Sorry, it's been a bit! I had to write this chapter twice because the first version was painfully dull. Hopefully, this one is a bit better!
The characters on the Twilight Saga all belong to Stephanie Meyer. I'm just in love with both Edward Cullen and mermaids.
"Well, kid?" Bella's father demanded. "Are you gonna move?"
I realized I was still standing awkwardly on the docks in front of the man's fishing boat.
My ears got hot. I was never good with first impressions; and I was worse at first impressions when I knew there was actually something at stake, such as meeting your mermaid girlfriend's father or getting adopted. Even Carlisle and Esme had to arrange a second meeting before they decided to look into adopting me.
While I struggled to remember how to walk or talk or blink, even, Bella beckoned me with a curl of her finger. Almost by their own volition, my feet finally walked up the ramp and onto the deck of the boat. When I stepped in front of Charlie, I had not yet found my voice. But he still had his, and it was unamused and unimpressed. "What's your name, son?"
My mouth opened and but somehow no words came out. Understanding washed over Charlie's features, and he began using sign language to ask for my name.
"Oh, no. I can hear, I can speak," I laughed awkwardly, "I can do it all."
Charlie did not laugh along with me.
My hand shot out in front of me, in a stiff, awkward movement. "Edward."
Charlie did not shake my hand.
"Edward... sir?" I tried.
He frowned. "You can call me Charlie." He spoke to Bella while looking at me. "And I am to believe this is more than a friend to you?"
Bella brought her hand up to her temple and clamped her fingers together, then brought both pointer fingers to her chest, hooked them together once, flipped her hands, and hooked them together again. Boyfriend.
The shock and absolute delight of watching her say that caused me to choke on my own spit; I unsuccessfully played it off with a few fake coughs. Bella side-stepped towards me and wrapped her arm around my waist. At her nearness, my arm automatically draped across her shoulders.
Charlie's eyes flickered between Bella and me a few times before he sighed. "I guess I knew this sort of thing would happen eventually." Meaning, he had hoped this sort of thing would never happen. "Well, I should probably get my stock over to Billy," he nodded towards the coolers, "Will you be okay here for a little bit?"
Bella nodded. I offered to help, but Charlie adamantly declined. Besides, there wasn't much to do. The fish were already packed in their coolers and the coolers were stacked neatly on a dolly. Bella and I silently watched Charlie push his dolly down the dock and towards the market.
When he was out of earshot, I blew out a breath. "I guess we never talked about how bad I am with new people, huh?"
"I knew," she signed with one hand, and I was reminded of all my horrible first attempts at talking to her.
"I'm sorry," I offered. Bella wrapped her other around me to pull me into a hug—her way of telling me it was okay. I rubbed my hands against her back, pulling her just a little bit closer. A shy smile tugged across her lips and she tilted her chin up—a clear invitation if I'd ever seen one. I didn't need to be asked twice. I leaned in, bringing my hand up to cup her cheek as I kissed her. It was a gentle kiss, but a thorough one.
When we separated, she gestured towards the single door that led to the cabin.
"Charlie lives on the boat?" I asked, and she nodded.
She pulled me towards the door. I had to duck to get through the doorway, and to my dismay, remain hunched under the low ceiling. The living space was simple to the point. It reminded me of the studio apartment in Seattle that I lived in when I was seven years old. It had cabinets built into every possible nook as an attempt to squeeze in as much storage as possible. The main area had multiple uses built into one. A sofa with a cantilevered table to be used as both a living room and a dining room. A tiny kitchen comprised of only an oven and a sink, with a plywood board placed over the sink to create some sort of counter. I had only lived in the apartment for four days before it was deemed unsuitable for foster care by my social worker, but it seemed perfectly fine for a single man living at sea.
Bella led me further into the space. She pulled down another surface cantilevered from the wall and pushed its hidden leg into place, creating a desk out of thin air. She plopped down in a nearby chair and swung her legs to scoot into place. She flourished her arms a bit, as if to say, this is my desk.
