Disclaimer: I do not own Sky High or its characters, settings etc, all of which belong to Disney. This story was inspired by an episode of 'Missing' called 'John Doe'.

Chapter 2: Ignorance is Bliss

Irene just stared at Mr. Green, her mind reeling with questions and confusion.

Would she feel safe allowing Barron back into her home and her life?

Would she even want to?

While he might have forgotten the way he treated his family, she couldn't so easily. She'd given him so many 'last chances' that the word 'sorry' was meaningless when it came from him, as Warren had once noted.

But, as she looked at the man in the isolation ward, she had to feel that it wasn't actually the same person. Barron had always had a slightly harsh edge which was most often expressed in his darkly sarcastic humour. It was so subtle that few people had ever realised that that there was something cynical lurking behind the clever quips and smart-mouthed comebacks. That edge was completely missing now, possibly because he could no longer remember whatever it was that had caused it.

Suddenly her attention was back to the iso room by a nurse entering and Barron asking her if he'd been in prison or something.

She looked a bit uneasy. "I'm afraid I can't answer that question," she answered hesitantly.

He gave a wry expression that was the exact image of the one Warren sometimes wore. "I'll take that as a 'yes'," he said quietly. "I expect that when the doctors are finished with their tests I'll be going back to prison to finish my sentence, won't I?"

As he looked away, the nurse flicked a questioning glance towards the one-way glass of the observation window. She was obviously feeling out of her depth with the way the conversation was going. Mr. Green seemed to decide that it was time for him to intervene. With a nod to Irene and Warren to stay put for the meantime, he went around into the iso room and introduced himself to the patient.

He finished with, "And as for the question of your fate, that still needs to be decided."

"What's there to decide?" Barron asked with a frown. "If I did something bad enough to be in prison in the first place, then I should go back there."

"Some might argue that it wouldn't be entirely fair, considering you have no memory of performing the deed."

"Others might argue that it wouldn't be 'entirely fair' to simply let me go free," Barron countered. "Whether or not I can remember doing whatever it was, it was still me who did it."

When Irene heard him say that, her heart melted completely. How could she not be touched by the way he was prepared to pay for crimes he had no idea he'd committed? Her eyes wet, Irene looked over at her son, wondering how he felt.

For his part, Warren wasn't quite sure how he felt either. He kept remembering what he and his mother had suffered at the hands of his father, but at the same time he was having difficulty equating that Barron Battle with the one in front of him, who had just been asking after a couple of the people from the homeless shelter by name.

One thing he knew for sure. Despite the awful way he'd acted in the cafeteria, both Will and Layla had taken a chance on him, invited him into their circle of friends and treated him like he wasn't some kind of disaster waiting to happen.

This man deserved the same treatment. Probably more than he had, in fact.

He nodded shortly and his mother gave him a brief hug before going into the iso room. Warren trailed behind her and hung back near the door as his father looked up at the new arrivals. Mr. Green was busy telling him that there was possibly another option.

"Hello," he said politely when he saw them. "I'm sorry if I'm supposed to know you, but I couldn't even remember my own name, so please don't be offended." He gave a sheepish half-smile, which Irene returned tearfully.

"Barron, I'm Irene," she said, her voice full of emotion. "I'm your wife."

In the end it was decided to tell him that he'd been in jail for manslaughter, for a situation where he had accidentally caused a huge fire with his powers that had harmed a lot of people. To spare him any further guilt, and to keep him from insisting on being locked up again, they decided it would be kinder to tell him that no one had died in the incident.

Still, Mr. Green had insisted that Barron wouldn't be allowed to simply go out into public with his powers, something Barron heartily agreed with, remembering the fire at the shelter. So he wore a power-neutraliser, a thick metallic band around his wrist, which could only be opened by two keys. Irene had the one key, and Warren had the other.

It could have been a recipe for disaster, but it wasn't. Barron was almost like a puppy, so eager to fit in and become a normal law-abiding member of society.

As with his escape from prison, the public were kept entirely in the dark about the newfound freedom of the notorious ex-super-villain. Of course, that didn't keep the story from circulating around Sky High so fast that Warren was considering calling Guinness World Records.

But, strangely enough, it didn't actually bother him as much as he thought it would. Oh, it was irritating, of course, and sometimes he really did need that nudge from Will or Layla's hand on his shoulder to keep him from incinerating something. But for the most part, he didn't really care what the rest of the kids thought. For once in his life, he had a chance at a happy home life, and that helped him get through the day.

And anyway, he only had to put up with the whispers and stares until his graduation, which wasn't that far off now. Having a proper father would last much longer than that.

