Chapter Ten
Sam listened intently, positive that Lizzie was doing the same.
"And you're sure about this?" asked one man.
"I got my sources," said the other. "Trust me, there's mermaids."
"Alright, let's just hurry before whoever owns those two cars comes back."
"You got it."
Sam looked at Dean. "You're right. Bounty hunters."
"What?" asked Dean in a whisper.
"I said, you're right," whispered Sam.
"Yeah, how do you know that?" asked Dean.
"They're talking about hunting mermaids," Sam told him.
"You can hear them?" Dean asked him.
"Mermaids senses, remember?" Sam pointed out.
"Well, let's get out of here," said Dean. "They're gone."
Sam grabbed Dean's arm as he began to stand. "Wait."
Sam listened closely as their footsteps grew more and more faint. He heard the telltale thud of boots on wood and knew they were now in the building.
"Go, quietly," Sam hissed.
Dean eased the driver's door open, sliding into the seat, as Sam stood with Lizzie. Bobby opened the back door, and Sam carefully put Lizzie inside, scooting in next to her.
"Don't peel out of here," Sam told both Bobby and Dean. "Make it look like you just got back to the car."
"Duh," said Dean, starting the Impala.
Bobby closed the door and headed to his car. Dean led the Impala out towards the road, and Bobby followed him. Sam turned to see if the hunters were watching them or even following.
Sam sighed in relief. "We're clear."
"How did they know?" asked Lizzie.
"Probably the kid with the camera spreading stories," grumbled Dean.
"It doesn't matter," said Sam. "Dean or Bobby can keep an eye to see when it's safe to go back."
Dean glanced at him in the rearview mirror. "We can?"
Sam sent him a glare.
Dean nodded at Lizzie. "Yes, we can…apparently."
"Don't worry," Sam told Lizzie. "I won't let anything happen to you."
Sam knew Lizzie must have been scared. Her first time back on land in almost five years, and bounty hunters come after her. She was practically shaking as she looked up at Sam with wide eyes. Sam lifted one arm and wrapped it around her, pulling her close.
"I promise," Sam assured as he held her.
Lizzie rested her head against Sam's chest, closing her eyes. Dean watched in the rearview mirror for a second before looking back at the road, smiling a little.
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"You haven't eaten regular food in four years?" asked Dean in surprise.
Lizzie shook her head. "I haven't been on land, so I haven't eaten at restaurants or anything."
The four of them had spent a couple hours or so in the motel room, re-teaching Lizzie how to walk. They had headed for an early breakfast at seven.
"What did you eat?" asked Sam.
"Seaweed, crab, a lot of fish," replied Lizzie.
"Isn't that cannibalism, in a way?" Dean pointed out.
"Not technically," said Lizzie. "It's nature. Like the way lions eat gazelle or zebra. Other land mammals, but not same species."
Dean shrugged. "That makes sense." He looked down at the menu and glanced up at Lizzie. "How'd it taste, you know, raw?"
Lizzie shrugged. "Not bad. Kinda fishy."
Sam laughed, looking up at a smiling Dean.
"That's funny, actually," said Dean. "Well, I recommend the omelet. Top it with onions, peppers, cheese, ham, bacon—"
"Dude," said Sam. "She's not you."
Dean shrugged. "Hey, first time eating human food. Gotta start with the best."
Sam rolled his eyes and looked at Lizzie. "What breakfast foods did you used to like?"
"Um…French toast was my favorite," said Lizzie.
"Perfect," said Sam. "Strawberries or blueberries on top?"
Lizzie's face lit up. "Strawberries and bananas."
Sam smiled. "Sounds good."
The waitress walked up to their table. "What can I get you folks?"
"I'll have the bacon cheese omelet with ham, onions and peppers," Dean told her, smirking at Sam.
"I'll just take the scrambled eggs and sausage breakfast," said Bobby.
"Toast or hashbrowns?" asked the waitress.
"Hashbrowns," said Bobby.
"And for you two?" she asked Sam and Lizzie.
"French toast with strawberries, bananas and whip cream," said Lizzie.
Sam smiled at her and looked at the waitress. "I'll have the same. But for ours…"
The waitress stopped writing and looked at him.
"No salt on or in anything," said Sam. "We are both extremely allergic."
"Huh," said the waitress, putting a hand on her hip and cocking her head curiously to the side. "There's a salt allergy? I've never heard of that before."
"Technically, it's hypersensitivity to salt," Sam told her. "But we're so sensitive that it's like an allergy. All we know is we can't have it."
"That's interesting," said the waitress. "I will make sure they don't put any on." She headed off to place their order.
"Thank you so much," Lizzie told Sam. "I completely forgot about that."
"We're real careful about the salt," Dean told her. "They put salt in Sammy's potatoes a few days ago. He almost suffocated."
"I did not suffocate," said Sam.
"I said almost," said Dean.
"I didn't almost suffocate," said Sam. "I just got a little dehydrated."
"A little?" laughed Dean. "Dude, you practically dunked your head in the toilet to get water!"
