Kaitlin, college student, I post Once Upon a Time, Lucifer and some Marvel things and Pokemon. Lover of awesome stories, and adorable animal photos. I also like food and sarcastic memes. I also write when I'm not being a math nerd. I've decided to reward negetivity with math.
 always feel like part of this was mine by @ohmightydevviepuuââ
 Beautiful by @thesschesthair
 good ships and wood ships and ships that sail the sea by @profdanglaisstuff
Home (there and back again - a Saviourâs tale) by @katie-dub and @anxioussquirrel
âCuddlesâ, a painting by @svenjaliv
âWhatever the Weather (You Make Everything Better)â by @snowbellewells
âCould This Be Us?â by @killiansprincssâ
Week Two!
A Quiet Moment by @onceratheart18â
Exactly Where I Was Meant to Be by @stahlop
Written in the Stars by @klynn-stormz
till the summer comes again by @demisexualemmaswan
the monsters turned out to be just trees by @spartanguard
Neverland artwork from @carpedzem
spots and splashes by @killianjones-twopointoh
Week Three!
Kittens for Quarantine by @delightfully-difficult-pirate
a new land of untold stories in artwork by @mariakov81
Sowing Seeds of Trust by @jrob64
if you carry the torch (iâll follow the light) by @beyourlifeline
Puzzle Pieces picsets by @resident-of-storybrooke
love languages by @captain-emmajones
A New Game Plan by @onthecyberseas
home by @thisonesatellite
Week Four!
Emma Was Cold by @caught-in-the-filter
Papaâs Socks by @xhookswenchxâ
Like Me For Me by @pirateherokillian
letâs rest for a while, âtil our souls catch us up by @scientificapricot
Happy New Beginnings by @killianslefthook
Seeking Shelter, Seeking Solace by @shireness-says
Vulnerable by @ohmakemeahercules
A Few Nice Words by @reggieshamster
The Darkness by @carpedzem
A Happy Ending (well, that depends on where you start) by @lasslunaâ
Thank you so much to all of our authors and artists for your incredible work! Thank you to our cheerleaders and beta readers and everyone who popped into the server to say hello!! Thank you to our mod team, @katie-dubâ, @pirateherokillianâ, @lasslunaâ and @ohmightydevviepuuâ. We hope that this amazing collection of art and fic helped bring you some January Joy. đđđ
A math professor, Dave, has a problem with his sink so he calls a plumber.
The plumber comes over and quickly fixes the sink. The professor is happy until he gets the bill. He tells the plumber, âHow can you charge this much? This is half of my paycheck.â But he pays it anyways.
The plumber tells him, âHey, we are looking for more plumbers. You could become a plumber and triple your salary. Just make sure you say you only made it to 6th grade, they donât like educated people.â
The professor takes him up on the offer and becomes a plumber. His salary triples and he doesnât have to work nearly as hard. But the company makes an announcement that all of their plumbers must get a 7th grade education. So they all go to night school.
On the first day of night school they all attend math class. The teacher wants to gauge the class so he asks Dave, âWhat is the formula for the area of a circle?â
Dave walks up to the board and is about to write the formula when he realizes he has forgotten it. So he begins to attempt to derive the formula, filling the board with complicated mathematics. He ends up figuring out it is negative pi times radius squared. He thinks the minus doesnât belong so he starts over, but again he comes up with the same equation. After staring at the board for a minute he looks out at the other plumbers and sees that they are all whispering,
I swear I saw a tumblr post on here that said âhorses have over 4,000 bonesâ and i donât know where it came from because its totally wrong, they have 205, but what kind of fucked up horse has this person seen out there because Iâm absolutely terrified of itÂ
Thank you to CSMM Discord and @hollyethecurious wonderful idea of a Feed Your WIPs February. So I am currently working on the final part of Its a brand new day, (it's never too late to start) that was part of my contribution for @csrolereversal last year with the lovely @allons-y-to-hogwarts-713.âs lovely aesthetic. I think I am almost done so with any luck this will be dropping on Valentineâs day.Â
âBut if you do have a secret admirer, all you have to do is have someone watch the door and see who they catch outside. Thatâs how all the cop shows do it.â He declares. âYou can call it Operation Valentine.â
He shakes his head. It seems ridiculous, having his own apartment staked out for this mysterious admirer? That was going too far.
âWho would I even have to watch the place?â He asks, not at all considering it.
âEmma tells me that she pays local neighbors when she has to leave stake outs, why donât you ask her what to do?â Henry asks.
âYeah Killian.â Belle says pointedly. Sheâs still smirking at him like heâs supposed to know something that he clearly does not. âAsk Emma if she could possibly know how to catch your super secret admirer.â
Wait, u don't see things when you read?? How do u understand what's going on then???
aha brain broke ):
no but ok itâs like....i kind of get the vibe of whatâs going on instead of seeing things? iâm better with having some kind of visual cue about spaces than characters, but still not super detailed and more feeling than anything.
but for the most part if i think about a character iâll be kind of aware of a humanoid presence and that theoretically it has certain characteristics, and if i focus really hard i can see like one (1) characteristic at a time in some kind of way, but if i think about another characteristic that first one flickers out?
so itâs not full aphantasia, but yeah def not complete faces, and no real body details. just like of like a tall mood or a stocky vibe. the emotion of long hair. the atmospheric shift of walking across a room. idk! itâs weird! itâs why iâm not good at casting actors in the positive but in the negative, like looking at someone and being like...âoh no thatâs simply the wrong auraâ.
but i donât hear a narrative voice in my head when i read, either, so itâs like more that the shape of the word gives the meaning in my head rather than the shape -> sound -> meaning. so like just brain completely broke.
When I read it's just like... my brain will occasionally go: "hey! here's a whispy, impressionist illustration of a specific moment in the scene you just read!"
And I'm like, "cool! Is there more?"
"no :)"
"not even if we like, try to concentrate real hard?"
"okay. the still image is now a .3 second animation. Also you have a headache"
...The fact that people can 'watch' scenes unfolding in their head like a movie is mind-blowing to me.
my take on how the darkness works. it didnât tun out how I imagined but itâs still pretty close :) big thanks for @captain-emmajones who supported me a lot and to all discord ladies who helped!
CS January Joy Day 31:Â A Happy Ending (well, that depends on where you stop the story)
Emma Swan was a criminal. A thief. A forger sentenced to four years for bond forgery. Killian Jones was the agent sent to catch her. And catch her he did, but after an escape attempt, an exploded PO Box and a deal an unusual partnership is formed, one that will give them both all that they ever wanted or lead to mutual destruction. White Collar AU
Ao3 FFN
AN:I am very thankful to @csjanuaryjoyâ for finally getting me to write this. It's been a wild year and hopefully this next one will bring a bit more joy. Thank you @teamhookâ and @ultraluckycatndâ for beta reading for me.Â
âHow did it start?â
It started like most stories if sheâs being honest, which she rarely is.Â
 It started with a stolen car, stolen watches, so much stealing, so much theft, so many lies that she had forgotten where Emma, the lost orphan girl, ended and where âThe Swanâ, grifter, forger, liar, thief began. Her reputation grew, as did her steady collection of wealth.
It started with a boy and a girl, lost and alone and unwanted in the world and turned into some wannabe Bonnie and Clyde duo who just wanted to be seen, to be heard, and to take back what the world took for them.
They lied, cheated, and stole for the sake of it. And they were good at it. Thereâs something about being alone and unwanted that just made it easier to pretend. Sometimes a lawyer, other times a high profile gambler rubbing elbows with mobsters and politicians alike. One time she pretended to be Leila Lucas, princess of a far off land in order to get close to some crown jewels. They pretended that these lives, these rich, luxurious important lives were theirs. They pretended that they deserved these things because they could take them.Â
And take them they did. The car, the watches, the bonds, the jewels, the paintings, they took them all.Â
Emma loved the paintings, the art, the beauty. She loved looking at things that gave people feelings. It made her feel a little less alone.
Neal loved the money, the thrill, the ways the world bent to their will, the way it rushed through their veins.Â
It started with young love. It started good, and they were happy.
