4

Chapter Text

FRI FEB 4

I couldn't help being excited for today. The first time I was going to hang out with a friend since Emma. Sure there was the thing Wednesday, but that was a group thing and fell apart anyway. I stopped by Vicky's table at lunch, mostly to check we were still on with Amy, but got roped into introductions.

After Tara, Tammy, Kyle, Susan, Kara, Sherry, Jessie, and Stephen, I blanked the rest of them. Amy caught my far-off gaze and cackled internally at my pain, I was sure.

I begged off and headed outside. I needed a break, even if I'd only had to deal with them for a few minutes. I went around to what I was starting to think of as our bench, when I saw someone had beaten me there. A long-haired blonde in a trendy outfit.

"Uhm, hi?" I drew her attention. She looked me up and down dismissively. "I didn't know other people sat out here." It was certainly not the comfiest of benches.

"Hello." She sounded wary. "Wanted to get away for a bit."

"Yeah, same." I chuckled and sat down, extending my hand. "Taylor Hebert."

She looked at it for a second, then took it. "Cassie." She replied, turning back to her food. She looked almost done, actually. "What kind of name is 'Hebert', anyway?"

My senses pegged her as wary and unsure, though I had no idea why. Maybe she was just shy? I thought on it for a little bit. "It's Germanized French, I think. Dad says great-grandpa used to say it 'ahbear' before he got married."

"Huh." She seemed surprised. Less unsure about me now? "He changed it?" Curious. I shrugged. I honestly didn't remember that part of the story. Instead I asked her about her classes and managed to wheedle a few details out of her. She was a freshman, 14, was staying with one of her cousins but didn't want to go into details about it, and was intentionally not going out for any sports even though she could. I told her about my transfer from Winslow, not really knowing anyone yet, and about my dad's work in the docks.

Eventually she decided to head back inside. With a wave and a "See you around, Hebert." she was gone.

Well, that wasn't so bad, now was it?

---

I met Amy at the front gate. Vicky was heading off with some of the other girls to do some shopping. Apparently they had dates over the weekend they all wanted to get ready for, and were making an outing of it. Amy's gloomy mood seemed to fade as her sister's gushing voice did. I had a feeling something was going on there, but I decided not to press.

"So, where are we going?" I asked as we headed to the bus.

"The best bookstore in Brockton." Amy replied with a smirk.

I grinned back. "Have I heard of this place?"

She shrugged. "You didn't like going to the boardwalk, so probably not. It's not on the boardwalk, but close enough that people consider it a store there."

We filled the ride with chatter about books; favorites, recent reads, I started talking about some of mom's favorites, and things she'd read to me when I was younger, and Amy got quiet. I couldn't read her as easily through the chassis of the bus, even if I could see through the metal- which I hadn't figured out yet- the rumble of the engine and the jiggling of the suspension on the road would be a confusing mess I'd need to get used to first.

I followed Amy off the bus, and she led us down towards one of the ends of the boardwalk. We were getting into the less opulently decorated and well-maintained buildings by the time we turned onto a side-street. Three blocks of mostly restaurants and coffee shops later, we turned again and my heart caught in my throat. I remembered this place.

Just past a hobby shop, across from a clothier's shop and an apartment complex, sat Tukson's Book Trade. Mom's favorite store.

It took Amy hesitantly asking if I was okay for me to realize I was just standing there, tearing up. "Sorry," I sniffled, wiping at my face. "Never knew this place was by the boardwalk... always came at it from further in town." She gave me the time I needed to gather myself, though she was looking very curious. "I haven't been here in years. Not since before... mom..." I trailed off.

She hissed in a breath and muttered an expletive under her breath. "I'm sorry, I didn't know." She came closer, patting my shoulder. "We can do something else?"

"No." I shook my head. "It's time, I think. Let's go." I smiled at her and let her lead the way.

The door opened with a jingle, leading into a small foyer capped by another door. Amy made a point of waving at the obvious camera bubble on the wall before she continued on. I shuffled awkwardly, staring at it for a second before I chased after her.

