Heart of the Sea

Chapter 21 - New Arrangements

Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long, but thanks so much for waiting! I really hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Please feel free to vote/comment! Again, thanks so much for reading! Hope you have an awesome day. :)

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The next day Killian thought it best to keep his distance due to the coming evening; Emma staying with Lili instead. Emma noted both Joneses' nervousness, seeing the difference in their reasons, one hoping he would be the best he could, the other worried that she wouldn't be strong enough to keep her walls up in a moment of weakness. It would be a pivotal trial either way.

After an eternal day, evening fell, and Lili started to prepare dinner, the action and work keeping her hands from trembling. Killian came in after everyone else got home, satchel over his shoulder. He took the bag off and set it down by the armchair, going back to the door to take his shoes off before greeting Emma with a kiss on the cheek and a short embrace. Lili looked up from her work for a moment, meeting his gaze briefly before returning to the cutting board as she swallowed.

"How's she been today?" Killian asked softly.
"Quiet. A little anxious, I think."
Killian nodded, taking it into account. He'd do his best not to set her off then.

Lili was combining some leftovers from earlier meals for a bit of shepherd's pie, seemingly in her own world, trying to focus on just the tasks in front of her, not the worries in her head, trying to build up her walls for the evening. She was quiet at the table, as she had been for the past few meals, answering in only a few words to the questions of David and Mary Margaret on how she was doing. They got the message after a few sentences and left her alone.

Finally it was time for bed. Lili was still anxious, sort of wishing to just get it overwith. Killian dressed in the bathroom, coming out in a simple t-shirt and pair of pajama pants, kissing Emma good night before she went upstairs.
He turned out the lights before seating himself in the armchair, standing guard, as it were.
Lili fidgeted beneath her quilt for a little while, aware that she was being watched.
"Would you prefer if I didn't watch you, lass? At least 'til you fall asleep," Killian murmured softly.
"I'll stop fidgeting in a few minutes, just give me some time," she answered quietly. She might as well get used to it now instead of not. (Just another set of eyes on her. Nothing different.) Ha, a plan. She switched which side of the couch she slept on, moving her pillow where her feet normally were, head closer to the armchair, effectively ridding her of her view of him watching her. She sighed, closing her eyes. She was going to go to bloody sleep, no matter who was there. With that decided, she started to take slow breaths, trying to keep any thoughts at all from her mind. Eventually, it worked.

Killian watched her carefully, noting about ten minutes after their conversation that her forced slow breaths were coming naturally, and a small fond smile twitched his lips at the little puffs of each exhale. Her mother had breathed the same way in her sleep.
He noted how calm her expression was, how the light fell on her face, the kohl on her eyelids disappearing in the shadows that rested on her nose and brow. Her hand had relaxed its grip on the quilt, and he admired the curl of her delicate, strong fingers, suddenly wondering what they might have looked like when she was a babe, how much chubbier and smaller she would have been, and he nearly laughed. He could still see a tiny bit of youthful chub filling in her rounded cheeks despite the many years that rested in her now-closed eyes. She was not quite done growing up. Almost, but not quite.
Her brow twitched after about an hour, lips following soon after. Killian got up, padding over to her quietly, crouching in front of her; he didn't want to wake her until he was sure. It could be a g..it wasn't a good dream.
"No," she murmured, head turning a little, fingers crumpling the blanket. "No, don't-"
"Lili," he murmured, fingers wrapped around her shoulder, shaking her gently. "Lili it's alright. It's just a dream. Come on lass, wake up. It's alright. Lili, wake up. Lili, wake up." He shook her shoulder a little more.
Lili's eyes snapped open and she gasped as she came awake, instinct thrusting her hand out from under the pillow, hitting him in the eye with the salt shaker.
"Ah!" he blinked his other eye rather rapidly, hand leaving her shoulder to cover his wounded eye as he bit his tongue to keep from cursing.
"Bloody- Captain! I am so sorry," Lili almost-whispered urgently. "Are you alright?"
"Aye, I will be. Just..go back t'sleep, lass."
She giggled quietly after a moment. "I'm so sorry," she murmured.
"Mhm. Quite alright."
"Here, lemme get you a..an ice thing," Lili said quietly, swinging her legs off of the couch.
"It's alright, lass, I'll get it. Just..try an' relax; get back t'sleep, hm?"
He heard her try to hold in the giggles as he picked his way to the kitchen, but when he squinted his one good eye at the bright light in the fridge, a few escaped, rippling over to him. He closed the door as quietly as he could, holding the icepack in his hook. Unfortunately the thing was too small to fit for long, falling on his foot. He swore quietly, hopping a little. Her laughter grew a little louder, and she put a hand over her mouth to muffle it. He continued to mutter under his breath as he bent over to look for the icepack in the dark, finally picking it up, coming up only to hit his head on the counter.
"Bluddy-"
Lili laughed out loud as he swore a little louder; she got up, gently taking his arm and guiding him back to the living room. "Poor old captain. Losing our sense of the dark, eh?"
He shot her a look which somewhat lost its effect with one eye in a seemingly permanent squint. She laughed quietly a little more before she sat him down in the armchair, going back to the kitchen to get a few more ice packs. His mutterings had subdued somewhat when she returned to find he'd rested one icepack on his foot. She handed him another which he pressed against the back of his head; she sat down on the couch, gently holding the last to his eye.
She giggled a little more.
"Oh shush," he muttered quietly.
"I'm sorry! I didn't expect to wound you so thoroughly. Now I know what it takes to bring down the great Captain Hook."
He arched his eyebrow at her.
"A wee saltshaker." She grinned toothily.
He rolled his eye, taking to his muttering again. After a few moments, he looked at her, and couldn't keep himself from grinning, chuckling quietly.
A bloody saltshaker had started all of this. He laughed a little louder, and Lili shushed him through her own grin.
"We must not breathe a word of this to anyone," he whispered finally, still smiling.
"I shahn't tell a soul." Her soft smile matched his.
They stayed there for a while in silence, blue eyes holding blue eyes, Lili's occasionally moving between his brow and the icepack, shifting as she slowly felt her hand begin to numb. She switched hands, and Killian put down the pack he'd been holding to the back of his head, shaking his hand a little to try and get the feeling back in his fingers, rings gleaming in the moonlight. Once he was satisfied with it, he took the bag from Lili, fingers brushing hers. "I've got it, lass. You should try and get back to sleep," he murmured.
Her smile flickered into a frown, her brow furrowing, and he saw the fear surface in her eyes before her walls slammed up, turning her eyes hard, pulling the frown a little deeper, and she nodded, shifting back under her quilt, tucking her head into the pillow, hand and saltshaker disappearing beneath the pillow, other hand clenching in the blanket.
She cursed herself a thousand times over in her head. That was not supposed to have happened. She was supposed to stay cold and hard, not bloody..giggling. That was a disaster. (Her heart begged to differ, still gleaming with happiness.) (Lili pasted dark looks over the light, storing it away. Blazing eyes, broken eyes. Snaps and winces.) (She couldn't let this happen again. She couldn't let it take again.)
She fell asleep once more.