Chapter 11: Secrets Revealed

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Stevie asked, looking down at the clear liquid below her with apprehension.

"Yeah. This is pretty important. I learned when I was like five," Robin said with a small smirk, crossing his arms over his chest.

A week after the events here at the cave with the Tornados, Robin thought it would be a good idea to teach her to swim in case something like that ever happened again. A few of the others offered to help as well, which included Artemis, Kaldur, and Wally. Both Connor and M'gann had stayed after school for one of her cheer practices. She wasn't sure how the martian convinced Connor to tag along, but nonetheless, he wasn't here.

All of them had dressed up in swim suits of some sort, with Artemis in a dark green bikini, Wally in his typical yellow and red swimming trunks, Kaldur in his normal clothes because of their ability to repel water, Robin in red and black swimming trunks, and herself in a light blue one-piece.

"Come on, Stevie, you can just walk down the steps. You'll still be able to reach the bottom," Robin encouraged, swirling the water around his fingers.

They decided the best place to try swimming would be the pool at the cave (because this place seemingly had everything), but it looked rather deep for her liking.

"You'll be alright. Swimming is not quite as hard as it seems," Kaldur assured her.

"Says the guy who has webbed fingers and toes," she muttered, gingerly placing a toe into the water before retreating.

"We're going to have to drag you in if you don't come in yourself!" Artemis exclaimed, laying back so she was floating.

"Fine, fine!"

Taking a deep breath, she took a step into the water, going down the steps until she was at the bottom. The water came up to the bottom of her ribs, which was a relief.

"Sweet. So let me show you the basic swimming technique and then you can practice swimming to Kaldur in the deep end. Once you get good enough, he can teach you all the advanced stuff," Robin explained.

She looked apprehensively at the deep end, but simply nodded. "Okay so...what do I do?"

"So you're gonna want to make your hands into little scoops like this right? And then you use your arms to pull yourself forward and kick your legs out behind you. Try it here in the shallow end and then once you get the hang of it you can swim over to Kal," he said.

"You will do well, Stevie!" Kaldur encouraged while Artemis gave her a smile and Wally gave her a thumbs up.

Okay, Stevie, you can do this. It's not that hard...

After a long moment of hesitation, she slowly dipped her shoulders below the water surface and pushed her feet off the ground. She immediately panicked when her chin started to bob under the water and began to flail her limbs wildly. This somewhat kept her afloat, but she kept dipping lower than she felt comfortable with.

"Remember what I told you!" Robin exclaimed, taking a step forward to intervene if necessary.

Right...what did he say again? Kick legs out...cup my hands... She cupped her hands beneath the water and started to paddled... Lo and behold, she didn't feel like she was going to drown anymore and she actually started to move forward.

"I knew you would be able to!" Kaldur said with a smile as she planted her feet back on the bottom of the pool.

"Good first try." Artemis gave her a small nod as her long hair pooled around her.

"Thanks," Stevie murmured, pressing her lips together and smiling.

"Now we just work on that over and over until you feel comfortable enough to swim to Kal," Robin explained, swooshing over to her.

She gave a nod of confirmation and began to practice with the others, swimming laps around the shallow end and racing each other. Wally won, of course, but Kaldur assured that if the redhead didn't have super speed, he would be the one winning. She didn't doubt it since his homeland was under the ocean.

Each of the team members had their own technique to pass down to her. Robin and Artemis showed her how to be more quiet and stealthy in the water, Wally showed her the key to speed swimming, and Kaldur taught her different ways to swim more strongly and easily. It had to have been at least two hours before they got back on track and it was time to swim to the deep end. Stevie was pretty nervous, even though Robin had told her she was doing great and would easily be able to swim in the deeper waters.

Kaldur swam to the deepest part and waded there, patiently waiting for her to build up the courage and start to swim over. She stood in the water at the edge of the drop that brought the water crushing down into a seemingly endless dark abyss.

"Just don't look down! Take a page out of Dory's book and just keep swimming!" Wally called to her.

"Wait what?" she asked, confused.

"You haven't seen... ah never mind. We'll watch it this weekend!"

This left her even more confused, but she didn't ask.

"You got this, Stevie!" Robin encouraged, standing a little off to the side.

Taking in the words of encouragement, she pushed herself forward, trying not to think of what imaginary sharks and sea monsters swirled beneath her feet. She kept swimming exactly like she had been practicing and surprisingly enough, she didn't sink below the surface. When she got to Kaldur she stopped and he held onto her arm.

"Excellent job, Stevie! Move your feet like this and you can stay afloat in one spot." He let go of her arm and she mimicked him.

"I can't believe I'm swimming. This is crazy!" she exclaimed with a broad smile before starting to swim again. "Race you back to the other side!"

Kaldur chuckled and the race was on. He won, being the amazing swimmer that he was, but it was fun nonetheless. They spent another half hour engaging in a splash war. There wasn't a clear winner, but they all had enough fun that it didn't matter. Once they were done, she and Artemis headed to the showers to clean off. Each got into a stall and she turned on the hot water.

"You should become a member of the team," Artemis said suddenly.

Stevie blinked, wetting her hair and glancing sideways at the wall next to her. "I'm nothing really special, you know..."

"You have powers. You're learning to fight. We all like you. You fit in."

"I doubt I'd be allowed."

