A/N: Is my story not showing up for some of you? Is it the content? Hi FFNet! Main girls, Charlotte, Lewis and everyone in their age/grade is at least 18. The only high schoolers are Elliot Gilbert and Kim Sertori and nothing like this will happen to them.

Charlotte Watsford had moved in with her dad at the end of the school year after her mermaid powers had been taken. She supposed she deserved it, having let power go to her head. Perhaps if she'd calmed down a bit and actually listened to the girls, she wouldn't have had to make a conscious effort to avoid them.

No one had expected to see her back in town after they finished senior year. Bella and Will were given an explanation. Lewis was as surprised as Cleo and Rikki that she was back. Cleo texted Emma who warned them to be careful.

Out of anyone she first approached, it would've been Lewis, which was why Cleo was absolutely gob-smacked that the auburn haired girl was at her front door in the middle of summer. The mermaid quickly adopted a defensive pose. She glared at Charlotte.

"I know I'm the last person you ever wanted to see again." Charlotte began nervously, wringing her wrists.

"Well, I wouldn't want to see Denman again, but you're pretty close." Cleo snapped back. "I'm the nicest one, remember?" She left the implication unsaid that if she'd been Rikki, then Charlotte would be a pile of ash.

"Who?"

Cleo sighed. "Marine biologist who captured us. If you'd been more reckless, she might've had a reason to come back." The steely tone never left her voice.

"I-I need to talk to you about something." The paler girl sniffed.

Cleo faltered for a moment. She'd never seen such vulnerability from her archenemy. But then she set her jaw. Three years of knowing Rikki had taught her not to be so weak and to stand up for herself.

"Then talk."

"Can we go somewhere private?"

"I'm not turning you back into a mermaid."

"N-no! That-I can't-how would I even-" Charlotte lost herself, hyperventilating.

Cleo groaned in frustration, hating herself for wanting to slam the door and not doing it. She rolled her eyes and took Charlotte by the elbow, steering her inside. She sat Charlotte on the couch and crossed her arms, still glaring suspiciously at her.

"Take a deep breath before you faint." Cleo said. Charlotte took calming breaths.

"I-is anyone here?" Charlotte asked.

No, but I'm not about to tell you that. "My stepmother's taking a nap upstairs."

Charlotte nodded. "I-I'm sorry…I didn't mean to…I-I never meant to…"

"Should I call Rikki so you can apologize? Not that she'd let you."

"No! No one else…please. Least of all, Lewis."

Least of all? "Why?" Cleo's voice was full of doubt.

"I didn't know he'd be there."

"Be where?"

Charlotte took a shaky breath. "My dad, he got me an opportunity to study abroad…i-in New York." Cleo's eyes widened. Charlotte's eyes filled with tears. "I was there first and Lewis wanted to be at the school. We basically ignored each other and if we interacted at all, it was a curt nod or forced polite 'hi'. We had different courses and I-I never really saw him until the graduation party. I-it was a week before he came back out here…"

Cleo's stomach felt tight. She really didn't like where this was going. Her heart felt like it was in her throat, constricting it. She couldn't find a response.

"My mum missed me, so I came back. You can't blame me for wanting to see my mum, I only saw her on holidays…I should've guessed Lewis was coming back too. I want to talk to him, but-but-I saw you two and-I can't." Charlotte let out a sob.

Cleo could relate as a child of divorce, wanting to see more of the parent you weren't living with. But all she could do was stare at Charlotte, her mouth open in shock, not wanting to ask the question. Not wanting proof of where her mind was going.

"T-the party…someone had spiked the punch…Lewis and I-we started talking about memories…I swear it wasn't supposed to-we were drunk…but-but neither of us said no…it wasn't-it wasn't non-consensual…" A choking noise made Charlotte look up at the brunette. Tears streamed down Cleo's face. She looked like she was going to be sick. "Cleo I-I'm preg-"

The brunette turned and ran. Forgetting that she literally left her former worst enemy in her empty house, she ran. Tears blurred her eyes, her mind whirled. She barely paid attention as she dove into the water.

She swam furiously towards Mako. Bubbles puffed out with sobs she was trying not to let out. She had to come up for air halfway through. She burst out of the moon pool with a scream, startling Bella, Rikki, and Will who were fixing the cave.

Her body wracked with sobs on the edge of the pool. She heard their voices talking to her, but she wasn't listening. Bella and Rikki got in the pool so they could rub her back and comfort her. She screamed again, startling the others.

