I'm thinking of situations such as in 1x03, in the kitchen, when Pat is trying to convince Courtney not to go after Icicle. It's an intense conversation, and they're standing close and speaking in hushed voices so that no-one can hear their secrets. Mike walks in, looking for snacks. Pat and Courtney "act natural" so unconvincingly that Mike asks "Did I interrupt something important?", and Mike's raised eyebrows and "wow" expression indicate he doesn't buy their awkwardly-improvised story about cooking tips. Later in that episode, Barbara arrives home — having passed up a career-advancement opportunity in favour of a scheduled family meal — to find that Pat hasn't prepared dinner and has disappeared with Courtney without letting anyone know where they went.
Pat seems to have the worst luck with improvised stories, such as when covering for junior JSA activities and digging for information about Brainwave at the hospital.
We the audience know what's going on with the new JSA, so it's funny to watch characters stepping on each others' stories while improvising excuses. And it's a comic-book universe where heroes in shorts don't skin their knees while fighting on pavement, so I don't expect all of the horrible stuff from the real world to take place in the show's universe, but on the other hand the show does have murder and brainwashing, so presumably other kinds of harm also take place. Not that I want to watch a show about that sort of thing, but I think there's a vibe in the household that Barbara is going to pick up on and misinterpret if they don't tell her the truth soon, or if she doesn't already know the truth.
