---

There were few things Elizabeth didn’t take well. She was used to hearing no. Every old guy her mother kept around told her no on so many things. And then she got what she wanted and removed them. Now too she’d get what she wanted. Still, she somewhat expected a no the second she saw Charlie. Of course, Elizabeth already had an inkling about who Charlotte Kirk would be. She had to be confident, strong and smart. Charlotte wasn’t just that, she radiated it. So when she told Elizabeth that she wasn’t accepting the offer, Elizabeth wasn’t that surprised. The million dollars was still planted in each and every one of them. That was just a matter of time. Sure, she hated the island. But she didn’t have to be here. Instead, she could just jump on her cruise ship and play the long game. Maybe but a private detective to dredge up whatever secret he could find about the people working there. No, there was nothing really keeping her here now that she had seen it.

But then Charlotte turned her back to Elizabeth. Suddenly all the rational thoughts vanished. Every idea of playing it long and patient were gone. Nobody turned their back on Elizabeth. Her mother did for years. Now she made sure that nobody would every disregard her again. So when Charlotte did what her mother did for years, something snapped. For a second she saw the image of her mother turning her back again and again and again. It almost seemed as the very air around Elizabeth turned frigid. “You will regret that.” She simply said, passing the wetsuit-clad woman. With rather forceful steps she made way towards the exit. With Sam close in tow.

The bodyguards gave everyone one last look and then walked behind Elizabeth as well. For now, she looked calm, controlled. Internally she was raging. She could barely keep it contained. Eventually, they reached the boat. Nobody dared to ask anything. They just got in, not even caring if Max was anywhere near. The bodyguards, ushered by Sam, went full throttle to get Elizabeth, who was no visibly seething towards the island, away. They couldn’t manage it fast enough though. Before anyone knew it she went to the locker, grabbed a pistol and starting firing into the water as she let a horrible, scream. The magazine was quickly emptied and everyone but Elizabeth took their hands from their ears. But the scorned woman still looked very angry.

They reached the inner dock of the mega yacht. “Move this damn thing closer! I want them all to see what money gives you!” Elizabeth commanded a random sailor. Who knew better than to question her. She went straight for the little office built in on one side. While small, it was thoroughly state of the art. With a fury, she barged in. Everyone inside looked up, surprised at the sudden visit. “Drop. Everything.” She ordered. Behind her, Samwell and a bodyguard moved. “I want all names on that board.” She ordered. Her voice calm but her demeanor anything but. The two people moved in to write every name on the board that they had heard. “I want everyone’s info on that board. I don’t care what it is, a maiden name. First boyfriend’s name. I want every little piece of data on them. I want their god damn DNA mapped!” She didn’t have to say much more. The people that worked were more than a little experienced in gathering data. The office manager though looked up from behind his desk towards the bodyguard. “Time to call in Hector?” But the bodyguard shook his head.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth was placing a phone call:

After that, she hung up again. Her mother wouldn’t get the Skype message anytime soon. That gave her valuable time to get IT to work on her account. No matter what happened, Miriam was not allowed to know that Elizabeth was ruining Haven. Elizabeth didn’t want to admit it, but there were bylaws that made her very, very afraid.

Charlie handled the situation exactly as Max thought she would and she couldn't help the small smirk that made its way onto her face as the woman was denied what she wanted. Charlie turning her back on the woman only made her smirk grow as she knew it would probably anger the woman who probably never had anyone do such a thing. The interaction was going perfect in her eyes although she personally would have just called the woman the word they all were thinking by now, but Max was blunt and Charlie at least was being more pleasant than she would.

Listening to the orders Max nodded, "I'll take the broken pipe Sam. I could use a swim and some good ol' fixing shit. It's been awhile since I fixed a pipe." A slight chuckle escaped her lips as a good memory from her time on the force surfaced in her head. "You just worry about Seirye's shoulder then your daily duties. I've got the pipe." Max informed them before heading out, following the group as they left. She followed them to their boat and watched them go back to the yacht, Duke by her side the whole time ready to follow her instruction if needed. As she stood on the dock looking out at the yacht she watched as it slowly got closer and she knew this woman was just going to be a pain in the ass.

