A/N: I am so sorry for this long delay in updating! I got a little distracted with watercolor painting, and this chapter was giving me a lot of trouble. The next one should be up faster. Let me know what you think!


"Invert the tube three times before you add the buffer," Emma instructed Henry, the undergrad she was mentoring.

"You told me to do that just a second ago." Henry looked at her keenly. "Are you okay?"

"Of course I am. Why?" Emma bristled.

"You just seem a little distracted this morning." Henry shrugged.

The kid was too observant for his own good, thought Emma, and shot a quick glance across the lab at the cause of said distraction: Killian Jones. He was setting up an experiment at his bench, directly in her line of vision.

It had been a week since she and Killian had returned from the field trip, and Emma had been sort of avoiding Killian ever since. She had not been rude per se, but she had rebuffed any attempt on his part to make causal talk with her. Killian had gotten under her skin in too short a time. He was smart, attractive, and way too perceptive. It was barely a few months since she'd broken up with Neal. It was better to avoid Killian than needlessly get her emotions entangled at this point. Or at any point, for that matter, added Emma as a side-note in her mind.

Killian had seemed puzzled at first, but he had not spoken a single word to her in the past two days. He had pointedly turned away upon seeing her that morning. Emma was annoyed at how much it bothered her. Her plan to put him out her mind didn't seem to be going all that well, considering her eyes were constantly drawn to him whenever he was in the same room as her. She sighed and refocused her attention at Henry.

"How is your semester going so far?" she asked, as Henry proceeded to the next step in his experiment.

"A little busy, but not too bad, actually."

"What classes are you taking?"

"Biochem 460, senior thesis, and a supercool class on Creative Writing in Fantasy."

Emma smiled. Henry was huge fantasy buff. While Emma wasn't particularly fond of the genre, she loved the Harry Potter books. She enjoyed nerding out with Henry about the series, and arguing about whose favorite character was the best ever (Henry's was Ron; Emma's was Sirius).

"That reminds me. I have to write a research paper for my senior thesis. Would you have some time to help me out?"

"Sure. I'll be free anytime after Monday."

"Thanks!"

"Why don't you make an outline in the meantime? I'll look over it and we can discuss it next week—maybe Tuesday or Wednesday."

"Cool."

Emma checked Henry's work. "Looks like you've got it in hand, Henry. Do you think you can finish up?"

"Yeah. I think so."

"I have to finalize my slides for my Practice Talk this afternoon."

"Oh, I got your e-mail about that. It's for your prelim, isn't it?"

"Yeah. It's on Monday." Emma had to pass her preliminary examination in the Fall semester to be on track for a Spring graduation. "I'll be at my desk if you need me for anything."

Emma went to the office area and made herself a cup of coffee. She sat at her desk to finalize her slides for the talk.

A couple of hours later, Emma set up her laptop in a snug little room at the end of the hall they used for their weekly research group meetings. A couple of grad students from their research group (Mulan and Dawn) drifted in, followed by Henry and Elsa.

Elsa handed Emma a laser pointer and sat down. Emma was a little thrown to see Killian Jones casually saunter in and sit right up front. O...kay.

"So, how do you want to do this?" Elsa queried.

"I'll give the presentation first. Then maybe we could go over it slide by slide?"

"Sure," said Elsa.

"Could one of you time me?"

"I'll do it," offered Henry. Taking out his iPhone, he started the stopwatch.

"Alright, here goes…"

Emma gave a brief introduction on the overarching objective of her thesis project; she then went over her specific research aims, preliminary data, and future goals. After she was done, Emma turned to look at Henry.

"Fifty minutes and 15 seconds."

"I'm five minutes over the time limit."

"That's not too bad." Mulan piped up. "It's easier to cut down slides than add more stuff."

"You did a very good job overall," began Elsa. "You stumbled in a couple of places, but you will be fine once you practice a few more times."

"I thought the introduction was needlessly long," commented Killian.

"I didn't." Mulan demurred.

The next few minutes were spent in Killian and Mulan arguing over whether or not the intro had been too long.

"We should keep going," Elsa interrupted. Killian shrugged in acquiescence.

Emma wrote down the various comments and suggestions as they went over the rest of her slides. Killian seemed to find something to nitpick on every slide. Eventually, he and Emma were the only two people talking. Henry had left an hour before. The other people in the room become restive as Emma's exchanges with Killian got increasingly heated. After a particularly asinine suggestion of Killian's (in Emma's opinion), she had had enough.

"I don't have the time to sit and make detailed graphic designs to illustrate a simple point. My prelim is on Monday, and I think what I have is more than enough."

"Perhaps next time you should ask for feedback with more than just two days to spare, love."

"Maybe next time you shouldn't offer feedback if you don't have anything useful to say, brah."

Dawn suppressed a giggle. Elsa and Mulan exchanged amused but exasperated glances.

"Well… if you don't want to listen to constructive criticism…"

"If you think wasting time just to fluff things up is constructive…" Emma glared at him.

Emma could almost swear Killian's mouth twitched up in a brief smile. Jerk.

"I have to leave," said Mulan apologetically.

Emma glanced at the clock. It was close to 7 PM. They had started at 3.

"Oh my god, I didn't realize how late it was. Sorry for keeping you guys so late! Let's stop here." Emma disconnected her laptop from the projector, and thanked everyone for their feedback as they filed out.

