The looks of hardened concern melted off Sophie and Lewis’s faces as Katie poked her head through the open doorway. They both seemed to relax. “Sorry to interrupt,” she murmured.

Sophie shook her head. “Is something wrong, what are you doing down here?”

Katie sighed and shook her head. “Luna is lying down. She wasn’t feeling too well earlier. She knows I’m gone, but frankly she’s exhausted. I just…couldn’t sit in silence anymore, I feel like I’m going crazy.” She shrugged and gave the wheels a gentle shove to guide herself better into the room. “I thought I’d come down and see what was going on, if I could help with anything maybe.”

Lewis hastened over to her and pushed the wheelchair the rest of the way inside and closed the door. Katie took a deep breath and shoved her annoyance away at his cautious actions. It was early, the chances of anyone seeing her were slim, but she wasn’t truly cross with the man, just frustrated with the trappings of her new life.

“Introductions maybe?” a new voice inquired. Katie’s gaze snapped to the cot set up in the room. The girl sitting on it had lightly tanned skin and long blonde hair. It rolled down her back like drizzling honey, spilling over her shoulders. She had brightly colored bangs cupping her chin to match the vivid tailfins that hung over the edge of the bed. Two smaller fins, not one fluke like Katie and Luna both had. It peaked the girl’s curiosity.

She rolled the wheelchair closer until she was beside the medical cot. It came up almost to her shoulder, but she reached up a hand towards the other Mer. “Riley, I presume? My name’s Katie.”

Ice blue eyes blinked slowly as the girl stared in confusion at Katie’s hand, so she lowered it slightly awkwardly. “Katie,” she repeated, clearly mulling the name over. “That is familiar…was that not the name of your…?” she trailed off, her attention on Sophie. Katie turned to look as well. Sophie was slightly tense, her shoulder’s hunched, and the bags under her eyes were dark and puffy. Katie’s heart clenched. She hated seeing Sophie so run down. The last few weeks had been overwhelming on everyone.

“Daughter?” Sophie supplies the final word to the injured Mer’s inquiry. “Yes.”

“It’s a long story,” Katie adds with a shrug.

“A human girl back from death as a Mer?” she raised an eyebrow. “Sounds more like a tale to lull Merlings to sleep.”

Katie was silent for a moment as she regarded the new Mer, then began to chuckle. “I suppose it could sound a little like a fairytale when put like that; but it’s not exactly an overly happy story,” she replied dryly.

Riley’s head dipped forward, her icy irises blinking slowly. “Most stories rarely are,” she agreed. Katie expected a slew of questions to follow, but Riley merely shifted her fins a little and folded her arms in front of her as she retained eye contact with an expression that spoke volumes. She was fine to take in any details Katie might choose to offer up, but would not pry uninvited. Katie smiled, deciding that she liked this quirky Mer and appreciated the mutual acceptance of space and privacy.

“I’ve been waiting for a chance to meet you,” Katie admitted finally, breaking the few moments of awkward silence that had stretched prior.

“Oh?” One of Riley’s slender eyebrows quirked up.

Katie nodded. “For a couple of reasons; I do have an interest in knowing more about your people, your culture. I’m not born or bred obviously, so I know very little of what it means to be Mer, besides having the tail, that is. But more importantly; we kind of need your help. You see, there’s another-” Katie faltered as Sophie laid a hand on her shoulder. She glanced back at her mother and frowned when Sophie merely shook her head.

“That’s a conversation for later, okay?” she interrupted. Katie wanted to argue, but ultimately decided against it and simply nodded. “What I really want to know, is how we were caught this off-guard,” Sophie continued. “Shouldn’t Riley’s chip have warned us the second she became stressed in the fight? We’re very lucky Torren was around to help.”

“I was thinking about that,” Lewis agreed. “I was looking at some of the data last night; it looks like her chip shorted out. The data feed stopped streaming three days ago.”

“That may have been my fault,” Riley responded, her tone more subdued, almost sheepish. She brought a hand up to rub at the back of her neck, then winced as the stretch seemed to bring her pain, and lowered her arm. “I may have gotten slammed against some rocks surfing a current a few days ago, jarred my shoulder pretty good. Maybe the blunt force had something to do with it?”

“There’s a strong possibility. It will have to be replaced then; meantime, I’ll look into some sort of protective buffer so that it isn’t so easily damaged.”

Riley shrugged. “If you must, but if we have to continue discussing this stuff, I insist on some entertainment; I want to play chess,” she decided.

“Oh no,” Sophie protested. She moved a few steps closer and waved a finger. “We’re not starting that again; you need to rest and chess is clearly too exciting for you not to get worked up.”

Riley snorted and flicked her fins. The motion stole a chuckle from Katie; she knew well enough that the motion was very much like the twitch of a cat’s tail and betrayed the Mer’s annoyance. “I will not get worked up,” Riley countered evenly as her fins curled back up. “I simply wish to pass the time with something more enjoyable than staring at the walls.”

Katie cocked her head at Sophie’s sharp intake of breath, not quite understanding the apparent reluctance. “I’ll play with her; I don’t mind a friendly game of chess now and again either.”