//
âHow did it end?â
It ended like most stories, or at least it seemed like that to him.Â
He was a simple FBI agent, chasing her, tracking her, trying to prove to the world the crimes she commited. Part of him always thought that was what sheâd wanted. She wanted her crimes to be seen, noticed. She wanted to be known, not disappear into the shadows.
He understood that, he was trying to prove himself too. Killian was a good FBI agent with a shitty childhood and an even worse family history. But he wanted to be great. He wanted to escape the shadows and prove that he was better than those who came before.
He just wanted to do his job. He wanted to catch her. He wanted to catch 'The Swan'. He spent years hunting her. He was supposed to be just one more FBI agent who tried to catch a break and then went on to the easier, flasher cases.Â
But not Killian. He had no intention of giving up. Because The Swan was special. She was as elusive as they come, never staying in one place too long, always running, running, running.
There were two of them he knew, but it was always her. She was the one planning things out, making the big moves, making the forgeries, being seen. Never him. He knew that once they got her, his crime spree would end. She was the one that they had proof for. She was the brains and the brawns behind their every operation. Â
But the problem was that as the years went by, as he got closer to catching her, he learned a lot about Swan. He learned how she likes her hot chocolate: with cinnamon. He learned she also had a shitty childhood; an orphan at birth, bounced around to one foster home after another. He learned she hated violence. Her jobs were smart and with little to no chance of anyone ever getting hurt.Â
And she got to know him too, if the gifts and the birthday cards proved anything. âKnow thy enemyâ as they say. But no one ever said to send your enemy flirty postcards, uber eat deliveries of your favorite take out places on stake outs, or gifts to your younger sister on her birthday.
He doesnât remember when it happened, but they had an appreciation for each other.Â
Smart, his little sister said once when he was home for a few days before he had to go back out to chase her. You always liked smart.Â
It ended like most stories, a betrayal and a trap. He knew it was a trap and let her fall right into it. Neal Cassidy, her partner in crime traded away âThe Swanâ like she was nothing. Honor among thieves seemed to have skipped him in that lesson.
The look on her face when she was caught, trapped, was painful to him. Her eyes were green fury as the truth became obvious to her. Her eyes looked at Neal who was leaving out the back, and then on him.
"It's about time we met properly," he told her as the uniform officer arrested her. âAgent Jones of the New York FBI White Collar division.â She didn't respond to him. He never expected her to.Â
It ended with a defeated bird who flew too close to the sun.Â
//Â
âThen what happened?â
Then began nearly four years later with Killian Jones, being pulled away from his current case for a jailbreak. âThe Swanâ had escaped 3 weeks short of her 4 year sentence. It had been years since he even heard her name. Her capture had been his shining moment, it had made his career.
 Her escape had been flawless. Her long hair, chopped off, a guard uniform ordered with the wardenâs own credit card.Â
She was in the wind with no hope of being found.
âRoad blocks, wanted posters, people posted at the train stations and airports,â the marshals told him, but Killian knew her, knew Emma.Â
They wouldnât catch her with the traditional methods.Â
She didnât escape for the traditional reasons.Â
She had been a model prisoner, kept her head down and out of trouble, so why leave now? It had taken months of planning. So he went back, when did she start planning her escape? When did things change?Â
She got visits from him, from Neal. The vile excuse of a man who got her caught in the first place. He knew better than to judge someone for going back to familiar patterns. Especially trapped in prison.Â
But his visits stopped nearly a month ago. The man went from visiting weekly with a smile and a magazine to nothing.
So Killian looked at that tape, the final visit from the conman who got away with it. He wasn't surprised by what he saw. His last visit was final. He had all the body language of it. A pained smile, looking shifty and nervous. Emma had stood, slamming her fist on the glass; he'd seen tears on her cheeks when the guards dragged her back, back towards her cell. Sheâd screamed and pleaded.
But Neal left anyway.
âAriel,â he said to the younger agent. She was a bright new recruit, his favorite of the probies. âGet me anything you have on Neal Cassidy and all his known aliases.â Ariel was very good at finding exactly what he needed in moments like this. A cold blooded shark in a sea of misinformation. Â
 They find her in an empty apartment, cradling a dreamcatcher in her hand. She looks the same as the last time heâd seen her. Heartbroken. They were in Neal's apartment. The one he rented a few weeks after her trial.Â
(Killian remembered seeing him there, full of sorries and excuses. Word on the street was that no one wanted to work with him after that. Honor among thieves was apparently much more important than the man thought.)
âHow many are here?â she asks as he enters. Her back towards a pillar in the middle of the room.
âBetween the FBI, the Marshals, NYPD...everyone,â he chuckled. Heâd told them they hadnât needed to corner off the streets like this. Emma had never been violent. âTheyâre going to give you another four years for this, you know that right?â
Emma laughed a humorless laugh. âI was two days late,â she admits, obviously not caring one bit about what he said.
âAnd thatâs all he left you?â
âIt means goodbye,â Emma admitted. He gave her a small smile, knowing nothing he can say will help. âI canât believe they dragged you here for this after all this time.â He wasnât that surprised. Catching her the first time had been his defining moment; if he failed the second time, they could write it off as a fluke.Â
âItâs been a long time, Swan.â She smirked at the name. âBut canât blame them. I was the only one who caught you, none of the others even got close.â She looked at him quizzically.Â
He was dusty, fresh from an exploded PO box that his latest case--nicknamed The Dutchman-- had left specifically for him. There were strange threads left on his clothing that none of the Harvard grad FBI agents could tell him anything about. It was something that had agitated him greatly before heâd been pulled here, to find her.Â
âThis guyâs good,â he told her, watching her look him over. âMaybe even better than you. Iâve been hunting him for a few months now and-â She moved quickly, standing and plucking one of the threads off his jacket blazer. It shined strangely as it caught the light. Killian could hear the marshals, or maybe S.W.A.T. pounding through the doors a few floors beneath them.
âWhatâs it worth if I can tell you what this is?â she asked, handing it to him.Â
âWhat-â
âI can tell you what these are right now in exchange,â she said quickly. He could practically see the thoughts and plans race in her mind. Time was running out. âIn exchange for a meeting,â she concluded.
âA meeting?â he asked.
âA meeting in one week. Deal?â she asked. They were coming. Killian nodded. Despite his misgivings, it was only a meeting.
âThatâs the new security fiber to the Canadian $100 bill,â she said, just in time for the other agents to drag her away. Her smile is bright and mischievous as she refuses to break their gaze until the last possible moment. âIâll see you in a week!âÂ
//
âAnd I was right. It was. According to Agent Jones, it nearly created an international incident.âÂ
âDid you catch him?â
âWe did.âÂ
It hadnât been easy, not for Emma now wearing an ankle monitor to keep her in check--a fact that made her insides squirm at the thought of being tethered-- where anything going bad meant she had to go back to prison with no hope of finding Neal.
It made her heart race in that familiar way of when she was a child and got placed. When one wrong move meant they'd send her back.Â
âHe did a good job disappearing,â Ruby told her in the shadows of Grannyâs guest house. Because her friend knew that her first priority was finding Neal.
(Sheâd run into the old woman at a thrift store looking for some new clothes to wear after seeing the seedy motel Killian had tried to put her in.Â
Sheâd met a kindred spirit in the older woman, a thief after her own heart so to speak. Emma would never forget the look on Killianâs face when he saw her new view. Heâd turned to the older woman, âYou know she has a criminal record right?â heâd asked her.
Granny had taken it in stride, leaning forward with a smirk. âSo did my wife.â she said with a wink.)
"Keep looking, Ruby. I need to find him," she told her friend, her oldest friend. Sheâd been her partner in crime once, when working with Neal had come with extra stress and baggage. With Ruby things were simpler, easier. Ruby was in the information business. She knew what was being run and where. She knew all the local fences, all the local forgers. If Neal was in the city, Ruby would be able to find him.Â
Ruby nodded, but she looked worried. She glanced at the anklet in apprehension. Then back at her. All the tell tale signs that Ruby wanted to say something but worried for her reaction.Â
âYou know you donât need him right?â she blurted out. âYouâre so much better than him Emma, more talent for this stuff in your pinky then he has in his whole body. He was nothing without you and everyone knew it,â she said, practically bristling with every word. âHe betrayed you, why go through so much to find him?â Emma felt her fists clench, along with anger, fury, loss.Â
Neal Cassidy was a loaded question where she didnât have an answer.Â
But she pushed it down. She pushed it down deep. A smile appeared on her face. There was so much. So much she didnât know, so much no one knew.Â
Emma couldnât risk it.
