Sarah Pelham sat on the sofa in the Hebert's living room, sipping extraordinarily good tea and watching through the window as her adoptive niece, Taylor Hebert, and a girl who had been introduced to her as Emma Barnes, all ran around chasing each other in some sort of complicated game. She was fairly sure it either had no rules at all, or they were made up on the fly if they did exist.
After a couple of minutes, she glanced to the side at her sister, who was also holding a cup of tea in a somewhat white-fingered grip, while staring out the same window. The expression on her face was… odd. Even for her.
Looking the other way she saw both Heberts watching them. Annette was a very elegant woman, not particularly tall but very slim, with what she'd have called a dancer's figure. There was also something just slightly unusual about her, something Sarah simply couldn't put her finger on, but whatever it was it told her that there was more to this woman than one might expect at first glance.
Her husband Danny, next to her in the second of a pair of comfortable chairs, was tall and slender too, his hair ever so slightly showing male pattern baldness creeping in at the front. But he wore it well, and his square-rimmed glasses were stylish and fitted his face perfectly. His clothing wasn't particularly exceptional, being merely fairly ordinary slacks with a nice shirt, in the same way that Annette was wearing a simple but nicely fitted pair of jeans with a sweater, but in both cases they carried the look effectively. Both seemed like nice people, and Taylor clearly adored them.
Amy appeared to respect them a lot as well, she mused.
Which was one of the many strange things that had happened in the last two or three weeks.
The girl having run away and gotten lost started the whole thing, and it had caused quite the eruption at home. Carol had been very upset, but Sarah wasn't sure if this was because of causing Amy to run, or because Amy defied her order to go to her room. She was all too aware that her sister was somewhat of an unwilling foster mother, and she regretted the whole series of events that had led to that. And her decision to push the girl off on Carol, although it wasn't entirely her idea.
She'd really hoped that things would work out. That hope had been somewhat quashed over the last year or so, although she still held out some possibly misplaced trust that in the end Carol would be a good mother to the poor girl.
Carol's biological daughter Victoria had immediately taken to Amy, but then she was possibly one of the most extroverted and cheerful little girls Sarah had ever encountered. Almost too cheerful at times, and not shy about making everyone within earshot aware of her moods. The girl was bright and inquisitive, she definitely had that going for her, and could twist most people around her little finger without too much effort, but at times she was something of a handful.
Amy, on the other hand, was clearly still not sure of her place in the world, not surprising considering what had happened, and while she certainly had developed feelings for her new sister, it was obvious that at times she just wanted some peace and quiet to work through her own thoughts. Sarah could sympathize with that. She thought it unlikely that the girl could remember a vast amount about her life before moving in with the Dallons as she'd only been around five at the time and somewhat traumatized to boot, but on the other hand she certainly knew that Carol wasn't her own biological mother.
Carol had, in her own passive aggressive way, made damn sure of that.
At times Sarah wanted to take her sister behind the woodshed and do to her what their mother had done to both of them when they pulled off something particularly idiotic. Sipping her tea again, she sadly decided that it was something that should have been done quite a while ago, and it was probably too late to really help now.
For that matter, some sort of therapy would most likely have been a good idea too, years ago. Again, a chance missed, but they'd both been a lot younger and hadn't really realized quite how what had happened would affect them. It didn't really help that their younger brother Mike was nearly as much of a control freak as Carol was and tended to come down on her side in any family argument, of which there had been a considerable number surrounding the entire adoption problem. This only reinforced Carol's own attitude, unfortunately, making the entire thing far more emotional and much less sensible than ideal.
And now poor little Amelia was caught right in the middle of it.
She looked out the window again to see the girl in question fall flat on her face, then almost bounce upright again and chase after Emma who had tripped her and was running off giggling. Smiling slightly, she looked at the Heberts, meeting Annette's eyes. She could see sympathy and understanding there.
It had been also there, although accompanied with a certain level of anger that had made her extremely uncomfortable, when she'd turned up to retrieve her wayward niece after a rather awkward phone call. The woman had very obviously been quite ready to say or do something that could have caused a lot of problems until Sarah had managed to defuse the situation. Annette clearly didn't approve of the story she'd heard from both her daughter and her daughter's find in the park. Sarah didn't blame her in the slightest, any mother would feel the same.
She looked sideways at her sister, who was drinking tea mechanically, still looking out the window, and amended that thought.
Almost any mother.
When Sarah had taken Amy back to her house and made sure she was warm, fed, and safe in bed, she'd gone over to Carol's house and had a very long and at times very loud conversation that had left her both incredibly irritated and wondering how willfully blind to the situation she'd been. And why.
