Thursday, February 17, 2011
Looking at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, Danny smiled a little, then turned sideways to look at his profile. He poked his stomach with a finger, before shaking his head slightly. Putting his shirt on, he thought, 'Not bad for a middle aged desk jockey. Amy does good work, since I got her gift I've felt like I was twenty again.' He buttoned the shirt up then frowned at the mirror, leaning forward to inspect his face. A moment later he wiped the little bit of shaving foam that had escaped the towel from his right ear, nodded happily at his reflection, which nodded back, and headed downstairs to make breakfast for himself and Taylor.
She came down a few minutes later, looking contented, as she so often did these days. It was still something he found himself marveling at, although the guilt he felt over how they'd drifted apart for over two years was slowly subsiding.
On the whole, neither of them had anything to complain about now. He was determined to make certain to the best of his ability that her life was as good as it could be. Oddly enough, he was pretty sure she was doing the same in the other direction. He could live with that, it seemed to be working and had significant benefits.
"Did you have fun with your new little friends last night?" he asked, grinning at her.
She giggled. "I did, actually. They're cool guys, and smart too. They know way more about video games and movies than any normal person should, but I guess normal isn't the word best used to describe them."
"I hope you three aren't going to get too carried away," he sighed, flipping the pancakes he was making.
"No, of course not, Dad," she protested. "Would I do that?"
He looked over her shoulder at her, raising one eyebrow wordlessly. She had the grace to look mildly embarrassed. "OK, maybe I would. We'll be careful."
"I still have a feeling of impending doom," he commented, going back to the cooking.
"Lisa was kind of surprised, but when she came around she had some good ideas," Taylor remarked as she set the table.
"The feeling of doom is getting stronger."
"I'm going to talk to Amy later as well, we'll need to get her involved."
"Much stronger..."
"Dad!" She stared at him, while his dead-pan face finally broke into a grin.
"Joking, dear, joking. I'm sure you and your compatriots won't make too many abominations of nature and flood the city with them just because you think it's funny."
She looked thoughtful as she filled a glass with orange juice. "How many is too many?"
"Ah… Let me rephrase that. Please don't flood the city with any quantity of abominations of nature." Putting the food on the table, he folded his arms and looked sternly at his daughter, who sighed sadly.
"No one ever wants to let us play with our toys in public," she muttered, before breaking down in laughter.
Now also chuckling, he sat down.
"It's probably best to keep your heads down a little with the entire Triumvirate in town, anyway. Aside from Legend, they're not known for having much of a sense of humor. I can see the combination of you, the Varga, Amy, Lisa, and Über and Leet being a bit much for their peace of mind. Very easily."
"You don't give us enough credit," she smiled, pouring syrup on her pancakes.
"On the contrary, I give you more than enough credit. I know what you and the Varga are capable of on your own, never mind with those others involved." He shuddered deliberately, making her grin again. "All of you put together is enough to make poor Director Piggot's head explode from here."
"We'll keep it down, don't worry. We came up with several really funny ideas for things we could do. Some of them based on Über and Leet's normal routines, some that Lisa came up with, and a couple I thought of as well. They're not all video game themed, but Leet suggested it might be a good idea to try something different anyway and was really getting into it. He's really smart."
"You like those guys?"
"Yes, I do. I always have, actually," she replied, waving her fork around, then stabbing it into the stack of pancakes again. "True, they've done some pretty silly things in the past, but mostly they're very entertaining and seem to go out of their way to avoid hurting anyone. The collateral damage is sometimes a little excessive, but at least half of that was down to the heroes overreacting. Mainly Vicky."
"She does have a reputation for not looking past her current target, that girl," he agreed as he sipped his coffee. "Although from what I'm told that's gotten a lot better in the last two, three weeks. I hope it continues. I guess she's growing up and thinking things through a little more."
"Probably," Taylor agreed with a smile. "I like her, I don't want to see her get in trouble."
"She's a nice girl, like her sister." Danny put the coffee mug down. "It's tonight your friends from school are coming over, isn't it?"
"Yes, around five. I'm going to stop to get some more snacks and stuff on the way home. Are you going to be around?"
"I'll probably be back about half past seven, maybe eight. There's quite a lot of work to do, although Lisa has helped with some of that more than I expected."
