Fu is downstairs keeping an eye on their prisoner, but the rest of the family is gathered in the living room above the shop. Haley sits with Jonathan in one chair, and Susan's own father sits in another. She could be sitting as well, but she stands, facing them from behind the coffee table and hoping her position will help to steel her resolve as she tells them everything she's been keeping secret.

"I think our son was born with the Mark of the Huntsclan," she says, grateful that Jonathan knows enough now that she needn't explain all that means. "I think he was stolen from us and raised by them, and that he— That he only realized his true nature when he hit puberty and his powers began to develop."

Lao Shi doesn't move, keeping his face expressionless and his clasped hands still as they rest in his lap. Susan knows he's waiting to see what else she'll reveal and how the others will take it. Jonathan holds Haley tighter, pulling her closer with both arms. She shifts on his lap and leans into him, resting her head on his chest. No one speaks.

"I think he's the dragon Haley saw the night she was captured, and I think…." Susan swallows. "He's 99. The agent we had here that night. That's why Huntsgirl was willing to give up Haley for him."

"Daughter."

Susan closes her eyes briefly as she draws in another breath, hearing the warning in her father's voice for what it is. "We have him again. He's downstairs."

"Even if that is 99," Haley whispers, "we don't know he's the dragon." She steals a look at her grandfather and adds, "Just because he was there that night, it doesn't mean he was the dragon. I never saw him change, and I never noticed that he had a reaction to the sphinx hair."

"If they were using him to trick you into a trap of sphinx hair," Susan counters, "he would already know how it would affect him, and he'd be careful. Any reaction he had wouldn't be one you'd notice when you were trying to escape and dealing with the effects of it yourself."

Jonathan looks more worried than hopeful, and Haley is still afraid, but her father….

Lao Shi looks resigned, as if he has already guessed her next words and is disappointed in the choices she's made.

It is a heart-wrenchingly familiar look.

"This isn't pure speculation. I haven't seen him change completely, but I've seen enough. The boy downstairs is a dragon."

Haley is the first one to break the stretching silence. "When? If you knew last time—"

"He found me after that," she interrupts. "Weeks after you were safe, he found me. He didn't threaten me, and he kept his mark concealed, never revealing himself as 99. I…. I recognized his voice, but I don't think he realized that I would remember him so well. I don't think he would've taken the risk if he had, but when he talked to me, he revealed himself as a dragon and asked me to help him."

"And you chose to do so?"

At the dangerous tone of her father's voice, Susan closes her eyes again and sucks in deep breath before facing him. "Yes. He's my son. Alive. And needing my help to stay that way." She meets Jonathan's eyes. "Our Jake is alive."

Jonathan's mouth opens, but words fail him, and it is her father who speaks. "You do not know that. You said yourself that you are not certain."

"I said I have no proof," she counters. She cannot back down. If she does so now, her son will be lost to her. Her father will make sure of that, forsaking him to protect the rest of the family. Fu began brewing a memory potion the moment Lao Shi found out Haley had told Jonathan the truth, and it has been ready for weeks.

It would be effective enough on a dragon who has no idea how to use his magic to counter any of its properties.

Not that that would do more than buy them a paltry amount of time. Huntsgirl already knows Haley's face, and Susan doubts she would keep that knowledge to herself when it could help her save her friend. Even if she does not think they have 99, she might be desperate enough to try to find Haley and ask for her help.

More to the point, the Huntsclan does not let anyone simply leave, especially those who are marked at birth. Susan has encountered more than one hungry child she suspects was once an initiate, abandoned on the streets without means or memory, but someone who was raised to the life would be different. They would be valuable.

They are worth searching for, which is precisely her father's point.

They don't know how much time they have, but it will hardly be in abundance.

Lao Shi leans forward slightly in his chair. Others might be on their feet and yelling, but she hasn't pushed him to that point yet. "Yet you knew he was a member of the Huntsclan when you first agreed."

"I also knew he was a dragon and that his very nature put him in danger because of that."

"Daughter—"

"I have done everything I can to protect Haley." It's a lie. She has not done everything. She has tried to protect the one she is convinced is her son, too. "Huntsgirl already learned her face and has not done anything with that knowledge—"

"We do not know Huntsgirl's ways," her father bites out, letting a touch of his anger colour his voice as he cuts her off as she had him, "and you should not be so foolish as to think we do."

She shouldn't have brought up Huntsgirl. Huntsgirl is only a distraction from the important topic at hand. "I met a dragon in need, a dragon who is very likely my own son. Would you have me feign ignorance about everything when I could help?"

"I would have you do what you must to protect our family."

Jonathan and Haley do not understand, do not hear what her father is truly saying, but Susan does. Susan knows everything that is sacrificed for the sake of the family secret. Her husband's ignorance of it for so long, even after he had proven his loyalty to her time and time again, is proof enough of that. She lied to him for their sake.

And until now, she has lied to them all for her son's sake.

"Protecting my family includes protecting my son." Her voice is quiet. Sharp. The words are something she wants to yell in anger, in defiance, but that would not only be ineffective but counterproductive. Her judgement is not clouded by anger; it has been cleared by time and necessity. Her father must understand that, must understand that she is not willing to give ground on this.

She knows that the most efficient way to deal with this situation would be to dispose of her son, of her Jake. A dead dragon will not change. His secret, their secret, would be safe. Not even Huntsgirl would be able to puzzle out precisely what happened. She may have suspicions and come for answers with sharpened blades, but she'd never find proof.