I chuckled at the demonstration. Placing a hand on her shoulder, I leaned down to inspect this little Bella Nook aboard the ship. Small cubbies were hidden behind the surface, stuffed with papers, pens, seashells, small fish bones that I wasn't going to ask about, and a shocking amount of sand. Above the cubbies, a few pictures were taped up to the wall and I leaned in to get a better look. There was an old picture of a younger-looking Charlie, holding a little girl with long, dark hair wearing a man's flannel as a dress.
"Hey, is that—."
Before I could ask the question, she plucked the pictures from the wall, stuffed them into a notebook, and slammed it shut.
I chuckled; that answered my question well enough.
"How much time did you spend on this boat?" I knew she slept and ate in the ocean but wasn't sure how much time she spent on human legs before she started high school.
She plucked a notebook out of one of her cubbies and wrote. Most mornings and afternoons. I did a lot of reading and all of my schoolwork in here when I was homeschooled.
That made sense. She couldn't really read in the water.
"How much time do you spend here now?"
I'll come to see Charlie when he docks once a week. Sometimes evenings if he's close enough to swim to.
"Do you miss being here all the time?"
Pursing her lips, she dragged a finger across the bottom of the cubbies and took a pinch of sand between her thumb and forefinger. After giving it a good, long thought, she wrote, I love Charlie, but it never really felt like a permanent home. It felt like I was invading his.
I sank down to my knees, so I was closer to eye-level with her sitting in the chair. "I know exactly how you feel."
She looked down at me and quirked her head to the side.
"Foster care, remember? I was in and out of more homes than I could count on both hands."
Realization saddened her beautiful features. She traced her fingers down my temple towards my jaw. I placed my hand over hers as she went past my cheek, holding it there. "You keep all of your things in your truck to take around with you because there's no real certainty that tomorrow will be the same as today. And even though the people who take you in are caring and loving, to the point where they are willing to gift you a small portion of their home to call your own, it's hard to feel like anything but a burden."
She tucked her lips between her teeth.
"People really take permanence for granted…" I continued to muse, "They don't realize what a gift it is until it's taken away. And once it is, it's hard to trust that it will return. Even now, it's hard to wrap my head around the idea that I will permanently stay with Esme and Carlisle. It never felt real… still doesn't."
She slid her hand out from under mine. Turning to her desk, she scribbled something down and tore the page out. She leaned down, pressing her forehead to mine. I held out my hand to accept her note, but she tucked it into my shirt pocket instead. When I reached for it, she pressed her hand against my chest, closing off the pocket.
"Would you like me to read it?"
Her nose rubbed against mine as she shook her head. From the corner of my eye, I saw her hand rotate in a circle with her pointer finger sticking up in the air. Alone.
"You want me to wait until I'm alone?"
I felt her forehead rock against mine as she nodded. When her lips were closest to mine in the nod, I closed the small gap with a light kiss. Her mouth lifted and lowered with another nod, and I repeated the action. She smiled and we kept it going for a few more rounds.
Her super mermaid hearing must have alerted her to something, because before I could place my next kiss, Bella was sitting upright again. She rose and I reluctantly followed, almost banging my head on the ceiling. On our way out, Bella pointed at a mini-fridge plugged into the corner, asking if I wanted anything, but I declined.
When we stepped back onto the deck, Charlie was already halfway down the dock. He left pushing a dolly full of coolers and returned carrying only a can of flavored sparkling water. When he spotted us, he rose his arm in the air making a shoving gesture, telling us to get back. Bella pulled me back into the cabin, where I did whack my head against the door frame.
After several moments, Charlie walked through the door and immediately went to the control panel for the boat. We were silent as he backed up and began steering the boat back into the open water. Once we were away from the other vessels, Charlie went to say something to Bella, but his eyes caught on me, bent forward, necked craned. He smirked—it was the first time he showed any emotion towards me besides disdain. "Comfy?" he asked, sarcastically.
I offered him a sheepish smile in return.
Then, he looked at Bella, "Billy wanted to stop by, and I had to tell him I needed to go back out for a few things."
Bella nodded in understanding.
I looked to Charlie for an explanation on who Billy was and why his presence meant we had to leave, but Charlie didn't offer one.
