Chapter 1

New Jersey, Three Years Later

At the age of sixteen his life turned upside down again. His parents had seen his deformity. It had been a long day of baseball practice and Danny had been exhausted but happy to know that he had made the team, even if he wasn't likely to play as much more than a benchwarmer since he was a Freshman. Upon returning home all he could think of was sinking into a nice hot bath to relax the aching muscles. His being so eager to get in the hot water had caused him to forget to lock the door and of course this had to be one of those days that he flipped a tail. It happened only occasionally when he was in the bath and he was usually very good at remembering to lock the bathroom door so that this very occurrence wouldn't happen. But this one time he had forgotten and his Father had walked in on him.

Danny had had some awkward moments before, having had his Father walk in on him masturbating on three separate occasions. But this was far, far worse than that. The look on his Father's face was one Danny was sure he would never forget. His Father had stood there in the doorway looking at him with wide, startled eyes and Danny had been too shocked to try and hide. Not that he would have been able to hide the changes. His Father, the man he idolized above all others had looked at him as if he had no idea who Danny was. It hurt, but it only got worse when his Father had screamed for Danny's Mom.

Danny's Mom was a petite woman with blond hair already going gray. Beside his Father she looked even smaller, especially when she caught sight on Danny. Her eyes had widened and her hands had shot up to cover her mouth as she let out a startled gasp. Danny had not been prepared to have her run to him, crying as if her world was falling apart. Danny had grabbed her arms to try and keep her from falling into the water with him. She had wrapped her arms around his shoulders and sobbed into the side of his neck chanting "I'm sorry" over and over. Danny was scared to ask her why she was sorry, but his Father certainly wasn't.

Frank Williams was a good man but he had little patience when it came to things that made his wife cry or that deviated too much from his worldview. And his oldest son sprawled in the bath looking like a merman was definitely far outside of what his worldview told him was reality. Hell it was outside of Danny's worldview until it had happened to him. Danny wanted to give his Father the benefit of the doubt as it had take Danny a long time to accept the whole being a merman thing wasn't going to go away just because he wanted it to. But listening to his Father and Mother argue as she explained about why exactly Danny was part fish made that desire shrink.

"How could you," his Father had screamed at her.

"I wanted a baby, Frank!" His Mother had been sobbing even more so as she tried to explain what had happened all those years ago down at the Shore. "We had been trying so hard for so long and the doctors were saying that it wasn't likely that we could ever have one of our own and I just wanted a baby so very badly."

Danny had tried to pull himself out of the tube only to slip back in, water splashing all over the floor as he caught sight of Mattie and the girls hovering in the doorway behind their Father. The girls were watching him with the scary look they had every time they watched a Disney movie or caught sight of a new stuffed animal, but where held back from charging him by the sight of their parents arguing in a way they never had before. He could see them mouthing something, but he didn't read lips enough to know what exactly they were saying. He cringed though because knowing his little sisters it was likely something along the lines of 'pretty pretty fishie!'

"I got a little drunk after you stormed off back to the station and I decided to go down to the Shore to walk along the beach." His Mother whipped at her eyes as she looked up at her husband, begging him to understand. "I stumbled upon him and he was just laying there naked in the sand and I started to think he might be hurt. So I ran over to him and found, well…he was very much alive."

"And what, that made it okay to have sex with a stranger! To break our wedding vows!"

"No! No, it didn't make it right! I was drunk and sad and so lonely because you wouldn't even look at me! He was there and he let me vent out all my pain and he offered me comfort."

