A Wish on a Full Moon
I do not own H2O: Just Add Water or any of the characters.
Chapter 74: What the Future Holds
The silence was unbearable between them. An awful amount of silence and staring was directed towards the brunette, her heart beating loudly in her ears. And the worst part was she was the one causing it, as her mouth opens but nothing comes out. Cleo hoped it didn't show, doing her best for her face to not show it, but she was panicking on the inside as she pondered Kim's question, the truth of their sudden appearance here begins to unravel.
Are we here because of me? Kim's question echoes in her mind. Really, she should be asking herself that question. While technically, yes, it was Kim's wish that brought them here – along with the help of the full moon – it was Cleo who was the cause behind all this. She couldn't blame her sister for her mistakes, for trying to make a selfish wish, that was Cleo's mistake, for she tried to do the same; but it was more from the both of them: from one wanting to make her wish come true, and one wanting to know the truth. Combined with the mysterious powers of the full moon, it created … this. A magical way for the truth to come out, ridding them of their fears and worries about their friends and family finding out. Although she will never understand why there were people here they've never met, she was glad to get to know them otherwise.
During her sister's thoughtful silence, Kim grew impatient, her foot tapping against the floor with her arms crossed, a scowl crosses her face as she watches her sister's expression morph from panic to obvious stress. "Cleo? Cleo," Kim called her sister's name, but no response came. "Cleo!" Kim tried once more, this time with a little bit more force backed into it. Cleo snaps out of her dazed panic with a blink and looks at her sister who is obviously annoyed by her silent response. No response at all really. "Am I going to have to repeat myself? Cause you know that I hate repe –." Cleo cuts her off with a shake of her head, her eyes closed. A sigh escapes from her lips as she spoke softly. "No, Kim, you don't."
Cleo takes a deep breath, opening her eyes again, and with a new-found gain of courage from her momentarily stunned silence, she was ready to spill it all. "We aren't here because of you – well, technically –," Cleo spoke slowly, tilting her head as she thought her answer through. However, Kim's expression of confusion with a slight bit of panic shows that she needs to reword it better. Cleo corrects herself with a wave of her hands before Kim could freak out. "I mean, we are here because of your wish. You wished to know the truth. But I don't blame you one bit. It's not your fault we are here … it's mine," Cleo let out a breath as she admits the truth. The real truth.
It hung there for a second as Kim took it in, her eyes wide and mouth open with shock. She was about to say something when a voice – a different one than the two of them – spoke from behind.
"What?"
Kim looks over Cleo's shoulder as the mermaid herself whips around to find their parents in the doorway, their shock showing. Cleo bit her lip and winced internally. They forgot to close the door. She repressed a sigh seeing their mom was now here in the room with them, and she could feel Kim tense up next to her. Neither wanted the older (ex) Sertori to hear their private conversation. Too late for that now.
The two parents walk further into the room. "How? How is that possible? You used the last of the potion at the café," Don asked, confusion filling his voice. Cleo glances down at the floor as she fiddles with her fingers nervously, the sound of her heartbeat in her ears returning. "Actually, dad … it wasn't. A-after Lewis called, I put some in another jar, for safekeeping." Bev gasps at the revelation and Kim's eyes widen even more, now understanding where this was leading, but the three family members remain quiet as they let Cleo continue her explanation.
"I – I wanted to make my own wish. That night, after the café was saved, I was going to use it in the bath when Kim came up," Cleo looks Kim in the eye as she tells her story. "We started arguing, and then Kim said the magic words," Cleo gave her a small smile as Kim repeats those same words out loud quietly, but loud enough for the others to hear. "'I wish we knew the truth'."
Cleo nods. "I guess the full moon must've given it some sort of power boost. Next thing you know, there's a bright blue light coming from the moon, and … here we are," Cleo gestures around the room with a small shrug.
"So that's how it happened," Don whispered to himself. When that blue light filled the entire living room, that's where it came from … then we arrived here.
