A/N: What does Cora find in her apartment? Lewis has a plan – what is it, and does anybody get hurt? Does it even work at all? Find out! Read and review, guys! I hope you enjoy it! OH! And just a reminder, this story is a SEQUEL to "Belonging" so I highly suggest reading that one first so that this makes a little more sense : D Enjoy, everyone! And big thanks to Paradox Tremors for helping me with my STUPID CONSCIENCE about this chapter, haha.

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Cora

When I picked my head up I immediately froze and dropped my keys on the floor. My entire condo was a wreck. Drawers were pulled out everywhere, all of my stuff was strewn out all over the floor: kitchen utensils, my clothes, broken dishes, shoes, knick-knacks… everything had been torn out of its place and was now somewhere else. Someone had been here looking for something – what, I don't know. Who, I do know. This had to be Denman, there was nobody else it could be. I let my eyes rest on the broken sliding glass door that led into my apartment in the living room from outside and my face blanked. She had broken in. She had come back, and she'd broken into my house. That wasn't careful, discreet or clean – she must really have lost her damn mind. I felt my stomach flip a little. I couldn't help but be a little bit nervous – what had she been looking for? What had she found?! I started going through my things to see if anything was missing and found the biggest shock when I got to my bedroom. My vanity mirror was smashed, and the pictures that I had stuck in the molding of them were strewn out on my vanity table: one of my whole family, one of Mattie and I right before she died, one of my dad and I at my middle school graduation… then I noticed it. The photo of Lewis and I was gone. Emma had taken it of us at the restaurant when we had all gone out for her birthday dinner. I dug around in the mess of broken glass and cosmetics – maybe she had just knocked it over onto the floor? I flipped the objects through my hands wildly and came up with nothing. It was gone. She had taken it. My stomach lurched again and I was suddenly very nauseous. I staggered out of my bedroom and across the hall into the bathroom which was also destroyed and barely had time to lift the toilet seat up before I was losing my breakfast. After a while I managed to slump down against the sink and covered my face with my hands. I stuffed one of my hands into my pocket and pulled my phone out and quickly dialed Lewis's number. Every ring just made me more and more nervous, but I was so relieved when I heard his voice pick up on the other end.

"Cora, what's up?"

"Thank God. Lewis, are you all right?" I asked. I was still a little shaken up from throwing up but he didn't sound like he was being tortured. Even so I needed to hear it from him.

"I'm fine sweetie, I'm over at Max's place. What's going on; is everything all right on your end? You sound upset."

"Uhh… not quite. Are you're sure you're okay? You haven't seen Denman, have you?"

"No, but she was here," I heard him sigh; he sounded bitter, "She killed him, Cora. It was her. She poisoned him." I froze after I pulled myself off of the floor and put the toilet seat down, sitting down on it. It had been Denman. She wasn't playing games anymore and she'd gone after a sweet, innocent old man. I felt my eyes start to water again but held back from crying and reached up to touch the locket that he'd made for me a little over a month ago. I shut my eyes and sighed. This was ugly and it was getting uglier by the second.

"How did you find out?"

"She laced his shot glasses with cyanide. You can still smell it on the glasses, that little bitch…" He grumbled and I heard things being shuffled around on his end, "She also stole some things but I'll explain that later to you and the girls. Tell me what's going on, where are you?"

"I… went home to pick up the Christmas presents. She was here, Lewis. She broke in, she took the picture of you and I from Emma's party, destroyed the place and left. She knows that you and I are together, and I'm afraid that she's going to come after you next… because of me." I said slowly. I heard silence on the other end for a few seconds before Lewis spoke. The silence was as good as words – he's quiet when he's mad.

"Are you still over there now?"

"Yes."

"Please do me a favor… Please stay put until I get there, okay? I'm coming for you."

"But Lewis what if she tries to come after you?! I can't let you get hurt because you're with me… I can't let her get to you."

"I promise, I will be there in 10 minutes; nothing is gonna happen to me. You won't lose me that easily – I'll see you in 10 minutes. I love you." And he hung up. I sighed and groaned and cursed the stupid Protector gene. I wanted to go to him even if I was useless power-wise because I know that Denman will be looking for him, but he asked me to stay here and so I have to stay here. I sighed again and reached for the door, pulling it closed and locking it and drew my knees up to my chest and hoped with everything I had in me that he would be here in 10 minutes. I needed to find some way to get around this thing soon.

