Haley stares at the numbers on the page, willing them to make sense, but they don't.

She's usually good at math. It's easy for her. Everything has a proper order. Everything follows rules. It's logical. She can reason it out.

But today—and for the past few weeks, really—all she can think about is what happened the night she was taken.

She's searched. She still goes out every night, though she's gotten so worn down that she's agreed to only do partial shifts, just a few hours of patrol before it's back to bed. But she hasn't heard anything about the other dragon. She hasn't even come across a magical creature who's seen it before. At least, not one that she trusts is telling the truth.

How could the Huntsclan get their hands on a dragon, win his loyalty, and not have anyone hear about it? Even from a friend of a friend? She had thought—had hoped—Fu would come up with something from his poker contacts, but even he came back empty-handed.

Haley has watched for Huntsgirl, too, hoping to find her alone. She doesn't know if it's a boon or a curse that she hasn't seen hide or hair of any member of the Huntsclan since her ordeal. She…she still isn't sure what she traded away. What Huntsgirl is doing with everything Haley taught her. It's disquieting.

Fu tells her not to worry. That she did what she had to to save her own skin. That she didn't give away anything the Huntsclan wouldn't have been able to divine anyway. But Haley's heard him whisper to Gramps, to her mother, and she's heard her parents talking in low voices long after she's been sent to bed and they think she's asleep.

Her dad still doesn't know everything. She thought he might, after this. But while he knew they thought she might've been taken, he believed the police had been searching for her and not the magical community. He still didn't know she was the American Dragon. He still didn't know what that meant. Susan had told him as much of the truth as she possibly could without telling him the thing that mattered most.

Haley had asked her about that once they'd gotten back. Why she hadn't told him everything then and there. Susan had admitted that she'd considered it. She'd said that she didn't think Jonathan would take it poorly, that she didn't think they'd need to run and hide and never see him again—but she'd also said that she'd thought it important that they tell him together.

Given how often Haley can remember her father explaining away magical happenings simply by viewing them through the lens of the ordinary world, she can't blame her mother for wanting to wait a little longer. It would be a lot easier to prove that they weren't crazy if Haley could transform and do a loop around the living room than if Susan had to haul home one of the magic books from the shop, seeing as everyone else had been too busy with the search to come with her to tell Jonathan.

Haley knows that he thinks she isn't sleeping well because of what happened, and that's partially right. She wants to tell him everything. Susan's agreed. They'll tell him, with or without Gramps's blessing, but…. But Susan had left Haley to choose when to tell her father, and she finally understands why her mother could never decide when to do it. How to do it.

She wants to wait for a time when there isn't danger, but she doesn't know if that time will ever come. She is the American Dragon. Even if the magical community within the NYC is safe and doing well, that doesn't mean the community at large is the same. She knows she needs to rely on Gramps's network right now, that it's not realistic for her to take over guarding her entire territory when she's not even in middle school, let alone through high school, but—

She still feels responsible. It still hurts whenever she hears of something she could have prevented, if she'd known about it in time or been close enough to help. And this dragon…. His capture by the Huntsclan must also be a failing on her part. She needs to find him.

But Huntsgirl had revealed little more to Haley than her appearance, and 99 hadn't given them anything useful, either. They know he is valuable to the Huntsclan, or at least to Huntsgirl, but they have no solid evidence as to why, and speculation….

Haley knows speculating, all on its own, can be dangerous. It's too likely to lead to assumptions when she's searching for answers, not just possibilities. It's great for opening doors, for thinking of things she might otherwise overlook. But one gesture of trust from Huntsgirl now will not guarantee trust from her in the future, and the dragon….

The dragon might not be the only magical creature the Huntsclan has captured and is using. If they can contain a dragon, they could surely find and pressure other magical creatures. It makes it much more difficult to trust anyone.

Haley really isn't sure if no one knows anything about the Huntsclan's captive dragon or if they are all simply too afraid to say anything to Fu about it.

Just like how she's afraid to—

"How goes the number crunching, Haley-hoo?"

There's a warm hand on her shoulder, and she glances up at Jonathan. "Not that great," she admits. "I'm having trouble focusing."

"Maybe you just need to give your brain a break and get the old blood pumping again!"

Haley's smile freezes on her face. "Dad, I don't—"

"It'll be a good distraction."

She hesitates, as much because he's right as because exercising with him would make him happy. She enjoys spending time with him, and he's been so concerned since the kidnapping. She can see it in his eyes, that shadowed concern. He's never expressed it outright to her, not in so many words, but he's been telling her that he loves her more often than before, and she hears the old assurances that she can tell him anything, that he'll listen even if she doesn't want to tell him everything, and she just….

She can't be afraid forever.

And even if it feels like she's looking for a needle in a haystack, trying to find the dragon—and discover how he ended up as a captive of the Huntsclan—is more like poking a sleeping bear than anything else.

What happened before might happen again.

It might be worse.

She doesn't need to have seen her father's heartbreak to be able to imagine it.

She doesn't want to be responsible for making this worse by pretending it isn't what it is.

"Yeah," she says. "You're right." She bites her lip and then speaks the next words before she changes her mind. "I want to have a family meeting after supper."

There is a time for lies, for half-truths and outright omissions, but that time has passed.

"Of course," Jonathan agrees immediately. "I'll let your mom know. She should be back from her errand soon."

He thinks Haley is ready to tell them her side of the story. He knows he hasn't heard it all, even if he rightly suspects Susan knows more than he does. He hasn't pushed either of them on the subject, which Haley appreciates more than she can ever tell him. Even without knowing everything, he's always supported her. Always been there for her.

It's one of the reasons she knows this is the right decision.

She also knows Gramps won't be entirely happy that she's decided to tell her father now, but as far as she's concerned, Jonathan has more than earned the right to know. He can keep a secret, and he will keep their secret. She has no doubt about that, even if it takes him a while to get used to the idea. But even if Gramps doesn't wholly approve of her timing—or of telling Jonathan in the first place—it's not his decision. She's the American Dragon, and her mom was the one who suggested it in the first place. Besides, a family meeting is just for the three of them, to be called whenever someone has something important they want to say or want discussed. Susan will know what Haley's decision to call a meeting means. They'll tell him together.

And then, maybe, they can be just a little bit more prepared for whatever comes next.