Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The safe door in the office at the Shell petrol station shattered with one strong blow from the sledgehammer that she had picked up from the construction site across the street. At three in the morning, there was only one person working and the streets were deserted, leaving her relative free to get what she needed.

From across the parking lot, Emma first iced over any security cameras, though the odds were that half were broken anyway, something she’d discovered over the last two days. She then entered, her ball cap covering a brunette wig and makeup applied in a way to distort or hide her facial features. With a smile and a pleasant request for help, she’d lured the clerk away from the counter, helpfully leaving their mobile phone behind. It wasn’t hard to get the employee near to the loo and then quickly surprise them with a burst of physicality that saw them shoved into it. She froze the loo door handle/lock mechanism – one of the first things she’d learned to do after gaining her powers. She locked the main doors and set about her task.

She’d slowly been learning what a more advanced use of her powers could and couldn’t do. She’d occasionally been jealous of her friends in the past. Heating or controlling water seemed more useful until she’d had to use her abilities in more of an urban survival situation. She’d now found her own powers to be extremely beneficial.

Ignoring the yelling from the loo, she began freezing the safe. She’d learned a couple things recently. First, while there wasn’t that much cash in retail safes, it was generally enough to be worth it. Second, her freezing powers were almost unlimited in regards to the temperature she could lower water to. It just took more time to do that. Extended use of her freezing powers continued to lower the temperature. She hadn’t figured out exactly how cold she could make things, but based on how metal reacted, it had to be well below the temperature of liquid nitrogen. All it took was for the ice to pull any latent heat out of the metal safe door. That required about five minutes of concentrated cooling from the mermaid. It was boring, and tiring, to cool something for five minutes, but once the top and sides of the safe began to discolor from the temperature change and the paint began to flake off, she’d learned that the door would be brittle enough to break.

She didn’t even need a sledgehammer at this temperature, a large rock would do, but it certainly made short work of the safe.

She gathered the contents. It must have been a good day for cash sales, something less common in the age of credit cards and Apple Pay, or maybe the manager just hadn’t gone to the bank in a few days. She gathered the bills into a bag and refroze the loo door to give herself some extra time before the clerk got free. She felt bad. The woman was crying, probably scared for her life, as well as being confused by the ice-cold door handle. She wanted to say a few words to comfort the clerk, to let her know that no harm would come to her, but she didn’t want to drag this out. She wiped down anything that might have a print on it and left the building. She walked down Monaco St. and slipped into the canal that split off from the Nerang River. She was thankful for whatever magic hid her clothes when she got wet. It meant that when she next dried off, she’d be back in her disguise. She did not look forward to having to dry out several thousand dollars’ worth of bills but taking them with her in the bag she stuffed them into was the only way she could think of to get away with the money.

She swam past Sea World, where so much of her time had been spent in her formative mermaid years. She wished her friend Cleo still worked there and that she could stop and see her. It would be nice to go back to the way things had been, but thanks to Dr. Denman, that might never be possible again.

She began her long swim down to Adelaide, hoping to leave behind the mess of the last few weeks. She knew someone down there, someone who might be able to help her leave her old life behind. The money would get her started. Almost ten grand. More than enough to find lodging, buy or bribe her way into a new identity, and maybe buy some kind of transportation. She also needed enough to live off of while establishing that new life. Five petrol station robberies over two days had provided that. She didn’t want to push her luck any further. She also didn’t want to have to do that in Adelaide and increase her chances of getting caught. Tonight was her new beginning. ‘How odd to start over at twenty-five.’ She mused to herself as she thought about starting her 1800-Kilometer journey.

Chapter Text

Emma Gilbert had been living pretty much the life she’d planned. After traveling the world for a year with her family, she’d returned and picked back up essentially where she’d left off, except that she and all her friends were heading to university. She went on to finish her undergraduate degree slightly ahead of schedule and was more than half way through her medical degree when trouble struck.

Lewis and Cleo went to uni in Melbourne. Rikki departed for who knew where, determined to find sunken treasure on the old fishing trawler she’d bought with a modest Lotto win that her father made one day while nearly out of money and about to lose their trailer. Bella, who Emma had just barely gotten to know over the summer before uni, followed her parents as they moved again and got a music degree and teaching credentials in the States. She was now teaching in San Diego and singing on the side when able.

This left Emma by herself in Sydney, working on her medical degree, determined to be a doctor. That’s when Linda Denman re-discovered her, seemingly randomly, just off an artificial reef outside of Sydney.

Emma missed having her friends around to swim with but she didn’t let that stop her from exploring and enjoying her surroundings in a new place. She was checking out a man-made reef just outside the harbour when she accidentally ran into someone she never expected to see again.

Dr. Linda Denman had been collecting specimens in a net, illegally, and before the shock of being discovered could even register, Emma found another net turned on herself and she was hauled up onto the deck of a smallish research vessel.

In the chaos and confusion, Emma saw Denman climb back aboard and strip off her dive gear, giving Emma a clear enough look to know who it was. The shocked crew were running around, trying to figure out how to deal with having caught a mermaid. Denman seemed calm, a look of triumph on her face.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t ‘Emma.’ The girl who ‘gave up’ her powers. I guess today is my lucky day.” Denman was making liberal use of air quotes.

“This is how I get my funding back, Carissa.” She said to a younger blonde researcher who was the only other crew member not freaking out.

The younger woman circled the mermaid, who was still tightly balled up in the net and hanging just a foot off the deck. “So you really weren’t making up those stories, I guess, Aunt Linda.”

“As you can see, no.”

Denman turned to Emma. “Emma, meet my niece, Carissa. She’ll be following in her aunt’s footsteps as a marine researcher but now she’ll also be at the forefront of mermaid research with me. I can’t wait to take you apart and see just how you tick.” Venom dripped from her voice.

"You have no idea what you and your bratty friends did to me." Linda Denman continued. "I lost my funding, any chance at tenure, and became the laughing stock of academia. You ruined my life. But now I have you and it's your life that looks likely to be ruined while I make my triumphant return. Those idiots will regret the way they mocked me." Images of Emma, laid out on a table, being dissected with her tail on display filled Linda Denman's imagination.

She continued walking around Emma, ridiculously proud of her good luck. But pride does come before a fall and the elder Denman did not see that Emma had one hand free enough to use.

Emma used the one semi-free hand to freeze the nylon netting that encased her and weakened it enough to break through it. She then directed that now free hand at her captor. Without warning, Emma flash froze Dr. Denman. Thinking back to the incident with Miriam, she didn’t know if this was survivable without Rikki and Cleo to help thaw out the Denman ice-pop, but she doubted it.

The Denman niece, Carissa, screamed and bolted from the deck, disappearing below. Emma froze more of the netting, breaking it until she was free. She fell out of the broken net and flopped towards the stern, not having time to dry off. Two of Denman’s goons were running towards her, clearly too stupid to realize what had just happened to their boss. Emma wasn’t going to make it to the water in time and quickly made the difficult decision to freeze them, as well. She didn’t have the time to attempt a more careful attack so a full-body freeze was what she could manage. She slid off the stern and found herself back in the water, where she had all the advantages.

She swam far enough away to surface and take a look. The deck was chaotic with five people, including the younger Denman, trying to figure out what to do with three frozen bodies. Then she heard gunshots.

Once down below, Carissa Denman had tried to understand what had just happened. After accepting that her aunt was well and truly frozen, she considered her options. She knew her aunt kept a rifle in her cabin. She grabbed it, figuring that maybe she would shoot the mermaid before any more damage was done. Upon returning, she realized that Emma was gone. There were three frozen bodies, now and they were not going to melt and turn back into living people. She panicked, assuming that she would end up taking the blame for the deaths. At that point, the immorality that seemed to run in her family took over and she began eliminating the four witnesses. Three went down quickly on the deck, but the other took his chances in the water and she shot him as he attempted to swim away from the boat. She put a few extra rounds into everyone, including her aunt and the frozen goons. She bundled all the bodies into a fresh fishing net. She weighted the net with heavy objects and lowered it over the edge, releasing it and watching as it quickly disappeared under the waves. Emma swam closer and watched the weighted net hit the bottom at about twenty meters of depth. The blood was already attracting scavengers and Emma didn’t think there would be too much left other than bones after a week or so, at least once the three blocks of ice thawed out.

Emma heard the boat start up and saw it head north. She considered freezing the propeller and finishing the job, but she couldn’t do it. The two henchmen and Denman had been frozen purely in self-defense. Even if self-preservation was still what she would be engaging in, she’d had enough time since she’d escaped the boat that it felt premeditated by now. She’d been studying to be a doctor. The Hippocratic Oath ran through her mind. “Do no harm” was a main tenet. She just couldn’t do it. She watched as the boat motored away. She noted the name on the transom: SyrenSeeker.

Chapter Text

Emma dragged herself up the stairs to her apartment. Her left arm was sore from being in an odd position in the net. She sat down and tried to let go of the trauma and stress but she couldn’t shake the sight of seven bodies settling onto the ocean floor in a fishing net. She knew it wasn’t her fault, but the idea that she’d taken a life – three lives, actually – was against everything she believed in. She went to the kitchen to get a glass of water but threw up in the sink before she could get a glass out of the cupboard. She rinsed her mouth out but got wet in the process and ended up on the floor. Emma began crying for the first time, the force of what had happened finally overwhelming her. She pulled herself back into the living room and grabbed a cushion off the couch to put under her head and fell asleep before she even had a chance to change back.

