Hannah sat back in her chair and watched as Paisley twisted herself in agitated circles within the small tank. Just a few minutes ago, she and Andrew had latched a lid onto the glass box and hooked up a large black hose to the port on the side of the container. It was currently sucking the water out of the tank and the lower the level got, the more Paisley seemed to fuss.

She knew the mermaid wouldn’t be happy about being stranded out of the water at the bottom of the box, but it would be much easier to move the tank without the water. It may also encourage Paisley to behave herself when the transfer came; as she seemed to want to be in the water above all else.

But the scientist was concerned about Paisley’s back. The large lump was nestled between her shoulder blades and was cherry red and inflamed. It seemed to be getting larger and was now nearly the size of a golf ball. Paisley kept contorting herself to scratch at it or rub it along the glass walls and floor of her cage. Hannah wasn’t sure if she should treat it like a teething stage, where perhaps Paisley was developing some sort of extra fin or spine or patch of scales, or as a bed sore or other rash that needed to be medicated and tended to. Thea had some elaborate displays other than her tailfins, it was possible Paisley was developing some too, although her back seemed like a strange place unless she was growing a dorsal fin, which seemed unlikely with the rest of her features. She decided to take another look once the water level dropped more.

And it was draining rapidly. It was now shallow enough that Paisley’s belly was flat against the floor and her head had been forced above the water. Hannah watched the mermaid snort water from her nose and shake her head. Her body shuddered and she made a soft huffing sound. Watching closely, Hannah saw rivets of water streaming from her neck. The droplets splattered noisily into the shallow puddle that remained in the tank. After a moment, Paisley’s chest expanded, and Hannah was left staring in awe. Despite having seen it several times before, it always amazed her how easily and fluidly these creatures could switch from breathing air to liquid and back again.

"Want me to move her down the hall?" Andrew offered.

Hannah shook her head. "Not just yet. Now that you're here and I'll have help, I'd like to get a proper look at the sore on her back. She's been very fussy about letting me near it though."

"I can hold her for you," Andrew agreed.

"Put some shucking gloves on first," Hannah instructed. "I'll feel better knowing there's a buffer between her and your hands."

Andrew shrugged as though he wasn't overly concerned either way, but he complied and shuffled over to the desk to pull a pair of oyster shucking gloves out. Hannah nodded as he pulled the tight chain mail onto his hands.

Paisley was eyeing him as he approached her again. Her attention remained glued on him and her lips pulled back as he crouched beside the tank. Paisley hissed and her fin raised behind her. The main membrane stretched and the little top sail flared as her hiss dropped into growl.

"She's more like a lizard puffing up than a fish," Andrew laughed. He held one hand in front of her face and she fixated on it instantly. It gave him the opportunity to grab her by the back of the neck.

Though Paisley howled with surprise and began to buck, Andrew proved himself faster and stronger as he pinned her to the floor of the tank. The mermaid continued to protest, squirming and hissing. She forced Andrew to jerk back slightly as she slashed at his face. It didn't seem she would have been able to do much damage as Hannah had already trimmed her nails short. It was interesting to observe the alternate defensive methods the mermaid seemed to instinctually implement now that she could not twist to wrap her jaws around Andrew's arm.

Hannah pulled over her small trolley of supplies and knelt beside them. Paisley hissed again. Hannah grabbed a brown glass bottle and a cotton ball, which she soaked in the medication. Carefully, she dabbed the topical antiseptic over the lump on Paisley's spine.

The mermaid's protests had faded to whines as Hannah worked, but she paid the creature no mind as she dumped the cotton wad and busied herself with closing up the medical bottle and gathering a few additional supplies as she gave the numbing agent time to take effect. As she picked up a small scalpel, Paisley must have seen the little knife because she spooked and her cries rose to a deafening caterwauling.

Andrew grunted as he grappled with the panicked beast. He shifted his weight and stepped into the tank. He knelt on the mermaid's tail to pin the thrashing limb with his knees while keeping a hand on the back of her head. His free hand stroked the small of her back. "Easy now, Paisley; it's alright. We don't want to hurt you. Dr. Manson just wants to make you feel better, yeah?"

Hannah hummed her approval of his soothing tone as she came closer once more. Paisley was effectively immobilized, and she was quivering. Her eyes squeezed shut and her fingers curled into clenched fists, and the motions made Hannah pause. Watching Paisley, the woman genuinely could not tell if she was staring at a frightened animal or a girl who would have had an excellent chance at an acting career had fate allowed her to pursue it.

