a team in tactical gear advanced out of the shadows, all holding weapons and ordering the Dreamshade crew to the ground. He saw Robin wrestling the man he was sure had shot Milah to the ground and Will came up, first untying Killian's hand, then checking her for a pulse and shaking his head.
Looking around wildly, Killian didn't see Emma until a slight officer in a black balaclava stood up from their vantage point on top of the shipping container and stripped the mask off. She looked haunted, the rifle in her hands trembling and he realized she'd been the one to take Hunter out. He ran, dodging screeching gang members handcuffed on the ground and by the time he reached her, she'd climbed down the side of the container. He barreled into her hard, arms circling her back and his head dropping onto her shoulder.
"I love you so much."
Emma sank to the ground with him when his legs gave out, the adrenaline leaving his body. Overcome, Killian surveyed the scene in front of them, eyes coming to rest on Milah as Will covered her body, and started to shake.
"Shh, my love. It's over now." Emma smoothed his hair and whispered into his ear, never letting up until he let out a breath, the worst of the shock passing. She helped him off the ground, ignoring his pleas to skip a stopover at the ambulance that had just pulled up, and held his hand as remnants of Milah were wiped off his face with a saline-soaked cloth. The separated only when ordered to do so, Emma leaving with Internal Affairs to give her account of the kill shot and Killian riding shotgun back to the precinct to be interviewed in the Commander's car.
Finished in an hour, Emma headed to the bullpen to offer her services and was unceremoniously kicked out by the rest of the team. Robin kissed her cheek and Will winked, teasing his partner about telling the Captain that Archer was moving in on his girl. Zelena, seeing Emma had no intention of leaving without Killian, produced a deep, emerald green throw blanket from the cavern of her workspace and set Emma up in his office on a makeshift couch fashioned from the two visitor's chairs and told her to get some rest; that Captain Jones could be a while.
Alone, Emma worked to clear her mind, letting the hum of activity outside the office fill the void. She already had an appointment the next day with Dr. Hopper and willed herself to save the spillover of all the emotions she had bubbling under the surface for then. She'd come so close to losing the man she loved, trading another's life for Killian. Emma wanted to feel guilty for saving him and, in turn, saving herself but it wouldn't come. Her eyes drooped as she pushed it all aside, her own surge of adrenaline long gone.
The slightest touch on her cheek pulled her out of slumber and Emma flailed as her stretching legs kicked one of the chairs out from under her ass. Strong arms caught her before she could hit the floor but not quickly enough to keep a solid mass from toppling over onto her.
"You've had better moves, Jones," Emma huffed as she worked to untangle herself from chair and man.
"Yes, well, you'll have to forgive me, Swan." He found his feet first and offered a hand, hauling her up to stand beside him. "The last twenty-four hours have been an unparalleled level of fucked up." Yawning hugely, Killian's hands scrubbed over his face and Emma stamped a boot impatiently, pulling on his wrists so she could survey his face. "Emma, love, I'm fine."
And maybe he was, at least on the outside. There were dark shadows under his eyes and the orbs themselves still held a touch of distress. She smoothed her fingers over his cheekbones and down his jaw, not stopping until her hands were pressed over his heart. The hot sting of tears hit suddenly and Emma's nose wrinkled as she fought it back. Killian's arms reached around her and she sank into him, chin tucked to her chest as she sobbed.
He held her until she sniffled then offered his shirttail in lieu of a tissue, which she declined with a horrified recoil.
"Come on, love. Let's go home. I need a shower and a no less than ten hours of sleep."
The shower had started off as a measure of necessity but the rhythm of the falling water had lulled him into a state where the moments he truly believed were his last played on a loop in his head. Emma had found him standing under chilled water after twenty minutes, staring at a fixed spot. Her clothes had been soaked the second she stepped in to wrap him in her arms, stroking his face until he came back to her.
She was stretched out in their bed when he came out of the bathroom in a pair of boxers, water droplets still falling from his hair and, when he pulled the covers back, saw she was naked.
"Gonna need a rain check on that forty-eight hours, Swan."
Rolling her eyes, Emma reached out to him.
"One, why am I not surprised that despite everything that has happened, you and your dick still vividly recall our last phone conversation and have selected Option A for Ass. And two, this isn't about sex." She gestured to his underwear. "Drop 'em and get in. Just you and me, skin to skin."
He'd heard of Kangaroo Care in passing; one of the beat officers bringing it up after his first baby had been born premature. At the time, Killian had appreciated the man's dedication to sitting in the NICU shirtless, giving time, warmth and a little piece of his soul to new life brought into the world before its time, and hadn't hesitated signing a request for time off to allow the officer to be with his family. But here, with Emma pressed against him from head to toe, he felt for himself the healing power of touch.
Kissing the top of her head, he linked his fingers with hers, losing himself to sleep and the endless love he had for her.