A/N: Thank you for all the feedback! Finally the actual dive. There will be more dialog and touristing after this section.

~~~ Part 8 ~~~

Elizabeth was excited to be diving again. While Henry and Tony stayed at the surface where Henry would be performing requisite skills, she was eager to get under the water. She stuck her head in the water, and could easily see the life at the bottom through the clear water. After completing her weight check, she made a "thumbs down" gesture to indicate her intent to descend. Once John confirmed, she let some air out of her BCD and dropped below the surface. She took deep breaths in through her BCD and exhaled bubbles, deliberately swallowing and clearing her ears a few times and periodically checking the depth on her dive computer and adding a bit more air to slow her descent when she noticed John doing so. Upon reaching the sandy bottom, which was about 30 feet below the surface according to her dive computer, Elizabeth added a few more small bursts of air to her BCD so that she was able to comfortably hover at rest without disturbing the ocean floor. She checked her pressure gauge once again to make sure she had a full tank and was satisfied that nothing was amiss. They stayed there for a few moments to adjust, and Elizabeth enjoyed the feeling of weightlessness.

The water was calm and clear; Elizabeth estimated visibility to be maybe 70-80 feet. She looked up to make sure she could see the bottom of the boat where she expected it to be, and then surveyed all around. They'd anchored in sand away from rock and coral, and the immediate vicinity was relatively barren, with a single school of jacks and a few solitary fish passing by. In the distance, she could see rock and coral. The sights and sensations were as otherworldly as she had remembered.

She signaled to John that she was okay to proceed, and he led her to a rocky area. Suddenly the ocean was teaming with life and activity to the extent that it was almost overstimulating. There were hard corals and sponges and encrusting algaes in an array of vivid colors and patterns. Elizabeth recognized the distinctive grooved brain coral and antler-like elkhorn coral amongst the landscape (seascape?). Also, the yellow-brown fire coral which she knew to avoid, along with spiny urchins, with their long thorn-like spines protruding from the crevices they were nestled in. Willowy sea plumes and light yellow and purple sea fans composed of a lacy mesh of intricate branching veins waved slowly back and forth with the tide, reminding Elizabeth of trees blowing in the breeze. Fishes of all kinds sheltered behind sea fans, swam along coral and rocks, and darted in and out of the many available hidey-holes.

Elizabeth followed John through the underwater wonderland, swimming at a slow pace, and taking in as much as she could. She was especially drawn to the more colorful and patterned fishes and the more unusually-shaped fishes. Her favorite was probably the sand-pooping parrotfish. Some of the parrotfishes were dark brown and red, but others were primarily a brilliant blue-green, with bright yellow splotches on their tails and pink striping on their faces that made them look almost as though they were wearing makeup. She smiled as her mind conjured up an image of Alison doing a makeup tutorial with a parrotfish. She also liked the small blue-headed wrasse, which not only had a blue head, but also had a black white belt behind its pectoral fin, a green or yellow body, and a blue tail - definitely another fashionista. Diving also allowed her to observe behaviors and notice details that she couldn't easily discern snorkeling, like noticing that the eye-catching blue tang had sharp retractable tail spines, or watching some of the other fish chase each other.

She saw many yellow and partly-yellow fishes: groups of yellow-and-white striped French grunts; numerous pointy-snouted yellowtail snappers with both yellow tails and a thin yellow stripe across the midline of their otherwise silvery bodies; and shoals of sergeant majors, which were predominantly silver with many black vertical bars, supposedly reminiscent of the stripes worn by a ranking officer, but as they had a streak of yellow on the upper portion of their bodies, Elizabeth was reminded instead of highlighting sections of her college textbooks, since it looked almost as if someone had taken a yellow highlighter marker to the fish. She also saw many red fishes: bright red goldfish-shaped fishes, some with elongated fins, usually hiding under ledges, and grouper that were dotted red, as though suffering from the measles.

She saw several thin spade-shaped angelfish, the smaller of which were black with yellow bars, and the larger of which were mostly gray, as well as a few rounder butterfly fish, with thin black diagonal lines, a black band across the eyes, a black spot near the tail, and yellow highlights on the ventral fins. She saw a small uniquely-shaped fish with an elongated upper (dorsal) fin sporting both black-and-white stripes and dots that John later told her was a spotted drum. And she delighted in watching a stocky porcupinefish with stubble-like slicked-back spines pop out from a miniature cave. Its dorsal and anal fins flapped from side to side in near unison as it propelled itself in a wobbling, meandering path through the reef. With its oversized googly eyes and goofy open-mouthed expression, it looked like it could have been a cartoon character (the Japanese anime-style kind, not a DC Justice League superhero).