Another whine from her reluctant patient shook Hannah from her thoughts. Regardless of the answer, leaving the mermaid in this terrified state was unnecessarily cruel and she had a job to do; she could look more extensively into the creature's mental state later.

Wielding the scalpel with clinical efficiency, Hannah cut a shallow slit through the lump. It began to bleed, but not heavily like a blister might have, and there was no sign of pus either. Setting the scalpel aside, Hannah used a thin pair of tweezers to peel back the cut flap of skin. Paisley whimpered and shuddered beneath her touch. "Good girl," Hannah assured her. The flesh beneath was pink and healthy, if slightly irritated. The source of the bump seemed to be the cone shaped piece of cartilage sprouting up from deeper into Paisley's meat than Hannah had cut. It was about as thick as Hannah's thumb and half as long, and tapered at the tip. "She is growing something else," Hannah reported. It seemed a strange place to grow a single spine, but Hannah merely made a mental note to keep an eye on its progress.

She grabbed a tube of paste that should help with the irritation and swelling, and began to smear it into Paisley's skin. Since the flap of flesh was still sliced, she then smoothed a waterproof patch over it to keep the salve in place. Hopefully Paisley wouldn't pick at it too much.

Since the topical anesthetic wouldn't last long, Hannah finished up by injecting Paisley with a stronger dose of painkillers and then backed off.

Andrew carefully stood up off the mermaid, remaining bent to keep his hands pressing on her as he stepped out of the tank. He then lurched away out of range in case Paisley tried to retaliate. It was unnecessary because she didn't. The adolescent mermaid simply curled herself into a protective coil and watched them with a weary, betrayed gaze.

Hannah clucked her tongue. "I know, you've been so tolerant - better than I could have expected - and I don't even have a treat for you." She walked around the tank to the handle jutting out from the back of it. "Can you get the doors please, Andrew?"

The wheels on the bottom of the tank squealed with protest as Hannah shoved the tank into motion. A sharp grating sound rose from the tank as Paisley’s scales slid over the glass, and the mermaid herself made a noise Hannah could only relate to the bark of a seal as she was jostled. Paisley threw her arms out to the sides to brace herself, and her wide brown eyes darted around with confusion.

Hannah chuckled softly and reached a hand in to pat the mermaid on the head. “It’s alright, Paisley. Settle down,” she cooed softly. The mermaid seemed content to allow her the contact for a few seconds before she then ducked down out of reach and Hannah chose to respect the actions. It would take time to build proper trust with the creature, but she was impressed at the lack of wild aggression they saw in Thea. Paisley seemed more frightened than aggressive, and other than showing her teeth and hissing, she had made to move no lunge or snap at them. It had taken Thea seconds to do both. Hannah winced as she remembered the torn, jagged flaps of flesh and muscle that had been the remains of the arm of the unfortunate worker whom she’d gotten her jaws around the first day they had her. They’d needed to herd her into a holding tank by jabbing her with wooden poles in a tight circle so she couldn’t go anywhere but where they’d wanted. At the time, they weren’t sure if mermaids could be sedated, so it made the process very tedious.

Hannah sighed. Thea had been here almost three years now, but despite the length of time, she hadn’t calmed down any and still reacted violently whenever she tried to get near. She didn’t like Hannah, though the scientist supposed she wasn’t surprised, given how many tests she’d done personally on the heavily restrained mermaid. She’d been the one to dart the wild thing with the tranq gun on more than one occasion. Thea was not easy to hit after the first few times when she’d realized they could hit her without moving. Whenever she saw the gun, she was anything but a stationary target. Thea had given Hannah a lot of shooting practice over the years.

The woman sighed softly. She certainly hoped that she could introduce the two mermaids effectively, and that Thea’s hostile nature would not result in violence between the two. She knew Paisley would have no hope of winning that fight, and it would come down to separating them before Thea killed her. But hopefully it wouldn’t be necessary. Thea was likely a very social animal, and Hannah suspected her isolation played a role in her continued aggression. With a little luck, Paisley would help her feel less lonely and insecure, and they would both settle down and adjust to human interaction. She couldn’t build trust with Thea when she couldn’t get close to the mermaid without sedating her or restraining her. It had been all stick and no carrot with the creature, and it was allowing a rather rotten relationship to fester.

