Killian woke the next morning from one of the best nights of sleep in his entire life. The great thing about his job was there was rarely any need to rush to get to the office, so he took his time, allowing himself to wake fully before he threw off the duvet and slipped from the bed. After making use of the bathroom, Killian snagged his phone from the bedside table, then headed through to the kitchen to find something for himself and Lily to eat.

While it had only been a few days since he'd returned to New York, Killian had certainly learned a lesson when it came to timing his communications with Emma. Instead of opening up the messages waiting on his phone from her, he took a moment just to eat the toast he'd prepared for breakfast before finally sitting down on the sofa with his phone.

When he opened his messages, it was to find a beautiful image waiting for him. Emma had sent him a picture of her reflection in a full-length bathroom mirror earlier that morning. She was wearing a pair of simple black heels and a grey, black, and red tweed dress that ended a good few inches above her knees. Her hair had been pulled back into a neat, high ponytail, and instead of her favored multicolored gems in each of her ears, she'd swapped them out for a series of progressively smaller silver hoops. But perhaps his favorite part of the image was the way in which she'd chosen to pose. Instead of just standing in front of the mirror, Emma was turned to the side with one hand tugging on the end of her ponytail and the tip of her tongue clamped between her teeth. She looked young and beautiful and yet, somehow perfectly dressed for what he knew her day would include.

The message she'd sent with her picture had simply read, Wish me luck! but Killian knew it wasn't necessary.

You don't need luck! You have talent.

You look beautiful too, btw.

He wasn't entirely sure how long it would take for Emma to get through her meeting that morning, so he saved her picture to his phone and swiped out of the app to go and get himself ready to head down to the gym.

When he'd first decided to make use of the new gym in his building, Killian had to force himself to go. There had been many inner debates about how he would definitely attend the next week as he put his feet up to read or binge-watch the latest show everyone was talking about. But after finally deciding to hold himself to his promises, he'd found he actually enjoyed the time he spent there. Nothing woke him up quite as well as a good workout, and once he was done, he felt calmer than he ever had before.

Emma still hadn't replied to his message by the time he'd tucked his keys and wallet into a locker, so Killian flicked his phone over to airplane mode and pulled up his workout playlist before he began his usual routine. It was only when he stepped out of the elevator on his floor and switched his cellular service back on that her response finally came through.

Killian abandoned all thoughts of a shower and instead, grabbed a cold bottle of water from his fridge as he opened up her message.

Thanks. I bet you do too ;-)

But I'm not sure talent matters to these people. I'm told that 'marketability' is more important.

What the hell does that mean?

(And I really don't! I just got done at the gym. I'm all hot and sweaty and gross.)

I'm sorry, do you expect me to find the mental image of you hot and sweaty gross? Because I don't!

But, if you want, we could test that theory, and you could give me an actual image to work with ;-)

It just means this time around, some of my favorites aren't going to make the cut. They're not catchy enough for me to launch a career with. Logically, I know it makes sense, but emotionally, it kinda sucks hearing someone tell you that something you spent YEARS working on - something you poured everything into - isn't good enough.

Well, those people are idiots because it's more than good enough for me, and I know it would be for many others too.

Killian sent his last message, then pulled up his camera app to take a picture of himself, shiny with sweat, his hand pushing back his damp hair from his forehead, and attached it to their message thread.

Emma didn't immediately reply again, so he used the time it gave him to hop into the shower and wash away the layer of filth clinging to his body. When he stepped out, he wrapped a towel around his hips and dried off his hands before reaching for his phone once more. A part of Killian chose that moment to let him know how unhealthy his addiction to Emma's messages was becoming, but he quickly silenced it. After all, it wasn't like he knew when he'd be seeing her again, and until he did, this was all they had.

Yeah, that's definitely NOT gross! I'll make sure to save that for the next time I need a little bit of light relief.

And thank you, but I think you might be just a tiny bit biased in this area.

Killian snorted out a laugh as he read through her message, then flicked his eyes up to the mirror above his sink. It was fogged over from the heat of the shower, leaving only a fuzzy outline of his reflection behind. But at that moment, a fuzzy reflection was all he needed to feel bold and brave in a way he'd never really felt before.

Reaching for one of the hand towels on the counter, Killian wiped away the stream and took a quick picture of his reflection before the mirror could begin fogging over again. He attached the image to a blank message and sent it to Emma before he could talk himself out of doing so.

Here's another one for your collection!

And trust me, while I might be slightly biased, I'm definitely speaking the truth. Your humming in France was stuck in my head for days, and I didn't even know it was your creation back then.

If the studio doesn't want it, record it for me and send it over! I'll play it in the office every day until the rest of my staff are humming along too.

