Goodbye isn't always forever

Part one, day two, 1995

When David woke up for the third time (the first two having been from Emma's nightmares) he felt Emma curled into him, her hand wrapped around his, another hand enclosed around her blanket. Slowly and carefully, David freed himself from Emma and started a little fire outside of the tent, ready to cook their breakfast on.
"Good morning." Sarah smiled at him, only just immerging from her tent.
"Morning." David nodded with a wave.
"Lovely day today already. Yesterday too. The day before that it rained so much we thought the tent was going to flood!"
"You stay here often?"
"Yeah, we come every year. The boys love it. Just climbing the trees and swimming in the river. Killian especially, he's a wild one." She laughed softly.
"He's a great kid. Emma hugged him. Last night, they hugged. She's not hugged anyone except for me some her mom died. She's very withdrawn."
"It must be hard for her. And you."
"Yeah. We just hoped to get away this summer. Away from it all." Before he could say anything else, he heard Emma scrambling around frantically in the tent, shouting for her daddy. "I'd better​ go." David nodded, going back to his tent. "Hey. Emma. It's okay. I'm here. I'm here." David soothed, picking her up and holding her close.
Emmas cries slowed, and she whispered, "In my dream, you got hit by the car."
"I promise you, I'm not going to get hit by a car."
"Pinky promise?"
"I pinky promise."
"Good." Emma nodded.
"Okay, get dressed, and then we can eat some breakfast."
Emma nodded and David passed her some clothes and she got changed in the bed area as David got changed in the other sectioned off area. Once they were ready, they sat outside, David attempting to cook bacon on a little frying pan.
It was going okay until David burnt the bacon, accidentally spilt scolding water over the fire, and realised that he had forgotten to buy cereal.
"Having trouble there?" Brennan laughed softly.
"Ah, just a bit." David laughed, trying, and failing, to hide his embarrassment.
"Come join us. We have more than enough."
"Are you sure? It's okay."
"I insist." Brennan said firmly. David grabbed his and Emma's chairs, and walked over with Emma following. She saw Killian, tired yet still seeming energised. He was sat in a large waterproof black camping chair, wearing a pair of denim shorts and a white t-shirt with a plain round neck, his feet bare.
Emma was wearing a short sleeved light pink t-shirt, with denim dungarees over the top, the short shorts ending mid thigh, exposing her skinny, milk white legs. Then she had her long stripy wellies on, her face, nails, and hands clean, her hair tidy; the opposite of Killian.
"Emma, sit with me!" Killian grinned excited, moving over in his large chair so she could squeeze next to him. "Did you sleep well?"
"Yes thank you. Did you?"
That was the longest thing Killian had ever heard her say. "I slept great thanks." Killian grinned.
"What do you want Emma? Porridge or bacon or eggs or sausage or all of them?" Brennan smiled at him.
Emma looked at her dad expectantly. "She'll have bacon and egg please, if that's alright." David smiled. Brennan passed her the egg and bacon on a green plastic plate, and Emma suspiciously poked at the egg.
Killian motioned to his plate, showing her his egg and bacon and sausage. "It's good stuff. My daddy is a much better cook than yours."
"Killian!" Sarah scolded lightly, but David just laughed.
"I suck at everything except pancakes." David admitted.
Emma, copying Killians lead, forked the egg into her mouth. Deciding it was good, she ate more, and quickly she had finished the whole plate.
"Here you go sweethearts." Sarah smiled, giving them both tin mugs of warm tea, weak and sugary. Emma sipped it with caution, having never drank tea before. She decided that she liked this too, and drank it quickly.
"Do you want to come exploring with me today?" Killian asked Emma, his eyes bright with excitement.
Emma felt hesitant, then nodded. Killian grinned. "Great. But you need to leave those behind," he motioned to her wellies, "and we're going to get wet."
"She can keep her wellies on Killian. Not every child runs around barefooted all the time." Brennan commented with a roll of his eyes.
