And now for something completely different:

Thanks for the reviews I'm sorry I couldn't answer each one personally/individually but I've been super busy lately and I'm probably going to be uber-busy again in a bit, I'm helping some one move house so…any way:

MewNacho: this is what's going to happen with Naomi, hope you like.

bloodfan 101: thank you and TADA- an update.

D.J. Scales: the suspense is half the fun. Enjoy, and there might not be an exact Lewis parallel.

Katheren Black: thank you very much.

cfxcin02: thank you for giving my story another shot, glad you don't mind it after all.

.light: thanks, glad you like it. There will be more of the moon pool later in the story, more description and more to explore.

MermaidRaven: thank you very much and wait no more for here is the new chapter.

Sokai: You'll just have to wait and see, thanks, glad to be back.

And on with the actual story you lot are here to read.

3 u all. (It looks more like a double scoop ice-cream then a heart doesn't it…. Mmm, ice- cream.)

"Did I just trip over what I think I just tripped over?"

"I told you dolphins are evil."

Once a Mermaid

Re: Reveal: Reaction

"So…" Naomi said slowly.

"We're mermaids." Charlotte replied carefully watching her aunt for a reaction. Naomi took a deep breath and let it out slowly before she got up and moved further into the cabin.

"You three aren't going to suffocate or anything like that above water are you?" Naomi wrung her hands, warily eyeing the trio. The girls shook the heads in reply.

"Aunt Naomi?" Charlotte began, "do you have any towels or anything that could dry us off?" Naomi nodded and opened one of the cupboards removing large fluffy towels.

Naomi placed the towels down on a bench near the girls then leaned down, grabbed Mindy carefully and dragged her away from the other two. She repeated the process with Becky and with Charlotte giving them all a little bit more space to move and dry off in, before handing out the towels and, taking a spare towel for herself she began to dry the wet floor at the base of the stairs where the trio had collapsed.

"So you get wet and you grow tails?" She asked over her shoulder.

"Ten seconds after," Mindy confirmed "we dry off we get our legs back."

"Naomi," Becky spoke up, "you aren't going to turn us into the government or anything are you?"

"No," came the immediate reply, "I specialise in oceanic flora, the fauna makes no never mind to me, not my area to report on… plus I like you three, one of you even happens to be my niece so, once I've had a good, extremely alcoholic drink, I'd like to hear all about the sorts of sea plants you've seen."

"Well, we haven't seen that many yet, we only became mermaids on the full moon two nights ago." Charlotte told her, "we haven't had a chance to go swimming properly; we haven't even gotten our powers yet."

"Powers?" Naomi turned around to fast the teenage trio thought she'd get whiplash. "Wait, if you haven't gotten them how do you know you get powers." Charlotte shifted uncomfortably before spilling the whole story, the whole edited story anyway, she had promised not to tell the Gold Coast trio's secret and she wouldn't. Not until they knew about the new mermaids…

"Wow…" Naomi seemed even more shocked now that she knew the 'whole' story. "So that's why you came up here, because you lost you're old powers, only then you got new ones, fate is one sadistic little chit. You know you'll have to move in with me permanently." Charlotte threw Naomi a confused look.

"Well who else are you gonna live with up here, or were you planning on breaking up your… drift- School- shoal- swarm- shiver- Pod? What in hell do you call a group of mermaids anyway?"

"A mercy?" Mindy suggested, "Get it Mer-sea."

"Yeah... Ok that'll do, unless you were planning on breaking up your mercy, lets face it you'd be better off together where you can watch each others backs."

"Sticking together is the wisest course of action. And you know, we'd miss you and you'd miss us and even if we are as fast as you say that's still a long way from here to the Gold Coast for visits." Becky added.

"Okay, but we're going to have to make some changes to things, make the house and the maybe even the boat more mermaid friendly." Charlotte looked at Naomi who nodded in agreement. "I either have the coolest aunt in existence, or the strangest."

"Strangest," Naomi confirmed, "I think it might be because mum, your grandmother Gracie, always told me stories about mermaids and the sea, coming from her it was just so believable, I think part of me still believed her stories," the older woman paused to look at the trio, "evidently with good reason. And I would like to get a look at the moon pool; I want to see if this… magic thing has done anything to the surrounding marine life."

The next few days saw the four women, and a mildly reluctant Chris, supervising, or in Chris's case helping, the contractors begin renovations on the research area of Naomi's house, specifically her 'indoor rock pool.' Chris had asked on the first day why the changes were necessary, Naomi's reply – to make scuba diving easier and more efficient for her– was reasonable enough to curb his curiosity. During the girls' long breaks from supervising for lunch, and 'quick' swims far away from the house and the contractors, Charlotte and Naomi took turns in convincing Charlotte's mother why it would be better if she stayed with Naomi.

It was on the fourth day after the group had begun construction, the day after the contractors had proclaimed it finished and left, that the second part of mermaid-hood began to show; the results were very… different to what any of the girls had expected.

Drift, school and shoal are all collective nouns for fish.

Swarm is the collective noun for, I think its eels.

Shiver is the alleged collective noun for sharks.

And Pod is for dolphins and some whales.

If any one can correct that go ahead it's appreciated.