âItâs complicated Ruby,â she said finally. âBut in the meantime, what do you know about The Dutchman?â
It had been difficult, Emma had noticed a particular signature in some forged Canadian bond. It was one that Emma recognized. Lilly Prescott. She was a well known forger that was very good at staying well under the radar. The FBI had never even heard of her which was a testament to her ability.Â
Emma had tried to work with her once. Her work was good and her planning was even better. But the woman couldnât help but take things that didnât belong to her, couldnât help but press Emmaâs buttons in all the worse ways.
It had taken seeing her tongue down Nealâs throat to learn two things: that they couldnât work together and that it was time to grow up.
And grow up she did when they walked into a church Lilly had been restoring. The little wench had leered at her and Killian. âEmma Swan,â sheâd said with a cheeky grin when she caught them comparing her work with that of the signature. âI donât exactly feel comfortable having a known art thief around my work.âÂ
âAllegedly,â Emma corrected her. Sheâd never been caught for her art theft. A point of pride if sheâs being honest. Just a few forged bonds.
She says glancing at Killian. âWhoâs your friend.â
âJust a friend,â Killian assured Lilly as they shook hands.
âEmma doesnât have any friends,â Lilly pointed out. âUnless you count Neal of course. But with friends like that, who needs enemies?â she laughed.
The name turned in her stomach, like something good that turned rotten, like a vice grip on her that she still couldnât shake.
Not until she found him.
âOf course,â Killian agreed, glancing her way. I know sheâs trying to get under your skin, his gaze told her as she pushed her walls firmer in place. If Killian could see that this woman could affect her, it worried her what else he could see.
âYou wouldnât know anything about a thief known as The Dutchman would you?â Emma asked innocently. Because if there was one thing Emma knew, it was that Lilly hated being outdone. âI hear his work is second only to...oh you know.â She smirked at her. âAllegedly of course.âÂ
âOf course,â Lilly said, an edge to her words. Itâs all Emma needed to hear. Because she knows she did it. Thatâs what she tells Killian after theyâre asked to leave the church.
âI know she did it Killian.â his hand on her arm halted her pacing. âDid you see the look on her face?â
He did, she knew he did. âI believe you Swan, but we need proof,â Killian insisted. âThatâs how this works.â
Proof came with Emma breaking into Lilyâs warehouse and Killian coming and arresting them both. Sheâd cut her anklet after all, seizing all Lilyâs things that were in plain sight.
It turned out reading all those law books in prison counted for something.Â
//
âAnd then your partnership was born.â
And it was good, if Killian was honest, it was better than he ever expected when Emma had proposed this deal. She showed up every day for work. She often showed up in ridiculously expensive suits with a fedora on her head. Heâd groaned when he first saw it, earning an elbow in his side and a âYou just donât understand fashion.â
(Trouble, like the woman who occasionally gave Emma tips about the criminals they were hunting, the woman who introduced herself rather reluctantly as a Missy Wolfe when Killian had showed up unannounced, who looked him over with a predatory glare and called him a âsuitâ.Â
âShe doesnât trust cops.â Emma had explained later. âSheâs harmless, I promise.â
But she sure did know how to drink all Killianâs beer thatâs for sure.)
Every day they would use her knowledge of the criminal underworld to find white collar criminals. After several weeks, they had a 92% closure rate and an even higher recovery rate.
But there was still this thing hanging above them. Between them. A secret they both knew about but refused to talk about. Â
And his name was Neal Cassidy.Â
Killian could tell she was looking for him no matter how many times he told her not to. Neal was her weakness, the one thing that caused the normally level headed woman to lose her bloody mind. This was a good thing for her. Emma Swan would rot behind bars and this way at least she was doing good.Â
Emma Swan liked doing good. He could tell, even when she refused to admit it.
She brought him his picture one day while theyâre on their way to speak to a witness, the picture was from an atm in Tallahassee. âPlease.â She begged. âI need to find him, to see him. Come with me please, send an agent, the marshals, send me in full shackles and prison oranges I donât care.âÂ
He had never seen her so desperate, not when he caught her, not when she asked him for this...arrangement. âSwan...what we have here...itâs good. Itâs a second chance for you, why risk it for him? He put you here. Why risk it all for him?â
She didnât respond, hands tightened into fists as she looked down. Killian swore he saw something in her expression something that would explain how this intelligent woman being so infatuated with-
âYouâre right.â She says, her voice level. Eyes hard like steel. âThere is no reason for me to be chasing Neal Cassidy.â She hissed the words.
Killian doesnât have her super power, but he knows thereâs more to the story than sheâs letting on. âIf thereâs something youâre not telling me-â But she shook her head.Â
âYou said itâs not happening, and what does it matter what I want.â She says shifting on her feet, shifting the anklet like she always does when she feels particularly trapped. âIâm just your CI. A convict without a choice in any of this.âÂ
He stops her right there. âSwan, when have I ever treated you like you donât have a choice in this? If you donât like what we ask of you, if you think itâs too riky all you have to do is say the word and-â
â-And I go to prison.â She snapped. âI go back there and rot.â Her temper was flaring and Killian stepped back, fearing getting burned.Â
âWhen have I ever threatened you with that?â He asked sincerely. âWhen have I ever told you that unless you go undercover with this mobster, or that corporate trader that youâd be shipped back?â He says.Â
Emma doesnât respond, head dipping slightly. âWhat about the other agents? Thatâs what they said would happen.â She admitted in a small voice. âAnd really, the jobs we do, theyâre fine. I donât feel endangered.â She assured him simply.Â
âEmma, I swear to you, your safety and happiness is just as important as these jobs. You are not just a criminal.â He says sternly. He steps closer to her, wanting her to look at him and hear him. Seeing her cowed and unnerved unsettled him. âTry something new darling, itâs called trust.â
âTrust doesnât exactly come easy to me.â Emma admitted. âThereâs really no way I can get to Tallahassee?â She asked once more.
Killian sighed.
The moment they finished the job, he sent a message to Ariel.Â
 âGet me anything you can on Neal Cassidyâs recent activity and do it discreetly.â He says.Â
âWhy?â She asked. It was why he valued the younger agent as much as he does, she knows when to put her head down and do as he asks, but she also knows when to press him for details.
âEmmaâs not going to stop pursuing Neal.â He told her. âI want to know what she finds out, finding Neal ourselves is the best way to know what sheâs up to.â Â
She handed him a file on the man the next morning, a file Killian took back home with him at the end of the night. He couldnât risk Emma catching him snooping on her ex. He felt silly hiding it, but the thought of her knowing he was doing so filled him with dread.
âMaybe you should tell her youâre jealous.â Belle informed him as she came home from class, seeing him consumed with the file at their kitchen table. His little sister always seemed to come home from her classes at just the right moment to see him when heâs consumed with a case.Â
âIâm not jealous Belle.â He says quickly, closing the file. âIâm being thorough.â
He is. There was something there, his gut feels it. Thereâs something about this man that Emma was hiding from him.Â
âAfter all the cat and mouse youâve done with her, I bet sheâd tell you if you asked.â Belle informs him. But Killian disagreed, he knows she won't be truthful with him if he asked. Itâll be an evasive answer framed to have him pointed in the opposite direction. It was how she worked while on the run. This is the only way.Â
âHow do you know?â Killian asked. âYouâve never even met her.â He reminded her.Â
âAnd whoâs fault is that?â
//
âThen the Diamond heist.â
âThen the Diamond heistâ
It had happened quickly. A diamond heist that had been done with such perfection Emma was generally impressed. They had video surveillance in the vault and nowhere else. It was as if they just vanished, and considering that New York had extensive video surveillance it was impressive.Â
It was a job she would do once upon a time. Just the kind of take that was exciting enough to catch her attention. But that was in the past.Â
Emma was determined to keep her head down when it came to jobs. She had a bigger problem on her hands. Someone had Neal, or at least was putting pressure on him. Heâd signaled her from an ATM camera in Tallahassee.Â
Their plan had always been Tallahassee, a city in the middle of Florida of all places. No one would expect anyone who had stolen millions of dollars of artifacts to retire there of all places. It was perfect. They were going to have the life they always wanted growing up.
