Hey guys! This is one of my first tries at a real honest-to-goodness Alternate Universe fic. After waiting years and asking multiple authors to write me a Shipwrecked/Mermaid AU, I decided to write it myself. perfectlyrose was one of them and she actually got around to publishing hers after mine was already finished, so go and check hers out too (after you read mine of course :D) Hers is with Eight and a lot more feelsy, mine is Nine/Rose and more mysterious. Anyway, enjoy!
"Lost and Found at Sea"
by Kathryn Hart
a Nine/Rose AU
Setting: Days After World War II, in the North Atlantic Ocean near Great Britain
John knew he was going to die at sea today.
Not like the kind of knowing like he knew his own name, or how to steer the tiller of the boat he had lived on for years. No, it was the kind of innate knowledge that itches in the back of your head, a quiet voice that tells you not to make a big mistake that you ignore easily.
And ignore it he had this morning as he pulled his ship away from the dock. There had been no storm warning. If there had John would have listened to the nagging in his head, but his necessity to get back home drowned out everything else. He hadn't been to his homeland in two years after fighting in the war.
At least his boat hadn't been stolen while he had been gone, but it wouldn't matter now if it ended up in the bottom of the ocean, his bones along with it.
He was the lone captain of this small ship and he usually preferred it that way, until now when having just one other hand would help him keep this hunk of wood afloat in this intense storm.
John didn't bother flinching as yet another wave splashed over him. He wiped the water from his face and his short-cropped hair. Thankfully his battered leather jacket kept most of his torso dry, though his dark jeans were soaked completely through. He grunted as he spun the tiller hard to the left, trying to keep his ship upright and knowing he was failing.
How ironic that he was going to lose his life days after the war with Germany had ended.
A rope snapped behind him and he ducked just in time as it cracked like a deadly whip over his head and spun away. Ordinarily, his brain would have been working properly and he would have asked himself what the rope had been holding, but he didn't and too late did he see out of the corner of his eye the mast heading right for him.
The pain was blinding as the mast struck him in the head and he tumbled into the black ocean. His vision was blurry, both from the pain in his head and being underwater.
With sick fascination he watched as his beloved ship was finally conquered, cracking and splintering open as it was eaten alive by the water. The pain became too much and the last thing he saw was his boat falling into watery darkness and a quick flash of something sparkling emerald green before the world snapped to black.
He really shouldn't have sailed today.
John groaned and rolled over in his sleep, the images from his nightmare flashing in his mind's eye like one of those picture movies. He didn't want to wake up yet and acknowledge what he had dreamed. He loved his boat so much it was unfathomable to imagine dying on it. And seeing it sink to the bottom of the ocean had been the worst part.
A sudden sharp pain in his head and the texture of wet sand against his cheek snapped him awake, making him realise that it had not been just a dream.
He sat up quickly and immediately regretted it as he threw himself forward and retched out seawater. Worried that he might have a concussion, he eased back slowly, wiping the sleeve of his jumper over his mouth, noticing sadly that he had lost his beloved leather jacket. He felt incredibly tired and couldn't resist lying back down again.
What was he going to do? He was shipwrecked, trapped alone on what appeared to be an island with no way off.
He didn't want to think about it, all he wanted to do was rest. A voice inside his head screamed at him that he shouldn't let himself fall back asleep if he did indeed have a head injury, but five minutes just to close his eyes wouldn't hurt, right?
What felt like ages later a bright light stirred him back to reality. The skin on his face, neck and hands hurt like he had a nasty sunburn. How long had he been sleeping in this direct sunlight? Too long apparently. A bird cawed overhead and he could hear waves lapping near him. So he was close to shore then. That would explain why the sand was wet beneath him.
He twitched involuntarily, the sensation of long hair brushing over his face. He opened his eyes slowly and saw a feminine pair of golden eyes gazing right back at him.
Suddenly wide awake, he scrambled back in shock, the sand under him shifting and sliding. A beautiful woman sat before him, not at all startled by his quick movements. Instead she cocked her head at him, watching him with curious eyes, like he was some sort of specimen she had never seen before. John couldn't stop staring at her either.
She looked about twenty years old, with a perfectly-formed nose and full, naturally-red lips. An array of long blonde hair (amazingly dry) cascaded in waves of her and those shocking gold eyes rimmed by thick, long eyelashes looked like they held the power of the sun within them.
Only up until this point did he realise that she was naked, but with seaweed and vines conveniently covering certain areas.