Someone was knocking loudly on her door. Emma woke up. She didn’t know how long she’d been out. It was light so she assumed it was the following morning. She was back in her land form and she staggered to the door, opening it without thinking.

“Emma Gilbert?”

“Yes?” Emma replied.

The man held up a badge for her to see. “Detective Sargeant Wilson. I’d like to ask you a few questions about an incident down at the harbour.”

Emma was desperate to not appear guilty. “What incident?”

“We’ll get to that. May I ask my questions?”

“Sure. I'm going to make tea; would you like anything?”

“No thank you, ma’am.”

Emma began puttering in the kitchen, hoping the activity masked any nervousness.

“Miss Gilbert, we have a witness who puts you at the scene of the disappearance of seven people just off Sydney Harbour. Can I ask your whereabouts yesterday afternoon?”

“Of course. I was here, studying. I’m in med school.”

“All day? We have a security camera that shows you at the Sydney Fish Market at Blackwattle Bay at roughly three pm.”

“Well, I did take a walk. A couple, actually, but that’s only a few blocks from here. I walk down there all the time. You know, stretch the legs, get some air. What do you mean ‘disappearance of seven people?’ How do seven people just disappear?” Emma hoped that a question didn’t sound like a lie.

“Well, ma’am, that’s part of what we’re trying to discover. This witness says that when she came up from below deck, everyone was gone, and you were the only one there.”

Emma couldn’t stifle a laugh.

“And that’s funny?”

“No, of course not.” Emma answered. “But that sounds insane. What, I stowed away, threw everyone overboard, and then swam away? Wouldn’t I have been on the boat when she docked?”

“Ma’am, please understand, we have to look into this, as improbable as it seems.”

“Well, I didn’t go out on any boat yesterday and I certainly didn’t cause the disappearance of anyone.”

Both of these things were technically true. She’d been on the boat, briefly, but didn’t leave the dock on it. And the disappearances were fully Carissa Denman’s doing.

“Ok. Thank you for talking to me. Here’s my card if anything crosses your mind. Have a good day.”

Emma sat down with her tea. This wasn’t good. After only one night, she’d already been tied to what had happened. She knew this was because of Denman’s niece. She had no one else to corroborate it, but still, it started an investigation. It was Sunday. School was the next day and Emma tried to study but found it hard to concentrate. She went to bed early and hoped to not have dreams.

The next morning, Emma was just about to leave her apartment for school when there was another knock at the door. No one ever visited at eight am. She opened the door hesitantly. Detective Sargeant Wilson was there with two uniformed officers.

“Miss Gilbert, I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to come down to the station to answer some more questions.”

Emma tried her best to sound indignant. “This is insane! I don't know anything! I demand to know what I’m being charged with!”

“Ma’am, please settle down. You aren’t charged with anything, but we need to ask you some questions in regard to our investigation. Please go with these two officers, otherwise I will have to detain you.”

Emma’s could feel that her façade was about to crack and she figured it was best to go along for now and figure out something else when she could.

At the station, they put her in an interview room and let her wait for a few hours, an old police tactic to break down someone who was being questioned. Finally, Wilson came in, started a recording device and began the interview.

“Miss Gilbert…”

“Ms.”

“What?”

“Ms. Gilbert, if you please. I’m nearly a doctor, not some high school kid.”

“Fine. Ms. Gilbert. Yesterday you stated you were home studying with breaks for a few walks, is that still your contention?”

“Yes.”

The detective pulled a few pieces of paper out of folder and set them in front of Emma.

“These,” he said. “Are your finger prints we had on file. And these,” He pulled out another set of photos of various prints. “Are prints we lifted from Dr. Denman’s boat. They match. Care to explain why your prints are on that boat?”

Emma silently cursed herself. In a rare lapse of judgment, she'd been arrested at an out-of-control party her sophomore year. She was never charged but her prints were in the system because of it.

“Who’s Dr. Denman?” Emma asked, hoping to appear genuine.

“Dr. Linda Denman is one of the seven people who are missing. Her niece named you as the suspect.”

“Well, I don’t know a Dr. Denman. I’ve been on dozens of boats. This is Sydney. In case you didn’t notice, we live right on the water. I’m sure you’ve been on your share of boats, yourself.”

“Except that you claim to not know Dr. Denman and this was her boat. How did you happen to be aboard it.”

“You know, I think it’s best if I talk to a lawyer. I don’t like what you’re insinuating.”

“I’m not insinuating anything. I’ve got seven potentially missing people, a witness who puts you on the boat and your fingerprints on that same boat. What I’m looking for is answers.”

Emma stared back, determined to not give anything else away. The stalemate went on for half an hour before she was allowed to make a call. She contacted her father who then called a lawyer on her behalf. The police held her as long as they could but finally had to release her. They had no bodies and no one else reporting these people missing. As Dr. Denman worked rather shadily, there was no record of who else might have been on the boat and Carissa only had a few first names or nicknames. The lawyer got her out and suggested she consider contacting her father again, which she intended to do, right after taking care of something.

Emma made sure she wasn’t followed as she slipped into Rozelle Bay near her apartment and swam quickly to the area where she had been caught. She spent a half hour looking before finding the bodies, now quickly being picked apart by everything from small fish, to crabs, to anything that could grab a bite. She tested the net to make sure it would still hold before trying to lift it.

The bodies were becoming bloated and the gasses of decomposition made them much more buoyant. She found she could swim easily with the load. Years of med school kept her from becoming nauseated. She was thankful as she didn’t know what would happen if she threw up under water.

Emma swam thirty kilometers, far enough to get to the drop-off of the continental shelf. She let the net go, watching it disappear into the inky blackness as it slowly sank towards the one-thousand-meter-deep sea bed. No one was going to find them down there. She took pains to memorize the seafloor leading to where she dropped them, just in case she ever needed to come back.

Wracked with guilt, she swam back and found her family waiting for her outside her apartment.

Chapter Text

Emma’s parents and her brother Elliot were waiting at her door when she got back from moving the bodies. They’d just arrived, having flown to Sydney immediately upon learning that Emma needed a lawyer.

Years ago, on their family trip around the world, which was over what would have been her final year of high school, Emma had managed to keep her secret from her parents. She’d wanted to tell them but chickened out, afraid that her father was too traditional to accept who she now was. Her brother Elliot, on the other hand, found out after just a month and to his credit, had agreed to keep her secret. In exchange, Emma let Elliot know all about her secret other life, finally having someone else to confide in. They become closer because of it and while she didn’t get to see him very often these days, having him there was like a beacon of hope in the maelstrom she felt that she was in.

She tried to explain to her parents that she had no idea what was going on, mirroring her statements to the police, but Elliot was behind their parents with a raised eyebrow. After a long visit, her parents left for a local hotel. Elliot stayed behind.

On their trip, she'd told him of the whole Denman affair, and it had always worried him that she might show back up someday.

Emma filled him in, needing to trust someone with the truth.

“Listen, I need you to do me a huge favor. I need you to get a hold of the others. Cleo, Rikki, and Bella. Tell them not to contact me. I don’t want anything that could connect them with me or this. It can’t come from me. Understand? Voice only. Don’t type anything. Can you do that for me?”

“Of course, Em, but I’m really worried. It sounds like they can put you at the scene.”

“I know. The only thing in my favor is that they’ll never find the bodies. Never. I’ll never tell anyone, including you or the girls. Elliot, I need you to believe me, I only acted in self-defense, but I can never explain how or why to the police without exposing us.

“I believe you, Em, I know you would never do something like that. I’ll let your friends know. What about mom and dad?”

“I can’t tell them. I want to, but no one else should find out until this is over.”

“I understand. I’ve got you, sis.” Get some sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow.

The next day, Emma went for a walk to clear her head. She hadn’t been back to class since the prior week and needed to try to focus. She was by the marina when the police car came up silently behind her. Before she knew it, she was being cuffed as the detective pulled up in another car.

“This is your unlucky day, Ms. Gilbert, we now have your DNA from the boat. Mind telling me how your hair ended up on the deck?”

Emma had no immediate response.

“I didn’t think so.” Wilson said smugly. “Emma Gilbert, you are under arrest for…”

Wilson couldn’t finish his statement. Emma estimated that she was only about ten meters from the water and, while cuffed, she could still run and she figured she could outrun two policemen who weren’t very athletic looking. She bolted and after just a few strides, leapt into the bay, disappearing under the water. After ten seconds, she changed and her cuffs went away along with her clothes, her tail and top taking their place. Her hands now free, Emma put on a burst of speed, hugging the shallow bottom as she did so, quickly making it out into the open ocean. She surfaced about a kilometer out and came up for air.

