You Could Have Stayed

Chapter 14

Everybody was silent as Doctor Whale moved the device around on Emma's stomach. Killian stood against the far wall, too ashamed to get closer. There was a small and collective gasp as the 3D image of a tiny little face showed up on screen.
  "This one is the baby girl I believe." Whale half smiled, not wanting to intrude on this obvious family moment.
  "Oh, Emma. She's beautiful." Snow breathed as she teared up and squeezed her daughters hand.
  "Yeah, she is." Emma sniffled back her own tears and risked a sideways glance at Killian. He was riveted, his attention solely on the screen and his unborn daughter. Even from here, Emma could tell he already loved her and wouldn't be leaving again. They all stared and listened to her loud and steady heartbeat for a few minutes more.
  "Let's find her brother shall we?" Whale moved the device around again, this time he quickly found a tiny hand and followed it upwards to find another little face.
  Snow stepped back to let Henry come closer and get a better look. Emma knew he would love both his siblings equally but she knew he was excited to have a brother. "Wow." He shared a smile with his mother. He also glanced at Killian who now had a small smile on his face and unshed tears in his eyes. He had even unconsciously stepped away from the wall and closer to Emma.
  "I'll print out a few more pictures for everybody here. These kiddos seem to be in amazing shape since they kept you down so long. You might actually go into labor early, they look to be in the right position for it. I guess they are eager to meet their rather large family." Whale smiled again as he sent the pictures to be printed and recorded some things onto a clipboard and left the room.
  "Emma, you are so lucky." Snow smiled and wiped at her tears, she hadn't stopped since the first baby's face appeared.
  "Don't get any ideas from this." Charming warned his wife, only slightly teasing. She smacked his arm and he made a pained noise; Mary Margaret looked smug.
  "As heartwarming and cute as this is;" Zelena interrupted, "I think Emma would like some time alone to talk with her pirate husband."
  As if they had forgotten he was there, everybody turned to Hook who snapped to attention under their gazes. Nobody said anything as they filed out, just gave him dirty looks; Henry's was the one that hurt him the most. He hated to disappoint the boy.
   When they were truly alone they sat in silence for a while as Emma wiped the gel off her own belly and straightened her clothes. Killian was the first to speak as he took a tentative step towards her. "Emma, I am-"
  She immediate cut him off. "Don't say you're sorry, Killian." She met his eyes and he wanted to drop to his knees at the look of complete weariness in her eyes. "I know that you are sorry and that if you could do it all again, you wouldn't leave me or the babies. At least I hope you wouldn't. Apparently I don't know you as well as I thought I did."
   "Emma, please love, you have to understand. I was terrified that I would turn out like my father and in my shock of finding out it was twins I turned out just like him. Worse actually. I not only abandoned my two children but my wife, the woman I loved since practically the moment I met her." Killian took a few steps closer, hoping that contact with her would reassure him.
  "Killian, you don't think I was sacred?!" Emma demanded. "I had every faith in you, I saw how you were around baby Neal and Henry and while I knew about your unfortunate paternal experience I thought we could get through that together. I was afraid myself, my only other experience of carrying a baby was behind bars after being betrayed by a man I thought loved me. I went to bed in jail crying almost every night, thinking about how unfair all of it was. Did you know I didn't even hold Henry when he was first born? I knew I wasn't cut out to be a mother and if I touched him I wouldn't want to let him go." Emma was crying again, this time not from happiness.
   Killian was shocked. She told him tidbits about being in jail before but not much about how she felt with Henry. He couldn't hold himself back anymore and he covered the distance between them in two long strides. He grabbed her hand and laced their fingers together, eternally grateful that Emma didn't pull away.
  "When I found out I was pregnant this time I was upset but excited, I knew it might be difficult but I knew that I would have you to help me through it and to love me. When we found out it was twins and you disappeared, I thought to myself that you had just gone into the hallway to process. Imagine my surprise when I find out it takes me literally collapsing and bleeding to bring you back to me." She had brought their hands up and held the back of his hand against her cheek, something she did often when she was upset.
  "You can never understand how sorry I am, love. I wanted to return shortly after you started sending me messages but I was afraid that I had royally fucked up and that you wouldn't have me back. I never agreed to talk to your family as well as you because I could already imagine the well deserved anger and disappointment and sadness from you and I didn't think I could handle it from the rest of your family. I just wanted to see you to satisfy that primitive need inside every man to keep everything that is his safe without anything else getting between us. You can call me a caveman or anything else you want as long as you don't tell me to leave because I won't do that, love." His speech had caused tears to prick the back of his eyes as he stared down at Emma, hoping she would open her beautiful eyes and just look at him.
  "I won't tell you to leave. You are never abandoning me again, no matter how hard you try." She didn't feel bad that Killian cringed at the word abandon since he had told her in the past that he would never do that to her. "But you aren't forgiven. Far from it actually."
"I expected nothing less. I don't deserve your forgiveness, Swan. Maybe for the rest of my life." Killian's lips twitched up as she absentmindedly traced the rings on his fingers, another comforting gesture for her.
"I wouldn't go so far as the rest of your life but you are going to need to do some serious groveling and begging and kissing up before I will consider putting this back on." Emma reached into her shirt and pulled out the long chain he had given her in Camelot with his brother's ring on it. He quickly noticed that her wedding ring was also on the chain; how could he not have noticed the missing presence of it from her finger.
"I deserve that. Just please don't shut me out completely, love. I don't think I could bear it." He eyed his own wedding band, since he didn't have a left hand they had settled on attaching a specially made ring on near the base of his hook. Emma had always thought it was hilarious.
"These kids are going to grow up with more love than they know what to do with." Emma sighed wistfully.
"That they will, Swan." Killain smiled.
Just then Emma perked up as if a lightbulb had gone off in her head. She lifted her shirt up again and took his hand, still intwined with hers, and laid it flat on her stomach. After a second a faint glowing appeared under his hand. Killian pulled his hand back in shock before slowly placing it back on the smooth skin. He moved his hand around and laughed softly as the glowing followed his hand around.
"They did that for me too. Earlier, when you went to clean up." Emma smiled. "These kids are going to be very powerful."
"And why is that, love?"
"I am a product of true love."
"Aye, that you are."
"And they are a product of true love." Killian flicked his gaze to hers but quickly lowered it, afraid of ruining their fragile relationship by asking if that was still true.
"I suppose they are, yes."
"That all adds up to more power than we will most likely be able to handle. These kids are going to throw the worst temper tantrums you've ever seen."