AN: Alright wow, this is my first h2o fic that's not a cross over and/or a one-shot! I'm so excited. I really hope you like it.
Cleo Sertori hummed to herself as she fed her fish. She loved her little sea-creatures and took care of them in an almost motherly fashion. She smiled and praised them if she felt they needed or deserved it and wept when they died and had to be flushed away. The only trouble was that now that she was a mermaid, taking care of her fish was a little harder. If so much as a drop of water seeped through her gloves or if a fish happened to jump up and splash a little water on her, she instantly fell to the floor and her tail formed. Oh well, they all had to make sacrifices as Emma was always saying.
A merry little tune rang through the room. Cleo knew it was her cell phone going off. The caller ID said, 'EMMA GILBERT'. Speak of the devil. She reached over and hit, 'Accept incoming call'.
"Hey Em." Cleo said, putting the fish food back on the shelf where it belonged.
"Hi, I was just calling to ask about the paper for English class." Emma stammered guiltily into the phone.
That was a switch! Usually Emma was the one who had to tell both her and their other friend, Rikki Chadwick what the assignment was. All Cleo managed to say to that was, "Huh?"
"I know, I know." Emma's voice moaned into the phone. "It's just I've been having an off day and I lost three of my school notebooks. I tore my room apart to find them and they weren't anywhere so I can only assume I left them at school and it's Saturday so I can't look for them there until Monday which means if the paper's due Monday I wont have it ready in time." Her voice started to border on hysterical.
"Emma, it's alright." Cleo assured her. "The paper isn't due until next week."
Emma stopped hyperventilating. "Are you sure?"
"Pretty sure." Cleo said, looking at the calendar on the wall behind her.
"Okay, thanks." Emma sounded beyond relieved. "See you later, bye."
"Okay, bye." Cleo hung up and put the phone in her purse. Then she grabbed her coat and headed downstairs.
Mr. Sertori was sitting at the kitchen table with one hand over his face and a piece of paper in his other hand. He looked really stressed. Cleo wondered if it was another bill. Their mother used to take care of the bills before she left them and sometimes Mr. Sertori found it hard to keep up. Cleo always made it a point to be cheerful and strong around him when he seemed down.
"Hey, dad." She chirped in friendly tone.
"Hello, Cleo." Mr. Sertori looked at her, clearly holding back tears as he forced a smile.
"Dad, what's wrong?" Cleo couldn't help but ask. He couldn't be this upset about a bill. Maybe he'd found an old love letter from mum. That would explain it. She peered over at the piece of paper he was holding. "What's that?"
Mr. Sertori hastily folded up the paper. "Nothing, sweetheart. Don't worry about it." He looked at the clock. "Shouldn't you be heading off to school?"
"It's Saturday." Cleo reminded him.
"Saturday, of course." He shook his head. His mind was evidently on something else and he wasn't even thinking about what he was saying.
"Dad, is everything alright?" Cleo tried again.
He shot her another fake smile. "Of course it is." he looked at the clock again and then back at her. "Why don't you go spend the day with Rikki and Emma?"
His suggestion surprised her. Usually he complained that she spend too much time with her friends and not enough with her family. It used to make her feel guilty but she had grown sort of numb to it over time. Still, she could tell that some time alone was what her father needed right now.
"Alright." Cleo agreed, not even bothering to grab breakfast. "I guess I'll just go then." She wondered if he was going to say anything else and walked to the door as slowly as possible just in case. She reached the door knob. "Okay, I'll leaving now."
"Alright, sweetheart. Have fun." Mr. Sertori called after her.
She shrugged, opened the door, and stepped outside. What in the world could have made her father so sad? Why did he seem so distant? She walked slowly by herself, enjoying the feel of the warm spring sun on her shoulders.
Suddenly someone came behind her and put their hands over her eyes. "Guess who?"
"Lewis?" Cleo pretended to be genuinely confused even though she knew for sure it was him.
"In the flesh." Lewis took his hands off her eyes and came in front of her. "Cleo, what's wrong?" He could tell she wasn't quite herself.
"I don't know." Cleo told him, reaching up to fiddle with the locket that hung from her neck-more pleased than ever that Lewis had gotten it back from Charlotte for her-as she spoke. "It's my dad. He's acting really...strange..."
"Strange how?" Lewis asked her.
"He was looking at a piece of paper this morning and it was like he didn't want me to be around or something...He just seemed so different..."
"A bill?" Lewis suggested.
"I thought of that already." Cleo shook her head. "He was on the verge of tears, Lewis. It's not a bill."
"I don't know what to tell you." Lewis sighed apologetically.
"I don't think there's much you could say." She pointed out.
Lewis nodded and put his arm around her shoulders. "Do you want to go to the juice net and maybe grab something to eat?"