Instead, I turned to Bella. "Partner," she signed.
"Oh," I said, "As in business or..."
"As in every sense of the word, kid," Charlie answered, rather bluntly.
"Yeehaw," I said, timidly. A sad attempt at a cowboy joke that received a blank stare from Charlie and a grin from Bella.
No one said anything more, and I was still confused, so I hesitantly asked why Billy's arrival meant we needed to sail away.
"Billy doesn't know about Bella, and I prefer not to lie to him outright when I can help it."
Another cowboy joke popped into my head, but I snapped my mouth shut and opted for a silent nod.
After a few more minutes of sailing, Charlie muttered something to himself about this being far enough and turned off the engine to the ship. Once the controls were where he wanted them to be, he grabbed another can of sparkling water and shooed Bella and me out of the door and back onto the deck. Charlie walked around to the stern of the boat, but Bella led me to the bow where a few lawn chairs were set up. I followed her lead as she plopped herself down on a chair.
"Did you bring your backpack?" Charlie called to Bella as he rounded the corner to join us at the bow.
Bella held up her bag high into the air as confirmation.
Taking a swig of seltzer, Charlie settled onto the chair next to Bella. "Alright, honey, let's see it." At that, Bella began furiously pulling paper after paper out of her bag and shoving them into Charlie's lap. After receiving a few dozen, Charlie chuckled affectionately. "Slow down there."
She peeked over at Charlie, drowning in loose-leaf, and bolted upright with her hands in her lap and an apologetic grin across her face. He began paging through, and I could see that she had handed him her graded schoolwork. Charlie began to read through every assignment and every comment on every assignment.
"Come here," he extended an arm out to her, and she perched on the arm of his chair. "Look at this, honey," he pointed to something on one of the pages and smiled up at her, "didn't I say this exact thing?"
She blushed and nodded; he smiled back.
He flipped through a few more pages. "And this!" He held a packet up in front of his face, "is incredible."
As they went through the schoolwork, Charlie's smile grew bigger, and Bella's blush grew deeper. "I'm proud of you," Charlie told her when they got to the end. Bella was glowing with pride, which I realized might be her most beautiful expression. Charlie caught me staring at her and frowned at the stupid grin stretched across my face. "Are you in the same classes as Bella?"
"No-no, sir. I'm a junior."
That wasn't the answer he wanted to hear. "How did you meet?"
Returning to her own seat, Bella took a notebook out of her bag, flipped through a couple of pages, and handed it to Charlie. After skimming through the first few sentences, he turned the page to see how long this was going to be. The back of the page was also filled with Bella's script, along with the next page. As was the third, and the fourth, and the fifth. He gave me a disapproving look as if that was my fault.
Then, he began to read. I glanced over at Bella, who was watching her father read with her eyebrows drawn together. I offered her my hand, which she happily accepted and began to fiddle with my fingers. As Charlie read, he snorted to himself, and I was immediately curious as to which part of the story warranted that reaction. A page and a half later, he stopped reading abruptly and slammed the notebook down on his knee. "You went out in public with a storm moving in?" he yelled at Bella.
Bella jumped up and pointed to something on the page, which Charlie quickly read. "Okay, fine," he grumbled. He peeked up at me, and I could safely assume he just read the part where she ditched me during our date. When Bella returned to her seat beside me, I slipped my hand back into hers and received a tight squeeze of reassurance.
When Charlie finished, he handed Bella back her notebook. "You feel certain about this?"
Bella clutched my hand between both of hers and brought it up to her heart, sending the sweetest tingles down my spine. For a few seconds, the two held onto each other's stares, locked in a silent conversation. Eventually, Charlie's scowl acquiesced to Bella's pleading eyes, and he sighed. "Fine."
Releasing my hand, Bella shot out of her seat and flung herself at Charlie. He caught her in a hug. "You're welcome, honey. Even if I said no, I doubt that would have stopped you," Charlie laughed.
Bella flipped her ponytail over her shoulder and shrugged in a way that said probably not.
Charlie gave Bella's arm another affectionate pat before she could sit back down. "Bella, why don't you go find us something for lunch. Maybe something special for your boy, here."
