Chapter 13

Hi guys, this chapter is a bit longer than usual I hope you enjoy it. It would be great if you check out my How I Met Your Mother fic on archive of our own called It isn't easy being on the run. It is a crossover with H20 AU, where Ted is secretly a merman and is on the run from Denman. My username is CharlieCecilia777.

Although the families of the group, the BAU team and their school had tried to keep what happened with Peter quiet, someone had managed to find out and the story had hit the news. So everyone knew what happened. Reporters kept showing up at the group's houses and school, all trying to get interviews. The group's headmistress had agreed to give them a week off school, so they could have time to recover from the ordeal and to deal with the reporters.

Lewis' brothers were more protective than ever, even Max, and they wouldn't let him leave the house unless one of them was with him. They had all wanted to confront Peter about kidnapping him, but their parents wouldn't let them, for their safety. Lewis was worried about all the media attention, he, Zane and Ash had to be more careful than ever, because if one of the reporters caught them they would be screwed. During the week off, Lewis' family comforted him and helped him recover, and he knew his friends' families were doing the same for his friends. The week went by faster than he would have liked, and the quartet found themselves standing in front of lockers waiting for the bell. Lewis noticed a lot of people kept staring at them and whispering, it had been a week but everyone was still talking about them.

A friend of theirs called Byron came up to them, "Hey, I heard what happened".

"Yeah, who hasn't?" Zane said irritably, causing Lewis to elbow him.

"I hope you guys are doing okay?" Byron said and put his hand on Ash's shoulder, which caused Emma to glare at Byron. Lewis wondered why that was, Byron was only trying to comfort Ash. "Ash I've always wanted to learn horse riding. Can you teach me?"

"Yeah sure", Ash said smiling.

Lewis noticed that Byron still had his hand on Ash's shoulder. Then it dawned on him, could Byron fancy Ash? Given that Emma was still glaring at Byron and had stepped closer to Ash, Lewis thought that could be likely.

"Shall we meet here after school?" Byron asked, Ash agreed much to Emma's dismay. Emma wasn't sure if Ash liked Byron or if he was just being nice. Emma knew that Byron liked Ash, she had overheard him talking to his friends about it. This made her worried, Emma really liked Ash she wanted him to be with her not Byron. Emma had been wanting to ask Ash out for a long time, but couldn't do it. Now she wondered if she needed to be brave and ask him soon before she lost her chance.

Byron gave a wide smile at Ash's response, and when the bell rang for reception Byron walked with them to class walking next to Ash, with Emma on Ash's other side.

Lewis was dreading reception, he knew everyone would be whispering about them, even just walking to reception he noticed people doing that. Zane seemed to read his mind, and put his arm around him.

"It's going to be okay", Zane said just loud enough for Lewis to hear.

"Thanks", Lewis said feeling a bit better, though Zane was often tactless there were times like this where he could be thoughtful. Zane kept his arm protectively around Lewis the whole way to reception, and even talked to him about school work as he knew how much Lewis liked talking about it. This touched Lewis even more, because he knew how much Zane hated school. Lewis didn't even notice that they were in the classroom until they had all sat down, and he wondered if this had been Zane's plan. The day went much slower for Lewis than usual as he and his friends had endure whispering and everyone staring at them. His day became a bit brighter, when Zane said he was struggling with studying and asked for his help. Lewis loved helping people, and he loved work so he was more than happy to help Zane.

They had decided to go to Zane's house as Lewis' brothers were planning a Mario Kart marathon and would be very noisy, and they would have more space. Zane had asked Lewis to help him with maths, because he was struggling with that the most. It had started well, but Zane was becoming more and more frustrated.

"I'm never going to get this", Zane said angrily.

"You will, it just takes time", Lewis said trying to calm him down.

"Well, unlike some people I actually have a life, and don't have time to do this!"

"Hey! I do have a life", Lewis said feeling hurt, he knew that Zane was just frustrated and probably didn't really mean it, but it still hurt.

"Really? Then how come you have no friends?" Zane said.

Lewis gaped at Zane, he hadn't been this mean since before they became mermen, "How can you say that? You, Ash, Cleo, Emma and Rikki are my friends, and I have more friends from class."

