Licensing Note: Based on characters and story lines from Emma Approved, written and produced by Bernie Su and Hank Green and based off of Emma by Jane Austen. All original content and plot for Crash is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license by Morgan A. Wyndham. Cross-published on Derbyshire Writer's Guild as MorganA, Archive of Our Own by Morgan AW and by MorganAW.

July 4, 1991

Emma giggled quietly as she ran across the lawn towards the pool. They'd spent the day in the pool and she didn't want it to end. Now everyone was wearing their clothes and excitedly talking about fireworks, but Emma wanted one more splash before they left. She knew she was supposed to stay with Annie, but Emma always got her own way in the end. With the fearless courage of any headstrong four year old she jumped straight into the pool like she'd done so many times that day. Earlier she'd always popped right back up, but this time her feet hit the ground. She tried to breathe but her mouth filled with water. Her tiny legs flailed but she couldn't seem to get above water. She was starting to panic when a pair of arms wrapped around her and suddenly she was sputtering above water.

"Emma!" Alex's anxious voice barely penetrated her panic as she continued to cough and struggle for air. "Emma, open your eyes, you're ok, I've got you.." Emma opened her eyes and clung to him. "Just breathe, Emma, you're ok," he said and she tried to calm her breathing to match his.

"I only looked away for a minute!" Annie's panicked voice came from the side of the pool, but Emma kept her eyes locked on Alex's. "Hand her up to me," Annie said, regaining all of the command of a thirteen year old babysitter now that the danger had passed.

Emma tightened her arms and whined, "I wanna stay with Alex!"

"It's ok, I'm right here," he said to Emma then turned to Annie, "I'll just go up the stairs with her." He calmly waded across to the steps where Maddy waited with a pair of towels.

Alex set her down outside the pool and she couldn't help but giggle at her gangly eight year old neighbor in his sopping wet khakis and polo shirt. "This isn't funny! Do you know how dangerous that was? You can't go in the pool without your floaties until you learn how to swim! Badly done Emma!"

"But you were there to save me!" Emma said, as she grabbed his hand possessively.

"This time I was, but you've gotta be more careful, I may not always be there to save you." Emma had a hard time believing there would ever be a time in her life that Alex wasn't there, but she stayed extra close to his side for the rest of the day … just in case.