Disclaimer: Characters not mine!

Killian was miserable.

Emma was ignoring his texts, his puns, his visits, his calls, and basically any attempt he made to contact her. He was sure he must've done something wrong, overstepped somehow, but for the life of him, he couldn't figure out how.

Since the day he'd realized Emma had cut him off, he'd been too distracted to paint. Instead he traced and retraced every step, every word, that led him to this moment.

At least he had Liam. Liam was his saving grace, his life vest in an ocean of unforgiving waves of emotion. He spent his days by Liam's side, and his nights curled up against his tiny body. His anchor. His whole world.

He didn't leave his house beyond the confines of his backyard, and even then, it was only for Liam's sake.

He even apparently missed some sort of arranged outing with Tink. He couldn't recall making plans with her, but couldn't exactly deny her entry to his home when she claimed otherwise. She was his friend, after all. Maybe she could talk to Emma? Or at least help him figure out what went wrong.

Tink seemed to always have a way of getting ahead of the conversation, as she already beat him to the punch.

"How's Emma? She ran off so fast the other day I didn't even get a chance to say a proper goodbye. Not even an explanation. Kind of rude if you ask me." She whispered the last sentence just loud enough that Killian could hear what she said.

"What do you mean without an explanation? You're the one who gave me the explanation, Tink. You said-" Killian got cut off by Tink's abrupt explanation.

"Oh yeah, she said she needed to get a full night's rest before an early shift! I remember now!"

It was with this one comment, that Tink had trapped herself on her own web of lies. Killian was hot on her trail now, and there was nothing she could've said or done to change that.

"Try again," Killian seethed.

"She forgot something at the pool." Tink responded boldly.

"No, you said that she left because of some emergency." Killian felt his anger start to fester.

"Oh yeah, emergency! That's what I meant…" she tried.

"What are you hiding from me?" Killian stalked towards her like a lion stalking it's prey.

"Nothing, I-"

"Tell. Me." His voice dropped a few octaves. He punctuated each word with a menacing glare and a show of his teeth.

Tink has never seen him this furious. She's seen him hurt, sad, frustrated, angry even, but never this. He was in her space now, his head tilted so he was looking down at her.

"I did nothing wrong, I swear it. All I did was enlighten her." Lying wasn't working, so Tink tried evasiveness instead.

"Enlighten her? Tinker Bell, what the hell did you do?" He was livid.

"I only told her of our relationship, silly." She smiled and nudged his shoulder playfully.

"Our relationship?" He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "We're not in a bloody relationship, Tinker Bell. Buggering hell."

"Not yet, anyway…" she mumbled.

"We're not in a relationship. Not now. Not ever. I'm not even sure I want you as a friend right now." It took a while before Killian fully absorbed her words. "Wait, Emma knew all this, I made sure of it. What exactly did you say to convince her? And if the next thing that comes out of your mouth is a lie, or some other form of deception, I promise you this'll be the last you see of me or my son ever again."

Tink realized she was fighting a losing battle. So instead of spinning more tales, she decided it best to just show him. She reached for her phone and pulled up the picture, she angled it in his direction much like she did that night with Emma.

Killian's jaw dropped at the sight before him. "This isn't- we never- I- how?"

"The kiss is real. A drunken night at a party-" she started to explain.

"I haven't gotten drunk in ages, there's no way this was a recent picture." Killian rushed out.

"- A while back," she continued as if he hadn't spoken. "I took a bit of a creative license with the position and date. I figured it was only a matter of time…I thought you'd find it cute" she sounded so sure of herself. It only served to add fuel to the already raging fire.

"Only a matter of time? CUTE? Bloody hell you're mad. Tink, get this in your head, WE. ARE NOT. WILL NOT. EVER. BE. TOGETHER." He was practically spitting in her face.

"Killian, you don't mean that. You love me, I-" she tried, but was interrupted by Killian's curt,

"Get. Out."

"But, Killian-" she tried again.

"Don't 'but Killian', me. I need you to leave now. I've got Liam's swimming lesson to go to and I'd rather not have you around while I get us ready." Instead of waiting for a reply, Killian marched over to his front door and held it open until she gave up and walked out. Not even an apology left in her wake.

