It wasn't like Ryan wasn't expecting the nerves that were hitting him that morning as he got dressed and texted Shane he would be waiting outside, but it was almost like the nerves were trying to make up for the weight resting on his chest and shoulders as the reality of everything set in. He was a merman, merpeople existed and no one knew a thing.

Okay, maybe he was feeling a little sick at all that after all.

On top of that, the car ride was so... awkward . They had all greeted eachother good naturely, TJ and Matt having been with Shane in his car unexpectedly while the others followed behind them, but he could feel everyone was on edge and walking eggshells around him as they set up for the interview, making him sigh. "Guys, I'm not going to bite, you know."

It was, of course, TJ who took up the chance to speak. "You did a real number on Shane the other day. Just didn't want to make you madder."

"Yeah, well, I know it's affecting all of us in a bad way and it's my fault, but I wanna be clear, I'm not mad at anyone in this room. Like at all, seriously. We need to be professional given that's what is expected of us and I wasn't for a moment." Ryan sighed, sounding tired even to his own ears as a mic was wired onto his back. "I'm just going through some stuff right now and didn't mean to bring it into work with me, I'm sorry."

"It's okay man, we get it. Shane told us yesterday that you might still be a little sore from everything that happened on the last shoot." TJ shook his head. "Just...try and sort out before it eats you alive, dude. Can't have it affecting the show or Sara and others-"

"-will have us for dinner, I know. Don't worry man, I'll fix it. Somehow. Soon."

Ryan groused a little, knowing what might happen and they silently agreed to not say more on the matter as when TJ walked off, he pulled out his phone to check everything that he wanted to ask Dr. Mesa about his trade, questions, possible banter and all.

This included a still image of the writing he'd found in the cavern the footage of which he edited, removed most parts of (again, FBI lab, not happening) and sent to Sara that morning with a quick bullshit note that a fan had found the camera while diving off the coast, taken the memory card out and after watching, sent it back to him personally.

He hoped that she (wait for it) took the bait. Ha. Fish jokes are a thing now for him. He was turning more into Shane than a merman. Christ, that's not as funny as he thought it was.

"Hey little guy-" Ryan paused his thought train hearing Shane calling him and turned on the spot, eyebrows raised. "-yeah, big guy?"

Ryan tried not to feel too guilty at the small smile that fluttered across Shane's scruffy face at the nickname, obviously becoming lost in thought like himself previously for a moment before returning. "Mer-dude's just arrived and is coming upstairs as we speak."

"His name is Anton Mesa and he holds degrees in zoology, marine biology, history, ancient languages and cryptozoology. Not mer-dude, dude. More like genius fish guy dude."

He didn't know how much that knowledge would come back to haunt him later, but for now, he and Shane walked towards their seats to get trussed up in their microphone and audio equipment for the interview. Hopefully, he might actually get some answers secretly from this guy about the neverending NPR stream going on in his head right now. Maybe. Somehow.

Turns out, Dr. Mesa was a really funny guy. Both he and Shane had obviously expected him to be kinda laid back, given he'd moved from Maine to Hawaii decades ago, but the guy, clad in the most Hawaiian printed button-up, khaki shorts, sandals and a khaki bucket hat over long braided grey hair, just managed to gel with everyone he met as he came in as well as with them during the interview, happily answering all their questions.

Ryan, though he wouldn't admit it to everyone else, almost felt a kindred connection to the guy, like he knew him personally or something and hadn't just met him that day.

It seemed Anton had also felt the same, given when he showed him the photos of the script on the walls he'd found and he'd identified it as a rather unstudied form of ancient Latin, not only did he keep looking at him quite strangely while the interview rolled on (and when he laughed or looked outside distractedly at the ocean and kept drinking his water), after it had ended and they were wrapping up and taking down equipment to put back into the van (trying to keep their hour time slot was hard, but they'd managed) when Dr. Mesa approached Ryan.

"Mr. Bergara, I can say this was a very different experience for me, being interviewed for a web series. I never thought it was this genuine, no offence given of course."

"None took, sir." Ryan smiled back politely. "You'd be surprised how high brow some web shows have become in the public eye these days, we didn't expect these shows to become the way that did, but we're grateful nonetheless."

"Have you always grown up in California, Ryan?" Anton asked curiously, sharp blue eyes almost making Ryan feel nervous. "Yes, I have, just a little inland from here."

"Oh, really? I thought you might have grown up near the beach, given I saw you were looking out to sea every time your co-host was speaking, your eyes were always on the window."

