Prompt: After Emma is rescued from darkness she and Killian fall asleep on her parent's couch. Snow and David simply let them sleep and cover them

A Bit of Eavesdropping

Things have been strange since Emma had been consumed by the darkness.

David had spent one night distraught, wondering where she might have gone and what she might be like. He'd laid in bed with Snow, but neither of them had slept, splitting their time between caring for Neal and worrying about their daughter.

They had worried about Henry and Killian too. Killian had collapsed in the middle of the road after Emma vanished, and David had needed to lift him up and force him back to the loft. But only Killian had managed to tell Henry what had happened, and the two had seemed reluctant to part after that.

But the next morning, Emma had returned, entirely herself except for a slight anger simmering underneath all her words. Snow said she seemed to be her old self, with walls raised, but this time David knew it wasn't to protect herself but to protect others.

David had seen Killian try to talk to her, but Emma always shut him up before he could say the three words that David knew he desperately wanted Emma to hear.

It was Emma who insisted on finding Merlin, something they had all forgotten in the panic of losing her, because as much as she thought she could keep the darkness at bay, she wasn't sure how long she could keep that up.

And so they'd searched.

Merlin, when they finally found him, had tried to explain why the darkness seemed to have made such little difference to Emma.

It couldn't change who someone was, but the power it provided was seductive and many were corrupted by it, and once they were, then the darkness would take hold.

David and Snow had asked so many questions, wanting to be certain, but Killian had understood. He spoke of the Rumplestiltskin he knew long ago, the coward, and how he must have wanted the power that being the Dark One would give him. How Rumplestiltskin would have eagerly turned himself over to the darkness and used it. After all, there was no need to be afraid of anything when he could defeat anything that threatened him.

The darkness had consumed Rumplestiltskin because he had let it. Emma was different.

Belle had tried to defend Rumplestiltskin, had tried to insist it was darkness that made him the man he was. Merlin had shaken his head and told her that, no, Rumplestiltskin had chosen how to use the darkness. The darkness hadn't used him.

Merlin had almost refused to draw the darkness out of Emma and destroy it. He thought she could cope with it because the absence of darkness within her, the one David and Snow had caused, meant that she could control the darkness. That it had been weeks and Emma was still herself was a good sign.

Emma had insisted otherwise. Emma had stood in front of them and begged Merlin to rip it from her because even though she could handle it now, she felt its power and at some point, everyone gave into temptation.

Merlin had raised his hand, and then Emma had screamed, her body shaking and her eyes white. Killian had rushed to her side and held her even as Emma writhed in pain, and David had pulled Snow into his arms and hidden her face because Emma's agony was too hard for her to watch.

Now, though, it's like they're trying to act like everything is normal. Henry goes to school each morning on the school bus, one of his mother's walking him there. David works at the station, sometimes with Emma but mostly alone.

Emma doesn't sleep and she's quieter and that's what's changed. Emma's changed. More than she had when the darkness was inside her.

But no matter how often David or Snow ask, Emma insists she's fine. That everything's fine. (David know it's not, and part of him wonders if she would have told them the truth if they hadn't made such a stupid mistake all those decades ago)

-.-.-.-

They watch a film one night - Henry requests Harry Potter, and David knows it's yet another attempt to cheer up his mother. Killian is there, he's always there, and David hands him a beer and then spends more time watching the pirate hold his daughter instead of watching the film.

(There was some magic and some man with two faces and a troll that looked nothing like the one's he and Snow had faced on the Troll Bridge, but David didn't really follow the rest)

Emma falls asleep when Harry and his friend Malfoy are wandering through some sort of forest, her face tucked against Killian's shoulder.

Henry mutters something about how Emma would never fall asleep in Harry Potter before and soon retreats upstairs to sleep himself, a despondent air about him that David hopes will be gone one day soon.

After feeding Neal, even David and Snow decide it's time to go to bed, leaving Emma and her boyfriend tangled together on the sofa (although David does impart a quick warning that it's only curtains separating their room from the main area of the loft, which receives a raised eyebrow from Killian and things feel normal for a second)

When David exits his room for just a moment to get a glass of water, he pauses when he hears Killian's voice.