I think that might fall into a category we call 'cruel and unusual torture,' but I appreciate the thought.

And next time – warn a girl before you send that over!

I'm in a public space!

Killian snorted out another laugh before he dropped his phone down onto his bed, roughly toweled himself off, and began dressing for his day. While some of his fellow anchors preferred to spend their time at the office dressed in a suit and tie, Killian was not that sort of person. His most comfortable jeans and a simple grey t-shirt were good enough for him. He'd change before he was due on-air anyway, and this way, he wouldn't need to keep changing just to take Lily out for a walk. After lacing up his sneakers, Killian reached for his phone once more to send Emma a reply.

I could say the same thing!

I'm just gonna take Lily for a walk before I head into the office. Can I call you when we've finished our daily meeting?

I look forward to it.

Give Lily a kiss from me.

And what about me?

You got plenty of 'kisses' in last night ;-)

There was nothing quite like the feeling of striding into a busy newsroom on a Monday morning. The good thing about being a journalist was that there was never a quiet day on the job. Every day was always packed with new information coming out - new details to uncover and new surprises just waiting to be thrown your way. Killian thrived on the unpredictability of it all. If there was one thing he could confidently say about his job, it was that no two days were ever the same.

After calling out hellos to people he passed, he made his way into his office to check over the mail that had been left on his desk. There was the usual stack of viewer messages that he read through first before slipping signed headshots and the occasional reply into envelopes that were already addressed and waiting for him. Once he was finished with that, he read over the company memos that had come through for him. Most were full of standard information such as ratings and important upcoming dates for the different studios. Killian's assistant had already put everything into his calendar for him, so he knew he wouldn't need to do much.

At eleven am, he took a brief moment just to snap a picture of himself at the office and sent it in a message to Emma before he headed for the conference room, where the rest of his staff was already gathering.

That doesn't look like very office-appropriate attire to me, Jones.

We're very relaxed around here.

"We" are, or you are, and everyone else just follows your lead?

Killian snorted out a laugh as he nodded his thanks to James for holding the door for him while he considered her words. He'd been with ATSL for so long now that he couldn't really remember how things had worked at the beginning. That time in his life all felt like a blur.

Does it really matter?

I guess not.

Are you keeping the scruff for tonight's broadcast?

Killian raised his free hand to draw across the stubble on his face. He'd almost forgotten that it was there, thanks to the complete distraction that Emma had provided, but now that she'd brought it up, he wasn't really sure what he was planning to do with it.

I don't know.

Nobody's asked me to shave it off yet.

Of course, they haven't!

Do you have any idea how much it adds to your sex appeal?

Even though she wasn't in the building and nobody else could see their conversation, Killian still felt his cheeks heat at her praise. She gave out compliments so openly and so freely. He'd never really experienced that before – especially from a woman who wasn't just interested in getting into his pants.

I'm walking into a meeting, so behave yourself!

I will if you do ;-)

Killian chuckled to himself as he read through her message, then slipped his phone into his pocket. Hopefully, the old adage would prove true, and with it out of sight, he'd be able to push Emma from his mind for an hour or two.

Every weekday at roughly eleven am, Killian and his team would gather in the conference room to go through all of the stories currently making the headlines and then decide which ones would be included in the show that evening. Some had already been given all the coverage they needed, and thanks to a couple of dedicated team members who liaised with the other studios in the building, they would be able to strike those items from their list. Some would require much more in-depth analysis that could take more than half the show. Depending upon how busy the day had been, it would sometimes result in them striking the item from the list or bumping a few of the lesser headlines down it. And as always, a priority ranking was given to each one, just in case something broke while they were on-air and they needed to move their coverage away.

Once they had their list to work with, Killian and his team would brainstorm the different angles they could take to make their coverage work. Wherever possible, he liked to keep things as balanced as possible, which often meant reaching out to both sides of the aisle. Some of those calls would go unanswered, and it would be left to him to balance the opinions offered, but thankfully, most of the time, his team managed to make it work. It was only after they had a draft script to work with that they would take their early evening break, heading home for meals with their families or, as was Killian's case, to walk their dogs.

It was almost five by the time Killian got back to his apartment, and he cringed a little as he mentally calculated the time difference. He knew that the moment he hit call on Emma's number, he'd only hang up the phone when he stepped back into his office at the studio, but he also knew that if he ignored Lily for the evening, she would never forgive him.

In the end, he decided a compromise was probably his best option, and after fixing Lily's leash, the pair stepped onto a waiting elevator, and he pulled his phone from his pocket. The moment they stepped off on the ground floor, Killian hit call and lifted the device to his ear, nodding his greeting at the security guard, then the building's doorman.

