"Terry, are you aware of you or your parent's medical history? Do you know if there was ever any trouble with your pregnancy?" came Ms. Gordon's call from the room over.

Terry blinked. He'd been sitting at the computer desk doing homework as per Mr. Drake's instruction for the past hour. It had been a week since his first time in the cave and this was already his fourth visit. He wasn't sure how long DNA tests took, but according to TV shows, he felt it should've been quicker. Then again, maybe basing his estimation off of TV wasn't the best decision. Also, he had no idea what kind of equipment they had in the cave medbay, maybe they'd had to send it somewhere else.

"I dunno. They might have mentioned fertility treatment to me when I was a kid." he paused to think for a second, "No, yeah- cause I remember being really excited that robots helped make me."

He heard Ms. Gordon laugh. Which was good. She had seemed tense about something for the past few days.

"Why? What did the tests say?"

No answer. Terry tried to go back to his homework with a sigh. He'd been oscillating between urgently wanting answers and never wanting any at all. (Ideally, he'd been cursed or something when he was young to be mer somehow. Or maybe one of his grandparents or great grandparents had secretly been mer. Un-ideally, one or both of his parents had been keeping some very big secrets from the rest of them. He was fairly positive he could rule out cheating, because he had been conceived with a syringe, and why would a couple on the rocks like that go in for treatment? Besides, if that were the case, adultery would have definitely been brought up in th divorce court proceedings.) If he got answers he could stop worrying, but if he got answers it could also mess up everything. The cryptic comments and weird stares he had been getting from everyone at the cave all week hadn't helped his fretting either. Case and point being Ms. Gordon's latest question leaving Terry unable to concentrate on his schoolwork. Ugh.

Here's to hoping they felt the need to tell him what was going on sometime soon.

Barbara really didn't want to have this discussion anytime soon.

The test results had come back a week ago. Not hard when you had a lab in your basement. The problem wasn't time no, it was the results themselves. Oh the magical stuff was fine and his health all checked out, it was just the… other components that were worrying. So she checked again the next day. And the next. And the day after that, even sending out a sample to an independent lab to get it doubly-double checked. On the fourth day Dick had come up to her as she was hacking into the McGinnis's medical files in search of answers and waited patiently by her side until she let out a passionate "Of course! Wait! No!"

"What?"

"The McGinnis's had problems with conception. Terry was inseminated artificially."

Dick, who had not been around to witness the past couple days of Barbara's research, waited a moment before prompting her with a slow "...and?"

"Neither of his parents are mer."

"Oh." said Dick. Then her statement sunk in. "Oh! Wait so then how...?"

"I don't know."

"Is the clinic they went to like, weird or...?"

"I'm looking into it."

"Because that can't be legal."

"Yeah."

Dick cursed.

"Yeah."

They sat with only the sounds of Barbara's keyboard clacking and the constant dripping of water that echoed around the cave for a moment or two before Dick perked up with another question.

"So do you know which side is mer?"

"Paternal."

"Yikes that's rough."

Barbara hummed in agreement.

She could see Dick scrutinizing her out of the corner of her eye. He was onto her, but let it rest for a minute before springing the question.

"What is it?"

"What is what?"

He raised an unimpressed brow. "Babs, you've got that look. I know you have more info. What is it?"

Barbara let out a deep sigh, pulling away from the computer to crack her knuckles and rub a hand over her sore eyes. "You're not going to like it." she warned.

Three days later and she liked it even less.

She had three questions. One, how did they swap out the genetic material? Two, who was behind this? And three, how had they gotten ahold of… of Bruce Wayne's genetic material? More importantly, why? Actually, that was four questions. She had four questions and in three days had gotten the answer to only two of them. Which sucked. The answer to question one she got within the first day, looking through the employee records showed that there were records of a Gerald Buttress being hired by the fertility clinic shortly before the McGinnis's came in for treatment who left shortly after the delivery of a healthy baby Terry. A background scan on him revealed shady connections which placed him as the prime suspect. Similar searches revealed another employee with similar underground connections who left just before Buttress arrived, leaving Barbara with the unfortunate suspicion that whoever "they" were had been screening couples for a long time. Even more unfortunate, until the two former clinicians could be investigated further, she had no idea who "they" even were. There was nothing linking Buttress or the first employee, so whoever had done this was hiring out and had been careful not to leave a digital trail. Slag. To question three she didn't have an answer specifically, but it wasn't a stretch to assume whoever had orchestrated this had found blood or something at one of their crime scenes. The problem now was Terry was fifteen and Bruce hadn't been in the field in twenty, so she had a lot of decades old trails to find and follow. Questions two and four though… who knows. She would figure that out after they found their mad gene-swapping culprits. Ugh this was such a mess.

