Chapter 5-Interlude

Danny Hebert was afraid.

That wasn't an easy feat, these days. In a world where giant monsters, superpowered lunatics, and economic recession could ruin a man's life at any moment, being overly emotional was considered a major character flaw. One that Danny was proud to say he didn't have. He could watch the city cut the budget of his beloved Dockworkers Association and force him to fire another dozen or so good people without bursting into tears. When 'representatives' of E88 came into his office 'requesting' that he concentrated on finding jobs for proper, hardworking Americans (read: whites) instead of criminal scum (read: everyone else), he could tell security to politely show them the door without pissing himself. Sure, his temper got the better of him sometimes, but he generally managed to keep that in check. In fact, there was only one thing in the world that could really get to him:

The thought that something could happen to his little girl.

Academically, he knew that he was being an idiot. Taylor was probably safer than she ever was before. Yes, she was out all night doing police work, but he had faith that she was in good hands. In fact, the contract he signed explicitly stated that the PRT and the Protectorate would keep their Wards away from harm if possible.

'If possible' being the key word.

The uncertainty of it all made him want to rip something apart with his bare hands. Why hadn't he heard something from her yet? Was she still okay? Did she get into a fight? These and a thousand horror scenarios crept into his mind. They terrified him, which made him even angrier. He hated feeling helpless. He hated hoping for the phone or the doorbell to ring, while at the same time wondering if it's going to be Taylor, or a stern-faced PRT official with bad news.

Why did he let Taylor join the Wards? Why couldn't he talk her out of this? All he ever wanted was to keep her safe, and now she's out there, deliberately getting in trouble for a city that didn't care about her at all.

Then, a traitorous part of his mind reminded him that it was all his fault. Danny never claimed to be a good father. He hadn't been, not since Annette died. He had tried to convince himself he did a good job, but then the evidence hit him in the face: his little girl, clad in that horrible-looking armor of hers, telling him how her life had become a living hell. Then the trip to Protectorate headquarters, learning that one of her bullies was a goddamn superhero and that Winslow High had been covering it up all along…

He was so close to losing it back then. So close to ripping the place apart with his bare hands. They hurt his little girl. The PRT…the superheroes, they hurt his little girl. And she forgave them. Forgave them all. That stupid, noble, wonderful brat. Why couldn't she have inherited his temper? At least then, she'd have told the PRT where to stick it and be safe at home.

And then she'd be running around the city in the dead of night, alone.

Just like she was doing now, that same treasonous voice in his mind said. But at least she had back-up, right? People on station to make sure nothing went wrong, right?

Worry gnawed at him as the day went by. He turned on his home computer and spent a few hours looking for facts on the internet. Good things, of course. Things that would ease his mind. He ended up being disappointed.

Danny wanted, no, needed to know that his daughter would be safe in the Wards. What he found were an endless parade of pictures, news reports, and articles praising the Wards for capturing one villain or another. They often forgot to mention that in order to capture said villain, the hero had to put himself in harm's way. Exactly the kind of situation he wanted Taylor to stay out of. Of course, there were the occasional daylight patrols and publicity events, but that was only a small part of a Ward's life. At their core, the Wards were undeniably an extension of the Protectorate and it showed in the kind of things they did on a day-to-day basis. At best, he'd given his daughter an internship at a parahuman police force. At worst…

Superheroes rarely died from old age. The overwhelming majority didn't even make it to the age of forty.

Upon realizing this, Danny all but despaired. The thought of him outliving his daughter made him want to smash something. He wanted her out of this life, away from these 'heroes', away from the people that would send her off to die at the hand of some psycho without a second thought. If he lost her too, if he had to bury his only daughter…

And then he remembered how happy Taylor had been the past few days. How excited she was to join and how she was actually whistling in the mornings…it wasn't all that tuneful, ironically, but it was still the most wonderful sound he had heard in months. Every time he seriously considered pulling her out of the Wards program, he remembered that it made Taylor smile again, in a way that didn't look forced. Danny just couldn't bring himself to do it. Though it'd cost him years of his life, he couldn't bring himself to take away the best thing that happened to her since high school had started.