She didn’t know what she was going to do next, but she knew it was not going to include going back to her apartment. She thought back to before the police had shown up. She needed to inventory what she had on her for when she turned back. She’d long ago learned to keep everything on her in case she accidentally changed. She had been in cargo pants, but more useful ones than those that her friend Rikki used to wear, more Kim Possible than fashion statement. Emma’s had deep, usable pockets. She had her wallet with ID, credit cards, and a reasonable amount of cash. She had her phone. She had the keys for her car, the apartment, and her parents’ house. She considered her options. As soon as she changed back, she would be cuffed again. There was no one in Sydney who could know about her and Elliot didn’t have any resources with him. It was clearly going to have to be someone back at the Gold Coast. Ash was out of the question. They’d broken up on bad terms and the last thing she needed was him joining in with Carissa Denman on a mermaid exposé. She barely knew Will and he was not in the Gold Coast anymore, regardless. She sighed. That left old family friend and occasional nemesis Zane Bennett.

‘Crap.’ She thought. Zane and Emma had been out of touch for years. As far as she knew, though, he still owned and operated Rikki’s Café. He and Rikki had stayed sporadically in touch but none of the others had kept up with what was going on with him. Emma considered it a crap shoot as to whether he would help her. Their parents were still friends, and Emma and Zane had never had a real falling out between just the two of them, only as part of the mermaid group as a whole. She figured she’d give him a chance. She’d just stay near the water and be ready to make a dive for it if he sold her out.

Emma swam as hard and fast as she could but it was still early morning, before light, when she pulled herself out of the water in front of Rikki’s. The shore was empty, luckily.

In college, Emma had finally figured out a way to dry off quickly after always relying on Rikki for a steam dry. She carefully froze the water that still clung to her, being cautious not to freeze too deeply into her own body, and then cracked the ice shell she'd created with a powerful kick of her tail, shattering the ice and leaving her dry, quickly gaining her legs back. Unfortunately, her cuffs were back, too. She carefully maneuvered her phone out of her pocket and tried using it. She couldn’t get it into view to see what she was doing. Looking around, she had an idea and sat down on the edge of the dock, depositing the phone on the metal surface. She dangled her feet in the water and soon had her tail back with no hand cuffs. Now sitting, albeit with a tail, on the edge of the dock, she scrolled through her phone, hoping she hadn’t lost his number after half a dozen new phones over the years. She was getting nervous until she finally found it, listed only under the name “Traitor.”

‘Hmm.’ She thought. ‘I guess I never forgave him for destroying the moonpool, regardless of him eventually helping us.’

Vowing to herself to change it back to his actual name if he came through for her, she pressed on his number and the phone rang.

“Emma?” Came a groggy voice on the other end. “It’s four am…”

“Zane. Sorry. I’m in a bit of a bind. I was hoping you could help me out.”

Zane couldn’t imagine what she needed his help with. She couldn't have known that he’d only had about three hours of sleep.

“Yeah, sure. But can we do this after ten? I’ve barely slept.”

“It’s kind of an emergency.”

There was a pause.

“Ok. What do you need.”

“Do you have an angle grinder?”

Zane was now awake enough for his curiosity to be piqued.

“What exactly do you need me to do?”

“Seriously, Zane, do you have an angle grinder? For metal?”

“Yeah, down at the café. I’ve been renovating.”

“That’s perfect! Can you meet me there?”

Zane’s curiosity now overcame his sleepiness.

“Sure. Let me get dressed. I’ll be there in twenty.”

“Thanks, Zane. I’ll own you one.”

Chapter Text

Emma hung up from her call with Zane and decided to wait in her mermaid form in case the sight of the handcuffs changed Zane’s mind. Truthfully, she knew Zane would always be a little shady and she was counting on it in this case.

Zane walked up to the café at 4:30 in shorts, a t-shirt, thongs, and a bucket hat that looked suspiciously like Lewis'. He instinctively looked down at the dock, not surprised to see a mermaid sitting casually on it in the predawn darkness. He made his way down the metal ramp to her.

“Long time no see. Care to join me up on land?”

“Hi, Zane. Yeah, but I want to warn you first. What I need your help with… It’s not exactly legal.”

Zane grinned. He didn’t know what was going on, but he always enjoyed a good scheme.

“No worries. I’ve got you. Need a hand drying off?”

Emma waved him away. “No, I’ve got a new technique.” She pulled her tail up onto the dock and quickly froze it. Only her tail was wet, so it went very quickly. With a quick flick, the ice flung off and her legs came back. She stood and turned around showing him the cuffs.

"Neat trick!" Zane seemed impressed. After a beat, he noticed the handcuffs. “Ohhhhh. Got a little frisky and the boyfriend ran out on you?”

“Very funny. No, it’s not a sex thing. I was in the middle of being arrested when I jumped in the water.”

“Seriously? Emma? 'Perfect Emma' got arrested? And then absconded? This I need to hear about.”

“Can we just go get the tools? I’ll tell you all about it after I get out of these.”

“Ok, fine, hold your horses. We’ll get them off.”

Zane walked her up to the door of the café and showed her in. The place hadn’t changed much in the intervening years but he had started ripping out the old seating and was putting up new wall coverings and lighting. She followed him into the back and he got a mains-powered angle grinder out. It looked dangerous.

"How are we going to do this without hurting you?" Zane asked. "This is going to get very hot."

"I'll keep it cool. I think I can control it enough behind my back."

"Sounds risky. Let me know if it’s getting too hot and I’ll stop it. Let's put you up on this counter, this is all going to be replaced, anyway."

Emma started icing up the cuffs, clumsily, while Zane got to work on the thick part where the lock mechanism was. She struggled to keep it cool and with some discomfort Zane eventually had it off of her right wrist.

With that hand free, she was able to control the temperature better for the other cuff and was soon free of her literal shackles. "I can't thank you enough, Zane. Truly."

"I know you girls never thought I came through for you, so I'm glad I could this time. I'm not the same person, you know."

"I don't actually know, but good for you if that's true. Why do you say that?"

"The summer you came back from your trip, I'd done a lot of soul searching. I lost Rikki for good and then I sort of lost my father."

"Sort of?"

"He didn't die or anything, but we're estranged. I wanted some different things out of life and he had other expectations. It came to a head and I walked out. Neither of us have had the will to try to patch it up. He wrote off the rest of his investment in Rikki's and it's been my life ever since. I don't talk to him at all. I look at Rikki's as both penance and savior. I try to make up for the person I used to be by running the namesake of the woman I lost. I've opened two more. One up in Brisbane and another just up the coast from here."

"So you're still doing ok, then." Emma said with a bit of an edge. Of course Zane would land on his feet.

"Not really. It's a tough business. There are months that we don't profit. We're kind of just getting by, but I provide jobs for a couple dozen people, I've been going back to school part time, and I'm holding up Rikki's legacy. Hopefully it provides for me in the long run."

Emma was impressed. Zane did seem humbled.

"So? Story time?"

Emma began her tale. Zane had been intimately involved with one of Denman's schemes before he understood the girls' secret and still flinched when her name came up. Emma continued, with Zane almost not believing the level of carnage left in Denman's wake, much less that there was another Denman ready and willing to pick up where she'd left off.

"I'm sorry you had to do that. I'm not even sure what to say. I can't imagine what you're going through."

It was true. Zane couldn't imagine it. While Zane had been almost famously unself-aware, even he knew himself well enough to know that taking a life, necessary or not, was something that would be hard to process. Having to go on the run right after would make it that much harder.

Zane continued. "But the other one, Carissa, was it? She just shot everyone?"

"Everyone left, yeah. I'm guessing she thought she'd be blamed? Not sure."

"Wow." Zane didn't have much else to say, so he just offered his assistance. "What can I do to help?"

"You already did all you can. Thank you. I need to get out of here. I basically sent up a beacon by turning on my phone and calling you. I'm sure the police will be asking you about me. I want you tell them mostly the truth, ok?"

"Mostly?"

"That I came to see you. Leave out the handcuff part. I'll take those with me and throw them in ocean somewhere. And obviously, don't mention that I'm a mermaid." Emma laughed for the first time in a couple days.

Zane chuckled along with her. "Of course. Do you need any money? I could give you some."

"No, I've got some. I'm going to drain the ATM while I'm here. But I'll need far more than you can spare. Maybe give me a ride to the bank and a couple stores? I think I've got about a day before they figure out that I'm up here."

"Yeah, no worries. Let's get going."

"One other thing," Emma said as they pulled away in Zane's beat up Jeep. "Take my brother's number and give him a call later. Let him know I was here and that I'm ok. He already knows what happened and he knows about me. My parents don't, though. I'm surprised they didn't tell me about you and your dad."

"I'm not. I don't think he even talks about me."

"That's terrible. That's not how that's meant to be."

"I guess not, but your parents don't know about you after all this time, so…"

Emma got the hint. "No. I guess that's not how it's supposed to be, either."

"Family, right?" Zane said as they pulled into a place with an ATM.

Emma took out as much as it would allow, which wasn’t a lot. She planned to get cash back on her credit cards, as well, when she did some shopping. After that, she needed to figure out how to disappear.

