Killian was pretty much oblivious to medical technology in this realm, so when Emma suggested they take Lilly for some testing, he was all but lost (and horrified) to the concepts of people looking at his daughter's brain without cracking her little head open. In the end he agreed and the merry little Jones combo took leave to see Whale.

Even if Dr. Victor Whale was not a realm original, he had also been introduced to the concept of magic later in life. His shades-of-grey world had, he agreed, been far more depressing, but he was a stern man of science. Even in Storybrooke and after having been convinced that magic was indeed real, he still chose to stick to orthodox medical procedure as much as possible before recurring to magic to save lives. So he was in for a pretty big shock when he gave Emma Swan a check-up and found her to be fully healed from the tissue damage of her violent miscarriage; almost as if she had never been through the ordeal at all.

When he was told the little girl had been responsible, he was immediately super keen to revise her and perform a couple of painless tests on Lilly Jones.

Of all things, he certainly didn't expect the child to actually… talk through cubes when she wasn't even two. When Killian set the little girl down with her little cube set, he turned to Whale and grinned. "So, where do we start?" He swallowed. "Emma told me you'd look at her…. Brain?"

Whale smiled. "Yeah Captain, no need to be so apprehensive, believe me, it's completely non-invasive. We call it an EEG or CAT Scan; basically they're beams of…"

"Cat scan? How do felines come into play here, mate?"

Whale laughed. "CAT as in C-A-T, Hook."

"Computerized Axial Tomography. Basically photons slice the brain into images visible on a screen…"

Killian paled. "Slice?"

"Not like…. Slicing, slicing, buddy, it's more like…taking imagery through photonic energy and reproducing it on the screen, basically we can see THROUGH her head in milimetric proportions in real time and then…" he looked at Hook's highly confused grimace and simply huffed. "You know what? Why don't you and Emma come in to see it done? I swear to you, captain, you've nothing to worry about, it is absolutely harmless."

Emma stepped in, grinning as she buttoned her shirt. She reached and grabbed Killian's arm. "Having trouble with conceptual science there, pirate?"

"This whole brand of magic you people call science is still beyond me."

Whale continued to smile amusedly. "Well, I'll just go start the paperwork and the consent forms for Lilly's testing and…"

"Why don't you just ask her? Right off the bat?" Emma shrugged with a smirk.

Whale gave Emma a confused scowl. "Mrs. Jones, are you… asking me to enquire an eighteen month old baby whether or not she agrees to have her head scanned?"

"Aye, she is." Killian nodded.

The Joneses smiled a wicked, knowing smile, knowing exactly what Whale was in for.

Whale huffed. "Look, if we're going to have this done today, I really have no time for this…"

Killian continued to grin, nodded and closed his eyes. "Hmm…" He crouched down to his daughter. "Lilly, love, the doctor wants to perform some rather painless tests on you…."

"This is ridiculous…" Whale rolled his eyes.

"Are you up to it, darling?"

Lilly looked up at her mom, who raised her hands to her sides. "It's entirely up to you, sweetie…"

Whale shook his head. "You are talking to her like an accountable adult, Emma! You're her parents, the decision is not hers until she's eighteen, it's yours! Now enough fantasizing and…."

He felt the tug on his trousers and looked down.

Like everyone else before him, he was jaw slacked. He crouched down next to the Captain, one hand over his mouth, looking at the cubes.

LILLY READY

"Y… you did this, didn't you Captain?" He spoke muffled from behind the hand clamping his mouth.

Killian chuckled. "Lilly, tell the good medic what you want, then, love."

Lilly turned her hands on her cubes and moved them all around.

BELIEVE

"Good god…" He fell on his butt and Emma chuckled.

"L… Lilly, you actually… understand what we're asking and saying?"

She looked up at the doctor. "Aye."

Whale smiled and laughed softly. "This is… amazing, this is beyond anything ANYONE in this world has ever…" He ran a hand through his hair. "So, ok… Lilly, are you ok with me performing tests?"

"Aye."

"This is…. Ok. I'll get the bad part done first, sweetie, I need a little bit of your blood."

"BLOOD?" Hook growled.

"I really need to see her bloodwork, Captain."

Lilly raised one eyebrow up at the same time as her father.

PAIN

Whale was delighted. "Well, yeah, there's pain in THAT one, but I promise you, it's the ONLY one that comes with pain and it's very, very little. Plus, your mom and dad are pretty brave people. I'm sure you're brave too, and if you give me a little bit of your blood, you can have a candy bar from that jar. So, what do you say?"

Killian and Emma looked at Lilly. The way she gazed was, by all accounts, baby-like; but then she turned back to her cubes.

LILLY BRAVE

Whale laughed and stood up, looking at both parents in their eyes. "I swear this is unheard of."

"Tell us about it." Emma nodded.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"So if we add ten more rocks to these fifteen…" The teacher said, "How many rocks will we have?"

"Twenty-five!" The eager eight-year-old children boys responded in an eager chorus.

"Very good, lads! Now, from twenty-five rocks, a young man comes and picks six out. How many rocks do we have left now?"

