Alice Swan-Jones was nervous, as she often was. No matter how much the teacher tried, or her mommy tried, or her daddy tried, it was no use. The little almost 4-year-old sat on her mommy's lap trying not to visibly shake.
"Ah, lass, look at all of the art supplies that will be available to you to perfect your art pieces." Killian called from the arts and crafts corner of the classroom, hoping to instil some enthusiasm in his daughter.
"Oh do you like art, Alice?" The pre-kindergarten teacher brought over some of the colouring pencils and some paper to the table.
"Yes." Alice whispered with a slight nod of her head.
"Wow, I like art too!" The teacher sat down in a chair next to Alice and lay out the arts implements for her to use. "What would you say is your favourite type of art?"
"I like painting." Alice answered, before realising that the teacher had brought over colouring supplies. "And colouring."
"That's good. You can do some colouring now, if you'd like?" The teacher was obviously well versed at talking to young kids, especially those who were on the shy side.
"Thank you." Alice looked through the colours on offer to her, picking blues and greens as she often did. Emma and Killian's eyes met with a loving smile, knowing exactly what their youngest was planning to draw.
"Your parents tell me you also like reading." The teacher has started to colour a picture of her own, meaning there's not too much pressure on the conversation.
"I do." Alice answers almost automatically, too focused on the waves of her sea to be too nervous.
"Baby, I'm just going to have a look around, ok?" Emma gently eased Alice off of her lap, so that she could stand up and Alice could have the chair to herself.
"It seems to be going well." Killian speaks in hushed tones to his wife, both of them looking out of the window at their oldest daughter swinging from the monkey bars in the playground.
"I hope so." Emma could still remember when she dropped Alice off at pre-school for the first time. The little girl had clung to her leg, staring at her with soaked cheeks and silently begging her not to go. In the end, Emma had stayed for nearly an hour before Alice had gotten distracted by an activity and she'd managed to sneak out. The mother had sat in her car sobbing whilst feeling like the worst person alive. They were determined not to repeat the same experience.
"She's going to be just fine, love. Better than in fact." Killian's smile faded into a curse as Hope performed a risky dismount from the monkey bars. "There's something to be said about being cautious at times, something our darling girl out there could do with learning."
"Come on," Emma laughed tugging her husband away from the window just as Hope was climbing back up the apparatus. Where their youngest lacked courage, their oldest daughter had it in abundance; a trait that may send her pirate father to an early grave.
"Daddy, I drew Jolly!" Alice held up her picture with pride, any hint of her earlier nerves vanished for now at least.
"It is exquisite, little love, a true likeness if there ever was one." Killian knelt down next to his young artist.
"You are definitely talented. The colour choices you made are perfect." The teacher smiled genuinely, glad to see the excitement on the child's face. "If you'd like we can put it in a folder which will be for your artwork only, it's how we keep all our children's creations safe so they can show their families."
"Really?" Alice went to hand over the drawing, then paused and turned to her father. "Daddy keeps my drawings of Jolly on Jolly…"
"It's ok, lass. I personally think keeping your artwork that you do at school safe in a folder is a brilliant idea. We can always add them to the Jolly at a later date."
"Ok!" Alice beamed and stood to help her teacher find a special folder to keep her artwork safe.
"It was lovely to meet you, Alice. I can't wait to get to be your teacher soon." The teacher bent down to Alice's level, once they had stored the drawing and returned to the girl's parents.
"Thank you. You're very nice." Alice smiled back, feeling much better about starting school than she had yesterday.
"Thank you." The teacher straightened up and said her goodbyes to the couple, promising to be in touch later that day to discuss start times and term dates.
"Mommy, I like school now." Alice skipped along holding onto her mother's hand.
"That's great, baby. I'm sure you'll have lots of fun." Emma grinned down at her baby girl, beyond pleased at how well this meeting had gone.
"Hope, time to set sail lass!" Killian's voice boomed across the playground towards his daughter who was still practising her gymnastic-esque moves.
"Ok, one second!" Hope called out, swinging herself up to balance on the bar on top of the monkey bars. Killian would be impressed by the move if he wasn't too busy having a heart attack.
"Hope, down now please." Killian picked up his stride towards his oldest daughter.
