A/N: In the next chapter here it still won't be rainbows and unicorns, how will Emma deal with the fact that she will be seeing Killian for more than she'd ever imagined?
I'm so happy to see this gets so many read so fast and new kudos and reviews… they all mean so much to me. Thank you.
Thanks to my beta jonesfandomfanatic for helping me with this.
Enjoy.
Chapter 4The sound of the front door closing woke Emma up. She'd found a spot on the large couch in Ruby's living room. Her head was still feeling a little off-kilter, her heart clenched in the aftermath of her panic attack.
"Hey you," Ruby called out. "I've brought Chinese and wine."
Emma scrambled up from the couch and turned towards her friend. "Just what I need right now, thank you." She pushed away her hair from her face, hoping that her eyes had no more redness from her earlier crying.
"So I had to wrangle the audition film clips from our Queen." Ruby placed the bag of takeout and a bottle of red wine on the coffee table.
"Oh." Emma worried her lip between her teeth. "You shouldn't have gone through all that trouble for me."
"I know how much this project means to you, girl, so I want you to have a say in this." Ruby skipped to the open-spaced kitchen and whooped when she found the bottle opener. She plucked two wine glasses from the cabinet and returned to the couch and opened up the containers.
"I wasn't prepared to see…" Emma sighed, hating how this whole thing had affected her.
"The man who broke your heart?"
"What?" Emma gasped. "How…?"
"Oh, girl. I could sense some old regrets between the two of you when I found you in that hallway," Ruby said, patting Emma's knee.
"Something like that," Emma mumbled and reached for the glass of wine Ruby had poured for her taking a sip.
"So do you want to eat first before watching that smoking hot man of yours act out your story?" Ruby picked a container and ate
"He's not mine." Emma shook her head before picking out her own food.
"But you wanted him to be," Ruby observed, tilting her head. "Perhaps you even still want him?"
"No, that is long since passed." Emma waved her off. "Totally water under the bridge."
"So if the Mills sisters pick him for the role you'd be fine watching him on set?"
"Yeah." Emma took a mouthful of food, her mind reeling with that very scenario. How would it be to watch him act in the scenes she knew would be in the story?
"Hmm." Ruby went silent after this and focused on her food for several minutes.
Emma was grateful for the silence. She wasn't sure she would be on the set very much even if they do pick Killian for the role.
Once they'd cleared the dishes away, Ruby found a flash drive in her pocket and found her laptop. "Regina made me promise to disable all wireless Wi-Fi connections on the device we watch on so we'll have to make do with this." Ruby worked on the laptop, disabling the Wi-Fi.
Emma settled back with a throw pillow clutched to her chest, the thumping of her heart echoed in her ears as the screen showed the audition room. It had been fun seeing the first auditions, and she'd tried to keep up with the gossip going on at the desk between the different actors. She'd even taken notes during the sessions so she would have something to bring to the discussion later on.
The scene Killian and the woman, Ariel, would play out was a more heated debate between the two main characters. It blew Emma away by how in character Killian seemed to be already. Ariel did a good job keeping up with him and they looked amazing together. Emma shook her head when the couple embraced and shared a heated kiss. It's all acting, it's all acting, she repeated to herself several times as the scene shifted and showed Killian with another woman, Kathryn. This time it was less intense, and it seemed as if Kathryn was more intimidated by Killian than actually being in love with the man she had an argument with. When the last woman came into the room Emma leaned forward and felt herself relax a bit more but it was still strange seeing him act. Lily was brilliant and kept up with Killian, the only downside, in Emma's opinion, was the fact that she looked far too young for the role.
When the screen turned blank, she searched under the coffee table for a notepad. She knew Ruby always had a stash of notepads scattered all over her house, so figured there'd be one there. Emma scribbled down her initial thoughts and, in doing so, felt more at ease going to the office the following day to speak with the Mills sisters about the role.
"Feeling better?" Ruby asked.
"Yeah, I think I'm ready for tomorrow."
"So who do you like the most for the roles?"
Emma shrugged, "I don't know."
"Killian sure did a fine job." Ruby waggled her eyebrows.
"Hmm." Emma dropped the notepad on the table and settled back. "Out of the women, I do like Ariel the best, although her hair might be a tad too bright red."
"That can be changed " Ruby waved her off. "I saw her profile sheet, and she doesn't mind having her hair colored."
"Well, I would go with her then, but let's see what the big bosses chose," Emma shrugged.
"They want your opinion, so give them your honest thoughts and let them decide on who gets the roles," Ruby assured her with a smile.
Emma hummed in reply. "Think I'll go to bed early." Emma rose from the couch. "See you tomorrow."
"Sleep well."
"Thanks, you too." Emma found her way to the guest bedroom, and stood at the large windows gazing out over the twinkling lights of L.A. This was a dream come true for her, to have her book made into a movie. But now it seemed as if she was going to be face to face with an old ghost of hers. Killian had haunted her dreams for years after he'd vanished from her life. She wasn't sure how this would work if he did get the role as the male lead character in her story. A haunted singer who falls in love with a mob boss' daughter. It was a role perfectly crafted for him.
"So we're all in an agreement?" Regina Mills looked around the large oval table where the production crew was gathered.