It was just like I remembered, which terrified me a little. All these tiny details I hadn't noticed when I was younger. The cameras, how much of a killzone the front foyer was, how deep and angled all the shelves for the books I could feel with my feet were- I wouldn't be surprised if the fire sprinklers were separated into different systems by room to keep the other room's books dry if they had to go off. The whole place was subtly built to survive a siege with minimal damage.

"You okay?" Amy asked, watching me take in the main room while surveying the rest of the building. There was the front desk, with the door to the office behind it, the stairs from the office to the third floor, which was an apartment, there was a locked case by the front desk, full of the really old or rarer books. The shelves fanned out from there, almost a dozen on the first floor, and more on the second. There were a few other patrons around on the different floors, and someone shuffling around in the office moving boxes. I tried really hard not to notice the gun-shaped blobs I could sense under the counter.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She could tell I wasn't, but that was fine. "Where to?" She rolled her eyes and led me upstairs, to a little side corner, past a half-hearted '18+' sign I almost missed entirely, and started looking around shelves and pulling books.

"You, uhh... weren't kidding, huh?" I was blushing, barely keeping myself from stuttering.

"Nooope." She popped the end of the word, glanced at me, chuckled at my reaction, and went back to her aggressive browsing. "Not gonna lie, kinda' looking forward to having a friend I can talk about girls things with."

What? "But... I'm straight?"

She gave me a look, glowering daggers at me like I'd just asked her to give me 'the talk'. In detail. With diagrams. "Taylor, honey," her expression softened and she laid a hand on my shoulder. "I've seen you in the halls with the boys. You snub them harder than I do."

I blushed, harder this time. "Yeah, but..." I swiped her hand off of me, and glared at her smugly amused face. "That's just me not being some easy lay, not me hating boys."

Amy still looked amused, but the smug had shifted into concern. "You really don't notice how you look to other people, do you?" I glowered harder and shook my head. "Wow," she muttered. "Winslow did not teach you how to human properly, did it?"

"Beep fucking boop, Dallon." I snarled.

She snorted. "Okay, since I know you don't keep a finger on the pulse of the rumor mill, you should probably know you're already being talked about." My face froze, wide-eyed and staring at her. "Mostly just people thinking you're a rude loner, but it's getting to the point where people are going to start calling you an ice bitch, boys are going to stop trying to chat you up entirely, and you'll start getting more girls coming after you. I heard one of Vicky's friends wondering if you were a lesbian, but she'd fuck anything with tits, so that's on her." She must have noticed me hyperventilating a bit, and grabbed my shoulders. "Taylor, breathe. Hold it." I took a deep breath and held it for a five count before releasing it. Back to normal..ish. "My point being..." She slowly started again, "that I'm plugged into the rumor grid, and I can try to swing it any way you want. I didn't say anything because I was trying not to talk about you behind your back. I can just spread it around that Winslow left you seriously not happy being social right now, and you just need time."

Nothing she was saying pinged untrue to my senses, so I felt I had to trust her on this, despite my instincts to run and hide from anything social girly drama... "Yes. That sounds good. Maybe do that."

I flopped down into a nearby puffy chair, one of two in the 'adult' section of the store, and closed my eyes.

"You going to be okay?" Amy asked from the shelves. She was worried, but trying to act a little more aloof.

"I'll be fine." I answered. A few moments later I decided to elucidate. "I'm trying to meditate. Clear my mind, focus a bit. That sort of thing."

She muttered a 'yeah aight' and went back to deshelving what had to be a quarter of the books on that shelf. About ten, twenty minutes later- time was harder to keep track of while meditating deeply- she spoke up again. "Soooo... is that some new age spiritualist thing, or what?"

I glanced over to her, sitting casually in the other chair, skimming through a book that looked like someone took one of those penny-dreadful romance novels and photoshopped the guy on the cover out for another girl. "Not really. It's more about emotions. Focus and... self-control. I'm sure you noticed, but I've got problems getting a little... emotional when stressed. This helps with that."

