Waterline

Time of Distraction

Conor pushed the door open to see that everyone was sitting on the couch. "Hey Conor!" Penelope waves to him.
"Hi, PJ told me I didn't have to work today. So maybe I could spend more time with Mae," Conor explains. Mae turned her head and smiled at Conor. "Yeah, you two deserve to spend as much time together," Penelope told him. Conor thanked her and smiled towards Mae. He sat next to her then eyed the book that was next to Mae.

"Did you find anything interesting in there? It must have a lot of information in it," Conor says. Mae looked at the book then picked it up. "Yeah, there was something that could help Nelson and Penelope," Mae opens the book and flipped to the index. Penelope began to listen at the mention of her name. "How would it help me?" She asks as she walked around the couch to sit next to Mae.

Mae flips through the page until she found the right one. The picture was a silhouette of a siren with the brain completely empty. Then on the right side was a silhouette of a human with a complex mind. Mae scans the words to collect what she was going to say. "It says that previous sirens who are now human will be gifted with their memories back if the sacrifice is a success," Mae reads. It was a for Neptune to make up to them after taking their individuality then forcing them to sacrifice one of their kind.

"Mae, I don't care about getting my memories back now. Everyone has been helping me get back what I lost. You've been wanting to know for the longest time," Penelope tells her. It was true. Mae desperately wants to know what happened to her. She got some hints but it didn't help her too much. All the hints made her more curious about her past. "It would be great to know what hurt you, then I can protect you from it," Conor tried to support her. He was also interested about what happened to Mae.

Mae only smiles and nods. "Some things will always stay a mystery," she said. Ashley walked out of the bathroom, she instantly spot Conor. "Did PJ let you skip out on work?" She asked him.
"Yeah, but I'll start working tomorrow," Conor assures her. He didn't want to come off as being lazy.
"To be honest, you and Mae should be excused from this work to spend your final moments together," Ashley told him. She took a seat on the couch next to Penelope.
"Sucks, that we can't spend a day having fun before Mae leaves," Penelope sighs.

Ashley quickly got up. An idea sparks in her head from Penelope's previous statement. "What if we have a party the night of the sacrifice? Mae can spend her last hours having fun and being with the people she met," Ashley told them.
"That's brilliant! Mae are you up for that!" Penelope also jumps up.
"We can do that," Mae smiles.
"I'll tell the others!" Penelope jogs back to the kitchen to get her phone. Ashley sits back down on the couch.

"Oh, congratulations on the baby," Conor spoke up.
"Did Toby tell you?" Ashley says as she looks down at her stomach. She still felt unsure about what she did. Regret stayed strong from what she had said.
"Yeah, he was so happy to hear about it. I've never seen him this excited, he was jumping around and everything," Conor tells her.
Ashley smiles as she looks up at Conor. "Really?" Conor nods.

Ashley got up and grabbed her bag. She no longer felt ashamed to face Toby anymore. "I'm going to visit the others," she told everyone before picking up her bag. "Be careful," Penelope says. Ashley walked out of the door. She was excited to go face Toby after hearing the wonderful news from Conor. There was no longer no shame for her to admit about her pregnancy.

Darrel parked his car in a vacant spot. There was a lot of open space since not a lot of people want to walk in a cloudy and windy day. "Can you carry the bags of tools?" He asks Libby as he holds out two bags full of stuff. It was sorta heavy but that shouldn't be a challenge. "Of course, I'm not a weakling like you," Libby counters as she takes the bags.
"Excuse me?" Darrel asks.
"You heard me, we are about to get in a fight," Libby tells him.
"Let's start this couples brawl!" Darrel smirks as he pick up the two cans of paint. Libby and Darrel both laughed as they started walking to the boardwalk. They both took their precious time to get to the worksite.

"Finally, Generic Love Interest and Libert are here," PJ says as he got up from where he was sitting at. Toby was laying on the pile of wood, staring at his phone. "Toby, we have to get to work," Pj says as he lightly kicks him on the shoulder. Toby smiles as he puts away his phone. "Sorry, I was just looking at baby stuff," Toby says as he got up from the pile of food. Darrel and Libby look at each other, both knowing that they missed a lot.

"What happened while we were gone?" Darrel asks them. "Ashley told us she is pregnant, and Lover Boy went to lick Mae's face," PJ explains as he picks up a pile of wood.
"That's gross, Albino Screecher," Darrel says.
"I don't like that nickname," PJ drops the wood onto the sand. Darrel and PJ continued to have a family bicker. Libby was still hung on the fact that Ashley was pregnant. Toby started to get worry about her. Was she mad that Ashley was pregnant? Or did she feel left out when Ashley didn't tell her?

"Libby, are you alright?" Toby asks.
"Not really, Ashley hasn't offered for me to be the godmother," Libby folds her arm.
"You were our first consideration," Toby assures her.
"Good," Libby says. She stared intensely at Toby as she walks over to Darrel. She wraps her arms around his rocks that is known as his biceps. Continuing with the stare that sunk into Toby.

Darrel and Libby both sat in the sand looking over the blueprints to the boat. They worked on finding and flaws or room for improvements. Libby just had a blank expression as she stares at the paper. She has no experience with building things except creative photos. "We can put a thin layer of wood to give it a better flooring," Darrel point out. Libby snap back to reality. "Agreed, I was just about to say that," she says.
"Okay...?" Darrel comments as he wrote it down on the piece of paper. Libby almost instantly went back to dreaming about the new camera she would like to have. Darrel tried to find more improvements, thinking that Libby was doing the same thing. Little does he know.