thanks to oncer4life11, Emilee Amethyst and Araya for the reviews! :)

I got awakened by a ray of sun that came through the window to tickle my closed eyelids, and slightly blinded me on its way. I however didn't open my eyes right away, still half-asleep and refusing to leave this state of deep ease I was in right away. I rolled on my side to escape the light and bent my naked legs to my chest with a little frustrated grunt. I immediately heard Killian giggling next to me, and opened an eye to realized he was laying on his side, his head on his hand to lift his face up and look at me more easily.

"Two questions : why are you laughing, and why are you staring at me like that? You're almost creepy." I said in a still sleepy voice, as always in a bad mood after waking up.

"Because you're adorable, and most certainly the most beautiful woman to ever exist on this planet."

"I just woke up, I'm not pretty." I protested with a little wince, trying not to smile at his sweet comment.

"That's not true, you're gorgeous." He replied with a big grin, his eyes sparkling with pure love as he was still staring at me.

"Now that I think about it, I have a third question : why are you always in such a good mood in the morning? It should be illegal."

"Because, unlike you, I've always had the habit of waking up with the sun." He gently mocked me, laughing because of my teasing. "And also because, technically speaking, it's not really the morning anymore."

Triggered by this unexpected statement, I made an effort to roll on my back and glance at the alarm clock laying on the night table next to my head. I realized with surprise that it was more than 11 a.m., and I covered my face with my hands, letting go of a disapproving grunt :

"Fuck, Killian, why haven't you woken me up sooner?"

"Because you were looking sound asleep, I didn't want to bother you." He answered, looking a bit surprised because of my reaction. "And you needed the rest, we went to bed pretty late last night." He added, raising an eyebrow at me with a pout that finally made me smile.

The room was indeed covered with the remains of our night : our clothes were scattered all around the floor and the furniture, and he was still bare chest while I hadn't bothered to put on pants, and was only wearing panties and a wide shirt, his arms sufficient to keep me warm during the night.

"Why is it bothering you so much you're waking up that late?" He resumed with a questioning look.

"Because the hotel only serves breakfast until ten, you idiot." I replied, half laughing at the puppy face he offered me when he heard the name I had used to call him.

"So what? We'll find somewhere else to eat." He shrugged, not looking that triggered by my statement.

"Yeah, but we have to find this place. It's gonna take some time, and we still have to get up, and dress… and I'm hungry." I admitted.

"You're always hungry." He gently scoffed, but he was at the same time looking quite tenderized by my comment.

"Tell that to the baby." I replied, what made him laugh even louder.

I ended up smiling as well, unable to keep my falsely mad look with him, and he moved to sit on my legs, starting to gently kiss my lips, what made me moan in pleasure as our tongues were finding each others. I giggled through our kisses, quite happy by this sudden twist, but I gently pushed him away after a few more minutes, panting a little bit :

"We're certainly not going to go faster like that."

"We're already late, so a few more minutes are not going to change anything." He smiled with a charming look.

"We both know it's going to take more than a few minutes."

He chuckled and attacked my collarbone without paying attention to my comment. This time, and despite my hunger, I didn't try to push him away again and wrapped one of my legs around his waist to pull him closer to me, tilting my head as the touch of his tongue against the thin skin of my neck was making me groan in pleasure.

A little bit more than an hour later, we were settled in a diner not so far from our hotel, a mountain of pancakes laying between us on our little table. The good weather was back, that day, and the sun was beautifully shining, bringing with it this specific atmosphere that was always reigning in the Big Apple, this same atmosphere I was liking so much as it was bringing back memories from the time I had spent here with Henry. Except that this time, things were a thousand times better than they were back then : I had my real memories, a family I loved more than anything in the world, a wonderful husband that was making me so happy. Life could sometimes take unexpected turns, and I was so glad I wasn't alone anymore. The lost little girl had so many people she could count on now, Killian had managed to bring her back home, and I was happier than I had been my entire life.

I laughed when I noticed that Hook was staring at his meal wit a suspicious expression, his brows together as if the food was going to jump at his throat. He was detailing the pancakes with attention, and barely looked up when he heard my mocking laughter. I raised an eyebrow at him and said with a teasing smile :

"I promise it won't hurt you."

"Yeah, well let me doubt it." He mumbled, looking far from being convinced by my statement.

"These are pancakes, babe!" I insisted, still giggling. "We've eaten that breakfast hundreds of times at Granny's!"