"Maybe you should make her your assistant," Taylor suggested with an amused look. "Her abilities would really work for you then. I think that it would be nice to give her something legitimate to do, and I don't like thinking of her ending up bored out of her mind while she's stuck there. Brian seems happy, Alec is OK, and Rachel is fine as long as she has her dogs. But Lisa has way too active a mind not to use it."
"It's certainly a thought," he replied after a couple of seconds. "To be honest I'd been considering the idea myself. She's very good with computers even without the powers, and with them she's incredible. The girl is also pretty insightful generally and is obviously really good with people. Hmm. I'll talk to her about it."
"Great. Leave her some time for helping me, though." His daughter laughed a little as he smiled.
"Some of the guys are hanging around Rachel's kennel quite a lot of the time," he mentioned as he finished his breakfast. "She's an odd girl, hard to read, but she seems to be OK with it as long as they respect the dogs. I know several people at the yard who really like dogs, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a number of her strays get adopted."
"Tell them to be really nice to them, or she'll get annoyed," Taylor advised with a smile. "You don't want an annoyed Rachel coming after you. From what Lisa told me she's a good fighter and could probably kick their asses even without powers in a lot of cases."
Danny chuckled. "I've made sure everyone knows not to take her for granted," he told her. "I'm almost certain that practically everyone in the entire place knows who all of the Undersiders are anyway, but I'm sure they all know who Rachel Lindt is. No one wants to upset her, or the Family as a result of upsetting Rachel. They'll be careful."
"Good. That poor girl has had too many things go wrong in her life," Taylor sighed. "I feel a bit sorry for her. But as least at the moment she seems happy enough."
She finished with her own plate, getting up and clearing things away. Soon she was washing the dishes while he watched. "Oh, while I think about it, would Kaiju be available tomorrow afternoon for a couple of hours?" he asked with a smile. She grinned over her shoulder at him.
"Sure, I expect so. She's somewhere in the area. Why?"
"We need to make a set of the big filter packs we discussed, and some of the guys worked out how large they need to be for the most efficient operation. It's pretty big, about forty feet high and twenty around, so Kaiju would find it easier than Raptaur would, I think. Plus we want to resurface the scrapping area, all the prep work will be done by tomorrow around mid-day. I thought that you could probably do that in an hour or so, and again, having Kaiju do it would let people see her helping out."
She nodded slowly. "Seems reasonable. No problem, I'll head over right after school. I have a free period last anyway, I can probably ask and get away an hour early, I'm ahead on my homework. You're sure it's not taking work away from anyone?"
"Only work that no one wants to do and would rather watch done," he laughed. "Don't worry, you're not taking money away from anyone."
"Good, I wouldn't want to do that."
He watched as she finished washing the dishes, then got up to dry them. "I had a call from that Boston TV studio that sent the helicopter out on Tuesday," he said after a moment. She looked curiously at him.
"They want to interview me, and Roy as well, about the plans for the city. Something more in depth than his press conference. I talked to him and he thinks it would be a good idea. While people in the city seem remarkably pleased, overall, some other places are getting a bit worked up about everything. He thinks it would help calm them down. Maybe I should suggest that they interview Kaiju as well? Just a few simple questions to show that she's a calm and rational person, not a huge monster." He thought for a moment, then smirked at her. "Well, not just a huge monster."
Giggling, she nodded again. "Why not. It sounds fun."
"OK. I'll call the reporter when I get to work and tell them that you'll be around tomorrow. I don't know if Roy will come, they may interview him separately, but it doesn't matter anyway."
"All right, that sounds good." She looked at the clock. "Better run. See you tonight, Dad. Say hi to Lisa for me."
She kissed his cheek, grinned at him, then disappeared out the door of the kitchen, the back door closing seconds later behind him. Smiling to himself, he poured the last of the coffee into his mug, drank it, rinsed the cup out, then headed to his office to get his briefcase.
"Why do you think they're still here?" Dennis whispered, looking around carefully to make sure no one else overheard. His friends all knew who they were.
"I think they want to find out what's going on with the Family," Carlos replied in a similarly low voice. "I'm not surprised, I want to know as well."
