I was watching the last episode of Switched At Birth and I feel like this is how the last episode should have ended for Bay and Emmett.

The Helmet

A film of salty tears clouded her vision as she made her way to his bike. The moisture from her eyes mixed with the mascara she had applied earlier that night. Should have gone with the water proof. She thought as she wiped a hand over her stinging eyes. She usually did wear waterproof mascara, but she never thought she would have a reason to cry tonight. Everything had started out so perfect, he had even put her name on that stupid helmet.

That stupid helmet. She turned, picking it up and looking at the taunting red letters that spelled her name. She loved him, but what he told her had hurt her, caused her to be so angry. Her hands, her whole body, as though it was rejecting the information, threw the black helmet into the murky water. She stood there, looking at it as it floated for a few moments before the weight slowly caused it to sink below the surface.

Oh no. She thought as the guilt surfaced. They had worked through so much, and she was deciding to throw it all away. His face as she had stormed away came back into her mind. His eyes were red rimmed and watery as though every step she took drove a jack hammer through his heart. She had felt it too with every sign accompanied by mouthed words. The thought of him didnt bring her pain though, like everything else she was angry at. It was the action that caused her pain. But that had been a mistake, hadn't it? He came to her, to tell her he made a mistake and she had run away.

Making up her mind as she looked down at her prom dress she kicked off her high heels and dove into the water. The dress wasn't worth anything to her, the helmet meant represented so much more. By now the helmet was far under water and she continuously tried to go deeper and deeper to find it. With no way to see, and no way to know how deep she was, Bay began to panic. She had never really been a good swimmer (ironic considering her name and the fact that she had a pool in the back of her house) and didn't know if she was swimming up toward the surface, or down toward the bottom of the lake..and she was quickly running out of air.

Emmett hadn't been able to tell Toby what happened, self preservation (because Toby surely would have kicked his ass) and the fact that Toby didn't sign well enough made it so. But both boys did have something in common, they both loved Bay. Not in the same way, that would be gross, but both of them wanted to find her. So Emmett followed Toby out to the parking lot as they looked around for the missing raven haired girl. Toby took off in one direction as Emmett looked over to where his bike was parked. He saw Bay looking into the lake with a determined expression as she kicked off her heels and..No! She jumped into the water and was under the surface faster than he could blink. Emmett turned to get Toby's attention but the other Kennish was too far away and with his back turned.

There wasn't enough time, Bay hadn't re-surfaced yet. He knew she wasn't the most talented swimmer, they had talked about it briefly when he was over at her house and wanted to go swimming with her. As a kid he had enjoyed taking swimming lessons, one of the things that his mom claimed he would have had as much time for if he had taken speech therapy. For once, he was grateful.

Emmett rushed over to the edge, not bothering to remove his own shoes as he dove into the murky depths of the chilled water. It wasn't too long before he found Bay, his hand grazing a lock of her hair that at first he mistook for seaweed. He wrapped his arms around her and brought them both up to the surface, scared because she wasn't struggling or moving around in his grasp. He pulled her up and into the grass, brushing her black hair away from her face. He tried waking her briefly before trying to pump the water from her chest.

"Please…Please.." He whispered out loud, after the third compression she gasped and splutter, water spewing from her pale lips and her eyes wide and scared. He puled her into a sitting position quickly and pulled her tightly against his chest, both of them shivering slightly from the wind against their soaked clothes. "Thank god.." He whispered against the top of her head. He pulled away after a moment, glaring at her.

"What were you doing?" He signed angerly.

"I lost the helmet." She signed back, accompanied by a croaky voice.

"I don't care about the helmet! What if something had happened to you? You cant swim well!" He said, his expression drawn, strained as though the thought of something happening to her caused him pain. "I..Love. You." He said. Traitorous tears leaked out of his eyes and mingled with the water that dripped down from his hair.

Bay cried and kissed him. "I love you too.." she said, her arms wrapped so tightly around him that they both though they were nearly conjoined. They spent the next few hours laying in the grass and letting the air dry them. Later when Toby found them and asked why they were soaking wet the only thing they could say was.

"We went for a swim." Their hands locked together so tightly that nothing would tear them apart again.

—

So thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! Please review or comment on what you liked, what could be improved, or if you think it was totally ridiculous and out of character. Thanks,

Sara A.