"They don't look the same." He replied, his arms crossed over his chest, and he was reminding me of a kid refusing to eat his vegetables, even if I knew deep down he was overreacting on purpose to make me laugh.

"It's because you have to put maple syrup on it." I explained, taking the jar that was laying between us to illustrate my words.

Seeing that he wasn't reacting, I started to put syrup on his breakfast, purposely leaving the jar above the pancakes for way too long so his sweets were drowning in sugar. He looked up to me with a deeply offended look, and I burst out laughing, covering my mouth with my hands to try not to make too much noise, feeling tears of joy appearing in my eyes.

"This is not funny, you know." He protested, but the little grin he couldn't stop from spreading on his lips was denying his words.

"It actually is. You should have seen your face..." I laughed, half choking because I was giggling too hard.

"Okay, go ahead, mock me, but I'll find a way to get my revenge." He stated with an eyebrow raised, what made me laugh even louder as I knew all too well he wasn't thinking a word of what he was saying.

"I have no doubts about that." I said before leaning above the table to press a quick peck on his lips, what made him smile for good as he was pulling me closer to him for a second kiss, extending our embrace.

The rest of the meal happened in a great mood, as every moment we had spent together since we had arrived. After getting out of the diner, we walked a little bit in the city, enjoying the heat that was gently stroking our skins without being disturbing either. I ended up stopping in front of an antique shop, that was a bit hidden as it was stuck between a big building and a restaurant, and I started to carefully examine the shop window, suddenly interested by what I was seeing.

"Do you mind if I go take a look?" I said after a few minutes, turning to look at Killian as I was still holding his hand. "I'd like to find something to bring to the kids, and maybe they have interesting stuffs here."

"Of course I don't mind, love." He said, following me into the little shop with a small smile on his lips.

After a few minutes spent at snooping around the shelves, that were all containing items I was finding fascinating as they were looking like they were coming right from a picture book, I ended up revealing a limited edition of the A thousand and one nights book and told myself that, given his passion for reading, it would probably please Henry. I turned to Killian, who was staring at a replica of a ship strangely looking like the Jolly Roger, and asked for his opinion :

"Do you think Henry would like that?" I said, handing him the yellowed pages.

He approached me and leafed through the book with a great attention, smiling several times as he was glancing at the images, and he finally gave me the item back, stating :

"I'm sure he will be more than happy with it."

From that moment, and as I couldn't seem to find a clear explanation about this behavior, he started to stare at me with a deeply tenderized look, as if I was the eighth wonder of the world. Once out of the shop with the precious book in my backpack, I ended up asking, a bit intrigued by his unexpected reaction :

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"It's nothing. I'm just happy you're the mother of my children." He said, gently stroking my hand with his thumb.

"Oh, come on." I laughed, stopping to look at him and discovering at the same time he was perfectly serious, what surprised me because I had really thought he was gently teasing me by saying those words.

"I'm not kidding." He kindly answered. "You're absolutely perfect."

"Because I bought a book to my son?" I asked with my eyebrows raised, scoffing him a little bit.

"No, because you're always trying to make them happy. You're giving them all the love in the world, and this is the best way to raise a kid. You're amazing, Emma Swan, have I told you this already?"

I smiled, deeply moved by this statement, and put myself on my tiptoe to kiss him on the lips in a quiet thank you. Once I pulled away, I kept my arms wrapped around his neck to whisper against his mouth.

"You're not bad yourself, you know."

He grinned, pressed a tender kiss on my forehead as his fingers were gently running up and down my spine, and we started walking again, hand in hand, still smiling like two teenagers knowing their first love.

The day had passed way faster than I had hoped it would. I would have wanted these moments to last forever, because I was feeling so good by Killian's side. We had walked into the streets of the city for a few hours, and I had taken him to all the places I knew and loved about this magical place that had been my home for a while all those years ago. I had absolutely wanted to show him what a real funfair was looking like and, after dinner, we had taken the subway to go to Coney Island. The weather was wonderful, even now that the sun had set in the sky, and it was still so hot I was only wearing a red t-shirt and jeans. The place was crowded as overexcited kids were running around, letting go of cries of joy, and a cheerful music was ringing in the air. His left arm wrapped around my shoulders, Killian was looking all around him in awe, not wanting to miss one thing about what was going on in this magical place. He was looking like a kid and I smiled, tenderized, cuddling a little bit more against his chest.

