Dad did come home early that morning, and somehow woke up in time to make me pancakes and pour me a glass of OJ. He made me breakfast in the morning, considering that I couldn't reach a lot of ingredients, but he usually saved pancakes for a special occasion, or if I was feeling really down. Well, it was an average Thursday morning before my homeschool tutor came over, and I feel fine, I guess. Mom must have told him I knew.

"What's the special occasion?" I asked nonchalantly.

"The truth." Dad sat down and handed me some syrup. He had a Band-Aid on his cheek: from shaving or from fighting?

"Oh." Ah, Dad, always one to cut to the chase. He's always been a little easier to talk to than Mom. "You're a superhero."

"Well." Dad smiled. "'Super' is kind of overkill, don't you think?"

"Not really," I said. "A hero can be any person, but a superhero has a mask and a secret identity and stuff."

"There's more to it than that." He ruffled my hair. "But that's not all I've been keeping from you. From here on out, you're old enough to know the truth."

"So what else do you have to tell me? That's a pretty big secret."

"This entire family is full of really big secrets." Dad became serious again, and stared at me from across the table. "You have to promise me that you'll never let this slip. Deal?"

"Deal."

"Ok. So the Green Arrow has some partners."

"Yeah. The Black Canary and Speedy." I didn't even think to ask about them- although they each had their own identities, they often worked with the Green Arrow. I think I saw Speedy once, in town square. Red isn't the best camouflage in broad daylight.

"Yep. Well those two are your Aunt Laurel and Aunt Thea."

"Really?" I thought a moment. Aunt Laurel, I could believe: as District Attorney, she was a fierce lawyer, at least from what I'd heard. But Aunt Thea? She runs a club down in the Glades, loves shopping, and is the only person who calls Dad "Ollie." She babysat me all the time while I was healing up, sometimes while my Dad was out. For some reason, it just doesn't occur to me that she could go around shooting people with Arrows. "Isn't Aunt Thea about to have a baby though?"

"Yeah, well, our jobs aren't 24/7." He poured me another glass of OJ. "Don't you think your mom and I took days off when you were born?"

"I kind of doubt it."

Dad shrugged. "You're kind of right. That's another long story I'll tell you later. But your Aunt Thea, she's good. Better than me… Sometimes." I laughed. "Being girly and leading a normal life doesn't make her any less tough. A baby won't keep her off the streets for too long, but I think Roy's enjoying prowling around in Starling again."

"Uncle Roy, too?" Roy was constantly on business trips, and though he wasn't exactly married to Thea, he might as well have been- They had been together longer than my mom and dad!

"He's not really a business man. The world thinks he's dead. He's actually a hero called Arsenal, and travels the world with a group called the Titans. Sometimes he likes to put on his old uniform."

"So why didn't you just tell me all of this in the first place?"

"I don't know, sport," Dad said, scratching his chin. "You think I would have learned by now, huh? Lying never protected anyone." He got up and took my plate. "But a little kid running through the foundry's kind of dangerous, don't you think?"

"You have a foundry?"