Cody stared at his hands, scale free but still pruned from the water. He'd been dry now for over an hour, but it was still weird to him to be sitting on a couch, dry and clothed. His parents were helping John Wheatly get dinner ready and Jess was on an old desktop trying to figure out how to help Cody get his voice back. Nursing a headache from the little telepathic communication he had been doing, Cody sat there in his silence. He wanted nothing more than to answer their questions and laugh with his dad. But it didn't happen. All his efforts resulted in his throat hurting and his cheeks red with anger and embarrassment.
His humiliation was only beginning. Sam would be there soon, having been invited for dinner. Cody was excited to see her. And nervous and scared and elated and horrified. Sam had been cautioned that Cody was still recovering, but he knew she had no idea what that really meant. Though he was pretty sure Sam would continue to be his friend, Cody feared he had lost his almost girlfriend. He would never blame her if she had given up waiting for him. Over half a year was more than enough time to move on.
"Hey son." Whit sat down on the couch next to him.
Cody gave a small nod and moved from looking at his hands to looking at his feet.
"Your mom wanted me to help you over to the table."
Right, because he couldn't walk on his own either. His dad grabbed his arm as he pushed himself up. His knees shook and his feet felt heavy, but he was standing. He let out a huge sigh of relief and with his dad's help began shuffling forward. Whit held tight and balanced his son, but for the most part Cody was walking again.
Sharon watched her husband and their son from the kitchen. Cody moved slowly but with a renewed confidence. Every step brought determination to his face. Maybe if his legs were recovering his voice would too. She could only hope. A knock came at the door as Cody lowered himself into his seat. Whit left his son to go let Sam in. Jess came in with them as John and Sharon started putting food on the small table.
Across the table Sam's eyes locked on Cody. His face lit up and he moved as if to stand, but stopped. Not deterred by his hesitation, Sam rushed to his side and embraced him in a hug.
"You made it back." There was such relief in her voice.
Cody wrapped his arms around her hesitantly, all his conflicting emotions making him unsure how to act. Releasing him, Sam stood and looked down at him. Her eyes quickly searched from the top of his head down to his feet then back to his face. There was no judgement there. She had always accepted him for who he was. Cody should have known to never doubt her.
"Why don't we all sit?" Sharon motioned to everyone and placed the last dish on the table.
Sam sat on one side of Cody and Jess on the other as the adults filtered around. The conversation started off light as Mr. Wheatly talked about his haul from that morning and Whit Griffith discussed how the tour business was still going great.
Cody found the normalcy of it all was exactly what he needed to calm his lingering doubts. No one pressured him to try to talk and they were all genuinely happy he was back. Dinner finished and Sam and Jess helped Cody to the couch. His legs felt even stronger this time and they only had to help him keep his balance. Sam and Jess talked with him for a few minutes about school and the swim team and what to expect when he came back. When he started yawning they got the hint. Sam gave him a light kiss on the cheek and said her goodbyes. Then it was time for Cody and his parents to leave the Wheatly's and head back to their lighthouse.
"Hey, Cody." Jess stared at his friend. His parents were packing up their things and Cody looked lost without anything to do.
Cody looked at his friend, signaling with a nod to continue.
"I'm glad you're back." Jess gave his toothy grin. "When you're ready to go back to school I'll be there to help."
Cody nodded and smiled back, then thought two words to his best friend. 'Thanks Jess.'
Jess's mouth fell open in amazement. He knew Cody could communicate telepathically, but it was his first experience with it.
"You're welcome." Jess smiled again then stood. "Text me when you want after school tomorrow and we can hang out. Maybe I'll even have some answers for all this by then."
With one more nod Cody watched Jess head to bed, then leaned back into the couch in exhaustion. To think he had gone to bed last night with a tail, and now he would be going to bed with legs. Not only that, but at his own house in his own bed. He had to wonder, as his parents started helping him to the car, if he'd find his mattress as comfortable as seaweed.
-TSLOF-
Two weeks. It had been two weeks now and Cody knew he had to go back to school. His parents weren't pressuring him, nor were Sam or Jess. He knew that if he didn't start going back now, he probably never would. Plus, he was going stir crazy. He spent most of his days walking down to the cove and staring at the ocean. He could no longer breath underwater and the ocean made his legs itch, so he mostly stayed out of it. But if he didn't go and at least stare at it he would feel restless and uncomfortable in his own skin. Truly, he was at this weird halfway between land and sea. Today he had felt more off than usual, so he'd gone for a swim. The ocean water soothed his emotions, while his body warred with itself. He'd have to make it a quick swim.
As the sun was dipping down and he was just passing the buoy back to shore. The familiar ding rand out as he passed, making him smile. He may be mostly human, but the ocean would always declare what he really was. He looked ahead and noticed a lone figure sitting on the sand, waiting.
Sam.
Sam watched Cody make his way towards her. He'd slimmed down since coming back and now was tan, lean and so much older looking. While he looked human, watching him swim reminded her of how different he really was now.