It was daylight now and they stopped for some food while waiting for shops to open. Emma found a ute with a Northern Territories license plate. She turned off everything she could on her phone, other than mobile data, to save battery and then snuck it under a tarp holding down some construction materials. Hopefully, the police would chase the phone to Darwin or somewhere deep in the outback.

Zane took her to a busy outdoor shopping area and waited in the car. Emma came back with everything she'd need to create some good disguises and as much cash back from her credit cards as possible, which, again, wasn’t as much as she’d hoped. She didn’t even have a thousand dollars, not really enough to disappear on. She shoved everything into a large backpack she'd also purchased and dropped the rest of her cards randomly on the ground, hoping people would pick them up and use them in random places to further confuse her trail. She'd sort out her money problems when and if this was ever over. If not, well, no need to worry about it at all in that case. She wrote down Elliot's number for Zane and gave him one last request.

"Please don't call the others. Right now, I don't think Denman Jr. knows about them and I'd like to keep it that way. As it is, I'd be nothing but a burden to any of them. I've got their numbers memorized from back in the day. I'll reach out to them when I need to. I need you to promise me, ok?"

"I swear. On my honor."

"Thank you, Zane. You really did come through for me. It's nice to be like this with each other. I feel like we're ten again."

"Like I said, no worries. I'm here if you need. Maybe put a word in with Rikki when this is all over?"

"’When?’ More like ‘if’. But you know that ship has sailed, right?"

"I know, but I'd like her to at least know that whatever she saw in me, even if it was only for a while, was valid."

"I’ll do that for you. Assuming I don't end up in prison."

"Any other place you'd like me to take you?"

"My folks place. Just for a few minutes. Then back to Rikki's. I always liked swimming from there. It'll feel like I'm home for a few more minutes."

"Where will you go?"

"No idea, but I wouldn't burden you with it even when I make that decision. I want you to be able to be as honest as possible when they come to talk to you."

Zane drove Emma to the Gilberts' family home. Emma used her key to let them in and Zane followed her up to her old bedroom. It was a large house and her parents had left it as-is when she went to school. She looked through her old things. Stuffed animals, swimming trophies, photos of her both with her family and with her friends. She opened her old jewelry box. She'd left her locket in here for safe keeping when she went to school. It also contained the blue crystal necklace that Bella made for her during the only summer they were both in the Gold Coast. She grabbed them both. They were the only things she really came for.

Zane pulled into the car park at Rikki's and walked Emma down to the dock. Emma hugged Zane.

"Thank you. This meant more to me than you could know."

"Emma, you saved my life. It's literally the least I could do. It doesn't even make up for half the things I did."

Emma thought back to her rescue of Zane while she had her temporarily red hair and laughed at how long ago it seemed but she lingered on the memory of Zane's face as he floated in the cabin of Ms. Chatham's boat, nearly unconscious and almost drowned. She saw the same blank faces on Carissa Denman's victims as they floated down in the net and her face turned to fear and concern as she tried to get both images out of her head.

"I've gotta go, Zane. Take care. If this clears up, I'll get in touch and we can catch up properly."

"Do you know where you'll go?" Zane asked.

"I think I know someone who can help, but you don't want to know any more than that. Bye, Zane."

Emma cinched the straps of the backpack tight and sat on the edge of the dock to dip her feet in the water. She waited until she changed to make sure the backpack disappeared with her clothes. It did and, feeling more comfortable in her plan, she lowered herself the rest of the way into the water and slid under the surface, barely leaving a ripple.

Zane watched her go. He hadn't known whether he would see any of the mermaids again in his life and despite the circumstances, he felt good that he'd been able to be there for her. He turned around and looked at the neon 'Rikki's' sign. He had renovations to do. Rikki's legacy wasn't going to remodel itself.

Chapter Text

Emma still didn't have the details of her plan figured out. She set out for Mako Island to get some rest and think. She swam into what was left of the moonpool cave and looked around. It wasn't quite as destroyed as she remembered. Equipment had been left where it was and the place was messy, but she thought maybe it could be rehabilitated. 'Oh well, that's for some other time.' She thought to herself.

In the turmoil of the last week, she'd lost track of time and as the moon rose, she felt it and tried to remember the date. It was a full moon. This was a stroke of luck for her. She didn't have to risk being moon-spelled on land and could let the moonlight recharge her, heaven knew she could use the boost. She floated in the remains of the pool as the moonlight entered the top of the volcanic cone and she was overcome with calm and serenity. She felt her power growing and fell asleep floating on her back.

In the morning, she awoke to a brand-new set of ideas. The past was the past, now. She felt ready to start fresh. The bits and pieces of a plan that she'd considered over the last few days coalesced and she steeled herself. The old Emma would have to be gone. The plans, the ambitions - they would have to change. Eventually, the police would find more evidence. Surely there was blood on the boat that the forensics team would discover. The identities of the others would become known through DNA and their disappearances would be truly confirmed along with evidence of their demise. It was time to start fresh.

She did the maths on the money she'd need. She'd already done the shopping she needed for a disguise; she just needed to plan it out. She knew from growing up there where all the Gold Coast petrol stations and convenience stores were that were near the water.

She gathered her things and began to swim back to shore. Finding a quiet place to get out, she began the walk to a men's barber shop she knew of. The kind with an old barber who’d been there for years. There would be no security cameras there. The old man didn't understand why she would want to ruin her long, perfectly cut blonde hair but he shrugged and did as she asked, giving her a short, androgynous cut. She got some food and then went back to the river to dive in and wait for night to begin her mini crime spree.

The first robbery went according to plan. The clerk went willingly into the loo as Emma tried the safe freezing trick for the first time. She underestimated how long she'd have to cool it for and she tried breaking it several times before freezing it some more. Eventually it gave, she collected the $1500 and left before heading to a second site. She figured she had another hour before the first clerk could get out and alert the authorities.

The second went much like the first but she had more knowledge of how much to cool the safe so it went faster. She got a little more money this time coming away with almost $2000.

The third got messy. The man behind the counter wanted to play hero and didn't buy her act from the start. He jumped over the counter and ran towards her. She quickly froze the floor in front of him and he slipped, falling harshly and hitting his head. When she approached him, he was groggy but not unconscious. She refroze the floor to make it easier to drag him and pulled him into the small office, smashing the phone and taking his mobile before freezing the door. He wasn't bleeding but she felt bad that she'd had to resort to violence. She finished the job and then dialed 000 on his mobile to call an ambulance for him.

She'd had enough for one night and retreated to Mako. She emptied her backpack and counted just over $5000 total. She'd have to hit a few more to make her goal. She slept as best as she could during the day.

The next night, she refined her approach and didn't have any trouble other than the final clerk wanting to scream so much. The surprisingly large haul on the second robbery allowed her to stop at that point.

She swam back to Mako to get ready. The backpack was full of spare clothes, a few personal items, money, and some high calorie snacks she took from the last heist on the way out. She filled her cargo pockets and settled in to get some rest before the next big swim

Chapter Text

A couple days prior to Emma getting ready to leave area, Detective Sargeant Wilson and the uniformed officer who had cuffed Emma watched in surprise mixed with horror as Ms. Gilbert, their only suspect in a crime that may or may not have happened, sprinted towards the water and dove in, hands still cuffed behind her back. They ran to the spot she jumped from, scanning the water in all directions, waiting for the young med student to surface. After half a minute, Wilson stripped down to just pants and dove in, expecting to find her on the bottom in the relatively shallow water. He'd had suspects, as well as witnesses, pull this sort of thing before - taking desperate measures to get away from the police. As he came up for air to make another pass under water, he thought about his quarry and despite the physical evidence, there was nothing about Emma Gilbert that led him to think she was the sort of person who would murder seven people. There didn't seem to be anything tying her to Linda Denman or her boat. Other than her running into the water, nothing she'd done felt like it implied guilt. Even her clamming up during the interview was relatively normal behaviour. Any smart, sane person in her position should have shut up at that point. It didn't look good, but it was hardly damning.

After five minutes of searching fruitlessly, Wilson trudged back onto the shore, exhausted and certain that a body would soon turn up. He radioed for additional search and rescue units and did his best to dry off before going home to change.

Two hours later, he was again surprised to find that the dozen or so additional personnel had come up empty handed. 'How could the body just disappear that quickly?' He thought. He'd made it into the water within a minute after her. None of it made any sense. There was no chance of a rescue by this time and divers were brought in to attempt to recover the body. It had to be somewhere.

He went back to the station, shaken that he'd just had a person of interest seem to commit suicide right in front of him. He dove back into her file and reviewed what he knew. Emma Gilbert - medical student. Sterling academic record stretching back to high school. She had been athletic, seemingly well-liked, and in no financial distress. The family had a bit of money and her bills were up to date. Absolutely nothing pointed to this being something she'd be involved in, but the physical evidence put her on the boat and her behaviour during the arrest was troublesome, to say the least.

His phone rang. It was the lab. Dozens of samples were being analyzed from the boat. There was human DNA, and blood, but it was mixed with many animal results and would take another day to figure out.

Despite the odds being against her having survived, he put out a BOFL (be on the lookout for) and began the process of tracking her phone and credit cards. That could take hours or days. He decided that was enough for now and went home to wash his clothes and get some rest as he shook off the memory of what seemed to be Emma Gilbert's final moments.

