The Professor and the Siren

8. Orlando

Orlando

When I entered the galley on the Undaunted on silent feet I was surprised when my father flicked on a light. "Woah dad, what are you doing sitting in the dark out here? I thought you were asleep?"

Thomas McLaren was sitting at one of the tables in the galley, hands folded around a tumbler of whiskey. He looked tired and worried, a look I'd come to see on his face more and more often the last few months. I knew he worried about Matt, who was pretty messed up in the head right now after his stint in the navy. But I knew he worried about me too, going out on my own more and more, swimming longer and longer.

"Was worried you weren't coming back till morning," he said, dark eyes so like my own and those of my siblings staring morosely out the window. "I do get it you know? I feel her pulling on me too."

Like I'd always worried myself, he knew better than the rest of my family how much I struggled to stay anchored to land. But until now I hadn't realized he'd sit here, waiting for me to come back whenever I was restless and went out at night. He hadn't known the difference in me this evening, I'd never come back this early before to catch him waiting here for me.

Feeling guilty I headed for the cabinets to get myself a tumbler too before pouring an inch for myself from the open bottle in front of him. "I'm sorry dad," I told him, "I know you understand. I fight it the best I can but some nights it's hard." But as long as I'd worked on the Undaunted with him, I'd never seen him restless the way I was.

"If you feel the pull? How do you do it?" I asked next, we'd never talked about it before. It was always this shadow hanging between us, between me and my family. I didn't think Dev or Matt experienced it the way I did. They were always in the thick of things with their friends, easily talking with strangers, they understood social interactions the way I understood the ebb and flow of the tides.

"Until I found Clara?" dad said, surprising me, "I thought I'd lose the fight." So that was the key then, to find that one person that could be my anchor. Just like I'd suspected the moment I laid eyes on my pretty marine biologist. "How'd you know mom was the one?"

My dad's eyes lit up as he contemplated the question, as always, even more than thirty years after they'd gotten married still so obviously in love. "I just knew, the moment I saw her son. You'll understand when you meet your one."

Reaching out to pat his shoulder I smirked, "I understand. Why do you think I'm back this early?" Then I tossed back my drink and got up, enjoying the surprise on his face. "She's a marina biologist," I couldn't help but add, "She works on the RV Yerseke." I pointed out the porthole to the smaller research vessel a little to our starboard side.

He got up immediately to look, "Oh no, isn't Hybach running that one?" I hadn't known that, Mariana hadn't mentioned the name but I immediately felt unease in the pit of my stomach. "She didn't say but it wouldn't surprise me." Though my dad had never gotten any kind of official degree he liked to keep up with the scientific reading, especially since I'd gotten some of my papers published. As such we were both well aware of Hybach's reputation in some circles.

"How did you meet?" my dad asked and while I felt a little guilt at having to admit to accidentally showing my other form to her. His joy at realizing that this girl might be the answer to at least one of his worries outshone his displeasure at my idiotic mistake. I had to agree with him there.

As such we talked far longer than we should have and didn't catch more than a few hours of sleep that evening. Still when I showered and dressed that morning, I felt like I was closer to my dad, to my family than I had in years. Like at least they weren't slipping through my fingers anymore because this part of me that was always pulling me out to sea had shifted. My north was not the sea, it was Mariana.