"Are you going out?"

It was obvious he was. Bruce was already dressed with the exception of the cowl which hung down his back. Dick hopped up to sit on the Bat computer console facing his adopted father. He swung his feet idly, much as he did when he was a child. Bruce pushed away from the computer to better face his son.

"I was planning to go to the Watchtower," he told him.

Dick raised an eyebrow. "Not on patrol?"

"The city seems pretty quiet this evening. There wasn't much on the police scanner. Why the interest?"

Dick shrugged. "I thought I might join you."

Bruce leaned back, and contemplated his eldest. "Is that a good idea? What if Elle needs you during the night? I noticed she is still wheezing, and her rash hasn't quite disappeared yet."

"I don't know. I wanted to talk to you, but if you're going out I won't see you until morning."

"What do you want to talk about?"

Dick gave him a look. "Do you seriously have to ask that?"

"This weekend has been full of revelations."

"Whew! I'll say . . ." Dick shook his head.

Bruce rested his elbows on the chair arms and steepled his fingers. "Are you having second thoughts about your relationship?"

Dick looked surprised. "What? No! It's not that."

Bruce looked at him, keeping his expression neutral. "No one would blame you if you did."

Dick sat up straight at his words; his face and body rigid in anger. "What the hell, Bruce? I'm not going to leave her over something like this. In the long term, it's a hiccup. It means nothing!"

"The long term? Since when have you started thinking about the long term," Bruce asked, curious. "You just met this girl."

"I thought you liked her! You're the one who invited her here," Dick snapped.

The edges of Bruce's mouth tilted up ever so slightly. "I do," he said.

Dick blinked. "Y-you what?"

"I like her," he told him. "This 'hiccup' did nothing to change that. I particularly liked the way she stood up to her father, and forced the man to respect you. And how could I not like her after she literally risked her life to save your brother from drowning. From what I've observed, she is brave and honorable, and seems to be completely taken with you for whatever reason."

Dick relaxed. For once he and Bruce were of one mind on something.

"However, that being said, you have only known her for what; four weeks?" Bruce knew that Dick had already fallen hard for this woman, but he was curious to know if Dick was even aware of how deep his feelings ran.

Dick took a breath. He had only just told Elle that he loved her today. It was something he wasn't ready to share with his father yet, for obvious reasons. Bruce would consider it too soon; that Dick was wearing his heart on his sleeve, or some other emotional bullshit. But it wasn't . . . What he felt for her was more real than anything he had ever felt before, even with Babs! He didn't understand it either, but Elle returned the feeling, and he wasn't about to screw up a good thing for no other reason than he was falling for her faster than Bruce thought wise.

"I came here to talk to you about Elle, but not about whether my feelings for her are too much, too soon." Dick ran his hand across the back of his neck, and looked down at the floor. "Elle's family on her mother's side had this family legend. Elle told me about it early on. It became kind of a running joke between us; that she was Aquaman's cousin or niece or something like that."

Bruce frowned. "Do you think that is possible?"

"What? That she could be related to Aquaman?" Dick laughed a little at that; running a hand through his hair. "Up until today, I would have said no, but now . . . Ah, hell, Bruce, I don't know anything anymore."

Bruce didn't comment, but waited for his son to decide what he wanted to believe.

"Okay. That would be a no," Dick said finally. "I would have to say she is related to Aquaman only in that she's part Atlantian, but not in any other way than that. The legend is that her great-grandmother, a sole survivor of a sinking ship, was rescued by an apparent merman, who had sex with her in exchange for taking her to land. Her grandmother was the result of that brief . . . liaison."

"Nice guy," Bruce commented.

Dick snorted. "Yeah, I know; right? Well, although we laughed and joked about it, there were several things that struck me as odd over the past few weeks; things that she's said or did that, in light of what her father told me today, makes the idea the most reasonable explanation. But it bothers her, Bruce. She honestly had no idea, despite some damned compelling evidence, that she was anything but an average human being. "

Unable to sit any longer, Dick got up and began to pace. Bruce turned the chair to keep the younger man in view.

"I guess what I am trying to ask is this; do you think you might find the opportunity to ask Aquaman about this? Maybe, find out if he would be willing to answer some of her questions?"

Bruce stood up at that, and pulled on his cowl. He ignored the look of consternation on his son's face to lay a hand on his shoulder. "Why do you think I'm going to the Watchtower?"

Dick's jaw dropped open in surprise.

"I figured the two of you would have a lot of questions you would want answered. I knew this because I have just as many questions."

The younger man smiled, clutching the hand on his shoulder and placing his other on Batman's. "I can't believe you already thought of all of this. I suppose I should have known you would, though. Thank you, Bruce, from the both of us."

"It may take a while, you know. Arthur is a busy man, being king of Atlantis and all that entails. He doesn't make it to the Watchtower as often as the rest of us, and doesn't show up when he isn't scheduled at all except for world-shattering emergencies."

"I understand."

"We are going to have to do this carefully, you know," Batman warned. "I take it she is unaware of our night work."

"Of course," Dick answered.

He could just imagine Bruce's reaction to his telling Elle about his Nightwing identity. While Dick trusted her, there was no need for her to know at this time, if at all. That he loved her, he had no doubt, but he wasn't so foolish as to risk telling his girlfriend of four weeks that he was a masked vigilante. Telling her about his second identity would be risking more than just his life, but potentially the lives of his family. If they remained together, perhaps then he would tell her. She would need to know eventually, if that were the case.

"If Aquaman agrees, then we'll come up with a way to get the two of them together without risking our identities," Batman told him. "If I can contact him via communicator, I'll see what I can find out in the meantime."

Dick followed Batman to the Zeta Tube at the far side of the cave, and watched him punch in the coordinates he needed.

"I'll be back later," Batman told him. "Do you want me to wake you up?"

"If you find out something, yes; otherwise, I'll just see you in the morning," Dick told him.

"What time do you plan to leave?"

"I'm not scheduled to work until Tuesday morning, but I need to get back tomorrow. Nightwing needs to make an appearance. Four nights without him; the criminals are probably running rampant." Dick shrugged. "Sometime around noon, maybe."

"Good." Batman moved into the tube. "I'll see you later, then. Get some sleep while you can."

"Recognize: Batman. 02," The computer voice announced.

Dick raised a hand as he watched Batman disappear in a blaze of light, feeling better for their talk.