Thanks for tuning in for another CS AU MC. A chapter a week will be posted, however the final chapter will be posted around Christmas, which means if extra chapters then you get more than 1 a week. Enjoy and be sure and let me know what you think.
Chapter 1
August 2014
Killian Jones had been born on the right side of the tracks on a night when the stars were in perfect alignment. He lived a life having parents who were overjoyed by his birth because they had given up hope of having a second child, a brother who allowed him to tag along wherever he went, and friends he loved and whom he could depend on whenever needed. He also had a solid head on his shoulders and grew up with such a thirst for all types of knowledge that he kept his mother busy taking him to and from the local library, where he would check out books on everything from 'How to Grow the Best Orchids' to 'Making the Most of a Design'. Killian wasn't a one-dimensional child either, for he had inherited his mother's appreciation for beauty and could describe a painting as easily as he could recite poetry. From a very young age, he loved visiting all types of museums and asking questions of his parents and, eventually, of his teachers and their answers satisfied him for a time. But as he grew, while he continued to strive to learn and understand the world around him, he always felt that there was more out there. A part of him that was always searching for that elusive something that he knew was out there; but what or whom it was, the search continued.
As a young boy, his parents had been inseparable, and their love and affection for each other and for their children was apparent to anyone they were around. There was a sense of the Jones family against the world and, in a way, it had always been that way, as Katherine's parents never warmed up to the boy from the wrong side of London, whisking their daughter away from the society where they thought she belonged. Even after Brennan had made his way as a successful banker throughout Europe, a distance still existed, and for that reason their small family remained isolated, spending their summers together picnicking, boating and playing football, and skiing, skating and visiting museums in the winter.
Since learning had always come easily to Killian, he had high marks and found his way into the Imperial College London to study engineering at the young age of eighteen. Moving away from home and into dormitory life, where he met his best mate Robin Locksley, gave him a freedom that he had never known, and much to his mother and father's consternation, he had ended up on academic probation after the first year. A stern lecture by his father and the threat of being forced to join his brother in the Royal Navy seemed to be just the motivation he required for not only his status within the program but also his behavior in general. During his second and third year his standing improved, earning him top awards. But then tragedy struck, taking both parents in one fell swoop and he had spiraled down, no longer caring about himself or anyone else, and wishing the person responsible for his parents' death hadn't died with them so he could extract his own revenge. Only well-placed guilt from Liam had pushed him to complete his final year and graduate.
Once it was official and he was an engineer, he found it brought him no joy and he had set off to find himself. Thankfully, his fairly level-headed mate, Robin, had followed and managed to keep them both from causing too much damage. Then one night they sat around after too much rum and too little sleep listening to music when a classic rock song came on and both started singing. For the next several years, they wound their way through Europe, joining in with other musicians they met along the way, playing gigs at bars and pubs, taking responsibility for only themselves, and that was in a very superficial manner. And then life had once again taken a dive and the brother that he had always known as a happy, loving, caring and emotionally connected person had become a jaded, bitter shell of his once charismatic self.
Over the course of the next few years, their father's best mate since college, Dakkar Nemo, had taken Liam under his wing, finally convincing him that a change was needed, and he had quickly left his old life behind and moved to the States. Once Liam had felt settled in his position with Nemo's business, every correspondence between them called for Killian to give up his vagabond lifestyle and move to New York. It had taken another year, but there was something about staring thirty in the face and having nothing to show for it that made him feel it was time to wake up and be the man his mum would have been proud of. It had been almost ten years since his parents' death and while he finally had his priorities straight, to smoothly integrate himself into what Liam and Nemo were creating, he needed to further his education. Because he wanted what his parents had, and their romance had begun at Harvard University, he applied and when accepted, everything seemed to click into place. Something was telling him that, if he was open to what life held the time to fill the empty spot in his heart was now. Now that he was here, he couldn't wait to see where the journey led.
