Annette Hebert loved both of her daughters dearly, even if they were as different in personality as you could imagine two preteen girls could be.

Her older daughter Taylor was excitable and loved to talk about her favorite interests, mostly heroes. She and Emma Barnes were as thick as thieves: sharing in jokes, remembering things for one another, and they could even finish each other's sentences from time to time. Taylor was very bright as well. When Taylor tagged along to some of Annette's lectures at the college, she would always have questions about what they were talking about. She could tell that Taylor could follow the material fairly well for a child her age.

Her younger daughter Samantha, or Sam, was a bit of a different story. She and Danny had only planned on one child when they had started their family. But apparently the birth control hadn't worked like it was supposed to because two years after Taylor was born Annette found herself with a strong case of morning sickness.

When it was confirmed to be a pregnancy she found herself torn. She wasn't necessarily opposed to another child. Taylor was the light of their lives after all, another kid couldn't hurt. Of course she also had to think about how it would affect her career, so relatively soon after her last maternity leave.

It took some long nights of conversation and debate with Danny to make up her mind to keep the baby ("There's no reason we can't love two kids any less than one after all."). She suspected that Danny had been hoping for a son, but she was fine with keeping the baby. Thankfully the university hadn't given her any trouble over the maternity leave and Danny had built up some paid leave.

As for Taylor she took the news well when she learned she was getting a little sibling. She only realized a few months into the pregnancy that mom and dad had fibbed about the stork when she noticed Annette's growing belly. She was much more put out by that fib than anything else. When Annette's water broke Taylor was only a little upset at having to forgo playtime that day so they could rush to the hospital. So it was on February 3rd 1998 that Samantha Danielle Hebert was born into the world.

Annette and Danny had thought they would be ready for a second baby. Taylor had been a relative angel, so quiet and observant they had nicknamed her little owl. Sam however had proved herself an absolute trouble magnet. It turned out raising two daughters made for more blind spots than they had anticipated.

When she started crawling at nine months old she had managed to sneak into the laundry dryer when the laundry room door hadn't latched. That scare had prompted them to get extra baby gates. At two years old she managed to earn her first trip to the hospital when she stuck her hand on the inside of a hot oven door when Annette was getting dinner ready ("I swear I only had my back turned for a moment to put down the ham and she had burned herself").

Her second trip to the hospital was at six years old when she tried climbing the kitchen counter to get to the cookie jar, and ended up needing a cast for her leg. At that point they had established a tradition of eating lasagna when Sam got home from the hospital as a treat for both her and Taylor. When Sam was eight she needed a rabies shot after she made an attempt to adopt a local stray dog. Annette and Danny were grateful they had decent medical insurance each time.

Thankfully Taylor and Sam got along fairly well as sisters. Taylor had initially been put out by the attention Sam had gotten early on, but it had receded as she got older and understood that the reason Sam got extra attention was that she got hurt so much. Taylor had taken to being the responsible older sibling role fairly well. Being the responsible one made her feel important. It was a big part of reigning in Sam's adventurousness.

Their personalities almost complemented each other with their differences. Where Taylor was introverted Sam was extroverted. Where Sam was impulsive Taylor was thoughtful. One of the few times Danny and Annette could feel comfortable letting Sam out of their sight was when Taylor was with her.

In fact a lot of Taylor's interests rubbed off on Sam as well, which was why both spent a sizable amount of their sister-bonding time talking about capes. Sam even got the same type of glasses Taylor had when she got her first pair. While they also had similar hair, Sam had preferred to keep her hair in a braid after several hair related incidents ("Okay so we may have to cut some strands to get the mini-fan out of your hair Sam").

Once Sam went to school she managed to enjoy herself. She also managed to earn herself a few trips to the principal's office with such great ideas as playing "The Floor is Lava" with the classroom desks or using a textbook as a dartboard and throwing sharpened pencils as ersatz darts. These antics and her relative popularity were somewhat related.

