Lewis tested the zip ties once again, though he only really succeeded in digging the plastic painfully into his wrists. A group of scientists had filtered silently into the room. They had the full, dramatic garb of long lab coats, rubber gloves and heavy boots, and medical masks stretched across their mouths and noses to reveal nothing but stoic gazes.

One man busied himself with spreading a large towel out on the floor perpendicular to Luna’s tank, while another fussed with dragging a trolley of supplies into the room and sorting them out.

If the Mer had been uneasy before, this had made everything worse. Luna had wedged herself back into a tight ball in the corner and had her eyes squeezed closed as if she were trying to wish away a nightmare. Rebecca was hovering in the water with narrowed eyes as she stared at the newcomers, and Ixion was equally transfixed with his fangs bared in warning. Nero’s agitation was clear by his constant circling of his tiny enclosure, and Karina hadn’t moved one way or the other, but her soft brown eyes were wide and her posture was bowed low.

Lewis strained in his seat for a better look at the equipment they’d brought in. The most noticeable piece was a portable ultrasound machine, and his heart squeezed as he knew immediately which of the Mer they had come for.

Confirming his suspicions, the one female scientist of the group walked up to where Karina and Nero’s tanks were stacked. Each of the containers had been padlocked shut, and she inserted a key into the top one and pried the lid open. It swung on squeaky hinges to hang open at an obtuse angle.

As soon as she began reaching into the tank, Karina was spurred into motion, and the pregnant Mer attempted to dart past the reaching hands to the far corner of her tank. The scientist’s fingers caught in her free-flowing blonde hair and fisted in the tresses as she yanked Karina’s head back. The room exploded with the rebounding cacophony of Karina’s terrified whistling.

The immediate following reaction was from Nero, who burst into action with a snarl warping his features as he began to slam his full body weight against the side of his tank in an effort to get to her. It stirred a response from Ixion and Rebecca, who also began to strike at the walls of their tanks. Luna had a much more timid response, but her palms were pressed flat to the glass and her fin was lashing back and forth.

None of the scientists seemed fazed by the response, however, as they all continued working.

What Lewis found most surprising was that Karina – though incredibly stressed – didn’t display any hostile behavior. Her tail had thrashed once with surprise, and she’d brought her hands up to try to free herself from the other woman’s grasp, but she wasn’t lunging or attempting to bite.

Regardless, the scientists were treating her as if she were snarling. The woman pulled Karina’s head back further by her hair, while one of her colleagues reached in with a thick face mask. Karina’s head jerked with surprise, but even still she didn’t go for the exposed hand before the mask was pulled over her mouth and secured around her head. Her panicked calls were significantly more muffled now, but still audible as they manhandled her. The woman looped her free hand around Karina’s chest while the other grabbed her tail and together, they hoisted her out of the water, showering the floor with droplets.

She was dropped down onto the towel and one of the scientists immediately sat down to pin her tail beneath his weight.

Karina’s eyes were wide and half-rolled into her head as they forced her to lay sprawled on her back.

“Stop it!” Lewis called as he leaned forward in his seat. “Can’t you see that she’s not aggressive? You’re just stressing her out needlessly.”

His words went ignored as a collar of orange leather was threaded around Karina’s neck and tightened. Lewis was certain from what Katie and Luna had recounted that – despite looking different – this was just as likely a shock collar. He pursed his lips and silently prayed they wouldn’t use it. They could kill the baby if they did. Surely, they weren’t that stupid.

Karina was thrashing weakly and whimpering desperately as they worked. She was quivering and her gaze was fixed on Nero who was still losing his mind within his tank.

“Leave her alone,” Sophie begged beside him. “She’s pregnant, you idiots!”

It didn’t seem like the scientists were interested in either of them, however, as there wasn’t so much as a glance or a grunt of acknowledgement their way.

