Jemma's worry for her mystery girl only seemed to increase overnight. She'd made it home without drawing much attention to herself and her pod was none the wiser about her encounter with the human the previous night, but that didn't stop her from feeling concerned. She kept thinking about what else she should have done, and she felt guilty for leaving the human alone and unconscious like that. What if she was lost, too injured to find her way back to whatever family system the humans had?

She felt like she should have stayed until the girl woke up, to make sure that she really was alright before she left. At what cost, though? Would it be worth it to expose herself and her family just to make sure this one girl was alright, even though she shouldn't care at all? If it had been Bobbi or any other member of her pod, they would have left the woman to drown.

The least she could do was go back to the beach where she had left the human girl and see if she'd gotten up and left. It wouldn't truly help her, but at least it would satisfy her worry and curiosity if she knew everything had turned out alright.

Jemma sped off again, rattling off an excuse about going to look for clams to Bobbi when her sister eyed her in question. It wasn't difficult for Jemma to find the same beach again, she often explored during her free time and she knew the entire area- even the populated area- like the scales of her own tail.

The beach Jemma had left the girl on was actually a very convenient location. It had plenty of large boulders sitting both on shore and sticking out of the water, so there were plenty of places for her to hide. She pressed her back up against one of them, slowly twisting her body to peek around it and towards the shore. The woman wasn't where Jemma had left her, but that didn't necessarily mean she was okay, so she kept searching. It was also the same curiosity taking hold of her decisions again, she wanted to see what this person looked like alive and well and walking around like all the rest of them.

It had been a surprisingly shorter walk the previous morning than Skye had anticipated, clocking in at around twenty-seven minutes. She hadn't been sure what side of the island she had been dropped on or where it was in relation to her house. Thankfully, it hadn't been terribly far and the path easy to remember.

"I'm going to the beach!" The shout echoed down from her room and into the kitchen while she pulled her satchel over her head and around her shoulder. Skye was reaching for her Nikkon when her mother shouted back up.

"You still have that shift at the diner tonight! Don't forget!"

Skye hated working at the restaurant, even if her mother was a manager. She was still a waitress and there was nothing creative about bussing tables, but honestly they needed the money. She needed it for school and for art supplies and the old beach house was practically falling apart. It could use with a new coat of paint and a fence repair. Still, it was home.

The brunette came thudding down the stairs, grabbing a banana from the basket of fruit on the counter on her way through the kitchen, "I know mom. I'll be back. I'm just getting a head start on my art projects."

Skye was already out the screen door when her mother wished her a good day. She would have called back but she heard the blender start up right as she closed the gate behind her. The actual beach was only five minutes from her house. A quick and easy walking distance.

Once she reached the sand, the young artist stopped, kneeling over to untie her shoes and string them to the back of her belt. It was a typical island day, bright and sunny with a pleasant breeze in the air. It made walking along the beach all the more pleasant and Skye's memory card was already halfway full by the time she spotted the familiar grouping of rocks through her lense.

It was as good a landscape as any, so she pushed her finger down on the capture a few more times before wandering closer eyes on the ground and the sand for any signs of something interesting. It wasn't long before she spotted a seagull, quite enamored with a particular place in the sand. As she got closer, it lead her to a crab, which she promptly stopped near, getting down on her knees and leaning over with the camera, trying to get as close as possible. Pictures could be used later as references, and Skye wanted to make sure she had a good stock full in preparation for any upcoming projects. Her classes had just started the week before and so far the only thing they had done in her Advanced Art II class was practice still life and negative space.

Jemma had to swim from rock to rock a few times before she found what she was looking for, and when she did she was more than startled. The same girl was here again, but she looked a lot different when she was dry. Her hair was dark brown, and the strands of it fell around her face and they only just didn't touch her shoulders. She looked just fine. Jemma noted that she was wearing new clothes, so she must have gotten back to wherever she lived at some point before Jemma returned.