That last part was probably simple to answer; she'd trusted her sister to do the right thing. Possibly that trust had been misplaced…
She didn't like to think it, but she couldn't deny she had thought it several times, then and since.
Of course, finding the next morning that Amy had vanished again, this time from a room that she was damn near certain hadn't been opened the entire night, and from a house that she was entirely certain hadn't had anyone come or go, had been somewhat upsetting. She'd spent nearly an hour turning the house upside down and enlisting the aid of her husband and daughter to search the place, convinced that Amy must have hidden somewhere. The alarm hadn't been triggered, and it was a very, very high end one that logged all movements in and out of the dwelling, along with anyone wandering around in the immediate vicinity. After Marquis and the launch of the New Wave movement, no one was taking chances, after all. Threats had been made, ones they took seriously.
Yet there wasn't a single sign of the girl anywhere. Nor any trace of how she could possibly have left, or more worryingly, been taken.
Until a slightly exasperated Annette Hebert had phoned just after 7 AM to tell her that Amy was safely asleep on Taylor's bed, the two girls next to each other and looking pleased with themselves. Deciding that it was best to get Amy back before telling Carol, considering the mood she'd been in the night before, she'd immediately got back to the Hebert household and found that yes, Amy was indeed there.
Of course, that had led to a lot of questions, the answers to which left her more bewildered than she'd been before she started asking them. Very little of it made sense at all in her view.
The most reasonable explanation was that either Taylor was a Parahuman, or Carol had managed to drive little Amy into Triggering with her idiocy. There were some issues with either possibility though. One was that they both were so young. Not even seven years old, and Sarah couldn't see how someone that young could have gone through the trauma to Trigger without it being extremely obvious. Even a second generation Parahuman would have shown signs that she simply didn't see in either girl.
To put it simply, Taylor was too happy and carefree to be carrying that burden, and Amy, while less happy, didn't show the typical symptoms either.
Sarah knew. She'd been there, and she damn well knew the signs to look for. None of them were present.
Taylor's parents were very obviously a loving and supportive pair, who cared deeply for their daughter. She'd looked both of them up, calling in a couple of favors from some friends in the BBPD, and had learned that Danny was a respected and highly motivated high level manager at the Dock Worker's Union, who thought the world of him. Annette was an English professor at the University, again highly respected, and extremely intelligent considering that she'd apparently made full professor at the age of thirty, not to mention spoke at least seven languages and had three degrees. Sarah had also learned that she'd had an interesting life in her twenties, which her now-husband had extricated her from by means that the police contact had snickered at and refused to go into details on.
Even with that taken into account, though, neither of them were the sort of person who would either be in any way the cause of a Trigger event in their daughter, or who would sit still for anyone or anything else causing it. So yet again it seemed highly unlikely.
Unfortunately she could, very reluctantly, believe that Carol could push someone to that point. Not deliberately, she didn't think that was something her sister was capable of doing, but… Amy's father had been a villain, one Carol hated with a burning passion, and she had a terribly binary outlook on life. Sins of the father were definitely something that she at least subconsciously could well apply to the daughter.
If that was what happened, Sarah was going to be much less than merely disappointed with her sister.
But she didn't think it was. Looking at Amy running around in the back yard and laughing her head off, she just couldn't see her as being someone who'd Triggered within the last few days to weeks at most, even leaving her age out of it. She was completely sure that if that had been the case it would be very apparent and not something that could be hidden.
So what was going on? The whole situation didn't make any sense.
The really confusing and rather worrying part was that when she'd mentioned the possibility of Taylor having a Parahuman power to the Heberts both of them had laughed and assured her it was nothing of the kind. It was only the result of some special knowledge that ran in the family.
Whatever the hell that meant…
Neither seemed particularly eager to explain, and her careful fishing hadn't produced a lot of results. Neither had asking Taylor herself when she'd met the girl again. Taylor had merely grinned that happy snaggletoothed grin of the very young and earnestly told her that she'd asked the monster under the bed for a favor.
Which… didn't help in the slightest, if she was honest.
So at the moment she was rather in the dark about how Taylor seemed able to retrieve Amy from several miles away without setting off any alarms, assuming that it really was Taylor behind it. It was certainly not normal at all, but on the other hand she didn't know what it was. Aside from almost definitely most likely not a Parahuman ability. Probably. She thought.
Shaking her head a little she tried to put her thoughts in order.
Taylor was probably not a Parahuman.
Amy was probably not a Parahuman.
Both the Hebert parents denied being Parahumans too and as far as she could determine they were most likely being truthful.
