The Blues of Atlantis | ✔

Chapter Five

Nerina wished she could just hop in the water and swim with her dolphin friends. Sadly, she was too afraid she'd puke in the water with her upset stomach. Instead, she sat on the edge of the tank, feet dangling in the water. The dolphins swam over and laid their snouts on her thighs.

"Oh, I've missed you guys." She touched them gently on the melon, smiling. One kept clicking at her, and motioning for her to jump in. "Sorry, I can't today."

Swimming with them was definitely the highlight of her job, nothing else even came close to how incredible it was. With being pregnant, she doubted her boss would let her get in the water with them, let alone be in the mermaid show. As much as she hated the idea of being land bound, the new life inside her came first.

This may be the only time she'd ever have a child and she wasn't going to jeopardize the baby in any way. No matter how much the sparkling water called out to her. One of the dolphins tugged on her shirt playfully, his eyes begging her to jump in.

"I know. It's killing me, too," she said softly. Leaning back, she grabbed a ball and threw it into the water. They all swam after it, tossing it back and forth, chattering away with each other as if they didn't have a care in the world. Lucky. There were too many worries going through her mind.

She couldn't believe it. Here she was, pregnant, and Wade was being acold-hearted cretin. The happiest moment of her life had been turned to utter crap by him and the doctors. Why couldn't they just let her have one day where she could be on cloud nine? One day to pretend everything was normal. One dolphin appeared to sense her distress and swam back over to her.

"I'm scared, Jojo," she said, letting her face rest against his snout, hugging him. She had to go and see another doctor to find out exactly how bad the baby's condition was, and find out what they could do about it.

Did the doctor mean surgery when he spoke about options? They were supposed to call her in the next day or two with the appointment time. Waiting sucked. How was she even supposed to sleep tonight?

Her shoulders cramped under the tension, making her head hurt. Nerina tilted her head to the side to stretch the muscle, and Jojo tilted his head, too. She laughed, sticking her tongue out at him and he did it back.

"Copycat," she said, laughing. They never failed to cheer her up. But she knew she couldn't stay at the aquarium forever, she and Wade needed to talk. He needed to know about the baby's condition.

She pulled her legs out of the water, and went to stand up, but her legs just flopped over to the side, as though she had no strength in them at all. "Help," she tried to yell, but her vocal cords wouldn't work so it sounded more like a squeak. Her chest constricted, making it hard to breathe.

Looking down at her feet, she noticed a strange whitish blue tinge on her toes. She reached down and touched them, squishing them like they were pure jelly. With her heart pounding, she started to pull herself to the bench where she'd placed her purse. That's when she heard his voice.

"Neri."

Nothing scared Wade more than seeing her pull herself along the ground. The change was happening much more quickly than he'd anticipated. Thankfully, the dolphin tank wasn't connected to the ocean so it didn't have the full power behind it. He looked around quickly to make sure no one else noticed what was going on. When he reached her, tears were flowing down her cheeks.

"What is happening to me?"

"It's alright, sweetheart." He picked her up and carried her inside the building. He grabbed a clean towel out of the cabinet and began to dry her legs.

"I think I need to go to the hospital."

"You'll be fine. Let's get you dried off and I'll take you home."