"The darkness leaving… it hurt her more than she's willing to admit." Killian mutters, and David thinks, more bitterly than he should, that she's clearly admitted it to Killian. "She needs time, but she will recover."

Killian presses a kiss to Emma's forehead, and David has to smile when Emma nuzzles closer, even in sleep.

Before he gets his water, David creeps upstairs, determined not to wake Henry, and brings down Emma's duvet and wraps it around her and Killian.

"You don't need to tuck me in, mate." Killian tells him quietly, half-heartedly, and even though the blanket is perfectly in place, David watches as Killian fusses over Emma for just a bit longer. David lets out an obligatory chuckle - he's still pretending things are normal - and finally joins Snow in bed.

He wakes a few hours later when he hears a soft murmuring - Emma's awake again and she's talking to Killian and David knows he should listen but he just wants to hear, from Emma's lips, that everything is going to be alright.

"I didn't think I could sleep for so long." Emma whispers. "But I'm not surprised."

"You're not?"

"I thought maybe I'd be able to sleep better with you here."

David wants to grumble slightly, because as happy as he is that his daughter and Killian have found one another, he doesn't need to hear any details, but if he makes a sound, they'll know he's awake and he hates that idea more.

"You're always welcome on the Jolly Roger, love."

"I have to be here, Killian." Emma sounds like she's on the verge of tears, but Killian's already murmuring something inaudible but presumably soothing. "When I wake up, I need to know they're all okay. Henry, Mom, Dad and Neal. And you. I need you here too."

There's a silence and David wonders if they're kissing. They're probably kissing.

"How are you right now?" Killian asks after a while. "Do you feel like yourself?"

And Killian clearly knows more than either of them have let on, because although David was aware Emma wasn't sleeping, he didn't know about the nightmares and he didn't know Emma wasn't feeling right.

"Right now? I'm feeling good." Emma admits. "Better, even."

Another silence.

"Emma?" Killian sounds strangely hesitant, and David suddenly feels like this moment is definitely not for ears. (Not that it was before, but this feels even more intimate and personal) "Can I tell you now? Do you feel enough like yourself for you to let me?"

And David isn't in the room, but the silence feels heavier this time. He doesn't know what Killian wants to say, what Emma hasn't let him say since she lost the darkness (and apparently lost herself) but he has an idea.

"Yes." Emma finally says, so quiet that David almost can't hear it. (He wishes he couldn't hear it. This isn't for him to be listening to.)

"I love you." Killian's voice cracks partway through the declaration, and he sounds so earnest and desperate and David thinks, in a moment of horrible realisation, that he's pretty certain he's listening to her daughter and Captain Hook declare their love to one another for the first time. "I have for so long. I always will."

Emma makes a strange noise - is she crying? David thinks she might be crying and hearing that hurts.

"I love you too." Emma replies. "Truly."

And this time, they are definitely kissing. David's happy - so happy - for both of them, but this is the last thing he wants to hear, so he buries his head under his pillow and hopes it will be over soon.

When he can't breathe, he withdraws from under the pillow and sighs in relief when he realises the kissing has stopped.

"Do you think you can sleep for the rest of the night?" Killian asks.

"I think so." Emma mumbles, and David never thought he'd be grateful that Captain Hook had become a large part of their lives, but right now, with Emma sounding so trusting and open, he really, really is. "Maybe if you hold me closer?"

Killian laughs. "That sounds like it's worth a try."

There's a soft, content sigh and then the whole loft falls into silence again. Although it soon sounds like Emma and Killian have fallen easily back into sleep, David is too preoccupied for slumber.

Killian had been right before. Emma was going to need time. But for the first time since they got back, David finally feels like everything will be okay.

"I'm so glad she has him." David turns at the sound of his wife's voice, his eyes widening at the sheepish smile she has across her face and he knows, then, that she's eavesdropped as much as he has, and she looks touched by the scene they weren't meant to hear. "Now we just have to wait until she's ready to have us too."

"Soon, Snow." David mutters back, stretching his arm out so she can curl against his chest. "I think that's going to be soon."