SquidgeWorld Archive

Trey felt frustrated. Lt. Brody had ordered them all to be quiet before she could repond to Lonnie's comments. And she was sure that it had been Lonnie's voice in the first place. To have Tim thinking that she would say anything against him hurt more than she would have believed possible back in her former life. That any man could mean so much to her was unthinkable back then.

A warm hand insinuated itself into hers and she stopped fretting about that. Tim leaned over, shadowing in the mist, quietly whispering, "Hey. It's ok. I know you wouldn't lie about something like that."

"Ummm, thanks, Tim. But you're wrong. I would lie like that to get you out of trouble, just not into it." She heard him chuckle quietly. In the distance, she thought she heard someone yelling and laughing, but the dense fog made it sound far away and unrelated to them.

"Lt. Brody," Trey sang out. "Any idea of which way we're heading?" Silence answered her query.

"Jim?" Tim tried. With the unencumbered hand, he flailed in the mist, sending shreds of it winding away. "Jim? Where are you?" Trey joined him, trying to find their companions.

"Ari? DAMN IT! Where'd she go?"

"Trey? You see Miguel, either?"

"Nope, I'm lucky I can see you. So, we've lost Jim & Lonnie and I just bet you that Ari and Miguel lost us." She turned around, to face Tim with a first class pout on her face. "That's what she was up to all along. I knew she was up to something, and I'm guessing that's what it was. To sneak away with Miguel Ortiz and ..."

She stopped short, unsure of how to continue the rant. The way Adler behaved, Trey wasn't quite sure that she really knew what to do with a man like Ortiz. But then, Miguel showed himself to be more than happy to show her, if she'd let him. Unable to finish that thought, her fear and frustration had to find some outlet, and Tim O'Neill was the nearest target. Angrily, she turned on him. "This is all your fault! You just had to tell Jim this was a wonderful idea, didn't you!" Taking off her pack, Trey threw it petulantly to the ground and flopped herself down beside it.

More gently, Tim sat beside her and put his arm around her shoulders. "I thought it was a good idea and I still do." He squeezed her lightly then released the hold, reaching for her hand. "Now, I know that you don't want to waste a good huff, but this pout isn't really for me. And it's not about being lost, either. You've been acting surly all day. So why don't you tell me what's really bothering you?"

Snatching her hand away from him, Trey stuck her nose in the air and ground out. "I don't know that you mean."

Tim shrugged, abandoning the attempt to hold her hand and leaning back against his pack, legs stretched out in front of him. With a small laugh, he stated, "Oh, come on, Trey. With everything you've been through, you can't tell me that getting lost in a fogbank on an Irish hill is enough to send you into a snit? Sweetheart, I've seen you weather worse with better humour." Sitting forward, he took her chin in his hand and turned her face toward him. "Come on, give."

Trey shook her head out of his grip and looked straight up. He was right, that wasn't all it was, but he was also correct that she didn't want to surrender her tantrum until she had to. On the other hand, that 'sweetheart' was awful nice. Blinking in the bright sunshine, she suddenly realized the sun was shining directly overhead while she still couldn't see 10 feet in either direction. Anger forgotten, she murmured, "That's just weird." She turned quizzically toward Tim. "You see that?"

Tim didn't even look up. "Yes I do,"
he lied. "You're not changing the subject."

She closed her eyes, drawing her knees up to her chest and resting her chin on them. With a small sigh, trey begged, "Tim, just leave it, OK? Not everything has to be talked out right away and not everything is about you." She felt him draw away, and knew that if she looked at him, she'd see that little-boyish hurt expression on his face, and then she'd melt and tell him everything. And since most of this was petty, ridiculous jealousy of Ari Adler, she didn't want him to know. It would diminish her in his eyes.

"I'm just trying to help," he answered. Trey winced. She didn't have to see it, it was in his voice.

"I know and that's part of the problem. I'm not used to it. I'm more accustomed to guys just trying to get what they can from me, while I'm trying to do the same with them. Oh, Tim. I'm not used to ... to being so open with someone. I feel like all my nerve endings are exposed and I'm scared. I'm fighting the urge to get the hell away from you, while I have the chance." She sighed. "Except it's already too late. I just need time, OK?"

Tim sighed unhappily. "So, it's just your old instincts coming into play, then?" he asked. Trey shrugged. The man beside her knew more of her ancient history than anyone onboard the SeaQuest, or anywhere else for that matter. Including several psychiatrists who'd attempted to shrink her head after she'd awaken after an unexpected 30 year cryo-sleep. Tim had been there when she'd gone through a cryo-flashback combined with a mess of drugs injected by some kidnappers a while back.

