Katie

The lighting is harsh, stings in my eyes. I squint through narrowed lids at my surroundings. The starch white concrete walls are barren of any sort of personalizing pictures or posters. The bare floor colored red around the drain with stains that should make my stomach want to purge itself of its contents, but instead, I feel distanced and calm. The restraints tightened around my wrists, already rubbed raw by the coarse leather, and around my waist, keeping me secured on my stomach to the frigid metal of the gurney fails to spark any concern; even the hazy edges to my vision feels rather natural.

I can’t seem to summon an ounce of true emotion even as I watch a faceless scientist stride into the room clade in a long white lab coat streaked with bloodstains and blue plastic gloves. Instead of approaching me, he strides to another gurney, I hadn’t noticed before, positioned in the middle of the room. My heart clenches then, at the sight of the gurney’s occupant; a small child, no older than eight. Long, soft brown hair stretching midway down her ribcage is strewn about and spilling over the side of the gurney. Her arms are restrained at the wrists around the handle at the top of the gurney, forcing her arms to be extended and bent at her ears. Her slender tail is also restrained around the base of her fin. Both sets of restraints look pulled a little too tight and are certainly too big for her but the scientists clearly haven’t bothered to obtain a smaller size and have opted to tug them so tight that her fingers are curled and turning white.

It takes me a moment to recognize the girl on the table, since I can’t see her face, but the bright sapphire scales and ocean blue fin finally set off warning bells in my muddled brain. I chew on my lip at the sight of her heaving chest as she attempts to jerk free of the restraints.

The air smells thickly of blood, sweat, and chemicals, and I'm fairly certain the first two are coming from her. I twist in my own restraints as the scientist plucks a silvery scalpel, already stained with crusted flecks of blood, from the tray of tools. I attempt to shout, to scream out at him to stop, but find myself frustratingly deprived of my voice; a large lump in my through choking any attempts of vocalization.

Instead, I find myself powerless, struggling pointlessly against restraints and heavy limbs, as I watch the scientist mercilessly slice through skin with the sharp blade.

A sharp pain in my gut pulls me from my nightmare. I force my eyes open and sit up, trying to still my shaking. Beside me, Luna’s face is contorted as she writhes in her sleep. Her tail jabs into my side again, an arm jerking up, a clenched fist nearly catching me in the jaw. “Luna,” I hiss her name, dodging another unintended punch. I pin her tail beneath my own, trapping her flailing arms. “Luna, wake up!”

Beneath me, she falls slack for a few heartbeats before she bolts upright, her crystal eyes snapping open and shifting around wildly. The irises are wide and thick with fear, her body shaking and her bottom lip beginning to quiver. If we weren’t at the bottom of the pool, I know tears would be welling in her eyes. I wrap her in a tight hug, a hand instinctively smoothing down the hair on the crown of her head.

“It’s okay,” I whisper. “It was just a dream; you're safe.”

Luna clutches tightly at me, her fingernails digging into my shoulder blades as though she expects me to disappear. The action makes me wince, but I make no move to pull away. After a moment, she begins to relax, falling limp and simply leaning on me. Another couple of heartbeats and she pulls away and lets her hands fall to her lap. ‘I lashed out again, did I not?’

“Yeah, you did,” I admit.

She sighs and lowers her head, blowing out a stream of bubbles in the process. ‘Did I hurt you?’

“No, I'm fine. Your tail hit me, woke me up, but it’s okay; no harm done, I promise. At least you aren’t too difficult to hold still until you wake up. I think part of your mind recognizes that you’re safe; you don’t fight as hard when I touch you and you tend to wake up soon after. How bad?” I ask. We’ve been here for five days now, they decided to wait for Lukshia to return before bringing us down to formulate a plan, and she’s had nightmares four nights in a row now. This is my third time being torn, shaking, from a bad dream. It does not seem to matter whether we sleep above or below the water; the dreams just keep coming.

‘Bad,’ she admits, moving a hand to rub her other arm. Her limbs are still shaking and her gills are flaring with over exertion.

“What was it about?” I ask. The past few nights, I’ve been making her describe them. She hates it, but it seems to help her settle down and I want to keep track of them so that if they get any worse, I can tell someone about them.

