Mysteries of the Deep
Abby Ebon
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Disclaimer: I do not own "The Thirteenth Year" (Disney, 1999) or "H2O: Just Add Water" (Nickelodeon, 2008).
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A Net Cast Too Wide
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It was not entirely a surprise to Lewis, when he saw Jess Wheatley settled at a booth at the JuiceNet. Seeing him, Lewis exchanged a glance with Zane, seeing the understanding fill Zane's eyes; Lewis wasn't surprised when Zane took a second – longer – look at Jess.
Julia had all but admitted her son – Cody, a born triton (perhaps the first to inherit his gift?) of twenty-two, and Jess were more then friends. It surprised Zane, though, that Dr. Wheatley was so young. Lewis had admired him for that.
Boldly, Zane moved to sit beside Jess – taking the booth on the other side of the table. Reluctant, Lewis followed his lead, offering Jess (who had looked up, startled by their sudden movements) a small smile as he sat beside Jess. Jess, glancing between Zane and Lewis, only bobbed his head in a welcoming nod.
"Dr. Wheatley, this is Zane…a, ah, friend of mine." There was a lingering pause in Lewis' words, one that Zane caught, giving him a long glance before turning his attention back to Jess. Jess, who was watching them, carefully – as if measuring them up, his eyes lingered on Lewis and Zane did not like the frown on his face. It was too familiar.
"Pleasure to see you, Lewis," Jess murmured with slightly narrowed eyes which flicked to Zane before he continued, "and to meet you, Zane, unfortunately, I think I must be going…" Jess trailed off, and Zane knew he was aware that he was trapped, for he looked quickly between Zane and Lewis, nervous.
Lewis recognized the dread – the resignation – in his eyes as he looked between them, wary. It was a shock to realize the man he'd admired had been so obviously bullied in his past.
"I don't think you'll be going anywhere, Dr. Wheatley, you see, we've found some interesting things out, been given quite the mystery of the deeps you might say. So, you aren't going anywhere, Doc. Not until we get some answers." Zane had leaned in close to Jess, so it looked like they were sharing a secret. It might have looked friendly, but Lewis heard the threat in Zane's words and gave him a wide eyed look when Zane leaned smugly back into his seat.
"I…see." Jess narrowed his eyes, pressing his lips tightly closed, and Lewis got a funny feeling in the back of his head, a sort of buzzing song – like when Miss Chatham had called to Julia mentally. Lewis tensed, straining to "listen in" his reaction to that unheard communication going unnoticed as Zane spoke.
"Do you know Julia?" Zane asked of Jess, tilting his head to the side with a smirk spreading over his lips when recognition and alarm flared in Jess' eyes. His fists clenched, knuckles whitening at that name, it was the only sign that he recognized the name as he looked aside as if it didn't matter.
"I might. I've known a lot of women." Jess shrugged his reaction – and the name off, as he met their eyes once more, boldly.
"Liar…" Zane purred the word out, smirking. Then something happened that neither of them had expected. It roared over them, rolling them, making them numb to the people and sounds around them. It sung out into them, snarling out the words they heard all too clearly.
"Mine! He-is-mine! I'll kill you; I'll kill you and drown you, do–not-touch-him….!" It stung, those words – making their hearts ache. It was the most beautiful and tortured voice they had ever heard – it lulled them, even as it threatened viciously.
It was something like a siren, they knew, even as they stared blankly ahead, numb and cold for the disfavor shown in the voice. It had to be soothed. Had to be reassured, even if it would only be satisfied with their deaths…
"Cody…" It was the name that trembled off Jess' lips, his words pained and soft, awed while hushed that freed them.
"Jess…I will not let them threaten you, they will not harm you. I am coming…." It was a promise that rolled over them, meaning different things and still aching with powerful emotion. Zane and Lewis glanced between each other, the secret – they knew was out. They'd risked themselves to see if the Jess who knew a mermaid and was companion to a triton was one and the same as Jess Wheatley.
He was. They weren't sure now, if that was such a good thing.
"Wait, just, here us out, alright?" Lewis begged softly, and Jess looked to him and nodded slowly. He was still tensed, still wary, but they knew they didn't have the upper hand any more. They'd lost it to whatever – whoever, had answered Jess' mental plea.
"There is something you need to know about Mako Island – I recognized your sail boat off its coast. Please, just listen, okay?" Lewis prodded and shifted his shoulders, for it felt now as if there was a weight on them. He – they didn't have much time.
Cody was coming, and it seemed as if they could tell how close he was getting, how little time they had left before he was there in the flesh. If he was so powerful mentally, Lewis did not want to be on his bad side when he showed himself physically. Even if the girls somehow got here, warned somehow – and how would they ever know, Julia was loyal to her son, wasn't she?
