#they meet when margaret and her father are looking for rooms and the scene proceeds thusly

[notbecauseofvictories]

I started reading North and South, and while I think the adaptation did a good job of demonstrating how Margaret is quiet and stilted and yes, a little bit haughty, it did not adequately communicate how deeply and immediately into it Thornton is.

#from the bookshelf #they meet when margaret and her father are looking for rooms and the scene proceeds thusly #MARGARET: Oh this is the man my father is meant to tutor. He is very large and rough-looking but that's right for a man in trade. #I will make small talk with him until father returns because I am a genteel lady and that is what is expected of me. #THORNTON: what is this VISION OF WOMANLINESS why is she so COLD and ALOOF I am ashamed just sitting here listening to her talk #and also unexpectedly I am into that? I am angry about being into that and also ashamed and oh god it's suddenly very warm in this room. #he then spends the ENTIRE REST OF THE BOOK convinced he is not good enough for her and progressively ashamed/aroused by this #this is a man who wants to be dommed very badly #(not that margaret's much better; she is most attracted to thornton when he's at the party wordlessly confident and self-assured #among the other manufacturers #she genuinely thinks ''whenever he's at our place he seems so jittery and uncertain and plaintive it's unappealing'' #like. meg. maggie. margaret. do you think.....there might be a reason for that? hmm? maybe?) #also the proposal scene is more satisfying in the bbc adaptation #even though in the book thornton's response to margaret's refusal of him is to announce that's all well and good #but he's going to continue to be in love with her #which incidentally OUTRAGES margaret; after he's gone she tells herself that a gentleman has never threatened her like that #as a final note #gaskill's decision to write the higgins' dialogue in dialect is a personal affront to me and possibly god #north and south

[seriouslyhooked]

Lost Souls and Reveries (Part 15)

22 part AU written for @cssns​. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6,Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14. Story available on AO3 Here and FF Here. Banner created by the amazingly talented @shipsxahoy​!!

Killian Jones is a wolf shifter without roots, without plans, and without a pack. He’s a rogue, someone humans should avoid and shifters should be wary of given his lineage. But one night years back set him on a path he didn’t realize he was taking, a path leading to a future he is destined for. That future is tied up in one woman – a human named Emma Nolan. Together Emma and Killian will find not only answers, but a love that’s truly fated. But will love be enough to set them free, or will past demons win out in the end? (Answer: love always wins – I am writing this so despite some tiny pockets of angst it’s basically a fluff-filled insta-love fest). Rated M.

A/N: Hey all! I am finally back with another chapter of Lost Souls, and after my last cliff-hanger I am sure you all have some questions in need of answers. It’s been so long you might have to go back and remind yourself of what happened, don’t worry I won’t judge. But hopefully I will be giving you some of those answers we are needing in this installment, though there are still lots of things yet to be fully explained. I also just want to warn you all this chapter is a difficult one. We don’t have a flashback per se, but there is talk of David’s past and one of the parts of his past is that his brother died when they were kids, as you will recall. This is obviously pretty sad subject area so if some of you want to skip and check in with me about what we’ve learned that’s totally fine. Just want to give you fair warning that there are some sadder moments here (even if there is still CS fluff!). Anyway excited to see what you all think and thanks so much for continuing with me on this ‘Lost Souls’ adventure!

Despite the fact that Killian had closed himself off emotionally for years, he’d always considered himself an open-minded person.

Growing up as a shifter in a human world left a person with a certain sense that more was possible. Magic had been a part of the lore of his life since he was born, and so too had strange happenings of fate. For Killian those twists and turns had mostly been bad, but then he found Emma and he thought his luck had certifiably turned. But in the past few days, things had been interesting, for lack of a better word. Truly, Killian could not conceive of a time when there’d been more surprise or unexpected happenings, but right now, at Emma’s parents house, He was completely and totally stunned yet again. So stunned that he had to ask Emma to repeat herself.

“I’m sorry, what did you say love?”

“I said I think she’s my grandmother.”

There were roughly one billion other things Emma could have said that would make more sense to Killian in that moment, because truth be told there was no way that this woman, this young, maybe thirty year old woman, could be Emma’s grandparent. She was younger than David and Mary Margaret, easily closer to his and Emma’s age than either of them, but from the way the woman had flung herself into Emma’s father’s arms and was currently clinging to David, Killian knew she had to be someone who loved him. At the very least she was relieved to see the man, and then Emma’s father spoke, and the claim his mate had put before them all was proved true.

“Mom? But how… you’re…” David’s voice cracked, something Killian had never heard from the man before. Emma’s father was a collected and put together person, but right now he was clearly struggling to comprehended all that stood before him.

“Dead,” Mary Margaret finished in a whisper as she came to stand by her husband, and though Emma’s mother was usually the embodiment of kindness and enthusiastic greetings, she seemed shocked and somewhat aghast when their new guest pulled her into a hug too.

“Oh David, look what a fine job you did. She’s beautiful. I always knew you’d have a lovely wife someday. A real soul mate, like you deserve. I used to dream of how it would be, ever since I knew that I was pregnant. I just thought I’d be there for all those other milestones too. You were just a baby, and now here you are, a man, a husband, a father.”

For a few more moments everyone continued to look on with fascination and complete disbelief. It was as if all of them were frozen, and the only one who wasn’t beholden to this state of complete bewilderment was the newest arrival. David’s possible mother – Mrs. Nolan? Ruth? Killian didn’t know what to call her really – looked positively elated, and she was standing there taking everything in about the man she claimed was her son. While she did that, Killian moved his attention to Emma. Her green eyes were filled with wonder and she was spellbound by the sight of her parents and the woman claiming to be their kin. Then she shook her head, as if trying to clear her thoughts and her eyes found Killian’s.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” Emma whispered, low enough that only he could hear her. “My father has a picture of her holding him when he was just born, and she looks the exact same. But how could that happen? How can she be here and how can she look like this?”

“I don’t know, love,” Killian responded, pulling her closer to his side. “But we’ll figure it out together.”

“How is this possible?”

As David asked the question, Emma looked back to the doorway. Meanwhile, Killian looked over to Ruby for guidance. She should have seen something about this, right? At the very least her gift should give her some intuitive glimpses now. But when he glanced his cousin’s way she shook her head. She had nothing to offer and her face spoke to her disappointment and confusion at not being able to read the situation. This grew stranger and stranger by the second and that made Killian nervous. Maybe this woman wasn’t who she said she was. Maybe they had to be more cautious than the original shock to the system would allow.

“It’s okay, Killian,” Anna said, calmly from across the room. He had stiffened considerably without realizing it, and he was about to rise up, putting himself in the direct way between Emma and this stranger when Anna spoke. Killian, along with everyone else, looked to her quizzically. “She is who she says she is, right Els?”

“Yes,” Elsa agreed quickly. “But I don’t know how it’s possible.”

“I can help with the particulars," the woman said, making it perfectly clear that she could hear everything going on inside despite their attempts to keep quiet. “But it’s a complicated story, one that merits a little more than a quick recount in the doorway.”

After silently exchanging a look that spoke to the easy connection of long time true loves, David and Mary Margaret let the woman inside. Killian watched the way Emma’s mother stood by her husband’s side as this familiar stranger entered their home. Mary Margaret was trying to protect David, and Killian could feel Emma’s want to do the same though she stayed rooted where she was. She squeezed Killian’s hand lightly, and he knew that she was staying put for his benefit. He would worry if Emma wasn’t right here beside him, and he was so grateful that Emma understood that about him. Too many bad things had happened in his life for him to trust easy, and despite everyone’s attempt at making him comfortable, he wasn’t going to find comfort, not until they knew everything and had absolutely checked out this woman’s story as the truth.

Killian’s eyes tracked their movements back into the living room closely, seeing the way David and Mary Margaret were still stiff and a bit unsteady. Meanwhile Emma’s grandmother was radiating joy, and then she turned to Emma and her eyes went wide again. In a split second she looked just as happy at seeing his mate as she had at seeing David, which made no sense. If Killian was understanding this correctly, David’s mother had died, or left as it were, when David was only an infant. She should have had no encounters with Emma on any level at any point. Yet the recognition in her gaze was instant, and as impossible as this whole situation was, this was an added layer of abnormality.

“Emma! Oh my goodness, look at you,” she said, rushing forward and only stopping when she was just about to touch Emma. She seemed to remember that the happiness of their meeting was not a given on both sides, and she kept herself from grasping for Emma even though her look of joy remained. “You’re exactly as I dreamed you would be, honey. So beautiful and all grown up now.”

“You’ve dreamed of me?” Emma asked, clearly shaken by the thought and the woman nodded even as she looked unsure of how to proceed.

“Why don’t I start at the beginning, yeah?”

“That’s usually a good place to begin,” Killian stated, and he noticed the way this woman - supposedly Emma’s grandmother - smiled at him. She gazed upon him and Emma with the same satisfied look that Emma’s mother was prone to using, and he could sense her genuine delight at seeing them together.

“Before you do though, maybe we should leave?” Elsa asked, not wanting to intrude. It was very telling that her good manners remained even in a time of upheaval, but though Killian knew she meant what she said, he could see Anna’s despair at the thought. Clearly the younger sister was incredibly intrigued and she had no want to leave the scene before them. “You all could use the privacy.”

“I think it’s probably best that you stay actually,” David said, coming to take a seat after seeing his mother had found a comfortable spot in a chair just beside him. “Whatever is happening here, it’s clearly not normal, and given the way things are right now, I think we should all be aware of everything out of the ordinary. Besides, we’re family, all of us.”