"Yeah," she admitted. "I guess that's all."

"Hey!" Tim exclaimed. "Is it my imagination, or is the fog thinner over that way?" Trey looked in the indicated direction, then around. Feeling a little hopeful, she nodded.

"Yeah. I think that it might be."

"Well, then, let's go," he invited standing and giving her a hand up. He bent over and picked up her pack with a gentlemanly flourish, marred by a surprised grunt at the weight of it. "Is that pack heavier than mine or am I just getting weaker?" he asked facietiously. Trey snorted with amusement.

"Yes and no. Yes, it's heavier and no, you aren't any weaker. My intrepid Lt. Boss decided that I needed to get used to the larger Security issue pack and insisted that I start now. I gotta tell you, though, it's just killing my shoulders."

"Here, I'll take this one and you take mine, Ok? Let's see what's that way. If we can get our bearings, we can work our way back around to the others, maybe." Trey snorted again.

"If they are anywhere around to be found," she muttered quietly to herself, certain that Ari had Miguel tucked somewhere warm and cozy and the two of them had no intention of being found anytime soon. That little girl had definately been up to something and Trey resented being manipulated into being a part of it.

After several minutes of thinning fog, unraveling with every step they took, the two officers came out, looking down over an easy drop onto a shale beach. Tim dropped the pack

"If you were carrying that weight as long as you were, then I'm not at all surprised you're in such a bad mood. Tell you what. Let's get out one of the blankets, and spread it on the clover up here, and I can try and work some of the kinks out of you.?"

Trey didn't have to consider the question for very long. Tim may not give the best massages on SeaQuest, but she enjoyed the ones he did more. In a few seconds, the dark side of the blanket was up and she was stretched out on top of it, head pillowed on her arms.

Tim straddled her back, taking his time getting settled, his bottom lightly resting on her own. Trey wriggled slightly. Leaning forward, he hissed softly in her ear, "Stop that you. You don't want to make this any harder than it already is."

"If I stop, how will I know how hard it is?" she replied reasonably. For an answer, the lieutenant lightly punched the spot between her shoulder blades. Then, he spread his hands and separated them onto her shoulders, kneading the heel of each palm into the muscles of her back, leaning forward to blow warmly on the nape of her neck and leave a trail of kisses down her back.

Closing her eyes, Trey found herself floating in the sensations flooding her body. Conscious that the others were probably looking for them in the fog, she found that she definately did not want to be found, yet, or, hopefully, anytime soon.

"Why don't we head back down to that beach and wait there for the others, there?" she suggested hopefully.

Tim chuckled. "I've heard you complaining about the temperature of the waters around here. Surely you aren't thinking of trying a recreation of "From Here to Eternity", are you?"

Trey laughed with him, and rolled over underneath him, so that he
was still straddling her on top.

"Well, now that you mention it..." she reached up and put her hands on his shoulders, trying to pull him down. But instead, he stood up, dragging her upright with him and gathering her into his arms. "Is that all you think about?" he murmured, nuzzling her neck.

"No. No. Only when I'm with you." Shrugging her shoulders experimentally, she nodded. "It does feel better, now. Thanks. Want to help put the damn thing back on?"

"Nope," he answered, slipping the security pack onto his own back. "I'm still taking it. Come on, let's go."

With a laugh, Trey picked it up, commenting conversationally, "You know what Ari did when Miguel suggested the same kind of thing?"

"Is that what that was all about?" Tim asked incuriously. "Well then, I guess I'm lucky that the woman I'm with isn't quite as wild, huh?"

As they worked their way down to the deserted, enclosed beach, Tim hesitantly asked, "Trey? Are you feeling happier about being here?"

"Being here, how? On SeaQuest?" She shrugged. "I wasn't really unhappy about it. I just didn't think that I was fitting in."

"Do you think that you are, now?" Trey took her time answering.

"Yes. Yes, I do. I hate to admit it, but it helps that Jim treats me the way he does, like just another member of the crew." They slipped and slid a while longer in silence. Then Tim tried again.

"I mean, now. Do you feel as though you are settling into the times." There was a longer period before Trey could answer, and they came out on the level ground, gently sloping toward the water.

"No," she finally confessed. "But a lot of that is because SeaQuest is such an enclosed environment. Like it's own little world. I mean, I have a place there, but I don't know enough about outside."

Tim dropped the heavy pack and sat down, propping his back against it. After a moment, Trey joined him. They looked out at the sun dancing on the sea, and spied a couple of brown heads breaking the surface in the distance.

"So, how much more do you think you can learn from the seals around here?" Tim asked, trying to find a neutral subject.

