The Little Mermaid

Chapter 3: Brand New Day

He doesn't know when he fell asleep, but he can feel the sun on his face, snapping him awake. He is a little disoriented as is normally the case when he first wakes up in the morning, he checks his watch, it's 7:20, his mom and Burt have probably been awake since 5, and he isn't looking forward to explaining himself when they get back from work. He feels it was worth it though. To fall asleep next to her—

"Oh god!" he says, finally noticing the extra weight and heat on his body, he looks around frantically, hoping that nobody is around to see her, weekend water traffic usually starts to pick up around this time of the morning and he doesn't know how he'll even begin to explain the naked girl laying next to him in the boat… wait, naked girl?

His breath hitches in his throat and prickly tears spring to his eyes as he sees them, long, bronze, smooth and perfect, some of the best legs he's ever seen, but why the hell did she have legs? Where did they come from? Where was her tail? Was it something he did? He didn't understand any of it.

"Um, Ra-Rachel?" he says, shaking her gently, hoping that she doesn't freak out, but how could she not? He was freaking out and he wasn't the one who had turned into a different species overnight.

"Hello Finn," she says sleepily before shutting her eyes again, and then she snaps them open once more and gasps. "On no! it's morning I have to get home," she says frantically, starting out of the boat.

"I wouldn't do that," he says, stopping her.

"What? Why?" she says, confused. "Wait, Finn, something's different, I feel…" And she looks down and lets out a scream before he puts his hand over her mouth, silencing it.

"Okay, you can't panic Rachel if I put my hand down you have to promise me you won't scream, can you do that for me?"

She nods and he slowly lowers his hand.

"I have legs Finn, why do I have legs?" she says, trying to keep her calm and failing pretty miserably.

"Believe me if I knew I would tell you," he says.

"This is so strange, I don't understand this, how did this happen?"

"Rachel, you have to calm down. We'll figure this out."

"How am I going to get home? I can't swim with these, I'll drown."

"We're not going to let that happen."

She looks down at another foreign body part that grew overnight and she lets out another sharp gasp, but stops herself from screaming. "What is this Finn?" she says shrilly as she stares down at it in bewilderment. "What is it? Is it some sort of wound?"

"No, no," he says waving his hands, "it's just… your…"

"My what?" she says, the panicked tone persisting.

"Your, lady business," he says, under his breath.

"My lady business? What's that? Do you have one?" she says, quickly reaching for his pants to see for herself.

"No," he says, stopping her. Why didn't he ever explain this type of thing to her? He thinks to himself, but in his defense he wasn't exactly expecting her to grow a vag overnight, hoping maybe, but definitely not expecting. "It would be weird for me to have one but it's perfectly normal for you, well not really normal in this case but normal for girls who aren't usually… half-fish," he rambles confusedly. "Okay let's maybe cover you up," he continues, finding his beach towel and draping it over her.

"I'm afraid Finn, I'm so afraid right now."

"Hey, it's okay," he says, tentatively pulling her into his embrace. "There has to be an explanation for this, what about that story you told me that one time, about how mermaids get legs if they stay out of the water too long?"