"Is it weird I don't call you 'Mom'?" Barry asked. The commander nearly dropped his drink and choked on it at the same time. Atlanta was too stunned to fuss over his coughing fit.

Call you 'Mom'? Oh. Atlanta hadn't been expecting anything like that. Maybe in hindsight she should have? It was hard to think suddenly. But it explained the funny noise Barry had kept making, didn't it. He'd been nearly accidently calling her Atlanta his mom-!

But then Barry continued:

"Or that I don't WANT to call you 'Mom' either? Is it?" Barry pressed.

Huh. Okay that stung, a little tiny bit. but Atlanta recovered quicker than her father. although her voice wobbled.

"Well..." she started. Both Barry and Sam were looking expectantly at her. Atlanta thinking it best to be honest Truthfully, "No? No honey I don't think that's strange at all. Plenty of kids must call their guardians their first names instead of mom and dad, right? And I wouldn't want to make you feel like you had to call me 'Mom'? Certainly not if you didn't want to!"

"Oh." Barry relaxed. "Okay. Yeah, that. That makes sense. Gee, thanks... Atlanta."

"That's alright." She said, And thinking he might want to go back to cuddles held her arms open for him. "Come here?"

Barry couldn't get back on the couch fast enough, holding Atlanta real tight as if to press his head through her shoulder.

"That's been bugging you all evening, huh?" she asked quietly.

"Ah huh. All day!" he mumbled.

The commander hadn't said a word. Sam sat there frowning Glancing between Barry and his daughter. Catching Atlanta's eye, Sam roughly signed, "I ask. question."

Atlanta nodded over the boy's head, equally concerned. So, Sam cleared his throat. Barry looked up, worried. He needn't have been.

"Barry? What's brought this on? if you don't mind me asking? " The commander asked.

"Nothing." Barry mumbled.

Atlanta pulled away and looked at him. Or more gave him what Fisher dubbed 'the look'.

"I was just. Was. Thinking about it." Barry admitted. "And stuff."

"You know we can always phone Ms Gertrude if you need to talk to someone who isn't us? Have the kids at school said something?" Sam pressed.

"No... not to me." Barry half fibbed.

Which meant they had.

"Barry." Atlanta warned gently. She didn't like it when he skirted around and tried to be indirect. Especially when Barry was protecting someone who'd upset him. He had a big heart but Barry had had a few problems adjusting to his new school. Sure, he'd made plenty of friends? But kids could be cruel. At his last school where there were plenty of children from the home, they didn't pick on him for that. Instead he'd gotten bullied with names like Freaky face and 'pointy lip' over where his little cleft scar pinched his features. As well as just being a kind polite softly spoken little guy. Now at Marineville juniors, he'd been singled out for being an orphan and small for his age.

The rumour mill didn't really help either. On days Barry didn't get the shuttle bus home, Atlanta was still struggling to hold her head up and fit in at the school gates. It was after all older parents waiting on the juniors; Most new moms and dads Atlanta's age would be waiting at the kindergarten and the infants. those not in the know had been mistaken at first in thinking she was Barry's big sister. Or assuming she'd been a teen-age mother and Barry had been some secret stashed away somewhere till now. Not that there was any shame in that? It just wasn't true.

(Those who'd listened to the jungle drums rather than learning the facts had been half convinced that that Barry was Atlanta's and worse the result of some fling with Barry's late father! That part really made Atlanta, and by default her family and the team, real angry.)

Barry sighed, bringing Atlanta back to earth.

"You know how my friend's call you Lieutenant Shore? when we're talking then saying, 'my mom, your mom'? And Atlanta sometimes by accident?" He explained.

"I know."

"But when Jessie called you in class? She said, "If I ask my mom, will Atlanta let you come to the beach."

"That's it?"

"Yeah! and Mr Jonah heard her and said what he said about being polite. He thought Jessie was being rude. Even though she didn't mean to." Barry said. "But. Then…well after that Rex said-?"

"I should have known it'd be Rex!" Atlanta said crossly, accidentally interrupting. And felt bad when Barry flinched. "Go on…What did he say to you?"

"Nothing! Just that it was weird I called you Atlanta not Mom. But he didn't say it to me. Not to my face." Barry stressed. "Just… to his friends at his table. Behind my back."

Atlanta wasn't impressed.

"And Mr Johah didn't hear that bit?"

"No. And then he said again in the corridor at recess. And when we went outside too. He followed us around saying it while we were trying to play Pirates and Mermaids! And then he started doing that thing where he says mean things really loudly, so everyone hears him? Even if we moved." Barry complained.

