Friday morning was upon Marcus before he was truly ready for it. True, the stressful part of his trip was now null and void, but at the same time he knew he had some explaining to do when they arrived at the island. His parent's lucrative wealth always made him uncomfortable when he was forced to show it off. "At least they'll have plenty of rooms." Marcus muttered. He pulled out his cell phone and scrolled through the contacts list, selecting one he had only used a few times before. He let the phone dial and put it to his ear. The phone had rung only once when a man answered.

"Ah, Master Marcus." A cheerful voice said. "I was wondering when you would be calling."

"How's it going Gordon?" Marcus said, wincing at the title before his name. "And come on, it's just Marcus. I've told you that like a dozen times."

"Of course Master Marcus." Gordon said, his voice still irritatingly cheerful.

"Is the jet ready to go?" Marcus pulled a long face at the continued use of the title. "We're going to be there in a few hours."

"Ready and standing by sir." Gordon informed him. "How many people will I be transporting today?"

"Eleven." Marcus said after a moment, counting them quickly in his head. "Plus whatever luggage they are bringing."

"We should have plenty of room then." Gordon told him. "I'll send the driver around to the address you specified to pick you up directly."

Marcus bade him farewell and hung up. He grabbed the small tan bag he had packed with the few things he wanted to bring with him. He locked the door behind him and took the time to bury the keys under the mulch of the potted plant next to his door. He trotted down his steps and turned down the street, hitching the bag up on his shoulder as he went.

He yawned as he walked, stretching hugely. As usual, Zach ran out of his house as he passed it by. Rather than the book bag he usually had, he had a large metal suitcase under one arm. He vaulted over the small stone border that lined his yard and skidded to a halt. "What's up?" Zach asked, out of breath. He extended a handle on his suitcase and began to pull it behind him as he walked.

"Not much." Marcus told him. "Hey, random thought, did you ever convince Ondina to fly?"

"I thought you did." Zach said, frowning at him.

"I don't know if you realized this, but I am not capable of convincing Ondina to do anything." Marcus told him. "In fact, she is more likely to do what opposite of what I ask her to do."

"True." Zach agreed. "But I thought that since you two are a couple and all…"

Marcus made a T with his hands, alarmed. "Whoa. Time out. Flag on the play." Marcus said quickly. "We aren't a couple."

"I thought you two kissed?" Zach asked, clearly confused. "Evie says you did."

"Where does this woman get her information?" Marcus demanded. "Seriously dude, your girlfriend is like some sort of detective."

"You have no idea." Zach said soberly. "Keeping the secret from her was a nightmare. She always knew when I was lying. We actually broke up over it for a little while."

"Speaking of which, how did Evie become a mermaid?" Marcus asked half-curiously and half-desperate to get away from the current conversation. "Did she fall into the Moon Pool too?"

"It's a long story." Zach told him delicately.

"Good thing we have a long plane ride in front of…" Marcus's voice trailed off as they pushed open the gate to Rita's house. Beside the door were a number of bags, all of which were bulging to their maximum capacity. "What the hell is this?" He asked Zach, grabbing one of the bags. He lifted it and whistled at its weight.

"Oh, Marcus, Zach," Rita said, appearing from within the house and setting another bag down beside the others. "Showing up right when the work is done are we?"

"It's the best time to show up." Marcus told her sincerely. "Where are the others?"

"Downstairs." Rita said. Marcus frowned as he detected a note of strain in her voice.

"Something wrong?" He asked curiously. Rita led the way through the door and to the entrance to the hidden chamber.

"In a manner of speaking, yes." Rita told him. "We have a slight problem."

"Is Ondina still arguing about the whole flying thing?" Marcus sighed as they descended the stairs. He heard the sounds of people talking, but they were not arguing. In fact they sounded rather worried.

Marcus paused at the foot of the stairs and Zach bumped into him with a muttered exclamation of surprise. Rita's chamber, which was normally pristine, was now covered in ice. "Doing some redecorating?" Marcus asked hopefully.

Unfortunately, Rita crushed said hope with a single word. "No."

Zach groaned and shook his head. He and Rita exchanged knowing looks and Marcus felt distinctly left out. "Who is it?" Zach asked hesitantly.

"Who is what?" Marcus demanded, not at all happy to be out of the loop.

"Mimi, and now Serena and Ondina are showing signs." Rita told him. "So be careful around them. The last thing we want is more people to catch it."

The girls were sitting on the stone couch, slightly further apart than they normally sat. Marcus's brow furrowed as he carefully stepped around a frozen spot on the floor. To his astonishment he saw that it was snowing in several spots around the grotto. "Going to go out on a limb here and say it isn't supposed to be snowing." Marcus said brightly.