It took the boys a few more seconds to respond this time, before they once again emitted evenly: "Nineteen!

"Excellent. Now, taking those nineteen into account, someone comes in and duplicates the quantity. How many rocks have we now, my boys?"

There was silence while the lads thought the answer out carefully.

"This is daft." Came a little voice.

"Oi!" The teacher stood straight. "Who said that!?"

Silence.

"We shall not continue until the boy responsible for such insolence stands up and steps forward, lest he be a little coward! Come on now, who said this class is daft?"

A lone, dark little boy with eyes bluer than blue stood up with a huff. "It was I, sir."

"Very well then, Master Jones, come forward now, step before the class…"

Killian shrugged and paced to the front.

"Now, lad… why is it you believe this to be daft? Do I bore you, boy?"

"But no, sir! It's the class that bores me, not you. On the contrary sir, you do amuse me so…"

The boys gasped collectively.

"You are insolent, boy!" The teacher growled.

"Not insolent at all sir. Just really bloody smart." He took the chalk from the teacher's hand. "Here: The duplicate of nineteen is thirty-eight. And let's say there's a mighty avalanche and this amount increases a fifty-six fold: That will be two thousand, one hundred and twenty eight rocks, sir. If after that, seven hundred and sixty two people from the local village decide to divide the rocks equally among them for home-making, then each will take two rocks each, but there will be a residual amount of rocks for each, approximating the amount of point eight…" he scribbled before the awed and angered stare of the stern maths professor at the academy. "…which would mean we'd have to dally with fractions. So now we have two rocks per villager and, if we round the decimal to eight avoid trouble, because there are a LOT of numbers in that decimal, sir, we're talking exactly two rocks and eight tenths." He turned with a cheeky smile to the professor. "I don't usually enjoy working with fractions, sir, but I'll do in this time, so you can follow and not get lost…" He turned back to the blackboard with a smirk and continued his class while the boys giggled and the teacher fumed. "So, say we have each person take his or her two and eight tenths of rock back home, and of course, they see they need a great many more rocks to build their houses… basically they need the seventh potency of two and eight tenths. So now we have to make an equation to solve that particular conundrum…" He closed a parenthesis around the fraction and added the little seven at the top right. "Very well, this we call an "elevation to the seventh potency, and it should give us the fair amount of rocks each villager shall have to build his home, which will beeeee…" he rolled his eyes up and pouted before turning back to the blackboard. "Here: One thousand, three hundred and forty nine rocks and thirty hundredths, which translates back to decimals as one thousand, three hundred and forty nine point thirty. Now we are completely able to calculate how many rocks it took to build the village sir. So each villager who has this quantity of rocks built their homes and the villagers were seven hundred and sixty two, if I recall, then village should have needed exaaactly…" He thought again before turning to write. "One milliard, twenty eight thousand, one hundred and sixty one rocks and fifteen hundredths, if shared in good equal form." He walked back to the teacher and winked a very happy Jones wink as he placed the chalk back in his teacher's hand. "Now THAT, sir, was fun."

He turned back to sit down as the class erupted into wild applause.

He naturally never made it back to his seat: The teacher swiftly grabbed him by his sideburn. "I will show you fun, you cheeky little sod! Headmaster Clemmons will cane you accordingly!"

"WHY? FOR BEING SMART?" Killian complained, sneering in pain.

"For being a smart arse!" he hollered back.

That night (and ten fresh cane marks on his back later), Liam was cleaning up his little brother's wounds with a smile on his face. "Who was it this time?"

"Professor Gilliam."

"He's a turd. No match for your quick wit, Killian."

"Indeed... OWW! He winced as the healing serum entered his body.

"I believe one day, as you grow older, you can be one hell of a navigator, with your mathematical skill, brother." Liam laughed. "Even I am no match against you in that sense."

"Few people are. And I'm rather a good-looking lad as well. You should see my classmates, gargoyles, the lot of them."

"Now there, no need to be so conceited, lad!" Liam pulled his brother's shirt down. "Good form is, above all things, what you must rule your life by, Killian, and struttery is NOT good form. However…" He smiled and placed a hand on his little brother's shoulder. "Here we are, a year after papa left us, and look how far we've come."

Killian grinned. "I saver your arse, love."

"And don't think I've forgotten! Now…" He tilted his head in the direction of the austere desk. "Go finish your Literature and History homework; math might earn you a good name and a dignified rank, but words and culture will earn you a good lass and a family, so go."

"Aye aye, Captain!" The little boy grinned before hugging his brother. "You are the best brother in the world, Liam."

By the time he was thirteen, Killian Jones had replaced Professor Gilliam… and his class was far more fun… and involved no corporal punishment.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"It's easy as pie lad, come…" Killian scooted over next to Henry over the boy's algebra book. "Now… To accurately solve an equation, m'boy, first you have to clear away all traces of fractions. You can do that by multiplying both sides by the value number given, which issss…" He turned, brow raised, to Henry.

"There's an x there!" henry shrugged.

"Aye, but you had already figured out the value of a, over here, remember?"

