Mermaids
Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to their Impossible Pictures™.
Note: this story contains spoilers for the official series.
The small blonde woman was sitting on a park bench, looking clearly despondent. Helen Cutter was, technically, not supposed to be here, but when was the last time she did pay attention to technicalities? Only when it suited her - that is when.
"And what's wrong with you?" she asked simply, sitting onto the bench next to the younger woman. "Your boyfriend or girlfriend broke up with you?"
"I don't have a boyfriend – and I'm straight, thank you very much," Abby said grouchily, as she blew her nose on a Kleenex™. "Why are you asking this? Why do you care? Why are you here?"
"Let's see," Helen shrugged as she leaned backwards. "I too am straight, contrary to what Nick may think – he's the gay one in our marriage, I suspect. I am asking you this because you look like you saw one of your dreams die before your eyes and you had to bury it as well. I care... well, rather, I'm just curious," Helen shrugged, not really knowing herself the answer to that question of Abby's. "And I'm here, in London, on personal business."
"Well then, you can go on with your personal business and leave me alone," Abby said flatly.
"I will, once I'll make sure that everything is all right with you," Helen did not back down from the younger woman's half-hearted challenge. "If your love life is either fine or non-existent, what's wrong with you then?"
Abby paused, and then decided to spill the beans. It is not as if Helen was going to talk about this to Jenny and others at the ARC, now would she? "When you were little, did you believe in the mermaids?"
"Oh?" Helen actually looked taken aback. "Mermaids? Really?"
"Yeah, when I was little, I used to dream of being a mermaid and living under the sea."
"You'd have a tail that would be covered in scales of gold and green and long flowing hair to match it," Helen said quietly. "You'd also not be a human, though you'd look human from the waist up, and your personality... do not get me started on your personality as such." She paused. "Of course, you'd also have a lovely, enticing voice... don't get me started on the voice..." she fell silent, clearly thinking about something of her own.
"...What are you talking about?" Abby finally found her voice. "Mermaids aren't real!"
"In this dimension, in this timeline, they are not," Helen agreed, still subdued. "But the possibilities of evolution are endless – even more endless than how we prefer to theorize. And the time anomalies – they can take a traveller not just through time, but through dimensions, I have you know. There's a world without shrimp, a world without scorpions and spiders, a world without dragonflies and similar insects, and more..."
"And there's a world with mermaids?" Abby insisted.
"Yes, weren't you listening to what I just said?" Helen said, now cross. "Sometimes... sometimes they find the sequence of time anomalies that leads to our timeline and our world and that's how the myths arose." She paused. "And you really should read them to realize that what you have encountered may not look like the mythical mermaid on the outside, but certainly behaved as they were on the inside."
"Really?" Abby still could not believe what she was hearing, even from Helen Cutter. "Could I... could I see a real life mermaid?"
Helen stared at her as if she could not believe her ears. "Well, why not?" she replied, clearly after a thoughtful pause. "Let's go and talk to Kuro about it, shall we?"
And they were off.
TBC