Miss Chatham might say something, if she caught onto the commotion they'd stirred up with Cody.
"When it's the New Moon, there is a pool in the bottom of a volcano on Mako Island. If there are three guys in it – normal people, it does something – turns them into mermaids – mermen, tritons – whatever – but, look, Julia, we know about her because of Miss Chatham – she called her, the same way you called your friend. Our girlfriends, they…they are the same as Julia. It happens that way, for girls, on the Full Moon, get it?" Lewis knew he was babbling, for across from him Zane had tensed up – someone, Cody – had entered JuiceNet and they were out of time.
He flinched when he felt the sweat on the back of his neck heat up in the presence of Cody at his back, he bowed his head ready to take whatever abuse befell him – maybe Zane could get out, escape to safety with the girls. He peered though the fall of his blond bangs, resigned, but he looked Zane in the eyes for a final time, saw those dark eyes widen as they read what Lewis was prepared to do, and saw them narrow with denial.
"Is it true, what Lewis says, Cody?" There was something – some lurking of anger, in Jess. Lewis glanced up at him hopeful, but he was ignored, practically dismissed, by Jess who only had eyes for Cody.
Lewis almost felt bad for Cody. It was very clear that though Cody had been prepared to mentally rip them to shreds and physically tear them limb from limb, against Jess he had no such defense. He only stood there, mouth opening and closing until words came slowly out of him.
"Y-yes, but…I wanted to tell you, it was…was supposed to be a surprise." Cody sounded almost pained, and glancing to Jess' chilly expression, Lewis could guess to why. Jess did not look it – most assuredly did not act it - but he was formidable in his own right, and against Cody, well, it was almost amusing.
"When, exactly, were you going to tell me?" Jess drawled the words out, narrowing his eyes. Lewis knew that Cody walked thin ice – that whatever friendship he had with Jess might be breaking - that he should be weak in the knees in gratitude that something – someone, was slowing Cody down, stopping him from maiming them. It was strange then, that Lewis felt that they had cheated, that Cody was the one being wronged.
"Tonight…" Cody looked aside, ashamed, though it looked almost funny. Cody was built like a swimmer, with a slim build and muscles and large shoulders that hunched – flinched, away from the growing anger that spread over Jess' features.
"Just a night away from the New Moon, huh?" Where once Lewis would have said Jess was scrawny and tall, though he was dwarfed by Cody – he looked now wraith thin and sharply defined. He could be either hero or villain.
"Yeah…Jess?" It was a weak plea, but Jess shook his head drawing himself away from his anger almost physically as he gave Cody a hurting smile. It was as if Jess didn't know how else to look at Cody. Something between them had been betrayed – that Jess would have to hear about the New Moon – a secret trusted to Lewis and Zane – but not to him, hurt Jess.
"You knew what my choice would be." Jess told him, still looking sad, just as hurt.
"I guessed." A smile passed over Cody's lips, small but reassuring all the same.
"Get out of here, Cody." There should have been no arguing with Jess' tone, but Cody was reminded of why he had come here when Zane breathed out in shaky relief. The danger that Cody had presented had passed – faded. Yet it was obvious that Cody held Jess as valuable – almost a possession, with how possessive he looked as he glared down at Lewis and Zane.
"Not without you." Lewis let out a shaky sigh, for he had not thought it would be so simple. Whatever rage or betrayal that had sprung up between Cody and Jess had also faded. For Jess merely accepted Cody's claim with a nod, turning a curious expression to Zane and Lewis… Lewis was reminded that they'd yet to tell Jess why they'd sought him out.
This will be interesting, Lewis thought opening his mouth – but it was Zane who began to explain the rest – and…the why –his why – for choosing to become "sea natured". He wanted an escape form the ordinary – he was tired of hearing about it, he wanted to live it.
Lewis was impressed that Zane had managed to put his reasoning –his wishes - into words, because Lewis did not think he could ever begin to explain why he wanted this so badly. It wasn't about the girls – it was…was him.
He wanted this change, needed it. He wished he knew why he wanted this so badly, but he did not. He only wanted it, and knew – reassuringly so, that it would happen. That he would be changed. He craved that knowledge.
"What about you, Lewis?" Jess asked with a kind look, it was plainly held with understanding, but Lewis couldn't think to why Jess would be so sympathetic to his reasons – reasons Lewis did not fully understand and he had not told anyone of.
"I…I just want to, you know, be someone for once." Lewis admitted to Jess, careful not to look to either Zane or Cody. He heard Zane start to get up, and wondered what the other boy thought of his confession. What would Zane think of him now? Now that he knew Lewis didn't like who he was – wanted to be more?
