Later, I decided to swing by Silas’s house and make sure he knew that I was dating Jett and Sidney now.  I brought coverings so I could actually go to his house on the surface, which I’d only visited a handful of times before.

Silas was surprised to see me on his doorstep, but happily let me in.  “Sage!  Welcome!  I’m about to grill some fish, wait and I’ll add some for you.”  He ran off almost before I could get in the front door, leaving me to trail after him to his patio facing the ocean while he put some more fish on the grill.

We talked and hung out, which was nice.  I told him about dating and to my surprise, Silas didn’t seem at all phased by this.

“You’ve always been really close to them,” he pointed out.  “You’d listen to them more than to me about things.  Honestly, when you were younger, I just kind of assumed you and Sidney would end up together, so it surprised me initially when he married Jett, but then you got along great with Jett, too, so yeah, it actually makes sense to me.”

“Still, though,” he added with a smile, “I’m happy you’re dating someone.  Maybe you’ll have baby oceanids eventually.”

I felt my face flush.  “We’re not – I mean, I, uh.”  To be honest, I wasn’t even sure that was a part I was invited to, as it were?  They wanted me to date them, but I wasn’t sure if it was just platonic or what.  Probably something we should discuss at some point, but given my total lack of experience in this area, it was also something that was embarrassing just to think about talking about.

So instead I distracted myself with the first thing I could think of.  “I mean, it could be baby kraken, too, or even dolphin shifters, right?”

Silas’s teasing smile wavered a bit.  “Right, I – right.”

Well, that was odd.  He seemed troubled now.

Instead of explaining what he was thinking, Silas suggested I spend the night – even if that would mean sleeping in human form for the first time in ages – and after a moment’s thought, I agreed.  I liked hanging out with Silas, and he usually came to me in the ocean for my sake, but it seemed only fair that I make an effort to hang out with him while he could be in his human form for a change.  I was getting better about getting used to coming up to the surface for brief periods now, especially in places I felt safe, and of all places I would feel safe, my brother’s house ought to be at the top of that list.

It was kind of weird sleeping in a bed, without water surrounding me or the taste of saltwater in my lungs.  I struggled for a while to fall asleep, but eventually managed to and even managed to get a decent amount of sleep in the process.

When I came out the next morning, though, I found Silas at the kitchen counter, mumbling to himself in a way that reminded me of Sidney.

“Good morning.  Are you okay?”  Silas wasn’t one to stress-obsess.  He seemed really upset about something.

Silas spun around to face me, his expression taking on almost a determined look to it.  “Sage.  We need to talk.  Sit down.”

That sounded bad, but I obediently sat down and then watched as he paced for a while before abruptly stopping, turning to me, and taking a deep breath.

“I always disagreed with Mom and Dad’s policy on just not talking to you.  They should have told you to begin with.  I think they had this idea that it didn’t matter to them and they wouldn’t say anything unless you asked, but meanwhile you got this impression it was taboo to ask, so you never did, and well, there are things you’ve misunderstood.”

He sat down on his ottoman, grabbing my hands and trying to keep his gaze on mine, though it seemed he was really nervous and almost afraid to meet my eyes.  “You’ve always assumed Mom had an affair or something, right?  But Dad forgave her?  And you didn’t want to bring it up again, even to ask why you are an oceanid, because you were afraid you’d be bringing up a sore point and didn’t want to hurt them, so you just…never asked.”

I nodded slowly.  That was the impression I’d gotten, or at least what I’d assumed.  I mean, I knew two dolphin shifter parents couldn’t make an oceanid kid unless, potentially, they both had an oceanid parent, only neither of mine did.

“Well, that’s the thing.”  Silas took another deep breath.  “Mom didn’t cheat on Dad, and, well, it’s just – it’s really simple, okay?  I don’t know why they didn’t just tell you to begin with, but whatever.”  For being “really simple,” he was having an awful lot of trouble getting it out.

“Silas?”  I asked hesitantly.  “What are you trying to say?  Can you just tell me, please?”

He groaned a bit, then burst out in a torrent of words.  “Mom and Dad did have a fourth kid, a dolphin shifter, but…it died.  It was stillborn.  Mom was grieving, and Dad was swimming out just trying to find something to help her, when he came across a baby oceanid, about the age of the baby they’d lost.  No parents, no one around, and even when they looked into it later, there were no traces of who the kid belonged to.  No nearby communities had a clue, no mention of traveling oceanids, just…nothing.  So…they kept you.”  He gave me a hesitant smile.  “They lost a baby, and you didn’t have a family, so they just adopted you.  Some of the people in the community knew, but a lot didn’t, and, well, the ones that knew saw how happy you made Mom, so they just never said a word about it, and that philosophy was adopted by everyone, and then it affected you, too, but it shouldn’t have.  I mean, they should have told you.  We should have told you.”

