Chapter 7

It's been a couple days now; a couple days of discussing every possible way they can get rid of the Dark One. But they've gotten nowhere. Everyone is at the library, again. They've been here for days, and Emma can't help but feel like she's wasting her time.

It's been quiet for a while. Everyone has papers that they are reading, and there is shuffling every now and again, but no one says anything. Emma puts the papers, which she's looking at, down. She hasn't been able to focus on them, as everything just seems redundant.

"This is pointless." She mutters at last. Everyone looks at her.

"We'll get there. We just have to keep at it." David tries to reassure her.

"Keep at what? Re reading this information and giving half-hearted suggestions?" She's being unfairly cruel, but she can't help it. "Maybe it's time to face the fact that there is no way, and I'm stuck with it. Unless someone kills me, of course."

"Well now, we know that isn't true." Regina rolled her eyes. "Gold is still alive, and he's not the Dark One anymore."

"Yeah because we took it out of him. It was still there. Even if we found a way to do that to me, the Dark One would still remain. We would have to have someone else tether themselves to it." Emma responded, not even looking at Regina. "Then we would be right back here."

"Maybe Regina has a point, Emma. Someone else could take it. I would be glad to take it from you, let you be happy." David said.

Emma looked at him, and saw the honesty there. He would do anything for her, as would others in the room. But Emma shook her head.

"No. You have a family and a good life. Besides, my light magic gives me the best chance to fight it. It makes sense for me to keep it."

"That doesn't mean that there isn't another way to get rid of it, Emma." Snow interjected.

"Maybe. I'm going to tell Henry to come home, in any case. There's no point in continuing when both of my true loves are out of town." Emma glanced at Killian briefly, but looked away before she could make out his expression.

"Well that seems like a wonderful idea to me." Regina answered.

"I think I have a good enough grasp on the darkness, so having Eva here shouldn't be a problem." Emma added, more to herself than anyone else.

Killian watched everyone pack up the notes back into the notebooks. He handed his to David, who put them away. Then Snow and David pull their boy from his corner, and they leave. Emma followed them, but not before she looked at him.

They haven't really talked since that morning at the diner. They haven't discussed what's going to happen when Eva gets here since the first night she arrived, and even that was brief. Emma expressed that she would like Killian to get to know their daughter, and he'd agreed. But he hadn't really discussed with anyone how nervous he was about it.

Saying a small goodbye to Belle, he left the library, and walked to the docks. He sat on the bench staring out at the horizon, seeking the comfort in it that he had always found before. But he could hardly see it. All he could think about was Emma… and their daughter.

Reaching into his coat pocket, he pulled out the picture that Emma had given him. He stared at the little girl, taking in her bright smile, her dark hair, the way her eyes seemed to twinkle at him. Emma has said how much Eva looked like him. He could definitely see the resemblance, but to him he could definitely see Emma in her.

I would have gone with you, Emma. I wanted to be there for you.

Someone was sitting next to him, pulling him out of his thoughts. Looking over he saw Belle looking over at the horizon. Putting the picture back into his pocket, he sat in uncomfortable silence.

"I saw how upset you looked when you left, so I figured you would like someone to talk to." Belle said finally.

"I don't mean to offend, love, but I'm not really in the mood for conversation." Killian said, trying to smile.

"Well, taking into the account that your daughter may be coming to town either tonight or tomorrow, I just thought it would be nice for you to have someone to talk to about it. It must be nerve wracking." Belle tried again.

"That's putting it lightly." Killian said, pulling out his rum and taking a sip.

"You want to talk about it?"

"Talk about what?"

"About your daughter? Emma? Anything?" Belle probed.

"What's to discuss? She left without a word, and comes back telling me we have a child. A fact that was obviously not important enough to let me know within the three years that she was gone." Killian took another drink.

"Are you excited to meet her? Your daughter, I mean." Belle asked.

"I don't know. I'm nervous I guess. She's not going to know me. For all she knows, I wanted nothing to do with her for the entirety of her life." Killian shook his head sadly. "That's not how I wanted things to be."

"She's still very young, Killian. If you stay a constant in her life now, she won't remember ever not knowing you." Belle reassured. "Besides I have a hard time believing that Emma would not tell Eva about you."

"She bloody well never told me about Eva. How am I supposed to believe she told Eva about me?"

"Listen I understand. Being in love with the Dark One isn't exactly a walk in the park." Belle said. "Rumple lied to me. He constantly chose power over me. I even thought that he didn't truly love me back."

"Aye that he did. Emma told me that she never stopped loving me, but I don't feel that way. She was out of town. The Dark One doesn't take over your mind out there like it does here. Which means, she chose to keep it from me, not the Dark One."

"The way I see it was she was choosing herself over the power, which is more that Rumple could do. I know she didn't tell you about Eva. But maybe she was scared to. As long as I've known her, Emma has never wanted to feel like a burden to people." Belle supposed.

"She could never be a burden." Killian whispered.

"You know, the first time I kissed Rumple, the spell almost broke. I could see it working. But he stopped it." Belle sighed. "All the times I kissed him after that, it didn't come close to working though."

"Why is that, do you think?" Killian asked.

"I haven't a clue. But it makes me sure there's a way to help Emma." Belle smiled. "You should go talk to her."

"And say what?"

