Once we had some lunch and a chance to get a breather the rest of the exercises went relatively well. The two runs through the simulated warehouse hadn't thrown up any big red flags about my readiness. I had only been dinged a few times for talking to my teammates unnecessarily (too much talking is distracting) and bringing a snack into the exercise ("What? I always keep an energy bar on me. You never know when you'll be peckish."). Nobody can be perfect I guess.
A few of the others did need to visit Panacea at the end of the day, but since the protectorate had made arrangements ahead of time she wasn't too miffed. I did get a text from her asking how I had managed to give so many injuries to 5 wards because they weren't telling. I made sure to promise to show her the video once they had finished editing it.
As for my newly expanded movie night I got ready with a quick stop by the local convenience store for snacks and sodas. I wasn't worried about being fancy so I just got whatever was affordable. The best part was that pretzels were on sale so I was able to get a jumbo bag ("Are you really going to eat all that yourself ma'am? It's like a quarter your weight probably."). It's the little things in life.
I had checked with dad to be sure and he didn't seem too concerned. While he didn't know all their identities he knew enough to know that they were generally alright people. So his only concern was that we cleaned up when we finished, and thus I made sure to buy some extra paper towels as well.
Taylor was an entirely different story. I had hoped this would be a good opportunity for her to make some friends. God knows she needs some. But apparently I hadn't anticipated her own issues to crop up again. It was when I was in the kitchen moving the snacks from their bags to some big bowls for easy snacking that she became aware of my extra company.
"Sam, why are you getting so many bowls out? You and Missy usually don't eat that much."
"No, but I did invite some of my other friends from the ward's to come over. You're welcome to join in. The more the merrier after all."
"I think I'd rather not."
Okay now I know Taylor is just being stubborn. She hadn't had any problem with Missy coming over before and hanging out with her occasionally. What reasonable person could object to joining in on a fun movie night? I was definitely feeling frustrated.
"Oh? I didn't realize you had plans. You've been spending most of the time since Christmas moping around the house after all."
"I have not been moping. I've been doing chores, some reading, and… visiting the library."
"Face it Taylor, your social life is dead. That's why I'm offering you to join us. Starting to think you've forgotten what fun is like."
"Oh is that what you think of me? That I can't make friends on my own?"
"Well your last attempt ended with you getting punched by a Nazi."
That barb got her riled up. It was getting concerning how good I was becoming at making Taylor angry.
"I was standing up for my beliefs!"
"That and trying to make a friend. That's probably why you were extra angry at Charlotte when she didn't want to be your friend back."
"Sam, I don't need you to psychoanalyze me. I am doing fine on my own."
"You said the same thing about the bullying."
"Is this going to go the same way too? Are you blackmailing your friends into coming over and being chummy?"
"What the hel- NO! I asked them over cause I wanted to be nice after I pushed them down the stairs a couple of times!"
"Wait… Why the hell were you pushing them down the stairs?"
"...It was part of training."
"What the hell kind of training involves pushing people down the stairs?"
"It's a long story, but it doesn't matter now. What I'm trying to do here is give you a chance to actually socialize with people who had nothing to do with your bullying."
"Sophia is a ward Sam."
"And she's not coming."
"So what? The fact that all of them go to Arcadia is going to make this go smoothly? What am I going to talk about? "Hello I'm Taylor. I go to Winslow where the most interesting thing that happened to me was that I was severely bullied for several months." Hard pass on that."
"You can't just keep avoiding making new friends because you got bullied. You need to get over that eventually."
"If it means avoiding becoming your charity case I will. If you need me I'm going to the library."
"It closes at 7:00. Are you really just going to stay out for over two hours just to avoid socializing with my friends?"
"I'll just get some dinner somewhere, maybe go to a cafe. I got my own money so you don't need to lend any to your "poor sister". If dad calls let him know I'm out."
And so Taylor huffily went to put on her shoes and jacket to head out. I decided to just let it drop. Taylor likes to work herself up whenever she gets into an argument so it's better to continue later after she cools off. Maybe I had been laying it on a bit thick about how friendless she was but it was still true. She'll figure that out eventually.
After Taylor slammed the door on her way out I would have the house to myself for half an hour until Missy came at about 4pm. When she noticed that Taylor wasn't home I had to explain.
"Apparently she took me wanting to introduce her to the other wards the wrong way. So she went off to the library to brood or something."