"Hey, stranger."

"Hi," he greeted, and Killian could practically feel the tension seeping out of his body at the sound of her voice. "Sorry I'm so late calling today."

"Don't be. You've got a full-time job and a whole life going on over there. You don't need to apologize for not being able to make time for me."

"But I want to make time for you, Emmy. I want you to be a part of my life, even if you're not always physically a part of it."

Emma was silent for a moment, and when she finally spoke up again, her voice was softer than it had been before. "Thank you. I kinda like having you in mine too."

"Only kinda?" he teased.

"I still haven't forgiven you for interrupting me while I was reading."

Killian snorted out a laugh as he and Lily set off along a familiar path, heading towards a small park he knew that happened to be close by and would allow his old girl to expend some energy before he was due on-air.

"I'll be making that up to you for the rest of my life, won't I?"

"Yep. Pretty much. How's work going?"

"It's going well. It's, uh – it's good to be back in the newsroom, you know? I love how busy it always is, even on the so-called quiet days. And we're ramping up for election day coverage now too, so walking in this morning had that slight buzz in the air that's only going to build with every day we get closer to it."

Emma chuckled a little at his comments, but it didn't sound rude or condescending. Killian couldn't quite place how it came across, however, so he simply asked, "What?"

"Nothing, it's just… it's cute how much excitement you have for your job. You were so cagey about it when we first met that I was worried it would be something awful. It's nice seeing this side of you."

"I just didn't want you to hate me because I'd once said something bad about someone you liked on-air," he admitted ruefully, as Lily quickened her pace the nearer they got to the dog park.

"Do you do that often?"

"Um… possibly? I guess it depends on what you deem bad," he explained. "I mean, if it's a quiet day and your favorite celebrity got pulled over by the cops, I'm probably gonna have to at least mention it."

"Then I guess it's a good thing I don't have any favorite celebrities," Emma chuckled.

"Ouch! I will try not to take that personally."

Her laughter this time was much more boisterous than it had been before, but it was every bit as beautiful.

"Think quite highly of yourself there, don't ya," she threw back at him.

"Well, there's only so many times BuzzFeed can write articles about you before the celebrity status goes to your head."

"Does BuzzFeed write about you often?" she asked, and even though he couldn't see her at that moment, Killian knew there would be a wicked glint in her eyes at the thought of what she might find.

"Don't read those articles!"

"Too late," she sighed heavily, tapping loudly at what sounded like the keyboard on her laptop.

"Oh, God. Just… don't judge me too harshly," he sighed, as he finally pushed the gate on the dog park and bent down to unclip Lily's leash. She ran straight off to make a lap around the fence, stopping every now and then to sniff at different spots while Killian took a seat on one of the empty benches.

"Don't worry. I'm mainly just browsing these excellent pictures they have of you."

Killian chuckled a little awkwardly as he watched Lily explore the park like she'd never been inside it before. "One day, I hope to be able to return that favor."

"I hope you will," she told him genuinely, and Killian smiled to himself as she swiftly changed the subject. "So, as I have to wait up super late tonight, are you gonna tell me what's coming up?"

"Why would I do that?" he asked. "Surely it'll ruin the surprise."

"It's the news, Killian. I could open the app right now and check the headlines if I wanted to. This isn't some big Game of Thrones ending you're gonna be spoiling for me. Tell me what you've got planned."

Killian wasn't entirely sure how it happened but, over the next thirty minutes, he spoke with Emma about the different stories he and his team had reviewed that morning and the ones they'd provisionally chosen for the evening's broadcast. Whenever he fell silent, Emma would fill the moment with her questions, asking about everything from the wonderful staff members he worked with to the way in which the information had been gathered and how it was currently being monitored. She sounded genuinely interested in the processes he'd become so used to over the last couple of decades, and the work talk his friends had long-since grown bored with. It was refreshing to share his enthusiasm with someone outside his line of work, and it was even more invigorating to have that enthusiasm reflected back in conversation.

When they'd finally exhausted everything about his day, Killian summoned Lily back to him and reattached her leash before the pair set off home, and he turned the topic of conversation Emma's way.

"How about you?" he asked. "I know we spoke briefly about it, but I have absolutely no idea what happens in the music industry. Tell me about your day?"

"It was, uh… overall, it was good," she explained, and in his mind, Killian could imagine her settling back into some sort of plush cushioned seat, curling her legs underneath her. "The label I've signed with seems really happy with what I've managed to produce for them, and they seem enthusiastic about quite a few of the pieces I've written. They're still not overly amused with my desire to continue my education, but that's not up for negotiation right now. I've seen enough one-hit-wonders in my life to know that I can't rely on this opportunity to be it for me, especially with nobody to fall back on, so I'm going to finish uni."