Killian and Liam were at the pool at 4:23pm, hoping to speak with Emma before the lesson began. He waited a while, but he couldn't find her. At first he just assumed she was in the staffroom or the supply closet or something, but after about an hour of waiting, texting, and checking all the rooms he had access to, he concluded that she wasn't going to come.

He wanted to cry.

Just as he began packing up his and Liam's things, he heard a voice calling him over; it was Graham.

"Hey, mate. Ready for the lesson? I know you're about ten minutes early but I'm ready to start whenever you are!" Graham said.

"Uhh- sorry? Where's Emma? She's Liam's teacher, she-" Killian's soon-to-be outburst was cut short by Graham's voice.

"Emma's out sick today. She asked me to fill in for her."

"Oh," came Killian's dejected reply. "Be honest with me, mate. She just doesn't want to see me, right?"

Graham didn't say anything in reply, but the look on his face spoke volumes. He'd just have to go see her later.

"Liam, are you okay to have Graham teach you today?" Killian asked.

"Mmma! Mmma!" Liam chanted.

"Emma isn't feeling well, sweetheart." He told his boy before turning towards Graham. "Emma trusted you with this? She trusted you with my boy?"

Graham simply nodded in response.

"Waddaya say, Li? Wanna give him a chance? If Emma says he's okay, I think he's okay too."

What Graham neglected to tell Killian was that Emma had specifically asked their colleague, Belle, for help. Emma had said that Belle was more 'qualified to work with kids' and that 'if Belle wasn't available to cancel the lesson with Liam for today'.

Graham, however, figured there wasn't much of a difference between working with adults and kids, and he really wanted to know what happened between Emma and Killian. If she wouldn't let him help her, he'd find a way to do it himself.

So they set off into the pool, no song, no gentleness, no nothing. He also didn't let Killian join them in the pool, claiming, "Kids these days are being coddled too much. It could do him some good to be independent every once and awhile."

Every parental instinct screamed at Killian not to do this, that being cautious of a two year old in a pool wasn't coddling. But he stopped himself, if Emma trusted this man, and Liam was on board with this new teaching method, then he would let it happen.

Liam was a bit frightened at first, but about two months of lessons with Emma, he seemed to calm down a bit, at least once he was in the water itself.

After about ten minutes of warm up, Killian overheard Graham telling Liam something about 'swimming back to me'. But Liam wasn't ready for that. Not swimming, not yet.

When he voiced his concern to Graham, he was basically met with the polite version of shut up and sit down. He knew Emma trusted this man with Liam, but this was crossing a line. So he made his way over to the side of the pool to argue his point without having to yell and chance upsetting Liam.

"But Emma said he wasn't ready to swim on his own yet. She specifically said that he has yet to grasp full control of his motor functions and that swimming on his own should be left for when he's a bit older. She said now was about teaching the skills. She said-"

His rant was cut off by Graham's firm, "Well, she's not here right now is she? She left me in charge and so I think you should trust that I know what I'm doing."

Killian was having none of it. But before he could tell Graham to hand over his son, and that they were leaving, the man had cannonballed Liam across the water, yelling words of encouragement for him to swim back.

Of course Killian was right. In a matter of seconds, Liam was completely submerged underwater, his crying and flailing only accelerating his descent.

For a moment, all he could do was stare in horror at the scene unfolding before his eyes. Little limbs splashed around in place, grasping for safety that was just out of reach. All in slow motion. All with him stuck in some form of paralysis.

One look towards Graham, however, let lose all semblance of sangfroid from Killian. Graham just stood there, looking somewhere between confused and petrified. It seemed it was up to Killian to rescue his boy.

Killian quickly jumped in to retrieve his boy; he did all the steps, just like Emma taught him.

Retrieve, hoist, pump and breathe.

He could vaguely hear Graham calling for an ambulance behind him.

He felt like time just stopped. Nothing on this earth mattered as much as his boy right now. He couldn't cry, couldn't speak, couldn't yell at the man responsible for all this... He couldn't even register Graham calling Emma and telling her what had happen, could barely hear her voice over the phone put on speaker telling him that everything was going to be okay.

That she was on her way.

That Liam's a strong boy; he'd make it through this.