AN: Happy New Year! Here's hoping that 2021 is less of a gut punch. This is the last of the Recovery chapters, next chapter will be the long awaited, and much discussed, Danny Interlude!


Recovery 1-4

"Okay, I'm heading out."

Nancy hurriedly shoved the laptop off of her thighs and jumped over the back of the couch. Taylor had just started to pull the door open when Nancy skidded past and slammed it closed again. Taylor raised an eyebrow.

"I can stay here. I don't mind skipping at all; god knows I'll have a better time staying home and playing charades or watching movies with you than I would dealing with the Trio's bullshit. But you couldn't have mentioned something before I got showered and dressed? I could've slept in!"

Nancy rolled her eyes and patted the air. She scrambled back to the couch as Taylor snorted and leaned against the wall. Returning with her prize and a large grin, she shoved the camera into Taylor's hands.

Taylor stared down at the camera, then looked back up to Nancy. "You have totally and completely lost me."

Nancy held up three fingers, lowered one, then swiped her hand across her throat. Grinning wider, she pointed at the camera and mimed a few photos.

"Oookkkayy. Take photos. Got it."

Nancy sighed. She grabbed Taylor's hand and pulled her over to the couch. Pointing to the laptop she held up two fingers again and swiped them across her neck.

Taylor's eyes widened as she stared at the screen. "You're researching Sophia. No, this isn't research, you're hacking Sophia's stuff. So, oh. Two down." Taylor glanced down to the camera in her hand, then her eyes slowly panned up to meet Nancy's and her grin widened. "I'll get all the photos."

Nancy gave her two thumbs up and then shooed her friend out the door.


A few hours later Nancy scowled at the computer screen in front of her, the bottle of painkillers on the tabletop forgotten for the moment. No matter how hard she glared, the data didn't go away. She'd been able to get enough confirmation between Emma's phone, Sophia's phone, cross referenced absences and public appearances to confirm it. Her power wasn't giving her garbage data.

Sophia Hess, was a fucking Ward.

This was arguably a good thing. Removing Hess from Taylor's life would be incredibly simple now. At least, it would be if the PRT wanted to keep their image clean. If they wanted to keep their rehabilitation poster girl instead…then they could already be involved and helping the coverup along behind the scenes. It may not just be the specific case worker being lazy or wanting to line her pockets. It may be systemic.

Coil was involved with the PRT, it was always going to be systemic.

Nancy took in a deep breath and let it out slow, shaking her head. No. Coil wasn't involved. This was beneath Coil's notice and if he had been involved already, he would've flipped Shadow Stalker to work for him from the shadows.

Coil knows that Shadow Stalker is a problem child from his civilian life. Coil does not know about her civilian cover ups. Shadow Stalker would have been an operative and you would have been assisting her prior to escape if he knew.

Nancy winced as her brain beat on her skull. Thanks, power, she had already figured that out. The confirmation was nice though. At least her power agreed with her.

Okay, so Sophia was a loose cannon Ward torturing a student without PRT oversight because her handler was a lazy bitch and the principal wanted kickbacks more than justice. Okay.

So…did she release this information? Did she release that a Ward was targeting a student? Sending it out in a wide net would definitely get rid of Hess, but as much as she personally despised the bitch, she was a fellow cape…

So was Taylor now too, thanks to Hess.

Nancy's lips curled. She leaned down, setting up dummy accounts and false paths through the routers. It would be best to release this email from somewhere else entirely, but going outside was out of the question. She'd just have to settle for switching to piggy-backing off of a neighbor's wifi and obscuring her tracks.


"I'm home. Nancy? Are you - oh, hey! You won't believe what happened today." Taylor ran up to her and grabbed her hands. If Taylor's smile had been any wider it would have been sparkling. "So Madison was nearly laughed out of every class she walked into as people started quoting some smut works at her. I would never have guessed that 'cute and adorable' Madison was such a pervert! I got some photos of the first few times when she ran away. I actually read some of those stories, they're well written…She can probably come back from this honestly, but she won't be on top of the social circle anymore that's for sure."

