Emma opened her eyes reluctantly. She heard Mary-Margaret ease her door open and tilted her head so she could meet the woman's eyes. When M&M finally poked her head in and saw Emma laying on the bed with Killian, both fully clothed, her eyes widened in shock and she locked eyes with Emma. Emma held her gaze without moving, not entirely sure how she was going to explain what had happened, but surprisingly, M&M just gave her a little smile and shrugged before quietly closing the door again. As Emma drifted back into a doze, she wondered if she should be worried or reassured about M&M's reaction to Killian being in her bed.

She awoke with a start, fear clawing at her insides as a nightmare she couldn't remember stole through her. Not daring to move, Emma just lay there and tried to master her panic. Suddenly she felt a firm, warm pressure on her hand. Emma turn her head and saw Killian laying there, his face a study of concern.

"Nightmare?" he ventured.

Emma nodded her head, inhaling a shuddering breath, and suddenly speaking without meaning to when she let it back out, "I was lying here on my bed, I couldn't make myself get up. I was wearing a black dress and I was late."

"I-I don't understand," he murmured, confusion creeping into his expression, "That was your nightmare?"

"I was late for your funeral, Killian," she finally finished, the words unsticking from her throat. Without a word, Killian simply gathered her into his arms and hugged her close. Just like the previous night, her hands tightened around his shirt, this time it was a more plaintive grasp than a desperate one. A silent question formed from her hands on his chest, but Killian heard it as if she were screaming it.

"I used to captain a ship for a very rich man," Killian started to answer, his voice thick and with a little quaver underneath, "I had practically lived on ships my enitre, my dad loved the sea and taught me how to sail about the same time I finished learning how to stand up. The man I worked for, Mr. Gold, had a wife and a song. Just a little thing, he was, not even three when I got hired. Mrs. Gold was the one who really loved sailing, she also loved any chance to get away from her husband. He was obsessed with money and power, they made him feel like he wasn't a coward.

"One thing eventually led to another and we had an affair. Gold never found out about it, not even as it was going on a year. I had been working for him for three years when we went out on the last trip. I had been teaching Gold how to sail and let him take over that day, he managed to steer us right into a White Squall. That's a storm that just comes up out of nowhere, or close enough, and it hit us hard. Gold hadn't a clue how to sail in it, the ship wasn't a big sturdy one, just a small thing made to be fast and free," Killian swallowed hard, Emma couldn't move. She was transfixed in some sort of horrified stupor, she knew some of what was coming because of what he had said last night, but she wasn't prepared.
After a moment, Killian started again, "We got tossed on a wave and I hit my head on something. I couldn't get to the wheel in time, Gold had no idea what to do, and the ship...the ship flipped, we capsized. I don't remember much of what happened next. Just ice cold water, confusion, and the ship pulling me down with her. Somehow Gold and I found each other down there, somehow we go away from the pull and break the surface. His leg was ruined, but one of the life preservers had come loose, so I got him on that. We both just clung to it for however long. The coast guard eventually found us, someone had apparently seen us go into the storm and called in," Killian's voice trailed off. Emma could practically feel the guilt welling up in his chest under her hands, she could feel the slight trembling of his chin against her hair. So she pushed herself up a bit higher, pressing his mouth closed with the top of her head.

"You didn't kill them, Killian," she whispered, "It was an accident, they happen and they rip lives apart but nobody gets the blame."

His reply slipped through nearly closed lips, "Gold blames me, I blame me."

"Gold blames you so he doesn't have to blame himself. You blame you because you lost someone you loved."

Killian just tightened his embrace of her in response, pressing his face into her hair. Emma could feel some of the tension in his body leave, he still blamed himself and he probably always would, but she didn't and that made it better. Or maybe Emma was projecting her own hope, but when she slid her arms up his chest and wrapped them around his neck, she could feel him melt into her. So maybe she was right after all.

That was two days ago. Now she watched dully as Killian ran through the sliding glass doors, looking around frantically, before he spotted her. He ran over and cupped her face in his hands, saying something that she couldn't hear through the buzzing in her head. She finally blinked and the buzzing went away in a snap, her thoughts were still sluggish but she could finally hear him when he repeated himself, she guessed he was repeating himself, again.

"Emma what happened? Are you hurt?" Killian's voice was tight with worry and his eyes were darting all over her face, always coming back to meet her eyes before they set off to search for some other reason for her distress.

They were in the kitchen, David was telling her a story about an arrest he made yesterday. It was the most ridiculous thing Emma had ever heard and she couldn't stop laughing, her laughter was making David laugh and prolonging his story.

"D-David," Emma murmured, "He's hurt. Oh god he's hurt so badly."

David was making tacos, all from scratch. Neither of them noticed that when he laughed one time some of the oil spilled out of the bottle and hit the floor.

"Did you call Mary-Margaret?" Killian's voice snapped her back into the present again and just blinked widely at him. He gently took David's phone from her hand, she was still grasping it from having made the 911 call, and made the call to Mary-Margaret, never breaking eye contact with her, one stand still on her cheek.

Suddenly David's foot went out from under him, a scream formed in Emma's throat as his head smashed into the corner of the stove. She flew from her seat and around the counter, her knees hitting the floor hard as she slid into him. Yelling his name, pressing her hand to his neck for a pulse, the other switching off the stove. Somehow in her panic she had the presence of mind to do things like that, to dig in his pockets for his cell phone, coming up with it and the box containing M&M's engagement ring. The box went into her pocket and she frantically dialed 911. Everything after that moment is a blur of crying out David's name, trying to wake him up, being pulled away by a paramedic, following them into the ambulance in a daze.
They were now sitting in chairs outside David's ICU room. Killian had an arm around Emma's shoulders, his other hand was holding hers. His thumbs were tracing circles on her skin, his quiet reassurance a welcome relief as she stumbled back into reality. The hospital was chaos, her mind was chaos, Killian was an anchor of calm.

