Once Upon A Happy Beginning

Chapter Twenty-Four: Journey to the Castle

Killian 

I sat by my Emma's side the whole journey, David leading his horse as I rode on top, cradling my love in my arms; stroking her soft hair, kissing her luscious lips and talking to our perfect babe. Snow White rode alongside, on her chestnut mare, equally pregnant, as she spoke to me in hushed voices of the current goings on in the Forest. 

I knew it all of course, but it didn't help to get a hero's perspective, someone who wasn't so brainwashed by Cora. Right now, they've locked up the Crocodile and know that Regina intends on enacting the curse. I can only guess that I'm somewhere off with either The Evil Queen, Her Evilness The-More-Evil-Than-Her-Daughter or some poor tavern girl I'd taken for granted before I met my true love. 

"Tell me, sir," David asked, "What lucky girl made the pirate's heart change in the future?"

"Well, that, mate, is a highly unusual question."

"Don't call me mate, we're not mates."

"Dave, please. We are. And if you refuse to call me that, at least call me Killian, you can't call me 'sir'. That's just... If we weren't mates, that's what I'd call you."

"Not Your Majesty?"

"It's not... Really such a thing anymore. I mean, 'Gina might argue different at some points but we all know that if we need a leader, well then it's my wife. I mean, she'll act like she can't do it and go running to her parents or 'Gina but we all sit back – she's the Saviour. She's my wife, no one is going to be more perfect than her, for anything."

"You really love your wife, it seems... Killian." Snow told me.

"Thank you. I do, unconditionally. She's my True Love, and she always has been. It might not have been love at first sight, at least not for her, but we've worked with each other these last few years and... I've never loved anyone more.

"That's gorgeous. What's her name?"

David had been suspiciously quiet as we walked along. He stopped and turned allowing me to realise there were tears glistening in his eyes. "Saviour?" He almost whimpered. "You called your wife: The Saviour. You don't want me to call you sir because you think you should. We're close, mates, but no offence, I'd never be best buddies with a pirate. It's Emma, isn't it? You marry my Emma?"

"Aye."

"You love her, my daughter?"

"Aye."

"And that's my... grandchild?"

"You have a grandson too. He's nearly fifteen, Emma had him when she was eighteen. In a massive coincidence, his father is Baelfire, the Dark One's son. But Emma didn't know until twelve years later. And then, Emma, well she got into a situation... she wasn't able to look after Henry. She didn't even want a kid. So Henry was in a closed adoption. Regina adopted him and took him to Storybrooke where she had you all living under a curse for twenty-eight years, never ageing. 

"On Emma's twenty-eighth birthday, Henry came to find her because he's read a book from you, Snow, or Miss Blanchard as he knew his teacher, and picked up that you were all characters from the book. Emma came along and broke the curse, but apparently there's a long story about that. 

"I was with Cora, in a sort of protective shield here. She wanted to hurt Regina or something, I don't quite remember so I was never cursed but I was frozen in time. An accidental portal sent Emma and Snow to The Enchanted Forest where you met Aurora and Mulan and me, pretending to both work for Cora and against her. That's when I fell in love with Emma.

"We've been through a lot as a town, so much, too much, I'd say. 

"We've had – in order  – a rampant giant, Cora, Peter Pan, a second curse where we all got sent home apart from Henry and Emma who were given false memories and sent to The Land Without Magic where Emma grew up, because of the first curse. I left you all when we got home, I just got on my ship and left but a year later I got a letter saying there was a third curse and I needed to find Emma, so I did. 

"It was Regina's half-sister, the Wicked Witch Zelena and she cast a time portal which sent Emma and here, to when you met. We became Charles and Leia because we accidentally messed up you two meeting so we had to do it again. 

"Then we ended up with an envious queen with ice powers that we had to stop, with help from your old friend Kristoff, his now-wife Anna and her sister Elsa. 

"Then there was... the Queens of Darkness. Rumplestiltskin's wife used the dagger to banish him from the town and never come back, but he did. With Cruella DeVil, Ursula and they resurrected Maleficent. They wanted to take people's happy endings away... I was... terrified. I would have lost Emma. Again. 

"Then, Rumplestiltskin stopped being the Dark One, it was killing him, his heart was becoming too black. Emma sacrificed herself for Regina because she's find it easier to stay away from the press of the dark but when we tried to bring Emma back from the Darkness, I was hurt. Fatally. Emma made me a second Dark One to keep me alive and then took our memories. It was awful, I found out and I wanted to kill Rumplestiltskin. Take his hand for taking mine, take his heart for killing my first love and then take his head for ruining my Emma. Emma was brought back when I took in the Darkness from her and every Dark One, killing myself in the process.

"Emma was distraught. I could hear her cries, Hades tortured me with them. She found out that Rumplestiltskin had taken the dagger back and thus the entirety of the Darkness, so I'd died for nothing. Emma was furious. She took a team of you all, both of you, Henry, Rumplestiltskin and Regina and her True Love, Robin Hood. Hades promised you that we'd come back, all of us, if you took him back because he'd had True Love's Kiss with Zelena, 'Gina's sister. He could finally leave. He tricked us all. I wasn't able to come back. I was stuck. He went to take over the town and make it his Hell on Earth. Zelena was mad. He killed Robin and tried to kill Regina but Zelena killed Hades first. As a thank you for saving the world from his brother, Zeus granted me life.

"But then we got trapped. Me and both of you in The Land Of Untold Stories. That was a long chaos but Henry saved us by getting everyone to believe in magic. 

"Emma began feeling prophecies of the Final Battle, which she'd lose. She'd die. She never told us about this, not really. Emma and I got engaged but we got into a fight the next day, over something massive. She gave me the ring back until we worked it out but I was cursed to come here so she could never find me, thus true love could never save her. 

"I got a message to her to tell her that I loved her and I needed her to know I was desperate to come back and Emma used some flower of True Love to get to me. We got married soon after but the Black Fairy's curse hit. The curse that led us to the Final Battle. Emma ended up dead but Henry's true love's kiss saved her.

"Since we've been fine. Almost a month after the Battle was won, Emma and I went on our honeymoon. It was on an island in The Land Without Magic but we found a magic spot. It wasn't exactly pretty, we found these two people from what's called a 'movie'. I don't bloody know what it means, Emma knows best and Henry. Some kind of book in the form of moving pictures that you can see on like a flat black box. And Robin, we found Robin there too.

"Robin and Regina got married. Emma's nine months pregnant tomorrow. We don't know how to get the new Captain Jack Sparrow and his lass Elizabeth home. And now we're here. Emma's... She's mot waking up and I don't... I don't know what to do..."

I realised I was crying now as Snow White handed me a blue satin handkerchief. David led us down a dusty path and towards what I now saw was his castle.

"We'll look after her, and the baby, mate. Doc will attend to her now. I promise, neither of you are leaving this castle until I've held my grandchild and had a conversation with my daughter."

"Her fairy godmother..." I croaked out, in a flurry of sorrow. "Blue. Call on her, too."

"Of course."