A/N: This was actually written as a part of a contest on LJ's Jim_and_bones. It is based upon a picture, but the only way to see the picture is to join that community. If you are interested, contact me and I will send you the actual link.

They'd been to the pool a few times and Jim had gotten pretty good at some of the basic strokes and could swim underwater very well. Leonard had guided him in to swimming in the deep end, and though Jim wouldn't admit it, he knew Jim was still nervous when the water was deeper than he could stand. He wasn't confident in his ability to save himself, and he balked at the idea of swimming in the deep end in the center, away from the wall.

But tonight, after a couple moments of gentle cajoling, they move away from the wall and walk out until they have to swim. Leonard swam in front, and he could hear Jim breathing behind him, breaths that were shallow and loud in the large, quiet building. When they were in the middle of the deep end, Leonard turned around to face him, treading water with practiced ease. Jim was treading water too, with something considerably less than practiced ease, arms and legs moving without any real coordination. The thing was, when they were close to the wall, he was actually pretty good at it. When he was away from the safety of the wall, he got panicky.

"Good, Jim, good. You're okay. See if you can connect your breathing with the rhythm of your kicks," he said. Jim nodded, and keeping his eyes on Leonard, worked on doing what Leonard said, worked on bringing himself under control. Leonard smiled. "Excellent, Jim, really good. How do you feel? Can you talk to me?"

"Yeah," Jim said, a little breathlessly. "I'm okay. Let's go back to the wall now, okay?"

"In a minute, Darlin'. You're doin' fine." Leonard moved closer to him and reached for his hands, holding him, stopping their movement under the water.

"Bones – what…" Jim started, kicking a little faster to make up for the loss of his hands to help keep him afloat.

"You're doing good, Jim. You don't need to kick so hard…you'll tire yourself out. Big scissor kicks like me. See?"

"Yeah, okay…Bones…"

"Good, Jim. I'm right here and you're fine. Okay…now we're going to stop kicking, let ourselves go under water, and then we'll start kicking again. Ready?"

Jim's eyes got wide and he shook his head. "No…let's…I'm not ready."

"Yes you are, Jim. Yes you are. And I'm right here." He moved closer to Jim, reaching out and moving to hold him. He wrapped an arm around him, and after a second, Jim did the same. The feel of Bones' body against his made him feel more secure. He could do this. Bones would make sure he was okay.

"You ready?" Leonard asked, and this time Jim nodded. Together, they took a breath, stilled, and slipped under.