The words packed a powerful punch for Killian and he had to wonder if they were the product of David’s true feelings or if he was simply overwhelmed by it all. It was one thing to say that Anna and Elsa were members of the family:  these girls had grown up with Emma and been very close to the Nolan’s for years. But he and Ruby and Granny were far newer additions, and though Killian knew he would forever be a permanent fixture in Emma’s life as her mate, he was still honored to have that be recognized. When David nodded at Killian he knew that Emma’s father had meant what he said, and Killian’s slight feeling of discomfort shifted back to curiosity and protectiveness towards Emma.

“Well, I guess I should start with the basics. My name is Ruth Nolan. I was born in a small town in Washington State, well outside of Seattle -,”

“When?” Anna interrupted, clearly thinking the same thing everyone else was – how had this woman not aged from the time she had David?

“The summer of 1950. But we’ll get to how that’s possible soon enough,” Ruth said offering a sad attempt at a smile as she pressed on. “The family I grew up in was…unique you could say. It was my parents and I and my older brother George. I had cousins as well, a big extended family on the whole, but beyond them I knew very little of the world and very few people. We stayed rather insulated in the woods where we lived because… well because…”

“Because they were hunters,” David filled in, saying the words his mother had been afraid to say in mixed company. “Everyone here knows about the shifter world. Actually wait, did you guys hear about hunters?”

The question was aimed to Elsa and Anna, and Killian could see the softness of a father’s love extended to Emma’s friends from David. It was clear that he saw them as extensions of his children too, and his ability to be mindful of them and where they were in knowing things spoke to his love for them.

“We did. Well we caught the basics anyway,” Elsa clarified. “Enough to know we want nothing to do with them.”

“Good,” David said sternly before looking back at his mother. “Because we aren’t hunters and we never will be.”

“Oh thank God,” Ruth exclaimed, closing her eyes and looking relieved. “That life was all I ever knew growing up, and I didn’t see it as evil or wicked when I was young. When you’re raised on stories of danger and monsters in the dark, you don’t question it. You’re taught to trust your parents and to heed their counsel. So I listened to them and I carried their teachings, but it was still very abstract to me. I always thought of myself as an ordinary girl, even if we didn’t have an ordinary life, and then, when I was sixteen my parents were gone, killed by a clan they’d been hunting for a few months.”

Killian could sense the surprise that everyone was feeling, including Emma. The only one’s who weren’t taken aback by the words were David and Mary Margaret. Killian knew that would have changed eventually. After speaking with her father and learning the first pieces of her family’s legacy, she was bound to find out more. But time hadn’t been on their side. So many things had happened between now and then, and as Ruth proceeded, Killian knew she was going to bring far more with her.

“Well actually, tormenting is a better word for what my family did to that pack. My father and his brothers were as merciless and they were clinical, with very few rules and absolutely no empathy at all. They were not above torture, and half of their joy came from stalking a party before the hunt. Women and children didn’t register as being any different. Shifters were shifters and they had to be eradicated.”

Killian’s anger at the very notion was difficult to contain. He had heard talk of hunters before, but it still filled him with rage to think that there were men and women out there in the world who lived solely to harm his kind. Didn’t they understand that shifters were just like everyone else? Having the ability to shift into an animal and some added bonuses of increased healing or faster reflexes and increased strength didn’t make him someone who lacked humanity. He was still a person, and he and his fellow shifters were worth more than brutal slaughter based solely on their gifts. True, there were good and bad shifters, just like there were people, but for the most part, all shifters wanted was to go about their lives and live in peace away from the dangers of the world.

“I didn’t understand that fierceness of feeling,” Ruth confessed, drawing Killian’s attention back to her story. “I could never seem to muster the hatred it took or the coldness one had to have to kill without feeling. Girls weren’t trained like boys were back then, not typically. We were more supporting figures –running house, creating supplies, helping raise the next generation of shifters - but when my parents died and George took over as the head of our family, he let me into the true world of hunters. He thought that the anger and rage he felt at my parent’s death would be mirrored in me. He thought if I knew the realities of the world in which we lived I’d come to hate shifters as much as he did. But he showed me too much without realizing that I myself had experience and a sense of what was right and what was wrong. I knew the world wasn’t really as he said it was because I saw the destruction he was causing first hand. No being deserved the kind of cruelty my brother saved for shifters and I knew all shifters couldn’t be monsters. It just wasn’t possible, and then, one day I met Robert and it all changed.”

“Who is Robert?” Mary Margaret asked and Ruth gave a soft, somber smile.

“Robert is David’s father.”

“My father? But who was he? What happened to him?” David asked, clearly dying to know. It was the first time that David had seemed unsure of a part of the story. “George said he was a fellow hunter from an old family, but I never believed that. If he were, then why wouldn’t he and his family be raising us? Why would he leave heirs to his family’s legacy?”

“Ha! A hunter? No, quite the opposite. Robert wasn’t a hunter, he was a shifter. A wolf to be exact.”

There would have been complete silence in the room at that wildly unexpected announcement if not for Ruby’s instinctual response of, “Oh. My. GOD! I knew you guys weren’t totally human!” The looks she drew from Ruth, David, and everyone else reminded Ruby that this was a moment that wasn’t strictly appropriate and she demurred. “Sorry, my bad.”

“It’s quite alright, dear, and you’re correct…” Ruth said, looking to get his cousin’s name and showing a lot of patience when others might not have.

“Ruby.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ruby. And as you’ve noted, my sons were not fully human. David and James were born hybrids, and as far as I could tell they were the first of their kind.”

“Wait, you had cubs with a shifter? So were you mated?” Emma asked, her voice curious even as it sounded a bit hoarse from the shock she was still feeling. The implications of her father being a hybrid shifter – if that was even possible – were astounding, and it would no doubt have a deep and real impact on Emma.

“We were,” Ruth said, a sad smile spreading on her face. “Humans and shifters aren’t usually mates as I am sure you know, but I found out later that we could be because of old hunter practice. When women are pregnant in hunter clans they drink shifter blood for strength. It’s believed that blood makes for stronger hunters, and the only way to kill shifters is with added strength.”

“Ew!” Anna exclaimed at the same time that Emma and Elsa winced. Killian had heard rumors of that ritual and it disgusted him to his core, but to find out it was real was galling. What a twisted way of living these hunters had.

“Yes, it’s hardly a sound or logical choice. But that little bit of blood seemed enough to allow Robert and I to be fated mates. I don’t know the particulars, but I do know he was mine and I was his,” Ruth said, her eyes going glassy with the memories of her mate. Killian wondered where this Robert was, but he had a sense of foreboding that it wasn’t anywhere good before Ruth confided the truth. “But our time was over far too soon. We were going to leave, run away together and start a family in a place without the baggage of his clan or my family. But before we could, Robert was killed. Murdered by my brother.”

“I’m so sorry,” Mary Margaret said, and Killian didn’t know if she meant it more for Ruth or for her husband, but both of them seemed to take comfort in her words and soothing touch.

“It was a long time ago, though to be fair, not so long ago to me. Five years give or take.”

“Which brings us to the ultimate question,” David said gruffly. “How is it possible that you’ve barely aged? So many years have gone by, but you’re still exactly the same.”

“When I lost your father I was devastated,” Ruth said, her breathing little shaky as she recounted the emotion. “It was the worst kind of pain I had ever known up to then, but I couldn’t even begin to show my sadness. I couldn’t grieve for risk of giving everything away. If I had, your Uncle would have known what we were to each other. I can’t even imagine what he would have done if he knew I mated a shifter. Sister or not it wouldn’t have mattered. I’d be the enemy because of who I loved. The only reason I’m alive now is because he never found out. But I couldn’t hide the truth forever.”

“Because you were pregnant,” Anna whispered and Ruth nodded.

“There’s no way to describe how I felt when I found out. At first I was elated. I always wanted children, and I loved you and your brother from the start, David. But then I was so sad, sad that your father would never get the chance to know you and that you boys would never know him. It was cruel and unspeakable, and then, to make matters worse, the fear set in. How would I ever explain that I was pregnant? My brother knew everyone in my life except for Robert. But even more than that there was a danger of how I could ever find a way to hide your true nature from everyone.”

“But I thought shifter children weren’t detectable,” Emma said, voicing a confusion a few of them shared.

“They aren’t, not usually, but given that the babies were both were a mix of human and shifter I just couldn’t be sure. All I knew was I had to protect them. I thought about running, but I didn’t trust that I could go off the grid enough to elude my brother and that we’d ever be safe. So I made a decision. I told my brother I was going on a solo trek. I claimed that I wanted to be like the other hunters in our family so I would go for six months alone into the wilderness and identify another pack that was vulnerable. He agreed, but instead of finding other shifters I tracked down a male witch, supposedly the most powerful in a thousand miles. He went by the name of Gold.”

“Oh God no,” Granny said aloud and though no one else knew why she said it, Ruth agreed.

“Oh no is right. That man – that monster - told me that he would help me. He said he would block David and James’ true natures so they would never be discovered. I was so relieved that there might be an answer that I barely noted his warning: ‘magic always comes with a price.’”

“That’s bull shit!” Ruby said angrily. “Magic is freely given if a witch is good. There’s no price that comes with it.”

“And so it is, at least it’s supposed to be, but with Gold there was a transaction required, and I didn’t know what it would be. I didn’t imagine it would be some huge sacrifice, and I had inherited money from my parents. I assumed it would be some sort of goods that he wanted, and I only found out after I had the boys what was actually expected of me. I was in the hospital, holding them both, thankful they were both well and healthy after fighting so hard to get them here. I had no one with me, so the nurses took some pictures. I thought they would just be snapshots – one moment of so many - but then he came. He came and he told me that it was time to pay, and it turned out the payment he had in mind was me.”

