Emma was not feeling well when they reached the top of the beanstalk. She could have used her magic to get them to the top quicker, but she couldn't make herself. She knew she was being a coward. She didn't want to face the two opposing realities she was coming up against, and she was stalling. One was that she was desperately in love with a man who was about to betray her. The other was that the Oracle was lying, and she was risking their lives over nothing.
Killian, reading the tension in Emma but still unable to interpret what was bothering her, said, "Let's look around. Any ideas on where the beans are hiding?"
"No," she admitted, feeling overwhelmed. The Giant's home was even bigger than she had pictured. "I'm an idiot," she muttered, frustrated with herself.
He shook his head, walked over to the nearest massive shoe, and scrunched his nose. Trying to lighten up the mood and to make her laugh, he said, "Talk about foot odor." Not only didn't it make her laugh, but Killian was confused when he saw that Emma was about to cry. He then added, "We will find them, Emma. I won't give up."
"No!" she said, wiping away a tear. "We won't. I don't think they're here." She looked him in the eyes. "She can't be right." Her heart begged that the Oracle was wrong about him.
Still not understanding what was going through her mind, he tried to comfort her. "I will find them for you, Emma. Trust me."
"I do! That's the whole problem!" she yelled in frustration.
Killian walked over to her, pulled her into his arms, and tried to comfort her. "We'll figure out a way to save your parents."
Emma wrapped her arms around Killian. "I believe you. The beans aren't here. Let's go." She had finally made up her mind. Killian wouldn't betray her. The Oracle was wrong, so all her information had to be incorrect.
Then she heard Killian speak, and it froze her blood cold. "Will you look at that? Those things over there are the magic beans, aren't they?"
She pulled away from him, frowning, and looked in the same direction that he was. There, as if dropped, lay the magic beans, discarded under a stool near the wall.
The truth was the giant had thrown them in disgust, but the reason for that wasn't evident to her yet.
She walked over, hands shaking, and picked them up, holding them in the palm of her right hand. As she did, she heard the Oracle say, "for what their worth," and she trembled. Laying there in her hand were magic beans that held no magic. It was why the giant had discarded them.
She looked up at Killian, crying. "The Oracle was right." She began shaking with fear.
"Why do you look frightened?" he asked, desperate to fix whatever bothered her.
"She wasn't lying!" Emma said, heartbroken. "Wanted her to be lying!"
"Don't you want the beans? We did this whole thing to get them." He hadn't realized they didn't hold any magic yet.
Emma felt the place shake with the distant footsteps of the giant coming home. "The problem is what else she said was waiting for me at the top of the beanstalk.
"The giant?!" He asked, confused. He was wondering why she would come if she were guaranteed danger.
"No worse," she said, still trembling.
"Emma, tell me, and I will fix this."
She pulled back a step and looked toward the coming giant. "We need to run." Emma wanted to fall apart. She assumed that this would be the catalyst for betrayal. One she still couldn't fathom Killian doing but had been predicted along with everything else.
Emma ran for the way they had come up, tripped, dropped the beans, and watched them scatter. As she hastily moved and gathered them, she put them in an inner pocket. Then, as she stood and was about to run again, she heard something that shocked her to her core, "You would leave him to die? That's just cold, Emma."
She turned and almost cried with relief. Suddenly, standing there with a knife to Killian's neck was Jack. The clarity that it was his betrayal that the Oracle had been talking about struck her immediately.
Emma wanted to scream with joy. The Oracle had said, "Two faces on one man," she already knew Jack was two-faced. She then thought back. At that time, she hadn't known the truth, but it still wasn't like it was hard to discern.
She held up her hands in surrender. She would play along and not give away her magical ability unless Killian's life was in danger. Despite the knife at his throat, she could feel that Jack wasn't going to do anything —yet. Emma said, "What do you want? I will give you anything as long as you let him live."
Jack scowled at her and said, "I want that golden goose, but the cage is locked. Get it for me, and then hand it over!" He pointed to a gilded cage off to the right with a compass hanging from it.
Emma quickly complied, running over to the cage and risking turning her back to the pair. As she did, she unlocked it with her magic and pulled out the goose. The sound of the giant getting closer was haunting her the whole time.
"Here," she said as she ran over to Jack and Killian. "Take it and leave him alone!"
Jack raised one eyebrow and, coldly, without giving away what he was about to do, stabbed Killian in the side. As Emma screamed in shock, Jack grabbed the goose and ran for the beanstalk to make his way down, leaving them behind.
