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Disclaimer: I do not own twilight, but the mermaids and other original points are mine. Please don't take them.

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Chapter 35: Of Tanks – BPOV

The tank was okay, but it lacked the rhythmic motion of the sea. I found that out after spending more time in it. I knew that if I mentioned it, the Cullen's would do anything and everything to accommodate my needs, but I just didn't have the heart to disappoint them after all of their excessive efforts.

A day later and Esme had brought fish, actual living fish, along with kelp and other seaweeds to stockpile the tank and make it feel more, well, ocean-like… I still didn't know what to think of that. But the thought itself was sweet and it was interesting to watch their colourful scales catch in the light as their shoal flitted about the vast area. They too, seemed to like the castle.

Edward joined me in the tank later that first day and since then I had not swam alone. It was pleasant to have company that did not need to breathe and that it was Edward made it ten-times better. Whenever the fish sensed his presence though, they disappeared very quickly. Alice and Emmett joined us sometimes too, even Rose did once, but she did despise wet hair. Her visit did not last, and Alice accused her of only joining us so that she could show off her new bikini, which… wow! I could never see myself wearing.

"Hmm," she sighed at Alice, flicking her hair back, "well, I was never going to be able to wear it anywhere else while we remain in Fork, was I? I'm simply taking advantage of an opportunity here."

"Take-advantage away!" Emmett wolf-whistled, slapping his thigh and splashing water.

Edward simply rolled his eyes, pulling me into his arms as he sank to the sandy bottom. He was in swim shorts that Alice had bought for him, and that he wore them, and nothing else, was a constant source of my blushing.

I liked to sleep in the tank at night now too, which I think Edward found weird though he never said a word, but still, he insisted on staying with me while I slept, holding me close while the ebb and flow of the water moved around us. Now I had the freedom to stretch my tail again, I couldn't help but baulk at the idea of giving it up, even for a few hours. Legs were good too, but to have my tail unfurled, and to have my fins feel the water's satin caress… It was its own kind of bliss, and in the days I had spent out of the water, I had missed it.

As the sun rose after the second night I had spent sleeping in the tank, I woke to find Edward's arms around my waist. Still there, no blankets between us, just like when I had fallen asleep. I turned on the sandy bottom to find him smiling down at me. Messy bronze locks floated around him, in even worse disarray than in the dry air, and his smile was gentle and sweet. He could stay through the night with me now; never having to move for fear that his cool body would freeze my cold blood. And I could tell that he was enjoying the change.

"You're talking in your sleep again," he said as he nuzzled my shoulder, placing feather-light kisses along it. "It was nice to hear, even if it was underwater."

A trail of tiny bubbles rose from his lips as he spoke.

Groaning, I squeezed my eyes closed. "Oh no, what did I say?"

"Something like 'No, Edward, you can't fight the jellyfish. They'll throw limpets at you.' That was the clearest part. Although, there were other bits…" He was grinning.

"Good Lord." I threw a hand over my face, stirring sand.

"Your imagination must be a riveting place, Miss Swan. It's something I would very much like to see… I wish I could read your dreams." His voice sounded so wistful that in that moment I forgot my embarrassment.

"It's nothing out of the ordinary, I assure you," I mumbled as I lowered my arm.

Edward merely shrugged. "Still, I am glad to have reclaimed that one little window into your mind. I've missed it."

"Really?"

His nuzzled my shoulder once again and this time he began to pepper the skin of my collar-bone with delicious little kisses. "More than you know."

"Hmm," I smiled, loving the tingly sensations he created. But what he said got me wondering. "Don't I talk in my sleep in our bed anymore?"

"Not since you got back," he said, drawing back to look at me with those deep topaz eyes, "except for the odd incoherent click. Even with your tutorage I could not translate them."

I smiled. "Ah, then I think you have just given me the perfect reason to go back into the house to sleep."

The way Edward looked in that moment was hard to describe. He looked both disappointed and relieved. My teasing grin set him back on course and as his answering smile blossomed in return, the dawn sun caught the diamond fragments of his skin and caused then to glisten. That was something I had missed too. And mermaids did love sparkles.

"No matter," he said, far too smugly. "As you well know I am a proficient study, and you have so graciously been teaching me your specie's native tongue. So whether you sleep on land or in the water I will soon be able to decipher all of the little riddles your subconscious leaks." My mouth must have been hanging open like a lobster trap. Goddamn it! "See? You have unwittingly bestowed the key to your mind, Miss Swan. And I fully intend to exploit it."

Before I could complain, he had scooped me up and launched us to the surface.

"Speaking of which," he went on, far too nonchalantly, "I think we should be getting back to work on that dictionary with Carlisle – in the name of research, of course. Plus the sun is up."

Cradling me in his arms he climbed out of the tank and carried me onto the grassy soil, where he sat me down. Before I could even feel the change taking effect, he had passed me a robe to wrap myself in. Once my legs reappeared I wiggled my toes and he helped me to stand. I only wobbled a little, and his hands steadied me. It was getting easier and easier.

I grinned, as did he. "Breakfast time for the mermaid."

