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"And that's where your mother handcuffed me."
"I thought you were working with Neal," Emma laughed, tucking herself tighter under Killian's arm. "And you'd followed me for a day and a half. You deserved it."
Killian beamed down at her, his whole face crinkling with that joyful expression. "Nobody deserves that brig you sent me to, love."
"I can't believe you don't like bologna," Snow chuckled on Killian's other side.
The story was one of his favourites, and she could track how outrageously hyperbolised the New York jail cell had been. It must have started as an explanation to Henry as to why he'd definitely heard his mother say she had that stalker arrested and had walked by the park at the exact moment Killian had ducked into the police car, and after the Wicked Witch's curse was broken it had become one of the only stories that Regina allowed Killian to tell Henry at the dinner table, everything else too bloody or violent or scary for her tastes. Snow also didn't like anything too distasteful said in front of baby Neal, so, in the collection of jail cell stories Killian told, or torture stories, this one was always mentioned.
"How do you feel about falafels?" Henry asked, redirecting the conversation from the diatribe she and he knew was coming if Killian was given more than five seconds to describe his dislike of processed food and how unhealthy it was.
Emma felt Killian's hook at her hip as he squeezed her close. "Put it on the list, lad. I think we might be better off if we procured a more cost-effective alternative that will please most of our large crew."
Emma ducked her nose into Hook's armpit and bit down her smile, whispering: "You know you just gave him permission to go nuts on the pizza, right?"
Killian's responding chuckle sounded a lot like an apologetic groan.
Emma caught Regina's eye over Killian's shoulder, the woman content to walk behind Henry with Gold and their new companion. She rolled her eyes and Emma grinned. Killian would get there eventually, just like Emma had. At least, he'd have more help navigating how to parent a teenager than she had.
"You head on up," David instructed, and Emma got the distinct impression her father was worried about Regina - like the rest of them - and that he was specifically addressing his wife in that tender tone that disguised their secret eye-contact code. "Us guys will get dinner sorted."
Without clarification, Killian kissed her cheek and turned to face her father, taking Henry by the shoulders and bringing him with him. Neither seemed bothered too much about splitting the group up nor did anyone question whether Gold or their stowaway were included in that.
They all knew they weren't.
As easy as that, David carted off Killian and Henry, "because picking up pizza was cheaper than ordering it to be delivered," according to her father. Leaving Emma and her mother with Regina, who had looked like she was balancing on a delayed electric wire all day - because of Henry leaving, sure, but if her red-rimmed eyes and constant inability to look Emma or Snow in the eyes where before she had happily stared them down at every chance were anything to do by, Emma would guess this had quite a bit to do with Robin too.
There was also the fact that Regina hadn't left Dr Jekyll's side and was very obviously trying not to inquire about his profession whilst very overtly asking David what on earth they had witnessed in the Land of Untold Stories. Emma got the impression that Regina needed not only a shoulder to lean on and a comforting voice, but she might also need to be talked down from a bad decision.
As nice as it was to be considered one of the people Regina trusted to have a personal conversation with now - they'd been in each other's lives for long enough that it wasn't only an obligation to Henry that they had in common anymore - Emma knew that she and her mother weren't the right people to have that conversation with Regina.
She and Snow hadn't lost loves, not the way Regina had. Snow had never, not permanently, and Emma hadn't felt romantic love, nor felt that for Neal in the present when he died. And like her mother, she'd been blessed with Killian surviving even death to stand by her side. They had both grieved, yes, but they hadn't experienced what Regina was going through.
In fact, Emma figured Killian and Henry would be better voices and be more comforting that she and her mother could be. Killian doubly so, if that solemn expression that dropped Regina's frown further downward when she looked at Gold and Jekyll like she was calculating the risks of something and didn't like the results she was coming up with was anything to go by. Sure, she and Snow had been thieves, but neither had ever thought of themselves as the bad guy, or irredeemable.
Plus, Regina and Killian had that sibling rivalry but silent understanding of each other thing going on. and Henry could give those warm, safe hugs that made the mother in Emma bubble with happiness.