"They asked some weird questions," Chris mumbled. Carlos looked at him and he blushed a little. "Which I can't say anything about."
Dennis nodded, as did Dean. Their nominal leader looked around the table. "Really? All of you?"
"And Missy," Dennis said very quietly. "Anyone who's met our local cute lizard-girl."
"Interesting."
Dennis saw that Carlos was intrigued, slightly annoyed about being out of the loop, but professional enough not to ask. It didn't stop him speculating, though. He looked around quickly again to see if anyone was paying attention to them, all four boys leaning together over the lunch table. Vicky was sitting next to her sister at the table half-way across the cafeteria, both of them talking to Taylor Hebert with the other four who normally hung around together listening. The Hebert girl seemed to be in a good mood, although he couldn't hear what Vicky was saying.
No one any closer was paying any more attention, so he returned his focus to the others. "So the entire Triumvirate has been with Piggot and they're looking into the Family..." Carlos murmured almost to himself, while the other three listened, exchanging glances. "Asking questions about Saurial. And I assume Raptaur and Kaiju as well." He looked at them. They all looked back blankly, which made him smile a little.
"And you can neither confirm nor deny any of this. I get it."
"I'm sure you have secrets as well, leader-man," Dennis snickered.
Carlos put a superior expression on his face, looking remarkably like Vicky did when she was in that sort of mood. "Of course I do. As the highest ranking one, I know the most."
"The oldest one, you mean," Chris grinned. "Old and tired. Decrepit, even. Soon, you will go gray and begin to fade, your mind slowly going..."
Carlos poked him with a finger right in the chest, and held another one across his lips.
"Shh. Don't let everyone know how silly you are, let them keep guessing," he grinned. Dennis laughed loudly at the unusually playful mood. Chris flicked the intruding fingers away with a put-upon sigh.
"I wonder what they're going to do next?" Dean mused softly.
They all exchanged a look. "I'd guess probably visit BBFO?" Dennis hazarded. "And talk to Mayor Christner, the DWU, that sort of thing. Not to mention try to track down Kaiju."
"She's already talked to Mr Foot," Chris smirked, making the red-head chuckle again.
"True enough, but I expect they'll want to talk as well. Wouldn't you?"
""Hell, no, I want to stay as far away from her as I can get," Carlos muttered, looking appalled. "You did see the same thing I did, right? She's fucking enormous."
"And seems to be friendly and helpful," Dean commented, looking thoughtful. "So far."
"I just have trouble with something big enough to step on me without noticing," the older boy sighed. "Even if I was in my car."
Dennis shrugged, smiling. "She's probably just eat you, not step on you," he joked.
"Not helping, Dennis."
"I hope to god they're careful and don't provoke her," Dean said after a moment. "Have you seen some of the stuff on PHO about what an Alexandria VS Kaiju fight would do to the city?"
"Seen it? I wrote a lot of it," Dennis snickered. "But it wouldn't be good, no."
He looked guiltily around again. "I tried to find out what the threat assessment report for the Family said, but it's restricted access right now," he whispered even more quietly than before, forcing the other three to lean closer. "There's a note saying it's under review, access only to level 5 security clearance and up. It make me think they're as confused as the rest of us are about it all, and worried."
"Don't push your luck, Dennis," Carlos whispered back in a warning tone. "With the Triumvirate around and watching, Piggot will kick your ass if you do something stupid. More than she would normally. Be careful."
"I don't see that we need the report anyway," Chris added. "We already have a good idea. Saurial, Do Not Fuck With. Raptaur, Seriously, Do Not Fuck With. Kaiju, just... NO." He grinned as they all stared at him, then nodded as one. "That should be enough to work with."
"Not wrong there," Dennis smiled. "I still can't work out how Amy wasn't even slightly worried about either of them." He glanced at the Dallon girl who was listening to something that Chinese girl Lucy was saying, both of them looking amused. "Any of them, actually, she was one of the first to meet Kaiju. You heard her voice on the radio?"
"I know, it's a little weird. That girl has hidden depths," Carlos commented, sounding mildly approving. Dean nodded slowly, as did Chris.