…

Despite my preference for the tank, I really did need to keep practising with my legs as well. Walking normally – or as normally as I ever did walk – was still something I wanted to do. I didn't want to fall back on the progress I had made by swimming all day and neglecting my legs. As it was Edward still had to carry me most places, and I didn't want that to continue – however much he claimed that he 'didn't mind'. I wanted to regain this small piece of independence. And so it was later, that I found myself on the back garden's grass, wearing a nice blue sundress Alice had given me, stumbling back and forth between Alice and Edward in front of the massive tank. We planned to swim again afterwards as a reward.

"You know, it's funny how weak your legs are now," Emmett said as he watched me wobble. "I mean, your legs can barely support you for more than a minute sometimes, and yet, when I tried to pick you up at First Beach your tail threw me a good twenty feet."

Alice blinked. "What? When did that happen?"

I stumbled and fell into Edward's arms. He caught me easily but he was watching his brother too, intently, and his eyes were distant and worried – ah, he was reading his thoughts.

"At First Beach during the attack," Emmett continued, "Remember I told you, that guy shot at her from the boat. I jumped in between before he could get another shot off and tried to grab her." He shrugged. "Wrong move apparently, she didn't take it well. My point is: shouldn't her strength be proportional?"

He had an interesting point, but unfortunately no one else seemed to be focussing on it. All were either staring at me or at Emmett.

"You spooked me," I clicked weakly in my own defence. And when even Edward frowned, obviously confused in the translation, I repeated it in sign, before looking away.

The boats had been in flames that night, people were fighting, screaming, running and swimming… All was chaos… one Quileute had had a machete… I had lost my sisters…

I shivered. The memories still disturbed me, and I did not like to think on them.

Emmett barked out a laugh once he understood. "Spooked? Is that what you call it? I call it 'had a freaking meltdown'."

"Emmett," Edward said in warning.

I flinched and raised my hands, forming the symbols of sign. "I thought you were one of the men from the boat," I said, "I panicked."

"Hey, no worries," Emmett said as Edward rubbed my arm and I hid my face in his neck. "The only reason I brought it up is so I can show you my war wounds."

What? Confused, I looked around to see him pulling up his sleeve.

"Pretty impressive, huh?"

His exposed arm had a strange silvery scar along the bicep that I had not seen before. It looked remarkably similar to Jasper's bites from when he had lived in the South.

I was confused, and clicked, "Did you get into a fight with a vampire, Emmett?"

He watched me carefully. "Err, no," he said, "this is a mermaid's bite."

I gasped, "One of my sisters bit you?"

"No," he said, still maintaining that cautious tone. Beside me I felt Edward silently shake his head. It all clicked into place then.

"Oh!" My hands flew up to cover my mouth. And without my grip on Edward's arm I nearly toppled, but he held me steady. Right then I barely noticed. Me? It was me? "Oh. I'm so sorry, Emmett. I didn't mean… I didn't realise… I don't even remember!"

Edward rubbed my arm soothingly as my heart began to fly. I was clicking my response too quickly for him to follow and I knew he would not understand it but-

"Whoa," Emmet said, holding up his arms, and smiling, "like I said, no worries. I think it's pretty awesome. Jasper ain't got nothing like this."

I couldn't believe what I'd done.

Moreover, I couldn't believe how genuinely thrilled he was about it.

Rosalie would kill me.

The others did not seem at all perturbed by it, and, if anything, their lack of reaction was what helped me to calm down. Though Edward was scowling fiercely in Emmett's direction his brother didn't seem to notice. Jasper came out to inspect his war-wound and beside him Alice poked at it with a delicate finger. Finally, I dropped my hands.

"Did it… did it hurt?" It seemed a silly question to ask. "Does it still hurt?"

My worry must have been tangible but he only shrugged. "Tingled a bit, stung at first. Carlisle reckons you girls have venom that's fairly similar to ours, although it's different…"

One part of my mind was horrified at the prospect of what I had done. The other part was contemplating the implications of this in wonder. Huh, mermaid teeth can pierce vampire skin. So that mermaid I travelled with to First Beach was right.

"One sister said that our teeth could pierce vampire skin…" I signed, trying to form the complicated gestures as I recalled the memory. "I thought she was making it up."

"Really?" Jasper queried. "Huh, how did she know that? Did she attack a vampire?"

"No idea," I said. "She implied that she did but I'm not sure how much of what she said was true. The girl was a renowned liar." Riana had told me once that Fi had claimed to have fought off a giant squid alone. And that she had taught Elvis to sing as a child. Then again, Danica had also told us that vampire skin broke our teeth. So I didn't know who to believe.

"Hmm," Jasper was watching me closely now… like a specimen beneath a magnifying glass. "I really would like to hear more about your mermaid's culture someday; their histories and their knowledge… if you wish to talk of it one day I would be a most grateful audience."

"You and everyone else in this family," Alice muttered.

"Hey," Emmett added, "and now that we're learning your language and that you can speak proper English in the water, we can understand you when you speak extensively!"

