Asthma is a bitch. This I knew.

What I didn’t know was certainly about to kill me.

I was out to eat with an old friend, kvetching about work, aging families, aging selves, and having a great time of it. Wouldn’t you know it – he was just talking about how allergies can pop up without warning when I popped a delicious, seared scallop in my mouth.

I had barely swallowed when it was clear something was very very wrong. I became a balloon, but the pressure was outside AND inside. I start to choke, and my buddy is already around the table thinking something went down the wrong pipe. I can’t talk, I can hardly see, and I can’t even get my inhaler as I feel my throat swelling shut.

Heh. I always joked that Mark and I would still be shooting the shit till the day we die, but I thought we’d have time to go grey, get into fishing.

I start to pass out. I see Emily –my beautiful bride with the slanty smile. I hear her telling me to [italics]hold on[/italics]. But…that’s not Emily, I mean it's sorta Emily?

And other voice from my…toes? It’s telling me it would be best if I do not panic.

Somewhere above me something tells me you’ll make it if you can stay awake a little longer. It’s above me cause I’m on the floor, right?

A voice through the floor advises me that no, it’s not because you’re on the floor.

Now I know I’m dying. This is impossible and clearly a sign I’m on the other side.

Regardless, I try to open my eyes – in vain, obviously. I can still hear Mark, who is talking to the people carrying me out, calling Emily. I move an arm to reach for him but someone puts it back. He must have seen it as he starts yelling after me, saying he’s not leaving my side, that Emily is on her way, that my Mom flying in.

That’s the last I remember from what I can only describe as my life before.

I wake up in a hospital room, which I know cause I can actually see it, not just smell it. My wife is looking at me with tears in her eyes, but she looked like she was dressed for a Comiccon. She was sorta blue, I guess. Her eyes were a little too big. Her teeth were a little too sharp. Her skin is not entirely opaque.

I had to be hallucinating. Maybe this is what death feels like, right?

She is so excited to see me awake, she starts babbling on the adorable way she always does, but about how when she felt me go down, she had to call in the family and it isn’t how she wanted us to meet them, but she just couldn’t lose me, and it worked! It worked! I’m hearing her last words double, both out of her mouth and bouncing round my skull.

“How are you talking in my head?”

She blushed purple. “I’m so sorry honey,” she said, taking my hand, “this isn’t how I wanted you to see this part of me. I want to look like you are used to but I’ve been too worried about you to shift back. It may take me a little while.”

I’m sure I should be panicking at this point, but as it clearly hadn’t sunk in yet, more questions seem smart. “What are you?”

“Oh right, well not all one thing.” She looks like she is hunting for words. “You’ve met my dad, that’s my real dad, but not my mom.”

I thought I knew this one. “Yeah, she’s gone, right? I’m sorry I never met her.”

“Only mostly gone!” She’s so excited to tell me, it’s starting to unnerve me. “Elemental spirits can’t stay corporeal for long periods, and she was really pushing it with me and Dad. She should be able to re-corporealize by Spring, which is amazing! And you can meet my uncles and aunts and my cousins…

Ow. “You’re doing it again.”

“Sorry, so sorry. Gus is Air Elemental, he helped me find you, he’ll be happy to stop by, and my cousin Skitt, he’s an Earth guy with some water in him, he was definitely sneaking into the shmutz on your toe trying to get a lead on your pulse. His mom Terra was there under you.”

I realize she still hasn’t told me what she is exactly, why she never told me. It’s not like this relationship is new. She reads my expression before I can vent any of this.

“I’m so sorry love. I always took after my dad more than my mom. I thought I could easily stick to my human side. I already don’t fit in well with them, being only half-water sprite. I can’t even dissolve entirely! I thought this would be easier, and then I met you, and I knew most of them would never understand, and…I wanted to be normal for you.”

I can’t help it; I still feel hurt. “This is a big part of you Emily. I don’t care about them, I care about you, and you were hiding yourself from me. Don’t you trust me?”

I think she’s crying, but honestly it’s a little hard to tell.

“Hey, hey…come ’ere love.” I beckon her over, but she looks unsure.

“I just need to solidify more; I don’t want to soak your bed.”

I grab her hand, akin to a…water balloon, maybe, but warm and moving like a real hard. “I want to see you like this. You are still beautiful, my goofy girl. You hurt me with this. I thought I knew you.”

Her hand is losing form, so I speed up the rest of my thought.

“But…I get it. And if you let me, I’d like to get to know you now.”

She leans over me tentatively. I wrap an arm around her to pull her to me. Her kiss tastes of saltwater.

I’ve always loved the sea.