They all look down in thought as the truth finally came out of their arrival, the words sinking into their minds, aside from Cleo who had it eating at her since they came, until Bev broke the silence with a frown. "What was the wish?" They all glance at Bev with a similar frown on their faces. "What?" Cleo asked. "The wish. The wish you were going to make. What were you going to wish for?" Bev explained further as she looks at her daughter.
Cleo bit her cheek, trying her absolute best not to yell at her mom for pestering into her life, but a snotty remark still escapes. "I don't see how that's any of your business."
Don faces Bev, having a feeling where this is heading as he holds his hands up in warning. "We've already seen enough of their personal life, we shouldn't pry anymore," he said, but Bev kept pushing, ignoring him. "Was it about Lewis? Was it for a due-over in your relationship?" Cleo's eyes widen in fury, and she inhales a sharp breath. "That's for me to know and for you not to find out!" Cleo glares as she walks past her mom and towards the door.
Bev turns around, looking at her daughter's retreating form. "I mean, I can't believe you broke up with Lewis. He is such a sweet boy, and so good for you. You two were so great together! You loved Lewis," Bev shook her head in disbelief. Don's eyes widen in panic as he shook his head. This was going too far; even further and she'll reach Cleo's breaking point, if she hasn't already.
"Mom, stop." Even Kim could see how much this was affecting her sister, seeing the older girl's hands shaking, her fists and jaw clenched, and seeing the reminder of Cleo's power in the nearby glasses of water. The water in the cups that are still on their nightstands from the night wobbles in harmony with Cleo's rupturing anger, just as the brunette turns back to her mother. "I think the whole point of these films is to show that you don't know us like you thought you did," she says through gritted teeth. "I did love Lewis, I still do. But there was so much pressure and stress with everything going on, I couldn't handle it all."
She tried to get her mom to understand, she really did – because she didn't want to say it aloud – that the whole reason this was happening in the first place was because she left. Everything started from there. But she wouldn't listen. Bev keeps going, rambling on. "I can understand why –."
Are you sure about that? Kim thought.
" – it did seem like a lot of pressure with the new powers, the secret, protecting yourself and your friends from exposure and – and other stuff," Bev stutters slightly, the moment of her exit coming to mind and how much it had affected her daughters according to the viewing, but she shook it out of her head and kept going. "But I know you, Cleo, and I know you can get through this." "Mom, quit it!" Kim yells a bit louder, hoping to get her mother's attention. Just like her dad, the youngest Sertori knew what this would lead to. And although she would normally add her two cents in, but considering how serious this topic is and the fact that Cleo is a mermaid, it's probably best not to get on her bad side right now. She just hoped Cleo didn't do anything she would regret.
A step closer to an obviously angry Cleo, Bev continues. "And you did, you faced the new powers, you faced your fears, and you faced the depths of the ocean. That stress is gone and now you have an opportunity. Go, go tell Lewis that you still love him. Get back together with him," Bev places a hand on Cleo's shoulder and gives her a small 'loving' smile. "Bev, that's enough," Don steps toward them with a hand out to stop her, but it was too late. For the ex-Sertori had just finished her motivational speech with one last sentence.
"Honey, I just want you to be happy."
The words echo in Cleo's mind, and tears threaten to escape. Not of happiness, not of sadness, but pure anger, pure rage.
How dare she say that? How dare she tell her daughter that? How dare she expect them to be happy when she upped and outed from their lives?! Happy? Happiness? That's what she cares about most? Funny, she must've thought we were happy to see her go too, Cleo thought. No. No. That was the final drop that made the dam overflow, and what caused the water to explode from the cups, spilling all over the floor. Don tosses his hands in the air in frustration as Kim sucked in a deep breath. Here we go, they thought.
Her eyes widen in rage, she pushes her mom's hand off of her and backs away. "Happy? You want me to be happy?! That's a laugh coming from you! You think we can be happy after everything you did? Why do you care?! Why are you trying to be a mother to us now?" she shouts in anger.