Even though she knew she shouldn't, Jemma got closer, making her way through shallow water to a large rock that was partially on land as well. The distance between her and the stranger had to be less than a hundred yards, and it made Jemma excited. She wasn't scared like she had been last night, the woman wasn't as threatening as the people back on the boat had been. They had all been loud and rowdy, but this one seemed calm and collected. Jemma liked that.

The only thing that seemed out of the ordinary when Jemma determined that she was perfectly healthy was whatever activity the brunette was engaged in. It was strange, Jemma watched as she crouched in various places and pointed whatever was in her hands at something, bringing the thing up to her face. The odd activity made Jemma giggle a little bit, but she put her hand over her mouth to stifle it. Jemma didn't know what the girl thought she was doing, but it was funny and amusing to watch her do it anyway.

Suddenly and without warning, the human girl changed directions and faced out into the sea. Jemma's eyes widened and she turned and dove back into the water, hoping she hadn't been too slow and that the woman hadn't seen her. Maybe Bobbi was right and her curiosity finally was going to get her. She had been stupid enough to come back here a second time, after all. Only a fool would do that.

Skye's head shot up at the sound just as the shutter clicked. She had moved so suddenly the shot was probably ruined, but waves weren't normally this loud against the beach. Perhaps it was water hitting the group of rocks within reach, but it had also sounded a little too loud for that.

Some junk and scrap and just general sea stuff did sometimes wash up on shore. She had found a license plate once she had hung up in her room. It was from Texas. Strange that a license plate would wash up on shore, even find its way into the ocean. Strange no less that it had been from Texas, but Skye often appreciated and utilized the things she found. She enjoyed what the water gave her even if she didn't actually enjoy the water.

The brunette took a firm hold of her camera and started the short walk over. There was no way she was touching the water, so she decided to climb the rocks and reach down for whatever it was that may be stuck there. Climbing was easier said than done. She was athletic enough, but only because she rode her bike and ran on a regular basis, but she wasn't rock climbing material...especially not in these pants.

She put her camera down on top of one of the more flat rocks and sat down, taking off her shoes in hopes to get a better grip, and then made her way up and out towards the water, trying to be careful. They were slippery though, and honestly she should have known better. Skye was more curious about what was over the edge than keeping herself from being exactly that, and so, when she leaned over, she slipped.

A shriek quickly resounded around the grotto followed by another loud splash, followed by some thrashing and some more screaming. Her head went under once, twice, and the rock was too smooth to cling to. How had she found herself in this situation twice in such quick succession?!

Jemma had been about to leave, fix her mistake by getting away from the human and actually gathering clams like she'd told Bobbi she was, when she heard a deep sound, what she recognized as the underwater version of a splash. She whirled around to look back towards the rock, and sure enough, there was the girl, or her limbs at least, flailing around underwater. She rolled her eyes, almost frustrated that the human was about to drown again after she saved her only the night before.

Still, Jemma swam back as fast as she could, but she hesitated when she was a few feet away. Yes, she'd saved the girl last night, but that had been when she was unconscious. If Jemma saved her again there would be no doubt that the girl would see her. She shouldn't reveal herself, it would endanger her entire pod. Jemma backed up, but then she thought about what would happen if she made the choice to just leave. The girl would die.

Without another thought about it, Jemma moved forwards again. She grabbed the human's legs with one arm and when she fell backwards, she supported her back with the other. Jemma swam upwards and fear flooded her systems when her head came above the water, only a few inches from the wide eyes of the human girl. Jemma was holding her bridal style in the water, supporting her and keeping her from drowning, but terrified about what the girl was going to do.

"You're starting to make a habit out of this, aren't you?" She asked. Her voice sounded strained, she hadn't spoken english in such a long while since her pod rarely used it, and she wasn't sure she was even speaking it correctly based on the confused look on the girl's face.

Skye felt her head above water, air in her lungs and she felt relief. She wasn't drowning. Her breathing was still quick and in gasps, but that was just the lingering panic at still being in the water. Someone was holding her. When Skye turned her head she was met with a girl. A swimmer? She didn't think people came out here to swim, this part of the beach wasn't all that popular.