"This is going to be a great cast. I can feel it," Zelena Mills supplied before gathering her papers in a pile. "How do you feel about the cast, Emma?" The redhead's gaze was intense and Emma gulped down, having always thought the woman looked like a witch straight out of a fairytale.
"I… I like it." She'd given her opinions of the auditions from yesterday with a beating heart, and sweaty palms. She'd been speaking with a group of Hollywood hotshots who did this for a living. "I really think you have found the perfect cast for this story."
"I understand you know Killian Jones from your past?" Regina asked and when Emma sent a fleeting look at her friend Ruby, their boss added, "Ruby explained what happened yesterday when you skipped out on the auditions."
Ruby looked a little forlorn and mouthed, "Sorry."
Emma waved her off and looked at Regina. "I grew up in the same town as him, that's it. I… I just got a bit surprised and I guess all this got to my head."
"Well, from now on there's nothing else but to enjoy the filming." Regina smiled. "I'll give you the filming schedule and we can figure out what times are the most giving for you to be around. If you want to, that is. We do value our author's opinions here at Mills Movies."
"Oh, I'd love to see what goes on behind the camera," Emma said with a reassuring smile.
With a few last parting words, the group left the room and Emma headed home with Ruby. She couldn't wait to follow the filming. It had been tough to not argue against Killian getting the lead role; he was the best of the three and, as they drove home, she suddenly realized why Killian was so perfect for the role. She'd somehow inadvertently ended up molding the lead male character after her childhood friend, Killian Jones.
Killian kept staring at his phone after Mrs. Mills had hung up, the conversation still bouncing around in his head. This was how Will found him a few minutes later.
"Oy, who died?"
Killian lifted his gaze to Will, "I got the role."
"You're shitting me!"
"No, I got the part in Emma's story." He couldn't believe it, he was going to be in a movie.
"This is cause for celebrations. Let's call the band up and head out for drinks," Will declared and rushed to find their coats.
In a daze Killian got to his feet and followed his friend out into the L.A nightlife. It was amazing to have gotten this chance to play in a movie, something he'd never imagined he'd ever do. Now the chance was here, and he was ready to take on this new era of his life, and share it with the world. Will had advised him to keep this a bit hush-hush for now until things were completed between him and the Mills Movies.
It had been a crazy first day on set. Killian was tired, his head was swimming with new experiences and he'd finally gotten a first-hand view of how a movie was made. It really wasn't as glamorous as one might think, but to his luck, the crew around him was nice and helpful. Everyone knew that he'd never done this before and all gave him enough time to get used to how things worked around the set. Even his fellow actors and actresses were helpful and he'd had a few scenes already with Ariel and he found the woman easy to be around.
His eyes scanned for the woman he really wanted to hang out with, Emma Nolan, or as people around her called her Emma Swan. He'd spotted her halfway through filming where she'd been hiding behind a monitor stand and spoke with Ruby. The two women had poured over the script, most likely discussing changes that might need to be made.
As he weaved his way through the backstage area he searched for Emma but she seemed to have disappeared.
Turning his head to the side, to scan a darker area, he failed to see the person walking out from one of the smaller rooms. A woman gasped, "Seriously," in surprise, and clutched at his shirt stopping herself from falling. When Killian turned his gaze to the woman still pressed close to him he soon realized who she was.
"Emma."
"I'm so sorry." She let go of his shirt and stepped back from him, her eyes taking him in with a part curious and part haunted look.
"No worries, love," he shrugged. "No harm done, I wasn't watching where I was going." He scratched behind his ear. "So how do you like it so far?"
"Hmm?" Emma shook her head as if to clear her mind.
"The filming, I noticed you came in after lunch."
"You did?" Her eyebrows lifted in surprise.
"Aye, I was just a bit busy acting to come over and say hi."
"Ah, yeah, well it's all new to me but it's so amazing to watch my own words come to life like this."
"It's a great story." He gave her a smile.
"You think?"
"Aye, when I got the script during our tour I couldn't stop reading."
"Oh…oh you were on tour?"
"Aye with my band, you know."
Emma waved her hand in the air. "Yeah, I know you're a singer and gaining a lot of fans over here." She glanced around them. "And now you're an actor too."
A rueful sense settled inside him as he looked at her. "I'm sorry for what happened."
"Uh?"
"You know, in the past." He waved his hand aimlessly in the air, then sighed. "And at the auditions when you…"
"I got a little overwhelmed that's all," Emma said shortly and stepped back, her arms wrapped around herself. "Don't worry, I'm fine." She waved between them. "This is fine. I'm glad you got the role." A sad flicker flashed over her eyes and she turned away, "I… I have to go, see you around Jones."
"Aye." Killian watched her rush away from him, not quite running but close enough for him to feel his heart drop to the pit of his stomach, she clearly didn't want to speak with him.
This was one of the few times he spoke with her in the following weeks of filming. Some days she wasn't on set and when he asked Ruby she would tell him that she'd flown back home to work and would be back next week. Whenever their paths would cross she'd be standoffish and only speak about the movie and his role. Most often it was alongside Ruby and the director, August Booth, whenever they wanted her input on some details in the scene they worked on that day. Killian wasn't sure he'd ever be able to spend a moment alone with her. There were so many things he wanted to speak to her about. He'd missed her and he regretted how it all had ended between them. But whenever he tried to reach out she'd step back and give him a vague excuse to slip away from him again.