A/N: This is it! This is the last chapter for See You Again! Thank you so much to everyone for reading this story and for the overwhelming amount of love!

You can find the videos for the story here ( watch?v=zqihomLmpLw) and here ( watch?v=Rad_OfosJEk)

Downeystarkjr on tumblr has been a great artist to work with, follow her and keep a look out for more of her amazing work! My beta forget-me-not-s is also amazing and has been an absolute joy and bleesing to work with!

Emma and Henry woke several hours after the curse broke to David sitting quietly in a chair in their hospital room. Apparently during their sleep part of the town decided to riot and storm Regina's home, causing a minor emergency for her parents. Together the king and queen talked down their people and placed Regina on home arrest, leaving Mary Margaret in charge of the town, which, David explained, is why her mother is not there with them.

It doesn't, however, explain why Killian is not with them. When her dad returned he found Killian solemn, and he quickly and quietly dismissed himself from her hospital room.

She wasn't awake to see him off.

Emma suspected that the remembrance of who he really was brought with it understandable pain, and regret.

The young man, the boy, she had known ten years ago was gentle and sweet. He was kind and loving.

Becoming a pirate was a rejection of all those traits.

And that rejection, and the resultant acts from it, had to weigh heavily on his mind.

Emma was released from the hospital after the Blue Fairy came in to see to her. "Now, I cannot heal you completely. That isn't how light magic works, but I can fix your broken bones and only leave you some deep bruises." Emma eyed the fairy suspiciously, but didn't say a word as she worked. Frankly, she thought the fairy was full of shit, but if it meant she could move and not have her body scream at her she'd take it. So she left the hospital, but still with an absent Killian, and went back to the loft to relax.

For a little bit.

Until Killian ignored her for too long.

Fortunately, she knew what calmed him. It was the same sight that helped bring her peace when she can't sleep.

The horizon.

"Hey," Emma said softly as she approached Killian. He was sitting on the ground, his legs dangling over the water that splashed beneath the docks. "It's not good to wallow alone, you know." She had a box perched on her hip and was swaying slightly in the sea breeze that hit the docks. "Mother Superior used magic to make me a more functional human being again. Now I've just got some nasty bruises." His noncommittal response did not make her feel any better. "Alright, well, I thought I'd find you here. Care if I sit down?"

Killian had his eyes trained on the lapping waves, he quietly nodded his assent. Blowing out a puff of air Emma told him, "I can't offer you comfort, Killian. I know that." Still, Killian did not turn towards her and Emma thought she could make out that his eyes were closed, as if he were bracing himself for impact. "I can only offer you a reminder. You have to decide when you want comfort." Killian gave a small, mirthless laugh. "I wanted to give you this." It was when she shifted the box around in her lap that Emma caught a glint in the moonlight on Killian's left arm.

It was his hook.

Emma understood then why he had disappeared after the riot and why he had refused her calls. Two hundred years of trauma came back, and she was a reminder of the young, brilliant lieutenant he used to be.

And a reminder of everything he turned away from.

He had to be terrified that she could never overlook everything that had happened and everything that he'd done. That possibly the entire town would ignore all the good he did and only focus on the pirate.

Emma decided to take a chance. She reached her hand across his torso and grabbed his hook. Killian's head snapped up, his eyes locked on her and Emma could see the absolute fear in his eyes. "Killian…" He was looking at her like she was the world and that her every word was a proverb. "When you're ready for comfort, I will be here to offer it." Killian's lips were twitching, as if he wanted to respond but couldn't get the words out.

There was so much left unsaid between them, but now wasn't the time to push it.

She let go of his hook in exchange for giving him the box she had brought with her. "I thought you'd like to have these things now that you know who you are." Emma had spent the last few months slowly accumulating stuff that could make the curse breaking easier for him. At the time that she started, Emma only had a picture.

Opening the box, the first item Killian pulled out was the first photograph of them. He laughed breathlessly when he saw it, but his voice was thick with emotion. "You know, I kept this portrait for two hundred years in my desk drawer, but mine got so old that all the color faded." He was smiling now, grinning even, and Emma could only answer him with her own.