And she was sure that no one else in her family could teleport a six year old girl several miles across the city in the middle of the night.
So that left… what?
Taylor was mistaken and it was some other Parahuman unconnected with either the Dallon, Pelham, or Hebert families that did it? If so, why? It had happened four times to date, without anyone noticing anything aside from Amy not being where she had been when she went to bed. And it hadn't made any difference whether that bed was at Carol's house, Sarah's house, or when they'd experimentally tried going to Mike's house which was considerably further out in a more rural area. If it was a Parahuman it was one that had a lot more knowledge of them than she was keen on, and if it wasn't she was drawing a complete blank.
Of course, Taylor had happily taken credit for the whole thing, because Amy was unhappy, but that produced more questions than answers. Sarah really didn't know whether to believe the girl or not.
Carol, being Carol, had exploded the first time and taken a lot of talking down from immediately raising hell, charging across the city, and accusing the Heberts to their faces of stealing her daughter somehow. Sarah had patiently explained that getting the PRT involved was the last thing they wanted, since they were still looked on somewhat suspiciously from that quarter, especially after taking down Marquis. There were numerous irregularities surrounding Amy too, and they couldn't afford to attract official attention to them. It would almost certainly end up getting much messier than anyone wanted.
When Sarah had retrieved Amy that morning after Annette's call, the girl had seemed far happier than she'd seen her before, although sad to be removed from her new friend who she seemed to idolize. It was understandable, the Hebert kid had after all rescued Amy from the park, fed her, warmed her up, and made her laugh for what might have been the first time in months. Neither girl had wanted to separate and Sarah had found it heartbreaking how Amy had clung to Taylor for quite a while when they left the Hebert house for the second time.
It made her wonder, yet again, if Carol had ever bothered to even hug the poor little thing.
Then only four days later it happened again. And again just under a week after that, following what Sarah later found out had been Carol being an ass to the girl once more for stupid reasons. Vicky had spilled the beans, which had got her sent to her room, looking upset. Finally it had happened again last night. She suspected that Carol had made Amy cry yet again but her sister wouldn't confirm that, only looking petulant when pressed.
She suppressed a sigh, glancing at the other woman, who was now staring at the carpet apparently thinking things she wasn't too happy about based on her tight expression.
Annette turned her head and looked out the window herself with a small smile. "They do seem happy playing together, don't they?" she commented.
Sarah followed the direction of her gaze and nodded. "Yes, they do. I haven't seen Amy laugh like that for..." She caught herself and gave Carol a sidelong glance, feeling a little guilty, but her sister didn't seem to notice.
The Hebert woman definitely did but she didn't mention it, only looking at Carol with a slight frown that cleared away almost instantly. "I'm sorry that you've had to make the trip over her again," she said after a moment, "it must be rather annoying. But Amy seems to be enjoying herself so it's not all bad." Standing, she picked up the teapot and came over, Sarah holding out her cup for a refill with a nod of thanks. Returning to her seat she sat down again. "Emma gets on with her very well too. Perhaps one day she and Taylor can meet Victoria. Amy's talked quite a lot about her. And apparently you have two children too?"
"Yes, I do," Sarah replied with a smile, leaving Carol to stew in her own thoughts for now. Sooner or later it was almost inevitable that her sister would start up again but until then she was going to just be friendly and calm. "Crystal is ten, and Eric is only just five, but he's growing like a weed."
"They do at that age," Danny smiled. "Taylor's shooting up too, she's going to be taller than her mother by the time she's fourteen or fifteen at this rate."
"You mentioned last time that you had a brother. Does he have children?" Annette asked.
"No, he and his girlfriend haven't really decided yet." She shook her head, smiling a little. "I suspect they will in the end, but they're both quite a bit younger than Carol or myself. And our lifestyle is… a little complicated. That might be putting them off."
"Understandable," Danny nodded with a look at his wife.
"This is ridiculous!" Carol suddenly said, rather loudly, as she looked up and rejoined the conversation. She didn't sound happy, making Sarah wince. "We can't just pretend that nothing happened! This isn't some sort of… of… play date or something! My daughter just vanished from her room and the next thing we know she's here with your kid! Again! What the hell is going on?"
Sarah grabbed her sister by the shoulder as she started to stand up, not entirely certain she wasn't about to go for either of the Heberts. The other woman looked at the hand on her shoulder, then glared at Sarah, but very reluctantly resumed her position on the sofa. She put the teacup down on the side table quite deliberately then clasped her hands together, making it look like she was only barely restraining herself from doing something unfortunate.