"Ash and I only are only friends with you because we're mermen, Emma just hangs with you because you're a merman and she wants to study you, and Cleo met you when you were five, and so she has grown fond of you but if you met now she wouldn't waste her time with you, and-"

"That's it, I'm leaving", Lewis said he couldn't believe this was happening, only hours earlier Zane had been really kind and supportive and now he was the complete opposite. Part of him rationalised, that it was just because Zane was tired and angry about struggling with maths and Peter's betrayal. But he was too upset to listen, and after grabbing his things, he left and went home. As soon as Lewis got back home, his brothers noticed that he was upset and paused the game.

"What's wrong Lewis?" Lenny asked concerned, if a reporter had harassed Lewis he was going to hunt them down and give them a piece of his mind.

"Nothing", Lewis said and tried to go to his room, but Lenny blocked his way.

"Come on, you can tell us anything", Lenny said.

Lewis sighed, he didn't want to tell them but knew they wouldn't let it go. So he reluctantly sat on the couch with his brothers and told them what had happened with Zane, leaving out the merman part. His brothers looked very angry.

"I'm going to punch him", Charles said very angrily.

"Get in line", Lenny said darkly.

"Please don't", Lewis said, though what Zane said was horrible he didn't want him to be hurt, especially as he was still reeling from Peter's betrayal, and Lewis explained that may have been why he acted that way.

"That's no excuse, you are one of his best friends, he's not supposed to hurt you", Spencer said.

"I know, but please I don't want him or any of you to get hurt", Lewis argued, after half an hour of arguing Lewis finally managed to get them to agree to not hurt Zane. Instead the brothers spent the rest of the evening comforting Lewis, and assuring him that what Zane had said wasn't true, though it took a lot of convincing as it had come from one of his best friends, which just made Lewis' brothers even more angry, they had wanted to tell their parents but Lewis had asked them not to and they had reluctantly agreed.

Zane was angrily pacing around his room until he suddenly stopped as what he said to Lewis finally sunk in. Zane's heart sank and he felt terrible, he had never meant to say that to Lewis and he certainly didn't mean it. He knew he had to apologise to Lewis, he had just been trying to help Zane and he had ended up hurting him. Zane tried calling Lewis, but he wouldn't answer his phone, he also tried texting him but Lewis didn't text back. Zane wanted to call Ash or Emma, but didn't want to put them in the position of having to choose sides if this fight wasn't resolved. After making some hot chocolate, he sighed miserably and spent the rest of the night watching TV, in an attempt to forget his fight with Lewis, it didn't really work though and he couldn't put it out of his mind.

While Lewis and Zane had been working on maths, Ash had been setting everything up for Byron's lesson. He was just about to take Byron who was on one of the horses recommended for beginners called Daisy, when he heard Emma call his name.

"Hey Emma, what are you doing here?" Ash asked, he thought she had a shift at the café, maybe he was mistaken. Ash was very happy Emma was here, just being around her made him feel so content, though he sometimes felt butterflies in his stomach at the thought of talking to her. As Ash was facing Emma, instead of Byron he didn't see the glare he gave Emma.

"I was hoping that you could give me a lesson too", Emma said.

"Of course I can, let me get you a horse", Ash said and went back inside the stable.

"I know what you are doing", Byron said angrily the moment Ash was out of earshot.

"Well, I know what you're doing", Emma retorted.

"Really? Please enlighten me".

"You're using this lesson to get closer to Ash, so you can ask him out".

"Maybe, but you are too and we are not the only ones".

"What do you mean?"

Byron pointed behind Emma, she turned around and saw that Ash was with a horse that he had brought out for her, and that there were a group of six people a mix of girls and boys talking to Ash that Emma recognised from her and Byron's school, "Darn it", Emma said irritably.

"How about we work together to get rid of the competition", Byron suggested.

Emma spun around, "You would help me?" Emma asked incredulously.

"Only to get rid of the competition, then it's war".

"Okay, let's do it", Emma said.

Throughout the lesson, Emma and Byron worked together to get the others to leave the lesson. Emma found that she actually liked working with Byron, and thought that if they weren't competing for Ash they could have been good friends. And they worked so well, that Ash didn't even notice what they were doing. In fact, Emma was pretty sure he didn't realise they were all there because they were hoping to either ask him out or be asked out. They spooked some of the horses, which caused the riders to freak out and they told some riders how much work went into horse riding which put them off, so that half way through the lesson the other riders had given up and left.

During the rest of the lesson, as agreed Emma and Byron broke their truce and both competed for Ash's attention. Neither one seemed to win, as Ash payed equal attention to them throughout the lesson, which made Emma wonder if he liked Byron. At the end of the lesson, Ash stayed behind because he had things he needed to do at the stable. Emma had wanted to stay with Ash, but she had already promised Cleo that she would help her with her biology homework after the lesson. Thankfully Byron couldn't stay either, so after their usual glare they parted ways.

