Chapter Twenty Three.
Later that evening, Freya laid on the bed, curled up, hugging a pillow to her chest, when she heard the remains of the door being moved.
"Stowaway?" Killian's voice was soft and quiet.
"What do you want, Killian?" She grumbled, squinting as Killian flicked the bedside lamp on.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you." He said. "We all thought it was for the best."
Freya sat up and scoffed. "The best for whom? Certainly not Emma. This is tearing her apart."
"I know, love. We've just had a two hour conversation of which the main purpose was the realisation of exactly that. We were just looking out for you." Killian sighed heavily, wiping his face in frustration.
"I can take care of me and I can take care of our baby. I've lived a bloody long life, Killian Jones and I'll be damned if I can't protect myself from monsters under the bloody bed." Freya snapped.
"Aye. I should've trusted you. I'm sorry." He mumbled, holding his head low.
"You're damn right, you should've." She sat on the edge of the bed, facing away from Killian as she caressed the active child in her womb.
"How's our princess?" The Captain asked.
"She's annoyed that we're fighting." Freya huffed. "I can feel her flittering about in here."
"What does it feel like?" Killian questioned, shuffling round to sit next to her.
"It kinda feels like bubbles floating in my stomach. Or like butterflies." She described, rubbing her abdomen with her thumb. "But sometimes she'll kick a little harder and it feels like some sort of tiny alien trying to escape." She smiled to herself.
"I'm so sorry, love. I never meant for any of this to happen." Killian sighed.
"The damage is done. Speaking of which, I believe there's a door I need to fix." She went to get up, but was stopped by her love.
"Hold on a second." He whispered, pulling her close as he went in for a kiss.
Their lips touched delicately, Freya still reasonably hesitant after how angry she had previously been.
"I love you." He told her.
"I love you too."
As the twenty-fourth week of Freya's pregnancy approached, their little girl began to get very active.
The Heretic laid on the couch with a glass of blood in one hand, her other on her belly and her legs resting in Killian's lap when she got the memo that their princess was awake.
There was a dull kick that Freya could not only feel from the outside, but also swore she could see as well.
"Killi..." She smiled to him.
"Aye, love?" He looked over to her.
"Give me your hand." She giggled, poking around in her abdomen to get a response from the baby.
Killian then offered out his hand and Freya took it, placing it over her ever-growing stomach.
Only a few seconds later, Killian's whole face lit up as he felt his little mermaid kick his palm.
"Oh my God..." He breathed, leaning down to rest his head gently on the bump just as another kick came. "Good morning, princess."
Freya looked down at him with the most pure version of love and admiration in the universe. She knew she loved this man and that no matter how much they fought, they'd be together forever.
"Come on, love, drink up. We've got a busy day today." He sighed, lifting his head back up after giving her stomach a kiss.
Freya nodded and finished her blood before going to get changed. She wore a black maxi dress, as that was all that seemed to fit her anymore, leather jacket and zip-up gladiator sandals.
The forest was eerily cold for the time of year but, being technically dead, Freya didn't mind. It was the tiny little girl inside her she worried about.
"Ingrid? Show yourself. I've got a bone to pick with you." Freya called out.
"Freya. How nice to finally meet you." Ingrid's song-like voice came from behind the Heretic, causing her to spin round at an incredible speed.
"If you'd have said that a week ago, I would've agreed. But I hear you're hurting this town and my daughter."
"Yes, I heard that you'd adopted sweet Emma. Though I'll admit I found it a little odd considering you abandoned her all those years ago." Ingrid gave a smirk that somehow still looked so sweet, which only pissed Freya off more.
"I'd be careful how you address me, if I were you. I might just have to flash over there and rip your throat out. Imagine that, all this town's problems would be over." Freya chuckled, shrugging.
"But could you get to me before I froze that poor innocent child growing inside you?" Ingrid questioned. "I'm not sure you'd want to find out."
"I doubt something that diabolical is within the reaches of your conscience." Freya raised an eyebrow.
"Perhaps not. But this is." Ingrid reached into a small pocket in her silver, flowing gown and revealed a magic bean.
"Now, where on Earth did you get that?" Freya sighed.
"An old friend." She smiled.
"Rumpelstiltskin..." The Heretic uttered under her breath.
"You know the story, then." Ingrid gave a sickeningly sweet chuckle.
"I've been filled in." Freya sneered. "So what now?"
"You're a problem that needs solving. I need you out of my way so that complete my plans to have Elsa and Emma as my sisters." The Snow Queen replied as though it were obvious. "This bean was meant to transport us back to Arundelle, but I'm sure I can find another way."
"I hate to tell you, but biology doesn't work like that. Elsa's your niece. Can't you just be happy with that?" Freya frowned.
"I expected more from you, Freya. Especially considering you had non-biological brothers and sisters of your own in that Gemini coven of yours."
"How the bloody hell do you know so much about me?" The Heretic spat.
"In my time in this realm, I've learned how to get the answers I need." Ingrid shrugged.