I figured he meant for her to go down to the cabin. Instead, Bella took her hair out of her ponytail and handed me the elastic. As if it were as casual as going to a pantry to fetch a snack, Bella stood on the rail of the boat behind Charlie, shred off her dress, and dove into the water. Instinctively, I shot up out of my seat.
Charlie chuckled, "She's fine." I hung over the edge just as Bella popped out of the water. She gave me a quick little wave before sinking below the surface.
My shoulders dropped in relief. I knew she would be okay but watching my girlfriend dive into the middle of the ocean was still a startling sight to see.
It suddenly dawned on me that Charlie sent Bella away to talk to me alone. When I turned around, he was staring right at me, confirming my suspicions. Taking another long drink of sparkling water, Charlie watched me as I walked back to my chair and take a seat. Eyes locked on mine, he finished up his drink and crushed the can between his hand and his knee.
"You grow up in LA, kid?"
"No, sir."
"Good." He stretched his legs long out in front of him and put his hands behind his head. "Where are you from, then?"
"Washington."
He hummed in approval, "Good country up there. Where exactly in Washington?"
"Started in Seattle. Then, outside of Tacoma. Back to Seattle. Spokane. Seattle. Finally, right before I came here, I was in a small town called Forks."
"Sounds like your parents moved around quite a bit."
"No, sir, I was in foster care."
His eyes softened. "Is that what brought you down to LA?"
"Kinda. My adoptive parents live in LA."
"And when did you get adopted?"
"August. I got to move in with them in January."
"They must be good people to adopt a kid your age," Charlie noted.
"Yes," I agreed fully, "They're very good people."
Without saying anything, Charlie got out of his seat, stalked into the cabin, and returned with two more cans of flavored sparkling water. He offered me a can, which I now accepted. My mouth was suddenly dry here under the scrutiny of Bella's father. Simultaneously, we cracked open our cans and took a swig.
"Do you know how much trust Bella put in you by letting you in on her secret?"
I swallowed. Then, nodded.
"And are you aware that no matter what you did or said, you are unworthy of said trust?"
"Yes, sir," I whispered.
"And that by telling you what she is, she is in twice the amount of danger of being discovered."
"I wouldn't…" I began in a small voice.
"Anything could happen to her if the wrong kind of person found out what she is. She could be paraded around like a circus freak or experimented on in a lab for the rest of her life..." Leaning forward, he rested his elbows on his knees, "And a lot of people would try to kill her."
"I understand..."
He continued over me, "And the fact that she has put any amount of faith in you means that not only can you be responsible for ruining or ending her life, but you would also break her heart in the process. I cannot have those things happen, Edward."
"I swear..."
"You are to do everything in your power to protect her. Those good, adoptive parents of yours? You're going to have to lie to them. You're going to have to lie to the people you care about for the rest of your life about anything concerning her," I saw in his eyes that he spoke from experience, and I remembered his partner, Billy. "Are you prepared to do that, son?"
"I…"
"And it doesn't start and end with a tail. The girl can't speak. No matter how well she can play human, she will always be seen as a disabled one. And you know how people react to anyone different, no matter how small that difference may be. Are you prepared to stick by her when the names and jokes begin to include you?"
"Charlie," he told me to call him that, but the look that crossed his face made me regret it immediately and I corrected myself, "Sir, I promise I will never do anything to hurt her. I'm here for her, for whatever she needs and however long she needs it. I know how it feels to be ostracized for things out of my control, a few more names and glances aren't going to phase me. Bella is worth any and every lie and name and risk. She's worth… everything."
The breeze in the air and the waves of the sea seemed to still as Charlie held me under his judgment. Charlie cracked a smile and then barked up a laugh. He stood slowly and walked towards the stern of the boat, slapping my back as he passed me. "I'm proud of that girl. Already has you whipped." I felt my ears got hot.
There was a sudden knock from somewhere on the boat, causing me to jump.
"That would be Bella," Charlie called from wherever he was. "Why don't you give her a hand."