Shrugging, Trey answered, "Not much more. Ari claims that some of the seals are coming from another colony, somewhere, but I don't know if I agree. I'm not even sure why I was included in this survey. I mean, they are highly organized, with definate patterns of interaction, but they aren't intelligent. So, I'm not sure I'm really adding anything to what was already known." She sighed, "We'll be finishing up over the next couple of days and heading out again." With a mirthless laugh, she added, "And I'm guessing it's not a moment too soon for Ford and Brody. Did you see them plotting our course last night. And this whole outing was just intended to get back at us for dragging the census out. They are both of them getting restless and wanting something to do." She paused, wondering if she ought to add the last and deciding that she didn't have anything to lose. After all, if she was ready to discuss the matter, she'd have to bring it up, this time. "Not to mention you."

Tim twisted his torso around to look at her quizzically. "What about me?"

Giving him a helpless, apologetic smile, Trey replied sadly, "I've been in a mood lately and you've probably had enough."

Tim started to laugh, shaking his head slowly from side to side. "The only thing that I've had enough of is me worrying that you aren't happy. Don't you know that I want that more than anything? I just hope that if I'm patient enough, you'll decide to tell me about it without the drugs or concussion."

Trey got up on her knees, turning to face him and put her hands on his shoulders. "Tim, I ... " she stopped. "What's that?" Startled, Tim spun around. There was a figure walking up out of the water, a girl, dressed in nothing whatsoever and crying piteously.

Jumping to her feet, Trey began to run to the shoreline, calling out over her shoulder, "Get a couple blankets from the packs and bring them." To herself, she was grimly glad that Brody had been such a prick about this outing, otherwise they wouldn't have had those.

Splashing into the cold foam, spraying salt water with every step, she reached out to take the girl's shoulders, who flinched away to stand, water swirling around her knees, staring with wide, wary amber-brown eyes from which tears overflowed.

"My god, what are you doing in that water? Let alone with no clothes on?" Trey scolded worriedly as Tim arrived with a couple of blankets. He handed one to her and proceeded to wrap the other around the girl and swing her up into his arms, carrying her out of the waves up to the dry shale. She appeared to be in her very early teens from the looks of her, but rather pudgy and childish still. Trey spread the other blanket, and he set her down on it and backed away, not wanting to do anything that might cause her distress. Trey knelt beside the girl and began rubbing her dry with the blanket draped over her.

"Sweetheart, can you tell me what happened? Where are your clothes?" Trey asked, once the child's crying seemed quieter. She pulled the girl into a hug, trying to add her bodyheat to the blanket's warming properties. This close, the poor thing smelled faintly of fish and seaweed. Trey wrinkled her nose slightly but hugged her close.

The girl sniffled a little, "I was playing with my cousin and her friends and they said that I was too young to come with them, but I'm not. I'm only a couple of years younger. So, when they took off their things, I hid and did it, too. But I couldn't keep up with them that way, and they wouldn't wait for me and now I don't know where they are." She looked around, her brow wrinkling with puzzlement. "I don't know where I am now either. I don't know where my stuff is." Big tears formed in the soft brown eyes and spilled out of the corners.

Reassured that it wasn't a case of abduction and rape, and so the child would have no specific reason to fear a man, Tim, knelt beside them and took off his khaki uniform top, draping it over the strange girl's shoulders. "Can you tell us your name?" he asked kindly.

"Name?" Those sad eyes looked confused now as well as lost.

"What do they call you?" Trey took up the question.

She looked from one to the other, shaking her head with bafflement, her wide & full of incomprehension. "Surely someone must have something that they use to mean you," Trey persisted, feeling rather confused herself. Tim touched her shoulder gently, and shook his head at his fellow officer.

To the girl, he crooned soothingly, "Ok, thats ok. Don't worry about it. It isn't important." But the child had brightened up.

"Dahna!" she declared happily, as if just remembering something. "That's what you call me. Dahna."

"Well," Tim said, standing up and brushing off his knees. "You said that you hid your stuff. If you tell me what to look for, then I'll try to find your clothes for you." She looked up at his long lean form and Trey hid a smile at the incipient hero worship in those deep amber eyes.

"I rolled it up and put it under a stone shaped like a scalloped shell up near the cliff," she answered trustingly.

"How big a stone?" he pressed.

"About, oh, this big, and so thick," she replied, her hands about two feet apart and then 10 inches. Tim nodded. "Anything else interesting about it?" he asked, frowning a little. She shook her head slowly and sobered a bit, realizing, perhaps, how little it was to go on. Tim looked around and sighed.