Bev startles as she frowns in confusion, stuttering out her answer. "Cleo … I am and always will be your mother." "Really? Because you sure haven't been acting like one these past few months," Cleo tilts her head, Bev realizing what she meant now as guilt washes over her face. "You should know – oh, wait – of course you wouldn't. You weren't there!" A pained expression crosses over Bev's face, taking in her daughter's hurtful, yet very true, words.
"So why should I live in a dream, when in reality, you're not there? What makes you think I can be happy when you no longer want to be a part of our lives?" Cleo's tone grew softer, but still harsh as she continues to yell at her mother, pointing at herself and Kim. The two Sertori sisters now have tears streaming down their cheeks, hurt filling their features. Bev was on the verge of doing the same while Don watched, wanting to help but their feelings were now out in the open. The only thing he could do was wait and let the rest spill out.
After a few shaky breaths, Cleo shook her head and stares at Bev in pain. "I was going to wish for you back."
Don slowly looks over to his eldest daughter. He knew what she really wanted, what she oh, so wished to happen. It was plainly obvious during the last viewing. "I – I thought you were going to come back eventually. I had hope. Days turned to weeks, weeks into months, but you never did. You left and never came back. You. Left. Us. You left us!" Cleo cried some more, as did Kim, the youngest putting a hand over her mouth to prevent herself from sobbing, but she was far from that point now. She lowers her hand and spoke up, cutting Bev off from saying anything. "Did you ever once think about us when you left? Or were you happy to be out of our lives for good?" Bev closed her mouth, her lips trembling.
Finally, Don couldn't take it anymore and pulls his girls into a hug, the two crying into his shoulders. He looks at Bev, she could see the tears threatening to break from his eyes. "Do you know how much they cried while you were gone? How many tears they had shed? Tears that they shed because of you. And I couldn't make them go away because it wasn't something simple I could fix. They needed you. Kim and Cleo needed you. I needed you!" Don revealed, shouting the last part. Bev finally let her own tears fall, hearing the truth of just how much pain she had caused her family, seeing her girls break down and Don nearly there himself, his hands shaking as he held his – their girls.
She steps forward with pleading hands. "I know, and I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry." Kim and Cleo look up from their dad's shoulders, red-rim eyes staring at very similar reds. "I wish I had left on better terms. I messed up. I don't regret leaving, but I do regret not reconnecting with you girls." She could see the grip from their hug loosen a little. "I – I know there is no way I can fix this. I know I can't. But … if you'll let me, I promise I'll try and be a better mom. And a better friend," she looks to Don, and they hold each other's stare.
Kim and Cleo glance at one another in their sadness. Did she really mean it?
"Is – is there any way we can start over? As mother and daughters, and friends?" Bev sighed, looking at the three people she loves most in the world. They look at one another, studying the others' expressions as they try to decide whether or not to trust her, or whether they can believe her words. Whether they can trust the one who left them broken in the first place.
After a moment, it was Kim – the usually very stubborn Sertori which she inherited from her dad – who surprisingly makes the first move. Kim separates from her dad and sister and slowly made her way toward her mom, staring her down. As much as she never wanted to admit, she really missed her mom; and if she was willing to try, then she thought it was worth a try. She was going to take that chance.
Cleo looks at Kim in surprise as Kim steps closer and closer to her mom. What was she going to do? Reject her or accept her? But Don seemed to know the answer before her as he looked on with a small smile. Kim took a deep breath. "There is no way we can restart. We can't forget everything that happened." Hearing her daughter's words, Bev looks down at the floor, feeling hopeless.
That soon disappeared as she heard her little girl's words again. "But we can try again." Bev looks back up to see a teary-eyed Kim smiling at her.
"Hi, mom," Kim said as she ran forward and threw her arms around her mother in a hug. Bev gasps at the shocking contact and immediately accepts it, wrapping her arms around her youngest in a warm and tight hug, something she hasn't been able to do in a long time. Don smiles at them as they cry some more, this time with happy tears. He was glad to see the two finally getting along again, to see them reunite once more. All he wanted was for his daughters to be happy and to be at peace.
Now they just had one more. They look to Cleo who stares at them – mainly at Kim – in confusion and disbelief. "Cleo?" Bev sounded and looked hopeful.
