Chapter Text
The magic in the air was almost suffocating.
But it didn’t matter.
Everyone Emma considered family was standing in the same room she had contemplated taking her magic in. Henry clutched David and Regina, trying to look away from the scene before him.
Emma barely registered Belle’s soft accented voice, begging Rumple not to do what he was doing.
Emma stared at Killian who was properly laid out on the floor, holding the place where his heart should have been, not in Rumple’s scaly hands. He was gasping for air, reminding Emma of Graham as his life slipped through her fingertips.
The very least Emma could do was be there for him as his life was ended.
"Five minutes," Emma shouted over the din.
Suddenly the room went quiet.
Emma stared at Rumple, silently begging, “You’re going to do this anyway. So just….let me have five minutes with him. To say goodbye.”
Something glittered in Rumple’s eyes, and he nodded slowly.
Emma dropped to her knees and grasped Killian’s body to her tightly, her knees behind his back, her right hand cradling his head, “Hey, hey, I’ve got you. Shh, it’s okay, I’m here.”
He looked up at her with glassy eyes, “Emma.”
She smiled half heartedly at him, “Yeah, here I am.”
"Did I do it, Swan? Did I keep my promise?" he asked hoarsely.
Tears sprang to her eyes, “What promise?”
"Did I win your heart?" he questioned earnestly.
She laughed once as a tear escaped her, and she pulled his face up so she could rest her forehead against his, “Yes, you did. Good form, Lieutenant.”
He smiled at the memories flooding his mind at her reminder, his eyes closed remembering the happiness they brought.
They opened again to look in her eyes earnestly when he told her, “That how I would wish you to remember me, Swan. A good man, a man of honor, a man who would gladly give anything for you.”
She sniffed slightly and whispered, “That’s exactly how I’ll remember you, Killian. I promise.”
Rumple’s voice rang out, grasping Killian’s heart, “Time’s almost up, dearies!”
Killian’s body convulsed in pain for a moment, before grasping at Emma desperately, fighting through the pain, his vision almost whiting out, “Emma, Emma!”
She held him tighter, “I’m here, Killian. I’m here.”
His eyes looked desperately into hers, tears welling in his ocean blue eyes, “You were my happy ending.”
Emma choked on a sob, tears flowing down her face as she saw his heart crumple into dust in Rumpelstiltskin’s hand out of the corner of her eye.
"And you were mine," she whispered, right before his eyes closed forever.
Everything else that happened after that seemed muted to Emma. She curled her kneeling body over his, silent tears slipping down her face, not minding the sobs that wracked her body.
It was unfair.
He was supposed to survive.
Killian Jones always came back.
So why did it feel like he wouldn’t this time.
Emma couldn’t hear any of the chaos that was going on around her. As her head rested against her pirate’s slowly cooling chest, she felt Henry sit beside her, his hand on her shoulder. She was sure he had said something, but she couldn’t make it out.
It didn’t matter.
As long as Henry was safe, there was nothing else to worry about.
Emma felt empty.
And one thought became crystal clear.
Killian Jones was gone.