26. It's Not The End But it Kinda is

Summary: The pod has returned to Mako and Sirena, Ondina, and Mimmi are allowed to go freely between land and sea like they did while they were trying to work things out with the merman chamber. Word travels fast in the sea and Nixie and Lyla have also returned. They rejoin the pod and have the same privileges of being able to go between land and sea as they please.

Word Count: 1790

Soon after the pod had returned, Lyla and Nixie made their way back to Mako. Word had spread fast about the land girl turned mermaid and merman who saved Mako to make it safe for mermaids again.

Lyla and Nixie had returned in hopes of also being able to rejoin the pod like they had heard Sirena, Ondina, and Mimmi had been able to do. They were readily accepted back into the pod and became members once again.

When they first returned, Lyla and Nixie had planned to stay in the sea. After a few days Sirena convinced them to go on land once again. They had been reunited with Rita and their other friends on land. Though they initially hadn't wanted to go back on land, they were happy they did. Neither girl had really realized how much they missed being on land and eating land-people food.

"So has it all gotten to your head, Zac? You're practically royalty," Lyla joked.

"We keep him grounded enough so that he doesn't get too proud," Evie joked as she passed by.

"I try not to let it get to my head too much," Zac spoke, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest.

(line break, but not a big one: we're still in the cafe )

"Hey Cam," Nixie greeted, finding him at the counter as she went to order a drink.

"Nixie!" he exclaimed in surprise, a smile on his face. "You're back," he give her a quick hug in greeting which she returned,. The hug didn't go unnoticed by Carly. "What are you doing back?"

"Lyla and I had heard that Mako was safe and the pod had returned. We came with hopes of rejoining the pod, were able to, and Sirena convinced us to come on land."

"So you're back in the pod then?"

Nixie nodded.

"What can I get for you, Nixie?" Carly asked, making her way to the brunette.

"Just a strawberry smoothie, thanks." Carly nodded and turned to start preparing drinks. "See you around, Cam."

He gave Nixie a small nod before she want to join Lyla and Zac at their table. He looked back over to them a minute later, specifically Nixie before turning away. He was with Carly now. He was happy with her, but he couldn't help looking back at Nixie; he had forgotten how much he liked the depth of her entrancing blue eyes.

CHCHCH

Lyla and Nixie had now been back to Mako and on land for several weeks. Cam often found himself looking over to Nixie when he saw her at the cafe. He always made sure he did so briefly so Carly wouldn't see; he was happy with her.

However, there were times Cam found his gaze lingering on Nixie longer than he meant it to. When he'd realize what he'd done, he'd quickly look away and see if Carly had seen. She always seemed to be busy with work when he looked to her, and he hoped she had been the entire time his gaze had been on Nixie.

Sirena and David had a show that night, so the whole Mako gang was there to see them perform. Cam sat at table with Zac, Evie, and Mimmi while the other natural mermaids shared a table.

As Sirena and David started to perform after a brief break, Cam found his gaze once again lingering on Nixie. He looked away from her and to the stage to focus on Sirena and David. His mind, however, soon had him looking back over to Nixie. He scolded himself, realizing what he was doing. 'I'm with Carly, I'm with Carly, I'm with Carly,' he repeated to himself.

He turned his focus back to Sirena and David once again. He made himself consciously look over to Carly, but he kept unconsciously looking to Nixie as well. He didn't know what it was that made her so enticing to him.

"Cam, can I talk to you in private?" Carly asked. She had gone to the table to drop off drinks.

"Yeah, okay." he stood and followed her to the cool room. "So, what's up?" he asked once inside the cool room. Carly had stopped to let him go in first and closed the door behind herself after entering.

"What's going on between you and Nixie?" Carly asked bluntly.

"Me and Nixie?" Carly gave him a nod. "Nothing. We're just friends. We've always been friends."

"Cam, I want to believe you, I really do, but I just can't."

"Why not?" Cam furrowed his brow.

"Because– because," Carly stuttered. How was she supposed to say this? She'd had her suspicions before Lyla and Nixie left, back when they'd first showed up, especially after the sunglasses incident. Nixie had been out of the picture when she and Cam got together. Carly took a deep breath to help calm herself. "Because I've seen the way you look at Nixie. The way you hugged her when she first got back; the way you keep glancing at her when you think I'm not looking. Cam, I've seen the way you look at Nixie, and it's not the same way you look at me. You've never looked at me that way," Carly paused. She didn't want to say what she knew she had to say next. "You love her," she spoke. It pained her to say that, but her next words pained her more, made her muscles ache. "You love Nixie in a different way than you love me. You love me as a friend, we've been friends since we were kids, about as long as Zac and Evie, but we'll never have what they have with each other. Somehow, we'll always be best friends but not like they are."