"How exactly did you bring it up?"
"Well she asked why I was having some extra friends over and I suggested she could make friends with them. I even pointed out she wasn't doing anything since she just spends most of her time here at the house."
"Well you probably could have worded it more subtly."
"Maybe, but Taylor gets even more defensive when she thinks I have some hidden agenda or I'm hiding something. I've been trying to be more honest but that isn't working either."
"Maybe the approach isn't the problem. Why exactly has Taylor been angry with you lately?"
"Sigh… She seems to have gotten it into her head that I think she can't handle her own problems."
"Is she wrong? You did say her social life was on life support. And here you are trying to fix it."
"Come on, not you too. Am I really not allowed to help her out?"
"If she insists that you don't? Probably. You have to respect other people's boundaries otherwise the relationship is doomed. You can know that for free. I had to sit through a couple hours of couples counseling before my parents' marriage imploded to find that out."
"...It wouldn't get that bad. I'm only trying to help her."
"Taylor probably just sees your help as meddling. Taylor has her own problems. You trying to help her without consulting her is just going to turn into its own problem."
"But it's what I'm supposed to do as a hero."
"But you're not supposed to be a hero to Taylor. You're supposed to be a sister to her. Sometimes that means backing off when she asks for space."
"Alright, I'll promise her I'll back off and let her do her own thing. I still think she's just being a teenager about it."
"We're about to be teenagers too, Sam."
"Yeah, and I'm not looking forward to that."
It was then that a doorbell rang, and when I checked the peephole I found that Carlos and Dennis had arrived. Compared to when they were in costume they came across as relatively clean cut high school boys. Carlos was a young man of Puerto Rican descent who liked to wear his hair long. Dennis on the other hand was white with red hair, blue eyes and about average height. I invited them in.
"Come in, Come in. You can leave your shoes by the front door and there's a coat rack by the kitchen door."
"Thanks for inviting us Sam, it's nice to be able to kick back every once in a while." Dennis said.
"Yeah I haven't seen a good movie in ages. Last one I saw was awful. It was some dumb action flick" Carlos said.
"Oh really, which one?"
"I can't remember the name but the plot was just insane. It was a sequel to some other movie but instead of a rogue bus they used a rogue cruise ship."
"Oh yeah I know that one, Speed 2: Cruise Control."
"Wait, you actually know about it?"
Missy chimed in "Do not underestimate Sam's movie knowledge. Especially bad movies."
Taking that as an opportunity I went over to the small box I used to house my movies. I had a couple of VHS tapes that were still usable along with a few dozen DVD's. I usually supplemented these with whatever the library had available.
"Okay once Chris gets here we can pick a pair of movies. I'll let you guys pick from my collection since you're the guests. You can start looking through my little collection."
Chris arrived shortly after that as Carlos, Dean, and Missy were sifting through my little movie collection. Outside his costume Chris was a high school freshman with brown hair and a pale complexion. I greeted Chris and got him inside quickly and he excused himself to the bathroom for a minute. As I finished directing him to our bathroom Dennis commented on my collection.
"You really have a lot of old movies. I didn't know you liked watching stuff in black and white so much."
"I actually just grab a lot of those at garage sales. My entertainment budget isn't that big so I gotta stretch it with the cheap old stuff. Library usually has stuff up to 1-2 years ago so I can go there to see more recent stuff."
"Do you ever actually go to a movie theater?"
"Only on my birthday and special occasions now. Closest theaters that are still open are on the far side of town."
"That sucks. Is everything closed in this neighborhood?"
"Just anything fun. There's still some stores but they're getting picked off."
Chris had returned from the bathroom and added to the conversation.
"I didn't realize you lived in the bad part of town. This neighborhood seemed okay compared to all the abandoned places we patrol."
"Well, we're definitely not in a healthy neighborhood. Lot of people around here only get by from what the dockworkers union can scrape up."
"The union your dad works in right?" Missy chimed in. She already knew but probably wanted to clue in the guys.
"Yeah my dad works in hiring but he does a lot of other stuff. I want to be proud of him but I swear that job is killing him. He probably won't be home earlier than 9pm at the earliest."
My posture began to slump a bit. It was hard to talk about at first but talking about it was strangely therapeutic to let it out..