Hannah glanced down at the mermaid in the empty tank she was still pushing. Paisley had relaxed from her tightly coiled position and had now pulled herself up so her chin was resting on her hands curled over the rim of the tank. Her tail was scooted up under her - much like a child sitting on their knees - and she was gazing around the halls with a quizzical expression on her face.

There wasn’t really much to look at in the basement lab, though the floors were clean and brightly tiled, and the concrete walls had been painted a soft green to brighten it away from the dreary natural slate of stone, and it was well lit and decently heated for being three levels underground. Though after spending almost a month down here, Hannah had to admit she missed sunlight, and windows for that matter. But it was likely all new to the lab-grown creature in the tank - Hannah still couldn’t decide if she was looking at a blank, newly conscious animal experiencing things for the first time, or a girl with impressive acting skills, but she decided to have faith in the former - and it was holding her attention, so there was no harm in letting her look about.

Andrew stayed a few steps ahead, pausing to hold open any doors for Hannah. She appreciated that he held open even swinging doors, because she didn’t want to spook Paisley by using the tank as a battering ram.

As they walked, the formerly silent halls began to develop an eerie echo. The further they progressed, the louder it got. Paisley shuffled her body within the tank, and Hannah thought she might have heard the mermaid whimper softly as she lowered herself back into a coil.

“It’s okay,” Hannah assured her in a hushed tone, although she wasn’t so certain. The cacophony of hissing, growls, and wails were growing louder with every step forward.

Andrew whistled sharply through his teeth and Hannah frowned as she watched Paisley spook at the noise. The new mermaid hissed quietly. “Sounds like Thea is really in a mood today,” he stated.

Hannah sighed and had to nod her agreement. “A worse mood than usual.”

“Think it’s still a safe idea to introduce Paisley to her? Perhaps we should wait.”

“I don’t think there’s ever going to be a perfectly safe time for it,” Hannah refused. “Thea is never in a good or calm mood, especially not with people around. We’ll just have to take precautions.”

Andrew hummed his acknowledgment and then opened the final door separating them from the room Thea was in. Instantly, the furious sounds grew deafening, and Paisley curled up in a defensive ball. She looked positively spooked.

“It’s okay, Paisley,” Hannah murmured. She glanced up from the frightened mermaid and took in the situation before her. A small holding pool had been set up and filled halfway with water. It was roughly the size of the average above ground swimming pool, with a platform on either side to make getting at the mermaids easier, and the walls were made of clear plastic. Hannah frowned. She didn’t like having Thea in a container that the mermaid could bite or rip, because she was so hostile that she would probably try, but she also wasn’t currently in a position to question her employer’s decision.

When she glanced up towards the source of all the racket, Hannah’s frown deepened. They had Thea suspended in the air in an opaque, thick sling hanging from two cables. It looked sturdy enough, but Thea was thrashing wildly within and from the viciousness and frequency of her howls, she was furious and rightly so. “Andrew, get Paisley into the water if you can. She seems a little spooked, so be careful. I’m going to go sort this out,” Hannah instructed without looking back as she began marching over to Mr. Winston.

He turned as she approached and offered her a smile and a wave, both of which faltered as he seemed to register her fury.

“What are you doing?!” she demanded as she reached him. She gestured wildly at Thea. “Why is she in the sling like that?”

Mr. Winston held up his hands. “Relax, Dr. Manson. It’s all under control. This way, Thea could be safely contained until you got here and were set up. I didn’t want to simply put her in the water and allow her time to mark this tank as her territory and grow comfortable before the Paisley was here. Wasn’t that the point of moving Thea from her tank in the first place? So that they’re both in neutral waters without a claim to territory? To help them bond or something?”

“Yes,” Hannah agreed as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “But it’s not going to make a difference if you piss her off like this! Do you hear her, Sir? She’s furious and likely to behave far more aggressively to Paisley, who is currently cowering from the noise. That’s not neutral ground, that’s going to get Paisley attacked.”

Mr. Winston’s smile faltered and he gazed up at the sling with a new understanding on his face. He rubbed the back of his neck. “How do we fix it?” he asked finally.

Hannah took a deep breath and released it with an exasperated snort. “At this point? Sedate them both, get a temporary divider into the pool, and let them wake on opposite sides. We have to hope the disorientation will snuff Thea’s temper and they’ll be more receptive of one another’s presence. But you have to get her down from there. She and Paisley can’t interact like this.”

