"It was actually kind of boring, now that I have my own tank and stuff I feel like I could just do this on my own. Oh, and that cream must be working because the rash is nearly gone!" Darya announced as she walked to the bathroom to grab her aforementioned cream.

"That"s good, remember don"t wash your hair. Brush it out first before you do. That salt water is the only thing that will detangle that mess on top of your head." Denise said with a hint of annoyance.

It was true though, ever since her daughter"s hair was long enough to tangle it stayed that way. Unless she swam in the ocean, then it was perfectly detangled and soft. Quite the opposite of what it did to her own hair. She would let Darya swim for a while, making sure the water soaked through her hair as much as possible, and then she would comb it out before giving her a bath at home.

"Yes, I remember mom, by the way, I think the rash is spreading a bit," Darya said as she walked back into the kitchen from the bathroom. Denise waved her over so she could have a look at what was itching at the moment. Darya stopped scratching the sides of her neck to let her mother see, Denise nearly lost her lunch.

The sides of her neck were red, puffy, and very inflamed. Luckily there wasn"t any sort of infectious substance coming from it. She was worried but Denise would never let Darya see that. It was her job as a mother to make sure Darya believed everything she said, as long as it kept her safe.

"I think using the same cream will help this as well. Is it painful?" She asked trying to hide her worried tone.

"A little bit but I think that"s mostly from the scratching I"ve been doing. The suit covered it up when I was in my lessons so the water didn"t have a chance to get to it. Maybe when we got free diving later it will help it." Darya said as she took an ice pack out of the freezer to help the pain and itching from the new neck rash.

"Oh hun, you didn"t see the weather? There"s a big storm coming late tonight. In fact, we may want to go quick and board the windows up. I"ll need your help." Denise told her as she departed for the garage with Darya on her heels.

"I thought I looked at the weather channel this morning, there wasn"t anything on it. But if there is a storm heading our way I guess I"ll call Marty and tell him we"ll have to hold off. How big is it supposed to be?" She asked her mother as she helped her with a long piece of wood for their windows when the wind and rain would be heavier than usual.

"They said it will have high winds and lots of rain. Only lasting for a few hours but it"s better to be safe rather than sorry. We can watch movies until the lights go out if that happens." Denise suggested as they screwed up the second board. Luckily they only had five windows to cover, they usually left the attic one bare since it was so high up and neither of them could reach it.

"Movie sounds good. We haven"t had a lot of time to spend together lately so I think I"m up for it." Darya beamed at the thought of sitting around and watching movies with her mom. Eating junk food and laughing at the old cartoon movies they"ve watched since she was a small girl. It had been a while since either of them did that.

"Okay, that"s the last one. Let"s get inside, the clouds are rolling in quicker than I thought." Denise looked up at the sky and watched the gray clouds quickly come in. Thick with water that was about to pelt them relentlessly. There hasn"t been a storm that made the waves pick up like they"re doing now in a while. The last big one was on Darya"s fifth birthday and it nearly took their house. Luckily, the Todds live in the town and had a more secure house they let them stay at while theirs was being fixed the following weekend.

"You pop the corn and I"ll pick the movie," Darya demanded, making her mother smile as she reached for the packet of popcorn from the pantry and stuck it in the microwave hitting the number three before she walked to the living room.

Watching Darya pilage through the movies she thought back to the night that started all of this. She could have never imagined that she would have raised such an amazing child all by herself.

She missed him in these moments. Sure the relationship was short-lived and she"ll probably never see Dane again, but she still felt a pull for him; every time she looked at her little girl.

The microwave beeped bringing Denise out of her long thoughts. She pulled it out and threw the popped corn into a big bowl and brought it to the living room. She plopped down on the couch next to Darya when a ma.s.sive thunder cracked overhead making Darya jumped slightly with surprise.

"That caught me off guard." She said while grabbing the remote and getting comfortable.

"What movie did you pick?" Denise asked her, trying to speak over the sound of the wind slamming against the side of the house.

"It"s getting worse out there. I didn"t think the storm would be this b-" Darya was cut off by something ma.s.sive slamming against the side of the house opposite to where they were currently sitting.

"-bad, what was that mom? I think it cracked the house!" Darya shouted as she turned to where the sound came from. It wasn"t a normal wind slapping the house sound, it was more like someone threw a boat or boulder at the side of the house.

"It"s okay, stay here I"ll go check it out. It"s probably just a small boat that didn"t get tied down in time from the dock. Stay. Here." She emphasized so Darya knew she meant it.

Darya nodded her head telling her she understood and got comfortable on the couch again. She watched her mom grab her raincoat and boots before opening the door letting the howling winds enter the house for a moment making Darya cover her body up with the blanket on the back of the couch.

Denise pulled herself along the wooden stair railing for support against the whipping wind. She held her rubber jacket to her body as she pulled herself to the spot the sound came from.

Turning on the flashlight that she grabbed before heading out, she slowly shined the light over the area around the house and for a moment she didn"t see anything but doing a double-take the light poured over what hit their house.

"Holy s.h.i.t," Denise cursed out. Denise never cursed, in fact, she made sure she didn"t so Darya wouldn"t pick up the bad habit. But what she saw had her swearing like a sailor.

She ran off the stairs as quickly as she could with the wind whipping around her. She got down on her hands and knees to see if what her eyes were telling her the truth. Before her eyes and now down by her knees, laid an unconscious man.

She pushed him over so he was laying on his back and shined the light on his face trying to ignore the fact that he was completely naked with sea debris on him. When the light his the man"s face, Denise"s breath was taken away.

"Dane?" She whispered to herself as the wind picked up nearly throwing her against the house herself. She couldn"t believe her eyes but here he was, now she just needed a way of getting him inside the house without Darya seeing...