A/N: Hello, there! The idea for this has been barraging a good portion of my waking thoughts and I decided to finally put it down on (electronic) paper. And I know I'm becoming ~that person~ by saying this BUT, I am so close to finishing my thesis I can practically taste the diploma now. So this story is quite literally my procrastination incarnate. Now, what does that mean? Beyond the obvious (and correct) conclusions that could be made about my sanity, it means that I will be updating as often as I'm in a caffeine-fueled waking nightmare but yet cannot bring myself to write about the far more dull and college-y subject that will determine my academic fate. Also that my writing style is pretty time-jumpy and stream of conscious-esque… So, without further rambling ado, thank you for reading!
Bang, bang, bang.
Killian woke with a start and promptly fell off the lumpy couch he had been sprawled across.
Bang, bang, bang.
Still a bit dazed from his sudden state of consciousness, he abstractly realized that the banging on the door was what woke him up.
"TINK!" A panicked voice all but screamed from the other side of the door, accompanied soon after by more banging. "Tinkerbelle, get your tiny ass out here! I can't open the door!"
Killian quickly shook his head to clear out the sleepy fog he had been under and strode to the front of the small cabin. He opened the door and stood dumbfounded at the sight before him.
A boy no more than 10 years old had blood streaming down his face from a nasty looking gash above one eye and the little skin that was visible looked sallow and more than a bit green. But that wasn't what had Killian slack jawed and scrambling for coherent thought, he would be ashamed to remember later on. No, all his attention was squarely focused on the blonde goddess holding the boy in her arms. She too had blood congealed to various patches of skin, but he thought that was likely the boy's as there were no injuries visible on her. Her long golden hair was hanging damply in a braid and several sizable unruly tresses had become dislodged. Wide green eyes stared at him in obvious shock as she realized that he was in fact not the camp doctor for whom she had been yelling. Even in such a state of panicked fervor (and growing steadily angrier as Killian blocked the doorway without saying anything or helping her, he realized belatedly) she was the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen.
She cleared her throat and Killian finally snapped out of whatever haze of inaction had him rooted to his spot. He quickly moved out of the way so she could carry the boy fully inside the cabin and set him down on the couch he had just occupied.
"Where's Tink?" the woman asked exasperatedly. She began rummaging around the cabinets on the other side of the room without looking at him.
"Um, she just stepped out for a bit… I think she'll be back soon," Killian said with unintentional extra emphasis on his lilting accent as he was still fairly stunned by his sudden wakefulness, not to mention the unexpected visitors. He glanced over at the boy whose mop of brown hair was now obscuring his face as he lay on the couch. He still looked pale, but it appeared that the bleeding had stopped.
The woman paused in her search of the medical supplies and turned sharply back to look at Killian with a strange expression. Her eyes darted between his own cautiously but apparently she didn't find what she was looking for in his face because she once again turned around to open another cabinet.
"Do you need any help, lass?"
"Aha!" She exclaimed triumphantly in lieu of an answer to his question, pulling out rubbing alcohol and some gauze. In a flash she was back over by the couch, crouching down by the boy and not sparing Killian a second glance. "Okay, kid, this is gonna sting. Don't move." She cleansed the wound quickly and efficiently, earning grunts of pain and a grimace from the patient.
"Maybe this'll teach you not to try to do a human triangle on kayaks," she gritted out as the kid gave a particularly violent wince when the alcohol came in contact with exposed flesh. The admonishing words lost their bite as she grinned down at the boy.
"It would have worked if Roland could keep still for more than two seconds at a time…" the boy grumbled sullenly.
She sighed and resumed her task. "Ugh, your mom is going to kill me."
As she finished up with cleaning the blood off of the boy and put a bandage on the wound (which looked far less gory now that it wasn't matted in hair and dried blood) Killian finally took in the woman's apparel—or lack thereof, more like. She had on a bright blue swimsuit top—that left very little to the imagination—and extremely short black running shorts. He quickly averted his eyes away from her ass, which he hadn't even realized he'd been staring at until she rose from her squatted position at the head of the couch.