"Ok, ok." Hope wanted to get down before her dad reached her, to prove to him that she knew what she was doing. She looked towards the tarmac and bent her knees.
"YOUNG LADY, DON'T YOU THINK-" Killian's warning was too late as his little girl pushed off the beam in an effort to land on the ground gracefully. However it was a bigger drop than she'd thought and Hope panicked, instinctually sticking her arms out to break her fall. The crack could be heard across the grounds, beaten only by the scream that followed. The father ran the few paces left to get to his daughter, who was now lying on the floor in obvious pain.
"Hope!" Emma ran forward, keeping her youngest's hand firmly in her own. The mother tried not to panic, knowing that children feed off your emotions when it comes to bumps and bruises; however this wasn't either of those. Hope's arm was lying at a weird angle, clearly broken with the bone visibly pressing against her skin from the inside. Emma's first thought was to use magic, she could easily fix this and put a stop to her daughter's pain…but she paused. Broken bones are something which children get, especially children as active and fearless as Hope. And maybe her husband was right, their daughter could do with being a little cautious once in a while.
"Hope-y…" Alice whimpered at seeing her sister hurting like this. If this was what happened at school, then she didn't want to come here after all.
"She's going to be ok, baby." Emma ran her hand through her youngest's hair. "We need to get her to the hospital."
"Agreed." Killian was glad his wife had decided not to use her magic to fix this. Hope needed to learn that magic wasn't the solution to everything. Even if it was ripping his heart in two seeing his daughter whimpering with shock at the pain. As gently as possible, Killian lifted Hope into his arms to move her to the car. "I'm sorry, princess. I know it hurts. The hospital will fix it, I promise."
Emma drove to the hospital with Killian cradling Hope in the back of the bug. Alice didn't feel any excitement at being allowed to sit in the front for the first time, as she was just worried about her sister. Once they arrived and were booked in, the family sat in the waiting room to be called through. Hope had been sitting next to her dad, being brave and letting her mum comfort her little sister who seemed more upset than her by this experience, but when the girl's name was called she looked to her mother with pleading eyes.
"I'll come in with you, sweetie." Emma lifted Alice off of her lap and transferred her to her husband's. Alice sniffled a few times before throwing her arms around her dad's neck. Hope held out her un-injured hand to her mum and they walked together through the double doors to where the doctor would begin the examination.
"Hey, little love, Hope's going to be ok." Killian soothed running his hand up and down Alice's back.
"School hurt Hope-y." Alice cried and buried her face further into her father's neck.
"Oh no, Alice, school didn't hurt Hope. Your sister was just practising some really tricky gymnastics moves and it went a bit wrong." Killian could see where his daughter's mind was going before she even replied.
"What if I hurt at school?" Alice pulled back to look at her daddy's eyes.
"Alice, what happened to Hope was simply an accident. The reason Hope got hurt was not because she was at school, it was because she jumped off the climbing frame which she shouldn't have done." Killian didn't want this incident to scare his already cautious daughter, however he hoped this meant she would never jump off an apparatus that high. "Does that make sense?"
"I guess…" Alice sighed. They sat there for a few more minutes before it became clear that with Alice's worries out of the way another emotion had set in: Boredom. The young girl started to swing herself from side to side and make clicking noises with her tongue.
"Hey, seeing as you did so well at school earlier, why don't we go see the Jolly?" Killian knew that the waiting room at a hospital was not the place for a perfectly healthy child.
"What about Hope?" Alice asked as she stood from her father's lap, clearly already sold on the idea.
"I'll text Mommy and let her know where we've gone." Killian offered his hook to his daughter so that he could send off a message with his free hand to alert his wife to their plans.
#
Emma looked at her phone and smiled at the message from the husband. She understood completely. Even for being a calmer child, Alice was still 3 years old and it was no fun being stuck inside on a day like this. Shooting off a reply in acknowledgement, the saviour returned her attention to Dr Whale.
"It is looking like surgery to insert pins in Hope's arm to allow the bone to stay in place whilst it heals." The doctor scrubbed his hand down his face. "Emma, I know I have already said this but with your magic-"
"No. No magic." Emma groaned at having to explain herself once more. She was trying to do the right thing as a mother, but it seemed like everyone was judging her. Especially the man stood in front of her, that did not have any children of his own so could not understand her parenting decision. "Look I just want her to understand that actions have consequences and magic can't fix everything."
