Chapter 17

Hi guys, thanks for all your comments I love them :) I hope you enjoy this chapter. By the way Cleo will have a big part soon, feel free to give suggestions as to how she can come in to things and I will consider them. A certain kiss may indeed happen soon :)

Lewis jumped up as fast as he could and pulled Linda away from the bathroom door and rushed inside. He ran to the nearest stall and managed to lock it before transforming into a merman. He had to catch himself by putting his hands on the wall. Lewis' heart was still racing, that was such a close call.

"Lewis are you okay?" Lewis heard Lenny ask in concern.

"Y-yeah I'm fine thanks", Lewis said shakily.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah thanks for checking on me".

"No problem".

Lewis sighed in relief when Lenny left, he took a towel that he had made sure to take with him out of his pocket making him feel glad he was more alert than usual. When he had transformed he leaned against the door of his stall and waited until he got his breath back. His family checked that he was okay when he returned, Lewis just hoped that he didn't raise his aunt's suspicions.

Thankfully the rest of the evening went by without any more spillages, but his aunt kept sending him curious and concerned glances which put him even more on edge. When they got home Lewis was grateful he could escape to his room. He spent the rest of the evening doing homework, to try and keep his mind busy.

The next day Emma started her work experience in the water park. She had taken Ash's blood and kept it securely in her purse. Part of her felt apprehensive knowing she was risking Ash, but his trust in her made her feel braver and happier. Emma was falling fast for Ash, he was so wonderful and kind. Though when she saw the forlorn way Byron looked at her and Ash together she felt guilty. She hoped he would find someone.

Choosing her moment carefully, Emma sneaked into Denman's lab. Emma took out Ash's blood and got it ready to examine. But before she could even look at it Denman caught her.

"Emma, what are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm sorry I was just curious and I-"

"It okay I understand. It's just this is all very expensive equipment, I would prefer it if you didn't touch it".

"Of course, I really am sorry", Emma said and hurried out of the lab.

She was heading out of the lab when she suddenly remembered that she hadn't taken Ash's blood with her. Emma rushed back to the lab her heart pounding in fear for Ash. But when Emma got to the lab, she couldn't see any sign of Ash's blood.

"Can I help you Emma?"

"I think I left something here".

Denman looked around, "I don't see anything of yours but feel free to take a look".

Emma looked around trying to appear calm, but inside she was frantic. Ash had trusted her and now he could be in danger because of her. Emma had to stop herself screaming in frustration when she couldn't find his blood, she had checked everywhere even the bin in case Denman thought it wasn't needed anymore. Denman must have taken the blood, but Emma couldn't challenge her without telling her about Ash.

"I was mistaken, but thanks for letting me check".

"It's quite alright".

Emma left and just as she was pulling her phone out to call Ash, a terrible thought stuck her. She couldn't remember if she had taken Ash's name of the vial of blood before taking it with her. Emma had been trained by her parents to take blood, and she often took blood to practice and examine it. So she put Ash's name on the vial so she could tell it was his. If she had left the name on, Ash was in terrible danger. Emma pressed the call button with a shaking finger.

"Hey Em, did it go okay? Em?"

Emma couldn't answer, she was so worried about how Ash would react. Would he hate her? Would he break up with her? She wouldn't blame him if he did, but she loved him so much. Emma was too frantic to register that thought, otherwise she would have freaked out even more at this realisation.

"Emma are you alright?"

Emma closed her eyes and made herself speak, "Ash I'm so sorry please forgive me…" Emma told him everything and by the end Ash was freaking out.

"What if she knows? What if she's coming for me? Emma what are we going to do?"

"We?" Emma asked, feeling both confused and hopeful at the same time.

"Yeah, unless you would rather I work with Zane I don't mind if you don't want to work with me-"

"It's not that Ash, I thought you would be angry with me. I put you in danger!"

"You didn't mean to Emma, you were just trying to help. I would have been angry and upset if you had done it deliberately, but it was a mistake".

"Y-you're not going to break up with me?"

"No of course not Em, I…I think I-"

"Ash who are you talking to?" A voice that Emma recognised as Ash's sister asked.

"Emma-"

"Oooh, what are you talking about?"

"That's private between me and Emma".

"You never tell me anything. Fine, fine, I guess I'll leave you alone then".

Ash sighed in annoyance at his sister's antics, why did she have to interrupt him? He could never say it now. Panic returned as he thought about his current predicament. Was it safe for him to be here, would he have to run for it?

"We should meet up with the others to discuss this".

Emma sighed, "They are going to be so mad at me".

"I can talk to them before you get there-"

"No it's okay, I can face them but thank you Ash. I'll see you soon".

