My mind just couldn't relax enough to let me sleep for more than an hour or so, and when I awoke, I felt pretty much like crap. Forcing my body to sit up, I rubbed at my eyes and glanced sideways at the alarm clock on my old wooden nightstand. It was flashing one o'clock.
Oh... right. Never reset it after the power flickered the other day.
Groaning, I leaned over and pressed the reset button on it before sliding out of bed. My right eye was throbbing, and the bite on my arm wasn't feeling the best, either, but I would just deal with it. Scientists got injured in the field all the time, whether it be by rabid mermen or pissed off roommates. It's a dangerous, dangerous profession. Since I wasn't going back to sleep anytime soon, I stifled a yawn and trudged outside after a quick stop in the bathroom and kitchen. Jayson, of course, had his trusty clipboard out, and from the looks of it, he had been doing quite a bit of observing. Giving a sleepy smile, I tapped the cold can of root beer I'd gotten from the fridge against his bare shoulder, making him jump from surprise. Heh, he always got obsessively focused when he was working.
"Here."
Jay's brows rose as he took the can and popped the lid, chugging a good amount before belching loudly into his free hand. Okay, he wasn't the best with his mannerisms, but root beer burping was much better than when he actually got real beer into his system. Let's just say that I was guilty of throwing away more than a few of his beers while he was out.
"How's he doing?"
He gestured toward the water with his root beer can before taking another long drink. My attention stayed on the water, looking for the mer. There were a few ripples in the far right corner, telling me that he had likely just dove under when I came outside. It was a good thing we had our pool modified for experiments, or it would definitely be too small for the merman to move around in. As it was, Jay and I had put our money together, a good forty thousand, along with some grant cash, and had the bottom of the pool dropped an extra ten feet and the sides expanded a couple in either direction. The final measurements were somewhere around sixteen feet deep with a length of twenty feet and a width of twelve. The size alone was great, but once it was finished we worked our arses off transplanting sand and underwater plants. Everything in the pool was alive except for a few small rock formations that Jayson had wanted to bring in for his fish to be able to hide behind.
"Oh yeah, there's only one of my research fish left. I'm pretty sure it's Bubbles, and he's hiding behind the rocks on the left side."
Oops.
I suddenly felt bad about my mer eating most of his fish, but there wasn't anything I could really do about it. It's not like the mer was going to listen if I told it to stop. Hell, considering the way he was acting at the beach, I wouldn't be surprised if he would eat a human if given the chance. A disgruntled splash made me blink out of my thoughts. Err, another pool of blood began to spread along the top, and I heard a tired sigh next to me.
"Rest in peace, little Bubbles," Jayson whispered solemnly. I licked my lips and shifted my weight a little.
"Sorry... but hey, weren't you going to eat them after the experiment anyways?"
He glared over his shoulder at me, and I quickly bit my lip to keep from smirking.
"That is beyond the point. Anyways, since you're up, you better start calling around. Do you know any good doctors or vets that might be able to dart him and work in this setting? 'Cause, as cool as he is, I'm not letting him inside the house to tear it, and us, up."
I fished my phone from my pocket, having completely forgotten to even take my pants off before I passed out. Thankfully, it still had two bars of battery left. Plopping my butt down in one of the extra folding chairs we had for pool observation, I flipped open the old thing and dialed the one person I could think of who might be able to keep our mer a secret but still treat his injuries.
"Parker, it's almost eleven." A grouchy voice on the other end grumbled as he picked up the phone.
"Oh, my bad, I thought it was noon."
"What do you want, brat?"
"I'm twenty-six years old."
"Five years under me and you always call me at the worst times."
"Hmph. Put the magazine down and pull up your pants, I need your help."
"I don't bat for your team. Sorry, bud."
"Dammit, I caught something earlier today that needs medical attention immediately."
"So take it to the research center. I'd like to sleep. Unless the thing you caught has something to do with the thing between your legs... then you better go to the hospital and never tell me what it is that you've 'caught'."
"It's not that. A-And I can't."
"Why? I swear if you caught another injured dolphin, I'm gonna give you the 'don't interfere with nature' speech again."
"Um... well... it's uh... half... dolphin?"
The phone beeped, then nothing, letting me know that he'd just hung up on me.
"That sounded like it went well."
My gaze cut across to Jayson before I hit redial. Thankfully, Oliver answered again, and this time I intended not to beat around the bush.
"Oliver, man, please. Come over here and help me."
"With what? Your half-a-dolphin? I'm not interested in doing autopsies."
"It's not dead, dammit. But it will be soon if you don't get your ass over here."
Oliver was just grumbling a reply when he was silenced by a loud, bubbling hiss from the mer that was now surfaced about eight feet away from where I sat.
"What... is that sound?"
"Um, it's uh, the thing I need your help saving?"
"That doesn't sound like something you'd find in the ocean... let alone a dolphin."