“You?” Mary Margaret asked, her dismay ringing out clear as day.

“Me,” Ruth said grimly, and Killian could sense she wasn’t past the trauma such an exchange would have caused. “He came to the hospital and he told me that the spell he’d created had built in fail safes. He could undo the spell at any time, and doing so wouldn’t just expose the boys. This was a magic that had never been used so there was no telling what would happen. I was devastated. I begged him not to undo anything. I begged for your life David, your life and James’ and he said the only way he would leave things be was if I left right then and there.

“It broke my heart in every way to say good bye to you, but I clung to two little lights in my new sea of darkness – one, you both had each other. You would never be alone,” Ruth said, her voice breaking as she cried, no doubt for the son she had lost. Emma hadn’t been super detailed, but Killian knew that David’s brother had passed of a childhood illness, the same illness that her brother Neal had suffered from years back. As Ruth allowed herself to give in to some of her grief, David enveloped her in his arms, and Killian saw the tears Emma’s father let free at the same time. Still, Ruth pushed forward, adamant that her story must be told. “But more than that, I also believed you were free. Free of the Nolan burden. I used a totally different name. I left no contact for the hospital, and though I was terrified of what leaving you to the system would mean, I had to believe it was better than my brother.”

“But we still ended up with him,” David said, pushing through the emotion that clung to him.

“It was Gold. That heartless bastard. He decided to test his magic. He was as proud as he was terrible, and he wanted to prove to himself and to everyone that his magic would be smart enough to outwit one of the greatest hunting families in the Americas. He told your Uncle I’d been found and had given birth. And though I don’t know what else he offered as explanation, I do know Gold still believes that George had no idea.”

“So he took you. And then what happened?” Emma asked, trying to push her grandmother towards resolution so this pain and agony would subside.

“I was put under a sleeping curse. It froze me essentially, and while I was frozen Gold ran these magical tests, so to speak. He was consumed with the possibility of humans and shifters being together. He thought it could mean a whole new world order. And he didn’t like the idea of that world.”

“No, I can’t imagine he would have,” Granny said, reminding everyone that she had heard of the man in question before. “Anything that gets in the way of Gold and praise and power is something he’d detest.”

“Exactly right,” Ruth said, the two women sharing a look that spoke to a mutual understanding. Meanwhile Killian was struck at the fact that these women were actually similar ages. It was crazy though that time had essentially stopped for one of them.

“So how did you get out then?” David inquired. “How did you escape him?”

“It was the strangest thing. I was asleep for decades, aware to some degree, but not really. Enough to know I was an occasional magical test subject but nothing more, and soon I was essentially forgotten, left in a room he had filled with other enchanted objects. Then one day I woke up. I woke up and all I knew was I had to get out. That was five years ago now.”

“Five years?!” The questioned was asked aloud by multiple people in the room, but no doubt thought by all of them. Five years? Killian assumed that she’d awoken only recently. Honestly he thought maybe this was another effect of his and Emma’s mating. But five years ago?

“What happened five years ago?” Anna asked and Ruth shook her head, shrugging.

“I was honestly hoping you all might know. It wasn’t Gold. He’s still alive, and you can imagine very angry that I managed to slip away. But for whatever reason his magic doesn’t seem to have any more effect. I’m free of him and there’s no real reason I can guess as to why. So I assumed it must have something to do with you all.”

“I don’t know what it could have been,” Mary Margaret replied. “Five years ago we were in Boston. We were just praying and hoping Neal would be all right. It became our whole life, and then, by some miracle he got better.”

“All I know is I woke up on October eleventh. Does that date ring a bell for anyone?”

“The eleventh?” Emma asked, her eyes finding Elsa’s and Killian watched as the friends looked curious.

“Wasn’t that the day I came to see you all?” Elsa asked and Emma and her parents nodded.

“It was also the day Neal finally took a turn for the better,’ Mary Margaret said. “The first day of the end of his illness. The treatment he was on… we didn’t think it would work but the doctor’s called it a miracle.”

“Unless it wasn’t,” Emma whispered, low enough that Killian believed he was likely the only one to hear her. Then her voice grew louder as she started to fit the pieces of this mystery together. “What if it wasn’t the medicine that made Neal better? What if it was Elsa?”

“Me?” Elsa asked and Emma nodded.

“I left you two for a few minutes, remember? I went back to the alley to look for signs of the attack and when I came back you were passed out. You said you were just tired but what if you weren’t? What if something happened… something magical?”

“Neal was expecting me,” Elsa said, as if the memory was more foreign to her than Emma, but they all watched as she started to recall whatever part of the story she’d forgotten in the past. “And it was the strangest thing because I woke up in the morning and I knew I had to get to you guys. But usually when I feel like that my dreams are vivid. They tell me everything I need to know. But not that night. I just remembered going to the hospital. I took Neal’s hand and then he said it was time. I was so freaked out, I thought he meant it was time for him to go. He was so sick, but he was also so happy still. The next thing I knew I was warm. I was burning up with his hand in mind and the room… it was filled with light… I don’t.”

“Oh my God you reversed the block,” Ruby murmured aloud, her eyes glazed over in the way Killian knew meant she was having a vision of her own. No doubt she’d accessed Elsa’s memories and she was witnessing it all first hand. “I don’t know how – I didn’t even know witches could undo the spells of another – but you settled him. He was sick because his shifter soul was restless, soaking up all of his energy and life force because it was rejecting being split from the part of him that was human. To block their powers Gold separated the pieces and Elsa put them back again.”

“That must have been what woke me up!” Ruth exclaimed. “The deal was that my family would be blocked from recognition. Those words turned out to be so fatally important in the end. I meant to say that they would be safe, but clearly that wasn’t the case for James. I stole away some of Gold’s old journals filled with the notes about my case. James rejected the spell in the end. That was what took him from us. But when you shifted the block entirely, the deal was broken and Gold’s magical hold of me had to break, right?”

“Yes,” Ruby said. “Transactional magic is absolute, and once it’s broken it’s broken for good.”

The conversation from there was still involved, and there were more revelations and details pieced together. Ruby, Anna, and Elsa began to try and figure out how Elsa’s magic could be capable of overriding the magic of another. At the same time Emma’s parents continued to ask more questions about where Ruth had been for all of these years and about the logistics of tracking them down. It stood to reason that her ability to act would be substantially halted given the situation: she had been put to sleep decades ago, well before the internet or modern digital world. Everything she knew was different and she no longer had anyone she could consider a friend to help her. She had to start from basically nothing, her only saving grace being that Gold had no need for money. She’d taken enough originally to start a life for her and her sons, and she eventually used it to get away and to try and track down what had happened to them without notifying her brother. That turned out to be an incredibly complex task because David’s Uncle had done everything he could to keep them off the grid, and when James had died he moved David to a new hunter circle hundreds of miles away.

While all of this was happening, and Ruth was trying to track down her long lost family, the dreams had begun to crop up more and more. They were particularly noticeable in the first year since she’d woken up, and over the years the dreams decreased, not cropping up as much as usual. Most nights Ruth didn’t remember them the next morning, but the one’s she did remember always had Emma in them. In the beginning she didn’t know who Emma was. Ruth was confused and befuddled, but then, when she’d finally managed to track down David, who also had taken every care to not be so easily discovered, she saw a picture of their family. It was from the last inauguration for Mary Margaret as mayor, just a few months before, and immediately she knew that this was a sign. She believed it was residual magic from being tested on by Gold somehow at work, but Killian knew it wasn’t. These dreams involved Emma because Emma was special, and though not all of her abilities had been explained or fully articulated tonight, it had become very clear that she was more than she always imagined.

Despite everyone’s want to get to the answers tonight, Killian knew that would never happen so quickly, and eventually a time came when Killian had to put the good of his mate over her continued curiosity. Emma could have likely stayed for hours more, asking questions and trying to make sense of the huge changes that had just come hurtling at them, but Killian reminded her of how long of a day they had had. She’d risen early, worried about Elsa and Anna, gone on an emotional journey with her best friends and family, and then discovered all sorts of new parts about herself in a little more than twelve hours. That was too much for the mind to bear peacefully, and more answers could wait until tomorrow, but right now what his mate needed was rest and a bit of reprieve.

Luckily as they were gearing up to depart for the night it was decided that Ruby and Granny would stay with Elsa and Anna. Emma’s friends had the room at their house, and as much as Emma and her family had to deal with, Elsa and Anna truly had just as much to come to terms with. That process would no doubt be helped by being close to Ruby. And despite the fact that he loved Ruby and Granny, Killian was glad for the solitude. He needed to be alone with Emma now, to make sure she was truly okay, and to help her get through this moment of substantial upheaval.

“Do you think it’s always going be like this?” Emma asked, when the front door was closed behind them, and they were back safely inside his cabin once again. She looked so beautiful across the room even though he could see that she was tired and uncertain. “Do you think there’s always going to be another big surprise coming down the pike? Or do you think we��ll ever be…”

“Normal?” Killian offered and Emma nodded as she exhaled a sigh, glad for his understanding. He closed the space between them and pulled Emma into his arms, feeling every bit a champion when she leaned into his embrace and held on just as tight as he did. “I doubt normal in the traditional sense will ever be a descriptor for us, love. But I also know that eventually this will all pass. We’ll find our version of normal, and it won’t always be like this. This was just one day. Tomorrow is another.”