Danny had, to Sarah's eyes, tensed very slightly as if he was ready to react when Carol moved, while Annette was watching them both with keen eyes that betrayed the tiniest hint of disapproval. Somehow that made Sarah somewhat concerned. She had no idea quite why but it was true.
"Please don't raise your voice like that, Carol," the brunette said in calming tones. "There's no need to get angry, and we don't want to frighten the children do we?"
Looking out the window Sarah saw that Amy had frozen in the middle of the back yard and both Taylor and Emma were hugging her. They'd obviously heard Carol's near-shout.
Taylor turned her head and met Sarah's eyes from fifty feet away, holding her gaze for several seconds. Then she went back to hugging her friend.
Sarah swallowed just a little.
For some reason she'd felt the tiniest bit worried there for a moment. Again, she had not the faintest idea why, as it had only been a six year old girl looking at her, but…
"My daughter keeps turning up here and no one will tell me how or why," Carol said in a lower but angry voice. "It's got to be a Parahuman power. There are laws against that sort of thing."
"I can assure you it's not a Parahuman power at all, Carol," Annette replied evenly, smiling. "As I said it's only Taylor using some old family knowledge to make a new friend happy. Perhaps it would be better to forget about the precise mechanism of what's happening and ask ourselves why it's happening, don't you think? After all, we only want to let our children have happy and fulfilling lives."
"Are you insinuating that..." Carol spewed, her face reddening. Sarah put her hand on her sister's arm and squeezed. Hard. The other woman stopped with a suppressed grunt, making Danny look momentarily slightly amused. Annette merely watched them both without her expression changing from the serene calm it had shown pretty much every time Sarah had met her.
"I'm not insinuating anything, Carol," she said. "All I'm saying is that for whatever reason Amy at times apparently isn't happy and Taylor is aware of that. She's decided that she's going to cheer her up, and part of that cheering process seems to be to play with her when she's sad. I see nothing wrong with that."
"She is playing with her here at your house," Carol grated. "The problem with this is that neither I nor Sarah have brought her here. Somehow your daughter is stealing my daughter away in the night by methods you won't explain, which makes me very upset."
"That's understandable," Annette said in soothing tones. "Any mother would be worried about one of her children vanishing and I'm sure would be quite prepared to do anything at all to get them back. I know I would if something ever happened to Taylor."
Sarah tried not to think about how Carol had apparently not actually noticed that Amy had disappeared for a good six hours. And she caught the look in Annette's eyes that said that she was well aware of this…
"But you don't have to worry," the other woman went on, "Amy is perfectly safe with our daughter. I can assure you that she's not going to come to harm in any way. Taylor adores her, nearly as much as she does Emma, and knows how to look after herself. She's very responsible for her age although I will admit she sometimes has a slightly… individual… way to show that." She smiled for a moment. "But it generally works out well in the end."
"From what I know you let your six year old daughter wander down to the local park half a mile away unsupervised," Carol sniped. "That doesn't seem particularly responsible to me no matter how much she 'knows how to look after herself.' She's six for god's sake! I would never let my daughter out of my sight like that!"
Sarah resisted the urge to put her hand over her eyes but it was a near thing.
Danny and Annette exchanged looks. "Possibly we misunderstood what happened to poor Amy then that day?" Annette asked sweetly but with an edge to her voice.
Jumping in before something was said that made things even more difficult to handle, Sarah said, "Mistakes were made, unfortunately. We've taken steps to ensure that won't happen again."
"One would hope so," Danny murmured. "Although from what I gather Amy is still somewhat unhappy at times. Taylor is aware of that, of course, and seems intent on helping her. I can't say I disagree with her."
"You..." Carol nearly shouted, but stopped when Sarah squeezed her arm again, this time nearly hard enough to make the bone creak. As she was about to say something herself, the doorbell rang.
"Ah. Excuse me, I'll just see who that is," Annette said, standing up gracefully and walking out of the room. Carol subsided, breathing through her nose in a manner that Sarah knew all too well meant she was furious but trying not to show it. Danny didn't appear to notice, or more likely was polite enough not to show it, he just waited patiently.
"The weather seems to be cooling down quite fast," he noted. "I always like this time of year, when the summer is almost over and fall is beginning."
Grateful for the change in subject, and knowing full well it was just to allow Carol to calm down again, Sarah smiled. "Yes, there's something magical about it when all the trees change color. I remember when I was young we used to love this season. Playing in the fallen leaves, helping dad rake them up then burn them… Halloween was always fun too."
"Taylor is still a little young for that, although we do have our own little family traditions surrounding the holiday," he smiled. "I expect soon enough she'll be joining in the hunt for free candy, though."
