Disclaimer: I don't own OUAT

Authors Note: This is written because I don't think the writers killed of Neal so Emma could go off and bang Hook. People seem to be forgetting that both these men loved each other as well as Emma and all three of them do, to a great extent according to the latest episode, care for one another. Emma's a grown woman, even with Neal gone she can still walk away from Hook. The woman of Once are just as strong as the men and they don't need to be defined by anyone. Regina has hung onto her love for Daniel for a long time and Emma could do the same to Neal if she wished. Neal sacrificed himself so his father could live and have a second chance at a life that was once defined by his subjection to the Dark One's dagger. Although I never really liked his character, I did grow to respect him greatly and I think the selflessness and nobleness of his decision is being overshadowed slightly by shipping wars.

Spoilers for 3x15 and possible 3x16 spoilers too – based of spoiler images.

Different Kinds Of Love

She stood there, head down with tears streaming down her face. Neal was dead. Gone. There was no coming back from this. Despite however many times her first love had cheated death there was absolutely no coming back this time.

Vaguely Emma registered Snow squeezing her hand before turning and walking away. As much as she wanted to reach out, grab her son and run as far away as possible, she knew that this was the last time she'd ever really get to be alone with Neal ever again. Obviously there were her memories; the two of them, although they were thieves, had brought light into one another's lives. Neal had been the first person to show her love in a long, long time. To accept her for the, at the time bent self because, no, she hadn't been broken when she'd met him. As much as she understood his reasons for walking away from her, he had broken her and it made it just as hard for her to love him again as it did to remember how happy he had made her and hate him.

Blue eyes closed as she ran her hand over the coffin, stopping over where his heart would be. Dead or alive the two of them would have never been able to restore what they'd once had. Emma wasn't seventeen anymore and Neal wasn't the same brown-eyed boy she'd swooned over either. She'd changed, grown, loved and lost, more so then he had. Until she'd met him, Emma had never had a good thing so when he'd promised her the world she'd blossomed like a flower; vibrant and beautiful.

Unfortunately, when he'd said the world he had meant a cheap globe and when she'd turned into a flower he'd yanked her up like a weed – recent understandings had helped but the reminder of what she could have had with Henry had sealed their fate. They were over. Done.

Neal had understood. He'd realised, finally, just how much they had changed in the decade they had been apart. He'd still seen her as the naive teenager that had giggled and smiled openly in his presence while she'd still seen him as the lying bastard that had betrayed her. Neither one of them had seen one another for exactly who they actually were. Really, they'd both ruined one another. Emma had forced him to confront an unwanted past and Neal had forced her to sign away any rights to her future. Her baby. Their baby.

Henry. The poor kid didn't really realise that he'd loved his Dad more than anything else in the world. She'd have to find a way to restore his memories and when she did Emma would make sure that the first thing they did together would be to visit Neal's grave. She'd tell him about the hero his father was and their history together. Gold would talk to him too, when he was removed from under Zelena's thumb, and Killian would talk to Henry too.

Killian. She sighed tiredly. It was obvious what people were thinking. Now that Neal was dead she could fuck the pirate to her heart's content and not feel guilty at all. Wrong. Whether people refused to see it or not she was a grown woman, she made her own choices. She hadn't been waiting in the wings for one of them to be killed and then run off and shag the last man standing. Despite what appeared to be popular belief, Emma wasn't that emotionally ruined.

Both Neal and Killian had made it quite clear that they'd had feelings for her and she'd made it quite clear that she wasn't in any place to make a choice. At the time, yes, it had been about finding Henry but it had also been about the fact that once before, long before her grandparents were born let alone her, there had been a bond, a love, shared between those two men and who was she, really, to step in between it?

They had both loved Milah, they'd both lost Milah and they'd both been the prime people subjected to the fallout of that same woman's choices. Emma couldn't – wouldn't – let that happen over her. Bro's before ho's and all that. As offensive as that saying could be, what was a woman when you'd had a bond that lasted over three-hundred years? Each of them had made mistakes regarding that relationship but she could see, underneath all the spite and petty jealousy of Neverland, that there was a deep regret and an even deeper love between them.

Somehow knowing that they'd shared a moment, as brief as it was, before Neal's death made it easier to accept that she was in love with Killian. The formers parting message of finding her Tallahassee, even if it wasn't with him, made her realise that he knew and it was okay. He didn't hate her for being in love with someone else. All he wanted was for her to be happy, for Killian to be happy, just like they both wanted Neal to be.

It was almost funny really; a love triangle where none of them would truly commit if it meant hurting another person. Killian would have walked away if it meant Neal and Emma would have been happy, Neal would have walked away if it meant Killian and Emma would have been happy and Emma would have walked away if it meant that those two could have possibly re-established their relationship.

They all loved one another. It was three different types of love; old, new and constant but it was still love. It was still something to be cherished and it would always remain even though Neal was gone.

It was true; you never forget your first love. She'd always remember Neal and in some ways she'd always love him. Emma just wasn't in love with him. Not anymore. She'd changed; she'd fallen in love with someone else. It wasn't a crime. Just because she'd never forget Neal didn't mean that she wasn't allowed to fall in love again with Killian. Whether Neal was dead or not, it didn't change how she felt. Her happy ending wasn't with him. However much it would have made sense a few years ago, hell maybe even a year ago, it just wasn't going to happen. They'd had their shot and they had blown it; both of them.

True, maybe Neal didn't get the happy ending he had deserved but he'd still gotten a happy end. He'd died in the arms of his first and possibly greatest love, holding the hand of his own father as he repaired their relationship while he thought of his own son, Henry, safe in the knowledge that he and Killian could part ways as friends, family, even.

Another tear fell from her eyes, landing on the coffin as she turned and walked away. She wouldn't look back. Neal didn't deserve to be some final glance above a six foot hole. He deserved to be remembered in her memories, in her son, in her true love – because God knows what would have happened if he hadn't given them his blessing, she doubts that either she or Killian would have done anything in fear of tarnishing his memory – and in the happy ending she is fighting for.

Later that evening, when she's sat in Killian's room once again toasting Neal's memory, Emma will put down her drink, take his face in her hands and press a gentle kiss to his lips. She'll tell him that she loves him and explain to him what happened in Neal's last moments and then she'll kiss him again but this time he'll tell her he loves her. Eventually they'll both start to cry over the loss of a man they both love but when they finally drift on off to sleep the weight will have vanished from off their shoulders and the guilt will be gone because Neal knew and he understood and he was happy for them.

Four years later when Liam Nealfire Jones is born, on that very same day too, proud parents Killian and Emma Jones will laugh as tiny hands clasp onto their fingers. Both just as in love with this new baby as they were with the men he's named after and both so grateful that their eyes were opened just as Neal's were closing because he may have lost his life but he saved theirs and led the way for their own happiness.

There are many different kinds of love; Emma knew that all too well. Once she thought it was a terrible thing. A weakness. Yet now, as she remembers the love she has in her life and the man who, really, played a large part in opening their gateways, she can't help smile and press a kiss against her newborn's forehead.

"Thank you."

After all, love is, as humans, the greatest thing we do.