Against The Current

Chapter 28

Muffled voices pushed through the darkness that had swallowed her. The repetitive sounds reaching out to her and calling her back.

"Em-ma."

Her head was pounding and her eyes felt heavy but she pushed through the pain to flutter her lids open.

She struggled to focus on anything. Her vision blurred and she felt dizzy but her head was resting comfortably against something so that helped slightly.

Emma blinked several times and waited. Slowly her vision focused and she could make out a figure above her.

His eyes looked pained and frown lines marred his handsome face but Killian's lips quirked up into a small relieved smile.

His hand reached up and began stroking her forehead. It did nothing to reduce her pain but it was calming and felt good.

"What happened?" The gaps in her memory flashed incoherently making it hard for her to piece everything together. Emma remembered moving through the executive offices but everything after that was patchy.

"One of the janitors found you and alerted us in the boardroom."

Emma shot up into a sitting position, a move that she instantly regretted. Her head swam and she lurched back but strong, firm hands held her steady.

"Take it easy." The low timbre of his voice was soothing but did nothing to alleviate the fear that was twisting her stomach.

"They know." She turned to look at him and could instantly see her feelings mirrored in his eyes.

"It's the only..." Emma's voice trailed off as she remembered what she had been doing before she'd been attacked. Her hands quickly reached for her pockets, patting both but she found nothing.

"Did they take it?" She asked him softly as he helped her off the ground and into a chair.

"You had nothing on you." Killian's brows furrowed as he processed the consequences of the flash drive being in the wrong hands.

A small rap on the door indicated that the Doctor had arrived. Killian was thankful that he kept a medical professional on staff in order to provide his employee's with the best health services available.

Emma's small grunt of pain drew his focus and he watched silently as the Doctor checked her head. When security had alerted them that a blonde woman had been attacked in the executive offices he had frozen. The horror had quickly been replaced by a gut wrenching fear. There was only one blonde woman poking her nose around the executive offices. She had been attacked right under his nose and it disturbed him. He'd thought she was safe.

"It's okay." Emma's hand reached out to comfort him.

"Nothing about this is okay!" Killian growled heatedly. His frustration with the whole situation was boiling over.

"They won't know what they have. It's protected." Emma told him with a slight smirk. It was a small relief to know that their plans hadn't been completely busted but Killian knew Emma was missing his point.

"I think you are missing my meaning love."

A slight flush heated Emma's cheeks, "Where is Graham? Robin?"

"I need to meet them at Security." Killian answered her question though he knew she was trying to change the subject.

"Why are you still here?" Emma winced slightly as the Doctor continued to poke and prod her.

Killian avoided answering as he would probably blurt his feelings out and she didn't need him to dump that on her. She didn't want hear that he needed to be near her...needed it nearly as much as he needed air to breathe.