Even though Charle wouldn't see, I still nodded my head. I reached down the side of the boat, expecting to feel Bella's soft hand, but instead felt cold, slimy scales. When I pulled the object up over the side of the boat, I was suddenly face-to-face with the largest fish I had ever encountered. It opened its horrifyingly large fish mouth and blinked its creepy fish eyes and began wiggling in my hands. Shrieking, I dropped it immediately.
Charlie stepped up to where the fish was flopping on the desk. Raising a stern eyebrow at me, he bent down to pick it up. "Where did you find this kid, Bella?"
I turned to see Bella already sitting on the rail of the boat, her tail hanging down the hull over the water. Despite Charlie's disapproval, she smiled adoringly at me and ran her fingers through my hair. I lifted her off the railing. I meant to put her down in a chair, but she felt so good in my arms. The way she automatically curled into me, so trusting, and the feeling of her running her graceful fingers through the hair at the back of my neck made my heart ache in the best way. I traced her eyebrow with the tip of my nose and left a soft kiss at the end. She practically purred with pleasure.
"You gonna let her get dressed?" Charlie's voice sounded from inside the cabin.
Embarrassed, I glanced over and saw that Bella's tail had already shifted back into legs. "I-," I squeaked. I sat her down as quickly as I could and almost threw the discarded dress at Bella, overreacting a bit to prove to Bella's father a wasn't a perverted freak. When Bella was dressed, she bundled up her hair into a bun in the top of her hair, which I tied up with the elastic she handed to me earlier.
I reached to help her stand, but something about the glint in her eyes as she stared at my chest caused me to glance down. The front of my shirt was completely soaked through from cuddling a mermaid straight out of the ocean. I should have known better than to wear a white button-down. "Great," I muttered to myself.
Bella tugged at the hem and began to unfasten the bottom button.
"No," I captured her hand in mine. "I'm not going to be shirtless while having lunch with your dad. It's bad enough that he can see my nipples."
She smiled, entirely amused, and I frowned back down at her.
"This isn't funny," I reminded her, sternly. But her expression told me she disagreed.
With nothing to do and no way to fix it, I helped Bella out of her seat and the two of us went back inside. Charlie glanced at my soaking state with a smirk but said nothing and continued to debone the monstrous fish. Thankfully we didn't linger to watch the hacking job. Bella led me around the kitchenette and pulled me beside her on one of the couches in the main living space. I sat at what I considered to be a respectful distance from her, but Bella immediately scooted closer until she was practically on my lap.
After a few moments of silence, I decided we needed other sounds than the wet, squishy slurps of Charlie descaling and deboning a fish. "How long have you known each other?" I asked neither one in particular.
Bella held up eight fingers.
"Eight years?" I confirmed, and she nodded. "How did you two even find each other?"
"As silly as it sounds, she got caught in my net." Charlie began, still hacking away in the kitchenette. "One afternoon, a long time ago, I was packing up the day's catch for the fish tender to collect and bring back to shore. As I was going through, I was adding more and more to the chum, for an unusual amount of fish were missing large chunks. Almost as if a little predator had gotten to them before I did..." He paused briefly to give Bella a knowing smile; I felt her duck into my side and watched an attractive blush color her cheeks. "At the bottom of the net was Bella. You can imagine my surprise when I found a little girl in the middle of the ocean."
"Weren't you more shocked that she had a tail?"
Charlie shook his head, "I didn't know, yet. You see, I pull in the nets around ten in the morning and don't get around to packin' for at least a couple hours. Poor, little Bella had been stuck at the bottom long enough that her tail had dried up into legs. By the time I saw her, there were a few patches of scales on her, but she was covered in so much chum and muck, that they didn't look out of place."
The mental image of a trapped Bella—dirty and scared—made my chest ache. Automatically, I snaked my arm around her waist—a gesture to comfort myself more than her, really.
"She didn't scream or cry or try to fight, which surprised me. The second she was free, the only thing she tried to do was climb back over the side of the boat. I kept stopping her because I was so scared she would drown. Eventually, I locked her inside the hull until the fish tender could bring her back to shore, and hopefully get her to the police and back to where she needed to be."