It was too late to call the boys back. They'd have to do their best to make Regina feel more like herself again.
Finally, Emma found them. Now that she knew where they were, Emma folded her arms across her chest and leant her shoulder against the other side of the doorway.
"They been here long?" she asked her father, who was leaning on the other side.
She'd been busy with her mother and Regina after dinner and hadn't been able to keep her eye on her boys.
"Since they came home with dinner," he informed her. "It's a nice place you had here."
Emma hummed.
"Our boys are out cold."
Emma smiled at the pirate who was stretched out on the top of the bed, long limbs extending into the darkness. Henry had the other side of the bed, but had rolled into his side and tucked his knees up, nestling against Hook.
"Well, he's had a big day," her dad shrugged. "Dead. Mount Olympus. Back to life and then another realm with all the trimmings."
"I'm exhausted and I didn't do half of that."
Emma found it very amusing that David left out the pizza carrying and then eating competition he'd hosted with her boys and that loud game - she assumed Monopoly or Pictionary, given how much shouting there had been. He'd been careful not to let Killian completely rest, scared like she was that the minute he stopped moving he might disappear, although he'd never admit it, whilst also making sure Henry had a completely normal family afternoon experience after the craziness. Her dad was making sure neither felt guilty for everyone's irritability nor felt that anyone was mad at them or wished for them to be isolated from their unit.
He wouldn't ask for recognition for looking out for them so thoroughly. But Emma saw it. It was exactly the sort of support she wanted from the father she'd always dreamed about.
It was strange to see Killian so comfortable in the room that had once been hers. She'd slept in that bed for a year feeling like something was missing. Seeing him in it, Henry curled into his side, the room finally felt right. The apartment, with him and Henry and her parents - even Regina and Gold because they were Henry's family too - gave Emma a strong sense of home and just how mistaken she had been not that long ago when she thought bringing Henry back here without everyone else would be good for the two of them.
"Then, of course, Henry talked our ears off about all the stuff left in his room. You didn't leave much behind, but he was proud of those couple of posters."
Emma nodded. Regina had insisted her son not be without a single of his belongings once Emma decided to stay in Storybrooke and Snow and David had insisted she not road trip back - probably for fear of her not coming back - so the witch had plucked their things from the city and magicked them into Storybrooke, leaving a few things behind including rent to make the place appear as if it was still lived in, just in case anyone needed a place in the city, like now, and a few things Henry said he had grown out of and were lame now.
"I didn't think we were staying the night." Thankfully, she had a spare bedroom in her apartment and to Emma's thinking, they could share in their natural pairs - which would also take care not to leave Regina alone - and Gold and Jekyll could take the couch, unless Gold felt like making his way to what was Neal and Tamara's and then Robin's place, which he seemed to itch for.
"We don't have to," David shrugged, "But it won't hurt if we do sleep some. How long's the trip?"
Emma sent him a sidelong look. "Long."
David sighed, slumping even more on his side of the doorjamb. "That's what I thought." He breathed heavily, letting Emma's eyes drift back to her two favourite people snuggled together appearing for all the world safe and content.
Moonlight flickered in through the open window, along with the city lights, and Emma could see Killian's hook glinting silver on her bedside table. If she squinted, Emma thought she could see the dark impression of the base-plate of his brace and accompanying miles of leather strap that kept the contraption in place.
Emma couldn't help but feel a lump in her throat at the enormity of what that meant. Killian hated taking off his hook in Henry's presence. it was the one weapon he always had on him and without it, he felt defenceless. It was a huge accomplishment for Henry that Killian felt it unnecessary to always be on his guard, the boy could handle himself. Or at least, that there were enough trained and skilled adults around and that this room was the deepest into the apartment that any enemy would be vanquished, or at least, Killian would be awake and alert by the time any villain reached this room. Still, Emma reflected, Gold and a perfect stranger were residing with them too. That was a huge show of trust toward his old, and mostly continuing, nemesis on Hook's part.
"Henry said something back in the Underworld," David started.
