Enzo watched the light from the open door disappeared before he leaned back in his chair with a sigh. The girl wasn't as subtle or stealthy as she thought, but in any other bar with anyone else she probably could have pulled it off, just not this one. Rodin was Rodin, and Enzo had spent almost his entire life around people capable of killing him without a second thought, human and otherwise.

"So, that was the brat, huh?" He asked after a few minutes. "Hot little fucker, I tell you what."

"Yeah," Rodin said as he cleaned out Taylor's glass. "That was her, and if you don't mind, keep those kinda thoughts to yourself. Never know just who's gonna make their way through the Gates."

"Eh, anyone starts something you'll probably off him first before they can make a mess. Seriously though, she's damn near the spitting image of her mother. She's gonna be a real knockout once she grows a bit. Are all witches that fucking tall?"

"Why? You want them to share a little?"

"A short joke? Really? Oh that's just great..." Enzo lifted his bottle and shook it in Rodin's direction. "Not everyone can be freakishly tall you know!"

A few moments passed in silence.

"So, you gonna make the call so's we can get out of this hellhole and back to civilization?"

"Relax Enzo. I'm thinking I might stick around here for a little while yet. Might even get my tools out again. Something tells me things are going to be getting mighty interesting."

"Well that's just fuckin' wonderful. I swear, every time one of you yahoos say things'll be interesting, stuff starts blowing up; usually around me!"

"I said relax." Rodin set the glass down on the table and grabbed a remote out from under the counter. He turned and flicked on the tvs recessed over either edge of the bar. "How bout I turn on the news and get your mind off how bad things are for ya?"

Rodin flicked through the channels before leaving it on the Western News Network. Partway through a commercial, it abruptly cut back to the newscaster, a pretty brunette in a cheery sweater with a grim look on her face.

"Breaking news in our coverage of the ongoing situation in Brockton Bay; the group holding up the Brockton Central Bank have fled the bank, seizing a hostage on their way out. The woman's identity is unknown at the moment, but if you have any information that can help, please call the number on your screen."

The feed cut to a grainy picture, obviously grabbed from a security camera or from long distance, of a familiar face frozen in shock as an arm dragged her into an unmarked van. A moment later Rodin turned off the tvs and set the remote down as he massaged the bridge of his nose with his other hand.

There was an uncomfortable silence as Enzo took a long drag from his cigar.

"Rodin."

"Yeah?"

"You gonna make that call now?"

"Yeah."

"Good. I'm gonna go up my health insurance. I think I'm gonna need it."

"Hey Boss!" I sighed as I looked up from the latest pile of reference letters for members of the Association hoping for me to find them work elsewhere. A treacherous part of me couldn't help but feel relief for the interruption. John Dalesen, one of the old welders and my unofficial secretary, stood in the door with half a smoked cigarette sticking out of his mouth.

"How many times do I have to tell you: I'm not your boss," I said tiredly.

"Don't remember, doesn't matter anyway. You gotta come here and take a look at the tv. Some nuts are robbing the Bay Central!"

I blinked in surprise before getting to my feet. I followed John around the corner to the lobby for the Union's offices, where everyone else in the building had gathered around the tv.

"As you can see, the bank robbers have fled East along Bonneville. Traffic jams and fires across the city, have left local law enforcement and emergency responders paralyzed in the face of this crime. Kid Win, a member of the local Wards team, was the only parahuman responder and was quickly brought down by the thieves.

"Man, would look at that," I heard someone mutter off to the side. "Right in broad daylight. I miss when criminals had class and the sense to do things when it wouldn't muck up everyone else's day."

"No statement not any demands have yet been made with regards to the unknown hostage they seized as they fled the bank. Her identity is also yet unknown, and any-" My eyes went wide as a massive fist suddenly appeared in the van's path. The newscaster looked somewhat confused as she continued, "It seems something is happening on the road... Is anyone else getting this?"

"Oh god no..." I must have imagined it. There was no possible way... But as a second fist materialized I felt my world start to crumble as my worst fears were realized.

I couldn't do anything but stare as a growing horror gnawed at my insides like rats eating their way out of a sinking ship. All I can hear is a loud popping and my blood pumping through my veins. And when my Taylor, my little girl, crawled out of the wreck covered in blood and scratches, I felt my heart sink past the floor.

"Boss? You okay?" John looks worried, and so does everyone else. Idly I notice that my hands had clenched into fists so tightly that they'd turned white. The popping I heard earlier were my knuckles cracking from the pressure.

I gave a start and grabbed John by the shoulders. "How much of a delay is that show running?"

"Five, maybe ten minutes, why?" John answered confusedly. I cursed and ran back into office, grabbing my keys out of my desk drawer and my coat off it's hook before rushing back out again. I brush past John as I put on my jacket. "Danny?"

"You're in charge while I'm gone. Anyone calls tell them I'm out and take a message."

"Wait what? Where are you going?"

"Hospital. That's my daughter out there."