"I'd...better get the drinks…for the girls." Zane was facing away from him, toward the counter, when he spoke and Lewis glanced up. Cody shared a long look with Jess, but followed Zane when he moved to order drinks the girls probably had not really wanted.
"Why do you feel that way?" Jess asked – Lewis was glad that he'd left his name out of his words; he didn't know Jess very well, but he liked him.
"I…I just do. That I'm not enough, and that – no matter what I do…I never will be." Lewis fought to get the words out, confessing them to an almost-stranger, he found, was easier then facing the prospect of talking with the girls – or Ash, or Zane. With Jess, it didn't matter so much to him what the other thought of his confession – not yet.
"You have a life, a solid beginning for a career you'll enjoy – while the girls must struggle though to keep the parts of them human and that belong to the sea from gaining too much of themselves. It happened to Julia – she abandoned land entirely, she couldn't even walk on land to claim her child. Cody…I won't let that happen to Cody, but maybe I could understand better if he and I were the same species, you know? I've lived on land a long time, but the sea – my boat, it's pretty much my life now. The girls are lucky to have you – to have the others, Cody only ever had me to remind him of life on land." Jess was smiling, but Lewis knew what he was trying to say, what hung in the silence between them.
"So…you're doing this for Cody?" Lewis asked, wondering why it was Julia had seemed to see the obvious between her son and Jess, but both the boys clung to the friendship they had had, afraid to move foreword for fear of losing what they had. Maybe for them, this would be the next step – tritons and mermaids had a mental connection, there would be no hiding in their minds when the change took them.
"In a way, but – not entirely, like you I made a life for myself, I've had longer to live it. I realized a long time ago that I'm not happy with it. I'd rather not have to come back to the land for food and water and the shit that keeps my tub running. I'm not really doing this to change myself; I'm not under the illusion that being human is any worse off then being triton, or any better. In a lot of ways, Cody is still the guy I remember from high school – you know? He hasn't really changed. Or it's slower. I'm not sure of it, but it's a bit more noticeable then it was a few years ago – enough to worry me. I think…I think he'll outlive me if I don't take this chance. He'd never forgive himself that." Jess looked over Lewis' shoulder to where Cody stood, a vague sort of smile passing over his lips. Jess looked away from that – it was painfully obvious how Jess felt for Cody, and Cody for Jess, but if they wanted to kid themselves, Lewis wasn't stepping in.
"So the girls…Cleo, Rikki, and Emma – they'll…" Lewis trailed off, his heart aching, he knew they'd flee from land before lingering to watch their friends and family fade and die. He didn't know how Miss Chatham had lived with it, but he knew the girls – knew they wouldn't linger once they realized…they wouldn't give up the sea like Miss Chatham had.
"Yeah, but, for now, or for a few more years at least, it'll be hard to recognize, but when your twenty-one and your best friend looks like a teenager – even being younger then he is – well, there isn't any more pretending then. I don't think Cody realizes…" Jess looked down at his hands, a wary look in his eyes and frown twisting his lips.
"He sees it, Jess." Lewis murmured, looking to the side to see the boys – the drinks were in front of them, but they were stalling. It was obvious they wanted Jess to solve whatever was "wrong" with Lewis, though he'd always felt this way and it wasn't changing until he changed…
"It's in the way he looked at you, he's afraid, you know? Afraid of loosing you…" There was a longing in Lewis' tone that Jess ignored, for that much Lewis was grateful for.
"What I'm saying, Lewis – is this, the change is on the outside, it changes what you can do – telepathy, control over elements, shit like that – but it does not change who you are. It doesn't work that way, no matter how much you want it to. Just…just be sure you want to give up what you have before, alright?" There was something like pleading in Jess' voice, and Lewis closed his eyes. This was his once in a lifetime chance. It didn't matter that he'd be linked to Zane – who he liked well enough, and to Jess who was genius-smart, for the rest of his triton life – which, he grasped the idea of, would be a very long time.
"Alright…" Lewis breathed the word out, noticing the relief that washed over Jess' expression. He wasn't doing something reckless – he was changing things, taking control of his life. He wanted this, he was sure – Jess meant well, but Lewis had to see this though. If he didn't none of them would change this New Moon.
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"What are they talking about?" Zane demanded of Cody in hushed tones. Cody shrugged one big shoulder, smirking as he looked down at Zane.
"I'm not sure I should tell you." Cody rested his arms against the table top, careful to keep his distance from the fluid that was hidden in the soda cups. With closed lids and no straw in sight, Zane thought Cody should have been more at ease. Still, he acted as if to touch liquid would mean getting burnt. Zane sympathized – Rikki had been the same way, still, it was annoying as hell. Cody should have trusted him with knowing something, at least.