"You want some?" I offered, handing him the package of roasted peanuts we had bought at the entrance and in which I was absent-mindlessly pecking.

He gave me a suspicious look back, as if he was scared I was going to poison him, and I resumed with one of my eyebrow raised, playing along with his kindly mocking look.

"Don't play smart with me, Jones, or I will buy you a cotton candy." I threatened, knowing all too well what would be his reaction if I was giving him the sweet.

"I beg your pardon?" He asked, looking totally confused by my statement.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." I replied with a giggle, amused by his reaction.

"Since we've arrived here, I feel like you're only trying to feed me weird stuffs. Are you mocking me with this?"

"Not at all." I laughed. "And you're only saying this because you've never seen what a cotton candy looks like."

"Is it weirder than the hot dog you made me eat yesterday?" he asked with a falsely innocent look on his face.

"Don't pretend you didn't like it. And to answer your question, you have no idea how stranger it is." I said with a purposely mysterious look.

"Are the people of this world… peculiar, or are you just weird during the pregnancy?"

I felt my eyes widening because of this teasing I hadn't expected to hear, and I stated, seeing that he was looking pretty proud of his joke :

"Okay, if you're taking it like that, I'm buying you one."

"No, I was kidding… Swan!" He called me back, as I had freed myself from his embrace and was heading for a stand selling sweets, still laughing out loud.

I didn't pay attention to his offended protestations, and bought two cotton candies, which the sellers gave me with a kind smile. Hook threw me a blank stare from behind his huge sweet that he was holding in his hand, and I burst out laughing, putting a part of my own candy in my mouth and enjoying the feeling of the sugar melting against my tongue.

"Okay, if I really do have to eat that, at least tell me what it's made of." He asked with a melodramatic sight.

"Sugar."

"And?" He encouraged me to continue.

"I was finished. Just sugar."

"Seriously? And you want me to eat that bloody thing?"

"I'm doing it right now!" I replied with a chuckle. "And if you don't trust me, look around you. Everyone is eating the same thing."

He wavered for a few more minutes, more in order to tease me than because he was actually suspicious, and ended up yielding to my amused comments. And against all odds, he actually liked it a lot. It even put him in a really good mood, because we were stopping every few minutes to share sweet kisses between the stands. We ended up stopping in front of shooting stand, and I looked at the fluffed animals laying on the shelves, behind a fifty-year-old man and his teenage daughter. I said, poking Killian on the shoulder to draw his attention :

"I'm gonna win one for Liam."

"You seem pretty sure of yourself." He gently scoffed.

"I remind you I have experience with guns" I replied with a falsely upset look, gesturing to the owner to tell him I wanted to try.

He gave me one of the guns with a smile, and I defiantly smirked at Hook before aiming for the empty jars laying in front of me. As I had expected, each and every one of my shots met their goal, and the teenage girl, who had stared at my performance with a fascinated expression, asked, looking impressed :

"That was awesome! You're a cop?"

"A Sheriff." I corrected with a smile, giving her the gun back.

"You're the best player we've had for a long time, you can choose whatever you want." She said with a kind smile.

Hook joined me to help me decide what we wanted to get our son, and we ended up choosing a huge stuffed dog, Liam's favorite animal. As I was taking my price from the girl's hands, warmly thanking her at the same time, Killian stated with a little smile.

"If you don't mind, I'm going to try as well."

"Aren't you scared to get beaten, now that you've seen what I've just done?" I said with a little smirk.

"And why do you assume I'm going to do worse than you? Do you think I'm only good with my sword?"

I saw the young girl bursting out laughing behind him, and pressed my lips together to contain my giggles, aware that, for someone who didn't know about our stories, his sentence could sound like a dirty joke. Killian looked at me, seeming completely lost because of my reaction, and asked :

"What did I say?"

"Nothing." I said in a voice muffled by my laughter. "Nothing at all, babe. Go on, play."

He stared at me, one of his eyebrow raised, but ended up obeying and he aimed with his gun. He had a disadvantage as he could only use his right hand, but he actually did very well. Once the game finished, he chose a little teddy bear with a soft fur and gave it to me, saying :

"This one is for Peanut."

He placed his hand on my stomach to illustrate his words, and I smiled when I felt the baby giving a little kick. I was always finding it so beautiful it was answering its father's strokes and voice, as if they were already sharing a strong bound while they hadn't even met for real yet.

"It pleases it a lot and it's saying thank you." I whispered, looking up at him with a little smile on my lips.

