Abby felt her chest tighten as she came too. Her eyes slid open, only to be stung by the water surrounding her. Memories of the last time she was conscious came flooding into her mind. Without thinking she kicked her feet to swim upward, and to her surprise she was able to.

As foul as the air smelled and as bad it burned her nostrils: the air she breathed in once she broke through the face of the water was the sweetest air she'd ever inhaled. It was precious air she thought she was never have a chance to breathe again.

After sucking in as much air as she could, she bellowed out, "Help! Help!"

She coughed water out then took back to yelling.

Each time she yelled, her fears were confirmed by her voice echoing back to her. From what she could see through the iron bars holding her down in the water tank, she was in some sort of warehouse. Alone.

Bubbles erupted next to her in water, causing her hold body tensed, ready to fight once more. Much to her surprise another person came up out of the water. He instantly began yelling, "Help!" as well.

"Lucien?" Abby breathed.

"I thought you were dead!" The boy confessed, spitting some water out of his mouth.

"What is this place?" Abby asked as she hooked her fingers around the iron bars to keep her head above water.

"I don't know." He answered in a hopeless tone, "They took us down here though, those things."

Abby's mind churned that over for a minute. She then removed one of her hands from the iron bars, then slammed it back against them, in attempt to knock them loose.

"Don't waste your time. Already tried that." Lucien advised.

"We have to try." Abby turned her head sharply towards Lucien, "Come on, help me."

Both began trying to beat the bars loose. Several times, they slammed the palms against the bars, each time producing the same result: none.

Suddenly, one of the Mers was standing on the upper side of the bars, roaring down at them. Both of them ducked under the water at the sudden appearance of the creature.

When they reemerged the creature was gone once more.

"We're gonna die aren't we?" Lucien asked.

While that thought had crossed Abby's mind, she didn't dwell on it.

"My friends are looking for us." Abby reassured him. "They're gonna be here soon."

"They don't even know we're alive." Lucien added.

Abby pulled in a few more labored breaths, "They'll find us. I promise."

0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Can someone please do something with these two before they kill each other?" Lester mused unhappily.

"Nothing to do with em! If they're going to fight it out, at least them do it now so they won't go off alone and really kill each other." Cutter growled at the nonsense going on.

"Does Connor think he actually has a chance fighting Stephen?" Lester quipped.

Cutter looking away from the sonar machine for a second and towards the verbal argument going on about ten meters away. "Apparently."

"Why were you so daft to let her come out if she was sick?" Stephen tightened his fist, resisting the urge to bring it up and punch Connor.

"She won't listen to anyone. She's your girlfriend you should know that." Connor was gripping his own fist so tightly that his knuckles were white. "Besides, she is mad at me, isn't she?"

"That's right! She is mad at you, Connor. And why is that? Why is it that she comes over to my flat crying over something you've done?" Stephen took a few steps back from the younger man. Having him within striking distance wasn't a good thing at this point.

Connor didn't answer back at first. He glared at Stephen, wishing at that moment looks could kill.

"Because I was stupid." Connor sighed, giving up the argument. Also processing the information Stephen had just given him.'

That's what happened each time after they had an argument? She went over to Stephen's and cried? The entire he thought Stephen was reaping the benefits of angry sex.

Stephen didn't say anything else to Connor. He knew Connor was just as worried about Abby as he was. He knew that their fighting wasn't going to bring Abby back any quicker.

"Are you two done now?" Lester asked with an annoyed tone.

"Yeah." Both men muttered.

"Good. Connor and Cutter to go home. Stephen, what do you need?"

"I can't leave! Abby is still out there!" Connor argued.

Lester looked over to Jenny and nodded, "Take him home."

The dark headed woman nodded back and put a comforting hand on Connor's shoulder; then started to lead him away.

0O0o0o0o0o0

Stephen's mind was so mucked up with worrying over Abby, he could barely concentrate on what he was supposed to be doing. His eyes never left the monitor screen, but he couldn't see it. His eyes were so blurred over with tears, it was impossible to see anything. They must have combed over the canal two times already, with not a single trace of Abby to be found.

"What now, Sir?" The boat driver asked as they finished their third round.

