Jordan's eyes opened to what he had expected, blackness. He felt Ariel beside him laying atop his arm. He slowly pulled her off and laid her back down, pulling on his clothes as he walked toward the small stairwell to the surface. He swung open the door and stepped on board of his ship. He had risen to a beautiful sun rise, and everything seemed so calm. Out here on the ocean, unlike land, everything after a storm was almost always the same, It seemed as if a storm hadn't even occurred.

Jordan had begun to gather up ropes and other material that lay aboard the boat when Ariel came up from the hull. Jordan turned to her when she came up and smiled as he watched the sun gleam in her blue eyes. Even though she had been through hell and back, she never stopped smiling, never stopped looking forward. That was only one of the things that Jordan loved about her.

The continued on for a long moment, coming to sit beside each other at the front of the boat to watch the sun rise, they said nothing, but they each had a certain unspoken language that they both seemed to completely understand. Then, for the first time that day, Ariel looked down into the water. Jordan looked with her, and saw tears ripple the surface.

"Ariel what's wrong?"

She looked from the water to Jordan, tears full in her eyes, but a smile that seemed both mad and joyful.

"This is it, this is… my home."

Jordan looked to her and then looked away for a short second, he didn't want to leave her, but he did. Not to be rid of her, but to have an ease of mind about her, and besides, he had fought the ocean for this very moment.

"Then lets get you there."

Very slowly as if time itself had stopped but the world around it continued, he lifted Ariel into his arms and walked to the back of the boat. Never did he avert his eyes from hers as he walked to that back of the boat for what seemed like a century, the only thing that seemed to give any real sense to the world were the seagulls that squawked overhead. Now at the side of the boat with Ariel in his arms, he began to lower her. So gently did he lay her into the water that the supposed ripples seemed non-existent.

There hands still held each other and now it was time for a last exchange of words were both wanted to say everything, but nothing at the same time. It was Ariel first.

"I love you."

Then Jordan.

"And I love you."

Slowly still as the time had paused their lips came together and they held, for they both felt the sensation that all desire, but too few ever attain. As they released from each other, Jordan's finger sliding gently under Ariel's chin being the last contact that either of them felt, the immediate distance that came between them seemed colossal. They both watched as they slowly faded from sight, never ever looking away or blinking until there was absolutely no sight or even hint at the image of each other.

Now Ariel sat in the water, the sun at her back, and tears silently sliding down her face. The silence sounded almost eerie, for the only thing you could hear was the quiet sobs. With a last look at the horizon, and a final tug for her fading lover, she dove back under the water towards home, her heart both broken and full at the same time.