-

The Next Morning – Lewis

I opened my eyes and squinted at the brightness in my bedroom. I pushed myself up a little but stopped when I felt the weight on my chest and smirked down at Cora who was still asleep, curled up on her side with her head and one of her arms sprawled across my chest. I pushed some of the hair out of her neck and thought back to last night; we had our first fight, but I guess you could say it ended well. I know she panics – I know she wants me to be safe more than anything, and I want the same for her. I was a little heated when I found out that that psychopath had broken into her house and ruined it – I was stunned when I got there and saw that some things were literally ripped apart, which just made me more mad. She'd kept me pretty calm by not letting go of my hand until we got back my apartment but I still had a lot that I had to tell her about what information Denman had; about the file she'd stolen and the information she possessed about each of the mermaids.

Last night we'd sat down to talk about what was going on and Cora's Protector logic started kicking in – I hate that logic, and this is why. She was incredibly upset that Denman had stolen the picture of both of us and had a bad feeling that it meant that Denman was going to try to come after me. If that happened, she said that it would be because of her – because Denman wanted to get to her by going through me. She also said that if that happened, she had no way to keep me safe with her powers. This made my chest feel like it had turned into solid ice – that meant if it came to it, she'd be doing something else way more dangerous to try to keep me safe. I told her that if it came to that I didn't want her to do anything crazy; I wanted her to stay out of Denman's way. She'd said she wouldn't be able to. Then I asked her something that I already knew the answer to.

"Are you saying that if this woman comes after me that you're going to get yourself killed just to get me away from her?! No hesitating about it, you're just going to do it?!"

"Yes, Lewis! I'm not going to lose you, too!"

I kind of lost it after that. We fought back and forth for at least an hour. Cora wouldn't change her answer no matter how many times I said that I didn't want her to die for me. She wouldn't hear it when I told her that I wanted her alive and that I'd rather be killed than have her die in my place, because I had meant it when I said it and she knew that. She said that she loved me and she couldn't lose me – that no one else would have to die on her account. Then she had started looking for her house keys and got up off the couch; she was really flustered at this point and I knew it, I could see it and hear it in her voice. That was the most dangerous thing for her to be – this was when she tended to be the most reckless. But there was no way I would let her go off on her own. Not with a mad scientist willing to burn everything in her path to find her. I had stood up with her and taken her house keys out of her hand.

"You can't go back there, Cora!" I had screamed. She was still flustered. It didn't even seem to faze her that she didn't have her keys anymore.

"Then I'll go somewhere else." She said, but she was still heading for the door. I had groaned and stormed after her and grabbed her arm gently to stop her from walking.

"Please don't go out there."

"Why?" She asked. I stared down into her brown eyes and the look in them could have killed me. This Protector thing was tearing her apart, I could see it. And other people telling her what they did and didn't want certainly wasn't helping her at all. But I couldn't let it send her into the line of fire like this.

"Because I can't lose you, either." I said, my voice still louder than I intended. She stared up at me hard for a moment and for a second I couldn't tell if she was about to scream or burst into tears but within a split second I felt her arms wrap around my neck and her lips pressed firmly up against mine. I have never, ever been kissed like that before in my life – not that I complained, it was incredible. I felt one of my hands go up under the back of her hair and kissed her back and held onto her gently with my free hand as we backed against the still closed front door of my apartment. I don't know what came over me but in another second I had carefully lifted her up and was carrying her down the hall towards my room.

I glanced at my alarm clock – it was only 10 o' clock, but today was Christmas Eve and I was bringing Cora to my mom's house for our yearly Christmas Eve family get together. Not a ton of fun, at least not for me but mom has been asking me to bring Cora around since we first met six months ago. I was a little nervous that Cora would get kind of overwhelmed tonight – I have a pretty big family and she'd be meeting them all at once. I have no doubts that they'll like her, but for someone that never thought they'd be meeting a boyfriend's family the thought is probably a little scary. Hell, I'd be scared. But she's been taking it in stride so far and hasn't seemed too nervous about it, even though I know she still felt like she was a walking time bomb that I'd be bringing over to my family. Also… there is always the chance of her getting wet which I was nervous about since she was insisting on helping mom in the kitchen, but I had a good feeling about today. With 5 years of being a mermaid under her belt and working in a restaurant all that time, she was pretty quick about hiding or drying herself off right away if water got on her in public. Plus, I know she loves kids and I've got some young cousins and two nephews that I have a feeling she'll absolutely love.