"Well, if you put it under a cliff, then you must have been that way," he guessed pointing. "Because the rise to the headland sloped downward in the other direction. I'll be back in a little while, Trey. You try to keep her warm and calm, ok?" Running her fingers through the child's tangled blonde tresses, trying to offer tactile comfort, Trey nodded, startled speechless by the discovery of seaweeds twisted with the strands of hair. The girl nodded, as well, rather thoughtfully.

"I think you're right," she said, starting to get up. "I'll go with you." the blanket and jacket slid off her shoulders and Tim blushed and turned away.

"No. No. You stay here and I'll be back as soon as I can. Trey?"

Answering the cry for help with a grin, she pulled Dahna back down, saying comfortingly,"No. You stay here with me. That way, Tim will know where to find us." Obediently allowing the woman to pull her arms through the jacket sleeves, Dahna looked a bit puzzled by this. "But ... If I go with him, then he'll know where I am. And I should be able to find the rock. I know what it looks like." Buttoning the front, Trey chuckled warmly. "But we'll stay here anyway, ok?" She looked up, surprised to find that the lieutenant was still present. "Tim?" In answer, he cocked his head to one side, indicating that he wanted to talk to her privately. "I'll be right back, Dahna, ok?"

Trey stood and touched Tim's arm as them moved away from the now surprisingly calm girl. Several yards away, he stopped and looked at her. "While I'm looking," he said, "See if you can get her to eat anything and make sure she stays wrapped up warmly. As cold as the water is, I think that hypothermia is a very real consideration. Trey looked down at her wet legs and shivered.

Hugging herself for warmth, she nodded wryly. "Yeah, but for which one of us?" she asked, looking back at the girl, seated with her legs curved to one side on the blanket gazing at them with curious eyes. "She doesn't even seem to be feeling the cold." Tim shrugged.

"That's what scares me," he confessed, putting his arms around her and stepping close to her . "That she's already so far gone that she's numb. I'll keep my eyes open for her cousin and friends. And if I find them, I'll give them a piece of my mind for leading her to this. As for you, watch yourself. I don't want to have to nurse you through a cold, you hear me?"

Leaning forward just enough to rest the top of her head on his chest, Trey whispered softly, feeling ridiculously afraid that if she said it too loud something might hear and jinx it. "You know, I think that I could really get used to this."

Tim kissed her on the top of her head and then pushed her shoulders away from him a little so so he could see her eyes, "You'd better, 'cause i'm not giving up on you." He released her from his embrace and turned away, nodding down the beach. "I'm going now. I won't be too long."

The girl seemed content enough to sit and talk to Trey, but, no matter what, she couldn't get the child to talk about where she lived or what her full name was. After some twenty minutes, they saw Tim returning in a dead run, something clutched in his arms. Even in the distance, Trey could tell that he was upset and angry.

Jumping to her feet, she ran to meet him. "Tim! What's wrong? What is it?" Then she recognized the strange object as a spill of fur. "Is that what Dahna was wearing?" Tim shook his head, breathless and unable to speak. He held it out for her to take, and Trey opened it up and looked at it, inspecting it closely. She gave out a gasp. "My god! This is a sealskin! Where did you find it? And..." Her voice broke off. "Do you see this?," she asked, pointing to the paler fur covering the head section of the pelt. "This looks like one of the ones we've been studying. Tanya, a little juvenile seal that was just so playful, so friendly. She'd come out and try to get us to join her games. No fear of humans at all."

He nodded grimly. "So, it was one of the ones you and Ari have been studying. Damn! I was afraid that something like this would happen. That's why I wouldn't go out too much. Most poachers are men, and I didn't want them to loose all of their fear.

Her eyes filling with tears, Trey looked up at him from the sad little fur in her hands. "Damn them to hell, Tim. Damn them to hell! Poaching almost destroyed these creatures before. Now that they're on the comeback, someone must have decided to start 'harvesting' them again. I tell you, Tim, if I find those poachers, I'll take them out myself.'

'You've got to show me where you found this, Tim. Then we'll need to report to SeaQuest." Tim nodded.

"Yeah," he replied, still a little breathless. "Let's leave this here with Dahna, and go see about it. I tell you, when Captain Bridger finds out about this, I don't know what he'll do, but I want to be there when he does." His voice left no doubt but that the captain of their vessel would take any killer apart himself. Trey nodded, and turned around, then ran back toward the blanket

Dahna had apparently tried to join them, but had tripped and fallen full body forward, skinning both knees and the palms of her hands. She sat there, curled up and staring at the bleeding cuts, crying a little with the pain.