"Oh yeah, that's right! Twenty two." Henry nodded as he scribbled his responses, figuring out the problem as Killian looked on.

Killian looked at the answer and smiled. "Clever lad. Well done. Now…" he pointed his hook at the precise point of the paper. "Identify your least common denominator there and… Distribute the answer evenly to each side… Like so…" Henry was already complying as he balanced the equation. "Perfect. Now study this answer and tell me…" He turned to look at Henry with a smirk. "Is the largest denominator a multiple for all these others?" henry studied the paper and tuned with a nod. Killian laughed and ruffled Henry's hair. "Then congratulations, m'boy, the equation has been solved satisfactorily."

Henry smiled and turned to him. "You're pretty good at this!"

"One needs to be, to become a sea officer and expert navigator."

"Well, I don't know about THAT, but…" He closed his notebook. "You'd make a hell of a good math teacher in Storybrooke University."

Killian smiled and grabbed Henry's shoulder just as Emma came through the door, with Lilly in one hand and the results from her tests in another.

"Dadadadaaaaa! Lilly grinned and held her arms out to her father.

"Hello, little darling!" Killian stood with a smile as he took the baby into his arms and then turned to kiss Emma. "So…" He smiled. "What do we have for a daughter, then, Swan?"

Emma huffed and grinned. "You are NOT going to believe this…" She set the envelope down and opened it before the curious stares of her father and older brother. "Look at this imagery…" She pointed out an image of Lilly's head as if it had been sliced in half. Henry was fascinated. Killian shuddered, but continued looking. "See this? This is the front cortex. The use of that that she's making equals that of a fifty five year old mathematical genius." She placed her hands on her hips. "According to Whale, our kid has the IQ of Einstein and she's not even two..."

"Ok, love… wait…" He grinned while Lilly fiddled with his ear and settled on his shoulder, visibly ready to sleep her nap. "Just for a minute pretend I'm a three hundred year old pirate with no knowledge of medical terminology pertaining to your realm and century, now… Who is Einstein and what on earth is an IQ?"

Emma giggled and sighed. "Ok. IQ means Intelligence Quotient. Basically it's how smart you are. Look… You can read graphs, right?"

2Swan…" he rolled his eyes.

"Ok, ok, just checking. Here is the normal scale range for a little girl her age."

"Uh-huh…" Killian looked at a number. It read 25-112.

"And this…" she turned the page. "This is Lilly."

Killian nearly lost his footing.

"Two hundred and seventy eight?" He swallowed.

"Whale says that her cognitive learning skills are just… off the chart. She's pretty much taking in everything she sees. He also told us that other areas of her development, such as her gross and fine motor skills, spoken language, her social and emotional development… all are normal for a child her age."

"So she's just… really bloody smart." Killian blinked as Lilly was no softly snoring into his ear.

"Not just that. Look at this…" She produced an image of a different part of her brain. "her parietal and frontal lobes are highly developed, almost as if she had been born with an almost… adult brain already. She's got all sorts of skills down pat. She can see, smell, hear things we can't even dream of hearing… and here…" She pointed at another area of the image. "This whitened area means her sense of smell is also pretty much up there." She looked at Killian and swallowed. She can't talk, she can't move properly…. But she's got full awareness of everything, Killian. And she can communicate it. As for her magical skills? Well, she can read minds, move things, feel things…"

Killian rolled his eyes to the side, looking at Lilly before turning back to Emma. "And I thought she was just a wee pirate…"

Emma smiled and rubbed her back, lowering her voice. "She really is special… I'm not too brainy, I have no idea where she got such uncanny amounts of smart from…"

"You're smart, Swan!" He frowned.

"Well, yeah, just not… Lilly-smart."

"Killian's pretty smart!" henry quipped. "He can do complex math like it was origami!"

Emma looked at him. "You can?"

"Captain, my love." He winked.

Emma sighed. "I can't even do origami…"

Lilly whined and Killian looked at Emma. "Let me set her down, love, she needs her sleep. We shall continue this in a minute…"

Killian returned to continue analyzing and wowing (and dreading) over the results from Lilly's intellectual and developmental screening.

"Well…" henry nodded. "maybe I should take my sister to school and have her sit instead of me." He grinned. "I can barely do my algebra…"

"Nonsense, lad, you've got the wits for it." Killian grinned. "And you just proved it."

"Could NOT have done it without you." He smiled at Killian as he picked up his books from the table. "Now, this is super interesting, but since I don't have Lilly's super brain, I actually have to study for History and Literature…"

"You know…" Killian paced to him and put an arm around his shoulder. "…my brother one told me that mathematics would find you good employment, but the use of the spoken word and the proper learning of history and culture would woo you a woman, so…" He winked at him. "Best not neglect those either. Off you go."

Henry nodded and went off to his room. He turned around and smiled at Killian. "Thanks a lot… dad."

The door was closed.

Killian and Emma sighed and looked in the direction of the boy's bedroom. Emma looked at her pirate husband and saw a trace of glazed eyes and a pleasant smile. "Yep. You've sort of earned it." She reached up and kiss his cheek. "Come on, let's get lunch started, I'm starving…"