This is it! The final chapter! Thank you to everyone who has read and who will read later on! Writing this story and hearing your feedback has really lifted me up in a way I really needed!

Chapter Thirty

3x21 "Snow Drifts"

She heard his heavy footsteps before she saw him.

Her father was calling her, but she wasn't in the mood to talk.

They were ganging up on her as a whole. Her parents hadn't asked her to stay, but she knew that is what they wanted. Regina, although given limited words, had made it clear she did not want Henry leaving. Even Henry had seemed skeptical about the idea of them going back.

That left Killian. Had it been his idea to come talk to her or had it been her parent, she didn't know.

"You're making a mistake," he said.

"I don't want to talk to you about this," Emma said.

"Don't listen to me. Listen to your son," he said. He pulled out the story book. "He thought this might remind you what you're leaving behind."

She went on trying to convince him that New York was home for her, but he wasn't having it.

"Why can't you do that here with your entire family?" he asked.

"Because of this," she said grabbing the book from his hand. Then she proceeded to tell him how she saw fairytales, how she never felt like she was a part of something until she was with Henry.

He sat there patiently on the bench as she spoke to him. As much as he wanted to keep telling her how much she should stay, he was giving her an opportunity to pour her heart out.

That was exactly what she did.

"Why are you here, Killian?" she asked. She was slightly changing the subject, but the place where she was taking the conversation was a place she needed to go. "I tried to get you to ask me to stay the other day."

"Emma, I'm here because I care about yo-," he said. He stopped when he caught on to the second half of her statement. "You tried to get me to ask you to stay? Why would you do that? How would I be able to convince you to stay?"

She answered his question with a question of her own. "Do you still have feelings for me, Killian?"

Her question threw him off. "What?"

"Because if you don't, I completely understand. Between the year apart and -."

"No time apart can take away my love for you, Swan," he said. When she said nothing, he gave her a more direct answer. "Of course, I still have feelings for you."

She couldn't help the instant smile that formed on her face. Nor could she stop herself from saying the next few words. "So, then move with me to New York," she said.

He wasn't expecting her to ask him about his feelings for her. He most definitely was not expecting her to tell him to move to New York with her.

His surprise was written all over his face. She was starting to have her doubts about what she had just asked him.

"Emma, I don-." From the corner of his eye, he saw a bright light shooting straight up into the sky.

"What is that?" she asked noticing it also.

The conversation would have to wait for now.

cs

There was a lot of things they were not saying. For example, she had basically asked him to move to New York with her, but they hadn't brought that up. However there was one thing that had just happened before his very eyes that he had to talk about.

"Why did you kiss me?" he asked.

They had gotten stuck in the past to a time where Snow White and Prince Charming should have just met, but of course they had messed it up. So, they were on a mission to fix their mistake. One part of that was distracting the past version of himself so that he, his current self, could convince Snow to steal the ring from Charming. What had not been a part of the plan was watching her suck face with his former self.

"Which time?" Emma asked. She was trying to be silly with him. She saw how jealous he had gotten to the point where he knocked himself out.

"You know which time, I'm talking about, Swan," he said. His tone gave off that same jealousy from before.

"I was supposed to distract him."

"Not that way," he said.

She saw how upset he was. So, now would be the perfect time to give him something to make him happy. "I was thinking about you the whole time," she said.

"I would hope so. I would hate to think you were thinking about someone else wh-." He didn't quite understand what she was saying.

She grabbed his arm. "I wanted it to be you," she said. This time, she made emphasis when she said you. "I didn't want to be kissing some version of you from the past. I wanted to be kissing you."

He understood what he was saying now, but it still didn't make him happy. "You don't get to tell me those kind of things when you're leaving!"
"I asked you to come with me!" she yelled. There it was. The thing they had both been avoiding since she had said it. They were at the edge of the forrest waiting for Rumpelstiltskin. They should be worrying about making sure her parents met, but she was there yelling at him because no one frustrated her like he did. "What more do you need?"

"What do I need?" he asked. He was giving her a matching tone. "I need you to stop running away from who you truly are. I need you to be the woman I fell in love with."
"And who was the woman you fell in love with?"

"She was the woman who walked into the diner, into a new town, and embraced it. You went up against Regina countless times, but even though it put you through uncomfortable times, you did it because your son needed you."

