Chapter 1 – Intro

'Eleven months' The two words echoed in her head. She still couldn't believe that she had found herself in that situation.

During her trial her eyes constantly searched the court room, waiting for Neal to emerge, refusing to believe that their story ended so abruptly, ended so badly.

The first few days she said to herself that it had to be a mistake, that something probably went wrong, that he did not set her up, that he did not just leave. She spent those first days in jail where she had to wait for her trial glancing towards the narrow hallway that led to her detention cell, every ten minutes give or take, waiting and hoping for Neal to appear from somewhere. Instead of what she should have been doing - focus on her trial, which was just around the corner.

But when her short trial ended, she began to accept that he was not coming back. Her only wish was that she could have gotten a chance to ask why or even just to say goodbye and get some kind of closure.

"Emma Swan" A rugged voice interrupted her thoughts.

She looked around, realizing that the bus she was on had stopped and all of the women were already off it and aligned in front of the prison gate. The stern-faced female officer held a list in her hand and called out the names of the new inmates before she led them into the prison walls.

In the central processing area, after being thoroughly investigated and strip searched, Emma did her best to suppress the feeling of being violated, she curled up on a bench in the waiting area, just outside the investigation rooms when a another inmate took a seat beside her, same as Emma she held in her hands a neatly folded dark prison uniform and a bundle of papers on top of it "So who did you get?" The cheerful green eyed brunette asked intrigued.

"What do you mean?" Emma gave her a puzzled look.

"Who is your correctional officer?" The brunette rolled her eyes before snatching a little light blue note from the stack of papers that Emma held in her hands "Umm…" She murmured before handing the note back to Emma.

"What?" Emma asked looking in concern at the light blue piece of paper that was returned to her hands "Mr. Killian Jones" She read it out loud "Is that bad?" Her eyes widened as she looked at the brunette.

"Nah" She dismissed with her hand "It's okay, he's actually really nice, and he's easy on the eyes too" She lifted her brow suggestively as she grinned and licked her bottom lip "But" She paused for a brief moment "Personally, I prefer doctor Whale"

"Doctor?" Curious Emma raised her brows at the brunette.

"Apparently he has some kind of a PhD, but I think that the real reason is that he likes to play doctor with the girls" The brunette's smile spread even wider "He likes it if you call him doctor, you know when - " She leaned towards Emma, her voice going down a notch "You know what I mean" Emma's puzzled expression forcing her to elaborate "If you're willing to spread those legs - " She said bluntly, gesturing with her head towards Emma's thighs. Emma shrieked quietly as she pressed her thighs together as tight as she possibly could just at the thought "Well Jesus girl! You don't have to if you don't want to, he fucks only the ones that are interested" She exclaimed "The rest, he just fucks with his eyes" She added on a chuckle.

Emma looked at the brunette, a shock and slightly disgust expression spreading across her face "Seriously?" She asked.

"I know I know, he's kind of a perv, but what can I say" She shrugged and continued "I like it that way" She smiled happily at the thought.

"And what's the deal with this Jones?" Emma asked as she fingered the note with his name on it.

"He doesn't put out" She shrugged "never" She looked at Emma "ever" she emphasized shaking her head slowly from side to side "And believe me I've tried" Emma chuckled at that "What?" The brunette shrugged slightly offended "It's not like I was the only one, eventually he gets all of us women hot and bothered" She fanned herself with her hand as if she was trying to cool down "With his care, charms, good form and all of that crap" Emma's brows furrowed "Look" The brunette continued when she noticed Emma's concerned expression "He's a really decent guy and he's actually trying to help us girls, and you should be really thankful that you didn't get Ms Mills, cause she's really mean, I mean she's so mean that the inmates have a nickname for her" She looked around to see there was no officer at hearing distance before she continued "We call her the evil queen" She grimaced for a brief moment before putting a smile back on her face and reaching out her hand "I'm Ruby by the way"

"Emma" She said as she shook Ruby's hand, returned a smile and nodded slightly "I get that it's not your first time here"

"Third" Ruby chuckled and rolled her eyes "Why are you here?"