"How did you find me?" she broke the silence, her thoughts spilling into spoken word.

"I saw you sitting in the back of the ambulance, it passed by the grocer. It was going at a good clip, but I can't ever mistake you for anyone else, love," He stated as it was the most simple thing in the world and not the most meaningful.

Just before Emma was about to say anything else, she saw Mary-Margaret rush into the ICU. Panic painted her features as she spotted Emma and Killian and must have caught sight of David in the room beyond. M&M nearly ran straight towards the room, until a nurse stopped her. The woman was saying something about family only or something, Emma suddenly felt the box in her pocket like it was a lead weight. She pulled her hand out of Killian's and scrambled in her pocket for it, finally retrieving it, she snapped it open and pulled the ring out. Jumping to her feet and shoving the box into Killian's hands, she hurried over to M&M and the nurse.

"She is family! They got married yesterday," the lie slipped from Emma's lips easily, no one was going to keep Mary-Margaret away from David when he needed her. Emma held out M&M's ring to and continued, "David got it out of the pipe a few hours ago, I am so sorry I dropped it."

Somehow taking it in stride, M&M nodded sharply and took the ring, sliding it onto her ring finger, it was a perfect fit. The nurse quickly apologized and led M&M into David's room, explaining what had happened. Emma went back to her seat and dropped back in it heavily, leaning forward and rubbing her temples. She soon felt Killian rubbing her back, his touch almost seemed to steal away the headache that was forming. She leaned back in her chair and his arm slid back up to her shoulders.

He was starting to say something when she started her confession. "I met Neal when I was sixteen. I stole a car he had stolen and was sleeping in. He eventually charmed me into a drink, which we stole, and then we sort of just fell into the relationship. We lasted four months and I was so stupidly in love with him. We just moved around, stealing from places for food and clothes, working our way up to Maine. One day, he found a wanted poster for when he stole twenty grand of watches, just days before he promised we were gonna settle down and have a real life," Emma's voice was strong and distant, the memories slipping through her mind like a disgusting liquid. Fouling her mind but not staying. She could feel Killian's on her, and even though she stared ramrod straight ahead of her, she knew his expression didn't hold a hint of judgement.

After taking a breath she continued on, "He had stowed them in a locker in a bus depot, I had the bright idea that I could go in and take them out and we could fence them. It was enough money for us to have a real life, have everything we wanted. He was worried about me getting caught, I told him I wouldn't, he let me do it. It was so easy, nobody even looked twice at me, just a teenager getting a bag out of a locker. We split up so he could go see the fence, he had given me an exact spot to wait at and an exact time to be there. And one of the watches to keep. I was so fucking happy, Killian," she tried to explain, tears threatening to spill over. Then Killian did something she'd never expect, he leaned over and picked her up out of her chair and deposited her in his lap, holding her against his chest and stroking her hair. Her voice quavering, she returned to her story, "Instead of Neal, a cop came. He said I'd been sold out, he knew about the watch, the bus depot, everything. I got a year in prison and never saw Neal again."

Emma whispered the rest of her story, only knowing that Killian heard it by how he continued to tighten his arms around her. "I found out I was pregnant in there. Neal's kid, the man who ruined my life left me with a child. He was a pull-out asshole and I had been a stupid girl in love. I resented that kid at first, resented everything about the whole damn pregnancy. It wasn't until a few weeks before I gave birth that I stopped resenting him and started loving him." A dull pain had taken residence in her chest, tears slowly spilling from her eyes, Killian had her pressed so firmly against him she could feel his heart beating.

"He was stillborn," she choked out, the horrid memory of that day pressing against her mind and threatening to overwhelm her again. And then Killian's hand was there, brushing away her tears and stroking her cheek with such amazing tenderness. Emma turned her head and buried her head in his chest for a few minutes. Eventually though, she moved her head enough so he could hear her talk, and continued, "I met M&M then, she was part of a prison outreach thing and helped me out. She didn't mind that I wouldn't tell her anything past what Neal had done to me, she doesn't even know about Henry." She swallowed back the pain of saying his name aloud and finally confessed to Killian, "I eventually tried to kill myself because it was my fault. Henry died because I didn't love him."

Killian's reaction to this was immediate and shocking. He grabbed her shoulders and hauled her up to look him in the eye. "No," he growled, "It wasn't your fault. It was an accident. It was the world being fucking horrible to someone who didn't deserve it. Someones." He stared at her a long time before pulling her back into a hug. She felt more than heard his quiet words in her ear, "It was an accident, they happen, they rip lives apart, but no one is to blame. You told me that two days ago, you kept me alive saying those words. Now I'm saying them to you."

Emma just wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his shoulder. They stayed like that for a long time, eventually Emma whispered a question into Killian's ear. "Catch me?" she asked almost silently. Killian let his grip on her slack, moving her a bit away from him so he could look at her, a perplexed look on his face.

"I'm falling in love, Killian, and I don't want to hit the bottom alone. So, catch me?" she asked again.

A wide smile grew on his face, "Aye, I'll catch you. I already hit the bottom of that fall myself, love, and I have to say...it's really wonderful."

Emma leaned in and kissed him, then. It was long and deep and in the middle of an ICU ward and absolutely perfect. They eventually broke apart when M&M cleared her throat. Sheepishly turning towards her, she just smiled at them still sitting in the one chair, Emma in Killian's lap.

"David's awake, he wants to glare at you for proposing for him, Emma," she said wryly and then turned and headed back into David's room.

Emma and Killian turned back to each other and smiled. Everything had turned out alright after all. And it would stay that way, they just had to take it one day at a time.