Amy muttered something about 'self control' and asked, "So how would one get into that sort of thing? All I know is 'clear your mind' and that isn't really helpful."

"It wouldn't be." I responded, taking a moment to frame the explanation in my mind. "Actually completely clearing your mind is really hard. The human brain isn't meant to be clear, it's supposed to be alert and tracking half a dozen things to keep you alive. ...are you religious?"

She blinked and looked at me, taken aback by the non-sequitur. "Excuse me?"

I waved the question off. "It might have been a good way to segue into it if you were. The single most common form of meditation in the world is actually prayer." I'd looked it up. The parallels were actually pretty neat. "You clear your mind of everything but god, and whatever you want them to address. It's much closer to how proper meditation actually works than the Hollywood bullshit." She actually looked pretty interested now. "Sooo did you want to learn?"

She set her book to the side and nodded, so I told her about clearing her mind of everything but what she wanted to focus on, like her breathing, or whatever emotion she was feeling but didn't want to be like I was doing, or anything really.

I walked her through some breathing exercises, and we spent at least half an hour just sitting there like that for a while. Then someone cleared their throat.

"You know..." The tall, burly owner of the establishment said in his gravely baritone, pointing off to the side "we do have a tea room, if you just want to sit for a while."

We nodded, and got up to follow him. Amy grabbed her armful of books to look through, and the owner muttered, "Scarin' off all the payin' customers who just want to read their smut in peace..." while we walked, causing the both of us to blush. When we got there, on the opposite side of the second floor from the adult section, he unlocked the door and held it open for us. "Green tea fine?"

When I nodded and Amy didn't cite a preference, he nodded and headed off. We settled into comfy wooden chairs around short wooden table in the small room, and waited the few minutes it took for him to return with a fancy-looking faux-china tea set. "You look familiar." He said to me while setting out the tea things.

I sighed. "Yeah, my mom used to really like this place... Annette Hebert?"

He nodded. "Thought so. Me and Annette went way back, she helped hype my place up around campus, probably kept me in business after I took over." He rubbed his chin around his thick mutton chops. "Listen, you ever want the tea room, just ask. Won't even charge you for it." He turned to leave and muttered to himself. "Not like anyone ever takes me up on reserving the damn thing..." and then the door shut behind him and he was gone.

Amy and I looked at each other, amused, and started into our tea while she skimmed a few more books. She'd slid a few over to me to check out, but they were exactly the sort of thing I'd expected. Thinly veiled text porn, most of them involving leading guys, actually. One about a pair of guys, and the rest were the girls stories I was expecting. I didn't bother looking any deeper than categorizing them like that, though. I had no idea if I was into smut like this, but I felt weird testing lewd waters with a friend in the room.

Soon enough, the topic turned back to meditation, and I helped get Amy back in 'the zone' as she put it. Walking her through sitting comfortably and breathing steadily, then falling into it myself, meditating on meditating, as it were. I was still speaking softly to Amy as I did, helping keep time with breathing, but also popping in with other meditation facts and referencing advanced techniques in case they caught her interest. Pain reduction, tricking some of the body's processes, even a level of self-hypnosis that neither of us seemed interested in. I went on to talk about the body's energy, being able to feel and control it. It sounded like new age spiritualism, but that's one of the things the books- and my dreams, but I didn't talk about those- mentioned a lot.

It got a little weird when I started to actually feel it. I froze up, just teasing the sensations around my core, quiet long enough that Amy actually spoke up to ask if I was okay. I told her I was fine, and we kept working on it.

Tukson came back later to tell us he was closing up the shop. He didn't mind us staying after hours, but thought our parents might, which got us moving. Amy bought half a dozen books she said would keep her for a couple weeks, while I'd just blushed and said I wasn't getting anything today.

We headed off to catch the late buses home.