Carrying a paper plate, Charlie walked around the kitchenette and lowered the surface that doubled as a dining table. He placed the plate of thinly sliced, raw fish resembling sashimi in front of Bella and turned back around. Back in the kitchen, he pulled out a brown, paper bag out of the mini-fridge, threw two big slices of fish in it, and gave it a hearty shake.
Still shaking the paper bag, he continued, "It wasn't until I attempted to give her a bath that I found out what she was. I figured the least I could do was give the fish tender a clean, dressed child rather than I filthy, naked one. It took some fightin' but managed to trap her in the shower. A minute or so in, I heard a crash and ran into the head to find a huge mess, a ripped shower curtain, and the smallest mermaid sprawled out on the ground."
"What did you do?" I asked.
Charlie took a pan out of a cabinet and put it on a burner to preheat. "I radioed the fish tender, told him that I had a problem with my nets that day so he shouldn't bother to come anywhere near me. I didn't want to release her, only to have her get caught by another boat. Then, I dumped my catches back into the sea," He sighed. "I lost a whole day's pay."
"And you kept her on board?" I guessed.
"No. I helped her back into the water." Charlie pulled the fish out of the paper bag and gently placed them on the pan; the skillet hissed and popped. "Now. I wasn't sure if little Bella realized the extent of what I had done for her, or if she was simply a kind soul or both, but the next morning, I caught that little girl adding fish into my nets. I made more money that day than I have had before. Of course, that only made me want to share the wealth with this little creature, so I brought her some specialty fish from the market she might not get on her own. Scallops, shrimps, crabs. From there, a small truce was made. She would herd fish into my nets, and I would bring her a treat. Once I learned her favorite was oysters, I would invite her onto the boat so we could enjoy them together."
"Your favorite food is oysters?" I confirmed; Bella nodded her head against my shoulder. I logged that away for future use. "So, how did you start your homeschooling?"
Charlie flipped the fish in the pan. "I may be a simple a man, but I was able to pick up that Bella's silence wasn't because she wouldn't, but rather because she couldn't. We needed to learn how to communicate. I bought her a few children's books to teach her how to read along with her oysters. She was a smart, little thing. Still is. She picked up reading faster than I ever imagined. When she finished all those children's books, she went through my measly collection of books in a matter of days."
Charlie put a plate of fish in front of me and sat on a chair opposite Bella and me, using his lap as a table.
"At one point, I decided that she should get to choose her own reading material. I bought her a dress a little girl would wear instead of the flannel she typically wore on board and took her off the boat onto land." Charlie took a large forkful of fish and stuffed it into his mouth. "When I showed her what a library was, it was all over," he laughed, "She couldn't believe what she was seein'. It was so cute, watching her pull books of every color from the shelf, not caring what was in 'em. She was just excited to read."
We all ate silently for a bit, enjoying the thought of a tiny Bella exploring a library for the first time. After Charlie scooped up his last bite, he kept talking, "She started coming to shore with me every week to pick up her week's supplies of books while I was at the market. As any good father would, I wanted to make sure her knowledge surpassed my own, so I found a way to get her started in home school. She breezed through that and decided she wanted to try high school."
"And how is that going?" I asked Bella. The question caught her with a large mouthful of fish. Cheeks stuffed, she smiled and leaned into my side. I took that to mean her high school experience was going wonderfully.
"So, there you have it," Charlie concluded. He stood and stacked his empty plate on mine and stacked both plates on Bella's. "You kids done?" he asked though he was already halfway towards the trashcan to throw them out. Apparently, we were.
After washing his hands, Charlie grumbled about getting back to shore and walked over to the wheel and control panel. He asked Bella to take care of the anchor and a couple of other things on deck for him. When stepped outside she pointed to the bow, asking me to sit down and wait for her while she helped Charlie.
The second she was out of my sight, and I was alone, I reached for the note she left in my pocket. The words themselves were smudged from when my shirt was soaked through, but I could still read them clearly enough, as well as the heart doodles around them.
You feel permanent.
When she returned, I had to cover my face with my hand to hide the goofy smile that I didn't want to fade.