A/N Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me
Happy birthday, dear Blackhole1
Happy birthday to me

So, to commemorate my birthday last week, here's another chapter.

Wait a minute, shouldn't I be the one getting presents?

Oh, sod it, have a chapter anyway.

Chapter 10-4

I came home exhausted. Debriefings were never fun. Debriefings when someone's mad at you?

Even worse.

But hey, it could have been worse. All Miss Militia did was order me to clear anything I do in the quarantine zone by her, which is better than getting extra schoolwork or being grounded. At least she still let me hunt, if my services were still needed when the quarantine was lifted.

Judging by the way things were going, they probably were.

The moment me and Hannah stepped through the door, Dad rushed towards me and pulled me into a tight hug. "Thank god, you're okay."

"Dad, we're in public. You're embarrassing me."

"I'm your father. It's my job to embarrass you." I could have argued further, but it would have been pointless. Dad was Dad, after all. "Anyway, I got something today. Something that will keep this house and everyone in it safe."

My eyes narrowed. I really hope he didn't do what I thought he did. "Don't worry, Dad. We're already safe."

"At school, maybe, but I want to make sure we're safe here too. So, I called a few of my buddies at work and managed to get my hands on this." Dad pulled out a truly gigantic shotgun out of his backpack. Scratch that, he got himself a motherfucking anti-aircraft cannon. What the hell was he thinking? He'd shatter the bones in his arm if he tried to fire that thing. "This is a double-barreled, twelve-gauge shotgun. Eight round magazine with armor piercing sabot rounds. Qualified to Brute 3. Biggest piece of artillery I could legally get my hands on. I know I haven't done a very good job keeping you safe, kiddo, but I swear: no one's gonna get in this house anytime soon."

"Please tell me you didn't give it a name…" Hannah deadpanned.

Oh. Dad, you… He was going to kill himself. If someone attacked our house, and he'd try to fight… I couldn't think about that. I had to stop him, but if I just told him he couldn't have a gun, that he should run…

Fuck it. He'll think I'm crazy, but better that than getting himself killed. I put on my biggest grin and said: "You got me a shotgun? Thanks Dad!" I whisked the weapon out of his hands and hugged him, ignoring the looks on his and Hannah's faces. "You're the best." Then, I walked to my room before he could stop me.

Downstairs, I overheard him sputter: "I…But…what just…Did she do what I think she just did?"

"Probably." Hannah replied. "I'll go talk to her."

"Please do. I'll go finish up dinner. Suddenly I feel very emasculated."

Hannah walked up the stairs and when she walked through the door, I said: "How am I supposed to tell my own father that I don't want him to protect me? If he tries…anything that gets past the two of us isn't going to be scared off by a shotgun."

"You'd be surprised, Taylor." She sat down on the bed, right next to me. "Though ripping the thing from his hands and thanking him with a giant grin on your face might not have been the best way to go about it."

I lowered my head. She wasn't wrong. "I'm not crazy."

"Never said you were." Hannah replied, evenly.

"But you're thinking it, just like you did when you blew up at me in the quarantine zone."

"I…shouldn't have done that." She looked uncomfortable for a moment before continuing. "To be fair, you were covered in blood, having returned from a mission that involved speeding through the streets in a taxi with Hookwolf as a hood ornament. Something neither me nor Armsmaster had approved. You were also laughing like a loon."

"Red practically admitted that she had a crush on Hookwolf and I was just imagining their wedding! It made sense in context."

Her mouth fell open and I could see the gears in her head grinding, exploding, and finally teleporting to another dimension to escape the insanity of what I've just said. "I…I'm too sober for this. Look, your father loves you. He'll understand."

"It'll hurt him."

"I think he already knows. Danny isn't stupid, you know."

"All too well." I replied.

I put the weapon under my bed and followed Hannah downstairs. Dinner would be ready soon and I didn't want Dad to figure out something was wrong.

"Here we go." Dad said as he put plates of food in front of us. "Hebert family recipe: Chili con carne, with ketchup and lots of meat. The way it should be made."

Hannah looked at the dish, then at me, and started looking nauseous. Why would she… oh, right. Shredded meat.

I bit my lip. Laughing would be very, very inappropriate.

Judging by the dirty look Hannah shot my way, I was failing.

Dad hovered another spoonful of chili over Hannah's plate. "Is this enough, Miss Militia?"

I blinked for a moment. Did Dad really just do that? Right here?

Hannah looked as surprised as I was. "What? But…how…"

"Hannah, your mask is an American flag, worn as a scarf. I've seen you naked. You really think I couldn't tell?"

She looked at me and hissed: "Danny, she's right here."

"Don't worry, I already know. I hear everything, remember." I reminded her.

"Everything?"

"Everything."

Suddenly, Hannah's face turned a shade of red that I didn't think was possible. "Sorry…"

"Anyway," Dad interjected "now that this whole mask business is out of the way: there was a car outside the house. Grey, unmarked van. Been there for a couple of days, until I called the PRT. They said it wasn't one of theirs but that they'd look into it and that I didn't have to worry about anything. So, would either of you mind telling me exactly what's going on?"

Hannah and I looked at each other for a moment, before wordlessly coming to the agreement to let her do most of the talking. "Well, now that my secret's out… It's not unusual for the gangs to tail people that they think are parahuman. They'll back off once they realize who they're dealing with."

"Are you sure about that?" Before either of us could object he said: "I've lived in Brockton Bay for most my life. I know how the city works and how the gangs operate. I also know that you two, as well as the PRT, are giving me the mushroom treatment. Normally, I'd be okay with that. Don't get me wrong, I'm still pissed as hell, but need-to-know is need-to-know and I don't want to get either of you in trouble for my sake. However, that changes when my family gets targeted. So, for once, be honest with me: are we in danger?"