Cleo shook her head, a hand to her head as she looks around. "I – I don't know. I just – when I tried to make that wish I thought it would make things better if you came back. That at least some of my life would go back to normal. But now that you're here … it's only because you didn't have a choice. Would you be if you did?" "Yes, I would. Without a doubt," Bev nodded at once, but Cleo still found it hard to believe as she almost let out a laugh at her choice of words.
"I'm just so confused right now, and I don't know what to do. I don't know what to think or feel," Cleo sighs as she looks at her with a stern frown. "Maybe none of this would've happened if you had just stayed!" Bev's smile of hope fell, but Don chooses at this time to speak up and they turn to him. "And if she did, she wouldn't have been happy. Cleo, she would've been living a lie." Cleo fully turns to him with narrowed eyes, pointing at herself. "But what about us? We were happy before! Together, as a family!" she yells.
"We are still a family. We always will be," Bev adds in. Don nods at her and then turns back to Cleo. "But what about her?" Don nods his head at the former.
Cleo squints her eyes in confusion and looks at her mom. What about her?
"Girls, your mom deserves happiness too," Don said. Even if it's not with me. Kim and Cleo look down in thought, then Kim, who was still side-hugging her mom, looks up at her. "Did we not make you happy mom? Is that why you left?" Kim almost sounded like she was begging it to be a no. It was the only answer she was looking for. "Of course not. I love you both so, so much, and you both make me very happy. I'm so proud of the women you have become and to call you my daughters," she looks down at Kim with a loving smile and then at Cleo. "I didn't leave because you girls didn't make me happy. I left because … I needed to figure out who I am. I needed to figure out myself and what I wanted to do. I needed some alone time so I could work things out, to understand."
Cleo glances away as her mother answers them, all while staring at the brunette. Like me.
"Did you figure things out?" Kim asked. "Partly," Bev tilts her head, grinning. "I know I have two amazingly incredible daughters that I love very much and am very proud of." She hugs Kim again and looks at Cleo, who was struggling not to smile. "And just how much of their life I really have been missing, secret or no secret. And, how much I have to make up for."
At last, Cleo couldn't take it anymore; the smile broke free upon hearing her mother's words as more tears stream down her happy cheeks and ran into her mother's open arms – partly taken up from Kim still attached to her side. Don smiles at the interaction. His daughters' were finally beginning to feel that peace they longed so much for.
"When we get back home, just please come and visit us. Or call. We need our mom in our lives too," the eldest girl's voice came out muffled from her face being stuffed in her mother's shirt. "I know, honey. And I will, I promise," Bev looks down at the two of them with a sad smile as they pull away slightly to look up at her. "I will make things right with the both of you. I love you two so much, don't ever forget that."
"We love you too, mom," the youngest Sertori says as she hugs her mom again with Cleo. The latter was hesitant at first, having not said it in a while, but slowly another smile grew into the warmth of her mother's hug. "Yeah, we love you too." It's been so long since she said those words. Bev smiled hearing her daughters' responses.
But when she looked up, the tight hugs she gave them loosened slightly. She stares at the last piece of the puzzle with a small apologetic smile.
"I love you too, Don." Don was taken aback, not expecting her to say that. Cleo and Kim look at him. "You've always been a good friend to me, and a good dad to our girls … but I think that's where it needs to stay." Don bit his cheek for a moment then nods, returning the small smile. He's been wanting answers for where things were left off, where that left them after everything. It wasn't the answer he wanted to hear, but it was the one he needed to hear. Thinking over his choice of words, Don finally responds. "If it makes you happy." That's all he wanted for the three. He just wanted them to be happy, even if that means Bev's life was now a bit farther from theirs.
Bev smiled. Cleo and Kim open their arms for him to join the family hug, the reunited family hug. "Come on, dad," the two say. Don doesn't hesitate this time to join in.
They stay like that for a moment, hugging, smiling, making a memory as a family. And it did not end, they never wanted it to.
