It should say something about how things have gotten for me that getting out of Winslow for the weekend didn't bring the relief it usually did. That wasn't to say the school had gotten any better; Winslow was it's same crappy self as usual. It was more that my home life had fallen off a cliff after Sam found out that I had triggered. Going over to Julia's place to stay had worked out okay so far, but it felt like I was living on borrowed time before my welcome was worn out with her parents.
The story I told Julia's parents was that my house had a fire, and so it needed some repairs before it was livable again. I also explained to them that I had wanted to stay with Julia because the place that my Dad and my sister were staying at didn't have enough room for all of us ("Kurt and Lacey are nice people and all Mr. Fairchild, but their house is a bit small for five people").
Since Dad had agreed to back up my story when Julia's parents called his work number, they were fine with me staying a while despite how abruptly I had arrived. Julia wasn't kidding about them being good people.
Speaking of Julia, once I had gotten out of the school building I got into the parking lot where Julia was waiting for me. She was taking advantage of the warmer weather to wear her favorite skirt and top. She made it look good, better than I could at least. She had offered to loan a few articles of clothing after I temporarily moved in with her, but I refused since I didn't want to take advantage of her family's hospitality any more than I had to.
She perked up when she caught sight of me approaching her "Hey Taylor, I heard that math test today with Mr Winchester was brutal. How did you do?"
I scoffed a bit. "It wasn't that bad, everyone was just griping because they thought the teacher would use the same test that was given last year. Never crossed their minds that the new teacher might be using a new test."
"Oh yeah I can see that. I wonder if they're going to ask for their money back from the upperclassmen they bought their answers from?"
"Knowing some of my classmates, absolutely. Shame is just a funny sounding word for some of them."
We began walking to the bus stop and Julia switched topics.
"So how have your bruises been healing up? I know I could probably go out again tonight if we needed to."
"They're practically gone. They don't even hurt when I touch them anymore."
"So are you going to break it to your dad tonight that you're going to go on patrol this weekend, or do you want to wait until tomorrow night? My parents are going to be busy the whole weekend catering about a half dozen events, so I don't think they'll be a problem."
"I think I'll rip that band-aid off tomorrow. I know that he cares about me but he doesn't really understand that crime isn't just going to take a break while we sort out our family problems."
"Yeah I get what you mean. Even if the raid didn't go according to plan, it was nice to actually put my power to use for real."
"Same here, I'm already thinking about how we can adjust our tactics. Want to talk about that over dinner? I can bring my notebook."
"Sounds good, my parents should be getting ready to head out to the next event soon so we'll have the house to ourselves."
We arrived at the bus stop and our timing was good, because the bus was just about to arrive when we got there. We fished out our bus fare and with a practiced ease we paid and claimed a spot in the back. We had put our cape talk on hold until we had some privacy again, so we occupied our time debating the merits of which dishes we should cook for dinner.
Getting off after our short ride we were within sight of Julia's home, a rowhouse in one of Brockton Bay's few remaining middle class neighborhoods. It was shaded by the trees regaining their leaves for spring, with a small sedan parked out front on the street. That meant Julia's parents were probably still home, since they only owned the one car.
All in all, everything seemed normal as I followed Julia up the front steps. But suddenly Julia abruptly paused at the top of the little staircase, right in front of the door. This would be concerning for a normal person, but when Julia does it then it should be taken as a sign that something was terribly wrong. Her danger sense didn't usually have a lot of false positives.
"Is something wrong?" I asked her.
She turned to me and said quietly "I don't know for sure, I'm getting a dull sense but it's definitely my power telling me something is up."
I couldn't help but think of the worst case scenarios "You don't think one of the gangs found us do you?"
"No, if it was that bad I could tell. This is more like a few nights ago when you turned up at my doorstep. You weren't a threat but the fact that your sister knew about me probably was. So if I had to guess, I'm about to get some bad news again."
"Crap, do you think your parents know?"
"I don't know. Can you scout into the house to see what's up?"
"Yeah, give me a sec. Clearing your house of termites didn't leave much else, but I can get a few houseflies to check if there's anyone besides your parents at least."
"Okay, try not to make it too obvious. My mom has the eyes of a hawk. She'll get suspicious if she sees more than a handful of flies going around."
"Got it." I acknowledged.
