Nexus: Now what kind of loyal Mako Mermaids fan would I be if I didn't do a fanfic on it at some point?

Zac: Not a very good one for an FF writer at least...

Nexus: Well, after trawling through what at the time was only 16 Mako fanfics, I decided to make one of my own to add to the collection. Besides, that would make it fanfic number 17 and that's my lucky number ^_^

In short, this is going to be the story from the beginning of episode 2 and onwards but things happen my way and things don't go as planned, and it is AU as well...

Zac: Now I'm worried because I have no idea what on earth you are going to do to me...

Lyla: Me too

Nexus: You'll all be fine for f*** sake! Well... we'll see just how safe you all are as the chapters pile on ;)

Just note, I don't own Mako Mermaids but I wish I did!


In Trouble

Chapter 1: The second day

"Zac, it is time to get up," the monotone voice from Zac's alarm said repeatedly until he grabbed his phone and shut it off, throwing it back onto the pile of clothes it was layed on already.

He briefly turned his head and tried to drift back to sleep again before jolting wide awake, remembering everything that happened yesterday including the whole growing a fish tail part of the day.

Slowly, he lifted off the covers and gave them an almighty tug, a sigh escaping from his lips when he saw that he still had legs. He stretched briefly before jumping out of bed and grabbing a glass of water that was on a nearby desk, taking a sip of the water.

Just when he was about to put the glass back, an idea shot through his head. He'd only got his tail once he was cased in water. What would happen if he poured a tiny bit onto his feet? He very carefully tipped a small amount over his feet, slightly pleased when he saw that no tail grew straight away. Just when he thought he was safe to walk though, he felt a tingling sensation in his legs as he fell back onto his bed, his new long blue tail in place of his legs. He only a few brief seconds to look at himself before Zac could hear his dad knocking on his door.

"No dad, wait!" Zac called as he hastily threw the covers back over himself. It wasn't awkward enough that he'd got a tail and his dad just had to knock and come in right when he had it. Lucky Zac.

"Are you alright?" His dad asked as he looked at his son who had the covers held very tightly.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Zac lied plainly.

"You're cutting it a bit fine aren't you? It's Saturday..." his dad dragged trying to get his son to realise what was going on.

"Great, that means I get to sleep in then," Zac replied, pulling the covers further over himself, resting his head back onto his pillow. "Bye."

"Zac, Lifesaving," his dad reminded him firmly. "You only do it every weekend."

Zac sighed and released the covers slightly. "Yeah, right, I'm coming," his said lifelessly.

"You sure you're okay?" His dad asked worried, walking over to the other side of his bed and grabbed the covers.

"Dad!" Zac raised his voice at him. If he pulled back the covers now, that was it.

"Zac, I'm a doctor, there's nothing that I've not seen before," his dad replied, tugging at the covers even harder.

"No dad!" Zac screamed and tensed as the covers were pulled right off of him, a dumbfounded look taking over his face when he saw that his tail was once again gone, rubbing his legs just to be sure he wasn't seeing things.

"It's time you weren't here," his dad said as he began to walk out of his room, inspecting it as he left. "Love what you're doing with the place," he remarked. Let's face it, Zac's garage was a mess, clothes everywhere, things just hanging around, old plates and mugs. But then again, what do you expect for the room of a teenager who has his own little place separate to his house and family?"


- At the Ocean Cafe -

Zac and Cam were both sitting down outside, eating breakfast before they began a day of hectic Lifesaving duty once more.

"Luckily dad didn't see anything so you're the only one that knows," Zac told his friend.

"Well, what are you gonna do about Lifesaving, ya can't go in the water after all," Cam mentioned.

"This is my point. How am I supposed to do Lifesaving, if I can't even go in the water?" Zac asked.

"Look, just stop stressing," Cam replied as he finished his bowl of food and pushed it to the side. "Let's just get through today." He saw that Zac wasn't making any advance on it and swiped his plate from him, taking a good stab at the food that was on it.

"You're not helping," Zac motioned.

"You don't know what this is," Cam defended. "It could be like, the 24 hour flu."

"Oh yeah, the uh, famous 24 hour merman tail flu," Zac joked back.

"You need to make the most of it!" Cam said. "It's like, this incredible gift, that you can share with people." His eyes lit up brightly. "For money."

"I'm not gonna be some kind of freak show," Zac stated.

"Zac the cash benefits here could be amazing- I'd take a small percentage but-" Cam began to say before he was interrupted.

"You just don't get it do you, this is really happening to me," Zac said strongly. Cam wasn't taking the fact that Zac grew a tail every time he touched water very seriously at this point in time. And worse, his first thought was to try and sell Zac for money! Some best friend Cam was being right now. "Oh yeah, could you tell Nick that I'm not going to be at lifesaving today?"

"What?" Cam asked rather surprised. "Look, I know with everything that's happened to you that you don't want to be there but you can't just not turn up Zac."

"Well, tell him I'm not well or something," Zac said as he stood up."

"You're not just going to stay at home are you? After all your dad is a doctor, you can't fake illnesses around him," Cam remembered.