(It just so happened that Emma had told him thatâs where she had her stash at.Â
A lie. A trap. Bait he had fallen for now after all this time. Never once did he leave his apartment in New York, only now did that stone come loose. It had to mean something.)
But not everyone knew that Emma was done with that life. Not even her most trusted confidant --and partner in more than one crime--Ruby believed her.
âOf course I didnât do it.â Sheâd hissed into the phone when the brunette asked her excitedly. âBut do you know who did?â
âNone of my contacts know anything, sorry Em. Iâll keep an ear out.â She answered. Emma can hear the sounds of birds on the other end. She knew better than to ask. âThatâs why I thought it was you.â
It wasnât long after that that the forged diamond is shown to have a small swan etched into it. One that matched the ones she left in her forged bonds. It became very clear very fast that she was being framed.Â
âKillian, you need to know I didnât do this.â She insisted, backing away from them in the parking lot after having been confronted. âYou have to believe me.â Her eyes looked for him. She needed to know he believed her.Â
It didnât matter who else did, just him. Because if Killian didnât have her back then who would?
âKillian?â She asked when he didn't meet her gaze. He did eventually. He looked saddened. âYou know I was set up right?âÂ
Killian didnât respond. It made her furious. It reminded her of the real situation here. She was just the criminal and he was just her handler. Any semblance of a partnership was just a figment of her imagination.
âSwan...â He said softly. âIf what youâre saying is true, I swear to you I will get to the bottom of it.â I believe you. âBut until then...Emma Swan you are under arrest...â
Back to prison. Back to the cell. Back to being helpless while Neal is off with-
She couldnât go back. Not yet. Not when someone was trying to frame her. The same person who was holding Neal, she was sure of it.
So Emma did what she did best. She ran.Â
She ran and ran and ran. Sheâd spent every day on her walks to the office coming up with escape routes through a city she knows too well. The agents depend too much on the anklet to catch her.Â
The tracker is tamper proof but no one ever said it was foolproof. All it takes is a sharp knife and a toss over the edge of one of the many footbridges in Manhattan for it to be a useless blinking distraction.Â
Every bone in her body tells her to run as fast and as far as she can. It wouldnât take much to get out of the city, some cash from one of Rubyâs stashes and a visit to some supplies for a new ID. All she would have to do is say the word and Ruby would run with her. She was good like that, always ready to get into all sorts of trouble for her.Â
But if she did, if she ran then she would be as good as guilty of this crime. She would never get a chance to prove her innocence. She would never get her chance to find Neal.
She had to find Neal.Â
I believe you. Killian had tried to tell her that. Maybe it was time to try that thing called trust...
Itâs how she meets Belle because while Killian is off coordinating with the Marshals, sheâs drinking tea with the sweet brunette she had sent an 18th birthday gift to a few years back.Â
Killian Jonesâs little sister was as fierce as her brother. Belle asked her if sheâd done the crime sheâd been accused of.
No.
And she had leveled her with a steel glare. âThen Killian will prove it.â Sheâd said with such certainty, such conviction that she understood a bit about Killianâs stubbornness. It was genetic. âYou just need to trust him.â
Emma did. Emma really did, more than she trusted anyone. He was honest, a good man. He was fierce keeping her out of the line of danger when at all possible and he cared for her. Moments like this reminded Emma of why everything had gone so wrong.
Iâm tired of running.
âIâm going to call him.â Belle says, not a question. âIf you donât think you can, if you really think Killian wonât have your back after everything, you have until then to leave.â Emma doesnât move. Not when Belle is talking to Killian about her classes, about having found a stray bird in their patio. (Code for her she assumes)
Thatâs when she sees the blinking in the cable box and she knows. She knows that this is all a lot bigger than the two of them.
Killian was positively furious when he arrived, all red faced and fuming. âBloody hell Swan!â Killian hisses when he storms in. âWhy did you come here?â Emma didnât know, not really. Just an instinct and her instinct was telling her to come here. That he would know what to do. âIf you were going to run, why come here?! You involved my sister!â
Emma swallows back her words, fear taking a hold in her chest.
âKillian. Give her a chance.â Belle said, taking a place inbetween. âJust listen.â He did.
âIâve been tracking Neal.â Emma admitted. âSomeone...someone has him.â she takes out the photo sheâd shown him. The whole photo, she had been too afraid to show it to him earlier, the hand on his arm, the shine of something pressed against his ribs. Something that looked very similar to a revolver. âThey want something I stole but I canât-I donât know what it is. I had a friend of mine poke around and I think I got too close.â She explains. âBecause they framed me. It has to be connected, Killian.âÂ
There was no other explanation, stirring this fight or flight instinct in her bones. But she has to hold firm, she has to trust in Killian. Because here she was, all her cards on the table.Â
âMaybe, but this is not how to do things.â He says sternly. âRunning isnât going to get you anywhere but caught or-â Killian swallows back his words. âThat marshal really has it in for you Swan.â
(The marshall in question was one Walshe Greene, appearing the moment they returned to the office wanting to speak to her about the fact that some of her ankletâs tracking data had gotten corrupted.Â
Data that just so happened to coincide with the robbery. Heâd been dickish and entitled, coming into her space when she didnât crumble under his thinly veiled threats.
Threats she didnât tell Killian about.)Â
She pointed over to his deconstructed cable box. âNot just me.â She hissed his way. A bug was in his house, in his home. The home he shared with his sister. âBoth of us.â
  She sees his barely concealed furry, the shock and fear on Belleâs face. âWhatever is coming, itâs coming for both of us.â
//
âShe was cleared of that.â
âShe was. Then you seemed to find her rather quickly, despite telling Marshal Greene that he would catch her with wanted posters and roadblocks.â
âI have exceptional luck.â
Things shifted from there. Instead of working this case on one end and Emma from another, Killian felt her walls fracture ever so slightly, and perhaps the guard he put up around her also came down ever so slightly. Perhaps too much.Â
(Once they found one bug in his home, Belle was insistent that someone come over and deep clean their place of any form of listening devices. It wasnât long after the case got wrapped up that Emma called over an âexterminatorâ.Â
âMissy Wolfe.â She introduced herself to Belle, a smirk on her face. âBut you sweetie can call me Red.â Belle had raised an eyebrow at her.Â
âWhen Emma mentioned she knew someone, I expected you to be...â
âLess gorgeous?â Sheâd said with a grin. âAnd when our mutual friend had said the suit had a cute sister I definitely imagined someone like you.â A surge of protectiveness surged within him at the way that Red was looking at his sister.
âI think youâre here to do a jobâ He reminded her.Â
âI am quite a skilled multitasker.â )
 She showed him her lead to whoever was after them. A message in the video surveillance, of their breakup and Neal messaging her in morse code by tapping at his side. Dream It meant the dream catcher which led her to a meeting in Grand Central Terminal at the end of the week.
Killian had been there when he called her. Seen her panicked face when she heard his voice. âGive him what he wants.â Neal had said.Â
âWhat is it he wants?â Sheâd asked.
âGive him everything. Itâs the only way I can come home, the only way for us to be together.â He said. Killian could feel her heart break when she said the words.
âI canât Neal. Itâs the only leverage I have.â She looked up and Emma ran. She ran because she saw him. She saw her lover that she canât reach, canât catch, canât have. Killian makes him out for a moment but heâs gone. Heâs gone by the time they get to where he was, a roof of a building looking down at them.Â
Emma collapsed in a sob and he was barely in time to catch her. Barely in time for him to hold her. She cried into his chest, something rare and primal and aching.Â
âI just want him back.â she sobbed and his heart ached for her. He understood the feeling of losing someone you love, of not being able to be with them. He holds her, hand running through her hair, her blonde locks that are growing in from the cut sheâd done months before. His head finds a place on the top of her head as he tries his best to comfort her.Â
Emma came back to herself after a moment, pulling away, rubbing her sadness from her face as easily as putting on a mask.
