One Little Thing
Summary: Hurting Killian Jones was the easiest way to end up on the top of Emma's most despised people list Rating: T Warnings: This story is anti-Milah (just the story, not the author!). Also, alcohol use because... it’s me. AO3 A/N: Happy Holidays, @eddisfargo!! Tis I, your @cssecretsanta2020!! I’ve had fun getting to know you these past few weeks and I tried to give you a nice little Hurt/Comfort gem for you to enjoy on Christmas (even if you don’t celebrate)! I really hope you like it!! (Also, as mentioned above, I personally am not anti-Milah. I just went with what worked for the idea I had!)
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The list of people that Emma Swan well and truly despised was a very short one. Her birth parents, obviously, for abandoning her on the side of the road like some discarded drive-thru garbage. Neal Cassidy for taking advantage of a young girl and her innocence. Walsh Ozmand for taking advantage of her willingness to give love a second chance. They all ranked very high on the list.
But in that moment, as she sat watching her boyfriend try to give a police report to her brother David and not completely lose it, all she could think about was how Milah Gold had just shot her way to the very top of the list.
Killian’s apartment around the trio was in absolute shambles. Electronics smashed, lamps busted, nearly every piece of furniture upended or destroyed. Even the food from the fridge had been thrown all over the kitchen.. and dining area… and living room. There had been passion behind the destruction. That alone probably would have given away who had caused it all.
But the message on Killian’s bathroom mirror written in Emma’s fiery red lipstick was concrete proof that it had been his train wreck of an ex-girlfriend. That and the fact that the only valuables missing were the ones most precious to Killian. The ones only someone close enough to him would have known where to find them and why losing them would devastate him.
Emma could see it, the way Killian was struggling to hold himself together. The jaw ticking, the pained look in his eyes that made them seem like the coldest ice. He was hurting, and trying so hard not to let it show.
And it made her want to punch something. Namely the chaotic brunette that had done this horrible thing just five days before Christmas.
“And you’re sure there’s nothing else you can tell me?” David asked for the half-dozenth time. “You’re sure you don’t know where she might be or who might’ve helped her do this?”
“Bloody hell, Dave! No!” Killian snapped and Emma jumped up from where she was sitting across from him.
“Okay, I think that’s enough for now.” She looked at her brother pointedly as she placed herself down on the couch next to her boyfriend. “You got all the answers we can give you.”
David’s face held a look that was a cross between sympathy and frustration. She knew it likely wasn’t directed at Killian himself - he was David’s best friend, after all. She knew it had more to do with the fact that they all found themselves in this situation to begin with. That Killian was being put through so much pain yet again by someone who had made the last several years of his life difficult.
Still, she stared her brother down until he rolled his eyes and nodded. He pocketed his notebook and turned back to the deputies who had been busy gathering evidence. With David’s focus now elsewhere, Emma was able to give her full attention back to Killian.
“I’m sorry, love.” He mumbled, absently rubbing at his scarred left hand. “I didn’t mean to snap.” His gaze was focused on where his fingers massaged the damaged flesh. “I didn’t mean for any of this,” Killian finally lifted his eyes towards hers and she could see the shame there. “I’m sorry our date night was ruined.”
Reaching out, Emma took his left hand into her right and began running her thumb soothingly over his knuckles. “Hey, stop it.” She scolded gently. “You didn’t do this. You couldn’t have known she was going to do this.”
“Aye, but I should have suspected something when she wouldn’t stop calling and texting.” Killian muttered. “I should have-”
Emma pressed her forehead to his, reaching up with her free hand to place it against his cheek. “Shh.” It was all she needed to express for him to go quiet. His eyes fluttered shut and he pressed himself against her heavily. She could feel the tremors going through him, at him trying still to keep his emotions in check.
A throat clearing had them pulling apart and turning their attention to David, who was standing off awkwardly to the side. “Sorry,” He grimaced. “I’m not trying to be pushy or anything, but…” He gestured around at the deputies who were starting to clear out. “We’re done here and since it’s technically still an active crime scene…”
Killian nodded. “Yes, right.” He looked at Emma with faux cheer. “Mind if I stayed at yours tonight, Swan?”
It was his turn to get a pointed look from her. He nodded again and pushed himself to his feet quickly.
“I’ll just…” He paused as he began making his way in the direction of the bedroom. “It’s alright if I try and salvage some clothes and toiletries, aye?” The way he asked it towards David, in a quiet and uncertain tone, made Emma’s heart clench and the angry fire still simmering in her belly to flare up hotter.
