Just when everything seemed to be going smoothly, rumours started about a mole on the team. It created division in a lot of ways. Right now half the team was getting on Rob's case about the secret identity thing. Everyone else at least knew each other's real names, but not so much for the Dark Squire, Artemis had snarked out.

Superboy already felt untrusted due to Superman's treatment of him. The extra secrecy around Robin wasn't exactly making him feel welcoming toward the kid. Taking a page from the Man of Steel, Connor started shunning Robin.

Megan refusing to take sides, kept telling everyone to think how the other person was feeling. As a result, everyone was frustrated with her. Surely she had some sort of opinion of her own?

Kaldur was so focused on the possibility of a mole that he wanted everyone's secrets out in the open but at the same time was conflicted because there were clear orders from the League to respect the secrecy of Robin's identity.

Robin went home early, which he wasn't that unusual if the team was leaving the mountain but it was just a team bonding trip. Most of the team was in a mood plus he had zero interest in going to "see" the Atlantean art exhibit. He be surrounded by noisy crowds bumping and crashing into him. The sunglasses weren't intended for use in chaotic environments. Fragile priceless artifacts he couldn't see to appreciate? Girls were really into Atlantean Art right now so Wally would be too distracted to help much. The whole thing sounded stressful and uncomfortable. He'd rather have it out with the team in uniform where he had the benefit of visual behavioural cues instead of being at a disadvantage.

Wally liked the concept of the snack break when they got into town. He was flirting with the girls in the next booth and but they'd just served the food when Arty started trying to ramp everyone up again to see her side of the identities should be out in the open debate. They were in public so everything she said was couched in innuendo and unclear terms . Rob wasn't even here to defend himself. Finally after his third Big Belly Burger, Wally paused eating and spoke up.

"Artemis… You do know Rob's two years younger than any of the rest of us right?" offered Wally.

"Apparently he's the guy with all the experience though. Age and maturity count for something Wallace," Artemis snapped.

"So you're jealous?" Wally tried to clarify incredulous.

"NO!" Artemis immediately denied. "But why is he a special case? Everyone trusts him and he has more secrets than anyone!"

"True," agreed Connor.

"He's vulnerable," Wally tried to explain. Rob would kill him if he heard him talking like this but he needed the others to understand. "He's..." Wally switched to the link so he could speak silently. "Secrets and intelligence are what Bats do. The bad guys know that and frankly want a piece of it. He's surrounded by genius insanity rather than ordinary crime in Gotham. He's a foot shorter than any of us. Arty, he's just got this honking big target on his ass. Let him keep his ID if it helps protect him even a little."

Wally had a feeling he'd handled that exactly wrong. When the visual impairment came into the open Robin would already have to struggle to prove he was still capable and not a liability. Playing up the young, short and vulnerable angle was dangerous. ...but Rob was more vulnerable than most out of uniform.

Artemis's dad had been making threats against her mom. Speedy or Red Arrow or Whatever, had been poking around, looking over her shoulder and hinting that she couldn't be trusted because of clues he'd found out about her past.

Artemis kept bumping into Robin at the Gotham Zeta terminal and it sure as heck seemed he knew she really lived in Gotham. Who knows what other secrets he knew about her? Artemis felt hemmed in on all sides.

She'd overheard Green Arrow and Batman talking when she shouldn't have. Who on the team did they really trust? The list had Robin and Kid Flash on it and no one else. Green Arrow himself didn't stand up for his own proteges, at least not like he should have. He'd said one of his proteges was new and the other had just started to venture out on his own but that they were good kids. Way to show trust Arrow! Qualifying your trust nullified it. At least it did in Artemis's opinion.

When they got back to the mountain Robin was waiting for them smiling. He'd brought cookies. They were supposed to have a training session in a short while.

Artemis refused the cookies and stormed off to get changed.

"...trying to buy my trust with cookies. I am so not that shallow." Connor heard her mutter under her breath.

Connor stomped past not even stopping.

Kaldur was kind of hurt that Robin hadn't been interested in seeing the exhibit on Atlantean art. Kaldu just said, "No thank you," to the cookies and went off for a quick soak.

Megan frowned because everyone seemed upset. "Aren't they a little raw?" she asked curiously looking at a cookie.

Robin wasn't sure how to politely point out that cookies weren't usually black and rock hard. "Umm.. I kinda like them on the rare side? Just try one, if you aren't sure about it," he offered awkwardly.

Wally ate most of them. He liked to stress eat. He wasn't even hungry. "Rob you gotta talk to the team. They are freaking and Kal was not impressed that you didn't go to the art thing. You never do the swimming and ocean thing either, etcetera."