“But even with tomorrow, there’s still more coming. Liam is heading here. Elsa and Anna have to essentially go to magic school with Ruby. My parents have to figure out where my grandmother fits in our lives. She’s closer to my age than she is to theirs, Killian, I mean that’s just crazy. How are we ever going to manage that? Then we still have to tell Neal everything because he’s off at camp completely clueless, but his souls are blended again. Because people can apparently have more than one and they can be meddled with. And meanwhile I…”

Emma tried to find the words to explain her feelings and thought it was difficult Killian patiently waited for her to complete her own thought, not wanting to speak for her when this sentiment was so important. It was undoubtedly the biggest reveal of the night, that Emma and her father and brother had wolf shifter lineage, but it was something Emma had to come to terms with even more than he did. Yes it had tremendous impact on Killian, and he found that he was amazed, awed, and excited at the prospect of Emma being like him, but he didn’t want to project those feelings to her. Whatever Emma felt, it was her right to feel as such, but he could only hope that she was going to be okay with all of this.

“I always knew something was off. You know what it was like for me, I told you about how things were a few years back, but I truly believed it was just nightmares. I thought it was all in my head, and then you came into my life and I found out about shifters and everything and I assumed this was another part of my bond to you. I was fated to be yours and this was just that link manifesting. I never imagined that I was a shifter, just a human with a shifter mate, but it’s so obvious now. Those dreams had you in them, yes, but they also had me. Or my wolf I guess. I knew it deep down, but I could never quite accept it. All this time there was another part of me just waiting to get out, and it might not be as restless as Neal’s was, thank God, but it was never truly settled either, not until you got here.”

Killian pressed a kiss to Emma’s temple as she hugged him tight and he was so glad that he had been a soothing balm for her. God knew that her presence had revived him. He had never been so happy, and never truly known peace, but now he had that with his mate. She lit up his world and gave him an anchor and a home at last. To know that he’d eased any of her burden or calmed the anxieties of her mind was enough for him. He just knew that whatever may come he’d do whatever it took to keep being such a force for good in her life.

“And we know those dreams she was having totally had to do with me. I mean am I projecting something? Is my lack of soul cohesion making me some sort of beacon? I don’t know because I don’t know how any of this works and the reality is no one does! We don’t have any answers and that terrifies me, because all I want to know is that we’re going to be okay and we’ll get past this.”

The fervor of her words made Emma’s breathing irregular. She seemed winded, not from exertion but from the intensity of unknown that lurked all around them. There were tears in her eyes, and that mistiness tore at his heart, but while Emma was worried, Killian was calm, at least in one regard. This was a storm for sure, but like any other storm in life this would eventually pass. He knew that deep in his bones, but he wanted her to know it too, and he thought of how to say that to her as he reached out to brush a wayward strand of hair from her face. His fingertips brushed lightly against her ear and then his hand cupped her cheek. She leaned into the touch, her eyes closing briefly, and then she looked back at him and Killian could see she already knew the truth he was going to speak. She only needed to be reminded.

“We will absolutely get past this, Emma,” Killian vowed. “And I swear to you that I will keep you and your loved ones safe no matter what. There’s upset in our world right now, but not with us. We are constant. We are solid. There’s no debate or doubt when it comes to us. You are mine as I am yours and we will be more than okay. I promise.”

“I want to believe that so badly,” Emma whispered, the sound of unshed tears spilling into her soft tone. “I do believe you. I just… I don’t want to deal with this tonight, you know?”

“Aye, love, I do. So I have a proposal,” he said and Emma’s brows immediately rose as her eyes grew big. He could see shock and a bit of panic at his poor choice of words and so he backtracked. “Not that kind of proposal. Not yet. I was going to say we can pick up where we left off earlier.”

“You mean back in my room? When we were pretending?” Emma asked, her cheeks flushing a beautiful shade of pink as she recalled how they’d been back at the house just hours before. It felt like ages ago, but also like mere moments. Instantly they were both at that same level of wanting, and now they hadn’t any need to wait. Thank God for that, because Killian didn’t think he could take it. After a day like this he needed his mate, needed reminding of how right the world could be when they brought things back to the foundations of the two of them together.

“None of it was fake or forged on my end, Emma. The story might not be entirely ours but everything that matters was real.”

“I know,” Emma agreed, holding him tighter and pulling him towards the bedroom. “And I want that again. Make me forget, just for tonight.”

“As you wish.”

And with that, Killian brought his mate back to their bed, intent on ending this trying day with the best kind of medicine either of them could acquire. They made love until exhaustion set in, losing count of all the peaks they climbed together, but his last thought as he slipped of to bed was surprisingly certain and assured: everything really was going to be okay, and somehow, someway they were going to get through this together.

……………………..

I’d rather be running.

Despite the thought that had been plaguing him all night as he sat in the passenger seat of this eighteen-wheeler truck, Liam knew that right now he had to ignore his animal instincts.

It wouldn’t be possible to do so for very long. Truth be told, Liam had maybe an hour or two tops before the gnawing in his mind that manifested as a wolf’s sharp whining sound would get too much to bear. When it did he’d have the driver stop and let him off and then he’d feel a weight lifting off his shoulders. He hated the confinement of the truck and the caged feeling of driving on the highway versus tracking in the woods. But he had to get to Killian sooner rather than later, and since he wasn’t shifting on this journey, he couldn’t very well run the whole way coast to coast.

As a compromise Liam was hitchhiking with forested stops in between. He could handle the road in five to six hour increments and then he had to stop. He found food, not for any enjoyment or satisfaction, but to keep his energy up. He needed to be as sharp as he could for what was coming, and he also needed to treat his animal delicately. Even if it made the trip that much longer he had to abide by it. Flying wasn’t an option. Short of tranquilizing himself with enough sedative for four horses there wasn’t a force that could keep his animal anywhere near calm on such a journey. And trains, though grounded and often surrounded by woods and hills weren’t really the same. It still felt too industrial and too man-made. Things of that nature irked his animal now, and since the bite had taken hold of him Liam had to let his wolf win nearly every fight. It was a struggle to stay concealed and in control, so he sacrificed ease and comfort in the hopes of a return down the road.

“You know I meant to say it earlier, but you don’t exactly look the hitchhiking type.”

The driver of the truck who had let him tag along had been good at not bothering him with questions the past few hours. He would have gotten off the truck if too much talking ensued, and right now he knew he had to shut this conversation down too. He had no interest in discussing how he’d gotten here or what kind of person lived this way. The truck driver had no idea of his life or his choices. He was trying to sketch his likeness but it couldn’t be done. All that would happen was Liam would be irritated and the man would be left wondering.

“That probably means you’re a runner. Only question is are you running from something or towards something?”

Liam tried to keep from snarling at the comment. He looked over to the man, and though he knew he sent a glare his way that would make any shifter cower, this human seemed unfazed. In fact, he broke out into a smile at Liam’s standoffishness.

“Towards something. Definitely towards,” the man mused aloud. “I get a lot of runners but not so many with a place in mind. Kind of refreshing actually.”

“Glad I can be of service,” Liam growled out and now the man laughed.

“Ah so he speaks at last. I was wondering if you’d forgotten how. Still can’t believe I picked you up when all you said was ‘Chengwatana.’ Usually I ask a few more questions, but despite the big scary thing you got going here I can tell you ain’t got ill intent.”

Liam was relieved when the man stopped talking. He was hoping he was out of the woods with that, so to speak, but unfortunately a few seconds later he started up again, causing Liam to tense noticeably.

“Now don’t go getting yourself all worked up. I ain’t asking any questions aside from one. We’re gonna hit the forest in an hour. It’s the middle of the night and you ain’t got shit with you. You equipped to handle this? Biggest state park in the state of Minnesota. There’s animals out there, and the elements ain’t always too friendly.”

“I’ll be fine,” Liam said, looking at the man and hoping to impart that to him. The concern he saw there was well-meant, and Liam knew this man had done him a great service. He had helped a stranger for nothing in return and was making sure he’d be okay hereafter. That was a kind thing to do, but it had been a long time since kindness came naturally to Liam.

“Well all right then. Why don’t we go back to silence then? Seems you like it best that way.”

And without any more conversation, their drive continued on as Liam watched outside the window at the country that was passing by him. A few more days of this and he’d be where he needed to be. He’d find Killian and he’d do what needed to be done.

Post-Note: Hey all. So there we have it – a pretty busy chapter with a lot of reveals happening. I will say that the next few chapters we kind of move from everyone just talking about stuff to more action and doing so to speak, but that being said, the train stops here. I have not actually written any more chapters, and since school is still in full swing, I might not have the chance to write anything for some time (though my hope is to post again in a month with a new installment). Not to worry though because I have so many plans still for this fic and there is much more to come in this crazy (but somehow still fluffy) story. Hope you guys all enjoyed and would love to hear what you thought. Thank you all so much for reading and for all of your support and I hope you have a great rest of your week!

#captain swan #captain swan fic #captain swan ff #cssns #cssns 18 #cs fic #cs ff #cs fluff #cs smut #emma swan #killian jones #ouat #shifter!killian #lost souls #lost souls and reverie #lost souls and reveries #lost souls 15 #lost souls au #cs shifter au

[sunflowerseedsandscience]

By the Dim and Flaring Lamps: Epilogue

Part One: One | Two | Three | Four Part Two: One | Two | Three | Four | Five Part Three: One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six Part Four: One | Two | Three | Four | Five Part Five: One | Two | Three | Four

JUNE 1865 WEST CHESTER, PENNSYLVANIA

As they near Philadelphia, the countryside through which Mulder and Scully are riding becomes slowly more and more populous, empty countryside gradually giving way to farmland, then a series of small towns, growing ever closer together.

