Tom and Holly were trying to figure out how they could deal with the issue at hand of their child, and the logistics therein for having a child that had these unique potential challenges. Tom was concerned that people might judge his son before knowing him, and react impulsively. Tom was not the type to throw out his son for merely being different, but that could not be said for some of the other men in town. They needed to find a way to get Peter home - and find a way to accommodate him. Tom looked over the baby boy, seeing that he had gills now, for breathing in water, but a cursory touch informed Tom he also had lungs.
It seemed however Peter ended up the way he was, he could exist above water, but was definitely built more for life, well, under the sea.
"How are we going to handle this?" Tom asked Holly, "We need to make sure he has a generously large water supply to live in. We can't expect our son to walk around on land when he's...well, like this." He gestured at his boy.
"M-Maybe we need to invest in a pool, or some kind of pond." Holly contemplated, neither of them really looking back at the Silver Lake. Which seemed to start shimmering as they discussed the issue at hand. Holly gestured briefly and held Peter, looking down at his wonderful glimmering blue eyes and fins. Their baby was it seemed not affected by whatever was going on too much. No odd effects outside the obvious physical ones.
But then Tom felt something start to settle over him as he wished, however briefly, that there could be some method for taking care of his so altered son. The Silver Pond shimmered a little brighter, and Tom's mouth visibly hung open briefly, feeling a tingling sensation rush over his body. The young auto mechanic had a tight, muscular body that served him well in his job, dealing with cars and moving stuff around in his autoshop - a body Tom suddenly felt tingling like this. A stirring in his groin made him gulp and wonder if he was being tempted.
He looked at the silver pond, and mouthed a word - he could feel some sort of pull. Some tug. A compelling barely audible need to jump into the same pond that resulted in his son's changes. Maybe somehow this would present some kind of solution to what was going on. Tom numbly started fidgeting with his shirt, "...The pond..."
"Honey...?" Holly tried to put her hand on her husband's shoulder, and he only let out a short moan in response.
She was left staring, holding the baby, unable to really do much beyond watch as she saw her husband outright strip naked - his tightly muscled body that she took such appreciation of during their congresses leading up to their son's conception seeming to be sweating a little. His manhood was ramrod erect, indecently so, and Holly averted her eyes. Tom suddenly took off at a run - jumping into the silver pond. Holly gasped and the baby giggled in her arms.
For a moment, Tom did not resurface.
Holly wondered if this might be something...darker at work. But then Tom did resurface, his hair matted and body still shivering, wide shoulders quivering as he felt the water on his body. "H-Honey...the water...it's...it's---oohhhh..." He trailed off into a long moan, and then bit his lip. Holly could see even as she stood there that something was changing in her husband.
He gripped his chest and bent forward as his neck bulged, similar gills emerging. He suddenly gasped, and Holly would be able to see a long trail of white coming from below the water's line. Followed by Tom thrashing a little, his legs visibly coming together as he did, changing each time a little more. Light blue scales covering his legs as they changed and fused into the form of a merman's tail, though broader, larger and more powerful than that of her infant son definitely by far.
She watched as fins emerged from his new tail, and proceeded upward, in a similar if different way to what happened with her son. Holly watched as Tom's arms thickened with muscle, his chest following suit and his thin, tight core escalating - becoming a path of six cobblestone abs leading up to his newly formed muscular shelf of pecs. A movement with his hands revealed the nails looked a little sharper, and webbing existed between each finger.
It almost seemed his hair got a little longer, less well cut. Tom thrashed a little more as he felt some rather intimate changes take place, and then he halted, his eyes now a glistening, glowing blue like those of his son. "Ohh...ohh my God, what happened to me?" Tom looked around and shortly after realized when his tail responded to his thoughts what had occurred.
Holly looked back at him with a frightened expression, "T-Tom...? Is that you still? Are you...?"
"I'm me, I'm me," He answered quickly, breathing and noting how odd it was to move around so easily in this cave's pool like this. "Nothing happened to my mind." He started to move toward the shore to meet Holly closer, but couldn't quite leave it on his own power.
"Oh honey, I think...I think us discussing the ways to deal with this...it might've..." Holly contemplated that and realized what it probably meant. She looked down at her child, who was now cooing and giggling a little as if nothing was wrong.
Tom too now realized what had happened, and shook his head, "If only my resolve had been stronger. I am so sorry, dear."
"Don't blame yourself. You were obviously affected somehow mentally by it." Holly said, looking at his body now. "Oh...oh my. You got more...rippling. My God, it gave you muscles!"
Tom flexed his right arm somewhat awkwardly, and noted how large he was now in comparison to how he was before. "Wow, so...so it did!" Tom looked toward the shore, and Holly, finding himself growing a little excited - though he quickly quashed the biological response. Tom considered what happened. He was now a merman himself, his wife was on shore, and it seemed there was some intelligence involved in whatever was responsible for this.
Holly decided to try something, and went toward the shore. Once there, her child started eagerly moving toward the pond. Tugging and pulling and moving his tail so as to move out there. Holly lost her grip and she watched Peter as he giggled and swam out there, right next to his father.
Tom smiled and looked down at the infant merman, "Hey sport, what's up?"
The infant cooed and started roaming around, using his tail remarkably well for such a young child. Tom looked toward the shore, not sure what to tell Holly at this point. Even though they would basically be living in two different worlds now, he still loved her deeply. "I think...going by this, Peter's nutritional needs probably are a bit different. I'll take care of him out here, and we can meet up either here or by the shoreline every day. I'm confident there's an exit point from this pond into the ocean."
"I'll miss you, Tom. Very dearly. Please be careful out there. Who knows what's going on." Holly said as she started to collect herself. She was going to have a lot of explaining to do, a lot of excuses to make, and a vastly different life now. Looking at her merboy son and her merman husband, she started to get ready to head back toward land. Up, and out of the cave.
As she headed out for the entrance, she watched the two of them dive beneath the pool's waters.