The sound of the screen door slamming open behind him shocked Killian out of the trance of his fear and the next thing he knew he saw Mr. Gold dive into the pool, fully dressed in the clothes he'd met them at in the airport.

In a few quick strokes he was beside Liam pulling the sputtering boy up to the surface.

As soon as Gold had the boy's face above the surface he held him in his arms and told him firmly, "Shush, you're okay, you're okay." But Liam was still coughing and crying, his tears mixing with the chlorinated water.

"Liam! Liam!" cried Killian desperately, reaching out to his brother and Gold in the water.

"Stay back!" yelled Gold. "Don't you fall in too! Listen to me. I'm going to bring him up and then I'll need you to stay where you are to help me with him."

Killian's thoughts slowed and he began to take in what Gold was saying.

"Now come to the edge and do as I say," commanded Gold, his voice ragged with stress.

"Okay!" Killian gulped and approached the edge of the pool.

Gold brought Liam up to the edge of the pool and folded the sobbing boy's arms over each other on the ledge, keeping Liam's head and shoulders and arms above the water.

"There, just keep your breathy bits above the water," Gold said to Liam, holding his arms in place with one hand as he haul himself up out of the pool. Gold sat down heavily next to Liam's folded arms, pulling at his clothes, which were wet and heavy now, clinging tightly to his body.

He gave himself a moment to collect his breath before he flipped Liam around by his crossed arms and hauled him up to sit beside him on the edge, his feet still in the water.

Gold clapped Liam on the back to help him bring up the water he had swallowed. Liam coughed obediently, spewing up hot water. Just as he had Liam sitting up without support and, coughing up the rest of his swallowed water, Killian let out a piercing shriek.

Gold looked back at him faintly perturbed, only to see the younger boy pointing, white faced, to the centre of the pool.

"T-t-there- in the water! A foot!"

Gold looked back to where the boy was pointing with a sinking feeling. There was indeed a foot in the water. It was wearing one half of Gold's favourite pair of brown suede desert boots.

"Damnit," sighed Gold irritably. Gold ran a hand through his graying hair and tried to sound reassuring, "It's alright lad."

"B-but—"

"It's okay, it's mine," said Gold, but Killian didn't hear a thing.

All he could think was that the scary Lizard-Man ate someone and that was all that was left over.

"Please don't eat me too!" Killian cried, running to hide behind a chair.

"Eat you? What?" Gold twisted around trying to find Killian while still holding onto Liam who was sagging weakly against him now. "Killian, come back! I need your help! Please!"

Killian, against his better judgement peeped up his head above the chair back, but he couldn't really see much, other than the backs of his brother and Rum Gold sitting beside the water.

Gold twisted and looked up, relieved to see him.

"Killian, it's alright," he said gently, beckoning him closer. "See? I'm like you."

The retired magician lift up the end of one dripping trouser leg and Killian was a little startled to see he had no foot below the cuff of his trouser leg. The trousers went flat against the pool deck somewhere just above where his ankle should've been.

"See? Not scary. It's just my artificial foot. I usually take it off when I swim, but this wasn't exactly a planned thing," he gave a rueful smile as he patted his ruined leather trousers. "Not exactly, my regulation swimming outfit, this. Look, now I need your help, okay?"

Killian nodded, still not having quite absorbed all he was being told, but realized enough to know that Gold wouldn't eat him.

"Now you're going to help me get Liam over to that chair there, away from the pool and I'm going to get some towels for you to dry him with and then you're going to watch him and help him get dry, while I go back in the pool and get everything that fell in, okay?"

"You want me to watch Liam?" asked Killian, surprised. It was always the other way around, with adults always asking Liam to watch him.

"Yes," said Gold firmly. "He's had a bit of a shock and it'll take a few minutes for him to get back to himself."

Killian helped Liam towards a deck chair nearby as Gold crawled over and got up on the chair with a grunt.

"Great, now get the towels from the pool house," instructed Gold.

Gold patted Liam's back to get the rest of the water out while Liam went and found the towels. Together, they wrapped a few warm fuzzy towels around Liam who was shivering with shock and cold.

Then Gold left Killian in charge of his brother as he went back to the pool to retrieve the objects still in the water.

Killian hugged his brother tightly in his arms through the towels, worried at how Liam's teeth were chattering.

"Ssssh, it's okay Liam," he whispered. "I've got you. You're safe now. I won't let anything bad happen to you."

Liam sobbed a bit, nuzzled up against his brother's shoulder and returned the hug.

"Mum," said Liam as he began to come back to himself.

"Don't worry," said Killian. "I'll get her when Mr. Gold comes back."