I rolled my head back onto the pillow and rubbed her back protectively while she slept. I hoped she would be all right with my family, but my mind was also wandering somewhere else. I had come up with a plan after we went to sleep that would not only make me feel less helpless in keeping Denman from touching her or any of our friends, but one that may also trigger Cora's powers and bring them back. I know she'll panic when she hears my idea, even though I know that she trusts me; it's dangerous but I've been thinking about it since we stopped fighting last night. This just might work, but I needed Zane and Rikki's help. I took my hand off of Cora's stomach and started reaching around for my phone, finding it under my pillow and flipping it open. I shot a quick text to Zane.

'Meet me the shooting range at 2. Bring Rikki!' Only about a minute passed before I got a reply.

'Wtf man – why?'

'I have an idea – will explain when we get there.'

'Ok I trust you. See you at 2.'

-

Later That Day – Rikki

When we talked about the shooting range, we were never talking about the real shooting range – the official one where the hunters and bored wife-beaters hung out. Where we were going was a place that we come to hang out sometimes – just a couple of foam targets, a cheap shelf with empty glass bottles and an old ripped up couch to sit on. Nothing fancy but it was out of the way and we were nice and hidden out here which was good because I think I have a good idea as to why Lewis asked Zane to drag me along on Christmas Eve. Not that I minded. I'd rather be here than over at dad's as he tried was still trying to "make things work" with mom. I'll deal with that train-wreck tomorrow.

"Thanks for coming, guys," Lewis stood behind the crappy couch and Cora sat on the arm of it and tied her hair back. I didn't blame her – it was pretty warm today. She's probably used to being freezing on Christmas Eve, "I think that I've come up with a way we can get Cora's powers back. And, even more than that, I think that this might help balance out the Protector overdrive by bringing back certain Defender instincts, but we need your help."

"Really?" I said – this was major. It's been over a month since her powers disappeared and we were all starting to worry they might be gone for good. So far nobody had had any ideas when it came to getting them back, but now he was telling us not only might she get them back but it would keep this Protector-overdrive from messing with her so damn much? Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me, "What can we do?"

"I'm glad you asked, Rikki. Well Zane, buddy, I'm gonna need you to be a threat today. Rikki… I need your… mermaidness, for lack of a better term."

I smirked a little when Lewis mentioned Zane being a threat. Zane didn't see me because he had sheepishly put his head down by now. I know he still feels pretty bad for hitting Cora and I know that if he wanted to he could do some serious damage to a person. I knew she was still a little uncomfortable around Zane but I didn't blame the girl – that would take some time. But I also knew that if I smacked this boy in the side of his head he wouldn't step out of line. The whole idea of it made me want to laugh a little but I knew this was serious so I held it in – for once. I'm getting pretty good at considering other peoples' feelings these days, I'm proud of myself.

"No problem, Lewis. Just let me know what you need me to do." I heard Zane say as he tried to stand up a little straighter. I smiled and rested my hand on the middle of his back. He might have been a little bit of a screw-up, but he was still my screw-up.

"All right, Zane right now what you and I need to do is take 5 shots. Cora, you just need to watch us but watch us both really, really carefully." Lewis instructed. I was curious, but this kid's logic usually made sense so I decided to go with it and sat on the couch right below Cora. I saw her nod out of the corner of my eye and we both watched as the boys loaded up and fired off 5 shots at their bullseye targets about 10 meters away. I didn't flinch at the sound anymore; dad has been bringing me here since I was really little. The only difference is that these days with my powers, I didn't need to pull the trigger in order to fire a gun. That was pretty sweet. I noticed Cora jump a little at the noise and looked up at her. Her face doesn't look too worried, it just looks like she's concentrating. Then I realized what she was looking at – how accurate their shots were. I looked too and I raised my eyebrows when I saw Lewis's target. I knew Zane was a pretty good shot, but only one out of the five rounds that Lewis had shot had hit outside the center circle and even that one was only one ring away from it.