"Carly I–" Cam wanted to contradict Carly, to tell her she was wrong, that he did love her as more than a friend, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized how right she was. "You're right," he admitted. "Since Nixie got back, I've tried to be ignorant towards my feeling for her because I like what we have. I'm happy with you. I thought I'd left my feeling for Nixie in the past, but her turning up again made me realize I haven't."

"I know," Carly spoke sadly.

"So where does that leave us?"

"I think we should break up. I think it's for the best that we do. If we were meant to be, Nixie wouldn't have come back, and you wouldn't love her the way you do. You need to be happy. I want you to be happy. And you will be with Nixie."

"But I'm happy with you."

"You'll be more happy with her, Cam. You know you will be."

"Do you think we can still be friends?"

"I put glue in your hair and you stole my lunch and we're still friends. Those were bigger than break ups as kids, I think we'll be fine."
"True," Cam laughed. "I'm glad you're being cool about all this."

"I mean, we're leaving this on mutual terms. We're still going to be friends; we just weren't meant to be a couple."

"You're probably the coolest ex-girlfriend a guy could ever ask for. Thanks for that, Carly. And thanks for getting me to admit what I hadn't admitted to myself. You've always been a great friend, so thanks." Cam stepped forward to give Carly a hug.

"What are friends for?" she spoke as she hugged him back. They let go of each other a minute later. "So are you going to go talk to Nixie now? Should I give you a shove in the right direction?" Carly laughed.

"I should go talk to her. And I think I can find the way myself," he joked.

The two shared one more hug before heading back out to the cafe. Sirena and David were just finishing up their song as Cam and Carly reentered the main portion of the cafe.

Cam made his way to the table where Ondina, Lyla, and Nixie sat and took the empty seat between Ondina and Nixie. "What do you want, Cam?" Lyla asked harshly from the other side of the table.

"I actually came over here to talk to Nixie," Cam spoke.

"Me? What for?" Nixie asked, sounding surprised and suspicious.

"Can you come with me to talk for a minute. Somewhere private?"

"Okay, I guess," Nixie shrugged and followed Cam to the small hallway by the change rooms for Evie's shop. "What's up, land-boy?" Nixie asked once they were in the hall.

"Nothing much, I guess," Cam spoke, glancing back out to the cafe. He realized he had no idea what he wanted to say. "I um– Carly and I– we broke up," Cam spoke. Nixie gave him a face that said 'so what'. "No– um." He paused and took a minute to work out what he wanted to say. "Nixie, I've liked you for a long time. When you left, I thought I was over you. Now that you're back, I realize I'm not. I've liked you since that first day you showed up. When you didn't know how to dress and were wearing stolen clothes–"

"We were new to land," Nixie interjected.

"I know. I knew you were special back then, I just didn't know how special at that time. I know things with the pod are different than things on land are, but would you be willing to give me a chance and go out with me?"

Nixie stayed silent for a few minutes to watch Cam suffer, a smile played at her lips. "Yes, actually. I don't know why or how, but I like you too, Cam. I realized how much I had fallen for you while Lyla and I were looking for a new pod. Despite everything you'd done, I couldn't stop thinking about you."

"That's the best thing I think I've heard all day." Cam meekly held his arms out for a hug, not sure if Nixie would accept or not. Instead of embracing him in a hug, Nixie took Cam's wrists and brought them down to his side. Using Cam to give her a bit more support, Nixie stood on her tiptoes to kiss him.

"How was that, land-boy?"

Cam looked taken aback for a minute as he tried to process the fact that Nixie had kissed him. A smile soon formed. "It was great, fish-chick." he gave her a sly grin as he called her 'fish-chick.'

They headed back out to the cafe and the table with Ondina and Lyla hand-in-hand. They spent the rest of the night sitting together listening to David and Sirena perform. As Carly watched them together, she couldn't help but smile and feel happy for them.

A/N: So. . . who's not happy with me for breaking Camly up? Sorry about that, well, actually I'm not really, maybe. While I will say that Cam and Carly have been pretty cute together in season 2, I don't ship it because I'm way too stuck on Cixie, and in something that I wrote between season 1 and 2 that I might edit to take place after season 3, I gave Carly a love interest so it makes harder to ship them.

If you like Cixie, or if you don't, I hope you were still able to enjoy this one-shot. I thought it was important for Carly to not be a crazy ex because she got over the fact that David was with Sirena and told them in an episode, 'If you two were any sweeter I'd have to slap a health warning on you.' That's the basis for this being written the way it was.

I wanted to get another one out before season 3 so I hope you enjoyed, and I'd love to hear what you thought. Thanks for reading,

-CrazyHayniac