"And scary friends." Chris shrugged. "But she and her family got forty grand for a days work, and costumes worth at a conservative estimate nearly a million dollars on top of that, so those friends are obviously good for them. Never mind all the city rebuilding stuff. Everyone seems really excited about that. My dad thinks it's the best thing to happen here for decades. Maybe ever. He said that the DWU will have people lining up around the block to get hired when they start having more jobs available."
"That wouldn't surprise me," Carlos remarked. "Interesting times, certainly."
They all guiltily jerked when Vicky's head suddenly joined their huddle, a grin on her face. "Hi!" she said loudly. "Something fun going on?"
Shaking his head, Dennis laughed. "Just boy talk. Nothing a pretty girl should worry her head over." He patted her golden locks as she fixed him with a hard look. "No jewelry or anything like that."
"You're an idiot, Dennis," she laughed after a moment, punching him affectionately on the shoulder. She watched, as did half the cafeteria, as he fell off his chair and sprawled across the floor. A general wave of hilarity spread out around the room. Sighing, he climbed to his feet.
"Oops. Don't know my own strength."
"As the entire city is sadly well aware of," he quipped, retaking his seat, then rubbing his shoulder for a moment. "Thanks."
"No problem. Any time," she giggled, sitting next to Dean. "Speaking of jewelry..."
Dean sighed heavily as she gave him a winning smile. Dennis and the others started grinning.
It was always funny watching her twist him around her finger.
"That was interesting, wasn't it?"
'It was,' Taylor agreed silently, reflecting on the conversation they'd overheard. 'It proves Carlos is Aegis, as well." That was fairly obvious from the comments from his friends. She was a little surprised that they'd even talk about such subjects in school, but no one other than someone like her could have overheard without being very obvious about it, so it wasn't entirely unexpected. After a moment she added, "I wonder what our threat assessment really does say? Hopefully it's basically leave them alone and everyone is happy.' She got a sensation of amusement back from her friend.
"I suspect it's not far from that. I am a little concerned about the interest the Triumvirate would appear to have in you, though. Not surprised, just concerned. If those young men are right, your father is most likely to be contacted next. Hopefully they will step lightly. I would also think they'll be looking for your various forms sooner or later."
'Do you think we have anything to worry about? Or more importantly, does Dad have anything to worry about?'
The Varga was silent for a moment, then replied slowly, "I don't think so, not at the moment. They most likely are attempting to fit us into their world view and running into some problems as we don't fit the normal Parahuman profile. As you've noted before, Parahumans are often surprisingly aggressive, especially the more powerful ones. Not all, by any means, but a very large percentage. Especially ones not associated with the Protectorate or equivalent groups. That you are simply setting to work and helping out rather than carving out territory in bloody battles probably confuses and concerns them equally. In their position, they will be very much on the alert for unusual patterns, which could precede something changing for the worse."
'I suppose that makes sense. Like Dad said their entire job is to look for trouble and try to stop it before it happens.' She sighed inaudibly, keeping a smile on her face for outward appearances. 'Not that around here at least they've done a very good job a lot of the time.'
"No, the authorities would appear to have left Brockton Bay to suffer the iniquities of Parahuman villains for longer than I would have thought likely," he told her. "Which is somewhat odd as they clearly could have clamped down on it long ago if they really tried. Alexandria on her own could have easily dealt with almost every Parahuman in the area with the possible exception of Lung, as could either of the other two. There are many more Protectorate heroes, from our own research, who would have been very efficient at clearing this city up. That they didn't is… suspect."
'You think there was a reason for it other than incompetence?' she queried.
"Possibly. While large organizations can easily become lax, and the situation locally could simply have mushroomed suddenly to the point that a small problem turned into a large one unexpectedly and too quickly to stop without massive damage, the amount of time that things around here have been less than ideal is in my opinion rather odd." He sounded intrigued. "As is the way they have suddenly decided to take an interest. Yes, you're far out of the ordinary, but I'm slightly puzzled as to why all three of the Triumvirate are apparently required to look into the matter. I would have expected Legend would be sufficient, to be honest. But I suppose added to that, all the other changes surrounding the work for the DWU and the city must have sparked their curiosity and possibly worried them because they don't understand what's going on."
'Or where we all came from so abruptly,' she snickered. He chuckled, giving her an impression of a sly nod.
