hey there, it's hobbitbabe. abe lover and hellboy enthusest. I would like to thank my awesome beta karen. without her this story would suck.

Hellboy was snoring like a buzzsaw on crack. His heavy snore was cut by a snort in the middle. The sound filled the little house on the beach in Italy until it nearly poured out of the windows and onto the beach.

Abe winced at the sound and decided to go for a swim. As soon as he dived in, he relaxed. He felt at home in the water, and nothing could bother him there.

Or so he thought. The sound of splashing and snarling filled his ears. (Yes, even in water he could hear quite well.) Slowly, carefully, he approched the disturbance. What he saw both frightened and confused him. A thing like a giant saltwater pike was trying to eat something that looked like a mermaid.

Then he remembered the reason they were in Italy. There were there to investagate some strange deaths, like fishermen found bitten in half, but not by any shark. The tooth marks were too strange for that.

He heard the mermaid give out a periceing scream as the giant pike thing tore at her tail. Her screams were painful to hear. Carefully,he swam up behind the pike thing and finding his spear, jabbed it right behind the eye, killing it instantly. He searched around for the mermaid, and saw that she was trying to swim to shore. He swam up behind her and helped her swim into the shallows. Raggedly, she crawled out of the water and began to change form.

Her skin, which had been as greenish blue as his, turned a human tone. Her dainty hands lost their webbing, and her tail split apart to form legs. Abe smiled at her and nodded warmly. "I- I'll be right back okay?" Withough waiting for an answer, he ran just as quickly went to get Liz and they carried the mermaid to the little carryed her to Liz's room and laid her down on the bed. Liz shooed Abe out of the room. "Go on, get out. She's barely dressed!"

Liz looked around the room and spotted her old gray robe and softly dressed the mermaid in it. No sooner had she done this, Hellboy walked into the room, Abe shuffling in nervously behind him. Hellboy looked rather amused and quipped,"Hey, who's the babe?"

Liz looked annoyed. "Is that all you can say?" Her face was beginning to bloom red at the cheeks as she looked at Hellboy when Abe piped up from the door.

"Well she is quite attractive..."

Liz groaned in annoyance. "Men!" She said it under her breath and still looked preturbed."So what do you suppose we do..."

Before she could finish, the mermaid opened her eyes and screamed again. Her scream was so loud that it shattered all the windows and every bit of glass in the house. Abe almost screamed himself, she was that loud...

The mermaid frantically looked at the three people watching her when she had stopped screaming."Who are you? What do you want? A-are you here to take me back to my father?" The poor mermaid was trembling with fear now.

"Red, Liz, hold her down for a moment." Abe leaned to gently put a hand on the mermaid's forhead.

"Please, don't be afraid. We will not hurt you." The girl looked at Abe, clearly still frightened.

"Are you the one who saved me?" she asked, beginning to visably calm down.

"Yes." he thought, feeling a little embarrassed.

"Then I trust you." The girl smiled then, keeping her pretty eyes on his.

Abe blinked. "Are you still frightened of us?"

"Yes, those other two scare me... they are not like I am." She said in her mind, looking very uncertainly at Hellboy and Liz.

"They're my friends. They won't harm you any more than I would." Abe almost blushed at his own bravado.

She didn't look one hundred percent sure, but she smiled at Abe. "You saved my life, so I owe you my trust." Something in her tone held a bit more weight than what she was actually saying.

Abe was really blue in the face from blushing by now. "You owe me nothing, really..."

She looked confused and nodded to him."You have not always been a creature of the sea. You have...you have a soul."

Abe blinked, he hadn't expected these questions. "Why's this so suprising? Don't you also have a soul?"

The mermaid looked sadly at him and shook her pretty head. "Sadly, I do not. No mermaid has a soul, unless she is loved by one who has a soul."

Abe was very tired, and he wanted desperately to go back to his room and sleep, but he wasn't finished getting all the information he needed from this lovely vision. "What is your name?

The mermaid looked hesitant, as though her name were some sort of curse. She said to him, "My...my name is Sil. What is yours?"

"Abraham Sapien. But please, call me Abe." He motioned to Hellboy and Liz and introduced them as well. "And that big red fellow there is Hellboy. That lady there is Liz. They're my friends, like I said before. So no worries, you'll be fine. We'll sort everything out later, when we've all had some real you be all right here with Liz?"

The mermaid didn't look quite as sure and she shrugged. Hellboy had been looking annoyed for a while and took his chance to gripe. "So, what the hell's going on?"

Abe turned around, his blush very pronounced. "Her...her name is Sil."

Hellboy had finally lost what little patience he had left. "Damn it Abe! It's two in the freakin' morning, you're mind flirtin' with a fish, and all ya found out is her freakin' name?! I don't know about you lover-boy, but I'm getting some damned sleep in this joint. Can ya please get that wet broad to sleep?"

"No one's stopping you, Red." Abe was becoming aggravated now. The poor girl had been through an ordeal and all Red could think of was sleep. The annoyance showed through in Abe's voice and Hellboy's head dipped for a bit.

"Oh, yeah... sorry kid. See you guys in the mornin'." Hellboy sulked out of the room to get some sleep, leaving Abe and Liz in the room with the girl. Abe sighed heavily, thoroughly exhausted. Liz did the same and turned to the girl.

"Abe? Red has a point. Why don't you go get some sleep yourself and I'll watch had a rough morning too. She'll still be here in the morning, I promise."

Abe's face showed how tired he was, but he was having trouble taking his eyes from the girl. He just had this compulsion to say he'd stay in the room on the floor until morning, just to watch her. But the look on Liz's face said it all. He gave up, saying, "All right, Liz."

Before he left the room, he spoke to Sil again."Liz is a good person. You don't have to worry anymore. I'll be back to see you in the morning."

Sil nodded and replied shyly, "Thank you... Abe."

After Abe left the room, Liz found a pair of boxers and a shirt and gave them to Sil, explaining very carefully how to put them on. After a moment more of help, Sil was dressed. "Okay Sil, you can sleep here." Liz pointed to the bed.

Tentatively, Sil said, "Where will you sleep?"

Liz nearly jumped out of her skin. "You- you're a telapath?"

"Yes, all mermaids are, for we have no voices.. oh, I'm sorry..." Sil paused for a moment, seeming to weigh out what she should say, or rather how to put her question. She stopped and shook her head.

"It is not important. May I sleep now?"

Tiredly, Liz, found her voice and smiled at her goof, nodding. "Oh! Right...yeah, we'd better both go to sleep now, or the boys will be more chipper than us in the morning. Can't have that, now can we?" She sighed a little and tilted her head to take one last look at Sil for the night. "I'll be on the sofa if you need me, okay?"

The mermaid's hair bobbed as she shook her head. "Thank you, I will be fine. I will call if I need any of you, I promise."

Liz smiled and gave her a short one-armed hug before walking out of the room. "You're quite welcome. Good night, Sil."

As Liz left the room, Sil laid her pretty head down and , before she knew it, was off to dreamland herself.