Lewis chewed his lip and decided to try once more. “You know that stress will cause a lot of creatures to terminate their pregnancies, right? Just because she’s in the late stages doesn’t mean she can’t miscarry. I thought you would want the baby.”

Finally, he got a glare from the female scientist. “Of course we want the baby. But we need to do a physical on the mother to ensure her health.”

“Well this isn’t healthy for her,” Lewis countered. He pulled against the restraints on his wrists once more. “At least let me do it, she knows me better.”

Another one of the scientists quirked a brow and scoffed.

“I’m a doctor too,” Lewis reminded with a growl. “What, do you think it’s an escape ploy? What do you expect; that I’m going to incapacitate four of you by myself and then Sophie and I are going to carry five Mer out of here completely undetected? Don’t be daft.”

For a moment, none of them responded and the room was silent save Karina’s desperate whimpers and Nero’s continued assault on the glass.

“Do you care about the well-being of the mother and fetus or not?” Lewis pressed again.

Finally, the one man sighed and made a gesture with his hand. With a roll of her eyes, the female scientist stood and made her way over. “Don’t try anything,” she hissed as she cut the ties holding his wrists, and then those on his legs.

As Lewis stood, he caught Sophie’s grim, worried expression and offered her a reassuring nod. He wished there was more he could say to the woman he loved, but now was not a good time. Her gaze softened and she nodded back, and he was glad at least that she knew.

Not wanting to waste anymore time, he hurried over to the group and shooed away the scientist still sitting on Karina. He half shoved them out of the way in order to kneel down beside her. Her eyes were still wide and terrified, so Lewis kept his voice soft. She didn’t know him all that well yet, but he hoped she at least knew he had no desire to hurt her.

“It’s okay,” he said in hopes of reassuring her. He gently lifted her head and unbuckled the leather mask, pulling it away from her face. She trilled fearfully and he took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Just relax,” he urged her. “It’ll be alright.”

“We don’t have time for you to talk to fish,” the female scientist reminded with an impatient tap of her foot. “You want to do it, fine, but hurry up about it!” She reached out and practically jabbed a thermometer near his face.

Lewis rolled his eyes and accepted it wordlessly. There was no point in letting her get a rise out of him. He turned back to Karina, who was still warbling softly and staring at the instrument in his grasp with layers of fear and confusion clouding her eyes. “Open your mouth,” Lewis requested. “This is just going to go under your tongue, okay? Hold it there.” Karina complied, though he wasn’t sure if it was because she wanted to or because she felt she had no choice, but her grip on Lewis’ hand tightened and he offered her a small smile in return. Her chest was still heaving, but she seemed to be calming down at least a little and Lewis decided to take that as a good sign.

After a few minutes, he pulled the thermometer out of her mouth and offered it to one of the other scientists. He wasn’t concerned about recording the results, they could do that themselves. “Anything else?” he demanded.

“Bloodwork,” the female scientist insisted as she offered him the needle, two vials, and a tourniquet. Lewis sighed and nodded. Karina definitely wasn’t going to like this.

He glanced down at her worried face, which was fixated on the needle in his hands. “Sit up,” he urged her as he put the supplies aside and helped prop her up against Luna’s tank. The young Mer was staring at him from within the tank with a worried look. Her lips moved and Karina turned to look at her, but Lewis had no idea what might have been said.

He took Karina’s arm and wrapped the rubber strap around it before twisting so that her hand was palm up. “It’s going to sting,” he warned her. “You should look away.”

She was quick to follow his advice, and Lewis pressed a thumb into the crook of her elbow to help exaggerate the vein. He didn’t want to have to prick her more than once.

Karina’s fingers were curled into fists, and she whimpered and tensed further when he pushed the needle beneath her skin, but was otherwise a model patient as he finished pulling blood.

He stared the scientists down as he passed back the vials of blood. “Someone should consider going and fetching some food from the kitchens. They all need to eat, but she’s going to need the extra calories and nutrition especially.”