"You did well to move away from him. And ignore him." Atlanta reminded him. Barry squirmed as if he'd done something very naughty.

"…I didn't …I told him to go away." He admitted, "and that made it worse because Rex laughed and got really nasty about lots of things. Plus, he said Marina was a freak and 'should have stayed in the sea'."

"Again?!"

"What do you mean, son?" The commander frowned. Then to Atlanta, "And what do you mean by again?!"

"Father shh. Not now!"

"I mean he did it again. Rex is always mean about her, Sam!" Barry protested. "And about Atlanta too! He says bad things to me and to Jessie and Thomas. He's even mean about Kit and Cindy, and they've never been to Marineville. Rex Even says things about Fisher! and then-! When I said to Rex 'leave Marina alone too', he said a swear word at me. And then singing 'no mom no mom'."

Despite getting upset, at both Sam and Atlanta's faces Barry quickly tried to make it all better.

"But it's alright! because then James in the class above got Rex by the back of the shirt and told him to back off? Which was really nice of him to do but not very clever. Because then Rex and him started fighting and Thomas joined in, and someone fetched Mr Jonah. And both their-" Barry paused for breath. And hesitated.

"...both their moms got called in?" he said, stressing the word mom. "I think Thomas might get grounded. And Rex has detention for two lunch breaks."

"Well. That serves Rex right." Atlanta said, annoyed Mr Jonah hadn't thought to inform her.

"You stay away from him. I know Rex is in a lot of your classes and clubs, but he's nearly a year older than you. He should know better."

"I know! I try to stay away-! He won't leave me alone." Barry whined, coming in for another cuddle.

"I know you know." Atlanta soothed. "I just worry. He's trouble, Barry. Rex is saying things like that to wind you up and get a rise out of you, because you know to ignore him when he's been mean about you. And you need to remember he doesn't know Marina; not like you do. So, he is nasty about people you care for to try and get you to fight him. He's a bully."

"And he's a brat by the sound of it."

"Father!"

"What?" The Commander complained. "Rex Moray, right? Ground Captain Moray's lad? I know his old man, that lazy third-rate officer for security. If I'd my way I wouldn't have him in Marineville! He's a skunk. A skunk who's given his snotty Kid a dog's name. And! Judging by the way Moray speaks about his wife, it sounds like they both give Rex anything he demands except for attention and discipline. It makes for a spoiled little-."

"Ah-!" Atlanta warned, cutting him off. Barry laughed at least. Even as Atlanta tried covering his ears.

"I am not above putting a swear jar in the house as well as the control room." She threatened. (Atlanta hadn't been the one to put it in there. But the petty officers' summer ball was certainly going to have an extra-large budget this year.)

"I wasn't about to cuss! Can't a man complain in his own home nowadays?!" The commander complained. "Besides the Stingray crew are filling the darn thing more than me. Marina included!"

Atlanta still scowled at him. The commander scowled right back. But checked his watch.

"Have it your way. I'm gonna go set the card table up and then go outside for a smoke." He growled. And then an aside to Barry in a chuckle, "Before I get grounded too-!"

And with that he fled. Quickly before Atlanta could get another word in. Barry giggled as Sam's chair Whirred out the room. And then tried not to giggle when Atlanta turned back to him.

"You shouldn't encourage him." she sighed, not meaning it really.

"Sorry Atlanta." Barry said, still giggling; and not really meaning it either. He giggled more when Atlanta retaliated by Tickling him.

"Argh nooo Sam help!" Barry laughed and shrieked. "The tickle monsters got me!"

"Tickle it back!" the commander yelled back unsympathetically. Barry tried. But Atlanta had a secret weapon in that she could scoop him up, and, pulling him back on the couch, smother the boy in kisses too. Barry giggled like a Cowengate advert baby till he was out of breath. Then signed 'no' and 'stop' to say he'd had enough. So, Atlanta stopped.

"I am sorry Rex isn't very nice to you. And he said all those mean things." She said when he'd calmed down. She wasn't going to get him to sleep before the crew came over after all.

"Me too." Barry said. And snuggled back up to her. "Mrs Gertrude thinks he's just really jealous that I got to go on Stingray at Christmas? And I can go to the tower."

"Mrs Gertrude might be right." Atlanta agreed. "Do… you want to talk about the other thing Barry?"

"No." Barry Wriggled. "Maybe…"

He was quiet for a long moment before asking, "Atlanta, about Mom? My mom?"