---

SAT FEB 5

I was on my way home from my morning run. I'd taken longer to get started because there wasn't any school today, so with extra weight training before it, it was a little after nine in the morning when my cell phone rang. I spent almost five seconds confused about the noise before I realized what it was. Everyone, even dad, just texted me. Who would be calling? "Hello?"

"Is this Taylor Herbert?" The voice on the other side was male, middle-aged, and confident. Whoever this was, they definitely seemed to think they had the right number already.

"Hebert, actually." The reflexive answer snapped out.

"Ahh, my apologies, I'll make a note to fix that in the incident report. This is Agent Michaels with the PRT, would you mind answering a few questions for me?"

I was so stunned all that came out at first was a muted "Oh." Shit. They knew who I was! Wait, how could they know? Why would they be calling me!? "Why... are you calling me?" I sounded almost as confused as I felt.

If he was confused by my confusion, it didn't show. That man was a professional. "You called in a gunfight on Wednesday, 14th and Stewart?"

Oh! "But that was just guns?" It said something about Brockton Bay that my question sounded reasonable, even after I'd asked it.

"Ma'am, we believe a cape was involved in the fight."

I paused, then, "I... all I heard was guns." Yes, feel the confusion, be the confusion. "I think there's been a misunderstanding, I didn't actually see the fight. I was on my morning run and heard guns, so I called it in. The guns stopped, so I left. I never saw the gangers, the guns, or any cape."

It took five seconds for him to respond. "You have good ears, ranging gunfire that well."

I barked out a hideous laugh. "I have experience, being a Brocktonite."

This time he chuckled. "Oh God, don't I know it. Thank you for your time, miss." He hung up.

I spent the rest of the run home silently freaking out.

---

Okay. So. Apparently Chi is a real thing. I tapped into the energy of my body yesterday. This is both really cool and unsettlingly freaky. There's an entire facet of my being I don't know how to use or control. This must be rectified.

Dad left after breakfast, picked up by Kurt. They said they were going to go bar hopping with the guys, but it seemed early for that, and my feet said they were both lying. Maybe Kurt and Lacey were taking dad out to meet women? It hurt a little thinking about Mom, but dad deserved a little more happiness. That'd be fine. I let them go with a smile.

Then I meditated. For six hours straight. Good news, I was pretty sure I knew which of the 'chi point' body diagrams I'd looked up online mine seemed to use. Bad news, that's basically all I learned today.

I made some sandwiches and was ready to move. Good thing it was training time. Gerard didn't completely dominate our spars today, which surprised me. I guess I was actually getting better.

After that, I was still feeling a bit burned out on meditating for today, I went down to the beach. It was right near where we were training, and a cool soak would do me good.

Swimming out a little ways, I just floated in the waves. I wasn't nearly as worried about riptides or floating out to sea as I would be if I didn't have my powers. Water control made the sea a lot less scary. Floating there, I let my mind drift and wander as I was rocked by the waves. I started lightly pushing and pulling the water around me, drawing in cooler water to help sooth my few aches faster. It was helping a lot. I actually felt really good. I looked down and splashed into the water.

Spluttering as I came back to the surface, I coughed out what water had gotten in, and goggled a bit. Was I... glowing?

That was weird. And mandated testing.

I swam the surprising distance back to the beach, shooting my way ashore with the help of my water powers, I flicked the water in my clothes away and started running home. It was only halfway there that I realized I probably should've just taken a bus.

Soaking in the tub, I tried to calm down and get the glow to happen again. It took a while to realize I'd been focusing on myself earlier, and turned my attention to one of the only big bruises I had from today. I drew water up around my arm and put my other hand over it. I closed my eyes and focused entirely on the bruise. Making it better. Fixing it. Healing it.

I opened my eyes minutes later to find the water under my hand softly glowing. I let it fall away and saw the bruise under it was gone. I poked at it. Okay, mostly gone. It wasn't visible anymore, anyway.

