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She was nervous. The plane hadn't even set off yet and she was already tiptoeing at the edge of her sanity.
She was going to see her parents. The ones she finally found after so many years of crazy, tiring, thorough research. They lived in a small town in Maine, and she impulsively bought two plane tickets, not wanting to wait a single day before she could finally meet them, in the flesh.
But now, now that she was there, closer to them than ever, so many questions and doubts she thought she had buried deep resurfaced. Why had they left her? Why at the side of a highway, why not even a hospital? Why hadn't they contacted her after so long, or at least not even tried to? She had been alone all her life, surrounded by all kinds of abandonment: abandoned as a baby, abandoned by the Swans when she was three and many after them, abandoned by her only friend in the foster system when she had finally been adopted, abandoned by Neal, abandoned by Walsh... She was always being hurt by someone somehow.
That is until she met Killian.
She looked at the silver band around her finger. Quite a journey.
She had been in a case, she'd bumped into him and had thought he was the bail skipper, had ran after him for more than five blocks, had actually tackled him, discovered he had only been running because he thought she was an ex he had never called the next morning. She remembered how she had felt the instant magnetism. She'd thought it was something bad at first, always suspicious, always doubting him, always ignoring his desperate attempts to make her trust him.
Until Walsh screwed her up, and he was the only one there for her. She had clung to him, confided him everything she could and just like that, something snapped inside her.
That's how she met the love of her life.
She felt his hand over her own and looked up into those shining blue eyes she loved so much. "You okay, love?," he asked softly. She smiled. He had always read her like an open book.
She nodded, lacing their fingers and squeezing his hand. "As well as I can... But I will be."
He smiled and leaned forward to kiss her temple. She closed her eyes at the warmth that filled her and sighed at the way her chest tightened. "It'll be alright, Swan. They're going to love you."
"How can you be so sure?" So many questions, so many doubts. Her insecurity was off the roof and all she could think about was if she didn't live up to their standards, whichever those were.
"Because there is absolutely no way anyone wouldn't love you," he replied, simply.
"Debatable," she raised an eyebrow, looking out the window as the plane started to move. "But thank you for being here."
The way his thumb caressed the back of her hand was almost like a statement for her. He wasn't going anywhere. Not that she needed the assurance, though, as the ring on her left hand he placed a kiss upon not a second later was a constant reminder of that.
"But what if I'm not what they expected me to be?"
"Emma, darling, I am telling you, they will appreciate every bit of your being," he put his arm around her as they walked towards the entry of the building. It was over four hours later and she still couldn't take that out of her head.
She sighed and groaned at the sight of stairs. "Really? Not only is the town deserted, but elevators don't exist?"
"Aye, I do have one factor about you in mind they wouldn't approve of," he muttered, leading the way. "Your natural sloth."
She sighed once more and walked up the stairs. After one, two, three flights, they finally reached their destination. Stopping in front of the door, she looked up at him, fear crystal clear in her green eyes. He nodded reassuringly and grabbed her hand. He was there for her.
She then raised an hesitant hand to the door and knocked.
They waited, every second passing making her grip on his hand tighten. Finally, the door opened to reveal a sixty-year-old man, with blue eyes and greying blonde hair. He had Emma's nose.
She smiled nervously. "Hi, my name's--"
"Emma," the man breathed.
"David, who is it?," a female voice came from inside. The man didn't even move. A short form came to stand beside him and Killian had to hold down a gasp at the similarity in the old woman's look. Apart from the grey pixie hairstyle, she had Emma's eyes, chin, cheekbones... Everything. The woman gasped and looked at Emma. "Is that..." And she trailed off. Killian could say, she was clearly Emma's--
"Mom?," he heard Emma's weak voice next to him, and squeezed her hand a bit more.
They moved in synch, the old couple stepping forward, eager to feel their long lost daughter in their arms again; and Emma doing the same, finally able to feel her parents against her for the first time.
Killian stepped back and felt weird, as if he were interrupting a private scene. It was quite beautiful too: they clung to each other, and he could hear whispered 'I can't believe you found us' and 'I missed you so much' in the middle of the tangle of limbs and heads
He couldn't say he wasn't jealous though. He was entirely happy how his future wife, but he knew there was no way he could meet his parents again, or even his brother. They were all gone.
He still had her though, and he dared say that was more than enough.
When they finally broke apart, all of them had tears shining in their eyes. They simply looked at each other, relieved smiles plastered on their faces, and Killian couldn't stop his own. It was a special moment, even for him.
That seemed to bring Emma back to the real world and she wiped the years from her cheeks, looking up at him with a beautiful smile on her lips.
"Killian," she started. "These are Mary Margaret and David Nolan...," she paused, as if she were savouring the moment. "...my parents."
He looked up at the older couple, only to be welcomed by warm eyes and wholehearted smiles. He genuinely grinned back.
"Mom, dad," Emma proceeded. Killian could see how strange it must have felt for her, saying those words and meaning them, "this is Killian Jones," she looked up at him again, proudly. "My fiancé."
David's eyebrows furrowed. "Fiancée?," he then looked at his wife. "Did we miss it all?," he whispered at her, and Killian could hear the pain in the words.
"If it helps, mate," he said out aloud, getting their attention. "The wedding's in four months. She'll need someone to walk her down the aisle," he smiled again, doing his best to lighten the mood.
David's lips curled at the edges again and he chuckled, resting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing it slightly. He really hoped it was a reassuring, fond squeeze, and not the 'if you hurt my daughter I will run you over with my pickup truck' squeeze.