The two officers made short work of treating the cuts and calming the child. Dahna was very complient, letting them do as they wanted with the healing creams and bandages, her eyes focused on the fur, lying beside them on the blanket. Trey touched her shoulder to get her attention away from the horrible artifact. "Honey, I have to see where he found that, so that I can report to my superiors. We'll be back in a little bit, and then we'll take you to find your family. Ok?"

The child nodded her head obediently and replied in a little voice. "Ok, take your time."

Neither officer felt much like talking as they walked along the shore toward the site. Trey was cursing quietly under her breath. Just before they got there, Tim offered a half-hearted comfort. "You know, you might be wrong. There's no guarentee that this was the pelt of that seal."

"I know!" she contradicted him. "I can....."

"Just wait till we get there. I didn't see any signs of butchery, no blood, no bodies. I mean, you saw it yourself. It looked as though it had been tanned. When was the last time you saw this 'Tanya'? Hmmm?"

Trey looked thoughtful. "Just last week. Yes, you're right about the finish of it and I did notice the lack of blood. But that head fur was unmistakable. NONE of the others had markings like that, flowing down the back."

"So, maybe it's something unique to her close family group. And she's the last member. I bet it was just some old skin that someone found in an attic somewhere and tossed on the beach because they were afraid they'd have to pay a luxury tax on it, or something. Here, this is where I found it. And, you know, it was almost hidden by this stone." Trey looked at the stone, a couple of feet in diameter, half a foot thick. Then she looked around the pristine beach. Finally, she shrugged.

"I guess that's it. A false alarm. Let's get back to Dahna. What are we going to do with her?" she asked.

Tim shrugged back. "Take her to the SeaQuest. Have Dr. Smith look her over and then contact the proper town authorties to come get her. Did you get any more information out of her about her family or home?" Trey shook her head.

"Not a word. I think she's suffering from some kind of short term memory, but I can't figure out why. No physical reason."

"Maybe it's congenital?" he suggested. "Sort of like Down's syndrome?" Trey shrugged her shoulders unconvinced.

"No, she seems smart enough other than that." Snorting with laughter, Tim argued.

"There's a lot of things that can affect memory or cognitive functions that don't retard intelligence. Maybe she'd got one of those." Trey shrugged again, then paused, shielding her eyes.

"We should be seeing her now, shouldn't we?" she observed. Tim squinted, then began to run. Trey trailed behind. They found one blanket, neatly folded, with Tim's uniform shirt, on top of the base blanket. The packs still where they'd dropped them. But there was no sign of the girl or the pelt.

"Where did she go?" Tim asked, looking around. The shale left no footprints to follow. Trey shaded her eyes again and scanned the surroundings, stopping when she saw some dark dots on the water. Keeping her eyes on them, she knelt down and took out a pair of binoculars.

After a few seconds, she quietly murmured, an odd smile on her face, "Why, I'll be damned!"

"I hope not. What is it?" She gave him a twisted grin and offered up the glasses.

"Take a look." He changed the focus and scanned the water, finally zeroing in on the bobbing heads of five seals, apparently looking back at them. One, with distinctive pale head markings, rolled onto her back and flapped a flipper at them, before rolling over and following the others out to sea. Tim turned toward his companion in disbelief, finding her looking through his binoculars and smiling gently.

"Trey. That was exactly the same as the pelt we had here," he said slowly, hoping that she would disagree with him.

"Yep."

"That's not possible."

"Nope."

"You aren't helping matters much," he charged. She lowered the lenses and looked at him, a fey grin on her face.

"Ok, what do you think about this idea. That old man last night mentioned something I'd never heard of before. Selkies. So I asked our 'native guide' about them, and Ari told me they were sort of like mermaids. Except not quite." Tim held up his hand, looking thoughtful.

"Yeah, they look like seals in the water, but can take off their skins to walk as people on the land." Trey nodded, smiling. "That's not possible. It's only a fairy tale!" Trey shrugged.

"Ok. I'm sure you know best. But that was Tanya." She stopped short. "Tanya, Dahna. Oh my god! They were both Tanya. And we left her alone with her pelt! Wait 'til I tell Ari! She'll never believe this." Trey began to laugh with delight. "Those seals we thought were from another colony are selkies. My god!"

"You're trying to tell me that the girl and the seal are the same? That it was her pelt? That's what she lost?" He looked thoughtful. "You know," he mused. "She never did say anything about clothes, did she? Just 'her stuff'. Trey, this is bizarre." He stared back out into the empty sea, the sunlight dancing on it as if mocking the entire incident.

Trey grabbed her pack, "hey you, think we should head back towards the shuttle?"

"I guess so, shame we can't wait till sunset though." and with that they headed back out of the realm of the mystical.

APB (Paula B.)