The alert that Taylor's mother and Kat had accepted the offer to join mer society had made Amanda very happy, particularly in relation to the fact that she could not go back to Earth. Even before Amanda's own transformation into a mermaid was completed she was willing to give up and disappear as far as the human world was concerned. She could understand Rose's Catholic faith and her discussions on that, but Rose had also struck Amanda as one who didn't take everything in the Bible literally and that there could even be some sort of legal leeway over certain social issues. In many ways, Amanda's more Protestant beliefs were in line with that sort of thing. God didn't hate gays and lesbians and after Jesus' time on Earth that the real test was of their faith, not on who they loved. But her parents were the sort that took things literally and that had been a source of misery for her.
Her parents could do some things that were good and tolerant, but everything seemed to be in black and white and because the Old Testament said homosexuality was wrong, those that were gay could never be good. This soon included various political statements and donations to any politician to let their church gain political power or anything like that. It frightened Amanda when she reached puberty and then found out she liked girls more than boys, and that had been a big part of why she'd stayed in the "closet" as it were. In that sense, joining the merpeople might not be too bad and as she learned more about mer society, the more she liked about it. Princess Amara when she talked to them as a group, including Rose, mentioned that mer society accepted same sex couples and even included the comment that some of the wizards in mer society had found ways for same sex couples to have children that would combine the genes of both partners. Some of the professors she'd talked with on education in mer society had also given her a lot of encouragement and even mentioned that they had colleagues that were homosexual.
In this, the more Amanda talked with them, the more she was happy to be a mermaid and she would be with people who wouldn't reject her for who she was. The only thing she really missed was Kat. Her friends all had their partners. Rose and Nate would get married, likely next year, and it wouldn't surprise her if the others all ended up happily married as well. Part of her figured that Kelly and Kenny might end up having to get married if Kelly got pregnant. But Kat hadn't been invited to come on the cruise with them to celebrate college graduation, and thus Amanda became a mermaid and Kat was still in the human world, and that was what Amanda wanted to fix. Sure, Kat was much more of a rebel, really didn't care about religion, and was more active in protests, but she was also fun, smart, and friendly once one got past her external shell. Once Amanda found it, she loved it and that was why she gave her invitation to Kat to join her as a mermaid.
The report that Kat had accepted the offer was enough to make Amanda overjoyed and she eagerly went with Taylor and Sam back to the same island where they'd gone through their transformations. Of course, with the fact that Nate being lost prince had meant that all of their education on how mer society worked how other things worked had ended up in their summer palace and away from the "help center" that was connected to the hospital at the island where transformations were managed. It meant another trip on the sub/train/bus from their summer palace back to the island. The trip took time, but Amanda's joy kept her up and full of energy. Taylor had also been excited and the two began talking on plans as they rode along. This included Taylor being Rose's maid of honor when Rose and Nate married and then the expectation that Rose would be Taylor's maid of honor when Sam got around to asking, which got Sam to remind Taylor that for the moment it was probably better not to stir up any more "chaos" than was needed, which only lead to a chorus of giggles from Amanda and Taylor.
However, by the time they reached the village around the island and made their way up to the hospital/transformation area, it was late at night, or perhaps even early morning and both were very tired. The only thing that kept them going had been the knowledge that Taylor's mother and Amanda's girlfriend had accepted their respective offers and they'd be together. They'd all get their chance to complete everything and move on together. Taylor would get her mother and Amanda would get her girlfriend. They were greeted by Doctor Manius as they came to the hospital and were lead to to the room where Karen and Kat were resting after their transformations were begun. Though Amanda also had one question for the doctor as they followed him through the hallways.
"You'll forgive my asking this... but what happened to the female doctor," Amanda asked him, "the one with the very ample chest, that looked over our transformations... Isn't she in charge of these things?"
"Doctor Kreia and I hold the same rank," Doctor Manius gave soft laugh, "and in some ways we have shifts. The transformation from human to merperson is lengthy and goes through a fair amount of work and monitoring. Make sure you're healthy and not having any trouble... while bringing you food or escorting you to the hospital's cafeteria and so on. Thus when your group finished, Doctor Kreia's shift ended and I took over. When your girlfriend and Ms. Campbell's transformation completes, my shift ends and Doctor Kreia will return for when the next group of people arrive on the island decide to leave their ship and come onto the island..."
"Oh..." Amanda answered and gave a yawn.
"Are you okay?" Doctor Manius asked.
"Just a little tired," Amanda gave a small smile, "but still exciting at seeing Kat again..."
"Then come along," Doctor Manius spoke with a smile, "There will be some health checks that we'll have to do with them as they change... but as guests, you can be allowed to visit them. Particularly given the present nature of the present work with their transformations. Hopefully, you'll all be happy."
Amanda smiled and they followed along until they were lead to one of the resting rooms where they could see Karen and Kat presently sleeping on the slab like beds that were familiar to Amanda. She remembered waking up on them during her own transformation. Despite looking like they were made of rock and being uncomfortable, they actually had some measure of compression or "softness" to the rock. In some ways it was like a combination of sand and sandstone and Amanda couldn't fully describe how it worked, though it was oddly comfortable as the bed in the apartment room she'd been given was. The room though was smaller than the one that she, Rose, Nate, and the others had been in, but then that room was holding several transforming mermaids and mermen. This one only had two, Karen and Kate.
