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Maddie and Jack had just gotten back from their first attempt in finding their son. They had been searching from the time Jack first got home until 5 pm the next day due to circumstances that were out of their control. They were unable to search day and night like they wanted because the stupid Fenton submarine required a periodic gas filling, and needed to rest for the night to keep from burning up and shutting down. The Fenton's had yet to work out the kinks in the machine, so if they used it for too long, it would stop working. If it stopped working, then not only would they be trapped at the bottom of the sea, they also wouldn't be able to get out of the submarine. Lots of things could go wrong if they got trapped in the sub while searching for Danny; they could freeze, they could run out of air, or they could be killed when the water pressure became too much for the submarine in it's out of order state.

While the parents kept up the teamwork when trying to find their son, the tension between them was thicker than Danny's teenage skull. Jack got out of the car without bothering to check if Maddie was following him, he was depressed about his current status with his wife and too torn about having to give up the search for his son for the night to deal with her.

Maddie didn't say a word as she unbuckled her seat belt and got out of the Fenton assault vehicle, she just followed after her husband into the house. 

It was cold and empty, like her heart at the moment. The house didn't have the normal warmth that it usually did when Danny was there, and the awkward tension between her and Jack did nothing to ease the forlorn silence throughout the house. Neither of them said a word to each other as Jack went into the kitchen to grab some leftover meatloaf and the bucket of fudge with a coke. He didn't even care enough to warm the meat up, not wanting to be anywhere near his cheating wife at the moment.

Maddie had followed him into the kitchen but didn't say anything as she watched her husband grab his comfort food, she wanted to talk, to say something to ease the awkwardness between them, but what could she possibly say?

"I'm going to bed," was the only thing Jack said to her as he walked out of the kitchen towards the stairs, "You can sleep in Jazz's room."

Jazz.

Maddie couldn't believe that they had forgotten about her.

Their 17-year-old genius of a daughter had already left and was a freshman in college, she had no idea that her brother was missing. She briefly considered not telling her, knowing that it would put her under a lot of stress, which she didn't need while in college, but she slapped herself for thinking that. Jazz had always loved her little brother more than anything in the world, they had always been close, and Jazz needed to know that her brother was gone.

While her husband slammed the door upstairs, she sat down on the end of the couch and picked up the phone.

...

"What do you mean, 'Danny is missing?!'" Jazz's ear piercing shocked voice yelled into her mom's ear, "Where is he?"

"Don't freak out Jazz, I'm sure your brother is fine." Maddie said more for herself then for Jazz, "He's just been kidnapped by a community of mermaids is all, I'm sure we will find him in the next few days." she failed to mention the odds of Danny actually being alive, not wanting to think about it herself. Her son was definitely alive, he had to be, and if he wasn't... then Maddie wouldn't stop looking until she found some proof of him being there. And after she did that, she would be sure to hunt down every last one of them and tear them apart molecule by molecule.

"I'm coming home." Jazz stated it didn't sound like a question.

"Jazz, sweetie, no. Your father and I can handle this." she felt like such a liar for withholding such important information, like how much she and her husband couldn't handle this, let alone each other. "You need to stay behind and make sure your GPA stays high so that you can get next semester free."

Jazz's eyes narrowed at the phone. "Mom, if you think for one second that saving money for school is more important then finding my brother, then you got another thing coming. Like me. Tomorrow. I will be on the first plane back to Amity Park, and you can't stop me." she hung up the phone after that and got up to go to her room to start packing. The thought that her brother was being held captive, possibly dead, caused a great amount of dread to cover her. As if someone had taken a bucket of fear, desperation, and panic and dumped it over her head. She needed to get back to Amity Park, she couldn't handle the loss of her brother, she would break down and probably never be the same again.

Her roommate, Victoria, knocked on her bedroom door, peaking in with concerned eyes. She had heard the whole conversation in their shared living room and had come over to see if Jazz was okay.

"Jazz?" Vicky asked, her red bangs covered her pink eyes and her unflattering green crop top could be seen through the crack in the doorway. She watched as her roommate threw her suitcase on the bed and started throwing her belongings inside. "You good?"

"Sorry, Vicky." Jazz said as she threw multiple pairs of black pants into her bag, "I have a major crisis back home, I need to leave for a bit."

"Is your brother okay?" Vicky didn't have any siblings, but she was a babysitter for a 10-year-old she knew for a while now, and though she was the meanest person on the planet to him, she could only imagine how much it would freak her out if he ever went missing. Jazz had framed dozens of pictures of her family all over the apartment, and would often be unable to shut up about her brother and her home life growing up with him. Vicky felt like she practically knew the kid.

Jazz paused, unsure what the answer was. "He better be, I swear to god if he gets himself killed, I'm going to kill him." Vicky had always been jealous of Jazz's relationship with her brother. She had always wanted siblings growing up, but her parents divorced shortly after she was born and never got with anyone after that.

"I'll send you your homework, maybe there's a chance they won't drop your courses if you keep sending in your assignments." Vicky tried to offer the most help she could think of, it was all she could do for Jazz.

Without answering with more than a rushed 'thanks', Jazz jumped on her computer when she was done packing, not willing to miss any of the flights that took off tomorrow. There was only one left and it took off tomorrow at 4 in the morning, and all the seats were full except for one in 1st class. She growled when she saw the price of the ticket, but she didn't have a choice, if she waited another minute, that seat would be gone and she would have to wait until next week. She typed in the number on her debit card, making the payment of $1300 and immediately called an uber to come and pick her up ASAP.