"How long now?" asks Mulder, and Scully smiles at the slight edge of nervousness in his voice, though his face betrays nothing.

"Less than an hour," she tells him. He nods shortly. "You know, Mulder," she ventures, smiling playfully, "if anyone has a reason to be scared, it's me."

"Who said anything about being scared?" he asks, giving her a smile that's probably meant to be carefree, but ends up just looking like a grimace. She shakes her head.

"I'm the one coming home after defying my entire family and exposing them all to potential shame and ridicule," she says.

"Oh, and I didn't do the same for my own family?" he asks.

"You?" Scully laughs. "All you did was to do exactly what every able-bodied young man is expected to do when war breaks out: you signed up to fight."

"For the wrong side," argues Mulder. "At least, according to my parents."

"Well, they forgave you in the end, didn't they?" she asks. "I honestly have no idea how my parents are going to react when I walk through the front door."

"At least you're not walking through the front door empty-handed," teases Mulder. "You might have run away to join the army, and you might have spent three years' worth of nights bedding down with hundreds of strange men, but at least you managed to snag one of them to be your husband." He puffs out his chest and grins teasingly at her. "And one of the wealthiest, at that." Scully laughs.

"You make it sound as though the only reason I went to war was to find a husband," she says, shaking her head. "Though, really, that may well end up being the best light in which to preset the whole thing to my mother."

"Especially given how well it worked," Mulder says. He shifts in his saddle, standing up in his stirrups to stretch his legs. "It's almost suppertime," he observes. "You sure you don't want to find another inn? Put off our arrival until after breakfast tomorrow morning?"

"Are you really so afraid of my father that you're willing to wait another day? Pay for another room?"

"I'm just saying, Scully, this is probably going to be the last time we have the opportunity to spend the night together for a very long time," he tells her, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. "Nobody thinks twice about giving a room to a couple of soldiers on their way home from the war. A soldier and a woman who's not yet his wife, on the other hand...." He shakes his head mournfully. "The only places that would agree to that, Scully, rent their rooms by the hour, and they come already furnished with a woman. Or two." Scully whips her cap off of her head, swats Mulder's arm with it, and replaces it with a sigh.

He's right, of course: the moment she walks into her parents' house, she will, in a sense, become a completely different person. Instead of Lieutenant Daniel Scully, decorated soldier, crack shot, aide-de-camp to Colonel Fox Mulder, she'll be Dana Scully, the spirited youngest child of Captain William Scully, one of two daughters who had had the audacity to leave home without being married first. She can almost feel the stiff and suffocating boning of the corset her mother is likely to thrust at her the moment she walks through the door.

"What's the matter?" Mulder asks, concerned, and Scully realizes that some part of her sense of dread must show on her face.

"I'm just thinking," she sighs, "about how different it's going to be. For me, I mean, once I'm a woman again."

"Scully, you've never stopped being a woman," Mulder says. "I think I know that better than almost anyone."

"You know what I'm talking about, Mulder," she says, rolling her eyes. "I suppose I've gotten used to being taken seriously when I speak. To having some weight given to my opinion, to not being dismissed out of hand every time I open my mouth."

"You don't think I do that, do you, Scully?" he asks her, his voice soft.

"No, of course you don't, Mulder," she says. "And I don't for one moment imagine you would ever put up with anyone treating me that way in your presence. I just... I'm going to miss the freedom, is all."

"Well," he cautions her, "I think that, at least for a while, you and I are going to be far too busy to spend much time going out and paying calls on anyone." He's right, of course: there are endless things to be done on the plantation, now that the war is over. And after they're married (which, Mulder has insisted, will be as soon as possible, if only because he claims he's gotten so used to sleeping next to her that he'll never again be able to sleep alone), Scully will be helping him with everything.

Two months ago, a letter had arrived for Mulder from James, who is currently in Boston, having located his mother and sister, whom he hadn't seen since childhood, and it doesn't seem likely that he will want to return to Virginia. Nor would Mulder ever dream of asking him to. Bill Mulder, under strict doctor's orders not to exert himself, has officially ceded the running of the plantation to his son, and in James's absence, Scully has volunteered to help Mulder oversee the day-to-day operations.

Mulder has arranged to sell the townhouse in Washington, and with the proceeds from the sale, they plan to tear down the slave cabins and replace them with sound and sturdy houses for their hired help to live in. The former slaves have been given the option to stay on, for fair wages, if they want. Mulder has also sold a parcel of land north of Culpeper, once slated to be farmed, and will divide the money amongst all of the former slaves, whether they decide to stay or go ("Back wages," he'd told his father shortly, when Bill had questioned his son's decision).

"Come on, what else is worrying you, Scully?" Mulder asks, jerking her out of her reverie.

Scully looks down at her hands, gripping the reins. "I know I've been joking about it, Mulder, but I really am nervous about going home again. I don't have any idea what my parents' reactions are going to be."

"At least it won't be a surprise to them," Mulder says bracingly. "You showing up in a uniform with your hair cut short." Scully had received a letter from Melissa right after Samantha's departure for West Chester- Sam and the letter must have passed one another on the road- to say that Daniel Waterston had paid a visit to Margaret Scully, during which he had spilled the beans on where, exactly, her youngest daughter was hiding, and explaining his reasons for no longer being interested in marrying her. Maggie Scully, Melissa had reported, had not taken the news well.

Much to their relief, however, Maggie had not turned Samantha away when the girl had arrived; on the contrary, both she and Melissa had taken to her at once, as Scully had known they would. When Melissa had eventually returned to her apartment in New York, Samantha had taken over her correspondence with Scully.

Today, though, Melissa should be at the house in West Chester, along with the rest of the family. Scully had written her from Washington, a week after the official Confederate surrender at Appomattox, and had asked her sister to come down and meet her, to be present when Mulder is introduced to the family as her fiance.

They're mostly quiet, each lost inside of their own heads, for most of the hour's ride to West Chester. Mulder gazes around, taking in the sights of the unfamiliar town, but Scully focuses only on what's directly in front of her, terrified of meeting someone she knows before she arrives at home. But her street, when they turn down it, is completely, blessedly empty.

Well... almost empty, at any rate.

For a moment, for Scully, it's almost a repeat of a scene nearly two years ago, when she and Mulder had ridden into Fredericksburg to stay with his family. This house, however, is decidedly less grand than Charles Spender's, and the girl waiting by the front gate is markedly taller- closer to a young woman, now, than a girl. But the delighted squeal she lets out at the sight of her brother is the same, and so is the way that Mulder leaps down from his horse to meet her. He lifts her off of her feet and swings her around in the air, both laughing joyously.

Climbing down from her own horse, Scully spies another figure standing on the front porch, watching them with tears in her eyes, her hands clasped over her mouth. With her heart in her throat and her stomach in knots, Scully approaches her mother, bracing herself to be screamed at, to be seized by the shoulders and shaken... but Maggie Scully does none of these things. Before Scully can speak a word, her mother has wrapped her arms around her, squeezing her so tightly that she can barely breathe.

The first thing Maggie does after releasing her daughter is to whip the uniform cap off of her head and run her fingers through Scully's unevenly-shorn red hair, smiling ruefully.

"It will grow back, Mother," Scully says, ducking her head, still too nervous to meet Maggie's eyes, afraid that she'll find nothing but disapproval there. Her mother takes her chin, forcing her to look up, and to her immeasurable relief, there is nothing in Maggie's face but love.

Love tinged with exasperation, certainly, but in truth, that's the way it's been for years.

"I don't care about your hair, Dana," Maggie tells her. "I care that you're here. I care that you're safe." She hugs Scully again. "That's not to say that I'm not absolutely furious with you, but I'm willing to let that go for today." Scully nods, understanding perfectly. There will be a reckoning, and she will have no choice but to sit through it... but that will not happen today.

Breathing out in relief, Scully turns, holding her hand out to Mulder, who steps up to her side, Samantha behind him.

"Mother, I'd like you to meet Colonel Fox Mulder," she says. "I'm sure Samantha has told you all about him." Maggie smiles and offers a hand to Mulder, who bends and kisses the backs of her fingers.

"She has indeed," Maggie confirms. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Mrs. Scully."

The door behind Maggie opens, and Scully catches her breath as her father, every inch as imposing as she remembers, in spite of being out of uniform, steps out onto the porch, Melissa behind him. His face, at first, is unreadable, but moments later, the tears in his blue eyes give him away. Scully runs to him and flings her arms around his neck as he swings her around, exactly as Mulder had done to Samantha moments earlier.

Captain Scully steps back and examines his daughter's uniform, running his fingers over the insignia on her shoulders.

"Lieutenant?" he asks. "Not lieutenant colonel? Or colonel, even?" He shakes his head in mock disapproval. "I would have expected more from you, Sprout."

"I'm afraid that's my fault, Sir," says Mulder, stepping up beside her. Captain Scully looks up at Mulder, raising his eyebrows.

"Oh?" he asks, and Mulder nods.

"I'm sorry to say that I've selfishly kept Lieutenant Scully by my side for the past two years," he says. Scully swallows hard as she lays her hand along Mulder's arm. When she speaks, she tries her best to keep her voice even, to not give away how terrified she is. What if her father disapproves? What if he has it in his head that she can still somehow marry Daniel? She's not, of course, going to simply send Mulder on his way if her father is unhappy with her plans... but all things considered, she would much rather her father be happy for her and not angry.

"Father," she says, "this is Colonel Fox Mulder." Captain Scully raises his eyebrows in interest as he shakes Mulder's hand.

