6.

"How's it going?" Emma asked, stepping into their bedroom with five month old baby Hope on her hip.

Killian was sat in their closet, trying to reorganise it with the new shelving and drawers they'd added, and hopefully throw a few things out in the process. For two people who had never really had many possessions, they had certainly accumulated a lot of stuff in the years since their marriage. So much so that their closet was now overflowing and they'd both had enough of bumping into boxes or things falling over whilst rummaging through their clothes.

"It's...going," he replied, sounding rather dejected from where he sat on the floor, surrounded by heaps of clothes, books, blankets and random junk

Emma bent over and plopped Hope down in his lap before taking a spot on the floor beside him. "How on earth did we get so much stuff?" she asked, perusing all the overstuffed boxes and wooden sea chests surrounding them.

"Haven't a bloody clue!" he muttered whilst kissing Hope's chubby little cheeks and trying to pry his necklace out of her tiny clasped fist.

"Well," she sighed as she eyed everything, "I'm putting Hope down for a nap in a minute, so I can help. Hey, what's this?" She spotted something on top of one of the boxes and picked it up, turning it over in her hands.

"What's what?" He looked up, having just successfully rescued his necklace from entering his daughter's mouth – yet again!

Emma held up a small, round golden object. "This."

Killian smiled. "Oh that," he took it from her and flipped it between his fingers. "Remember our climb up the beanstalk?" he asked.

"Vaguely," she replied sarcastically.

"Hmm, well do you remember I stole a coin from the Giants' treasure?" He handed the coin back to her before the baby could make a grab for it. She was becoming rather restless and not content to be held in his arms, so he adjusted her over his shoulder and patted her back to settle her.

"This is it?" she asked, studying the old coin again. "You kept it?" she sounded rather surprised. "I figured that would have been long gone, spent on a bottle of rum or something!" she laughed.

"Aye. I had to keep a souvenir from our first adventure together, right?" he smirked.

"Our first? You knew there were going to be more did you?" She elbowed him in the ribs with a soft chuckle. Hope grizzled and rubbed at her eyes.

"I hoped," he winked at her. "Like I'm always telling you, you had me smitten from the start, love."

"Yeah, course you did!" Emma rolled her eyes with scepticism – the sword fights and locking her in a prison cell suggested otherwise. Seeing that Hope was becoming rather difficult to hold as she squirmed and threw her arms about and the grizzles became full on wails of anger, she put the coin back and took the baby from him. "Right, let me go put this grumpy little madam down for her nap and I'll be back to help," she told him, giving him a quick kiss as she got to her feet and headed for the nursery.

She returned a short time later and reclaimed her spot on the floor. "Okay, she's finally settled. So, where do we start?" she asked, reaching for the nearest box in front of her to go through. "Hey, Killian?" she called his name and nudged him with her elbow when he gave her no reaction.

He looked up sharply. Sat in front of him was an open sea chest full of random belongings from his ship. Over time, as he got used to his home now being on dry land rather than on the ocean's waves, he had moved more and more personal belongings into their house until his Captain's cabin looked rather bare. In his hand was a sheet of slightly crumpled paper with creased fold lines. Looking closer she realised his eyes were rather glossy, as though brimming with tears.

"Are you okay? What you got there?" She nodded towards the paper in his hand.

"It's a letter," he sniffed. "From you."

"From me?" she asked, confused.

"Aye," he nodded simply and then handed her the letter as he surreptitiously tried to wipe his eyes with his other arm.

Frowning, she took it from him, wondering what on earth she could have written to him that made him so emotional. She couldn't ever remember writing him a letter, besides little love notes they sometimes left around the house for each other or a reminder to get more milk or something like that. But, as she opened the letter and realised what it was, she gasped.

"This is...I wrote this when we were Dark ones, when I was going to sacrifice myself to save everyone," she murmured to herself more than him. "You kept this?" she asked. This amazed her much more than the coin had.

"I didn't even know I had it. This is the first time I've ever read it," he confessed.

