The Mind

Chapter 41

Two Weeks Later...

Emma sat in the lab on her phone, calling Killian's phone over and over again. She didn't expect him to answer. But, each time it rang and went to voicemail, she got to hear his voice.

"This is Killian Jones. Leave a message."

Over and over again that sentence repeated. Each time, it brought tears to her eyes. Until, one morning, it picked up.

"Swan."

"Oh my God," she whispered. She got up and ran to Regina and Victor where they were sitting at their computers. "He answered," Emma whispered. Regina got up and quickly hooked the phone up to a tracking system that would ping cell phone towers to find Killian's phone. Victor's tracking system found the phone in less than a minute. "Oh, Killian. Are you okay? Where are you? Please tell me you aren't hurt."

"It's so good to hear your voice again, love," he croaked.

"You're going to be okay, baby. I'm going to find you. I'm going to bring you home. You are going to be fine," she kept repeating as tears fell down her cheeks.

"Emma, Emma, Emma, we both know that that isn't true."

"Don't say that! I love you, Killian. You are going to come home to me. You are going to come home to us."

"No, Swan, I won't be. You promise me that our little girl or boy will grow up happy and safe and loved. You promise me that he or she will know what their father did to protect them."

"No, because they will know all the struggles we went though together. They will get to hear the story coming from you."

"I'm not getting out of here, Emma. I'm hurt. Bad."

Victor started pumping his fists in the air. "I got him! I know where he is at!" He whispered.

Hope fluttered in Emma's chest. "You stay with me. You never got to take me sailing," she told him, grabbing two guns and ammo refills and sticking them in her pockets of her leather jacket. She grabbed two pocket knifes and put them in her jeans pocket.

"Find someone who can take you across the ocean. You two can sail the seas. Promise me that that man will love you as much as I did. Don't you dare settle for anything less."

"I won't have to. I have you. I love you. We are going to find you. All you have to do is tell me where you are."

"I love you too, Em-"

"That's enough of that," an evil voice said.

"Emma! You give me that back you bloody son of a-" Killian's voice was cut off by the sound of sickening crack and the sound of skin slapping against skin.

"I will find you. I will find you and I will kill you if it is the last thing I do," Emma promised. Her voice echoing off the walls of the stairwell as she went out to the parking garage to get in her car.

"Oh I don't doubt that. But, will that be before or after I kill your fiance?"

"Don't hurt him! Please!" Emma begged as she got in her car. She felt no fear. All she felt was adrenaline and anger.

"No, no, my dear Emma. What you should be pleading for is his life." A gunshot rang out in the room and she yelped as she froze in place. "I'll give you an hour to find him. He's going to sleep now, but it will be anything but peaceful. You see, I might have stolen some serums from your father's lab. The chemicals will keep him in a dream like state where he will be confronted with his worst nightmares and fears. If you can't rescue him in an hour, I will wake him. He will only be awake long enough to stare down the barrel of my gun before I put a bullet into his knee. Then his hand. Then his stomach. Then his shoulder. Maybe one in the chest too. Would you prefer him to bleed out or suffocate in his own blood?"

"Stop, please!" Emma pleaded, starting her car and peeling out of the parking garage.

"Half an hour now for making me have to listen to your pleading little voice." Hades laughed, "say goodnight, Jones." Then, the line went dead. Emma called David and told him where Killian was and they had agreed to meet at the abandoned warehouse as soon as possible.

When she pulled up, she parked far away and crept up the gravel road to the doors. It was the same warehouse that she had been kept in when she was first kidnapped by Jekyll. It still sent chills down her spine. Emma circled the building until she found a hole in the wall. Big enough for her to slip through. She looked down to her baby bump and ran a protective hand over it before taking out her gun and cocking it. The click echoing throughout the building. She rounded a few corners until she got into an open room where she saw four men standing in front of a wooden chair. The familiar silver suit glinting in the sun that was peeking through the holes of the roof. She could see a hospital mask over Killian's face. Whatever gas that he was inhaling, she knew it wasn't good.

"Do you think she's going to find us, boss?" One of the men asked. She couldn't see much of him, other than the fact that he had a head of black hair.

"Of course not. The Swan girl was at the laboratory, not the police station when I called. There was no way she would be able to find us," Hades said. Even with his back turned to her, Emma could tell he had a mocking smile on his face.

"Guess again, bastard." Emma came out from around the stack of crates and shot one of the men in the shoulder. He fell to the ground instantly. She quickly hide herself again and waited for the shots to pass before coming out again and shooting again. Grunts of pain were heard in the room and she knew she hit someone.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," Hades' voice taunted. She peeked her head out to see the three men on the ground, motionless. Hades himself was turned in the other direction. "Look, I know what it feels like. To want to protect the love of your life, but you can't always do that." Emma quickly peeked her head out from around the corner and shot her gun, which was followed by two shots. One missing her, the other coming into contact with her arm. She gasped and bit her lip to keep from crying out in pain. "I'm done with this little game, Emma," Hades hissed. More shots fired and she looked down at her bullet wound. Blood seeping out of it.

"Me too," she mumbled before walking out, shooting the man in the chest as he raised his gun up, but she was too fast. Three bullets landed in his chest as he fell to the ground. She dropped her gun and ran to Killian, unhooking him from the chair and pulling the mask off his face. His eyes fluttered open five seconds later. "Hi, baby. I told you we would see each other again."

"You are so stubborn," he told her groggily.

"And you love me for it," she whispered with a smile. But then, things started to get dizzy around her. All she could remember as she fell to the ground was the distant sound of Killian calling her name and the sounds of men pounding on the wooden doors.