Deleted Scene: Merman in a Lab

This could also qualify as a deleted concept as well. Book three was going to be about a merman that was discovered and taken to a laboratory. Then Marie and Dorian were going to have to find a way to get said merman out. After much consideration and plot work, this concept just did not work with the overall plot of the story and had to be scrapped. Don't worry, the mystery merman made it through the cut. More on him to come in the near future.

Kathryn watched the merman with great interest. His behaviors seemed to suggest that there was more going on in that head of his than he’s letting on. The merman stared often at the top of his enclosure. Eyes calculating, ever watching Kat’s fellow scientists. There must be so many escape plots going through his mind that debunked themselves. Yet, the creature stared, watched and waited.

What tests they were able to perform proved the merman to at least be somewhat intelligent. Not so much to dolphin level, but she held a theory. A theory that perhaps they were going about it all the wrong way. There was strong distrust and dislike towards the humans. That made clear from the constant struggle it was to get him in and out of the tank. Even now, the creature refused to acknowledge Kat’s existence in the room, lying on the floor with his bare back towards her.

A quick adjustment to the bridge of her glasses, deep breath and Kathryn made her way closer to the tank. Raising a hand up, she gave the wall a couple of raps. “Hello? Mr. Merman?” Kat beckoned.

No response.

“Mr. Merman,” Kat took on a more commanding tone to get his attention. “Mr. Merman. Hello? I know you can hear me.”

She rapped at the tank wall a few more times until he lifted his head. Turning in her direction, the merman pierced a glare with darkened eyes.

Kathryn lowered her hand and gave an apologetic shrug, “Sorry to disturb you if you were sleeping, but I want to talk to you Mr. Merman.”

The merman stared at her blankly, eyes softening just faintly.

“Yes… well…” she cleared her throat. “You see, Mr. Merman, in all our tests we have yet to find real proof of your intelligence. My colleagues believe you are about as dumb as any animal and incapable of the human language. However, to me, the evidence of your physical prove that you have all the same vocal parts as a human and so I believe that you are capable of speech. Of course my colleagues disagree since you have yet to make a tangible word. I, however, think that…”

The pale haired merman had his back to her again upon looking up from her paperwork. Frowning, she gave the wall a firm pound, which startled the merman into puffing his gills at her like a beta.

With a triumphant grin, Kathryn finished, “I think that you can communicate with some kind of language. Question is what kind, but we shall start with basics. Can you hear me?”

He blinked at the woman and yawned before lying his head down upon his well toned arms. Eyes still focused at Kathryn still.

She sighed to the ceiling, “You don’t understand English do you?”

He just stared, unresponsive.

“Parlez-vous français?” Kathryn inquired.

An eyebrow raised as though she were a strange thing.

She frowned, “High school French isn’t going to work, huh? Umm… I don’t really know any other languages. You probably have your own anyway and I’m wasting my time. Then again you probably don’t have your own language and I just need to find the right one.” Putting her hands to head the woman groaned. “Maybe I’m thinking too hard about this.”

Apparently annoyed by the human, the dark tailed merman shifted so his back was to her again.

“Yeah… I don’t blame you,” Kathryn muttered with her shoulders drooping in disappointment. “I was hoping to get your name today.”

Kathryn watched his tail, mesmerized by the swaying of his fin up and down where he lay. The florescent lights playing on tiny ebony scales and exposing blood vessels within the fin membrane. He was so other worldly beautiful that it took her breath away. After realizing she was no longer breathing; Kathryn inhaled deep just as the merman laid his fin down to rest. Just to be sure, Kathryn stepped around the tank to the other side. His face had softened with his eyes closed. The gills opening with long, deep intakes and exhales of water. Meanwhile, she could hear the heart monitor slow it’s bleeping as the merman’s heart went to a resting pace. Pressing a hand to the wall, the woman felt her own heart reach out to the creature. It seemed that sleep was the only time the merman was content.

“You need a friend,” Kathryn stated to him softly. Despite knowing that he no longer heard her; if he did in the first place. “But how can you and I become friends if we can’t communicate?”