While Emma was being chauffeured around by Zane, Wilson reviewed his case file again. While doing so, the lab called with results. The DNA from blood evidence had led to the identities of four people. All men who had experience at sea and all of whom had criminal records, a few being extensive. There was still other DNA left to process but the only human blood seemed to be from these four. Wilson reviewed the records for each. They were mostly thugs. Hired muscle for organized crime, that sort of thing. Convictions for assault, extortion, battery, etc. 'Not good guys.' Wilson thought to himself. He researched the supposedly missing Dr. Linda Denman. She had a history of marine research that had been marred by multiple scandals, both academic and legal. She didn't seem to be currently associated with any university or research group and hadn't been for roughly seven years. The niece, Carissa Denman, was a graduate student in marine biology like her aunt. She'd had a cheating scandal early in her undergraduate program but had otherwise been clean, albeit with a marginal academic career.

Wilson sat back in his chair and thought. Nothing seemed to tie Gilbert to the Denmans. Perhaps she had uncovered something? Denman's crew was certainly shady, as was the doctor, herself. He decided to look into that angle a little more closely.

It was late afternoon when he'd unraveled Denman's sordid past. Multiple instances of academic fraud, wild claims of mythological sea creatures that she tried to use to get funding… No criminal convictions for any of these things but several fraud charges had been brought, with no clear evidence found. Charges had been dropped but she'd also never been acquitted. Just before dinner, the approvals came back for both mobile phone tracing and credit card info. He'd have fresh information in the morning and left for home.

The next day, as Emma was working through her robbery plan, the first reports of petrol station robberies were transmitted to police in Queensland as well as surrounding states, including New South Wales. They caught Wilson's eye but he didn't make any connection. Then the mobile tracing got a hit. Gilbert's phone pinged in the Gold Coast and a call was made.

Wilson was shocked. Surely this was some sort of mistake. Perhaps her phone had been stolen? The ping was less than half a day after she dove into the water. It was within drive time, but just barely. Had she really survived and driven straight to Queensland? Her car was in impound at the depot, so she hadn't taken it. Her parents were still in Sydney waiting for word. He hadn't told them yet of Gilbert's escape, which was looking more and more like she'd survived, somehow. He would have to let them know and question them, as well. Something he was not looking forward to. Upset parents are not fun to interview. He put that aside and focused on the mobile phone. It had only made one call before being switched off. She'd been on the coast and called someone named Zane Bennett. The phone turned back on sometime later and though no calls had been made, it looked like she was driving northwest on the A2.

He put out an alert to find Gilbert who looked like she was now several hundred kilometers into the outback. He prepared to go to the Gold Coast to personally interview this Zane Bennett.

While Emma's phone was drawing attention to the vast, empty middle of Australia, Emma herself was making a multi-day journey to Adelaide. She came ashore where she could to eat at one local seaside town or another, careful to be in some version of a disguise. This was longer than anything she'd ever attempted and it was tiring. She wondered if Rikki had done anything like this in her diving career. It would be like her to do so and not mention it. Emma swam on, anxious to get somewhere fresh to either start over or try to fix this mess.

Chapter Text

In Adelaide, Emma knew a former classmate who washed out of his academic career and ended up on the wrong side of the law - the kind of kid you went to in high school for fake IDs, Adderall, or stolen credit cards. She hadn't associated with him much, but she also hadn't had any negative dealings with him. She figured he'd be her first stop, an entrance into her second life while she figured out a way to try to clear her name, if possible. More importantly, he was the kind of shady character who had never been caught, implying a level of cleverness and discretion that she admired and needed.

Upon finding a place to come ashore in Adelaide, Emma found a pay phone, though it took five attempts before discovering one that worked. She called the last number she had for her potential contact. Being Emma, she'd saved and printed her contacts before ditching her phone. The phone rang but no one answered. She tried again and it rang fewer times before stopping, indicating that someone had rejected the call instead of just not answering it. She tried a third time. This time it picked up.

"Who is this?" Came the suspicious voice on the other end.

"Jason? It's Emma. From high school."

"Yeah? Which high school?"

"South Coast High."

There was a pause.

"What class did we have together in year 8?"

Emma thought, scrolling through her memories of school. "Maths, I think. With Robinson. And literature, but I forget who taught that."

"Well, well, well. Emma Gilbert! This is an Adelaide number. Why are you down here? Last I heard you were at some posh uni. I haven’t seen you since I was drumming for Nate at Rikki’s."

"Yeah, I was. If you don't mind, maybe don't throw my last name around, yeah?"

"Oh, shit. You in trouble? I can't see you calling me unless you were."

"Sort of. I could use some help. The kind I could pay you for."

"All righty, now you're talkin' my language."

Without going into details, Emma arranged to meet Jason at a park near where she was. She walked there and scanned the area for cameras. If there were any, she didn't see them. She got a drink and waited on the bench he had described to her. An hour later, he showed up and sat down next to her.

"I didn't even recognize you. Nice job. Of course, it's been a while."

"Thanks. I'm sure you're wondering what's going on…"

He cut her off. "No. Not at all. I mean, sure, I'll bet it's a good story, but I'd rather stay in the dark if you catch my meaning. What I can do you for?"

"I'm looking to disappear for a while. I need a phone and an ID. Maybe more later if I need it to get a job."

"Whew. The phone's easy, the ID will be expensive. They're harder and harder to make, these days."

"Like I said, I can pay. I don't have much, but I think I can manage it. How much?"

"Twelve hundy. Six up front. Six on delivery. I can have the phone today and the ID tomorrow afternoon. Come on back with me and I'll get you set up. How'd you know to get in touch with me?"

"A hunch really. Plus, Nate used to talk about you as a go-to for certain things."

Jason laughed. "Nate. Haven't heard from him in a minute. Bit of a wanker but he's pretty solid."

Emma laughed. "Decent description. Don't know where he is - up in Brisbane last I heard but that was quite a while ago."

“What about Bella? What’s she up to. Hell of a voice.”

“She’s in the states. Teaching music.”

“Good on ‘er. Tell her I said hello.”

They'd gotten back to Jason's place, a very dodgy storefront with seemingly anything for sale inside but no hours of operation on the door.

"Here you go, one mobile. It's not great but it'll work for what you need. The SIM is still registered to its former owner but she's in an aged care home. She'll never know. You can top it up with cash. It should be good for a few months. If you need something more permanent, that would cost more and take me a couple days."

Emma powered on the device. It was helpfully charged. "This'll do for now. Thanks. Call you tomorrow for the ID?"

"Don't call. Just come here at one. Bring the rest and we're good to go."

"Is there a hostel near here?"

"Yeah." Jason gave her directions and Emma thanked him.

"No need. Money talks, Em, that's all the thanks I need."

Emma walked out of the shop. She found the hostel and paid cash to get a bed and some rest. She'd figure out her next steps tomorrow.

It turns out that mobile phone coverage along the A2 through the interior of Australia was spotty at best and the authorities still hadn't found Emma's phone. It would die soon and the most they had was a general idea of where it was going.

Detective Sergeant Wilson tracked Zane Bennett down at Rikki's and flashed a badge. Zane did his best to look perplexed.

"You know an Emma Gilbert?" Wilson asked.

"Sure. Grew up with her. What's this about?"

"We're trying to find her; we think she might have some information that's vital for an investigation we're working on. Know where she is?"

"No. Not really."

"She called you a couple days ago, have you seen her?"

"Yeah, we had lunch, caught up, that kind of thing. Said she was visiting her folks."

"Well, her folks are down in Sydney, worried sick about her, so that's not why she was here."

"Weird. She didn't say. I hope she's all right."

"How did she seem to you?"

"Normal. Emma. She's always been the same. Good old dependable Emma. We had a nice visit. Mostly talked about med school… and this place."

Wilson closed his notebook. If Zane Bennett was lying, he couldn't tell. Zane had stuck to things that he knew were true so his lies were really just omissions.

"Look, son…"

"Son? Detective, I'm twenty-six and you're not my dad." Zane’s daddy issues were surfacing.

"Apologies. Mr. Bennett, this matter is quite urgent. Lives may be at stake. Please contact me as soon as you hear from her." He handed Zane his card.

"You think Emma Gilbert is involved in something life or death? I mean, she's going to be a doctor, so maybe in that sense, but anything else doesn't sound like the Emma I grew up with."

This was true. It really didn't sound like the Emma he'd grown up with, regardless of who she was now.

"Regardless, let me know when you see her."

"I'm not expecting to see her. She left; I assumed for the rest of the school year. I don't think I'll be hearing from her. You have tried to just call her, right?"

Wilson lowered his eyes at the implication that he hadn't taken that simple step. "Just let me know."

He left the café for the drive back to Sydney. He had been sure that this lead would take the investigation somewhere. Zane had the kind of face that always looked like it was hiding something but his answers had been forthright and without hesitation. This had been a dead end, and he assumed the mobile phone tracking would end up pointless, as well, but that was the only other clue they had. He called his boss and asked for the details to be transmitted to the Northern Territories authorities to keep an eye out for Emma Gilbert.

