I wrote this for me to get some of my own feeling out through Taylor. It kinda fit well and was in the general theme of where I wanted things to be for the story. Even if I never planned this scene.

.

Detonation 5-4.5

.

I shivered once as a light breeze pushed stray strands of hair lightly across my neck. I frowned, briefly annoyed and adjusted the hood of my costume to better ward off another breeze.

I lay back onto the roof, legs still hooked over the edge. Above me motes of my fire swirled in a slow hypnotic circle out across the city.

"I thought we agreed to no more high places."

I tilted my head enough to see Alice in costume approaching. "How you doing?" She asked.

"Tired." I sighed. "Getting better at it. Got them out further today." I waved at the motes of fire.

Alice peered out over the city. "Spaced them farther apart too, looks like." She settled down behind me,

"Trying to cover more of the city." I sighed.

We sat there together in comfortable silence, looking out over the the surrounding buildings.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Alice asked after a long while.

I guess she had picked up on where my head was at tonight. I shrugged in response.

"You can you know." She said. "You don't have to keep it inside. Not with me." She took off her hat and mask.

I felt my throat tighten. "I miss her." I admitted

Lisa slid closer and I reached out a hand to her. She took it and twinned her fingers with mine.

"Three years ago today." I felt my eyes burning with tears unshed. I pulled off my own mask. "Just before graduation from middle school, Mom died in a car accident. The police told Dad that Mom had likely been using her phone and lost control of the car." I sucked in a shaking breath but the word kept coming. After three years of not talking about it I don't think I could have stopped. "She must have hit the curb just right because the car flipped a few times before it hit a parked car. Mom was pinned so tightly against the steering wheel she couldn't breathe. She suffocated. Alon-" my throat righted to much and I couldn't continue.

Lisa tugged me away from the ledge and into her lap where she wrapped me in her arms and kissed the top of my head. "Oh Taylor, I'm so sorry." She whispered into my ear.

I cried into Lisa's arms like I hadn't since Mom died. All the while Lisa rocked me gently, arms wrapped around me.

When the tears finally stopped and my breath steadied I nuzzled my face further into my girlfriend's chest.

"She used to take me out of the city in the summer. Out west where you could really see the stars without the lights from the city getting in the way. We made a weekend of it. A little cabin near a lake. We would stay up late and just watch the stars. I could tell her anything and she would listen."

Lisa ran her fingers through my hair and listened without interrupting.

"Dad was a wreck after the funeral." I took a calming breath. "I tried my best to keep things going, I started doing the cooking, I cleaned around the house. I even tried to mow the back yard once but I couldn't get the push mower started. No matter how hard I tried it seemed like things were going to keep getting worse. I called Dad's friend Kurt at work. I told him some of what was going on." I trailed off.

Lisa continued her silence but did hug me closer to her.

"Kurt and his wife showed up that night. Kurt took Dad out back and there was a lot of yelling. Lacy, Kurt's wife, sat with me in the living room. She told me I had done a good thing and that things were going to be okay. I got shipped off to a summer camp not long after that. It was fun, I guess, but everything was different when I got back. Dad was different. He was functional but cold, distant, like he couldn't even look at me."

Lisa opened her mouth but closed it with what looked like effort.

"Emma was different too, Sophia had come out of nowhere and, well, you know how that turned out."

Lisa squeezed me tight. "You have me now so you can forget about those two." She said.

I tugged on her arms trying to pull myself even closer to her but all I managed to do was to make our relative positions all the more awkward. "I don't know where I would be without you Lisa. Dad is my Dad but he doesn't….. I mean he can't…I mean…I don't know what I mean, but he isn't you."

She laughed lightly at my fumbling for the right words.

Then I said them without thinking about it without knowing until that moment, they were true. "I love you Lisa."

.

.

Author's Note: This both helped and hurt to write. I needed it but I think I can't continue on this chapters theme just yet. Baby steps.

K. Raiden