"It definitely belongs in the ocean, and it's going to die if you don't get your ass over here right now."
"Fine, damn. But if this is a joke, I swear I'm going to give you a black eye."
"I've already got one, but sure, you can make the other match, now come over."
Before he could respond, I hung up and tossed my phone on the table to my left where all of the notes and testing equipment for Jayson's previously eaten experiment was.
"He sounded happy."
"Meh, it's not like I could just say what I had. If he decided to blab, it's better that he's here so I can at least tie him up or something to keep him from talking."
That made Jayson spit root beer all over the concrete, and the back of my head. I turned in my seat to yell at him, but the guy was in stitches, laughing and coughing at the same time.
"You deserve to choke on that soda."
"B-But... hahaha... y-you... Hah... aahahaha... tie someone... hahaha! Yeah... hah... right."
If the idiot wasn't right, I'd have probably smacked the back of his head. As it was, I grabbed the can and dumped the small amount of soda left right on top of his head.
"Awwww, man. Really, Park?"
The skidding of tires on grass a moment later made Jay blanch, and I smirked.
"Sweet, he's here."
Glad he lives only a few doors down.
I hopped up and ran over as a second truck, this one dark red, came to a stop right by the pool screen. Oliver jumped out in a pair of light blue scrub pants and a baggy white shirt. Haha, he'd obviously begun changing to be professional, then stopped caring. His hair was a light blond and, as always, was pulled back into a surprisingly neat small ponytail. I quickly let him in, but the second he stepped past the barrier, the mer let out another loud bubbling hiss and made Oliver stop in his tracks.
"Wh-What the... hell?"
His eyes were beginning to bug out, and his entire face paled.
"He looks like he's about to pass out..." Jay mumbled behind me.
Shit.
Grabbing the guy, I dragged him over until I could shove him into the chair I had been using, then I stood in front of him to block his view of the mer. Thankfully, that snapped him out of his shock. When he looked up at me, I shrugged and stepped aside so he could see it again.
"You... you caught a blasted merman."
The creature had its arms up over the edge of the pool, claws grasping at the porous concrete and making little scratching sounds as it slowly slid back into the water. Oliver was gripping the edge of the chair so hard that his knuckles were beginning to turn white.
"Um... Oliver, we really need you to dart him. He's got a really bad injury that's kind of an emergency."
He looked up at me, then back to the mer, then back to me.
"Are you kidding me? He needs to go to the research institute, now."
N-No."
He jumped up, but I quickly shoved him back down, doing my best to block him from being able to get up again. In fact, I dropped right into his lap just to be sure.
"They'll experiment on him there. I-I just want to help him heal, then get him back to the ocean."
"Park, seriously, man. This is like, the scientific breakthrough of the century. You have a god damned merman in the freaking swimming pool behind you."
"I know that. But come on. You see his behavior. He's completely wild, and hell, he already bit me so he's obviously not going to allow anyone near him without sedation. He would be drugged half the time and left bored in a bland pool the rest. He doesn't deserve that, and if he's here, there has to be another since he's so young. Please, Oliver, can you just sedate him and try to treat his wounds? I-I don't want him to be tortured for the rest of his life when we could help him get back to the water he belongs in."
We were both silent as we stared each other down, wanting the other to bend their will and agree to whatever the other was asking of them. Eventually he shook his head, then gave a deep, tired sigh.
"I'm extremely tired, or I would fight you harder on this. Anyways, we'll talk about it again tomorrow once I've rested, but for now, help me get my stuff out of the back."
I got off him and went out to his truck so I could grab his huge medical bag while he got the dart gun. He never had it loaded, though, just in case someone took it and tried to use it for something they shouldn't. So, when I set his bag down near the folding chairs, he fished out a few darts, eyeing them before glancing over at the mer.
"What weight would you think he was close to?"
"Uh, good question... his upper half is probably close to someone who's around one hundred forty, maybe fifty, but he's got a good amount of muscle, even though it doesn't show a whole lot on the outside. His tail is pretty darn heavy, too. That's what I struggled with when I was dragging him onto the beach, so I would guess there is close to another one hundred and fifty there."
"Heavier than I thought one would be."
"Well, he does gain legs when he's out of the water and that definitely drops his weight a bit, somehow, but I'm not gonna call dibs on pulling him out of the water awake."
"Touché," Oliver noted.
"Alright, we'll try a two hundred fifty dart first and see how he handles it. I don't want to overdose him when we have no idea what his body's reaction to the drug will be."
"Got it."
He loaded a dart with a fluffy blue end into the gun, latched it, then got to his feet.
"He's definitely not a shy one, that's for sure."
I looked over at the mer and grinned.
"No, he's actually a bit of an asshole, but I would be too if I'd had a huge shark hook in my tail fin and a bullet in my arm."
Oliver raised a brow as he lifted the gun to his shoulder so he could aim.
"Let me guess, this was the thing taking Ken's fish?"