"Liam, are you going too?" Sarah asked.
"No." Liam grunted, drinking from a large mug of coffee, and eating a bacon sandwich.
"He pretends he's a big boy, it's he's only eleven." Killian grinned teasingly to Emma while Liam threw him a heavy glare.
Killian bolted the rest of his breakfast, quickly drank his glass of orange juice, then waited for Emma. Emma are quicker, then stood up with Killian. "Me and Emma are going to play." Killian announced, grabbing Emma's hand and getting ready to run off.
"Hey hey hey!" Sarah said quickly. "You need to brush your teeth young man."
Killian rolled his eyes, and him and Emma brushed their teeth, then walked over to the little fast-flowing river. "We can go swimming here later. And across the river, there is a field with sheep in them!"
"Sheep! That's super cool!" She grinned.
"Horses too. My mummy said that I can go horse riding. You can too if you want."
"I've never rode a horse. Or seen a sheep in person."
"Seriously? Woah."
"What else do you do?"
"Climb the trees. I'm super good at it now. And there's a swing and the beach that's not far away, and a shop. Do you want to climb one?"
Emma nodded eagerly. From where they were stood, they could still see their parents, and they could see them. "Okay, this is a good learning-to-climb tree. And it's an apple tree. It's the first one I ever climbed. When I was three. The branches are low and strong. Come on."
Killian climbed up first two branches easily, helping Emma up after him. "Come on," he grinned broadly, "lets go higher."
"Is it safe?" Emma worried.
"Of course it is." Killian grinned. "I promise. And I never break my promises."
He climbed up the tree quickly, pausing sometime for Emma to catch up with him. Soon enough, they were near the top of the huge apple tree, sitting on a thick branch with their legs dangling down. Killian reached up and pulled an apple off the branch above him.
"They're ripe already." Killian grinned, passing her the large apple, then getting one for himself.
"We're so high up." Emma panicked suddenly.
Killian held her hand. "It's okay. You won't fall. I promise."
"You make a lot of promises."
"Only ever ones I know I can keep. I've never broken a promise in my life."
"My mommy did. She promised she was coming straight home. She promised she was only going to get some milk." Emma whispered. "But she never came home. She broke her promise."
"But that wasn't her fault. It was the person who hit her fault. Your mommy did nothing wrong."
"I miss her."
"I'd miss my mommy too. If she went to heaven."
David and Brennan walked over, unknown to the children. "She's talking about her mom. She's not... She's not spoken to anyone about her. Except me." David whispered in misbelief.
"The poor girl." Brennan whispered.
Emma looked down. "Daddy!" She grinned happily.
"Hey princess. You're very high, aren't you?" He laughed.
"Killian promised me it was safe." Emma firmly stated.
"That's good then." David smiled. He put his hand above his head and caught Emma's foot in one hand, just centimeters above his head. "How high are you? Gosh, where has my little girl who is afraid of heights gone?"
Emma giggled, but Killian looked mortified. "You're scared of heights? You could have said and we wouldn't have come this high up."
"I'm glad we did. It's fun."
David had never felt prouder. "Alright you monkeys, I'm going to go now. Don't go in the water without telling us." David smiled.
"We won't." Killian promised with A deceivingly angelic smile.
"Promise." Emma confirmed.
"Okay." David smiled, walking away with Brennan.
Emma and Killian finished their apples, then dropped the cores onto the ground.
"Shall we go down now?" Emma asked, still full of caution.
"Sure." Killian grinned. He climbed down first, helping Emma after him. They wondered back over to the tents. "Mummy, can we go swimming now?"
"Killian, it is only ten o'clock. Most people are still asleep." Sarah sighed.
"Exactly. It's ten o'clock. It's time to be happy and awake and swimming."
"No Killian. You can go swimming after lunch."
"You suck."
"Don't say that to your mother!" Brennan scolded quickly.
"Sorry mummy." Killian whispered.
"It's okay. Just don't be rude."
"What can we do now?" Killian sighed annoyed.
