One year ago

Emma left her office in the late afternoon hours. She walked by the other desks, carrying her car keys and her empty coffee-to-go mug in her hands. A colleague approached her and while holding a glass door open for her questioned with a sneer: "Hey Emma! The SCPD already trying to recruit you?" Emma just looked at him without responding. When she was opening the buildings' doors she realized it was raining pitchforks.

"Really?," she sighed. This morning the sky has been cloudless and blue which is why she had parked her car a block away to have a little walk along the parks' red autumn trees. With her face deep in the hood of her brown leather jacket she stepped outside, ignoring the park completely on her rushed way to her yellow Volkswagen bug. Once inside it she freed her ponytail from the hood and squashed the coffee mug between the seats. The car was so old it didn't have a proper cup holder.

The windshield wipers squeaked while the pouring rain was undoing all their efforts to wipe the raindrops from the glass. Emma was coming to a halt at a red light when her phone started ringing. She was about to answer the call by telling Felicity she was on her way home right away but the display told her it wasn't her sister but a blocked ID.

"Swan," she said, putting the phone between her ear and her shoulder to engage the gear.

"Any plans for your quitting time?," a distorted voice asked. Last week Emma would have been close to having a heart attack but now she was pretty sure she knew who the caller was.

"How do you know I'm clocking out now?"

"I was hoping we could talk about what happened the other night," the guy ignored her question. Truth be told both of them knew how he had found out.

"That sounds... but sure I'm done talking about it with curious people who stick their noses in other people's business," Emma admitted.

"Meet me at the docks. I sent you the address. I'm the guy with the green hood."

Now that was quite the elaborate conversation. And was that supposed to be funny at the end? A joke from Arrow? Emma shook her head and turned the car around, away from the town center. The traffic was slow but the further she drove out of the city the less cars she saw on her way until her yellow bug stopped all alone in front of an empty warehouse. Emma took another look on the address but she was right. It certainly was more likely for Arrow to meet here than in a fancy restaurant.

The rain had reduced to a drizzle and Emma put her hood back on. Contrary to her expectations the warehouse's inside wasn't as gloomy as the outside. Inside the guy she had caught a glimpse of a few days ago was waiting for her. As she approached him she once again removed her hood. Without Emma being able to see it Oliver Queen smiled at the way her ponytail, so similar to her sister's, popped out.

"Hi," Emma observed Arrow carefully. He stood, hiding his face in the shadow of his green hood and holding his bow lowered. "How are you?," the Arrow voice asked politely.

"A little exhausted by the media circus. They want to know everything about their Assassin Robin Hood. Their choice of words, not mine."

"Yeah, sorry about that. I trusted in your instincts to keep the details of our encounter for yourself," Arrow explained, posing more questions for Emma. "You trusted me? That sounds as if-"

"I had a worked out plan? Not quite." Emma's jaw dropped. "I have kept an eye on you. You're good. You've got great instincts. No one crashes one of Arrow's You failed this city interviews. Not by accident, nor on purpose. But the fact that you did turn up proved your skills once more. Not to mention your help with this police detective. It's time for Arrow to have someone like that in his team."

"You mean I could help you. How?," Emma wondered why she actually considered this. But she always wanted to commit her life to help people, to save people and she simply knew that this was what Arrow did on his quest through the whole city.

"By doing what you always did added with cooperation and contact with me. Sometimes I could need a second opinion. Just know what it means," suddenly Arrow sounded more serious and Emma sensed it not only by the dramatic pause he put in his speech. "And that is," she inquired.

"Absolute quintessential trust."

Emma let the words take effect. But to her they didn't appear as big as they were. He trusted her, he has told her himself. And she didn't find a reason against it but one: her sister. She wouldn't be able to tell her. It was too big of a risk but she could keep one secret from her in order to keep her save.

"I'm in. I trust you," Emma offered. Arrow nodded and Emma saw what it the trust really meant to him. He raised a hand to take off his green hood. "Thank you. I'm Oliver Queen."

"Emma Swan but you know that of course," Emma took the hand he was offering her. "Queen," she added with a smirk but then she got it. "Holy shit as in Queens Consolidated?"

"That's the one." Oliver and Emma shook hands and affirmed their agreement and the beginning of a friendship in this warehouse.

"I don't get a super suit or a costume, do I?"

"No, that's not part of it."

"That's too bad because you should know I have a super power. I can tell when anyone is lying."

"Interesting. That means you really are genuinely trusting me without doubts."

"I didn't need to use it on you."

Both of them knew they made the right decisions and then Emma went back to her bug and drove home. Felicity would be waiting for her and Emma prepared to face her by telling herself that Oliver Queen may be Felicity's boss but Arrow wasn't. It was a bit shabby but it was well-intentioned.

Today

"Don't get me wrong, Swan. I trust you. Just where are we headed for?," Killian gasped, out of breath from being chased.

"I know about an old warehouse at the docks. No one is there and there aren't any neighbors either," Emma told him. They were running for a bit already and Emma knew by telling him she also told Felicity and Oliver of whom she was certain they had tabs on them. Oliver would know which warehouse she was talking about.

"Emma, Oliver wants me to tell you that we're coming to help you," Felicity's voice informed her, confirming Emma's theory.