Digging back into the box, Killian pulled out a picture frame with artwork in it. The artwork was of him and his brother, in their uniforms looking proud and happy to be by each other's side. It was time for Emma to confess, "I broke into the library looking for clues about the curse the night before the election. I found a second storybook, one that takes place before Henry's. The book is in the box too, but I thought you'd like to have one of the pictures framed." He pushed the box aside, focusing wholly on his brother's face as tears welled in his eyes. God, when was the last time he saw his brother's face?

"Mom! Mom! Mom!" Henry was running up to her with her parents chasing after him, trying to stop him. Emma moved quickly in an attempt to keep him away from Killian, whose emotional state did not need a ten year old excitedly tugging on him.

"Henry! We told you to wait!" Her parents had caught him, but he refused to stay still.

"I know, but the party!" Whirling around to face Emma he told her, "There's a party at Granny's," grabbing a hold of his mother's hand he started to drag her. "Let's goooo, mom! Killian! Come on!"

Gently pulling out of his grasp, Emma leaned down and told him, "Henry, I know you're excited. I'm excited too. But this isn't an easy time, or even a happy time, for everyone here."

Her son peaked around her shoulder to Killian's hunched form and said quietly, "Oh. What can we do?"

"We can give him some space while Killian figures some stuff out, okay?" Henry nodded at her, but his eyes didn't leave Killian. "Why isn't he happy? You guys finally found each other. You love each other!"

"Henry, it isn't that simple."

"Why?" He cried.

"Because with the breaking of the curse came a lot pain too, Henry. Not all the memories are good memories."

"I don't understand. Everyone should be happy."

Slowly, Emma kneeled in front of her son. "Henry, are all of your memories happy ones?" She asked, trying to make him understand. He shook his head 'no.' "Neither is Killian's. Imagine all of that unhappiness hitting you at once. That's how he feels right now."

"Then we need to make him happy."

"It's not that simple kid."

"Then what do we do?"

Her hands rubbing the tops of his shoulders Emma pulled her sweet boy into a tight hug, "We support him."

Standing up, she walked back to Killian who was wiping at his face. Emma suspected that he had been crying. She crouched next to him and put her hand on his shoulder. "Killian, I'll be back." And after a moment of hesitation she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, Emma felt his body freeze and then relax under the unexpected affection. "Don't forget to look at the rest of the box," she whispered before walking away.

When she reached Henry she held out her hand for him to take it before leaving for Granny's. They only made it a few steps before Henry turned back and looked at Killian. "We can't leave him," he whispered. Jerking his hand out of Emma's, he ran back towards Killian, throwing his arms around his neck in a tight hug before sitting down next to him, on the side of his hook.

Emma turned to her parents, who watched their exchange. They were at a stand-off. Emma wanted to turn back, to sit down next to Killian as he went through his box, to hopefully hear his real, beautiful laugh. To see his eyes shine with happiness in the moonlight. Her parents wanted her to come with them, to horde their lost daughter's attention.

But what a parent wants isn't more important than what their child needs.

Snow stepped forward, reaching for her daughter's hand. Once she held it firmly in her own she said, "You know what isn't in the storybook? The story of how we got the strength to let you go." Behind her David stood, his hand rubbing the small of her back in comforting circles. Emma listened attentively as her mother continued with tears in her eyes. "David and I had no idea how we could let you go, let alone into a bizarre and unknown world by yourself. We wasted months looking for alternatives that did not exist. At first we tried to hide my pregnancy, to protect it from the Evil Queen. But it got out, as secrets always do, and somehow, by fate or destiny, it reached a pirate. A pirate commonly known as the moniker, Captain Hook. He snuck into our castle and demanded an audience with us. With your father's sword pressed to his neck, he didn't care about his own life. He spoke instead of a young woman he had met, in a world vastly different from our own, who was an orphan who never knew her parents. We were so close to that being your reality that we had to know more, and David dropped his sword. But Hook wouldn't say more until we told him our baby's name.

"When we did, when we told him your name was Emma, he dropped to his knees. He covered his face with his hand, absolute relief and heartbreak on his face. He told us that he had met our daughter, that you called yourself Emma Swan. He told us how strong you were. How brave and kind and loving. He also told us how heartbroken you were that you never knew your parents. He told us everything, but it was in this-– this everything that we found the strength to let you go. To save our kingdom, because we knew that you would become an amazing woman. And you did, Emma. You are incredible.