David offered Killian a nod. “Yeah, that’s okay.” Emma knew it likely wasn’t, that everything in the apartment could be considered evidence that could help. But at that moment, David was being the best friend instead of the officer.
With a jerk of his head, Killian turned on his heels and headed down the hallway.
“I’m gonna kill her.” Emma snapped as soon as she knew he was out of earshot.
“You do know saying that in front of a cop is not the smartest choice, right?”
She looked up to see Detective Nolan was firmly back in place. Emma shrugged in her usual ‘does it look like I give a fuck?’ kind of way and she got the patented older brother sigh and eye roll in response.
“Emma, I get it.” He knelt down in front of her. “The fact that she did all this, deliberately to hurt Killian? It’s fucked up and it doesn’t exactly fill me with the warm and fuzzies,” She could see the suppressed ire, much like her own, burning behind his eyes. “But we can’t just… go off and hunt her down and punish her like a couple of vigilantes.”
“Actually,” Emma blinked at him innocently. “Hunting people down is kinda my thing, if you hadn’t heard.” It was true. She worked in bail bonds, after all.
The exasperated brother look was back in David’s gaze. “I mean it, Emma. I don’t want to have to arrest you for assault. Again.” Emma opened her mouth to argue and he put a hand over her mouth. “Yes, I know. Walsh deserved it. And so does Milah. But we have to play by the rules. That’s what makes us the good guys, remember?” She made a dissatisfied noise against his hand and he sighed. “I know. Just… will you promise me you won’t put him through any more pain this week by… well, being you?”
In response, Emma licked his hand indignantly. David groaned in disgust, pulling it away. He glared at her. “Real mature, Emma.”
“I wouldn’t do anything to hurt him, David.” She glared right back. The sound of Killian making his way across the hall into the bathroom had them both looking in his direction sharply. He didn’t seem to notice they were in a sibling ‘discussion’.
“I know that,” David hissed as they returned to looking at each other while Killian was still distracted. “I just don’t want him to have to bail you out of jail… again… two days before Christmas.”
“As if I’d need that long.”
“Emma!”
She sighed and sat back against the couch cushions. “Okay, fine.” She crossed her arms huffily. “I promise not to do anything that you’ll need to arrest me for.”
David watched her suspiciously, his eyes narrowed to slits. “Why don’t I believe you?”
“Believe her about what?”
They both jumped slightly at Killian’s return to the room, and the conversation. The pair looked over at him to find him standing with a lone backpack slung over his shoulder, eyebrow raised in suspicion of his own as he watched them with a knowing look.
“Just talking about Christmas.” Emma filled in quickly before David could so much as utter a word. She hopped up from the couch, making sure to pat her brother on the cheek before stepping over to her boyfriend. Her gaze softened as she reached up to brush at the hair at the nape of his neck. “You ready to go?”
Killian continued to eye her questioningly for a moment, but then let out a sigh and glanced around the apartment. Emma could see the war he was fighting with his emotions was starting to drain him drastically. He gave a small, defeated nod.
She reached down and laced her fingers through his, offering a loving smile, before nudging him towards the apartment’s front door. As they went, Emma made sure to throw one last sweet look towards her brother over her shoulder that caused him to pull in a deep breath and run a tired hand over his face.
—--
For as restrictive and sexist as her honey trap wardrobe usually was, Emma had to admit that it was more than worth it in that moment as she sat gazing around the swanky, high-end bar she currently found herself in. Nobody seemed to be questioning her presence in such an establishment. Nobody seemed to care that she wasn’t really part of their crowd. She looked the part and that’s all that really mattered.
That’s all she had needed to get in. And getting in was key if she was going to have the interaction she’d been fantasizing about the past two nights.
She knew she had promised her brother, and then later that same night her boyfriend, that she wouldn’t do anything rash in regards to Milah. Killian hadn’t been so caught up in his own distress over Milah’s breaking and entering (and destroying and stealing) that he hadn’t quickly caught onto what her and David had really been discussing while he’d gathered his things.
“You’re an open book to me, Swan, remember?” He’d gestured at her with the glass of rum in his hand, propped up on his elbow on her kitchen island with the bottle more than half-empty before him. She hadn’t had the heart to deny him his vice that evening, or to lie to him that she was thinking of tracking Milah down for a “chat”. Even in his distraught, drunken state, Killian had been earnest in his pleas for her to not get mixed up with his ex in such a way. He didn’t want it. He didn’t want the stain of her to splash onto Emma in any way.