Robin frowned a bit.

He would tackled Kaldur first, in private, after training because Artemis and Connor were mad at the world right now, not just mad at him.

After a rough, mean training session, Robin chased after Aqualad not sure what he was going to say. "Kal? Wally mentioned you were upset that I didn't seem to be big on the Atlantean art thing?"

Kaldur rolled his eyes a bit. "It is fine Robin."

"Not if you're upset with me it isn''t."

"Even if you weren't interested for yourself I thought you might go because it was something I wanted to share with all of you," explained Kaldur trying to be patient.

"I suppose. I don't think Arty or Connor wanted me there. Art galleries mean robberies. I'd spend the entire time casing the security or being yelled at not to touch, Hey that's breakable. I admit it I'm a little kinesthetic."

"A lot," corrected Kaldur crisply. Robin was running one hand along the wall now. His other hand was on Kaldur's arm as if trying to ensure Kaldur was still paying attention to him.

"I'm sorry... I'll suck it up next time. So,... Wally said you were upset about the beach too."

"Why won't you go in the water?"

"Being submerged wigs me out okay? I'm not touching anything. There's no frame of reference. You can sort of feel your buoyancy but only sort of. Everything sounds different and distorted."

The kinesthetic thing again thought Kaldur, "Don't you open your eyes underwater? You can watch the bubbles and the sun is a good frame of reference for up and down."

Robin just shook his head in protest looking uncomfortable. "...and if you're on the surface the waves are like sneak attack! Water is loud and unpredictable and… I like breathing. Breathing is good."

Kaldur was silent for a while because there'd been an honest crack in Robin's cheeky self confident mask.

"Don't tell Batman! He'll take me out boating and toss me in a mile from shore again and tell me to get over it. He has a very aggressive take on how to overcome, well you know."

"Fear?" offered Kaldur thinking, Batman did what?!

"Stress!" protested Robin immediately, his voice a little higher than it should have been.

"Can you swim?" asked Kaldur softly.

Robin nodded.

"... more than a mile?" Kaldur confirmed.

Robin shuddered, "carrying a bloody 10 pound rock but please don't make me."

Robin's confession distracted Kaldur from the art exhibit and explained the beach trips. Kaldur was the leader so it was kind of a challenge. A challenge that didn't involve suspicion and betrayal. How could he help his team member enjoy water and the ocean? It was a pleasant sort of challenge for a change.

Robin liked animals. He was very friendly with Wolf. He'd talked about horses, cats, dogs, elephants, tigers and his name was even a bird. Maybe one of the dolphins might agree to come visit the mountain pool? There was a sea entrance and some of the dolphins liked swimming with the younglings and encouraging them. They generally understood about air breathers as they were air breathers.

Kaldur thought back to Robin's near drowning in the incident with the Red's while wandering back into the common area. "Wallace,..."

"It's Wally not Wallace. I don't care how serious your mood is." Wally had himself draped upside down on the couch watching cartoons.

"You mentioned once that Robin has had multiple near drownings?"

"I'm sure he can swim but drown the bird is a rogue hobby I think. Last year he had pneumonia for a month after one incident. The bat had him wearing a cardiac monitor for weeks. If I had to guess I'd say that time he probably needed CPR and it took a while before his heart was recovered. I likey my healing factor very much thank you."

Kaldur who loved the water couldn't help but look horrified.

"He's Robin. He's fine," insisted Wally tired of all the drama.

Kaldur scoffed. This was not going down this way on his watch.

The Artemis problem sort of solved itself. Half of the reason Artemis's mom had moved to Gotham and Artemis had been invited to Gotham Academy was part of a League deal to provide protection from Sportmaster and his like. Batman had his city locked down from outsiders better than most, despite the high crime rate.

Batman and Robin showed up right at her home stopping Sportsmaster in his tracks. While they were waiting for the cops, Rob gave Arty a goofy embarrassed little smile and wave, breaking out of his I'm a serious crime fighter on serious business pose. Finally what Wally had said about Bats dealing in secrets sunk in. The friendly little twerp knew all about her family and kept her secrets under the same tight lock and key as his own.

Just before the Dynamic Duo swooped off into the night Artemis ran to the kitchen coming back with a half open box of Oreos. "Hey Robin! Um… Cookie?"

"Thanks but I'm not allowed to eat on duty," answered Robin sounding kind of shy.

"...Yeah. Okay. Thank you." answered Artemis.