She lived and worked on campus, so she never thought it was necessary to get a car so early in her life, but now she was regretting that choice as it took 30 minutes for the Uber to pick her up. It was a four-hour drive to the nearest airport, and Jazz could only hope that she would get on the plane in time.

...

"Jack." Maddie opened the door without bothering to knock, "Jazz is on her way home, she said she would be here tomorrow."

"Okay." the depressed and annoyed 40-year-old said, waiting for his wife to either say something else of importance or just go away. He wasn't in the mood to talk to her.

"Jack, we need to talk." She said sternly as if she had room to demand a chat.

"About what, Maddie?" the man hissed out angrily, the dam holding back his emotions breaking. "About how you cheated on me? About how our family is falling apart? About how things will never be the same between us? How about what the hell we are going to say to break the news to our children?"

Maddie was at a loss for words for a second, but Jack wasn't done, "How about we talk about them, Madeline. The two angels that we brought into this earth together. Were you even thinking about them when you fell into bed with my best friend?"

The woman frowned, her eyes becoming glassy as she looked for the words to say to her heart broken husband.

"How long has that been going on? Danny... Is he even mine?" The last sentence took a lot of effort to get out, the thought that the son he loved so much may not even be his burned a white-hot hole in his heart. He had noticed that Danny didn't have either his or his moms eyes, had noticed that Danny hardly looked anything like him. He would always love Danny as his own, and if he ever found him, he would never treat him any differently. But how could he be sure that Danny was his, and not Vlad's?

"Of course he's your's, Jack, I swear Vlad and I have only done it a few times. I love you and our kids more than anyone in this world."

"Don't say that to me, how long has it been going on?" He demanded more than asked the question, hearing Maddie say that she loved him did nothing but burn his ears. It scared him when he thought about how quickly things had changed, all it took was one mistake and suddenly the love that he thought he was receiving from his wife turned to poison, and infected every muscle in his head.

Maddie didn't answer, and Jack's eyes turned stoney as he demanded again, "How long."

The woman knew her answer only proved that she was a terrible human being who lacked the integrity to stay faithful to the man that she married. She truly did love him, even if he didn't believe her anymore, so she decided it was time to stop lying.

"Since we got engaged." Hopefully, he could find it in his big heart to forgive her someday.

Jacks eyes widened, feeling more betrayal then he thought one person could ever handle. He put his face in his hands, unable to look at the beautiful woman he had loved for over 25 years. 

"We say nothing to Jazz," he said after a few tormentingly silent minutes. She would be going through enough when she got here and would have to suffer more when they looked for Danny. They could wait to break the news to her for a while. "She's going to need all the strength she can muster until we can find Danny, she doesn't need us dragging her further down with our divorce."

Maddie felt as if her whole world fell apart right then, "Divorce?" she asked quietly, hoping that her husband didn't mean it.

Jack's eyes narrowed at her, "Yes, divorce. Did you think we could just move on from this after I found out that our marriage was a sham for the last 20 years?"

Tears did fall then from Maddie Fenton's eyes, her husband wanted to leave her. After 20 years of marriage and 2 kids, he wanted to leave her.

She opened the door behind her and left, she couldn't start the heat from Jacks glare anymore, she needed to get out. She ran down the stairs and grabbed her keys before jumping in the RV and started it, needing a drink more than she ever thought she would. They only had one car, since they both shared the same self-employment, and did everything together. They had been more than husband and wife for the last 20 years, they had been best friends, partners, and she had ruined it all.

This was all her fault.

...

It was days after Jazz got home, and about the 5th time that they had gone into the sub to search for any sign of Danny. No luck at all, they hadn't even caught sight of even one mermaid. Jazz searched around the vacant water, the cove ran very deep but there were areas that they couldn't get through to. 

She had never seen a mermaid before, and she kept wondering if her Dads story was true, or if Danny had actually just been eaten by a shark or something. She had always believed that Mermaids and sirens were a thing of myth, make-believe, and was still having trouble believing her father's claims. It didn't seem logical that a community of mermaids had attacked them, and yet her dad survived. Mermaids were supposed to be vicious, and have the power to hypnotize men, even if they were already married. She couldn't understand how her father could say he encountered them when he made it out alive but her brother didn't.

He's still alive, Jazz thought shaking her head. She needed to stop thinking like they had already accepted he was gone.

...

Spectra peered over the edge of the rock that hid her from the view of the humans in the ridiculously bulky machine. Her green eyes were glowing and piercing through the slightly less murky deep water. She could see the humans through the big glass window, there were three, and they were looking for their son again.

They had seen these people coming around every day now, but so far they had left the humans alone, simply due to the fact they were in a submarine. The mermaids were definitely strong enough to bust through it of course, but why go through the trouble? Why risk injuring themselves if there was a chance that the humans had more weapons like the one the gay brat used on them? If they were desperate enough to find the boy, then they would come out of the submarine and swim to look for him.

As easy as it would be to lure the human male out of the sub, he had two other females with him that wouldn't be hypnotized without Phantom's help. They didn't bother asking the only merman in the cove, they already knew the answer.

The mermaids were all patient, they knew their meal would come to them, it was just a matter of waiting for the right moment.

...