11.
Hope was barely two weeks old when her fascination with Killian's necklace began. At the time, he had just finished changing her diaper and was scooping her up from the changing table when she grasped hold of his chain and held on tight. From that moment on, she did it every time she was in his arms or within reach of it.
Emma would often walk into the nursery where he was rocking her in the chair as he hummed her to sleep. She'd lay against her daddy's chest, with his arm under her butt and his hand on her back as she nuzzled her little face into the crook of his neck and her tiny fist was still clenched around that chain.
If she was fussy and he was walking around the house with her as he tried to soothe her, her was not letting go of the chain. Emma thought it was adorable, but Killian liked to joke that perhaps Hope sensed she wasn't quite as secure in his arms, given the fact that he only had the one hand.
"Don't be ridiculous!" Emma scoffed. "Hope feels just as safe in her daddy's arms as she does with me. And you know she cries when anyone else holds her."
Which was true, Hope was not a fan of other people all that much. She tolerated her Grandparents and her big brother for a short while, but eventually cried and fussed, wanting to be back with her parents. Anyone outside of the immediate family had no chance – they were treated to a performance of her full on baby wails within seconds. It wasn't that Hope was a whiny baby, she was actually really good most of the time with Emma or Killian. But she was most content when she got to cuddle with her daddy and hold onto his chain.
"She's such a daddy's girl," Emma commented, finding her fast asleep in her father's arms yet again. She smiled at the pair of them as she brushed her hand over the baby's peach fuzz of blonde hair. Killian was rubbing her back and the baby snuffled, her hand still clenched around that chain even in her sleep.
"She loves you just the same, you know," he told her.
"Yeah, but I think she loves the open milk bar the most." Emma sighed and glanced down at her own boobs – pregnancy and breast feeding had increased her size at least a couple of cup sizes.
"Not gonna lie and say I don't agree with her there." Killian smirked, eyeing up his wife's boobs himself – he was quite partial to her current figure. Emma grimaced and flicked his shoulder with her fingers as he chuckled softly. "You know it's much more than that though. We're the two people she trusts most in this world. We'll always be there for her and she knows that she can rely on either of us and how much she is loved."
"You're right. Besides, I don't really mind if she is a daddy's girl. I think it's sweet." She smiled and bent down to kiss his cheek and then Hope's head before heading to the drawer to put away some clean baby clothes.
Her fixation with his necklace never changed. She continued to hold on tight to it whenever she was with him, sometimes they even had to prise it out of her fingers when he tried to put her down to sleep. Eventually she discovered the charms on the necklace too and often fiddled with them, running her fingers lightly over the smooth silver or just holding onto them. He even got used to her pulling on it and managing not to wince when those pulls became hard yanks. There were often visible red marks around his neck.
It just became accepted by her parents that this was Hope's thing. It was almost like a security blanket for her and if it made her happy and feel safe to hold it on to it, that was fine by them.
That was until she was a few months older and had begun exploring her world with her mouth. Anything and everything went in and, unfortunately, that included the charms on his necklace.
"Hey, little lass, no eating them!" Killian panicked the first time she moved her mouth towards the charms. He tugged them out of her grasp, covered in baby drool and all. Instead, he offered her a pacifier to suck on, but she had no interest in it as she batted his hand away and screamed whilst reaching for his necklace again. "No, it's too sharp, my little cygnet," he whispered, kissing her head. He tried to distract her with a toy, but she paid it no mind and instead continued to squeal and grizzle about the necklace he wouldn't let her have.
"What's wrong with her?" Emma asked, turning from the kitchen where she had been making them some lunch.
"She's trying to chew on the charms on my necklace," he told her, as he moved her onto his hip, flipping the necklace out of her reach and carrying Hope into the kitchen. "It's a bit sharp for her to be putting that in her mouth, right?" he checked with her mother, just as he did every time he was unsure with his parenting.
"Just a bit," she nodded in agreement. "Not to mention how many germs might be on that thing. It's so old." She grabbed a paper towel to dry off the baby drool on it.
"Are you calling me a dirty old man again, Swan?" he scowled at her.
Emma laughed and rolled her eyes, giving him a quick kiss on the lips. "You might be a tad dirty, but you didn't seem like an old man to me last night," she winked in passing.
Killian grinned to himself at the thought of their previous night together. Alone time and grown up fun was something of a rarity these days with an infant in the house, so when they found the time, it was extra special. "So, what do we do about this?" he asked, indicating the necklace that Hope was still fussing to get and becoming rather cross that her daddy wasn't giving in to her demands.
"How about if we tuck it down your shirt?" she suggested, doing it for him. "Maybe out of sight, out of mind?"
But Hope was smarter than that. She fussed and cried and got herself all upset about not being able to grasp her comfort item. They had a terrible night with her. "Honestly, why can't our kid just want a blanket or a stuffed toy or something?" Emma grumbled whilst trying to settle her in her crib for the night.
