Upon my return home, I discovered that Taylor probably did not in fact have a better day than I did. This was likely because she was nursing an ice pack on the back of her head. I could actually see a bruise on her cheek. I didn't immediately panic because her clothes weren't damaged and she was conscious.

Her sour expression was pretty clear though as I saw her laying on the couch when I entered the living room. I positioned myself leaning over the top of the couch from behind it so that I could see my sister's face.

"Hey sis, care to explain the ice pack?"

"Sam please I'm really not up for a conversation."

"Can you at least tell me what story dad is going to hear?"

"… I slipped and fell down some stairs."

"Wow Taylor, I thought you were better at lying than that. Your delivery sucked for one thing."

"Can you at least give me some time to rest?"

I took another look at her and decided she did probably need some rest before I got the truth out of her. I was willing to help her cover up whatever happened to her from dad. Goodness knows how many times she helped me out the same way. Of course that was predicated on the premise that I would be in on the know.

"OK I'll let you get some rest. I'll make dinner tonight as a treat. I can make some chili on the stove. It should be ready by the time dad gets home and we can eat together."

"Alright but please don't use too much chili powder again."

"I still think the recipe we have is too bland."

"That's because you have freakish taste buds. Please stick to the recipe."

"Okay Chef Taylor"

I went to the kitchen to get the chili started. Deciding to cater to the duller palette of my sister I followed the recipe as instructed. Thankfully we had managed to adapt since mom had died, so we all got better at cooking. Me and Taylor did most of it since dad spent most of his time working at the dockworkers union.

The reason he spent so much time at the union was that it was barely scraping by. The parts of Brockton Bay that were actually doing well like the boardwalk didn't need much union work. So to stretch the budget the Union did have my dad basically worked 2-3 jobs. It was either that or find a new job, which were very scarce. The money from my wards position helped a lot but the cost of living was not kind to our budget, so we had to make due.

I had put the bog standard chili on the stove to cook and was watching to make sure it didn't boil over. Then out of nowhere the door rang. It was very unexpected since it had been a while since we had a visitor, especially this late after dark.

"I'll get it," I said. Taylor merely groaned in acknowledgement. When I reached the door I checked the peephole to find a dark haired girl standing on the porch. Deciding it was safe to answer I opened the door.

"Hello, welcome to the Hebert residence. What brings you out here so late?"

"Oh, my name is Charlotte. I actually was hoping to talk to Taylor. We didn't get a chance to talk before she got sent home from school early. So I asked around for where she lived and came here."

"Oh? What happened?"

"Umm I'm not sure I should talk about that here. Is Taylor home?"

Dang, so close. Guess I'll have to use a different stratagem to hear what happened.

"Yes she is, one minute." I turned around and ducked into the living room. Taylor seemed to have sat up and looked a bit more rested at least. "Hey Taylor, someone named Charlotte is at the door. She told me about the incident at school."

That got her attention as she quickly got to her feet. As she opened her mouth she paused, narrowed her eyes, and then said.

"What exactly did she say?"

Sigh. I'll give her credit. She has gotten wise to my tricks. Guess I'll have to get the truth the boring way, with honesty.

"Only that she wants to talk to you since you got sent home early."

"Okay I'll go talk to her, and please no eavesdropping. Alright?"

"Of course, why bother when you can tell me yourself later?"

"Why would I do that?"

"Cause if not I can always ask dad if he knows why you got sent home early today?

"….When did you turn so evil? You're on the Wards!"

"You learn a lot about evil as a hero, Taylor. Now you shouldn't keep your visitor waiting any longer."

Taylor seemed to just sigh and huff as she went to the porch. I decided to return to the chili, and enjoy the smell as I stirred it. Even if it wasn't as spicy as I liked it, my taste tests came up good. I took some time setting the table and cleaning some of the cooking utensils in the sink. After ten minutes of this I heard the front door slam shut, and then Taylor entered the kitchen.

"That sounded like an angry door slam."

"That's because I am pissed! Who the hell does she think she is!? The nerve of coming here and saying "Sorry, Taylor I can't be seen with you" after what happened today. The fucking nerve!"

Oh wow Taylor is using profanity. That is a rare sight. She usually reserves that for when she's talking about the Empire 88. Those guys can really get under her skin.

"Okay you got to fill me in cause I'm a bit lost"

"You weren't listening in?"