Emma hummed, urging him to continue. Her eyes remained on the place where Killian's fingers rested on Henry's shoulder. Henry had gotten under the blanket and, from what Emma could gather, it looked like Henry had reached over and pulled the covers from Killian's far side and cocooned him in it. Her son was so kind and Emma was so proud.
"Something I can't stop thinking about."
Emma waited for him to go on.
"He said Neal visited you?"
The upward hitch of David's voice indicated that he didn't quite believe it.
"Yeah," was all Emma really wanted to say about it. She'd been thinking a lot about that moment too. Killian told her she was right to feel uncomfortable about it but ultimately food came from the knowledge he was in a better place. Still, the way he said it, Emma got the feeling Killian wasn't happy about the slight nor did he want to slight the boy he had loved.
"He said he visited you but not him," he said it with a huff.
Emma sent David a smile, letting him know she felt the same way about the situation. Henry, the poor boy, still had two warring sets of memories, both of a life without a father, one where he was given away by a young woman and the other where that young woman had been betrayed and she'd grown to never want to see that man again. One of those sets of memories pained his father as engaged to someone else but maybe going to live with them without her in a castle in the Enchanted Forest and then rescuing him from Neverland. The other memories had him dying before Henry even knew him.
Since then, Henry had been on what he thought was a secret mission, constantly talking to Gold and Killian about the Neal they'd known, and Emma suspected that maybe he was even looking into ways they could get him back as they had sought for Killian.
For all the heroics at the end of his life, dying to bring back Gold so he could save the town and finally forgiving his father in his last moments, he really was as oblivious as ever. His sole purpose in Storybrooke, according to Neal, had been to connect with his son, to get to know the son he never knew and to protect him, hell he'd even fought her to tell Henry about him the day he died. But it wasn't closure with Henry he sought. It wasn't a message of 'don't worry' or 'I'm proud of you' he wanted to pass on to his son. His unfinished business, which Emma still rankled with the fact it wasn't apologising to her or loving her, not that she wanted that, or even forgiving his mother and letting me know how he was, was not being a father to Henry. It was forgiving his father, and he managed that.
Meanwhile, Henry and Milah had both hung on Emma's every word about the man, desperate to hear anything they could about who he was and how he was.
Emma hadn't even thought about it at the time, not until Henry had deflated when she told him about Neal. He'd recovered quickly and soaked in what she told him, but that look in his eyes, that flash of sadness at being overlooked, abandoned for something else, someone else, lingered in Emma's memory. Had she not told Henry about Neal having moved on, which she thought was good news, he wouldn't look so haunted.
Henry seemed to have recovered quickly. Which Emma now knew had been a front. Secretly, while Emma had been busy grieving and then celebrating and Regina had fallen into emotions in the opposite direction, Henry had been fed up with his life constantly being thrown up in the air, full of uncontrollable variables and ways a heart could break even after the heartbreaker was dead and gone.
To look at him now, Emma couldn't believe that little boy felt anything but utter safety. He seemed calm, a young man even.
David growled but said nothing further, taking Emma's silence as sad confirmation that Henry's father had once again proved his cowardice.
"He didn't really warn you not to save Hook, did he?"
"Killian said that's pretty normal, actually. Not that he experienced it himself."
David smirked. "Oh, Killian said, did he?"
Emma chuckled. "He's a nerd. I can never tell if he read this stuff or lived it. And he gets out a kick of knowing."
"To hear him tell it," David smiled knowingly, "It sounds like you enjoy lording over the things from this world over his head too."
Emma rolled her eyes. Not the big stuff, never the important things. Just dumb references.
"He said it's pretty well documented over a number of mythologies to have the first moment of the afterlife reflect your regrets and mistakes, past present and future. The first test is meant to mislead you and disorient you further if you don't pass so you might be stuck in that limbo of your worst pains for eternity."
"Good thing you passed."
Emma closed her eyes in annoyance. "Please. Nothing would have made me turn back. Not on Killian."
"Except failing the Euripides test."
Emma blinked. Her father really was clueless sometimes. He had such blinders on. David saw Emma in tears and went into protective mode. He didn't see the why and he often didn't ask about it until he was no longer feeling the red-hot bloodlust anymore. That way the levelheaded prince never lost his cool.