They fought with her over it for a few days, trying everything they could think of. But she was so upset that they couldn't take it any longer so they eventually gave in and let her hold it again. There was many an attempt to encourage her not to chew on it, but they might as well have tried to stop her breathing. Whilst they still worried about the safety aspect of it, they were relieved to discover that germs could only live for two or three days on items such as this, so any ancient germs would be long gone.
But, being the anxious new parents that they were, they decided to buy a steam jewellery cleaner and clean it often all the same.
As she developed from a baby into a toddler, she out grew the phase of putting everything in her mouth and became a little less dependant on her daddy's chain and the charms. But she could still be found with them clasped in her fist anytime she snuggled with her father or he picked her up for a cuddle.
Killian's favourite time with her were those special quiet moments at night when they were winding down and it was his turn to do the bedtime routine. After her bath and she was dressed in her pajamas, the pair of them snuggled together in the rocking chair where he read stories to her. Hope would snuggle into him, listening raptly to whatever book or story he was sharing with her that night. When she was old enough, she liked to help him turn the pages, but one of her hands was always firmly grasped around that chain.
"What are you two reading tonight?" Emma asked, poking her head around the nursery door. She had heard the giggles and the chatter that did little to suggest he was was getting her settled down for bed.
"I stab the bad mens, mommy!" Hope told her excitedly, holding the tiny sword charm from Killian's necklace in her little hand and jabbing it towards the book with great enthusiasm.
"The bad men?" Emma muttered to herself. "What on earth are you reading to her?" she asked, stepping into the room and coming over to peek at the book, wondering if it was at all appropriate.
She instantly recognised Hope's own copy of Henry's storybook – a smaller version that he'd had made for her on her first Christmas. Usually Hope requested the stories about her parents, she loved the pictures and hearing all about them, even though she obviously had no idea just how real they truly were.
Tonight the book was open on a page picturing both Rumplestiltskin and Hades. Emma nodded to herself, understanding her definition of them being 'bad men'. Hope's second favourite stories to hear were those about Rumple, simply because her Dad did a brilliant impression of him at his craziest and Hope thought it was hilarious. "Ah, those bad men."
"Yep, I stab 'em!" Hope continued. "They nasty!"
Emma shared a look with Killian, unable to disagree with her as they both stifled a chuckle. Luckily Rumple had left town before Hope had even been born, so she'd never met the demon and he remained nothing but a fictional character to her.
"Yes," she agreed, "and that all sounds great fun, sweetheart. But I think it's time to settle down now and get ready to sleep," Emma suggested. "Perhaps a calmer story for tonight?" she told Killian before giving her daughter another kiss goodnight and leaving them to it.
As Hope grew up and left her toddler years behind her, she also grew more curious about her world and wanted to know everything. She asked a lot of questions, especially about her family and loved to hear what she called 'real stories' rather than the ones written in her book. One day she would understand that the book was real too, but for now her parents told her of happier stories, real tales of their past, just omitting some of the scarier drama.
"Daddy, what's this for?" she asked, holding up the charms she'd been fiddling with as they watched TV after a morning at nursery.
"It's my necklace," he replied, confused since she had been playing with the damn things for years now.
"I know that!" she giggled. "But, why do you have it?"
"I've had it since I was a pirate. It was, erm, it was a prize," he answered her as tactfully as he could. He wasn't about to admit to his young daughter that it had been won in a game of dice and represented his cunning superiority over the other pirate he'd won it from.
"Oh," Hope muttered and snuggled back into him, satisfied with his answer for now. "I'm going to be a pirate, just like you daddy," she told him.
"You don't want to be a sheriff, like your mother?" he asked, lifting his head to look at her.
She shook her head, her tiny blonde pigtails flapping back and forth with the movement. "Nuh uh! I wanna be a pirate and go on 'ventures!" she grinned.
"You're not going to run off on my ship and leave me, are you?" he asked, pouting playfully.
Hope gasped. "Never daddy! I never leave you." She flung her arms around his neck. "You can come on 'ventures with me," she decided. "Right?"
"Hmm," he deliberated, his lips against the top of her head before kissing her, "if we can take your Mum with us too, then we have a deal."
"Okay daddy. It's a deal!" she agreed with a nod of her head. "Now, watch StoryBots!" She instructed him, turning his face back towards the TV screen with her tiny hand before she began to fiddle with the charms of his necklace again.
A year or so later, when their son came along, he never developed any affinity with Killian's jewellery, in fact he never paid it any attention. He was quite happy with with his little stuffed doggy with the flappy ears as his comfort. Not to say he didn't enjoy snuggling and quiet time in his father's arms, because he certainly did, any chance he got, but the stuffed doggy came too.
But for Hope, that necklace of her Dad's remained so important to her no matter how old she got, that she wore it on her wedding day as her 'something borrowed' and 'something old'. And, many, many years later, she continued to wear it after her father died a very old man.