'Wow, he got home pretty fast;' Maddie thought. She felt the girl jump up and hiss a little, which admittedly both unnerved and excited her; she instinctively laid a hand on the girls' arm and the action seemed to calm her a little.

"It's okay, it's just my dad," she said soothingly and her voice seemed to calm the girl the rest of the way down. "He can help you; just let me talk to him, okay?" She (reluctantly) took her hand off of the girl and went to answer the door.

The mermaid still didn't entirely understand what Maddie had said but she didn't seem to be threatened in any way so she felt that she should wait but she was feeling so tired and her body didn't seem to want to…

She fell over onto the pillow before she could finish the thought.

"Welcome home dad," Maddie said as she closed the door behind her and her stomach dropped a little at the expression on his face.

"Maddie, you know that I don't like you staying out this late;" he began firmly with his arms folded and she only nodded. "However, because you may have saved a life I'll let you off the hook…for now," his tone turns softer; "I know things are tough with your mom right now…"

'To say the least,' she had to bite her tongue to keep from saying this aloud.

"But if we support her through this…" Maddie somewhat tuned him out and nodded at the appropriate times until he finished.

"Now, where is the girl?" Dale was back in "Sheriff Mode" as she privately called it.

"Sitting on my bed after I let her shower and gave the one set of clothes that I thought might fit her," Maddie replied as she frowned in thought of the girls' behaviour; her dad certainly noticed her expression.

"What's wrong?" His tone and face were concerned now and that meant she definitely had to say something.

"I'm worried about a couple of things," she admitted and continued when Dale nodded for her to go on; "for one thing, I'm not even sure that she can understand English. She hasn't said a word since I found her and she seems to have trouble understanding what I was saying, in fact I think the only reason she came with me was because I tried to use a tone that was as non-threatening as possible."

"That was actually the reason that I was unsure about taking her to the hospital," she added; "I mean I was afraid that she would freak out or something if the doctors asked her too many questions at once and she couldn't understand…"

Dale nods, "and the other reason?"

"I'm not sure how to say this but…" and so Maddie told him about the girls' reluctance in taking the towel and that definitely raised one of his eyebrows.

"So you think the girl might be…?"

"I don't know what to think about that," she replied honestly.

"Anyway, I should see her now."

"Kay," she said before she carefully opened the door; only to be greeted to the sight of the young girl passed out on the bed…and Maddie had only one pillow; the human in question had to fight back a blush.

"It is pretty late," Dale said and Maddie inwardly cringed at how he was also lecturing her without using the voice. "I'll talk to her later and I'll handle your mom when she wakes up." He added in anticipation of her question.

"Yes dad, night."

"Night."

Maddie couldn't hold back the blush once she had the door closed; it was something that she had been trying to avoid ever since she had come across the girl. She had never thought that she had been attracted to girls before, she still wasn't quite sure she even was because she tried thinking about girls she knew as she had been trying to distract herself from thinking about her guest in the shower before she had called her dad and she hadn't felt hot at all.

But for some reason, this girl was different like that, she had this allure about her that if Maddie was being honest with herself, made her want to curl around her so she could be protected; but it wasn't just that she was vulnerable looking, despite what she had told her dad she thought that there was some kind of strength in the girl that screamed out…something that she couldn't put her finger on.

That didn't help her current issue though, there was only one pillow on the bed, sure it was long enough for the both of them but that wasn't the point, they would still be in close proximity to each other in the same bed. Maddie sighed and knew that she would have to bite the bullet and just lie down next to her and try to get some sleep; but first she had to change…

She got lucky in that her guest didn't wake up once as she changed, it had been pretty hard once she laid down not to curl up next to her but she really didn't need to traumatize the girl further; somehow she managed to eventually fall asleep once she got her nerves under control.

The mermaid woke up to see that the funny glowing ball that hurt her eyes when she looked at it was shining brightly into her sleeping space through the thing that helped her look outside; she shut her eyes momentarily so her new eyes could adjust to the new light with those same eyes. She also felt a weight against her back and turned her head to look behind her cautiously, only to see that it was only Maddie.

It felt…pleasant to be so close next to the pretty human female, who came a little closer when she had moved; the mermaid carefully turned to face her fully. Being next to another body made her feel good, it reminded her of when she slept with her colony, with her family…

She turned back around to face outside and this time she averted her eyes from the glowing object itself and carefully rose from the bed to not disturb her companion and walked curiously closer to try and see more of the outside; now that the light was different, she wondered how everything would be different…

The colours seemed…she couldn't describe it other than not as dark as when she had come onto the shore, this quite pretty too, and she wanted to see more! She wanted to go out and explore the area some more…she turned back to Maddie, she really wanted to be with her while she was outside but she looked so peaceful sleeping…she heard voices from below and she did not want to interact with anymore humans at the moment, even if they appeared to be Maddie's family…

She knew that breaking her way out would cause a lot of noise but she couldn't remain here either, she started looking around the window to see if she could use it to get out; and she saw a strange thing that went across one side and the wall. She played with it until she unhooked it and carefully swung the window open until she could fit through it, she took one last look at Maddie before she carefully climbed out.