Arriving at the Harvard campus, he was curious to retrace his parents' steps and after strolling the campus found himself back where they told him it had all begun. As he walked out onto Harvard Yard, he slowly turned a full 360 degrees taking in the buildings and the trees around him. There was so much history, not only history of the school itself, but the history for his family. His parents had met and fallen in love right here, outside the Widener Library. His mother, Katherine, a young 18-year-old British woman away from home for the first time and his father, Brennan, a roguish older gent of 25 who was working on his graduate degrees in business and finance, with plans to take the international banking world by storm. Two individuals, who on paper should never have met, much less fallen in love, but to hear their story, one look had been all it had taken for them to fall for the other and stay that way until their death at far too young of an age.
Killian remembered he had been around five and was sitting on his father's lap, waiting for his mother to finish dressing, when he had heard their story for the first time. He had been looking at the chunky ring his father wore on his right hand, admiring the gold coloring and trying to read the letters written on it when his father had asked him, "Killian, my boy, did I ever tell you the story of how I met your mother?"
"No, Papa," he had answered, but inside his head wondering why this information was important because, like every child, he had assumed that there was no beginning of his parents, just like there would be no end. They were and always had been together.
"Well, Killian, sit back and listen carefully. It's quite the love story," he had replied. His mother had walked through the room then and when his father had winked at her, she had smiled that special smile of hers that she reserved just for Brennan; the one that always made Killian feel as though he were walking in on a secret that they didn't want to share with anyone but each other.
After she had left the room, he had leaned back against his father's chest. "Alright. Papa, I'm ready.
"I had just moved into my new place of residence for the next few years, Weld Hall, one of the freshman dorms on the Harvard campus, where my job was to be a Proctor. That, my boy, is similar to my being your father, except it wasn't as much fun." He had tickled his stomach, which had earned a giggle and then continued. "In my twenty-five-year-old infinite wisdom, I decided that a good way to get to know my new charges would be a pick-up football game, the American kind. Little did I know that my life would change forever that day."
Brennan listened for the cadence and as soon as the center had hiked the ball and it was in the quarterback's hands, he took off.His goal was to get around the others, catch the ball, make the winning score and then meet up with his mate Nemo at The Burren for a pint.He watched the ball as it spiraled toward him, wrapped his hands around it and instead of putting his head down and running for a touchdown, he ran into a wall.Thankfully he had the wherewithal to drop the ball and twist his body so that the wall landed on him and not the other way around.
"Bloody hell," his wall spit out. "Let me go you beastly ponce!"Long legs and arms moving simultaneously to untangle from his.
Brennan looked up into the bluest eyes he had ever seen gazing back at him.Rimmed by long, dark lashes under the gentle arch of thin brows, her eyes shone like beacons, igniting a fire within his soul unlike any he had ever known.He smiled at her, watching as her eyes followed the line of his lips and darkened with something that could only be described as awareness. When he glanced at her mouth and could see the tips of her white teeth between perfectly pink lips, it was as if a lightning bolt had come out of the sky right then, for he knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was the woman he was going to marry.He opened his mouth to introduce himself and what popped out was, "Will you marry me?" instead.
Her eyes went wide and this time she was able to push herself up.As she bent over to pick up the books that he had knocked out of her hands, she tossed over her shoulder, "You might be dishy, but you are quite dim!" And with a toss of her head that brought her glorious mane of dark hair to his attention, she flounced off.
Brennan looked down at Killian, "And that my dear son is the story of how I met your mother."
Killian licked his lips and furrowed his brow. "But Papa, what about the game? Did your team win?"
His mother had walked into the room as he finished the question and started laughing. "Killian," she came over behind his father and leaned over his shoulder, "your father doesn't care for that part of the story. Am I right, my love?"
Brennan kissed her hand and a self-deprecating smile crossed his face. "You are right, my love." He cut his eyes to his son. "Alas, we did not win that game. While I was falling into your mother's eyes, I had dropped the ball and the other team, picked it up and scored. Not the way I wanted my charges to see me, but once your mother allowed me to court her, I no longer cared."