An Atlantean royal dolphin invited to the cave just to try and make you more comfortable in the water is not something you can bow out of. Robin lay at the edge of the salt water pool wearing his vigilante mask and swim shorts. He had his hands in the water at least.

Kaldur had made certain now one else would be at the mountain today because a large group of people splashing about didn't seem like the best idea if Robin had issues with the water. Batman hadn't seemed excited about the idea. Neither had Aquaman actually.

"I know he doesn't like water so I'm generally near when I'm forcing him to do something he isn't comfortable with," Batman had growled with his arms crossed and a full on 'don't mess with me,' glare evident in every molecule of his stance.

Kaldur had to force himself not to back down. Water was his thing. "I won't let anything happen to him, Sir."

"8 and a ½ feet, 510 pounds of dolphin is not something to be trifled with," Batman objected in a low snarl.

Kaldur didn't think it was in his best interests to explain that an Atlantean Royal dolphin was even bigger than your average Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin.

"Robin the uniform mask will get all wet and unless it's sealed it just won't work well under water. I brought some swim goggles with a reflective coating that you can use," offered Kaldur.

Batman watching from the Watchtower with Aquaman of all people stood beside him, shook his head.

"It will be fine," encouraged Aquaman frowning because he knew Kaldur had wanted privacy but if Batman was watching, he was watching.

Robin left and came back wearing some of the old school contacts with the goggles overtop. He slipped into the water determinedly.

The dolphin whose closest equivalent human name was Riptide swam near and bumped Robin with his nose gently and sounded a series of squeals and klicks.

"He asked if your head hurts?" translated Kaldur confused.

"I'm fine," answered Robin his face a smiling mask.

Riptide swam away a bit and squirted water in Robin's direction chirping and squealing again.

"He wants you to take the glass off your eyes," spoke Kaldur. "He says it doesn't fit right and is causing the pain. Come here and let me loosen the goggles. They won't fall off just because they're a little looser."

Dolphin's perceive far more than humans and they have the largest brain size per body mass of any animal including humans. Riptide had a plan.

Robin closed his eyes but with the contacts in the pain didn't stop. Kaldur was fussing with his goggles.

Riptide chirped sharply, "Not that glass the other glass."

"What other glass?" Kaldur whistled and chirped back.

The dolphin language did not have a word for contacts. While Kaldur and Riptide where arguing in dolphin, Robin retreated to the change room he took the contacts out and put the goggles back on then sat on the bench trying to decide if even a dolphin was cool enough for this mess. The contacts weren't really safe to use there had been a lot of scratched cornea and such. His mask only worked for a short while underwater. The vision issues were a huge part of the reason he didn't like water in the first place. How the heck was he supposed to fake this?

Batman and Aquaman were discussing what to do.

Kaldur showed up and apologized to Robin because no one particularly liked being the subject of a loud long discussion in a foreign language. Kaldur had to kind of pull Robin back to the water's edge.

All the confidence had gone out of Robin's body language which dismayed Kaldur a little. Every step was faltering and reluctant. He knew Robin didn't like water but this was a little more than Kaldur was expecting.

Robin without his mask was Richard who didn't know which next step was water. He'd was frantically trying to spatially orient himself in the room so he'd know which way the deep end was. The ocean door was open so this wasn't exactly a pool anymore. The water was noisy and disorienting.

If Kaldur was caught off guard, Riptide was ready now. He gave a confident cheerful nod and swam slowly up to Robin making odd little sounding click that Kal had not heard before. He brought his head up and rested it on Robin's hand still continuously clicking in slow intervals. Kaldur stood back watching and wondered what Aquaman had said to Riptide. His King had insisted on talking to the dolphin before allowing this.

Riptide seemed to encourage Robin's kinesthetic nature. He bumped and touched and pulled Robin around the pool. It was obvious to everyone involved Robin was completely out of his comfort zone.

They played a which way is up game. Riptide would take Robin down a little then let him figure out how to get to the surface bumping him back up to air if the dolphin determined his human charge had run too low on oxygen reserves.

Kaldur played too but mostly he played second fiddle to the dolphin which he'd expected would happen. The exaggerated startle reflex, the accelerated breathing, the tense muscles, Robin was smiling but it took him a long time to relax even a little in the water. Kaldur had them call it quits after about two hours even though the length of the session exceeded Riptide's travel time.

Kaldur couldn't tell if Robin was shivering because he was cold or because he was stressed or a little from A and a little from B but he felt like he'd made progress and he felt like a leader in a straightforward way that felt good. It felt like Robin was trusting him with this insecurity and that trust felt empowering.

Batman turned off the feed when Robin was wearing his sunglasses again.