"That is likely to have been one of the more puzzling things for them. I'm still very amused to see how much traction the entire Family concept has gained. We've been very lucky with it, I think. I suspect that when the truth comes out, assuming it ever does, there will be a lot of people who flatly refuse to believe it. Humans are like that. It's possible we've managed to accidentally end up in a position where the story is more believable than the truth of the matter."
They listened to Amy recounting an amusing story from New Wave history of a couple of years ago, making Mandy fall about laughing, then she said, 'I wonder if Armsmaster and Dragon have fitted their weapon design with a shoulder stock yet?'
He emitted a grunt of amusement. "I would expect that had been done before we docked the ship. Both of them would have seen the light immediately, picking up on what you hinted at the other day. I'm very impressed with their intelligence. In all probability you'll get contacted within a few days for some more discussion of the matter. What I do wonder is if they've told anyone else yet. They were clearly not being entirely open with their colleagues about the weapon, presumably wanting to see if it was possible before they got involved in the politics of it."
'I'm both curious to see if it works, and a little terrified about meeting an Endbringer,' she remarked.
"I am very interested indeed to see one of these creatures for myself." He sounded fascinated. "There is something very wrong about the entire situation. They almost sound like one of my kind in some ways, but I'm sure they're not, at all. This world, this universe, has nothing like me in it except me. And you. I can tell."
'Oh well, one way or the other I expect we'll get that chance pretty soon,' she sighed. 'Every three months or so, which is any time from about two weeks from now onward.'
"Indeed." Her companion fell into a thoughtful silence. She was just returning to her conversation with her other friends, when he added, "I have a feeling that when the Triumvirate does track 'Kaiju' down, there may be a certain amount of pushing. Mainly to try to establish dominance, and to feel out how you react to powerful Parahumans behaving aggressively. Don't overreact to it, but don't back down either, if it happens. You need to be seen as calm, patient, but not someone who can be forced into doing the bidding of others, if your plan for reputation is to succeed properly. It's a delicate balancing act between being someone feared and someone respected. We want the latter, ideally. It lasts much longer and is more likely to gain friends rather than just allies."
'You think they'll try to get me to fight them?' She was curious, worried, and very slightly wanting to find out what would happen.
"Legend, most likely not, I think. From what I know of him, and from meeting him, I suspect he will counsel caution and a peaceful approach. The other two… I am unsure, I don't know enough about them. But they are two of the three acknowledged most powerful Parahumans on the planet. They didn't get to that point, regardless of actual power level, by being pacifists, trust me. Be polite, but wary, until we find out what they're planning."
'Just a little paranoid there,' she laughed. 'Although I guess you're probably right. Oh well, all we can do is get on with life and see what happens.'
Smiling at Mandy who had just asked her something about that night, she replied, putting the conversation with her closest friend to the back of her mind.
But she didn't forget it. He always gave good advice.
Turning around at the sound of the phone, Danny walked over to his desk and picked it up. "Danny Hebert," he said into the receiver.
"Good afternoon, Mr Hebert," a woman's voice said politely. "My name is Rebecca Costa-Brown, I'm the Chief Director of the PRT."
"Oh, hello, Chief Director," he replied, equally politely, as he sat down. "I know who you are, although I must confess I never thought I'd talk to you. How can I help you?"
"I was hoping that we might meet, to discuss various parts of the current situation with the Parahuman group popularly known as the Family, which your organization seems to have been the first people to meet any members of," she said, confirming his suspicions. She still sounded calm but many years experience of talking to people in stressful environments left him sure she was more than a little worried. "As you're no doubt aware, this entire sequence of events is somewhat extraordinary. The PRT's mandate more or less forces us to investigate."
"Are you expecting to find something amiss?" he asked. "As far as I'm aware, neither the city, the Family, or the Union I represent has done anything either illegal or immoral."
She chuckled, clearly trying to put him at ease. "Oh, nothing like that, Mr Hebert. We've thoroughly checked the legal standing of BBFO, believe me, and it is all in full accordance with the law, as much as some in my own organization would wish otherwise. Personally, I am more than a little impressed with whoever managed to work out all the loopholes and discover what needed to be done to enable such a thing to happen so efficiently. It took us by surprise. While all the laws were put into place for perfectly good reasons, they did have the unfortunate side effect of causing most Parahuman commercial activities to become very difficult to continue. Accidentally, of course, but that's one of the problems of something as complicated as the Parahuman situation."