Their fighting had gone on for hours until both were hoarse from screaming. Eventually they had realized that Danny and the other children were right there listening. There Father had ordered them out and Danny had found he had to crawl between his parents to get out of the bathroom, his body still too wet to fully change back. His father had glared down at his pale ice blue fins that were starting to gain some more vibrant blue tones along the edges. Danny had looked away, his whole body trying to cruel in on itself under that burning gaze. Danny had never been so hurt as he was then at his Father's callus behavior. For weeks after Danny refused to acknowledge his Father's existence and he barley spoke to his Mother. At school he found himself acting out, getting into fights that he would have avoided before. He was in detention almost everyday now, classes he used to enjoy like English Lit couldn't hold his attention any longer. He stopped turning in his work and hardly ate anything. The only thing he could focus on was practice, running and fighting the punks that thought they could bad mouth him or his siblings. He may or may not have been involved with a group of boys who fought each other in an abandoned house two blocks down or learned how to pick locks and bypass basic household security systems from one of said boys.

If his Father noticed Danny coming home with bruised ribs, black eyes and all manner of other cuts and bruises, he never said anything. His Mother tried to comfort him and had convinced Mattie to help hold Danny down long enough for her to tie a bag of frozen peas to his face, since Danny refused to hold them against his swollen eye. In the long run it couldn't fix the fact that he was a living reminder of his Mom's infidelity. Or that her infidelity was with someone who wasn't even human. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to keep going and pretend that nothing was different when everything was. The only one who didn't treat him differently was his brother, who seemed to see exactly how painful the situation was for Danny, and did everything he could to run interference for Danny. Danny had never been prouder of his younger brother. And if his two little sisters were overly excited about having a "mermaid" for a brother, well they were only ten and seven years old. It could be excused.

"Daniel," his Mother's voice came through the closed door of his bedroom. "Please come down to the kitchen. Your Father and I need to speak with you."

Danny sighed and for a moment he thought about ignoring the request, but his Mother was trying. Even through it put an unbearable strain on her marriage she continued to protect him from the brunt of his Father's anger. Pushing himself up Danny nodded at his brother who was sitting on the other bed working on his homework. Mattie nodded and set the book aside and followed Danny out of the room. He would go distract the girls while Danny spoke with their parents.

The stairs going down to the first floor of their small home creaked beneath his weight, announcing his presence before he even made it to the bottom. He knew they could hear him shuffling his feet on the old wooden floors and in all honesty he didn't care. It had been nearly a month now and his Father still wouldn't speak to him or even look at him. Danny had quickly decided that if begging his Father to talk to him or glaring angrily at his Father wasn't going to get him anywhere then he would just follow his Father's example and ignore the other man.

When he entered the kitchen he could quickly see his Father sitting at the table, his Mother hovering nervously at his side. Not willing to look at his Father only to be ignored again, Danny looked at his Mother instead. She had a sad, almost resigned look on her face and it was obvious that she was having a hard time looking at him.

"Sit down, Danny," ordered his Father.

Danny bristled at the order but pulled out a chair and sat down anyway. Fighting the order would only make this whole conversation worse, of that he was sure. This past month had been the worst of his life and Danny was ready for it to be over. He didn't know what his parents planned to do about this shame that no one spoke of that was Danny's tail. He was sure he wasn't going to like whatever decision they had come to though.

"Danny, honey," his Mother started.

"Your Mother and I," interrupted his Father. "Have decided to send you to stay with your Uncle Laurence for a little while."

Danny jerked up in his seat, spinning to look at his Father. Sure he liked his Uncle Laurence but he didn't want to move in with the man. He hadn't seen his uncle in two years since he was transferred from the NYPD to the HPD. Sure his uncle talked about all the nice benefits of living in Honolulu, or at least in the outlying areas where rent was better, but Danny was a Jersey boy. He had lived his whole life in New Jersey and the farthest away from home he had ever been was to the JFK airport when they had driven Uncle Laurence there for his flight to Hawaii.

"You're sending me away?" Danny jumped to his feet, planting his hands down on the table top and leaning towards his Father and glared. "Just can't stand having me around any longer, can you. Don't want anyone or anything around to remind you that your perfect little family isn't so perfect. That you have a freak for a son-"

Danny staggered back, a shocked look on his face, one hand raised to his stinging cheek. His Mother was looking at him, her lips trembling and tears at the corners of her eyes. Her hand was still raised up. She had hit him. His own Mother!

