AN; Back to writing again. I only write when I'm going through some real life excretory matter, so hope this well dries up soon.

This is set during Hive 5.4 from Worm, the meeting with the Terrible Trio and the School Principal. Takes place from either Taylor's or Danny's POV.

"For the last time, Alan, shut up," my dad growled, "My daughter is right. This has been a joke. I have a friend in the media. I think I'm going to give her a call, email her that list of emails and the list of incidents. Maybe pressure from the public would get things done."

"I hope it doesn't come to that, Danny," Alan replied, "If you recall, your daughter assaulted and battered Emma just last night. That's in addition to threatening her, here. We could press charges. I do have the surveillance video from the mall, and a signed slip from that teenage superheroine, Shadow Stalker, that verifies she saw it happen, in what could have provoked a riot."

Oh. So that was why Emma had been so confident. She and her dad had an ace up their sleeve.

"There's mitigating circumstances," my dad protested, "She has a concussion, she was provoked, she only hit Emma once. The charges wouldn't stick."

"No. But the case could drag out for some time. When our families used to have dinner together, you remember me saying how most cases were resolved?"

"Decided by who ran out of money first," my dad said. I felt him clutch me a fraction tighter.

"I may be a divorce attorney, but the same applies in a criminal case."

If we went to the media, he'd press assault charges just to drain our bank accounts.

"Alan," my dad's voice suddenly cold, "Speak with me outside."

"Anything we have to discuss," Mr. Barnes began, before he was cut off by my dad again.

"Now," I had seen my dad angry before, I had even seen him fly off the handle and lose his temper, but the expression on his face as he jerked the door open showed new depths of emotion I had never considered. I'd rather be back on that rooftop with Lung than be Mr. Barnes right now.

"Please excuse us for just one moment," Alan Barnes stood calmly and moved to the doorway.

I fixed my gaze on one of my family's oldest friends and began to understand how my daughter must have felt. I pushed aside the blinding fury that threatened to overwhelm me and spoke as calmly as I could, which only meant I bit my words out instead of screaming them, "Alan, we've been friends for many years so I am going to give you precisely one chance to explain yourself and show me there is a decent human being somewhere inside there."

"We were friends," Alan replied, and I couldn't help but notice the past tense he applied, "But at the end of the day, I have to do what's right for my daughter."

I laugh in his face, "Put a pin in that just for a minute please, I'll get back to it, I promise. Alan, have you ever stopped to ponder what makes a man powerful?"

He stopped short, "What does that have to do with anything?"

"There are many types of power. Most people would look at you and see a powerful man to some degree. A Partner at a prestigious law firm, wealth, a nice car, a good looking wife and child. You're successful," I patted him on the shoulder just a little too hard, "Me on the other hand, less so. I can barely pay my bills, my car is older than my daughter, I'm barely a figurehead for a dying industry, and I didn't even inherit my father's strength or size to even things out. Hardly a paragon of strength or power."

"Despite that," I raised a finger, "I have gone toe to toe with the Mayor and the City Council fighting for jobs for my men. I have traded favor after favor to put food on the tables for over one hundred families in Brockton Bay. I have even stood up to Villians in this city and demanded they treat my men right while they have to hench to pay bills. I have accepted that I will never be rich, I'd have to cut my workers margins to the bone to accomplish that. I've accepted that I will never have the trappings and recognition, but make no mistake I do have a kind of power."

"I have the power of phone numbers, of favors, of blind eyes and silent tongues. I have the power of a union behind me, and our union has ties to other unions. Police and Sanitation for instance. I have the power of loyal men, hardened by years of heavy work. Some of them have no family and what can euphemistically be called a colorful history. Some of those men might even have less savory friends who might like to know response times are going to be slower in certain neighborhoods," I could see the moment he understood what I was not saying, "You and those girls have placed me in a dangerous situation. If I go back into that room right now, you've arranged things so there will be no justice for us. You've backed us into a corner and proved that we cannot win but, much like a cornered rat, even if we cannot win we can go down swinging."

"You said you had to do what's best for your daughter," I looked him in the eye. "Well I am doing what is best for mine, starting right here and now. Walk away Alan. If you want what's best for your daughter, walk away, because what happens next will not be settled in court."

"Look, I know we've been through a lot," Alan raised his hands pleadingly, "But I can't..."