"So little trust today. As you can see I was getting dinner ready." I gestured to the set plates and the chili I was about to finish cooking. "Now please fill me in."

"Okay, fine. I need to vent anyway. Today was going normally. All the other people at Winslow were being their awful selves. I wasn't looking to start any trouble. Then at lunch I noticed some of the skinheads were harassing a girl."

Well it seems I should have clued in that the Empire 88 was involved from the profanity Taylor was using earlier.

"Let me guess, the one who was just here. Charlotte?" I asked.

"Yeah, so anyways I saw they were verbally abusing her because they had found out that Charlotte was Jewish. I decided that after all that bullying from last year I was going to stand up for her. Show everyone else that it only takes one person to make a difference."

Uh oh, this is sounding like my sister is developing a hero complex. They talk about stuff like this during ward training. It's usually not positive.

"So when I walked up to those skinheads, I asked where they get the nerve to act like they do. That they should be ashamed. And a few other things I can't repeat in polite company. But they absolutely deserved it for the things they were saying."

I'm feeling both proud and concerned right now because while she does have her heart in the right place, she is making some unwise moves here.

"But then one of them punched me! I wasn't ready for it so I was knocked to the ground. My head actually hit one of the tables on the way down, too. At that point one of the useless teachers that had just been standing by finally got off their ass and told both of us we were suspended for the day for starting a fight. No surprise there. So I had to stop by the nurses office to get checked for a concussion and then I came home."

Okay that was bad but not the worst way it could have ended. Maybe I should try teaching Taylor some self defense? I know enough from Wards training that I could cover some basics at least.

"So after I go through all that trouble to stand up for her, what does Charlotte do? She comes here and says she doesn't want to be seen with me at school! She said she didn't want me defending her!"

My mind unhelpfully supplied that she does only have an 0-1 fight record with the skinheads, but I thought better than to say that out loud. Instead I tried a different tack.

"Maybe she's just scared. People aren't always thinking straight when they're scared."

"Yeah but it's one thing to be scared, but then there's being a complete coward. Did I also mention she tried to apologize about not doing anything about my bullying last year? Doesn't do anything and then a year later tries to make herself feel better by saying sorry about it. The fucking nerve."

Damn this Charlotte really pushed my sister's buttons, which she has a lot of to be fair. She's still not entirely over the "Semester from Hell". Doesn't help that effectively everyone in the school was a bystander, so making friends with anyone at Winslow would be hard for Taylor.

"Yeah, waiting a year to apologize is pretty bad. Though are you sure you aren't being a bit harsh? She was hardly the only one."

"Maybe, but I went out of my way to not be a bystander for her….. and she just…. uuuggghhh"

Taylor just put her head in her hands as she just groaned in frustration. I took this pause in the conversation as an opportunity to take the chili off the heat. Dad should be home soon enough.

I decided to see if I could get to the root of the problem because this is new behavior from Taylor. She was picking fights with skinheads for being racist. That wasn't necessarily the wrong thing to do but if she decided to do that every time they did it she would be getting in fights every day.

"So I get why you felt the need to help her, but why now? From what you tell me about Winslow this was not the first time someone's been openly racist to someone else."

Taylor's face made a strange expression now, but it seemed to be turning back to being angry for some reason.

"What are you saying? Are you saying I shouldn't have helped her?"

"Well I could have told you beforehand it probably wasn't going to end well. You're not exactly the most intimidating person so they probably weren't going to back down."

"Sam, I am not going to just sit back and let them do whatever they want just because you think I'm weak."

I think I'm starting to get Taylor's problem. She's having self confidence issues and decided helping someone out would make things better. Only this time it went badly.

"I don't think you're weak Taylor."

"Really, then why do you keep acting like it?" Her voice was starting to rise.

"You're my older sister Taylor. There's no reason to think you're any weaker than I am."

"THEN WHY DID YOU BLACKMAIL EMMA FOR ME SAM?"

"Wait what!?" When did she find that out!

"I tried to talk to her again earlier this week. It had been a while since she had bullied me and I wanted answers. And you know what she told me? THAT YOU THREATENED TO MASTER HER SAM."

Oh no. My theory of asking forgiveness instead of permission is getting stressed tested right now and it is not going well. Also it was probably a bit optimistic to assume they wouldn't ever talk again. Even worse was that Emma hadn't outed me since Taylor knew I was a ward already, so she was legally clear.