Nancy nodded and retrieved her hand to wave for Taylor to go on.

"And Emma was run out of the school! It was amazing! What did you do?"

Nancy shrugged, her own smile spreading. Moving her hand from side to side, she shrugged again.

"Well whatever it was, it was a masterpiece."

Nancy bowed slightly.

"Oh! Before I forget, I need to give you something. I picked it up on my way back home." Taylor dropped her backpack and rummaged around in it for a moment before pulling out two small boxes. Biting her lip, Taylor thrust one towards Nancy, leaving the second on the table by the door. "This is a cell phone. I got one for myself too. It's prepaid, but it's not like you're going to call random people for hours anyway. I just wanted you to have something just in case. For, you know, when I'm not here. If something happens. Not that it will, but just in case. This model has two extra panic buttons. One links directly the PRT - I know you don't trust them, but in a worst case scenario it wouldn't hurt. The other is programmable. I already linked it to my number."

Nancy bit her lip as she gently took the phone from Taylor.

Taylor is avoiding looking at the phone as much as she can. No cell phones in the home. Cell phones are linked to trauma, but not trauma from school. Cell phone linked to trauma from mother. Mother died while using a cell phone.

Nancy swallowed hard. She wrapped her arms around Taylor and hugged her as tightly as she could.

"Please don't be afraid to call me if something happens or if you just get scared or worried. You don't have to be able to talk to call me. Just tap something and I'll come right back okay? We can come up with some sort of signal system to use tonight."

Nancy nodded against Taylor's shoulder. She pulled back from the hug, taking the phone from the box and slipping it into the pocket of her jeans.

"Oh, uh, on a different note, I'm guessing that you ended up getting something on Sophia? I thought she was going to kill someone by the time we got to lunch, but then she was pulled from the afternoon classes." Taylor paused and cocked her head to the side. "Some of the guys in the gangs were staring at her as she left though. Like…really staring. Like they wanted to hurt her."

Nancy sighed. She nodded and moved back to the couch. Pulling out the laptop she pulled up a news story that she had queued for just this situation. Taylor bent over her shoulder and started to read. She barely got through the first lines before she was gasping and grabbing at Nancy's shoulders, leaning closer to the screen.

"That psycho bitch was a Ward?! What the fuck?!" Nancy paged down and Taylor read aloud, "'The evidence has been provided to the local PRT ENE about the prolonged campaign directed by one of their Wards against a local student. Such malicious and targeted vitriol in an effort this protracted is more indicative of the worst of the villains found in Brockton Bay. Hookwolf could very well take notes from this. We at News 12 extend our thoughts and prayers to the victim. The school district has already responded with a -' Blackwell's been fired too?!"

Nancy nodded. She pulled away from Taylor, letting her friend skim through the rest of the article. "Holy shit…The PRT issued a statement too…violation of parole…juvie…failure of multiple safeguards…complete overhaul of oversight procedures…" Taylor gaped at the screen. "I get that you're a Thinker, Nancy, but oh my god - in one night, in one morning - how did you do this?"

She snapped her fingers and Taylor looked up at her. Leaning over, Nancy knocked down the dominos she had set up on the tabletop. They fell over in a neat little row, all leading from a crude drawing of a phone - one with multiple scratches and blemishes along its edges as the pencil had slipped and skipped through shaking hands.

"Dominos," Taylor murmured, swallowing hard. "Dominos from a phone. She kept evidence on there didn't she? Not just of things they did to me. Things she did while she was being a Ward, things that she wasn't supposed to be doing. And you got into her records and sent them to the station to make sure that it couldn't be buried."

Nancy nodded.

"That's why you stayed up so late."

She nodded again.

"You drew that?"

Nancy shut her eyes, turning her head to the side. She clenched her hand into a fist and let out a slow breath. She could breathe. She could breathe. It was fine. She was fine.

She nodded a third time.