He leaned forward for the hundredth times that night to press a little kiss on my mouth, then on the tip of my nose, the young girl watching us with a small smile on her face.

The day after – and despite our pretty eventful night, but we were the only ones to blame and, quite frankly, I wasn't regretting anything – we got up pretty early to have breakfast at the hotel, and we walked all day in the streets, hand in hand, a bit sad at the idea this wonderful time together was already almost over. I found a stuffed tiger for my baby brother in a toy store, happy to be able to bring something to the kids. We had talked to Liam on the phone the night before, and even if he hadn't said much, which was normal for a little boy of his age, my mom had assured us he was more than okay and was adorable, as always. Killian and I talked about him, Henry, our family that was going to grow soon and, just like that and way too fast, it was already time to go and resume our normal lives.

The bus was leaving at 3pm, and we were supposed to arrive in Storybrooke at night. Just before going, I dragged Killian inside of a photo booth that was placed in the bus station. He looked at the machine as if it was evil, what made me laugh out loud as he was overreacting on purpose to make me giggle even more. In the little cabin, we shared one last moment in these three days that had seemed like a dream. We didn't even have the time to look at the pictures after taking them, because the bus was going to leave, and we couldn't miss it. I was happy to see my family again, obviously, but I would have wanted this trip to last longer : the days we had just spent together had been so magical and I didn't want it to end so soon.

"I can't believe it's already over." I sighted in sadness after joining our places in the bus.

Hook turned to look at me as I was saying these words, and wrapped his arm around my shoulders to comfort me. He pulled me very close to his chest and pressed a tender kiss on the top of my head :

"I know, love. I'm sad it's over too."

I sighted again and cuddled a little bit more against him to breathe his comforting fragance of leather and sea. To make me feel better, he continued, gently stroking my skin through my t-shirt :

"You know what? When the baby will be born, we'll go somewhere with the kids. Somewhere far, and for long this time. We'll offer them a real trip far from all the dangers in Storybrooke. What do you think?"

I felt a huge smile appearing on my lips, so glad about his unexpected offer, as I hadn't thought for one second he would have this idea. The proposition was pleasing me a lot : Getting Henry, Liam and the little one out of Storybrooke for a little while. Be a normal family for once. Sure, I would have to talk about it with Regina, but I was sure she was going to give us her blessing : We weren't fighting for Henry's custody anymore, and if he was technically speaking leaving one week at her place and one week at ours, he could come and go between the two houses whenever he wanted to. So happy about it, I moved to press a long kiss on Killian's lips, and when he pulled away from me, he said with a big smile :

"You seem to like this idea."

"I love you." I simply answered, and his smile widened a bit more.

As the bus was starting off, I got my cellphone out of my pocket to look at the pictures we had taken during our trip. I stopped scrolling to look at one photograph in particular : a young woman had kindly offered us to take a picture as we were standing in front of a restaurant called The Jolly Roger, what had made us laugh a lot. I had explained to Killian the ship was extremely famous in the pop culture, and it wasn't surprising to find a place called like that, but we had anyway found this really amusing. Seeing us struggling to take a picture containing us and the sign, the young woman had come to save the day, and the result was more than beautiful : standing in front of the building, a huge smile on our faces, we were pulled into such a tight embrace that it was hard to see where I was beginning and where he was ending.

"This one is going to go join the others in the kitchen." Killian stated with a big grin.

I enthusiastically nodded and kept on scrolling to look at the pictures as he was staring at the screen behind my shoulder. When I had finished, I got the pictures from the photo booth out of my jeans, and smiled a little bit more. On one of the photographs, I was laughing at something he had said to me, my head tilted, and Killian was turned on his side, a little smile on his face as he was looking at me like I was the most precious thing he had ever seen. As a quiet thank you for always being so sweet and caring with me, I cuddled against him and ended up falling asleep in his comforting arms. At my greatest surprise, I only woke up when we arrived in Storybrooke.

"I slept all the way?" I mumbled, rubbing my eyes and a bit confused as I was seeing the travelers leaving their seats.

"You needed the rest. And after the nights we've just lived, you shouldn't be surprised to be tired." He answered with a charming smile, what made me giggle and allowed me to regain my good mood.

He laughed as well and we got out of the bus to go find my parents, who were awaiting for us in the pitch-dark parking. They approached us with a big smile to greet us, and I took them in my arms, a little smile on my face.