"Oh? Talking about me?" Zane pretended to preen, and Cody blinked at him, lips tilting upward in amusement. It wasn't very pretty, but Zane would take what he could get. It was, after all, the first sign that Cody might once have been human enough to smile and laugh. It was somewhat reassuring.
"No. Feelings, should haves, should not's – Jess is like a girl sometimes, always worrying about feelings and doing the right thing. Drove me nuts, got used to it though. Wouldn't have him any other way…. Lewis seems to like him." Zane was getting used to the halting way Cody spoke, rough and choked, as if he needed a glass of water. Zane knew it was more then that. Cody was used to speaking the other way – mentally; he was good at it too. Almost crushingly powerful – hypnotizing, much more then his mothers musically sung notes.
"Lewis likes everyone." Zane tried to keep anything telling out of his voice, but when Cody glanced to him, he knew he'd failed.
"Lewis and I, before the girls, well, before he noticed girls at all, we used to be good friends. Then, I guess, he was curious and wanted to see other people, I shouldn't have been so reluctant about him going out on his own. I was though, possessive ass that I am, I turned against him rather then see him turn against me. Still, he never retaliated; he's always so closed mouth, always so calm and accepting. Rikki told me only recently that it came out that she was tricked by him, says she thought he got pissed off at her – but I know him better then that. He was goaded into it, asked politely to pretend to loose his temper. He's a good actor." Zane didn't bother to hide the bitterness in him, pressing his lips tightly shut afterwards, all too aware that he had said too much.
"So, you hurt him...to have him notice you." Cody mused, watching his expression carefully with wary eyes.
"You're damn perceptive for a fish-man." Zane told him as he turned to look at Cody, his eyes narrowed half furious that he'd been so transparent all those years. How many others had seen? Had guessed…. Zane didn't want to know.
"Comes with the territory, I didn't used to be. I guess, in some ways, I'm still good with…denying certain aspects." Cody's jaw shut tight and Zane chuckled softly as he looked over his shoulder for a final time, it seemed things had settled between Jess and Lewis – for better or worse.
"Yeah, well, I get that too don't worry about it, I won't tell." Zane was smirking only a little, his guess had been right – Cody, at least, knew how he felt for Jess wasn't just "as a best friend" and now Cody knew he knew. He told himself it wasn't blackmail. He didn't want anything form Cody. Not yet.
"So, where are you staying the night, Jess?" Lewis asked as Zane joined them, Zane got the feeling he'd saved this question for now. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Cody tense, narrowing his eyes at Lewis, suspicious.
"Out on the boat, I guess, no real reason to spend the night on the mainland…" Jess trailed off, for Lewis had exchanged a telling look with Zane. He didn't know what it meant, but Cody was tensed up, glaring at the pair as if they had threatened a kitten. Jess wondered then – just what had Cody and Zane had a chance to say to each other?
"Nah, they say there might be a storm coming in, wouldn't want you to get lost at sea, now would we?" Lewis said this, looking all the while at Cody – it was plain that for some reason Lewis didn't trust Cody so near the New Moon. Cody, for his part, only looked (kind of cutely) confused, looking between Jess and Lewis – as if he wondered what had been said, just as Jess had…only Cody would know, because of his hearing…
So he'd wonder had what hadn't been said.
Zane gave in to Lewis, chuckling softly, looking fondly down at Lewis – the stubborn blond tensed, gritting his teeth, even as he looked up to Jess and Cody.
"What Lewis trying to hint at, is that I'm rich – got a mansion with more rooms then I need, and its just going to be me till after the weekend." Zane smirked then, as he looked at Cody and Jess (who let out a long suffering sigh at the plain challenge in Zane's eyes) then tapped his fingers on the cup holder he carried.
"So, who wants to sleep over?" Jess gave a tight smile to Lewis, then nodded his acceptance – narrow eyed, Cody didn't trust Zane not to let something "slip" if he didn't go along with this, Cody grimaced then bowed his head to the inevitable. When Zane was sent to deliver the drinks to the girls, they thought nothing of the "sleep over" – save to think that they perhaps ought to have one of their own.
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Note: …just a warning, this next chapter is last chapter to this story…finishing it, in truth; I just wanted to get this idea "out there" I don't have a plan beyond making the boys tritons and a smut scene…hoped you've liked it none-the-less, you are welcome to throw a few ideas out, I never know what might inspire me to continue a story….but, anyway, after this, I'm thinking of a solo story for Jess and Cody, and one for Lewis and Zane, likely unconnected with this, but this story always reminds me how much I love these shows…thank you for sticking with me, and if any ideas have inspired you though this story, have at them; though I'd like to know so I might read it too!