Occasionally, John would call her attention to something, often something quite small, like an inch-long red-and-white striped shrimp, crawling about much like a spider; a spotted snail considerably smaller than a fingernail that had attached itself to a sea fan; or a cluster of even tinier feather duster worms that retracted suddenly as they swam nearer. There was an incredible amount happening at the micro level. It was overwhelming really. She could probably spend an entire dive just watching the smallest patch of reef surface, and there would still be things she didn't discover. Or she could "zoom out" her focus and marvel at the grandiose forest of coral and the brightly-colored multi-textured ecosystem it nurtured in its entirety.

John also pointed out a few larger animals that were camouflaged or hidden. There was a lobster with only its antennae sticking out from a dark hideout between some rock and coral, and later a flat flounder that nearly completely blended into the sand it was laying on, but for a pattern of light blue circles on its side that barely gave it away. As Elizabeth was mostly focusing on things nearby, he also drew her attention to fish off in the distance, most notably a spotted eagle ray with an intimidatingly long whip of a tail. As it got closer, she could see that its body was black and that its spots were actually a beautiful white spotted and ringed pattern. She was entranced watching it flap its broad "wings" to soar gracefully through the water like its eponymous eagle. While Henry's churches were undoubtedly breathtaking monumental living works of art, it was here, underwater or hiking in the mountains - anywhere immersed in nature really - that Elizabeth felt most overcome with awe at the majesty and greatness of the universe and humbled by the relative smallness of mankind.

Meanwhile, after a weight check and some surface skills, Henry had descended easily, feet first, and was having his first open water dive experience. It wasn't exactly as quiet and serene as Elizabeth had hyped it up to be; for one thing, he could hear his bubbles every time he exhaled, and he was too busy getting used to his equipment, monitoring his pressure and depth gauges as he descended, and learning new skills to describe it as serene. But it was certainly a different type of noise than on land, and he could understand how it would be serene for a more experienced diver, much as flying a plane could be either stressful or relaxing depending on context and comfort. Henry reveled in seeing things all around, including up and down, and the freedom of being able to move about in three dimensions, something he missed from his flying days.

They reached the sandy bottom, and Tony signed to him to ask if he was okay, and he signed back. Tony picked up a spiky spiraled conch shell and showed it to Henry. The inner lip was shiny and smooth, and Henry wondered if there would be a live conch inside. Upon further inspection, he was surprised to discover that it was occupied, but by a hermit crab rather than a conch.

Tony knelt on the sand and indicated for Henry to do the same. Tony held his palm out facing Henry and tapped it with two fingers and pointed at Henry to ask him his air pressure, and after Henry had responded, he read Henry's pressure gauge to check that he had done so correctly. Then Tony pointed to his eyes to signal that Henry watch him demonstrate the next skill, which was adjusting the BCD to achieve buoyancy. Tony started out lying face down and fully deflating his BCD by using both the deflator button and the pull-cord dump valves at the shoulder and lower back of the BCD. He then used his hands to mimic and call attention to his slow deep breaths before pointing to show that he was going to add a small amount of air to his BCD. He barely inflated his BCD by squeezing the inflator button briefly a few times to allow small bursts of air in. He paused and inhaled to see how much he would rise up as air filled his lungs, and then he exhaled. Tony remained lying on the surface when breathing in, so he repeated his prior action, adding more air to the BCD and breathing again. This time, his head and upper body pivoted up after inhaling and lowered back down after exhaling. Tony smiled and signaled "okay" to let Henry know that this was the desired effect. He added still more air, and this time he pivoted up on inhale, but didn't really lower back down on exhale; he shook his head. He moved his fingers to the deflator button and let out a tiny amount of air so that he was again weighted in a way that he would rise or sink slightly depending on his own breathing.

He pointed at Henry to go through the same routine, helping Henry to locate his dump valves. Henry played around with the amount of air in his BCD. He seemed to need somewhat more than Tony, and wondered if he was carrying too much weight. Still, he'd rather be slightly overweighted and compensate by inflating his BCD than risk rocketing up to the surface when trying to stay down. As expected, he felt himself become lighter and floatier after inhaling and then heavier after exhaling. He noticed that how much he pivoted up or down depended on his breathing, particularly on how deep of a breath he took, and also that he didn't rise or fall exactly in time with his breathing. There was a delay between inhaling and filling his lungs and rising, and another delay between exhaling and his lungs becoming emptier and him sinking. In order to remain at a constant depth at rest and avoid bobbing up and down, he would need to start inhaling before he was really sinking and similarly start exhaling before he was really rising. He took several more breaths, paying attention to his motions and how effortless it felt to rest in the water.

While he was practicing breathing, Tony pointed to a gray stingray that was swimming along the sand nearby. It stopped and settled on the sand, using its wide fins to kick up a cloud of sand in an attempt at hiding itself. After watching it for a few moments, they went back to buoyancy skills.