âWe are late for a case arenât we?â
They are. But thereâs something about the vulnerability of Emma in that moment that conflicted with the flirty beautiful woman in front of him that distressed him. Perhaps itâs the ease that her walls come back up.Â
Or maybe, they arenât walls, maybe itâs a loosely fitted cork, because their next case involves a kidnapped child and a pair of parents so obsessed with the reading of their dead auntâs will to even know when the little girl had been taken.Â
Questions like if the will had been forged, or if the inheritance was filled with counterfeits had become meaningless without the child. A fact that exploded out of Emma at the father who was planning on leaving the country with âhisâ inheritance before the FBI could interfere. The man had crumbled before her blunt display of emotions, her fury and her grief.
âShe deserves better than to be just another pawn in whatever game the two of you are playing.â She hissed. âItâs not about money, take it for someone whoâs had a hell of a lot. Thereâs more to life than numbers on a check and if anything happens to that kid youâre going to learn that the hard way too.â
He understood. He understood then, and he understood later.Â
âCase hit home for you didnât it?â He asked afterwards over a beer once the child was reunited with parents that may have learned a thing about family from Emma. An old bookie of the husband had tried to pressure him into complying.Â
âLittle kids are cute, what can I say.â She said evasively while taking the offered beer. That was another sign Emma was still hurting, she hated beer. âShe deserves better.â That she did. âYou did too.â He smirks, knowing that she knew him better than most. Yet he wondered exactly how much she did know.
âAnd how much exactly do you know about my childhood?â
âI know that you loved your father, you idolized him. You had his knack for numbers.â She said. âI know he used you as a diversion when the feds came in and busted down your door. He left you and your mom with nothing.â She swallowed and he could see her picking her words carefully. That meant she knew more than most. âI know you learned that he had at least two other families, an elder brother in DC. and a younger sister in Georgia who appeared at your door when you had just lost your mom. You took her in no questions asked.â Killian remembers the day he met his elder brother. The man had been older and took one look at him and wanted nothing to do with him. Killian was just another reminder of what Brennan Jones had done. He also remembers the day several years later when a teenaged Belle had knocked on his door. He took one look at her and remembered what Brennan had done, but he swore to accept her no matter how much the reminder hurt.Â
âSo you know quite a bit, Swan.â He responded. âI also know a bit myself.â He countered.Â
âOf course you do.â She laughed, âI bet you even know my shoe size.â
â8.5 or sometimes 9 if the shoe runs small.â He said with a smirk. âYou left a pair in that hotel in Rio.â A pair of bright red pumps that matched a bright red dress. âWhy do you care so much?â Or maybe itâs the beer talking, talking too much if heâs honest. âNeal betrayed you, he left you, why do you care so much about saving him?â
The laughter dies from her face, something heavy takes its place. âSeeing my position a little too similar to your own?â She deflected. âSomeone who got left behind just like you?â
âDoesnât change the fact that you deserve so much better Swan.â
âWhat exactly do I deserve Agent Jones.â She said, leaning forward. âIâm a criminal.â That she is. But he doesnât think about that when he leans forward and cups her cheek. He doesnât think about that when he brushes strands of blonde hair out of her face, nor when he smiles and-
//
"Has Agent Jones ever behaved unprofessionally?"
Killian Jones was the embodiment of professional.Â
He had to be, with a family history like his. Even Emmaâs heard of it through her underground contacts. Sheâs heard of the legendary Brennan Jones who masterminded a theft like no other, millions of dollars gone in a blink of an eye.
Sheâd heard through the office gossip about him. About how no one trusted him when he was recruited right out of college, his superiors always made things difficult. Never trusting that he wasnât just like his father.Â
Killian Jones was the embodiment of professional, thatâs what made Emma enjoy the chase so much. Because she knew it was a true battle of wits, not like the muscle head marshals. Killian was smart and honorable. If he was going to catch her, it would be done the right way.He was just like her.
 But the way he looks at her sometimes is so not professional in all of the best ways.Â
Sometimes he looks fuming, mostly when sheâs pushed the limits a bit too far, gets in over her head, and just makes it out by the skin of her teeth. But always looks relieved when she makes it out.
Sometimes he looks like she holds the sun and the moon because sheâs figured out some con or trick someone pulls. It always comes with a âYouâre brilliant Swan.â when no one else is listening. She always shoots back a knowing smirk, tucks a loose strand of blonde behind her ear and replies with âI know.â It always makes him roll his eyes but his expression never wavers.Â
And that one time, after a particularly draining case, after that little girl with parents who didnât give a damn about her had been rescued and she thought...she thought he was going to kiss her and...
And Emma may have to admit to herself that she wanted him to.Â
But with Neal, and the FBI frowning upon CI handler relationships, not that a kiss meant a relationship...God Emma was confused. They hadnât kissed and perhaps she had misread the situation completely. Because heâd practically scrambled away when it happened.
Heâd ran out the door with some made up excuse on his lips, a deep blush on his face.Â
Maybe it was all in her head, maybe she was the one being unprofessional. But she canât help the way he makes her feel more than her past, more than what she can do.Â
With Neal it had always felt like it was them against the world.
With Killian she thinks maybe they can just exist in the world, maye make it a little better in the process.
What makes it worse was a conversation she hears between Ariel and Killian days after their almost kiss. Days after she spends a night dreaming of what could be.Â
Emma hadnât meant to be eavesdropping, but she had a lead on their new case and was heading into his open office when she heard them talking in tense low voices.
âWhat was your talk with Neal like?â The younger agent asked him. It makes her stop in her tracks, makes her heartbeat wildly.
He shot Ariel a glare and told her to keep her voice down. But he hadnât refuted her claim.Â
He doesnât tell her about it later when she finds a more convenient time to talk to her about the case.Â
âWhy wouldnât he tell me?â Emma asked Ruby later in her apartment over a tall glass of wine. Because she desperately needs the alcohol to calm down her racing thoughts.
âEmma...Does it ever occur to you that maybe...maybe Killian is involved?â She contemplated, sitting across from Emma with her own equally tall glass of wine.
âInvolved?âÂ
âKillian is in the prime position if you think about it.â She muses. âYou under his thumb, maybe Neal in his back pocket. Maybe it was him all along.â Emma shook her head because no. It couldnât be.
Killian Jones was the embodiment of professional.
âThen why is he keeping his meeting with Neal a secret when youâve been upfront with him? After all, his own father is a master of crime, maybe the apple doesnât fall far from the tree?â
//
âSo she trusted you?â
âYes.â
Emma Swan does trust him.Â
Killian remembered that case they had a few months back, Emma had gone and broken into a shady hospital without backup or a warrant. The case had involved Grannyâs granddaughter not getting a kidney and sheâd gone rouge.Â
Something he warned her against a half dozen times by this point.Â
Sheâd broken in and gotten caught and drugged up to the gills. Killian had had to get in and break her out without anyone realizing. Heâd even stolen the security tapes.
âI trust you Killian...out of everyone in my life, Neal, Ruby...you are the only one I truly trust.â
Emma did trust him. She trusted him with her free smile when she was feeling particularly excited out on a job. She trusted him with her fury when things were hard and she felt truly trapped by their arrangement. She trusted him with her tears when she thought about Neal. She didnât often say much but he just knows.Â
He knows her.
Emma trusted him to know her and Killian knew itâs not something freely given.Â
But then out of nowhere that guarded expression on her face returns. Any move he made seems to be met with passive aggressive responses and half truths. She had her barely contained fury back beneath her eyes.Â
It reminded him of a young agent who was furious when he learned that all the older agents were laughing behind his back. When he learned that they would never take him seriously because he was damaged. He was a joke.Â
Emma Swan was no joke.
It unsettled him, he canât figure out what changed.Â
Or perhaps he was reading too much into her responses, after all, he was keeping a rather large secret from her. Because despite not wanting to hurt her, not wanting to break her trust, he feared this new information would be too much for her. Too much temptation.Â
Because there was nothing more tempting to Emma than information about Neal Cassidy.Â
It had taken some favors and a considerable amount of FBI weight throwing to secure the meeting, but heâd had it. Killian had had a meeting with Neal Cassidy.Â
He knew what they wanted from Emma. Â
(âA music box, she stole it in Germany just before...about a year before you caught her. They wonât let me go...they wonât let us be together without it.â Heâd assured him.
