You Could Have Stayed

Chapter 8

Killian had known about the thing called a baby shower for few days now. He just didn't know what it was. He managed to force it out of Smee though and it turned out it was a party to supply the mother-to-be with everything she would need for the upcoming child.
  Apparently nearly the whole town was invited and Snow White was organizing it mainly. He was even more upset that he wasn't with Emma now, just from the week or two that he had known she was pregnant and he was still with her. Emma's face always lit up when she received an item for the babies, Hook doubted she even realized it. He would love to see that look take up permanent residence on her face, even if it was just for a day.
  He was a mess, definitely not fit to even leave Smee's dark and dingy apartment. He didn't feel the need to keep himself tidy, not when Emma wasn't around. He hadn't shaved so his stubble was now a full on beard, he had only showered just a few hours after he got the text from Emma. He didn't have any clean clothes either, he had gone straight from the hospital, to the docks, then here. He didn't stop at home to grab anything so he was stuck in his leather pants, vest, jacket and blue button down.
He had also gone back to drinking heavily. He could down a whole bottle of rum in under an hour, just staring at his phone waiting for something from Emma or staring at the one photo of her he kept with him.
It was from their wedding, Emma in her stunning white dress and flowers in her hair. She was laughing at something he had said and the photographer had snapped the picture. It showed off the way her eyes dry chef up when she smiled and how big that smile was. Damnit he missed her. Now that he thought about it, he could feel his fear of being a father slipping away, the fear that Emma would never take him back appearing in its place.
Just then his phone beeped, signaling a text message. He practically sprinted across the room to get it. It was her, it was from Emma. Another update. He thoroughly enjoyed and marveled at her in the photo before he saw the dress at the back. The dress from their first date.
He had nearly killed Will Scarlet for spilling water on it and Emma had to calm him down. He now knew that was all him, it had nothing to do with the hand he had recently gained back. And that kiss at the end of the night, it may have been cut short by his hand but it had been amazing. Every kiss from her was. She also wore the dress when she deceived him on yeah Jolly Roger when she was a Dark One but they had agreed to put all that nastiness behind them.
He spent an hour and a half working up the courage to call her. Would she even answer? What if she never spoke to him again? No, she was sending him the messages; that meant she was willing to communicate. Didn't it? He finally took a deep breath and just pressed her name, she was one of the only ones in his contact list.
"Hello?" Emma was laughing and he could hear the people around her. Clearly her party had already started. It was amazing to hear her voice again.
  "Swan." He knew his voice was strange, he was just so relieved that she answered. "Are you still there Swan?" He laughed nervously after a few minutes of silence from her, even the background noise had ceased.
  "Yes." She said. It sounded cold in his ears, he deserved it.
  "I am so sorry Swan. I cannot apologize enough." He started, he was slightly surprised to find that he was crying. He didn't do that often.
  "No, you can't." Emma agreed.
  "If you would just see me and let me explain myself-" he tried but Emma cut him off.
  "You will explain yourself right now, on speaker, in front of me and the people who used to be your family or I will not listen to a word you have to say." So they were there with her, probably listening to their conversation.
  "Emma." Killian knew he deserved everything that would come to him but he needed to talk to her in person, not over the phone and certainly not with her family there.
  "That's not an explanation, Killian." Emma said and ended the call. He slammed his phone down on the side table hard enough to crack the screen and hung his head.
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Emma took a deep breath to keep from crying. "We're going to pretend that didn't happen and we are going to go back to the party. If anybody asks, you guys just had a special gift you wanted to give me privately." Everybody nodded, they were worried but they would let it drop for now.
  "I think it's present time!" Snow announced once they were back downstairs. "Please open ours first since it is our grandchildren."
  Emma rolled her eyes at her mother's enthusiasm but accepted the two largest boxes from them, the ones they had already brought by. Emma pulled off the wrapping paper while people snapped pictures and guessed what the identical boxes were.
  "Oh. Mom, dad. You didn't have to." Emma breathed when she finished opening the first box. Inside there was a stand holding up the glass unicorn mobile that was supposed to be hers. They had given it to baby Neal for a while and now they were giving it to her.
  "Yes we did Emma. Neal doesn't like the unicorns anyway." David smiled and put his arm around his wife.
  Emma opened the other box and found an identical mobile on a stand but the unicorns were purple and clear instead of blue and clear. She hugged her parents with tears in her eyes, they didn't have to make an identical one. They were sticklers for symmetry apparently.
  "Okay now open the other one." Snow clapped her hands, unable to contain her excitement.
  Emma sat back down as Henry handed her the other gift from her parents. It was wrapped again but the contents were squishy and when she pulled off the paper, she saw a knit baby blanket. Identical to hers except the blue instead of purple of course and on this one, there had never been a name on it. That was left to Emma when she wanted to add it.
  "Thank you guys so much." Emma smiled while her parents beamed with pride and her mom cried with pride.
  For the next hour or so, Emma opened up gifts from friends and family. She got a lot of clothes, diapers, stuffed animals and toys; some of her favorites being a little rattle made to look like the apprentice's wand and a set of blocks all made to look lie Pandora's Box from Zelena. The strangest thing she received was from a woman she barely even recognized, it was a tiny replication of the Dark One dagger, sharp enough to slice Emma's finger; supposedly for the babies to know their mother and father's past. Regina had calmly told that woman to leave, she gave everybody the creeps after that.
  "Thank you all for coming and thank you for all the gifts." Emma put on a smile as she talked to everybody as they walked out the door but she was exhausted and she still had to clean up and bring all the gifts to their appropriate places in the house. Her parents offered to help but she refused them and told them to go home to their own baby.
  Henry helped clean up but he had homework to do and it was nearly 8pm. At roughly 10:30pm Emma stumbled into bed, entirely exhausted, and fell asleep in her dress.