Emma rushed to Killian's side, not caring if anyone saw her magic. Before she even touched him, he was healed and sighing in relief from the pain.
He clutched her and held her tightly. Kissing the top of her head, he lightly scolded, "You could have told me I was going to be made into a pincushion."
"I didn't know!" she said, clutching him and holding on to him desperately. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know. I thought she was lying."
He pulled back a bit and cupped her cheek. "Explain later. Right now, the giant can smell the blood still on my shirt." They heard the running steps of the giant.
She nodded and vowed, "I love you. I won't let him harm you."
Killian grabbed her hand and started running, pulling her along. "Less talking, more running!"
She pulled back against him and shook her head, "I have another plan." Then she waved her hands, and a white smoke enveloped them both. He felt dizzy, and then the smoke cleared, and they were back on the ground within view of the beanstalk.
Killian raised one eyebrow at her, impressed, "You keep surprising me, Emma."
She blushed and looked at her feet in shame. She couldn't believe she hadn't considered the idea that they would be followed by someone bent on betraying them. "That might not be a good thing."
They then turned at the sound of a giant screaming in anger. What they saw was Jack scrambling to get down the beanstalk as the giant grew closer. He didn't know his bait to keep the giant distracted had gotten away.
Once the giant appeared from the top and he began making his way down the beanstalk, Jack had finally reached the bottom and began chopping through the stalk with an ax he had left there. They watched him frantically cut away, amazingly making progress as he swung. All that time working on the ship had built up his muscles.
As the giant got halfway down the beanstalk, it snapped completely with the combined weight of the giant and the cut in the stalk. They watched as the giant fell to his death, landing right on top of Jack as he tried to run away.
"If he noticed your magic, he wouldn't be able to say anything about it now," Killian said, pleased. He felt Jack got precisely what he deserved. All he thought at the demise of Jack was relief.
Emma couldn't find it in herself to care about what had happened to Jack either. She was just glad that he had appeared and attacked Killian. It meant the love of her life wasn't set to betray her —ever.
With tears in her eyes, she whispered, "I'm so sorry."
"I got stabbed, but you healed me. Don't worry about it."
She shook her head. "No. The Oracle she promised the stupid non-magical magical beans and betrayal at the top. I hoped they wouldn't be there because I didn't know Jack followed us. I thought…."
"Non-magical?" Killian asked, confused over the beans.
She pulled back and said, "That's what you fixated on?! I thought you might betray me! You should hate me!"
He cupped her jaw and kissed her tear-stained cheek. "Did you learn to trust me?" She nodded emphatically in response. He then added, "I love you, but we haven't known each other that long. Trust is earned, and that's all I see happening up there."
"But-"
"No," he pressed. "A reliable and correct source said that you would be betrayed."
"You've been nothing but good to me. I'm so sorry."
"I'm a pirate, Emma. I spent my life lying and betraying people. Frankly, it feels nice to prove it to myself that I can be trusted. Did you see all that treasure up there? I would have betrayed almost everyone I know to get my hands on that much wealth."
"But not me," she said, laying her head on his shoulder.
"Never you, love. Now that I passed both of our tests, why don't we head back to the ship?"
Emma pulled back and shook her head. "'Your eyes won't see what your heart knows,' that's another thing the Oracle said about my quest. Now that it's over, I know what she meant. I'm looking for trouble. I've been trained to do just that my whole life. I was taught that my life and the lives of everyone I loved relied on distrusting anyone that wasn't there at my birth." She gave him a gentle smile and said, "But my heart knows that I can trust you."
"I won't press, Emma," he warned her. He didn't want to feel "forced" into anything over guilt.
"I know. I think it's time that tell you who-"
"Princess Emma?" Will Scarlet said, coming around a bend in the forest road with Anastasia and stopping twelve paces from her.
Emma blinked in surprise and smiled at the duo. "You know, I think the title is stupid." She then noticed Anastasia's belly, and her eyes got wide. "What?!"
"I'm pregnant," her friend confirmed.
She then ran to her friend and gave her a big hug. "Congratulations! That's so exciting. You'll both make fantastic parents."
"She will," Will grumbled in response from Emma's right side.
Emma turned, hands in hips, and glared at him. "He's still the king of brooding?" She asked Anastasia.
"Yup!" Her friend responded quickly and enthusiastically. "But I'm hoping the rescue mission for your parents and their group will help him get over himself."
Emma looked at her in surprise. "Rescue mission?"