"Ah!" he says. "Miss Samantha's long-lost brother?" Mulder nods.

"I can't thank you enough for allowing her to stay with you," he tells both of Scully's parents. "It's been an enormous weight off of my mind, knowing that she's been safe up here." Maggie waves her hand dismissively.

"I've appreciated the company, Mr. Mulder," she tells him.

"I understand the two of you were in the same regiment?" asks Captain Scully, and Mulder nods.

"I was Scully's captain at first, then colonel...." He swallows hard, and Scully suddenly knows exactly what her chivalrous fool is about to do. "And with your permission, Sir, I would very much like to be her husband."

Maggie gasps and covers her mouth, and Captain Scully's blue eyes pop wide, and behind them, Melissa grins brashly at her little sister.

"You see? I can keep a secret when I want to," she says proudly, as Scully narrows her eyes at her. Their parents pay her no mind.

Scully's mother and father look at one another, and in that glance, Scully sees all that she needs to know. Maggie will have learned all about Mulder from both Melissa and Samantha. She and Captain Scully will know, by now, that aside from being wealthy, he's a good man, a kind man, fiercely protective of the people he loves.

They're not going to disapprove. The knot in Scully's chest loosens.

"Why don't we talk about this inside?" suggests Maggie. "The two of you must be tired and hungry. Come in and have some lunch." Scully nods.

"Just let us see to the horses, and we'll be right in," she tells her parents. They turn and enter the house, along with Samantha and Melissa, and Mulder and Scully unhitch their horses from the front gate. When the front door closes, Mulder grins down at Scully.

"I think that went all right," he remarks. "They didn't throw me out immediately."

"What were you going to do if they did, Mulder?" Scully asks, as they lead their horses up the drive. "You never told me you were planning on asking my father's permission. What would you have done if he'd said no?"

"I would have snuck into your bedroom later tonight and carried you off," he says with a shrug. "Sam would have helped. Your sister, too, probably." Scully shakes her head, but she's laughing. They lead the horses into the barn, unsaddle them, and wipe them down, making sure there's water in the trough and oats and straw enough for them to eat.

Just before they leave the barn, Mulder reaches out and grabs Scully by the arm. She looks up at him questioningly.

"Before we go in to your family, and I have to be the perfect gentleman, before I have to keep my hands to myself...." He smiles down at her, cupping her cheek in his hand. "Do you suppose I could have one more kiss to tide me over?" Scully smiles, her heart fluttering in her chest as he leans down. I hope he never stops making me feel that way, she thinks, as their lips meet and she presses herself against him, her fingertips digging into his hair below the brim of his hat.

She ends the kiss long before she wants to, knowing that if they're out here too long, someone is likely to come looking for them.

"Come on," Scully says, taking Mulder's hand. "We'll have all the time in the world for that, soon enough." Together, they walk out into the bright sunshine, hand in hand, for all the world to see.

#X-Files Fanfic #my fic #By the Dim and Flaring Lamps #THE END

[findmyrupertfriend]

THE KID (x)

“My name is Kevin. I was born in South London. It was March 93, a Wednesday, and I decided to kill myself.”

The Kid begins with a voice-over of Kevin Lewis (Rupert Friend), as he is dumped out of the back of a van. Kevin is badly beaten about the face, and makes his way into (what was his childhood room) in an old, abandoned house. He drinks from a bottle of alcohol and proceeds to empty numerous pill bottles into his mouth.

The movie flashbacks to 1980 when Kevin is a small boy in his room, drawing on the wall. He sits on his lumpy mattress that is on the bare floor. He lives in a filthy house with his equally filthy parents (Gloria and Dennis), as well as multiple siblings. (Kevin’s mother is brilliantly portrayed by Natascha McElhone, an absolute beauty transformed into an ugly, bitter, and hateful woman.)

The picture painted of Kevin’s childhood is far from pretty. He is kept locked in his room, drawing on his wall, when he is not being beaten by his parents, dragged to the bar by his alcoholic father, or bullied at school. One particular beating Kevin suffers at the hands of his mother elicits the attention of a school nurse, who alerts social services.

Kevin is removed and put into foster care, where his difficulties as an abused child make a proper home placement a real challenge. Kevin’s social worker contacts David (Bernard Hill), a man who runs a children’s home of sorts. David reviews Kevin’s file and offers some insight.

David: “I don’t think Kevin is behaving badly because he’s out of control. I just don’t think anyone’s bothered to tell him how to behave in any other way...This young man has known nothing but hate and violence.”

Kevin flourishes under the care of the staff and learns to control and better express his anger in a healthy manner.  The staff throw Kevin a surprise birthday party, and he is genuinely happy. However, the happiness is short-lived. Kevin receives a new social worker who concludes that Kevin should return home. Kevin is crushed and runs away, but David quickly finds him. The scene of the children waving goodbye as Kevin is driven away from the only people who have shown him true love made me want to cry. Of course, nothing changes once Kevin returns home. The abuse continues.

The movie skips to 1985 when Kevin is a teenager attending school. The bullying continues, but Kevin befriends a teacher, Mr. Smith (Ioan Gruffudd), who eventually learns of Kevin’s abuse. Once again, social services is notified. However, it takes one more brutal beating that sends Kevin to the hospital for social services to remove Kevin from his nightmarish parents for good. Unfortunately, this also separates him from his siblings, with whom he shares a sad goodbye.

Kevin is placed into another foster home with Alan (a local sports legend) and Margaret, where he receives a warm welcome and is treated kindly. His foster parents provide Kevin with a whole new life and new interests, which include the stock market. It all seems idyllic, but Alan’s dubious dealings with criminal elements cast a foreboding shadow on Kevin.

(This is when Rupert’s appearance as adult Kevin continues through the rest of the film.) Kevin becomes very driven to prove himself as a success, a winner, and he also starts to show promise in the boxing ring. It draws the attention of his foster father’s shady business associate, Terry, who offers to help him with a job. Alan also offers to help Kevin with funding when Kevin expresses his desire to start his own business. Unfortunately, Alan dies before he can do this. Kevin is heartbroken and vulnerable, and you can smell the vultures circling him. Adding to Kevin’s grief over losing his foster father, Margaret tells Kevin she will sell the family home and its contents, to move closer to her other children.

Kevin offers to buy the house, still thinking he will receive some money from his foster father’s estate. He obtains a mortgage through Terry and Terry’s shady accountant. Kevin moves into the house and feels happy, even hopeful. He goes out to a nightclub with his new friends, and that’s when Kevin sees a woman, Jackie, who catches his eye. He smiles so sweetly and innocently at her from the bar. It’s really quite cute. However, poor Kevin accidentally spills drinks on his new friends and panics. During his panic, he fantasizes about approaching Jackie and kissing her, and then runs out of the club.

Soon enough, Kevin’s life takes a turn for the worse as his job mopping floors does not provide him enough money to pay the mortgage, and it becomes clear he will receive no money from Alan’s estate. Kevin drinks heavily and is woken up one morning by the doorbell. He is served with a repossession order.

Kevin starts making money with Terry boosting cars, but it’s not enough money for the mortgage. Terry brings Kevin to an illegal fight match and wants him to fight. Kevin is apprehensive at first, but fights anyway. It’s not the type of fighting Kevin is used to, so he takes some low blows at first. However, Kevin gets the upper hand and wins. Terry gives Kevin money for the fight, but Kevin just looks bewildered.

The money from the illegal fighting gives Kevin some of the money he needs for a second chance to keep his home. It’s a nice reprieve, but doesn’t last. Terry offers Kevin a business opportunity to run a bar, with just a bit of a catch - Kevin has to buy liquor from Terry and pay for the lease. Terry’s accountant will oversee the account and billing for Kevin, of course. It’s terrible to see how Kevin wants so desperately to be successful, to be somebody, and Terry and his crew continue to take further advantage of his trusting nature.

But of course Kevin doesn’t realize the scam just yet. He’s just happy to feel like he is worth something. He dons sharp black suit and meets Terry at his nightclub to sign papers for his new bar. There he spots Jackie, and he finally gets a chance to introduce himself.  

Kevin opens his new bar, and he has a lot of customers, including Terry and his men. It’s clear they are going to milk Kevin for everything they can get, demanding liquor on the house and taking money from the business. Meanwhile, Kevin strikes up a relationship with Jackie, sharing how important success is to him.

He sidesteps questions about his family. It’s clear he is still damaged by his past, despite how happy he thinks he is being an entrepreneur. As the relationship progresses, they are intimate. Kevin is somewhat hesitant and awkward during their lovemaking, and you are once again reminded just how childlike and vulnerable he is.

Before long, Terry confronts Kevin about the debt he owes to him and suggests he closes down the bar. Terry pushes Kevin into more illegal fights. Kevin has such a lost and empty look in his eyes when he fights. He resigns himself to a fate he feels he cannot change. He drinks and continues drawing on his bedroom wall. His relationship with Jackie suffers. She tells Kevin he never shows her affection or tells her he loves her. Rupert’s acting here just wrenches your heart out of your chest. He depicts Kevin’s struggle to express his feelings to Jackie in such an intense manner. You can feel his frustration.

Heartbroken, Kevin drinks with Terry and his shady bunch. Terry tells him he is closing the bar, which again crushes Kevin’s hopes and dreams. As Kevin begs Terry to keep the bar open, he learns Terry bet against him at his last fight and lost money.

Kevin’s life continues its downhill slide. He receives a call from one of his siblings that their mother is now beating her grandchildren. Kevin confronts his mother and orders her to stop.