Tony deflated his BCD again and demonstrated adding air to the BCD using the oral inflator, rather than the automatic push-button. He held the inflator in one hand, and his regulator mouthpiece in the other. He took a breath from his regulator, and then removed the regulator from his mouth, slowly blowing out bubbles until he placed the oral inflator for the BCD in his mouth and, while pressing down the deflator button to open the tube, breathed into the inflator. He then removed the inflator, still exhaling bubbles, and switched back to the regulator. He took another breathe from the regulator and repeated to add more air to the BCD. Henry mentally replayed Tony's actions, reminding himself that taking the regulator out of his mouth in between breaths should be perfectly safe. Henry then copied the actions, holding onto the regulator tightly and concentrating on remembering to fight his instinct to hold his breath and instead exhale continuously. He was happy when it was time to return the regulator to his mouth.

Finally, Tony signaled that they were done adjusting buoyancy, and they began swimming. As he was now neutrally buoyant, Henry felt weightless or nearly so. Tony demonstrated how buoyancy depends on body position, emphasizing a trim nearly-horizontal position with arms tucked out of the way and an arched backs and slightly raised legs for optimal buoyancy and air-consumption efficiency while swimming. Henry experimented with swimming slightly upwards and downwards, tucking himself up into a ball, and changing the angle of his head to change his center and distribution of mass. He also couldn't resist playing around, swimming upside-down and trying a few rolls. His form was far from perfect, but not bad for a first attempt. It sure was a heck of a lot easier to do those maneuvers underwater than in a plane, he noted, and even with getting some water in his ears, it was definitely way less stressful on the body. Tony looked on with amusement at Henry's antics. Henry oriented himself back to a neutral position and looked to Tony for their next step.

Tony indicated that they would do a short swim and look around, with Tony leading the way, and that is just what they did. They passed many fishes, some larger and some smaller, some swimming alone and others in schools. Henry enjoyed the scenery, although his primary focus was on following Tony, breathing, and maintaining a somewhat constant depth. Tony periodically signed "okay" to him to check in, and he replied back with "okay". They gradually descended as the ocean got deeper, and Tony signaled to Henry to add a bit more air to his BCD; it was then that Henry remembered learning that he needed to add more air to his BCD to remain neutrally buoyant at greater depth because gases compress with increased pressure (and conversely, that he should let some air out of his BCD when rising to a shallower depth).

Something shimmery caught his eye, and Tony stopped so they could hover with a flock - shoal? squad? - of a dozen or more small squid, each maybe 4 or 5 inches in length. Their torpedo-shaped bodies appeared to be drifting more than swimming in formation with the current, and the sunlight from above caught their fins in motion, making them appear almost iridescent. Henry was struck by how many different kinds of animals besides fishes lived in the ocean and how little he knew about them.

They had been in the water about 40 minutes when Tony again asked Henry how much air he had remaining, and they returned back to the anchor line not long after. Tony pointed up at the boat, and then signed three fingers on one hand under the level palm of the other hand to tell Henry that they would be making a safety stop for three minutes. He pointed at the depth gauge and signed "15" and "level" to remind Henry that they would be performing their safety stop at a depth of 15 feet.

Tony signaled thumbs up to indicate that they would ascend to the desired depth and waited for Henry to signal back confirmation. He demonstrated letting the air out of his BCD so as not to ascend too quickly, and then gradually swam up to the anchor line. Henry did the same, glancing frequently at his dive computer - which was much easier to read than the analog depth gauge - to see when he was nearing 15 feet, although it turned out he didn't even need to look, as his computer helpfully beeped and vibrated on his wrist when he was at the right depth. He held onto the anchor line near Tony and waited while the timer on his computer counted down. Henry had to reposition himself to adjust his depth a few times, as he surged up and down some with the anchor line. Henry watched some fish swim and checked his pressure gauge again while he waited. Tony's computer emitted a beep, and soon after Henry's beeped as well, indicating that he had completed a sufficiently long safety stop to be ready to surface.

Tony then signaled that they were done with the safety stop and for Henry to watch him describe the procedure for surfacing. He pantomimed removing a tiny amount of air from his BCD using the deflator or dump valves; getting in a vertical position, looking up, and raising one arm up above his head for protection; letting go of the anchor line, making a 360ยบ degree turn and looking up in all directions, ascending slowly, rather than zooming up, and kicking only if needed to prevent descending; breaking through the surface and inflating the BCD to float with his mouth well out of the water; and then signaling "okay". After asking if Henry had any questions, Tony instructed Henry to watch him fully surface and wait for his signal before surfacing for himself. Henry watched as Tony surfaced, and then began his own surfacing. It took him a little fumbling to locate his BCD's dump valves, but after that, Henry had no difficulty performing a slow controlled ascent to the surface. He inflated his BCD and signaled "okay".

Tony swam over to him and gave him a high-five, and then led him back to the boat, where they climbed up the ladder back to gravity. Henry had successfully completed his first dive, and he realized, somewhat to his surprise, that he hadn't felt scared at all! He hadn't encountered any eels either.