Sarah smiled again. "Crystal loves Halloween. She always comes up with the most extravagant ideas for costumes but the implementation is sometimes… not quite up to expectations."
He grinned. "A common problem." Then he looked around as Annette came back into the room with an older woman following. Sarah studied her with interest, seeing a clear family resemblance between the two women. The newcomer was of indeterminate age, one of those people who could well look in their fifties right into late seventies or so, tall and slender with dark hair and high cheekbones. The Pelham woman thought that whoever this was had probably been spectacularly beautiful in her youth and had aged remarkably well. She had the thought that she hoped she herself managed to pull off her later years so elegantly.
"This is my mother, she was in the area and decided to stop by," Annette said.
"My apologies for interrupting you all," the woman said quietly, her voice rich and educated, with a slight accent that Sarah couldn't pinpoint. "I seldom visit Brockton Bay for a number of reasons and couldn't resist visiting my daughter and her family since I had to fly in for business reasons. It's been some time since I've seen little Taylor." As Sarah stood, nudging Carol to do the same, she held out her hand. "Mal Linwood. A pleasure to meet you both."
"Sarah Pelham," Sarah replied, shaking the offered hand. Reluctantly, Carol did the same.
"Carol Dallon."
"Oh, the famous local heroes of New Wave," Mal smiled, her expressive mouth very similar to Taylor's, showing where the girl had got it from. "An honor indeed."
"Tea, mother?" Annette said mildly as she picked up a cup and the still-steaming teapot. "It's your favorite."
"Thank you, Annette, that would be lovely," Mal replied, accepting the cup and holding it as her daughter filled it. "Ah, the smell does take me back," she added, sniffing the aromatic steam, then delicately sipping from the vessel. "So many years since I first had this… How time flies." She took a seat in the only free chair in the living room. "I do hope I'm not causing a bother by arriving unexpectedly like this."
"No, not at all," Sarah assured her, actually somewhat relieved that what could have ended up as another shouting match had been at least temporarily forestalled.
"What brings you two to my daughter's house?" Mal asked after another sip. A shout of childish laughter from outside made her glance around, and she watched the three girls playing for a few seconds with a smile. Then she looked at Sarah with eyes that seemed far more knowing than the blonde expected. The glance shifted to Carol and Mal frowned very slightly. Sarah got the weird impression that the older woman had somehow discerned far more in that moment than seemed plausible.
"A minor difficulty with Taylor being slightly overenthusiastic," Danny said with a dry tone, causing Mal to look at him, then chuckle.
"Oh dear. That sounds like there is a tale well worth the telling."
He sighed a little. "As is often the case with Taylor, yes," he replied in a good-natured manner.
"Has she been talking to the monster under the bed again?" Mal inquired with an amused look.
"She's not so much talking to him as talking him into things," her father muttered. Sarah and Carol looked back and forth between the pair.
"She always did have a persuasive way with language even when she was very small," Mal replied calmly, before taking another sip of tea. Lowering the cup, she continued, "It is something of a family trait I fear. I well remember some of Annette's adventures..."
Everyone looked at the mentioned woman who pinked slightly. "I did have an interesting childhood," she admitted, causing Mal to laugh.
"That is certainly one way to put it, my dear. Again, it is something of a family trait. On both sides." She gave Danny a meaningful look and he grinned. "One can only imagine what the combination will produce with little Taylor."
"Don't say that, Mal, it worries me," he groaned. She covered a small smirk with the cup and took another sip.
"Granny Mallie!" Taylor's delighted voice came from the doorway, making everyone look. "I didn't know you were coming over!"
"Hello, Taylor," Mal replied as the girl dashed over, handing her cup to Danny who reached out for it just before Taylor reached her. She held out both arms and hugged the young girl who launched herself into them. "It is very nice to see you again."
"Are you staying long?" Taylor asked excitedly. "I want to introduce you to Jim. You could tell him to stop being a poohead and he'd have to listen. Bob and I beat him up a little a while ago but he's still rude sometimes."
"And Jim is…?" Mal asked, looking amused at the stream of rapid words.
"He's the new monster in the closet. Richard is on sabbatical, he said. What's that?" She frowned in a thoughtful manner.
"A time of paid leave," her grandmother replied, smiling. "Perhaps you were so much trouble he needed a break?"
Taylor pouted. "I was very nice to him. I laughed at his jokes and everything even when they weren't funny."
"I am sure you did, dear girl." Mal reached out and touched the weird little doll Taylor had on her shoulder for some reason. "I see Thuley is still with you."
Taylor patted the plush horror, looking happy. "Of course he is, he's my friend."
