A special thank you to L. VanDattae for betaing!

Dick woke up feeling groggy.

Shaking his head, Dick noticed that he had been placed back into his tank. Looking at his side, which stung, he saw that they had stitched up the puncture holes from Tim's teeth along with the scratches on his face.

He sat up, and even surrounded by water, he felt like he was going to fall, before he looked up. He could see Jason in his tank, still out. His side was also stitched up, as was his arm. Dick called to him to see if maybe his brother would wake up.

When he didn't, Dick shook his head, settling down and trying to clear the foggy feeling before sitting up again to look over at Tim's tank.

Tim was gone.

Billy hopped up to the large security guard, holding up a ticket. The guard grunted but took the ticket, having been the one who chased Billy out before. After it was scanned, Billy walked into Ocean Waters, looking around this time, not in any danger of getting in trouble.

Well, maybe a little.

Walking up to where they sold food, he got a drink and a couple of snacks. The Mermaid Arena was currently closed, but the rides and attractions were open and people wanted to see the clips, play the games, along with all the rest that came with an amusement park. There were even rides!

As much as Billy wanted to get on one, he didn't. Walking around, he started to count and memorize the number and location of the guards. Next, he bought an ice cream cone and enjoyed it standing next to the Employees Only door. The guards came and went, and soon ignored him. When they weren't looking, busy switching places, Billy slipped in.

He snuck around the one guard who was watching the monitors. Going into the back where the tanks were, he had to hide quickly, because that trainer had come running into the room sounding really concerned, and there was wailing from one of the mermaids. Which one, Billy didn't know, because he couldn't get caught, so he slipped away quickly.

Sneaking into a room that looked like an office, Billy pulled his hoodie on and looked around before abruptly stopping. Multi-colored peals were all lined up in little tubes. Most of them were all white. The darker colored ones worried Billy, so he started to count them.

After counting and writing it down in his notebook, Billy left.

That's all Bruce wanted for the day, and besides, it had been five hours and Bruce had said five hours tops. Stuffing the notebook away, he hurried back the way he'd come and out the door, down the long stretch of the amusement park and finally out the doors of Ocean Waters.

For a second Billy was worried that Bruce wouldn't be there, but that left quickly when he saw Bruce standing there outside, his black car waiting. Billy smiled when Bruce smiled at him, waving, before the little boy hurried into the car and they drove away.

Jericho hurried into the tank area when he heard wailing. Once he'd run in, he saw Nightwing trying to squeeze his way out of the bars of the tanks, and so far he seemed to be getting what he wanted.

"Whoa, Nightwing!" Jericho ran over. "Nightwing, calm down, shhh, calm down! Hold on, I'll get you unstuck."

Nightwing wailed loudly, shaking his head and pointing at the empty tank. Jericho followed the pointing as he realized what was wrong. Grabbing the keys, he unlocked the bars and moved them apart a bit, letting Nightwing slip back into the water before popping out, cooing sadly.

"Shh, Robin's okay. He's just not feeling well right now. He's in the medical bay, and I promise you Robin's fine. Do you understand, Nightwing? Robin is all right."

Nightwing cooed again.

"It's all right, I'm going back to check on him, all right?"

Nightwing whimpered pleadingly.

"All right, be right back, okay? Just calm down, okay?"

Nightwing nodded before settling back to wait.

Jericho smiled at him before leaving, calmly, so the other would know that nothing bad was happening. Once out of sight, Jericho let out a breath of relief before entering the medical bay.

Robin was laying in a box of water that almost looked like a casket. It had water in it, but the small mermaid was tied down. Something was wrong with him. Whatever it was, Jericho didn't know. They had been looking for a mermaid doctor who could tell them what was wrong.

For now, the small mermaid was chewing on the strap of leather they'd had to put in his mouth to keep him from biting his tongue. Robin looked at him, growling and tugging at his restraints. Blue eyes glared at him fiercely.

"Easy, Robin, just checking on you," Jericho said, before sitting on the chair next to the box of water. "I wish you could talk and tell me what's wrong with you."

Robin struggled again, crying out. Jericho shook his head, wondering if he'd ever know what was wrong with the mermaid. For now though, he picked up a needle, at least he could offer the mermaid some peace. As he pressed the needle to Robin's arm though, someone stormed in.

"Stop!" the woman said, marching right up to them. "Stop right there, Mr. Wilson. I shall take over from here."

"And who are you?" Jericho asked, stepping in front of Robin.

"You sent for me," she said, holding out her hand. "Doctor Leslie Thompkins, mermaid doctor of all kinds. Now then, move aside, move aside, let me see what is wrong with this little fellow."

"Uh," Jericho sputtered, as he was basically pushed out of the way. "By all means?"

"Hmm." She checked the mermaid over while he growled at her. "Hmm. Mmhm. Hmm."

"I, uh, I'm just gonna go-"

"Hand me my bag," she said, holding out here hand. "Well, hurry up now, no time to waste."

Without another word, he handed it over.

Billy bit into the steak, trying to pull off a piece by stabbing it with a fork and growling. After a good twenty seconds he got a chunk. Chewing it quickly, he bit into the steak again. Bruce had been watching him with one brow raised before he couldn't stand it anymore.

"Here, I'll cut it up for you."