"I'm not going to be at home, I'll be somewhere else," Zac said with a smirk before walking away, leaving Cam rather confused.


- Later on that day, Lifesaving duty -

"Hey Cam, where's Zac?" Nick asked as Cam turned up for Lifesaving.

"He's uh, not well," Cam said lying through his teeth.

Nick sighed. "Great, short staffed! You and him where the only two that could be here today as John called in sick earlier this morning, meaning I have to go find someone else to fill in Zac's place now."

"Can't you just fill that place yourself?" Cam asked.

"I've got other places to be today, including a recruiting session in half an hour," Nick said as he began running off to find someone. "Just hold the fort down would ya?!"

Cam took his place up on the Lifeguard chair and hoped that Nick would find someone else to cover. "Come on Zac, where the hell did you go?"

Zac wasn't actually too far from where Cam was, peering out over from the rocks in the water. He felt kind of bad for not going on Lifesaving today, but he had some other matters to attend to. When he turned into a merman yesterday and swam back to his house, he knew the whole time that his body was naturally breathing. In short, Zac could even breathe underwater and he wanted to test it, now.

He ducked back under the water and swam away from the shore until he couldn't see anyone on the surface, making sure he held his breath at the time. When he was far enough away, he floated down to the sea floor and readied himself. He opened his mouth and took a short but sharp breath in. And he felt it, air was entering his system. He sat there for another minute just breathing in and out, enjoying the wonderful feeling that it gave him.

"This is amazing," he said without even realising that he'd said it. A second later, it had just hit him that he'd said something and heard it with his own two ears. "Oh my god," he said slowly to himself, quickly covering his mouth afterwards. He eventually took his hands down and just floated there in amazement. He would never had guessed that getting a tail meant you got all the perks that mermaids in old legends did.

But best of all, Zac felt free. The ocean was the one place he could get away to and just forget about everything in the world and stay there for as long as he wanted.

He was about to turn around and swim off around the reefs a bit more before he heard a muffled scream not far away from him.

During this time back on the surface, Cam was rather distracted. Rather, his mind was. He was trying to figure out where Zac had gone and also wondering if Nick would ever find a replacement for him.

"Help!" A voice called, which broke Cam's concentration. He pulled out his binoculars and looked over at the Ocean. He eventually spotted a little girl flailing her arms around, trying to get back to her board.

"Oh no," Cam said jumping off of his tower and began running towards the ocean to go save the girl.

"Hold on sweetie!" The little girl's mother called as she saw Cam flying at breakneck speed towards the water to get her.

When Cam was about half way out to her, the little girls body disappeared the under waves. "Oh no," Cam said one more time, trying to speed up the pace of his swimming.

Back to Zac when he'd heard the muffled scream. He turned around instantly and could make out something in the water, something human shaped. Without a second thought, he began speeding over to it, only to find it was a little girl who was slowly sinking further down into the Ocean.

Zac scooped her up into his arms and watched as the little girl turned her head towards him, her eyes wide when she saw him, looking firstly at his face and then his tail. He smiled at her and said, "You'll be okay now," in a soft tone, and began swimming towards the surface.

When he hit the surface, he looked out first to see if Cam had noticed her drowning and Cam had. That was one thing Zac was grateful for, as Cam swam to him. The little girl on the other hand was coughing out all of the water that had entered her body when she'd screamed.

Cam overlooked the situation carefully. Zac has just saved this little girl, did this mean she now knew about him? He tried to keep his calm about the situation, forgetting about the little girl in Zac's arms for a minute.

"Is this where you've been all day so far? "Cam asked him, sounding slightly annoyed. "You took a day off of Lifesaving just so you could swim around!?"

"Don't sound so mean Cam, I did just save this little girl for you. If I wasn't here, she might of drowned by now," Zac told him with a smile on his face. He looked down to see the scared look on the little girls face. She eventually worked up the courage to say something, over coming her initial shock. "You're a fish!"

Zac just smiled at her again and passed her over into the arms of Cam.

From the shore, Nick had finally come back and had found a replacement for Zac and was currently watching the scene with Cam, Zac and the little girl. Luckily, they were too far away to hear anything that they were saying. The girl's mother was also watching with them. Nick had gotten quite a shock when Zac emerged out of the ocean with a girl in his arms. He thought that Cam told him that he was ill, not that he was out in the ocean for some reason. All that mattered was that the little girl was safe and if Zac hadn't of been there, she would have surely drowned before Cam reached her.

"Hey, who's that guys out in the water?" Zac's replacement asked.

"That's Zac. The one who you're replacing for today," Nick replied only slightly focused on what the boy was saying.

"But I thought you said he was ill," the boys asked.

"I thought he was too," Nick said half-mindedly. *Why would Zac lie about being ill if he was going to be out in the water on patrol? He didn't even seem the slightest bit tired when he broke the surface, and I hadn't seen him since the girl went under, meaning he must have been down there the whole time! Zac, just what on earth are you? Surely you can't be human...*

"Uh Nick, you okay?" The boy asked looking at Nick's distance face.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied, still sounding distance minded.