Coming back to the present, Killian noticed that since he had been sitting various activities had taken over the yard. There were people tossing Frisbees, kicking a football, and throwing an American football; nubile young men and women, many their first sojourn away from home. They made him feel old, really old. Checking the time on his gold watch, the last gift from his parents before their deaths, he realized hours had passed instead of mere minutes as he had thought. Pulling out his phone, he sent a quick text to Robin.
K: Where are we meeting again?
R: The Burren in Davis Square, it's open mic night.
K: Alright.
R: Want your Gibson?
K: You want to play tonight?
R: The ladies do love it.
K: Wanker
Pocketing the phone, he took one last look around the square, wondering if he would be as lucky in discovering love while at Harvard as his parents. With hope on his side, he left to meet up with Robin.
cs~cs~cs
The stars had not been perfectly aligned when Emma Swan had been born, ostensibly on the wrong side of the tracks. She had been born on an unseasonably warm night in the middle of fall, not far from the group home in Boston where she grew up. Hours after her birth, she was left in a basket, wrapped in a blanket with the name Emma embroidered on it. The only other item in the basket was a note tucked inside that read, "For your best chance," which Emma kept tucked inside a box with other mmementos She didn't have a family by blood, and most of the people that she knew growing up were individuals whose paths crossed hers as they would move in and out of her group home over the years. Ruby and Ashley had lived in the home as long as she and were the only two she called friends. They had her back, just as she had theirs. A family of sorts, if only in the minds of lost little girls who seemed to be searching.
The home where Emma lived was presided over by Sister Blue, a rather austere woman on one hand, but on the other, one who could be very kind. She had taken it upon herself to help the girls grow up to be the women they were meant to be, and as such had encouraged the girls to read and challenge themselves, often pushing them to think outside the box; to expand their horizons and make dreams that they never thought would come true, but ones that inspired them to never stop trying. Because of her tutelage, all three girls excelled in school and higher education was not an insurmountable dream, but one that was theirs for the taking.
Emma's younger years were spent inside her head, as in there she could create the perfect world and a perfect family with parents who loved her and never would have thought to leave her to grow up alone. When she turned five the Sisters gave her a gift, and that gift gave vision to her dreams. The gift, a copy of Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales, filled her dreams with faces and places that, even though she knew were never real, made the loneliness bearable. She imagined her parents were Snow White and Prince Charming and the reason they had abandoned her was because they were cursed and that someday they would be reunited. Ruby and Ashley quickly became Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella and she filled pages with simple drawings, often drawing her thoughts instead of using her words, until they teased her that she was the mouse in Cinderella's story. She didn't agree with them, though, for she saw herself as the ugly duckling that would someday grow up to be a beautiful Swan. So enchanted was she with the story that she asked for it as a last name, and was granted her wish when she was ten.
She saw herself as a woman who was of average height, her body weighing slightly more than she wanted, and topped by a round face, slight overbite and blonde hair that she wore parted in the middle and straight. She was neither happy nor unhappy with the way she looked but she did like her eyes. They were dark green with flecks of gold and brown in them, and they darkened when she was sad and lightened when she was happy. And inside where it counted, Emma was comfortable with the person she had become, because her life experiences had served in making her into the person who looked back at her from the mirror, and that was someone of whom she could be proud.
Her ability to draw paved the way to several awards at her school as well as at a local art museum, which held contests for children's artworks in the summer. As her confidence grew with her artistic abilities, so did her confidence in other aspects of her life, except when it came to allowing others to get close to her. Some called them walls, but she called it self-preservation. After all, what can't touch you can't hurt you. And protecting herself from being hurt became even more important as she moved through her teens and watched Ruby and Ashley fall in and out of love over and over again. Allowing herself to be vulnerable enough to fall in love with anyone was not something that she could even imagine at sixteen, unless the vision that was her secret crush walked into her life, and then, she thought with a smile on her face and a flutter in her chest, all bets were off.