Kevin: “You’re not going to touch them kids again, do you hear me? Or you’re going to have me to deal with.”

Gloria: “Is that supposed to scare me, is it? I’ve heard about you getting knocked about for a living. It’s all you’re good for. It’s all you was ever good for. And if you can hold your own, it’s me you’ve got me to thank for that, isn’t it?”

As Kevin leaves, his mother continues yelling at him, spewing her cruelty with her words instead of her fists now.

Gloria: “You’re not my fucking son!”

Kevin: “I never fucking was!”

(Can I just say again how amazing Natascha McElhone is in this role? She and Rupert lend a great intensity to their roles in this scene.) Kevin returns home to see the house is repossessed. His meager possessions are placed outside on the driveway. Kevin is distraught and cries, sitting with the few things he has left in the world.

At this point, Kevin has a breakthrough of sorts. He burns his belongings in a trash can. With this action, it’s as if he kills the person he once was and becomes someone else. And this is where we see a Quinn-like attitude and presence come over Kevin. He meets with an old friend and requests his help to sell Kevin’s car. Kevin gives him a list of people to contact after his next fight, and then he will go “where no one else can find me.”

Before Kevin begins the fight, he drinks from some small bottle. Kevin saunters towards his opponent, and Terry warns him that he better win the fight. Kevin taunts his opponent and allows himself to be beaten to a pulp. As he receives the final beating of his life, he experiences flashbacks of both his parents beating him. After the fight, Kevin is thrown in the back of a van and later tossed out onto the road. This is where the movie originally began.

While Kevin tries to kill himself with booze and pills, his friend distributes money in envelopes to his siblings. In Kevin’s drug-fueled stupor, he sees his life flashing before him: good times, his attempts at success, being swindled, fighting for Terry, and so on. Kevin suddenly awakens, and he is transformed again. He packs up and leaves, going to his bar to retrieve documents that he then takes to a different accountant.

Kevin meets up with his friend, who gives him the money from the sale of his car. Kevin’s friend implores him to be careful, but Kevin just smiles that sweet smile…and then he buys a gun! As Kevin’s plan unfolds, I immediately thought of Quinn. You see, just like Kevin the teenager finally fought back against bullies in school, Kevin the adult fights back against the bullies who used him to run a business they left bankrupt and made more money off of him at the expense of his poor, beaten soul. It’s time to settle the score.

Kevin rolls up on Terry and his crew at their nightclub before it is open for business. As Kevin enters the office, he immediately punches one of Terry’s goons while the accountant watches, and then calmly pulls his gun on Terry.

Terry: “Don’t be stupid, son.”

Kevin: “I’ve been stupid for far too long. You’ve played me like a fucking fool.”

Terry: “What are you going on about?”

Kevin: “You fucked me. You knew I was desperate, and you played me for a fool.”

His demeanor is quite chilling, and again reminds me of Quinn as he sits down and throws a document at Terry to sign. Kevin lays out his demands for what he is owed, making clear he knows exactly what they did and how they took advantage of him.

Kevin: “I’ve got nothing left to lose I’ll put a bullet in you and then one in me.”

Kevin cocks the gun and brings it to his head with another chilling smile, before he points the gun back at Terry, losing the smile and giving the hard Quinn stare. (GREAT SCENE!) Everyone can see Kevin means business.

After the accountant gives Kevin the money and Terry signs the document, Kevin sits down on Terry’s desk and leans towards him.

Kevin: “When I walk out that door, you and me are finished. You can carry on acting like…(Sorry I couldn’t decipher, and the DVD did not have English subtitles!) I don’t mind. I won’t tell anyone. But if you ever come near me again, I’m going to kill you. That make sense?” (Kevin delivers yet another frightening smile before departing.)

As Kevin is leaving, the goon moves to stop him. Kevin gives him the Quinn business and puts him in his place quite efficiently.

Kevin: “You…talk too much. And you’re fucking rude.”

Kevin returns to his friend and gives him the signed document. Next, he turns his attention to Jackie while she is in a work meeting. Kevin professes his love for her in front of everyone.

Kevin: “I just love you. That’s all that matters. There’s a million things that I should have said to you, a long time ago. A few thousand of them were written in this.” Kevin hands his journal over to Jackie.

Kevin: “You make me feel not ashamed anymore.”

In the final scenes, Kevin and Jackie live in the home he bought from his foster family. They celebrate Kevin’s new book that he wrote for Jackie from his journal. Kevin visits the people from his past, like Mr. Smith and his father. The movie ends as Kevin enjoys spending time with his wife and two children in his backyard, followed by actual footage of a Kevin Lewis interview.

“But life isn’t about the past. It’s about the future.”

#films with friend #the kid #kevin lewis #nick moran #spoilers #by: laura

[swanqueeneverafter]

14. The Stable Boy, Pt.4

Enchanted Forest. Past. (In the forest, several children are play dueling with wooden swords. Rumpelstiltskin and Baelfire come across them.) Rumpelstiltskin: “Hey, why don’t you join in, Bae? I have some business nearby that would bore you.” Baelfire: “Alright.” (Rumpelstiltskin heads towards a house up the hill, while Baelfire goes to join the children. However, as he approaches them, the children scatter. He sits on a log by himself, when Morraine joins him.) Morraine: “Baelfire.” Baelfire: “Careful, Morraine. You don’t want to be seen with me. I’m dangerous.” Morraine: “They’re just scared of your Papa. But I’m not. You won’t let him hurt me. I don’t think he’s so bad anyway. I saw him on the battlefield when he stopped the fighting. It was like a miracle.” Baelfire: “Now, he’s getting worse every day. But he said he’ll change back if I find a way. I just don’t know where to look.” Morraine: “Reul Ghorm.” Baelfire: “What?” Morraine: “I heard about it when I was in the trenches. The other soldiers talked about it. Reul Ghorm is an ancient being that rules the night. The original power.” Baelfire: “Bigger than Papa, or worse than Papa?” Morraine: “Bigger than anything. (A crack is heard in the background:) He’s coming back. Good luck to you.” (Morraine leaves and Rumpelstiltskin returns.) Rumpelstiltskin: “Your friend didn’t want to say hello?” Baelfire: “You frighten them.” Rumpelstiltskin: “What is there to be frightened of, Bae? They’ll get over that in time.” Baelfire: “You have stains on your boots.” (They look down, where blood can be seen on Rumpelstiltskin’s boots.) Rumpelstiltskin: “Oh, yes, that. Uh, we need a new maid.” Baelfire: “Gods, no!” Rumpelstiltskin: “She heard us talking about the knife.” Baelfire: “She was mute. She couldn’t tell anyone.” Rumpelstiltskin: “Even mutes can draw a picture.” Storybrooke. Present. (On the main street, August gets on his motorcycle and drives off. Mr. Gold, who is watching from a distance, follows him in his car.) Storybrooke. Mayor Mills’ House. (Emma knocks on Regina’s door. Regina answers.) Regina: “Can I help you, Sheriff Swan?” Emma: “Yes. I need you to unlock the garage for me.” Regina: “And, why would I do that?” Emma: “Because I have a search warrant that says that you have to.” (Emma hands Regina a piece of paper.) Regina: “On what grounds?” (Emma holds up a bag containing the metal shard.) Emma: “I found this near where the box was buried. Figured whoever buried it might have left something behind. Now, open the garage, or I’ll find a way to do it myself.”

(Regina leads Emma to the garage. Emma goes over to where the broken shovel is, opens the evidence bag and shows Regina that it fits perfectly.) Regina: "I've never seen that shovel before in my life." Emma: "Really? Well it's in your house, it was used to bury evidence against Mary Margaret to implicate her in a crime." Regina: "Emma..." Emma: "The box implicated Mary Margaret. (Points:) Now the shovel implicates you. I don't know what kind of history you two have but one thing is clear. (Emma reaches into her pocket and pulls out something. Holding it out:) You're both being set up." Regina: (Relieved, walks forward:) "What is that?" Emma: "It's a bug, a listening device I found in a vase Sidney gave me." Regina: "Sidney?" Emma: (Nods:) "Right before I told him to check out the crime scene again for clues." Regina: "You believe I didn't plant that box?" Emma: "That whole area was swept thoroughly, there's no way we would've missed that shovel piece. Sidney put it there." Regina: "You think Sidney is behind all this? Kathryn's disappearance, everything?" Emma: "I don't know but I'm gonna find out." Regina: "What do you want me to do?" Emma: "I need you to call off the D.A. and drop the charges against Mary Margaret." Regina: "Now wait just a minute-" Emma: "Regina, the only evidence against her was fabricated and you know it. (As Regina hesitates:) I can just as easily bring you in for the phony evidence against you." Regina: "Very well. If you can find Sidney and find Kathryn then I'll speak to the D.A. about Miss Blanchard." Emma: (Stepping forward:) "I don't care what happened between you, Mary Margaret is a good person. She doesn’t deserve this." (Emma walks past Regina and out of the garage as the mayor reaches into her pocket and fiddles with a gold ring, considering her options.)