"I thought she was lying. She has told a lot of lies so it wouldn't be the first. But then I decided to ask dad if you had been over to Emma's house. He told me you had gone there almost a year ago to get a book you had lost. Which happens to match almost exactly to when the bullying started going away!"

Taylor doesn't like when I keep secrets but I have never seen her this mad. If I don't do damage control now this is going to be a real problem.

"You're… making it sound a lot worse than it was."

"You're supposed to be a hero! You shouldn't be going behind your own sister's back to threaten people! Do you know what would've happened if Emma had gone to the PRT!? My own sister would be sent to prison, or worse, the birdcage just because she thought I couldn't handle a little bullying."

"Okay, but what else was I supposed to do? We had already tried getting the school to do something and you saw how useless they were! Was I supposed to not do anything?"

"YES! Because you're my little sister! I shouldn't need your help to handle my problems. Me and dad were dealing with it!"

Okay I was starting to get tired of being yelled at. I did a good thing! I stopped her from getting bullied! So I pushed back harder.

"If I remember correctly you tried to cover it up from dad. The only reason I was able to clue him in was that I kept finding ruined school supplies in the trash! If it was up to you then you would still be getting bullied!"

I had finished speaking when I suddenly saw Taylor's expression get even angrier. That's probably a sign I just went a bit too far with the push-back. There was a moment of silence as Taylor searched for the words she wanted to say. The she growled out,

"If that's what you think Sam, then fine. But I want you to tell me if you are blackmailing anyone else, and I want the truth."

Oh no. Do I lie or tell the truth that I'm also coercing Shadow Stalker? I could say I'm just keeping her accountable for her probation. But then if she finds out later then it could get ugly. Shadow Stalker does go to Winslow so the same thing with Emma could happen. Might as well try honesty.

"I….. might also be blackmailing Shadow Stalker."

"YOU'RE BLACKMAILING ANOTHER WARD!?"

Wait, I probably should have said Sophia and not Shadow Stalker.

"DID YOU THREATEN TO MASTER HER TOO!"

"No no no I did not threaten her. She's on probation and since she goes to Winslow I told her to stop bullying you and-"

"Wait. One of my bullies is a ward!? How long did you know this?"

Crap, this is why I hate thinking on my feet. It's so easy to make simple screw ups like this.

"Taylor you know I can't tell you the other wards' identities without their permission."

"You could have told me one of them was a bully!"

"Even hints like that can get someone in trouble Taylor! I've been trying to be on my best behavior ever since the mugging incident."

"Oh, blackmailing a civilian and a ward is being on your best behavior huh?"

"I was blackmailing them into being better people, I wasn't doing it for me."

"No, you did it for me. Which is what I have a problem with. Even worse that you hid it from me. Any day we could have woken up with you getting hauled away for threatening to master people. Do you know what that would do to dad?"

I didn't have a response to that, since it was true. Losing mom had been very rough on him. I don't even want to think what would happen if he lost one of his daughters. It was probably for the best I stopped talking because I would have just made things even worse somehow at this rate. It was then we heard dad pulling into the driveway.

"...So what's the story we're going to tell dad?" I asked.

"...I fell down some stairs and you made the chili."

A/N

-So here we have Taylor. As you can see even if the bullying wasn't as bad it still affected her. I hope folks don't mind if I wrote Taylor as a slight hypocrite in this chapter condemning Charlotte for not helping and then Sam for how she helped. She is going through a rough case of "The world is not going how you think it should". Like Sam mentioned Taylor is going through some issues and standing up to the skinheads was her attempt to remedy that, with unsatisfying results.

-Looks like Charlotte got an appearance. She was written as being uncomfortable with confrontations in canon. So even if Taylor was standing up for her she wouldn't be that cool with the idea of hanging out means hanging out with someone eager to get into fights. It's not an ideal mindset but it makes sense for her.

-Also Sam can maneuver well in conversations but when she gets put on the back-foot she can fail hard. A recurring theme you will see is that she'll be great with plans and prep time but terrible at improvising when things go pear shaped.

-If Taylor seems oddly familiar I was basing a bit of the insecurity on Fredo Corleone from The Godfather II. A lot of "I can handle things! I'm smart!" energy in her actions I think. Even if the characters are different the insecurity over younger siblings is there.

-BTW Feel free to leave comments and feedback. Love to have engagement from the readers.