"I stole a bunch of fancy watches" Emma said casually, not wanting to get into the specifics "You?"

"Solicitation" Ruby replied as she shrugged and smiled, pretending to look innocent.

Emma chuckled and changed the subject back to the one from the beginning of their conversation "So what are we suppose to do with this correctional officer anyway?"

"You meet with him, usually twice a week, and you know, talk" She lowered her voice before she continued "In your case talk, in my case – " She grinned, wiggling her eyebrows as Emma laughed in response, admitting to herself that she found the girl in front of her quite endearing.

...

Her knock on the door was weak and hesitant "Come in" She heard the husky voice that came from inside the room as she ran a self conscious hand over her blouse, looking down at her uniform that she was not yet accustomed to wearing.

She opened the door to find him sitting at his desk, buried with paperwork before he raised his gaze to meet hers. He froze for a moment, staring at the beautiful green eyed long haired blonde in front of him.

"Come in, Come in" He said warmly as he got up from his chair and pointed her in the direction of the chair across from his before he closed the door behind them.

She surveyed her surrounding as she sat down, his office was clean and organized, besides the papers that were scattered all over his desk, everything else seemed to be neatly in its place, the books were dust free and arranged by size on two shelves behind his desk, his jacket hung on a peg by the door, the side wall was covered completely with a light wood built-in bookcase that held dozens of organized folders and binders, and the only window in the room, opposite his desk, allowed the perfect amount of light into the room.

He sat back down behind his desk as her eyes lingered on the bookcase to her right "Old school I know" She whipped her head to look at him when his voice broke the silence.

"Uh?" She raised her brows in confusion when she stared deep into his bright blue eyes thinking to herself that Ruby was completely misleading, he was not easy on the eyes, quite the opposite, it was pretty damn hard for her eyes to focus when his handsome face and amazingly blue eyes were staring back at her.

"Our filing system" He gestured with his hand towards the bookcase and smiled.

"Oh" She smiled back as a light blush worked its way to her cheeks.

He took a moment to take in her smile, he had no doubt that it was the most beautiful smile he had ever seen, pretty white teeth, perfectly high cheekbones and a cute dimple on each side, the kind of smile that can light up an entire room.

"I'm just kidding" He finally continued "We also keep a soft copy" He said as he stacked the scattered papers on his desk into a neat pile "Emma right?" He asked as he reached his hand for the papers she held in her hand, same papers she left the processing area with.

"Yeah" She nodded as she handed him the papers.

"I'm Killian" He said as he slightly rolled his chair to his left grabbing a new binder from the bookcase "I will go through all of this by our next meeting" He used the perforator before filing the papers into the binder "In the meantime, how are you coping?" He sighed in concern after closing the binder and entwining his fingers together on top of it.

"Fine" She shifted nervously in her chair and pinched the bridge of her nose "Can I go now?" She asked impatiently as they locked eyes.

He studied her and felt that he could see right through her, he could see that she was scared and lonely, hurt and guarded. It was almost like he could read her as an open book.

He wanted to tell her that he understood, that it must have been terrifying for her to be there, that like all first time inmates she was probably feeling that she didn't belong, feeling caged and powerless, that eventually everything was going to be okay, that the world didn't just end, that it was only temporary and once she's out she will be able to get on with her life.

When she looked at him with those sad lost beautiful green eyes of hers, all he wanted to do was to reassure her, but he knew that it was too much too soon, so he lowered his gaze back to his paperwork "As you wish" He replied simply, granting her the space she so desperately wanted "See you in two days?" He asked when she got up to leave.

"Yeah" She sighed, feeling relieved, as if she managed to dodge a bullet. Talking about her feelings was something she usually preferred to refrain from doing, so she was content leaving without having to do so.

"If you need anything – " He said when she opened the door.

"Thanks" She glanced back at him and smiled politely before she left, leaving Killian to stare at the closed door for a long moment before he returned to his paperwork.