Despite all this Annette was happy to have Sam as a daughter. Her tomboy streak gave Danny a chance to share a few of the old activities he and his father had shared. She had proven to be fairly good at softball. So almost every weekend Danny and her had made time for a round of catch. They also liked watching some of the baseball games together as well, following it up with some TV movies. It made her feel less guilty about spending some quality time reading with Taylor without them. She could see both Sam and Taylor growing into self assured young women ready to make their way in the world.

They had signed Sam up for a local softball team when she entered elementary school to try and direct some of that energy she always had ("We have to give her something to do, Danny. She'll drive us up the wall otherwise"). It was on one of Sam's practice days however that Annette and Danny had gotten into a heated argument .

It had been over Danny's latest attempt to revive the ferry, which Annette felt wasn't worth the effort anymore after so many failures. Using the excuse of picking up Sam to break up the argument, Annette left the house and spent the car ride cooling off before getting to the park. However when Annette arrived Sam could see she wasn't in a good mood as she entered the backseat of the car.

"Hey mom, is something wrong?"

"It's nothing you need to worry about sweetheart. How was your practice?"

"It was fine. Getting ready for that trip to Manchester for the finals this year. Coach even let me try to pitch again, and I didn't hit a single player this time!"

"That's nice dear… Hold on." Annette grabbed a buzzing cell phone from the side to answer a call and flipped it open. "Annette speaking. Oh Taylor is that you? …. Yes your father and I were arguing but we are done now. It's nothing you need to worry about. How about you tell me about your day?..."

Sam couldn't hear what Taylor was saying so she quickly lost interest as the conversation went on. Looking around she could see they were going through downtown. It was a typical day, nothing amiss as they approached an intersection. It was only then that as Sam was looking around that she noticed the sight of a semi-truck driving RIGHT FOR THEM!

"MOM!"

Annette could barely react to Sam's scream as the speeding vehicle smashed the front end of their car. The airbags and seatbelts were little help as their car was sent rolling across the street. Sam could only scream as her world tumbled and debris pelted her. When Sam finally got her bearings after a minute she felt the unpleasant warmth of her own blood trickling out of her arm as she found the car had been deformed and left on its side.

Sam could barely stay awake as the pain in her bleeding arm continued to assault her senses. The backseat was in chaos as the backseat was deformed with the car. Then she looked at the front seat where her mother was sitting. The sight there was something she never wanted to remember.

[Destination]

[Trajectory]

[Agreement]

Danny loved his wife Annette, who was the love of his life. He also loved his daughters, who both managed to shine in their own ways. It was for this reason when he found himself sitting in room 404 of Brockton General across from the bed that his daughter Sam laid in that he could barely function in his grief.

His wife was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident, his daughter Sam was badly injured and had been fighting for her life in surgery for the whole day, and Taylor was laying next to him sleeping with a red face that had exhausted the tears it could shed.

It was the first time they could finally see Sam after she had gone under the knife. She wasn't very coherent before surgery, barely able to acknowledge them during their pre-surgery visit before groaning from pain ("I couldn't do anything…. Everything hurts…."). But the fact that they had seen her alive was enough then.

Sam was in a lot of ways the son he never had. Even at a young age she wasn't particularly girly, and where Taylor took after her mother Sam had liked spending her time with him. He had always wished he could spend more time with his daughters; his job at the dockworkers union had always been very demanding.

When he did Sam was always the one who wanted to watch baseball with him. She loved his stories about the dockworkers, the ones he could relate without using profanity at least. She was an endless trouble magnet but somehow that was part of her charm. Every time she had been hurt or had a problem she had needed him. The only thing keeping him going now was that she had survived, and that she needed him more than ever..

But now that they were sitting in her room it wasn't clear what else there was to do now but keep waiting for her to wake up. Her body was covered in bandages in several places. It was then that they were rewarded for their patience as Sam began to stir.