"But the story doesn't end there. I asked him if he would run from the curse, because he could. His ship could outrun anything. He didn't answer the question then. He left instead, but he's here, Emma. He knew the curse was coming. He could have escaped it, but he's here. He must have let himself be caught so he could see you again." Her mother squeezed her hand and ended their conversation with, "We'll make your excuses, honey. The party isn't where you belong."

With a thick throat and tear glazed eyes Emma whispered a 'thank you' before walking back to Killian and taking her seat next to him.

Henry was asking him about his brother's picture that he was still holding.

"Hey," Emma said, placing her hand on his shoulder. He gave her a small, grateful smile in response. "There's something else in the box that I think you should see right now."

Handing her the framed picture, Killian dug back into his box and pulled out a thickly wrapped bundle. "Be careful," Emma warned. "I tried to wrap it really well, but I doubt it's actually a good job."

"It's fine, love."

Emma waved his words away and impatiently told him, "Open it."

Slowly and carefully Killian unwrapped the bundle. When he first exposed the tip of the mast he gasped, then in stunned silence he exposed the sails, and finally the body of his ship.

Emma bumped his shoulder with her's, "I got it from Gold a few months ago. I've been doing some research and I think it's just a shrinking spell. You might be able to undo it by putting it in the water."

Frantically and wordlessly Killian scrambled from his seat and ran down to an empty docking station. Henry excitedly on his heels. Emma moved much slower, carefully taking the now open box in her hands to follow them. Part of her wished that it was still daylight so that she could see Killian's face more clearly. To see the joy that was radiating off of him.

But she knew this had been too long in coming.

With bated breath, she watched as Killian gingerly placed his miniature ship into the calm lapping water.

Henry let out a loud, joyous noise, the kind only made by children, when the Jolly Roger sprung up in its full magnificence.

On the deck Henry ran around, calling out to his mother to look at this, that, and the other without ever actually stopping to show to her. Killian stood at the helm, caressing the wheel and tracing the cardinal directions that were carved into the wood. Emma silently followed him around his ship, after the initial shock wore off he started to quietly whisper to her the various elements of his ship.

They sounded like words of love.

Henry didn't have the patience to listen to Killian's explanations and instead explored the ship on his own.

Killian didn't try to stop him. "Let him explore, love, a boy only gets to experience being on a ship for the first time once." He started to explain the sails to her but stopped himself, reaching up to scratch behind his ear. "I guess I don't really need to show off my ship, I know you've been on several."

"Ah," Emma teased, "But I haven't been on your's."

In the moonlight, she could see his grin as he swaggered closer to her. "Would you like to see more then, Swan?"

"I would love to if it means I can put down this box somewhere."

"I'll take care of that and can show you my cabin at the same time." Taking the box from her hands, Killian led her down a hatch into his cabin.

"You realize that it is almost impossible to see anything on your ship because you don't have electricity, right? As in, I can't see your cabin at all."

Killian laughed at her as he rummaged in the dark, with soft illumination following. "It's called a candle, Swan. We weren't privileged in the Enchanted Forest with your electricity."

"Isn't that a bummer." Emma teased him back as she wandered around his room. The few times she found herself in his apartment Emma confined herself to his living room. And now that she stands in his bedroom, the room he has spent 200 years in, Emma couldn't get enough of it and cursed the nighttime.

She was also incredibly nervous.

Ten years of regret, anxiety, and grief were all coupled together in this very room, with this very man.

In the middle of her survey of his room Killian's voice broke the silence. "I can't believe this is real."

For the millionth time that day Emma's eyes welled with tears. "When– when you went through that portal Killian, you went two hundred years into the past. You were dead in my time the moment you stepped through."

"And you never existed in mine," was his quiet reply.

"I spent a decade Killian trying to forget that you existed. And I couldn't do it. Every day you haunted me."

A tear spilled over and ran down his cheek. "I tried to forget you too, at first. You know about Milah, you know that story. It's in Henry's book. But you were always there, Emma. Always haunting me as well. A ghost that never stopped chasing me, or maybe I couldn't stop chasing you. And then fifty years passed, then a hundred, and I hadn't really aged because of the Neverland. I lived to… I lived to avenge Milah's death, taking out my anger at losing you and Liam on that imp. Then– I… I realized that I could outlive the time that separated us. And I lived only to see you again."

