Captain Swan - The Writings On The Wall

Don't Get Attached

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"What about you? How did you end up here?" he asked, looking up at her again.

"I was left on the side of the road as a baby and went through the foster system." Her eyes met his and the look he gave her made her heart melt. It wasn't a look of pity or obligation, it was a look of understanding, like they were kindred spirits meant to find each other. Emma looked away again.

"Look, I don't do this."

He looked at her confused.

"Do what?"

"This thing that we're doing right now."

"And what would that be, love?"

Emma lost a breath again. The way he said the word 'love' with that silk, British accent of his gave her goosebumps.

"I'm not your love. And I don't socialize. People aren't meant to be together forever. They leave, that's just what they do. They leave and never look back."

Killian's eyes grew dark with sadness again.

"Not me. I'll never leave this place. Not until my brother is old enough to have custody of me, which won't be for another three years."

"How long have you been here?" she asked curiously.

"3,789 days," he replied with a quick, smooth confidence to his answer. Emma arched a brow at him.

"You keep track of the number of days you've been here?"

"Aye. Let me show you." He stood up, reaching out his hand and she took it after a moment of hesitation. They went inside the orphanage and up the stairs to the room he stayed in. He led her into the closet and turned on the light-bulb above them. There on the wall to the left was halfway covered in small tick marks representing each day he had been there. She looked at them as she traced some of the markings with her finger.

"So you see, I'm not going anywhere, Emma. I'm too old for any family to want me now."

"How old are you?" she asked, turning to look at him.

"Thirteen. You?"

"Same."

*****

Emma woke up a few hours later to her pager beeping. She released her fingers from Killian's hold and reached for it on the night stand. There was an emergency at the hospital. She very carefully lifted his arm from her body and rested it on the mattress behind her, trying not to wake him. Reaching for a pen and pad of paper in the drawer of her nightstand, she left Killian a note to let him know she had to go to work. She ripped it out and left it next to him before she got up and grabbed her keys, purse and umbrella.

It was a ten minute drive to the hospital on a day like today. The traffic was light this early in the morning and it was Sunday. When she arrived, she quickly found an empty spot in the parking lot and rushed inside to the ER.

She was a resident at Boston's children's hospital and loved her job dearly. Being able to help sick children and save lives was one of the things that made her want to get out of bed everyday. It gave her life.

*****

"What do you want to be when you grow up, Emma?" Killian asked her out of the blue one day as she was reading Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and he was reading Peter Pan. They met in the same closet every day since they met, exchanging stories of childhood memories, both happy and sad. After Killian had convinced her that he was not going anywhere without her, they quickly became friends.