Luckily they didn't see a lot of other people on their way to resettle twenty-eight magical revived undead people. When Emma spotted the warehouse in the distance she was turning to Killian. "We're almost there. I will open the gates and I need you to go inside so our friends behind us follow you. At the far end of the warehouse is a back entrance. So you can get out. Then we will lock up the building from both sides."

"A sneaky plan. You'd make a hell of a pirate." Emma smiled at that comment and sped up to make the plan happen. She could only hope it would work.

Killian arrived at the warehouse just in time to find the gates already opened by Emma. Watching the scene, Emma thought how stupid it looked that there were about thirty people following one man in black leather as if he had stolen cherished goods from each of them. Killian stopped in the middle of the building and turned around, yelling, "Wanna kill a human?"

"What the hell?," Emma murmured, rolling her eyes. But it worked and soon she closed the door behind the last of these zombies and locked it with an old rusty chain. Nearly at the same time a rumbling from the other side of the house appeared. "Damn it," Emma thought and ran to the back way. From the other side of the door Killian knocked his fist and kicked his feet against it . The door was locked. "Swan!," he shouted desperately. "The door is stuck!"

"Killian", Emma replied. She observed the door. It opened inwards. "Killian, step away from the door." Safety catch of her gun off she kicked the door open. Killian was forced against the wall next to it. Emma shot the undeads closest to him, aiming at their legs in order not to kill them. Killian escaped the room immediately and tried to close the door with Emma. There was no padlock for the device. Maybe they could find another way to bar the door. They had to.

"A pirate is prepared for everything," Killian smirked, putting his hook through the whole of the old locking mechanism. "Well, you can't stay there forever," Emma teased.

"I can bear it for a bit but I'd rather you go somewhere safer." Emma nodded. She decided to head for Oliver and Felicity and to return with a proper solution to lock up the door as soon as possible. She believed Killian could care for himself but for him this door meant life or death.

Before Emma left Killian spoke. "Swan, thank you."

She looked at him. "Don't think I'm doing this for you", she answered coolly.

But when Emma returned with Oliver and Felicity a while later the warehouse was empty. Killian had left. A trace of blood from the zombies, how Felicity liked to call them, that Emma had shot led to Killian's ship. It was gone, too, and along with it the captain and the people he had poisoned so many days ago.

For Emma, Felicity and Oliver and the people in Starling City it meant they could calm down a bit. The events of the last days have been quite the adventure but when Felicity and Emma talked about it after the eagerly anticipated shower and well deserved sleep the only thing on Emma's mind was Killian's disappearance.

"I don't understand it. I didn't realize it in that moment but I started to trust him and now he's gone just like that. Without saying a word," she recalled, poking her breakfast cereals with her spoon.

"I get it," Felicity grinned, "You like the dashing pirate."

"No." Felicity raised an eyebrow at Emma's answer. "Look who's talking," Emma exclaimed, "You fancy your boss."

"We weren't talking about me. C'mon, Emma. Do you like him?"

"No," Emma repeated but took a walk to the docks with a chai latte more often than usual and looked at the horizon. One day a few weeks later when Emma sat on a bench, sipping coffee while watching the sun rise, a sailing ship appeared at the horizon. Majestically it approached the city in the orange light of the new day. Emma couldn't take her eyes off the ship. She simply knew that it was the Jolly Roger but she waited for it to be close enough for her to recognize it. Only then she allowed herself to be excited.

A while later Killian prepared the plank and then twenty-eight totally normal mortal people walked down the plank followed by Killian. Emma didn't believe her eyes. Killian spotted her and they approached each other. Emma smiled at him and shook her head in disbelief.

"How did you do this?"

"I'm a hell of a captain," Killian grinned, "but I also happened to have powder made of poppies on my ship. Knocked them out and then I drove them to Storybrooke to let someone cure them."

Emma decided not to question the poppy powder part, nor the Storybrooke part any further. "Why didn't you say good-bye."

"It was a short term plan and it was my own fault I had to put right. I didn't know whether it would work and didn't want to raise your hopes. I'm sorry if I disappointed you."

"Oh no. No you didn't. It was a selfless plan after all," remarked Emma.

"Not completely after all. I could clear my name. My code. It feels like a new beginning."

"And how does your new beginning look like," Emma questioned carefully because she didn't want her intention to be obvious.

"I stay, of course. You still have to explain that talking device to me and in addition to that I think we make quite the team." Emma was relieved to hear this but she didn't want to show it. They went to the Arrowcave where they found Oliver and Felicity in front of the computers. Seeing Killian, Oliver walked to a drawer and put out four glasses and rum which he has kept for that moment. He has been sure Killian would return.

"I guess our team got bigger," Oliver turned to Emma. "It did. We successfully recruited an IT-girl and a pirate" she agreed, smiling. The four of them each took a glass and Oliver poured the rum. Then he brought out a toast, "To Team Arrow."

"To Team Arrow," they repeated and they drank the rum more or less grimacing.

"By the way. There's a new crisis," Felicity uttered.

Killian let out a laughter. "I see how it works with you. There's always a crisis."

The end.

A/N: I'm ending the story here. There is not enough time for me to write and I feel like now is a good time for the story to end. But it was a great experience and I plan to write more fanfiction on here at some point. Let me know if you have ideas or requests. Thanks for all your support. I hope you enjoyed the story.