That was healing. I could heal. I was a healer!

I had to tell Am-

My mind froze. I couldn't tell Amy, could I? I liked her, and sort of trusted her, but...

I didn't know much about capes, but I did know that healers were rare. Rare, and sought after. Amy probably would've been kidnapped less than a week after she showed her power off, if she didn't have at least half a dozen other capes that would've come right after whoever did it.

I spent the rest of the night healing my bruises and trying not to freak out about my trust issues.

---

SUN FEB 6

After my usual morning exercise, I decided that healing shouldn't be my priority right now. I knew it'd be amazing to be able to fix people, but when was I going to use it? I didn't have any plans to start healing people like Amy did as Panacea, at least until I was good at it, and the only person I'd regularly be healing until then was myself after training. Just not a priority.

The meditating, however...

I had a feeling that controlling my energy and my body would help me control my mind. The mind was really just neurons and chemicals, right? If you could sense the brain, control it from within, that should help resist mental effects, right? Looking it up online lead to dead ends. There was mention of anti-mind-control training, but how useful that training was is heavily debated. None of the training itself seemed to be up there, probably to keep counters from being made.

Wrangling the energy was easier today, though. Still spent almost five hours on it before making lunch. The news while I ate was talking about Uber and Leet, and the heist they pulled at the museum earlier this week. Some Faberge egg exibit? Leet was nowhere to be seen, but Uber dressed up like some brightly colored steampunk apocalypse survivor held off the cops and capes with some power-granting energy thing while an orange weasel bot gathered loot.

Everyone was focused on the caper itself, but I couldn't get over the fact that Leet apparently made Othala in a bottle. Sure it'd fizzled and they'd needed to retreat, but Tinkers were still fucking bullshit.

---

On my run to the docks for martial arts training, I started texting Amy, slowing to a walk to type.

'Hey Amy. Going to practice meditating again tomorrow. Wanna go to Tukson's, or hang out at one of our places?'

'Y u need practice?' That was kind of insulting, actually... unless she meant "why do you need practice, when you're teaching me?" That made more sense.

'I have my reasons. Very good ones!' It sounded better in my head.

'If its a doc thing, I get it.' Did she think I was seeing a therapist? ...should I be seeing a therapist? I shook my head. Problems for later.

'...yes.'

The reply took a minute this time, longer than the others. 'did u jst put dots to fck up yr own lie?'

'...no?' I replied before I could think about it. 'Fuck.'

Her reply made me stumble, so I stopped. 'Yr fkn adorable. Free M/W/F, wtvr works.' I was blushing. From a text conversation. How does that even happen?

'Yes. All of those. Let's do it.'

'Phrasing, grl. Not that easy a lay. XD' My blush was nuclear now.

'Still straight, you're the worst.'

'Im the fkn best n u no it'

I smiled. 'I shall allow you to continue believing as such.'

'Lol kk' Having friends again was confusing, but nice.

---

More training. Hadn't heard from Sue or Jake in a while, might need to ask about them sometime.

Got home, spent a couple hours healing the worst of my injuries, and spent the evening watching a movie with dad.

---

MON FEB 7

When I got to school, I stopped, staring at a blank hedge, focused on what was behind it. Sitting curled up under one of the school's bike racks was a young girl. She couldn't be old enough to go to Arcadia yet, so why was she here? I ducked through the gate and made my way over.

"Hey, you okay?"

The girl looked up, hands uncurling from around her head. Her eyes were misty and a little red. She shook her head with a slight wince at the motion.

I slowly sat myself down next to her. "Do you need help?"

She looked wary for a few seconds, before she winced and her eyes widened. "You'd believe me?"

I tilted my head, confused. "Believe you about what?"

"The numbers."

...oookay. "What numbers?"

"When I ask the right questions, I get flashes and numbers in my head. High numbers happen, low numbers don't." The girl said, haltingly. She seemed like she was having trouble talking. It must've been her headache.