Dammit, if Taylor could be strong for the entire city, he could be strong for her. Danny took a deep breath and set about cooking dinner.

The door opened. "Hey Dad, I'm home!"

Oh god, she was back. Safe and sound too. He wanted to hug her tight and… No, Taylor wouldn't like that. She was a big girl and wanted to be treated as such. Besides, she didn't need to know how worried he had been. She had enough to worry about already.

He stopped and took in a deep breath. Apparently, she could hear heart beats, so he had to be absolutely calm or risk letting her know something was wrong. No, he was going to be nice and calm like Taylor needed him to be.

Danny suppressed the urge to chuckle. This is what Taylor had felt the past two years, wasn't it?

"Evening kiddo. Just in time for dinner."

The girl looked tired, but she was beaming nonetheless. "Great, I'm starving. Can't eat in my costume, so I sort of missed breakfast."

"Breakfast's the most important meal of the day, Taylor." Danny mockingly chastised. If his job taught him anything, it's that light humor had a way of releasing tension and defusing bad situations. "Never gonna be a proper superhero if you skip that."

"Really Dad?" Taylor had this peculiar 'annoyed' look. Danny just knew she learned that from Annette.

"I bet Alexandria never misses her breakfast."

"Dad, I'm fifteen, not five."

He snorted. Things would have been so much easier if she was. "I know, but I'm your dad. I'm entitled to babying you around when I feel like it. Comes with the territory." He tussled her hair, smiling. "Why don't you go clean up a little? I'll finish up dinner and you can tell me just why you skipped breakfast."

Taylor smiled back and disappeared upstairs. She was completely unhurt and seemed perfectly content. He'd been worried over nothing, after all.

"So, how was the stake-out? Found enough dirt on the bad guys to put them away?" He asked, while helping himself to a big serving of lasagna. Taylor always liked that and he figured she'd probably earned it. "Oh, and I know about the whole non-disclosure thing. I can keep a secret."

She cringed, just a little. "Yeah we…found enough dirt, alright…"

He sensed a 'but' coming up. "But…"

"But then one of the bad guys saw us, decided that we were obviously preparing to murder them, and figured that the best to keep that from happening is to shoot us down first."

Danny's heart skipped a beat. This…this wasn't right. She was supposed to be safe. How was this possible? "W-What…but that's…"

"Crazy, I know. We're superheroes. The PRT guys are cops. We don't shoot first and ask questions later. There was literally no reason why they had to open fire. None. If they just stayed put, nothing would have happened. We wouldn't even have kicked them out of their lair. Idiots."

Taylor's almost blasé recounting of last night calmed him somehow. It couldn't be that bad if she was being this casual about it, right? "So, what did happen? You're not hurt, are you?"

"I'm fine, Dad. They didn't even get past the shield." She said, sounding a little irritated. "Anyway, I was on the roof, beating up their snipers and their army of killer robots." Danny almost chocked on his lasagna. "Yes, there were killer robots. Tinkers… So we sent the bastards running and raided their lab. Turns out they were experimenting on this poor woman."

The tension in Danny's muscles faded a little. A rescue, yes, that was good. "Bet she was happy to see you."

Taylor snorted. "Not…exactly. Turns out she was very, very mad with the Tinkers and was busy ripping their stuff apart when we showed up. She also had some armor power, kind of like mine. Then, Armsmaster decided that he should subdue her by force before she hurts someone."

"Makes sense…"

"He used his grappling hook…" She said, with a disbelieving look on her face.

"And?"

"On someone who's been strapped to an operating table for god knows how long…"

"Ah…I can see how that's a problem. Is Armsmaster alright?"

His daughter snorted. "Armsmaster is fine. His armor and his halberd, not so much. Thankfully, we were able to talk her down before she could really hurt him."