Maddie couldn't identify what had caused her to snap awake as quickly as she did, whether it was the lack of the girl being around, the open window or both but she shot up from her bed as soon as she opened her eyes and immediately put two and two together.

'Shit!' She thought as she got up and scrambled to shower in record time and change clothes and had just finished doing her hair when she heard a knock on the door and her dad entered when she gave her consent.

"I think she made a run for it dad," she said before he could say a word as she pointed to the open window; "I woke up to find it like that, I guess she might have been a little scared with all the people in the house…" she trailed off a little sadly.

"Don't worry, we'll go look for her now," he said with a lot of concern in his voice; not doubt because of Maddie's emotional state and because if the girl was truly in need of help he needed to do what he could to help her.

"What about mom?" Maddie asked as she rose from her vanity chair.

"She's still sleeping," Dale informed her and she carefully kept her face neutral and didn't show her true feelings; although she could admit to herself that for once she was grateful for her mom's binges if it meant that she was out of the way for the moment, as cold as that sounded…

"Well, I guess we should try and figure out where she might go;" Maddie sighed.

"I don't know why, but I think I have an idea…"

The land by the water was truly different this time too; to the mermaid, it was almost magical, especially the colour of the water, so bright that she longed to dive right back in…but she couldn't, there was too many humans that could see her and her family would be in danger…

She had carefully walked the streets, looking around at all of the people as she tried to blend in without interacting with any of them; she knew that she had gathered a few stares and she could assume it was because they knew that she was not from their tribe.

At one point she had laid eyes on an older female that was outside and doing something to the ground with some kind of tool that had a soft looking end; she had sensed that this female who appeared to be a human was in truth one of her kind, she felt confusion from the observation and so she had veered away from the female who may in fact take her back to the water and she was not ready for that yet.

That was when she ended up back near where she had crawled up onto land and watched the people frolicking on the sand; her drag marks were long gone by the frenzied daytime activities. Her eyes landed on three small males, presumably children, who were sitting and using a large, thin object to draw pictures on the sand; she didn't go near, but stopped far enough away so that she could still listen to what they were saying.

"Hey guys check this out!" One of them said as he took the stick from one of his companions; he wrote something with it and she carefully crept over to get a closer look.

"R-Y-N, what kind of word is that?!" Another boy laughed and the third one joined in.

"It says "Ryn"," the first boy said defensively as he threw the stick down; "and I just made it up, geez!"

"Aww, trying to make a new word and be famous!" The second boy jeered as the third kept laughing. The first boy just huffed before he got up and stomped away; the other two just muttered "baby" before they left to follow him; the mermaid walked up and took the vacant seat directly in front of the drawing before she picked up the abandoned stick and began to trace the three lettered word.

"Hi!" A male voice came from above and next to her; she nearly jumped and attacked at the sudden intrusion; but she managed to repress the urge and simply snapped her head up to see a human male around Maddie's age. He had hair that shone brightly in the light, like Maddie his face was friendly (or so she assumed) and he was quite attractive like her as well; she felt warm too, like in Maddie's presence.

"I haven't seen you around here before," the male human said before he sat down beside her and she felt quite meek all of a sudden as she tried to come up with the right words.

"Just came here," she managed to say and he looked…interested? So she assumed that she got the words right.

"Where are you from?" He asked.

"Far away," she replied and was now sorely wishing that she had stayed in Maddie's dwelling.

"I'm Ben," he offered what she assumed was he was called and she gave the first answer that came to her.

"I'm Ryn," she replied as she stared at the letters in the sand.

"It's nice to meet you Ryn," he said with a smile.

"You as well," she said carefully as she wondered where he was going with this.

"Where are you staying?" It took a small moment for her to understand what he was asking and she answered somewhat truthfully.

"With Maddie," she replied firmly; she felt somewhat hopeful that Maddie would still keep her despite her sneaking out. Before anything else was said, she heard a voice speak quietly somewhere from behind them.

"There she is!" Ryn knew immediately that the voice belonged to Maddie and she felt a little relieved; if this male turned out to be dangerous than she knew that she would be safe with Maddie. She carefully turned around and looked over where she had heard her voice come from; Maddie was walking over with an older male that she could only assume was the father that she had heard her speaking with before.

"Maddie!" Ryn called out in a neutral tone despite the relief that she was feeling and the comfort that had been beginning to form in Ben's presence. She saw Maddie's expression change, she wondered if it was because she had spoken for the first time since their meeting.