"Indeed he is, a very loyal one too," Mal smiled, then looked past Taylor to the doorway where Emma and Amy were looking into the room. "I recognize Emma, that remarkable hair is memorable indeed, but who is your other friend?" she asked curiously, releasing Taylor with one hand and beckoning. "Come in, girls, it is a pleasure to see you both."
Emma, who was nearly as talkative as Taylor when she got going, Sarah had noticed, but was shyer, quickly went over to the woman, Amy trailing along behind looking a little lost. She glanced at Carol, who didn't react, then away. It made Sarah sigh internally. No, there was definitely a problem there that needed solving somehow.
"Hi, Mrs Linwood," Emma said politely.
"I have told you that you can call me Granny just like Taylor does, dear," Mal smiled. "I have known you nearly as long. My, you are getting taller. How old are you now?"
"Six and a half!" the small girl replied with a wide grin. "I'll be seven in March!"
"Well, I shall have to make sure I find you a good birthday present then," Mal laughed. "I am sure I can come up with something. Taylor never seems to complain, certainly."
"Your presents are the best, Granny," Taylor said eagerly. "This is my friend Amy." She grabbed Amy's arm and pulled her close. "I found her."
"You found her?" Mal lifted an eyebrow.
"Yep. In a blackberry bush." Taylor looked proud. "She was right in the middle. It was like one of your stories. She ran away from home. That's her mother there." She indicated Carol, who was looking somewhat bewildered at this point. "And I rescued her and brought her home and gave her my coat and everything! She was really sad but I made it better."
"Well done, Taylor, very well done," Mal said approvingly, placing her hand on Taylor's head and looking pleased. "That was good of you. Hello, Amy." She held out her hand to the shorter girl. "Don't worry, I don't bite."
Amy looked nervous but held out her own hand, which Mal gravely shook. "It is very pleasant to make your acquaintance," the older woman said.
"Hi," Amy squeaked, seeming slightly overwhelmed, and retrieving her own hand as fast as possible. Mal studied her closely for a few seconds them smiled rather mysteriously.
"Yes, I think you have an interesting future ahead of you, my dear girl," she commented.
Taylor smiled widely. "Hear that, Amy? You're going to do some interesting things! Granny Mallie always knows."
Sarah looked at Annette who smiled back, then at Amy who appeared somewhat puzzled but also pleased. "Good?" the girl said after a second.
"It's great. We can have lots of adventures." Hopping down from her seat on Mal's lap, Taylor grabbed both Amy and Emma and pulled them out of the room. "Come on, let's go tell Bob." Moments later they'd vanished, a lot of small footsteps on the stairs signaling their departure.
Mal smiled tolerantly as she turned back to the others. "The energy of the young never fails to lift one's spirits, don't you agree?" she remarked as she retrieved her teacup from Danny, then took another sip while inspecting Carol and Sarah with a gaze that seemed far too knowing. "So. What is the true reason you two are here?" She looked at the ceiling for a moment as there was a loud thud from somewhere above them.
"Bob! Put that back!" Taylor's voice said faintly. Mal smiled as Danny sighed a little and Annette giggled.
"True reason?" Sarah asked after a second or two.
"Oh, my dear, I can easily tell that neither of you brought Amy over to play with Taylor. I assume that Taylor made her own arrangements and you are in fact present to retrieve Amy rather than the reverse." She looked at Annette, who made an almost unnoticeable nod. "Reading between the lines from little Taylor's speech, Amy is not entirely happy at home." She looked at Carol again, then back to Sarah. "I would assume because she is adopted there is some problem?"
"How do you know she's adopted?" Carol burst out, her face pale with anger.
"I have something of a gift for seeing the truth," Mal replied without rancor. "And I like children. One learns to discern these things at my age." She smiled again. "I have had rather a lot of practice over the years. Now, given that Amy was as Taylor put it, 'in a bush,' one can assume that she was unhappy and frightened. I have little doubt that Taylor would immediately act to remedy that, most likely effectively if somewhat oddly. What interests me is why Amy looked so cautious when she entered the room."
She looked hard at Carol, whose face reddened again. "And more accurately looked at you, my dear, as if she had reason to be so. Why is that?" The question was entirely innocently asked but Sarah suddenly got an overwhelming feeling that if Mal didn't get an answer she liked there was going to be a problem. There was something in her eyes which sent a shiver down her spine.
Carol didn't respond for a few seconds, during which Mal patiently waited. Then she opened her mouth, paused, and closed it again.