The prospect made him beam. Alice and Jasper looked far too eager to hear me talk too… but I wasn't sure that I even wanted to. Was I betraying my sisters if I did? What if they didn't like what they heard? Mermaid culture wasn't all happy swimming under the sea… it was blood and cruelty and carnage. What if they saw me differently once they realised what I was capable of? They were vampires, yes. And they had committed atrocities too. But this was different; sometimes I still looked so human that it was easy to forget that I no longer was… And that was something that Edward loved about me: my human innocence. Did I want to shatter that illusion for him yet? Looking into his honey-gold eyes, I knew instantly that I did not. Not yet.

Thankfully, Edward seemed to read my hesitation and swiftly changed the subject.

"Jasper," he said, "I've been meaning to ask about what your research has turned up on that tribal hunter Jacob and I found. I heard you thinking on him earlier…" As he spoke he lifted me up and took a seat on one of the porch swings, placing me in his lap.

"Ah, yes," Jasper said, as he and Alice took the love-seat opposite. "There was nothing much new but I did find something about a mermaid colony he claimed to have discovered near Chile. If I'm correct, that is where he first learned how to use the lure…"

As they spoke their voices passed over me and I settled into Edward's side as they spoke. Later, when there was a bit of a lull in the conversation and their topic had shifted to something entirely different, I turned to look up at my vampire.

"Thank you," I silently mouthed.

"Anytime," he whispered back. Then his eyes seemed to shift. "I meant to talk to you about something, actually, Bella." He was hesitant, but I gestured for him to go ahead. He could ask anything of me. "That girl, the singer at First Beach, she spoke to the humans there, and, although all any of the rest of us heard was your natural clicking, the man in the boat seemed to understand her perfectly."

I nodded slowly.

Yes, Kiera did do that. She speaks to him mind to mind, Lilith had murmured beside me that night. It is how we ensnare our male prey. You would know as much if you had allowed me to teach you to hunt them. The memory, and her pointed flashing fangs, made me shiver.

"From what I could gather," Edward continued, suddenly enthused, "she was speaking to his mind. And I thought, well… that perhaps, one day, you will be able to do the same?"

The hope sparking in his eyes was a hard thing to see.

I stared at him sadly and hung my head. Taking a deep breath I raised my hands.

Kiera was skilled, and old, ancient, she had had many years to hone that talent… and I had never been taught. And now that I thought on it I did not want to learn it either. It was a trick designed to ensnare prey, to persuade them to enter the water, and, from what I gathered from my brief time in the colony, it was only ever used when hunting. It was a luxury I was happy to do without. Besides, I seriously doubted I could manage what he suggested without help from another of my kind, and to get that I would need to return to the sea, and leave him.

I looked up for a moment, into his eager topaz eyes. Nope, that wasn't going to happen.

I relayed as much of that as I could in sign and watched as his expression fell, and darkened. At the end of my stunted explanation I paused with trepidation. I wondered… but still I had to ask. "Are you disappointed?" I clicked in Mermish.

"With you?" he asked, his eyes going wide, "never."

Before I knew it I found myself in his arms, cradled against his chest. His tone was so adamant; it left no room for doubt.

"Never believe that I am anything but grateful that I can just hold you. You are the greatest gift the world could ever have given to me. Whether that means you have the most beautiful voice in the world or none at all. I love you, just as you are."

I smiled slightly. "Even with a fish tail?"

He laughed. "Even with a fish tail. I love you, scales and all. It's as simple as that."

And it was.

"But…" he hesitated, and I looked up, "If you ever do change your mind, and wish to try this telepathic projection skill, I would happily try to help you. Being the telepath in the family I likely have the most experience in that area. It would be an interesting aspect of your new form to explore."

"Okay," I clicked. "Maybe someday we can try."

It was only then that I remembered we were halfway through a conversation with Jasper and Alice. I quickly looked over, but they were talking quietly between themselves, lost in their own world. Alice still sat on Jasper's lap, and as I watched, he leaned in to nuzzle her neck and she laughed as she wound her fingers through his hair.

As the sun began to set, we retreated indoors. Alice ventured over to Rosalie at the computers, who was tweaking some kind of fashion design, while Jasper went to watch a chess match between Emmett and Carlisle. Ah, domestic bliss. While they were all occupied, Edward led me into the kitchen for dinner, hand on my arm, careful of my stumbling feet.

Esme was already inside, flitting from fridge to counter as we took some seats.

"So, Bella," she started as she dished up a plate of raw scallops and mussels for me, "I hear your legs are improving. Perhaps you will be up to running again one day."

"As if she could ever run," Edward murmured. "You shouldn't encourage her, Esme."

I smiled. Sometimes he worried about me too much.

"Ignore him," Esme smiled, tapping his head with a wooden spoon as she passed. "If you like I would be more than willing to help you exercise your legs. I recently did a degree in Physiotherapy. I thought that as a doctor's wife it might be prudent to-"

There was a harsh snap.

A chair hit the floor and suddenly both vampires were stood straight.

What?! What was happening? I twisted in my seat and saw that the others in the living room were positioned exactly the same way. All were frozen, all stared at the front yard…

"Edward," Esme's flat voice broke the silence, "who is it?"

Eventually the quiet broke, giving way to his barely restrained growl.

"It's Sam," he grated. "And he's not alone. The wolves are here."

…