"Again. Are you sure this thing is focused right?" Stephen roughly wiped the tears away with his wrist and studied the screen once more.

"Yes, Sir." The man answered and turned the boat to start all over again.

"She has to be here!" Stephen shoved the small computer towards the solider beside him. "Fix it! I don't know whats wrong with it, but something is!"

Stephen stood and scanned over the water around them. How could he let this happen to Abby? Some kind of a boyfriend he was.

0O0o0o0o0o

Both Abby and Lucien continued with their calls of, "Help!"

Sooner or later they were going to lose their voices or their air one. The pipe suspended above them was pouring water down into their tank, causing the water in it to rise rapidly.

"What do you think they are? Those things." Lucien asked.

"I don't know, but if they were going to kill us, they would have killed us already." Abby offered a bright response. "There is a reason why we're still alive."

"You won't tell my mates will you?"

"Huh?"

"That I'm scared."

Abby wanted to laugh, but this wasn't the time, "You're not scared. Seriously now, who'd be frightened of a giant tadpole?"

That earned a small laugh from Lucien, keying to Abby it was okay to laugh as well.

"You're fine, honestly, you're fine." Abby comforted him the best she could, given their present situation.

0O0o0o0o0o0

"We've swept the whole canal."

"Well, sweep it again." Stephen ordered, watching the screen in front of him nervously.

He heard the solider next to him, sigh heavily. He knew this had been a long day, but it was going to turn into a long night if Abby wasn't found soon.

"Wait!" His eyes caught something on the screen, " Go back! Back it up, back it up.

"There! Try down there."

"Listen the opening is too small, it'll smash up the sub" The solider said.

"I'll buy you a new one." Stephen urged the man on. "Just keep going.

This could be it, it could be his key to finding Abby.

Not even minutes later, the anomaly detector began to chime.

"The anomaly, its reopened," Stephen knelt down to the the sub controls and began twisting knobs.

"You'll crash it!" The solider argued.

"Sue me." Stephen countered, watching the screen for any sign of a trail to follow.

0O0o0o0o0o

The water was rising much faster than was reassuring for Abby and Lucien. She continued to yell for help.

Abby didn't know what was going through Lucien's mind, but she knew very well what was going through hers.

"Lucien, I'm going to tell you a secret, because if this is it, I don't want to die without telling someone."

"We're not dying Abby! We're not." Lucien yelled back at her, his tone was less than convincing.

"Well, even if we do live, its still a secret." Abby choked up some water.

"Okay." The boy caved.

Abby took in a few breaths, she didn't know if it was true or not, but she wanted someone to know.

"I'm—going to have a baby." She confessed.

"Congrats. I won't tell anyone if you don't tell anyone I was scared."

"I promise." Abby nodded the best she could.

"Promise." Lucien concurred.

Suddenly there was a loud sounds of someone beating a wall and it caving.

"We're not going to drown. Its going to be okay." Abby could barely finish her sentence before being drug down into the water once more.

She fought trying to get away from the creature, but as before, it was useless.

It seemed like seconds later, she was being thrown out of the water and onto a hard metal service. She coughed out the water that had managed to find its way into her lungs.

"Abby!" A very familiar voice yelled.

She snapped her head towards the direction of voice, "Connor!"

A huge smile grew on his face, "Abby!"

Suddenly, the water in front of Abby was bubbling furiously and one of the creatures came out of it.

The next few things were a blur for Abby. It was as if she was watching from outside her body. Connor ran towards her, only for the creature to smack him back down into the water. Abby took a chance to kick the Mer, amazingly enough she did a fairly good job at it.

Then the creature came back up and lunged at her. Forcing her and itself through the anomaly.

The next thing she could really focus on was Connor restricting her from falling down the side of a cliff and into the jaws of the Mer.

"There is no sense in both of us dying!" Abby pleaded with Connor to let her go. If she was going to die, she didn't want to take her best mate with her.

"I can't!" Connor yelled.

"PLEASE!" Tears streamed from Abby's eyes.

"I love you!" Connor yelled, his hand tightening around Abby's.

He knew he'd done something terribly wrong by the expression that grew over Abby's face. It was utter shock and disbelief.