But the part that surprised John the most was her lower half, which was scaly and a luminescent blue-green.
"You're a mermaid." He gasped, watching unabashedly as she flicked her fin up and down in the tide water like a lazy fish in a stream.
John didn't know what to think at that moment. He had heard many different legends and lore in regards to mermaids. Some said they were vicious and deadly, calling sailors to the death and dragging them down to the deepest reaches of the ocean. Others would say they were merely guardians of the waters, not caring whether the humans that sailed over them lived or died.
Well, this stunningly angelic creature was neither vicious nor deadly, but had she really saved his life? It made sense after all, he couldn't have been able to save himself after losing consciousness in the middle of the ocean.
"D-did-" His voice cracked and he coughed abruptly, his voice still raspy from swallowing all that salty water. She still wasn't frightened by the sudden noise, but he still spoke quieter this time. "Did you save me?" Strangely, he wanted to hear her voice. Would it entrance him? Kill him? Honestly, he didn't care, he just wanted, no, needed to hear it.
To his disappointment, however she didn't reply, only smiled at him knowingly.
His head still ached but he was hit with a suddenly clarity. Gaining confidence, he crawled slowly to the creature until he was right in front of her face, their noses nearly touching. He held his breath, the ocean-filled scent of her intoxicating.
He had fallen under her spell and he knew it.
Slowly, she reached out and placed her lips on his. Was this how mermaids killed their prey?
Immediately that thought and every other was erased from his head as he tasted her and ran his fingers through her soft hair.
All of a sudden he felt extremely tired, as if he had pulled a triple shift on his boat. He knew it was odd and he should be worried, but at that moment, a silky soothing voice spoke inside his head in one drawn out word:
"Sleep..." He found himself falling backwards slowly until he was lying on his back in the sand, the creature leaning over him, staring at him, as she had been when he had first woken up only minutes ago.
The last thought in his head before he lost consciousness once again was that he didn't really mind dying this way at all.
It had been nothing but a beautiful dream in the midst of a terrible nightmare, he was sure of it. He knew instinctively before he even opened his eyes that he hadn't imagined losing his beautiful ship; even his own twisted, war-torn mind couldn't conjure up something that horrible. But the mermaid...
Just the thought of her seemed to ease his pain somehow. Even though she had only been a figment inside his head, he had the feeling that the dream of her had had a better healing effect on him than any doctor or nurse could.
Speaking of nurse, he heard a voice behind him, a woman's.
"Take it easy wakin' up there, you took a bad knock to the head." He was trying to open his eyes at that point but quickly closed them, the light in the room being too bright.
Waiting for his vision to adjust, he took a reading of his surrounding using his other senses. The room was rocking slowly beneath him, telling him he was on a ship, a pretty big one by the light feel of it. He felt cotton underneath his fingers, a medical cot? The smells only confirmed that he was in some sort of med facility. He could hear what must be the nurse working behind him.
Finally he could open his eyes again without it hurting too much. He found himself surrounded by steel walls. A ship of her royal navy then? The nurse behind him had spoken with a British tone earlier, just like him.
He tried to sit up but felt soft hands on his shoulders, pushing him back down gently.
"Slowly mate, you have a bad concussion." I figured so, he thought. The nurse passed in front of him and he got a good view of her backside. She was dressed in a white uniform, curvy, and a bun of blonde hair pinned on the top of her head, her normal nurse's cap abandoned on the counter.
"W-what.." He tried to speak but broke into a fit of coughs. He closed his eyes as his head raged furiously in pain.
"If you're wondering what happened," the blonde nurse said, "we found you clinging to a reef, barely conscious, mumbling on about a girl or something." He felt her presence as she stepped up beside him and placed her hands on his arm. "Must've been some girl if you thought of her on the brink of death.
"Yeah." He agreed. "I guess she wa-" He stopped as he opened his eyes, seeing her face for the first time.
Except it wasn't the first time.
"Y-you..." It was her. Same face, same blonde hair, same golden eyes.
The nurse said nothing, only stared at him with a knowing grin on her face.
And winked at him.
END
This is actually been a good winter for writing for me. I have two stories finished called "Today and Every Day After" (10.5/Rose), "Unfinished" (10/Rose), and I'm working on a long one, called either "Shattered", "Frozen" or "Sacrifice" (also 10/Rose, based on the song "Frozen" by Within Temptation) If you want to be notified when those go up, hit that little Author Alert button ;) Thanks for reading! ~Katy