"Killian…" his name came out in a whispered cry as they came together, there in the middle of his candlelit cabin. Her arms wrapped around his torso, face pressing into his chest as his arms found their way around her shoulders. She muffled into his chest, "I love you. I loved you then, and I knew I did." Emma pulled back, enough for tear-filled eyes to meet tear-filled eyes to tell him, "And I knew you loved me, but I didn't want to make you chose. You had a family, you had someone waiting for you. Someone you were fighting to get back to. You had something I could never have, and I didn't want to be in the way of that."

His came up to cup her face, wiping away her falling tears. "Emma, you could never be in the way of anything. From the moment I met you, you were a part of me, a part of my family. My brother… Liam had hopes that one day we would make it back to you."

She kissed him then, fully and wholeheartedly she put every emotion, every doubt, every instance of pain and love and joy and regret and hope into that kiss.

He responded in kind.

That is, until Henry came bounding down the stairs. "Mom! They're setting off fireworks!" Emma whirled around, her back pressing against Killian's chest, his hand and hook resting on her hips for a moment before Henry grabbed her hand to drag her up to the deck. She grabbed Killian's in turn and together all three made a small train up to the deck of the ship to watch the celebratory fireworks.

None of them let go until it was over and Henry was drooping on his feet, clearly exhausted. It took some cajoling but eventually Emma and Killian convinced him that it was time to go home, but only agreed when Killian offered to give him a piggyback ride home.

It was very late when Killian arrived back at the Jolly Roger. He had just collapsed onto his bed when the box sitting at his desk caught his attention. Walking over, he pulled out the contents of the box. First came the picture of he and Emma in full color, bright and in love. Second was the drawing of he and Liam, but it was only when he was looking straight down into the box that he realized that there was a third item. One he didn't see earlier.

The book was bound in leather that was worn with time, the exposed edges of the paper were yellowed and stained. Opening the front cover he found the owner.

Emma Swan, Deployment 1: 2001– 2002

[Deployment, 2002]

He's on the floor. Killian is on the fucking floor and he's not moving. He's not moving and her wrists won't stop fucking bleeding. Emma could hardly keep a hold of the sword that she stole from a guard earlier because of the blood. She tried not to think about that, if she had to bring fists to a sword fight then so be it.

But how does she even get to him? Killian was lying on a platform behind some kind of barrier.

"Scar is harnessing magic from the gods," Emma whirled around, ready to strike on instinct but Rafiki was quicker, covering her mouth with his hand as the other one grasped her hand that held the sword. "It's me."

"What do we do?"

"We run, Emma. What is happening now in my country is bigger than you, it is bigger than me. There is another savior who has to take on this fight."

Emma shook her head, "I meant about Killian. We have to save him. I can't leave him."

"There is nothing we can do for him now. Scar is using the magic of the gods, which is all based on tests. The only way to get to Killian is to be his true love, and his brother isn't here."

Emma stared at Killian's prone body, images of him from the past few months flickered across her vision. His laugh, his smile, the warmth and solidity of his body when he comforted her or the day they danced until sunrise. "Rafiki," she whispered, "what is true love?"

"It's selfless and compassionate. It is putting someone else's happiness before your own. It is the small things in life, Emma, like purposefully remembering a story, a joke, a tiny bit of information because you know they'd find joy in it. It is finding comfort in their presence. It meaning that your dreams are for theirs to come true. But most importantly it is reciprocated."

"It is reciprocated."

"Okay," was her only reply. Emma handed the sword that was slipping through her grasp to Rafiki, she wouldn't need it her. "I'm not leaving without him. He's going to go home. Cover me."

And Emma Swan came out of her hiding place to step into the middle of the room. She stood before the barrier, guards were starting to yell and call orders, but she heard none of them as she gingerly put her hand up to the barrier.

She felt it resist her touch, the sensation reminded her of sticking her fingers into jello as a kid. She pushed and it gave way.

Emma Swan was inside the barrier.

She and Killian were true love.