"Nancy, I…I don't know what to say…" They fell into silence. It lasted long enough that Nancy was able to loosen her fingers again and shake life back into the digits. She had almost decided to get up to make them dinner when Taylor whispered, "Why?"

Nancy's head snapped towards Taylor, eyes wide and mouth gaping. The girl was sitting on the couch, head hanging as she stared at nothing, her hand running over the pathetic drawing that Nancy had barely been able to force herself to create. "I don't…Why? I'm not…I'm nobody. Why do…all this…for me?"

Terror campaign was more successful than Taylor realized. Internalized feelings of negative self-worth. Taylor will take care of you until she dies. Taylor is no longer capable of understanding why anyone would take care of her in return.

Well. Fuck that shit. Her power was wrong sometimes and it was wrong this time. It had the right idea, but the wrong extremes. Taylor was hurt, but that not hurt. She would bounce back. She would bounce back better than Nancy was, that was for damn sure!

Now how to explain that?

Nancy knelt in front of Taylor, she pulled the pad from Taylor's hands. The brunette looked at her, unshed tears in her eyes. Nancy smiled, then pointed between the two of them, waggling her finger back and forth. She took one of Taylor's hands, closed it into a fist and laid her open hand over it with a strong nod, then she dropped Taylor's other hand over hers and laid her right hand on top.

"Stuck together?"

Nancy retrieved her hands and waved one in the air in a 'so-so' gesture. She shrugged and eventually nodded. It was close enough, it would do.

"But -"

Nancy held a finger to Taylor's lips. She pulled out the horror notebook from under the pillow at the side of the couch. Taylor swallowed, but stayed silent. Nancy flipped to the beginning, back to when Taylor was still hoping that Emma would wake up and be her friend again. Nancy pointed to Emma's name, waited for Taylor to nod, and then showed an exaggerated snarl. She waited long enough for Taylor to nod again. Then she pointed to one, specific, word.

"…Friend…"

Nancy nodded. Taylor sniffled, but before she could move, Nancy stood and held up a finger. "And more?" She nodded again. Nancy hurried to the armchair and grabbed the bag from behind it.

"You were prepared…"

Nancy glanced towards her and snorted, tapping her head. Smirking at Taylor's small smile, she finished getting out the welder's mask she'd found in the basement and the play sword she had found deep in Taylor's closet. Brushing aside the mild shudder from the reminder of delving into the basement, she slipped the mask over her head and took a stance, the sword held to her chest. She turned it, pretending to stab it into the floor as she knelt, head down. Then she lifted her head and held the sword, hilt out, to Taylor.

Taylor was blushing enough that her face was red as a tomato. It was rather adorable actually.

"Uh. Are you saying that, um, you're my knight?"

Nancy lifted the welder's mask and eyed Taylor, sword still extended.

"That, I'm, uh, your knight?"

More like 'rogue', but close enough. Nancy slowly nodded trying to resist the urge to chuckle as Taylor's blush - impossibly - deepened.

"Oh."

She waggled the sword.

"Well, I uh, I suppose I did save you. But you saved me too. Today I mean. With the Trio. So…we can be each other's knights?"

Nancy shook her head and waggled the sword again.

"…I'm not going to get to live this down if I accept am I?"

Nancy's smile widened. She dropped the welder's mask back into place, pushing the sword almost into Taylor's lap.

"For someone who doesn't talk, you are incredibly pushy, Nancy. Okay, fine, I accept, I'll be your white knight." Taylor took the sword from her and Nancy jumped up, shooting both arms into the air. She turned in a quick circle as she celebrated, then she fell on Taylor in a tight hug.

"Though, honestly, considering my hero costume, I think I'm more of a dark knight. Wait, those are usually evil…Greg mentioned this before…What were the sneaky ones in those games? Rogues? I think I'm more of a dark rogue than a white knight."

Nancy smirked, dropping the mask to the side as she curled up on Taylor's lap. Strange minds really did think alike.