Aqua Aussie - (picks up record needle to pause the dramatic music) Don't worry, the drama's coming, but there's no need for the music quite yet. Youse gots'ta wait, yeah? Yep, Mel's a tricky one. I've pulled that trick many times myself! But only with friends and family and not with people I barely know, of course.

Lav'O'Dolphin - You assume correctly, my friend…Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha… We'll check back with him soon enough, but first I must mess with the eager reader minds…..Heh-heh…No, seriously, it gets weird…

PartyCakeGirl - Well, I'm no tragedy writer, but I'm not a fairy tale writer either… (in a creepy voice) …so even I don't know how exactly it's going to turn out. But things shall get ugly. One can only read and wait and hope. (normal voice) Anyhoo, maybe you're right, and maybe you're not. Wait and see, yeah?

Chapter 12: Girl Talk

With a tired groan, Angie stirred awake the next morning, forgetting for a moment where she was. "Uhh…" she moaned and rolled over, unknowingly a little too far. She accidentally fell off of the bed and onto the floor with a grunt. The good thing was that the bed wasn't very high and she had a cushioned landing from being wrapped up in the sheets on her fall. She groaned tiredly and rolled over. She pushed her arms under her, lifting herself up only enough for her to see and remember where she was. She forced herself out of the sheets and got up. She looked over at the other side of the bed, where Oscar was still sleeping. He didn't seem to mind the covers being gone.

You'd think the guy can sleep through a war… Angie thought. But I guess he's always slept extra hard on Saturday mornings…

"Psst!" she heard a voice whisper. "Hey! Angie!" it called her, still whispering.

Angie turned towards the window, where she had heard the voice. She swam over and stuck her head out of the window.

"To your right."

Angie looked to her right and saw Melody peeking around the corner of the building. Angie blinked and shook her head in a daze, not quite awake yet. "Melody?"

Looking left and right, Melody swam up to the window. "Keep quiet." she whispered. "I don't wanna be seen around here."

"Nobody sees you?" Angie asked. "What time is it?" She leaned back and looked at the bedside clock. Half past six in the morning. With a tired moan, she began to swim back over towards the bed.

"Wait!" Melody whispered. "I-I need to talk to you! From girl-to-girl, I need help. It's about Lenny!"

Angie finally turned towards her. She rubbed the sleep out of one of her eyes. "Let me down a cup of coffee and I'll see what I can do."

Moments later, Angie came out the front door of the apartment where Melody was just outside to meet her. "So…" the angelfish closed the door behind her and looked up at her. "What's up?"

"I need help about Lenny." Melody repeated.

"I think that's been established already." Angie remarked. "Why'd you come to me, though?"

"Well…no offense to either of ya, but you're married to one of the most talked-about and reckless guys in the city, so you would be the voice of experience on men, wouldn't you?"

Angie shrugged. "I'll…do what I can, but all knowledge of the masculine psyche does not come overnight when you get married. However," she said, "I think I have an idea of a better place where we can talk…"

Later, the two of them poked their heads around a building and glanced over at the warehouse where Oscar had once hidden Lenny when he was posing as the Sharkslayer.

"Wait here." Angie told Melody. She then swam out towards the warehouse and came right up to the door. She punched the red button off to the side, bringing up the large storage door. She looked around to make sure the coast was clear. She didn't want mayhem to ensue if somebody spotted a strange shark. She then motioned for Melody to hurry over.

Melody did as she was told and hurried over. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure nobody was watching as she swam in. She looked forward just in time to keep herself from accidentally running into the dumpster. What she didn't look out for was the storage room door, and inadvertently banged her head on it. "Ow!" she grasped her head.

Angie watched the sharkess swim in and then followed her, closing the door behind them. She turned and looked around the room with the shark hiding in it. "Geez," she muttered to herself with a smile. "Serious case of Déjà vu here."

"Eeeh…" Melody was still rubbing her head. "That's gonna leave a bump."

Angie lowered an eyebrow in amusement. "Did you hurt yourself?"

"Nothing except my pride." Melody replied. She looked at Angie. "Okay, so…Lenny and I were out last night, right?"

"Right…" Angie took a seat on a crate and Melody sat on a large sponge, both of them unknowingly resembling a previous conversation between another certain fish and shark pair.