‘The same,’ she replies. ‘It was the same as last night, I think. I have trouble remembering details sometimes.’

“I know,” I answer. “Dr. Patron still?”

Luna nods, squeezes her arm, and sniffles, rubbing at her reddening nose. ‘Did you have a bad dream too?’

I nod. “Yeah, I did,” I murmur. “You pulled me from it.”

‘Was it your transformation again?’ Luna asks. My first two had been about that; the first time it was the end of the transformation, the agony of my legs slitting open and fusing together. The second one was also the transformation, but it was different. Instead of the tail, I been growing flippers, dorsal, and several smaller cartilage fins erupting all over my body.

I shudder, but shake my head. “No, it was like the first time I was in a lab room with Dr. Patron. When they strapped me down and forced me to watch them torture you; except this time you were younger, like seven or eight,” I admit.

Luna frowns, her fangs poking through between her lips. ‘You were dreaming about that? But, I do not understand, why?’

I shrug. “Probably because it bothers me a lot. It bothers me that you endured all this stuff for so long by yourself, that you were so young, and that, most of the time, when it comes down to it; I am powerless to stop them from hurting you,” I confess. “You’re my best friend, practically my sister; I don’t want anything to happen to you, but I can’t keep us safe either.”

‘But you try,’ Luna offers. ‘And that means a lot.’

“Thanks Luna, but these nightmares are still beginning to take a toll,” I sigh. “I wonder what time it is, it seems pretty bright in here already so maybe the sun is up. That would be nice, means we aren’t up at a completely outrageous time.”

‘I think you are right,” Luna agrees. ‘At least I hope that you are right, because I doubt I can fall back asleep.’

“Well,” I begin. “I think I want to surface, get out of the water for a while. Maybe there’s still some leftovers from last night to snack on. You want to come?”

Luna smiles softly and nods. She stretches out her tail and yawns before following me up to the surface.

I surface right at the edge of the pool and recoil with shock, not expecting anyone to be sitting there, much less who actually is there. Fear licks its way into my heart and my lip instinctively curls. Beside me, Luna shrinks back; her fingers tightening around my arm, and hisses at the blonde haired woman sitting cross-legged on one of the mattresses.

Elizabeth jerks back a little, hurt and shock spreading across her features.

I swallow and tense, terrified at what her presence means; that they’ve found us. I shake my head, put an arm across Luna’s chest protectively, and back up. “We won’t go back; we’ll fight, you can’t make us go,” I snarl.

Elizabeth shakes her head and pushes herself forward to the edge of the mattress. “Katie, no, honey, I'm not here to-”

“You're here,” I cut her off. “You wouldn’t be here if they didn’t know. I don’t know why they sent you but I suppose it makes sense in a way… We’re not going, you cannot make us-”

“Katie.” Olivia’s voice breaks me from my rant. “She’s not here to drag you back. Elizabeth is my niece.”

“Oh,” I breathe, relaxing slightly. “Wow; you guys are related?”

“Small world right?” Elizabeth raises an eyebrow. “I wish I’d known that there’s history; I would have put in a call right away.”

“Well, it’s not like it would be common knowledge to either of you,” Olivia jumps in, climbing up the platform. “Elizabeth, I’ve only seen Katie a couple of times in her life. Two or three tops.”

“Yeah, I never actually got the story of how you knew; how you know each other,” Elizabeth comments, turning to face her aunt.

“And I’m not buying the whole aunt and niece thing,” I chip in. “You guys don’t look that far apart in age.”

Olivia laughs, shakes her head with amusement, and takes a seat on the mattress next to Elizabeth. “Well, that one’s easy. Her father is my brother older by a decade. I was eleven when I became an Aunt, but I accept the compliment about my age,” Olivia says with a wink.

I smile and shrug, a few sarcastic comebacks flashing through my mind, but I decide not to voice them.

“And as for how I know Katie,” Olivia redirects her attention to Elizabeth. “I believe I’ve told you about Lewis Patter, correct? The sea vet I went to school with; the one that live in Australia? Well, we meet up for a few weeks every two years, so I go down to Australia every four. Katie is the daughter of Sophie Brooks, who owns the park that Lewis works at.”

