Chapter 21

Martin stared at the door that Casey had just closed in his face. He was still in shock at Casey's blunt response to his demand as to what was taking the boy so long. The kid had never been so brazen before.

Where the hell was all this new-found confidence coming from? he pondered again. That Casey would respond to him with such a lewd answer was so unexpected it had thrown Martin off.

He headed back down the stairs to his study to wait for the boy. The full moon was in two days, so Casey would be feeling the urge to change. Maybe Casey was edgy and irritable because he hadn't been able to get as much time in the sea with their neighbor's presence creating constraints on his usual swim time this month.

Martin dropped down into his chair at his desk, considering Casey's attitude. The changes in Casey had coincided with the arrival of that Shawn guy. Since nothing else had changed--all his test results had remained normal throughout the month--it had to just be because of his confinement.

Martin sighed heavily as he leaned back in his thick leather office chair as the laptop woke up. As the desktop screen icons popped up, he was caught off guard by the calendar icon displaying the current week with the full moon notation in the corner of Thursday, two nights from now. His breath caught in his throat. April 23rd. Thomas. He almost forgot to breathe as he stared at the date. Their anniversary. The day they had individually pledged their love to each other in their own quiet ceremony.

The study door opened--without even a knock, Martin noticed--and Casey walked on in. He quickly swept away any look of melancholy on his face before the boy could notice, fighting the spear of jealousy for the object of his disdain--the one who'd garnered his love's last words of endearment. It was ironic that their anniversary would fall on a full moon, one of the last ones that Casey would enjoy in the privacy of their island.

Martin just gestured to the exam table as he feigned indifference to Casey's attitude. No need to let the boy know that he'd actually unnerved him earlier. The boy could sit and stew for a while.

Martin shook off his sentimental thoughts and pulled up previous statistics and results on his computer for comparison over the lunar cycle. The charts were meticulously organized and precise as he was preparing them to be the appendices in his dissertation about CAS-134. Casey was now well past the critical stage of puberty where he'd been concerned about how human hormones would affect his shifting ability. And with the boy now technically an adult, he knew he had to take advantage of his opportunities now, before the boy truly did decide he could manage on his own. And with the way Casey was acting lately, he was glad he'd already been preparing.

With Dr. Harris and Thomas now gone, Martin was the only one left of the lead researchers of the CAS (Cetacean Assimilation Study) program. He had contacted the program's donors last year informing them of the survival of one of the specimens. While excited to know more, Martin made sure to keep information he passed on to them to a minimum. The investors were the only ones Martin worried about when he finally presented Casey to the world. And once he explained to them that he'd taken the only surviving experiment to save him from Dr. Harris, they calmed significantly and actually praised him for his altruism. Of course, they didn't need to know he'd only done it for Thomas, that was beside the point.

It only took offering the investors a small percentage of any fortune he received from divulging CAS-134 to the world to earn their consent. They had decided together that he should present Casey as an anomaly that he had 'discovered' and raised to adulthood. He was surprised (and excited) to learn that the investors had demanded signed Non-Disclosure forms from the remaining team when they had withdrawn funds. So he was certain none of the assistants on the research team would dare to come forward to proclaim knowledge of the CAS (Cetacean Assimilation Study) program since they would be subject to scrutiny about the ethics of what had been done to a human fetus as well as possible legal action from the investors.

And since Casey had no real recollection of his time at the lab, and Martin and Thomas had both avoided telling him anything about that time. All Casey knew was that he was an oddity that would freak others out and that was why he needed Martin to help keep him safe and hidden.

So he would be able to present his study of Casey's spliced DNA to the world, and he was fairly certain that he could nail one of the top scientific awards out there--the Kyoto Prize, the Wolf Foundation Prize, the Copley Medal, maybe even the Nobel Prize but that was a long shot. Hell, maybe he'd win more than one of them, he grinned to himself.

He knew that questions would be raised about why he had kept knowledge of the boy from the world for so long, but it would be easy to play that off as keeping a young child safe from the media and scientific chaos that would ensue from his discovery. He would divulge that he had waited for Casey to become an adult, so that he could handle the onslaught the world would throw at him. It would be a media frenzy, Martin thought, his eyes glittering with excitement. And he would be the one to reap the benefits of it. Casey would turn to him for security and safety in the midst of the chaos, and Martin would be able to pick and choose who had access to the boy--ones with the right price.

