Okay so after this chapter things are going to get a little controversial, translation Charlotte hating fans are going to really hate me... but a lot of people hate me so I've already gotten over it. This is a Charlotte centred fic, just so you all know.

Once a Mermaid:

Rehabilitation

Since loosing her powers Charlotte had been doing some serious thinking. When she'd first found out about her grandmother's past Charlotte had wanted the powers to understand her grandmother better, to be closer to the woman that had passed away some time ago.

Once she'd gotten the powers Charlotte hadn't even noticed her reasoning becoming more and more illogical, hadn't realised that she had been ignoring caution. The jealousy that she'd felt had only been a minor envy; she didn't know when it had taken over.

When the trio had taken her powers she'd been furious, she'd gone home and slept and when she'd woken the past month came back to her in full colour high definition. It was like a brutal slap in the face.

She had stayed in bed that day, mulling it over, that night when she took a bath and her legs stayed legs and no tail appeared she cried, she cried for an hour maybe more. Regret flooded through her. She didn't want to believe that she was such a monster, she knew she had never been so horrid before but she also knew that the faults had been there for a long time, being a mermaid had magnified them until she was a power mad zealot. She had let her faults control her and she had lost the best thing to ever happen to her.

It wasn't being a mermaid, although that rated a very close second. The best thing that had ever happened to her was being part of the girls' 'club,' she had felt so great to be part of that, part of something more than herself and she had thrown it away for a reason she couldn't comprehend.

By the end of the first week her mother had noticed the break in Charlotte's facade and had talked to her teachers at school. They had all decided that Charlotte could take some time off as long as she kept up with her school work. Charlotte's mother got the work for the next month and a half and called her sister who lived on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Charlotte was genuinely pleased to have a month with her aunt to get her life back together. A day after receiving the news she ran into Cleo, it was just the two of them and the situation was awkward; it was the first time since the battle that any of the girls had seen Charlotte and neither girl knew what to say. Finally Charlotte blurted out her plans.

"I'm leaving at the end of the week, just for a month but… I didn't mean to do what I did; I can't explain why I did all that because I really don't know. I'm going to try and get my life back on track, whatever that means. Don't worry about your secret, I won't tell anyone."

"Okay," Cleo nodded, "Good luck with that." She tried to be sarcastic but Charlotte's sincerity was making it impossible. So after two weeks of heavy thinking from all four girls involved they had met at the airport and Charlotte, who was trying to heal, was accepted fully by the trio of mermaids.

Now on a beach far to the north Charlotte sat and watched the waves crashed against the shore. She was still getting used to not having to worry about getting wet. Her aunt was a marine botanist and she had taken Charlotte out snorkelling, the first few time Charlotte had forgotten that she needed to come up for air more often then when she was a mermaid. The result was a very light headed teenager and a very concerned aunt.

Most days Charlotte studied on the beach, some days she would just sit and stare at the ocean, on her good days she would unpack her art supplies and paint. She'd been there for a week when she'd met Becky and Mindy. Mindy was a brightly coloured Gymnast with bubblegum pink hair and a love for flinging herself into the air. Becky was a martial artist and Mindy's opposite, the quieter of the two Becky wore muted colours and her black hair was cropped short.

The odd duo had quickly adopted Charlotte and were often toting her around, Charlotte soon found herself playing mediator for the strange pair. They had admitted to her that they didn't know how they'd stayed friends with out her. Hanging out with the girls Charlotte thought less and less about being a mermaid. She thought she wouldn't have to worry about that sort of thing; she wasn't even concerned about the fast approaching full moon. The last one had taken away her powers forever; Charlotte could never get those powers back, so she hadn't blinked when Mindy had suggested a full moon sleep over in a secret cave on an island out in the waters of the Gulf.

See, See! This is why its important to get enough sleep, sleep deprived minds come upwith this sort of ... what ever the hell this is.

Read, review, or don't either way I've already prepared for an onslaught of Charlotte-hate-mail-flame-thingies so there.