I was shocked, but I had to be sure. "These are questions about the future?" She nodded. Holy shit, this girl was a precog. "And... the headache?"

"Asked too many. Hurts." I nodded, that sounded like something powers would do.

"And why are you here? I don't think you go to school here."

"Numbers are better near the Wards."

That floored me. She knew the Wards were here? I mean, everyone knew the Wards were here, but for her power to take that into account? Did... could she tell I was a parahuman?

She was staring at me while I ran through my internal rambling and panic, eventually she winced harder than ever and muttered, wide-eyed, "You're a-?"

Well shit. That answered that. I shushed her. "Secret, okay?" She nodded slowly, to keep from upsetting her head. "You need help. Do you have someone I can call?"

She was getting worse. She had trouble fishing her phone out of her pocket. It was a rather high-end smartphone. I slowly took it from her, but it was locked. I held it out to her and she unlocked it. "Who do I call?"

Her head rolled a little as she thought out loud. "Mom busy... Dad work... Uncle Roy... work... Rory?"

"Who's Rory?" I asked as I maneuvered through her contacts list.

"Kuh... cousin." She was really bad now. I called the number.

It took six rings for the guy on the other side to pick up. "Dinah?" That must be the girl's name. Why hadn't I asked her for her name? "Shouldn't you be at school?" He sounded a little groggy. Maybe he just woke up?

"My name's Taylor." I said, and all sounds on the other end of the phone stopped. "Dinah's not... well. She has a really bad headache. Having trouble talking, asked me to call you."

"Shit." I heard rapid rustling on the other end now. "Where are you?"

"Arcadia, just inside the front gate by the bike racks. I can get her out front, I think?"

"No, let her rest. I'll be there soon. Ten, fifteen minutes." He hung up.

I gave Dinah her phone back. "He's on his way. Are you going to be okay?"

She winced. "22.9 percent."

Oh, shit. "I'm sorry. I-" I had no idea what would set it off. Best to avoid any questions. How to not phrase it like a question? I couldn't think of a way, so I had to hope. "Can you go to the PRT about your powers? Why not join the Wards?" No wince, that was good.

She tried to shake her head, but stopped. "Numbers bad."

I took a deep breath. Well, nothing else for it, then. "I'm giving you my number." I rummaged through my bag, tore out a sheet of paper, and tore off a chunk to write it down on. "If you ever need anything, call me." She nodded.

I tried to think of small-talk while we waited, but the thought of asking more questions made me a little sick to my stomach. Hurting this poor thing just to quell boredom? I slipped into meditating. Focus on the feeling, don't let it have control.

It was another ten minutes or so when an older boy made his way in the gate and around to us. He was tall, sandy blonde, and buff. Handsome, but his muscles hung off his frame in a bulky, unappealing bodybuilder sort of way. He scooped Dinah up in his arms and smiled at me. "Thank you for helping her."

He made his way back to his car, parked on the curb. I still wanted to help, but wasn't sure what I could do. A thought came to me as he was heading back around to the driver's side after putting Dinah in. "Wait!" I scribbled another note on the paper, tearing it off. "Here." He looked a little confused. "If Dinah ever needs anything, if you need help with her or something..." goddamn, but I was awkward. "I want to help."

He took my number and smiled at me. "Thanks. I'm Rory, by the way." He held out his hand, and I shook it.

"Taylor."

"I really have to go," he pointed his thumb back at his car, still holding a panting little girl. "I'll see you around?"

I nodded. "Sure!"

He drove off, and I was still smiling. I helped. I'd helped.

I felt good. I felt heroic.

Then I remembered I'd run to school, and that I'd just given a boy my number while smelling like a barn.

Good mood dead.

I ran to the showers.

---

I waved at Cassie in the hall, and she waved back, a little confused. I sat with Amy at lunch and asked her about being a healer. She started telling me about being a cape before I stopped her and reiterated my question about being a healer. That seemed to take her aback, and she talked about going in three or four days a week, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and at least one weekend day.