Chapter Text

After a couple days in Adelaide, Emma was establishing a new routine. She'd found an under-the-counter job at a convenience store that paid cash. By this time, she'd dyed her hair black and wore a hat to hide any roots. She was paid enough to get by but she wasn't moving out of the hostel without dipping into her remaining money. She didn't want to fall further into a life of crime, but her safe-busting trick was successful. Maybe she'd take a chance to make enough to really set herself up better. Still, she couldn't see this as being her life. She'd had plans, goals, milestones that her life should hit. Living underground, in disguise and wanted by the police, was not an entry in her planner.

After a few weeks, she began to think that she didn't have much more time if she intended to clear her name. She'd been spending time at the library, where the internet was fast, free, and private. Her research into what the state of the bodies might be was alarming. By now, they were probably just bones, and those could be gone in six months to two years. It had been just over a month at that point.

She'd bought a used bike on Gumtree and was riding from the library to work when her phone rang. Her phone never rang. She stopped the bike and looked at the number. She didn't have it in her phone but it was clearly Jason, the only call she'd made and the only one who knew this number.

"Hello?"

"Em, it's Jason. I heard something. Thought you should know."

"Jason? What is it?"

"I got a call from an old mate of ours. Zane. I don't know why he thought to call me. I denied having seen you but he said that if I did to tell you something."

"Zane? Zane Bennett? What did he need to tell me?"

"He gave me his number and said for you to call. Said he found Carissa's house. I have no idea what that means. Does it mean anything to you?"

"Not really." Emma lied. "But thanks. Maybe I'll call him."

"If it matters, he sounded rather excited about the news. Whatever that's worth."

"Thanks, Jason."

Emma disconnected. She knew what that meant, she just didn't know what it really meant. If Zane had discovered where Carissa Denman lived, that means that he'd been doing some research. Maybe he knew more. It was probably worth the call. She was late for work and Emma could not abide being late. Zane would have to wait until later that night.

Emma called Zane that evening.

"Emma, I was getting worried when you didn't call."

"I thought I told you to not have anything to do with this?"

"I couldn't help it. The cops did show up. I did just as you said. The cop seemed frustrated and left without asking too much. But Denman, that gets interesting."

Emma didn't want to involve Zane, or anyone else. She didn't want the guilt if things got more out of hand. Still, if he had info…

"I'm not happy about it, but what did you find out?"

"Denman has a place. It's not too far. I think it's Linda's, not Carissa's. Technically, I'm not sure whose it is. Its ownership is buried in a trust administered by an offshore shell company. I can't prove it, but I think she inherited it through the trust. Either way, she was definitely living there. I drove up and there was mail in the mailbox for both Linda and Carissa Denman. If they don't live there, they definitely spend time there. I couldn't get inside but it looks lived in."

"Where is it?" Emma asked.

"Brisbane. The Cleveland area. On Raby Bay. By the old lighthouse. Swanky. Right on the water, private beach and everything. I'm guessing mommy and daddy Denman had money."

"Ok, that's interesting but what can I do with that?"

"You're usually the smartest one in the room. I think you just need to think a little more nefariously. I feel like you could maybe use some help. You should reach out…"

"Absolutely not. I'm not implicating anyone else. Right now, they're all safe. I intend to keep it that way."

"You don't know that. You don't know what Denman told her niece. She might only know about you, or there might be extensive notes somewhere with all of you in them. All of US! What if she thinks it's worth going after Elliot? Or Kim? Or your parents?"

Zane continued. "I've never been good at relying on others, and it's hurt me. I make stupid decisions. You guys always worked together; stronger as a group. It's when you don't that things get crazy. You should make some calls. Plus, I think they already know a little bit."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I called Elliot, like you asked. I think he told them more than you intended. I called Jason because I got a text from Rikki. I haven't answered it, yet. I wanted to talk to you first. But you know Rikki won't let go when she grabs onto something."

Emma put her hand to her forehead in frustration. She knew she should have been more specific with Elliot but she'd been stressed and in a hurry.

"Crap. What did she text you?"

"She said, 'I know you know what's going on with Em and you'd better tell me.'"

"You can't, Zane, it's too dangerous."

Zane laughed. "I think it's more dangerous to not tell Rikki."

Emma returned Zane's laugh. "I suppose you're right. Just tell her that I'll call her. Tell her to look for a strange number. I'll try to talk her out of getting involved."

"I'll let her know but I think you should let her in. And Cleo. There's strength in numbers."

"Just tell her, Zane. I'll handle Rikki. And please don't save this number."

Emma got off the phone and fretted. The last thing she needed was Rikki being Rikki. Emma had always enjoyed their fire-and-ice dynamic but Rikki could be a bull in a china shop and a murder investigation was definitely a china shop in her eyes.

It wasn't more than ten minutes later, ten minutes of Emma trying to figure out the best way to dissuade Rikki from getting involved, when Emma's phone buzzed. She looked at the screen. She didn't have any contacts saved but she still knew Rikki's number by heart. She silently cursed Zane for giving Rikki this number. She'd figure out how to punish him later.

"Hi, Rikki." She said, with less enthusiasm than Rikki thought she deserved.

"That's all I get? 'Hi?'"

"I didn't want to involve you. You can't be associating with me right now."

"You don't get to make that decision for me, Em. I made my mind up as soon as Elliot called. You know that boy can't hide his emotions, right? Everyone's worried sick."

"What do you mean, 'everyone?'"

"Your brother, obviously. Cleo. Bella. I'm sure your parents are freaking out but Elliot said he didn't tell them anything. And Zane - though why you thought to reach out to him and not us is a bit insulting."

Rikky sounded a bit miffed.

"Because he had an angle grinder. To get the cuffs off."

Rikki laughed, despite trying hard not to. The image of Emma Gilbert in handcuffs was pretty funny to her.

"It's not funny, Rikki!"

"I know, Em. Sorry. Look, we'll get this sorted, but you need to include us. We can't help if we don't know what's going on."

"This is my problem, Rikki. I don't want to risk anyone else."

"And if you don't handle it, then we're all more at risk. So why don't we all get together and try to figure this out. Can you get back to Mako?"

"I'm in Adelaide, it would take me forever to swim back."

"You swam to Adelaide? Just take a bus back. Do you have any money?"

"I've got a couple grand left. I could get there, I guess. But I don't think this is a great idea."

"All my ideas are great, Em. You should know that by now."

Emma could hear the smile in Rikki's voice.

"What about Cleo? She's got a busy life."

"Christ, Emma, let us help you. She's already on her way. Lewis is going to stay and take care of things in Melbourne. You just let me know when you can be there."

Emma hung up and thought about what Rikki had said. Was she being unsafe by keeping the others in the dark? She thought she'd been helping. She didn't want anyone to go through what she'd been going through but Rikki was right about one thing for sure, she'd felt more alone than she ever had before and having her friends around to help certainly felt right. She made up her mind and started looking at bus tickets. Swimming that far again did not seem like fun.

Chapter Text

Emma sent a target date and time to Rikki for her arrival by bus at Mako and gathered her things. She didn't have much more than when she started but she left those extra things at the hostel. She didn't feel right abandoning her job but there were bigger stakes.

Emma boarded her bus, slightly unsettled by the cacophony of smells that assaulted her as she got on. She got comfortable and shoved her backpack between her and the side of the bus; the strap tightly wrapped around her arm to protect the small nest egg she still had left. She wore both the pendant and the crystal to keep them near to her, thankful for the sisterhood that would now be helping her. She watched the large cities and small towns pass by and faded in and out of sleep, wondering what the next move should be.

It was a two-day trip and she was fed up with the bus by the time she was getting close. She elected to get off in the small town of Brunswick Head just south of the Gold Coast in case anyone was looking for her. It was a short walk to the water from there and the swim to Mako would also be short. She got out of the moonpool and dried off, pulling her phone out to let Rikki know she was there. She marveled at how much better mobile reception had gotten since that fateful day, all those years ago. 'If we'd had this sort of service back then, none of us would ever have been mermaids.' She mused to herself. Within the hour, Rikki swam up. Cleo arrived fifteen minutes later.

Cleo pulled herself up out of the pool and Rikki stared unabashedly at her.

"What is Lewis feeding you?" Rikki asked with her usual bluntness.

Cleo looked down at her stomach. "Oh come on, it's not that big… Yet."

Rikki's eyebrows shot up. "Yet?"

Cleo grinned. "I wasn't going to say anything yet, but yeah, it looks like we've got a little one on the way."

"Oh my god, Cleo!" Emma suddenly forgot all her problems as the idea of a miniature Cleo or Lewis filled her mind.

In a flash, all three were out of the pool and hugging once everyone got their legs back. Emma and Rikki had a million questions but Cleo insisted on bringing the topic of conversation back around to the situation at hand.

"So… What do we know?" Cleo asked.

Emma went over the complete details of what had happened so far, including Zane's uncovering of the Denman property in Brisbane.

The surprise of hearing about Emma’s calculated, and completely successful, string of petrol station robberies shocked the other two, not thinking that Emma was capable of something so illegal.

“Emma – you’re a badass bitch!” Rikki declared at the news.