Members of the Huntsclan have been felled by other magical creatures; it is not something done by dragons alone when the choice is slay or be slain. It is a risk Huntsgirl would know well, but it is a lie that would be laden with doubt, knowing what she does about 99's nature. She would not be able to speak to it specifically without risking revealing her own betrayal to the Huntsclan itself, but she may well be given the power to lead a force to eradicate all those who might have been involved.

It would not end well, but they would be in less danger if they chose that path than this one.

Except for her son.

Susan will not forfeit her daughter for her son, but neither will she forfeit her son for her daughter.

"Your son is gone, daughter. The boy below may have dragon blood, but that does not mean he has our blood."

Jonathan clears his throat. "Er, if the boy in question is willing, we could do a paternity test. Or some sort of magical DNA test. Do you have those? A potion that changes colour like a litmus test or—?"

"Dragons have scale patterns," Susan says without taking her eyes from her father. "A bit like fingerprints in that they're all unique, but the broader pattern is hereditary." She looks at Jonathan then and sees him open his mouth as he looks down to Haley, but he swallows back his question when his eyes flick to her father. Lao Shi is no longer bothering to hide his thoughts, and Jonathan would be all too familiar with that stormy expression. "As you've no dragon blood, my family's pattern would be dominant and easily recognizable. You'd be able to see it most distinctly on a dragon's forefeet."

"And have you seen this one's scale pattern?"

Susan turns back to her father. "No. He's been careful. Dragon eye and dragon tongue only, so I wouldn't even be able to put a colour to his scales."

He doesn't think she has enough proof to risk what she wants to do.

She knows she isn't likely to get any further without taking that risk.

"And if the pattern does not match? If this boy is not the one you believe him to be?"

"It would still be our duty to help him, wouldn't it?" Haley says as she shifts to sit up in Jonathan's lap. "He's a dragon, even if he's been working for the Huntsclan. He might not have a choice."

"Or perhaps he has made every choice with a full awareness of his actions and he is willing to sacrifice himself to get to you, even if Huntsgirl is not."

"He could be your grandson," Jonathan says, the reproach in his tone not remotely subtle. "He could be my son. And even if he isn't, Haley-hoo is right. We should help him if we can."

"Even if that help destroys all we have built here?" counters Lao Shi. "The shop is compromised. Haley and Susan are compromised, and therefore they would find both me and you. It would be best to flee before they can gather their forces to act against us. We can find another to take up the mantle of the American Dragon until we are no longer known by them."

Jonathan frowns. "What would that take?"

There are a few answers to that, Susan knows, and none of them are pleasant. A lifetime. Complete eradication. Infiltration to allow for intense memory modification, data manipulation, and record destruction. If it really is only Huntsgirl and the boy downstairs who know of them, though…. That would be feasible. That is why Lao Shi suggests it.

Still, she cannot allow it, even if the boy isn't her son. "Too much," she answers instead. "It's better that we simply talk to him."

"And if he does not wish to listen, let alone talk? What if he betrays your trust and listens only to convince you to free him before reporting back to the Huntsclan?"

"We would need to be ready to move once we freed him," she allows, careful to say once and not if, something her father does not miss, judging by the darkening expression on his face. "But I don't think he would have asked for my help if he did not need it. You haven't talked to him. He's scared. The only family he knows would kill him for the truth of his nature, something he cannot even change."

Her father opens his mouth, but then he looks at Haley and Jonathan and closes it again without speaking.

He doesn't need to. Susan knows what he isn't saying. The boy's nature—her son or not—may not be something he can change, but it is something that can be changed. They could summon the Dragon Council. The boy's powers could be taken away. He could be like her, born with dragon blood and carrying it within him but never accessing it again.

It is not something the boy should know. It is not something the Huntsclan should know.

But if it is, that could be precisely what they want.

If they could take out the powers of the Dragon Council while they were in the midst of the ritual, the magical world would be thrown into chaos.

The Huntsclan certainly would not care whether one member is sacrificed for the mere opportunity. The boy may see it as a chance to be cleansed, but Susan doubts the Huntsclan would tell him of the possibility—or the intention—of him being caught in the backlash of the broken spell, even if he is aware that he may be caught in the crossfire of the hunt itself.

"I want to help him," Haley says. "I'm the American Dragon. This is my choice, and I want to help him, even if he isn't my brother."

Susan expects more protests, but Lao Shi merely inclines his head. "Very well, young dragon. I will abide by your decision."

He doesn't like it; they all know that. Susan is sure they also know he intends to prepare whatever he can to be ready in case things go wrong, as he so clearly expects. The fact that he is not asking Haley to reconsider and take more time before making her decision or plying her with proverbs tells Susan that he already has his own plan and is ready to spring it at a moment's notice.

Perhaps he has been planning it since Haley's capture.

Perhaps he has been planning it since Susan's engagement.

He promised to trust Susan to take the lead on this, has kept his word and passed that on to Haley when Susan did not protest her right to make the decision, but he never promised not to act as he sees fit, especially not when it does not directly interfere.

It has been a long time since Luong Lao Shi has been considered rash, and Susan is forced to wonder which of them has been blinded: her by her hope or her father by his caution.

Or Haley, dear Haley, by her optimism and her trust. She would be more cautious if it were not for Susan's own beliefs. If this goes wrong—

If they've made the wrong choice—

"Haley," Susan says to tear her mind away from the horrendous possibilities trying to fill it, "do you want to come down with me while I talk to him or would you prefer to stay up here with the rest of the family?"

"I'll come," she answers softly. "I want to meet him again."

Jonathan hugs Haley tight again as she says this, and Susan knows she isn't the only one to hear what Haley doesn't say: I want to meet my brother.