“You do not want to go down that rabbit hole,” Sophie warned with a shake of her head. Her piercing green eyes shone with a playful warning and she ran a hand through her short wavy locks that she’d cut a few days prior, as she often did before the heat got too intense.

“What do you mean?” Katie inquired. “What rabbit hole?”

“Twenty games from now, you’ll have your answer,” Lewis intervened. “Once you start with this one, you’re not allowed to stop.”

“Oh,” Katie chuckled at the same time Riley snorted again, one lip curling up as air whistled between her teeth. The Mer’s icy blue eyes narrowed and she muttered something under her breath, which only made Katie laugh harder. Lewis’s claim didn’t surprise her much, based on the other girl’s reaction. Katie started when a hand was laid on her shoulder, the fingers gently squeezing the muscle there to gain her attention.

She tilted her head back to meet Sophie’s gaze again, noted her adoptive mother’s pursed lips, the dark circles beneath her eyes and creases on her forehead that indicated the prolonged stress she’d been under. “I reckon it’s time you went back upstairs,” she advised in a tender, tired tone. “I’m not comfortable with Luna being left alone this long.” The ‘or you being down here’ went unsaid, but Katie heard it nonetheless. Sophie wasn’t intentionally keeping them cooped up and Katie knew it was crucial to stay hidden, but she was beginning to go a little stir crazy in the apartment.

She sighed and tucked her head for a moment, wringing her fingers until the joints popped. “Okay,” she sighed. “I suppose you’re right.”

Seeming to notice the hesitation, Sophie patted her shoulder, rubbing her thumb over the flesh in an unspoken apology that Katie was almost grateful for. “I’ll escort you back,” she offered before her gaze tilted up to the Mer lying on the medical cot. “You need to eat a little more and then get some rest; and don’t stir up a fuss for Lewis. The faster you heal, the sooner you can join us upstairs and gain some mobility back.”

“Fine,” Riley sighed with a groan and she dropped her head down onto the cot for a moment, then sat back up and dragged a little baggy of fish slices closer to her, plucking some of the shaved flesh from the bloody juice it was soaking in.

“It was nice to meet you, Riley,” Katie ventured, offering the other Mer a wave before spinning her wheelchair around. She didn’t get far before Sophie was behind her, holding the handles and pushing the chair towards the door.

Before they turned the corner, Katie caught Riley’s lowered voice as she spoke to Lewis. “Will you play chess with me?”

Lewis’s dramatic sigh had Katie giggling down the hall. “She’s different,” she said. “A little intense.”

“Yes,” Sophie agreed. “She can be a handful; but so can you.”

“Well, I think I like her,” Katie decided with a shrug. Her hands came up to pull the elastic in her hair free, her fingers deftly unraveling the braid she’d put in the night prior. Her hair was crimped from being held so tight for several hours, but Katie merely ran her fingers through it a few times, then began to braid it back again. “What happened to her, anyways?”

“She was in a fight,” Sophie replied. “More a three on one gang up. Apparently she held her own pretty well, according to Torren, who only caught the tail end of the skirmish.”

“She was in a fight with other Mer?” Katie asked, seeking clarification and trying to imagine what sort of battle possibly took place out at sea. It twisted her gut to consider that perhaps not all Mer got on decently with their own kind. Sure, humanity had the same problem everywhere, all the time, but picturing a battle of teeth and tails seemed far more barbaric and intimidating.

“Yes,” Sophie confirmed. “I didn’t realize it was a problem until now, but apparently small groups of adolescents aren’t uncommon, striking out to find their place in the world and test their skills. It’s also not unheard of for some of these groups to go rogue and attack passersby without warning. Riley managed to handle two of the three that attacked her, but the third got the jump and stabbed her in the abdomen with spiky fins seemingly not dissimilar to Riley’s own. She’s very lucky that she was so close to the park and that Torren was there to end the fight or she very well may have bled out in the water.” Sophie’s voice was tense by time she finished speaking and Katie frowned.

It was a scary thought; though she did not know Riley very well, the Mer seemed nice, if a little cocky, and the idea of her perishing in such a painful and lonely way made her gut clench, especially since it seemed like such a silly reason; a fight like that. “Maybe it was naïve, but I kind of always thought the Mer as a society would be a lot more peaceful. That they’d be a lot like Luna,” Katie admitted.

Sophie stalled the wheelchair out front of the elevator doors and mashed a finger against the call button. Katie glanced up at her mother’s pursed lips, twitched into a slight frown. “Obviously there are dangers out in the ocean; plenty of them, but I don’t think I ever really suspected Riley to be at risk among her own kind.”

“My kind now too, I guess,” Katie added. Her tail was growing cramped beneath her and she shifted in the seat in an attempt to relieve some of the pressure. “Do you think she’ll be able to help? With Luna, I mean? Maybe Torren too?”

“I don’t know, Katie,” Sophie sighed as the doors slid open with a ding. Katie gripped the wheels of the chair and rolled herself inside before Sophie had the chance to take over again. “I hope so, I really do; I don’t think Luna will truly begin to feel at ease here, she should be back with her family, but it’s such a vast ocean and Riley seems to be a little worldly, but even she can’t know everyone in their world.”