The possibility of that, she knew, was minuscule as he was someone created with her vivid imagination. He wasn't someone that she had conjured out of thin air, but that she had created from the detailed description that J.S. Barrie had given his version of the one and only Captain Hook. After numerous readings of the story, her mind's eye kept creating a face for him, until one day she pulled out her charcoals and sketched what she envisioned: Dark, wind-tousled hair that constantly fell over a high forehead, a strong jaw that was never quite clean shaven, and blue, blue eyes surrounded by thick dark lashes that pierced her very soul. And his smile was one that involved his whole face, causing his eyes to crinkle and deep grooves to appear in his lean cheeks. So enamored was she with her dream man that the mere mortals that she saw in school every day didn't stand a chance, which gave her friends something else to tease her about. What could she do when her heart wanted what it wanted?
The part of Boston, Dorchester, where Emma's group home was located, had its share of difficulties, yet Emma and her friends tried to stay away from the groups of rougher individuals, which often created tense situations. None more so than when she was fifteen and one of the boys, Neal, tried to get her to date him, not taking too kindly to her refusal. For weeks, afterward he had followed her, attempting to intimidate her enough to make her change her mind, until he was just gone and her defenses had dropped. Unfortunately, that was when he was the most dangerous, setting her up to take the fall for a crime he had committed. But with the support of Ruby, Ashley and Sister Blue, the real story came out and he was sent away to prison.
When they had turned eighteen the three young women had moved out of Dorchester area, leaving behind the only home they had ever known, in search of a new home. They ended up not far away in Brookline Village. Financially bolstered by a few scholarships and jobs, the girls were able to live in a nice apartment and go to school studying the areas they loved. Emma was at Massachusetts College of Art and Design pursuing her interest in art, and Ashley and Ruby at a local small private college, one taking education classes and the other trying to decide between being a healer of animals or to be a healer of people.
When they had all graduated with their bachelor's degrees, it had been a joyous occasion but also a sad one, as for the first time in many years the girls would be going their separate ways. Ashley and Ruby where moving on to take graduate courses at Boston College and Emma was going to work full time at the Museum of Fine Arts. After several years, Emma found herself getting bored and, deciding she wanted more for her life, applied to and was accepted to Harvard University, where she planned to get her MBA, and where she was going to be able to get back into painting. Her grades from Mass Art and a generous recommendation from her employer helped her get a top fellowship which not only paid for her school but left enough for her to live in a small apartment on her own. And her experience from the museum helped her achieve a position as a teacher's assistant to one of the art professors, allowing her to pick up a brush and create, something that she had missed deeply.
"Earth to Emma," snickered Ashley.
Emma glanced up quickly from the box she was taping shut. "Sorry about that," she gave her friend a sheepish smile, "just remembering."
Ashley smiled softly, her eyes twinkling, "We had some good times here didn't we?"
"We did, and then you and Ruby moved off and Phillip and Sean moved in." She looked around the room to see what else needed to be done. "This is the last box. Is everything else loaded?"
"Let's hope so, as they already left with Ruby. We are supposed to bring the rest of the stuff in Sean's car." A dreamy smile crossed her face.
"How's that going?" Emma was happy for her friends, who had been dating several months. The women made a quick walk through the apartment and after loading the car started the drive to her new residence.
Once on the road, Ashley answered, "He's wonderful Emma. I think maybe he's the one," she giggled and her cheeks turned pink. "So, what's the deal with you and Phillip? Sean told me he asked you out."