"What? I left it on your ship, I figured that…"

"Given what was going on at the time with...everything, I suppose it was easy for it to go unnoticed and mislaid. Then when I packed things up to move in, it must have slipped between the pages of this book." He held up said book he had found it in.

"Yeah, I guess," Emma mumbled in agreement as she began to read the letter she had written him. She vividly remembered writing it, as well as the one she'd written to her parents, with tears streaming down her face, knowing she had no other choice and full of regret for her mistakes. She had been a little afraid, but mostly she recalled how heartbroken she'd been about losing everything she now held dear.

'My dearest Killian, she read to herself.

I am so sorry. This entire mess is my fault. I know that you feel I betrayed you, I know I did this against your wishes. It was a selfish act and I apologise. But, I hope you might someday understand that everything I did was for love because I couldn't bare to lose you. I know that doesn't make it right, but that was my reason.

It's breaking my heart to realise that even after all this, I have to lose you anyway. Thank you for the way you love me so completely, the way no one ever has before. Thank you for never giving up on me, for being patient and taking the time to slowly break down my walls when no one else ever bothered to try. I'm sorry it took me so long to open up to you. I was just scared, but I hope you thought it was worth the effort in the end. You made me believe that maybe happy endings were a true possibility, because I realise that you had also become mine.

I need you to know that I have never loved anyone the way I do you, sometimes I'm not sure you know just how much. But, I love you Killian, with all my heart and I always will. I hope that one day you can find happiness and love again. I would hate for you to lose the man that you truly are and become enraged with revenge and anger once more.

If it's not too much to ask, please look out for Henry for me. He looks up to you, even if he won't admit it.

Goodbye Killian.

All my love always,

Emma xx'

Emma inhaled deeply as she finished reading and refolded the letter. Those words had been written years ago, but reading them now had brought it all right back. The agony, the dismay and the confusion of everything that had happened at the time was still a little too raw sometimes. Despite the fact they had long since talked about everything together, forgiven one another and put it in their past, what they'd been through was a part of their journey.

"It was, you know," Killian spoke, taking the letter from her and sliding it back into the envelope.

"Huh?" she looked up at him, wiping her eyes.

"All worth it," he smiled, "the time it took chipping away at those walls you'd built. I'd do it again, over and over because you're worth it." He leant over and placed a soft kiss on her lips. "And I do know how much you love me. I see it in the way you look at me, I feel it in your touch. It's the way you open up to me and trust me. And I know it from that look you give me when you want me to do that thing that you like," he finished with a wink.

"Killian," she complained and shoved him playfully. She smiled unabashedly as she dipped her head briefly before looking up at him again. "You know that I'd still choose you over and over again, right?"

"And I you." He took her in his arms and shared a deeper kiss together, resting his forehead against hers when they parted as he brushed her hair back behind her ear. "I love you, Emma," he whispered.

"I love you too." She pecked his lips again. "But now we should get this closet organised, whilst Hope is asleep."

"I could think of a much more pleasurable activity we could be doing," he winked and trailed his fingers up her arm.

"Oh, I know you could!" she grasped his hand and moved it aside as she reached for the closest box to sort through. "But I really think that finally getting this done is a better use of our time."

"That, love, is where you are very wrong!" he said, swooping in and knocking her backwards.

She landed on the floor on her back with a soft giggle as his body hovered over hers. Glancing up at him, she bit her bottom lip and then pulled him into her arms. Pulling back from a rather passion filled kiss, she met his eye. "Although, you could at least take me to the bed. I don't want carpet burns," she told him, playfully swatting his backside.

He grinned then as he got to his feet and scooped her up into his arms. "Whatever the lady desires," he mumbled as he carried her from the closet and deposited her on their bed with a gentle bounce.

He crawled over her as she ran her hands up his chest, before curling a hand around the back of his neck and pulling him down to capture his lips in another searing kiss as he cupped her cheek.

It was obvious that this closet was most definitely not going to get organised today.