Gifts From the Sea: Safe Signal, a Batman fanfic by Raberba girl
Part 3 (rough draft)
Bruce got up early, hoping to avoid notice by the other hotel guests. He roused the kids, got them fed, packed the van, and called the front desk to check out. Then he herded his pod of sleepy, grumpy children past the security guard who unlocked the glass doors for them. The pre-dawn world they emerged into was very still and quiet, broken only by the kids' muffled complaints.
The drive was as uneventful as a two-hour car trip with seven kids could be. They stopped halfway through to rest and snack at a picnic area, then found a coffee shop that was open and willing to let Bruce hose down the three mer.
Then they were off again for the last leg of the trip. It was too early to return the church van, so he drove it straight to the docks, planning to return it properly later that day or maybe the next. "Leo," he said solemnly, "this is very important. Please stay with Dick and the others, all right? The ocean is very big, and it can be dangerous. When Arthur comes, he can teach you how to navigate it safely, but for now, please don't run away. Please stay with Dick, all right?"
Leo gazed back at him with those intelligent dark eyes, but Bruce doubted he actually understood much, if any, of the specifics of the plea.
"We'll look after him, Bruce," Jason assured him.
"Thank you." Even if Leo did decide to make a break for it, maybe they could call in the Titans to help track him down.
Just as before, Bruce traveled to the island in his boat with the luggage while the kids made their own way. As soon as he docked, he didn't even bother to unload; he got out and watched the water anxiously until children started emerging from the waves. Bruce exhaled in relief when he saw Leo, and did a head count twice to make sure everyone was accounted for.
"All right. Good job, Leo. Stay with everyone, all right? You can play on the beach or in the water, but keep close to shore. I'll be back."
He refused Jason's and Steph's offers of help, preferring that they stay with Leo, but Cass and Tim insisted on accompanying him into the house. Tim rode on his back and Cass helped him bring all the luggage inside. Rather than unpacking, Bruce went back out again to keep an eye on the kids, still nervous that Leo might disappear. Leo, however, seemed uninterested in leaving, instead joining in the other kids' games and activities. Sometimes during slow moments, he'd sit and watch Bruce, who'd then pretend to watch the other kids as if he didn't notice he was being observed.
Bruce eventually tore himself away to prepare lunch for the mer. The kids came stampeding into the house soon after, Jason and Steph to cook for the non-mer and Cass to help. The others gave Leo a scooter board and then settled in the living room to watch a movie, though Leo soon rolled over to peer into the kitchen at the meal preparation.
"Here," Bruce said, carrying an aquarium into the living room and setting it on the coffee table. Tim immediately moved to snag a fish out of the water. "You get to eat live fish this time. This is for you and Dick and Tim. You all have to share."
"Don't eat these, though," Jason said, pushing a cart of human food out of the kitchen. "Cheese isn't great for mer." He stopped and pointed as Steph started distributing plates of grilled cheese sandwiches. "Grilled cheese for people with legs. Not for mer. Okay? No cheese for mer. You get fish."
After a long moment, Leo smiled. He reached into the aquarium, making a show of checking Bruce's reaction. Bruce smiled encouragingly. The mer extracted a fish and started to consume it in his tidy way. Bruce was impressed - Alfred had had to sternly teach Tim and especially Dick how to eat without making a mess.
The kids hung out together for the rest of the day, and Bruce finally worked on unpacking and cleaning up. He called the church, who said he could wait until the next day to return the van. "School tomorrow," he warned Steph in the evening. He knelt down and made sure he had Tim's attention. "Timothy. School tomorrow."
"No."
"Yes. Janette will come and you will work on schoolwork."
"I don't want to," Tim whined in octo-mer language, then nestled into Bruce for a cuddle.
Kori declined the offered guest room in favor of a pool float. She lounged on it and talked to Dick, who was resting his crossed arms on it. Tim had already retreated to the deep end to sleep. Bruce sat down at the edge of the pool to talk to Leo. "This is a pool. Pool. You will sleep here because it's safer than sleeping in the ocean. You, Leo, and Dick and Kori and Tim sleep in pool. Okay?"
Leo smiled.
"Good night, Leo. If you need help, ask Dick. Dick will help. Good night." Bruce went back into the house and fetched his laptop, intending to get some more work done before going to bed himself. He set up at the dining room table so he could keep an eye on the pool. He could hear the low murmur of Dick's and Kori's voices for over an hour, but everything was otherwise quiet. Bruce reluctantly went up to bed a little before midnight. He didn't sleep well, but every time he woke up and checked, Leo was still in the pool. Bruce finally fell asleep for good a little after four in the morning.
o.o.o
The next day, after Bruce dropped off Steph and the van and brought Janette back, he explained, "This is my newest foster son, Leo."
"Hello, Leo," Janette said warmly, holding out her hand. "It's nice to meet you."
Leo's own arm made an aborted movement, then he peered cautiously at Janette's hand.