âHow do we know any of this is real?â He asked him. âHow do we know this isnât some game to get in her head?â
Neal gave him a disbelieving smirk. âI guess you donât know. But considering you donât know the whole story, I have to say that I have the advantage.â
âI find that whenever the supposed hostage talks about having the advantage they are rarely telling the truth.â He replies firmly.
âAsk Emma about the job we ran in October. If she tells you the truth then youâll know exactly why Emma has to hand over the music boxâ)
He knew what they wanted from Emma, but he wasnât sure if telling her would be smart. He honestly wasnât sure if she could handle it.
That is, until in the middle of a job, a sting operation Emma had snapped. Sheâd nearly turned him in, her eyes had turned steely and she hissed that she knew.Â
âI know you have Neal, that this whole thing is a game, a trap, a trick.â she seethed. It had completely caught him off guard.Â
âWhat?!â Heâd demanded, but the mark was listening, hell all his agents were listening. They couldnât do this here. âIf you have ever trusted me, youâll give me a chance to explain myself otherwise get back to the case.â Heâd said sharply. He met her steely glare with her own and nodded once.
I trust you.
Sheâd proven it later that day when their mark had locked in an airlock and they only had one canister of air. Sheâd shoved it into his grasp. âI trust you.â Sheâd whispered out loud this time. Please donât play me for a fool.
He hadnât, of course. Theyâd found their way out and sitting there in front of a multimillion dollar mansion swarmed with agents and bundled in shock blankets, heâd told her.
âI met Neal.â He admitted her. Her eyes are wide, but sheâs not surprised. âIâm sorry I didnât tell you. I didnât think you could handle it.â But he was wrong, so wrong.Â
âYou had no right to keep that from me.â She replied sharply. âBut I understand why you did.â her expression softened. âI know how I must look to you: a love sick fool chasing after a man who hurt me. Risking everything for him...âShe trailed off before fixing him a firm gaze. âWhat did he tell you?â
âHe told me what he wanted. A music box.â
âA music box.â Emma repeated. She laughed at her words. Laughed like heâd told her the most ridiculous joke in the world. âThen letâs go get the music box.â
//
âAnd where was the music box?âÂ
âUnder our noses the whole time.â
 âBloody hell Swan!â Heâd cursed. âHow?âÂ
It had been one of her most daring moves. Sheâs not sure why she decided to do it, but after she thought of it...the idea was just too intoxicating. It was a challenge, a dare and perfect. So perfect.
Getting the music box had been difficult, a job that didnât really interest Neal. It was a little too flashy without enough reward. Thankfully a fence of hers had been able to take his place on the job.
 (A fact that Neal was not happy about.)Â
Graham had been good, and it had gone off nearly flawlessly. Sheâd given him a cut of the profit she would make when she sold the music box--and a slap for a stolen kiss that Neal still doesnât know about--except she never did get around to selling the damn thing.
Sheâd meant to, really. But this was right in the beginning of Agent Jones pursuit of her and sheâd thought he was cute and enjoyed teasing him with her gifts.Â
So Emma had set to work. A good forger can make something worthless look real, but only a great forger could make a priceless artifact seem like a fake knock off.
So thatâs what she did. No one ever knew, they didnât even suspect it.Â
âMy sister!â Killian exclaims again. âWhat did I tell you about involving her?â Emma shrugs.Â
âTo be fair I had already long sent it to her by the time you gave me that warning.â She told him simply, picking up the item. âI assume it came back clean when you sent it to the lab?â It was smaller than she remembered, a fake gloss painted on to mask itâs trace components.
âThey traced it to a manufacturer in China and Belle liked how it sounded. Bloody hell, what would we have done if she had tossed it like I wanted to do?â Sheâd found a similar looking one and stole the packaging. Emma shrugged.Â
âI didnât exactly anticipate for some rogue agent to kidnap Neal for this thing. I didnât even steal it for anything other than morbid curiosity.â She admitted. âNow that we have it, when can we get the meeting?â She asks.
Killian sighs. âIâve put word out, hopefully Neal will contact me and we can set a time.â
âOr.â Emma adds. âWe can contact the person pulling the strings behind this, behind everything.â She snaps.Â
âWe donât know for sure.â Killian says with a calming gesture.
âYou really think Walshe has nothing to do with this?â Emma snaps. âAfter coming into town just in time to frame me for the diamond heist?â
Killian doesnât respond. Emma takes the music box tightly in her hands. âThis has to end. It has to end now.âÂ
âSwan-â But she steps out of his grip. âWe need to do this the right way, catch him red handed, not just hand him what he wants, when will it end?â
Oh itâll end. The stakes were too high for Emma not to see to it that this cat and mouse game end now.
Plans circulated in her head, how to get out with the music box, how to make the exchange before Killian could talk her into a more by the book plan. Sometimes things couldnât go by the book. Sometimes the ugly gritty way was the only way.
Killianâs phone rang loudly at his side. He picks it up, giving Emma a look. Weâll figure this out, you just need to trust me.
But something on the other end was clearly very wrong. His eyes narrowed and she could see something darker and fiercer just below the surface. âStay there Belle.â
He could hear the younger girl talking quickly on the phone, Killianâs hand clenched. She was clearly very upset.âIâll be right there. Do not say a single word until I get there.â He glanced at her. âWe need to go now. Belleâs just been arrested.â
//
âShe was arrested because the Marshalls believed a phone call she received from an unfamiliar number was our father.â
âWas it?â
âJust a spam callerâ
The marshalls had wanted him out of the way, and they got it. It hadnât taken much. They had Belle in handcuffs, her eyes were red as her classmates looked on, Walsheâs grip on her was rough and his words had been rude and vial and then heâd had the balls to mention Emma. So heâd swung and decked Walshe Green in the face.Â
It felt good. But it ended with him in cuffs besides Belle. Heâd watched a wide eyed Emma leave with Ariel, considering her handler was about to be put on suspension he was glad she wasnât being taken into custody next. Sheâd been strangely silent through the whole ordeal.
 Emma had tried to deescalate the situation at first, but a comment Walshe had made left her frozen. Emma Swan never froze up.
âYou never know, a parentâs greatest desire is to see their kid, wouldnât you agree Emma?â
It wasnât until afterwards. After he was back home missing his badge and gun, he realized two things.Â
The Music box was gone.
This had never been about Neal.
//
âWhen we were originally tackling The Swan, Emma took a year gap where we couldnât find a single hint of a job she was running. The working theory was that she was waiting for the heat of her last job to die down.â
âAnd now?â
âNow I realize that she went underground for a different reason.â
They met at the drop point.Â
Emma felt bad for having Ruby steal the music box from Killianâs house, but it was the only way. No one was supposed to know about him. No one was ever supposed to connect her to the little boy that was born in New York Hospital in October of that year.
They were supposed to disappear and start a new life together, Tallahassee.Â
Neal and her called it Tallahassee. It was the end game plan, retire and move to Florida or some island in the tropics. But Neal had never wanted to go clean, so Emma took her son and ran.Â
So Neal set a trap for her. She set a trap so she couldnât disappear with their kid.Â
âWhen you get out.â He said, holding one of his toys, one of her sonâs toys âWe can be a family. It was only four years.â
Emma had hated him for four years, for robbing her of that time together, of wanting to be a father and changing his mind and then changing his mind again.Â
It wasnât until now, until Neal was faced with losing their kid, of him being abducted and held above their heads that he truly cared. Maybe, maybe itâs not too late for them. Â
They met at the drop point, except there was no Neal, only Walshe. But she doesn't let that shake her resolve.
âWhere is he?â She demanded.Â
âNeal is around.â Walshe said cryptically. âI hear you have my box.â She didnât deny it.Â
âIâm not talking about Neal.â She said. âYouâre not getting a damn thing unless I can see my son.â The man smirked wider than he had any reason to.Â
âDonât trust me?â
Emma didnât dignify his words with a response. He gave a large sigh and opened his car door. There in the backseat, passed out in his car seat is Henry. She hadnât seen him since he was an infant, but she knew. It was her son. Her four year old little boy looked positively exhausted but in good health. It made her gasp in relief, tears gathering in her eyes.Â
Heâs gotten so big.