As they drove, Emma filled Ashley in on Phillip and how she had told him they were just friends and before she knew it they arrived at her new apartment. She had been fortunate in discovering that the professor whom she was the teaching assistant for, Sarah Fisher, had inherited an old Victorian home in Cambridge and had converted it into apartments; three, one-bedroom apartments and one two-bedroom suite that she only rented to graduate students. Thankfully, one of the them came available and Emma was going to have her own space for the first time in her life. A new apartment, a new position and a new school. Wondering what else new was awaiting her, she exited the car and ran up the steps to her new home.
cs~cs~cs
Killian walked into The Burren, a popular pub in Davis Square, to see Robin was already up on stage warming up with the band. After arriving he was introduced to Leroy, the drummer, Walter, on keyboard, Tom, who played bass and sang back-up vocals, and the lead singer, Doc, who also played guitar. Collectively, they were known as The Minors, a rather interesting group of musicians who had met in college over ten years ago and were seen regularly around the greater Boston area club scene.
Lifting his guitar strap over his head Killian strummed a few notes, tuning his instrument before joining the band on a few songs. While Doc sang, he played mindlessly and was able to observe the patrons. The place was crowded, small groups, large ones, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. Killian noticed Robin smiling at a few females and shook his head at his mate and his quick moves. There were many beautiful women in the pub, many obviously available but none reaching inside to touch that part of him that said, "I am worth your time. Know me," and so he continued to play, getting lost in the music. He and Robin also sang a few songs, and as they moved seamlessly from Nirvana to David Bowie, he found himself relaxing more and more. As the set wound to a close, the band left the stage and moved into a back room to rest and regroup. Would set two be any different, he wondered?
cs~cs~cs
Emma waded her way through the crowd of people, hurrying toward the table in the corner where she was joining her friends Ruby, Ashley, Sean, Phillip and one of her new housemates, Elsa. Grabbing a beer at the bar, she scooted between Elsa and Ruby. "Sorry I'm late. What did I miss?"
Ruby smirked at her. "Nothing. We were just trying to decide what to order." Once that decision was made they talked about innocuous things and Emma spent time getting acquainted with Elsa, who shared the larger apartment with her sister Anna. Elsa was a second-year law student and her sister was finishing her undergraduate studies and preparing for the MCAT. Emma found her to be a soft-spoken woman who was genuinely kind and also seemed to fit in nicely with her friends. She was even pleased to see that Phillip had turned his eye to the blonde. "Well, you must have not broken Phillip's heart too badly," Ruby whispered in her ear.
Emma rolled her eyes. "I see that. Think I should warn her about his wandering eye?"
Ruby peered around at the two, and noticed that Elsa's attention had moved off Phillip and she was looking up at the stage where instead of the normal loud rock music, the music was soft, haunting almost. Glancing in the same direction, Ruby immediately noticed what had drawn Elsa's attention as there were two new men, both playing guitar, "Forgive me Father, for I'm thinking impure thoughts," she muttered.
Emma heard her comment and started laughing, "Since when aren't you thinking impure thoughts Rubes?" When Ruby didn't answer, Emma turned in her chair to see what had caught her friend's attention.
Walking back up onto the stage, Killian noticed how loud the atmosphere had become as the night wore on. As he strummed a few chords, his attention was captured by the melodic laughter of a female sitting off in the corner with a group. He couldn't see anything but her profile, but the joy he heard in her laugh captured his attention unlike any other. Her friend on the right turned his way as did her friend on the left, sending a wolfish smile toward the stage. As they played the opening bars to his song, he decided he was singing to the mystery woman in the middle.
"I've been alone with you inside my mind
And in my dreams, I've kissed your lips a thousand times
I sometimes see you pass outside my door
Hello, is it me you're looking for?"
He saw her turn in his direction as he continued to sing.
"I can see it in your eyes
I can see it in your smile
You're all I've ever wanted and my arms are open wide
Cause you know just what to say and you know just what to do
And I want to tell you so much, I love you."