Barbara pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. She had been doing a lot of that in the past week after Tim and Steph handed her the reins of the (at the time, much simpler) investigation and headed home for the night. The poor kid…

Barbara wheeled herself into a position to peek out the medbay door at the computer where Terry had plopped himself down for the evening. He'd already been through so much this last month, and he was taking it as well as could be expected. She really hated that her info had the potential to seriously mess up his already fragile equilibrium. Not that biological relation really mattered in the long run, just take a look at her family, but his father was already such a fraught subject.

There really was no winning in this situation, was there?

She had told Bruce last night- him and the rest of the family. They were already planning a larger scale investigation, finding out Bruce had another biological son was reason enough to pull a few folks out of retirement temporarily, but, when it came to how they would approach Terry about all this, they had nothing. First step though, she supposed, was to try and gauge how he might react to this and how much he already knew.

She called out her question.

Terry's response startled a laugh out of her, which was nice. He was such a sweet kid. But what was nicer was confirming that he at least knew about the whole insemination thing. Hopefully he wouldn't jump straight to infidelity, then. Now, if only there was an easy way to spring the news of surprise relatives on someone.

Personally, Barbara wanted to wait until after their investigation had turned up something concrete so they could give Terry a name and reason behind all this. Understanding the 'why' always helped her deal with new situations. But as it stood, their plan was to hold a meeting once Bruce and Damian got home and break the news. They also needed to ask Terry if he wanted to bring his mother into all this, seeing as Mary McGinnis was the victim of this crime. As it stood though, living in ignorance of your son's true biology might be preferable to the danger that came with association with The Bat. Not the most ethical call to make, perhaps, but it was the kind this lifestyle sometimes necessitated. A shame that Terry would be making one young.

It was then that Barbara heard the telltale sound of the cave's security being disengaged. She glanced at the clock. It was too early for Bruce or Damian, Cass and Dick were already inside and relaxing in the underwater lounge, Tim and Steph were still at work and wouldn't be due until later, which left…

Well, speak of meetings and they shall occur.

She wheeled herself out of the medbay in time to see two very familiar heads peek up out of the water.

"Hey Barb!"

"Hey there, token red-head."

"Hello favorite and least favorite brother."

"Least favorite? There's no way Dami's risen up the ranks that fast!"

"You're right. It's more about how quickly you've sunk."

Jason's theatric scoff of mock offense sent Barbara and Duke into a fit of snickers.

"So, where's this young blood I've heard so much about?" said Jason.

"Up there." replied Barbara, waving a hand toward the computer where Terry had abandoned his homework in favor of openly staring at the new arrivals. "Come on down, Terry."

The kid made it down quickly, no doubt eager to meet the fifth and sixth mer he had ever seen in his life.

"This is Duke and Jason, two more of the Batkids. Both he/him."

"Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too."

"Same here. Word is that you can switch between being full mer and full human?"

"Uh, yeah. Though I haven't actually done it since that one time."

"Dang. What I would give for a power like that. Wish I could walk again."

"I- sor- what?"

"Wow Babs, a whole week and you haven't even gotten around to telling him the Tragedy of Me?"

Barbara rolled her eyes. "Right, sorry I don't wail the hallowed tale to any unfortunate passerby." she said in a deadpan.

"As it should be! My life would make a phenomenal play- no wait, make it a musical. I deserve that kind of recognition."

She saw Terry crack a smile at their back-and-forth. Jason did always have a way with putting kids at ease.

"So wait, walk again? I thought all half mer-humans could transform?"

"They can, problem is I used to be full human and now I'm full mer. Which means I will live with the acute longing to climb a tree for the rest of my existence."

Terry looked properly impressed.

"Ok, that's gotta suck, but not gonna lie it also kinda rips. Like, how does that even happen?"

Jason then proceed to launch into a (quite good) retelling of his sordid sorry life, mixing exposition and joke seamlessly until he had Terry laughing and engaged in a lively conversation about the kids own situation, Duke and Barbara butting in every now and again to bring Jason down a couple pegs when needed.