âWhereâs my music box?â
She gave it to him without a momentâs hesitation. Her only focus was pulling that boy into her arms and never letting go. She was never letting him go again. âNeal said to give you these.â Walshe added after the box is placed securely in his car. It was an envelope. She takes it with the hand not around the boy.Â
Papers...She realized a whole new identity and not just for her. Neal, Emma and Henry Nolan. A normal happy little family. It was good, extensive.Â
A happy ending after all. Four years ago this is all sheâd ever wanted.Â
âThereâs a jet waiting for you, itâll take you wherever you want. The three of you can disappear.â Walshe explained.Â
âWhy?â Emma asks. âWhy go through all of this? Kidnapping my son, using him to get to Neal to get to me? Just for that.â Because it wasnât worth that much, not enough for all this.
âBecause my employer wants it.â Walshe said cryptically. But he doesnât elaborate, he doesnât need to. It says all she needs to know.
Thereâs someone behind the curtain.Â
âYou better get going. Neal is waiting for you.â The address was written in the envelope, so she settled Henry in his car seat in her car and then she headed out.Â
But not before she sent Belle the most expensive collection of sketch books and paints money can buy, art school wasnât cheap and she had talent. Real talent.
Not before she called Granny and thanked her for everything. Â
Not before she called Ruby and told her about Henry. The papers...
(âI donât know why you didnât trust me to tell me the truth Emma.â Sheâd said. âBut for what itâs worth Iâm glad you are finally getting the life that you want. But you know what I always say-â
âA happy ending.â Emma breathed. âIs all about where you stop the story.â
She could feel Rubyâs grin through the phone. âFrom the moment we met, I knew your story was going to be exciting, but my question is, is this where you want to stop the story?â )Â
But Emma didnât have time to contemplate her words. She needed to go. They had to get out, they needed to run. This is what she always wanted.
She was 50 feet from the plane when she heard her name being called out in the terminal.Â
âSwan!â It makes her stop in her tracks. She canât help but feel her chest tighten at the sound of her name. She turned to see him. His suit is rumpled, tie missing. He looks like he ran all the way here. âSwan wait.â She did. She had to. Â
âYou canât stop me Killian.â She said. âYou canât.â
He nodded. âI know, all of this was sanctioned. Itâs all an op as far as anyone can tell.â He agreed. âLegally I canât interfere.âÂ
Legally.
âWhy are you here Killian?â Sha asked.Â
âIâm here to remind you of what youâre walking away from if you get on that plane. I know what you want Swan, Iâve always known. You want to be a part of something. You are here.â She bit her lip, he was smiling at her, something delicate and desperate. He wanted her to stay so badly.Â
âNeal once said that we run. We run until when we run from something we just miss it.â She recalled.Â
âYou donât need to run anymore Emma. You can stay. You and your son. You can stay.â He promised. âYou donât have to look over your shoulder anymore.âÂ
âWhy are you here Killian?â She asked again. Because it canât be for her. It didnât make sense. Sheâs a criminal, a convict, a fraud. She didnât deserve for him to look at her like that.
âBecause you sent Belle art supplies. You called Ruby and Granny. You said goodbye to everyone except for me.â He reminded her âWhy?â
Why hadnât she?Â
âBecause...â she trailed off. âYouâre the only person who could change my mind.â
He smiled at her, close enough to cup her cheek. âDid I?â She doesn't speak. She canât. She leans in and kisses him. Something she never dared to want. Never dared to even consider.Â
It was better than she ever imagined. It was something that she would surely miss if she got on that plane.Â
But is it enough? Is it enough to turn away from a definite happy ending? Or is she walking away from it? âKillian...
Emma didnât get a chance to contemplate the issue further.
 Because when she looks back at the plane, at Nealâs face in the window of the plane, before she has a chance the plane explodes.
//
âAnd you know the rest.â Killian says. âThey immediately took Emma into custody. Investigators descended on the terminal, Walshe went underground and youâre here to determine if my actions warrant you taking my badge.âÂ
The investigators glare at him, clearly not believing some of what heâs saying. But theyâve been glaring at him since he stepped into the room. It was probably a side effect of having just interviewed Emma.Â
But it doesnât matter what they believe. All that matters is what they choose to do. They can choose to give him back his badge and gun and let him do his job. Or they wonât.
âDo you believe Ms.Swan set the bomb that killed Mr. Cassidy?â
He looks them dead in the eye. âNo.â He says pointedly. âShe would never do that.â Not just because she was supposed to be on that plane, not just because her son was supposed to be on that plane but because Emma wasnât a killer.
They donât ask him any more questions.Â
He walks out the door with his badge, his gun and a warning. But thereâs time to worry about that later. Right now all Killian wants to do is see her. He wants to see if sheâs there. If she had left before he was done or if she was waiting for him.
And she is. Sheâs leaning against his door of his car a smile on her face and a-
âAnother hat Swan?â He asks. Emma smirks, removing the hat and placing it on his head.Â
âI think it looks pretty good.â Emma says with a smirk and a subtle bite of her lip. âWhat do you think?â Now itâs Killianâs turn to smirk. She looks brilliant with that hat, so he places it back on her blonde head of hair. It does little to distract from the brand new tracker on her ankle, but he appreciated the attempt. Its slimmer chases less according to the memo Emma had emailed him..
âHowâs Henry?â He asks. It had been a few weeks since she met the boy, since heâd caught him and his mother from the explosive blast of the plane that killed his father.
âAdjusting.â She says, her grin fading.Â
Emma wasnât allowed to keep him, social workers didnât feel comfortable given that she was a current convict with an unusual situation. Thankfully Ariel was a registered foster parent with a spare bedroom. Henry had immediately taken a shine to Ariel and her husband and their current foster, a six year old girl named Melody.Â
It wasnât perfect, but Emma could see him as often as she wanted while she applied to earn back rights she never should have lost.Â
âWhat now?â Emma asks. Her hand drifts to his. Her hands are softer than heâd thought. He leans in close, not too close but closer than he should. Closer than a handler should be with his charge. But he was close enough to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. Sheâs smiling.Â
âNow? We have another case.â He tells her.Â
âAnd later?â She adds. âWhat do you plan to do about Walshe, and Neal and-â
âI donât know.â He says honestly. âBut whatever we do, know that weâll figure it out together.â
Hedge funds shorted more than 100% of all shares of gamestop, to do this that means they had to sell more shares than actually existed.
The hedge funds never actually owned these shares to begin with because they were short selling so they never actually paid for them.
Redditors saw this and decided to buy up all these shorted shares to gamestop a company that wasnt failing that the hedge funds would then be forced to buy back as they never actually owned the shares.
The beauty of this is if you knew what to look for you couldâve seen this coming too. It isnât mystical, it isnât magic. They made these billionaires pay back more than what they basically stole by being greedy, this is a good thing.
rich hedge funds have the ability to sell stocks they havent paid for yet that other people actually own and then pay for them after a certain amount of time. they can sell these stocks trade them whatever but they will eventually have to buy them back.
So they shorted gamestop shares from 20 dollars all the way down to 3 dollars, meaning they borrowed shares to then massively sell.
they sold shares at like 20 dollars and then 18, etc. and because when investors see massive amounts of shares being sold they get nervous and then sell their shares which drives the price of the stock ever further down.
so they took something worth 20 that they sold for 20 dollars and all its downward prices and instead of paying for it at $3 dollars they thought theyd CONTINUE to short the market, meaning they kept driving the prices down because apparently this obscene amount of money wasnt good enough.
Redditors who dont say the stock market is magic and mystical astrology saw this very obvious evidence that these hedge funds would be forced to buy back all these fucking gamestop shares and decided to drive the price of these shares up knowing that the hedge funds would then be forced to buy back the shares they have yet to pay for at increasingly wild prices.
what they were looking for was over 100% of all stocks shorted on a company that wasnt even failing or in complete disarray
they used this knowledge to bring stock that was 20 dollars brought down to $3 all the way back up to $140
the hedge funds still have to pay for all of those shares they never technically even owned in the first place which these redditors knew so they held onto these stocks they bought in a company whose shares were oversold.
