A/N: Hey everyone! Thanks so much for all the feedback! Sad chapter ahead : ( This chapter contains a lot, a lot a LOT of information and I know that I kind of packed a lot into it and it may be a little confusing/overwhelming right now, but if you have a question about something you read in this chapter please leave it in a review or a PM and I will get back to you ASAP, promise! : D I'd be happy to explain whatever you want to know. In this chapter we lose a friend and make a disturbing discovery. Read and review, I hope you all enjoy chapter 3! Take care everyone.

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The Next Day – Lewis

It was the sound of a phone and the sound of a phone only that could wake me up this early on a Saturday so close to Christmas. I squinted over at the thermometer I kept outside my bedroom window and groaned – it's only 10 o' clock and it's already 30° C, which means it'll be 35 by noon… ugh. Thank God for air conditioning. I rolled over briefly and saw that Cora wasn't in bed anymore and then I smelled pancakes and smiled as I reached for my phone. This girl was going to spoil me…and my roommates, who were more than thrilled for food other than EasyMac. I flipped my phone open and wiped my hand down my face with my free hand.

"Hello?"

"Yes, I'm looking for a Lewis McCartney?" The voice said. The man on the other end didn't sound familiar and I checked the number quickly – I didn't recognize that, either.

"You've got him."

"Hello Mr. McCartney, my name is Burgess Monroe of the Monroe & Cleaver law firm. I understand that you are a close friend of my client, Max Thomas?"

"…Yeah, what's this about?" I froze a little – why was Max's lawyer calling me?

"I see. Well I am sorry that the nature of this call isn't a happy one, but… Max passed away last night in his sleep at his home." I felt my heart stop beating for a second. Had I heard this man correctly? This had to be one of my friends making a stupid joke.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm so sorry for your loss, Mr. McCartney. The reason why I've called is to inform you that—" He started to talk again but I pushed myself up in bed and shook my head.

"How?! How did this happen?" I didn't realize how loud my voice must have been and a second later I saw Cora appear at the doorway out of the corner of my eye.

"It appears to be old age. Mr. McCartney, you may have already been aware of this but Max Thomas has included you in his will and you will be asked to attend the reading of the will tomorrow afternoon at 4p.m. Do you need the address of the firm?" He asked. I was barely hearing him at this point. I had felt my entire face go blank a while ago and now I was beginning to feel numb.

"No."

"Okay, then I will be seeing you tomorrow at 4. Once again, I'm sorry for your loss. Take care." He said. I couldn't even respond. I couldn't even shut my phone – I just put it down and sat still. Max was dead? He had died in his sleep?! How could this have happened? Max was old but he wasn't that old, and he was as strong as an ox and healthier than most people my age. And now he was gone? Something was wrong here, so wrong it felt like it was suffocating me. Healthy people don't just die. I felt the mattress shift a little and realized that Cora had sat down with me. She didn't know what was said and I had no idea what my face looked like but after spending almost 6 months around her, I know that she gets pain – usually in her stomach – when people around her are upset or uncomfortable. I picked my head up to look at her and from the look on her face, I could tell that she was feeling it now.

"It's Max, Cora. He's dead."

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Three Days Later – Cora

I stood at Lewis's side and stared down at the black casket as it was lowered into the ground. It's been almost three years since I've been to a funeral – the last one was Mattie's. I felt Lewis grip my hand a little tighter and I squeezed it slightly and wiped the tears off of my face with my free hand. I knew this was hard for him. Max was like an uncle to Lewis, and even as close as I had been to the old man in the time I'd spent in Australia so far I was nowhere near as close to him as Lewis was. In the past few days he's been so quiet… I know he's been trying to mask how upset he is because he knows that I can feel it, but I don't want him to have to hide it. What's worse than the pain is the knowing that if I still had my powers, there's a chance I would have had a vision of the girls at the funeral; I could have been able to keep Max from dying, just like I should have kept Mattie from dying.

I sighed and glanced up at Lewis. His face is blank – it's been blank for days now, but there were definite hints of rage in his face. His eyes were cut a little more angrily than sadly, his forehead was creased. I squeezed his hand a little and stood closer to him. I know he's hurting, and especially because we know that there is something very strange about Max's death. We know that this wasn't normal – Max was healthy, he was strong. There was no logical reason that he would have died, but everyone had just assumed that because of his age that he had just passed away in his sleep of old age. Nobody questioned it – except for us. I looked to my left at Rikki who was standing at my other side with Zane. Her face was screwed up in a look that I had seen on her face before. She was sad, but there was absolutely suspicion on her face. No one wanted to talk too much about it just yet because right now everyone is still mourning for Max. But after Emma told us about Denman's visit to the Juicenet the other day we knew that something was very wrong. And we have a pretty decent reason to believe that Denman is behind this.

The other guests at the funeral around us had started to leave and after a while it was just Cleo, Emma, Rikki, Lewis, Nate, Zane, Ash and I standing around the open grave. I saw Cleo nudge Nate and Emma who were on either side of her and nod towards us. They all began to walk back towards the cars except for Nate who came towards us and put his hand on Lewis's shoulder.

"We're going to head back now, mate. I'm so sorry about this." He said sincerely, and then returned to the group and Lewis and I were left alone. I knew that Cleo had wanted to give Lewis his time alone at the grave; she knew just as well as I did, if not better, how hard this was for him. I pulled away from him a little and looked up at his face.

"I should go with them…" I started, but Lewis cut me off and grabbed my hand again.

