Depths

6. Desperation

This chapter has been edited.

...

Maddie and Jack had just gotten back from their first attempt in finding their son. They had been searching from the time Jack first got home until 5 pm the next day due to circumstances that were out of their control. They were unable to search day and night like they wanted because the stupid Fenton submarine required a periodic gas filling, and needed to rest for the night to keep from burning up and shutting down. The Fenton's had yet to work out the kinks in the machine, so if they used it for too long, it would stop working. If it stopped working, then not only would they be trapped at the bottom of the sea, they also wouldn't be able to get out of the submarine. Lots of things could go wrong if they got trapped in the sub while searching for Danny; they could freeze, they could run out of air, or they could be killed when the water pressure became too much for the submarine in it's out of order state.

While the parents kept up the teamwork when trying to find their son, the tension between them was thicker than Danny's teenage skull. Jack got out of the car without bothering to check if Maddie was following him, he was depressed about his current status with his wife and too torn about having to give up the search for his son for the night to deal with her.

Maddie didn't say a word as she unbuckled her seat belt and got out of the Fenton assault vehicle, she just followed after her husband into the house. 

It was cold and empty, like her heart at the moment. The house didn't have the normal warmth that it usually did when Danny was there, and the awkward tension between her and Jack did nothing to ease the forlorn silence throughout the house. Neither of them said a word to each other as Jack went into the kitchen to grab some leftover meatloaf and the bucket of fudge with a coke. He didn't even care enough to warm the meat up, not wanting to be anywhere near his cheating wife at the moment.

Maddie had followed him into the kitchen but didn't say anything as she watched her husband grab his comfort food, she wanted to talk, to say something to ease the awkwardness between them, but what could she possibly say?

"I'm going to bed," was the only thing Jack said to her as he walked out of the kitchen towards the stairs, "You can sleep in Jazz's room."

Jazz.

Maddie couldn't believe that they had forgotten about her.

Their 17-year-old genius of a daughter had already left and was a freshman in college, she had no idea that her brother was missing. She briefly considered not telling her, knowing that it would put her under a lot of stress, which she didn't need while in college, but she slapped herself for thinking that. Jazz had always loved her little brother more than anything in the world, they had always been close, and Jazz needed to know that her brother was gone.

While her husband slammed the door upstairs, she sat down on the end of the couch and picked up the phone.

...

"What do you mean, 'Danny is missing?!'" Jazz's ear piercing shocked voice yelled into her mom's ear, "Where is he?"

"Don't freak out Jazz, I'm sure your brother is fine." Maddie said more for herself then for Jazz, "He's just been kidnapped by a community of mermaids is all, I'm sure we will find him in the next few days." she failed to mention the odds of Danny actually being alive, not wanting to think about it herself. Her son was definitely alive, he had to be, and if he wasn't... then Maddie wouldn't stop looking until she found some proof of him being there. And after she did that, she would be sure to hunt down every last one of them and tear them apart molecule by molecule.

"I'm coming home." Jazz stated it didn't sound like a question.

"Jazz, sweetie, no. Your father and I can handle this." she felt like such a liar for withholding such important information, like how much she and her husband couldn't handle this, let alone each other. "You need to stay behind and make sure your GPA stays high so that you can get next semester free."