Hannah turned away to see Andrew pushing Paisley’s tail into the water. She sighed. He’d only done as she’d asked him too, but now they’d have to retrieve the mermaid to sedate her. That or dart her from above, which Hannah didn’t want to do. She didn’t want to sedate her at all, it wouldn’t be good for trust right now.

She began to walk back when a sharp ripping sound cut through her frustrated thoughts. She turned and glanced back up in horror as the sling ripped open from the bottom and Thea squirmed through to drop into the water. Hannah wasn’t sure how she had managed to rip it open like that, but the mermaid had clearly had enough of the confines and found her own way out. And now she was plunging down into the same water Paisley was in, with no barrier to separate them.

Hannah’s heart caught in her chest and she took off racing around the tank for a better look, waving and calling for Andrew to get a catch pole or anything else to separate them as she ran.

By time she made it around, Thea had already reached Paisley and was staring her down. The blonde mermaid was hovering in the water in front of Paisley, who had crouched lower and curled up with her fin raised. It seemed to be the threatened defense display that came most natural. Paisley was shifting her weight and quite obviously cowering. Hannah watched Thea’s eyes narrow and she lashed her long, light brown tail. The large wing-like fins at her sides were flared and flapping and her lips were warped into a snarl.

It looked like she was going to lunge, so Hannah slammed a palm against the wall of the pool and startled them both with the noise. “Thea, no!” she scolded despite knowing the mermaid wouldn’t understand or care regardless. She did know that Thea hated her a lot more than she did the mermaid she’d just met, so it earned the reaction she wanted.

Thea turned away from Paisley to snarl at Hannah instead, with her icy blue eyes narrowed and long fangs bared. Her bright turquoise and magenta fins stirred the water and she mock lunged at the wall. Hannah stood her ground, and after a moment, instead of backing down or initiating further conflict, Thea refocused on Paisley, who had darted back a slight ways. It was obvious the purple mermaid was looking for some escape from the other. This was not going how Hannah had hoped.

Then, to her surprise, instead of attacking, Thea cocked her head and her large hip fins folded shut against her tail. A few seconds later, a shrill whistling began to echo from the tank. These were not the aggressive calls Hannah normally heard, and they sounded almost inquisitive. There was a pause and Thea fell silent as if waiting for a response, but Paisley merely tried to scoot further away from her.

Again, more calls rose up from the water. This time, instead of sounding rather dolphin like, it was low and long, and reminded Hannah of whalesong.

Again, Thea’s calls were met with silence, and again the mermaid tilted her head and drifted closer to Paisley. She made some more vocalizations…had she just barked like a sea lion? Hannah had never seen this sort of behavior from Thea before, and her inner scientist itched to record and theorize.

Andrew reached her with two catch poles a second later. “They look like they’re studying one another,” he observed.

Hannah nodded, but she was barely paying attention. He was right, Thea did seem to be examining Paisley, and suddenly the various sounds and silences made sense. “They have a language,” she realized.

“Pardon?” Andrew asked.

“A language. They communicate. Maybe not on the same level as we do, but they do actively communicate. Listen, Thea’s trying different calls, she’s testing what language Paisley speaks!” Hannah felt positively giddy as she announced it.

“But that’s…multiple languages and the awareness to speak more than one? That’s a higher brain capacity than we’ve ever observed in a marine species. They can be smart, and they both seem self aware, but do you really think that…”

“Yes,” Hannah announced when Andrew trailed off. “I do. Oh, I want to get a scan of Thea’s brain very badly. I’ve always considered it, but she’s just too aggressive to scan without sedating her, and I can’t see the active neurons firing when she’s drugged.”

“But then how come Paisley isn’t responding?”

Hannah winced. Thea sounded like she was becoming frustrated, and had returned to the first dolphin-like whistling she had been making when she first interacted with Paisley. Hannah hoped the lack of response wouldn’t spur a fight. “Because Paisley doesn’t know the language…how could she? Language isn’t passed genetically, it’s learned. Paisley is the equivalent of an infant…this could be bad,” Hannah admitted. “Maybe we’d best separate them for now.”

Just as she was about to climb the platform to go for Thea, Hannah pulled up in surprise. There was a new, more hesitant voice in the water. Paisley had just whistled back.