INSTEAD of acknowledging this they decided to have media campaigns lie and make the stock market look even more mystical and crazy to people who dont know shit about finance so that your average folks wouldnt catch them in the act of just getting a fucking 2 billion dollar bailout for being greedy fucking pieces of shit.
They also dont want your average person to KNOW they do this shit especially when they drive shares so deep into the ground ($3)
TL;DR: Every time you call the stock market magic and mystical and ooo makes no sense, you pretty much allow these motherfuckers to get away with robbery of the average person (given a government bailout is paying for this)
Understanding how these things happen and knowing what to look for allows people to work together and not only stop it but rob back from the billionaires when they pull this shit.
my point about financial illiteracy isnt to make anyone feel bad itâs more saying you shouldnt repeat the myth that these things dont make any sense especially when something like this happens because very set laws and rules allowed for this to happen and mystifying that only benefits hedge funds who dont want people catching them doing this.
Shorting is when hedge funds sell a stock that they donât actually own. Basically, Bob borrows Tedâs bike and pawns it. Now Bob, legally, has to return the bike to Ted so at some point he has to buy the bike back. Bob makes money by wagering that the pawnshop wonât be able to find anyone willing to buy the bike and heâll be able to buy it back cheap, return it to Ted, and pocket the difference.Â
Now, the one thing you need to the know about the stock market is that it is run by PEOPLE. And people are panicky. It really doesnât matter how âwellâ a company is doing if its stock is being sold off en-mass. People panic, think that somebody knows something they donât, and sell their stock/refuse to buy.Â
The hedge funds basically bought a very specific kind of bike and pawned all of them. They bet that people would see a lot of a specific brand of bike at the pawn shop and refuse to buy because there MUST be something wrong with that brand right? Why else would a ton of them be in a pawnshop? Better ditch your own right now or risk the wheel falling off or something.Â
So, Gamestopâs stock is in the toilet and the hedge funds are about to make a shit ton of money.Â
Enter reddit.
Upon seeing that Gamestopâs stock is artificially low because of hedge fund dickery, one forum decides to start buying Gamestop stock out of spite. Buying raises the stock price. The Redditors raise the price enough that the hedge funds start panicking. The time when the HAVE to buy back the stock is coming due and now it is WAY more expensive than they sold it for. Its like Bob walking pass the pawnshop and seeing the bikeâs price is now three times what he sold it for. Bob panics. Bob makes a horrible decision. He complains to everyone about this. EVERYONE.Â
Hedge funds were on tv whiny and attracted the attention of people who REALLY DONâT LIKE THEM. People like Elon Musk whose company has been targeted by shorting before and has no problem finding the cash to buy the inflated Gamestop stock and have the social media platform to shine an even bigger spotlight on this. Now other people outside of the Reddit forum are joining in because they smelled blood in the water.Â
Remember, the hedge funds HAVE to buy these stocks back. No matter what, come the due date, they will have to purchase the stocks at whatever price they are listed at if they havenât bought them back before then. Even if that price is a hundred times what they paid. Basically, if Bob has to sell his house to get that bike back to Ted then thatâs what heâll have to do. Considering one hedge fund required a bailout already over this, its looking like a lot of people will be selling their houses over shorting Gamestop stock.Â
Harry Potter AU in which Fred and George are in different houses and they steal and wear each others ties whilst doing stupid things in hope of the others house losing points
AU where Fred and George are in different houses and they get their hands on house ties from the other two houses as well. By the end of their first year nobody knows which house either of them is in and just take points off a random house whenever they see a redhead getting up to something.
The confusion runs so deep by the time Ron starts that Snape once takes points off Slytherin for Ron fighting with Malfoy.
Thereâs a few months in Fred and Georgeâs second year when they successfully convince most of the school that theyâre actually quadruplets, one in each house.
After this confusing quadruple mess, a conspiracy theory emerges that Fred and George are actually just one person, and there were never any Weasley Twins. To add fuel to this theory, Fred and George make a point to never be seen together (publicly).
When asked about this theory, Fred/George subtly insinuates that he used Polyjuice Potion so that there could be multiple versions of himself at once. This goes around the Hogwarts Rumor Mill like fire. The Weasley family says nothing to dispute it, not even Percy.
Percy makes polyjuice successfully for the first time in his fifth year, when he finally has sufficient motivation. Fred, George, Edward and Hubert walk into the great hall one morning, identical but for their school ties, and the chaos is so great that nobody realizes Percy and Ron are missing.
We had an absolutely fantastic first week of posts for the CSJJ2021! If you missed any, catch them up with the list below, and stay tuned for 3 more weeks of great stories and artwork!
January 1:Â always feel like part of this was mine by @ohmightydevviepuu
Modern friends-to-lovers AU.  In all the years Emma Swan has known Killian Jones sheâs never felt anything like thisâthis tension, as if at any moment she might break.  Or he might.  What would it be like?
January 2:Â Beautiful by @thesschesthair
A canon-inspired mix of two prompts: âFireworks at midnightâ and âReflections on the old yearâ as CS ring in the new year together and think about some of their adventures.
January 3:Â good ships and wood ships and ships that sail the sea by @profdanglaisstuff
The Jolly Roger is truly more than just a ship. Thereâs something about her magic that allows Killian to sail her on his own, and a special relationship between them.
January 4:Â Home (there and back again - a Saviourâs tale) by @katie-dub and @anxioussquirrel
Her little brother is saved, the Wicked Witch defeated, and now Emma is back in New York, where she belongs. Only⊠Does she belong there?Â
January 5:Â âCuddlesâ, a painting by @svenjalivâ
CS keeping warm on a cool winterâs night
January 6:Â âWhatever the Weather (You Make Everything Better)â by @snowbellewellsâ
Emma has a lovely moment of reflection and gratitude during the six weeks of peace.
January 7:Â Â âThe Rescueâ by @everything-personâ
Princess Emma has gone missing and with the kingâs promise of a special reward for the one to bring her home safely, her friends plan to be the ones to do just that.
January 8: âCould This Be Us?â by @killiansprincssâÂ
During the six weeks of peace, Emma and Killian agree to babysit Neal and Emma slowly begins to let down her walls and Killian becomes vulnerable.
The Challenge: Comment on every fanfic you read and enjoy in the month of January.
Every chapter. Every one shot. Every drabble. Every ficlet. Whether itâs on a personal website, a blog, or an archive. Whether youâve read it a hundred times before or youâre reading it for the first time. Whether the fic was posted years ago or minutes ago. Whether you sign your name or leave your thoughts anonymously. Whether your comment is paragraphs in length or a few short words. Comment on every fanfic you read and enjoy in the month of January.
The Philosophy: Comments are what keep a fandom thriving and growing.
We donât see comments as a transaction. Theyâre not a price paid for reading a fic. Comments are simply one half of an interaction.
Fandom is a relationship between individualsâhundreds, thousands, maybe millions of individuals in some cases, but still individuals. For the greater fandom relationship to function, individuals within the fandom must interact with one anotherâideally in a positive manner. One way to interact is by writing and reading fanfic. A writer prompts an interaction by posting their work; it is up to the reader to then acknowledge (or not acknowledge) the interaction in one of three ways.
If a reader reads to the end of a fanfic and enjoyed the fic, they should acknowledge the positive interaction with a comment. (As well as give the fic a like or kudo.)
If a reader reads to the end of a fanfic and didnât particularly enjoy the fic, they should acknowledge the interaction with a like or kudo.
If a reader does not read to the end of a fic because they didnât enjoy the fic. They should close the browser tab and seek out a different fic.
All fanfics are read voluntarily. It is up to the reader to determine their fandom experience. As our fandom forbears were fond of saying, âDonât like, donât read.â
So I was today years old when I found out that this map that appears in your rescue team base after itâs renovated
Is a whole ass functional map if you just press A on it
To put things into perspective I was obsessed with this game in my childhood and I think my current play through is somewhere around my 60th time playing this game, Iâve owned it for almost 10 years and have never once known the map in your base is functional, so either this is really out there or Iâm a bigger idiot than I thought
Either way I wanted to share in case you missed it as well