Back with Cam and Zac, the little girl had gotten over her shaking and was rather attached to Zac at the minute. "Thank you for saving me," she said to him again.

"I've already said it, you don't need to thank me," Zac joked with a smile plastered on his face.

"In all seriousness Zac, why take a day off of Lifesaving, just to swim around for a bit?" Cam asked again.

"I wanted to test something," Zac replied plainly.

"Couldn't you have tested it another day? How important could this 'test' have been?" Cam questioned annoyed that he skipped his job, for this.

"Very important," Zac replied, looking down to the little girl.

"You can breath underwater, you spoke to me," the little girl said, taking the words right out of Zac's mouth. Zac just shushed her.

Cam had a dumbfounded face and just stared at Zac. "You... can breath underwater? And talk!?"

"Just like mermaids in old legends," the little girl spoke up. "I've always believed in them."

Zac just smiled at her before turning his attention back to the shocked Cam. "You'd better get her back to shore."

"And you might wanna dry off and get back to Nick. You need to tell him you were feeling better. And besides, since I've done chair work so far, you get it for the rest of our patrol today," Cam explained, before turning around and taking the little girl back to shore.

"Yep, just gonna have to explain to Nick why I was out in the water instead of at home since I was ill. And tell him I'm quitting Lifesaving," Zac said to himself, before diving under and swimming back to the rocks to find a towel.

When Cam got back to shore, the first thing the little girl's mum did was run straight for her and pick her up. "Oh sweetie! I thought I told you not to go in the water without me."

The girl's mum turned straight to Cam. "Thank you for bringing her back safely. Who was the boy who saved her that I saw?"

"Zac, one of our other lifesaver's," Nick spoke up. "Cam, a word." Nick then walked away to a little spot where him and Cam could talk.

"Is this about Zac?" Cam asked.

"You told me, he was ill," Nick began. "So why was he out in the water?"

Cam had to come up with something and fast. "He, honestly wanted to check out the reef. He's become a bit of a coral freak lately." Well, that wasn't a total lie, Zac had been swimming out by a reef.

"No scuba gear?" Nick questioned.

"He's been trying to improve his breath holding times recently so I guess he chose not to use any," Cam lied.

"Kid's got some lungs then," Nick said distantly. "So, how come Zac hasn't come back to shore yet?"

"He must have taken all his clothing in a bag and left from a different part of the shore," Cam thought up quickly.

Just then, Zac walked over. "Hey Nick," Zac said slowly.

"Cam, back on duty. Zac, a word," Nick instructed.

"If this is about me and not being on Lifesaving today then there's something I need to tell you," Zac began.

"If you don't want to do Lifesaving any more because of personal hobbies around the reef, then it's okay," Nick said. He didn't want to let his best Lifesaver go but he wanted Zac to be happy, after all, he had seemed rather bored the last few times he was on patrol.

"Seriously?" Zac asked rather surprised. "You'd be okay with me quitting it?"

"Yes. Besides, you'll be around the reef anyway, you can still be on the lookout from time to time," Nick suggested.

"Yeah, 'course," Zac said, rather happy that Nick was totally okay with him not doing this any more. Well, it made keeping his secret easier.


- Later on that day -

"Wait wait wait. Nick was okay with you quitting?" Cam asked shocked.

"He actually brought up me quitting first," Zac replied. "Besides, you don't have to do as bigger shift on a weekend now, Nick found a new recruit who can do more hours on a Saturday than I or you could."

"At least it'll be easier to keep the fish secret," Cam reminded him. "But about earlier, could you seriously breath and talk underwater?"

"It's amazing! It's just water around you but you feel like you're breathing real air," Zac said, like he was in a world of is own. "You can just stay down there forever."

"Makes you wonder if you're the only one," Cam asked.

"It's a good point," Zac noticed, taking a seat on his couch. "Why would I be the only one? Why wouldn't there be other mermaids or even other mermen out there?"

"Why even mermen? You think the gender ratio would be equal like humans," Cam questioned.

"I did some research last night on people like me and apparently, mermen are rarely seen compared to mermaids. Mermaids seem to make up more of the ocean population than we do," Zac explained.

"Well, I'd better be going home," Cam said standing up and grabbing his bag. "I'll see you at school on Monday," he called as he walked out the door.

"See ya," Zac called back.

"I wonder if there are other mermaids out there," Zac thought to himself.


Nexus: Well that was chapter 1. The main point of this story will kick out next chapter, which will take place during episode 6. If anyone was wondering about Lyla, Nixie and Sirena, since the incident happened earlier on that in the show, they were never there. And when they asked Evie about where he was, she said she had no clue now that he'd quit Lifesaving and the girls just went back to Mako. They'll be appearing next chapter for sure though.

Lyla: Thanks, we were feeling just a little left out here...

Nexus: You'll get your limelight soon, probably chapter 4

Lyla: Knowing you, that could take ages.

Nexus: Just be glad you're even getting any limelight Lyla!

Well, if anyone could leave a review here I would be most grateful. You should know, the more reviews I get, the more likely I am to post chapters early ;)

See you all when the next chapter is up ^_^