Chapter Text
Sam looked up at the sound of loud running down the hallway towards his office.
The culprits were easy to find as Niki and Puffy skidded to a stop outside his office door, both panting. "We heard there's a new Guppy." Puffy looked at him accusatively.
Sam raised his hands in surrender as the two girls stood in front of his desk. "I'm sorry I didn't call as soon as he came in, Fundy had it covered."
Niki pounced on her toes in excitement. "Oh it's a boy?" She clapped her hands excitedly, "I can't wait to see! How old is he?"
Sam chuckled, "Well, we think around a year now, but there's no way to tell until we get a full vet check for him."
Puffy's jaw practically hit the floor, "A year? He's barely a guppy! You should have called me. I would've come in even if it wasn't my shift, you know that!" Puffy's hands were on her hips, and Sam almost felt like he was being scolded by a school teacher.
Sam raised his eyebrows, "I know you would've, but we had it handled and the gup is totally fine."
Niki frowned as she crossed her arms, "It's just a baby, poor thing is probably terrified."
Sam sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "The guppy is fine physically."
"Did Fundy get him set up in a guppy tank already?" Niki asked
"Yeah, would you go check on them?" Sam passed the file. "And the mer in the red room for me? Thanks Nik. And Puffy, stay here, I need to discuss foster plans for him with you."
Sam barely had time to wave goodbye before the eccentric girl was off. She was always excited to see the new guppies that came to the rescue from time to time.
Niki rushed through the halls, eager to see the new guppy. Niki skimmed the file on her way over. From what she gathered, the little one's pod was found poached by hunters. She could only assume Sam was swamped with paperwork for the criminal investigation.
They were lucky to get there in time to save the remaining guppy and bring them to the aquarium safe and sound. After that, they'd have to be fostered. It would be no way to gain all the survival skills needed to be released back into the ocean if it had no parental figure.
She half skipped, half walked to the green room, swiping her card through the key slot and entering with a skip in her step, excited to see the new baby. Or she would have been if there were any in the habitat.
The clear blue water was devoid of mers, guppies, or fish. Instead, the water was still, even without the sound of the filters running in the background.
Her brows pinched in confusion as she peaked at the door to ensure she was in the right room. As she did, she sighed in relief at the sight of Fundy walking down the hall.
"Fundy hey!" Niki called, jogging a bit to catch up to the boy.
"Oh hey, Niki, what's up?" They asked, setting the buckets of ice down to give a small wave.
"You set the new guppy up in their enclosure, right?"
"Uh yeah, I put them in the guppy pools like Sam said when he came in. Why?"
Niki's stomach did a nervous flip. "They're not there."
"Are you sure?" Fundy asked, puzzled over his face as she heeded him back to the guppy room to see.
"Oh! This isn't the room I put them in." He smiled, obviously relieved the pup hadn't escaped.
"Sam told you to put them in the guppy room, room 106. This is the guppy room 106." Niki stated she pointed to the enclosure number listed in the file. She was getting seriously nervous about where exactly Fundy put the baby.
"No, I put them in guppy room 160." Fundy also began to get a nervous look on his face. "The room down the next hall?" Confusion and a bit of anxious fear ringing in their voice.
Niki grabbed Fundy by the shoulders. "Fucking show me where now!"
In their hurry, they knocked over the ice buckets as they ran. Niki followed Fundy down the hallway where they had said they put the guppy.
Which also happened to be the isolation wing they kept injured or recovering animals.
Fundy skidded to a stop before a locked door, "This one."
Niki gently pushed them aside to look into the small window in the door.
It was empty save for a very large mer. Nevertheless, its colors were beautiful, with shades of red blending with pink, iridescent stripes. Her heart dropped. She knew this mer.
It was curled up facing away from them, possibly sleeping, although she never knew this mer to sleep out of the water unless they were sunning.
There were no signs of any guppies, though.
"Th-that mer wasn't there before I swear!" Fundy panicked, running their hands through their hair, already a nervous wreck. The large mer had likely been napping in the deeper pool of water just out of sight. Niki was surprised Fundy had been able to move freely in its enclosure without retaliation.
Fundy's panic began to spread to Niki. It was common knowledge in the rescue center that guppies were easy meals for any large mer or predator. So their parents fiercely protected the guppies until they were old enough to defend themselves.
Keeping that fact in mind, it was very likely that said mer had been…fed early, so to speak.
Fuck.
Before Niki could speak, a high-pitched sound drew her attention back to the room with the large mer.
"Fundy, look."