yeah this continued… i ain’t stopping it though because i want to cry every time i see the gif of emma and killian looking down at their daughter and just sighing in ultimate contentment.
part 1 here. on ao3 here and ff.net here.
Killian Jones stared down at his baby girl.
His daughter. He
was a father.
Emma had gone into labor early in the morning, waking him up
at 5 so he could hold her hand through the earlier contractions and he could
alternate between panic and comfort in the normal way of a soon-to-be-father.
She’d held off on the predicted cursing until they’d gotten to the hospital
hours later.
Their family waited in the suitably-named waiting room—Snow
and David, Henry and his family—while Killian stood by Emma’s side.
Hope had come mid-afternoon with an almighty screech and a
flash of light. Once the attendants wiped her off and weighed all six pounds
and four ounces of her, they had all but shoved Hope in Emma’s arms as the
hospital erupted in chaos since most of the lightbulbs on the floor had seen
fit to flash in unison for thirty seconds.
Emma had murmured about the electronic malfunction as they
stared down at their baby girl, but Killian didn’t care that his daughter had
magic and they were in for an interesting
time as she got older. Hope Swan Jones had quieted the moment her blue eyes
connected with Emma’s, and it was okay.
Their baby girl was here.
She was beautiful.
Blonde and blue-eyed, so small but so strong, and the spitting image of his
love. Emma gazed down at the baby with the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen,
and he’d never loved her more than in that moment.
Emma had managed to stay awake for two hours after Hope’s
birth, long enough for the rest of their family to come in and gawk at the
baby, give their congratulations, and leave once Killian started glaring. Emma needed
sleep, and Hope was still considering whether sleep, wailing, or eating was the
best course of action. So the rest of the Charmings had to go.
Hope, the little darling, had chosen sleep like the sensible
little thing she already was. Killian stroked his fingers through her smidgen
of hair, kissed her forehead, desperately and silently pleaded with her not to
wake up.
His family. They
were a family now, him and Emma and Hope.
“I love you, little one,” Killian whispered.
It was the first time he’d been able to speak in hours. His voice
was slightly hoarse from talking basically nonstop from 5 AM, trying to calm
Emma and her last remaining frantic I-don’t-know-how-to-be-a-mother nerves
down. Or screaming at the doctors whenever he felt like it. It was a miracle
they hadn’t thrown him to the waiting room.
“Your mother and I love you so much,” he murmured. “We’ve
waited for you for a long time, you know. Were afraid you wouldn’t be coming
along at all, after a while. But then there you were. Kicking away at your
mother and preventing her from setting foot on the ship for months. But you’ll love sailing, little
one. I’ll take you out on the water—” Hope opened her eyes and Killian just
stared at the bright blue.
“Converting her into a pirate already?” Emma murmured from
the bed. Killian glanced up at her, watched as she stretched and reached out
her hand for him.
“You’ll be doing that, love. Always a little bit of the
pirate in you, remember?”
Emma smiled ruefully. “I suppose that statement turned out a
little more literal than you thought.”
Killian grinned and stood carefully, taking the two steps
over to the hospital bed to sit down at Emma’s side. “Couldn’t have wished for
anything less, Swan.”
“How is she?” Emma moved the blanket aside, just enough to
see her face. “She’s got your ears,” she noted with no small amount of glee.
Hope really did have his ears, Killian noticed. Emma had been predicting them
for the full length of her pregnancy, just as he’d been predicting the hair
color.
“She’s beautiful,”
Killian murmured, placing her in Emma’s waiting arms. Hope’s little hand
clenched and released, and one of the lights in the room flickered.
Emma sighed, trying not to smile. Killian didn’t stop his
grin. “She is perfect,” Emma whispered.
And, Killian thought as Emma leaned down to kiss the baby’s
forehead, she was hope.
cshappybeginning 