Aquaman heaved a relieved sigh. "I need a drink. Preferably something stronger than beer."

Batman handed him a flask of whiskey from his utility belt wordlessly.

"Mary Poppins has nothing on you." Aquaman muttered. He took a swig. It was even his brand. The Bat would probably go swig a carafe of coffee to relax.

One more team member was left to deal with. Robin had a plan. Connor was watching static on the TV when his attention perked up. A laughing Robin head flickered across the TV screen as the team's resident hacker hijacked Connor's favourite program. Robin slid onto the couch beside Connor as a video montage of some of Superman's most embarrassing and hilarious fails graced the screen and then disappeared.

"He's not perfect. Nobody is. I won't give you or anyone a copy of that because though I thought you should see it, no one should have their mistakes held over them and glorified for all time. Hey Supes I made another video too. This one's for you to keep. Robin handed Connor a flash drive then vaulted off the couch and cartwheeled/jogged over to the zeta terminal disappearing back to Gotham.

Connor talked with Megan about the whole thing later.

"So was he trying to embarrass Superman to cheer you up?"

"Robin said he was trying to show me Superman isn't perfect. I think he picked the funny videos to keep it light."

"What was on the flash drive?" asked Megan.

"Me. Doing things. Photos and videos."

"Good things, bad things?" asked Megan. Connor was often a man of few words.

"Good things that I couldn't do at first but learned how to do," spoke Connor thinking about the secret high pitch audio message that played after the last photo. The problem with ignoring someone is that you can only pretend success. They're still there and doing stuff and things and it can be pretty hard to miss what's in front of you.

Megan insisted on seeing the flash drive then showing it off proudly to Canary and Kaldur, then Wally and Batman and Flash and J'onn. Connor looked really grumpy about it but he watched it everytime and every now and then Megan caught his frown slipping slightly.

When Megan forgetting the origin of the drive proudly showed Robin too, Rob just grinned and pointed out his favorite parts.

The next team bonding activity went a lot better but the fragile team bond was still pulled and tested until finally.

"Half of my DNA is from Lex Luthor."

"Sportsmaster is my father."

"I'm a White Martian."

Robin's hand went up then he tentatively added his bit"...well, I kind of knew all that or found out about it at some point in time but if we're going up against the League to sort out this Starro tech mess, I do have one weakness they're likely to try to exploit that I probably ought to up front about."

"You have some big secret Robin?" demanded Aqualad. Was the whole team being held together with shoe strings and bubblegum?

"It's not a big deal but I'm without the mask I'm blind as a bat," Robin forced a grin and laughed nervously.

"You have completely missed the point of this circle of truth," snapped Aqualad. "Vision correction and glasses is not important."

Wally who'd held onto Rob's secret for years now just started giggling, sort of hysterically. "No Aqualad," sputtered Wally at last. "He didn't miss the point. If he is unmasked or even just wearing his usual shades he is legally blind."

Kid Flash just started rambling an explanation. "...as in oh my goodness that's why he wouldn't drive the car that time I broke my ankle when we were at the beach and Supes and you said you didn't know how to drive stick shift, but Artemis had been drinking pina coladas with Meg's who didn't know they were alcoholic and everyone was all ticked because we had to take a cab to the hospital which was a security risk but better than the security issues of taking a cab to back to base. Rob said he was too young to drive out of uniform but that was a cover..."

"Get to the point Baywatch!" interrupted Artemis because Kid Flash had started talking faster and faster.

"We're talking the white cane, the whole bit. The sunglasses have a little tech in them to tell him 'you're about to walk into a wall, have a nice day.' And that mask has limits. He can't use it long being the biggest limit."

There was silence for a while as everyone tried to wrap their head around this information then suddenly.

"YOU!" yelled Artemis astonished. "I, .. you,.. dog… the football team cleaned your clock!"

Robin shrugged with a sheepish grin still determinedly plastered on his face. "I can fight blind a little. Once a group has you on the floor and you're being kicked though, it gets tricky. Anything I might do to defend myself effectively could injure my attacker unpredictably."

"It would serve them right!" snapped Artemis. She understood the whole theory that the 'good guys don't kill' rule: included good guys don't throw punches they can't control, but she figured there were limits to how good anyone could be expected to be.

Kaldur thought back to the sessions with Riptide. Wait a minute… that blasted dolphin knew the whole time. Those games were really underwater spatial awareness training. No wonder Robin… Kaldur heaved a sigh. It could sometimes be irritating when the fish were smarter than you.

**I apologize in advance for the lack of beta reader. I will fix any errors pointed out to me.