"Play. Go on." Sarah laughed. Killian grabbed a ball, and him and Emma played a crazy game of football-rounders, then catch, then piggy in the middle with Liam.
"Can you do a hand stand?" Killian asked Emma. She shook her head. "I can. Look!" He grinned, going upside down and into a perfect handstand.
"How do you do that?" Emma asked, her mouth in a perfect o.
"Look, just lean forwards and push forwards and stand on you hands. You do it, and I'll hold you up."
Emma tried to push off the ground, kicking her pale legs up in the ground, her wellies flapping dangerously close to Killians face. He backed away in worry.
"You're going to destroy my beautiful face Emma." Killian laughed.
"Sorry." Emma blushed embarrassed.
"You're really not an outdoorsy girl are you." Killian stated with a laugh.
"I live in the city."
"I know. You even admitted you'd never seen a sheep before."
"Are you being serious?" Liam laughed, not unkindly, just out of shock.
"I grew up in a high apartment. A penthouse," Emma smiled proudly, "so I could see the whole city."
"You must be rich." Liam blurted out.
"My mommy's daddy had a lot of money. He died and she became rich. My daddy is the sheriff​."
"Like a cowboy?" Killian asked with a wrinkled up nose of confusion, but his eyes glistening with excitement.
"No." Emma laughed. "A police man."
"Oh." Killian nodded in realisation. "Do you want to try a hand stand again?"
"Yeah?" Emma nodded unsure.
She tried again, falling flat onto the floor, but the third time she tried, Liam grabbed her legs instead of Killian, and he held them firm.
"I'm ​doing it!" Emma squealed while upside down. "I'm doing it! Daddy look!"
David, however, couldn't hear or see her from in his tent, and slowly Liam lowered her down. "You're going to be able to do that alone by the end of this summer." Liam smiled.
Emma grinned up at him breathless. "Come on! Let's play football again!" Killian shouted.
"Soccer!" Emma laughed back.
"Football!" Liam and Killian replied in unison.
They played a mad three player game of football, until David shouted Emma over. Emma ran over to him with a breathless smile on her face, already slightly tan. "Lunch time baby. Then we're going to go and do some food shopping."
"Why?" Emma pouted softly.
"Errm, because A) you need to eat, and B) we need food for you to eat, we only had enough for like, a day."
"Okay." Emma sighed softly. She took off her mud splattered wellies and left them outside, then walked into the jewel coloured tent, softly lit by the sun shining through and a string of fairy lights. David passed Emma a pre-packaged sandwich, and a bottle of fruit juice. She ate quickly, wanting to go back and play.
"Eh eh eh! No. Hey. We're going food shopping. Like I already said. So don't go anywhere."
David finished his lunch, then slid his wallet into his back pocket of his denim shorts. "Okay sweetie. Let's go." David smiled, grabbing Emma's hand. As they walked to the car, Emma smiled and waved at Killian, sat on a camp chair, eating a large ham sandwich. He grinned at her, and ran after her, sandwich in hand.
"Where are you going?" He asked deflated.
"Shopping. I can play later though." Emma smiled.
"We won't be long." David promised.
"Okay." Killian smiled in relief.
"Bye bye." Emma smiled, waving at him. They got in the car, David plugging Emma's seat belt in. Killian stayed waving goodbye and chasing the car until it left the whole campsite. David and Emma did the shopping, which according to Emma took forever, but according to a watch, took an hour and a half. Then they stopped for ice cream, and had a little look around the small village. By the time they were ready to go home, it was five o'clock, so they decided to stop for lunch, in a small village pub, where they ate meat pie with chips and beans, and had tall ice cream sundaes for dessert, Emma drinking orange juice by the gallon, David drinking half a pink of very nice Irish ale. 
"I like this restaurant. Can we come again?" Emma asked her father sweetly.
"If that is what you would like, we can do, yeah." David grinned at her across the table. 
"Now we have nearly finished, can we go back and play with Killian?"