Bella held the shaking mermaid as Rikki demanded her phone. Will hurriedly gave it to her, he didn't want to risk being hit by her wrath. The hotheaded blonde called Lewis and demanded an explanation.

"Rikki, I don't know. She was all happy this morning and we were set to go out later."

"Then why the hell is she a shattered mess?" Rikki asked.

"I don't know!"

"Why don't you know? She's your girlfriend! Why didn't she come to-?"

Cleo ripped the phone from Rikki's hand. "WHY DID YOU GET CHARLOTTE PREGNANT?!" She screamed.

The cave was silent except for the running of water in the pool. Will and Bella were completely out of the loop and remained silent. Rikki's face was like someone had slapped her. Cleo growled and shoved the phone back in Rikki's hand. She really wanted to throw it, but it wasn't her phone.

"Lewis." Rikki said dangerously, trying not to curl her fingers. "What does she mean?"

"Charlotte's…pregnant?" Lewis sounded confused.

"Lewis, is there a…reasonable suspicion that Charlotte could be pregnant by you?"

The silence was telling. Bella and Will exchanged shocked looks at Rikki's expression which pretty much confirmed the answer. Bella's arm tightened on Cleo's shoulders. Rikki tapped the edge of the pool with a loose rock so she wouldn't accidentally burn them all, because she really wanted to clench her hand.

Rikki groaned. "Oh god…Lewis, why? No, actually, why did you come back all happy and making out with Cleo as if you DIDN'T get into bed with her worst enemy?!"

"I-I was drunk! Someone spiked punch at graduation!" Lewis said anxiously, sounding on the verge of tears. "W-we barely spoke until then and we ignored each other after and-and-I love Cleo!"

"Then why the ABSOLUTE. BLOODY. HELL didn't you have the decency to inform and apologize to your girlfriend, who's waiting on the other side of the world for you, for this little affair as soon as you had a clear head? ESPECIALLY when we told you about the comet, did you not care that she could've DIED?! We nearly died and you didn't have the guts to tell her what you did. She couldn't have found out from you? She had to find out from Charlotte."

"I didn't think-"

"Clearly." Rikki huffed, hanging up and holding her phone for Will to take. She let out a frustrated breath. "Today turned into a mess…" She shook her head. "Y'know, I really REALLY want to go find him and wring his neck and/or boil every cell in his body, but that annoying Emma voice in my head says not to."

"She needs to process everything first." Bella said weakly. "And boiling people alive might land you in jail."

"Just-was he even going to tell her?" Rikki asked. Bella shrugged.

"We can't do much but be there for her. We should also tell Emma, then maybe the actual Emma voice can tell you what to do."

Rikki nodded. The four of them stayed in the cave for a while. Cleo hoarsely told the girls they could go back to their project. She stayed in the moon pool while the others worked. Rikki was texting back and forth with Emma. Then there was a scraping noise. Someone was coming down the slide, so Will went to look.

"What are you doing here, Lewis?" Will asked sternly.

Cleo tensed. Rikki scowled.

"I have to talk to her-"

"Lewis, I honestly want to commit murder right now!" Rikki called. "If I don't want to see you, what makes you think she does?"

"I talked to Charlotte, what if she doesn't keep the baby-?"

"Tell me you didn't actually suggest that?" Rikki groaned.

"Well-"

"You're not a woman! You're not the only one in this mess! YOU don't get to make those decisions or those suggestions!"

SPLASH

Bella dove into the water as soon as she noticed Cleo leaving.

…

Bella silently followed Cleo onto land, then along the coast once their tails disappeared. The brunette sniffed and let out dry sobs, having run out of tears. Bella offered a comforting arm, but Cleo shook her head. They just walked silently.

The blonde had no idea where they were going, but at one point Cleo was walking determinedly. They approached a house and the brunette knocked. The door was answered by a woman whose face went from confusion to sympathy. She sighed and beckoned Cleo in.

"Er…you aren't Miss Chatham, are you?" Bella asked. "I'm Bella, a friend of Cleo's. I'm just here to be moral support."

"No, I'm Annette Watsford, Charlotte's mother." The woman indicated the redhead at the kitchen table.

"Cleo." Charlotte said weakly. "You didn't-did you ask him to say that?"

Cleo shook her head.

"She was too busy crying in-" Bella remembered Annette was there. "In our safe space."

Charlotte understood. "Your stepmum came home as I was leaving your house…I would've locked the door. I've just told my mum everything."

Annette sighed and sat at the table. "Darling, I wish you and Lewis had been more careful. You're both only eighteen."