When Emma turned to see what had captured Ruby's attention, the waitress had been standing there with their order. Passing the plates around she heard a voice start singing Hello, a song she always enjoyed listening to, but this man's voice took the lyrics to an entirely different level. Smooth, rich and sexy quickly came to mind. Wondering if his looks matched, she turned and what she saw caused her pulse to race and her breath to catch, for she was looking at what came close to being her very own Captain Hook come to life. The face from her dreams after reading Peter Pan so many times was singing, and as their gazes locked across the sea of people, Emma felt his words were meant just for her.
"I long to see the sunlight in your hair
And tell you time and time again how much I care
Sometimes I feel my heart will overflow
Hello, I've just got to let you know
Cause I wonder where you are and I wonder what you do
Are you somewhere feeling lonely? Or is someone loving you?
Tell me how to win your heart, for I haven't got a clue
But let me start by saying I love you."
Feeling her face flame, Emma turned back around, "Ruby, you see the resemblance too, right? I'm not dreaming, am I?"
"I see it." She clutched Emma's hand. "You know what this means, right? It's fate. He's your destiny."
Emma turned back around as he sang the last few bars of the song.
"Hello
Is it me you're looking for?
Cause I wonder where you are and I wonder what you do
Are you somewhere feeling lonely? Or is someone loving you?
Tell me how to win your heart, for I haven't got a clue
But let me start by saying I love you."
As the music faded, he tilted his head in her direction, just a slight nod to indicate that he was feeling something too. But could she take a chance?
"My destiny? Right!" She finished her beer. "My destiny is school on Monday. I don't have time for anything else."
Ruby glanced at the stubborn set to her jaw and looked over at Ashley who shrugged her shoulders. "Can't fight destiny, Emma. But we'll play it your way tonight."
They finished their food and cashed out, all going their separate ways with promises to get together soon. Since she and Elsa were going in the same direction, they stopped at the ladies room on their way out and, as was usual in a pub, had to wait in line. Listening to the women around them, she learned that it had been the first time the man who had been singing and his friend had played with the band. She also learned that if he chose, he would not be going home alone tonight, which reiterated her thoughts that a man that nice to look at had playboy written all over him. There was no way he would be interested in an average girl like her.
"I hope this line moves faster or we won't make the next train." Elsa's comment stopped her wayward thoughts.
"Fingers crossed," she mumbled as they inched their way forward.
Killian saw her and her friends leave the table and head toward the exit, and really wished he could go after her. He had felt something sizzling through the air and he wanted a chance to see her up close and not through the haze of a dark room. When he saw her and the blonde turn in the direction of the facilities, he let out a breath and finished playing the song before following.
Turning the corner toward the hall leading to the ladies room, Killian was hit in full stride hard enough to take his breath away. Unconsciously he caught her arms and started to ask if she was alright but when she looked up at him, he got lost in the dark green of her eyes. "It's you," he whispered.
Her eyes crinkled at the corners as she smiled "It's me," she laughed before she was pulled from his arms by the other blonde.
He reached out and caught the side of her bag. "But wait, what's your name?"
Her friend tugged again, pulling her bag from his grasp. She looked over her shoulder as she followed her friend out the door. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
Killian watched her race off. "Perhaps I would," he mumbled. "after all it is customary for the groom to know his bride's name." Looking down at his hand he realized something from her bag had broken off and he was holding one end of it. What he saw caused a huge grin to light his face, for he was holding a broken paintbrush, which he was sure might give him a clue about her identity. He started to toss the broken brush into the garbage until he noticed it had writing on it. "Emma," he read. Walking back to the stage, he finally understood what his father meant about one look being all it took for him to know that his mother was the one for him, and it seemed that there was a very good possibility that one son had just followed in his footsteps.
Stay tuned for Chapter 2 and if you are curious about the song that Killian sang to Emma. It's Hello, by Lionel Richie.
If you haven't watched the amazing preview trailer my friend Giennie - made for this story, check it out here. post/163858207412/the-promise-a-captain-swan-au-chapter-1-pops-up