"I used to spend so much time with him. Had a lot of fun playing catch and watching movies. He even liked doing imitations of the movie characters to make me laugh. But when mom died he had to step up to keep the union afloat. Still like watching movies but it isn't the same."
They looked at me in sympathy, and I started to feel guilty for bringing it up. Tonight is supposed to be a nice distraction from all our problems. No gangs, no public opinion, and no family problems. I decided to pivot from there and force some enthusiasm.
"But that's not what we're here to talk about, right? Brocktons Bay's problems can wait for another day, today we get to enjoy the best that Hollywood has to offer. It's time to decide. You have your selection and now you must choose."
My dramatic flourish at the end was enough to make them choose to overlook my little side-trip into depressing reality. They eventually settled on the double header of 'Oceans Eleven' for the action movie and 'It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World' for the comedy. They were ideal choices for me, since they gave me plenty of chances to whisper little bits of actor trivia to my guests.
Soon it had gotten dark, the second movie was winding down, and snacks were almost exhausted. Overall, excluding Taylor's choice to skip the whole thing, I was ready to call it a success. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves, even Missy who had already seen these movies like I had. I should really have the guys over more often. Missy is nice company but it's nice to share your interests with new people.
It was about when the credits were about to start rolling and we were starting to clean up from our snacking dinner that the phone rang. It wasn't entirely surprising since dad sometimes called to check in on us or to let us know he was coming home late. I excused myself to handle the phone. It was when I learned who was on the phone that I knew something was terribly wrong.
"Excuse me, is this the Hebert residence?"
"Yes, who am I speaking to?"
"This is Officer Zale of Precinct 40 of the Brockton Bay Police Department. There has been an incident involving a teenage girl by the name of Taylor Hebert. Is her father or mother home?"
My blood ran cold. A lot of horrible things could happen to you out in Brockton Bay. I knew more than most but I suspected even I could still be surprised by what fresh hell this city could provide.
"No. Dad is still at work at the dockworkers union and our mother passed away. Can you please tell me what happened and if she's still alive? Please?"
"Alright. You'll find this out eventually anyways. She was in critical condition the last I saw of her before we sent her to the emergency room at Brockton Bay General Hospital. There was a report of someone hearing a disturbance in an alley so some officers were sent to investigate. They discovered she had been badly beaten and confined in a dumpster. They suspected something was amiss from some weights that were put on the dumpster lid."
My mind could hardly put together any thoughts to react to what the officer was saying. Taylor wasn't dead but it wasn't certain she would live either. Was this just a bad mugging? But muggers don't throw their victims in dumpsters and add weights. Only someone with a true sadistic streak would do something like this. I decided to put the question to the officer.
"Do you know who could have done this?"
"Well the investigation isn't complete but there is evidence pointing to the Empire 88 being involved."
That threw a whole new spin on this nightmare. The Empire 88 didn't usually do muggings. They did hits on their enemies. But they shouldn't care about Taylor. She hadn't ever gone against the empire except…. no. NO No no no no no no. It's not possible. Taylor hadn't even done that much, how could this possibly make sense?
"Is there anything else you can tell me?"
"I'm afraid not ma'am. We're still investigating. We'll try to contact your father at the Dockworkers Union. If there are any relevant updates can we reach you at this number?"
"Yes." I managed to get out as I was beginning to feel sick. The movie snacks were suddenly feeling rancid in my stomach.
"Then I wish you a good night ma'am." The officer then hung up. I was still gripping the phone when Missy approached me.
"Sam, what was that call about? You look sick." And it was true. My stomach was feeling absolutely nauseous.
"It's Taylor… someone attacked her. I don't know if she's even still alive. They said she was in critical condition when they found her. I… I.." Suddenly I felt even more sick and I ran. Running past Dennis and Carlos, who had been standing at the kitchen door listening, I flew into the bathroom. I reached the toilet in time to vomit up the contents of my stomach. I heard Missy approach me as I finished heaving. She helped by steadying me as I tried to get upright again.
"Sam I know things are bad but we are here for you. If Taylor can get to the hospital alive, Panacea can save her."
I cleared my mouth in the sink to get rid of the remaining bits of vomit and tried to collect my thoughts. My stomach had settled after being emptied but the unwell feeling I had remained.
"But she can't do brains. If she has brain damage she's doomed. Oh my god I'm going to lose my sister and the last time we ever talked was some stupid argument. Oh my god."
