Jim had been on the way to Trollmarket when he got his dad's call. As a rule, Walter Strickler did not call unless it was an emergency, so Jim had stopped immediately to answer. He was glad, if confused, that he had when he heard the urgent instructions. Upon arriving home to find the changeling Nomura from the museum attacking his mom, and his mom attempting to fend her off with a shovel, he felt like he would never be more grateful as long as he lived. He promptly donned his armor and pulled her attention away from his mom. She had made a few confused exclamations but saved the questions for after the danger had passed.

Getting Nomura outside hadn't been intentional. Just a side effect of Jim trying to keep her away attention on him. The car was a surprise that he used to his advantage. That his dad had been driving it, pale as a sheet, covered in blood, and with his breath rattling had been a bigger one that had Jim debating how he was supposed to feel. Was he happy that both his parents were right in front of him, alive, and more than just kicking? Or did he freak out over the fact that his dad was probably dying?

Then came the surprise that his dad knew about trolls and was telling him they were going to Trollmarket.

Jim pulled himself out of the car slowly. His body ached and wanted nothing more than to rest. It demanded that he lay down right then and there and sleep. But Jim couldn't rest yet. He had to make sure his parents were alright. He had to make sure the trolls weren't going to freak out over more humans. He had to get Vendel and make sure his dad got help.

Another groan caught his attention. He looked up to see his mom pulling herself out of the backseat and staggering away.

"More humans!?" one troll muttered from the crowd that was forming.

"Go get Vendel!" Jim ordered. He hoped he didn't sound too desperate. He needed to look like the Trollhunter right now, not some scared kid. He scurried around the car as his mom stumbled and caught her. "C'mon, Mom," he whispered. "This way." He carefully set her down, resting her against the wrecked car. "Stay here, Mom. Just rest. We're gonna be alright."

"Walt," she groaned. "Jim, check on Walt."

Jim hurried back around to the other side and yanked the driver's door open. He flinched at the sight. Walter's shirt was almost completely soaked with blood and it had spilled over to soak the seat and floor of the car as well. The history teacher turned surrogate father turned stepfather remained slumped over.

"Dad." Jim reached over and gently shook Walter's shoulder.

Walter groaned and started to sit up. Suddenly, a cough wracked his body and blood sprayed from his mouth.

Jim placed his hand more firmly on his dad's shoulder and pulled him more carefully back against the seat. "Easy," he muttered. He reached across and unclipped the seatbelt. "Easy."

"Jim?" Walter muttered.

"Yeah," Jim answered quietly. "I'm here. We're safe."

Walter snorted, but didn't comment beyond that.

"Jim! Jim!"

Jim glanced up to see Toby making his way down the stairs.

"What happened!?"

"They found me. C'mon, help me get him out."

Toby nodded and helped Jim to carefully maneuver the older man out onto the ground. Walter winced more than a few times and coughed up blood once while they moved him.

"Changeling!"

"Kill him!"

Jim and Toby's eyes went wide, and their faces paled. Jim looked down at his probably going to die father figure and felt a rush of anger. There was hurt, too. The hurt was directed at Walter. The anger at the trolls that wanted to kill him.

Jim leaped to his feet and spun towards the voice, drawing his sword as he went. "You'll have to go through me first," he growled, eyes blazing.

"That's enough, Trollhunter," Vendel said as he approached the group. "Aaarrrgghh, pick the man up, gently, and take him to the Examination Dwell. Trollhunter, bring your mother."

Jim let his armor go as Aaarrrgghh scooped up Walter and carefully carried him off. He walked over to where his mother sat, recovering from the crash.

"Jim, what's going on?" she asked as she stood.

"I'll explain in a little while, Mom. I promise. Right now, we need to get you checked over."

"I'm fine, Jim."

Jim raised an eyebrow but didn't argue as he supported her weight and guided her to the Examination Dwell.

Upon arrival, Vendel sent Jim outside. "Patients and healers only, Trollhunter."

Jim nodded and left. He spent the night pacing and waiting. Eventually his mom was sent out, a bandage wrapped around her foot and a stick to use as a crutch.

"Just need to keep my weight off it for a while longer," she said before Jim could say anything. "Now, you promised me some answers."

Jim nodded and sat down, his mom sitting on one side and his friends gathering around them. He sighed and collected his thoughts for a moment before beginning his story. It kept him sufficiently distracted from the mess of emotions relating to the man that was Walter Strickler, at least for a while.

Silence followed his explanation before Barbara dropped the big question on her son. "And Walter, he's a changeling? He was working with this… Bular?"