Thankfully Tink chose that moment to make her appearance. Slamming the door open and making it tremble in its frame, the small pixie-like woman looked stunned as she took in the scene in front of her. "Emma! What happened?" she exclaimed, her slight Australian accent making a resurgence in her excitement much like Killian's had.
Emma looked down at the boy still lying prone on the couch and smiled ruefully. "Do you wanna tell her or should I?" The boy seemed to shrink further into the cushions and looked like he wished he could be invisible. Taking that as her answer, she continued, "Someone was attempting to do some mild water acrobatics and landed face-first on the edge of a kayak." She threw a pointed look at the boy, whose face had bypassed several shades of normal human coloring and was now bright red from embarrassment. "About gave me a heart attack when I saw all the blood. Though it turned out to be less serious than it looked at first. I think the water just made the blood look a lot runnier."
Tink went over to the boy and rechecked Emma's bandaging, nodding in approval of her handiwork. "Well I'm sorry I wasn't here when you came, I just went over to the admin building to copy some more patient forms. But I see you've met Killian," she ended her last statement with a look at himself and Killian was reminded that he hadn't actually introduced himself during the awkward exchange.
He stuck out his hand to the blonde currently absorbed in silent appraisal of him and said, "I hadn't had the pleasure of introductions in the midst of the chaos. Killian Jones."
She slowly but firmly shook his hand and nodded once. "Emma Swan. I'm the kayaking instructor. And this little daredevil is Henry."
"Regina just made Killian the new rock climbing instructor," Tink supplied, smirking at Emma for some unfathomable reason. Emma barked out a laugh and though confused as to what the two women were finding amusing about this news, Killian couldn't help admiring the way her smile lit up her face and crinkled the edges of her eyes.
"Well I always knew your mom had a somewhat morbid sense of humor," she said to the boy, Henry, as he finally raised himself to a sitting position on the couch.
Killian quirked a brow at Tink. She winked at him in return and explained, "The last rock climbing instructor, Graham, was Irish as well. Seems our dear camp director thought it best to continue the pattern."
"Ah." Killian couldn't think of anything else to say to this tidbit of information as Emma chose that moment to reach her arms above her head and stretch out her whole body, showing off her lean stomach and toned limbs in the process. Emma noticed him staring and smirked at him. Before he could do more than feel slightly embarrassed that he had been caught, she turned back to face Henry.
"You, kid," she put her hands on her hips and looked at the boy in mock reproach, "are ridiculously heavy." She stretched again to prove her point as well as torture Killian a bit more.
"Hey, I'm not the one that insisted you carry me all the way over here sprinting!"
"You looked like you were gonna pass out and you were covered in blood—which was terrifying, bee-tee-dubs." She laughed again at Henry's exasperated groan. "And what kind of aunt would I be if I let you bleed to death on my docks?"
"Wait, aunt? You're Regina's sister?" Killian could accept the fact that his boy was the stern camp director's son; his business-like new boss, Regina, had seemed about the right age to have a 10 year old, even if the imposing woman didn't seem particularly maternal in nature. But this woman before him looked like Regina's polar opposite, all golden sunshine and playful banter hiding undercurrents of passion and thoughtfulness. Nothing like what he would have guessed any sister of hers to resemble.
Emma didn't seem inclined to answer his blunt question, preferring instead to stare blankly at him, and so it was Tink who finally took pity on his confusion, "Um, it's kind of a complicated story. Emma is David Nolan's—he used to be the other kayak instructor and ]now he's the Assistant Director—brother and he's married to Mary Margaret, who's Regina's…I guess former step-daughter. Well anyway, Emma and the rest of us have been coming to the camp every summer for years and years, most of us started out as campers and are now employees. Almost everybody's related in some way or another, so it's easier for the next generation to just call us Aunt or Uncle Blah Blah Blah." Tink shrugged and finished her ramblings brightly, "Nepotism at its finest!"
