CALLIE followed the paramedics through the emergency room doors into the trauma bay. During the ambulance ride, she explained to them where she found him. No, she had no idea who he was, what happened, or how old he was. No, he has not responded to any verbal commands or stimulation. His oxygen saturations were reading low so they slapped a non-rebreather on him. While the woman prepared a needle to start an IV, Callie examined the man's face.

He looked young, maybe a few years older than her, judging by his height, width of his shoulders, and soft adolescent curve contrasting a defined jaw. Though his full lips were chapped, his skin was irritated by a sunburn, and his wet hair was matted with sand, he was undeniably handsome with a perfectly symmetrical face carved by gods featuring high cheekbones and shaped brows. His body didn't seem to have an ounce of wanton fat as evidenced by the six pack and his slim but muscular arms and thighs and calves... Callie swallowed hard and blushed at her inward thoughts. She was reading some very naughty Wattpad stories last night. No wonder her mind was in the gutter! This guy looked like a late teen dream.

It took a bit of self restraint to look away from Adonis. Still, she idly wondered what color his eyes were beneath his long lashes, unconsciously biting her lip.

I am a professional, she lectured herself once again. Though she felt decidedly less professional next to a paramedic. That paramedic suddenly cursed under her breath.

"What's wrong?" Callie asked worried.

But the baggy eyed woman ignored Callie. Instead she spoke to her partner who was driving. "His pulse is getting stronger by the second, but I can't get this IV in!"

"You can't get an IV?" her partner asked skeptically.

"I can get an IV just fine! The needle won't pass through his skin," she snapped back defensive.

"Try again. He has to be dehydrated," the driver reminded her in a very condescending manner.

This time Callie watched. Even with a tourniquet, his veins were barely visible. What she said was true, the needle wouldn't pierce his skin. She saw the woman's jaw clench as she stabbed the needle in harder causing Callie and the sun burnt Adonis to wince.

"There!" She proclaimed triumphant, taping it down. "Hope he doesn't pull it out when he wakes up. That would be a pain."

Once out of the medical bay area, the hospital nurses immediately rolled him to get a brain scan. They told the lifeguard to wait in the room he would be sent to afterward.

Inside the room, she wished she had her phone to play on. A nurse came in and Callie immediately jumped to her feet.

"Hi, he had this on him. He can't have it in MRI since we can't be sure what it is made of," she explained handing the girl the bulky necklace in a clear plastic bag then rested her hand on Callie's arm as if to comfort her. "He is stable. We will let you know if we find anything on the scan, sweetie. Can I get you anything?"

This nurse obviously did not get the memo that Callie was not a family member or loved one of the patient. She smiled back. "No, I'm good. Thank you."

After the nurse left, closing the door behind her, Callie took the necklace out of the bag curious. She did not have time to look at the piece before, though it was hard to miss. She realized with a start it was an enormous sharktooth.

Except...

She took a purple five dollar bill from her wallet. A bill is a little over six inches in length. Holding it next to the tooth, she couldn't believe her eyes. The tooth had to be nine or ten inches long! In other words, it had to be fake.

But having held many shark tooth fossils in her hands throughout her life, she knew she held something authentic and undeniable. Maybe she was mistaken, as it does defy all logic, but she couldn't shake the feeling. If it was real, it belonged in a museum or in a lab for study! Does it date back further than the megladon?

They rolled him back in and Callie hid the tooth from sight. The room was crowded for a few minutes as they adjusted him. He was in a gown and covered in thermal blankets to get his temperature up. The technician had reported he was starting to twitch during the scans so they believed he would wake up soon. Nothing found on the scans suggesting a contusion or hemorrhage. Lab results were pending.