Elizabeth nods. “Well, that makes sense; just sucks that we didn’t realize the connection earlier. I wish I’d known.”

“Well, you both know now,” Olivia decides. “Now, Katie, are you two hungry?”

I shrug. “Umm, a little peckish at best,” I admit. “What about you?” I turn to face Luna, still low in the water and tucked partially behind me. She chews her lip and shakes her head. I sigh at her blatant shyness and tug her forward a little. Though I'm met with little resistance, she immediately takes to leaning against me, her fingers curling around my bicep as she peeks out from the fountain of hair she’s allowed to fall into her face like a protective veil.

Olivia sighs and shakes her head while Elizabeth covers her mouth to smother a barely supressed chuckle. After a moment, she raises a hand and bends the fingers at Luna. “Hey, there,” she greets. “I’ve been hearing some interesting things about you the past hour and I have to say I'm impressed at everything you’ve managed over the years. Good on you,” she praises.

Luna’s grip on my arm clamps tighter, the muscle in her jaw feathering as she tenses up further.

“Hey,” I protest, extracting my arm from her stony grasp. “Any tighter and you’ll cut off my circulation.”

Luna’s gaze flits to me briefly, an apology glistening in her rounded eyes, and curls her fingers around her opposite arm instead, drawing her attention back to the two women on the platform almost instantly.

I sigh and gently grasp Luna’s chin, dragging her focus back to me. “Why don’t you take a bit of a swim,” I suggest, eager to get her to relax and figuring that she’ll calm once she’s away from the attention. Uncertainty flashes in her eyes before she seems to settle on gratitude. She nods once and then slips beneath the skin of the water and doesn’t surface again. I turn away from the water and pull myself out to sit on the foamy mat of the platform, water running off my arms and scales to form small rivets in the squishy material.

“I didn’t mean to frighten her,” Elizabeth says.

I shake my head. “No, don’t worry about it. Luna’s just shy around people and you are a bit of a reminder,” I explain. Elizabeth’s face falls slightly, but she doesn’t protest.

“It’s more than that,” Olivia objects. “That child has always been defensive and shy, but she’s been gradually getting less distrusting and more flat out skittish. Even you’ve been much more withdrawn these last few days, and don’t think I haven’t noticed that neither of you have been sleeping properly. I noticed that on the road and chalked it up to stress, but the circles under your eyes keep getting darker. What’s been going on?”

I rub at my arm, scratching lightly at the skin there. “Luna and I… Well, we’ve been having nightmares,” I relent. “I haven’t been having quite as many as her, but even when I’m not having a bad dream, I get woken up; Luna tends to thrash around and lash out in her sleep.”

“Mhm.” Olivia purses her lips. “I had a feeling. Perhaps we should consider the possibility that the both of you are suffering from post-traumatic stress.”

“PTSD?” Elizabeth questions. “That’s a good possibility. More than likely now that I think about it.”

“What exactly is post-traumatic stress?” I inquire. “I mean, I’ve heard the term before, but I don’t know what it is exactly.”

Olivia shifts on the corner of the mattress, her worn leather sandals falling from her feet as she bring her legs up and crosses them, resting her hands on her ankles. “Post-traumatic stress is a mental health condition similar to an anxiety disorder. It used to be referred to a shell shocked and was most commonly diagnosed in war veterans, but anyone can suffer from it,” she begins.

“Its name pretty well sums it up,” Elizabeth jumps in. “PTSD is found in people who have experienced or witnessed something traumatic, whether it be war, a natural disaster, an attack or assault, being held hostage or captive; I'm sure you get the picture.”

“And it causes a lot of symptoms I’m noticing between the two of you; severe nightmares, withdrawal, flashbacks, depression, avoidance, both of reminders and of social interaction, irritability, and difficulty sleeping or concentrating to name a few. It often takes within three months to start seeing symptoms, sometimes it can take years before symptoms arise, but it can also begin almost immediately after the trauma,” Olivia finishes.

There’s a loud, angry snort behind me and it causes me to jump. I turn to see Luna hovering in the water only feet from me, her eyes wide, fangs poking out from her top lip, and her head shaking slowly.

