Hook laid on the couch contemplating what to ask Emma Swan when she would walk in the front door later that day. He spoke to himself out loud. "Why is she even going out without me multiple times a week? She goes out everyday and she won't tell me where she's going to or with who or why or-"
Emma opened the front door, smiling back at him as she saw him on the couch. "Hey, Killian, I'm back."
"Hey, love. Where have you been?" He questioned.
Emma replied. "I just went out."
Killian spoke a bit frustrated. "I know but you have never told me where. It is like you are lying to me, Emma."
Emma was caught off guard as they stood in silence. He patiently waited for her reply until eventually she told him the truth. "I've been at my parents and Regina's."
He nodded as she now sat on the couch beside him, and Hook wrapped his arm around her. He then spoke again. "I get that the past year has been a living hell for you, Swan. Getting kidnapped by a mad man must have been beyond terrifying. He hurt you and I understand it must be truly hard to move on." He now looked deep in her eyes with compassion. "But I can't help but feel as if you are closed off again. Don't shut me out. You have things you are keeping from me. Please tell me, why are you going to your parents and Regina's without me? I want to help you, love." Emma sighed uncomfortably, anxiously fidgeting with her sweaty hands. She didn't know how to respond. She didn't want to. "You can tell me anything. I just don't want secrets between us. We need to speak to each other. We need to start communicating again."
Her eyes now watered as she sobbed. "I don't know how to tell you the truth! I don't know how to be honest. I can't tell you what's going on. It will tear you apart. I don't want to hurt you!"
Killian felt sympathy and sadness for his girlfriend. "Please, Emma. You will never hurt me. Tell me what's bothering you. I don't like secrets being kept. It only making things worse. If you can't tell the honest truth, I don't know why we are in a relationship. I love you, Emma Swan, more than anything but I remember the last thing you told me before I was forced to leave. You told me I should have trusted you and we shouldn't keep secrets. We should do everything together. We are a team and we should trust one another more than anyone or anything and right now it's like we don't have that trust."
"You're right." She replied grasping to his hand and looking in his eyes. Grief filled her voice as she spoke. "I haven't been honest with you. I have been at Regina's multiple times the past week. Killian, I should have told you as soon as I saw you again but I couldn't. I couldn't break your heart." Tears trickled down her cheek. She couldn't get any more words out as her voice cracked.
Hook's eyes now widened and the face full of sympathy changed to only show anger. "That damn woman! Her and I never did get along and now I know why!" He left the couch pacing in a circle, deeply thinking.
"Killian, what are you talking about?"
"You and her? Really? Why couldn't the two of you just tell me." He paused and realized he was too ill tempered. "I'm sorry. I just can't believe that you and her are together."
Emma now realized what he thought. "What? No! She has nothing to do with this! There's nothing going on between us. I love you Hook, more than anyone."
Surprisingly, she saw Hook again sit next to her, understandingly. "So do I, love but you didn't have to keep that secret from me. Trapped in a house must have been lonely."
"There's nothing going on! Why can't you understand that? It's something else."
He then gently wrapped his hand around hers. "What is it then, love?"
She took a deep breath and finally told him the truth. "You know how Regina has a child?"
"Aye. Hope? What about her?"
"Regina isn't the mother." She breathed in deeply. She knew the next words she would say would change their relationship forever. Her voice broke as she told him. "I am."
He was stunned at her words. "This makes no sense. The baby looks too young for me to be her father."
Tears welled up in her eyes. "Because you aren't. It is Jefferson's child."
Hook looked beyond heartbroken. Nothing could ever make up for what his face read. "Swan, I know it wasn't your fault. I know you wouldn't cheat on me with the man that kidnapped you. That man was a monster but what I don't understand is why you couldn't tell me. I know it would be hard. You should have told me when the crocodile came into that hospital room with that baby. I don't get after everything we have been through, you would lie about a baby. You think a baby would break us apart? I would have cared for her like she was my own but knowing you lied to me, that you didn't trust me, that you kept this major part of your life from me-"
"I'm so sorry, Killian. I didn't want to chance us not being together. I wanted to come back to you so badly. I thought of you everyday. There was not a day that went by, I had not thought of coming back to you. I didn't want anything getting in the way of our love. I had this planned to-"
"You- you had this planned?" He asked.
She sighed. "No more secrets, then fine! I had this planned with Regina for months. She was questioning it at first but I convinced her it was a good idea. I shouldn't have talked her into it. I just couldn't lose you!"
"Your issues of trust got in the way with our relationship. You can't do this. You can't keep secrets from me. All I wanted you to do was trust me."
Tears now streamed down her face.
"I'm sorry, Killian. I shouldn't have lied to you. I should have told you!"
"Your bloody right! You should have! How long were you planning on hiding this?"