"I see." Mal finished her tea, then handed the empty cup to Danny who took it without a word. He and Annette seemed to be interested in what was going on and disinclined to interrupt. "In that case, allow me to conjecture. I suspect that our little Amy upstairs is related to someone who at one point was quite notorious. There is a distinct family resemblance in my opinion."
Carol gasped. "You knew Mar..." She snapped her mouth shut as Sarah gaped.
"Ah. It appears I am correct. Yes, I did meet our mutual acquaintance on a number of occasions," Mal replied with a slight smile on her lips. "He was an interesting man in some ways. It is unfortunate that he took many of the actions that he did, but such is the way of life. I can't say I approve of it but it wasn't my business, presuming that he avoided causing issues that would cause me to take an interest. We came to a mutually satisfactory arrangement so such a thing never happened." She paused and glanced at Danny and his wife. Returning her attention to Sarah and Carol who were listening in shock, she went on.
"I know that your family venture was the cause of his ultimate downfall. Again, I feel that I cannot entirely approve of how this was done, but again, it is not really my business. I do think that it was somewhat ill-advised and may in the end cause a number of problems you might wish to avoid, but again, life is not entirely fair at the best of times."
"Who are you?" Sarah asked as she fell silent again.
"Me? No one you would have heard of," Mal replied with that same slight smile. "I merely have some interests in this city, as I do in many locations. As such I sometimes meet some unusual people. Marquis was one of them." She made a motion with one hand. "I have been around for quite a while, you see. However, that is unimportant at the moment. Returning to the subject at hand, I assume that events happened to work out in a manner that ended up with your family having the duty of care for Amy?"
She examined Carol, then Sarah, who was hardly breathing by now. "I strongly suspect at the request of Marquis. Despite his many faults, he had an honor of his own and was a man who would wish the best for his family. A young girl who would have been, hmm, five I think? She would not have been well handled by the normal system as the daughter of such a notorious criminal."
Leaning forward a little, she continued after a few seconds, "I cannot help but suspect that she is not entirely well handled by the situation that she currently finds herself in either."
"How can you possibly know all this?" Carol shouted, irritably shaking off Sarah's cautioning hand on her arm. "You've got to be some sort of Parahuman. A Thinker? Some sort of villain?" She stood and raised a hand.
Mal made a gesture and Carol froze, then limply dropped back onto the sofa. "None of that, dear, we don't want to cause a scene, do we?"
Sarah looked at Carol, who seemed to have suddenly lost the ability to stand, then Mal, whose smile had become just a tiny bit dangerous. She didn't know quite what was happening but felt that they were both in a situation that wasn't one she liked.
"No, I am not a Parahuman," Mal went on after a moment. "I am… something else. As I said, I have been around for some time. I certainly predate that golden fellow and his little acts of random heroics." She glanced at the Heberts, who were just listening quietly. "The world is much, much older than many really understand, and Parahumans are a very recent development. There are things from far back in time that are more than a match for them, trust me on that. You would not enjoy many of them. However, none of that is important for now. What is important is seeing to the happiness of a small girl. Shall we discuss how that is to be arranged?"
Carol twitched one hand. "What did you do to me?" she demanded weakly. "This is assault with a Parahuman power. I'll see you in the Birdcage for this..."
"Do not test me, child. You offered me violence in the dwelling of my own family." Mal stood and looked down at them. Sarah felt a wave of sudden terror go through her as the old woman suddenly appeared much, much more dangerous than she'd ever experienced, somehow without changing at all. "There was a time where such an act would have had… severe repercussions."
"Mother," Annette said with a warning tone. Mal looked at her, then sighed, nodding.
"As you wish. It is your right to defend the honor of your house, not mine. My apologies." She sat down again and arranged herself. "Forgive me. I do not take well to threats to those I care about."
Sarah nodded with a dry throat, feeling that something horrible had just been averted.
"Carol Dallon." Mal looked hard at the younger blonde. "Tell me, truthfully, what the problem is, and we shall see how we can deal with it." She flicked a finger and Carol took a deep breath, apparently released from whatever it was that the older woman had done. She turned to Sarah, appearing almost lost, which was very unlike her, then when her sister shrugged and nodded, returned her attention to Mal and started explaining things that had happened over a year ago, with a level of honesty that Sarah didn't expect.
Mal just listened silently until she was done, as did the Heberts.
When Carol finally finished, having said a few things that had shocked Sarah despite herself, Mal studied her for some time without saying anything before nodding.
