Marcy pinwheeled in the water, laughing. Her twenty four hours as a mermaid was nearly finished, but the fun she had during that time had barely decreased.

She'd been messing around with Finley for the past hour now, having fun swimming together, and talking.

Marcy felt slightly guilty with all of this. She had damaged her academics so badly this last semester, and no longer had a job. She didn't deserve -

No. She wasn't giving into those thoughts. She deserved to be happy.

But after all that time, it came to an end.

A beeping sound echoed throughout the pool - the lab's indicator of that they wanted them to surface.

She frowned, and turned to Finley.

"You don't want to give it up?" he guessed.

"No," she sighed.

"All you have to do is say that then," he smiled.

Marcy remolded a smile onto her face, and then surfaced.

"Oh," Sharon said looking to her, "don't give me that face, you've been swimming for hours. You can go a bit without."

Marcy boosted herself up onto the edge of the pool. "Please Sharon," she  pleaded, "I've made my decision. I want the permanent mermaid change."

Sharon smiled. "We'll see. You need to decide first if you want to continue being a girl."

"I -"

"Give it time," Sharon stopped her. "You're enthusiasm is admirable, but I think you should think about it."

Marcy stared straight ahead for a moment, off into nothing. Finally, she nodded in agreement.

"Wow," Sharon said, "you little mermaid, were cutting it close."

Marcy looked down, and saw as her scales seemed to be sinking into her skin.

"Let's hurry and get you into a changing room," Sharon said, lifting Marcy into the waiting wheelchair.

"This is the only thing I don't like about it," Marcy said, "dealing with clothes."

"Yeah," Sharon laughed. "I've torn two swimsuits because I forgot about it. Please don't follow my poor example."

Marcy laughed.

She went into a changing room they had ready. It reminded Marcy of the little room they'd lent to her to sleep in, only it had a bench and locker instead of a bed.

Sharon locked the door behind them, and Marcy became red faced as the transformation finished, revealing her womanhood.

"It's okay," Sharon said. "We're just two girls here right?"

"I didn't think I would change back so fast," Marcy said.

"The first transformation is the longest," Sharon explained, using an id card to open a locker, "the second is shorter, then subsequent ones get faster until it stabilizes at quickest around two to five minutes."

"So basically," Marcy said, "I could just run out into the ocean, dive in, and become a mermaid before I drown?"

"I actually suspect," Sharon said, pulling a plastic tray of clothes from the locker, "that with our small sample size, and you trending shorter than any of our other mers... you probably could change in less than a minute."

A smug look came to Marcy's face. "I am undrownable."

"You really should decide on a better superhero name than that Marcy," Sharon said.

Marcy giggled.

Sharon held out clothes for her to put on. Marcy paused in her thoughts. A pair of panties with little mermaids on them. Her first instinct was to think they looked cute. Then, she slightly backed off.

"What's the matter?"

"It's just...," Marcy said, "I'm... I haven't worn girl's clothes before."

"You'll love it," Sharon encouraged. "C'mon, try it."

Emboldened, Marcy stood up out of the wheelchair, feeling kind of shaky on her legs. After all the hours of having a tail, having legs felt strangely just as alien as having a tail had to her at first.

She dried off any remaining water on her, and pulled the panties up her legs, until it hugged against her privates.

"This... this feels good," she said with a smile.

Slowly, Marcy pulled on each item of girly clothing, and felt herself become more and more bubbly. She especially loved the patterned orange t-shirt, even if it did look a bit like it was from 2083.

Sharon helped her comb her hair a bit, and then pulling on a pair of flip flops, Marcy walked out of the changing stall. She ran over to where the locker rooms led to the bathrooms, and there, found a full height mirror.

She looked gorgeous. Marcy decided that even if it was a 2080's shirt, she wore it well.

The more she looked at herself, the more an unfamiliar feeling set in. Marcy had never been bothered by how she looked as a boy - but she'd never felt particularly attached to it.

She'd felt more attached to her avatars online than to her own reflection.

But this... this was her. Or it was who she wanted to be. She found herself pressed up against the mirror, melodramatically trying to hug her reflection.

She heard Sharon chuckle behind her, and Marcy turned around with the biggest smile she'd ever felt. She couldn't have any other expression, even if she tried.

"I take it," Sharon smiled back, "that you like your knew look?"

Marcy simply hugged Sharon, feeling more happy tears flow.

"You look beautiful honey," Sharon said.

Marcy left Sharon's hug, and they left the locker room, walking back into the pool room.

Finley was sitting on the side of the pool without his tail, drying off.

Marcy felt an immediate attraction to Finley, even more than before. He was the same type of boy Mark would've liked before becoming Marcy, but now, for some reason, being a girl now made the desire in her more acute, and intense.