Sam rolled his eyes and turned to Lizzle. "Ignore him. He likes to make jokes to make himself look good."
Dean leaned conspiratorially towards Lizzie. "That wasn't a joke."
Lizzie giggled.
"I did not put my head in the toilet," Sam growled at Dean.
"No, just in the sink," Dean said.
"At least you went into the bathroom," Lizzie told Sam. "The first time I accidentally ate salt, I ran straight for the tap at the bar."
Sam laughed out loud. "What'd you do after that?"
Lizzie blushed. "Ran out and jumped in the pool of the motel next door."
Sam's eyes widened. "You just jumped in?"
"It was, like, midnight," said Lizzie. "Everyone was asleep."
Dean laughed. "I take it back, Sammy. She's the crazy one."
Lizzie giggled as Sam smiled bracingly at Dean.
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Sam knocked on the bathroom door that afternoon. "Lizzie?"
"Come in," came Lizzie's voice.
Sam opened the door to find her in the full tub. He smiled. "Feel better?"
Lizzie sighed. "Much." She put her arms up on the sides of the tub. "I never realize how much I would miss being in the water. But it's my home now."
Sam nodded a little, slightly uncomfortable at how she called it home. Here was this girl who he was starting to fall for, and she was maybe starting to fall for him, too, and yet they wanted to live in two separate worlds…and she didn't know it yet. She didn't know that he didn't want to stay.
Sam squatted down next to the tub, crossing his arms on the lip of it. "Have you always felt that way?"
"You mean since I turned?" asked Lizzie.
"Yeah," Sam nodded.
"Sort of," said Lizzie. She hesitated, clearly nervous about her story.
Sam slid his arm forward, gently grabbing hold of her hand.
Lizzie looked up at him, staring into his eyes. "It was Cody."
Sam got his legs out from under him and sat next to the tub, getting comfortable.
"We met at a bookstore," Lizzie's story began. "We both reached for a Sherlock Holmes book." She shook her head. "I should have known it was just a pick-up technique. We started dating, and he was being vague about where he came from, how old he was, stuff like that. One night, he finally told me he was a merman. I, of course, laughed, thinking he was joking. But then we went down to the beach, and he showed me."
Lizzie smiled at Sam. "I was so thrilled that he would share something that huge with me. He must really be in love with me." She looked down into the water. "I shouldn't have let him in like that." She looked up sheepishly at Sam. "He was the first guy I'd ever liked like that."
Sam nodded thoughtfully, silently urging her to go on.
"A couple days later, I asked him to turn me," said Lizzie. "That way, we could be together forever. I mean, all I had in the human world was Lori, and I could still visit her this way. All I knew was I loved Cody. We spent the first few weeks going back and forth between water and land, having the time of our lives. After a month…we finally…you know."
Sam nodded, telling her that he knew and she didn't need to explain.
Lizzie looked back down at the water. "Two months later…I found out I was pregnant.
Sam suddenly pieced everything together in his head.
"I went to tell Cody, and I…" Lizzie hesitated, tears beginning to fall down her face. "I found him making out with a mortal."
Sam gripped her hand tighter.
"I ran straight to Lori and told her everything," said Lizzie. "That's when she insisted on coming with me."
Sam waited for a good moment. "What happened to the baby?"
Lizzie smiled. "She went to a family of merpeople…after we went back to the ocean."
"Back?" asked Sam.
"Mermaids with child stay on land during the pregnancy and birth," Lizzie explained. "For obvious reasons. When she was born," she giggled softly, "I named her Ariel."
Sam laughed with her. "Perfect name."
"Yeah…" said Lizzie, staring absently at the tiles ahead of her. "She turned four a couple months ago…" She laughed, looking down at her red hair and black scales. "Her hair is black, and her tail is red."
Sam laughed with her.
He was beginning to understand what was going on with them. True, they had crushes on each other, but it wasn't actually love. Sam liked her, but it wasn't like what he had felt for Jess or Madison. He didn't really see a future in it. And Lizzie…well, Sam was the first guy since Cody that was actually kind to her. He was probably only the second guy that she liked in her whole life. It was just a rebound; a late rebound, but still.
"Sam?" Dean called from the main room. "Lizzie?"
"We're in here!" Sam called.
Footsteps approached the bathroom, and Dean appeared in the doorway, leaning against the frame with his hands in his pockets.
Dean eyed Lizzie soaking in the tub. "Well, looks like that 'alligators in the sewer' story isn't that far off."
"If I was an alligator, you'd be screaming right now," Lizzie told him.
Dean shook his head a little. "Dean Winchester does not scream."
"The hunt on Flight 424 notwithstanding," Sam pointed out.
"That was not screaming," Dean told him. "That was yelling like a man. There's a difference."
"Sure there is," Sam muttered. Before Dean could argue with him, Sam said, "What'd you and Bobby find out?"
Dean sighed. "You two better batten down the hatches."
Sam frowned at him.
"They're setting up a post in that building, waiting for mermaids," Dean told them.
Sam looked at Lizzie. "You better let your sister know so she can tell the others to stay away from there."
