Recovery 1-3
The phone rang. Nancy hissed, holding a hand to her neck as she rubbed at it. Stupid muscles. The human body was badly designed. Other animals turned their heads fast, humans should be able to do the same.
Unfolding herself from the couch and muting the TV, she stepped across the living room to grab the phone off of the kitchen wall. This was stupid. She shouldn't be answering the phone. Whoever was on the other end would know that there was someone home once she answered the phone.
Except it could be Taylor. And the Heberts didn't seem to have an answering machine. Because apparently Danny Hebert was a freaking technological dinosaur. She was going to have to get them more funds. Just a bit of hacking while Taylor was gone and she should be able to get them something through the stocks that wouldn't trigger alarm bells in the Thinker coteries. Either that or she could drain funds from the Empire or ABB. They weren't all that well protected really and if she was careful, Taylor and Danny would never even realize that their accounts had increased by a small sum. Not much, just enough so that she wasn't a freeloader. They'd never have to know that she was being useful. It would be a secret.
The phone was in her hand and her mouth was dry. She tried to clear her throat, but she couldn't draw air into her lungs.
"Taylor, hey! Glad you picked up, girl. I wasn't sure if I was going to get you at your lunch break or not. I figured you went to either Immaculata or Winslow and I have no idea what their schedules are. So I've been talking to my aunt, and while she's being pretty tyrannical over the whole 'accountability' thing, if you wanted to just hang out we could totally do that."
Nancy bit her tongue, squeezing her hand around the receiver. Victoria. Glory Girl. Calling here. Calling Taylor.
Taylor gave her her number before they left. Vicky believed that it was a cell phone. Believes she is talking to Taylor. Will shortly grow concerned with continued silence if situation is not resolved.
"Taylor? You there?"
Nancy tried to whisper a soft, 'No', but her throat closed up and she only succeeded in gasping and coughing.
"Taylor is everything okay? Are you hurt? Are you in danger? Knock once for yes, twice for no."
That she could do. Nancy reached over to the wall, holding the receiver close and knocked twice. She heard a heavy sigh on the other end.
"Okay. Well that's good. But I don't understand, why can't you…Oh, oh crap. Is this Nancy?"
She rapped once, sending a clear echo into the phone.
"Oh. Damn, I'm sorry. I assumed Taylor gave me her cell, not her house number. I'm really sorry, Nancy. You can't talk right?"
She shut her eyes, baring her teeth at the empty house. Fucking Coil.
Two knocks later, Vicky was sighing. "I'm sorry. This is just making things uncomfortable for you I'm guessing. Look, I'll call back later. Actually, uh, are you able to take a message for Taylor? If this is her house phone I don't want to call later and get her in trouble with her dad."
Nancy knocked once.
"Thanks. Just tell her that my aunt is being firm on 'no masks' if she does decide to join. But that doesn't mean that she can't call me to go on patrol or something even if she doesn't want to do anything official. I have some experience in this city and the last thing I want is for a new player to get hurt because she's going out alone without backup. Just make sure she knows that she can call me the next time she goes out, okay?"
Taylor had powers. Taylor would be going out again. It was inevitable. She would go out and she would get noticed and Coil would find out and when he realized she didn't have a team he would send men after her and he would find her and he would force her to use her omniscience for him and he would -
"Nancy?"
She sucked in a breath, shaking her head. Knocking three times, she followed it up with one knock.
"…I'm going to assume that means 'sorry' and then 'yes'. Are you okay? Do you need me or Amy to come over?"
She knocked once, then twice.
"Okay. Alright, well, take down my number just in case alright?" She rattled off her phone number just before a bell rang in the background. "Crap, I gotta get back to class. Call me if something happens. Bye!"
The line went dead and Nancy hung up the phone. She stared at it for a few seconds. Her lips pulling back into a snarl as she kept glaring at the offending instrument. She couldn't even answer a goddamn phone. What the fuck was she supposed to do?! She couldn't talk without having a panic attack, she couldn't type out a letter, she couldn't write out a message to someone, she couldn't even gasp out a two letter word over the fucking phone!