She finally dropped it with a laugh. "Guess mer don't know about shaking hands, huh."
"It's not very intuitive," Bruce remarked. "Anyway, Leo's probably temporary, and he doesn't know how to communicate with surface-dwellers yet. If he wants to participate, great, but it's also fine if he does his own thing."
"I do my own thing," Tim signed.
"No, Timothy, you will do school."
Tim pouted, a couple of his tentacle tips sharply folding to sign, "No!"
"We're going to learn about aerodynamics today, Timmy!" Janette said. She pulled out an already-folded paper airplane, fluffed out its wings, then sent it sailing across the pool to the ground on the other side. Tim's tentacles went still with interest as he watched. "You're going to learn how to make one of those."
"Fly," Tim remarked.
"That's right, Tim."
Bruce patted the boy's head. "I'm not sure when Dick and Kori will be up," he told the tutor. Kori was drifting on her pool float, fast asleep, and Dick was a stationary lump in the water. "Let me know if Dick disrupts the lesson, I'll come get him out of your hair."
"Will do," Janette said cheerfully.
Bruce went inside to get Cassandra's school things set up. Jason retreated to the reading nook to do his own lessons, and Bruce and Cass spread hers over the coffee table.
After a while, Bruce looked up and realized that Leo was peering in through the glass side door. "Excuse me, Cass," Bruce said, getting up to let the mer in. Leo scrambled back at Bruce's approach. Bruce stood to the side with the door open and gestured. "Do you want to come inside, or do you want to stay outside?"
Leo looked at Cass, then back at Bruce.
"I can't stand here too long because we've got the air conditioner running, but look, here's the door Dick and Tim use." Bruce showed Leo the much smaller door he'd installed in both the side and back of the house that allowed Dick and Tim to access the building without help. "You can come in or stay out, just make sure the door is shut afterward." He demonstrated. "Shut, or closed. Open. Closed. Open. Closed. If you use the door, close it once you're through. Closed. Open the door, then close it. Okay?"
Leo stared at him for a moment, then opened and closed the door on his own.
"Good. Will Leo come inside or outside?" Bruce asked, pointing and enunciating clearly. "You choose. Inside or outside, then close door." He went back to Cass, who was flipping through a photography book.
Leo watched for a few more minutes, then entered the house. "Close the door, please, Leo," Bruce called. "Close door." To his delight, the kid reached around and shut the mer door. He really picked things up quickly. "Good! Good, Leo. You came inside and closed the door."
Leo hefted himself onto one of the scooter boards, then crept closer and watched Bruce and Cass do schoolwork for a while. Finally, the mer made a noise that sounded remarkably like clearing his throat. Bruce stopped teaching and watched.
Leo made the throat-clearing noise a few more times, starting to vocalize as he did. Then he looked straight at Bruce and said, hoarse but with no trace of a non-native accent, "Uh. Um. My name isn't Leo, it's Duke. I...speak English."
Bruce stared. "Oh."
"Wait, WHAT?!" Jason screeched. He tossed his notebook aside and came marching out of the reading nook. "You TALK?!"
Leo- Duke backed away warily. "Yeah."
"HOW?!" Jason demanded. Bruce was glad someone was capable of asking questions. He himself was too shocked to have collected his wits yet.
"Mom and Dad taught me," Duke said defensively. He fidgeted. "I...don't know if they're dead or alive. I want to find out."
Jason stared. "...You wanna look for your mom, huh. Be careful what you wish for."
Duke frowned. "She's my mom. Why should I be careful?"
Jason shook his head and waved his hand. "Never mind. But, just- You talk better than Dick, and he started learning English years ago."
"I've been speaking English my whole life," Duke said. "Um, but...it'd be cool to know that...sign language, right? We know the alphabet and a few words, but we only use it underwater. I didn't know...I mean it'd be cool to- You guys use it all the time? On land, too?"
"It's easier for Dick than English," Jason said. "And Tim can't talk and Cass can barely talk, so we might as well. Just sucks for me, 'cause I can't use it underwater where it's most useful; seals got no hands."
Duke frowned. "Seals?"
"I'm a selkie," Jason grumbled. "I turn into a seal. Steph's the same."
"Ohhh, so that's what was going on. Like in fairy tales," Duke said, looking fascinated. Then a look of sick horror suddenly crossed his face. "Fudge, what if- Uhhh..."
"What?" Jason said.
"...Just, uh...what if...theoretically...a mer, like a mermaid, got hungry and, uh, ate...an otter or something, and didn't know, uh-"
Jason snorted. "We're not animals. Trust me, you'd know if it was a selkie you were hunting, if you even managed to catch one."
"Oh," Duke said, looking relieved.
"Hey," Bruce managed. He patted Cass, who was watching him in concern. "Er...Duke, you- Your parents? But-"
"Um," Duke said uncomfortably. "Before that, I wanted to ask...the Fish Tank book. Is it real?"
Bruce blinked. "The Boy in the Fish Tank? Yes, it's based on really happened."
