Thirty Nine Minutes (COMPLETE)

Chapter Three: An Anatomy Lesson

Craig sat as dignified as he could in a harness designed only for transferring people to and from beds. As Helen approached, the length and size of that silvery grey tail underneath him became so much more apparent. Perhaps the water in the tank had distorted it slightly, but now she was within touching distance, it was almost frightening.

He had the most punchable grin on his smug little face, the vulnerable look long since buried under a thick veneer of posturing. Young he might have been, but his arrogance seemed to come in spades.

It didn't last long. As soon as David started to speak, the smile melted right off Craig's face and he looked dead ahead. Helen was definitely right in her assessment of David's authority, but there was something more in the way Craig reacted with him. It wasn't just a regular employee/employer relationship, there was something deeper; something familial and intimate in the way Craig reacted. Helen chewed on her bottom lip as the pieces before her began to make sense.

"Craig is the only one of his kind that we know of, and anyone else knows of. We were lucky he was found in American waters actually, the Russians are desperate to get their hands on him." As David spoke, he produced a button from his pocket and pointed it at a projector attached to the ceiling. The white screen to the left of Craig's tank lit up.

Rebecca took a cup of coffee over to Craig, and he winked at her as he grabbed it. For some reason, the image of this mythical creature blowing on an extremely normal looking cup of filter coffee was too much for Helen's brain, and a furious case of the giggles crept up her throat. She tried to swallow it back as David carried on his anatomy lesson of Craig.

"There are many similarities between cetaceans and Craig. For one, the physical similarities in his tail resembles a common dolphin, down to the bone structure and pigmentation. We've run him through an MRI scanner and his skeleton is a perfect fusion between cetacean and human, but the similarities don't stop there."

David walked up to Craig and tapped his chin, which caused an immediate response of him to swallow his mouth of coffee and open his mouth. David tilted down his chin so Helen could see down his mouth.

"When submerged, Craig's throat closes up completely with a flap of skin not dissimilar to an epiglottis, and we've recorded him holding his breath for up to thirty eight minutes."

Helen watched Craig try and swallow with his mouth hanging open and being put on display like some kind of curiosity - truth be told, a merman was sitting in front of her, and until yesterday the most out-there thing she'd seen was a penguin with a limp at Central Park zoo. David let go and Craig clamped his mouth shut, picking up his cup of coffee and sinking it in one.

"So no gills then. Craig, you're a mammal?"

"Yes, he is." David answered for him. Helen quirked a brow but said nothing. "And that's where you come in. Craig struggles to dive beyond two meters, despite his body clearly designed for much further depth. He had a panic attack the last time we attempted and he agreed to bring in outside help for his phobia."

"It wasn't even that big," Craig mumbled. Helen wasn't entirely sure she was supposed to hear it. The insistence on her resume that she was a qualified SCUBA diver was making sense. Regardless, she walked over to him and placed a hand on his damp shoulder.

"We'll do it together." She smiled but Craig simply blushed and shrugged her off.

*****

Helen was given the grand tour on the various rooms once Craig was transported back to his main tank. Not only did it have a covered sleep and rest area, but also a tube that led directly to a pool with a section that was cordoned off. It led to a free diving pool that was twenty meters deep. Craig couldn't even face looking at the drop so it had been covered entirely, leaving only the shallow but descending pool for him to swim in.

Helen sipped at her coffee as she was led from room to room, mostly boring office-y looking rooms, one room Helen assumed was the medical ward with an open pool in the floor, presumably for Craig. It seemed his tank was connected to every body of water in the facility, like a labyrinth only he had access to. There was even a glass tunnel further down the main hallway that she saw Craig swim through. He was so elegant and streamlined, just like a dolphin darting through the blue glow. As she walked underneath, he shot her a look and winked, sticking his tongue out as he went.

"How are you feeling?" A gentle voice pulled Helen from her daydream and Neil was walking beside her, smiling and showing off his dimples. Of course he had dimples, as if he wasn't adorable enough as it was.

She shrugged. "Over the initial shock, I guess."

"Yeah, it was no different for me, either. You get used to it."

"Did they tell you anything or did they just show you a merman and expect you to be cool with it?"

"The latter." He laughed. He had a really nice laugh, and Helen smiled to herself as they reentered the conference room where Craig's tank was still on display. Craig was watching them from his shelf at the top of the tank, scrubbing his arms with a towel. Mythical creature or not, Craig was now her patient, and she smiled at him as she approached his tank. He however, was scowling, a face like he'd been sucking on a lemon dipped in vinegar.

"What's up with you?" Neil asked, but Craig said nothing, slipping back into the tank and swimming off down one of the tunnels. "He's very stubborn. Always has been."

"Definitely didn't have to be a therapist to work that one out," Helen said, huffing slightly.