When she spoke, Skye was confused. A habit? What was she making a habit out of? How did she kno-

"Oh my god!"

The soaking wet brunette's eyes had scanned over the girl. She seemed familiar and by the way she spoke to her maybe she had been at Ward's party and saw her fall in. Her eyes landed on something shimmering below the surface. Scales?

Her eyes widened even more and she looked at the stranger's face. She was still panicking. She was probably just hallucinating, so she shook her head, but the girl remained, big sparkling fish tail and all.

"You...you're...". Her mouth was dry all of a sudden, " Whaaat even-"

She was flailing again and managed to break away from the stranger's arms and scamper up the rest of the way into the sand, turning back around to look to see if she was still there. She supposed she should say thank you...but she was sort of caught up in the fact that her rescuer, for a second time, was a "mermaid?! Y-you have... You uhmm..." Skye looked down at where the girl's legs were supposed to be and there were none. She let out a strange, exasperated noise and turned around, holding her head.

"You're going crazy, you're going crazy. You must have hit your head when you fell in, oh my god..."

Jemma followed after Skye, for curiosity if nothing else. She swam up closer to the beach and ended up laying on her stomach on the sand, propped up by her elbows. She wasn't quite as far onto the shore as she was the previous night, her tail would have been submerged had she not been holding it in the air. Her head was tilted to the side slightly in question as the girl continued to panic.

"You seem distressed." She noted as she watched. It was hard to tell whether the girl was talking to Jemma or to herself. Maybe it would be best if she took off now and let the girl think she was crazy, it would keep her secret safe, but for some reason she didn't.

The brunette opened her mouth to retort, but quickly shutting again, turning back around to look at the "mermaid". She couldn't just start talking to her hallucinations. This shit didn't just happen unless you took something, something strong. Skye didn't remember taking anything at the party, certainly nothing that would last this long and absolutely nothing this morning.

"Stop talking, it's not helping," Skye held her hand out for the girl to be quiet, using her other to rub her still sore forehead. This couldn't be real, but no matter how many times she rubbed her eyes the stranger didn't go away.

There was no way this could be real. No way at all. Mermaids didn't just appear and save people out of the blue, like dragons didn't just start randomly flying around about in the sky. It just didn't happen. It was a real life thing...so why was this mermaid, albeit very attractive mermaid, laying there on the beach talking to her? Skye didn't understand. She was definitely going crazy.

"I...I need to go." Why was she telling her hallucination she needed to leave? Courtesy? It seemed right, it had saved her.
" Shit..."

It had saved her. Skye certainly knew she couldn't swim on her own and there was no way she could have made it to shore by herself. She had already been a foot or two under. She had been done for. And the night before too. She had been nearly unconscious. She had felt her arms. She had been carried. The second deep groove in the sand the morning the day before accounted for this.

"Y-you're real? You're a-actually..."

She had to sit down. More like her legs were so wobbly she fell. "You're a real live fucking mermaid?!"

Jemma furrowed her eyebrows, still staring at the girl, but this time with confusion. Jemma knew she hadn't spoken english in a while, but she still knew it. This girl was all over the place, first she was confused and then talking to herself, and then she said she had to leave, but she was sitting down instead. She'd told her to be quiet and stop talking, but now she was asking her a question? She didn't really understand, but she was more than intrigued. Maybe Bobbi was wrong, this girl didn't look so dangerous.

"Just like you're a real human." Jemma replied. It was almost as if saying it out loud made it real. She was actually talking to a human! A real, live, conscious human, just like she'd always wanted.

Skye wasn't really sure what she had expected. The answer was so blunt, but also well put...she had a point.

"Wow, alright then. Fair enough..." Her eyebrows rose in acknowledgement. Alright, she was talking to a mermaid. She remained quiet for another couple of seconds, swallowing to wet her dry throat as she tried to think of something to say. She looked away for a moment, and then looked back.

Yep. She was still there. She was as real as life could get.

"So uhm...thanks...uhmmm," Skye motioned towards the water and sighed heavily. She was talking to a mermaid.