"So we were at the edge of the rock yards watching the city lights, right…? While we were out there, we were talking and…I kind put my head on his shoulder. I-I don't know why!" Melody quickly went to defend herself. "But I was tired and there was no where else to put it and…well…it kinda seemed like the right thing to do for some…really weird reason that I don't know… I-Is that bad?"

"Depends." Angie replied. "What did he say after you put your head on his shoulder?"

"Nothing."

"Uh-oh."

"No, no, I mean…he didn't say anything, but just put his arm around me."

Angie seemed to perk up in interest. "Hmm…" she said thoughtfully. "Okay, that could be a good sign."

Melody continued. "And after that…" She paused and looked off into nothing, slowly flowing along with her mind. "…I mean it was so quiet that it felt like…like we were the only living things for miles around…and I just drifted off to sleep…"

There was a moment of silence as Angie took note of the distant look in her eyes and the way her words lilted off. She smirked to herself. She knew that look and that way of talking anywhere.

Melody broke out of her trance and looked at her. "…I'm sorry. Here I am talking all mushy and stuff and you're having to sit here and listen to me rant when I came here to ask you for help."

"Don't worry," Angie said with a smirk. "I'm getting all the info I need."

"So…what do you think I should do now?"

"Nothing in particular. Just let him come to you. It's not an easy task, though; I'll give you that. As it was once so wisely said: 'Love is a battlefield.'"

"Hey, I remember that song!" Melody said. "Heartache to heartache we stand." She paused. "The 80's weren't great to me, though, now that I think of it."

"Ditto. It wasn't until '92 that I thought my life was looking up again."

"Why? What happened in '92?"

"It's…kinda the year I came to the Whale Wash…where I met Oscar."

"Ahh, I see." Melody said thoughtfully. "Continue."

"See, I came to work as a receptionist at the wash when I was 19. Oscar had been there just a few years before I had. And I kinda had a crush on him. The problem was…he didn't seem to even notice that I was alive."

"Don'tcha hate it when that happens?" Melody put in.

"Tell me about it." Angie concurred in a flat tone. "But my friend Riley kept on urging me to 'make my move'. One day I finally got the nerve."

"What did you do?"

"Well…I kinda followed him." Angie replied in slight embarrassment, to which Melody smiled in amusement at. "I was thinking that if I followed but kept my good distance, I'd find my perfect opportunity to talk to him… But what I didn't know…until it was too late… was that I had followed him into the guys' locker room."

"Oww…" Melody smiled sympathetically, "you must have felt so humiliated."

"Melody, I was never more embarrassed in my life as I was that day." She smiled. "But when we finally got to talking, I found out that he was watching me as closely as I was watching him. He was just really good at being sneaky to the point that I never noticed his staring. Ironic, huh?"

"See, there's looking on the bright side! I mean, look where you are now!"

Angie blinked at thought about that. She looked at the Great White.

The smile fell from Melody's face quickly. "Oh… Sorry, bad choice of words. W-What I meant was-- you know, who'd of thought that after all that humiliation, he'd liked you too and you'd actually be married to him now?"

Angie shrugged. "I guess…but I wish we could somehow magically get to the part where we've resolved and made up."

"Well, ya know that's not gonna happen…" Melody logically pointed out. Then, she added to herself, "…unless you want to go via H.G. Wells style."

"Excuse me?"

"Uh, n-never mind. Talking to myself." Melody said. "But if I can give you some advice, I'd say that you should go and talk to him."

Angie shook her head. "I can't."

"Why not?"

"And say what?"

"C'mon, Angie, you're a strong woman." Melody put a fin on her snout, which was still a bit tender from their first encounter. "Trust me…I'd know. You'll know what to say, and I'm sure he'll listen. He loves you, right?"

"Well, yeah, but…the concern on if he'll listen or not is only half of it…"

Melody lowered an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"…There's…something else I've been meaning to tell him that he doesn't know about…"

"What is it?"

"I…don't wanna say just yet… I mean, I've never told anyone."

"Um…okay."

Melody just thought. What on earth would she be hiding?

Angie just kept to herself. After a quiet moment, she got up, said a calm, casual good-bye to Melody, and left the storage room.

TBC…