"And that's only going to get you killed." Freya hissed, revealing her Vampiric features.
"Perhaps." Ingrid practically whispered, then threw the magic bean at the ground Freya stood upon.
Before she had a chance to react, Freya fell through the portal as it opened up under her feet. She may not have had a chance to move, but she instantly thought about the Enchanted Forest, knowing the bean would take her there.
"Have you seen Freya today, mate?" Killian asked Lance as he came down the stairs to see the Vampire sat in the kitchen with a glass of blood. "She's not answering her phone."
"Not since you two were sat watching the baby kick. Is something wrong?" Lance knitted his eyebrows into a frown.
"We were supposed to be running a few errands today, but she's nowhere to be found." Killian sighed, not knowing what to do.
"Tell ya what. I'll call Regina, Mary Margaret and stop by Granny's to see if anyone's seen her. You call Emma and get her over here if she hasn't seen Freya either." Lance said, pulling out his phone.
Killian nodded, pulling out his own and struggled to locate the contacts on the strange device he wasn't yet used to.
"How the bloody hell do you do this?" He growled a sigh, impatiently.
Lance chuckled. "Here, let me show you."
Killian passed him the phone and was shown how to access contacts, then the plan was away.
"Any news?" Emma asked, walking through the door at the house, Elsa in tow.
"Nothing." Killian shook his head.
"She's got to be somewhere..." Emma sighed.
"Has anyone heard anything from my aunt recently?" Elsa wondered aloud.
"You don't think..." Emma gasped at the realisation.
"She wouldn't be stupid enough to go after the Snow Queen in her condition." Killian gave another shake of his head.
"She was pretty angry when she found out we'd been keeping all this from her... Perhaps she was just waiting for the right moment." Emma suggested.
"She'd better not have." Killian growled, moving to grab his leather jacket and walk out of the house.
In the Enchanted forest, Freya landed on her hands and knees, making sure not to crush her little girl.
"Bloody Hell..." She grumbled, picking herself up from the muddy floor. She cradled her ever-growing stomach. "It's alright Princess. We'll find a way back to daddy."
The Heretic tucked her hair behind her ear, as to make it easier to use her Vampire hearing.
Nothing to the North, nothing to the East, something that sounded kind of like predatory animals feasting in the West, so she decided to head South, where she could've sworn she had heard a horse or two.
Eventually, she found a path and began to trail it. But she realised, just as the first snowflakes were falling, that even she was cold.
Freya knew that if she, someone who was technically dead and shouldn't feel temperature, was cold, then so was her child.
She knew she needed to find somewhere to get some more weather appropriate clothes, or else her unborn baby would freeze to death.
Freya kept walking, cradling her stomach to try and keep it warm, until she came upon a small cabin, with a washing line full of clothes.
She hated the idea of being a thief, the act of stealing the now dry winter cloak from the line reminding her of when she had first turned and was forced into doing unspeakable things.
The Heretic wrapped the cloak around herself and fastened the clip around her neck, then quickly made her exit before she was caught.
She walked through the thick forest until she was aching all over – the extra weight from the baby was wearing Freya down immensely.
If this was anything like a Human pregnancy, Freya was well aware that she should not have done nearly as much walking as she already had done.
So she decided to find somewhere to settle for the night.
"Incendia." Freya whispered, waving her hand over the log fire she had made, causing it to burst into flames and instantly start crackling away.
She sat down on the floor, her back leaning against a fallen tree.
She had no idea what she was going to do or where she was going to do. But he did know that she needed to somehow get a message to Killian.
Freya recalled a spell that she hadn't done for quite a few centuries and picked up a large leaf from beside her. She then bit into her hand, creating a makeshift cup out of her palm, dipped a long, red painted fingernail into the warm liquid and began to write on the leaf.
'Killian, Ingrid sent me to the Enchanted Forest. Get help. We love you.' She wrote.
Freya cleaned up the blood and cupped the leaf in her hands, whispering an incantation into it.
"Vain se message sa a le main sur la vain."
With that, she threw the message into the fire, watching it as the edges burned, shortly followed by the message itself.
In Storybrooke, it was late. Yet Killian found himself still at the Sheriff's office with David and Emma.
"The town is surrounded by a damn ice circle. There are only so many places she could be." Emma said, running her fingers through her hair in frustration.
Just then, Killian felt something move in the pocket of his jeans.
He reached in and pulled out a leaf.
"What's that?" David asked, both him and Emma moving towards the Pirate with curiosity.
Killian read the note aloud. "Killian, Ingrid sent me to the Enchanted Forest. Get help. We love you." He then looked up to the pair in front of him. "Why the bloody Hell would she send her there?"
"Perhaps Freya confronted her and Ingrid saw she'd be a problem. The real question is how she sent her there." Emma raised an eyebrow.
"She doesn't have the magic for it. Maybe she had a magic bean we didn't know about." David suggested.
"Where would she get a magic bean from?" Killian asked.
"Wrong question." Emma sighed. "Where are we going to get a magic bean from?"