I am so so sorry for the long wait. I promised this out last week but life happens, you know? I've barely got enough time to sleep let alone write a multi-chapter fanfiction. I hope that it never takes this long to get out another chapter, but really who knows,
Also, the story will now be posted on AO3 as well as FFnet. FFnet might get the chapters first because I'm kind of confused by AO3's interface atm. (AO3 account linked in bio)
For the 3rd night in a row, Lewis couldn't sleep. He would drift off every couple of hours only to awake in a cold sweat not long after. It was uncomfortable, to say the least, and it made a painful memory resurface.
After finally giving up on getting quality rest, he stood up and walked over to his closet. It was small even by closet standards, but Lewis counted himself lucky for just having his own room. In a house with 4 other brothers, privacy was a delicacy. After opening the door, Lewis removed a floorboard to reveal a well-loved notebook. He sighed looking at it before grimacing. Lewis picked up the notebook and headed for his desk chair. He took a deep breath, and then put on his glasses. He was in for a long night.
The next morning he trudged his way to school, all while thinking over his notes. Rereading them after all that time had refreshed everything in his mind. Yet, he still didn't feel any closer to a cure and he had no idea how to tell the girls that. Then, Lewis jolted realizing that, in his stupor, Cleo had been able to sneak up on him. She had said something, but he had been too out of it to know what it was.
"Sorry, what?" Lewis asked.
"I asked you how you were handling… things," Cleo responded, not quite meeting his gaze.
His expression relaxed, "Yeah, I went over my research last night, just couldn't sleep. Thought it might help."
"Research?" Cleo leaned in towards him, an eyebrow raised.
Before Lewis had the chance to respond, Emma and Rikki caught stride with them. "What's up, mermaid man?" Rikki greeted. Lewis winced at the comment while Emma scolded Rikki for being too loud.
Lewis quickly regained his lost composure, "We should all meet somewhere private to discuss… things further." he turned towards Rikki, "Until then, stop being so f*cking obvious about it." He scowled at her while she gave an amused semi-smile back.
"Since when did you become the mermaid rule dictator, huh?" she remarked in a mocking tone.
"Since a year ago when I was the only one qualified." Lewis returned, a stern expression plastered on his face.
Rikki only scoffed and rolled her eyes before she shot back with, "Maybe we should take a vote on it then."
Emma huffed before finally interjecting, "Will you two quit it already? We really do need to keep this hidden and, yes Rikki, Lewis knows more about this than we do so we should just listen to him."
Rikki glared at Emma in utter disbelief, "We were only bantering, but you're on HIS side? Emma, I don't trust him I barely know him!"
"Well if you had maybe bothered to make more friends then…" Emma's rebuttal slowly faded into the distance as Cleo and Lewis found themselves separating from the bickering blondes.
The pair made awkward small talk for a minute before someone called out to them.
"Hey- Have you guys checked out the beach recently?" The pair looked over at Byron, who had joined them in walking.
"No." Cleo paused, slight panic evident in her voice "why?" she continued, eyeing him suspiciously.
"The sea turtles have started laying their eggs along the beach."
"Oh that's cool," Lewis replied. He didn't want to be rude but he had no desire to be stuck in a conversation involving water at that moment.
"Yeah, but I've heard that some turtles have gotten caught in fishing nets," With that, Byron glanced away. There was a group of their classmates calling him over. "Oh- uh, I should get going. See you around."
"Bye,"
Cleo stared off, hazily, "Those poor turtles…"
"What?" Lewis turned to her, confusion etched in his face. "Cleo, you know your dad runs those fishing boats, right?"
"Huh? No way." Cleo stood incredulously.
Lewis shook his head sympathetically. "Afraid not."
She looked like she was about to protest, but the sound of their school bell cut her off. Looking at each other one last time Cleo and Lewis said their goodbyes as they headed to their respective classes.
Lewis sat on a rock waiting for the others to join him. School had ended hours prior and the time had come to explain everything. He'd texted them earlier to meet him at his spot as it had the most privacy of anywhere he could think of, save for Mako.
If anyone took more than a passing glance at him, they could tell something was wrong. Lewis looked bad and felt even worse. If he had his way, he'd never have to disclose his secret ever. But he knew that was the selfish part of him thinking, he couldn't run away from it, not now. Not when Cleo-
His thought was interrupted by the arrival of said girl. "Hey," she greeted.
"Umm… hi." He looked past her, 'Where are the others?"
"I'm not sure actually," She moved over towards a rock and sat down. They remained like that for a few moments. Both staring at the sand in awkward silence.
"So… what exactly did you want to discuss? You didn't seem all that interested in talking the other day, which, by the way, I don't blame you for" Lewis tuned out Cleo's nervous rambling. He'd usually find that quality endearing, but it wasn't helping when he was on the verge of a panic attack himself.
Eventually, Cleo stopped talking and Lewis was able to input into the conversation. "I did a lot of research back then. I copied everything in case you wanted to look through it."
Cleo nodded in understanding. "So that's the research you mention-"
"Hey, guys!" They both heard a shout from the water. Startled, they looked over to see Emma waving with Rikki some meters away. Cleo waved back while Lewis averted his eyes.
After Rikki dried herself and Emma, the two of them looked to Lewis expectantly. He felt his mouth go dry, all his mental prep suddenly gone out the window.
