I Have No Excuse

Chapter 8?! We're On A Roll! How Far Can We Go?!

It was a rather tense decision. Not necessarily hard. Our searches at the library on mer illnesses had turned up nothing. Just that we couldn't help him. When a mer gets ill the other members of the pod guard them and take care of them. Gather deep under water plants for medicine and depending on the illness it varied. And unfortunately being lethargic was a symptom of practically every illness in the book. We knew he needed help. Help that we couldn't give. It was an obvious choice and despite that we still hesitated. Then we started walking. We Knew this was the right choice. We Knew that they could help him. We Knew that our actions could either save or doom our mer friend. Yet we were stiff, tense, and quiet. It was like we were walking to the gallows rather than a place that could potentially save the life of our friend. I had to keep reminding myself that Prowl needed them. They sure seemed like stuck up know it alls, but they knew what they were doing. They knew practically everything there was to know about mers so far. They could help him. Sure there was the possibility that they could take him away, but if it came to that then at least they could treat him.

I drew it a breath and let it out though it did nothing to lessen the weight that had firmly made a home in my chest. They could help him. They were going to help him. They were the only ones we could go to. Calm down. They can help him. Nothing bad is going to happen to him if they see him. They knew what they were doing. If they took him away... Dammit. I didn't want them to take him. I hated not being able to help him myself.

"We're doing the right thing... Aren't we, Blaster?"

"Yeah." Came the delayed reply. "We're doing the right thing."

"What if they take him away?"

"Then they take him away I suppose. Maybe we could ask to see him."

The thought of Prowl just not being there was a thought I would rather not entertain. The cove being empty, no Prowl waiting for us to return didn't sound right. What was I going to do without my mer to feed everyday? What was I going to do without Prowl? He and Blaster were the closest thing to a real family I'd ever had and I couldn't just lose Prowl.

"Or we could just not say anything about him. Technically if we don't confirm that we are hiding a mer they can't take him. We'll just have to be more careful on the way to and from the cove."

"Jazz, do you really think that's such a good idea?"

"If what they tell us doesn't help or if it's something we don't have the power to fix then we can tell them, ok? I just..."

"I know. I don't want to lose him either. We can try."

The rest of the walk was far too quiet.

44444444444444444 The Fours March On!4444444444444444

The inside of the building was very bland. It was all stone walls and windows. Some cheap chairs around the windows and a simple desk in the center of the room before a set of double doors. It looked like a prison. Now I really didn't want him to be stuck here. If the front looked like this then who knew what the back was like. With a hesitant glance at each other we approached the desk. The one behind it was fretting about something which wasn't very encouraging either.

"Umm..." Blaster tapped the top of the desk making the male whack his head on the underside of the desk before he was able to pop up holding his head.

"Oh! Hi! I'm so sorry. I'm Ethan, but everyone calls me Aid. I'm filling in for Ella today because she got sick and oh nevermind. How long have you been waiting? What do you need?"

"We just got here. We just wanted to ask some questions about mers." I answered carefully as I looked him up and down.

"Oh sure. Ask away."

He had a very friendly smile. Innocent in a way. I hesitated. Could we really do this?

"Blaster here is wants to become a marine biologist. So what happens to mers who lose their pods?"

"Lose their pods? Oh you must've heard about the destruction of the mer nest nearby, yes?"

"Huh? Oh yeah. So could ya tell us more about it?"

"It was a horrible thing to happen. They tore out and destroyed the nest to build that new bridge." He shook his head sadly. "They attacked the workers to defend their nest, but as I'm sure you know it didn't go over well."

The bridge. Now it made more sense. It was where his nest was. That was why he got so upset. His nest, his home had gotten destroyed and who knew what happened to his pod.

"D- did any of them survive?" Blaster spoke after a moment.

"We got a couple of reports some time ago, but we haven't actually seen them. So far we've found four bodies. No sign of the other two, but hopefully they've managed so far. We're still looking though. Keeping our ear to the ground so to speak."

"Do you think they will be ok? Ya know, on their own?"

"Not for an extended period of time. Two mers aren't an ideal hunting group. However even if they somehow are able to get the food that they need, losing even one pod member is hard enough. It's devastating because they're so close. Some never even recover from that. They won't last long like that. Not after what happened."

"Why? What happens?"

"To make things simple they become depressed. They have a hard time getting over it and tend to linger around the body of a fallen member. However in this case with the area destroyed and the bridge being built they haven't come back."

Oh no... I thought things were serious before. Now things were just getting worse. We had brought him back to his destroyed nest and just confirmed for him that there was nothing left. That his home and his pod were destroyed. No wonder he was acting the way he is. With this information it was a wonder why he didn't hate us. Yet he had been calling for us to stay. There had to be something we could do.

"Is there any way we could help them?"

"And why exactly are you asking that exactly? Because you don't look like the charity type, kid."

"Ratchet!" Ethan yelped. "Don't be rude to our guests!"

Despite the mild scolding the older man wasn't fazed. Blaster shifted beside me.

"Jazz, maybe we should."

We couldn't just give him up, could we? Ethan or Aid here seemed fine, but this place. Would he be ok here?

"If you know where they are you need to tell us."

"We were just curious. Nothing more."

"Oh really? You come around asking about mers and pods months after the incident. If you're coming here they must be pretty bad off."

He spoke sternly. Confident. And I would be lying if I said he wasn't intimidating as all hell.

"If you don't tell us they will die."

"Jazz, I think we need to. They know how to help Prowl."

The sudden urge to turn around and run came. Prowl needed me, but... I drew in a shaky breath.

"You'll take care of him? Nothing will happen to him?"

"It's why we're here, kid. We would never dream to hurt them. You have my word that we'll do everything in our power to help him."

"I want to see the rest of your facility first."

I jumped as I got a laugh in reply.

"Fine, but we're doing this quick."