The calm of the crystal water was shattered by the gun shots from the boat. Various sea life scattered at the hot lead shooting through the water. Most were lucky.

One was not.

A young female bottlenose dolphin, her first calf barely a few days old beside her, had swum underneath the boat when the shots began. The female never knew what struck her as several bullets entered her body. The calf, also a female, squealed in alarm.
After the gunfire ceased the little calf swam towards her mother, watching her sink slowly towards the bottom. She nudged her mother. She tried calling to her, whistling loudly.
There was no reply.

Her mother was gone...

~~~~~

Slate raced around the pen, jumping repeatedly out of the water. His belly was full and he wanted to play. His brother Copper laid in the shallows, resting and recovering. He was in too much pain to play. The skin around his wound was firey red and extremely tender to the touch. The beginnings of a fever were starting to show.

~~~~~

Charlie looked down into the Turtle pool. Triton was swimming in strong even strokes around the pool. He was healthy, that was certain.
Carrying a large plastic tub Charlie set it on the ground near the pool at grabbed her radio.

"Charlie to whoever has a free hand, I need help getting Triton into the go-tub in prep for release."

Sat at his desk Josh stared at his screen lost in thought. He absentmindedly watched his screen to the repetitive chug chug sound of the printer as he processed the past few minutes. Firstly, his stifled guffaw at the revelation that the greasy lawyer had the same name as his fellow Brit. The contrast couldn’t have been starker.

Then it had all gone down. He’d watched with baited breath as Charlie entered the room the clash of both these strong-willed women, yet she acted as though nothing was amiss. Then he saw the look in her eyes and knew why. In her mind, there were more important things going on. He was proved correct and his heart jumped at the news about Copper. Yet he had complete confidence that Beau would deal with it, he always awed Josh with his dedication and pioneering treatments.

Only then had Charlie turned to face their visitors and the chill was palpable. The news about Miriam wasn’t a surprise given his close communication with her aides. They’d insinuated as much but it was saddening to hear said out loud. However, the practised tone of the somewhat clinical statement really set his teeth on edge. He’d heard too many homework excuses in his career as a teacher to fall for such duplicity. His eyes narrowed at the well put together businesswoman in their midst. Something bad was coming…

Then she revealed it. His eyes popped. A million! He couldn’t help but fantasize about spending such money. Setting up more marine conservation education. Offering trips for students and grants for academics. Buying himself a decent house back in the UK and paying back his parents for a countless amount of support throughout his career. He honestly couldn’t decide. He composed himself and glanced to Sam to gauge his response. The poor guy looked completely shook. He knew how much the place meant to every one of them. But Charlie would never sell… right? She confirmed his first thoughts with a prompt curt reply. He went to place a comforting hand on their marine mammal specialist when the secondary door to their mess hall slammed open.

He stood up straight at the sight of Seirye’s bleeding arm. “Wha-?” he began before she spoke and quickly left again. He looked at Charlie for direction before the team went into action mode. This was what they did well. He looked after Seirye and Sam with concern for the both of them. Before jumping slightly at his name. He nodded in confirmation and strode out of the room to implement his refined paperwork machine.

It was now that he found himself sat at his desk, the newly completed incident forms spooling onto his desk. He stapled the appropriate packs and wheeled his chair over to their pigeon holes unable to face the small pile in his in-tray. He slipped the incident form and accompanying medical form into Seirye’s shelf, a duplicate medical form into Sam’s and a repair and supply form into Max’s. He pushed his chair back to his desk and curiously typed ‘Elizabeth Camwell’ into Google as his radio chirped with a request to help his boss with Triton. He was torn about the release. Both euphoric at the release of the beautiful reptile but utter heartbreak at the loss of his favourite island resident so far. He grabbed the radio with a heavy heart, “on my way after a quick change” . He let go of the call button and swung back to his cabana to quickly change into some shorts before heading to the turtle pool.