"Of course," he agreed mildly. "I can understand how the law would be more concerned with stability than fairness. These things happen even with the best of motives."
There was a short pause, during which he grinned slightly viciously.
"Quite. Well put. In any case, as I said, BBFO, the DWU, and the Brockton Bay city authorities are all acting within the law and we can see no reason to attempt to interfere, or justification for doing so. We're merely in the position of wishing to update our records and resolve some of the more peculiar aspects of this entire affair." She laughed slightly, making him smile again. "As you must realize, there are a lot of questions and very few answers about the Family."
"I can understand that, certainly. I must warn you that I probably can't tell you everything you might ask, partly due to not knowing everything, and partly due to making certain promises to people it would obviously be a bad idea to renege on, even if I was the sort of person myself that would go back on my word. Which I am not, as I expect your background checks have discovered."
He got the distinct impression that she probably frowned a little.
"We understand the situation and we won't push. Dealing with unknown Parahumans, especially powerful ones, is always a delicate matter. Allowances are commonly made. But within those restrictions and provisos, anything you can divulge without betraying a confidence would be much appreciated."
"Certainly. It would be my pleasure. Would you like me to come to the PRT building, or would you like to visit us here? I could show you the current status of the tanker scrapping project, if you were interested."
"If you could hold for a moment, I need to consult with my colleagues." The line went to hold music before he could speak. Tapping his finger to the rather catchy beat, he swung his chair around to look out the window, before turning back when there was a tap on the door, followed by it opening and Lisa's head sticking through the gap. He waved her in, pointing at a chair, then tapped his watch and indicated five minutes.
Nodding, she came quietly in, closing the door behind her, then sat.
"I will visit you, and I'll be bringing Director Piggot with me, if that's all right," Costa-Brown said suddenly as the hold music died. "Would later today be possible?"
"Certainly. Let me check my schedule." He grinned at Lisa, who was looking intrigued. Quickly checking the notebook on his desk, he added, "Four o'clock? If you would like, I can offer the use of the BBFO office, which is very private. Or we can meet in my own office. Which is still pretty private. It depends on how secretive you want to be, Chief Director."
Lisa's eyes widened, then narrowed in thought. He watched her, amused to see her mind and probably powers at work.
"Your office will be fine, Mr Hebert. Out of interest, is it likely that any of the Family will be available?"
"I believe they're all busy today on various things. If it's important I can make some calls and probably get one or other of them to turn up, but if you want to meet any of them and it's not urgent, tomorrow would probably be better. Kaiju will be onsite helping us with some construction work for much of the afternoon, probably from around two onward. The others may turn up as well, although I can't guarantee it. They come and go."
He grinned at Lisa as her expression turned mischievous.
"No, it's not that urgent, Mr Hebert," the woman replied. "Tomorrow is fine. I may ask Alexandria and Eidolon to come over and talk to her, as I could be busy with other matters, but they have my full confidence in this matter."
"I see. Quite an honor, two thirds of the Triumvirate visiting the DWU. Recently we seem to have seen more PRT and Protectorate senior figures around than we have had in the last ten years. Amusingly, after much of the crime has already diminished due to other causes. You should ask Legend to come as well so we can say we had the entire set."
Lisa was silently laughing her ass off at this point.
"I'll see what I can do," Costa-Brown chuckled. "Until later, Mr Hebert."
"Goodbye, Chief Director," he responded, then put the phone down. Putting his elbows on the table he steepled his fingers and looked evenly at the still giggling Lisa. "Excellent," he hissed in his best Monty Burns impression, which made her collapse again.
"They have you exactly where you want them, don't they?" she asked when she recovered.
"Pretty much. I was expecting something like this to happen sooner or later," he admitted. "Director Piggot, despite some of the feelings I've had about her over the years, does seem to be a pragmatic, intelligent, and practical woman who is fair in her dealings even if she's somewhat heavy-handed at times. I was surprised to discover that, for a number of reasons, but pleased. Her superiors on the other hand may not be. Having them politely asking to talk, rather than demanding to, I'm taking as a good sign. Either they know they don't have the upper hand, or they're worried they don't and they're trying to work it out without upsetting the entire balance in the bay. Either is good."