Except it already had. As she sat in that bar, sipping her vodka soda with lime, she thought back to Killian passing out with his head in her lap as they laid in bed later that night. About the silent tears that had slid down his cheek before he finally succumbed to the alcohol and exhaustion. The way he whimpered his brother’s name in his sleep, and how it took her softly brushing her fingers through his hair to get him to settle. About the ache in her that had settled like lead at how lost and vulnerable he’d been. How he was clearly just… hurting. The stain of that had seeped into her heart, and had been that way for two days now, and had been impossible to ignore.
Milah was impossible to ignore, no matter what David or Killian thought or said. Not until Emma handled it herself.
Which is exactly what she was doing now.
It hadn’t taken much research into Milah, beyond what she’d already known over the years from knowing Killian, to figure out where she would have slunk her way to after the destruction at Killian’s apartment. Ever since the woman had been dropped by her husband for a younger woman, Milah had been trying her best to maintain the lifestyle being Mrs. Robert Gold had always afforded her. Aesop’s Tables was the place to be for the city’s wealthy and famous. If there was any place Milah was going to actively be prowling in search of a new source of income, this would be it.
And all the while, still trying to get back the adventurous fling she had so readily chucked aside when it seemed divorce, and thus a loss of status and money, was initially imminent. Of course that hadn’t gone over as smoothly as Milah had anticipated. Killian had moved on from her and had absolutely zero interest in reliving the shame and betrayal being with her had brought into his life. He’d found his person, and it wasn’t Milah Gold.
And lucky for him, his person was Emma Swan. And there wasn’t a damn thing she wasn’t ready to do to make sure the world stopped hurting him.
Like tracking a bitter and jealous ex who had ransacked his place and stolen his most precious valuables over his rejection.
That was the real reason Emma had ultimately made the decision to go against Killian’s wishes and find Milah herself. Not to hurt her, not really. As much as the urge was there to make sure Milah felt the pain she’d inflicted on Killian, Emma knew David had been right. It wouldn’t do any good to be put in jail and have Killian have to deal with that on top of everything else. No. What Emma really wanted was to get his things back. The things that had him crying himself to sleep in her lap just a couple nights prior.
Which was why, when she finally spotted Milah flirting up to some guy in a suit over at the bar, her fingers wrapped around a chain hanging from her neck, Emma left her drink sitting at the table and moved with purpose in her direction.
“Oh my goodness,” She gushed with a faux poshness to her tone as she neared the other woman. “Is that truly Milah Gold?” The mere mention of the last name had the man Milah was talking to stiffen. “Darling, it’s been ages!”
“I’m sorry, I’m thinking you have the wrong woman.” Milah laughed nervously, glancing between Emma and the man who was looking more than a bit uncomfortable.
Emma moved into Milah’s space in a way that she was sure would make Killian proud had he not completely disapproved of this whole interaction before it had ever happened to begin with. “Oh no, I’m quite certain I’d know Milah Gold anywhere!” She made sure to put extra emphasis on the name this time and reached out to gently extract the chain from Milah’s grasp and pull the rest of the jewelry out from the confines of her dress. Sure enough, hanging at the end of its length was a ring.
“You and your one of a kind bling are impossible to mistake.” Emma seated herself onto the stool the man had just quickly vacated, the smile sickly sweet on her face.
Understanding and sudden recognition flashed in Milah’s eyes. “Ah yes, I do know you.” She moved in closer to Emma menacingly. “You’re that Swan girl.”
“Always nice to make an impression.” Emma grinned and shrugged a shoulder with a playful roll of her eyes.
“You know, he was always obsessed with you.” Milah spat with jealous venom. “The independent little sister of his idiot best friend who hardly gave him the time of day. It’s pathetic, really, how he yearned for such a lost little girl. It’s no wonder you’re the classless filth he’s followed me with. You are suited for each other. Nothings that the world never really wanted.”
Emma squeezed her hand around the chain still laying against her palm, causing Milah to gasp as she was yanked even further into Emma’s space. “Says the woman who trashed an apartment and stole the things of said ‘nothing’. Things that I’m here to get back.” Emma yanked the chain hard and Milah yelped as it snapped against the back of her neck, causing her to stumble out of Emma’s space a bit. The ring stayed dangling from the slack hanging from Emma’s hand.
“How dare you!” The other woman hissed and reached out to grab at the jewelry.
And was promptly met by Emma’s fist hitting her square in the nose. Milah cried out and fell back onto the empty stool behind her, hand coming up to try and stop the blood now gushing down her face. A silence fell over the bar as all eyes turned to take in what had just happened.
