A/N: This happened... It's a more extreme AU of abusive Hammerhead, more so than Interning. It takes place right after the Circle Game episode, where I noticed Hammerhead was a lot rougher with Finn (I think that's the only time he grabs Finn like that) and Finn acted genuinely afraid of Hammerhead while they were in the Red Claw.
The title came from the song Head Above Water, which has lyrics that I think really shows the theme of this story.
"Come on, pick up, Finn," Fontaine muttered.
Fontaine poked her tablet again. As it had for the last five minutes, Fontaine's call didn't go through. She stepped from her room, ready to find Kaiko for help.
"Who's that?"
Fontaine startled at Ant's voice. She quickly turned to see Ant watching her. She glanced at the tablet in her hand, then hid it behind her back.
"Nobody," Fontaine said.
Ant raised an eyebrow, then looked at Jeffrey in his Jeffrey Knight. If Fontaine didn't know any better, she would have thought that they were communicating silently.
After a moment, Ant looked at Fontaine. "Jeffrey has a feeling that Finn might be calling you again."
Fontaine pressed a hand against her face. Ant was wrong, actually. Fontaine just wasn't about to correct him because it wasn't Finn calling her, but her trying to call Finn!
Nevertheless, Fontaine had to say something to get away. "What would Jeffrey know? Jeffrey is a fish."
"Jeffrey is very intuitive," Ant said firmly.
Fontaine just dropped her hands and huffed, then stalked into her room without a word. She closed the door behind her, but didn't move away for a moment.
Fontaine looked at her tablet. The words "Call disconnected" flashed on the screen, almost mocking her.
"Just pick up," Fontaine said. She shook the tablet, as though it was the problem. "Come on, Finn, I'll be nice. Just… just pick up!"
Fontaine had to check on Finn. The pirate boy had a habit of calling her for seemingly no reason. After a couple months, though, Fontaine had picked up one constant.
Anytime the Nektons crossed the Dark Orca pirates, Finn called her. These chats were more subdued than Finn's "I'm bored, what are you doing?" calls. Fontaine usually finished the calls feeling like Finn had needed cheering up.
Fontaine rarely called Finn, even though she was growing to -dare she say- enjoy his calls. Finn had once let it slip that Hammerhead really didn't like Finn talking to a Nekton, so Fontaine didn't call Finn for the risk of Finn's tablet being in Hammerhead's view.
Fontaine had expected Finn to call her within the hour. It had been pretty clear that Hammerhead wasn't pleased with Finn before the boy had even sided with the Nektons. But as time passed without Finn's usual call, Fontaine started to wonder. Her wonder turned to worry when Finn didn't answer her calls.
"Maybe Hammerhead just found some other treasure to chase, and Finn's busy," Fontaine said to herself. "Or they're still plugging holes from the pufferfish. Yeah, that must be it. Finn's a half-way decent mechanic. I bet he's still busy with repairs."
Regardless of the solid reasoning, Fontaine didn't stop watching her silent tablet screen for another half hour.
The rest of the day passed without a call from Finn. Fontaine's calls continued to fail to go through, even when she waited until early the next day.
"Maybe he lost his tablet?" Fontaine mused, tucking her tablet under her arm. She left her room, tired but unable to try to sleep any longer. "Or he's still sleeping. When do pirates wake up?"
Fontaine wandered into the kitchen. Kaiko, in the process of cooking breakfast for herself, looked up in surprise.
"You're up early," Kaiko said, going to the fridge.
"Couldn't sleep."
Fontaine sat at the table. She crossed her arms on the table, then rested her face on her arms.
Kaiko cocked her head at her daughter. She poured a glass of orange juice and set it in front of Fontaine, the quiet clink causing the girl to lift her head.
"Are you feeling alright?" Kaiko asked as she nudged the glass closer.
"Yeah." Fontaine took the glass, but didn't drink. "I've just got a lot on my mind."