I felt stunned.  I mean, in retrospect, that should have been an obvious potential option, right?  That they’d just adopted me?  Still, I’d never realized that, so now I felt shellshocked as the identity I thought I had was suddenly gone.

“I’m…not a dolphin?”  I asked in a small voice.  I wasn’t a dolphin shifter, of course, but I’d always thought of myself as part dolphin because at least my mom was a dolphin shifter, right?  So I had dolphin genes?  But now I was learning that wasn’t the case at all.

“You are,” Silas told me firmly.  “You’re still our family.  You were raised as one of us, so, okay, you may not have dolphin shifter DNA that we know of, but you’re still dolphin as far as we’re concerned.  You’re still my little sister.”  He reached to gently pull my braid over my shoulder.  “It kind of helped that we ended up looking a lot alike,” he admitted, “but honestly, that was just happenstance – brown hair and eyes are pretty common, really, I suppose.  But I was always glad for your sake that you didn’t stand out a lot when you were with us, that to other people’s eyes you would look like you were biologically one of us.  You might not be,” he seemed loath to say that, “but you’re still family, okay?  That’s not going to change just because of some stupid DNA.  DNA doesn’t choose family.”

That was true, I realized.  I mean, I was currently thinking of Sidney, Jett, and Zoey as family, and I wasn’t related to any of them.

“The reason I’m telling you this,” Silas went on, “is partially just because honestly, you had a right to know and should have known all these years, but also, well, we don’t actually know what your parentage is.  At least one oceanid, clearly, probably both, so it’s most likely that if you do end up having kids with Jett and Sidney, it’d just be oceanid – or kraken, I suppose.  But dolphin shifter is…unlikely.  ‘Course, we can’t actually rule it out, because we just don’t know where you came from, but…it’s unlikely.”

It wasn’t like I expected or specifically wanted to have a dolphin shifter kid – I mean, I wasn’t sure I would end up having any kids – but it was still a shock to discover that at least some of the genes I thought I did have weren’t mine at all, actually.

“Please don’t be mad at Mom and Dad,” Silas begged.  “They weren’t trying to be mean about it, they just saw you as their baby, you know?  They didn’t see a reason to bring it up because to them, even if you’re not biologically theirs, you’re still theirs, so it didn’t matter.  They probably still should have told you at some point, but they didn’t mean to keep it a secret or anything.”

I nodded obediently.  “I don’t blame them.  I actually feel kind of bad now for assuming Mom was unfaithful all these years.”

Silas shrugged.  “I mean, yeah, she wasn’t, but that’s kind of on her since she never clarified it to you – or most of the community.  You’re not the only one who thinks that.”  He hesitated, looking uncertain again.  “I’m still your big brother, right?  I mean, I am, but you – this doesn’t need to change anything with us, right?”

I reached forward to give him a hug.  “It doesn’t,” I agreed.  “You’ll always be my brother, Silas.”

He gave a sigh of relief and hugged me back.  “Always.”

Still, it was enough of a shock to my system to learn all of that, that as soon as I left Silas’s house I headed straight for someone who would give me comfort – Sidney and Jett.

Jett wasn’t home, but Sidney let me in with a smile and then listened with a furrow between his brow as I repeated everything Silas told me.

“Did you know?”  I demanded as I wrapped up.  “That I wasn’t part dolphin?  I feel so confused, I just always thought I was, and now I’m not.”

Sidney shook his head.  “I didn’t know, either.  You’re right, it kind of makes sense, and now it makes sense about something my parents said, too – something about how they were glad you had helped your mom.  I think they knew her baby had died and adopting you had helped.”  He shrugged a bit.  “Not that it really matters, but it would have been easier if they’d just been upfront about it.  Although, I suppose I shouldn’t judge them – losing a baby is unfathomable, maybe they just couldn’t bring themselves to talk about it.”

That kind of made sense.  It might not have been so much that they didn’t want to admit that they’d adopted me, but more that they didn’t want to talk about what happened to their own baby.  Since I’d been about the same age, it had been easy enough for people to just assume it was the same baby, and they’d never bothered correcting people because it would require them reliving their pain.

After talking to Theo, I knew better about some of that pain and how hard it could be for some people to be willing to talk about it.  Now that I thought about it, I was kind of glad that my parents hadn’t split up after losing the baby, but also that they’d been so willing to take in another baby – me – immediately.

“They’re good parents,” I announced thoughtfully.  “They always loved me and cared for me even if they couldn’t always help with the oceanid stuff.  The first time I shifted genders, Mom was panicked for me, and she and Dad would always try to carry extra clothes around with them for me for when I got up on shore.  Well, up until elementary school, anyway.”  I smiled to myself.  “They were the best parents,” I corrected my earlier statement, “even if they didn’t tell me about adopting me.”

Sidney nodded and leaned across the counter to kiss my forehead.  “Yep, they were great.  Are great.  They’re still alive, I don’t know why we’re talking about them in past tense.”