Chapter 29

The next morning the residents at Mako had their spirits risen greatly. Everyone was positive and enjoying each other's company. Anna, Cleo and Rikki would be giving themselves a few days at home before returning to work, to adjust back to civilised life. They found themselves often going off to sit by themselves in the middle of the forest, enjoying the nature. They had told everyone that they were glad they lived on Mako; they were used to living in and with nature. They were most definitely glad to be back home.

Bella leaned on Will holding his hand as they walked together through the well-worn path down to the beach.

"The spirits of everyone, especially the kids have risen since the guys got back," Bella said. Will nodded his agreement.

"Especially their kids."

"Yeah." Bella paused. "They really have changed," she said.

"Do you think?"

"Yeah, they are much quieter – especially Rikki and they tend to drift off to be by themselves. I heard from Lewis that Cleo is finding it difficult to sleep in a bed."

"I guess living two months on an island would mean you'd have to adjust, now I think they are just trying to adjust back."

Bella nodded.

"I think losing their powers doesn't help either..." Will said.

"That definitely hit them hard I can tell. They seem to be coping well... I know I'd never recover, it has been my whole life, give or take nine years." she mused.

"I know they've discussed everything, but I can't help but feel that they are with-holding what they actually felt." Will said.

"Probably, but I don't blame them." Bella replied. "Living months without their kids and husbands...I don't know how I would have coped."

Will stopped and turned to face her, taking her hands.

"You would have coped, I know you are strong enough. That saying I wouldn't have been able to get through what the guys did, they didn't know whether they were alive or dead." Will stopped his voice cracking.

"Hey, hey, Will, I'm still here, it didn't happen to you." She wrapped her arms around him and snuggled her face into his chest.

"But it almost did, you almost went with them."

"And I would've come back. I missed them too Will, but they are back, safe and sound."

"Thanks Bella."

She leaned up and kissed him. "Don't mention it."

"I love you."

"I love you too."

The couple continued walking down to the beach hand in hand.

OoOoO

After a week had passed, the three girls had finally recovered from the 'Stranded on an island' fiasco. They headed back to work and got on with their lives, fully adjusted to everything. The police had filed their report and Anna and Cleo returned to their jobs without trouble, the police's stretched story explained their absence believably.

Terry Chadwick, Don and Sam Sertori and Kim Gilbert all came over to Mako. Kim saw the village for the first time. When she left school, she had moved to Melbourne with Elliot her husband. Everyone thought it had been an extremely odd match –especially their sisters, but as they had matured, they actually had begun to suit and love each other. She had moved back to the Gold Coast a week after Cleo, Rikki and Anna had disappeared, Elliot was a doctor and had been accepted for a job suited to his specialty at a hospital in his hometown. Since Kim didn't live nearby, she had never visited Mako while her sister and friends had lived there.

Terry and Don both had relieved, happy tears in their eyes as they embraced their daughters.

OoOoO

The residents at Mako also had a BBQ to celebrate the return of their friends inviting their families and Fred, Kelly and their son, all of which had been waiting for news of their friends. That night really was a night of celebration.

OoOoO

Once everything had settled down, Emma invited Jade to Rikki's cafe along with Bella to catch up.

Rikki was clearing tables as Zane looked after the boys and did the accounts. The customers had missed her friendly face while she had been missing, the cafe hadn't had the same atmosphere. When Rikki had finally returned to work, regular customers asked where she had been. She explained with a short "Overseas Experience."

She had just cleared a table near the entrance and was taking the tray away as the Maori woman came in.

"Rikki!" Jade said surprised.

"Jade?" Rikki looked up in surprise.

"It's great to see you again!" Jade said enthusiastically.

"You too." She put the tray down and went to embrace her old friend.

"I didn't know you worked here," Jade said.

"Actually, I own the place, with my husband, our family business. He named it after me."

"Oh! Right, I never clicked," Jade said feeling stupid.

Rikki laughed. "No worries. Bella and Emma told me they were meeting you here? I'm sure they'll be here soon."

"You going' to join us?" Jade asked.

"Yeah. I'll just be a sec," Rikki said as she picked up the tray and disposed of its contents. She then quickly wiped the table down with a cloth. She took her apron off, talked to her head of staff about covering her shift, and then came to sit with Jade.

"So what have you been up to?" Jade asked.

"Well, believe it or not, Cleo and I as well as our other friend have been stranded on a desert island for the past two months."

"Yeah, Emma told me about that, how'd it happen exactly? She was rather vague."

"Our boat hit some rocks," Rikki lied convincingly. She then went on to tell her the fake details. A few minutes later, Emma came into the cafe followed by Bella.

"I see you caught up with Rikki," Emma said as she sat down with them. The four of them soon began chatting, just like old times.

"Is Cleo coming?"

"Yeah, she's coming during her lunch break."

A while later Cleo arrived and new conversations were brought with her.