Cody stood up from the shallow water and plopped himself down next to his girlfriend just out of reach of the tideline. She glanced down briefly at his webbed toes and smiled.
"Hey." She gave him a kiss on the cheek.
'Hey Sam.'
Her smile brightened. While she missed his physical voice, hearing his voice in her head was still a good thing. Cody wrapped her hand in his and they sat there, comfortable in Cody's silence. He had gained back full use of his legs, but his voice was still gone. Even the small sounds he'd been able to make had left him.
With the absence of speaking, he'd been practicing communicating more with his mind. He'd had a constant migraine the first few days, but his mind had gotten stronger like his legs. He'd found that simply communicating with words and a few images here and there was the best method. While merfolk communicated with images and emotions, trying that method with humans proved unfruitful. So with his parents, Sam and Jess, he learned to talk to them and now it was becoming second nature. It still had its limits though. Apparently when he laughed it reached everyone around him, even those he wasn't trying to project to. If he yelled, it did the same thing. If he hadn't talked to someone often, his voice came in weaker and softer. On the other hand, those he was most familiar with could hear him no problem.
'So.' He grabbed Sam's attention, looking at her serene face.
"So."
Cody smiled. 'I've decided to go back to school.'
"Really?" Sam gave him a concerned look, her eyes squinting softly.
He nodded. 'I can't spend every day just staring at the ocean or reading. I'm back on land now and that means going to school like a normal person.'
Sam laughed. "But you're not a normal person."
Cody gave his laughing smile with the bright eyes. 'No, I'm not. But only you and four other people know that. If I don't go to school, eventually people are going to want to know why. Besides, doing normal things helps me feel like I'm really not that different.'
Sam understood. Cody just wanted to fit in. He wanted to embrace being human again. Going to school was probably the most normal thing he could do.
"Have you told your parents?"
'Yes,' he nodded. 'My mom is going to come with me tomorrow morning to get me re-enrolled. There are some things that have to be worked out.'
"What…" Sam was about to ask what had to be worked out. Then she got it. His voice. Technically he now had a disability. "Oh." She stared at him lamely.
'Yeah. It's not like I can telepathically communicate to everyone. As far as anyone is concerned, I'm mute.' He paused and stared out at the ocean for a minute. 'I'm thinking about learning sign language so I can at least feel like I'm able to talk to others.'
It was a good idea and Sam agreed. He couldn't just not talk to other people. And when she thought about how they talked now, it couldn't really continue. They could only talk freely like this when there were no other people around. It would look really strange just her holding a one-sided conversation and Cody just staring at her. It wasn't really something she'd thought so much about, but now she could see the problems.
"If you're going to learn sign language, then I should too. That way we can talk in school." Sam smiled. "We don't need people thinking I'm crazy holding conversations with myself.
Cody gave her that same laughing smile. 'Thanks, Sam. I'm going to talk to Jess about it too. My parents are going to start looking into hiring someone through the school once we get the official word from them.'
Sam nodded and then wrapped Cody's arm around her shoulder, snuggling into his damp side. She was so happy to have him back.
-TSLOF-
Turns out going back to school wasn't such a simple process. Cody's parents had to supply medical documentation of Cody's speech disability and get the school to follow an IEP. The medical documentation proved to be the hardest part. After visiting three doctors they finally found one who could give a name to Cody's disability.
Aphonia. All the doctors were baffled as to how his larynx functioned just fine, but was still unable to produce sound. They had never seen anything like it before. At each doctor, Cody's parents lied through their teeth about what had happened. The official story was Cody had been biking and jumped a curb wrong. Falling off, and not wearing a helmet, he had hit his head. He hadn't had a concussion and they thought he was fine. The next day he'd woken up and his voice was simply gone.
The first two doctors, understandably, had been skeptical. The third had reasoned it was possible and finally agreed to work with them. He gave them the diagnosis as well as a treatment plan to work on getting Cody back his voice. He was mute, and he was trying to accept it.
The school had poured over the documents from Dr. Petersen and met with Cody and his parents every couple days to determine how to proceed. Seeing how Cody had been 'home schooled' for the end of the last school year, and at the beginning of the current one, they questioned why he was coming back now.
Sharon had explained that accusations of cheating had made him feel uncomfortable at school so they had pulled him out. However, with Cody's 'accident' they felt it best that he returned to an environment where he could have a professional team working with him to get his voice back.
It took a month, but finally a plan was established. Cody would be part of the beginning ASL classes and meet with a tutor during his free period to go over and speed up his learning sign language. During class the school would provide for him a tablet with programs that used text to speech. If he had any questions in class or wanted to say anything, he just needed to type on the tablet and it would speak his words aloud.
The prospect of it all made him nervous. He felt sure that his real secret would be discovered within a week. But one think was for sure, Cody was officially back in school.
Sorry this took me so long to get up. I've had major writer's block like no body's business. Plus, there were a couple things I had to rewrite a few times because I wasn't happy with it. Hope you enjoyed it! Can't promise when the next one will be up, but stick around. I promise it will come.