Until they heard footsteps thumping down the hall and heading in their direction, getting louder the closer they came. They turn to the door just in time to see a mop of blonde hair barge through the door, grasping tightly onto the handle and gasping for air from the rush here.
"Guys! – Guys! Y – you wa – want –… Oh, sorry, did I – did I interrupt something?" Lewis looks up to see the group staring at him mid-hug. "Kind of," Kim said in a duh tone.
Cleo was the first to break from the hug as she crosses her arms. "Lewis, what's going on?" This time? was the unspoken part. It seems every time he barges into a room like this, there's always something horrid to follow. It reminded her of the very beginning of the viewing when she first jumped into the water and Lewis panicked and ran all the way to Emma's house for help, which is quite a long run for someone who does science as a hobby if you could even call it that. She hoped nothing dire happened this time.
Lewis rubs his neck sheepishly, blushing slightly, most likely from the adrenaline. "Well, um – wh – w – uh, well," Lewis stumbles over his words, trying to figure out what to say as to why he made such a dramatic entrance. "Lewis," Don and Bev try this time. He catches their eyes, takes a deep breath, and points behind him in the direction of the theater. "You might want to come see this!"
And with that, he runs back out of the room again and toward the main room. The Sertori family exchange glances with one another, deeply worried as to what could be wrong before following after him. They were still stuck in this large magical building or whatever they were in with no exit. Could they have found one? Could they have found something even more terrifying? Were they stuck here forever? All those questions echo in Cleo's mind along with the sounds of their footsteps booming through the hallway like a stampede. When they get to the theater room, Cleo realizes that the questions that were racked in her mind, turn out to be all three.
In the theater, everyone was staring at the screen with a mix of every single emotion that they displayed: fright, shock, stunned, fear, regret, awe, anxious, nervous. So, so many, even Mrs. Chatham joined their little emotion group.
"What's going on?" Cleo asked when she shook out of her stupor. "That!" Rikki points to the screen. When they got a good look at it, she finally understood why they were so frightened by it.
A closer look at the screen, and she could see why. It wasn't the screen itself that was the problem, but what was happening to it. Around the edges of it, a blue glowing light flickers around it; on and off, fading and glowing, just like it did when they first got here, the exact same glowing blue light from the full moon that sent them here.
"Why's it doing that?" Cleo asked, starting to get afraid herself as she took a small step back, getting closer to her family. A flashback came to mind of the moment before they got here. The wish echoing in her mind, the sudden glow of blue light taking over the bathroom, the light coming directly from the full moon before flooding her vision. "We don't know. It started out of nowhere," Sam mentions, only glancing at them for a second before looking back at the flickering lights.
"We were just searching for an exit. When we got closer to the screen it started doing that and now it won't stop," Ash explained. Lewis must have got them the moment it started. Cleo would find it sweet if it weren't for the startling discovery.
Finally, the flickering stops, but the glowing blue lights remain around the edges of the screen. It stays quiet for a minute. A few minutes tick by and it still hasn't gone away. "It – it stopped?" Lisa asked, her voice slightly shaky. "I don't think so," Lewis's eyes widen slightly as he slowly steps forward and stares at the light, standing right in front of the screen. "It's still there," Harrison said.
"Are we going home?" Kim asks, holding onto her parent's arms in worry.
"It's not going away, is it?" Bella asked, dread filling her voice, Emma looks at her, thinking the same thing. "Afraid not," Denman mumbles quietly, focusing on the screen, afraid she might miss something if it were to change.
"What does this mean?" Charlotte asks, panicking as she looks to her mom, afraid of what this will mean for them; afraid that they might meet the same fate as her late grandmother. Two more people join on each side of Lewis, coming to the same conclusion as he did. "I think it means it's not over," Mrs. Chatham said in slight awe, slowly putting a hand on the screen. "I believe it's here to stay," Max said from Lewis' other side, answering the redhead's question, however, to her, it only led to more questions. Lewis turns around slowly and looks at them all with regret and just like Bella, dread fills his voice as he takes a shaky breath.
"And so are we."