But it was Emma's description of her capture and the resultant series of deaths that generated the strongest response from her fellow mermaids. Despite having been involved in quite a few adventures, and having powers that many people might have viewed as dangerous, this was the first time any of them had been forced to use those powers with a deadly outcome. After their conflict with the elder Denman as teenagers, none of the mermaids imagined having to ever do anything like that. Emma being forced to take such action was sobering.

"We can't be put in this position again." Rikki declared at the end of Emma's retelling. "This needs to end now. Especially with Cleo's upcoming…" Rikki wasn't sure what to call it. "Family expansion." Was what she finally settled on, somewhat awkwardly.

"Sure, but what do we do? Right now, all the evidence points to me having been involved. If I end up in jail, even for a night, I risk being exposed."

"We have to find a way to pin it back on this new Denman." Cleo offered.

"You say all the evidence points to you." Rikki said, wheels turning in her mind. "But there's other evidence."

Emma wasn't following. "The police have the boat; they've gone over it. If there's any more evidence, they'd have it and it would still put me there."

"They don't have the bodies."

Emma froze up. She didn't really want to think about the bodies. "What about them?" She asked, her voice getting shaky.

"What if we make sure that the bodies are found, but in a way that directly implicates the younger Denman."

Cleo was seeing the logic. "Like, leave a hint about where they are in a way that shows that Denman knew about them?"

"I think we can do better than that. Let's leave a hint that Denman has them."

"But she doesn't. No one does." Emma answered.

"She doesn't yet, but she could. Think about it. We know two things. Where they actually are, and where the Denmans live, or at least own property."

"Are you suggesting we plant the bodies on Denman's property?"

"Exactly. She's responsible for all this, let's just connect the dots for everyone."

"One small problem. I know kind of where they are but not exactly. And they're deeper than I've ever been. There's no light that far down. I don't know how we'd ever find them, much less get them back."

"Emma, baby, that's literally what I do. I've got the experience, the ship, and the gear. You get us close, and I can teach both of you how to search for them and recover them. But I think we need to move fast, remains don't last long down there. I've seen a lot of shipwrecks, but very few skeletons."

Cleo winced at the word 'skeleton.' She'd hoped to never run into something like that, but it was seeming necessary.

Emma nodded. Her fear and stress of the last few months were masking her normally rational self, but having her friends helping her had allowed her to see a little more clearly.

"You're right, Rikki. This is the only way. I think we might need a little help on the surveillance side of things. I hope you don't mind, but I think we could use Zane. We need to know when we can access the Denman house and for how long."

Rikki groaned. "Ok, you're right, but don't let him get any ideas about what this means, ok?"

"Of course." Emma answered. "Where can we go to plan?"

"My boat. I gave my crew a few weeks off and I'm anchored halfway between the Gold Coast and Brisbane."

"Wait, you have a crew? That means they must know about you?"

"I'm not recovering all these artifacts by myself. Each of them has their own secrets, so they have incentive to keep mine. There are only four, and I'd trust each of them with my life. Plus, I pay them really, really well. But we won't use them for this, don't worry."

A bit unnerved by Rikki's admission, the other two still agreed that this seemed like the best way forward and they made their way to Rikki's salvage boat.

"What do you need me to do?" Came Zane's immediate response upon answering his phone.

"We need to know when Carissa Denman is at that house. The times and for how long. What her schedule is. In general, we need to know how she spends her time and when we could safely be there, especially at night. Also, we need to know if there are neighbors around. These are mostly vacation homes so we might get lucky and they're vacant right now during the week."

"Oooo. I always wanted to be a private detective. I can do that. I'll be there tonight. I've got tradies working on the original Rikki's so I've got some time."

Zane took a breath. "Emma, I'm really glad you took my advice."

Emma rolled her eyes even if Zane couldn't see it. "It's not like you left me much choice."

"Hey, talk to your brother, he's the one that got the others all worked up."

"That's fair." Cleo interjected. "He did let us know more than you intended. We would have figured out how to find you regardless of Zane; he just sped things up."

Emma got a little misty-eyed at the amount of support she was getting. "Thanks. All of you."

"One other thing, Zane," Cleo added. "Lewis couldn't come with me. One of us had to work and he's got another project going on, but could you call him and ask him to work with you? He might be able to follow Denman around on the internet. She's young, I'm sure she leaves a pretty big digital footprint. Maybe he can find additional information."

"I can do that. I'll call him right now. What's his other project?"

Cleo looked around the group and smiled before answering. "He's building a nursery for the baby."

There was silence on the line.

"You're preggers?"

"Way to be tactful, Zane." Rikki answered. "We gotta go. Things to plan. Keep that to yourself, yeah?"

"Will do. Congrats, Cleo. I'll call Lewis now." Zane disconnected.

"So, what's next?" Cleo asked.

Rikki pulled up a satellite map on her tablet and set it on the table.

"From Zane's information, this is the house. It's right on the bay, with rock breakwaters on each side of a private beach that's shared by five houses. Right here - this one's Denman." Rikki pointed to the western most house of the five. "He's already confirmed that's their house from their mail. There's a decent sized back yard. I figure, we plant the remains somewhere on the property when we know we'll have some time, then call in a tip."

Emma looked at the satellite photo, imagining either of the Denmans being there and plotting one of their schemes. She was angry, but she was also nervous. "It's a bit of a leap. Them finding the bones there doesn't fully implicate her. After all, we are actually planting this evidence, what if that's what the cops think, too?"

"You're too worried about this." Rikki suggested. "The police want to find the most logical answer. Carissa Denman was on the boat, she admits to that and evidence puts her there. It’s her aunt and the Denmans' crew who are missing. There's nothing the police know that ties you to them. When they find remains on her land, it's going to seem like a sure thing. You have zero motive in their eyes."

"Neither does Carissa."

"Yeah, but they were all on the same team. Maybe it was professional jealousy. Maybe it was some sordid love triangle gone wrong. Maybe Carissa went crazy. Once the remains are found, all signs will point to her. It's the best we have, and it's a pretty good bet."

"Ok. Like you said, it's the best we've got. I guess now we go deep sea diving."

Chapter Text

While Zane staked out the Denman house, and Lewis did his best to track Carissa Denman over the internet, Rikki was giving the others a crash course in salvage diving. Holding their breath was key. A thousand meters is a long way down and it didn't leave much time on the bottom. The mermaids didn't have any problems with the depth, just the time it took to get down and back. That and the darkness. While their eyesight was far better than any ordinary human underwater, zero light is still zero light. That made one other problem become obvious. If you can't see anything, it's hard to know which way is up, which could create more time than planned underwater if they got disoriented. Rikki had solved all these problems early on in her years of recovering artifacts.

The other two mermaids looked at Rikki like she was nuts. They were on the deck of Rikki's boat, far out at sea, and Rikki was going over what they'd need to do. On the deck, equipment was laid out. Some made sense. A dive knife for if they got caught in something, powerful lights to help see, tablets to write on for communication, but none of them expected scuba tanks.

"You do know we're mermaids, right?" Cleo asked.

"Duh." Rikki responded. "And you do know that we could still drown, right?"

Cleo looked at her sheepishly as she recalled her first time getting caught in a net trying to save turtles from her dad’s unscrupulous employee.

"The tanks serve three purposes. One: They’re emergency backup oxygen in case something happens. Two: They can extend our time down there significantly if we need it. And three: You can blow some air out of the regulator and watch the bubbles to see which way is up once we're below where light reaches. That's actually the most important for us. You're just going to have to deal with looking a little daggy."

Emma and Cleo shrugged. Rikki was right, of course. Rikki began demonstrating the gear and the procedures. They would spend a whole day practicing until the operation of the gear was second nature. If that went well, the next day was the first day of actual searching.

Training went well and Emma guided the boat to where she thought the net full of remains should be.

"Guys, this is going to be gross. I'm hating this." Cleo was squeamish as it was. The idea of recovering bodies was almost too much.

"You've got this." Rikki assured her. “It’ll just be bones by now. What Emma did when she moved the bodies was the gross part.”

“Not really helping, Rikki.” Cleo shot back.

Rikki checked everyone's gear and went over how they would split up and what the search grid would be.

"Just to be clear. Assuming Emma is right about the location, it's a big sea floor. This might take a day, two days, a week… We don't know. But we do know that we have to find it. You guys ready?"

The others nodded and they hit the water, retrieving their gear from the transom after they changed. They each took deep breaths and began their first descent.

After two hundred meters, the light had faded to less than ten percent of what it was at the surface. They continued down. By five hundred meters, there was only the suggestion of light and it was hard to tell where it was coming from. When they hit the sea floor, they were at nine hundred and fifty meters and the water was just a black void. The dive lights penetrated further than Cleo and Emma thought they would, and their better eyesight extended that range. They split up for their individual search patterns and began looking. They had about a half hour on the floor before they needed to go up. They met at the surface. Emma looked a little dejected.

"It's fine, Emma." Rikki said. "We've got time, and I didn't think we'd find it this quickly. Ready to go again?"

No one had used any air yet and they could safely get about three dives out of the batteries for the lights so they went back down.

