A/N: Here's my first attempt at a drabble. Hopefully it went alright. I'm used to writing multi-chapter fics but Sweartomanagemischeif on here thought it would be a good idea so here it is. It's based on the teaser for next week's episode. Also, if you like my drabbles then I will take prompts and turn this into a fic of drabbles. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: All aspects of Once Upon A Time belong to ABC and the show's creators, Adam and Eddy.

The ice walls had long since closed in around her. Ice crystals collected along her face but Emma could no longer tell if the ice was coming off the floor or floating down from the cavern's roof and move accordingly. It wasn't as if she could move from her fetal position anyways. She had no sense of up or down or time. Everything was frozen. Emma was frozen.

She'd maybe been in the cave an hour? Maybe a day? At this point she was beginning to wonder if she'd ever known anything different. One minute she'd been chasing Elsa- an ice queen, seriously Storybrooke?- and then she was trapped in some kind of sick version of a snow globe. The ice had come out of the ground so fast, arching upwards before Emma could scramble out of the way. All she'd done was grab Elsa's arm, trying to calm her down after seeing Gold had set her off. The next moment Emma's world became a twenty by twenty ice room.

She knew she shouldn't have gone alone. But at the same time she was glad of it. She purposely chose to go alone after all, just in case. Because had she not have been alone Killian would be trapped with her. Emma could handle her own death in this place should it come to that. But she wouldn't have been able to watch Killian freeze to death. That would have been worse that all the pain she was going through at that moment. The thought that that scenario could have been possible was bad enough.

"Emma?" a concerned voice broke through her fog. Elsa. Right. She was in there with her, unable to break them out of her own prison. Not that the cold seemed to bother her anyways. She sounded like she'd been crying. At least the sound of her voice told Emma which direction was up. "I'm so sorry. It was an accident, Emma. Please tell me that you are alright?"

No. "Yeah." She made noise in her head. She wasn't sure if sound had actually happened in real life.

"Come on, Emma, hold on." Emma wasn't even shaking any more. Which meant her body was shutting down. She was going to die in a cave of ice. She survived Peter Pan, multiple curses, Cora and Regina and now she was about to be taken down by a winter wonderland? How was that fair?

A thumping started. It echoed through the room. Of course that also could have been the sound of her heart trying to overcompensate for her almost total lack of breathing.

"Emma," Elsa tried again, shaking Emma's shoulder. Emma groaned. The movement was jarring, making her seize up even further. Coupled with the thumping and Emma just wanted the cold to take her. To stop all the pain. "Emma, someone's trying to get to us."

Someone? Who would come after Emma? Who would come after such a lost girl? And even if someone did come who would be able to get through the solid walls of ice surrounding her? That was more work than Emma was worth.

"Swan!" That wasn't Elsa. That was someone Emma had barely been able to think about. Killian.

"She's dying," Elsa shouted. Emma wanted to tell her that she wasn't really sure she was in that process anymore. She was already there. But it was too hard to take a breath powerful enough to speak.

"Hold on, love. I'm coming." The banging sound tripled. It was hurting Emma's head. She wanted to beg Killian to stop. It was just too loud. "Almost there. Don't you dare die on me."

"Hurry," Elsa shrieked.

The noise was too much. The cold blackness swallowed her, waves of relief taking away the pain. She wasn't warm but at least she didn't hurt.

"Swan? Love? Emma?" A lilting voice was the first thing to break through the darkness. The second thing Emma noticed was that her shaking had returned. Strange. That meant she must have been warming up. But how was she warming up?

"Killian?" Emma murmured, trying to see if she'd heard the voice correctly.

"Emma," Killian cried, yanking her against his chest, arms tightening like vices. Emma used what strength she could find to bury her face in the warm and solid chest.

Emma tried to place herself while she lay there, by feel. She was still too weak to move from her position and look around. She was jostling gently. A light rumble broke through the silence. The whole space bumped and Killian cursed, pulling Emma in even closer. Emma knew that movement. A pothole. Emma sniffed- aftershave and old car. She also knew that smell. David's truck.