Provided Barron Battle didn't remember who he used to be.

Things were still going well three months later. Barron was enjoying his job as a welder at the nearby metalworks, but he was still having trouble learning how to read again.

It was extremely frustrating for him, and Irene often wondered rather guiltily if it might've been easier if his powers weren't neutralised. Maybe his difficulty was because there was something wrong with him medically, which his healing powers could have fixed? But she also had to agree with Mr. Green's insistence that it simply wouldn't be safe to allow Barron to have his powers just yet. Which, of course, begged the question: when would it become safe? If ever?

In the meantime, Barron struggled on, and Irene shook her head in sympathy for the millionth time. He was sitting on the couch with his books on the glass-topped coffee table while she made dinner in the kitchen area and helped him on the few occasions he asked for it. She'd learnt long ago not to lean over his shoulder and try to help too much, because that only embarrassed him.

Suddenly he snapped. "Why can't I get this?!" he demanded and slammed his fist forcefully down onto the coffee table. The glass top shattered and Irene gave a small squeal in shock. She started to back away, beginning to be afraid. This was the first time that he'd shown any sign of the temper he'd once had.

But as soon as he saw the damage, his anger evaporated immediately and he started apologising profusely. Irene's fear vanished as well, and she went over to help him pick up the pieces. Seeing that his hand was starting to bleed quite badly, she fumbled for her key for the neutraliser, and looked up to call Warren for his.

She didn't need to call him. He was there as soon as he heard the crash.

"What the hell happened?" he growled, watching the scene with narrowed eyes.

"Could I have your key, please, Warren? Your father needs his healing power."

Warren didn't move, still regarding Barron suspiciously. There was blood on his mother's hands too, and he couldn't tell whose it was. Irene noticed his reaction and quickly reassured him, "It was an accident, Warren. Nothing happened."

He hesitated a little longer, and she gave him a pointed look. Barron looked from one to the other, and then he also narrowed his eyes.

"Wait a minute, there's something more going on here," he said, and they both looked at him, their expressions caught between apprehension and uncertainty. He looked Warren in the eye and said quietly, "When you asked what had happened, you looked like you were expecting something more sinister than an accident. Did I used to… hurt… either of you?"

Warren broke eye contact and handed his mother his key. Irene unlocked the neutraliser and answered the question for him.

"It was all different then, Barron," she said, "You were different then. It doesn't matter now."

She removed the power-neutraliser but he barely noticed as his hand healed completely in a matter of seconds.

"It does matter!" he exclaimed forcefully, causing her to recoil slightly, and he deflated with a sigh. "See? That reaction there, automatically flinching like that. That proves that it matters how I used to treat you."

He glanced down at his healed hand, and then something else occurred to him. Barron looked up at his son with haunted eyes. "You have this healing thing too, don't you?" Warren nodded, not looking at his father who easily drew the correct conclusion. "So I guess it would have been easy for me to… hurt you because there wouldn't be any scars or bruises, right?"

Warren nodded again, reluctantly, trying to think of something to say to reassure his dad that it matter anymore, but his mind was frozen.

Barron swallowed hard, feeling sick to his stomach. "I can't believe I did something like that. What kind of monster was I?" He shook his head. "And even more than that, I can't believe you people thought it would be safe to trust me again. And the Federal Superhero Agency, shouldn't they know better than that? Or didn't they know?"

Irene didn't answer that. Instead she tried to reason with him. "Barron, that was a different person who did those things. You're not that person anymore."

"And you've just really proved that," Warren added, feeling bad that he'd been so suspicious, and wishing he hadn't shown it so obviously.

But Barron refused to be comforted. It took him a long time to fall asleep that night. When he finally managed to, he was visited once again by the brief flashes of memories from a former life. But this time, the images slowed down and formed complete pictures he could finally understand…

He was standing in the kitchen of their old home… Irene was crying, refusing to stop packing… Damn stubborn woman, always overreacting… There was a distress call on the Red Telephone… he told her that if she wasn't there when he got back, he'd hunt her down and drag her home where she belonged…

Stupid people, getting in his way… pathetic rubberneckers, when would they learn to mind their own business? … Ah yes, they'd got the message now, the ones that were still standing, that is… now where was that pathetic villain he was supposed to deal with? Oh, over there with his hostages… well, not anymore…

Barron woke up with a gasp. It wasn't just a nightmare; it was a flashback of what actually happened. It wasn't all an accident, like they'd told him. And people had died. Lots of people.

He suddenly realised that he could remember everything.