Phew! I think I can finally return to my usual schedule. Daily updates are back, ladies and gentlemen!

Alicia—Well, there are no seagulls here. Thank goodness for that!

greatbigsealover44—I always thought they were funny, ha hah. But thanks for the review! You rock!

Chapter Eleven

Although the seagulls seemed to be having a cheerful day, things weren't as optimistic in the tank. Nemo and Gill were moping around in different areas, making sure that they were seldom seen. Much to Lulu's relief, Gill hadn't tried to commit suicide again, and he was mostly lurking about in his fake skull. But after a few hours of this dull atmosphere and shooting glances of the utmost contempt at the dentist, everyone had had enough.

"That's it! I'm going to talk to Nemo," Lulu told Deb, who nodded in agreement. Even she wasn't feeling chipper (and neither was Flo).

"Just don't mention D-A-R-L-A!" Gurgle hissed.

"I can hear you, and I know who you're talking about," Nemo said flatly. Bloat smacked Gurgle on the back of the head, not appreciating his "help". Lulu swam inside of the diver's helmet—Jacques usually spent his time in here, but the French shrimp was busy tidying up Mount Wanna-Hock-A-Loogie, probably hoping to avoid the tension.

"Are you doing okay, Shark Bait?" Lulu asked, placing a fin on Nemo gently. He shrugged and shook his head. "Don't feel rotten," she said. "You did nothing wrong. Go ask Gill and he'll agree with me one hundred percent."

"He won't be mad, will he?" Nemo asked, his eyes big with worry. Lulu chuckled a little. She couldn't imagine Gill ever being mad. Cross, maybe, but he would never be mad.

"No, he won't, I guarantee it," she promised. "He feels just as rotten as you do right about now." Nemo didn't budge an inch. "Would it help if I went with you?" He nodded a little, and they practically floated across the tank to Gill's little home. Nemo shot a forlorn look up at the filter, and Lulu held his fin for the rest of the way.

"Gill, are you still here?" Lulu asked, peering into the pitch black eyes of the skull.

"Hey, Million…hi, Shark Bait," he called out. Lulu saw movement inside, but she didn't see the whites of his eyes. He wouldn't look at them at all. Nemo cleared his throat.

"Gill, I'm so sorry that I couldn't stop the—"

"No, I'm the one who should be saying sorry. I was so ready to get out of here, so ready to taste that ocean, that I was willing to put you in harm's way. Nothing should be worth that." Lulu sensed that the two needed some distance, and she wandered over to the tank wall, just below the dreaded filter. She looked past the damned dentist, and her whole face lit up when she spotted two familiar, feathery faces.

"Here come some people to cheer you up!" Lulu called out. "It's Nigel and Alicia!" The two pelicans were flying up to their usual perch outside the office. Nigel appeared to be out of breath, and Alicia was calling out to him. If she was telling him to watch out for the window, then her advice came a little too late, because the leader of her flock smashed into the window.

"Hey!" The dentist shouted, removing his piece of equipment from the patient's mouth, taking a tooth with it in the process. The poor man screamed in pain, and the dentist chuckled, "Well, that's one way to pull a tooth. Good thing I pulled the right one, eh, Prime Minister?"

"You just missed an extraction, Nigel," Peach joked as soon as the birds reappeared.

"What have I missed?" He began asking questions that began or ended with weird medical jargon, and Alicia shot him a look that reminded him of why he had flown over here in such a hurry. "Oh, what am I talking about? Is Nemo here?"

"Yes, I'm here!" Nemo answered, joining the rest of the Tank Gang by the wall.

"Your dad has been searching the entire ocean looking for you! He's been going up against sharks and jellyfish and what-not just to get here!"

"That can't be my dad," Nemo insisted, shaking his head.

"No, no, I think it was!" Alicia shook her head. "His name is Marlin, right?"

"It's my dad! He took on a shark!"

"We heard that he took on three!" Alicia corrected, holding up three feathers. The Tank Gang members gasped, hardly daring to believe it. Even Gill looked more than a little surprised.

"That's gotta be forty eight hundred teeth!" Bloat said in admiration.

"Well, depending on the type of shark," Lulu started to say, but cut herself off when Nigel and Alicia started to tell Nemo about everything his dad had gone through. Apparently he had been swimming for miles and miles, travelling the East Australian Current after taking on an army of jellyfish and three blood-thirsty sharks.

"Oh, what a good daddy he is!" Deb cooed happily.

"He's a devoted father, that's for sure," Nigel added, and he and Alicia flew away.

"He was looking for you after all, Shark Bait!" Gill concluded, flashing a grin at Nemo…or rather, at the place Nemo had occupied only a few seconds ago. And now—

"He's swimming to the filter!" Gurgle gasped. This was true. The little clownfish had picked up another pebble and was now entering the chamber that he had barely escaped with his life.

"Oh, no, not again!" Lulu panicked, dashing over, the rest of the gang behind her. "If he dies in there, I'm never going to forgive myself!"

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