Disclaimer: I don't own Worm.

A/N Just a quick blip of inspiration that wouldn't leave me alone.

AN 2: Redone to plug the plot holes.

Also, changed Taylor's canon eye color, not important.

~Work

Interlude: Just Doing My Job

Danny Herbert knew, the way all good parents do, that his daughter wasn't telling him the whole truth; at least about her school life. It was in the way she looked before she went out each morning. Tired, Resigned, Defeated. The slumped posture, slight frowns, and fake smiles were all the more pronounced when he saw her at home after a long day. As much as he raged inside, and, if he was being honest, outside in private moments or channeling anger at the local bureaucracy, there wasn't anything he could do.

He'd complained three times her first semester at Winslow High, and nothing had come of it. Nothing except Taylor, his bright, intelligent, and conservative daughter, coming home in tears. They'd taken her mother's flute. They'd trashed her backpack. They'd ruined her schoolwork. Each time Danny had tried to help things had only escalated.

When Taylor had, quite obviously, lied about things getting better and asked… told him that he didn't have to complain any more, he'd felt as if someone had torn out his heart. He was a failure as a father. Couldn't even protect his darling little girl, the only living part that remained of Annette. Couldn't make sure she was happy. And now he couldn't provide for his family.

There wasn't any need for dockworkers when the docks weren't a viable business any more. Instead of the Lord's Port, it was the Boat Graveyard. There the waterlogged hulls of hundreds of shipping boats that had either been intentionally capsized in protest or trapped by others that had, blocked the only seaside real estate that hadn't been absorbed by the Boardwalk or Downtown or the Shantytown slums. None of those places were hiring manual laborers, at least not legally. The point was moot since they didn't have large docking facilities any way. The sunken boats couldn't be cleared away or even furnished by just normal human beings, at least not without funding the city wasn't willing to spare. Millions, if not tens of millions of dollars, to just move some junked boats was not going to happen.

Asking a parahuman to help out was both so absurd it was funny and dangerous enough that it wasn't. There weren't any rogue capes, unaffiliated parahumans who didn't commit crimes or stop them, with the required strength. Putting in a request for one of the local heroes to spend their time doing manual labor instead of stopping criminals just didn't make sense to anyone. At least in the short-term. Danny believed if the Docks could be refurbished they could revitalize the local economy. Gangs just wouldn't be as attractive if there was less poverty and more jobs to go around. Instead, four more guys quit last week, split between joining the white supremacist Empire Eighty-Eight and the drug-peddling Merchants. Asking a criminal cape for help was asking for a life threatening beating or a gang takeover of whatever progress was made. Most likely both.

There just didn't seem to be a solution. The city's economy was turning more and more to tourism, and that didn't leave many options for the hundreds, nearly a thousand, former dockworkers and their families. Even if the number was slowly shrinking. Growing disillusionment with the city and its leaders was headed in an ugly direction. It wasn't overt, but for Danny the signs were as clear the ocean next to the city. Things couldn't go on like this.

Sighing, Danny turned his thoughts back to his daughter. Things seemed to be getting better this week, and he really was looking forward to spending some of the weekend together. She'd even had one of those smiles, the one's that had all but faded when Annette passed on.

The phone rang, startling him out of his thoughts. He checked the time, 6:00 pm, Taylor should've been home already. Danny walked over to the phone and picked up.

Jonathan Pierce had been the janitor of Winslow High School for only a month. Judging him by his outward appearance, from his average height and features, grey hair and flat mustache, he looked made to be a janitor. He certainly didn't mind the work. It was an honest living and finding a solid job after working at the docks for most of his life was a stroke of luck. His schedule wasn't too bad either, work through the school week, run maintenance. The school even gave him Friday afternoons off. He just had to come in some time on Sunday and clean up whatever messes he didn't reach Friday morning.

Jonathan shivered, a cold front had hit Brockton Bay's usually mild climate and it had even dropped below zero on Friday night; first time in a decade the newspaper had said. With a resigned sigh, he parked his car in front of the school and mentally prepared himself for a cold day's work. The school keys jangling lightly, he walked toward the front doors sedately. No point in rushing when the heater had already been off since Friday night. It was probably colder inside.

He checked his watch and 10:00 am blinked back at him. With another sigh he unlocked the doors and walked inside.

"Hello, Mr. Herbert?"

"Speaking. May I ask who's calling?"

The girl on the other end let out small giggle, "Mr. Herbet, you don't know who I am? I can't believe you've already forgotten. It's me, Emma!"

Danny froze, a sense of imminent foreboding draped over him. Still, he answered, "Emma, it's nice to hear from you, I haven't heard from you in a while."

"It hasn't been thaaaaat long" she replied. It had, Emma had stopped coming around over a year ago, Danny hadn't talked to her in several months. "Anyway, I'm just calling to let you know that Taylor and I made up! We've talked things out and I think we're ready to friends again."