"Christ, McCartney, who taught you how to shoot?! I know you play a lot of Call of Duty but yikes."

"Nah. We play a lot of Halo," I heard Cora say from above me and I looked up at her. She was smirking a little but kept watching, "Nothing beats Halo 3 as far as first-person-shooters go. As far as the XBOX 360 goes anyway. Half-Life is a good one too, nothing like getting back the crappy graphics of the late 90's." I smiled a little and rolled my eyes.

"God, you're even worse than he is." I said jokingly. I saw her smile spread further.

"I know."

Lewis and Zane walked back over to us and I heard Lewis chuckle at me.

"I'll take that as a compliment, Rikki."

"That's all you're getting for Christmas." I said and gave him my sweetest, corniest Cheshire cat grin. He smirked and ignored me; he knew I was only messing with him.

"All right, now is where things get interesting. Cora, that-" he gestured back at the targets, "-was so that you know that Zane and I don't plan on missing." He said. I looked up at her just in time to see her dark eyes bulge a little.

"Plan on missing what?" She asked. The nervous look was back. Lewis reached out for her hand and she gave it to him and he pulled her up off of the arm of the couch and walked a few feet with her to the middle of the open space in front of the targets.

"Do you trust me?"

"Of course I do." She replied. I watched Lewis's dorky smile come back.

"Okay. All I need you to do is react. I trust you – this will work," He reassured her. I watched him whisper something to her then kiss her cheek, and the he took a few steps away from her, raised his hand and waved Zane over, "Okay Zane. You stand over here-" I watched him arrange Zane in place and then he took several steps back until he was a few yards away from Zane, putting Cora between them but a few feet out of the line of fire. I noticed Lewis had put his gun away and raised my eyebrows again. Was this going where I thought this was going? "Cora, I need you to not move no matter what. Do not move, just react." Yup, it was. I saw her eyes bulge a little and she opened her mouth to protest but no words came out. I knew this was the part of being a Protector that she hated – the having to obey us part. I would hate that, too, "Okay, Zane. One shot."

"Lewis, are you sure about this?" I heard Zane ask. He looks nervous too.

"Yes, I'm very sure. Count of three, Zane." He said. Zane blinked a little and shook his head slightly to prepare himself. This was absolutely crazy, but Lewis was brilliant and we were both sure he knew what he was doing. Zane cocked the gun and raised his arm straight in front of him and closed one eye in careful concentration.

"One… two… THREE." The gun fired and a few things happened in what felt like slow motion. I felt my own jaw drop open slightly. I looked up and saw that Cora had jumped a little and held her hand over her mouth and shut her eyes. I saw Zane standing still, still holding the now smoking revolver out in front of him. Then I saw Lewis. His eyes were closed too, but he was standing up straight and perfectly still. I made a quick scan of his body – no blood. It had definitely been a shot that I had heard, that was no blank. Then I traced through the space between Lewis and Zane and about half-way between them, right in front of where Cora stood, I saw a tiny glint of copper shining in the sun. The bullet hung in the air between them, completely suspended. I watched Lewis open his eyes first and a smile immediately plastered itself onto his face. Then I saw Cora's eyes open and the second they did the bullet dropped into the dusty dirt, useless. I couldn't believe it – it had worked. Lewis McCartney's most insane plan yet had worked. I watched Lewis hurry over to where she stood frozen in place a few feet from him and hugged her hard.

"You did it! Cora I knew you'd be able to stop it and you did!" He said excitedly. Her smile was happy was well but you could tell that she was still busy trying to get her heart to settle back down in her chest – or to even start beating again.

"Never… ever… ever do that…" She trailed off and I saw him smile again.

"I promise, I'll never do that to you again," He grinned and squeezed her hand and led her back over to the couch and sat her next to me. As soon as she sat down I immediately felt my own heartbeat slow back down to a normal pace and felt calmer. This was nice and everything since I hated feeling jumpy so this was one part of her Protector skills that didn't worry me too badly, but Lewis had told us that the ability to make us feel better meant that she took on the discomfort which kinda sucked. I gave her my most reassuring smile and gave her a hug.