There was a heavy audible sigh from across the room as Casey made his annoyance at being hurried and then having to sit and wait known. He was perched on the edge of the padded table, swinging his legs back and forth like he used to when he was younger and impatient.

Closing the file with his dissertation notes, Martin finally stood and sauntered over to his work station. Pulling out syringes and test tubes from the cabinets, he intentionally loitered at the counter longer than necessary, exerting a small show of how much he was in control, and not Casey.

"Are you in a hurry or something?" he asked finally.

Casey seemed to startle at his voice. "What? No. Well, just tired and ready to be done, that's all."

"We'll be done when we are done. Hurrying causes mistakes, you know that," Martin said, then pinned Casey with a stern look, "and you know this is all to keep you safe and healthy."

Martin was smugly satisfied with the chastised look he received from Casey.

"I know you are only doing this to help me," Casey said softly. "I... I'm just thinking...well, maybe that... it's not really that necessary anymore."

Martin froze, stunned that Casey would even suggest that after all he drilled into the boy about how different he was, how they couldn't predict how his mer side would react to changes as he aged.

"So you kill Thomas, and now you want to kill yourself," Martin quipped, satisfied at the stiffening of the lean body.

"I didn't kill Uncle Thomas," Casey said to the floor, and Martin was shocked to hear the words of denial.

"You know you--" Martin started, but Casey cut him off, piercing him with those stormy gray eyes.

"I was fifteen. I didn't know what decompression sickness was. Uncle Thomas insisted he was okay. He should have said something sooner. We aren't at fault," Casey said definitively.

Martin stared back at the blond for several long seconds, debating arguing with the boy to maintain the guilt that he'd managed to insinuate into the boy over the years. But the look in those expressive gray eyes told him that, for whatever reason, Casey had thought about it long and hard recently.

Martin finally sighed dramatically. He didn't have to feign the moisture creeping into the edge of his eyes as images of his deceased lover jumped in his mind, a love he'd be spending another lonely anniversary without.

He usually pushed images of Thomas back safely in their vault when talking to Casey. He hated letting the boy see him when he was weak. "You're right," he finally admitted. "I guess I didn't want to admit that he could be so careless. Just because you insisted on going out that day, didn't mean you could have anticipated him getting caught in the net. I know you were busy playing and swimming to realize that he might be in trouble."

Martin turned back to prepping tubes, ignoring the frown of uncertainty crossing Casey's ridiculously handsome features.

"I'm not a kid anymore," Casey finally said after a long silence. "Nothing has changed with these tests for the last couple years at least--if not longer. I think I can manage without them."

Martin stopped, thinking about exactly what Casey might be trying to say, and it stunned him to even think it. "Manage without the tests or without me?"

Casey straightened his shoulders, and Martin didn't like the small display of confidence sneaking its way out again. "Well, both. Maybe. Eventually." Casey hedged, crumbling a bit as Martin stared him down.

"Do you really think you could survive in the world without someone to watch out for you?" Martin snapped, irritated that Casey would even think he could live without him.

"You treat me like a fucking kid," Casey finally exploded. "I'm twenty years old. I don't need this fucking collar to keep me from wandering off any more! I can take care of myself. And if I screw up, so what? It's my life, not yours."

When Martin stared at him in shock, Casey continued, obviously taking his stunned silence that he had hurt his uncle. The boy's voice was softer when he spoke again. "Look, I know that you and Uncle Thomas took me in when you didn't have to, that you cared for me and raised me for over fifteen years. And I appreciate that, I really do. But, I'm thinking... maybe...maybe it's time that you could trust me a little more."

Martin could only stare at him in shock. It took him several minutes to recover himself enough to even think about how to respond to that. His first reaction, of course, was anger. He had spent years dedicating his life to this specimen, and Casey just thought he could leave? Hell, no, he thought.

But then he managed to school his reaction because he really needed to handle Casey carefully before he ended up pushing the boy into total outright rebellion. Maybe he could loosen his rules a bit. That was probably what had pushed Casey into thinking about leaving--the rules about staying inside away from the neighbor. It had to be.

"Casey," he tempered his voice carefully, "I admit maybe I have been a little... strict lately. But it has just been to keep you safe..."

"But--" Casey started to interrupt, but Martin held up his hand.

"Let me finish. You might be right. You are a... young man now. As much as I still see you as that little boy who came to us fifteen years ago, I have to admit you have grown up. But I don't want you rushing off into rash decisions that could ultimately cause you severe harm," Martin said. "How about we cut down on the tests? Because you are right, your results have been stable for a couple years now, especially since puberty."