She slammed her fist into the wall with a deep, guttural growl.
Then she whimpered as pain radiated up her arm from her knuckles.
Fuck.
"I'm home," Taylor's weary call sounded as the front door closed. Nancy shifted on the couch, smiling back and lifting her hand in a wave, careful to keep her bandaged one on the laptop. As she caught sight of Taylor's dripping hair and wet, red, clothes, her smile dropped away, replaced by a scowl.
Taylor saw her watching and dropped her gaze to the floor. "I'm going to go and…take a shower. I'll be down in a few minutes to make us some food. Didn't get much to eat anyway and you still need to keep eating more than normal."
Nancy pushed the laptop to the side, her research abandoned as she moved to Taylor's side, eyes narrowed to slits.
Fruit juice and soda. Backpack is wet as well. Taylor's back is not as wet; was wearing backpack at time of attack. Gum and spitballs in hair. Taylor is close to dropping out of school entirely due to continual harassment. Taylor did not skip today because of discussion with Father from last night. Taylor does not want to draw attention as she is worried it will lead to your discovery. She will protect you over herself.
Nancy bit her lip. Taylor tried to avoid her gaze and kept staring at the floor. "It's not a problem, really. Just some kids at school." She gasped, her eyes widening. "Your hand! What happened?! Are you - mhphmh!"
Taylor devolved into muffled grunts and mumbles as Nancy stepped forward on her toes and hugged the taller girl. She pulled Taylor against her as tight as she could until her toes burned from the pain of holding the position.
"…Thanks," Taylor murmured, her breath warm against her neck. Nancy stepped back, nodding and smiling, holding her arms out wide to either side. Taylor nodded back, a bit of life back in her expression. "I really do need to go get cleaned up. You should change your shirt. I got you dirty now."
Nancy just shrugged, rolling her eyes and shooing Taylor up the stairs. She caught Taylor's eyes finding the dent in the wall next to the phone, but the brunette didn't say anything about it, as they both went to change.
Taylor looked over her hand as Nancy typed with her left. The laptop was slow enough that the loss of one limb didn't noticeably affect her speed. She'd had better equipment in elementary school.
"It doesn't feel like anything is broken." Nancy nodded. "Do you want to tell me what happened?"
She sighed and turned the laptop to the side. The rise and fall of Emma Barnes - Model And Traitor was getting boring anyway. Finding Taylor's horror notebook hadn't been hard and it had thankfully given Nancy the names of her primary targets.
It wasn't going to be hard to destroy the first girl at all. All she had to do was send off a few emails from her account, spill several pilfered images, and make some carefully calculated social media posts to ensure that 'Emma' accidentally publicly implicated Madison as 'Specific Protagonist' in a virtual spat that would take the other girl down as well. Madison really should never have written that…filth. It was good filth, but it was still nothing that was fit for the masses. Emma and Madison would be pariahs amongst their 'friends' in a day - maybe two - tops. It's just a shame that destroying Sophia was shaping up to be a whole separate project. Pointing a social worker at Emma's father would just be icing on the cake really and ensure that her school life and home life all crumbled around her at once.
But should she do it? That sort of operation was a Lisa thing, not so much a Nancy one…When she had been Sarah, she had never cared about people either way. When she had - briefly - been Lisa, she had wanted to fuck with people, hurt them - it's what her powers had seemed designed for…Nancy though…Nancy would stay quiet, stay safe, not stick her neck out where anyone could potentially see her fingers at work from the shadows. But…these bitches had hurt Taylor.
She'd think about it for the night and decide in the morning.
"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."
Shaking her head, and refocusing on the conversation, Nancy lifted her free hand to point at the phone on the wall, but before she could continue with her gestures, Taylor snorted. "I got that you got angry with the phone. Why did you get angry with the phone?"
Nancy glared at her. After a moment, she rolled her eyes, then retrieved her other hand and mimed a crown around her head.
Taylor frowned. "I don't get it. Someone called, but what is that supposed to be?"