“You disagree?” Olivia asks.

Luna nods, her arms crossing, though her posture doesn’t seem angry, merely distressed.

“How come?” Elizabeth prompts. I remain silent, wordlessly searching my friend’s face for an answer to her sudden boldness and disagreement.

‘That cannot be right,’ she argues. “This post-’ she falters for a moment. ‘What is the sign?’

“I don’t think there is a specific sign for it. The closest would just be trauma,” I say, demonstrating the sign.

‘Thank you. This post trauma thing that you are talking about cannot be affecting us because none of it is in the past,’ Luna signs.

“Sign language,” Olivia breathes. “I didn’t know you knew that, Katie.”

I shrug. “I learned it years ago. A friend of mine was deafened in an accident. I taught Luna because she’s mute and had no other means of communication.”

“That’s impressive. Though, I don’t know it, so you’ll have to fill us in,” Olivia replies.

I nod and repeat Luna’s comment rather reluctantly. I’d much rather ask her about it in private, where she’d be more open.

“I don’t understand,” Elizabeth murmurs. “What do you mean none of it is in the past. Sweetie, you’re out of there, they can’t get to you anymore.”

‘It does not feel like it,’ Luna argues with a soft, silent sigh. ‘I cannot believe that it is over and we are safe. It cannot be that simple, that easy; I do not believe it is over. And… it does not feel any different here,’ she admits. ‘Do not tell them that.’

I offer a translation to the two women and, as requested, leave out the last bit. I know I’ll have to talk to Luna about all of this.

As I relay my friend’s words, Olivia’s worried frown deepens to genuine concern. “Luna, come on over here for a second,” she requests as she slides down to sit cross-legged on the floor. I watch Luna chew on her top lip for a moment before she reluctantly swims forward and pulls herself from the water beside me. Another brief hesitation and she shifts enough to sit in front of Olivia, her tail coiled beside her, the muscles tense like a tightly wound spring, likely to allow her to dive away if need be. Olivia keeps her movements slow as she brings a hand up to cup Luna’s chin and force the girl’s gaze to meet her own. “I know that this has been stressful and overwhelming for you; it’s been years since you’ve been outside that facility and known who you can and can’t trust. I'm not even going to try to begin to imagine what it has been like for you over the years,” she begins. “What you’ve been forced to endure is brutal and awful, but you aren’t there anymore. I understand your fears; I worry too about you both being discovered here sometimes. Your fears are justified, but let me tell you that it most certainly was not easy to get you out there and it is going to be just as difficult for them to find you here now. You need to allow yourself to relax a little and try to believe that you are safe now,” Olivia continues, her thumb swiping across Luna’s cheek. “And if there’s anything you need, anything that will help make the transition easier on you; all you have to do is ask, okay?”

Silence settles over the room, only the sound of Luna’s scales catching on the foam of the mat as she shifts uncomfortably. She leans away from Olivia’s touch and wraps her arms around her body, her hair falling back into her face like a protective wall. I wince, hating when she retreats like that. Slowly she nods her head, before shuddering and pulling herself back over to the edge of the pool, allowing her fin to dangle into the cool water.

Olivia sighs softly and turns her gaze to me. “Lukshia is due back this afternoon, so I’ll come get you in an hour or so since I imagine you’ll want to be there when we discuss the next steps,” she states.

“Alright,” I agree.

“Luna, you’re welcome to come too if you like, but you can also remain here if you’d prefer; it’s up to you,” Olivia offers. “For now, we’ll leave you be; see if you can’t get a little rest while you’re up here, alright?”

“Alright,” I agree, despite knowing I likely won’t try.

“I'll be down in a minute,” Elizabeth decides. “I’d like a moment to speak with you, Katie.”

“Uh, okay,” I reply.

Olivia nods and stands, wordlessly making her way across the room, the door slipping shut behind her. Once she’s gone, I refocus on Elizabeth, whose expression has grown solemn. “Is everything alright?” I ask.

The woman sighs and runs a hand through her loose golden locks. “Yeah, don’t worry, everything is fine. It’s just that I probably won’t see you again after today; it is best I stay away as much as possible so there’s no connection,” she explains. “So, I wanted the chance to apologize to you properly, to both of you, for everything; I should have done more.”