"Yup, and he shot it."
"Bastard has good aim."
"Unfortunately for the mer."
He nodded, then lowered his gun slightly.
"I've got a shot, get ready."
I looked at him in confusion, but he simply continued, "I'm not going for a swim with a carnivorous dolphin-guy, sorry. You're pulling him out once he's unconscious."
"Hmph. Whatever, just get him darted."
Oliver grinned and slowly squeezed the trigger. The shot itself was almost silent, but the second it hit the merman, the creature screeched and splashed beneath the surface.
"Pretty sure I got it in its right shoulder."
We both waited a minute before slowly approaching the murky pool. The mer had drifted down to the bottom and seemed to be floating on the sand. Every few seconds, his tail gave a weak pump, but he looked pretty darn out of it.
"Wow, that worked a lot faster than I thought it would. He shouldn't need any more if he's already mostly out," Oliver stated.
"Okay, I'll go get him now?"
Oliver looked at the mer for another minute before nodding. I took that gesture as a 'go ahead' and tossed off my clothes, except for my boxers, and walked down the few steps into the dark water. The pool still had a light from the original version, but we never turned it on because the water was just too murky to be of any use and it often disoriented the fish.
"He's still right here on the bottom, just swim over to where I am, then dive down."
"Got it."
I slowly moved through the pool, feeling my feet nudge against tall underwater grasses and floating seaweed. When I got to Oliver, he handed down a pair of basic goggles, and I quickly tugged them on.
"Thanks."
"No problem, he hasn't moved so you should be good."
I noticed Jayson right behind him and nodded to them both before I took a deep breath and dove. Even with the goggles on, it was still really hard to see beneath the water's surface. It didn't help that it was late and the sun had long since gone down. As I swam closer, I did my best to keep my shadow from falling over him so that I didn't hinder my vision of the mer any further. I probably should have. If I had let him see my shadow cast upon him sooner, I might have had a chance to get to the surface before he reached out and snatched my left ankle in a grip that nearly broke it. The sharp pain made me gasp, consequently letting out the small amount of oxygen left in my lungs, which in turn induced an immediate panic response. Struggling was the worst thing to do when caught by a wild animal, but my brain wasn't thinking about anything but getting free and to the surface.
I could hear muffled shouts from above as I was dragged through the pool. My right cheek met the first rock formation, hard, then a moment later, I felt the second one crash into my ribs as the mer took a sharp turn and pumped its tail with powerful strokes. It took an abrupt dive after clearing the rocks and dropped us the full depth of the pool before finally releasing my numbing ankle. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough energy to really worry about any of my injuries, let alone to try to get back to the surface for air by then.
I'm going to die...
That was the last thing I could think of before I was pulled into the darkness.
"I-I think I got him back."
Something felt like it was pulling my hair out, and the strong sting of seawater coming up burned my raw throat as it triggered a gruff cough. Something soft moved from against my mouth right as the water started overflowing my lips.
"Turn him."
I was suddenly yanked over as I hacked up a good few mouthfuls of salty water... along with whatever acid was in my stomach. It only took a minute or two to empty my system, but as I was tugged up against something solid, all I could think about was needing relief from the immense burning in my throat and lungs.
"You're okay..."
My mind slowly began to get my senses back in order, allowing me to figure out I was in someone's arms and they were beginning to rub my back soothingly. I took a small breath to try to speak, but all I heard was a quiet whine come from my mouth. That sound was quickly followed by my body being pulled up a little more, this time into a gentle hug.
"It's okay. You've got some nasty scrapes and bruises, but a few days off your feet should take care of them."
Whoever is talking sounds so worried... but I can't remember what happened.
The whole thing was like a blur after my ankle was grabbed and I hit that first formation of rocks. My vision had darkened, then blacked out completely after I was released. Moments later, everything just slipped away. The only thing that I remembered right before losing consciousness was the sensation of floating. My whole body had been drifting without a care in the world, without a need to go anywhere or do anything. My heart had thumped a slow pattern that I had felt throughout my whole, tired body. It pulsated just beneath my skin, telling me that it couldn't hold on for much longer.
"He's starting to shake, I'm going to get him inside."
"Go ahead. Clean him off in the bathroom before treating his injuries. Then get him dressed in several layers to warm him up and prevent shock."
I felt myself being lifted into the same strong arms that had been hugging me as the two men continued to speak.
"Are you going to be okay with the mer?"
"Yes, I've tied up its hands and feet since they changed when he was finally completely out, and I've got the dart gun right next to me. Go tend to Parker before he gets worse."
"Okay."
I felt myself being carried but began drifting in and out as time passed. Warmth took over the chill in my body, then something was tugged over my legs and head before I was wrapped up in a thick blanket. Some other things happened, but I dozed through them until I felt the familiar softness of my bed beneath my body. It was only seconds later when I passed out from exhaustion.