"I don't know." She sighed again. "I just don't know when I would tell you. Perhaps I never would."
Killian shook his head, no, pulling his body and hands away from Emma. "I love you Emma but I think we need to take a break."
"You don't mean that."
"I think you need more time with your daughter for a while. I don't need to be in the way."
"No, Killian, please." She leaned in and pressed her forehead to his. "Please."
"I just think we need a break to work out our feelings. Maybe we aren't meant to be. If we can't trust each other, why do we need to be in a relationship?" He pushed her back gently, looking in her eyes. "Go to Regina. Right now it looks like that is where you need to be." He softly spoke.
"I love you. I don't love Regina like I love you."
He now sighed and then walked to the door. "Really? You could have fooled me!" Emma in tears, watched as he walked out the door.
Emma now drove back to her daughter, and her son, in tears. She ran up on the front porch, ringing the doorbell. She found Regina opening the door. "Emma, what's wrong?"
"Killian didn't take it well."
"Oh, Emma." Regina now hugged her outside on the porch. Emma sadly wrapped her arms around her neck and laid her head on her shoulder as tears fell. They now both came into the house and went the kitchen. She sat down at the dinner table as Regina gave her a single glass of cider. "I made apple cider." She now sat down across from Emma drinking from her glass. "So what happened?"
"As soon as I walked in the door he knew I was keeping a secret from him. He asked what it was and why I have been so distant. At first I tried telling him but he thought we were in a relationship and-"
"A relationship?! Like a relationship- relationship as in-" Regina now nervously laughed as she slightly blushed when Emma nodded. "Why?"
Emma just depressingly took a sip of her cider. "I mean can you blame him? I was visiting you multiple times for days." She told her and only sighed, looking back at her. "I told him the truth after that, getting straight to the point. It sounded like he generally understood. He just was so-" She started sobbing, "heartbroken."
"I'm sorry, Emma." Emma's body ached as she drank the last bit of her cider and then rested her head in her arms on the table.
Regina just sat there, uneasy. "I knew this wouldn't have gone well. I should have kept my mouth shut in the first place."
"No, Regina. It was my fault. I should have never convinced you to lie for me. I should have told him the truth the moment Rumplestiltskin showed up at the hospital with my baby."
~
Day 250:
Emma Swan was perfectly physically healthy and seven months pregnant with a now visible baby belly. Snow and Regina knew Jefferson cared for her and would never hurt her in any circumstances. That in a way was comforting for them. Though Emma was healthy, her mind was always racing with intrusive thoughts and anxiety.
Regina had scratches and bruises all over. Regina's body was sore because he hurt and beat her. As the days went on, he became more rough with her, causing pain every day to the point of extreme discomfort without end. Then again she continued to fight him each day. She wouldn't be nearly as hurt if she was cooperative yet she wasn't that type of person. She tried to make Jefferson's life a living hell just as he did the same with her. She knew pretty soon it would be the end though. She was giving out faster each day, and soon she would be too weak to fight him at all.
Sometimes, Jefferson grew sick of Regina fighting and her snarky attitude or Emma begging him to let her go. That would be when he would threaten or hurt Mary Margaret. Snow White was just a person in the end for him to dispose of. Everyone knew it, including herself. Both Emma and Regina knew she was a strong woman though and hoped each day she had the strength to keep living.
Emma and Regina both sat on the concrete ground laying their backs against wall, side by side.
"What are you going to do about the baby?"Regina asked as she turned her head to Emma. "You think he will take it from you?"
"No, I don't think so."
"What if he won't take you to the hospital?"
"Then I'll have to go into labor here. I'm scared, Regina." Regina had never heard those words from Emma ever and it made her saddened. "What happens if they find us and Hook finds out? What would he do?"
Regina now laid her head on Emma's shoulder, deep in thought, and Emma laid her head over Regina's. "I don't even know what I'm going to do if I ever see Hook again. What if he is heartbroken? Regina, could you do me a favor?"
She has to help me. No matter what happens, Hook and I will be together.
"Anything, Swan." She softly whispered.
"I need you to promise me that if we ever make it out of here, you will act like it's your child."
Hook can't know about Jefferson's baby. He just can't. It would destroy him.
"What? Why?" Her head shot up from her friend's shoulder and their eyes met.
"If we ever make it out of here, then he'll never know. He'll never suspect that it's mine. He would think it's yours."
"Emma, I can't do that. We both know I will never make it out of here." She replied.
"Then what's the trouble making a promise that probably won't happen? Please, I need to have the hope. The hope that one day everything will be okay; the hope that Hook and I will be together no matter what. Promise me you will look after the baby like it's your own if we ever get out of here."
"Alright, Swan. If it truly means this much to you then I promise."