Her heart broke as she heaved his still but breathing form over her shoulder in a fireman's carry.

He would go home to his brother, to his family, somewhere she could never follow.

[Storybrooke]

The sun was creaking over the horizon when Killian read the bloodstained pages where Emma wrote down her ordeal, her discovery of true love. According to the date she had written in the day after it happened, over his still unconscious form. He ran his finger over the pages, feeling the change in texture of the paper when her blood saturated it, mixing with the ink of her pen. Just as her blood was absorbed by the paper, his mind was absorbed by the story.

For over a century Killian had thought of Emma as his true love, but to know that it was confirmed, that everything he felt about Emma Swan was blessed by the gods and returned in kind, was overwhelming.

A mixture of frustration and relief washed over him. Frustration because Emma knew and kept it from him, frustration because she wanted him to be happy even if it hurt her, frustration because the gods gave them this gift but put so many obstacles in their way that they couldn't see another way but separation, frustration because he knows he would have done the same thing for her.

And relief, sweet relief, because it was over, relief because they could heal together.

While in his thoughts Killian had let off of the journal pages he held in his lap, allowing the very full page he had been looking at to flip over. Right when he was about to stand up and leave– he had to see Emma, he had to go now and see her and hold her– Killian caught sight of the next page. It was undated and written in different ink, but most striking was that the page consisted largely of blank space. On every other page in the journal Emma had used every bit of space, carefully conserving as much as possible, but not this one. All it had was a small note that read, "Even now I still bleed."

It was 6AM and someone was knocking on their door. Emma was in sweatpants and an old Army t-shirt without her leg brace and did not want to move from the cup of coffee that was sitting in front of her. Blessedly, David got up instead to answer the door leaving her and Mary Margaret to hum into their mugs.

"E–mmm… can I…" was the awkward early morning exchange started by the person at the door, and by the accent she knew who it was before David stepped aside to let him in without a word. From the looks of Killian Emma would guess that he hadn't slept and when she spotted the journal in his hand she knew why. She also understood why his face was flushed and his breathing was heavy– he ran here.

"Will you help me, Mary– mom?" But before her mother could even get off her seat Killian strode across the room, took her into his arms, and kissed her deeply.

There was nothing left unsaid in that kiss.

"I was so goddamn stupid of me to– ouch!" Emma's sentence was interrupted by a nerf gun bullet hitting her in the leg. She looked up to find Archie still aiming the nerf gun in her direction. "Archie, what the Hell?"

"Try again."

"What?"

"Try that sentence again."

"Okay… as I was saying it was stupid of me–" This time Emma saw the shot coming and was able to curl into herself a bit for protection.

"It's a new tool to help you recognize negative thoughts. Everytime you say something negative, especially about yourself, I'm going to shoot you with this nerf gun," Archie said, waving the gun in the air. "So try that sentence again."

"Seriously? You're gonna shoot me, here, in therapy?"

Archie's response was to raise an eyebrow at her and take aim. "That's really up to you, isn't it?"

"Okay. Okay. I, uh, made a mistake, but I guess it wasn't really stupid. I'm just frustrated."

"That's right. Mistakes are human. It is natural and a part of life and being human to make them, Emma."

Their hour passed in this way, Emma getting shot occasionally with a foam dart, cursing, and correcting her language. By the end of the hour, she was more positive about herself.

When Emma walked into the waiting room Killian stood up to enter Archie's office. They both decided that it was time to get some expert help (Emma starting her second round of therapy since leaving the military) after the curse broke and make their appointments together on Monday morning at eight and nine o'clock while David went on patrol. Her father usually picked her up after Emma's appointment and took her for breakfast, with Killian joining in every once in a while.

"You look like you had a pleasant time, love."

Emma struggled to suppress a smile as Killian bent down to give her a quick kiss. Their relationship was new, and gentle, but their foundation was strong. They both new the other had pasts that dragged on them and fully supported each other in their therapy.

It was good.

It was healthy.

"Yeah, I feel pretty good right now."

She felt even better when Killian got out of his appointment an hour later and she received a text from him that read, "BLOODY HELL SWAN YOU COULD HAVE WARNED ME ABOUT THE NERF GUN."

Yeah, she felt pretty good about her life right now.