Submerged

Summary: Lewis was far from and idiot, and Denman was done playing around. She wanted the girls. She wouldn't stop until she had the girls. He'd just have to convince her that maybe she was looking in the wrong direction.

Who said there couldn't be mermen?

Rated PG13- language

Warnings: this story will deal with kidnapping, captivity, and torture (though I don't know how much or how detailed it will be yet). It will not be the sweet, happy show that it is on TV. Do not read it if this idea bothers you.

AN: The show is great fun, but this story may steer slightly clear of the easy innocence it portrays. I've only seen about five episodes, but I love the concept of merpeople and figured I'd steal a little shot at writing for a while :D I hope you like it!

H2OOOOOO

He watched them carefully, head bowed behind books and big floppy hats to disguise his wandering eyes. How could he not? He had known them a while now, but that didn't mean he was blind to their beauty. How could any reasonable (or unreasonable) man be blind to that? Yet, despite that, it was not the reason he watched them so carefully.

Nor was the fact that he considered himself a scientist, and that their 'condition' was truly something to behold.

Mermaids.

Despite his easy acceptance of that fact, it had taken him a while to truly understand what it had meant. He hadn't always been the most socially aware individual, but even he had eventually understood the issues surrounding their situation. It had been difficult not to be aware after working for Dr. Linda Denman, exploiting bitch that she had turned out to be. And he had determined that about her before she had created a trap to capture the girls in the cave on Mako Island. Hemming them in like trout to be fished out of the water. Ignoring their basic rights as people.

It would have been kidnapping. It would have been exploitation and tests and who knew what else. The men she had hired had been cruel. She had been uncaring. It had opened Lewis's eyes to the true danger his friends faced every day.

And there was the crux of the matter, the reasoning behind all of his covert watching, his sneaky side-long glances: they were his friends, and he loved them very much. He would keep them safe.

Sometimes it was overbearingly difficult to be around them, watching them smile and laugh after a near miss of being seen. Lewis would lean in doorways and laugh gently as they told him about rescuing a dolphin from the nets, or how they had almost swam straight into a group of touring scuba divers. And he would tell them to exercise more caution, and they would promise him they would. Until the next time it almost happened.

Even after Linda had almost captured them they had still been almost careless with their need to swim, with their powers, despite the fact that they needed to lay low and stay off her radar.

So he loved them, and they were his best friends, but they could be trying beyond reason at times. Therefore he had taken to watching them, carefully of course, so as to avoid their suspicions and general mocking of his concern. He couldn't blame them for their aloofness really: they had escaped so many times they no doubt felt invincible, despite their self-concern and awareness.

And now summer would be ending shortly, much too soon as far as he was concerned, and then they would all go their own ways.

He had always been a big advocate for University. Higher education was the key to eradicating ignorance and to provide no end of knowledge to an eager mind. Yes he had been a big advocate indeed, but now he wasn't so sure.

Ricci was going to the other side of the country, maybe even New Zealand.

Cleo was heading to Melbourne.

And Emma, of all people, was staying at home, choosing to accept a job at the local vet clinic until she had made up her mind on what she wanted for a future and not one of them seemed to be worried about this separation. At least not beyond the whole 'I'm leaving my friends and family to head out on my own' feeling of anxiety.

Lewis thought they should stick together, protect themselves, and he had told them that.

They had told him he should get over his obsession with them and get a life of his own. That had hurt, and things had been strained between them the last few weeks because of it. He had even forged ahead and accepted the invitation to join ANU. A full scholarship and living accommodations for his first year (despite everything with the girls he had never believed in forgetting his own studies). Maybe they were right, and he needed to stretch his wings, so to speak. Move beyond the nest. Though that was easier said and done now that his parents had finally split up. He had had much less association with his family then ever before and they had never been overly concerned with his future.

Still, he worried. How could he not? Emma and Cleo and Ricci may have been captured for a brief period of time in the caves on Mako Island, but Lewis was the one who had seen the mock set up for the lab Denman had planned to ship them too on her science boat. He found it much more difficult to forget the fate that she had planned for them.

So he kept an eye on them, be it when he was with them, trying to ignore the new strain to their friendship, or from a distance. Which he was absolutely convinced was not stalking, no matter what the devil on his shoulder whispered into his ear.

It was by keeping an eye on them that he had noticed Dr. Linda Denman's reappearance in Gold Coast. It had made his blood run cold.

She was there 'temporarily' she explained when he confronted her, now towering over her with his newfound height. 'Visiting some old friends.' But he saw her watching the girls, and when he warned them they readily agreed to steer clear of the water until she left again. She had no reason to believe they had regained their powers. She had no reason to watch them so carefully. And he had no reason to trust her.

She was planning something, he knew it, and he could. Not. Allow. It. He wouldn't allow it. So he took matters into his own hands.

It hadn't been overly difficult to discover the secret to the girls transformations into mermaids. Not when he had all the facts (something he had made sure nobody else could get). And it wasn't overly difficult to determine that the best way to keep Denman from his girls, was to give her something new to focus on.

So a few days later, when the moon was conveniently full, and the stars were perfectly aligned, he secreted a boat to Mako Island long after night had fallen.

When his body slipped into the cool water of the cave's pool, the liquid reaching out to swallow him whole, he had a moment of terror unlike any he had ever experienced. His life would never again be the same.

And he sank beneath the surface, as the moons full light danced among the waters ripples.

H2OOOO

Tbc.

Hope you liked it so far!