Belle shrugged, "You love her, right? Tell her that. Let her know there is a way to beat this. In any case, you two have a child together. It's probably a good idea to be on good terms before your daughter arrives."

Belle stood up. Giving a small wave, she walked off. Killian watched her leave for a second before he pondered over her words. She was right. He knew it. Making up his mind, he stood up and walked into the direction of Granny's.

Emma had just got back to her room at Granny's. She had walked her parent's home, but then used her magic to poof herself inside her rented room. Her parents kept telling her not to give up, but she was having a hard time keeping positive about the whole thing.

She was about to get her phone out to call Henry, when she heard a knock on the door. She answered it quickly, opening the door. Killian walked into the room without an invitation. Emma shut the door behind him, and turned around to face him, folding her arms nervously.

"Emma when you left I was a mess. I spent those three years trying to find a way to relieve you of this burden, so that you would want to come home to me. I would have just left and looked for you if it wasn't for your parents. It hurt me more than I thought it would to see you again, and it hurt even more knowing that you kept her from me. However, I came here to tell you that I'm still very hurt by what you did, but I'm willing to forgive you. I don't think it would be wise of us to remain distant, especially now that we have a child…together." Killian spilled it all out before he lost his nerve.

Emma bit her lip softly, before nodding in agreement. "Okay. I know I hurt you, Killian. But I missed you so much. I would love it if we could talk again, and not have it be so... hard. I know it's my fault, but it would mean the world to me if we could at least be friends again."

Killian stood looking at her for a second, and then he was over to her pulling her into his arms and hugging her. As he embraced her, Emma let out a sigh, closing her eyes and feeling just how great it was to be in his arms again.

Breaking out of the hug quicker than she would have liked, she stepped back slightly. "I was just about to facetime Henry. Do you want to join me?"

"Yes, Sawn. I would love to. That's when you can see the other person on your phone and talk to them, right?" Killian asked.

Emma nodded, and walked over and sat on the edge of the bed. Killian followed, and sat next to her while she called Henry. Henry answered pretty quickly.

"Hey Mom." Henry started smiling when he saw Killian. "And Killian."

"How are you lad?" Killian asked.

"Today has been going exceeding times better than the last couple." Henry replied.

"That's good to hear. Henry, we don't really have any updates, but I would like for you to bring Eva and yourself here tomorrow. If you want." Emma said.

"Will you be okay?" Henry asked her seriously.

"I'll be fine. I think it will be easier with you two here anyway." Emma said with a smile

"Awesome. Okay. Do you want to talk to Eva?" Henry asked, looking at Killian.

"Yes please." Emma answered.

Henry put down his device, and Emma and Killian heard him shouting after his sister. When he sat back down with her, she was giggling.

"Say hi to Mom." Henry told her.

"MAMMA!" Eva shouted.

"Hey lovey. What're you doing?" Emma asked lovingly.

"Playin!" Eva said happily. "Who dat?"

Eva was pointing at Killian. He took a deep breath, probably trying to find the words to say, but Eva scrambled off Henry's lap and ran away.

"Where'd she go?" Emma asked, laughing.

"She's running in her room. I could go get her again." Henry said, his head moving out of the camera for a second before he moved back into focus. "Never mind. She's coming back."

Eva was climbing back up Henry's lap. She turned around to face them again, and Emma noticed she had something in her hand.

"Look Mom. Daddy in dis picture. Daddy in dat picture!" She held the picture to show them. It was one of her and Killian together that she had framed in Eva's room. Eva was giggling, apparently tickled at the fact that they were on Henry's phone together, and the picture.

"Yep you're right. Do you want to come see me and Daddy tomorrow?" Emma asked. Eva was now hugging the framed photo to her chest and started nodding frantically. Then she was off again.

"She's just been running around this apartment all day." Henry said laughing.

"She has a lot of spirit." Killian said softly. Emma looked at him. He was smiling, but it was the smile he put on when he was trying to hide his emotions.

Emma looked back at the phone, "Well I'll see you tomorrow Henry."

"Can't wait. Love you, Mom." Henry said.

"I love you too, Henry."

They both hung up. Emma stood up and put her phone of the dresser. She could feel Killian's eyes on her, but she was afraid to look at them. She really didn't want him to stop talking to again, but seeing his face when he had seen Eva made her feel like that was a possibility. He's seen her now, and was probably even more furious with her for keep the fact of her existence away from him.

You'd deserve it.

"You told her about me?" Emma spun around at the sound of his voice.

"What?" She asked.

"She recognized me. From that picture." He added.

"Yeah. I did… I wanted her to know you." She was barely talking above a whisper.

Figuring she owed him more of an explanation, she started rambling. "I'm sorry. I didn't want my problems to take over your life. I wanted you there with me, I really did. But she… she's the daughter of the Dark One. I still don't know what that means for her, when she gets here."

Killian was there again, hugging her close to him, his hand threading through her hair. She sat there willing herself not to cry.

"She'll be fine, Emma. I don't know what I did to make you feel like you were a burden to me, but you never were. I want to help you with this." He pulled back and looked at her.

Emma nodded at him.

You were never the problem. She wanted to say.

"I really want you to know her, Killian."

"Me too." He gave her a small smile, then started towards the door. "See you tomorrow?"

"See you tomorrow." She affirmed.

Closing the door behind him, she leaned against it lost in thought