Abby almost let go of Connor's hand due to shock at his statement. She couldn't believe her ears. Maybe the air quality and water-log and almost dying were all messing with her head.

The Mer was coming for her again, she didn't have time to think about her mind's tricks. The sweat being produced from their palms wasn't making this an easier. She felt their hands slipping apart, slowly sliding her towards the horrid creature waiting right below.

Just when her hope was beginning to completely bottom out, her body was jerked upwards. Suddenly she was pulling pulled over the edge of the cliff by several sets of strong hands. Her body went limp when she felt the solid ground underneath her and the strong arms wrapped tightly around her.

It felt so good to not be alone, to be around friends. It felt so good to be safe. She heard a spray of bullets go off around her. She forcefully jerked her head to looks at the situation. Cutter and Stephen both a had guns, firing off in every direction.

Wait. If Stephen was there shooting the Mers; then that means...

Abby slowly turned her head to see Connor watching the scene around them as well, his arms still securely wrapped around her. Not to mention her arms were tightly wound around him as well.

Finally the sound of bullets stopped.

"Abby!" Stephen called, running up behind her.

Connor's arms instantly retracted when Stephen hit his knees next them. Abby was shifted sideways by Stephen's arms when he engulfed her in a tight hug.

"Abby. Abby." He showered her with kisses all over her head and face. "I was so worried!"

Abby's arms slowly slid around Stephen, as much as the position allowed.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't know where you were!" He shifted his arms to lift her. "I promise I'm going to make up for it."

"Stephen," She wanted to fight his attempt to carry her, but it felt nice.

Especially after being held up by all of her body weight, being thrown around by a Mer, kept in a tank for a day, not having eaten in over a day. . . yeah, it was okay. She laid her head on his shoulder as he lifted her. His arms stashed under her knees and arms.

"Thank you Connor. I would have lost her if it wasn't for you." She heard Stephen say.

Connor mumbled back a, "No problem."

"I'm sorry about before." Stephen continued, making Abby wonder what had happened.

Being surrounded by safety and comfort made Abby want to fall asleep and stay that way for days though. But she couldn't do that right now. Resting her eyes was okay though. She could just listen to the chatter going on around her.

She knew by the sudden change in the air quality they were back on the other side of the anomaly.

"Abby, we're going to have you examined." She heard Stephen whisper to her.

"No." Her eyes snapped open, "I'm fine. I don't want to be examined."

"Abby, the medic is already here." Cutter offered.

"No!" Abby snapped back.

"Okay," Stephen's voice has switched to a calming one. "You don't have to. We were just worried."

"Please put me down." Abby ordered gently.

Stephen complied.

"I'm fine. Honestly. I just need to eat and get some sleep. My head is just kind of spinning." Abby looked at Connor, who was nervously standing off to the side.

"Are you sure?" Stephen stared down at her.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure." Abby switched her vision over to look at Stephen. She put a weak smile up.

That's when Abby witnessed something. A strange twinkle sparked in Stephen's eye.

"Abby, I've missed you so much. And I was so worried. I really thought I was never going to see you again. It made me think" Stephen was for some reason grinning.

"Abby!" Connor interrupted as if he knew what was coming next, "Rex. He's missed you, lets not keep him waiting."

"Rex! Oh my God!" Abby broke away from Stephen and hurried over towards where Connor was. "Stephen, I've got to go. I'm sorry. I'll talk to you later."

Connor was proud of his intervention. He has no idea where Stephen's thoughts were leading, but he didn't want to find out.

There was a sudden urge in him to keep Abby as far away from Stephen as possible. Just seeing Stephen kiss and dote on her made some kind of foreign rage of jealousy bubble up in Connor's stomach that he had no idea how to control.

"Abby?" Stephen called after her, causing her to stop momentarily.

"Yeah?" She smiled back at him, looking absolutely brilliant despite the make-up running down her face.

"I'll come by later, yeah? I would come now, but," He motioned towards the scene of military officers surrounding them.

"Yeah, okay. Sure." That was all Abby got to say, before Connor pulled her from the warehouse.

THATS ALL FOR NOW! I start my job on Monday and college the week after that! Pray for me! I hope you still haven't figured it out and still enjoy it!

Thanks for reading!

RAWR