Emma hadn't denied the knowing look Snow and Henry had given her at the top of the elevator, or Regina's watery-eyed expression at Killian's grave (because of course they were going to bury him, that way she'd rest beside him forever when the time came). But she hadn't started in block letters and concise terms that yes they were true love, passing Hades' test, just Killian didn't want to be vulnerable and broken in front of everyone, terrified Henry would reject his desperate hug or that Snow or David wouldn't be fazed by the idea of losing him. He didn't want to lose another brother having lost Liam a second time so recently, and Emma was certain the Killian didn't yet fully believe that he would in fact get to see that same broken expression reflected back in any of their family's eyes.
They'd decided, quietly and now that he was back, that they'd not flaunt the fact that they were True Love. They'd use it to their advantage should another curse crop up, but they weren't the types to sing it from the mountain top unless completely necessary or there was no chance of being heard and making others upset or becoming the targets of the next villain more than they already were - thank you Zelena, for showing them how that situation could be just as bad as being the Savior and the most infamous pirate to ever sail the seas.
"You came up very upset," David explained, assuming the incredulous expression was one of confusion not the entertaining stance of knowing more than he did. "I assumed the price of failure was Killian's death. Or, because it was your heart, that he'd made some sort of sacrifice and you had to leave him down there, imprisoned or something."
Emma shook her head, eyes drifting to the illuminated expression of peace on the man's slumbering form. "Not quite."
David must have caught her pleased tone because his, "No?" sounded quite hopeful.
"It was a trap," Emma explained. "We passed the test but there was nothing for us down there."
"You thought he was coming up with you."
Emma nodded. "He was right though. If he hasn't have stayed down there in that moment, I wouldn't have been able to leave through the portal at all."
"You nearly didn't anyway." There was a tense silence between them before David broke it. "I'm happy for you, Emma."
She couldn't fight the giant smile that split her face when she looked over at him. "Thanks, Dad."
Another peaceful bear passed between them, the sounds of honking horns and blaring sirens in the distance vibrated the air in the distance. Emma didn't think anything of it but it seemed to unsettle David. She hadn't realised it, but this was her parents' first time in the real world. They were either very well-adjusted individuals, not starling at alarms like Gold had, or horrified by the infrastructure like Killian had been, or very good at feigning complete contentment in foreign situations.
"I was thinking about the drive home."
"Dad," Emma warned. Snow had had the same reservations. Killian hadn't, he'd been in the car when she made the trip last time and was quite excited to recreate that trip with her and Henry in her little yellow bug, this time with a little more knowledge of the radio and not having to fend off Henry's incessant questioning without giving himself away.
"No, Emma," he warned, clearly in his full protective mode. He was far less frustrating than her mother about flip flopping and even Snow was much better at treating her like her adult daughter instead of her infant or her best friend these days. But David? He had moments where she was his equal, his superior, in a way that Snow never considered her, but sometimes Emma was still his little girl that he could protect in some way from the scars of the world.
With David, it was never frustrating except in the way that made Emma ache all over with reminders of what she could have had.
"We're all going to take turns driving. It isn't fair to you to have to drive the whole way just because Killian hasn't got his license yet, and Regina can't be alone, she probably wants to be with Henry. And I shouldn't be subject to that terrible upholstery in your Beetle."
Emma eyed her father, amused. "So what, you've scheduled a round robin?"
"Of sorts."
"Of course you have." Emma sighed, trying not to sound entertained or grateful. She was tired and didn't want to drive the nine hours. "Hook shouldn't have to ride with Rumpelstiltskin, though."
"They're civilised enough," then he added: When they have to be. Killian won't like you driving with Henry and Gold. He didn't like it back when he first met you two and I think he'd like it less now."
Then he added: I'll take it into account, though.
"We should go soon," Emma suggested. "The roads will be dark but it's a fairly straight drive. It'll be quiet and we won't waste the day."
David nodded. "But not for a few hours."
"I was hoping Henry would bunk with Regina," Emma divulged, "So that she wouldn't be alone."
"Don't wake him, Emma. Just join them."