"I'm a disgrace to the Watsford name, Dad won't look at me the same when he finds out…"

"Dad loves you and I won't let him treat you badly. Charlotte, love, what do you want to do?" Annette asked gently, taking her daughter's hands.

Charlotte's eyes flickered to Cleo. "I don't know…It-it isn't fair. The situation, the person, it isn't fair…but, I-I've never rejected the idea of being a mother…"

"Charlotte." Cleo said in a strained voice. "I can't be the person to make the decision. I'm ending things with Lewis because he lied to me. Maybe if-if he'd told me the truth…maybe we could all figure it out, but…he lied to me…he made it seem like it was okay even when he heard I went through something stressful…he could've told me…"

"I don't ever think we could be friends and it's my fault for driving a wedge into your friendship in the first place. Whether you were broken up or not at the time, I should've respected that you two were still friends."

"I don't want to be enemies. I just want to be an ordinary girl."

Charlotte thought about it, the other three were respectfully silent. "I-I want to keep the baby. I won't treat them as a punishment for myself or for any of you, but…I have always wanted to be a mother. So, mum, um…I know you were considering a job down in Canberra and-and I want to go with you. I think it would be best for all of us, mostly me and Cleo, if I were to raise my child somewhere else so she doesn't have to see them every day. If I stayed, I'd only feel like I'm using the child to punish all of us."

"Alright, darling." Annette said, hugging her daughter.

Charlotte, Cleo, and Bella went outside for a private moment. Charlotte sighed. "I let power get to my head and ignored the warnings-"

"To be fair, it was mostly fueled by my jealousy of the relationship between you and Lewis." Cleo said. "I won't let you take all the blame for that. Emma, Rikki, and I could've done better."

"So…acquaintances?" Charlotte held out her hand. Cleo shook it.

"I suppose it's more neutral. Goodbye Charlotte."

"Goodbye, Cleo."

Cleo and Bella left, the latter not wanting to ruin the moment and simply nodded politely at Charlotte who nodded back. Bella had no qualms with her and only wanted to serve as a neutral party despite being friends with Cleo and knowing the story from the mermaids' point of view. They met Rikki and Will back at Mako and explained what happened. Lewis wasn't there, but he requested to meet Cleo.

She stood at her house doorway later that day, arms crossed, refusing to let him in. He accepted this and explained that he'd spoken with Charlotte and decided to move to Canberra to help her raise the child.

"I'm glad you're taking the mature route." Cleo said in a strained voice. "I appreciate everything you've done for the-er…the friend group. I've forgiven other times you've messed up because you were immediately honest. I can't tell you what would've happened if you were truthful from the start, I know the drink being spiked in the first place wasn't either of your faults, but acknowledging your actions and choosing to keep it secret was. I might've been more open to forgiving you like those other times and we could work with this, maybe even still be friends. But…you both were aware of what you did and chose to keep it. I don't know that I can forgive this lie and-and I don't know if we can be friends again."

"The others will go with your decision, I've had a slew of unpleasant texts from Emma and neither her nor the others are wrong...I deserve this. I'd just sound like a broken record, but I am truly sorry."

"I know. Goodbye, Lewis."

"It isn't goodbye forever, is it?"

"Promise you'll be a good co-parent."

"I promise, but-"

"There's no real answer for it. You and I have so much shared history that we don't want it to be goodbye. The space and time will do us both some good, whatever that means."

"Suppose I'll just have to accept that." Lewis sighed. "Bye, Cleo."

The door closed and Lewis sighed, walking with his shoulders slumped. Cleo turned to see Sam in the kitchen, trying to pretend she didn't hear any of it. Cleo sobbed, hugging her. She worried for a moment about the wetness, but remembered that for some reason, her own body fluids didn't transform her even if the tears were on someone else's shirt. Cleo explained later to her family what had happened and framed the rivalry as teenage love drama, omitting the mermaid part. They didn't really know what to say, even Kim didn't have a snarky response.

Over the next month, things were a bit awkward, then Bella's parents proposed to the mermaids that maybe it was time their parents knew. Bella had been nine and the first people she wanted to tell were her parents who took care to help her hide it. She'd been homeschooled until they moved to the Gold Coast because kids were none too careful.