"I'm glad you're standing up for that," he told her, even as his heart ached at her words.

Killian had never really stopped to consider just how lucky he'd been when choosing a career before. He'd gone to college to study political science because it had felt like the right thing to do. When he'd decided to throw all of his energy into journalism, he'd done so knowing that if it never worked out for him, he had a home he could return to and a mother who would continue supporting him until he found his next passion in life. Emma didn't have that luxury. There was nobody who could take her in if her career failed and nobody that would be able to support her until she could get back on her feet again. It was no wonder she wanted to cover all of her bases at such a young age.

"Thanks. Besides, the university has plenty of world-class facilities I can use for free, so I don't know why they're complaining so much. It's not like recording these demos is going to prove difficult."

"You're recording now?" he asked, because Killian had been completely honest when he'd said he had no idea how anything in the music industry worked.

"Not in the way you might be thinking," she chuckled, and Killian was pretty sure one of his neighbors had probably just gotten the wrong idea about the smile he'd offered to her as he made his way back into his apartment building. "It's one thing to like lyrics written down on a page; it's a whole other thing to like lyrics when they're set to music. I need to sit down and put the pieces they like best to the music I've written for them, and that way, the label can decide which ones they think will be the most marketable. Then, and only then, can I sit down with a producer to look at how we can enhance what will essentially be a piano or guitar solo with a band behind it."

"Wow. That, uh… that sounds a whole hell of a lot more complicated than I ever imagined," he said, as he herded Lily into a free elevator and hit the button to take them back up to his floor.

"Yeah, it's not as glamorous as I'd imagined either," she giggled. "But it feels more genuine than the alternative."

"And what's the alternative?"

"Sing the songs they hire someone else to write for me."

Killian hummed thoughtfully for a moment as the elevator rocked to a gentle stop on his floor, and he and Lily left the carriage. "Is it weird that even though I haven't known you for long, that doesn't feel right?" he asked, slipping his key into the lock and twisting it.

"Nope. Not weird at all. I guess you just know me better than anyone else does. Although to be fair, that bar was already pretty low to begin with."

"Hey! Don't go minimizing my achievements like that," Killian threw back at her, as he unclipped Lily's leash and tossed his keys down onto the kitchen counter.

"You raised the bar," Emma deadpanned. "Happy now?"

"Marginally," he chuckled, throwing himself down on his sofa before reaching for his laptop. "So, uh… I know there are licensing laws and what not to deal with, but when you record those demos, is there any chance the man who knows you best could get a copy?"

"Oh, I dunno," she teased, and once again, Killian could picture the devious smirk that would be illuminating her face with every word she spoke. "I mean, you are part of the press. How could I be sure you wouldn't leak anything early?"

"Is my word worth nothing to you?" he asked, infusing his tone with as much faux pain as he could possibly muster.

"I dunno. I might need a few more post-shower pictures, just to be sure, you know. A girl can never be too careful."

Killian snorted out a laugh as he loaded his emails and began scanning through the list.

"I'll keep that in mind the next time I'm stepping out of one," he told her, pulling up the most recent message from his assistant. "What are you planning –" he began, then stopped speaking abruptly as his brain started absorbing the words written on his screen.

"Is everything okay?" Emma worried.

It was the concern in her tone that snapped Killian back to the moment.

"Yeah. Yeah, sorry. I just, uh… I have to get back to work sooner than I expected. Sorry, Emmy."

"Don't be. Your job's far more important than I am," she assured him, and Killian suddenly found himself wondering just how true that statement might be. "Get back to work and do your job. I'll text you a little later - if you have time. I'm looking forward to seeing your broadcast tonight."

"I'm, uh… I'm looking forward to you seeing it too," he admitted a little shyly, as he snapped his laptop shut and bounced up from the sofa.

Lily raised her head to stare at him for a moment, a reminder to leave fresh food and water for her while he was gone, before she settled back down to sleep.

"I'm gonna go and take a bath while I wait. I hope whatever's happening isn't anything too bad."

"Thanks for sending me back to work with that mental image," Killian sighed, as he finished taking care of Lily's needs, then cast a quick look around the apartment to make sure he wasn't forgetting anything.

"Who said anything about leaving it at just a mental image?" she quipped, then quickly added, "Have a good night, Killian," before she disconnected the line.

Killian wasn't entirely sure how long he wasted standing frozen to the spot as he replayed her words over and over in his mind. The look of contempt his producer threw his way when he finally strolled into the conference room later that evening told him it had probably been a little too long.

Emma's dress here is another high street bargain from ASOS.

Thanks for reading and reviewing.