To my loyal subjects - from Jem

Due to an insane amount of "please will you finish this story" emails, kind reviews and my own tendency to despise unfinished business I have finally found enough inspiration to conclude this puzzling success of a story. Seriously, it befuddles me how popular this was in it's heyday. I read back over this now and cringe over my lack of captivating story-telling, crap spelling and misplaced punctuation. I'd gladly castrate myself for my past abominations, but I'm a chick.

One more health warning for my readers: I am now 19 years old. I was 14 when I started writing this. So my writing ability has changed drastically. "For the better?" you ask. Well, we shall see. I know a lot more words. I'm a lot darker, a lot more cynical and prone to making innuendos that those of you under 18 may not get, heh heh. I also curse like a french maid (aucune offense, dames) but I will try to avoid it for this story as it will be too anti-Disney/Pixar.

Put it this way, I used to be a lot like Dory, now I'm more like Gill. College and spice don't mix, kids. It does stuff to ya.

Finally the title of this chapter suggests I'm trying to get back into the swing of things, so this is not a long chapter. Depending on the response I might carry on.

Disclaimer: I don't own Finding Nemo, etc, etc.

Chapter 10: Testing the Waters

Travelling the open ocean on a row-boat; at the time of departure it had never happened upon Marlin that this was a beyond-moronic idea. The thought would just have been quickly replaced by his need to escape the humans and their wretched land life. Once again Sydney had been nothing but trouble.

The other thought that had not occurred to him, whilst he'd been dragging his oblivious friend into the rickety boat and pulling out of the docks, was that there was still the high risk of him drowning while he was still stuck in this squishy yet angular body. While he still had hair on his head he was likely to die of overexposure to water. Curse those ridiculous lungs.

This was all coming back to him now in sort of a "post-sight" and he felt his stomach begin to churn with anxiety. He stole a glance at the swirling black murk beneath the boat but quickly closed his eyes.

Funny, as a fish he'd avoided air and land when he could, now he caught himself wanting to go back to the shore. As a human the sea looked eerie and merciless; who knew what was just below the surface? It could be something big and dark… slimy, with tentacles and… and a thousand eyes!…

He felt his hand twitch; a sign that usually meant an involuntary self-slap was on it's way. He needed to keep it together. If not for his own sanity, then for Dory's.

He remembered her and found himself watching her slumbering form breathing in and out as she dreamt at the other end of the boat. A wave of calm washed over him and he suddenly forgot what it was he'd been obsessing over.

She looked so peaceful; after everything that had happened to them she was dreaming it out, as if it had all just been a bad story some mean kid had lodged in her mind. Of course, it may have just slipped her mind. Sometimes he envied her memory but at the same time cursed himself for even thinking he wanted to forget about Coral's death and everything he knew before. He would be a changed person, completely, and probably not for the better.

Dory's lips pursed in her sleep, as though she was pondering something very hard, then she sighed out loudly making the still night air jump with fright, along with Marlin.

How he only figured it out now, he couldn't quite fathom, but Marlin realised he'd never asked Dory anything about herself. Not once. He bit his lip, feeling ever so guilty and wanting to wake her up to bombard her with questions and make up for lost time. But would she even remember anything? Maybe the reason she never talked about herself is because there was nothing there to talk about; her hard-drive had been wiped-clean and rebooted at some point before they bumped into eachother.

A million questions scrolled through his mind; where was she from? Where did she learn to speak Whale? Was she christened with the name Dory or was that something she called herself because her real name was lost among flashbacks of her family and friends. Her family… Marlin wondered if maybe she had someone waiting for her somewhere. Maybe she even had kids of her own. Somehow Marlin doubted that but he would have to remind himself to ask her when she woke up.