Lizzie nodded and stared at the wall in front of her, speaking to Lori telepathically.
Sam glanced up at Dean. "What do you think? Should we do something?"
"Do something?" said Dean.
Sam glared at him. "Dean, these people are innocent, and these bounty hunters are gonna do hell knows what to them."
"Yeah, so, we're just gonna go bust some heads and let them know that there definitely is something worth protecting here?" Dean asked. "If we leave them alone, and you two and the rest of them don't go near that dock, they'll assume the camera kid was drunk or something."
Sam thought about that for a second. "That's actually a good idea."
Dean smirked. "You say that like I never have good ideas."
Sam shrugged, and Dean glared at him.
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Lizzie stayed in their room that night. Sam gave her his bed and slept on the floor. Sam hopped into the tub first thing in the morning for about half an hour. The whole 'drying' process was getting easier and easier, just like the telepathic conversations had.
Sam emerged from the bathroom to find Dean and Lizzie talking.
"You didn't!" said Lizzie.
"I did!" laughed Dean. "Baldie never saw it coming."
Sam rolled his eyes. "Please tell me you're not telling her about the Nair in the shampoo."
"Alright," said Dean, looking at him. "I'm not telling her about the Nair in the shampoo."
Lizzie giggled.
"Very funny," muttered Sam.
"Dean's been telling me all about your childhood," Lizzie told him.
"Of course he has," said Sam. "'Cause that's where all the humiliating stories are."
"Damn right," said Dean. "You're just not as embarrassing as you used to be, Sammy."
"Thank God for that," said Sam, grabbing a jacket. "Let's go get some breakfast."
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That afternoon after Lizzie's soak, Sam and Lizzie were walking through the park while Dean and Bobby went to case the dock.
"So, Lori's still safe?" asked Sam.
"Yeah," said Lizzie. "Everyone is. Do you think those hunters will ever leave?"
"I'd give it one more day before they give up," Sam told her.
Lizzie smiled. "And then we can go back home." She wrapped an arm around Sam's arm, leaning into him.
Sam winced a little. "Uh, Lizzie…" He stopped, turning towards her.
Lizzie looked up at him.
"As fun as that sounds, my home is here…with my brother," Sam told her, bracing for some tears or something.
"Oh, it's okay," Lizzie said with a smile. "I'll visit him with you."
"No, it's—" Sam began, wanting to let her down easy. "I'm still human. And my brother needs me."
"I know exactly what you mean," said Lizzie. "I'm still human, too. And my sister needs me also."
"But my brother is here…in the human world," Sam told her gently.
Lizzie frowned. "What are you saying, Sam?"
Sam sighed, taking her hands in his. "Lizzie…I can't stay like this. I need to go back."
Lizzie slowly shook her head, tears forming in her eyes.
"My brother is in trouble right now," Sam told her. "He needs me to help him, and if I stay like this, I can't. I am so sorry, Liz—"
Lizzie wrenched her hands out of Sam's grasp, a tear falling down her face. "That's what Cody said…"
Sam knew how this had to look: just as Cody ditched her for a mortal girl, now Sam was ditching her for the mortal world.
"Lizzie…my brother needs me," Sam told her. "He's dying. I—"
"Don't!" said Lizzie, shaking her head as more tears fell. "I should have known…" She took off running towards the park entrance.
"Lizzie!" Sam called. "Lizzie, wait!" He began to run after her.
Lizzie raised a hand up, and the fountain exploded. The water barreled onto the path where Sam was. With hunter/merman reflexes, Sam jumped backwards and avoided most of the water. There was just some that splashed onto his jacket. Sam looked up to see Lizzie vanish out of the park gate. Clearly, she didn't want Sam to follow, so Sam didn't. After all, she knew she couldn't go back to the dock yet, so she would just lay low on land somewhere. He just needed to give her some space right now.
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Dean walked into the motel room to find Sam sitting at the table. "Lizzie soaking again?"
"No," said Sam.
Dean closed the door, seeing how miserable Sam looked. "Where is she?"
"I don't know," Sam told him.
Dean froze, staring at Sam wide-eyed. "You don't know? The mermaid patrol is on the clock, and you lose Ariel?"
"She knows not to head back to the water until it's safe," Sam told him.
"What happened?" asked Dean, sitting at the table.
"I told her about wanting to get cured," Sam said. "She took it kind of personally. She left."
"And you're sure she's not gonna head to that dock?" asked Dean.
"Yeah," said Sam. "She knows how dangerous that is."
"That's good," said Dean.
Even so, Sam couldn't help but feel in the back of his mind that Lizzie would do anything right now. This all was a flashback to Cody, dredging up all those memories and feelings. Who knew what she would do right now.
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The next day, Sam went to answer the door, finding Lori standing on the motel doorstep.
"Lori?" Sam exclaimed. "What are you doing here? The bounty hunters could have seen you!"
"They're not there anymore," Lori told him.
"Oh," said Sam. "That's good."
"Probably not," said Lori.
Sam frowned. "Why?"
"Lizzie's missing," said Lori.