Douglas went into the kitchen and saw Mary Ann sitting on a step stool with a party bag near her.

"Mary Ann I need to step out with Terrence for a bit. I'll be back soon my love." He pulled her by her hips into a deep kiss and she wrapped her arms around his neck while standing on her toes. Her heart shot out of her chest from just how deeply she felt in love with him.

"Alright darling but when you get back I want to give you something." She looked towards the little bag with a huge grin on her face.

Her smile warmed his heart and he kissed her head and stepped out.

Down at the beach Terrence paced while picking at his nails.

"Where is she?"

"She's waiting here unless we need her. I'm not sure what all is going to happen and I need her to stay safe."

Terrence just kind of nodded slowly. He knew that the girl would be more useful if she went with them but Douglas always knew what he was doing.

While he processed that it would just be the two of them Douglas ran into the water and his legs became fins, Terrence followed as Terrence tends to do.

"Alright the first place I want to look at is the reef."

"No." Douglas said. "We're finding Alexander. For all we know the reef could be a trap. We need to find Alexander and father."

"Brother if it's a trap then at least we will know where he is."

Douglas got a stern look on his face. "I am not putting myself in danger just to find them. We are NOT getting trapped simply to FIND him. No. I know Alexander. Follow me."

Douglas felt the cold water move around his body as his tail pushed him towards the bottom of the ocean. Alexander had been his best friend growing up and they tended to tell each other most things. It made Douglas sad to think about remembering how they actually would exclude Terrence, now knowing how much his brother meant to him.

"Douglas we're going out into the open. Where are we going?"

"When we were younger me and Alexander loved coming out into the open. It felt freeing and just it felt like for a moment we weren't princes and it felt absolutely wonderful. Well a few years after we started doing this we told father we had a journey we wanted to go on, you might remember it actually, we told him we wanted to see if we could rescue some of the fish the humans were taking in hopes they would help defend the palace."

Terrence nodded remembering that. Remembering the disappointment and lonesome feeling as his father said he needed to stay home so somebody could do their princely duties.

"Well actually that was only part of it. In actuality we just wanted an excuse to explore the open. We could never go that far due to the fact that if we were gone too long father would send out a search for us."

Terrence was getting annoyed, being reminded of how it was always 'Douglas and Alexander'.

"What's the point of this story Douglas?"

"My point of the story is, while we were on that journey we found a ship and Alexander wanted to explore it. He was fascinated with it and was able to use his magic to bring it a little closer to home."

And with those words Douglas pointed directly to the floor below them to a sunken boat that looked rather large, rather fancy actually for being underwater.

"It became his favorite hideaway for years until he started going back to our library back home and I think this is where we'll find him."

~~~~

Mary Ann had told Douglas that she had needed to run to the store, one because they needed groceries, but two because she had been getting sick and she needed to pick up some medicine.

She took her bike to the store, no helmet so the wind could fly through her hair making her feel free. Though she wasn't trapped she always felt like she was trapped in just being in a human body. To just feel the wind and pretend she was flying just made her feel absolutely free.

She parked her bike in the store and locked it to the rack and went inside.

"Shh shh shh. It's alright my dear mommy has you."

She heard a woman rocking her crying baby near the baskets. No matter how much she tried to calm the screaming child nothing worked.

"Ma'am when I was in high school I used to baby sit all the time. Maybe I could help."

The young mother looked at her. You could tell she was tired and needed a break and a young woman might have been just what she needed.

"Oh I would appreciate that but he's very very picky I wouldn't want to do that to you."

"Oh no it's alright I just have a few tricks up my sleeve is all."

The young mother softly nodded her head and slowly gave her young son to Mary Ann.

The second she looked down at him in her arms he started calming down, Mary Ann held him close so he could listen to her heart beat and gently rocked him and he slowly dozed off.

The young mother looked at Mary Ann speechless.

"Why thank you that was absolutely incredible. I'm sure you're going to make an amazing mother one day."

Mary Ann gushed and smiled. "Thank you ma'am but we'll just see what's in the stars. What's his name by the way?"

"Oh his name is Justin."

She smiled widely and waved bye at the baby.

"Goodbye Justin it was wonderful meeting you."

The young mother and her son left the store and Mary Ann proceeded to get a basket and fill it with small snacks, drinks, lunch meats, the works. When she went to go check out she saw the date on the calendar near the cashier and started doing some quick math in her head.

"Will that be all for you ma'am?" The cashier asked.

"Actually can you give me one second I think I forgot something."

Mary Ann went to the family planning section and purchased the cheapest pregnancy test she could find.

She bought all her items but left them with the cashier while she went to the bathroom for a second.

She thoroughly enjoyed the idea actually, spending her life on the beach with Douglas and their child it actually seemed like a dream come true.

And when the test came back positive she wept for joy.

~~~~~

Hey guys! What do you think about this chapter? This is actually the longest chapter I think I've written in one sitting and I'm actually really proud. I really want to know what you guys think of the chapter and the characters so if y'all could just leave me a quick comment it would mean the whole world to me. I love y'all I've had the last two days off and have work the next four days so let's see what we can do THANKS YALL
XO