She talked a little bit about her powers, how she could see biology and fix most things. Amy seemed really hesitant talking about it, almost like she was lying. She must've just been shy about how great a healer she was, or something. We made plans to head to the bookstore again after school, and headed back to class.

---

Tukson's block was really busy today, and I had no idea why, so I asked Amy about it.

"Parian's in today." When I looked confused, she added, "Cloth cape, she makes clothes. That's her shop over there. Heard she was renaming it, soon. Anyway, all the cape geeks and tourists drop by whenever she's scheduled to be in, usually early in the week."

"Does she make costumes?" I still didn't have a costume. Maybe this is how I could get one?

Amy rolled her hand in a 'sort of' gesture. "She'll make any costume you want, so long as you can pay for it. She doesn't do armored or properly padded gear, though." Well that was disappointing. "She says it's because she's a neutral and isn't arming either side, but I'm pretty sure she's got a deal with the PRT where they leave her alone so long as they're the only legal way for capes to get on-brand tactical gear anything close to easily."

Wait... "Isn't that... kinda' scummy?"

She snorted. "Government being 'scummy', call the presses, I think you've got a scoop there." She saw the hurt expression I couldn't force down, and her grin drooped. "Listen, you're not a cape-" I tensed, but she'd already turned to keep walking and didn't notice. "so you don't interact with them, but the PRT? They're all about looking good, and being the law, in that order. If we're really lucky, then 'actually upholding the law' will be number three today." She turned to regard me seriously. "Do not fuck with them, okay?"

I nodded, and we made the rest of the trip down the block in silence.

When we got there, Tukson was sitting at the front counter, reading a book and looking pretty bored. The store had a lot more business than last time, though. He turned his attention to us almost as soon as we entered, so I'm pretty sure he just looked like he was reading while watching the room.

"Uhhm, hi?" I was nervous. I'd never asked for special services anywhere before. Shut up, brain, don't make this lewd. I still blushed a little. "Is the tea room open?"

He nodded with a smile and told us to follow him up. I tried making small talk.

"So, pretty busy today?"

"Yeah," He said from ahead of us. "Parian's days always are. It's good for business, I get more customers, but I've also gotta watch for thieves more."

"You get a lot of those?" Amy asked.

He shrugged. "Not as many as other stores, but the rats come out when the people do. They like the crowds." He unlocked the door and let us in. "They know I can't shoot them if they duck into a crowd."

Holy shit truth, what the actual fuck, Tukson!?

Amy was laughing though, so I forced out a nervous chuckle of my own and tried to ignore the guns I still felt locked up under the store's front counter.

We had green tea again. I taught Amy more about how to make her mind a happier place, and also how to make a 'happy place' in her mind. We stopped in at Parian's after that, but she'd already left for the day by then. It was neat seeing all the fancier clothes without the usual department store pressure to buy things, though. Part of that was how expensive everything was. They fully expected people to drop in just to browse the parahuman-made clothing with its parahuman-made price tag.

Parted ways after that, and I went to train a bit more with Gerard after his usual work hours were done.

Then I met dad after his work was done for the day. The ride home was quiet, if a little tense, until-

"Your... grandmother is coming to visit, in a couple weeks."

Gram was? I'd gotten a call from her on the landline over the weekend, but she'd just said there was extra money in my account this month. She'd sounded a little tense about it, probably something about my hospital stay, but I wasn't sure. Maybe it was getting harder to read people without my extra senses? Was I relying on them too much?

"That's... great? It's been a while since I've actually seen her." I'd known she had problems with my parents, but she'd always been pretty good to me.

"She..." He tried to say something, but the words failed him. "Anyway, she'll be around for a while this time. I'm not sure how long, but at least a week or so."

"But what about her business?"

"She cleared time for you, little owl."

Oh. She was probably scared of losing me like mom, after the hospital. That made me feel pretty terrible, having not really thought about how she must be feeling. "Okay." It wasn't much, but it was all I could think to say to that.