"Well by the time we get back it will be nearly seven o'clock. It'll be calm down time, won't it?"
"No?" Emma suggested.
"I think you mean yes." David chuckled. Emma sighed softly, and immediately David felt bad. "Do you like Killian? Is he your new friend?" Emma nodded eagerly. "Is he nicer than people at school?" David asked softly and sensitively. Emma nodded wordlessly, less eager and energetically, more withdrawn with a hint of embarrassment. After that question, Emma wouldn't meet Davids eye, just kept her head bent down, staring at her ice cream.
"It won't eat itself, you know." David laughed softly. Emma slowly started eating it away, until a roudy pre-teen boy ran into her seat, knocking her and tipping her sundae over, the melted dairy leaking all over the table.
"William! That is what running around inside does! Say sorry!" The boys mother scolded. She immediately rushed to Emma, dabbing at Emmas dungarees with a tissue, getting the ice cream off in a few quick movements. "I am so so sorry about that, sweetheart." The woman apologised, as did her son. 
"It's fine." David smiled at her, helping to clean up the mess.
"Here, here, please, let my buy her another one." The woman begged.
"She was just about done anyways. Don't worry about it." David shrugged. The mother expected Emma to have cried, to have been upset, to have shown some emotion, but Emma didn't care. She was transfixed on the family. An older girl, maybe sixteen, with blonde hair. The boy, William, maybe eleven, with dark hair like his mother. Another girl, this one younger, maybe eight, with dark, long hair and green eyes. A little boy, about five, his hair bright blonde. A perfect family that Emma decided looked like how her family could have looked in ten years time.
As they walked away, Emma heard the oldest girl calling the woman "mum", and the two youngest clinging onto one hand each. Mum. Mom. No mom. A dead mom. David knew what was happening, and he held Emma to his chest as she sobbed. He paid the bill, holding her tight with one hand, her face hidden, pressed tightly into his strong chest. 

"I'm sorry Emmy. I am so sorry Emma." David whispered to her as she was still crying that night while he attempted to put her to bed. But Emma was unconsolable. Then, David heard a little cough and a young Irish voice asking to come in. 
With Davids permission, Killian walked into the tent in a pair of well-loved spiderman cotton pyjamas. His little blue eyes were filled with concern. "Is Emma sad?" He whispered, close to tears himself from seeing her so sad.
"Yeah. Yeah, Emma is very sad." David replied sadly.
"Can I give her a hug?" Killian asked, before walking into the sleeping area with no answer. And he hugged Emma until her sobs quietened and until they both fell asleep.

About half an hour later, once David was sure that they were both asleep, David picked Killian up in his arms, the little boy light and mucky and smelling of the outdoors. He carried his limp sleeping form to his tent, and saw his Sarah and Brennan sat outside their tent, a small glass of red wine in their hands, Liam sat in a chair with a book in front of him.
"I believe this one is yours." David laughed softly, gesturing to the adorable, sleeping child in his arms.
"Oh, thank you so much. And he's asleep. It's nine o'clock and he is asleep." Sarah stated in disbelief.
David laughed again. "Wait, he goes to bed late, gets up early, and has that much energy?"
"Yep. I don't know where he gets it from." Brennan laughed.
"He's the sort of kid that stays up and hyper until midnight, and will happily be up at five the next morning. He have to make him stay in bed. But he doesn't sleep. He just has too much energy." Sarah added.
"God. Emma is sleeping for longer while we're here because she's tired out today. All of that tree climbing and the ball games and hand stands and walking and ice cream. She's fast asleep."
"Well, at least he is too." Sarah smiled warmly. "Bren, I'm going to put him in his sleeping bag. David, would you like a drink?"
"No, no, it's alright. If Emma wakes up, she'll get scared if I'm not there. But thanks anyway."
So Sarah scooped Killians warm little body out of David's arms, and David returned to his tent. And he held Emma's tiny body close as he slept, warding away nightmares. Knowing that was the one thing he always failed at.