"Sounds serious," Kaiko said, lightly jesting. She returned to the stove. "Want to talk about it?"
Fontaine was quiet for a couple minutes. "No, I'm fine."
"Well, how about breakfast? Issues do seem bigger on an empty stomach," Kaiko said.
"I'm not hungry," Fontaine said quietly.
Kaiko turned as Fontaine, juice in hand, left the kitchen. Kaiko frowned after Fontaine, but returned her attention to the stove. When Fontaine was ready to talk, she would.
Fontaine, meanwhile, continued to wander the halls of the Aronnax. The more she walked, the more she woke up. Unfortunately, the more awake Fontaine was, the more her worry for Finn grew.
She didn't even know why she was worried about Finn. Hammerhead loved his sub too much to let it sink and repairs would be keeping the pirates from raids, so it wasn't like Finn was in any danger. Well… safe from anything outside the Dark Orca.
Fontaine stopped and shook her head. "As long as the Dark Orca is safe, Finn's safe."
Despite her words, Fontaine still lifted her tablet and made another call. Again, the call never connected.
"It's fine," Fontaine murmured to herself. "Everything's fine. Boy, I hope Finn can't see how many times I tried to call…"
Fontaine chuckled to herself. Finn was going to never let her forget her little freak-out. Well, serves him right for going AWOL for so long!
Shaking her head and in lighter spirits, Fontaine moved on.
Fontaine made it to noon with minimal worries. She just kept telling herself things that Finn must have been having trouble with: Dark Orca repairs, bad reception, wrangling Madeline.
Still, Fontaine found it hard to focus on her math schoolwork. She stared at the problems on her tablet for much longer than normal, even longer than Ant, and her rambunctious brother always took ages to finish schoolwork.
Aware of Kaiko's worried gaze, Fontaine told herself to focus on the next math problem. The numbers, though, were nothing but jumbled nonsense to her distracted mind.
Beep!
Fontaine jumped at the quiet alarm. She looked up, glad for an excuse to set aside her schoolwork.
"What was that?" Fontaine asked.
Kaiko turned to her console and swept through a few screens. "Again?"
"Again what?" Ant ran to look at Kaiko's console. Then he grinned over his shoulder. "Pirate boy misses Fontaine again!"
"Finn again?" Will asked, standing from his console.
Fontaine hoped her utter relief wasn't too obvious on her face. A second later, she was struggling to hide her worry again.
Why would Finn call from his stolen communicator? He rarely did, in case the Nektons decided to retrieve their tech from him. And even then, why would he call the bridge?
"It's Finn," Kaiko confirmed. "He's using the distress beacon."
Fontaine gave up on hiding her worry and ran to Kaiko's side. A red beacon flashed on the console, not far from four colored dots indicating the Nektons.
"You don't think something happened with the Dark Orca?" Fontaine asked.
"I hope not." Kaiko pulled up the communicator's location. "We can be there in half an hour."
"The beacon isn't far from the pufferfish nests," Will said. "That's odd. Hammerhead is usually long gone after a day like yesterday."
"You don't think something's wrong with the Dark Orca, do you?" Fontaine asked.
"If they were in immediate danger, the beacon would have been activated earlier," Kaiko said calmly. "The beacon is in a group of islands; they could have gotten stranded."
"Maybe we should see what Finn wants before we go there," Ant suggested.
Fontaine scowled at him. "Why?"
"Because last time he called, Finn led us on a treasure hunt that almost got Dad killed!"
Fontaine had to pause at Ant's logic. She was so worried about Finn being in danger, she forgot how Finn sometimes put her family in danger…
"Well, we certainly won't ignore him," Kaiko said. "Will, I'll drive. You see if Finn will pick up.
Kaiko reached for the joysticks, then the beacon changed to include an incoming call from the communicator. The Nektons glanced at each other.
"Or, Finn will call us," Will said.
"Alright, let's see what's wrong," Kaiko murmured, tapping the console to open communications.