"We have been through a lot haven't we?" I raised an eyebrow. "Remember when my father invited you into our home and called you his second son? Remember when you slept on my couch while I worked in the docks and you struggled through law school? Remember when I bailed you out of jail after a party with your law school friends got out of hand?"

"Of course I remember those things," He replied. "But I'm not going to let you ruin Emma's life."

"Then give me something in return," I stared him down, letting my temper loose as I growled out my demand. "Taylor's life, for Emma's. You go back in there, drop this, and get Taylor on the top of Arcadia's list? Then we're square and I pretend we've never met. Anything less, and I go to the mattresses."

Alan started to protest and I could see him pulling up all sorts of legal bullshit to turn this around, but I kept my eyes locked on his and refused to budge an inch while he squirmed. Finally, he sighed, and turned towards the door.

When Mr. Barnes came back into the room, he had the look of someone who just survived a car crash. He looked shocked, confused, angry, and just a touch scared, "Principle Blackwell, Emma will take that suspension and we will be dropping any complaint about what happened at the mall. Thank you for your time, but I think it's best if I have a long talk with my daughter at home."

My dad walked in behind him and jerked a thumb over his shoulder. The other adults in the room started to protest and I could see whatever just happened was going to change where things lay, but I hurried to go with my father. It was clear to me that no one in the room wanted to help me, so I went with the only one who did.

"I'll be withdrawing you from Winslow in the morning," Dad told me as we walked through the halls towards the parking lot. "You can study at home until your transfer to Arcadia goes through."

"But they just said they wouldn't allow me to transfer," I protested.

"I reminded Barnes of something he never should have forgotten," Dad said darkly. "He's going to make this go away and secure your transfer because he knows what will happen if he doesn't."

"And what will happen?" I asked, quietly, not wanting to upset my dad but still not trusting the system to do anything but cover their own asses.

"When I was a young man, before I met your mother, I lived a different life. You know that your mother was one of Lustrum's followers, stirring up radical feminist sentiment and protesting at colleges. What you don't know is that when I first started working on the Docks, I took money from Galvanate to look the other way or pull some things out of otherwise normal shipments. I'm not proud of it, but the old mob wasn't like the gangs we have today. They had a code of honor and they treated people like family once they were in. It didn't hurt that they were well enough established to ensure no one messed with them while most cape gangs were starting from the ground up. I think he was quoting a movie, but I once heard him say that if the Marquis put one of his men in the hospital, he would put one of Marquis' in the morgue. Marquis backed down because he knew that even if he won, it would be too costly to continue."

"Let's just say that from working in the docks I know a lot of men whose morals are flexible, and think knees should be too," Dad smirked a little bit then grimaced. "I don't like dredging up those times, or being that sort of man, but sometimes there is no choice but to resort to drastic measures. Do they still make you memorize the Declaration of Independence in History class?"

I shook my head, "No, we read it of course, but they don't ask us to memorize it."

"Well it's been a few years for me, the third sentence argues that when a government becomes destructive to the needs and wellbeing of its people, it is not only the right but the duty of all free men to overthrow that government if they need to. It says something about the way this world is going that I find myself thinking about that right now. I'm not a violent man, but if it will keep you safe, I will go to war to protect you."

As if sensing the perfect time to interrupt, my phone chose that moment to let me know I had a text, "Need S here, B needs backup with T and E88. Moving on L soon."

Great, I could do without Bitch's harsh demeanor tonight, but I couldn't leave her alone with the Travelers and the Empire, especially if they were attacking one of Lung's safe houses. I looked back up to my dad, "I need to go. My friends need me."

"Stop."

I paused.

"I want you to know I love you. This is far from over, and I'll be waiting for you when you come home. Don't give up, and don't do anything reckless."

I hugged my arms close to my body to get the shaking in my hands to stop.

"'Kay."

-A/N So there's my first published story/collection of scenes under this name in years. Hope someone out there likes it. I've got a series of Vignettes in mind in this AU. Danny is part mama-bear, part union boss, part old mobster, all pissed off... It's doable in universe, he fears his own temper after all so he knows he is capable of great wrath, but I'll admit it's a stretch as he is most often portrayed. Somewhat inspired by the saying "beware the wrath of a patient man". Also moderately inspired by re-watching Doctor Who.