Enchanted Forest. Past. (Regina, with a bag in tow, meets Daniel at the stables.) Daniel: “Are you ready?” Regina: “Let’s go.” (They go to leave, but run into Cora at the entrance.) Cora: “You could’ve at least left a note.” (Cora produces a wave of magic and pushes Regina and Daniel back into the stable. She then proceeds to shut all of the doors and locks them in.) Regina: “Mother, I-” Cora: “Don’t. You sneak out of my house in the dead of night, and think I won’t notice? How dare you.” Regina: “You’re impossible to talk to. Stop with the magic and listen to me. I want to be with Daniel.” Cora: “Oh, you don’t know what you want. But I do. I didn’t make the sacrifices I did in life, to get you to the cusp of greatness, so that you could end up the wife of a stable boy.” Regina: “But it’s my life.” Cora: “You foolish girl. It’s mine. After what I had to do… The deals, I had to make to get us out of poverty, to get us this life, and you just want to toss it away?” Daniel: “Stay strong, Regina.” Regina: “Your magic can’t keep us apart. I love him.” Daniel: “And I love her.” Cora: “And I love her, too.” Regina: “If you loved me, you wouldn’t try to keep us apart.” Cora: “And if you loved me, you wouldn’t try to run away.” Regina: “I’m sorry, but this is my happiness. We’re going.” Cora: “No, you’re not.” Regina: “So, what’s your plan? You’re going to keep us here forever? Because that’s what you’ll have to do.” Cora: “So, this is… Your decision? This will make you happy?” Regina: “It already has.” Cora: “Then, who am I to stop you?” (Regina hugs Cora.) Regina: “Thank you, mother.” (Cora takes Daniel aside to talk to him.) Cora: “Daniel. If you want to have a life together, a family… Then, there’s one important lesson I can impart on you. It’s what it means to be a parent. You always have to do what’s best for your children.” Daniel: “Thank you. I understand. Because that’s what you’re doing now.” Cora: “Yes. It is.” (Cora plunges her hand inside Daniel’s chest.) Regina: “Mother!” (Cora rips out Daniel’s heart. He falls to the ground and Regina rushes over to him.) Regina: “No! No! No, no, no. (Cora crushes Daniel’s heart to dust:) Mother, why have you done this?” Cora: “Because this is your happy ending.” Regina: “What?” Cora: “Oh, you have to trust me, Regina. I know best. Love is weakness, Regina. It feels real now. At the start, it always does. But, it’s an illusion. It fades. And then, you’re left with nothing. But power, true power, endures. And then, you don’t have to rely on anyone to get what you want. I’ve saved you, my love.” Regina: “You’ve ruined everything. I loved him. I loved him!” Cora: “Enough! I’ve endured this long enough. Now, clean yourself up, wipe away your tears, because now… You’re going to be Queen.”

A Short While Later. (Regina is being fitted for her wedding dress in her chambers. Snow White enters.) Snow White: “Wow… You are most certainly the fairest of them all!” Regina: “Thank you, dear.” Snow White: “I hope for my wedding day I will be as beautiful.” Regina: “I’m sure you will be.” Snow White: “I know you and Daniel will be so happy together.” Regina: “What?” Snow White: “Well, I just knew your mother would let you marry him. Once she knew how happy it’d make you, once she knew how much you love him. You have such a wonderful mother. She would do anything for your happiness.” Regina: “Snow… Did… Did you… tell her about me and Daniel?” Snow White: “Yes.” Regina: “But I… told you… very specifically not to.” Snow White: “I’m sorry. I just didn’t want you to lose your mother. Like I’ve lost mine. Are you mad?” Regina: “No. I’m not mad at all. You were just trying to help me. However, I’m not marrying Daniel. This dress is for your father.” Snow White: “But… I thought… You were in love.” Regina: “So did I. But I was wrong. Daniel has run away. What I had with Daniel wasn’t real. It was an infatuation. You see, that’s the thing about love. It can come in the most unexpected places. Your father and I have something even more special, because it’s not just about the two of us. It’s about all of us. We’re going to be a family.” Snow White: “We are?” Regina: “That’s right. I’m going to be your stepmother, and I couldn’t be happier.” Snow White: “Me, too.” (Snow White hugs Regina. Cora enters.) Cora: “Snow. You need to go to your room and help with the packing. Your father wants you ready for the journey, and we’re heading to your castle first thing in the morning.” Snow White: “You’re both going to love it there.” Cora: “I know we will. (Snow White leaves Cora and Regina alone:) Well-played, dear. You’re learning.” Regina: “I should change. I wouldn’t want to ruin the dress before my big day.” Cora: “I am so proud of you.” Regina: “You knew the King was traveling through our land, didn’t you? That steed with Snow on it… It didn’t go wild on its own, did it?” Cora: “I have no idea what you’re saying.” (Regina begins to leave.) Regina: “I should’ve let her die on that horse.”

Storybrooke. Present. (At the convent, August and Mother Superior are talking. August leaves, and Mother Superior encounters Rumpelstiltskin on the step.) Mr. Gold: “Mother Superior. Good afternoon.” Mother Superior: “Our rent is paid in full.” Mr. Gold: “I’m not here about the rent.” Mother Superior: “Well, good day to you, then.” Mr. Gold: “Tell me – that man who just left here… Who did he say he was? What did he want?” Mother Superior: “I don’t have to tell you that.” Mr. Gold: “And I don’t have to not double your rent. What did he want?” Mother Superior: “Advice and counsel. He came to town looking for his father after a long separation, and he recently found him.” Mr. Gold: “Ah. And a happy reunion has already taken place?” Mother Superior: “No. He hasn’t spoken to him yet.” Mr. Gold: “And why not?” Mother Superior: “Mm, it was a difficult parting. There are many issues to be resolved between them.” Mr. Gold: “I see.” Enchanted Forest. Past. (Baelfire heads to a deserted area of the woods and sits down. He then attempts to summon ‘Reul Ghorm’.) Baelfire: “Reul Ghorm? Are you there? If you can help me, please make yourself known to me. (The Blue Fairy appears:) Can you help me?” Blue Fairy: (Nods:) “I can help.” Baelfire: “How do I know I can trust you?” Blue Fairy: “Because there is good magic and dark magic, and I’m on the right side.” Baelfire: “You’re a fairy.” Blue Fairy: “Oh. And you’re not untouched by magic, are you, child? There’s something dark in your life.” Baelfire: “My father. He is the Dark One.” Blue Fairy: “Oh. I can’t make him the man he was before, but I can send him someplace where he won’t be able to use his powers.” Baelfire: “Not a jail. I want to be with him. Like it used to be.” Blue Fairy: “Not a jail, young one, just a place without magic.” Baelfire: “But magic is everywhere.” Blue Fairy: “In this world, yes. You see, what ails your father is specific to our realm. His powers do not belong here. You must go where you can escape this wretched curse.” Baelfire: “Go? We have to leave?” Blue Fairy: “Yes. It is the only way. Can you do it? Can you leave everything here behind for the unknown?” Baelfire: “If it means I get my father back, then yes.” Blue Fairy: “You’re a very good son, Baelfire. You are the part of him that keeps him human. That little light inside of him that still glows. It’s his love for you. Hold out your hand.” (The Blue Fairy tosses him a transparent looking bean.) Baelfire: “What is it?” Blue Fairy: “A magic bean. The very last one that is known to our kind. The others got away from us. You just use it wisely, and follow wherever it leads you. It will save you both.” (The Blue Fairy disappears. Baelfire returns home.)

Storybrooke. Present. (Sidney is drinking coffee at Granny’s Diner. Emma enters, and sits across from him.) Emma: “Hey, Sidney.” Sidney: “Emma, hey.” Emma: “You told me you could help me with Mary Margaret, and I wanted to believe you. But, eventually, there are things that even a blind Sheriff cannot ignore.” (Emma pulls out the wire tap and places it on the table.) Sidney: “Is that a bug?” Emma: “Oh, for God sakes, Sidney. Drop it. You fooled me, you spied on me, and you planted evidence.” Sidney: “Evidence?” Emma: “The shovel piece, Sidney. (Sidney slumps:) I can only assume you buried the box too.” Sidney: (Quickly:) “Ah, no that wasn’t me, I swear.” Emma: “The keys?” Sidney: “No.” Emma: “But you know who did. Where’s Kathryn, who took her?” Sidney: (Shakes his head:) “I... I can’t say. They’d kill me.” Emma: “You’re in a lot of trouble. (Realising Sidney won’t budge:) Look, I don’t need you to tell me who took her and right now I don’t care. All I want to know is where Kathryn is. You can either help me, and help yourself, or I swear-” Sidney: “I’ll take you to her. But I need protection.” Emma: (Getting to her feet:) “First take me to her. Then we’ll see about what happens to you.” (Sidney gets up and Emma follows him out of the diner.) Enchanted Forest. Past. (Rumpelstiltskin is spinning straw at his wheel, when Baelfire enters.) Baelfire: “Papa! Papa. I found it. I-I found a way for things to be like they were. I want you to come with me. I can make things right. Have you heard of the Reul Ghorm?” Rumpelstiltskin: “The Blue Star. The Blue Fairy? Oh, son, please tell me you didn’t. Fairy magic doesn’t mix well with what I am.” Baelfire: “But you promised. She can help us. To take us to a place without magic.” Rumpelstiltskin: “A place without magic? I’d be powerless. Weak.” Baelfire: “Like everyone else. It wouldn’t matter. We’d be happy.” Rumpelstiltskin: “We could be happy here.” Baelfire: “Father, please. You’re getting worse. And you promised. This can work. It can. You made a deal with me. Are you backing out?” Rumpelstiltskin: (A long pause:) “No.” Storybrooke. Present. (Emma and Sidney arrive at an abandoned summerhouse. Emma exits the car and heads straight for the storm cellar.) Sidney: (Holding a crow bar:) “Here.” (Emma takes it and uses it to pry the lock off the door. Inside, there is a body laying face down on the ground. Emma leans down to turn the body over, revealing a very dishevelled but nonetheless alive, Kathryn.)

#swanqueen #sq #Swan Queen