"—Don't leave. Please." He said. I looked up at his face and the look in his eyes killed me – this really was hurting him. The pain in my stomach was throbbing a little but he made it easy to ignore. I nodded and stayed in my spot and in another second I felt his arms lock around me and sighed. I had come to Australia with the intent of never letting these people feel the kind of pain of loss that I've been through; I think everything is okay, my powers go away and then this crap happens. Without my powers I feel so useless to the people around me that I love. I felt my stomach tighten and throb under my ribcage and squeezed Lewis gently – the pain wavers like this when I know he's trying to hold it back for my sake, and I'm trying to just let it happen for his sake. I bit my lip and resolved myself to something: I didn't have to be useless. I will never let Lewis or any of the girls feel this kind of pain again, no matter what I have to do. No matter what.

Later That Day – Lewis

It felt weird to be in Max's house without him here. I was so used to walking in and seeing him leaning back in his recliner in his den thumbing through a fishing magazine. It was going to take a while for it to sink in that he's really gone, but I've got something to take care of first. I know that Max didn't die of old age, I know it. Something had happened to him and I needed to find out what that something was.

When I had gone to the reading of Max's will I had found out that he had left me all of his science equipment and research files, books and charts. To anyone else this probably sounded lame but there's nothing in the world that I think could have been a better gift. The fact that he trusts me with all of this stuff means a lot, and I remember months ago when he had talking about writing his will that he had mentioned me carrying on the legacy of keeping the mermaid secret. Well, I planned on doing just that even though it would be weird to carry it on without him.

I sighed and wandered into the den. I saw the set of shot glasses I had bought him for Christmas around this time last year and smiled. Then I realized that one was missing and there were only three laid out; the other was probably on his bedside table where it always was when he took his drink to bed. I don't know what possessed me to want to pick one of them up but for some reason I just felt the need to hold one. I reached down and picked one up and turned it in my hand, smiling a little. They had little fish carved into the glass which is why I picked this set – I dunno, I thought it was kinda nice and something that Max would appreciate. He loved them, he told me he used them every night with his bedtime drink. Then I smelled something strange – something that smelled just a little bit like almonds. I sniffed the shot glass I was holding and immediately wrinkled my nose at the almond medicinal scent. My stomach froze a little and I set the glass down. I've smelled this before. I reached for the bottle of whiskey that was sitting along with the glasses and popped the top off and sniffed at the mouth of the bottle and smelled nothing but the whiskey. Picking up the shot glass I had been holding as well as the other two I quickly sniffed each one again and was met with the same strong smell of almonds in each one. My adrenaline started to rush – there was only one thing that I knew that smelled like this, and that was cyanide. Max had been poisoned. I knew that something strange had happened, I knew that Max was too strong to just die of old age. This was deliberate and I didn't need three guesses to know who had done this to him.

I started pouring through Max's files on his shelf looking for the file that we kept as well hidden as we had thought we had to. The second I reached the bottom shelf I knew it had been tampered with; there were a few books pulled out of place and I felt my chest start to burn at what I saw next. The file containing the information Max and I had compiled about Cora, Emma, Rikki and Cleo was gone. I was fuming. Now I had proof, solid proof that this had been Linda Denman. She killed Max. She poisoned him, stole the file about the girls and God knew what she was going to do with that file – hell, she could do anything! Shit, this is really bad. That file has any information anyone could ever want about these girls' powers… and then something dawned on me – or lack of powers. Denman now knows that not only is Cora alive, but she also knows that now my girlfriend is running around powerless. I clenched my fists hard and felt my teeth grind together a little. I was sick and tired of people trying to take advantage of me and the people I care about. I'm not the same scrawny dork I was in high school and I'm not going to stand for this shit anymore. These girls aren't science project, they're human beings that deserve to be left alone and they've gone through so much crap that I can't even begin to understand. I groaned and shut my eyes and thought about the scars on Cora's tail from her time in Denman's lab and just felt myself get even more pissed off. Even the act of getting pissed off made me pissed off because I know that it hurts her when people are around her are upset or hurt – it helps alleviate the mental pain, if only slightly, of whoever is upset and the physical pain of whoever is injured.

I don't know what the hell kind of unbalanced, unfair mermaid forces were working in the universe right now but I do know that that Protector gene of hers was dangerously strong, and the Defender gene in Cleo, Emma and Rikki had grown much stronger when they and Cora became friends – to include her. I don't know what Denman has up her sleeve this time but this woman has lost it and gone right off the deep end – murder?! There was nowhere worse she could go from there, which led me to believe that she was probably just going to keep at it. I groaned and grabbed the key and head out the front door making sure to lock it behind me. I had to tell the girls what I had found out – what I had proven.

Meanwhile – Cora

I know I'm only supposed to go to work, class, and then straight back to Lewis's apartment but today after class I realized that I had done something kiiiiiiiinda stupid. I was sitting down in the living room to start wrapping presents only to realize that I'd left everyone's present in the hallway closet back at my condo.

'Nice one, Cora. Kinda forgot it was Christmas there for a second, did ya?' I rolled my eyes at myself and fumbled in my purse trying to find the key to my condo which was, of course, all the way at the bottom. I couldn't help forgetting it was the Christmas holiday. I was used to much cooler weather and some snow although in Northern California we don't get a ton – but enough for my liking. It was only a few days off until Christmas and I was wearing the shorts and t-shirt that I had changed into after Max's funeral. This whole reversal of seasons thing would take some getting used to…

I finally pulled my key out and stuffed it into the lock of the home I haven't seen in about a week, shoved the door open and flipped on the lights. When I picked my head up I immediately froze and dropped my keys on the floor.

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A/N: Let the cliffhangers begin! In the next chapter we find out what/who is in Cora's condo. Who does Denman go after next now that she's playing dirty? The answer may surprise you. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Review please, again I love hearing from you guys! : D Chapter 4 coming soon, take care everyone.