"Whu- Whu-"

"Sam!" Danny found himself saying. The relief he felt was enormous. Then he remembered something. "I need to call the nurse" He rushed to the pager the hospital had provided.

Taylor had been roused by Danny's frantic activity. When she finally awoke the nurse had arrived.

"Nurse I think Sam is finally awake"

"Wonderful, I need to check her vitals for a minute could you please wait one moment"

As Sam finally opened her eyes the nurse had finished checking the monitors and filling out a clipboard.

"Hello Ms Hebert. I see that you're awake from your surgery. Do you need some water?"

"Y-yes" Sam replied with a scratchy voice. Hearing this the nurse propped Sam up on some pillows and put a glass up to her lips. She drank gently. "Thank you nurse"

"You're welcome. Now that you're awake I think you need to talk to your family. Mr Hebert if you need me please don't be afraid to use the pager. And remember not to excite her too much."

With that the nurse left the room and Danny approached his daughter. Taylor stayed silent, and she seemed to defer to Danny to explain things to Sam. He hesitated but knew he had to start with a hard question.

"Sam, how much do you remember about what happened?"

Sam's gaze began to focus towards her father as she tried to remember and then she spoke slowly "I remember that mom was driving us home. We got hit by a truck and I… I don't remember what happened next but after that was a lot of pain. Then I fell asleep and now I'm here."

"Sam… Do you understand what happened to your mother?

"...Yes. She's not coming home is she?"

"No, she's not." Danny wished so much he could have given another answer.

"I want to go home."

"Sweetheart I want you to come home too but you need to stay here for a while until you're ready."

"I can go home. I can get out of bed right now…" Sam said in a slightly raised but still weak voice. It was then that suddenly a white glow enveloped her body as a ghostly apparition emerged from her body. As it rose in the air Danny and Taylor's minds finally took in what they were seeing and they began to scream.

"AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaagggggghhhhhhh"

And that was how they found out Sam was a parahuman.

Taylor loved her sister as much as any other older sister did. She could hardly remember a time when Sam wasn't around getting into trouble. She was close enough in age that most of the clothes Taylor grew out of found their way to being worn by Sam almost immediately. They watched a lot of the same shows and read a lot of the same books. When they were both going to the same elementary school they had picked out a seat on the bus just for themselves.

Even when they fought it was usually resolved by the end of the week. There usually wasn't much to fight about anyways. They sometimes competed for Mom and Dads attention but they had sort of come to the understanding that Taylor liked spending time with Mom the most and Sam liked spending time with Dad. Of course that had changed with the accident.

Taylor could hardly function after learning her mom had died. She could only remember crying for a long time right after that. It was only when Sam had accidentally revealed she had become a parahuman that she started feeling other emotions than sadness again. Of course the other emotions she felt first were shock and terror, because in spite of it all somehow Sam could still surprise them. She could only thank the universe that she was only a parahuman and hadn't actually become a ghost.

Finding out her sister was a parahuman now was exciting enough. Handling the situation after that was even more of a roller coaster. Thankfully after realizing she had left her body behind, Sam had immediately returned to her body. When a nurse had poked her head in to investigate their screams Danny was able to hide the reason with a few quick lies

"Excuse me I heard a scream"

"Oh you did? So did we. I think it came a little further down the hall."

The nurse looked skeptical but decided not to push the issue. After Danny had managed to get the nurse to move on, he closed the door and faced his daughters. "Girls whatever happens you cannot let anyone else know Sam has powers"

"Why not?" Taylor replied.

"Because right now Sam is not in any condition to be dealing with anything. Least of all any gangs. They will press gang anyone if they thought they could get another parahuman. Even worse if they decide they can't make you join them."

"What happens then?"

"That's something we should talk about another time"

And with that the girls were sworn to secrecy during Sam's stay at the hospital. During the next three weeks after every school day Taylor made her way to Sam's bed at the hospital. Every day Taylor tried to keep Sam's mind off her situation, and so they sent every visit talking about capes, TV, books, and whatever else had nothing to do with the accident.

