GETTING KILLIAN OUT of her head was nearly impossible for Wilma, but not quite, as she definitely got something else to think about during her roaming around the cannery with David and Mary Margaret. The blush on her cheeks faded, and so did the smile on her face, as the trio entered a room only to find Greg twisting the buttons of a machine, with wires connected to a woman sweating and suffering in the center of the room — and the woman was Regina, and whilst a wave of relief washed over Wilma at the sight of her, the truth was, she was struggling and balancing between life and death, which were no longer so far from each other.

David pulled out his gun and shot the machine, breaking it before Greg could smoke Regina to ruins, and as the man attempted an escape, Wilma rushed to Regina's side and began to fumble with the straps holding her down. Grunting, Wilma pulled on the restraints and tried to be as quick as possible, well-aware that the woman was in immense pain and needed help right away, her condition being far too serious to ignore or turn her back on. The slight panic caused her hands to shake, and it slowed her down, but gulping down the lump in her throat, Wilma locked her brown eyes with Regina's faded, drained ones and nodded reassuringly — the sight of her face a mere blur to Regina, but it was enough to spark hope within the queen.

"You're going to be okay", Wilma breathed out, smiling carefully, "if there's anything I've learned about you, it's that you're a fighter. So keep fighting", as she yanked on the final straps and wires and managed to free Regina from being held captive, her arms instantly wrapping around the woman whilst helping her stand up. Regina shot Wilma a tired, but grateful look, and all the brunette could do was give her a warm smile before she was pulled into David and Snow's caring arms.

The couple planned on taking Regina to Mother Superior, who could most likely heal her from the torture she had been through, and while they headed out, Wilma went in another direction. She had teamed up with Emma, and on top of that, the woman was with Neal, looking for his evil fiancé — so yes, Wilhelmina deemed it necessary to insert herself into the situation and offer all the assistance she only could. The sight of Regina's pale face, drenched in misery, continued to haunt Wilma as she ran around the cannery and tried to locate the rest of her little group, but truthfully, the worst was still ahead.

Eventually, Wilma came across Emma and Neal, only that the blonde was lying on the floor after seemingly being knocked down by Tamara, who was standing on the other side of the hallway and holding Neal — and now, Wilma — at gunpoint. Stopping dead on her tracks, Wilma huffed and instantly lifted her hands in the air as an automatic reaction, which made Tamara smirk, but instead of letting the woman speak up and say something snarky, Wilma grasped the opportunity to do so.

"I see my timing is flawless. Tamara, I presume?", Wilma nodded, before turning over to Neal, whose face was twisted with evident shock. "You and I need to have a little chat about your taste in women", she whispered, and if the situation hadn't been so extreme, maybe they could have laughed together. But right now, their lives were in danger, Emma Swan was unconscious on the floor, and Neal had just found out that everything had been a lie, since the very beginning. And the knife in his heart was only twisted, as painfully as possible, when he made the mistake of questioning if Tamara ever loved him — only to get a rather disappointing answer.

Frankly, Wilma couldn't help but feel sympathy for the man. She could see it in his eyes, how his heart slowly shattered in his chest and the shards only dug deeper into his skin, causing each movement, each thought hurt and cause him suffering of the worst kind. It was heartbreak, and not the ordinary kind either. Instead of being dumped on prom night or through a text message, Neal had to discover that Tamara had been lying to him since day one and that she was actually a villain, trying to destroy magic and Neal's friends and family in the process. As if Neal hadn't dealt with enough villains and betrayal in his time. And still, he chose to be brave and stand up against Tamara, he chose to fight and resist.

Not that it ended very well.

Wilma had just taken a step to stop Neal from rushing head-first into an evident mistake, but she couldn't do anything when the hallways suddenly echoed with a gunshot, and the man fell backwards, collapsing onto the floor and clutching his chest in pain. Gasping and covering her mouth with both hands, Wilma's heart jumped to her throat immediately as her body froze, scared to move, scared to even breathe. And for a second, she stood there in denial, but then Neal lifted his trembling hand and Wilma could see all the blood, all the proof that Tamara had freaking shot him and now he was bleeding on the floor. And that was just it for Wilhelmina.

"You bitch", she spat, shocking even herself with the sudden rush of anger and confidence, but she had no time to think about the unexpected words slipping out of her mouth, when she had already pushed Tamara back, causing the woman to lose her balance and drop the gun in the process. However, as someone less talented in fighting in general, Wilma was easily knocked down and her body came in contact with the hard floor in a matter of seconds, but all hope wasn't lost, as Emma saved the situation and began to fight Tamara with equal fury. Crawling towards Neal, Wilma took the man's hand and squeezed tightly, giving him a reassuring look to silently promise that everything was going to be okay, before jumping back up to both feet and grabbing the gun that Tamara had dropped.

Cocking the gun with shaky hands, Wilma swallowed thickly and pointed the weapon at Tamara, and despite the fear spreading in her, she tried to be brave. "I may not be a fighter, but Prince Charming taught me how to use a gun, so I'd think about your next move long and hard", she threatened Tamara, attempting to be confident, but the woman turned out to be clever as the Devil, and before Wilma could pull the trigger, she had pulled out one of the infamous magic beans and tossed it at Wilma's feet. She had no time to react, but luckily Emma did, and just as a green vortex appeared in the middle of the floor, the Savior pushed Wilma out of the way and the brunette was knocked into safety.