During Tink's musings Emma had been carefully studying this newcomer to their little summer camp family. She wasn't quite sure what to make of him. Even with his brow furrowed in confusion and sporting some killer bedhead he was insanely attractive. His eyes were still a little glazed—possibly because she suspected she had woken up him when she came screaming to the door or possibly because he couldn't make heads or tails of Tink's nonsensical explanation—but she could tell that they were a brilliant shade of blue that had her insides melting slightly. His scruff was a little lighter than the rest of his hair and only added to his handsomeness.
So lost in thought was she that she didn't realize Tink had stopped talking and was now staring at Emma with a knowing look that she did like one bit.
"Sorry, what did you say?"
"I asked if you'd like me to keep Henry here for a bit to make sure he's okay and so you can go back to the lake," Tink replied easily, watching with interest as her friend glanced back at Killian for a split second.
"Yeah, I should probably get back there," Emma agreed. "I told Vic to watch the other munchkins when I ran off with Henry, but god knows he's probably fallen back asleep," she said with a scoff.
"Oh great, you can take Killian there to meet him!" Tink was looking way too excited at her own suggestion for it to be completely innocent. "Victor will be your partner at the rock wall," she explained to a once more confused Killian.
Emma shot Tink a look but the other woman just smiled even more widely, if that was possible.
"Sure, whatever," Emma sighed, motioning for Killian to precede her out of the cramped cabin. He followed her reluctant direction and waved back at Tink and Henry.
"Until we meet again, young sir. Lovely Tinkerbelle." He bowed towards each of them in turn—yep, freaking bowed—earning giggles and 'good day's from the pair.
Emma made her way to the doorway but paused to turn back around and see Tink and Henry sharing a giddy and all too conspiratorial look. "I'll talk to you later," she said to Tink, heavily laden with all the meaning she could infuse into that one statement. "And kid, please try not to kill yourself on my watch anymore. Regina's still pissed at me for that archery incident. Why don't you go run with scissors in front of David? He'd love that."
Henry saluted her with all the seriousness he could muster and the sight was frankly adorable. Emma finally left the cabin chuckling to herself and clomped down the short wooden staircase to the dirt path below where the scruffy man with the all too familiar accent was waiting for her.
"So, which way to the shore?"
Emma raised her eyebrows at that. The guy didn't even know where the lake was? It wasn't that large of a camp. "Um, this way," she said, pointing to the widening dirt road that wound through the trees. It was only a short jaunt through the woods until the road stopped in front of the small boat shack they used to store kayaks out of season, and beyond that was the dock and beach.
They began walking and a slightly awkward silence settled between them. "Sooo…" she began, dragging out the word and swinging her hands in front of her while she walked to clap them nervously. Now that she wasn't holding Henry in her arms she felt strangely unoccupied. Looking down she also realized with a slight frown that she had streaks of his blood on her arms and stomach. She'd have to rinse off once she got to the boat shack. "You're a friend of Tink's?"
"Aye, she and I go way back. I hadn't seen her in ages, but when I told her I was moving over here she suggested I try and get a job at the camp." Emma could tell there was probably more to the story than that. Who moved to a different country with no job prospects or plan? At least, she would never do that. She couldn't stand not having everything in her life planned out and carefully accounted for. That was one result of being in the foster care system as a kid: she took great pride in being able to control her own life and future.
"I'm still a bit jet-lagged actually. I apologize I wasn't more help back there, I guess the sleep deprivation is finally catching up to me," he continued on sheepishly, reaching up to scratch nervously behind one ear.
Emma looked over at him from the corner of her eye as she walked. He seemed sincere and was probably worried that she thought he was a bumbling idiot for not doing more when she barged in panicking. "It's cool, I was just freaked out. This is my first year going solo as an instructor and I didn't want to screw up before the first session even started."
"I'm sure you'll do great, lass," Killian replied smiling warmly.
