This is a belated birthday fic for the lovely @caprelloidea and @ripplestitchskein. It’s a sequel to though we shall land no more, a smutty bit of Neverland canon divergence. You don’t have to read it to enjoy this; just know that Emma and Killian had a bit of a… moment between 3×06 and 3×07.
Title from J.M. Barrie. Full quote: “See,“ he said, “the arrow struck against this. It is the kiss I gave her. It has saved her life.”
Rated M.
Emma stays on the deck of the Jolly after everyone else has gone below to bed, enjoying the first cool, humidity-free breeze she’s felt in what seems like months. She’s not sure how long their sail – flight – whatever – back from Neverland will take, but from the look of things it’ll be several hours, at least. Even with the enormous weight lifted from her shoulders, the knowledge that Henry is safe and her father will live and they’re going home, she’s still too wound up to think about bed, too many other things on her mind.
Rumple had promised the cure for her father but she still doesn’t trust the man as far as she can throw him. And even once he is cured, there’s just too much to deal with. They sent her away as a baby only to want to try again, to have a… not a replacement, Emma knows that logically, but to have another child and give it everything that was torn away from her. She’d already been replaced by one set of parents. The thought of it happening again makes her insides clench.
Part of her wants to go below and watch Henry sleep, watch him breathe. She decides against it, not wanting to risk waking him. They’ll have plenty of time together once they’re back in Storybrooke. Time she’ll have to share with his other mother, something Regina had made abundantly clear.
Time she’ll have to share with his father as well.
She very pointedly does not turn around, does not glance over her shoulder from where she leans against the railing at the stern of the ship. Neal is behind the wheel, and her place on the ship – as far as humanly possible from him as she can get – is no accident. She’s been quiet enough that he likely doesn’t even realize she’s still up here; he’d have approached her by now otherwise. She doesn’t want to listen to his excuses, to his promises to change, to him trying to win her back, doesn’t even care if he truly means it this time. She’s been thrown away too many times in her life. She won’t give Neal the chance to do it again.
Yes, there was a weight lifted from her shoulders, only now replaced by several others. The more she lets her mind wander, the less refreshing the cool air seems.
the arrow struck
Published
cshappybeginning 