She should've left then. He seemed to be medically in the clear, but Callie, not keen on going back to work, chose to stay. In the spirit of altruism, she would convince herself that she just didn't want him to be alone when he woke up. But more so than that, she had an insatiable mind. Her dad had raised her to question everything with diligence. He often said life is only a mystery to those who don't look for the puzzle pieces. Some people don't care and are perfectly content to live in an ignorant bliss. But not Callie. She wanted to know where he came from and where he found the tooth.

🦀🦀🦀

TRITON heard an incessant beeping and warbling sound. Foreign voices surrounded him. He was being prodded at and moved by weak hands. He heard it all, but couldn't seem to fight the dark fog shrouding his mind. Finally, the noise stopped except for an occasional beeping of a machine.

He tried to open his eyes, but the light hurt his head. He would have to adapt to it though, if he was going finish his mission. He tried once again only to turn on his side to bury his face in his pillow, his stomach protesting the sudden movement. He felt hot, uncomfortably hot, as if something was holding him down. This invisible force that held him prisoner restricted arm movement. The fog on his mind seemed to thicken and he fell into another abyss...

The next time he woke up, a woman was beside the bed messing with one of the beeping machines. She noticed him and gave a cheery smile that only darkened his mood further. "Hello, sir. I see you're awake. I'm Anne. I'll be your nurse today. How are you feeling?"

The man didn't reply. He continued to stare at her until her smile became strained. "That's okay," she finally said. "We'll take things slow. You are at Queensland Memorial Health Hospital. They found you washed up on the beach. You hit your head pretty hard, so you may have trouble remembering some things. I will call the doctor to let them know you're awake. They may want to come talk to you. If you need more pain medication, just hit the red button on this remote and I'll be here soon."

She left. Triton looked around the room. There was nothing significant about it, a rather quaint accommodation for a prince. Of course, they were not aware of his identity and it was certainly best to keep it that way.

He caught sight of the needle sticking out of his arm. That's not good. He immediately tore it out and red blood gushed out onto the sheets. A girl chose this time to walk in the door. She quickly ran to his side and pressed her hands to his arm to tamponade the bleeding. The sudden unauthorized touch made him flinch away from her. She fumbled around to press the red button.

"May I help–" the voice on the speaker started.

"H-help! We need a nurse in here now! He pulled the IV!"

"Okay, someone is coming."

Once they got his arm bandaged, they decided placing another IV was not necessary with him being awake and alert. And it would've been near impossible to accomplish with the patient giving the nurses death threats with his eyes, promising retribution if they kept touching him.

"That was exciting," the strange new girl sighed.

"This is Callie," Nurse Anne said helpfully seeing how he looked at the girl with confusion. "She is the one who found you. She has been here everyday since. Let me know if you two need anything else. Another nurse will be taking over your care soon."

Again, she left without him having said a word.

Callie tugged at her clothes before settling down on the cushioned seat by the window. "It's nice to meet you... officially. I'm Callie... as she said. Sorry, this is awkward. What is your name?"

Triton slowly turned forward, her prescense forgotten as he began to rack his brain for a plan. He had rushed up to the surface to set things right and now he was on the humans' radar. He has never acted so careless, but the tropical storm was unexpected.

🐠🐠🐠

CALLIE wondered if she should just leave. The man hasn't said a word. The police will figure out who he is. This wasn't her problem, yet she found herself unable to move from the seat. And not because he was good looking; though, she will admit she has enjoyed being mistaken for his significant other. She saw no harm in playing pretend and letting some of the hospital staff think that she was a worried girlfriend or a dedicated wife. They even started bringing her a guest tray of food around mealtimes.

She couldn't put her finger on why she didn't want to leave besides the fact she loved the movie 'While You Were Sleeping'. She has been in this room for the past couple of days examining his face and watching his breathing like some kind of obsessed stalker. The intricate designs of his tattoo intrigued her. What she at first thought was just light polynesian-style tribal art was actually tiny symbols lining up creating a rotating spiral. Those symbols ran down his shoulder looking like a forgotten text. The desire to know him grew every second, with his every breath.