The next morning Emma went to the Juicenet café, she was meeting Rikki there. They had invited Cleo, but she was unable to come because she had to look after Kim as their parents were out. The trio had become close over the past few weeks, Emma wished she could tell them about the merman secret. She knew how Lewis and Zane felt about Cleo and Rikki, and it would make things so much easier if they knew. But it wasn't her secret to tell, and the guys didn't want anyone else to know. Emma saw Rikki sitting at their usual booth, and Emma joined her.

"Hey Em", Rikki said, "What's wrong?" Rikki asked when she realised Emma didn't seem as upbeat as usual.

"Nothing".

Rikki raised her eyebrow at her, "Its Ash, isn't it".

"What? No it isn't".

Rikki just raised her eyebrow at her more, causing Emma to sigh.

"Fine, it is. Byron likes Ash too, and I'm worried he'll ask Ash out and Ash will say yes. And I'll never get to be with him".

"Em, Ash likes you".

"Really?"

"Yes, I don't need to be a mind reader to know that".

"But what if you're wrong?"

"I'm never wrong", Rikki said with a smirk.

Emma was about to retort when, she and Rikki noticed Zane come in looking as miserable as Emma. Rikki's heart ached for him, she hated seeing him sad, she loved his sarcastic, mischievous and energetic nature. Rikki shook her head, why was she thinking these things? Rikki hated Zane right?

"Hey Zane what's wrong?" Emma asked.

"Nothing", Zane said giving the same reply Emma did minutes earlier, and slumped into the booth next to Emma.

"Since when did I become everyone's guidance councillor? Come on spill", Rikki said trying to hide her concern by sounding irritable.

Zane glared at Rikki, "It none of your business".

Rikki just used her tactic of raising her eyebrow again, "What did you do?"

"What makes you think that it was something I did?" Zane asked indignantly. Rikki just raised her eyebrow higher at him.

Emma felt sorry for Zane, she had just undergone the eyebrow treatment herself and it wasn't fun.

Zane sighed, "Fine, it was my fault".

"Ha! I knew it", Rikki said triumphantly.

"You're not helping you know." Zane said irritably.

"So what happened?" Rikki asked ignoring Zane's comment. Zane reluctantly told Rikki and Emma about his fight with Lewis, leaving out the merman part, he would tell Emma that later though he was anxious about her reaction.

"Zane!" Emma and Rikki scolded at the same time.

"Hey! I didn't meant to say any of that, and I didn't mean it", Zane said.

"But you still said it, and Lewis doesn't know that you didn't mean it", Rikki said.

"I know, I know. What am I going to do?"

"You need to apologise to Lewis", Rikki said.

"I already tried, but he won't answer his phone, I don't know what to do".

"Give Lewis some more time, and if he still doesn't answer go to his house".

Rikki couldn't help but study Zane's face while he thought about her suggestion, she could tell Zane really felt bad about hurting Lewis. When they first met, Rikki had thought he would be incapable of remorse, but the two had become closer while working on their English homework and she was beginning to think she had been wrong about Zane.

"Yeah I'll do that, thanks Rikki", Zane said smiling at her and covered her hand with his.

Rikki couldn't stop the smile appearing on her face, she felt heartened by how grateful he was, and… Rikki was abruptly pulled out of her thoughts when Emma coughed awkwardly, Zane quickly withdrew his hand and avoided looking at her. Rikki wanted to glare at Emma for causing the loss of warmth she had felt when Zane's hand had covered hers, but knew Emma hadn't meant for that to happen she had just been unsure what to do, so Rikki refrained herself.

"So you two have your assignments for the week, Zane is going to apologise to Lewis and Emma is going to ask out Ash", Rikki said trying to sound normal, it didn't help that her heart was beating faster than usual.

"I don't know if I can Rikki", Emma said anxiously.

To Rikki's surprise Zane spoke up before she could, Rikki couldn't help but notice how much Zane was surprising her. Rikki really hoped it wasn't an act, she had been hurt that way before and didn't want to go through it again.

"Em, I'm going to tell you something that will really help you. But neither of you can tell anyone I told you, especially not Ash okay?" After Emma and Rikki nodded, Zane sighed he really hoped Ash wouldn't find out about this. "Ash told me he really likes you Emma".

