Disclaimer: Ocean Girl and all its characters and places are the property of Jonathan M. Shiff Productions. I am a fan of the show and this is my own personal take on what could have happened if there had been a Season 5. Please also note: English is not my native language, therefore, please forgive me for any linguistic mistakes.

After coming to June Murray's rescue, Jason easily received clearance from Commander Murray to use all ORCA equipments he needed while he worked on his research project between terms.

On Saturday morning, Jason signed out one boat as well as diving equipment for himself and Brett as he planned to head out to a remote area of the reef with his brother. The early time of day was triggering protests from the younger brother.

"Jase, it's the weekend, can't we at least sleep in a little?"

Jason showed no mercy as he carried the box with equipments they needed and walked towards to the elevator. "Neri is going to meet us there. If we make good progress today, we can probably go to her island later."

Brett sighed. He'd prefer spending his time with Julie, but she was to accompany her mother to the mainland for the entire weekend. June Murray has been diagnosed with a mild depression by the ORCA physician and was to spend more time outside, so she and Julie decided to go sightseeing in Port Douglas.

Jason didn't miss his brother's sigh. "You got anything better to do?"

"I wish," Brett muttered under his breath, but Jason didn't hear since he tensed up when he saw Ben coming their way.

Ben grimaced as he spotted the Bates brothers. He was of course grateful for Jason to come to his mother's rescue, but he figured Neri was the main person to deserve the praise for saving his mother's life anyways. Even more than that, he felt intensely jealous of Jason.

After Ben was informed that his mother was in the small hospital wing of ORCA, he rushed there, only to see Neri stand with Jason, both of them wet with one large towel wrapped around them while waiting to hear how June was doing. Ben had felt a sharp pain at seeing them, arms wrapped around each other, Neri's eyes glowing as she looked at Jason, her not even noticing that Ben was approaching them. When the time came to thank both of them for saving his mother's life, his thank you was considerably cooler than that of his shaken father and his emotional sister.

Jason, on the other hand, upon hearing from Dianne that Neri had become such good friends with Ben that she invited him to visit her island, and Brett mentioning his suspicion that Ben may have developed a crush on Neri, brought up his concerns about her new friend to Neri. Knowing that Jason was overly worried since he wanted to protect her from any harm, she took his face in her hands to kiss him tenderly, but it didn't erase the worried frown from his face. Looking deeply into his eyes, Neri explained him earnestly: "Ben is a good friend to me, like Vanessa and Mick, and friends are welcome to my island."

She kissed him again, and finally elicited a half smile from Jason.

"Please just be careful around him," Jason pleaded with Neri.

"I will be," she responded, and it was the last that was said on that matter.

Still, neither Ben nor Jason sought each other's company on ORCA, and their few chance encounters were awkward.

"Heading out so early?" Ben asked the brothers now, as they were approaching the turbo lift.

Brett, seeing that his brother wasn't inclined to answer other than giving a short nod, elaborated: "Jason's working on a Marine Biology research project, and we'll meet up with Neri."

Jason shot him an angry glance, obviously not inclined to be forthcoming with any information on their plans.

"Please tell Neri I said hi," Ben said to Brett, and with a glance at Jason, he said: "Have fun!"

Again, it was Brett responding for them: "Thanks, see you around!"

As they walked on and stepped onto the turbo lift, Jason reprimanded his brother: "What's your deal with this guy? It's none of his business where we're going, and that we'll be meeting with Neri."

"I'm sure he could figure that one out by himself, you two are pretty inseparable after all," Brett responded. "And what's your problem? So even if he's got a crush on Neri, what's the big deal? She clearly loves you. Ben would have to be retarded not to notice."

Jason looked at his brother, who had grown to almost the same height as him and couldn't suppress a smile.

"When did you become a relationship expert?"

Brett shrugged, and stayed silent.

"Look, I feel I can't trust this guy, which is why I'm not comfortable about him striking up a friendship with Neri." Jason explained.

"But he's alright, Jase. Julie said Ben's typically a bit awkward around girls, that's maybe why he came off so badly when he first met you and Neri. He may be weird, but he's totally harmless."

Jason smirked. "He better be."

Neri met the brothers at the designated spot. As Jason helped her climb into the boat and the two greeted each other with a hug and kiss, Brett realized that Neri was radiating happiness ever since Jason returned to ORCA. His thoughts were interrupted when a widely smiling Neri approached him for a hug.