Danny collapsed in his seat nearly sliding off it he was so shocked. His Father seemed almost as shocked as Danny. His eyes wider than Danny had ever seen them. "You hit me…"

"I won't have talk like that in my house! I love you both but… I. Will. Not. Have. It." His Mother took a deep shaky breath. "Danny you'll need to pack tonight. Your flight out will be leaving in the morning."

Blinking Danny nodded and turned to leave. He hadn't expected the conversation to go well but he had never thought he would be forced from his family home and struck in the face by his Mother. It was simply out of the realm of possibilities that he had ever considered. Sure he had thought they may ask him to move a block away to stay with his Grandmother while they tried to patch things up, but this? They were sending him all the way across the country? Fists clenched at his side he stumbled up the creaking stairs to where his siblings were hiding in the girl's room. He would have to say goodbye to them and get Mattie to promise to watch out for them while he was away.

Mattie was already in the open doorway waiting for him when he reached the landing. "What'd they want?"

"They're sending me to stay with Uncle Laurence."

"What!"

"Shhh!" Danny pushed Mattie back into the girls room. "I don't want any further arguments okay. Jeeesus, Mattie." Danny pushed his hands through his hair and took a deep breath before looking over to where his two sisters were sitting on the floor playing with their Barbies. "They're sending me away in the morning. So I'll have to pack in a while."

Mattie swallowed hard and looked over at their sisters and then back at Danny. "How long will you be gone?"

"They didn't say but I get the feeling it'll be for a good long while." Danny squeezed his brother's shoulder. "It'll be alright, okay. It's Hawaii. How bad could it really be?"

- - - H50 - - -H50 - - -

Oahu, Hawaii

Hawaii was worse than Danny thought. It was too freaking hot out, the people at the airport kept trying to shove a necklace of flowers over his head, the locals kept giving him weird looks and their was sand. Everywhere. Who needed that much sand?

His Uncle Laurence looked much the same as he had the last time Danny saw him, although the man was tanner and he wasn't wearing a tie. Which was odd because Uncle Laurence had been wearing a tie for as long as Danny could remember. In fact Uncle Laurence had explained to Danny that if you wanted to be taken seriously as a detective you had to wear a tie. A tie showed that you were a professional and that you would take the case you were working on seriously. So Danny couldn't figure out why his uncle was no longer wearing one. Was today his day off? But no, Danny distinctly remembered his uncle wearing ties around the family home even when he wasn't working.

"Hey there, Danny." His uncle smiled and pulled him into a quick hug. "Was your flight alright?"

Danny shrugged unsure what to say. It was his first flight but the novelty of it only lasted for a short time before it wore off. After that it was just being confined into a cramped seat on a cramped little plane, on a flight that lasted most of the day. Not very pleasant over all.

"Well, let's get outta here. We can head back to my home and get you settled and we can order out tonight."

"Fine," Danny didn't really feel like talking. He had no idea what his parents had told his uncle.

"I think you'll come to like it here, Danny. There is a lot of good food, some great outdoor activities and the Kukui Highs sports teams are some of the best on the island." His Uncle Laurence glanced over at Danny as they pulled away from the airport. "Your Mom said you were on your schools baseball team?"

"Yeah." Danny looked out the window at the passing scenery. He wasn't mad at his uncle for what his parents had decided to do, but all the same he was still mad. He didn't want to shoot the breeze with his uncle like he wasn't being sent to this island as a form of punishment for being born. He just wanted to get to the room that was going to be his prison for an undetermined length of time and crawl in bed. He wanted to sink into the mattress and vanish.

"-It'll be an adjustment for you, sure, but Danny I really think you'll like it here." His uncle smiled out at the road ahead of him as they drove past small homes, the cliché palm trees and the sandy beach, further inland. "Once you're settled we'll have to have a BBQ so you can meet some of the people here before you start school on Monday. One of my old partners has a son about your age, so maybe he can show you around the places the younger crowd hangs out."