Emma gaped at Zane, and when what Zane had said sunk in she felt her heart soar with happiness, "He really likes me?"

"Yes, he really does".

Emma gave him a huge grin, and jumped up she had to stop herself from doing a happy dance, "Thanks Zane, I have to go and see Ash now", Emma said happily and ran out of the café.

Zane and Rikki looked at each other awkwardly, now that Emma had left Rikki suddenly didn't know how to act. "Um… I need to go I have this um… thing". Rikki managed to say, but as soon as she realised what she said she wanted to face palm, but again restrained herself.

"Yeah, I have…a thing too, see you around?"

"Y-Yeah", Rikki said and they both got up at the same time to leave which just made leaving even more awkward, because they were going in the same direction. Rikki tried not to look at Zane, but was finding it very difficult. Finally after what seemed like forever, they left the café and went their separate ways.

Emma called Ash to ask where he was, he had said that he was at home and when Emma said she wanted to talk to him, invited her to his house. When Emma started the walk to Ash's house she felt happy and excited, but when she got close to Ash's house, Emma began to feel very nervous and worried. What if Zane had been wrong, what if he had misunderstood what Ash had meant? Emma was considering backing out, but she was at Ash's house before she knew it. Emma was about to ring the door bell, but hesitated. If she was going to back out now was the time. Emma closed her eyes and took three deep breaths to calm herself and pressed the doorbell button.

A few minutes later Ash appeared in the doorway, "Hey Em, come in".

"Hi, thanks", Emma said trying to keep her voice from wobbling with nerves, and inwardly high fived herself when she managed to sound normal.

"Would you like a drink?" Ash asked when they were in the living room.

"Yeah, can I have some lemonade?"

"Sure, I'll just be a minute", Ash said and went into the kitchen.

Emma took the time to calm her racing heart, and looked at the photos in the room. There were many of Ash's family, and their friends. She smiled fondly at a photo of herself and Ash, they were sitting at a table in the outside area of the Juicenet café. She picked it up, she hoped that there would be many more of the two together.

"That's one of my favourite photos", Ash said.

Emma jumped, she had been so focused on the photo she hadn't heard Ash come back. She smiled at him, "It's one of mine too". The two stared at each other until Ash awkwardly coughed.

"Here's your drink", Ash said.

"Thanks", Emma said when she took the drink her fingers brushed against Ash's she jumped at the contact and accidently dropped the glass. She could see Ash trying to slow down time, but he wasn't quick enough and the cup fell on the floor causing water to spill everywhere and the cup to smash as they were standing on part of the floor that wasn't covered by a rug. Ash hadn't been wearing shoes or socks, and the water went all over his feet. Emma stared at Ash in horror, she knew his family were in the house as she had heard Ally arguing with Andy when she came in.

Emma felt even worse when she saw Ash's eyes widen in fear and run out of the room. This was not how this was meant to go, Emma had just wanted to ask him out but if Ash was caught she may never see him again. The seconds went by very slowly, and Emma was afraid that at any moment someone would shout that Ash was a merman. But thankfully a couple of minutes later Ash came back into back into the room in human form.

"I'm so sorry Ash", Emma immediately said.

"It's okay, it was an accident", Ash said and gave Emma a reassuring smile.

After they cleared the glass away, and Ash had got Emma another drink they sat down on a sofa that was opposite the TV.

"So, you wanted to talk about something", Ash said.

Emma felt her heart leap into her throat, her confidence had lessened more after nearly exposing Ash's merman secret. She tried to reason that Zane had told her Ash really liked her, but it didn't stop her from freaking out, "Yeah, um… Ash I was wondering if…you would-" Emma was cut off by Ally stomping into the room followed by Andy. Emma inwardly cursed, she had been so close and now she was going to have to work up the courage again.

"It was your fault Ally!" Andy shouted.

"My fault! How was it my fault?" Ally argued.

"You were the one who-"

"No, no you were the one who sent it, not me".

"Guys, what's going on?" Ash said.

"Ally sent a photo of me wearing the clown costume I used last Halloween to Lindsey, you know? The girl I really like and now she's never going to take me seriously!" Andy said angrily.

"You were the one who sent it, how many times do I have to say that?"

"I wasn't going to send it, I was looking at the picture on my second monitor screen while I had my conversation on Facebook messenger with Lindsey open on the other screen. You pushed me, and which caused me to accidently send it!"