"You look good." My mom said, gently cupping my cheek.

"Have you had fun?" My dad asked with a big smile, his hand patting Hook's shoulder.

"It was awesome." I answered, glancing at Killian, who was looking at me with a little grin, looking happy to see me so close to my parents. "Thanks for everything, guys..."

"There's no need to thank us, honey." My mom assured, looking so happy by my statement.

"I'm going to go take your bags." My dad said, taking Killian behind him and leaving me alone with Mary-Margaret.

"The kids aren't with you?" I asked as they were walking away from us.

"No, it was too late for them to come with us. But they are with Regina and Robin at your place, we told ourselves it would prevent you from coming back to the loft, you must be exhausted. Liam is really excited to see you both, by the way."

"He hasn't done too many mischiefs with Neal, has he?" I asked, impatient to hold my sons close to me again.

"Not at all, he has been a real angel, as always."

I smiled even more hearing those words, and Killian and David came back, carrying our heavy bags on their shoulders. They had only taken my yellow bug to come and greet us, and we all bunched into the tiny space. I found myself on the backseat of the car, once again against Killian, but I wasn't complaining about that. He was himself looking pretty glad by the situation, because he didn't moan once about the lack of space, just holding me close to him and pressing tender kisses on my forehead from time to time. The journey home was pretty short and we found ourselves back in Storybrooke before we had the time to think about it. My parents assured us they were taking care of our luggage, and we walked hand in hand to the front door of our house :

"We're home!" I said once we had entered the hall.

We hadn't had the time to take three steps that a little brown head ran toward us, and Killian and I laughed at the same time as Liam was giggling :

"Mommy! Daddy!" He shouted.

I squatted to take him against me, and he threw himself in my arms with so much strength I lost my balance and found myself sitting on the floor. I heard Hook laughing again above my head, and he sat down as well to embrace Liam. I kissed my son on the top of his head several times, holding him very close to my chest :

"I've missed you, baby." I whispered.

Neal and Henry didn't take long to arrive, and my brother joined our embrace, laughing as my oldest son was looking at us with the little smirk he always had when he was about to mock us :

"Comfy there?" He asked, seeing that I was imprisoned into the kids' hugs.

"Stop mocking us, and come here, you." I chuckled, gesturing so he would come join us.

He obeyed with a smile and bent to hug us both. I ended up getting up again as my parents were entering the hall, my baby brother in my arms as Liam was snuggled into Killian's. We headed for the living room, greeting Regina and Robin with a big smile, and we settled on the couch, Neal still in my arms.

"How was New York?" The little boy asked, his eyes sparkling in excitement.

"It was great." I said, playfully fluffing his hair.

"Could I go too, one day?"

"Sure, sweetie. When you'll be older." My mom promised with a little smile.

"But for now, we've brought you gifts!" I stated, wanting to comfort my brother who was looking a bit disappointed by my mom's answer.

The two little boys immediately fell in love with their toys. As they were busy giggling and hugging their stuffed animals, I took Henry in the kitchen to give him his gift as well, pretty eager to see his reaction when he would see the book I had gotten him.

"I have something for you too." I said, holding the bag containing the precious item in my hand.

"Mom, you didn't have too..." He protested with a happy expression that was denying his words.

"Of course I wanted to get you something, you're my son. Don't protest, and open it." I said, biting my lower lip as I was handing him the bag, suddenly a bit anxious at the idea the gift wasn't going to please him the way I had imagined it would.

I saw his eyes widening when he saw the book, and he started to carefully turn the pages, as if he was scared to spoil them. After a few seconds spent into a surprised silence, he ended up stuttering :

"How… where did you find this?"

"In an antique shop." I said with a little shrug. "Do you like it?"

"Are you kidding me? I love it, mom, why is this even a question! Thank you so much!" He shouted, spontaneously dragging me into a tight embrace. "Do you think all the characters are real as well?"

"Probably." I answered, pulling away from him but keeping my hands on his shoulders, telling myself that I was so proud to be the mom of such a wonderful young man.

My family left us not long after our reunion, and we needed a little while before managing to get Liam to bed, as he was overexcited because of our return. We were back to reality now, and despite the few magical days we had just passed, I was happy to be near my family again. Being home was reminding me that no more danger was awaiting for us out there, and it was making me feel so good. Maybe, finally we could form a happy and normal family.

Here we go guys! This was the last calm chapter, the few that are coming are going to be pretty intense. See you Monday! :)