Once Upon A Happy Beginning

Chapter Fourteen: Operation Welcome Back

Killian

Day One

She's still out.

I managed to get her into another boat and sail us over to Tortuga but she's still unconscious. 

I keep drawing my eyes to her chest, checking that it's still rising and falling. Now, with her cradled against me in the shade of some palm trees I have to check the throbs of the pulse in her neck and wrist. 

My wife is alive, I know that. 

But it's almost as if she's dead. 

Day Two

The others who've helped me find this small cave where we can stay away from the beating sunlight have gone to fetch some fresh water and some fruit off a nearby tree. I have my rum to keep me going, I can't leave my Emma. I can't leave my son or daughter growing inside her. No. No. Killian, don't think like that. I scold myself. 

My child will survive. 

Emma will survive. 

I keep kissing her over and over praying for a curse that will just stop with the press of True Love's Kiss.

It doesn't work. 

Whatever Emma is stuck in has nothing to do with a curse. If only there was some kind of signal that would let me get the talking phone out to speak to Blue. 

Or the Cricket. 

Or Regina. 

Zelena. 

Snow. 

David. 

Belle. 

The bloody Crocodile. 

Anyone that knows what has happened to my Swan. 

Day Three

"Mate, you should get some rest." 

"Eat something." 

"Let me stay with her instead, Hook." 

They keep talking to me. Offering advice. As if I want it. I only want Emma. I only need my wife to wake up. 

I can feel the amount of liquid in my body withering away with each tear. I was furious with everything when I lost my brother. I was furious with the Crocodile when I lost Milah. 

Now, now that I've lost Emma. If. If I lose Emma I'll only be furious with myself. 

I should have been there. The second she ran to that bathroom, I should have been sat next to her. But I wasn't. And something happened. And I only got to her when the door exploded onto us. 

"Emma!" My friend yells pointedly at the limp body in my arms. I look down and I really start to cry. I cry in a way that I never thought I'd do in my life. I stare for a moment and look into her gorgeous green eyes that I fall in love with every time I see them. Emma. Emma Swan. Emma Jones. Emma Swan-Jones. 

Emma

The darkness fades away as I flutter my eyes open to look up into Killian's blue ones. He's not looking at me, his eyes trained on a spot on what looks to be a cave wall opposite. Someone, I can't tell who, I know them, but I don't know them at the same time, calls out for me and Killian flicks back. He looks afraid. Like maybe I'm not awake. I am. When he finally registers it after staring a short while, he smiles and leans over to kiss me. 

At first it's not a kiss like any of our others. It's simple. It's careful. It's "I'm never letting you go again." When Killian pulls back, his face inches from mine, I see his eyes filled with greed and hunger and I know just how ravenous I am too. I might have just woken up from being out for who knows how long, but I need him. Now. I grab for Killian's shirt collar and do some strange mix between pulling him down to me and myself up to him. I press my lips back against his before he has time to react but it doesn't take him more than a second to weave his hand through my hair before he looks at me again. "We have company." 

"I don't care." I stop. Who's company? 

There's a young woman, maybe early twenties with dark brown hair and she looks vaguely familiar but I can't put a pin in it. She's giving us some space though, averting her eyes, unlike her companion. 

When I see the man next to her, somehow with my husband's flask in his hand, it all comes clear. He looks bored out of his mind but I guess I understand now. Captain Jack Sparrow never really had any real time for romance. 

"They know?" I question curiously, turning back to my husband.

"Aye." His eyes light up again as he says, "But Operation Cobra Four isn't our focus here, love. I think it's Operation Welcome Back."

Operation Welcome Back. 

Welcome Back.

Me. 

How long have I been gone? Why do I need a whole Henry-Operation to welcome me back?

"Sorry I missed the wedding." A voice says behind me. The same one that announced me to my husband earlier. 

"Robin?!" I exclaim incredulously, getting up to hug my friend. "So... Gold was right? You are here? How?" I pull back, almost feeling my husband's jealousy radiating around the cave even though he knows that I have no intention of leaving him. "You... Hades..."

"Your husband died too, didn't he?"

"You never came back to Storybrooke?"

"I couldn't. And I promise I'll explain everything, after you get some rest." 

"REST!" I stare back, "I've been out for... how long? and you think I need rest?"

"Three days," Killian says softly, "And Robin's right, love. If you don't, I do, and I need to know that you're next to me to get any decent sleep." I sigh, accepting the arm that's reaching out to me, "I've not heard the full story myself. We'll talk in the morning."

That night, I don't sleep. I'm tossing and turning over the idea that Robin is here. Alive. The only thing keeping me from demanding an explanation is the snores of my husband that no matter how irritating, always seem to calm me. At some point, though my eyelids grow heavy and I succumb to the gentle pattern of sleep that Killian has.