Emma stepped up closer to the woman who was now staring at her with shocked eyes over her blood-soaked hand. “Killian Jones isn’t a ‘nothing’ and never has been. You’ll have the rest of his things returned by the start of the new year. And if I ever find out you’ve inserted yourself into his life ever again, a broken nose will be the least of your worries.” Milah moved to say something and Emma pressed her hand over the one Milah had up against her face, causing her to moan at the pain it caused. “Easy now. Don’t wanna ruin your reputation around here even more than I just did.”
With that, Emma turned on her heels and sauntered out of the bar with her gaze intent on the ring resting in her palm, a satisfied smile on her face.
—--
“There you are.” Killian’s warm voice, the hint of rum on his breath, came just over her shoulder as he stepped up behind her on her brother’s balcony, wrapping his arms around her waist and pressing a gentle kiss against her neck. “I couldn’t find you and was starting to wonder if you’d been run over by a reindeer.”
Emma snorted and turned in his embrace, finding him smiling goofily down at her. His cheeks were a bit flush from the cold and the rum, but his eyes were alight with joy and love. Spending time with their friends and family had clearly helped ease some of the pain he’d been carrying all week.
“I’m not surprised you couldn’t find me.” She reached up and pulled the Santa hat that was partially obscuring his vision up a bit. “How can you even see with this stupid thing like this.”
“Hey now!” Killian batted at her fiddling hand gently. “It’s not stupid! It’s Christmas!” He deliberately pulled the hat back down so the white fuzz was in his eyes.
Shaking her head, Emma pressed up on her toes to plant a sweet kiss to his lips. Killian hummed in approval, tightening his grip around her waist and pulled her flush against him. After a few long moments, Emma pulled back and smiled lovingly up at him.
“Not that I’m complaining,” Killian licked his lips. “But what was that for?” Even though she couldn’t see it past the white fluff, Emma was sure his eyebrow had quirked up with the question.
She shrugged. “It’s Christmas.” Her answer made Killian beam and she wrapped her arms around his waist in the same way she was still wrapped in his. “And I’m just glad to see you enjoying yourself tonight.”
Some of the light dimmed from Killian’s eyes. “Aye.” He nodded and then glanced away from her to stare out into the darkness over the railing of the balcony. “I know I’ve been spending these last several days…”
“Brooding?” Emma teased and she grinned as he snorted and rolled his eyes.
“Aye, brooding.” He appeased her attempt at humor with a nod before finding her gaze once more. “Thank you, Swan. For allowing me time to wrap my head around what happened. And for not going off half-cocked in some ill-advised idea of vengeance.”
Emma couldn’t stop herself from dropping her eyes from his and pulling at her bottom lip with her teeth.
Killian gaped, scandalized. “Emma Swan, please tell me you didn’t!”
“I didn’t!” Emma defended, looking at him again.
“Emma!” Killian scolded, going to pull out of her arms.
She held on tightly, pulling him back to her. “I promise I didn’t do anything bad… Except punch her.” At Killian’s disapproving sigh, she was quick to hurry on. “But it wasn’t out of vengeance. Not in the way you think.”
Emma moved her hands to his hips and pushed him back some. Killian crossed his arms and watched her intently, an expectant look on his face that said her reasoning for betraying his wishes better be damn good.
Reaching up, Emma pulled at the chain hanging around her neck until a ring revealed itself from beneath her sweater. She watched as Killian’s face went from a look of frustration to one of overwhelming emotion.
“Bloody hell,” He whispered, tears instantly making his eyes shine. He stepped the short distance back to her and reverently reached for the ring. “Swan, I…”
“I wasn’t going to let her take Liam’s ring from you.” She whispered back before dipping her head so she could pull the chain up over it. She gently deposited it in his scarred hand, closing his fingers around it. “I don’t care how much you said it wasn’t important. I know it was. Is.”
Killian blinked through his tears, glanced from his closed palm to her with a look of exasperated affection. Before she could say anything else in her own defense, Emma found herself pressed back against the railing, Killian’s free hand around her back to steady her as he kissed her fiercely. She savored it, feeling his tears fall onto her cheeks.
And then almost as quickly as he’d come, he was spinning away from her with a disbelieving laugh. He paced a few steps away and then glanced at her with that same exasperated, loving look.
“Does that mean you’re not mad at me?” She asked with a small, playful, hopeful smile.
“Oh, I’m bloody frustrated as hell that you went and dealt with that woman and didn’t bloody tell me.”
Emma tilted her head slightly. “Then why were you laughing?”
Killian shook his head and grinned, dropping his gaze to the ground as he turned to face her head on. “I had planned to wait another week.” Planting his feet, he chuckled as he reached up with his free hand into the inner pocket of his tacky Christmas blazer.
Emma’s eyes widened as she saw what he pulled from within it.
“But I may have a ring for you as well, love.”