"I can leave, right?" He finally spoke, saying words she was not expecting.

"Yes? But the doctors and the police probably have questions—" He was already standing, the hospital gown splitting in the back. She swung her head away, blushing down to her toes. "You can't just walk out! You don't have any clothes."

"Then bring me clothes." He sat back down. When she didn't move, he looked back at her with an arched eyebrow. "Well?"

She stuttered. "Oh, erm, o-okay. Yeah. I can do that. I guess."

She left, but not before making a detour to inform the nurse her patient wanted to leave. The way he spoke, no, the way he demanded her, rubbed her the wrong way, but she reasoned he must still be feeling out of sorts. He was out cold only an hour ago.

She drove home and borrowed some of her dad's clothes. He was away on a research expedition, but she was sure he wouldn't mind. Arriving back, she found Mr. Bossy Adonis arguing with his new nurse out in the hallway.

"Sir, I must ask that you return to your bed," she said. This nurse was older than Anne and seemed less likely to deal with a half-grown man's tantrum.

"And I must ask you, again, to return the blood you have stolen."

"Call security," the nurse told the unit secretary.

"What's going on here?" Callie asked.

"Ah! Clothes. Good. You have proven to be useful." He took the clothes from her hands and started back to the room, thankfully the gown was snapped shut completely in the back. "I will be leaving in due course. There will be dire consequences for anyone who tries to stop me."

The nurse turned to Callie. "Hi. I am Nancy. I just took our John Doe off Anne's hands. Ms. Moretti, is it? Here are the AMA papers. He is wanting to leave and honestly in my opinion, there is not much else we can do for him. The psychiatrist said he is refusing to try any memory jogging activities and claimed 'her services are not required' and fired her..."

"Can he do that?"

"Patients do have the right to refuse treatment. But since he is classified as an at-risk patient, there is a bit of red tape. He cannot sign himself out."

"You're saying you will hold him against his will?"

"No. No. He just needs an appointed power of attorney to take responsibility. He has no address in the system for us or the police to follow up with." Her eyes were pleading as if Callie could make this headache go away for her.

"I understand. What if he stays with me and my father until he remembers who he is? I can give you my address."

What am I even saying?

But too late to backtrack now. The nurse readily accepted this and had Callie filling out and signing papers. The doctor came by and advised the girl to convince him to follow up with neurology.

Callie walked back into the mystery patient's room. He was in the bathroom, staring at his reflection. He ran his fingers through his hair with a bewildered look on his face.

"Hey," she called out shyly for his attention.

He looked back and she took note of his dull, ocean blue eyes, dark and deep like a tidepool ready to pull you under its black depths. An ever-present frown and her dad's oversized shirt and sweatpants did nothing to deter the magnetic pull he had. "Oh. You're still here."

"Uh, yeah," she said lowering her gaze hoping he didn't notice how lost she was in his eyes. She caught sight of his feet, poking out of the legs of the sweats. "Oh, I'm sorry I forgot to get you shoes."

He looked at his barefeet. "Shoes? Oh. All is well. I have no need for them."

"Okay... so I was talking with the doctor and nurse–"

"Are they going to give back my blood? I know they took some."

"The blood they collected is gone. They would've discarded it right away. They don't keep it. They just use it to figure out what was all wrong with you..."

"Are you positive?" He asked sternly.

She put her hands up in surrender and was almost tempted to laugh at the absurdity of it all. "Yes, I'm positive. I came to let you know, if you want, you can crash at my place until you get on your feet."

He smirked, letting out a huff of breath that may have been a laugh. "I do need somewhere to stay on land. Very well. I accept your offer. Let us leave now."

He briskly walked out the door with Callie struggling to keep up.

He is definitely physically recovered... just not sure about mentally. What had she gotten herself into?

Vote and comment. Adding these author notes since it is supposed to help engage my readers....

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How about a joke? I'll give you one in the next author note.