Just Stay.

Truth and Lies

Note: I'm uploading this in a whirlwind (that took me 7 years to spell) of activity and I would love to say a proper HELLO AGAIN LOVELIES but no time sadly!  So for those of you reading this, the chapter right before this actually takes place in the middle of this one. It was kind of like a teaser. Hope that explains it a little.
I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH THANK YOU FOR BEING PATIENT WITH ME PLS LEAVE ME COMMENTS THEY MAKE MY DAY!!!

Emma Swan was having a sucky day.
Her parents had flat out ordered her to stay in the house. They argued that she wasn't going to find Rumpelstiltskin if she was dead, and right now, it was looking like she was the Dark Ones number 1 target. The threat, the letter, it made her parents act like their 14 year old daughter wanted to go to a frat party. Stubborn as hell.

It seemed like everyone was on super-protective mode. She was still getting used to people caring enough about her to want to keep her safe, and the feeling was still strange to her. Having a family that loved her was an insane sort of luxury. But they weren't thinking straight. The letter had been a direct threat towards her, and she would be damned if she let the danger he posed to her affect her family. Whatever this "present" was, it wasn't coming near her parents or son. She knew that if she separated herself from them, Rumpelstiltskin  would go for her. He had no wish to harm Henry. The boy was his grandson after all, whatever that meant to The Dark One.

So she booked a motel room, a unused, shabby little joint called the 'The Shoe', which was some (not very thought out or creative) play on 'the little old lady who lived in a shoe'. From the Sheriff station she and Hook had been dropped off at her apartment and ushered inside by a wary looking Regina who had kissed her son goodbye returning to searching.

Henry and Neal had been put to bed, Emma soaking every last feature of her son and brother. She wondered if they would ever have a minute to be normal, if Neal would grow up in a world where no one was safe and villains constantly posed a threat to his family. That was already the world her son knew, and she hated that she couldn't change that. Couldn't paint the picture of the perfect life over her sons eyes, that she couldn't give him that reality.
But they had tried that, for a whole year in New York, and it hadn't been home.
As she kissed Henry goodnight she vowed then and there that she wouldn't stop until every threat to her family was destroyed. That no matter what came up, she would be there to take care of it. Of them.

Hook had made it clear that we went where she did and since she had already bent there was no point protesting when he had climbed in the shotgun seat of her bug with an overnight bag slung over his shoulder. She had a small thought about how the motel room only had one bed, but quickly dismissed the thought.

They hadn't talked much, each of them too worried about what might happen to engage in small talk. When it was time to sleep he gave her hand a quick squeeze and a questioning look, making sure him sleeping next to her was okay. Her heart fluttered that even though they had done it before, he still asked her permission. Ever the gentleman. She nodded of course.

She was exhausted, and thought she would fall asleep the second her head hit the pillow but she felt uneasy. Everything felt strange. So much had happened in the last few weeks, it felt she hadn't had a moment to catch her breathe. But it was more than that.

An almost chemical discomfort had settled around here in the few hours. It reminded her of the sharp tang of magic. What if Rumplestiltskin had done something? What if he had sent some sort of magic ghost thingy to plague her? Wouldn't put it past him.

'You're being stupid and paranoid. Goddamit go to sleep '  her subconscious droned.
'Shut up' she whispered, accidentally saying the words out loud.

Hook, who had been brushing his teeth before joining her, stuck his head into the room. His toothbrush still in his mouth, and he looked jaw drop worthy in a short sleeve cotton T shirt and pijamas bottoms.
"I didn't say anything Love."
Why was she like this.
"Sorry, nevermind" she said embarrassed.