Rikki offered to go first and Terry was shocked, but accepting. He was more upset that Rikki had been in danger multiple times and never told him. Cleo opted for telling her mom and stepmom first and they accepted it, Bev making sure to emphasize that the divorce had nothing to do with mermaids or teenage drama or secret keeping between the girls. Don was told second to last. Cleo had first been starting to mend the relationship between her and Kim which eventually led to the younger one having hard truths told to her by friends. She found out about the mermaid secret later and was upset that the comet could've meant she would've lost her sister without ever knowing why or being able to mend anything.

Emma texted that she and Elliot told their parents and while initially very shocked, they had a bit of a laugh at all the embarrassing things Emma had done that they considered 'acting out'. Things were settling to a new normal and excitement as Emma had announced her world tour was coming to an end and she was returning home.

…

"I'm going to the shop; do you need anything for the biscuits?" Cleo asked Kim.

"I made a list, it's somewhere…" Kim looked around the kitchen.

Cleo heard a knock at the door and waited for the list, thinking the person would knock again. They didn't as Kim handed her a list. She opened the door and gasped loudly. She tried not to tremble as she put the list in her pocket and lifted what had been left on the doorstep out of a worn basket looking thing.

"Not much of a bassinet." Cleo turned around with a small baby.

"Not much of a baby, how old do you suppose they are?" Kim asked. "Wait, okay you might think I'm dumb for asking-"

"There's no way this is Charlotte's baby."

Kim went outside to see if she could spot a person around. She was out looking when Don and Sam got home. Cleo said she just found this baby and was lucky she'd so happened to look down at where she was about to step.

"Oh, my lord." Sam took the baby carefully. "Oh dear, poor thing is so young and lightweight."

Unraveling the blanket revealed nothing, really. There was no note, no name on the blanket, nothing to suggest any identifier for the child. They brought the baby to the nearest hospital and were told they didn't have her on record nor did they know anyone who was expecting a nearly month old baby girl. The Sertoris were unsure what to do when the mention of the foster care system came up.

"I don't want her to go in the system." Cleo said. "I want to take care of her."

"Cleo, a baby is a huge responsibility-"

"I know, Dad, but we can't just-what if she gets lost in the system and ends up who knows where?"

"Thing is, Sam and I have talked about it and-"

"She wouldn't be yours, I-I want to be her mother."

Sam sighed. "This isn't because of Lewis, is it?"

"No, it isn't. And I know I'm young and barely out of school, but the baby won't be young forever either."

There were long talks with child services and visits while a search for the girl's parents was going on. There were Sertori family talks about the whole mermaid aspect too. Cleo would take primary role as the girl's mother with her family helping her. Eventually they were approved for adoption and adopted the baby who had been called Baby Jane Doe up until Kim started saying Maddie mad whenever the baby would cry. Cleo liked it and called her Madeline, Maddie for short. They went back and forth as to what her middle name would be, then Cleo wanted to use Riley after Don's late father.

They did worry about the whole mermaid aspect since Maddie was a small baby and would be guaranteed to drool, spit up, pee, and such without warning. The first time she peed out of her diaper onto Cleo, Kim had been there for Cleo to hand the baby over. But for some reason, Cleo didn't transform. Her stomach twisted when she realized the first person she wanted to talk to about it was Lewis. She told the other girls who were curious about it too. As an experiment, Rikki was on the Sertori's couch with Sam on standby as she held and burped the baby. Maddie had spit up and it took a while for the water contact to register, but Rikki did transform.

"Maybe it has to do with you being her mother? Like a bond between you." Emma suggested.

"Hm…sit and we'll have Kim pour a little water on you." Rikki said once she cleaned and dried herself. Cleo sat on the couch and held Maddie. She transformed at the water contact, holding the baby safely. "Shoot, can't go out in rain with her."

"I wouldn't dare try." Cleo said. "Kim does bath time."

"It doesn't seem to disturb her." Rikki said. "Though I'm not going to risk drying you with her in your arms."

"It'll be difficult, but do you think this is doable?" Bella asked as Sam held the baby so Rikki could dry Cleo.

"Yes. We'll just have to keep vigilant and we have time to figure out how to explain it to her when she's older." Cleo said, looking fondly at the baby. "Welcome to the family, Maddie."

A/N: Full disclosure, this story is almost a year late. Admittedly I was in the midst of my Modern Family fixation and stuff was happening irl. I really do want to do the story. In case FFNet is concerned-there is not and will not be any sexual things regarding minors. Charlotte and Lewis are 18 and out of high school and while yes, they were both drunk, both consented. Currently the only minors are 15 going on 16 year olds Kim and Elliot and the babies. Child endangerment, possible, but this is FICTION.