"I'm going back to New York to protect Henry," she said.

He shook his head. "Henry's the one who gave me the story book so maybe I could convince you to stay," he said. She wouldn't look him in the eyes, but he was staring straight at her. "You don't want to put yourself under the uncomfortable situation of fully embracing your family, fully embracing what we can be... I'm going to clue you in on that one, Emma. We can be great together. I wouldn't just be your lover, I would be your best friend. You wouldn't have to face a single difficult thing because I would be there."

He knew he didn't have to talk up about their situation. She had invited him to go with her to New York. There was a part of her that had accepted wanting him. So, he shifted the topic over to her family. For whatever reason, the version of them she had in her head wasn't enough to get her to stay. He was going to do his best to change that.

"Your family would be there too," he said. Her head turned when he changed the subject. She was watching him closely now. "You told me you never felt like you were a part of something before Henry."

She nodded listening to him.

"Well, picture this," he said. He used his hands to talk. "There's a time where our lives will become less crazy. The calm times are the ones I want you to think about. Think about sitting with your family around the table eating dinner. Thinking about watching your brother take his first steps. Think about your parents faces when they open the birthday gift we gave them." Even in the middle of trying to raise her parents up in her eyes, he was still going to involve himself and put that image of them as a couple in her mind. Couples gave gifts together. "Picture watching your baby brother grow up and wanting to have a baby of our own. We would run it by Henry first, of course, because we don't want him to feel like we are trying to replace him, but he would love having a sibling. Your parents would run at a chance to babysit their grandchild, of course. You'd be difficult to convince at first because you wouldn't want to be away from our baby, but you'd come around because you know your parents are amazing...You'd know that your family is amazing."

He paused just to let her soak in his words.

"If you want to keep running, I can't stop you, but I'm also not going to be there cheering you on in New York when I know you're walking away from a good life in Storybrooke," he said.

And just like that, he brought it all to the table. He would not be going back to New York with her. Or at least, that's what he made sure she thought. The truth was he would follow her wherever she went. He loved her too much to let her go when he knew she felt the same about him. His mean words were just his final attempt to get her to stay for her parent's sake.

His words were cutting straight into her heart because as much as she wanted to just turn away and keep Henry safe, she could see the life he had painted out for them. It was too much to take in all at once. "Maybe we should just focus on the mission."

"Maybe we should," he said. He took out his telescope to look out onto the castle. "A predictable excess of pomp and grandeur. Snow should have no trouble sneaking inside."

3x22 "There's No Place Like Home"

They were home. It had been a long journey, a part of it where he had been separated from Emma, but they were home. Most importantly, she was staying.

"Why are you out here by yourself?" she asked.

He hadn't gone inside of Granny's when they made their return, but instead sat outside alone drinking his rum. She joined him and sat in the chair next to his after a few minutes.

"I wanted to give you some time alone with your parents. You seemed in a rush to see them," he said.

She smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. I just had to see them after you kind of made them into the perfect pair in the hypothetical future you gave us," she said.

It didn't go unnoticed that she had said the future he had give them, instead of saying the future he had given her. They were an us to be spoken about. "They were already great parents, Swan. I just reminded you of it," Killian said.

"You're right. I have amazing parents and an amazing patient guy right in front of me who loves me," she said. She caught his quick smile at her words. "And who I love."

He took in a deep breath.

"I love you so much, Killian," she said. She scooted closer to him bringing her almost to the edge of her seat, but she didn't care. She knew he would prevent her from suffering any pain if she happened to fall just as he had made her fall in love with him and she knew he would not hurt her.

He couldn't stop himself. He had waited so long to hear those words come out of her mouth and for the perfect timing. Right now, he had both.

"I love you, Emma."

They met each other halfway, lips colliding with no hesitation. They were pouring in everything they had felt for each other the last few years into this kiss. They had shared many kisses over the time they have known each other, but this was one was the most important.

His chest was pounding with a rapid heartbeat reminding him how he had felt the first time he had met her. She had made him feel alive again for the first time in a long time. Now those feelings paled in comparison to as to how he felt now.

"Come on, let's go join the party," she said. She stood to her feet.

"Oh, Swan. We both know the real party is out here," he said. He stood along with her.

Her eyes rolled at him playfully. She brought him closer for one quick kiss before entering Granny's with him hand in hand.

THE END