"Emma?" A different voice this time. David.

"Dad?" Emma asked around shaking teeth. Her front teeth were snapping together so hard that she was positive she was going to break them.

"Hold on, sweetheart," David told her, voice tight with worry. "We're almost home."

"Elsa?" It took Emma a few tries to spit out the name without her teeth cutting off her tongue. The effort made the numbing blackness start to climb over her again.

"She's fine. We got you both out. Robin's taking her to the loft once she calms down."

"Good," Emma murmured before slipping once again into oblivion.

The next sensation Emma was aware of was a pressure on her chest. Her skin was stinging as warmth began to seep into her skin. She pried her eyes open. The light stung her eyes. After a few blinks the room came into focus.

Emma was lying in her bed in the loft, with what looked like every blanket in the house piled on top of her. That explained the pressure on her body at least. Her whole body was freezing, the uncomfortable kind of cold that happened when you spent too much time outside in the middle of January. At least the symptoms of hypothermia were starting to fade away.

The slow and near impossible breathing had left, but her heart was nearly beating out of her chest. A light wave of nausea washed over her as a shiver wracked her body. A whimper escaped Emma's lips as she shook.

"Swan?" Killian sprinted into the room, skidding to a stop at the foot of Emma's bed. Worry darkened his glacier blue eyes. "Oh, Swan," Killian sighed when he noticed Emma watching him. Killian reached her side in two strides, squatting down so his face was level with hers.

"Hi," Emma whispered, trying her best to quell another body rocking shiver.

"Hi," Killian answered, tucking Emma in tighter. She hummed in appreciation, her nose scrunching at the blissful warmth. Killian smiled in response. Emma felt awful that the response to her funny little noise had been a calm smile, not the signature smirk or delighted grin she was used to. "How are you feeling?"

"Cold," Emma replied.

Killian's face fell. In an attempt to hide the expression he pressed his face against the blanket mound. Emma shifted so she could pull her hand from the blankets. It was slow going, her muscles totally fatigued from the rough shivering of earlier, but eventually she managed to place her hand on the top of Killian's head. She curled her fingers into his scalp, fingers twisting in the soft black strands. "What's wrong?" Emma asked, quietly.

"You don't know how close I came to losing you."

The broken desolation of his tone tore into Emma. She let her hand slip down the side of Killian's face and rubbed his scruff until he looked up at her, blue eyes rimmed red.

"I thought I was lost," Emma replied. "So thank you for saving me."

"Why would you go after the ice queen alone?" Killian shifted so he was sitting on the bed now. Even through the seven layers of blankets Emma could feel Killian's hip against her own.

"I couldn't bear for you to get hurt because of me. You'd try to protect me. You don't deserve to get hurt because of my own stupid plan."

Killian ran his hand through Emma's hair. It was still damp and clumped together from all the snow she'd been coated in but he didn't seem to mind. "Swan," Killian bent and kissed her lips lightly, just a brush of his against her own. "Don't you ever," another kiss, "think you," kiss, "aren't worth it," kiss. "Nothing is too much for you, love. Nothing is undeserved. So please, next time you decide to go chasing after a woman who can bring eight feet of snow in less than two minutes, let a pirate know."

Emma sighed and nodded. She knew Killian wouldn't take a different answer. That thought warmed her more than the mound of blankets had. Killian would do anything she asked. And always did whatever she didn't as well, knowing what she needed before she ever knew herself. His ship was gone, traded for her. He had helped rescue her son and save her father's life. It still stunned Emma that someone would give up their entire life for her. And not be completely bitter about it. It was as if the pirate she had met in the Enchanted Forest was gone completely.

Killian grinned at her, a mischievous glint filling his eyes. He leaned closer, lips brushing her ear as he spoke, sending shivers down her spine that had nothing to do with her icy adventure. "Did you know the best way to fend of hypothermia is to cuddle naked, love? Think of how much more enjoyable this afternoon could have been had you let me come with you."

And there was the pirate she remembered. Not that she would have it any other way.