I'm out the door and racing to my car by the time his last question catches up to me.

"How the hell do you know that?

I can feel my teeth grinding as I stare through the glass window outside my daughter's hospital room. If I could trust my temper around her, I'd have been right by her bedside waiting for her to wake up, but I could feel the rage thrumming through my veins over the fact my daughter, my little girl, had been hurt.

If the people responsible weren't already dead I would have hunted them down myself.

Deep breaths Danny-boy, deep breaths. I close my eyes and sigh, opening them a few moments later, the edge taken off my anger. Taylor didn't need her father in jail on top of everything else.

I looked up at the sound of heels clicking against tile, expecting the source to be a doctor or nurse, but no, that would mean my day wasn't going to get worse. Jeanne D'damn-Arc, looking just as sharply dressed as always. The skirt suit, deep red and finely tailored as always, matched well with the red frames of her glasses, which rested on her hair like usual.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I hiss softly. Shouting is not how I want to wake my daughter.

"Really Daniel?" Jeanne tossed her hair, longer than the last time I saw her, over her shoulder. "I know we parted on rather sore terms, but I came as soon as I heard the news."

"How did you hear that? You live across the damn ocean!"

Okay, maybe that not shouting thing wasn't working out as well as I thought.

"Really Daniel, you think I'd leave you without anyone to keep an eye on you? Besides, she is my niece, and I have the right to be here." Jeanne turned to look pointedly through the window. " Especially now. You can't shield her from the truth anymore Daniel. If I heard what happened, then other factions certainly have, or will soon."

"And if any of them try to take her, then God help them because I will bury each and every one. That includes you."

Jeanne paused and gave me considering look. Whatever it was she was searching for she must have found as she turned away with a ghost of a smile.

"You know," she whispered, "sometimes I forget that there was a reason Cereza chose you."

"Her name was Annette."

It was an old argument, but Annette was the woman I'd fallen in love with, and it was the name she'd taken with her to the grave. Jeanne inclined her head towards me but her eyes remained defiant. Both of us knew this wasn't the place to pick over old wounds.

"Nevertheless," she said after a moment, "they will come for her daughter, and she needs to be ready for them. She won't always have you or I around to protect her, much as you'd prefer otherwise."

"What do you want?" I can feel the fatigue in my voice as I let some of the tension out of my body.

"She needs a teacher, and an environment conducive to learning." Her face twists in disgust and I grimace as I realize where she's heading. "I took the liberty of visiting her current school, and I must say that I was sorely disappointed by the state of the establishment. I can hardly believe that they think children will learn anything there."

"Most don't. Lately she's been having problems, although I don't really know how bad or what kind. What's worst is she won't tell a damn thing." It pained me to admit it, but if anyone deserved to know it's Jeanne, especially if she was going to be teaching Taylor. It should have been Annette though. "Her first day back at school I had to come pick her up and take her home after she got 'pranked' and she still wouldn't tell me anything! Part of me can't believe that Taylor, my daughter, Annette's daughter is being bullied, and I can't do a damn thing about it!"

Just like the rage was back and it took all my control not to lash out. I had no doubts that Taylor's presence downtown was because of something that had happened at Winslow.

"I see," Jeanne said, rousing me from my thoughts. "Well, staying there is certainly not an option. Moving her to a more respectable institution shall be my first order of business then. I have a few people who owe me some favors that may speed along the process."

"That's," I pause and smile softly at Taylor, "that's great actually. I know she'll hate having to leave Emma behind, but I want her out of there."

Jeanne sighed and gave me put out look."I suppose I'll also have to acquire a residence if I'm to instruct her with privacy."

"Shouldn't be too hard," I said bitterly. "It's a buyer's market here." After all, who wanted to live in a city where it's main business had been all but dry for years?

"Good. Then finding a place large enough for the three of us shouldn't be too hard. Once she awakens I can begin teaching your daughter the limits of what she can and can't do." She laughs lightly and once again I'm struck by how much I miss Annette. "If Taylor is anything like her mother though, I suppose the list of the latter will be rather short."

"These... wait, 'three of us'?"

"Of course." Jeanne laughs again and I find myself smiling a little too. "If I am to teach Taylor properly then having us living in the same residence makes perfect sense. And you won't want to leave just the two of us alone, so yes, 'three of us'." Her face abruptly lost its humour and turned grim. "Besides, with all three of us under one roof I doubt anyone would dare try anything so stupid as attacking is, although we both know that isn't always the case."

"I don't want my daughter to have that kind of life." I feel the scar on my shoulder tighten uncomfortably. "Not after what it cost my-our family."

"Unfortunately that decision was never yours to make. Your daughter has made her choice, now we must all find a way to live with the consequences."

With that statement Jeanne sat down next to me and we spent the next few minutes in uncomfortable silence, waiting for Taylor to wake.

"It's going to get worse for her, isn't it?" I ask, while part of me already knows, and dreads, the answer.

"Daniel, I have a feeling that it's going to get worse for all of us."