"You did fine, Cora." I promised. She smiled a little and shut her eyes briefly and sighed.

"Thanks, Rikki." She said. I felt the cushions shift and Lewis sat down on the other side of her and wrapped his arm around her waist.

"Tell me when you're ready to go again sweetie, I have one more test."

"Sure. Just give me a minute and I'll be good to go." She smiled warmly at him and he got up and walked over to Zane again.

-

A few minutes passed and Cora stood up off o the couch we were sitting on and smoothed her plain white shirt and long khaki shorts down. It looked like she was feeling back to normal which was always good.

"All right, let's do this. What do you need me to do now, Lewis?" She asked and I saw her tilt her head to the side curiously. I noticed Lewis's smile falter a little bit but he came over to us with Zane following close behind him. Then I saw him gesture to me. I raised my eyebrow curiously and stood up. What did he need me for? Then I realized he had asked me to come for a reason. He pulled me aside a few yards away to where they couldn't hear us, leaving Cora alone with Zane. I glanced past him back at them and saw her shift a little bit away from Zane, but Lewis put his hands on my shoulders to focus my attention.

"Rikki. This is really, really important. This is the test that I'm hoping will even Cora back into some Defender tendencies. I'm going to have Zane fire one shot at her. This is incredibly important, Rikki – I picked Zane for a reason, and not just because he's a good shot. Even though she knows he won't do anything and that he's important to you, she's still a little afraid of him…"

"You don't say?" I muttered sarcastically, raising my eyebrows and crossing my arms. He sighed and started again.

"Exactly. Rikki I know you don't want her to get hurt any more than I do, so I need you to really, really focus on the fact that you don't want her to get shot. She'll be able to feel it. I know it's drastic, but that's exactly why I think it has a chance of working. This Protector thing is tearing her apart, Rikki, we really need to try to get her back into Defender mode – at least a little bit. You're going to have to use every ounce of focus that you have. If she feels like her being shot will negatively affect you and I and even Zane, that will override the Protector gene and hopefully she'll be able to stop the bullet from hitting herself as well."

I paused and thought about it for a second – this was drastic, but I knew that if anything happened to her… well, what happened to Lewis as a result wouldn't be pretty. It wouldn't be pretty for any of us. So, I had to use my 'mermaidness' as he put it to keep Cora from letting herself get hurt – because usually, her powers only work in one direction and she can't help herself with them. This was absolutely crazy but the logic, technically, was there. All right. I could do this, even though this was a huge friggin' responsibility!

"I can do this, Lewis. I swear to you." I said. He was quiet for a second and stared hard at me and finally nodded. We head back over to where Cora and Zane were standing. Lewis reached for Cora's hand and stood her a few yards away from Zane where he had stood a few minutes ago for the first "shooting." I stood firmly in my spot and got a head start on focusing. Every ounce of my concentration would go into letting this girl feel that her dying would hurt us. I started focusing as I watched Lewis lean down and whisper something to Cora again, probably what he had just told me. I saw her hands clench nervously a little but her face stayed completely focused and she looked up at him seriously and nodded. He squeezed her hand one more time and moved only a few feet away from her. He waved me over and I came and stood behind Zane, who was ready with his gun again. I knew how guilty this made him feel, seeing as he's already threatened her with this exact gun before, but the more nervous she was the better – it would help me to convince her to stop that bullet.

"On three again, Zane." I heard Lewis say, but didn't break my concentration as I rested my hand on Zane's back between his shoulders again. I felt him breathe in deeply to brace himself and he nodded.

"One…"

I focused hard. I pushed everything else out of my head.

"Two…"

I squeezed my eyes shut so tightly that I was seeing spots. This had to work – the test was drastic but it had to be real in order to get real results. I felt my hand shake a little bit and bit my lip as I concentrated harder.

"THREE." Another shot rang out. I felt like this one echoed absolutely forever, and my heart thudded out of my chest.

-

A/N: Cliffhangerrr. Again. Haha! : D What happens to Cora? Does anything go wrong at Lewis's mom's house? How will Denman try to ruin Christmas, and who will she go after next? Find out in the next chapters! Review my lovelies, tell me what you think!