"Well I didn't have breakfast, so sure." Cleo said, walking along with him.
"Hey." Cleo waved when she saw Rikki sitting in one of the booths in the juice net.
"Hey." Rikki waved back.
"Where's Emma?" Lewis asked her.
"Working." Rikki rolled her eyes towards the cold room.
Cleo and Lewis sat down across from her. "So how are things?" Lewis asked as he eased into his seat.
"Fine." Rikki said monosyllabically, as she stirred her straw around in her half-melting smoothie.
"Are we still going swimming later?" Cleo wanted to know.
"I don't see why we wouldn't." Rikki told her. "Unless Emma has to take on another shift." Even she could see that there was something wrong with Cleo. "What's wrong?"
"It's my dad..." Cleo explained the whole story again.
Rikki looked like she was in deep thought then she shrugged to herself. "Beats me."
"I know, it's so frustrating." Cleo moaned, putting her hand to her forehead.
"What is?" Emma asked, coming out of the cold room.
"Something's wrong with her father." Lewis told Emma.
"Are you sure it's not a bill?" Emma knew that it usually was something to do with money.
"Pretty sure." Cleo insisted. For reasons unknown even to herself, Cleo found her eyes drifting to the other side of the cafe where a nice-looking middle aged man sat with his cell phone pressed against his ear. He had dark hair with a little bit of gray in it and pale white skin. He sort of reminded Cleo of Charlotte's grandmother, Gracie Watsford who had been one of the three original mermaids.
"Yes, I understand what a closed adoption means." The man said softly into his phone. "but I really want to see her. I know I'm sixteen years too late...but...well I understand. But are you sure? Look, don't you think she has a right to know? Well if she says she doesn't want to see me then I promise I will go away and never come back. I came here to find the missing parts of my life. My father and my daughter. It means the world to me. Alright, we'll play it by ear then. Thank you, goodbye." He sighed heavily and hung up.
"Tough day?" Ash asked him, handing him a juice.
"You have no idea." The man said with a grateful smile. He reached into his wallet. "How much do I owe you?"
"It's on the house, mate." Ash said kindly. He could tell the man needed something to go right in his life even if it was something as small as a free drink.
"Do you know a Max K. Hamilton?" The man asked him.
"The name sounds familiar." Ash admitted. He looked over at Lewis and called, "Isn't Max Hamilton the name of that fellow you used to share research with?"
"Yes, that's him." Lewis said.
The man stood up and walked over to them. "Do you know where I can find him?"
"What do you need to see him about?" Lewis asked wondering if this man could be trusted or not.
"It's personal." the man said, not unkindly.
Cleo wasn't sure why, but she liked him. She felt as if she knew him from somewhere before and knew for certain that he could be trusted. "He lives in a little house on the beach." She explained how to get there.
"Thank you so much." The man said gratefully. "you have no idea what this means to me." With that, he left the juice net.
"Are you sure that was such a good idea?" Emma asked Cleo. "What if he wants to know about the mermaids?"
"Max wont tell him anything." Lewis reminded them.
"He told Charlotte a heck of a lot." Rikki snapped.
"But that's only because she was Gracie's granddaughter." Cleo pointed out. "He's probably learned his lesson by now."
"Let's hope so." Rikk muttered, mostly to herself.
That evening when Cleo went home she found her father sitting on the couch with that same distant look in his eyes from that morning. "Cleo, please have a seat, we have to talk about something."
"If this is about me not doing so well in science it's because-" Cleo blurted out before she could help herself.
"No it's not about school." Mr. Sertori assured her.
"Is it about this morning?" Cleo asked, taking a seat beside him on the couch.
Mr. Sertori nodded. "Yes, Cleo. That's exactly what it's about."
Cleo fiddled with the edge of her shirt not knowing why she felt so nervous. Her father was taking deep breaths and clearly still holding back tears.
"Cleo, you know I love you no matter what..." He started. "But there's something you should know. Your mother and I well...we had a little trouble having a child during our first years of marriage the doctor didn't know what was wrong and we ended up deciding to adopt...and we took in a beautiful baby."
Cleo crinkled her forehead feeling very much like a small child hearing a confusing fairytale for the first time.
"A baby named, Cleo." He said finally.
"You have another girl named Cleo?" Cleo blurted out stupidly.
"No sweetheart." Mr. Sertori put his hand on her's. "You don't understand. You were that baby. You were adopted, Cleo."
Cleo's eyes widened in disbelief. "You can't be serious."
Mr. Sertori looked down at his feet, trying not to cry. "I'm so sorry we didn't tell you sooner."
Cleo felt tears prick her eyes and roll freely down her cheeks. "So am I."
AN: Please review!