"Where's Julie?" she asked, looking around.

"She went to the mainland with her Mum for a few days."

Neri nodded sympathetically, then she cheerfully suggested: "We'll have fun together."

She looked at Jason, who was putting on his oxygen tank: "You ready to swim?"

"Yes. Brett, you're ready?"

Brett signaled his brother that he was, as it was his task to save the images that Jason was transmitting to him from the water.

Jason smiled at Neri. "Alright, let's dive."

The two jumped in the water and disappeared from Brett's view. With a resigned air, he slumped down in front of the computer screen and waited for the transmission of images to start.

As Brett had anticipated, Neri and Jason spent the long day diving to collect data and samples for Jason's research project. Brett' stomach was grumbling noisily by the time Jason and Neri were back on board and said they'd call it a day. Only the fact of Neri being with them kept Brett from complaining.

"How about you steer the boat, so I can start packing up the equipment?" Jason suggested, to keep Brett from going on about being hungry.

Neri smiled mischievously at Brett. "I'll race you to ORCA."

Before Brett could respond, Neri already jumped back into the water. He called after her with a grin: "I'll beat you even though you got a head start!"

Jason, who was just putting away some of the gear, shook his head and laughed.

"There's no way this boat can outrun her, I tried before."

"We'll see about that! Hold on!" Brett called, and raced their boat towards ORCA.

Neri naturally reached the pontoon first and climbed out of the water, scanning the horizon for the boat with Jason and Brett in it, but she couldn't spot it yet. She was about to change into one of the uniforms hiding for her in one of the smaller equipments boxes when she realized she wasn't alone. Ben had been sitting on the largest utility box, staring into the distance. When he saw Neri noticed him, he gave her a half smile in greeting.

"Hey stranger," he called.

Neri frowned a little, not sure why Ben would call her that.

"Hi Ben. It's a beautiful day, isn't it?" Neri asked, smiling and sitting down next to Ben, who seemed a little gloomy today.

Ben laughed bitterly. "Beautiful? That depends on the perspective."

"Perspective?"

"Well, you may look at this day differently than I do. You see it as a day you got to spend with Jason, I look at it as a day I didn't get to spend with you."

Ben looked at Neri meaningfully. Neri was too confused about his words and the look in his eyes to say anything and was about to get up from the box when Ben leaned forward to kiss her passionately. Neri, after overcoming the initial surprise of what just happened, pulled back and jumped to her feet. Ben got a hold of her hand and wouldn't let go..

"Please Neri, listen to me. Please," he begged, and something in his voice made Neri sit back down next to him. Still holding Neri's hand, Ben opened up: "The truth is: I'm in love with you. You're the kindest and most fascinating woman I've ever met, and it's tearing me apart when I can't be with you."

Neri looked out to the sea. Charley, noticing his friend's confusion, breached the ocean surface, and appealed to her to speak from her heart. So Neri wrapped both her hands around Ben's, and responded warmly: "You are my good friend, Ben. But I don't feel that way for you. I love Jason."

"Are you sure?" Ben eyes were begging for Neri to change her mind, to say what he's been yearning to hear.

"Yes. I'm sure." Neri responded.

Ben withdrew his hand from hers and his eyes turned cold. "If I can't have your love, there's nothing left to say. Goodbye, Neri."

He got up and headed to the lift. Neri looked after him and didn't notice that Jason and Brett were approaching the pontoon in their boat. Confused about what just happened, Neri just stood there, staring into the distance, until they joined her.

Jason gently put his arm around her.

"Are you alright, Neri?" he asked gently.

"You look like you've seen a ghost," Brett said. "Or did you exert yourself trying to beat us to get back here?"

Neri smiled at Brett and shook her head.

"No ghost."

With a look at Jason, whose blue eyes looked as confused as she felt, she said: "I'm going back to island. Now. You come along?"

Jason, still bewildered, noticed that Neri was shaking a little, and his mind was racing as he was wondering how he could make it stop, assure her that everything was ok.

"Sure, let's go," he responded, and pressed a kiss on her forehead.

He quickly pushed the box of equipments into Brett's arms.

"Brett, take this, and tell Mum I'll be back tomorrow," he said, then he firmly took Neri's hand and helped her into the boat.

Brett, holding the box, looked after them as they sped off.