Emma scoffed at that. "You don't even know me, buddy." She quickly scrambled to find something else to say though, realizing that he was probably about to say he'd like to know her better or something equally cringe-worthy. Emma did not need another empty promise from another douchebag. "So rock climbing—they have a lot of that in Ireland?"
He seemed to consider her for a second, probably wondering at the sudden change of topic, before chuckling lightly and shrugging. "Not so much, no. I actually haven't climbed in about a year, ever since I moved back to the UK. But Tink and I went to college in Colorado and I got really into it there."
"Ah, I was wondering how an Aussie and an Irishman got friendly," Emma replied, recognizing the possible double meaning of those words only as she took in Killian awkwardly scratching behind his ear again—a nervous tic if she ever saw one—and his slightly panicked expression.
"Oh no, we're just friends—she, erm… well, we—"
Emma laughed, startling him from continuing his ill-fated stuttering. "Relax, I know she plays for the other team, so to speak."
"Oh good, I didn't know how close she was with people here," he said nervously and then seemed to realize something. "You don't, I mean… you and she—Not that I have a—"
"Wow, you're just goin' for all the awkward subjects, aren't you?" She laughed again at his obvious discomfort. "No, I am very much a part of the heterosexual team. Tink and I have been friends for years, we basically grew up together—at least in the summer—and she's like my sister. That's kind of the problem with everyone around here; like Tink said, we're like family and it gets awkward when two of your family members start dating—or worse yet, break up. That's for damn sure," Emma trailed off at that point, muttering the last part almost under her breath to herself.
They reached the dock then and for that Emma was happy for that small gift from the gods. The conversation with Killian was getting weird.
She noticed that Victor was indeed hunched down in his lawn chair dozing with his mouth hanging open. In a calculated move to lighten the mood, Emma stooped down on the beach where Roland had left his sand castle making tools and picked up the plastic bucket there. Filling it up with water from the lake she tiptoed over to the lawn chair and looked back over to Killian. She raised a warning brow as he began to chuckle and put her finger to her lips causing him to stifle his laughter with his hand. With no other warning she unceremoniously dumped the contents of the bucket onto Victor's head. He immediately jumped up ramrod straight and sputtered out an angry exclamation not fit for the ears of small campers (luckily Roland and the few other early arrivals were too far away still to be corrupted).
Once he'd finally shaken off enough water and oriented himself, Victor noticed Emma doubled over in unrestrained laughter. "Oh, you will pay for this, duckling!" Still too incapacitated by her hysterics, Emma could offer no resistance when Victor easily grabbed her around the middle and carried her squirming form over to the end of the dock where he dropped her off the edge and into the cold lake.
By this point, all the kids had swum or paddled over in their kayaks to see what the commotion was about. They howled in laughter as they saw what the "adults" were up to and a splashing war was promptly begun when Victor cannon-balled into the lake.
Emma quickly made her escape and pulled herself back up onto the wooden dock using just her upper body strength, not trusting that one of the munchkins wouldn't attempt to pull her back in if she swam over to use the ladder. Just as she was about to stand up a large hand appeared in front of her and she gratefully used it to come to a standing position. She was surprised (though not altogether unpleasantly) to see that the hand belonged to Killian; she'd almost forgotten he was there after being dunked in the lake.
"Thanks," she said a little breathlessly and peeling her wet hair out of her eyes.
Killian grinned back at her mischievously. "Oh I wouldn't thank me yet, lass."
"Wha-" Emma didn't get anything else out before Killian swooped down and picked her up easily with a hand beneath her knees and another cradling her back. With another brilliant smile he promptly dropped her back in the water and as soon as her head came spluttering back into view on the surface he jumped in as well, forcing Emma to fight to stay afloat once again.
She scoffed indignantly once she was finally breathing normally. "I think you'll fit in here just fine, Jones." He just flashed that wide boyish smile that would have made her knees go weak if she had been standing.
It was shaping up to be a long summer.