"I see. I can understand your viewpoint, I will admit, although I find it unfortunate. Amy is an innocent in all this and despite your feelings, blaming a child for the actions of her father is unwise and unjustified. You should know that." Mal shook her head slowly. "It can only lead to to problems in the longer term that could easily be avoided, that much I can guarantee you. But that leaves us with a problem. Amy is not happy living with you, that much is obvious. What is equally obvious is that you are not happy having her live with you. You are resentful of your sister, in your view, forcing you to take the girl in."
Carol opened her mouth, causing Mal to give her a look which made her close it again and huddle in on herself. Despite feeling more than a little upset with her sister, Sarah put her arm around her. "Again, I think that you are not entirely correct in that assessment although there is a certain amount of merit in it. But that is by the by and something you must work out between you." She tapped a finger on her knee, thoughtfully, as she regarded the two women. Then she looked at Annette and her husband.
She lifted an eyebrow. Annette glanced at Danny, who nodded. Annette smiled a little at her mother. Mal returned her attention to the other two.
"I will make you a deal."
"A deal?" Carol echoed, rather suspiciously.
"A deal," Mal nodded, smiling in a way that made Sarah nervous. "I suggest that the optimum solution to the problem from all sides is to remove Amy from her current location. Taylor clearly thinks the world of the girl. Annette and Danny would be prepared to take on the responsibility of caring for her and raising her. This would eliminate the main issue for both Amy and yourself. Your honor is intact, Amy is taken care of as you promised, your stress regarding your fears about her are assuaged, and Amy herself finds herself in a far better position. Allow this, and I will in turn bestow on you a boon."
Carol stared at her as if she suspected the older woman was insane. "A… boon? That sounds like something from a fairy tale," she scoffed.
Mal smirked very faintly. "The old tales always have a kernel of truth to them, dear child," she said quietly, her odd accent strengthening for a moment. More loudly, she added, "Call it a favor, then. I have a certain amount of resources you do not, and I strongly suspect that at some point in the not too distant future you may have a requirement for a service I can provide. Bearing in mind your lifestyle, of course." She looked between them. "One never knows when an outside element may help."
"We would need to make sure that Amy was all right with this, Mal," Danny cautioned. "I'm not prepared to do something that she won't be happy with."
"Simply asking her would seem like the ideal solution to that problem," Mal replied with a smile. "Assuming that Carol agrees. I see no good reason for her not to, of course, as from what she has said the current situation has no good outcome for anyone. Although I do feel sorry for young Victoria, since it sounds like she and Amy are quite fond of each other."
"We can probably figure out a way around that," Annette commented, smiling. "I see no reason to keep them from seeing each other if they want to. Children thrive with lots of friends."
"True enough," Mal agreed. She looked back to Sarah and her sister. "What do you think about this solution?"
Sarah turned to her sister, who looked highly conflicted. "We're going to have to think about it," she finally replied.
"Entirely understandable, Sarah. Hasty decisions are often unwise." Mal nodded. "I will be in town for a few days. When you have decided, we can work out the details."
Upstairs, Taylor turned to Amy, who was smiling but looked worried. "See? I said Granny Mallie could fix it." She hugged the other girl, Emma doing the same on the other side. "Everything's going to be OK."
She put the air vent cover back into the hole in the floor that all three girls had been gathered around, then flopped back onto the carpet. "I always wanted a sister."
Amy lay down next to her. Emma rolling over onto her stomach and propping her chin on her hands. The red-head smiled. "I thought I was your sister."
Taylor grabbed her hand. "Of course you are. Sisters forever. Nothing will change that. But now we have Amy too!"
"I'll miss Vicky," Amy said in a small voice, making both the others look at her. Taylor grabbed her hand too.
"No problem, we can see her any time. Hey, Bob, do you know Vicky's monster?"
All three of them peered into the deep darkness under the bed. Taylor grinned widely. "There, see? Bob can go talk to Jeff and we can see Vicky too."
Amy smiled happily.
On the drive home, Carol was very quiet, as was Sarah. In the back seat Amy seemed cheerful, unlike the previous times she'd left the Hebert house. Looking at her in the rear view mirror, Sarah shook her head slightly. This whole situation was so weird she didn't know what to think.
But at least the girl seemed happier, so it wasn't all bad.
That said, there was going to be a lot of talking that needed to be done, and a lot of issues that needed to be aired. Perhaps it was for the best, really. The stresses of the New Wave movement were hard on everyone and they couldn't afford to make things worse with internal problems, if they could be avoided. So one way or another they'd need to come to an agreement.
But she was still extremely puzzled about exactly how Amy kept ending up in the Hebert's house, as the explanation of the monster under the bed helping was clearly completely ridiculous.
And she had no idea at all who or what Mal Linwood was. That part was going to take a lot of thought.