"Oh hi Ben!" Maddie directed her attention to Ryn's companion once she got over her shock.

"Hey Maddie, Sheriff," he replied as he nodded at each person in turn; "I was just talking with Ryn and she said that she was staying with you guys…" meanwhile, Ryn had gone back to nervously using the stick on the letters again; but a little more relaxed as Maddie didn't appear to be hostile to the male beside her and so she decided that he might be safe to talk to.

"Uh yeah, she is," Maddie got out once she overcame her shock at Ben's opening statement. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the girl in question (who had a pretty name), was drawing on the sand, she noticed the letters that spelt out Ryn's name, but she was drawing beside them now; this new shape looked a lot like a fish…

"We were showing her around when we got separated, I guess she wanted see our beach," Maddie knew that her explanation regarding why they weren't together was weak at best; but she had to say something, plus she and her dad really needed to get their story straight, even if it had to be on the fly like this…

"I don't blame her," Ben replied as he stood up and Ryn copied his action before going over and standing next to Maddie.

"It is pretty," Ryn contributed and Maddie was marveling at how much she was talking now; but in total honesty she might be just the teeniest bit envious that it was Ben who got her to stop being so quiet. It was a stupid feeling to begin with, but for some reason it just really stupid because it was Ben…

Ben looked at his watch.

"You need to be somewhere Ben?" Dale asked this curiously but Maddie could detect a little hint of relief that was mirrored inside her.

"Yeah, I'm actually going out and fishing on the North Star;" Ben replied.

"Xander had mentioned that," Maddie said thoughtfully as she remembered that Xander had in fact mentioned that the other day but she had put it out of her mind.

"I was kind of curious about how we got out fish in and dad did the rest," Ben explained.

"We won't keep you than," Dale said as the three turned to leave.

"Good seeing you two and it was nice to meet you Ryn!" Ben exclaimed before he jogged away. The three slowly walked off in silence, quite a bit of awkwardness in the air before Ryn had the courage to speak.

"You are…Maddie's…father?" It was clear to Maddie (and she saw that her dad had noticed it to) that Ryn was struggling with her words. Ryn at least was capable of understanding English, but actually speaking it was an entirely different matter.

Speaking of which, her voice alone made Maddie want to both blush and crawl closer to her; there was a slight huskiness that was as alluring as her beauty alone…

"I am," Dale replied softly; "and your name is Ryn?"

"I am Ryn," she confirmed but she said it slowly as if she was unsure on how to string the words together.

"How did you end up where Maddie found you? Did someone hurt you?" Dale asked carefully and Ryn gave a look as if she was trying to both process his words and formulate the correct response.

"No one hurt, came from water…" Ryn said bluntly and both father and daughter were confused by that short statement. Both stared at her as they tried to understand, part of that statement could be interpreted to mean that she had been skinny dipping and someone stole her clothing; Maddie tried very, very hard not to think about that too closely…

But it still didn't make complete sense…

"Where are you from?" Dale decided to change the subject, but Maddie knew that he was going to be grilling her more when her grasp of the language was better and she strongly felt sorry for when that happened…

"Far away," was all Ryn supplied and her dad seemed to sense that he needed to back off at least for now; that was what made him a good policeman even before he had become Sheriff.

"We better get back," he announced to both of them. "And we should think of our explanation in case your mom's awake."

'Joy, mom being mom will no doubt scare her off,' Maddie thought sourly at the thought of potentially losing a new friend; it's not like she had many besides Xander…

But deep down, even if she tried to deny it, she knew that it might be a little more than that.

'Well, that was interesting!' Ben thought as he walked away, having turned back briefly for a glimpse of the strange girl as the trio was leaving the beach. He wasn't sure why he had gone up to talk to her when he knew that he was on a bit of a time crunch; but when he had first saw her sitting and drawing in the sand, he thought that there was something…vulnerable about her.

However, after that brief conversation, his opinion only changed slightly, he still felt that she was vulnerable, but there was something almost…predatory about her too. It was her eyes, a blue so dark that he had never seen before, they repelled him, but also lured him in. It was just so damn weird…

And there was also the sudden warm feeling that he got when Maddie came up; that was pretty strange considering they didn't really know each other on a personal basis…he only knew about her for two reasons: one was that she was the Sheriff's step-daughter and the second was that she had been a close friend of Xander since they were kids.

So why was he suddenly feeling weird around her all of a sudden? He could say the same about being near that girl, Ryn…

He shook his head to clear his thoughts as he realized that he had reached the docks; he didn't have the time to be thinking about this, he was supposed to concentrating on learning about Bristol Cove's fishing industry and who else would he learn from but Sean McClure?

He would put these weird feelings aside…for now anyway.