After saying their goodbyes Ash let the others know what was happening and to say they were angry was an understatement. The group where in the living room of Ash's house, and Zane, Lewis and Rikki had been arguing with Emma. Ash had tried to stop them but they were too furious to listen to him. Currently Zane and Emma were in a shouting match.

"Because of you Denman could come at any minute to take Ash away!" Zane said angrily.

"Or she might not know at all".

"You would say that".

"What's that supposed to mean?" Emma said angrily.

"You put Ash in danger! I knew you couldn't be trusted.

Emma stood up "It was a mistake I never meant to put Ash in danger!"

"How many more mistakes are you going to make?"

"You never really trusted me did you? This is just another excuse for you to say I can't be trusted!"

"Excuse!" Zane said incredulously, "Ash's life is on the line here!"

Emma was about to argue back, but was interrupted by the doorbell ringing. They all froze and stared at Ash in horror. Had Denman come for him?

"Ash, that's Kailey. Can you get the door?" Ally shouted from upstairs.

They all sighed in relief, and the tension broke.

"Why do I have to get the door" Ash whined, so that Ally wouldn't figure out that something was wrong. And he wasn't in the mood to deal with Kailey, she was Ally's best friend but also very annoying. She often joined in teasing him with Ally and Andy.

"Because I'm in the bathroom!"

Ash sighed and rolled his eyes, his friends snickered at their antics. Ash was glad that the tension had lessened. "Fine!" Ash walked to the door, preparing himself to be bombarded with questions about Emma, Kailey's latest line of questioning. When Ash opened the door, it wasn't Kailey who answered but the last person that Ash wanted to see.

It was Denman. Ash froze in shock and fear.

"Hi Dr Denman", Ash managed to say, his brain was both screaming at him to run and to appear calm. There was still a chance she didn't know about him, and he didn't want to make her suspicious.

"Please call me Linda", Linda said and smiled at Ash.

"Linda!" Ash's mother called from behind him, "This is a nice surprise".

Ash noticed that Zane, Lewis, Emma and Rikki were in the porch, and while Linda was talking to his mother Zane moved to stand next to him. Ash smiled gratefully at Zane, who smiled reassuringly back though Ash could tell he was just as scared as he was.

"You two know each other?" Ash asked, hoping that this was the reason that Denman was here.

"Yes, your mother and I met when we went to a production of The Fiddler on The Roof, and have been good friends ever since", Linda explained.

"I didn't realise you had come back here", Rachel said and nodded at Ash to let Linda in the house. Ash didn't particularly want to, as he was still scared that Denman was here for him. But he couldn't tell his mother that so he reluctantly let her in. Zane put a comforting hand around his shoulder, and drew Ash close to him which helped a bit.

"I wanted to surprise you", Linda said as she hugged Rachel.

"Shall we catch up in the kitchen? I can make you some tea or coffee if you like", Rachel said.

"That would be lovely and I wouldn't mind a cup of tea", Linda said smiling at Rachel.

Ash was beginning to feel relieved, that was until Denman glanced at him with a look of longing. It was really freaking him out. He felt Zane's grip on his shoulder tighten, the moment seemed to drag on forever. But Denman looked away and followed Rachel to the kitchen.

The group breathed a sigh of relief as soon as the door closed behind Denman. Zane kept Ash close to him and Ash leaned against him grateful for the comfort.

"What do we do now?" Ash asked anxiously.

"It's too dangerous for you to be here, we need to get you out of here", Zane said firmly.

"But Denman doesn't know about Ash, if she did she would have taken him just now", Lewis said and immediately regretted it.

Ash flinched, causing Zane to glare at Lewis.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to say that", Lewis said, Ash smiled reassuringly at Lewis not trusting himself to speak. The thought that he could have been on the way to a dissection table right now, and not with his friends terrified him.

"Lewis has a point though, I don't think Denman knows", Emma said.

"I don't know, what if she just didn't want to do anything in front of Ash's mother?" Rikki pointed out. "I agree with Zane".

Emma crossed her arms, "Of course you agree with Zane".

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rikki said her voice rising in anger.

"We've all noticed how close you two are, it's clouding your judgment".

"That's rich coming from you. You're the reason Ash is in danger you said so yourself!"

Emma flung herself at Rikki and they began to fight, Ash and Zane pulled them away from each other with great difficulty and held them back.

"Why do I always have to be the voice of reason? Playing the blame game won't help Ash, we need to figure out if Denman knows about him?"

"How can we do that?" Rikki asked.

"We'll sneak into her lab after it is closed and search the place, I can also check her things at my house to see if there are any clues there". Lewis felt a bit guilty doing this, but Ash's life was on the line he had no choice.

"Okay, so we'll meet back here at six right?" Ash said.

Everyone agreed and left to prepare for breaking into Denman's lab.