"I get that, Emma, I do. But magic can fix this." Whale repeated himself causing Emma to fight off actually face-palming, or punching the man in the face as her pirate husband probably would have done. Or like her father actually had in the past.
In the end, Emma signed consent for the surgery with her saviour magic acting as anaesthetic. This meant that Hope would be able to come around as soon as the surgery was over and would not feel as groggy. This also meant that the time they spent in the hospital was cut down to a couple of hours.
"How are you feeling, sweetie?" Emma ran her fingers through Hope's hair once she had lifted her magic and woken Hope up.
"Ok…my arm hurts." Hope groaned as she looked to her left arm which was now in a full cast. And the cast was pink. "Oh cool! It's my favourite colour, Mommy look!"
"Wow yeah, I guess the doctors knew you liked pink." Emma smiled at her daughter's excitement over the colour of her cast winning out over the pain in her arm.
"Yeah I guess! Can you sign it?" Hope beamed as the nurse handed her mother a black sharpie pen to sign her cast with. Her smile only grew when the nurse said that Hope could keep the pen so that others could sign her cast as well.
#
Killian was busy checking the knots on the rigging whilst his daughter was chalk colouring on the deck. He often wondered what his past pirate self would think of the ship now, so often adorned with colourful chalk rainbows and hearts. The thought made him chuckle as he spotted a familiar yellow vehicle pulling up at the docks. He hadn't been sure if his oldest would be up to joining them after her surgery, but Emma had said it had gone well.
"Daddy! Daddy!" Hope ran down the docking, jumping onto the deck of the ship as she often did. Killian sighed, as it seemed like this ordeal had yet to make Hope any more cautious.
"Princess!" The father dismounted from the rigging, making sure to be extra careful and meticulous in choosing his route down. Emma winked at him with a smirk, knowing exactly what he was doing.
"Look! Look! I've got a cast and it's pink!" Hope held up her arm to her father for inspection.
"Magnificent, princess."
"You must sign it!" Hope exclaimed taking the Sharpie from her mother and holding it out to her father. Killian looked rather bemused by that and moved his gaze to his wife. Emma's look silently told him It's a this-world-thing.
"Of course." The father needed no more explanation, using his ridiculously elegant cursive to mark his daughter's cast.
"Now Alice!" Hope ran over to her sister who had remained cross legged on the deck with her chalks laid out in front of her. Alice was happy to see her sister smiling again and immediately accepted her invitation to add her name to the pink material.
"She seems well recovered." Killian commented after greeting his wife with a kiss.
"Yeah, she's pretty amazing how she always bounces back from stuff." Emma put an arm around her husband as they both looked towards their girls. "I think it will hit her later though, once the pain meds wear off and the pink cast is no longer so exciting."
"Hmm," Killian hummed thoughtfully, "that may be. She's such a strong brave lass, like another blonde I know." Emma blushed at her true love's words, leaning up to press a kiss to his cheek in response.
"I'm happy you're ok." Alice spoke softly once she had finished carefully writing her name as neatly as possible.
"Thanks, Ali. Me too." Hope grinned, admiring her cast which now had three of her favourite people's names on it. Her mum had promised they would see Grandma and Grandpa the next day so Hope could get their signatures then.
"I was scared." Alice loud-whispered, in that way that children do when they're trying to be quiet.
"I know. I'm sorry." Hope winced looking at her little sister once more.
"Daddy say don't jump off climbing bars." Alice frowned, remembering seeing her sister hit the ground and get hurt. "Daddy say you hurt when you did. I don't want you hurt."
"I won't do it again, Alice, I promise." Hope held out her little finger, of her unbroken arm, to her sister who linked her little finger with Hope's immediately. "Pinky promise."
"Pinky promise." Alice nodded, smiling because pinky promises were a big deal and to her meant that her sister would not be unsafe on a climbing frame again.
"Maybe one being a little more cautious than the other isn't a bad thing." Emma whispered to her husband from where they had stood listening to the girls' conversation and promises.
"Aye, they're both going to be fine. Especially with the other there to help them out." Killian pressed one more kiss to his wife's lips before walking them over to join their daughters properly for a colouring session on the deck of the Jolly.