Elsa nudged Emma's shoulders playfully as they walked back to the lab. "What was that all about?"

"I don't wanna talk about it."

"Did you and Killian have a fight or something?"

"What? No!"

Elsa gave her a scrutinizing look, but to Emma's relief, let it go at that. She just didn't want to deal with Elsa's questions right then.

Emma spent the weekend editing slides and refining her presentation. Monday morning had her stomach in knots, despite downing four cups of coffee. All too soon, it was time. Tiana and Elsa helped her set up for the presentation. The conference hall was quite full for a preliminary exam. Most of the students and techs from their research group were present. Emma was not surprised to see Killian sitting at the back. He caught her eye and gave her a thumbs up. Emma gave a tight smile in acknowledgement. Finally her committee members arrived. Emma took a deep breath and got started.

Even though she was a little nervous at the beginning, Emma's presentation went smoothly. All the hours she had put in working on it had paid off. Once she got done with her talk, Emma fielded audience questions. After that, everyone but her committee members was kicked out so they could grill her in private.

An hour later, Emma stepped out, tired but elated. She had passed her preliminary exams! Her group members came forward to congratulate her and presented her with leis. Emma couldn't stop smiling.

Killian walked up to her and said, "You did a brilliant job."

Emma narrowed her eyes. "You didn't seem all that impressed on Friday."

"Ah. It appears I was wrong."

"Did I just hear you admit you were wrong?" teased Emma.

Killian grinned, unabashed. "I don't do that often. Enjoy it while you can."

Emma rolled her eyes.

"Let's go to RB's and celebrate!" someone yelled.

There was a chorus of agreement to this suggestion.

"But I'm tired!" protested Emma.

"Na..uh. You're not getting out of it," said Tiana. "You're getting buzzed tonight, chika."

"Alright, alright," said Emma laughing. "I need to put away my laptop and get my bag from the lab. I'll meet you guys at the bar."

"I'll come with you," said Elsa. "I need to wrap up a couple of things at the lab."

When she got to the lab, Emma set down her laptop, and typed out a quick e-mail to Meg on her phone, informing her that she had passed her prelims. Then she put on her earbuds, and sat tapping her heels to the beat of music as she waited for Elsa to finish up.

A hand fell on her shoulder, startling her. She jumped up, the earbuds falling off her ears.

It was Neal.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you."

"No. That's ok. I didn't hear you."

"Congrats on passing your prelims."

"Oh. Uh… thanks."

"I thought you'd be off celebrating. You're not working tonight are you?"

"No. I'm just waiting for Elsa to wrap up." She expected Neal to walk away at this point. Instead, he casually leaned against the desk beside her.

"So, it looks like your project is coming along well," he stated.

"I hope so." Emma was in no mood to make small talk with Neal. She hoped her short answers would discourage further questions.

"Are you planning to use all of the samples you collected from Waimea last week?"

Emma stiffened. The euphoria of passing her preliminary exam was rapidly evaporating.

"Why do you ask?"

"I was hoping you could share some of them with me."

"What exactly do you mean by share, Neal? You and I don't process samples the same way for our projects. We're not both going to be able to use them."

"You're not going to need them all anyway, right? I mean, the extra stuff is just going to go to waste."

Emma wanted to smack the smug expression off his face, but she restrained herself. Had he always been this condescending?

"I donno. I can't tell right now. I may need all of it," she replied. "Why don't you go and collect samples yourself?"

"I'm working on my dissertation right now. I just don't have time to go on a field trip."

"And you think I got time?" she asked dryly.

"Come on, Emma. You don't know what the pressure is like for a PhD student."

Emma sucked in her breath sharply. "Why, because I'm just a Master's student?"

"Look, I didn't say that." Neal sighed and scrubbed his face. "I'm simply asking you for a favor."

"You have a nice way of asking for it."

Neal frowned. "I didn't take you to be the type to…" He stopped himself before completing the sentence.

"Type to what, Neal?" She dared him to finish his sentence so she could just punch him in the face and get it over with.

"Look, that didn't come out right."

"I'd say it didn't," sneered Emma.

"So you're not going to help me." It was a statement, not a question.

Good thing he was finally getting the memo. "What are you going to do? Go whine to Meg about it?"

Neal reddened, and then looked at her with dawning comprehension. "Huh, is that what this is all about?"

"What do you mean?"

"Did you get cozy with that haole when you were up North "collecting samples" with him? He seems to be rubbing off on you," said Neal.

"Who I get cozy with is none of your business." Emma was livid.

"So you admit it…"

"Who the hell are you to ask me that, anyway?"

Neal stepped closer, with an angry glint in his eyes. "Look…"

"Is everything alright?" Elsa interrupted.

For a second Emma and Neal stood frozen on the spot, staring angrily at each other. Then, Emma shook herself and ducked past Neal to join Elsa.

"Everything is fine. I'm ready to go."

Elsa looked at her with concern then glanced in Neal's direction. Emma steadily refused to look at Neal.

After a moment, Neal turned and walked away without a word.

Elsa took Emma's hand and squeezed it. Emma realized she was shaking.

"Emma. Maybe you need to sit down for a minute?" said Elsa, her voice laced with concern.

"No. I want to get out of here."

"Alright. Let me get your bag."

Elsa grabbed Emma's bag, and the two women speedily exited the lab.