His feelings of worry relented, but didn't disappear. "That's great. Would you mind putting Taylor on the phone so I can talk to her? We had plans for tomorrow."

"... She's not with you? I'm calling to talk to her Mr. Hebert."

Danny started panicking, "What? Emma, Taylor hasn't come home yet!"

"Oh my God! Umm… I don't know what to tell you Mr. Hebert, I haven't seen her since school ended."

"Are you sure!? This is serious Emma, Taylor might be missing!"

There was a slight pause before she answered, "... I'm sure Mr. Hebert, I left after saying goodbye at school."

Danny gripped the phone tightly with both hands, trying to remain calm. "Emma, I don't know what happened between you and Taylor, but this is her life on the line. If you know anything at all, please tell me."

Another pause, "...That's all I know Mr. Hebert. I swear."

"Okay... thank you Emma, I'll call the police."

"... Alright Mr. Hebert, will you let me know if you hear anything?"

"Sure. I've got to make that call now. Bye Emma." He hung up.

"Nine-one-one what's your emergency?"

"I think my daughter's missing! She didn't come home from school…"

Danny sat on the couch, holding his head up with his hands. He barely held himself together.

Emma's claims that Taylor had been with her until early afternoon meant that the police couldn't file a full missing persons report. There wasn't enough proof that she was actually missing. Teenagers were known to disappear for blocks of time, and although Danny had his concerns, they told him to wait a bit longer.

The police would alert their officers to keep an eye out for a girl by her description, but white, fifteen, five feet six, glasses, green-eyes, and long black hair were her physical descriptors. How could they possibly find someone like that? There had to be at least a hundred girls by that exact description, hundreds more if you took away the glasses. Things like how her eyes were both gray and green depending on the lighting, how her face sported almost aristocratic nose and cheekbones, and how her bright wide smile could split her face; these things didn't make the cut.

Danny didn't sleep Friday night.

'Something smells weird'

Jonathan was working his way down the West wing of the school with a mop and bucket. He'd done a quick round of the school on Friday after lunch, just to get a feel for where any messes were. It had been fairly clean then, so he'd gone home knowing what to expect today. That's why the smell in the air was so out-of-place. He really couldn't place it. Usually any big messes happened during or just after the lunch period, teenagers weren't exactly the cleanest group of people, but he hadn't experienced anything outrageous since starting his brief tenure.

He looked around, walked briskly to both ends of the hallway, and still nothing. Just as he was about to start again, there was a loud creaking noise. It sounded rusty, like old metal bending, a sound typical of one of his days at the shipyard, but rather out of place at a school. A bit creepy if he thought about it. He peered into the four nearby classrooms and looked down the adjacent hallways again. Still empty.

Shrugging his shoulders, he resumed his work, a bit unsettled but this school wasn't exactly new and he wasn't that familiar with it yet. He put the smell and the sound out of his mind.

Still no sign of Taylor, and frustratingly there wasn't much else he could do but wait. The clock showed 8:45, he started the coffee machine and prepared himself. Numbness and despair crawled up his back.

To distract himself, Danny reflected on the conversation with Emma. She said she didn't know anything, but his suspicions really weren't assuaged. He knew Emma was one of her bullies during her freshman year, before they'd stopped talking about the subject. He'd stopped bringing it up once it was clear, through brief silences and awkward segues, that she didn't want to talk about it. It was possible that Taylor and Emma had made up; they had been friends for years. It didn't seem likely from what he'd seen and heard though. Though Taylor did seem to be having a good week…

Thinking about Taylor again caused his fists to clench. Stony faced, Danny sat by the phone with his coffee. He'd tried doing work, but work meant nothing if his daughter was in trouble, and he couldn't shake the feeling that… the police said to stay positive. He'd called the police again early this morning, and they'd put some detectives on the case. Calling the Barnes' household right after wasn't the best idea, but he was beyond caring. Emma had answered with a quiver in her voice, but Danny dismissed it; he had more important things to worry about. She hadn't heard anything new and he hung up.

Taylor… the last part of Annette… His missing daughter tore at his heart strings, and hopelessness continued to set in. All he could do was wait.

The smell was getting stronger now, and more disgusting than weird. Jonathan was walking from the West wing to the East, and things really smelled bad. Like a container full of rotten produce bad. There was something dead in the school. Irritation flashed across his face, pinching his eyes together, before he let out a heavy sigh. Probably some sort of prank that someone had forgotten about. He strode forward with his rolling bucket, approaching the hall intersection and preparing for a search by smell for something disgusting.

Then, in the largely silent air, he heard a distinct click followed by squeaky hinges. Then a wet thump. The sound of something meaty falling to the ground. Reaching the T-intersection, he looked right, clear, then left.

When the police later questioned him, Jonathan would have to explain how he'd spend a good ten minutes throwing-up. Unsure of what he was staring at, he'd finally called the police when it looked like the dead body was still breathing; short burst of foggy breath in the cold air.

~Sleep