He was rewarded with a slight smile from Casey at his concession, even though it was a rather small one. He had enough data already to present to the scientific world; he really didn't need much more. And since he was looking to present Casey near the end of the year shortly before the end of the Nobel Prize nominations, all he really needed now was to keep Casey safely hidden and in his control.

"And I suppose I can trust you to keep yourself from being seen by our neighbor during the day," Martin added as well. "But, I still don't want you interacting with him."

"Why not?" Casey pushed. "Maybe we could keep each other company on occasion? I mean, he's all alone too."

Martin's eyes darkened, and he stalked closer to the boy. "Now see, that's exactly what I'm worried about."

Casey's eyes widened uneasily. "What?"

"I can see that look in your eye. I'm sure you've watched his half-naked body out the window many times. You're getting ideas in your head that you could have a relationship with this asshole," Martin snapped angrily.

"You know nothing about him!"

"And neither do you!" Martin yelled. "That's the whole point. You're creating some ideal in your head about fraternizing with this guy and you have no idea what he's like."

"Don't you think that's up to me to decide? I'm sure we could be great friends."

Martin fisted his hands at his side, angry that Casey was really pushing his limits. "Okay, suppose you do become friends with the guy, or hell, maybe the guy gets you so hot and bothered that you let him fuck you... how do you think he'll react when he finds out what you really are?"

The flush of shame that flamed Casey's face gave Martin some small satisfaction. "I wouldn't tell--" Casey started but cut himself off, biting his bottom lip.

Martin pressed before he lost the advantage. "I'll tell you what he'll think: he'll think you're a freak, some mutant monstrosity that will disgust him--"

Casey was already shaking his head, but tears were glistening at the corners of his eyes. "No, no, he wouldn't--"

"Because you won't be able to keep the truth from him forever, and I know you Casey, you'll fall hard and fast. You did the same thing with Roshan. You latched onto the first guy to show you any affection, and when he turned his back on you, you fell apart. You were heartbroken, and I had to pick up the pieces."

Tears slipped from Casey's eyes over his cheeks as he stared at the floor. "I was sixteen then," Casey finally muttered with surprising force.

Martin sighed heavily. "I'm willing to cut back on the tests and let you out to swim if you avoid the guy, but I'm not yet willing to let you risk everything I've done to keep you safe by hanging out with this stranger." When Casey looked like he was going to argue, he held up his hand to stay any arguments. "Just do as I ask for now, please," he said in his best concerned uncle voice. "Let me think about it. Maybe I'll visit him and check him out to see what he's like first and we'll see."

The small hope that he might concede was obviously enough to pacify Casey for now as the boy nodded with a small smile.

"Now, lay down, so I can get these tests done."

Casey's hand drifted up to the collar. "Any chance of maybe removing this?"

No way in hell, Martin thought. Without the collar, he'd lose the one thing that gave him the biggest control over the boy. "Don't push it right now," he said, getting another frown from the boy. "Look, again, I'll think about it. You're asking me to just throw away everything I've ever done to keep you safe," he said before adding one of his trump cards, "You're asking me to break my promises to Thomas to do everything I can to keep you safe."

That earned him a blush of shame from the boy just as he hoped. He still had a bit of that guilt hand left to play it seemed.

"Let's just start small. I'll tell you what, you can spend the full moon in the cove instead of the tank this time. I was really thinking with this guy here, that you shouldn't be outside when you can't control your shifting, but maybe it would be okay to be in the cove," he said. Plus, he realized that with his anniversary the same night, he didn't want Casey in the house at all.

Casey had looked seriously angry at the thought of spending the full moon in the tank. "Maybe you don't have to lock me in this time?" Casey suggested, and Martin was seriously getting tired of how much the boy was pushing his boundaries tonight. "I mean, I have the collar, right? That would keep me from wandering--"

Martin shook his head. "You know the lunar pull is too strong. Even the collar might not deter you from venturing too far. It's too risky, right now."

"Fine," Casey grumbled, flopping back on the padded table and offering his arm for the syringe.

Martin rubbed his hand over his beard as he retrieved the syringe and test tubes to collect samples. Casey's attitude was definitely troubling. While Martin was able to stay some of Casey's entreaties with the vague 'we'll see' and 'let me think about', it was obvious that the boy wouldn't be content for long. Martin pondered his timeline in his head. Maybe December was too long to wait to present his creation to the world.