Katie chewed her lip and nodded. The logic was sound and she did not really know what she expected Sophie to say. Of course they had the potential to get lucky, but it was even likelier they wouldn’t, and it now seemed that simply traipsing the ocean from pod to pod would not be a doable task. Neither she or Luna had any real skills hunting or defending themselves, or any idea how to navigate the waters.

“Have you thought about what you want to do?” Sophie broke the silence that had fallen as the elevator rose. “If Riley does happen to find Luna’s pod, she’s going to want to go back…are you going to go with her?” Katie winced at the sharp strangle in Sophie’s voice. None of this had been easy, and they’d been skirting around the fact that Katie’s human life really was over and it made the most sense for her to integrate into a pod if she could. She didn’t like to dwell on it, but she didn’t like the idea of being separated from Luna either. There didn’t seem to be an option that didn’t involve splitting from one of the people who meant the world to her, possibly permanently.

“I’m not sure what I want yet,” she said after a long, drawn out hesitation. “I want the nightmares to stop, I want to feel like I can breathe safely again, but when it comes to the long term future…” she trailed off and knotted her fingers in her scalp, tugging on the hairs there and pulling strands free of the braid she’d just redone. “Everything is so screwed up now.”

Sophie paused outside the apartment door and fumbled in her pocket for her keys. Katie just stared at the closed door, not even remembering getting off the elevator. Once the door was unlocked and they were safely inside, Sophie pulled a chair out from the table and spun it so she could sit closer to eye level. Katie couldn’t help but search her face. Sophie always seemed to have an answer, or at least something reassuring to say until they found one, and she couldn’t help but desperately depend on that now.

As if sensing that desire now, Sophie shook her head and Katie’s hopes plummeted. “I can’t make that choice for you, Kate, you know that. But I support whatever you choose; it has to be what’s best for you now. I think we both know there’s not a lot to offer you here in the way of a stable life anymore.” Sophie bit her lip rather obviously and Katie knew she was fighting back a tempest of emotions; after all, Katie was doing the same thing.

“I don’t want to leave you,” Katie whispered. “I just got home. But I can’t hide in the apartment forever either; I’ll always feel a little trapped, like there’s no way to escape. They’d find me eventually.”

Katie shifted her tail so she could stretch out the muscles, frowning when she heard a few scales clatter to the wood floor beneath her. She was shedding quite a few scales lately and was beginning to wonder if it was a growth thing or something she should be concerned about. Perhaps the stress was affecting her. Ignoring them for now, she leaned forward, feeling like the weight of everything was crushing her. Sophie’s arms were around her instantly, supporting her and twisting the wheelchair so she could lay out on her lap. Katie sighed and didn’t protest, just pressed her forehead against Sophie’s knee.

Sophie tugged the elastic free of her hair, which had begun growing back out, was just past her shoulders, and began to stroke the locks. It was soothing, and Katie’s breath whistled from her nose as she tried to simply release all the tension that had built up. Maybe for a few minutes, she could just ignore everything that was going on, that they were faced with.

“Perhaps,” Sophie began, her voice an echo like it always was when she mulled her thoughts. “Perhaps it’s time I considered hiring a manager here. The paperwork is getting to be a lot, but I never saw the point when we lived on site, but I reckon it might be time to consider a move.”

“You want to move?” Katie repeated, frowning. The line of thought seemed a little out of the blue.

“Yes,” Sophie responded. “I think it’s time. I’ve always liked the idea of a nice little house on the coast. Somewhere private, away from the city and hustle and bustle. Maybe with a dock, easy access to the water, something to make it easier for you to come and go.” The implications of Sophie’s statement hit Katie like a truck and she wiggled a little to peer up at the mother figure in her life.

“You would do that?” she murmured. “Uproot your life here like that? What about Lewis?”

Sophie began to chuckle softly and she shook her head. “Katie, I would do anything for you, when are you going to realize that? And I hardly doubt Lewis is going to mind much. He understands the position we’re in. I’m not saying we move out of country or anything, maybe just an hour out of town. There’s a lot of beachfront in the area for sale right now and I think we’d all feel a little bit safer, all things considered, away from so many people.”

“That does sound nice,” Katie agreed reluctantly. She didn’t want Sophie to have to uproot everything for her like that, but the idea of a beach house, something easier to get around in without elevators and crowded halls, right on the water to swim or make an easy getaway if necessary sounded like a little slice of heaven about now.

“What sounds nice?” Luna’s voice was soft, but startled the both of them. The younger Mer had leaned around the corner, a wide yawn splitting her jaws as she rubbed sleep from her eyes. Her hair was frizzing up and she did not seem to have fully woken yet, which brought a smile to Katie’s face. Luna tended to snap awake on a dime, when she was like this it meant that she had gotten a proper nap in.

“A new home,” Katie responded, glancing up at Sophie for confirmation.

Her mother nodded and smiled. “I’ll start looking this afternoon.”

Luna, for her part, merely cocked her head, brows furrowed as she grasped at the straws of a missed conversation. It made Katie laugh.