Taylor even began to take up her old role of keeping Sam out of trouble ("I don't care how funny it would be to make people think the hospital is haunted. Dad said not to use your powers"). At the end of visiting hours every day Danny would arrive to pick up Taylor, and he took the time to give Sam a hug even if her bandages made it awkward.

However it was during one of these days that Taylor confided in Sam something that had been bothering her.

"I feel like this all is my fault"

"What? Taylor, I don't understand."

"If I hadn't called Mom none of this would have happened. If I could have waited for her to come home everything would have been fine. But no. I heard they were arguing and I was worried Mom wasn't coming back. All of this is my fault."

"Taylor please don't do that."

"What?"

"You're overthinking things. There's lots of stuff that could have been different and the accident wouldn't have happened. Mom and Dad could've not argued with each other. Mom could have not answered her phone. The truck driver could have hit his brakes earlier. I could have warned mom earlier…"

"... Sounds like you're overthinking stuff too."

"...I had to watch her die. I lied to dad when I said I didn't remember. I do remember. I remember her bleeding out and I couldn't do anything. I was stuck and I couldn't do anything. I think that's when I triggered because I don't remember much after that."

"Oh my god Sam I didn't realize it was that bad."

"Please don't tell Dad about this but I've been having some bad dreams about it. If he finds out he'll worry even more."

"Your secret is safe with me." With that the sisters moved on to other topics. They came to a silent agreement. The less said about the accident the better.

Soon enough Sam was cleared to return home and finish her recovery there. Her arrival home was subdued as she slowly maneuvered her way on her crutches. That night Taylor made the lasagna, since she was the only one who knew the recipe. It was at this meal that Sam decided to tell Danny and Taylor something.

"Dad, I want to join the Wards"

Danny paused when he heard what his daughter had said. "I don't know if that's a good idea"

"What else am I supposed to do? Pretend like I don't have powers the rest of my life? I was already going stir crazy in the hospital."

"Sam I know you want to use your powers but you've been through a lot recently. You shouldn't be making life changing decisions so quickly. Being in the Wards is dangerous."

"You said I was already in danger from gangs in the hospital. How much worse could the Wards be?"

"Maybe this is something we can revisit later when you're out of your casts. It's too early to decide one way or the other anyways."

Taylor chose this moment to add her opinion "I think she should join the Wards too."

"Taylor please.."

"Dad, she really wants to do this. The reason she didn't use her powers on purpose the whole time she was in the hospital was that she wanted to make sure she didn't hurt her chances of getting into the Wards. She really wants this Dad."

Danny looked at his daughters and sighed. "Alright once Sam has her casts off we'll call the PRT and see about applying. If you have any, and I mean any, second thoughts until then we can think of something else."

Sam and Taylor let out a cheer and jumped up at their small victory. It was only by quick reflexes that Taylor caught Sam before she fell to the floor after losing her balance.

A/N
-I haven't seen any satisfying Taylor!sibling stories in Worm Fanfics so I thought I'd give it a try. My main aim of the story is to avoid it turning into just a series of fights the characters get into or a power fantasy and actually develop some relationships. I'm going to timeskip to a few weeks before Taylor triggers. It should be enough to skip most of the unimportant parts of the timeline while giving us a chance to see how Sam impacts pre-canon. As for how exactly her powers work, that will be better explained in the next chapter (The shard dynamics are something I will explain later).

-I decided to start the story with a prologue since I'm an amateur writer and decided it was best to put most of the backstory exposition here instead of the main story. The little dialogue interjections were mostly there to help add some flavor during the exposition sections, and I doubted I could fit them anywhere else. Writing in third person also lets me give Annette (who wouldn't get any otherwise), Danny, and Taylor some coverage before we focus on Sam. Once we start the first chapter we're going to switch to first person from Sam's perspective.

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