Nancy sighed. Thrusting one of her hands through the air, she looked back at Taylor with a raised eyebrow. "Someone who can fly? But what was, oh it was a tiara! Okay, so Glory Girl called. Why would that get you…you answered and got frustrated that you couldn't talk to her…"
She nodded. Tapping her throat she swiped a hand across it and scowled hard, then glared at her aching hand.
"It's okay." Taylor reached down and held the bandaged limb, careful not to squeeze and cause more pain. "Even if you don't end up being able to talk again, this is fine. We can still communicate! This works. It's not a problem at all."
Nancy looked away brushing away a bit of dust from her eye as she swallowed hard.
"What did Gl-uh, Vicky, want?"
Nancy held up two fingers and mimed walking with them.
"She wanted to go on patrol with me?! Oh, wow. That's…wow."
Nancy nodded. She looked resolutely at the laptop on the table. Taylor would be fine. It wasn't her place to ask her to stay just because she was scared. Taylor would be fine. If she wanted to go out, she should be able to go out. Powers wanted to be used after all.
"You know, I think I'll take her up on that some other time. Right now I have other things I need to do. And I still need to make some food for us. How do you feel about mac and cheese?"
Nancy couldn't look at her, but she nodded enthusiastically. Not that mac and cheese could really be called 'food', but it was the thought that was worth counting not the calories. She went to grab the laptop again as Taylor shifted positions. Emma was being taken care of and Madison would fall with her. Now to focus on the last one. Sophia Hess. There was a secret there. This computer was slow as balls though, so finding it was probably going to take most of the night. Once she had it though…she was going to neuter the bitch.
"Nancy?" She looked to the side out of the corner of her eye as Taylor squeezed her arm. "You know that you can talk to me about, well, anything right?"
She nodded.
"I mean it. Really. Anything. I'm right here, I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going to leave. You're safe here. No matter what, you're safe here."
Nancy's breath hitched.
"You know more about me than anyone else. The only other people who know that I have powers are Amy and Vicky, but they aren't my friends. My dad doesn't even know. No one has seen me come home after school looking like - like that before. I trust you. You can trust me. So if you ever want to talk - even without actually talking - I'm right here."
Taylor is implying that she knows you are a parahuman. She is attempting connection based on mutual isolation from others. She knows that you were captured for your ability. She is offering safety and shelter and protection. She is attempting assurance that she will not abuse ability. That she will not bring up ability unless you bring it up first. Taylor is ally. Taylor is safety. Taylor is friend.
Nancy didn't need her power to tell her that. She didn't need her power to tell her that at all.
It was so hard to breathe, her throat was closed and the world was narrowed to a pinprick in front of her eyes. Her fist was clenched, but not hard enough to leave any marks.
Taylor was her friend.
Taylor was her dark-clad rogue, her knight in scary armor.
If she couldn't trust this girl with a secret that Taylor already knew…she would never be able to trust anyone ever again.
Nancy didn't want to be Sarah anymore. She didn't want to be Lisa. She didn't want to be a broken, dead, shell of a thing who could only beg and pray for whatever scraps her Master deigned to provide.
Taylor started to get up from the couch. Nancy's hand shot out and gripped the other girl's wrist. She twisted, entwining her fingers with the brunette and pulling her back down. Taylor didn't make a sound. Nancy bit her tongue. She couldn't say it. She couldn't.
But…maybe…she could…show it.
Using her free hand, she pushed the laptop enough to show the screen to Taylor.
"Sophia…? I never told you the names of the Trio…"
Nancy couldn't breathe, but she could still move. She reached up to tap her forehead twice.
The living room was silent for only another second before Nancy felt Taylor pulling her closer and wrapping her into a deep, strong hug. The scent of strawberry shampoo filled her nose and the shea butter soap reminded her of home.
"I swear to you, Nancy, no one is ever going to use your mind against you ever again."
Taylor's shoulder was warm and strong and soft. It was good that Nancy's rogue didn't care that she was bawling into her shoulder.