"Oh." Duke fidgeted. "Because we read it, and the news articles, and we talked about you and Dick a lot, but Mom and Dad couldn't decide if you were...legit. If you're supposed to be some hotshot mer ally, why'd you get a job at a zoo in the first place?"
"People change their minds," Bruce said quietly. "Honestly, I had no idea what I was doing back then. I'd just given up on my college major and didn't have any replacement plans, and there was an opening at the zoo, so I took it just to kill time until I figured out what to do. Meeting Dick literally changed my life in ways I could have never imagined."
Duke rested his chin on his folded arms. "What would you do if I said I wanted to leave here and go back to live with my parents?"
"Of course," Bruce said immediately. "Of course, Duke. Do they live in Atlantis?"
Duke raised his head. "Why would-? Oh. Uh...my parents are human."
Jason made a noise. Cass, who was still looking very concerned, patted him.
"They- Did they adopt you?" Bruce asked.
"Yeah. They found me when I was a baby. Mom thinks I was about two, or almost two. My mer mom was dead, but Mom and Dad got me out and just...started being my parents."
"Huh," Bruce murmured, digesting the fact that he wasn't the only human parent of a mer child after all. In fact, Duke's parents had apparently adopted him years before Bruce had even met Dick. "Do you know their names?"
Duke hesitated, then said, "Doug and Elaine Thomas."
"All right. I'll look them up right now," Bruce said. He turned to Cass. "I'm sorry to interrupt, sweetheart. You can have a break from schoolwork. You'll be okay with Jason and Duke?"
"You okay?" she asked.
"I'm okay, Cass." He kissed the top of her head, then went to his computer. Behind him, he could hear Jason asking Duke about Gifts From the Sea, which Duke apparently hadn't read but had heard about without knowing the title. It sounded like he'd been captured shortly before the book had been published.
After that, Bruce was too absorbed in his research to hear what the kids were talking about. Doug Thomas was pretty easy to find, assuming it was the same Doug Thomas as Duke's dad. "Duke," Bruce called over his shoulder, "does your father write fantasy and sci-fi novels?"
"Yeah," Duke called back.
"What does your mother do?"
"She does books, too, but not the same kind. I don't know much about it."
Bruce went back to work. Elaine Thomas was harder to track down, but he eventually identified her as an editor of and contributor to devotionals and collections of inspirational true stories. She'd also published a nonfiction book about how to care for traumatized children, and was apparently a former social worker.
Right before Bruce was about to quit the search for contact information and try calling the Thomases' publishers, he received an unpleasant jolt. A news article, dated from around the time Gifts From the Sea had been published, stated that speculative fiction writer Doug Thomas and his wife had been hospitalized, meaning that his next book would be delayed.
Bruce read the article in distress, but it didn't have much useful information. The facility wasn't named and it wasn't clear what the Thomases' ailment was, only that they had been victimized with some sort of poison or toxin. Further research pulled up nothing except speculation and complaints from Doug's fans, who were looking forward to his next book. A recent forum post claimed that Doug was still ill, and no one knew when he'd be well enough to resume work on his book. It was alarming that the man's (and his wife's, presumably) illness had lasted so long and was bad enough to keep him from work.
Bruce asked Duke for as much specific information about his parents and their family as he could remember, then started making calls to Gotham, looking for a reputable private investigator. By the time he finally got off the phone, his children and Janette were enjoying a loud, late lunch.
"Sorry about that," Bruce said as he joined them by the pool where they were all eating. "Duke, I wasn't able to find much, but I did hire a private investigator. Hopefully she'll be able to track down your parents soon and we can get you reunited."
Duke gazed back warily, apparently not totally trusting Bruce yet. "Okay."
"I should also contact my social worker and King Arthur so we can get you registered and officially fostered."
"No," Duke said sharply. "I have to stay a secret."
"Duke, I know you had to hide for most of your life, but things are different now. That's why you're here: mer are now legally recognized people, so law enforcement couldn't just dump you with the nearest zoo when your captor was arrested. You have rights."
"...Do they have rights?" Duke asked, gesturing around at Bruce's happily chatting children.
"Yes, of course. All seven of my children have dual citizenship in America and Atlantis. Two of them are my biological children, three of them have been officially adopted, and the girls are being officially fostered, with adoption paperwork currently in process. No one can legally harm them, hold them captive, or discriminate against them just because they're not human. It would be the same for you, Duke."
Duke was silent, looking unhappy.
"Well...I suppose there's a chance they wouldn't let me foster you because I already have too many children under 18. But you'd probably just get sent to Atlantis, where everyone is a sea person of some sort. And once we find your parents, they'd be able to adopt you legally. I promise you, Duke, you're safe now."
"...Maybe," Duke said softly.
TBC
A/N: I just made up Elaine's family in the next chapter; I don't know of any additional Thomas relatives getting mentioned in canon except for Duke's adult cousin, Jay.
