It was early when Mckenna woke up, making her way into the kitchen and starting on breakfast. With the final pancake added to the stack on the plate, she took them over to the table and looked up as the front door opened.

"Anyone up?" a familiar voice called as the door closed again a few seconds later.

"In the kitchen," Mckenna replied, listening to the footsteps approach and smiling when Kyle appeared in the doorway with a grin.

"You're home," he said, dropping his bag and pulling her into a hug, "I missed you."

"I missed you too, where have you been?"

"Melbourne," Kyle told her as he took a seat at the table, accepting the coffee that Mckenna held out to him and continuing, "Phoebe had some gigs booked and her guitarist had to drop out at the last minute, so I stood in."

They had been chatting for nearly half an hour, when Heath and Brax joined them.

XxX

Sat on the sand a while later, Mckenna ran a hand through her hair and stared out over the water.

The sound of someone calling her name had her getting to her feet and turning around, sighing when she spotted her mum walking towards her.

"You didn't come home last night," Cheryl stated as she came to a stop in front of Mckenna.

"I'm surprised you noticed," Mckenna mumbled, "What do you really want, mum?"

"Can't a mother just be worried about her only daughter..."

"Of course, but you're you and there's no way in hell you'd be tracking me down just because I didn't come home."

"I need some money," Cheryl admitted.

"Of course you do..." Mckenna said, her sentence left half-finished as she spotted a girl stumbling from the water a little further along the beach and ran over to where she had collapsed on the sand gasping for breath, "Are you okay?"

"Xavier's still out there," the girl told her, causing Mckenna to turn her attention to the water and scan the surface for anyone in trouble, "You have to help him."

It didn't take her long to spot Xavier struggling to stay afloat as waves crashed down on him, taking off her top and running into the water without hesitation. She cut through the water towards him as quickly as she could, finally reaching his side and wrapping her arm securely around his waist.

With the knowledge that the boy had probably already swallowed a decent amount of water, Mckenna knew that she needed to get him on dry land and fast. Each stroke made was met with resistance as they were battered by waves, but she managed to get them both to the safety of the beach and collapsed next to Xavier as paramedics joined them.

"G'day guys, I'm Aaron and this is my partner, Ryan... can you tell us what happened?"

"I started feeling unwell in the water and couldn't make it back, she saved me," Xavier explained as McKenna fell into a coughing fit.

"What are your names?"

"Xavier."

"Mckenna."

"Okay, we're gonna take you both to the hospital and get you checked out," Aaron informed them as Ryan placed an oxygen mask over Mckenna's face.

They reached the hospital within twenty minutes and Mckenna was placed into a room, where a doctor checked her over. Adjusting the oxygen mask a little, the doctor drew some blood samples as a precaution and ordered her to rest.

She had been alone for nearly an hour, when the door opened again and the doctor returned with a worried-looking Brax in tow.

"Hey kiddo," he said, kissing her head and shifting his attention to the doctor, "What's the story, Sid?"

"Everything looks good so far," Sid told them as he flicked through Mckenna's chart, "I have taken some blood, so I'd like her to stay in until we get the results back and we'll go from there."

Authors Notes: This took a while to get right and I'm still not 100 percent happy with it, but I managed to break through my writer's block! Thanks for reading