Huh. Thought Barbara, watching Duke and Terry gang up on Jason in their new debate over which was the best off-broadway musical of all time. Maybe we should have waited until Jason got back to bring Terry in. It had taken this whole past week to get Terry this open and talkative even with Dick and Steph around.

They continued to fool around until Jason found out Terry had English homework, at which point Jason demanded that Terry let him help, citing the need for "eyes and ears of proper culture" to "teach the younger generation how it's done". Terry laughed and said something about the only culture being grown was a culture of fungus in his head before the two darted off back to the computer to dissect some poor nineteenth century fool's magnum opus.

Barbara eyed Duke. "I didn't know you had such a strong opinion on Hadestown." she said with some suspicion.

Duke matched her judgmental gaze with one of his own. "I live underwater Barb, not under a rock. Besides, you just like The Lightning Thief Musical because you relate to Annabeth."

"Why shouldn't I? It is through fiction we find our truest expression of self."

"That and Percy reminds you of Dick."

"That too." said Barbara with an exasperated sigh. Duke laughed.

"So, where is your favorite Seaweed Brain?"

"He and Cass are down under. We'll have our meeting soon as the Wayne's get home."

"Are we including Terry in that, or…?"

"Not unless he wants to be."

"Of course." said Duke as their gazes drifted over to where Jason had hauled himself up into the chair next to Terry's and now appeared to be doing a horribly nasally impression of a wealthy British aristocrat bemoaning social mobility as the destruction of civilization.

"Barbara."

"Hm?"

"He'll be okay." Duke said with a smile. "I've only known Terry for fifteen minutes, but I think he'll turn out alright."

Barbara let out a small huff. Leave it to Duke to see right through her. "I just don't want to make this any harder for him."

"You're not going to ruin his life, Barb."

"Yeah, but I'm not really helping either."

"By being the one to find out about this? Barb, it's not your fault."

"I know that. Intellectually."

Duke gave her a wry smile and a pat on the arm for her efforts.

"Look at it this way, then. I'm pretty sure nothing builds character like finding out you're the biological son of the Bat Mer."

Barabara snorted. "Oh yeah, way better than a camping trip."

"I think they even have the same chin."

"Yes! You see it too? Dick doesn't believe me."

"Dick's yanking your chain. Physical features aside, I'm just glad Terry got his sense of humor from his mom's side."

A loud squeak from Jason that sent Terry into a fit of laughter matched the timing of their conversation perfectly.

"Aren't we all."

It was nearing seven by the time Damian and Bruce got back. The Drake-Browns had shown up half an hour ago and Tim had taken the liberty of calling Mary McGinnis to let her know they would be returning her son a bit later than usual tonight.

They were now all gathered round the main pool, Terry sitting on the edge besides Jason, pants rolled up and feet dangling in the water next to Cass. The rest of the family was also scattered round, but close enough to Terry that it felt a bit more personal than the last time.

"So," Terry's voice rang out across the silence, "The test came back?"

"Yes," said Steph, taking initiative in the conversation, for which Barbara was thankful.

"Schway. What's up, then?" said the boy with a sort of forced calm.

"Well, you know how your parents had to get fertility treatment?"

"Yeah?"

"We've figured out that instead of doing what they were supposed to, one of the clinitions swapped out your dad's material for that of a mer."

Terry's eyes went wide, an absolutely baffling mix of shock and joy flitting across his features as his mouth tried and failed to form words for a good half minute. Barbara's confusion was only worsened when the kid finally regained the ability, because what came out of his mouth was:

"I'm a Milliner's House baby?!"

"A what?"

Terry was full on grinning now. This was not at all within the solar system of Barbara's predicted outcomes.

"It's this animated fantasy kids show where a bunch of kids find out they're heirs to the throne because the queen's brother wanted to ensure her bloodline lived on but it went really wrong and they have to team up and fight a hat-maker and save their parents."

The fact that no one appeared to know what to say to that seemed to make Terry grin even harder.

"Huh. I guess there really is a show for everything." mused Steph.

"I thought this was a lot like Jane the Virgin." said Duke.

"Never heard of it."

"Before your time, kid."