---

TUE FEB 8

I decided to sit with Cassie today. She wasn't sitting with a big group, and she wasn't the only girl, so I felt mostly okay with trying it out. I said hi and asked to sit with them, which they were fine with. Cassie seemed a bit shy about it, though. They tried to keep me engaged with what they were talking about, but when it wasn't classes, it was sports, which didn't interest me at all. It wasn't a terrible experience, but I preferred the one-on-one lunches.

More martial arts training, then I decided to run home. Some motorcycles were coming up behind me on my run, so I turned to check and froze.

Even at this distance, I recognized them, mostly by their headgear. I might've dismissed the woman with the American flag scarf, enough bikers did that, even with Miss Militia in town. Hard to miss a giant lion head, though.

I nervously waved at them, because what else do you do when heroes ride on by?

Triumph made a motion to MM, and they started slowing down. They were stopping. Oh god why were they stopping!?

They kicked to a stop on the road next to where I was on the sidewalk. "Hello, citizen!" Triumph boomed.

"Aaaaaaaahhhhhhaaaaaaiii?" When my internal screaming tried to become external, I masterfully re-orchestrated the sound into a greeting.

They chuckled, and he continued. "How have you been tonight?" Wow that seemed personal, and he about-faced when I paused too long. "Seen anything amiss?"

"No, I'm fine." I panicked. I shook my head and tried again. "I'm doing great, and there's nothing off around I can see." It was even true, no obvious crime for ten blocks around. "How are you? I mean- aren't you busy?"

Again with the chuckles, but Miss Militia answered this time. "It's been a fairly quiet night, there's no harm taking a few minutes for a fan."

OH! I grabbed my bag and dug through it for a notebook and pen.

"That looks heavy." She noted. "You were running with that?"

I winced. "It's not as heavy as it looks, and I've been working out."

She took the explanation at face value, I got a couple autographs, waves were exchanged, and they left to continue their patrol.

I didn't stop freaking out until I had the chance to meditate at home. Then I healed the worst of my bruises and went to bed.

---

WED FEB 9

I went to talk to Cassie again today. She was sitting with a bigger group, so I didn't want to stay, but when she saw me coming closer, she got up to meet me, leading me outside.

"You know, you might want to sit with someone else." She said, almost angry.

I couldn't help but ask "What's wrong?"

She sighed. "Think for a second about who I sit with. What do they all have in common?"

Well, I didn't remember it perfectly, but they all seemed normal. Like the rest of Arcadia's students. It took me a second to realize they were all white. My eyes went wide. "You're-"

"Don't say it!" She shushed me. "But yeah. If you keep trying to sit with me, people are going to talk." She looked askance at me. "Unless you want to be-"

"No!" I was probably louder than I needed to be. I tried again at normal volume. "No, I just didn't think-" '-that you were like that', I didn't finish.

"Yeah, ya didn't." She snarked back. I flinched away, and she sighed. "Look, I'm fine being friends, I just don't want you accidentally recruiting yourself, associating with them." Everything she'd said so far seemed honest, to my senses.

Her phone dinged a couple times, and she groaned. "Look," She dug out some paper and wrote her number down. "we can hang out after school sometime, maybe. I've got to go." She handed me the note and left.

Dazed and confused, I sat myself down on my bench and ate my lunch in slow, heavy silence.

Notes:

Tukson's an expy that got away from me. Had I known he'd come back up later, I probably would've done more to hide the reference, like I've done with other OC reference expies.

Gram is a semicanon character. We know nothing about her besides that she doesn't like Danny, sends Taylor money pretty regularly, and that Taylor calls her Gram.

I decided to run with it, and put up a vote to see if she had a bigger part in the story, which went through. We'll start seeing the results of that in the first Interlude compilation, after 1.6.

Always made more sense to me that Danny didn't notice the bullying in part because Taylor wasn't using HIS money to replace all her damaged and destroyed things.