I shake my head. “That’s it? You’ve already apologized, more than once in fact. I thought I already said that I don’t blame you for any of it; it was beyond your control anyways. I know I reacted badly earlier, but that was for totally different reasons.”

“I know,” Elizabeth replies. “But I need to say it, Katie. I have never stopped feeling awful about it. The two of you are not science experiments and you don’t deserve to be treated the way you were.”

I tilt my head a little and stare long and hard into the woman’s eyes. “You don’t want forgiveness, do you?” I ask, searching her expression. “I’ve already done that yet you keep bringing it up; do you want me to be angry with you? I don’t understand what the problem is.”

“It’s too easy,” Elizabeth murmurs, her gaze falling to her lap like a beaten puppy or scolded child, or both. “You’re too forgiving and it doesn’t feel right. I did a horrible thing and continued to help the people that have been brutal to you both; I don’t deserve forgiveness.”

I nod, my tongue swiping out over my bottom lip. “Maybe you’re right,” I agree, watching her head jerk back up to meet my gaze. “I mean, when I woke up in that little tank with you sitting over me; I was terrified. You said you didn’t want to hurt me and the first thought that flashed through my mind was ‘but you did’. And perhaps the only reason I was so forgiving was because of the painkillers, the fact that I shouldn’t bite the hand trying to feed me. Maybe I was too forgiving then. But that was then and this is now. And look at what you are doing to yourself; you’re chewing yourself out about an even in the past, something you really couldn’t have prevented anyways. Stop it,” I order, allowing myself to relax. “You’ve suffered enough and talking about it is more of a reminder than I can handle right now. Let’s just leave it in the past and move on, okay?” I offer.

Elizabeth smiles and nods, taking a deep breath and releasing it with a sigh. “Alright, that sounds good. Thank you.” I nod and watch her focus shift to Luna. She extends a hand out towards the Mer, but freezes when Luna tenses up. Still, she doesn’t lower her hand, instead leaves it suspended in mid-air. “The whole time I was there, I never once considered the possibility that you might be intelligent, never thought of you as any more sentient than perhaps a dolphin. I was certainly wrong; you are smart, and beautiful, and very brave. I'm ashamed that I didn’t see that earlier, didn’t even ponder it. Perhaps I’m no better than the rest of them for that…but I’m certainly going to try to be from now on,” Elizabeth vows. “I won’t make the same mistakes twice.”

At her words, Luna’s lips twitch, the corner of her mouth curling up in a slight half-smile. The reaction would seem small to anyone else, but I know it to be an impressive response for Elizabeth to gain. Luna’s fingers shake as she hesitantly extends an arm, bringing her fingertips to brush against Elizabeth’s palm. She makes no move to actually take the woman’s hand and after a moment, she tenses with a shudder and moves her hand back into her lap but, at least to me, her message it clear. She may not trust Elizabeth, not by a long shot, but she also harbors no ill feelings towards her.

The blonde smiles softly. “You’re both going to be alright now, my aunt will make sure of it; just, stay out of trouble, okay?”

“Will do,” I agree.

With a final farewell, Elizabeth takes her leave and I watch her go, not fully sure if I should feel sad or not. Beside me, Luna sneezes violently, startling my attention to her. “Are you alright?” I ask.

She nods and sniffs a couple of times, rubbing at her nose. ‘Just dust,’ she replies.

“We need to talk,” I state. Luna meets my gaze and shrugs. “What did you mean when you said none of this was in the past? That nothing is any different here?” I press, concerned.

Again, I get a shrug. After a long moment, Luna sighs and raises her hands. ‘It is too soon to be in the past and we were having bad dreams long before they took us from our tank. And it does not feel any different here. There are no scientists poking at us here, true, but look around.’ At her request, I allow my eyes to survey our surroundings. ‘We are just as boxed in here as we were there. They tell us to stay, bring us food when it is convenient for them, and maintain a guise that we have a say in anything; yet we are not even allowed to leave this room if we desire. We are no more free here than we were at the lab. This is just another cage and I hate it.’ Her hands are quivering with stress and anger, her breathing heavy, tears brimming in her wide eyes.