"Thanks for saving me. I uh...I can't swim too great. Like at all. I can't swim at all..." She adjusted herself to a better sitting position in the stand, still a good distance from the stranger in the water. She was talking to a mermaid but she still wasn't one hundred percent sure she wouldn't wake up at some point on the beach again any moment.

"Was it you last night? I uh...fell off my friend's boat...?"

"Is that what you call it?" Jemma asked quickly. So they had a name for those little floating islands, and now she knew it. Talking to this girl seemed to be exactly what she wanted, so she continued even though she knew it was wrong.

"A boat..." She said, testing out the new addition to her vocabulary. She flicked her tail and let it fall back into the water. The girl had asked her a question about the boat though, she hadn't said it just to tell Jemma what it was.

"Yes, that was me. You took quite a spill." Jemma gave the girl a small, nervous smile. "Are you alright?"

She lived in the ocean and she didn't know what a boat was? Skye found it strange, but as she thought about it she supposed it made sense. She lived in the ocean and not on land so it made sense she didn't know certain words, but she did know English. Did that mean she had met and talked to other people? Skye couldn't imagine English was the common tongue under the water.

Either way, the mermaid's smile was distracting. The brunette had to look away, putting her hands out behind her to prop herself up as she stretched her legs out.

"Well...yeah, thanks. Thanks for that. And for a few minutes ago..." Skye chuckled to herself a little, recalling what the stranger had said, "I guess it is becoming a habit."

Biting her lip, she sighed again. Skye wasn't sure what all to say to a mermaid. She had, of course, never met one before and as long as she was indulging whatever this situation was, she might as well introduce herself. The girl had saved her twice.

"I'm uhm...I'm Skye, by the way. Well, Daisy, like the flower, but I hate that name so I go by Skye." It occurred to her then the girl may not even know what a flower was.

Skye was right. Jemma didn't know what a flower was, but she let it slide this time. She could ask all the questions she wanted later if this human wanted to be friends like it seemed.

Jemma smiled brightly, knowing that her name was Skye made Jemma like her even more. Bobbi had to be wrong about people being terrible and dangerous, or if she was right, Skye was the exception. There was no harm in telling her her name.

"My name is Jemma." She said shyly, digging her fingers into the sand and flicking her tail. She wanted to stay longer and find out more about Skye, but a call behind her caught her attention and Jemma turned her head back towards the ocean. It was Bobbi, calling her. She'd probably figured out at this point that she wasn't gathering clams.

Jemma tried to ignore it, she really did, but the call reached her ears again, this time more firm. Their language almost sounded similar to a mix of whale and dolphin, and their ears were trained to be able to hear the pitches from very far away.

"I have to go," Jemma blurted out, twisting to face the ocean. Bobbi didn't sound happy with her.

The artist almost missed her name, too enthralled with the shimmering tail that came up out of the water when she spoke. As an avid painter as well as sketcher, Skye found instant and deep appreciation for the mix of colors she saw glistening off the wet scales. Mixes of pinks and purples blended into blues and teals and with the water still sparkling and catching the sun, Skye thought it looked like a galaxy or the northern lights playing across the sky.

"Beautiful...wait, what?" She snapped to attention, hearing the girl had to leave. It was so sudden. It had only been a few minutes and although she was fairly certain she was dreaming, she didn't want it to end just yet. She had so many questions.

"Hey wait, you can't just go! You can't be just 'oh hey, saved your life, b-t-dubs I'm a mermaid, see yah'!" She was scrambling up off the sand to make a move to get closer to her. Skye didn't think she was being scary, she just had a curiosity of her own to fill. She wanted to know more. She wanted to see more. She was already sketching out the fin shape and the girl's jawline in her head but without a picture she knew she would lose it. Her eyes darted for her camera. It was too far away. Jemma could leave before she got a shot and her phone was at home sitting in a bowl of rice to try and soak out the water.

"Hey, wait, are you gonna come back?!"