Karen was on the left, which Taylor moved to while Amanda moved to the one Kat was on. Kat was on the right side of the room, but seemed to be asleep. Amanda noted that like Karen, Kat was down to just her bra, which wasn't quite the material for swimwear, but then it was likely that Kat and Karen weren't swimming when they entered the water and thus wasn't wearing a swimsuit. It gave Amanda some clear sign on how Kat's transformation was starting. The jaws and head of the holy animal had already fully fused into Kat's hips and the shite scales were starting to move up into Kat's torso a bit. There was also evidence that the holy animal's gills behind its mouth were starting to merge into Kat's hips while Kat's gills began to form beneath Kat's breasts.
"They're still asleep," Sam said softly to Taylor.
"But they're here," Amanda said as a tear of joy escaped her eye and seeing the presently modest flukes at the end of what would be Kat's tail. They would likely grow into the good sized flukes Amanda had and that Taylor had, but that wouldn't really come in until their transformations finished and as their additional fins grew in, but that would take time. "For now that's all that matters."
With that, Amanda and Taylor both moved into chairs that had been set in the room. Though by this time both of them were starting to get tired and there were yawns from both Amanda and Taylor. There were attempts to try and stay awake, for their loved ones, but in staying up through the ride from the summer palace back to the island where they became merpeople was finally catching up with them. Sam noted this and said to Taylor, "I'll go see if I can get you some coffee... or whatever the equivalent is..."
Taylor nodded. Amanda didn't even get that far as she ended up leaning forward and letting her head rest on the table not too far from Kat's elbow. With that she soon fell asleep and slept through Karen's waking up, Sam's return, Taylor being woken up and Doctor Manius coming in to find Karen awake, explaining some things, and then Karen drifting off to sleep again. Though that seemed to raise a stirring in Kat. Kat's eyes drifted open slightly to hear Sam and Taylor drinking from the cups that Sam had brought back, though Kat wasn't familiar with either. Kat was more familiar with Amanda, and as she woke up, despite the pain and ache that moved through her whole body, largely as her leg bones were dissolving and reforming with the holy animal's vertebrae.
Kat vaguely remembered the attack and the pain hurt, but her eyes were looking more toward her left side where she saw the top of a dark haired head, a strange sort of swimsuit top that had some other "add on" features to it and then down at the waist of the mermaid by her, was a dark purple and lilac colored tail. While she couldn't see the facial features of the mermaid at present, she did recognize the color of the mermaid's tail from the video message that Amanda had sent.
"Amy..." Kat managed and slowly reached for the mermaid with one hand, "is that you?"
She weakly managed to push at Amanda's head, but that was enough to get Amanda to wake up. Her head jumped up as she said, "I'm awake, I'm awake..." She paused to see Kat giving a pained look back at her. It still only brought a smile to Amanda's face. "Kat!" She kissed Kat on the lips. "I'm so glad you came and joined us!" Another kiss. "We'll be so happy here! And I don't have to hide who I am!" And another kiss.
"Not that I don't like the attention," Kat managed, "but right now I ache all over... either from the hangover or from the fish that bit me."
"Probably the latter," Amanda managed and held Kat's hand in her own webbed hands, "my whole body ached when I woke up at the start of my transformation. And some of Sam's arguing with Nate over us all getting caught and not knowing what was going on didn't help..."
"To be fair..." Sam spoke up from across the room, "we were all scared and there was the sort of hope that Nate and Rose would come to our rescue... somehow."
"Instead you all became merpeople," Kat said slowly.
"And liked it," Taylor answered, "Nate and Rose will be king and queen in the future... and have all sorts of royal duties they'll have to learn in addition to what they went to school for... and they might get to do a good bit of what they want. This place seems to be more progressive than most other places in the human world in an odd way."
"And Nate hasn't abandoned us or forgotten us," Sam added, "it ended up amounting to a rescue... just not the one we imagined."
"And my parents can't oppress us," Amanda said to Kat, "they're actually quite accepting of gays and lesbians... even if the number of merpeople that are gay are at about the same proportion as there are on Earth... so... they're very welcoming here. We'll get a happily ever after."
"After the pain goes down," Kat answered and running one hand down her side and noting that when she got to her hips there was no sort of gap. It was like she and the fish that bit her and swallowed her legs were now completely one being. She could feel the movement of water in the room moving gently around her new tail
"Of course," Amanda smiled, "but that will go away in time... and in fact not too long a time."
With that Amanda moved to actually climb up onto the slab with Kat and lay beside her. As Amanda began to cuddle with Kat, Kat could feel Amanda's smaller fins actually grip at the sides of Kat's white scaled tail and hold them together. A loving hug from Amanda's arms soon followed.
"Thank you for joining us," Amanda said to Kat, "I love you so much..."
"I love you, too," Kat answered and returned the hug... "but I'm still feeling tired."
It wasn't too long before Kat and Amanda fell asleep in each other's arms.
"So what shall we do?" Taylor then asked to Sam, noting that the bed her mother was on was too small for all three of them. Not to mention that she hadn't gotten into her mother's bed since she was little. It would be awkward now that she was grown up and she and Sam, while not as active as Kelly and Kenny, and long since lost their virginity together. Not to mention that Taylor didn't want to share her boyfriend with her mother. Hooking her mother up with the doctor was a viable option, particularly with the revelation that he was single, but that all had to be organic. Especially since he'd also said he was a widower.
"It might be best to just camp out for a little while," Sam offered, "the day is probably just starting... and the others will have their classes to go to... and Rose and Nate may get it double since they'll have "royal" lessons added in to all the medical and computer... or whatever merpeople call their equivalent of it... lessons... and if our transformations say anything, it'll be a while before your mom and Kat really come to. We can rest for awhile."