“Luna…” I breathe.

She sighs. ‘I know you do not feel the same way. I know that you know the doctor woman and that you are confident that they will see us to freedom; I know that you think this is a good thing, but I do not. I cannot. I am sorry, but I lack your hope and your confidence. I fear that if I open myself up here and am betrayed, I will never trust again. This feels too much like another cage for me to take that risk. I just…do not feel safe here.’ By this point, tears have begun to brim in her eyes and she looks hopelessly defeated.

“Hey,” I begin, keeping my tone soothing as I reach out to squeeze her shoulder. “It’s okay. I get it, Luna, really I do. I was just a little concerned about how you were feeling when you said those things. You’ve been at that lab for six years, you can barely remember anything before; it’s all you know and it was an awful existence. I can understand why you’re uncomfortable now and I respect that you need some time to become comfortable around others again. And if anyone here cares for you, then they’ll respect that too,” I state. “Just don’t wait too long, okay? I feel like it would be a big recovery step for you and I'm worried that longer you wait, the less likely you are to be able to trust again. It’s a two sided coin, remember that.”

“I know,” Luna replies, leaning into me. “I just- I cannot yet. It is too soon.”

“I know,” I whisper back. “Why don’t we try to get some sleep for an hour,” I suggest despite knowing neither of us likely will. “Are you going to come down with me?”

Luna sucks in sharply and hesitates, her fang poking out to chew on her lip. ‘Yes,’ she decides after a long moment. ‘I want to know what is going on,” she decides with a curt nod of her head. Then her lips part, revealing her glistening fangs, and curling tongue in a wide yawn.

I smile. “Let’s lay down for a bit.”

***

The conference room is pleasantly spacious, but with only five of us, feels a little awkward and empty. Dustin and Olivia sit side by side, with Lukshia at the head of the table. Two of the chairs have been pulled out so that Luna and I’s wheelchairs could be slid into their places, opposite Olivia and Dustin.

Lukshia offers me a smile before beginning to speak. “So, the truck has been taken care of, our tracks covered, and while the facility is more frantic than a beehive, they seem to be focusing on local parks, environmental groups, and airports, so we should be alright for the moment. I’ll keep constant tabs and warn you if they get a little too close.”

Dustin nods. “Good. At least that’s one thing off our plates. So, I suppose our next step is to figure out how to get these two safely back to Australia.”

“It’ll be a little while,” Olivia voices. “Things will need to die down before we attempt any border crossings of any kind.”

“I agree, it’ll be a few months at least before we can take action,” Lukshia continues. “You two are going to have to sit tight a while and lay low.”

“I’d like to get a message to Sophie,” I argue. “She should know I’m okay.”

Dustin shakes his head. “Absolutely not,” he dismisses. “I don’t mean to sound cruel, but we can’t risk contacting her; they’d look for that.”

“Besides, it would only cause her pain, Katie,” Olivia adds, her voice soft. “She wouldn’t be able to come here, wouldn’t be able to take action of any kind. She’d have to leave her daughter’s life in the hands of people she doesn’t know very well, having no contact, no way of knowing how things are going, for months. No, it would be far kinder to keep her in the dark. I know it’s been hard on you and that you miss her, this is a lot to ask, but I need you to hold out a little longer.”

I sigh, chewing on my lip. “I want to go home,” I whisper, hating how broken I sound, hating that my weaknesses are showing through. “I miss park, I miss everyone who works there; they’re practically family, I miss my room and my school, I-” I falter as my voice cracks, tears threatening. “I miss Sophie, I miss her so much.” Luna rests a hand on my arm and squeezes.

“I know you’re homesick, sweetheart; none of this has been easy. But we have to wait, if we act too soon, you could wind up right back in that tank and we’d have less of a chance of breaking you out again,” Olivia points out.

“Don’t cry,” Lukshia whispers when I sniff and rub at my nose. “Everything is going to be alright; you’re going to get home safely and see your mother, I promise; you just have to be patient a little longer.”

“We’ll see you both home,” Dustin vows. “No matter where that may be.” The second part is directed at Luna.