"Uhh… right," was all he could muster out. "So basically. A year ago I did a lot of tests and stuff, trying to find a cure." Cleo perked up when he said then, only to be let down by his next words, "I couldn't find one. All my findings are in here," he said handing his notebook to Cleo. She flipped through it as he continued, "You guys can look over everything. There's DNA tests, diagrams, ability restrictions… anything I thought to try at the time."
Rikki deadpanned him, completely uninterested in what he had to say. "Oh. I thought this was going to be more interesting than that."
If Lewis was honest with himself, he'd actually taken offense to what she'd said. "It is interesting though. I thought you'd want to know more about what happened to you guys?"
"Lewis, if I wanted to know the nitty-gritty details, I would have called a marine biologist and told them, 'Hey! I'm a mermaid, what do I do now?' I'm just enjoying swimming, science stuff is boring."
"Your attitude is insufferable," Lewis whines, not for the first time, about why, of all people, did Rikki Chadwick have to get stuck in that stupid moon cave.
"And you're boring. I want to skip to the good part!" Rikki took on an imposing stance that actually managed to work, despite her being the shortest of the group. "I want to see you in the water." She smirked, knowing she had hit a nerve.
"Rikki, what did I say about being insensitive. Plus, you're making me lose focus, shut up." Emma called out from where she and Cleo had been reading his notes. But, it was too late, the damage was done.
Lewis, finally shutting down, left the beach for his house, not even saying goodbye. He usually prided himself on his calm demeanor, but with Rikki's attitude, the lack of sleep, and Cleo now wrapped up in mer business he had reached his breaking poi- "why am I worried about Cleo?" He shook away the thought. His main priority was getting home and passing out for a week. He'd hit his breaking point, and the only thing on his mind was sleep.
Lewis awoke to a barrage of texts and missed calls from Emma. And he almost went back to sleep. Sitting up, he began to look through them.
Emma tried to call you.
LEWIS ANSWER THIS IS IMPORTANT 6:23 pm
Emma tried to call you.
Emma tried to call you.
PICK UP IM SERIOUS 6:24 pm
ITS ABOUT CLEO 6:24 pm
Emma tried to call you.
PLEASE 6:25 pm
Emma tried to call you.
Emma tried to call you.
Emma tried to call you.
Emma tried to call you.
RESPOND WE REALLY NEED YOUR HELP 6:27 pm
Emma tried to call you.
Emma tried to call you.
Nvm. It's under control, no thanks to you. 6:49 pm
He ran out of the door while dialing Emma. Halfway down his driveway, he realized she had declined.
You tried to call Emma.
7:02 pm Emns I eas skerpimg wahts gouin oN;
What? Lewis if you're gonna apologize at least make it intelligent. 7:03 pm
He finally slowed to type a response.
7:03 pm I WAS ASLEEP WHAT HAPPENED!
Cleo was hurt but she's okay now. 7:04 pm
Lewis heaved a sigh of relief.
Her and Rikki went to Mako. Don't try to find them, we're all pretty mad at you. 7:05 pm
7:05 pm Why mad? What did I do?
I'll tell you later. 7:07 pm
7:07 pm You can tell me now!
7:09 pm Emma?!
Lewis headed back to his house stunned. Cleo, hurt? Why are they mad at me? She's swimming? Ughh, he felt a headache coming on.
Emma finally agreed to meet with him at the Cafe before school. He made his way over, feet heavy from exhaustion.
"Lewis! Over here." he heard Emma call out from their usual booth. He forced a smile, hoping to lighten her mood. The blond made his way to his seat and slumped down in it.
He exhaled loudly, "So."
Emma offered a weak smile of her own, "First I would like to apologize."
Lewis shook his head, "What, Why?"
"Because, I was unfair to you," She looked down, choosing her words carefully, "I was angry and I blamed you. It's not your fault you didn't when we called. It was an emotional reaction and I'm sorry."
His eyes widened, "Wow, I- wasn't expected that."
"I was taught to always apologize for my mistakes, and it was a mistake blaming you." She looked up at him, expectantly.
"I uh, accept. But you really didn't need to- I blame myself as it is."
"And you shouldn't. You didn't know it would happen."
He let out a small, "thanks." before asking his main question, "What exactly happened to Cleo? By the way."
She grimaced, "She saw her dad's boat fishing in the wrong spot and went after it. But, she got caught in the net and passed out. She's really lucky- we're all really lucky Rikki and I saw her when we did."
"Then what was up with the frantic texts?"
"She-" chocking up now, Emma fought back tears, "She wasn't- waking up."
"Oh."
The pair sat in silence, letting the gravity of what happened settle in. Eventually, they got up to head to school. The weight that had been lifted of Lewis' shoulders with Emma's apology was now twice as large. He needed to protect Cleo, he needed to, and he didn't.
Bit of a heavier chapter, this one. Ugh, the characters seem so OOC in this chapter. I'm excusing it by saying that it's because Rikki is still mostly an outsider and Lewis is only really close to Cleo but, yeah… This chapter was harder to write. I actually had another chapter two all but finished before scrapping it because Lewis was so OOC he was practically an OC, this one is at least better than that. The next chapter hopefully will be shorter bc it's not a heavy Lewis-central episode.