Sam helped Sierye out the best he could. Luckily, it didn’t seem like she’d need to go to the hospital for stitches (or to get Beau to do it on the quiet), but she’d need to be careful and keep an eye out for infection seeing as she’d injured it in the shark tank, which wasn’t necessarily the most hygienic of places.

A heaviness dwelled in his chest as he stepped out of the bathroom where Sierye still was, and into the sun. The day had barely even started, and already they’d had what had psychological warfare in the canteen, relatively high levels of gore, and broken pipes to fix. Luckily Max had stepped in for that one. Sam was many things, but better at fixing stuff than Max was not one of them.

He continued on, heading towards the stock room to pick up breakfast for their resident pinnipeds. Four adults and a calf amounted to a lot of food. Add that to the additional task today of weighing and measuring them to monitor their health, and Sam and the handful of animal care specialists assigned to help out today were already behind schedule due to this morning's kerfuffle. He needed to focus on the task at hand, otherwise there'd be chance they'd be done by this evening.

But still, Elizabeth Camwell's offer to Charlie still smarted, in spite of her blunt and clear refusal. The whole situation felt... wrong. Like it wasn't fixed yet. It was a bit like when your a kid, and you scrape your knee, and all the adults are telling you that it'll be fine, but your knee still hurts, and nobody seems that bothered by it.

To be honest, he wasn't really sure what he should be thinking. Rich people scared him, even the nice ones like Miriam. One person with that much power was surely a recipe for disaster, right? Power corrupts and all that? And Elizabeth hadn't even seemed like one of the 'nice ones', whatever that meant. She'd wanted to close Haven. To take away... everything.

He slowed, before stopping still, a sick, twisting sensation clawing at his gut.

Yes, the offer had been Elizabeth's. But those... those thoughts had been all Sam's. What did that make him? That he'd thought about it, and he worked here! Elizabeth didn't, she didn't see the pain and the suffering these animals experienced on a day to day basis, she didn't come face to face with the impact humanity was having on some of the most incredible creatures on Earth every single day of her life. Sam knew what was happening, he'd dedicated his life to studying it, and know that he had a chance to actually do something instead of just watching the news and feeling a bit useless, he'd had the audacity to even dare to think about-

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Lost in thought, Sam nearly jumped out of his skin at the noise, which was coming from... the ocean? What? It sounded like an engine backfiring - maybe it was Elizabeth's boat? He squinted, raising his hand to his forehead to pear across the glistening abyss. A hulking white object, tall and loud, was hauling itself across the crystalline waters, it's engine chugging and thruming, audible even from where Sam was stood on the little path snaking towards the supply shed. It was a mega-yacht, he realised dimly, probably Elizabeth's, and probably pumping out more crap than a small town.

As Sam watched it approach, his radio crackled to life. Charlie, talking about releasing one of the island's reptilian residents, and Josh replying. In spite of all the other things going on at Haven right now, Sam couldn't help but smile. This was what it was all about, after all. Even if it only ever helped one animal (and he knew for a fact it had helped more), then every single person here would have to be dragged away kicking and screaming before they let someone like Elizabeth Camwell get in the way of their work, no matter how big her boat was.

He should probably let Max know that there was a giant boat on their doorstep though. It seemed like it might be a security... issue.

He picked up his radio, "Hey, err, Max, this is Sam. Thought I could do with letting you know that there's a really, really big boat parked on our doorstep, it seemed like it might be a security issue, I don't know."

---

On a whim, after he'd finished feeding the pinnipeds, Sam wandered over to the where the cetaceans were kept. They'd had more time than they thought, and now he had a spare half hour to maybe try out that photography trick he'd been reading about. A small buzz of excitement tingled through his system - whilst the prospect of a career in academia had filled him with existential dread, the little bits and pieces of cutting edge stuff they got to do at Haven never failed to be weirdly thrilling, not least of all because it always made them that little bit better at actually helping.

His stomach dropped when he saw Copper.