My friend stiffens, her head bowing slightly and I know Dustin has struck a nerve; a deep one by the looks of it. Two sparkling tears, shining like liquid diamonds, roll down Luna’s cheeks and drip onto the blanket hiding her tail. She shakes her head softly and wet her lips. ‘I do not even know where home is,’ she signs slowly, her hands shaking slightly. ‘It could be anywhere… the ocean is so big and I don’t not know if…’

She trails off and I squeeze her shoulder, softly repeating her words to the rest of the table. “It’ll be okay. If I have to traverse the entire ocean with you to help you find them, I will, I promise.”

Luna’s crystal eyes shine and a twitch of a smile touches the corners of her lips as she rubs at the moisture in her eyes. ‘Thank you,’ she signs.

“You’re both going to get to go home; and the first stop is Australia. Now there are several ways that we can do this,” Lukshia begins. “I can get them aboard an uncharted flight, but it may require transfers at different airports. Easy enough to set up, but a little risky and we would still have to wait. We could go by boat; it will take quite a while in comparison, but they should be fine to swim across the border when we pass, then we can pick them up again on the other side. I like this one the best. It would take a while and mean that I’d need you, Olivia, to make the trip with us in case anything arises medically; I want your skills readily available. The problem with that is then there’s a direct link because you’ll need to use your passport.”

Olivia nods. “And explaining away the leave might be tricky; I am needed here too.”

Lukshia nods. “The only other option I can think of is we boat a short distance to another country, and then fly them from there. It would have you home in a week or two at most and can be vacation time. But it will take time to organize and there are flaws in it; my contacts spread globally, but the most reliable are here. And we still need someone receiving on the other end, so we need to risk contact.”

“Hmm.” Dustin drums his fingers on the desk. “We’d need a boat that would have easy ocean access for their tails as well as proper cover so they aren’t exposed on deck.”

“I can handle that,” Lukshia replies.

“Then do what you need to do to go by boat. It means that you can leave sooner, which is better because we’re all on edge. Now you would need to take the Panama Canal, are you prepared to do that?”

Lukshia nods. “Yes.”

Dustin nods. “Well, I can handle the leave, Olivia. I’ll call in a favor; just… try to fly back from somewhere, okay?”

“Will do,” Lukshia promises.

“What do you girls think?” Olivia asks.

I shrug. “I don’t know,” I admit. “I mean, we might be seen, it’s not like a boat has a great amount of cover or hiding places. “And wouldn’t a boat big enough to house us comfortably be suspicious and heavy on gas? And with the stairs and such, I’m not sure Luna and I could effectively get around.”

“I was thinking about that too. It would be hard to find a place for you both to sleep, since I don’t want you two to be cut off from the water all night either; it may be doable, but I doubt it’s good for you,” Olivia agrees. “Do we have some way of having a net attached to the boat? We could have it hang beneath like a hammock. Then they could sleep there and spend as much time in the water as they please. You’d only truly have to come up for meals that way.”

“I’ll have to look into all of this,” Lukshia decides. “Give me a couple days to draw up a plan and make sure I can get access to everything we need.”

“Definitely,” Dustin agrees. “That’s to be expected. Learn what you can and we’ll reconvene in a week to make a final decision.”

“Do you two have anything to add?” Olivia asks.

Luna shakes her head, her lips pursing and her eyes finding her lap. She looks uneasy, but makes no move to comment or explain whatever concerns she may have.

“No,” I reply, breaking off in a wide yawn. “You all managed to get us out completely without our opinions; I trust your capability of getting us home too.”

Olivia smiles. “Alright. Now, the both of you look worn out. If you want, you can go back up and try to get some more sleep, but I was thinking that maybe you’d like to come with me to one of the large indoor tanks. We have an exhibit of rescued turtles, green and loggerhead at the moment; it’s closed to the public so if you wanted to have a chance to swim in a much larger water body for a bit, you’re welcome to use it as long as you don’t mind the turtles.”

Luna brightens instantly, leaning forward in her chair and a true smile crossing her face for the first time around anyone else at this table. ‘May we?’

I repeat her question and Olivia chuckles. “Of course, but you can’t bother the turtles; they are in recovery after all.”

“We won’t,” I promise, glad to see Luna enthusiastic about something here.