And the silence was back as they waited for Terry to process things. Initial, very confusing, outburst aside (kids these days, honestly) Barbara was now waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"So…" hazarded Jason, poking the kid in the leg to stir him out of his thoughts. "Are you good?"

"Uh," said Terry quietly, joking tone dropped. Cass took his hand. "I guess. I mean, it makes sense. Neither of my parents are mer so it's not that much of a stretch. It's still crazy, like something out of a soap opera, but…" the kid shrugged. "I guess I'm kinda mad about losing that connection to my dad, but he's still my dad, ya know? This doesn't really change anything."

Terry's solemn speech lifted a weight off Barbara's shoulders. Duke was right. Of course he was. She hadn't ruined the kids' life. Terry's life had not been ruined and was taking the news well, too- even though Barbara hated the reason behind that maturity.

"Would you like to know who it is?" spoke Barbara, her relief giving her the energy needed to pipe up for the first time in this discussion.

"Who? You mean like, my uh, my mer relative?"

Barbara nodded.

Terry sat back for a minute to think, receiving a quick hand squeeze from Cass and leaning into Jason's touch when the mer scooted closer and wrapped an arm around the boy's shoulders for support.

"Nah." Terry finally said, looking up to meet her eyes and giving her a weak smile before going back to staring at the water being swirled around by his foot. And if his voice was a little strained when he managed to bite out a full sentence, well, he was in a room full of vigilantes. No one was going to judge.

"Nah, maybe… maybe later. If that's ok."

"Of course it's ok." said Jason, quick to reassure both verbally and with a strong side hug that Terry melted into. "If you never wanna know, that's good too. You're fine, twip. Take your time."

Dick took Barbara's hand from his spot on the floor beside her and gave it a squeeze while they all waited for Terry to regain his composure. Barbara squeezed back.

"Did they know about me?"

"They didn't before, but they do now." it was Bruce who replied this time, and Barbara had to consciously suppress the instinct to glance at Dick and his -probably- poorly concealed smirk. "It was quite a shock, and they'd like to get to know you, but they're more concerned about what you want."

Terry nodded, regaining a little of the color that had fled at Bruce's revelation.

"Tell them thanks, I guess, and that I'll think about it sometime."

Bruce gave the boy a small smile. "There's no pressure, Terry. Just do whatever you're comfortable with."

"Ok."

They let that settle for a minute. The whole group once again giving Terry the time he needed. A couple minutes later though, Tim decided to address the final thing on the agenda.

"Do you want to tell your mother?"

"I mean, yeah, but…" Terry furrowed his brow in thought. He really did look a good deal like Bruce when he did that. The thought brought a small smile to her face, a quick glance at Dick confirmed that he had also had a similar realization and Barbara had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing. "Didn't you guys say knowing about this place put me in danger? Wouldn't telling her be like, bad?"

"Yeah, sorry about that, kid." sighed Steph. "You can tell her if you really want, though. Especially cause you deserve to be able to talk to her about all this. But, yeah. It might be safer to wait till after we've figured out who's behind this- and take them down if we need to."

Terry smirked at that. "Ok then. I'll wait on that one too."

"Understandable." said Damian. "It's not every day you find yourself a real life Ketato."

Terry jolted up straight, sadness apparently forgotten in his renewed shock.

"Wait! You've seen the Milliner's House!?"

"I have." confirmed Damian with a smug nod. "The animation is quite good and the story is delightful. More people should watch it."

"Absolutely! It's so crash! Who's your favorite character?"

This time, when Dick caught Barbara's eye, neither of them were quite able to stifle the laughter that bubbled up. All that tension, gone in a flash.

The new, much lighter conversation kept up for a few minutes until someone had the presence of mind to check the time and say "Oh sh- we need to get Terry home, like, now!" and all of a sudden the cave's occupants were in a mad scramble to gather Terry's things and get him out the door, but not before Cass could give him one last hand squeeze, Jason could promise to help with the kid's homework tomorrow and Damian could shout out a show recommendation to Terry's retreating form.

Overall, it was agreed that tonight had been a great success. Certainly not as explosive as Barbara had come to expect from her bunch of drama queens, but that might have been setting the bar a bit low. Not everyone took news as bad as they did. Either way, she knew it went fine, and was fairly confident Terry would be fine as well.

Barbara might even take him out for ice cream sometime soon. He definitely deserved it if he was gonna stick around this family.