She blushed deeply. In years past, Mark had gone out with a number of guys, but... Marcy had never felt such... a need to be with a guy like Finley.

"You look very pretty Marcy," he said, smiling up at her from his position on the floor.

"Thanks," she smiled. Her blushing only deepened.

*****

"Well Marcy," Liam said, "you've been a girl for two weeks, how do you feel?"

"Like it..."

She started crying.

"Like it's who I've always supposed to have been."

Liam smiled. "Then I think," he said, "that you are well decided on the matter."

"I want to make it official as soon as I can!" Marcy grinned with giddiness, "I -"

"Take it easy," Liam raised a hand, "you'll get there."

The door opened to Liam's office where they were talking, and a woman came into the room. She had blonde hair going down to her shoulders in a... Marcy couldn't recognize the style, but it looked ancient. She smiled at Liam when she came in.

"Thought I'd find you back here," she said to Liam in an accusatory, though teasing tone. "You always hide back in your old office rather than the nice new one they have for you."

Liam chuckled. "All my stuff is in the right, cluttered place here."

The woman turned to Marcy, and her smiled softened.

"You must be Marcy," she smiled. Despite her age, lilke Liam, she had an energy in her - she had a perk in her voice, an inflection in it someone Marcy's age would have.

"Yeah," Marcy smiled.

"I'm Cindy, Liam's wife," she introduced. "I've heard you're interested in becoming one of our merpeople."

"Just decided that actually," Liam said, "she's been a good employee these past two weeks, and has decided she wants to continue being a girl as well."

"That's -"

Cindy's expression blanked.

"Wait?" Cindy said, "she's trans and you didn't even tell me?"

She kicked her husband in the shin. Light enough to be teasing, but hard enough to hurt.

Cindy hugged Marcy. "Congrats Marcy. I'm very happy for you."

"Thanks," Marcy smiled.

The kindness she'd gotten from everyone at Thompson Genetics had been wonderful. The kindness from her family... oh wait. That hadn't been kindness. They hadn't even gotten mad. They said they couldn't care less. That she thought, was the truest thing her lying family had said - they didn't care.

But Finley, Sharon, Liam, and countless others - even Cindy, a woman she'd only just met, they cared about her. And she had returned the favor, working as hard as she could to repay all they were doing for her.

In so short a time, Marcy felt that she had a grip on her life once more. She was taking a break for a semester, then would start again. And her new friends had helped her realize that her choice was okay.

Cindy had been asking Liam about something - some small talk about errands and things they needed done, then Cindy turned back to Marcy.

"Well Marcy," Cindy smiled, "I just popped in to say hi, but I'm very happy for you. I'm happy that your transition gets to be so smooth, so simply, where when Liam and I were young, it was quite difficult for me."

"You're trans?" Marcy asked.

"Yes," Cindy answered. "Liam was the one who helped me come out - helped me discover myself. And then, after I'd gotten the old fashioned surgeries, I was able to be one of the first ones to get the newer treatments he helped develop."

Marcy smiled. "That... that's really cute."

"And now," Cindy smiled, "I want to thank you. Testing this out for us has further shown the safety of the technology, and now we're finally confident enough... I can finally become a mermaid."

"And I'll be right there swimming alongside you dear," Liam pecked a kiss on her cheek.

Marcy could only sit and smile.

"I hope I'll see more of you," Cindy waved as she went out the door, "bye!"

"Bye," Marcy said softly in return.

She turned back to face Liam.

"We'll get it scheduled for you to finalize your changes," Liam said. "Hopefully tomorrow we can do it."

"Thank you, so much," Marcy said.

"It's like Cindy said," Liam said, "this is why we did this - she came out because of her love of mermaids, and we want to help anyone else who wants to fulfill that dream."

"I'm excited for the two of you," Cindy said.

"Yes," Liam said, "I feel kind of funny being so excited about this, but I am. Cindy is even more excited. I'm afraid we make terrible old people. We don't want to sit down and take a rest."

"No," Marcy said. "You're both amazing. I wish that I had family like you."

"And I hope that you make that family for yourself someday," Liam said.

"Me too," Marcy smiled. "I... before all this... I'd grown a bit cynical. My family had treated me and each other like trash, and I couldn't see what the point in that was. But now... I want to try to do it right."

"I'm glad," Liam said. He gripped his chair's armrest, and boosted himself up.

They walked out of the office together. The office led out into the floor above the pool, which was sort of a balcony overlooking it.

"Um, Liam?"

"Yes Marcy?"

"Can I ask you something, kind of related to that topic?"

"Shoot."

"If... well, according to the way these genetic tests have worked, say... a mermaid and a merman..."

He laughed. "Yes Marcy, their children would indeed share their ability to become mers."

Marcy looked over the railing, down into the pool, where Finley spotted her, and waved up at her.

She smiled. "Awesome."