"So, maybe I could come over some time, you know meet your families," Jade said.

"Ah..."
They all looked at each other.

"To whose house?" Rikki asked.

"Anyone's?"

"Well..."

"You could come to Rikki's place sometime." Bella suggested quickly. Rikki shot Bella a questioning look. Bella continued answering everyone's silent questions. "My house is under renovations," Bella said, "And the Bennett's house is only five minutes down the road."

"Bennett? I thought your name is Chadwick...Oh, married right!" Jade said laughed at herself for being unobservant. Everyone laughed along with her.

"It's alright," Rikki said. "Anyway, you and your family are welcome to come over sometime. Call this number." Rikki wrote down her number for her house on Mako.

"Cool, thanks. One question, why do you guys all look the same age as when I last saw you? Surely all four of you should look older, I look ten years older, why don't you?"

"It's in our genes," Cleo said mysteriously. She soon ruined the tension by bursting out laughing with everyone else following suit. The women returned to chatting, suddenly there was a commotion from inside the office. Rikki's head shot in that direction and she rolled her eyes. Bella and Emma laughed.

"What?" Jade asked.

"Just wait, you'll see…In coming in 3, 2, 1…" Cleo replied with a chuckle as two identical boys with brown curly hair raced out of the office.

"Mum! Tell Jay to give me the red car!" Alex demanded.

"No! Tell Alex to let me play with it. He has his blue one!" Jay retorted.

"Boys, you are disrupting everyone with your noise. How 'bout we settle this back in the office." Rikki said. She shot an apologetic look at her friends as she herded her sons back to the office.

"I'm guessing those are Rikki's kids?"

"Yeah," Emma said. "She has two sets of twins, two girls which are six – they really are the splitting image of Rikki and two boys, they are almost four."

"They look like quite a handful," Jade said.

"Well, let's say they inherited Rikki and Zane's stubbornness." Bella said

Rikki returned to the group a while later.

"I have no idea why Zane couldn't sort that problem out." Rikki muttered.

"What was he doing?" Cleo asked.

"Sleeping. Heavily." Rikki said in an amused tone. "He is definitely awake now though," she said with a smirk.

"Typical Zane," Emma laughed.

"He is never going to hear the end of this I bet?" Jade asked.

"So, what did Jay and Alex end up doing?" Bella asked with an amused smile.

"Let's just say I didn't let them decide." Rikki said pulling the red and blue car out of her pocket, "They can play with the other ones,"

Everyone laughed. Soon the group dispersed.

OoOoO

Lewis had run a few tests on Rikki, Anna and Cleo. Referring to the purple mermaid mythology book along with another 'fictional' mermaid facts book, he deducted what had happened; of course, this was still a theory until proven by the upcoming full moon. He predicted that since a normal full moon had taken their powers (he had checked all the astronomy charts and nothing out of the ordinary had happened) that another normal full moon would restore them again. He believed that it must have been the moon pool they were in that had done the changing. Another theory was that their powers were just in a inactive state, they were still there but couldn't be accessed. If this was the case, Lewis believed that their same powers would be restored, the same as before the change. They hoped like heck these theories would be correct.

Bella, Emma and Ben tried to minimize their power usages while around their ex-mermaid friends, as not to upset them, they urged the kids to do the same. Jade and her family were invited to come over to the mainland house on the next Sunday after the full moon.

OoOoO

After an agonising wait, the full moon was finally scheduled to arrive. Never before had the full moon been so welcome. Cleo, Anna and Rikki looked into the full moon's eye. They were unaffected as they were human, but strangely they felt some sort of tugging inside of them.

The pool bubbled, blue sparkles rose to the sky as the full moon passed overhead. An image of a green pool swirling came in front of their eyes but soon disappeared as they dove into the pool.

They were full of hope as they emerged from the pool dripping wet, they knew the effect wouldn't be immediate but they somehow knew that everything was going to be okay.

The three women waited in anticipation until the morning – until twelve hours had passed. That next morning Rikki, Anna and Cleo jumped into the moon pool eagerly, all the other adults watched in anticipation. They gasped with relief when after ten seconds, their familiar tails appeared. They tried out their powers. Exactly the same. Lewis' theory must have been correct. The powers had just been restricted from use, they were still there just not able to be accessed.

They whooped and hollered with joy. Rikki sped out and did a flip out of the water, landing with a splash. They all zoomed over the reef before returning happily to the cave.

"You don't know how it feels to be able to do that again," Rikki breathed to Bella, a grin stretched across her face. All the mermaids and mermen swam that afternoon away.

Everything was back to normal. It truly had been a productive day.

A/N: Please review. I hope you enjoyed this long chapter! Please tell me what you think, also feel free to recommend story ideas, I will consider them all.

P.S: sorry about this taking so long, I've been trying to upload it for a couple of days but Fan fiction wouldn't let me log in.