Gasping, Delmare sat bolt upright in her bed and rubbed her face harshly. Slowly she left her bed, grabbed her dressing gown and left her room to go down to the library.
She sat by Abe's tank, her left side pressed against the glass, lowering the temperature of her overheated body.
"Couldn't sleep?" She jumped at Abe's voice and lifted her head to see he was in the water next to her. She chuckled and shook her head.
"I wish I could get in the tank with you Abe, it looks so calming." Abe gave a gentle smile and prodded,
"Would you like to talk about it?" She mulled over the question in her mind uncertainly.
"I had a nightmare," She allowed, "of what happened the last time I told someone about me." Abe put his hand on the glass, Delmare copied him, placing her hand atop his.
"I, well I don't know where I came from." At Abe's confused look she kept talking, "I knew my mum, she was a solo sailer. She traveled the world by herself for years." Abe relaxed against the glass, "what happened?"
Taking a deep breath she asked "Don't feel any different of me?" Abe shook his head.
"Delmare means 'from the ocean', my mother told me that when she was sailing, she came across a strange man, injured quite badly and floating in the ocean." Abe's nonexistent eyebrows rose "She pulled him on board, his dark blue skin, webbed hands and feet and black eyes didn't scare her and when he was healed they had a night of passion," her face grew red
"When he left she found out she was pregnant with me." Abe swam back in shock.
Slowly Delmare pulled her glove off of her right hand and placed it back on the glass, allowing Abe to inspect it at his leisure. Her fingers and hand was a dark blue, webbing stretched between them, her nails black. The blue fading to white at her wrists. Abe was in shock, 'someone similar to me' he thought faintly.
"I don't see why that would be cause for nightmares." He stated faintly.
Grimacing in remembered pain Delmare pulled her sleeve over her hands and rubbed gently over the sides of her neck. There laid three horizontal silver scars on each side under the makeup, similar to the gills on Abe's neck. Running vertically through both was a thick line of scar tissue.
"I told somebody I thought I could trust about them. They told their parents, and they didn't like their child being friends with a freak."
It was quiet for a long moment and when she had the courage to look back at Abe, she nearly cried when she discovered he was gone. 'So stupid of you Delmare, even he thinks you're a freak' she was snapped out of her thoughts by a damp hand on hers. Eyes shooting up hopefully, she actually started to cry when she saw Abe crouched beside her.
"It's ok Del." He stated calmly, before pulling her into a hug.