"They do look comfy," she had to admit.
"Join them," David offered. Emma baulked, turning to her father who sighed heavily and pushed her shoulder, edging her into the room. "Sleep Emma. I'll wake you and our boys when it's time to go."
It took all of two seconds for David to turn around and leave the three of them and Emma to decide which side she was hopping in on. Easy. As much as she'd like to lay her head on her pirate's chest and check that his heart was still beating, behind Henry had far more space and blankets she could pull over her without disturbing either of them.
She couldn't help herself, however. They were both safe and in her arms. After the chaos of Camelot and knowing Killian was being manipulated by the Dark One but still aching at his loveless expression, only to lose him when he became the prophecy's strongest Dark One and turned his back on that darkness. Then finding him beaten and broken only for him to have been dead for too long for his body to accept her heart, and him making the decision she deserved better before she and he really got a chance to talk and remind him that she, more than anyone, understood how the voices in his head had brainwashed him. And just when they thought they could have a happy ending, he'd been forced to stay behind, only for them to be blissfully reunited and then for Henry, good hearted but single-minded Henry, had run away with the hope that destroying magic would mean he never had to lose a family member again.
Emma smoothed her right hand down the back of Henry's head as she settled into the mattress behind him. Then she pressed her lips to his crown. Her fingers skimmed down the back of his neck until her arm fitted against his as he inhaled deeply, with her fingers laying over Killian's.
With her left hand, Emma reached across the pillows and she moved a lock of Killian's dark hair, straight, not like his brother's curls - she'd have to ask which of his parents they each took after - and moved it over his brow so she could see his entire face in the dim light.
"Swan," he mumbled.
She hummed in return, not sure if he was truly awake or simply aware of her. She continued to play with his hair, tracing her fingers over his normally expressive eyebrow and running her thumb over the cheek he had pressed to the pillow.
That feeling, the one she knew they felt for each other and the one she hadn't had the courage to tell him without facing the threat of never seeing him again, bubbled in the out of her stomach, humming across her skin pleasantly when Killian's too-blue eyes blinked open and his lips quirked up in a smile. She felt warm all over under his gaze; happy in a way that she hadn't felt until she met him.
"You should rest, love."
"I will," she told him quietly. "I'm just not in a food coma like you two."
"Swan," Killian sighed, leaving her name hanging between them for an intimate moment while his gingers curled away from Henry's shoulder and into the gaps in hers.
"You need your sleep. We've had a lot of intense days recently."
"I will," she promised, her thumb catching on his lip, caressing the plump flesh softly. "Just let me have this."
Killian pursed his lips against her thumb and closed his eyes, settling in.
"You and Henry have fun this afternoon?" she asked after a peaceful moment.
Killian hummed his yes.
"Make sure you don't forget your brace in the morning," Emma warned, remembering the snake of leather she'd seen on the table. She'd made plenty of early morning getaways and there was always something you left behind, even when you didn't have much.
His eyes met hers and his smile was blinding, his voice full of tender laughter. "I've lived over two hundred years and never forgotten it yet."
Emma chuckled. "Ah, but you'll always regret the first."
Killian let out and matching choked laugh, like he had started chuckling but remembered Henry was asleep and they shouldn't wake him.
"I only took it off as Henry was interested to see how the mechanism worked," he explained.
Emma nodded, jibing "He heard you rattling and wondered what it was."
"No," he drew out the vowel in juvenile disagreement. "I always tighten the buckles."
"But there are a lot of them," she grinned at him, glad he was just as amused by her side comments as she was. "They take so long to take off."
Thankfully, Henry's even breathing turned into a short snore that reminded them of his presence and that their conversation didn't need to be overheard.
"The lad and I were comparing scars," he told her.
But Emma knew what that meant. "Henry showed you his bike riding graze on his knee. And his appendicitis scar."
He looked as though he wished to know what that word meant. Probably because Henry had worded it differently - "had his appendix out," most likely.
In response, Killian probably showed him that mark on his face from scratching his nose and the soft white circle on his calf where he'd annoyed Liam enough to make his older brother snap and push a five year old Killian off Liam's bed and onto an uneven nail in the floor. Emma didn't think he'd explain the whip marks on his back or the burn marks on his shoulder that would have been too dark to fully recount.