"I don't know."

"He is indeed a changeling, Master Jim," Blinky offered.

"I mean, yeah, I guess we can say that much," Jim conceded, "but he warned me. He told me they were coming. To find you and run. If he hadn't called, I would have just gone to Trollmarket and you'd be dead right now, Mom."

The group was silent. "That's not all…" Jim frowned. "When I first got the Amulet, even before I met Blinky and Aaarrrgghh, he… he acted afraid. He told me to hide my face. To 'not let them know who I am.'"

"I guess we'll have to wait for the healers to finish to get answers," Blinky said.

Claire nodded. "I'm sure there's a good explanation." She placed a hand on Jim's shoulder. "There always is."

"Yeah," Toby agreed. "And you've always got us when you need us."

"Be alright," Aaarrrgghh rumbled as he pat Jim on the head.

Jim laughed weakly. "Thanks guys, but we're just going to have to wait and see."

It was well into the night when Jim and Barbara were permitted entrance to see Walter. They had attempted to steel themselves against whatever manipulations he might try but seeing him wrapped in layers of bandages and still pale from the blood loss made it difficult for both of them to not worry over his health.

"Walt…" Barbara started.

He turned his head to look at the pair. "Barbara, Jim, I'm glad you're alright."

Barbara took a deep breath, and said, "Why didn't you tell us, Walt? I thought you trusted me. Trusted us."

A pained look crossed his face, making him look like the old man he truly was. "Because I love you. If anyone ever found out about you, realized I truly did care, they would have killed both of you in a heartbeat before killing me. The best way to keep you safe was to keep you ignorant."

"And what about the Bridge," Jim demanded. "How could you keep working on it if you cared about us."

"I did what I could to delay them. Not enough I'm afraid. Never enough."

"But-"

"Jim, the Janus Order is everywhere. If I tried to run, or betrayed them in anyway, it would have ended badly. There is no where I could hide from them. Or hide you from them."

Jim deflated. "What about me? What about the Amulet? They tried to kill me."

"I sabotaged as much as I could, hoping and praying it would be enough to see you through."

"The Stalkling?"

"I, unfortunately, did not know about that until after the fact. We are incredibly lucky one cannot stalk a Stalkling, or they would have found you."

Barbara took a seat at Walter's bedside, content to let her boys talk things out. How she handled it would depend on what was said here.

"Why not just come clean though?" Jim's eyes were gathering fire again as his voice grew more heated. "Why all the cryptic warnings?"

"I knew you would take those warnings seriously, but I didn't trust in your acting skills." Walter laughed weakly. "I should have known better than to doubt you. You have a way of defying expectations, my little Atlas."

Jim felt a small smile tugging at his lips as he took a seat on his stepfather's remaining side. He'd earned that nick name when he'd almost burned himself out trying to do too much when he was younger. (There were at least six volunteer groups and four after school programs he'd tried to sign up for, repeatedly, before his parents had intervened and gotten him to agree to something more reasonable.) "What happened?"

"What do you mean, Jim?" Barbara said, rejoining the conversation.

"What went wrong."

"Ah, that," Walter said. "I believe the young changeling you and your friends call NotEnrique realized the two of us were connected and ratted us out."

"What!?"

"NotEnrique?"

"He took the place of Claire's brother, Enrique," Jim explained to his mother.

"That doesn't make it right to call him that!"

"Barbara," Walter soothed, "names are a touchy subject for changelings. If he does not object or offer one of his own, do not try to change it."

Barbara nodded, but still looked upset at the prospect.

"For you, Jim, yes, NotEnrique reported your identity to me a while back and I quite simply didn't pass that message along to anyone else. As soon as he realized that and why, he went to the others. It is the only explanation I can think of."

Jim nodded. "So, you got hurt…"

"Fighting Bular. The brute decided to take NotEnrique's word over mine. Or he simply took the excuse to get rid of me. He never did like me."

Jim and Barbara exchanged a glance as Walter closed his eyes to catch his breath for a moment. After a second, they nodded to each other and turned their attention back to Walter.

"I don't know what we're going to do just yet," Jim started, "but we'll figure something out."

"May I suggest removing Bular from the equation and confiscating their rather complete Killahead Bridge."

Both Jim and Barbara went pale for drastically different reasons. "What!?"

Well, that wraps up that. Comments are much appreciated and if any of you want to run with this story, you're more than welcome to it. Now, I am planning a return to the land of crossovers, this time with Trollhunters.

Hope you enjoyed the story, and I'll be back next week!

NoS