It made his blood boil at the confused looks that crossed many of their faces. Feeding the Mer clearly hadn’t occurred to them. “We just took blood,” he reminded. “She’ll need to keep her strength up.”

Two of the scientists filtered back out the door and Lewis sighed with relief. “Anything else?” he inquired.

“Just the ultrasound,” the male scientist replied.

Lewis nodded. That wouldn’t be so bad. The two scientists set about getting the machine and the screen set up and ready. While they were doing that, Lewis carefully guided Karina back down into a prone position. There was a concerned question sparkling in her gaze, and her hands had settled protectively over her belly.

“It won’t hurt,” Lewis promised her. “You might even like this, but you have to move your hands.” Karina whined and resisted him as he tried to peel her hands away from her belly. “Karina, I promise I don’t want to hurt the baby, okay? You have to trust me.”

Though she seemed incredibly hesitant and kept her gaze trained on him the entire time, Karina remained limp as he pulled her hands away and placed them at her sides. She was staring at him with a fragile hope that he knew he had to protect no matter what. There were two screens on the ultrasound stand, so Lewis rose and carefully tilted the one so that Karina would be able to see it.

By the time he’d settled back down beside her, he’d had a tube of gel and the ultrasound wand shoved into his hands. He uncapped the gel and held it out over Karina’s swollen belly. “It’s going to be a little cold,” he warned her before squeezing.

He watched her flinch as the drizzle of bluish goo hit her skin, but at least she didn’t appear to be panicking.

She murmured again in a language he couldn’t understand when he raised the wand, however. Lewis shook his head. “It’s alright,” he promised her as he pressed it to her stomach and carefully swirled it around. Karina had clenched her eyes shut as soon as he touched her, but the screens both flared to life.

It was an amazing sight to behold, Lewis thought as he gazed at the one screen. The infant Mer was curled up within her belly. It was smaller than he’d expected, given the size of her stomach, but it didn’t seem unhealthy.

He gently moved the wand around, getting a proper look at the flexible curve of a slender, stubby tail. The fin on the end was hard to see on the ultrasound, but he could just about trace the outlines. It looked like the baby had the same delicate, dual fins of its mother, though it was hard to tell just yet how many other similarities there were.

He guided the wand further up, and found the heartbeat. It was fast, but consistent, pulsing in the womb and thankfully seeming none too affected by the stress the mother was under. Judging by the size and completeness of the development, Lewis guessed it would be only a few weeks at most, if only days before the pregnant Mer went into labor.

“Karina. Honey, look,” he prompted. The young woman still had her eyes squeezed shut, but at his encouragement, she peeked them open again and followed his gesture. “That’s your baby.”

Instantly, Karina’s gaze softened and though her eyes were still wide, it was no longer with fear, but wonder that she gazed at the screen. She warbled something new and reached out with a hand towards the screen she couldn’t quite reach. Lewis carefully pulled the wand down lower until he found the infant’s head. It was nestled in the crook of its tail, with tiny fisted hands floating near its ears. Karina crooned again.

“What’s the sex?” one of the remaining scientists demanded.

Lewis scowled at the interruption of the touching moment and shrugged. “I don’t think we’ll know until the baby is born,” he replied. In all honesty, he had no idea how to identify the baby’s gender. He hadn’t seen any Mer children or toddlers before to know what they looked like, and there weren’t too many noticeable differences between the males and females he had met, aside from a lack of significant scales on their chests. From the look of the ultrasound, the baby didn’t have any scales yet. It looked too tiny to be born soon, but Lewis didn’t particularly have a good frame of reference to know if he should be concerned. Rebecca had mentioned that Karina was in her final stages, and that Mer typically gave birth when the translucent ‘maternity’ fins had fully matured. They certainly looked fully formed on Karina’s sides, and had even started to darken to the deep pinky-gray Rebecca had described.