The sea floor was remarkably empty at this depth. There wasn't much alive down there and floor was silty. They had to be careful not to stir it up and reduce visibility. They came up empty handed, again.

After a third dive, they swapped batteries for the lights and continued. By the time they were all getting tired, it had been nine dives. They climbed back onto Rikki's boat and collapsed on the deck. It was dark by now and stars filled the sky.

"What if we can't find them?" Emma asked as they lay there, now with her legs back in place after a long day in her mermaid form.

"We'll find them, Emma." Cleo assured.

"Let's get some sleep." Rikki suggested. "We'll get back out there at first light. We'll find them."

The next day dawned and Rikki had dreamed about the task, waking with a revelation.

"Everyone! Get up! I have an idea."

It took a minute but while Rikki was assembling charts and looking at her computer, the other two got coffee started and eventually joined her.

"It was a rookie move. I completely forgot about the current. I don't normally need to worry about it because I'm looking for things that have been on the bottom for decades or centuries, but if the net and the remains took a while to descend, then the current could have been a big factor. Where we are, it runs south, along the continental shelf, at three to eleven kilometers per hour depending on depth. Emma, how fast was it falling when you dropped it?"

"This is going to sound gross, but they were pretty bloated so they were almost buoyant. The net was weighted to keep them down. Pretty slow. Maybe a meter a second."

Rikki was typing numbers into a calculator app on her phone.

Cleo filled that time with an observation. "You're right, Emma, that was pretty gross."

Rikki looked up. "Ok. If we assume an average current of eight kilometers an hour, and a rate of descent of about four kilometers an hour, then we were starting our search about two kilometers north of where we should be. We're looking in the wrong place."

Rikki started the boat's engine and pointed the bow south, marking a course and distance on her GPS. After a while, she came to a stop.

"Ok, we start fresh from here. Today's our lucky day, ladies!"

The three prepared for a fresh day of diving. They got in the water and began the search.

It was on the third dive that Emma found the net with the remains in it. She signaled the others with her lights and the other two swam over to her. They looked at the loose collection of bones, held in place with fishing net. Emma wanted to feel triumphant, but she could only feel sad. While none of this was her fault, and she knew that, the fact remained that none of those people would be dead if she hadn't been in the wrong place at the wrong time. That was just luck, but it didn't make her feel any better.

Rikki wrote on her tablet that she was going back to the boat for something to bring it all up in. By the time she came back, Emma and Cleo had both had to take air from their tanks.

The three worked to gather it all into the mesh bag that Rikki brought back with her. The bones felt fragile through the gloves they wore to keep their DNA off of them. Their hair was tied back and restrained for the same reason. After another half hour, the package was ready to take up. They ascended slowly to be careful with the bones. No one knew what the change in pressure might do to them.

Rikki's boat was a trawler converted to a salvage ship and it had a good-sized hold with a place to keep items in sea water to prevent corrosion or other contamination from the air. Rikki used a small crane on the deck to raise the mesh bag and lower it into the hold, placing it in the sea water bath to preserve the skeletons. She closed the hatch and everyone prepared to get underway.

Rikki called Zane on the satellite phone. He had good news.

"She was here for the first two nights you were gone, but she's gone now and Lewis says her social media accounts all say she's in Melbourne for a while. I think we have time to do this tomorrow night when we get there."

"The sooner the better." Emma exclaimed. She was hoping this would be over soon. If this worked, maybe she'd get her life back. No more fake IDs. No more running. No more robbing petrol stations. She thought about what her life had become since the incident. She barely recognized herself, mentally or physically. Everyone had been kind and not discussed her appearance, but her short, black hair was showing her blonde roots. She’d lost weight and her face was gaunt. She didn't look anything like the Emma who had confidently entered medical school; the Emma who everyone thought was perfect. She looked tired and scared and she didn't want to look or feel like that anymore.

Chapter Text

The mermaids were motoring back towards Brisbane on Rikki’s ship, quite a trip from thirty kilometers off of Sydney but they needed the boat to carry everything. They planned with Zane over the phone while they traveled. They met him at the Gold Coast and he put the supplies on board. Tarps, shovels, rakes, everything they'd need.

Zane's reconnaissance was fruitful. The next two houses were empty. Zane couldn't swim to shore from as far out as they would anchor, so he was relegated to 'lookout' about a block away from the house.

The mermaids lowered the mesh bag into the sea as well as another waterproof bag with their tools. The bones were light in the water and it was easy enough for two of them to bring them ashore.

The three went up to where the beach sand gave way to the grass of the back yard. They began digging in the sand. They didn't need to go too deep; the bones didn't need to stay there long. After an hour, they were done. They smoothed over the sand until it almost looked like nothing had happened. It didn't need to look perfect. In fact, it was better if it wasn't.

It was one am when Emma called the tip in on her burner phone.

"I don't like to get involved.” She said while attempting her best elderly voice. “I try to mind my own business, but a week ago, someone was digging in my neighbor's yard. It was the middle of the night, and I couldn't tell, but it looked like whoever it was they were burying something. It’s been eating at me ever since. I feel like someone should check this out." She gave the address, the date and any other info that seemed helpful and hung up without giving a name.

Emma had lined up her dates with those provided by Zane and Lewis. That was a night Carissa Denman had been there.

The girls waded out into the water, changing after ten seconds. They grabbed their tools from the water's edge and swam out far enough to not be seen. It was about ten minutes later when the blue lights of police cars became visible between the houses. Flashlight beams danced over the water as officers entered the back yard of the Denman house. They looked over the yard and beach before coalescing around one recently disturbed patch of sand on the edge of the beach.

They stayed watching until more and more cars and officers showed up. It was clear that they'd found something. Zane was a block away, watching them all arrive. Confident that it had gone well, he pulled away to go back to Rikki's.

The mermaids swam back to Rikki's boat and headed out to deeper water, discarding their tools on the way. Emma's burner phone joined the shovels in the sea as they cruised towards the Gold Coast. Now it was time to wait.

Emma stayed on the boat with Rikki anchored far enough out to not attract any attention. Cleo went home to Lewis, who was putting the final touches on the nursery for the upcoming baby Maya, a name they'd decided on long ago for a daughter. Zane went back to work on the café.

It was a week later when Zane got a call.

"Mr. Bennett?"

"Yes, who is this?"

"This is Detective Sergeant Wilson. We spoke a few weeks ago."

"Right. What can I do for you?"

"I was wondering if Emma Gilbert ever got in contact with you."

"No, sir. I would have called if she had."

Wilson thought he detected a smirk in Bennett's voice but let it go. "Well, if you do talk to her, please let her know that while I'd still like to talk to her, she's no longer a person of interest in our investigation. We believe we have the correct suspect in custody."

"I'll be sure to let her know if she calls."

Wilson hung up and sighed. He was pretty sure Bennett was yanking his chain, but that didn't matter at this point.

It was a day later when Emma called the detective from a payphone near the water.

"This is Emma Gilbert. I thought I'd check in now that your case seems to be resolved."

"Ms. Gilbert."

Emma smiled at him remembering to use 'Ms.'

"Just so you know, I could still charge you for resisting arrest, but we've determined that the niece, Carissa Denman, likely killed and disposed of those seven people. Do you have any idea why she would have wanted to implicate you?"

"No idea, sir. How did you find out it was her?"

"We found the remains of all seven on her property. There were bullets in the bones of two of the victims that matched a rifle we recovered from her boat that had only her prints on it. It looked like she kept the remains under water before burying them to clean all the tissue off."

"Wow, pretty gruesome. Do you suppose I could get back to my life now that you know it wasn't me?" Emma asked boldly.

"There's still the matter of your having been on that boat. I think we have enough to convict without an eye witness but it sure would be nice, you know, just to put a bow on everything."

"Sorry, Detective Sergeant, I'm afraid I don't have anything to add. But this whole thing set my schooling back a semester, I'm anxious for everything to get back to normal."

"You know, Denman made quite a few outlandish claims when we brought her in…"

"I'm sure. You'd have to be pretty crazy to kill seven people."

"Hmm. I suppose. Take care Ms. Gilbert. Thank you for getting in touch, finally."

"No worries." Emma hung up and walked to the water, slipping in quietly before anyone showed up in case the call had been traced.

Wilson looked at the file on his desk. He didn't have a fantastic motive, but the physical evidence was overwhelming. He'd get his conviction. He leafed through the various documents. The evidence of Gilbert being on the boat was still gnawing at him. The waterlogged bones, the fact that everywhere Gilbert showed up was near water, her seemingly having been on the boat without leaving the harbour on it, nor returning on it, her disappearance into the water during her arrest, and Denman's fantastical (if desperate sounding) stories of a mermaid freezing her aunt – all that sure seemed to point to something. But that ‘something’ was not a thing that Wilson felt was worth needing a psychological evaluation over. Life was complicated enough without spending the rest of his career being ridiculed.

He closed the folder and put it in the box with the rest of the case files to give to the crown prosecutors. The history of the Denmans was one of fraud and deceit. No one was going to miss them. He walked out of the station and went home. After a few beers and a cricket match, he was ready to forget about the whole thing.