Danny pretends not to listen, knowing that his uncle is aware that Danny is aware of what he is saying. They have played this game before, although the last time it was because Danny was angry at his uncle for leaving him and coming out here, far away from Danny and the rest of the family. Now…now, his uncle seemed happy to have Danny here, and other circumstances Danny would be happy to be here as well. Things were different though and Danny wasn't here because he wanted to be. He was forced here away from his family as a blatant way of saying they no longer wanted him. Well, that was fine. If they didn't want Danny then he didn't want them.

"-they've got a few good pizza places here. We can pick one up if you want? Most of the pizza has pineapple on it though. God only knows why, but it's not bad. Not as a good as back home, of course, but not bad. They've got some crazy ideas about good food. Soup with Spam in it, yeah that wasn't so good. And their hotdogs are okay. My old partner, Jack, was really fond of Puka Dogs, which are pretty popular on the island. Doubt a good ol' Jersey boy like yourself will care for 'em though. They sure aren't a Nathan's or one of old man Nester's from the corner stall down the street, but you get used to 'em."

Danny sighs and forces himself not to look over at his uncle. If he does, as angry as he is he knows he'll say something that he'll regret later. So he pushes down the Williams instinct to rant, yell and wave his arms like a mad man and focuses on the scenery outside. There is a car behind them, an old VW bus with a paintjob that went out of style with the sixties and several surfboards strapped to the top. There were several teens in the bus, more probably than he could see crowding in the front. The boy driving had dark hair, maybe black or brown, they were too far behind them to tell for sure. He had a strong jaw and a wide ready smile. He probably made all the girls swoon. He was good looking. Handsome even. As fit as he looked from here he was probably a jock of some kind or if not he was still probably one of the popular crowd. Anyone that good looking usually made it to the top of the High School social ladder without having to try.

Danny had never been popular, even if his father was a neighborhood hero. Danny was too short, too stocky and too opinionated to be considered handsome back home, let alone be popular. All his friends had been tall and dark haired and Danny just looked wrong when he stood next to them. He had his Irish Mother's coloring instead of his Italian American Father's…Well, as Danny knew now, Frank Williams wasn't really his father. Still Mirabelle had always liked him. Told him he was handsome, so he had never understood why he couldn't be popular. He had figured that it had to do with how different he looked from the other kids that lived around his little corner of Jersey. He had been hoping to change his social position this year. Hoping that by making the baseball team it would push him up the social ladder even if he didn't look like the majority of the kids and then maybe he could find a girl who would be willing to be more than just a friend.

None of that mattered now. It had been pushed home just how much he would never fit in, no matter how hard he tried. And now he was being sent to here, to a place that looked like paradise but was going to be his own personal hell. He would never fit in here. He would be even more obviously out of place than he was back in Jersey.

Eventually they turned off the main road that kept passing by little coves with white sandy beaches and happy people laying in the sun and playing in the water. The VW bus with the smiling teenaged boy stayed on the road heading further along the cost and Danny felt strangely bereft. He didn't know why he should feel that way, but he did all the same. Looking through the side mirror at the happy teens he could almost dream of being in that bus with them, laughing and smiling and being a part of something he never had before.

"We're here, Danny."

Danny blinked and looked at the small house in front of them. It was mostly white with bright blue shutters at the windows and a large wrap-around porch that his Mother would be so jealous of. There were large leafed plants and trees all around the house and a little stone walkway leading up to the porch that was lined with brightly colored flowers. Danny thought it was lovely and couldn't help but wonder if his uncle had gone island crazy because this didn't look anything like a house in Jersey. Not even down at the Shore.

"I hope you'll be able to consider this little place Home. At least for now," his uncle said with a smile as he gently guided Danny inside.