"You shouldn't have had the picture up on the second screen, if you didn't want Lindsey to see it!"

"I didn't think you would push me. I don't have magical powers that allow me to see the future you know! Magic doesn't exist!"

Ash shared a meaningful look with Emma, they knew that magic did in fact exist but they couldn't tell Andy and Ally that. "Guys, it was an accident, can't you let it go?" Ash said in exasperation.

Ally and Andy glanced at Ash, then at each other, "Nope!" They said at the same time and stormed off in different directions, Andy went back upstairs while Ally left the house.

Ash sighed, "I'm sorry about them, what were you going to say?"

Emma opened and closed her mouth a few times, before finally making herself speak, "Would you like to go on a date with me?"

Ash's blinked in surprise, then what Emma thought was the most beautiful smile appeared on his face.

"I would love to Em", Ash said happily.

If Emma thought her heart was soaring with happiness when Zane told about Ash's feelings for her, it was nothing compared to the happiness she was feeling now. Without thinking Emma hugged Ash tightly, when Emma realised what she was doing she was worried that it was too early to hug Ash like that, but to her relief Ash hugged her tightly back. Emma wanted to stay like this forever, but knew that she couldn't so after a while she reluctantly released Ash.

"Would you like to have lunch with me at the Juicenet Café tomorrow?" Emma asked.

"Yeah, that sounds great. We didn't finish watching Inception, shall we finish now?"

"Yeah, that sounds great".

The couple spent the rest of the afternoon watching Inception and chatting.

While Emma had been trying to ask Ash out, Zane set about making amends with Lewis. Zane waited a while to give Lewis some space, then tried contacting him but Lewis still wasn't answering his phone, so as Rikki suggested Zane went to Lewis' house. When Zane arrived, he hesitantly nocked on the door. Lenny answered the door, and didn't look happy to see Zane, though he couldn't blame him.

"What do you want?" Lenny said irritably.

"I want to apologise to Lewis".

"Why should I let you? You really hurt him you know. How do I know you won't hurt him more?"

"I know, I really messed up. But Lewis' friendship means a lot to me, please let me speak to him. You can stay in the room if it will make you feel better".

Lenny sighed, "Fine, but only because I know how much Lewis cares about you. And I will be in the room, so if you hurt him further you will regret it".

Zane nodded, "Fair enough, thank you".

Lenny let Zane in, Zane could see Lewis sitting on the sofa reading something but he didn't seem in to it. He looked miserable, which just made Zane feel worse.

"Hey Lewis, Zane wants to speak to you. I can make him leave if you don't want to see him though", Lenny said.

Lewis looked up in surprise, "That's okay Lenny. What do you want Zane, I thought we weren't friends".

Zane sat next to Lewis, "Lewis I'm so sorry. I didn't mean any of the things I said and we are friends".

"Then why did you say them? Friends aren't supposed to say things like that to each other" Lewis said sadly.

"I was angry with myself. I couldn't believe I was so wrong about Peter, and I kept getting the homework questions wrong. I just felt as though I couldn't do anything right, and I took it out on you. I'm so sorry".

Lewis contemplated this for a while then spoke up, "So you really didn't mean those things you said".

"Yeah, you mean a lot to me Lewis and I never say that lightly. Can you forgive me?"

Lewis felt the feeling of happiness return to him, he hadn't felt this happy since before the ordeal with Peter. Although a week doesn't seem like a long time, for Lewis it felt like years, as he had never been through anything like this before. He was still wondering if that wasn't true for Ash, given his reactions. But he hadn't found a good time to bring it up. Lewis stored this thought away for the moment, and smiled at Zane as he answered his question, "Yeah".

Zane sighed in relief, "Thank you", Zane said and hugged Lewis who thankfully hugged him back. "How about we go to the Juicenet café, my treat?" Zane asked hopefully.

Part of Lewis was anxious about going to the café with Zane, in case Zane hurt him again. But he could tell that Zane wanted to make it up to him, so he agreed.

"I'm going with you though", Lenny said.

"Lenny, I don't need a body guard", Lewis whined, he was finding it annoying that his brothers kept accompanying him everywhere, he wasn't a child and didn't need protecting.

"You do", Lenny said meaningfully and covertly glanced at Zane.

Lewis nodded his head in understanding, Lenny was worried about him being alone with Zane. "Fine", Lewis huffed, not wanting Zane to catch on.

The trio went to the café, and though the conversation was awkward at first, by the end of the afternoon it was back to normal.