Missy wrapped her arms around me but it was only a small comfort. I could see Chris, Carlos, and Dennis stealing small glances of me as I sat on the floor of the bathroom to start breaking down, but they probably realized I needed a little privacy with Missy to fully process this nightmare. I had even started to cry.
I can't even remember the last time I had cried since mom had died. I guess it was about to be Taylor's turn. I had stupidly been ignoring her when she said she hadn't wanted my help. I had insulted her and said she was friendless. I hadn't even tried to stop her when she stormed out. It's almost like when mom and dad argued before the accident.
And oh dear god what is dad going to say? I had helped to hide that Taylor had gotten into a small fight with the skinheads at the school. Am I going to have to keep that secret for the rest of my life? Is he going to hate me for hiding that if he ever finds out? Once my body had reached a point where it had exhausted itself from my full breakdown Missy spoke up.
"Sam if you need me to, I can call your dad to tell him that you need to go to the hospital to see Taylor."
I heard her and collected myself to respond, wiping my arm on my face to clear the tears off.
"No, I need to talk to him. It should be my responsibility."
"Alright, I can at least call the PRT about this. Whoever attacked Taylor was attacking the family of a Ward. Whatever happens they're going to want to get involved to make sure whoever is responsible doesn't get away with it."
She was right, I could at least sic the PRT on whichever bastards did this. Honestly the only reason I'm not going after them right now is I don't have any idea which specific people I'm looking for. The only way to be sure would be to get rid of every single person in the Empire 88. Which when I thought about it wasn't that an unattractive idea. I stood up, even if Taylor died I would have a goal to keep going with. That thought was enough to help me focus.
Suddenly I heard the phone ring again. It was likely dad, and now I had to push away all the anxieties about what's going on so I could answer it. I stumbled out of the bathroom to reach the phone again. One of the guys must have hung the phone back up for me so I was able to answer it.
"Hello?"
"Sam! Are you home?"
"Dad. Yes I'm still home with the other wards."
"Good, I got the call from the police about what happened to Taylor. I'm about to head back home to pick you up so please stay there."
"I will. Dad, how much did they tell you?"
"We can talk about that on the way to the hospital. Ask them to call their parents for a ride home before I get there please."
"Alright. I… I love you dad."
"I love you too Sam. Remember, stay put."
The call ended and the only task I had before me was making sure my guests had a way home. So I went to the living room where they were patiently waiting as I was sorting through my sudden family crisis. I wasn't a pretty sight after my little meltdown but I didn't want to think about that. They looked at me with pity as I spoke.
"Hey guys, do you all have your way home figured out? I'm going to the hospital with my dad."
Carlos responded first "Me and Dennis shared a ride so we're good. Chris and Missy are getting picked up soon as well. What we're worried about is you. Are you doing alright?"
"No, and the worst part is there's nothing I can do to change that. I know you guys want to help but unless you can do something Panacea can't I'm afraid I can't ask for anything from you guys."
Dennis responded next. "That's not necessarily true. We want to be here for you. No matter what happens you have our support."
Chris followed up that sentiment. "Believe me we wouldn't be parahumans if we didn't know what going through some shit felt like. That's why we're on the same team after all. We ought to be backing each other up whenever we have a problem. So don't feel afraid asking us for help."
Damn these guys got really good at emotional speeches. They must have offered seminars or something when I wasn't looking. I decided this deserved some response.
"How about I just ask for a group hug for the road? I feel like I'm going to need it."
They seemed to agree, and soon all five of us were locked in a big hug. This isn't what I had in mind when I joined the wards but I'm glad it gave me friends like this.
A/N
-Surprised? I had been thinking of what kind of trigger event Taylor would have (because what else could this be?). So I decided that Taylor would make a different set of enemies that would cause her to trigger. It will be revealed in the eventual interlude that Taylor might have been leaving out some parts of what's been happening at Winslow from Sam (again).
-Poor Sam, about to have the mission of a lifetime and then this happens. I had considered putting this after but now it's going to be a perfect addition to the mountain of stress she's going to be working under. Even worse is the possibility she'll have to withdraw, and won't that be a huge source of angst as well?
-I hope the other wards aren't too sappy. I just figured this is a crazy situation for them too since this was supposed to be a movie night. So I figured going as earnest as possible would be their way of navigating the situation.
-Please leave replies and feedback. Always looking to improve.