Fostering a kid with an intent to adopt might not have been on the cards for most twenty-something year olds. It hadn't been for Atlanta, who was also a busy communications officer who was already overseeing a lot of responsibilities for Marineville. And with dreams of furthering her academic career that were not so much put on hold, just paused now and then. Especially while still being technically her father's carer, independent in most of life as he was.

Add in a child? It was a lot to take on.

But one Christmas with them (and two years after the death of his dad), Atlanta had decided she couldn't let young Byrne just sit in an orphanage forever. Regardless of what the 'call of duty' often did to interrupt her social life. Or that doing so could risk her the offer of promotion within the service. It didn't matter. Not after everything Captain Byrne had done for both the WASPs and the World Security Patrol; and for Atlanta's own family.

Even if it did mean Barry did have to be babysat when the alarm bells went. Or entertain himself in the standby lounge most weekend mornings. Even if Atlanta had to cut her hours down at the tower. It worked so far. And she'd done long distance learning before, Atlanta reasoned she could do it again.

At first Barry had just been spending holidays with the Shores. Then odd weekends, and the odd day out. Then Barry was staying with them on a semi-permanent basis. The commander had been slow to come around. Sure he'd liked the kid but...

It wasn't like it was a cat or a new recruit, He'd told her. You couldn't hand a child over to a different department like you could a cadet.

"You're not meant to do that with the cadets anyway." She'd cut back.

And then they had argued. The commander had stubbornly disagreed with taking in a child full time. Even one he was very fond of. But for once Sam couldn't pull rank to overrule on the matter. And Atlanta was as stubborn as he was. She'd dug her heels in on the idea and taken Barry out on her own accord, using up her precious vacation days to do so.

However, Sam came around eventually. Even easier than he took to the cat, actually!

The trial run to see how Barry would like to live with the Shores on a full time basis had been trial for sure though. It didn't go without a hitch like Atlanta had planned. It was as if all invading undersea races had known about the dates and done everything in that time to mess things up! Even Titian himself had stuck his nose in to add to the stress.

But Ms Gertrude, Barry's social worker, was still exceptionally happy. If anything, it'd proved Atlanta had read the risk assessment and had made sure Barry knew what to do in an emergency.

"Besides, no family is perfect." She reassured Atlanta. "You don't need to be either. Just being family is what he needs right now."

And that's what they were. Nowadays they are steadily becoming a family. Surprising as it was to their colleagues and the Stingray crew; Much as they'd previously teased Atlanta for being the mother hen of their little group. And sure, it meant she can't drop everything like the others could whenever they had an ounce of free time to go out dancing, or head to a restaurant at the drop of a hat anymore. But as Atlanta stood leaning on the door frame and watching Barry at the table now, she felt all she needed right here at home. Not champagne and date nights and vying for Troy's affection. (Not that that was a rivalry anymore in that respect.)

Atlanta smiled to herself, her chest full, real glad. She took great joy in having a family around her and a steady job she loved in a stone's throw away from home.

Only Barry wasn't doing his homework. He was staring at it, head leaning on his hand. With a real glum face on, occasionally counting on his fingers or frowning at the paper. He then looked up and noticed Atlanta standing in the doorway.

"Hi?" Barry said around the end of his pencil.

"Hey there. Everything alright?" She asked.

Barry nodded, signing 'A-OK'. A habit he'd picked up hanging around the Stingray crew so often. Then sighed.

"Long day?" Atlanta asked.

Barry shook his head. Then, taking the pencil out of his mouth and explained, "Maths."

"Ah..."

Barry had his heart set on becoming an aquanaut like his father. And Sam. And Troy. And like his family's friends. But, even with Ms Gurtude's and the children's home's help, with being passed from pillar to post so much, Barry had fallen behind in a lot of schooling. And his grades had taken a bit of a beating. If further down the line he wanted to go into the World Navy Academy, (or Marineville's own on site Apprenticeship Training), rather than High School, they'd take all his academic skills and records into account; even at his young age. Atlanta didn't think it was very fair to put that sort of pressure on literal children, but Barry was a very determined literal child.

Even if in numbers, he'd found his nemesis.

"Do you want me to have a look?" Atlanta asked.

"Please." Barry nodded, again signing 'please' as well. "Adding and subtraction are easy, and times tables are okay I guess. But now we've doing division too? And these questions are tricky!"

Atlanta sat down and went through it with him. A few minutes later and a bit of puzzle solving together, they worked out what was sticking with him. Using a highlighter to pick out bits of the question helped. So did using some of his Lego blocks to visualise. But comparing it to the way and approach he scaled his measurements for his models really made it click for the little guy. And letting Barry talk himself through the problem did most of the work actually. Atlanta just had to plot the course and nudge him in the right direction. Not much different to her day job really.

"There we go." Atlanta beamed. "You can always check it on a calculator afterwards but make sure you show all your working out. Think you can do the rest on your own?"

"Yeah! Gee thanks Mm-!" Barry started. Stopped himself. stalled and tried again, "Thanks Atlanta. You're the best!"

Odd.

"You okay there, Barry?" Atlanta frowned.

Barry Nodded, rather hard.

"Nothing! I bit my tongue!" he excused, signing 'thanks' too. "But that makes more sense now. I better finish the rest huh?"

"Come find me or my dad if you get stuck again." Atlanta agreed and ruffled his hair. "Don't work too hard, honey."

Barry giggled, flattening his hair back down.

"No harder than you do!" he grinned cheekily.

So, Atlanta left him to it. But swapped a shrug with her father, who'd been hovering in concern (and in his hover chair) out of sight by the door.

He was right. Barry seemed okay; but something felt off.