The Definition of Love

Chapter Two ~ Before And After {Killian Jones}

~ Killian Jones ~

I like to think of my life in two parts; before and after. Before Emma and after Emma. Before I was a wretched human being, my search for vengeance clouding and shielding me from reality, shielding me from what I was becoming. Then there's after; when she pulled me out from under those rotting, decaying bodies of those Cora had destroyed that was the first time since my Milah was taken from me that my mind fully wandered away from my search for vengeance.

She had sparkling blue eyes and blond hair that shimmered under the rising sun. Although, as I looked at her I could sense something lurking beneath her thick facade. As she drug me to a nearby table I could now tell that she had put walls up around herself, walls reaching to the heavens, walls shielding her from her emotions which were buried in the deepest, darkest caverns found inside those looming walls.

As she began to interrogate me my eyes began to wander, taking in my surroundings. A fierce looking woman weighed down with a large assortment of weapons that could leave me on the ground begging for mercy in a matter of seconds. There was a younger girl, presumably in her early twenties, in a light purple dress. Her eyes were wandering, as if she was not really here.

After all my years at sea I have gained the ability to read people, in my mind everyone is an open book. There are those like Emma who have built walls around themselves so thick that they assume nobody can read them, but I can. All you ever need to know about someone can be seen in their eyes. Many people are desperate to become somebody that they are not, but that can never truly happen. As you plaster layers of thick skin over yourself there are still parts of your old self that will still show through that facade.

After my dear brother Liam died I became a different person, I tried to forget, but I never really could. I could tell that the young woman in purple was doing the opposite of what I did, she was trying to remember. I could immediately tell that she had lost someone and was desperate to bring them back. She had lost all sense of reality, she would stop at nothing to get him back, and I have learned that nothing good can come from that.

My eyes wandered to the final woman present. Though I have never known her, I recognized her immediately, Snow White. I have heard many a story about the infamous girl. About how she ruined Regina's life but was still able to find her happy ending, with her beloved "Prince Charming." No matter how poorly Cora spoke of her in a way I was inspired by her. No matter what level of torture and hardships she had faced she always found the will to move on, never letting herself be fully consumed by the darkness that had practically eaten me alive.

I could tell by the way that she watched the woman interrogating me that they had a special connection, but what? I thought back to what Cora had told me about, how Snow White and Prince Charming had sent their newborn daughter through a magical portal to another realm, a realm without magic, to prevent the oncoming curse from harming the child. The child would be the Savior, and on her 28th birthday she would save her parents and everyone else who were victims of this powerful curse. It suddenly dawned on me, this woman was the Savior, this breathtakingly beautiful woman was the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming.

As the day progressed her story became even clearer to me. She had been in love, in fact madly in love, but that man had abandoned her, leaving her alone in jail with their unborn child. As I told her my speculations about her past I could not help but notice the surprise in her eyes. "At least I'm making a first impression," I thought to myself. Emma and I, I found that we had much in common. We both came from troubled pasts that we worked every day to forget. Now I know that we never really can leave our pasts. Our actions, what we felt, who we were, who we loved, they live with us, they stay with us, every day of our lives. These troubled pasts, they make us who we are and they pave the way to our future.

In the time that I spent with Emma Swan that day I felt something that I had not felt in countless years. I was beginning to care for her, for the first time in nearly 3 centuries I was opening up to someone, and I could tell she may be doing the same. I had only known her for several hours, but when she left me on top of the beanstalk I had never felt more betrayed.

Now as I stand in her doorway I can see the look in her eyes that I noticed the first time I met her. She had, once again, put up her walls.

When she sacrificed herself for me, allowing me to safely evade the curse, I had never felt worse in my life. She said that Henry needed her, that she had to go with him back to Storybrooke, because he was not born in a world with magic. She made me stay, stay behind with our two year old son Liam in a safe haven Blue had made for us.

I still remember the promise we made to each other, I would find her. I will make her remember, because what we have, it is true love. That was four years ago.

As she looks back at me, clearly concerned, relief washes over me. But this woman, this woman staring back at me, she is not the Emma I know.

For as long as I have known her, my Emma, my Swan, has given me something to fight for. Our son Liam does not know his mother, and Emma does not even know she has a son.

For as hard and as long as I have been fighting for her, I would have never imagined this moment. As she looks at me I see nothing in her eyes, not even the slightest twinkle of recognition.

There is only one way to break this curse, only one way to get her to remember, to come back home.

I take a step forward. She puts out her hand to stop me.

"Whoa, who are you. "

"Swan, I know you can't remember me, but I can make you."

And with that I gingerly place my hand behind her head and pull her into a deep and passionate kiss.

~What do you think? If you could not already tell, this story will be narrated by Killian and Emma. Sometimes, like in this case, a single moment will be told from the point of view of both characters! Let me know what you think in the comments! Make sure to follow me on Instagram; @welcome.to.storybrooke!~