An image appeared above Kaiko's console. The communicator showed a view of a broad beach, calm waters, and clear sky. Nobody was in sight.
Fontaine still breathed a sigh of relief. Wherever Finn was, he was at least on solid ground and not at the bottom of the ocean.
"Finn?" Will said. "Finn, are you there?"
Nobody responded.
"Hello?" Ant leaned closer to the console. "Finn, we know you're there."
Still, the only sound over the comm was the wind. The image didn't change.
"Maybe he ditched the communicator," Kaiko suggested, even though everyone knew Finn wouldn't do that.
"It's another trick!" Ant declared.
Fontaine groaned. "Why would he do that?"
"Well, why would he call us?" Ant asked.
"I didn't know who else to call."
Everyone jumped when Finn suddenly responded. His voice was weird: nasally and hitched, like he had caught a cold and his nose was stuffy.
"Why didn't you say anything sooner?" Will asked.
"I was thinking," Finn said.
"Are you hurt? Where's the Dark Orca?"
The view waved erratically for a moment, as though Finn had waved a hand. "The Orca's out there. It's alright," Finn said.
"Are you?" Will persisted.
"I'm… okay," Finn said.
"Why aren't you on the Dark Orca?" Will asked. "Where's Hammerhead?"
The image jumped, then turned sideways and pressed into the sand. Fontaine found her head angling with the camera.
"I didn't mean to call," Finn said.
Sensing a change in his voice, Kaiko held her hand up to Will in a "stop" gesture. She spoke up quickly.
"Finn, did you want to talk?"
A brief pause over the comms, then Finn said, "It's too quiet."
"Then let's talk." Kaiko stood and pointed for Will to take the controls so she could focus on Finn. "What are you doing now?"
Again, Finn didn't respond right away. "Watching the waves."
"Mm-hm," Kaiko hummed. "Do you do that often?"
Finn was quiet for too long this time. Kaiko grimaced, then had an idea.
"Fontaine's here," Kaiko said.
Under normal circumstances, Fontaine would have been less than impressed with Kaiko's bluntness and probably would have left the bridge. But with Finn's odd behavior on top of his unexplained absence, Fontaine wasn't about to object.
"Spill, pirate boy," Fontaine spoke up. "What are you up to now?"
"Wondering why anyone would choose to live on land."
Fontaine shrugged at Kaiko and ignored Ant's raised eyebrows at her promptly speaking up. Finn was being way too odd for Fontaine to care what Ant thought.
"Yeah, I don't see the appeal, either," Fontaine said. "Except it's hard to find decent fries on a sub."
Ant snickered. Fontaine rolled her eyes, then stiffened at Finn's next words.
"Can… can you pick me up?"
"Why can't-" Ant started.
Kaiko put a hand on his shoulder and shook her head. Something told her to not ask about the Dark Orca just then.
"We're on our way," Fontaine said. "Don't go anywhere, alright?"
"N-no, never mind," Finn stammered. "Just forget I said anything."
"You can talk to us," Kaiko hurriedly said. If Finn got agitated and left the communicator… "If you want to stay there, you can."
At her side, Will pushed the Aronnax faster.
"No, this… it was a mistake, just forget it."
Fontaine reached out. "Finn-"
The image swung wildly, briefly catching Finn's face before it cut off. The screen vanished, then the beacon a second later.
"Mum," Fontaine said worriedly.
"We can still track the communicator," Kaiko assured her. "But we'll have to move fast."
"What's wrong with Finn?" Ant asked.
"I don't know."
Kaiko pulled up a recording from the communicator's camera. She ran through it, then paused when the view showed a glimpse of Finn's face. Everyone gasped.
Though the image was blurry, it was clear that Finn had a black eye. There was red under his nose, likely blood.
Nobody spoke. Will silently pushed the Aronnax even faster.
A/N: Dramatic cliffies will be the norm for this story.