But the same couldn't be said for her friends. Unfortunately, Tamara managed to escape, and as Neal tried to save Emma from the portal to another world, the floorboards cracked under their weight and the man slipped down. Barely holding on, Emma was struggling to hold the both of them, trying to save Neal from falling into the portal with a gunshot wound, and once Wilma saw that, she crawled forward to grab Emma. She could see the gratitude in the blonde's eyes as she took Wilma's hand, and it was an odd moment of understanding and teamwork, as she tried to keep both Emma and Neal in this world, but frankly, things weren't looking too good.

"Stay safe, Winnie", Neal yelled from within the portal, and to Wilma, it sounded a lot like a goodbye. And that was enough to bring her to tears, which dropped on her wobbling bottom lip as she shook her head in disagreement, refusing to accept it.

"I thought I told you not to call me that", she forced a chuckle through the tears that were sliding down her cheeks, and she couldn't help but smile as she looked at Neal, who then insisted that he was a stubborn ass.

As Emma told Neal not to let go, begging him to fight, admitting that she needed him, that she loved him, Wilma tried to yank them into safety but the power of the portal was too strong, too big to resist. Although Wilma already knew she couldn't do it, she tried to fight and keep them in Storybrooke, but after telling Emma that he loved her too, Neal's hold on the blonde started to loosen and eventually, he slipped away entirely. Both Wilma and Emma screamed in agony as they watched Neal disappear into the portal, and truthfully, it felt like Wilhelmina's heart was ripped out of her chest.

Neal was her closest friend, someone to confide in, someone to laugh and cry with, someone to support and help in tough times, someone to occasionally make fun of. He was important. Lately, more so than Wilma's family — well, perhaps Neal was the closest thing to family.

But instead of him, Wilma had no one to lean on at that moment, no one but Emma, and despite all their former disagreements and the unspoken hatred, they did just that. They leaned on each other, with their arms wrapped around each other, their sobs mixed together and shared misery so thick in the air Wilma felt like she couldn't breathe.

It felt surreal, but just like that, Neal was gone. A part of their lives — just gone.

———

WILMA DIDN'T KNOW where to go or what to do, or how to deal with the fact that the closest thing she had had to a best friend had been shot, and with the bleeding wound, he had fallen through a portal leading into another world. And even though Wilma was one to have hope and always find light even in the darkest of situations, she couldn't stand against rationality, logic, or the laws of nature — all of which were telling Wilhelmina that Neal was dead and she was never going to see him again. She had lost her friend, a part of her family — as if she hadn't dealt with that kind of loss enough already — and that caused her eyes to overflow with tears as she stumbled out of the seafood cannery, gasping for air and breaking the quietness at the docks with her heartwrenching sobs.

Emma and Wilma parted ways soon after their moment in the building, and whilst Emma headed home to her parents, Wilma felt lost and unsure. With her shaky feet, she paced around the docks with no actual destination, although it was rather surprising that she was even able to stand, with the immense heartache within her coming on so strong it stole her breath away and made her nearly choke on her tears. She was bad at dealing with sorrow, in fact, she completely sucked at handling loss, despite her tendency to be surrounded by it. But even if the woman definitely had experience, she had no talent when it came to controlling the sadness in her, and it left her a sobbing mess, aching from all over and unloading her frustration into the endless steps around the pier.

However, the feeling of being lost lessened slightly as Wilma wiped her eyes and looked around, only for her gaze to land on a legendary ship being slowly rocked by the waves hitting the shore. The Jolly Roger, in all of its beauty, ended up being Wilma's destination, and with despair and desire to fall into Killian's safe, steady arms, the woman began to stumble towards the vessel, and after falling onto her face in the process, she managed to jump aboard. Breathing in the fresh air, Wilma gulped thickly and took a couple of seconds to look around the ship, which she, surprisingly, had missed while Killian was gone. But now he was back, and once she reminded herself of that, Wilma ran below deck to find the man.

And that she did.

She had barely stumbled down the couple of steps, when her chest came in contact with another one — a firm, strong one, that caused her to huff as they bumped together, but as soon as she looked up and saw Killian's familiar, yet concerned eyes, the woman sighed in some kind of relief. And for a second, she stared at him with utter sadness and heartbreak, and it caused the man to frown, but instead of wasting time by asking unnecessary questions, he wrapped his strong arms around Wilhelmina and closed her in a tight hold with no intentions to let go. Merely the fact that she had tears in her eyes and utmost misery written all over her face was enough to earn the pirate's sympathy and affection.

It was intense, for sure, with him holding the crying woman in her arms, as Wilma buried her face in his chest and clutched onto him for dear life, but it wasn't the time or the place to evaluate their relationship. In that moment, all that remained was her suffering and his desire to protect the poor woman from the dark world surrounding them.

"Everything will be okay, love", Killian whispered lowly, his voice deep and quiet, but it shook Wilma as the husky words echoed in her ears. "I'll protect you. And I will personally make sure that those lovely lips won't be upside down tomorrow", he promised.

And as Wilma leaned a little bit closer to Killian and weakly nodded, through the suffocating sadness within her, hope forced its way through.

»»»

i feel like this was so over-dramatic but eh, every story needs a bit of angst and drama?

my poor bean though :'((