"You don't have a lot of faith in the PRT in many ways, do you?" she asked perceptively. After a moment or two, she added slowly, "My power is telling me that your wife didn't, either. Because… she was involved with Parahumans?" He looked at her, then nodded, not surprised she'd worked that much out. "A villain?"
The blonde girl looked quite surprised.
"Yes, although it wasn't what you might be thinking. At first, anyway. Things escalated, as things often do, and it got sort of complicated. I met Annette just before it all went bad and helped her get out of that scene. There were a few problems for a year or two afterward, but once I'd explained that she was no longer involved, the other people seemed to get the point and left her, and me, alone. We got married pretty soon after that and moved back to the Bay where my family roots were." He sighed faintly, looking at the photo on the desk of his wife holding their daughter as a year old baby in her arms. Lisa looked at it as well.
"Happier times. After she died, I had a very hard time of it, as did poor Taylor. She had the worst of it, I think, because she lost both her mother and her father, in a way. I'm very glad that… certain events… brought us back from the brink."
Lisa nodded, looking sympathetic. "I'm sorry about that, Danny. It must have been terrible."
"Thanks, and it wasn't fun, no. Not even close. But things are looking up now, I'm happy, Taylor is happy, the city is suddenly on the mend, so I can't complain." He smiled at her. "It's a lot of fun as well."
"She looked a lot like Taylor, your wife," Lisa commented, inspecting the photo with interest.
"Taylor got her height and eyes from me, and everything good from her mother," he laughed. "The hair, the good looks, the slender build..."
"You're both pretty thin," the girl noted, comparing him to the photo. "But she was about… five foot six?"
"Yes, whereas I'm nearly six two. Taylor is already only three and a half inches shorter than me and she has some growing to do yet. She'll probably hit six feet by the time she's all grown up and finished developing. And I'll have to be beating the boys off with a stick."
Lisa snickered. "Not that you'll have any trouble doing that, I suspect."
He grinned evilly at her. "Not as such, no. Anyone who wants my daughter is going to have to go through me first and they won't have an easy time of it."
"As poor Über and Leet found out last night." She seemed confident about that. "What the hell did you say to them? They already respected both you and the DWU a lot, but I could tell that when Taylor mentioned your name once, there was more than respect there. A mild amount of terror, actually."
Shrugging, he chuckled a little. "Just had a father to male friends of teenaged daughter talk. They took it well."
"I'm sure," she replied dryly. She looked at the photo again for a moment. "If you don't mind me asking, what was your wife's background? I mean, where did her ancestors come from? She looks sort of Greek or Italian, that sort of area in the Mediterranean, I think."
"Sicilian. Or her parents were. They emigrated after the war, looking for a better life, like a lot of people from areas that got badly affected. Which was most of Europe. My own parents did the same except they came from France on one side and Corsica on the other, if you go back a couple of generations. Her mom and dad met on the boat over and got married in New York when it arrived. I didn't know them well, they didn't see Annette very much for reasons I never found out, and both died not long after Taylor was born. My parents passed away before she came along, so she never knew any of her grandparents. Now it's just the two of us."
He sighed heavily. "God, I miss that woman. She was completely insane. Taylor takes very strongly after her. Annette could turn the most normal of situations into something hilarious, and often did. I think she'd have laughed her head off about how things turned out." Shaking his head, he stood up. "All in the past, which we can't do anything about. Come on, I'll show you your new office."
"What?" The girl looked surprised, which he didn't think was a common occurrence.
He put the same sort of sly grin on his face that he saw often on hers. "I'm hiring you as a research and development assistant. Keep your nose clean and you could work your way up through this august organization. One day all this could be yours!" Waving his hands around in a grandiose manner, he laughed as she stared at him in shock. "Or more likely, you'll eventually find something more interesting to do, but for the moment this should keep you out of trouble and not bored. I can't help but feel that a bored Lisa Wilbourn is a disaster waiting to happen. I recognize the type, I have one at home."
Still appearing somewhat befuddled, but starting to smile, she followed him out of his office.