Jemma hadn't been aware that she'd been slightly tense until Skye made a sudden move towards her. She immediately pushed with her arms so she was further into the water. It was instinct, all her life she'd practically been trained to think that humans were scary monsters, so it was natural for her to be weary.

She swallowed a lump in her throat and looked up at Skye, who Jemma admitted was intimidating when she was standing up, towering over her. She frantically pushed against the ground until she was far enough away to actually swim. Only then did she stop and look back at Skye. She looked upset, but not in the way Jemma had been expecting. Jemma expected her to be mad for not listening to her or try to catch her like Bobbi always said. She looked disappointed.

"When the sun is high." Jemma said without thinking, raising a hand and pointing straight above her head for emphasis. If she wanted to meet with Skye again she could come back tomorrow afternoon, and if she decided not to, she could simply fail to show up.

Another call from Bobbi grabbed Jemma's full attention and she dove back into the water, answering with a returning signal as soon as she was underwater.

Skye watched her go from the safety of the shore. The second the mermaid had pushed herself into the water, the brunette had stopped. She was more afraid of the liquid than she was concerned about getting her answers and so she watched with confusion and disappointment as that gorgeous tail disappeared beneath the water.

"When the sun is high..." Skye made a snorting sound as she trudged back up the sand and snatched her camera and shoes from the rock she had left them on. What time even was that? Was it lunch time? Was it four o'clock, she didn't know. The sun was high a lot of the time, most of the day. Now that she thought about it, she had a class and her disappointment grew deeper.

"It's just World Lit..." She said to herself as she scrambled out over the rocks to exit the grotto. She would sit there all day if she had to, and she intended to.

The young artist wasted no time in rushing back to the beach access point and put her shoes back on, setting off at a run up the street for her house. She had to get to her desk and start drawing as soon as possible before she forgot everything. The pattern of the scales were already fuzzy in her mind, but the colors were as vibrant as ever and the outline of her face still sharp.

Unlike Skye, Jemma was not in such a rush to get home. Judging by the annoyed calls of her older sister, Jemma knew that Bobbi knew she lied about what she was doing. Jemma didn't even have to get back to the underwater cave system that was their home, Bobbi had already come out to meet her.

"Where were you?" Bobbi asked immediately. It wasn't in english, of course, since they were underwater, and it almost made Jemma sigh. She liked talking in english and she'd just had to leave the only person who would do it with her.

Jemma didn't answer, instead simply looking down at the ocean floor and all the seaweed there. She was a terrible liar, she was surprised Bobbi had even believed her before.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to mess around near the shore?" Bobbi snipped, knowing by Jemma's reaction that she'd been up to something and felt guilty about it.

"You tell me all the time." Jemma's response was quiet, their own equivalent of a mutter. Bobbi rolled her eyes and took hold of Jemma's hand to lead her back home, even though Jemma obviously knew the right way.

"Have you ever wondered if the pod is wrong, that not all humans are bad?" Jemma asked as they swam. Despite Bobbi being very anti-human, she was still the person Jemma had always shared her thoughts with, and this one was no different.

"Are you kidding?" Bobbi actually stopped, swimming in front of Jemma and holding onto the sides of her arms. "You remember what happened. You do not go anywhere near them, you hear me?" Bobbi's voice was laced with anger and concern all at once. She worried for Jemma, ever since she was small she'd always been curious about everything, no matter what it was. She'd gotten stung by a jellyfish when she was little for exactly the same thought she was having now. Humans did far worse things than jellyfish, though, and Bobbi would do everything in her power, along with the rest of the pod, to keep Jemma away from them.

Jemma averted her eyes back down to a fish a few yards away. She remembered what had happened, it was the cautionary tale that had been used for generations. Years ago one of their own pod had fallen in love with a fisherman only to be speared by a harpoon.

Jemma just nodded, though it still didn't defer her from her plans to meet up with Skye again the next day. Skye wasn't that sailor, the only thing she had with her was that silly thing she'd been pointing at the crabs, and they were fine. Skye was different, Jemma could feel it.