"You're a genius." Ondina told him. Her voice was thick, and Marcus instantly saw the signs of a cold in her face. She was wrapped up in a blanket and her eyes seemed far more tired than they should have been even this early in the morning. "Really."

"Uh-oh." Marcus chuckled. "Someone's sick."

"It's not funny." Ondina growled as she got to her feet and faced him.

He grinned easily back at her and shrugged on shoulder. "I don't know, I think it's pretty funny." He told her. "I mean, come on, who ever heard of a mermaid getting sick?"

"We don't." Mimi said miserably. "At least, not usually. This isn't a normal cold that humans get. This has something to do with magic."

"That explains the winter wonderland." Marcus observed, glancing around the room at the snow and ice. "And you guys can't just magic yourselves better?"

"Oh, why didn't I think of that?" Ondina said venomously. "Because we can't. It's dangerous to mix magic, let alone a magic illness."

"Sheesh, sorry." Marcus raised his hands as if warding off her words. "My bad. Anything I can do to help?"

"Actually, yes." Ondina told him. She opened her mouth to speak again, but instead of words she sneezed.

Marcus felt cold, overwhelming cold, and then he went blank. He came to a few minutes, shivering violently as his tail appeared. He was on the floor with Zach and Rita hunched over him, their hands extended. Glorious amounts of heat were spilling from their hands and Marcus hurriedly copied them. He wrapped his arms around his midsection as he sat up, water dripping from his hair and down his face. "What, the hell, just happened?" He demanded through chattering teeth.

"Ondina might have accidentally frozen you." Rita told him. "That's the problem with these magic colds, they have no control over their power right now. Or at least, very little control."

"Oh, great." Marcus muttered. He had heated his hands to the highest temperature his skin would allow and now ran them up and down his chest, midsection, and tail. "It's going to make this flight interesting. Snow and merpeople a few thousand feet in the air. Not to mention they have no control over their magic. What could possibly go wrong?"

"I told you, I'm not flying." Ondina told him. "Especially not now."

"Well what are you going to do? Swim?" Marcus asked skeptically. "They might question the iceberg that shows up randomly in the middle of the Pacific."

"Actually, Marcus, I think it might be better if you went without the girls." Rita told him. "Ondina's right. Being that high with their powers like they are would be dangerous in a best-case scenario. I need to stay back and watch them at any rate."

"So those bags you had weren't for the trip." Marcus realized. "You were moving things out of here so the girls don't damage them."

Rita nodded. "Exactly. It would be bad if they caused a chain reaction with some of the magical items I keep down here."

"So you're going to stay and keep an eye on them, right?" Marcus repeated. "I'll be right back."

He trotted up the stairs and disappeared for a few minutes. He returned with his phone in his hand and a satisfied look on his face. "What was that about?" Zach inquired, sitting beside Evie. "By the way, listen mate, I'm going to stay behind and look after Evie. Just in case she gets sick."

"That's fine." Marcus told him, stowing his phone back in his pocket. "I just cancelled the trip. Actually I rescheduled it for the next holiday, but that's beside the point."

"Marcus, that's not fair to you." Rita told him, but she was smiling. "Or the others."

"Well, I imagine that Chris is going to want to look after Mimi. And Cam and Carly seem pretty attached at the hip to Evie and Zach, so they won't go either." Marcus shrugged. "I think David goes without saying. He isn't going to go anywhere without Serena."

"You could always go by yourself." Ondina told him dismissively.

"Nah." Marcus hopped over the couch and took a seat next to Ondina. He frowned slightly as he summoned forth magic. He felt his arm grow very warm and he put it around Ondina's shoulders. She frowned at him, but rather than moving away she scooted closer to him. "I only arranged this vacation so that I could show you guys that I had a tail. But since you already knew…" He sent a glare around the room.

Zach and Evie had the grace to look abashed, Mimi smiled apologetically, and Serena went into a coughing fit that sent a flurry of snowflakes cascading around a corner of the room. "Who says that we want you around?" Ondina asked him, but it was only a token argument. She had pulled his arm around her shoulder and was clearly enjoying the warmth.

"No one." Marcus agreed. "But if you think I'm going to let you get away with not being made fun of right now you are clearly mistaken."

I notice that a lot of you have remarked on the unusual color of Marcus's tail. Yes, it has significance. No, I will not specify what it is. Not just yet. As always, you guys are amazing. Thank you so much for your reviews they mean the world to me, truly they do.-Hallowed