"I g't t'is," Billy growled out as he tried to pull off another piece.

It was like watching a stray dog.

Reaching over, Bruce moved Billy back, before taking his plate and cutting up the steak into small bite-sized pieces so the human child wouldn't choke to death. As he did, he watched Billy closely, seeing the boy digging into the baked potato. Land dweller food wasn't something Bruce enjoyed much, but at the moment he didn't have a choice.

"Here."

"Thanks!" Billy stabbed one before taking a bite. "Yum!"

Bruce smiled before going back to the small notes Billy had collected for him. The hand writing was surprisingly neat. It indicated the locations of all the guards, when they changed shifts, where the tank room was that held his sons, and an office that contained pearls.

There were less than five minutes of Tim's life measured in white pearls. Eight yellow, which were a minute's span of life; five blue, two minutes; eighteen red, ten minutes; pink, green, gray, and three black among them.

"Something wrong, Mister?" Billy asked, while not so sneakily pulling some of the meat off of Bruce's plate.

"Somewhat. I'm just adding up the pearls."

"The life, right? Is it a lot?"

"Yes." Bruce frowned before looking at Billy. "Are you sure you counted them all?"

"Yep. All the way down to the last one."

"I see…"

"What is it?" Billy asked, seeing the worry on the man's face. "It's bad, isn't it?"

After a second, Bruce smiled at him. "No. Nothing that can't be fixed. Now finish your food and go take a bath."

"I took one yesterday."

"And you'll take another one today."

Billy whined, but after dinner and the promise of more food he went to take his bath. Meanwhile, Bruce counted the pearls that had been shed. Normally the spell he'd put on Tim would keep them from forming, but with Thomas' hand in this…

Fifty years.

Fifty years of life was a lot of life even to a mermaid.

The phone rang and Bruce walked up to it, answering. "Yes? I see. Of course. No, it's fine. This just means we'll have to speed up our time table. Is there anything you can…? Yes. Yes, that's perfect. Of course."

Billy came in wearing pajamas after drying his hair off and walked over to the large man, who was having some sort of important conversation. Yawning a bit, Billy stood there waiting for Bruce to finish so he could get a candy.

More asleep than awake, Billy swayed slowly side to side before he was suddenly lifted up. He figured that he was going to be tossed into bed, but to his surprise Bruce held him as he talked on the phone to whoever it was. Laying his head on his shoulder, Billy drifted off to sleep dreaming about when his parents had been alive.

Just before he could fall completely asleep, he heard Bruce say, "Thank you, Leslie."

Jericho watched from the other side of the room as the doctor got off her phone and walked over to him, serious expression settling into a smile.

"Robin should be fine now. His tail had glass shards in it."

"Glass shards." Jericho frowned. "How did that happen?"

She eyed him for a long time before she looked at the mermaid. "I don't know. However, I took all of them out. They were stained with a drug known as Vertigo. Not only that, I looked at his tail. There seem to be fractures, and they might have been worse if you hadn't called me in. Now Mr. Wilson-"

"Jericho," he interrupted. "Call me, Jericho, please."

"…Jericho. I would suggest you let him go alone into the pool. He should be fine."

Jericho nodded before he walked up to Robin, who was out in the box of water. Lifting him up, he carefully carried him back to the other tanks, where he laid him in his own. Nightwing cooed urgently at him. Jericho smiled.

"See? He's all right." Jericho looked at him and then over at Red Hood, who was now awake. "All right, we're just going to leave Robin's tank open for now. You two just… just give it a minute, okay?"

Robin seemed to wake up at the sound of the glass sliding open to his tank. He turned and swam off slowly into the pool. Both Nightwing and Red Hood banged on their doors, trying to get out. Robin looked back at them once before continuing out into the pool.

Sighing, Jericho shook his head, trying to get rid of the past day's cares. Going to the fish tank, he scooped up a few of their favorites, tossing them into the tanks, when he paused. Something… something… what was that?

My heart is pieced by cupid

Was that singing?

I disdain all glittering gold

Turning around carefully, Jericho tried to listen when he recognized that echoing sound, and wow, the day couldn't get worse. Okay, he shouldn't think that, because it could.

There is nothing can console me

Running out of the tank room and into the pool, he saw Grant there with a gun pointed at Robin.

Before he could yell at the man to stop, he heard Robin singing again, this time pulling himself up onto the side of the pool, closer, as the man knelt down, his eyes hazed over, listening intently to the song.

"My heart is pieced by cupid, I disdain all glittering gold, and there is nothing can console me but my jolly sailor bold."

Jericho watched as Robin reached up slowly, pulling Grant closer to the side of the pool, and that's when the small fog that had started to affect him dissolved and he realized what Robin was going to do. He started to run forward, only to stop.

Grant would report this, and most likely Robin would be…

Shaking his head, he let Robin breathe in the other human's life until the man crumpled onto the side of the pool. Robin refused to remove his mouth from Grant's until he had breathed in all the life. Jericho felt a little bit guilty, but walked over to move Grant over and looked at Robin before his mouth fell open.

Robin was looking up at him, licking his lips.

The only thing wrong with that?

Robin had legs.

The song was taken from Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. It's the mermaid song obviously, and I was going to make up a song but a friend sent me this link and I used it. Also I don't own the song.

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