"Did you win the contest?" she asked, mostly to gauge just what traumas he explained to Henry, but also because she still hasn't quite fully caught up on all of Henry's life, there were still chickenpox scars she was learning about.
"I always win." He didn't even sound sad about it, just amused. For the man who was so ashamed, even high on painkillers as she took him back to his hospital room, that someone had seen his stump - especially without his consent and more so that it was a stranger ("A nurse, Killian, and doctors. This is their job") - and so scared of baring that part of himself to her once they started dating, he certainly didn't have a problem showing off his quite neat amputation scar, especially considering the medieval period it was operated on in, to Henry. It must have been a prideful boy thing.
"I didn't even have to pull out the big ones with the interesting stories, he got sidetracked by the key hole in the base of the brace."
That was pretty cool, Emma had to admit.
She must have dozed off for a moment because Emma felt bleary-eyed and a little bit sucker punched when she felt Killian's fingers caress her cheek. He'd let go of her hand and touched her face, but Emma wasn't sure if he intended to get her attention, or if waking her had been an accident.
"Emma," he said softly. "You didn't truly offer to give me your heart, did you?"
Yes. She'd been fully prepared to give him half her heart. It hadn't even crossed her mind to hesitate, not even when he gave her that shocked look, still covered in his own blood and a little bit horrified she would give herself to him this way.
She smiled slowly at him.
"You've had it for far longer than you realise," she parroted back the words he had told her once, words that had left her heart thundering and her mind sure of their future.
Killian smiled quickly like he recognised the reference.
"If only you hadn't been dead so long."
Her regret that she'd been too slow in rescuing him, a whole night of crying herself to dehydration and then a morning of wallowing, wondering how on earth she could pick herself up and ever find a glimpse of happiness again, was genuine but she used the line to tease Killian, punching his shoulder softly with the hand that had been under his head.
"Aren't you glad that when you heard Regina knew a charm and had protected Henry's heart with it, that you begged her to cast it over everyone-"
"I didn't beg," he defended, comical in his sleepy defiance. "I demanded. I'm a ruthless pirate captain and she shook with fear of what I might do."
Emma couldn't fight her smile. "Sure she did."
"Fine," his eyes were so expressive, even in the darkness. "Maybe not Regina, but others do."
"I'm sure." Teasing him was too fun.
"She recognised the blackmail in my eyes."
Emma snorted. Then, she finally finished her sentence. "Aren't you glad Snow said I didn't need it?"
With an unhappy grunt, Killian conceded the point. His fingers left her cheek to capture hers and trine their hands on the pillow above Henry's head. "Perhaps we should rectify that."
"So long as I'm surrounded by people I love, or am fighting for someone I love, I'm good."
Emma could have sworn Hook mumbled, "Not good enough," but he didn't fight her on it.
"Can you two shut up?" It wasn't a question. Henry's voice was raspy and low, but his irritation was loud. So was his smile.
Killian's eyes drifted down to Henry, his smile as gentle as his voice. "Sorry, lad."
"I'm trying to sleep here, you know?" Henry reiterated, shifting beneath the covers but not enough to through Emma's arm off him.
"What do you care?" Emma asked, giddy with amusement at teasing her son. "You two can sleep the entire trip if you like. I have to drive."
"Aye," Killian nodded gravely. "We should let your mother sleep."
"We?" Henry sounded indignant and fully awake now. "You're the one talking."
Killian laughed, low and gravelly, and Henry joined him. Emma, grinning, snuggled closer to her son, squeezing her boyfriend's hand. Emma let their soft chatter lull her to sleep as they spoke about how Killian hadn't planned to get his license until Henry did but it might be a good idea if he could have it before, with Hook claiming it might be better if Henry taught him. "Your mother can be mighty mean and I wouldn't wish to reside in her bag graces."
"Like now?" she mumbled.
She could practically hear Killian's cocky wink over Henry's giggle. "She loves me."
Emma fell asleep agreeing with him.