"The only one you need permission from is yourself. And Batman, but I bet if we trained you up enough and got you a mentor, he'd allow it."

She did have a point. Her parents weren't around to tell her she couldn't and if she was on the team, maybe it would give her more of an opportunity to figure out her past.

"Maybe we could try," she agreed, rinsing out her soapy hair.

"I'll talk to the others," Artemis said.

The two of them finished off their showers in silence after that. Stevie got dressed and headed back to her room, but was intercepted on the way by Black Canary.

"Hey Stevie. Are you ready for your session with me tonight?" the blonde asked, leaving her confused.

"I thought it was on Friday?" she asked, noticing that the rest of the team had begun to file into the main room. "What's going on?"

"Just a team meeting. And it was Friday, but something came up that day and tonight was the only time I could come in to make up for it. I hope that's okay?"

"Yeah, that's fine..."

"Let's get to it then!"

She followed after the woman, hoping that these stupid sessions of questions would end soon.

They stopped in the usual room and she sat down in the green arm chair, sighing a little and glancing toward the door.

"So you're getting along with the team a lot more. I think it's good for you. They rather like you. Is there anything in particular you want to talk to me about today?" Black Canary asked.

She shrugged. "No, not really."

"Alright well let's start with the usual. How have you been feeling the past few days?"

"Fine."

The questions went on like usual and honestly, they bored her. They were the same as every time she had to have one of these sessions and she just wanted to go and hang out with the team... There wasn't anything left to say that hadn't already been said. Maybe they were just trying to keep her in check and make sure she didn't try to kill everyone. Yeah, she had been from the League, but that didn't mean she was with them. They held her hostage for most of her life and all she ever wanted to do was get out of there.

"You seem pretty distracted. Any reason?"

Stevie blinked. "Uh...I'm just kinda tired. Can I got now?"

The blonde looked up at the clock and let out a small sigh and nod. "Yes I suppose so. Get some rest."

With those words, she practically bolted out of the room. Thank goodness that is over... As she headed back to her room, she spotted Robin.

"Hey. How was the team meeting?" she asked, catching up with him. He didn't even glance in her direction and her eyebrows furrowed.

"Robin?"

"Oh uh Stevie? Hey. Sorry I actually gotta get going and everything...I'll see you later," he replied, keeping his gaze firmly on the wall.

"Uh...okay..."

What was that even about? Why did he suddenly seem so distant and like he was...trying to avoid her?

Artemis came out of her bedroom a moment later.

"Do you know what's up with Robin? He's acting weird..."

"Sorry, I don't know, but I gotta go!" the blonde replied, quickly skirting past her.

Was everyone trying to avoid her? What happened? They were fine earlier and now everyone was being distant. Did she do something wrong? With a small sigh, she trudged back to her room. Locking her door, she plopped down on her bed and figured out the time by reaching out to the digital clock with her mind. Nine forty-five. Guess now was a good time as any to try and get some sleep. She was a bit sore after swimming all day...


Stevie woke the next morning after having a rocky night. She couldn't stop thinking about why the others were acting weird and what was going on. She didn't see the others since they all had school since today was a Friday. Black Canary was hanging around like usual since she was in charge of keeping an eye on her when no one else was here. Though she heard that someone else from the Justice League named Billy was going to be watching over them starting next week...

Most of the day, she spent going through the books in the library and finding interesting things to watch on television. It seemed like the dream that all kids wanted - to be able to do what they wanted to do all day. But to her, she was just...bored. It was the same thing every day and she wanted something different. That's why she liked spending time with the team. They always made things interesting and more fun. Part of her wished she just had a normal upbringing, but then she may not have met these people she called friends. Things like these she thought about often.

Voices caught her attention from her spot in the living area and she sat up a bit straighter, putting her book down and leaning over the arm of the chair to try and figure out who it was. She heard the deeper voice of Kaldur and she jumped up, stopping in the doorway and peering through it.

"It just feels wrong not telling her," Robin said, donning his costume.

"I know it does. But Batman has his reasons. He has already explained...," Kaldur murmured.

"I think she should know. I was told lies and look where that got me," Connor spoke up, crossing is arms over his chest.

Were they talking about her? What secrets were they keeping from her?

"I want to know what you're talking about," she said suddenly, stepping into the doorway and looking between all of them. Heads shot in her direction and she put her hands on her hips. "You were acting weird yesterday..."

"I'm going to tell her," Connor said, glancing back at the others.

"I don't know-" Kaldur started.

"We know where your parents are," Connor blurted before Kaldur could get a word in.

What? Batman told her that he would tell her when they found something out... Were they going to keep her in the dark forever?

"You...y-you weren't going to tell me?" she asked, voice, quivering.

"We wanted to...it's just...Batman didn't want you to know just yet...in case...you tried to come with us," Robin said, frowning slightly.

"Well...that's just t-too bad. I'm coming anyway."


A/N: Guys it's been so long! I'm SO SO sorry for lack of updating, I had a huge writer's block for this story and I still kind of do but I wanted to try and get back into the rhythm of updating. This chapter is short and crappy so I'm sorry, but the next chapter is going to be a lot longer and I didn't want to make this chapter too long so I split it. From now on, I'm going to try and update on Fridays at 9pm. I'm still a bit rocky coming back to writing this so if I miss a week or two, please forgive meeeee xD Anywho, hope you enjoy and thank you for being amazing readers!