Ryan felt himself go red with embarrassment and flooded, before speaking again. "Yes, I'm so sorry about that, sometimes when Shane's talking, it sounds like the teacher from Charlie Brown after a while."

"I heard that!" Shane called from across the room where he was disassembling a tripod.

"You were meant to hear it!" Ryan called back, smiling a little before he shrugged back at Anton. "As you can see, I didn't mean to zone out, just had a lot on my mind lately."

"Hmm." The look on Anton's face made him swallow a little, before the older man dug around in his pockets and produced a worn business card, which he handed to Ryan personally and clutched the top of his hand. "Well, if you have any more questions about Hispaniola and what we covered today, you can always call. Work's slow currently in Lahaina as my research students are on Summer break, so US conferences are my only drawback for the moment."

He chuckled after this, shaking his head so much the braid going down his back looked like a horse's tail swatting flies. "It's too bad I can stay to talk more, you boys seem quite interesting, especially you Ryan, I must say."

"Well, thank you very much sir. I'm sure either myself, Shane or one of our producers will be in contact if needed. Don't want to bother you too much, given you've gotta get your chill on."

Anton laughed at that, clapping a hand on Ryan's shoulder. "That I do, after this conference is over, I'm headed for the beach and then for home. I'll be seeing you later, Mr. Bergara."

Ryan's mouth went a little dry feeling the weight of those words, they seemed more meaningful and heavier than normal before he also chuckled and nodded. "Will do, Dr. Mesa." and watched carefully as the man showed himself out, posture deflating a little as Shane walked back over to him with a grin. "You didn't tell me you found the footage!"

Ryan arched an eyebrow up at him. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, Sara just texted me saying you found your GoPro footage from the island or at least, a fan did." SCORE.

"Oh, oh yeah, no - a fan that went diving over that way found it and sent me the memory card as the camera was a write-off. Cracked and broken and all that. Somehow it survived. It wasn't too corrupted, so I just sent her it in the hopes the editing team could put it together."

"Yeah, well, she's quite happy about it, especially that language stuff you found and showed Dr. Mesa when you snuck off of the rest of us. Said it'll make good B-roll." He couldn't help but think that the way Shane said "snuck off" sounded like he didn't believe he had done such a thing one bit, but he tried not to dwell on it too much, happy to bask in the win of Sara not thankfully even batting an eye at the footage.

That was until they got back to the office and the next day, Steven Lim, their friend and coworker, came stalking up to Ryan's desk hurriedly and slammed his hands down. "Ry, you need to come with me, like right now."

"Woah, Jesus Steven, don't get a man a heart attack." Ryan almost jumped sky high at the sound, being he'd had no headphones on, but so engrossed in work that he didn't see him coming. Now that he was looking at him, Steven looked a little...uneasy. "What's going on?"

"I need you to come with me to editing, alone." The look in Steven's eyes was serious and for a second, Ryan thought this could be about the company plan they had. But he would involve Shane in that kind of conversation then, right?

"Uh, okay. Sure." Ryan agreed nervously before getting up and following, looking around quite wearily as Steven took him into one of the editing suite offices and looked around in the hallway before he locked them in there. "Steven, what in the hell-"

"I /knew/ there was something wrong with you when you came back from Hispaniola." Ryan almost fell over at Steven's statement, but managed to somehow stay straight-faced while having a three-alarm scale panic attack on the inside. "Look, man, I'm just having some problems at home and I'm sorting them out-"

"Woah, okay, no, we're not going there." Steven held a hand and Ryan stopped in his tracks, seeing the look on his face. "You are damn lucky both that you are my friend and I got a hold of this footage and that Sara didn't watch through the whole thing. Because if she had-"

Steven stalked over to the computer, before clicking on and uploading a tab to Ryan's horror, that showed a 5-second clip of himself, in his merman form, picking the camera up from the seafloor before cutting to the actual footage of the cavern and it's writing. Ryan felt himself go pale and his legs wobble as he looked at Steven, terrified. "I don't-"

"Hey, hey, it's okay. I cut it out of the final draft before I sent it to the editing team. You really skimmed our asses with that one, dude. You could have endangered our existence."

Ryan finally breathed, but then Steven's statement hit him like a freight train to the chest. "What in the hell do you mean by /our/ existence!?"

Steven just shook his head after a minute of just looking at him wavering, a sly grin on his face. "You really are new at this merman thing aren't you? Your mind still hasn't fully opened yet."

Ryan just stared, mouth ajar, before a panicked whisper left his mouth. "-and yours has because you're one too."