"No, we aren't." Hannah said, adamantly. "Yes, Taylor has been followed by a couple of hired goons. However, she caught them and had them arrested. They won't come after her again."

"Are you sure about that?" Dad asked. "What's stopping their employers from sending another group?"

"I may or may not have implied that I'd cut their private parts off if they tried anything funny. They won't come back." On a side note, I added. "Probably shouldn't have said that."

My dad sighed. "Really wished you'd skip Annette's radical feminist phase… Anyway, did you at least find out who sent them?"

"Probably Empire 88." I said. "Kaiser tried to recruit me, earlier today."

Dad's mouth fell open and his fork clattered on the table. "What?!"

"Relax, I didn't take him up on it."

He sighed and asked: "Okay, what did you say?"

"I told him where to stick it." Along with the implication that I'd kill him if he ever tried going after me, but Dad didn't need to know that. "Uh, if it makes you feel better: it wasn't the first time I've challenged a crime lord…"

"No, Taylor, that does not make me feel better. I…" He turned to Hannah and said: "Weren't you supposed to be keeping her out of trouble?"

"Kaiser won't do anything, Danny." She reassured him. "Going after a cape's civilian identity is not done, ever. Remember Fleur's murder a few years back? He personally executed the men who did it and left their impaled bodies on New Wave's front lawn. If he touches any of us, he'll lose his credibility and probably the support of most of his people. That's assuming we don't put a kill-order on his head." Hannah grabbed his hand. "What he's doing, it's just shaking the tree. Testing Taylor's resolve, that sort of thing. Nothing more."

"I really wish I could believe that."

The way Dad looked at me… "Please tell me you didn't." He could pull me out of the Wards at any moment and for all my issues with the organization, I didn't want to leave them. Not yet. Not when there's nowhere else to go.

"I'm not forcing you to quit, Taylor." He said, causing me to sag in relief. "But I could, and that's the problem. I'm your father. I'm responsible for you and if something happens, it'll be my fault for letting you run off in the middle of the night. I…I don't want that to happen. I can't."

"Dad, I'm careful. I've got a team backing me up. I'm as safe as I could be."

"…while running around, fighting monsters and murderers, you mean." He added. "Look, I know how much this means to you, but… You're keeping me in the dark. I'm trying to be a part of your life, but I can't do that if I don't know what's going on. For goodness' sake, PHO is telling me more about what you're doing than you are." He sighed, running his hands through his hair. "You knocked over a Corpus base less than two weeks ago, right? Some crazy Tinker?"

"Just a villain with fancy laser guns who needed to be reminded of his place in the grand scheme of things." I said, neglecting to say anything about Kid Win or my body count.

"If the internet is to be believed, those 'fancy laser guns' can burn a hole straight through a wall. Is that true?" He asked. Our silence was deafening. "You never mentioned that. Yes, you were only used as support, but if one of them had seen you…"

"If I told you, you'd just get worried. I've got a Brute rating."

"So did Lung, and look how that turned out!" He snapped back, visibly distraught. "You're not invincible, Taylor. No one is. One of these days, your luck is going to run out and when that happens… At the end of the day, you're still a fifteen year-old girl. I know you don't want to hear it, but you're going to make bad calls. It's inevitable. You just don't have the experience not to and when you do make a mistake… I can't lose you too. No parent should ever have to bury their child."

Hannah grabbed his hand and looked him square in the eye. "Danny, I promise I will do everything in my power to make sure that won't happen."

"Don't make a promise you can't keep, Hannah. I've seen the numbers. Parahumans don't die peacefully of old age. Even Wards dying isn't unheard of these days. Stuff just…happens. How many of your old team are still alive? I can't let my only daughter become a name on a wall."

She sighed. "Look, it's not that simple. Now that, well, the masks have come off, I can help make things clearer.

"And that's the problem. There's this entire culture…this entire world that our family's been catapulted into and I can't make heads or tails of it!"

"Then let me help." She pleaded. "I care about you, I care about her…"

"But the PRT doesn't, and at the end of the day, it's their call. Look, I've read the contracts. Seriously, read the contracts. Yes, they're obligated to inform me what Taylor's doing, but they can also hide whatever they want under 'operational security'. I didn't think they'd actually use it, but… I was wrong. I'm not stupid. I know when people aren't telling me everything and the PRT is way too tight-lipped about things. Whatever they're doing, whatever they're making you do… It can't be kosher."

"Dad," I quickly added "if it's classified, it's classified. I can't tell you everything. If I do, I'll just put you in danger."

"For god's sake, don't talk to me like that!" Dad almost yelled, raising his voice. I did my best not to flinch. "I'm your father. I'm supposed to be keeping you safe, not the other way around!" Then, his eyes widened and he lowered his head.

"I…I have homework." I eventually replied. "I'll have my dinner upstairs." No one objected as I left.

Eventually, I overheard Dad say: "What am I supposed to do, Hannah? She's throwing herself into battle and there's nothing I can do to stop her."

"It will get better." Hannah said, reassuringly. Even from here, I could tell that she was faking it. "The quarantine will be lifted tomorrow for most of the city. We'll get reinforcements and then we can bench the Wards."

"And what then? The city's still in ruins. Crime's going to skyrocket, the gangs are going to do their thing, and the businesses that could turn everything around are going to look elsewhere. There's always going to be another crisis to fight, and one day… One day it'll go wrong. I don't know what to do."

I focused my ears on something else. Anything else. The neighbors. Fine. Perfect. Better than having to hear Dad and think about how I was hurting him.

How I was making him feel impotent.