Lewis stood for a moment and twisted the one screen again so that Nero would be able to see as well. The male Mer was still systematically crashing his body against the tank, but he paused when Lewis called his name. “Meet your baby, bud,” he encouraged.

Nero seemed transfixed, and Karina was chirruping something at him. She seemed like she had almost forgotten the scientists were even there. Lewis took a few more moments to let them bask in the discovery before he pulled the wand away and switched the machine off. Then he took a wipe and began cleaning the gel off Karina’s skin.

“Perhaps a genetic sample is necessary to determine the sex of the offspring,” the female scientist suggested to her comrade.

Lewis shook his head and his frustration surged. There was no patience with these fools. “That would be a very bad idea,” he warned them.

“How so?”

“You saw how the baby was coiled. If you try to get a needle through her womb, you’ll not only hurt her, but even with precision aim you’d be liable to stab something vital. She doesn’t look that far off from giving birth, just wait it out.”

The look of horror had returned to Karina’s face, and her arms came up to hug her belly tightly as if to protect it. Lewis patted her arm reassuringly. If there was anything he could do to stop it, he would. She stared up at him with tears in her eyes, but nodded. She seemed to understand that, even though he hadn’t spoken.

“Perhaps waiting is for the best,” the male scientist agreed. “We should return the creature to her tank now.”

Before either of them could react or make good on the decision, the doors opened once more, but only one of the two scientists that had departed returned. He was carrying a single bucket, which certainly didn’t look like enough to feed all five Mer. Lewis frowned. Still, he knew he’d rather get Karina back into the water himself than to allow them to grab at her again. “Put your arms around my neck,” he requested.

He waited patiently as she sat up and leaned forward in order to lace her fingers together behind his neck. He wrapped one arm around her back, and the other under her tail, and scooped her up just as he had the last time. Karina seemed a bit more comfortable in his arms this time, and he walked slowly to avoid jostling her belly before lowering her back down into the water.

“Thank you,” she whispered so softly in his ear that he barely heard her. Not wanting to alert the other scientists, Lewis simply grunted his acknowledgement.

Once she was back in the water, the scientist holding the bucket stepped forward and upended its contents into the tank. Karina shied away to avoid being pelted with the cutlets of fish that sunk through the water around her. She eyed them warily and Lewis gently tapped on the glass and nodded. “There’s no sense in poisoning you, and you need the strength; go ahead and eat.” He waited until he watched her grab a piece of fish before he turned towards the group of Lemuria scientists. “What about the others?” he demanded.

The one scientist – who seemed to be something of a ringleader – waved his hand in annoyance. “You’re right about the pregnant one but feeding them is a handler’s job. Besides, we’d have to drain and move the tanks to get at some of them.”

“So you’re just going to let them starve?”

The female scientist scoffed. “They’ll be fine for a few days. We’ll probably be shipping out soon, and the little blue one has been statistically recorded going up to two weeks without any form of sustenance before her body gave out. They’re all older than she was at that time, and we won’t be here that long; they’ll be just fine. If anything, it will be good for calming some of them down,” she stated with a blatant nod towards Nero, who responded by baring his fangs at her.

“Enough,” the lead scientist decided. He jabbed a finger at Lewis. “You did your part, now go sit down.”

Lewis opened his mouth to argue but ultimately decided against it. It would get him nowhere, and he might need to convince them to let him free again if they decided to run more ‘tests’ on the Mer. He’d rather be the one to perform them and know that it was done as gently and humanely as possible, given Lemuria didn’t seem to care.

Just as he was trudging back to his seat, the door swung open again, and the black-haired woman who’d held Sophie at gunpoint earlier entered. “Stop,” she called. “Don’t bother sitting down, Mr. Patter.”

Lewis glanced at her and frowned. Judging by the grin on her face, she was being rude on purpose, but it was her treatment of Sophie only hours ago that truly made him loathe her.

Her grin only widened. “You’ll have to come with me. Dr. Auldon wants you.”