Her fingertips rubbed lightly upon the plexiglas as though stroking his pale locks of hair. Then curling the fingers to a fist, she stepped back with a sigh.

“Kathryn?”

Immediately, her heart took a flying leap to the throat and lodged there for a moment. Whirling around with hand to chest, Kathryn swallowed it back down and gasped, “Jonathan! Oh Jonny, what are you still doing here?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing,” Jonathan remarked as he stepped down the metal stairs. “Shouldn’t you be home right now? With your fiancé?”

A quick glance at her watch told that it was ten minutes later from the planned time of departure. Steller is not going to be pleased. With a groan at the hour, she stuck the hand in a pocket. “I was testing a personal theory on the merman. I have yet to discover his fluent language, but he reacts to human speech. So he can hear me, but I don’t think he comprehends English.”

The older man sighed heavily in pure annoyance. “Kathryn, he cannot communicate in English or in any language because his species has yet to evolve to an intelligence where they can be capable of speech. Quite simply, he cannot speak because he does not know how.”

“But he reacts to it,” she argued. “He may not know what I am saying, but he can tell that I am staying something. His physical examinations prove that--”

“Any animal can respond to human speech,” he interrupted with a roll of the eyes. “Even a dog will respond to its name and not even know that it is their name. Doesn’t mean they can speak.”

Digging her hands deeper into her pockets, Kat insisted, “He can learn! Let me show you! I can teach him human speech! As soon as I’m able to find his language--”

“Kathryn!” Jonathan bellowed, which gave her a start; silencing the young woman. Pinching the bridge of his nose and rubbing both eyes, he took a cleansing breath and spoke. “He simply cannot do it. The creature is not intelligent enough to learn how to speak English or any other language. Stop with this nonsense, go home and be with your fiancé. No more talk of teaching mermaids.”

“Merman.”

Jonathan looked up from the desk of paperwork where he had been working. “What was that?”

Kathryn swallowed and responded, “Merman; not mermaid. Maid implies the creature is female when our specimen here has proven to be quite male. Therefore; merman.”

Unimpressed, the man remarked, “ Are you through?”

Shaking her head, Kat said, “Not by a long shot, but I will say no more about it tonight. Good-night, Jonathan.”

Turning on her heel, the woman abandoned her white coat in her locker and marched out the door swinging her purse over the shoulder. Heels clacking dangerously upon the tile as she went.

The slam of the front door raised the brunette head, young man inside. A smile beaming upon his face, he greeted Kathryn with open arms. “Hello my love!”

“Hi,” she muttered, barely touching her lips to the man’s cheek and hugging him very briefly.

“Bad day?” he implied form behind while Kat stooped to remove her shoes.

With a frustrated groan, the woman remarked, “I work with an assembly of neanderthals with IQs the size of amoebas!”

Steller stood silent a moment, blinking as though that would process the information. “Um… in English,” he implied.

Tossing the shoes into a closet, Kat replied, “I work with bloody morons.”

“Ah, now that I understand,” her fiancé stated with a toothy grin as he followed the scientist into the kitchen. “Are you allowed to tell me what you’re so mad about? What the morons at the lab did? Did a rat escape or something?”

“No, no, and no,” Kathryn said, noticing the steaming pots that were on the stove. That explained the herbs and spices she could smell when returning home. Lifting the lid of the larger pot, she took a whiff and glanced at her freckle faced fiancé. “This smells familiar.”

“Does it?” Steller asked. “I decided to try something new in my technique. Probably just reminds you of some fancy Italian place because they stole my genius.”

Kat chuckled as bit as Steller crinkled and rubbed at his nose as though it itched horribly. “This came from Bocca Di Lupo didn’t it?”

He barked out a laugh, “What makes you think that, love?”

“Your nose,” Kathryn replied, pointing to it. “You always itch your nose when you fib.”

“Nonsense,” the man stated, rubbing at it on purpose now. “I have a bit of allergies is all.”

Laughing, which chased away the negatives of the day, Kathryn threw her arms around his neck. Their lips came together in a proper kiss and parted with smiles. “You are a dear,” she stated.