I, hopefully, make sure the mercreature would stay asleep by giving it anastesia. I put on headphones to calm myself by listening to music and wait for my hands to stop shaking. I start by using a hose to suck out puss and sea water to see exactly how deep the wound goes and realize there's pieces of metal and paint in the wound. 

'Was it struck by a boat? Seals sometimes get hit by motor boats so I guess it’s possible.’ 

I remove the foreign debris and then once I remove any dead tissue that could rot and cause future issues, I disinfect the wound. 

I look up, ‘Should I record this discovery?’ 

I glance at my camera and shake my head. I don’t feel like getting bothered by the government. Sowing up the wound was a difficult process because of the mercreature's scales. At one point I had to just go ahead and remove the ones along the wound’s ridges. Multiple smaller wounds were cleaned, disinfected, and bandaged. I hum softly, mentally and emotionally removed from the situation, by the time I’m done I notice that the mercreature’s eyes are open. 

I gasp and recoil, ripping my earphones off. It was silent. 

“How long have you been awake?” 

I question. It’s silent. But it blinks. It’s face doesn’t seem to be consorted in pain and it’s eyes are looking through me glazed. I let out a sigh, the painkiller was working.

Carefully I put the mercreature back under and then transfer it into the tank. It responds to human medicine and can understand me perfectly. I don’t know whether or not it can speak english yet. 

‘You could take an x-ray of it, and run some tests.’ 

The scientist side of me suggests but the more human side just prepares a cup of coffee and falls into a chair to stare at it. 

‘I wish I could say I couldn’t believe it, but obviously it just made sense that mercreatures existed. Still, it’s detrimental to its species for it to just come ashore like that. Anyone could have stumbled across it. Thankfully neither it nor Honey was hurt. The way she tumbled away from it worried me though...if she wasn’t built like a tank.’ 

I shake my head to scatter the thoughts, ‘it was self-defense and nobody was hurt. Honey would have torn it to shreds if she could have.’ I sigh sipping coffee. ‘I’ll need to be more careful about letting her off the leash.’ 

After finishing my cup of coffee I move around the lab clearing up the supplies and cleaning. A small splash draws my attention and I see the bleary eyed mer creature lifting it’s body half out of the water. Then focusing on me with slightly worrisome lazorpoint attention. 

“I know you can understand me,” I say. “So, be careful of your stitches.” I jolt as it twists its tail to look. “Hey!” I yell and it winces relaxing quickly. I put my palm to my forehead, “I just said.” I take a deep breath, “Don’t you know how dangerous it was for you to leave the water?” 

It tilts its head, eyes narrowing then hisses, “I would have died otherwise.” 

I freeze up, amazed. 

“Wouldn’t you have done the same to survive?” It says, voice getting softer. 

“I wouldn’t have gotten hit by a motor boat in the first place.” I retort monotone. Then collapse back in my chair, “I need a smoke.” 

“The boat hit me on purpose. I was nowhere near it!” The mercreature snaps. 

I lift my head, “Wait, explain?” 

The mercreature looks uncomfortable. “What is your deal human? You are creepily calm.” 

“I am not calm.” I explain slowly leaning forward, “I’m just in complete control of my emotions. Now tell me because purposefully hitting sea wildlife is against the law. Did you get the boat numbers, would you recognize faces?” I urge. 

It shakes its head, “I collect human stuff in the water, on beaches, from boats, whatever I can get, to sell. I was in the shallower part of the ocean when suddenly I heard it, I dove but...” It winces from the memory. 

“Couldn’t you have heard it from far away?'' I ask carefully, making sure to use a light tone. 

“That’s the thing,” the mercreature says burying its face in its arms, “I didn’t hear it until it was right on top of me, I don’t know why.” 

I can sense that this would be a good time to comfort it so standing I edge forward, “I’m sorry I was mean to you about the boat.” It lets me get about five feet away from it before cowering. “You don’t have to be afraid of me.” I say. “I stitched you up.” 

"I was hit by humans in a boat forgive me if I'm not completely trusting of you yet," it smirks. 

'Why do I get the feeling it was copying me?' 

I feel a smile quirk in the corner of my mouth, "Fair point but you can trust me enough to ask for help and talk to me." 

It bares its teeth, "I feel strange, that has something to do with why I am talking to you." It dips it's gills under the water then pulls itself up again. I watch calculating how long it was comfortable out of the water. 

"Are your gills okay?" I ask. 

It hesitates touching them gently, "They are a little hurt but they'll heal if I keep them moist." 

I fold my arms, "Good... 'Have I waited long enough with casualties? If I start grilling him too soon he might clam up.' 

"You're wondering how I know english right?" The mercreature ask ducking down looking embarrassed. 

"I'm wondering a lot of things but yeah." 

"I had a teacher, they taught me english as well as a lot of things about the land and humans." 

"Like?" I ask intrigued. 'Who was this mysterious mentor were they a human or a mermaid?' 

"Like cars, and the word please, and dogs-" the mercreature stops, "Is your dog okay?" 

"Yeah Honey is a tank." 

"I'm sorry." The mercreature whenever it's embarrassed hides behind its arms. 

"It's okay." I force a soft smile. 

"You are... different than I thought humans would act." The mercreature says. 

"Let me guess freaking out about a real-life mermaid and taking pictures and calling the government?" I snort going over to my chair and dragging it closer. I sit in it. "That's stupid." 

The mercreature tilts its head and then says, "Merman." I blink and then cough out a laugh. 

"Are you a male as well," He asks unfazed. 

"Yes." I answer blandly. "Now that we have our genders out of the way, who was your mentor, were they a human or a mercreature such as yourself," I gesture to the merman. 

"He was both."