Maybe he was just resting? Although... what Charlie had said earlier... he looked so ill. Sam waded over and crouched near the animal, warm water lapping at his calves. Copper seemed very lethargic, not playing with his brother, and the wound looked angry and inflamed. Beau must still have been checking the sharks.

Immediately he reached for his radio, "This is Sam, Beau, I think you should get over to Copper and Slate's pen right away if you can, Copper's took a bit of a turn - there's some nasty inflamation going on with his wound, and he seems very lethargic - like he's starting with a temperature."

Sam reached down, petting Copper in a way the animal usually found to be soothing,"Don't worry, Beau'll get you feeling right as rain in no time," he said, trying to conceal the worry in his voice.

"I see it Sam. I see it. Unfortunately they have every right to be there. Max huffed out as she glared at the boat. Very unproffesional words churning in her head as she stared it down.

Then gunshots rang out from the boat and for a moment Max was no longer standing on the dock. Fear, anxiety, and adrenaline began to build up within the brunette as non-existent gunshots and explosions rang in her ears. It wasn't until she heard a whine followed by a light bite on her hand then licking from Duke that she was brought back to reality.

Breathing heavily, Max kneeled down and placed her forehead against Duke's while scratching his ears, thanking him silently for his help. She then stood back up refocusing on the boat. She needed to go let them know that shooting is not allowed around here. Especially not into the water with all the animals around.

"Duke gun." Duke ran off to get her gun soon returning with it in its holster. Max strapped the holster to herself before hopping into the boat and starting the engine. After untying the boat, she took off in their small boat towards the large one. Reaching the big ship she idled the engine and stood up, yelling as loud as she could. "Hey! Who the fuck just fired a gun! You can stay here off the coast of the island but fire a gun again and action will have to be taken." She glared at one of the workers of the yacht who was peering down at her, "Bring me your boss. You all aren't worth talking to this about."

Crossing her arms, Max waited for Elizabeth to make an appearance. In the meantime she looked around at the ocean and her eyes locked onto red water. "Screw it. You all caused a bigger problem" Max growled under her breath as she restarted the engine just enough to slowly make her way closer. When she was close enough, she took off her holster and walkie as she anchored the small boat. Then she dove in. Opening her eyes underwater she swam closer not bothered by the sting of the salt in the water anymore. Seeing the body of a bottlenose dolphin at the bottom was heartbreaking, but what made it worse was the baby dolphin nudging its mother. Max quickly swam to the top and grabbed ahold of the edge of the boat, reaching in she grabbed her walkie and held down on the button. "This is Max. I need people to meet me at the dock asap. We have a new resident I'm bringing in. I'll explain the circumstances when we meet at the dock. Just know its a scared baby dolphin, bottlenose I believe. Anyone who can help, please meet at the dock. Over."

Diving back under, Max safely caught the baby dolphin and brought it back to the boat in the way she was taught. Once the safety and wellbeing of the baby was ensured, she brought the anchor up and quickly took the boat back to the dock. Needing to hand off the baby before she goes and finds the one responsible on that woman's boat.

Copper made small gurgling noises at the sound of Sam’s voice. His breathing was shallow as the fever increased...
Slate seemed to notice his brither’s distress because he came over and nudged him with his rostrum, trying to get him to move.

~~~~

The baby dolphin squealed in alarm, struggling to get away from the strange human who had caught her. She squealed for her momma, using the signature whistle unique to her that her momma would identify over all other calves.

But no matter how loudly she squeaked her momma didn’t come. The human was talking, but the calf didn’t understand. It was just gravely noise to her. Her heart was beating wildly with fear.

~~~~

Charlie was waiting for Josh at the turtle area when Max’s message came through. Another calf?! What the hell?!

“Change of plans, Josh meet me at the dock ASAP!” Charlie shouted through the radio and took off running.
A baby dolphin without a mother was very very bad. Either something had happened to mom or it had been abandoned for some reason, usually illness. Charlie grabbed a sheet made of lightweight thin foam. It helped keep the animals damp while out of the water while blocking out light and noise. Sometimes if you covered an animal’s eyes it would calm down.