"And the woman you rescued?"

"Fine, all things considered. We're not entirely sure what the Tinkers did to her, but I think she'll be okay." After a moment of consideration, Taylor added: "Eventually."

The rest of the conversation was, thankfully, about more mundane things. As Danny was washing the dishes afterwards, he made a horrifying realization: Taylor just got into a firefight and she acted like it was the most ordinary thing in the world. Like it was just as common as an ordinary basketball game. Since when did violence become normal to his daughter? How did he miss this?

Worse still, he began to wonder if she was telling the whole truth. Her story was short on details, especially when it came to casualties. Anger boiled to the surface. Dammit, why couldn't he trust her?! Why couldn't she just tell the truth, the whole truth, to her own father?

Right, like you've been much of a father for her.

That was the root of the problem, wasn't it? Taylor didn't trust him because she couldn't. For two years, she'd been in pain and he'd done nothing to stop it. After Annette…he'd all but neglected her and it brought Taylor to the brink of suicide. Pushed her so hard that the only escape she had was to pick a fight with a crime lord.

In the end, it was all his fault, wasn't it? If he'd been a better father… If he'd just paid a little more attention…

God, he needed to get out. Get a drink. Be somewhere else for a while.

"Hey, kiddo, I've got an errand to run. Probably gonna be late."

"Oh, okay." Taylor answered, sounding a little disappointed. Clearly, she wanted him home, but he couldn't bring himself to stay in this state. Not until he'd calmed himself down.

"Don't go out beating up gangbangers while I'm gone, okay? You do enough of that already."

"Yes dad…" She replied, dragging out the words.

"Good girl."

He left and headed for the nearest bar, a reasonably clean-looking place downtown with a name he could never remember. No matter. He probably wasn't going to return here anyway. If he developed a drinking problem over this, Annette would probably rise from the grave and skin him alive.

Danny checked his wallet. He had enough cash for a beer or two. Enough to improve his mood a little, not enough to get him actually drunk. Hopefully, it would do.

As he was halfway through his beer, a tall, well-muscled young woman sat beside him. "You look kind of lonely." She said. "Mind if I join you?"

The woman was attractive, but not overly so. She had a warm smile and seemed genuine. "Not at all."

"Good. So, what brings you here?" She asked. Straight to the point. "If you don't mind me asking, of course. You just don't look like a regular customer."

"Oh really? What do I look like, then?"

"A family man." She replied, simply. "You're wearing a wedding ring."

He looked to his hand and chuckled. Yes, he still did. "My wife, she…passed away two years ago."

Her smile faded. "I'm sorry."

"I took it hard. So hard that I pretty much lost track of everything else." With some guilt in his voice, he added: "Including my daughter. She…" Triggered because of a bullying campaign he completely missed, signed up with the Wards and is now risking her life hunting criminals. "She had trouble at school. It nearly destroyed her and I… I didn't know what was going on until she found a way to transfer to a different school and just needed me to sign the paperwork."

"So, the problem is solved, right?"

Danny shook his head. "Yes, and I'm so damn proud of her, it's just… She never came to me, not once. Never told me what was going on. Said that I had enough problems of my own and that I couldn't fix it anyway. As if she doesn't trust me anymore. What kind of father does that make me?"

She shrugged. "Better than most, I think…"

"Why…No, never mind. I'm sorry, I've had a tough week and I shouldn't be venting at you." He was about to leave when the woman stopped him.

"I'm a school teacher at Arcadia. Advanced classes for gifted children. That practically makes me a part-time psychologist. Besides, I was being serious. Sometimes, it seems like half the parents I meet just don't care. Like they're expecting us to raise their children for them. Maybe you're not the best parent around, but you obviously care about your daughter. That's more than I can say for a lot of others."

Danny smiled. "Thank you. I'm Danny, by the way."

"Hannah. Pleasure to meet you."