Stretching my power out, I grabbed a half dozen flies from a nearby trash can. It would have been nearly impossible for me to maneuver them into Julia's house even a month ago, but my constant practice had simply reduced the challenge into a mere chore by moving them through a vent. The fact that I could practice controlling a handful of bugs while I was in my classes without attracting attention helped a lot.
I appreciated how powerful my power was, but I could tell it was meant to be a big hammer type of tool. Getting bugs to act naturally while under my control was still a bit of a work in progress, but I had improved enough that I could avoid attracting attention.
Once the flies were inside I spread them out. While their sense of sight was terrible, I could at least tell which rooms were lit and which weren't. That narrowed down where I had to search quickly. It helped that living with Julia made me familiar with her house. My search finally found something unusual in the living room. I clocked three person-like blobs in the room.
"It seems like your parents have another guest here." I told Julia. "I'm not seeing anything in the other rooms, so whoever it is they've come alone."
"You don't see anything wrong?"
"They seem to all be calm at least. This is your house Julia, do you think we should go in?"
She gave it a moment of thought and decided "Yeah, we should go in. Best way to make sure they're not in danger is to go in to see for ourselves."
I nodded and she opened the door. Following her in I could hear her parents talking in the living room, apparently explaining the catering business to their guest. I traded glances with Julia. It was probably a good sign since she only occasionally helped out with the business, so if they were talking shop it probably wasn't related to her. We relaxed a bit.
While we were paused by the front door Julia's father, whose name was Gary, came out into the hallway.
"Julia, Taylor, there you are. We were just talking with Taylor's sister. She came by to see her. Get your shoes off and come into the living room. Your mother made some lemonade, I'll grab some glasses for you." He said casually.
I never realized my body could tense up as fast as it did at that moment. Dozens of thoughts flooded my mind. What was Sam even doing here!? I hadn't heard from her since I had stormed out of the house earlier in the week. Was she here to blow Julia's cover too? I looked over at Julia and her eyes were as wide as I'd ever seen them.
Thankfully Gary turned his back to us right after he spoke to head to the kitchen. So he didn't get to witness us react to the bomb he had just dropped on us. Julia's father ducked into the kitchen, giving us precious little time to recover before he came out again.
It took a few seconds for us to put our poker faces back on but when I looked towards Julia, I could tell she was already gearing up for the worst. Little details like her trying to square her shoulders and pulling her shoes off forcefully. She usually untied them before taking them off, so she must have been too distracted to care right now.
Once we had taken our shoes off Gary came out with the glasses, which looked very generic. Julia had mentioned that most of the plates and utensils in their house were often the same type as what her parents used in their catering business ("Girls, one of the secrets of business is that you should look for every opportunity you can to buy in bulk." "So is that why we have like ten thousand napkins in the basement Dad?").
Taking the glasses he offered us I tried to fish for information "So how long has she been here? School let out only a little bit ago."
"Oh, only ten minutes or so. She mentioned her school closes a little earlier than yours."
That was a lie, her school ended at about the same time as ours did. She only got out early for ward business, which raised the ugly possibility that's why she was here.
I kept my poker face as we followed him into the living room where I saw Sam sitting casually on the larger sofa. She was drinking her lemonade with a straw. Julia's mother, named Maria, was sitting on the loveseat sofa. Maria was expounding on how they choose some of the recipe's they use before she noticed us enter.
"Julia, there you are. How was school?"
"It was fine Mom. I didn't know Taylor's sister was coming over."
"Oh it was a surprise for us too. We were just getting ready to leave when Taylor's sister popped up at the door.
Sam spoke up "Yeah it was kind of a spur of the moment thing. Missy's mom offered to drive me over here after school since I hadn't seen Taylor in a little while. I thought since it's the weekend we could catch up in person."
So I'm guessing spur of the moment likely means 'Dad doesn't know I'm here'. She could be here to apologize but somehow I don't think I'm that lucky. Sam was definitely trying to pull something by showing up so suddenly. I tried to deflect in the hope I could dodge whatever she had in store.
"I'm not sure I could do that, I already made plans to go out with Julia."
"Really? Julia, you didn't mention you were going out tonight." Maria said with a questioning tone.
That earned me a side-eye from Julia, who thankfully was a good enough liar to cover for us "Oh yeah, Taylor thinks she bombed her math test today so we're going to the library to help her study for the next one. Not much talking allowed there I'm afraid."
Okay I guess I earned that for making Julia lie to her own mother.
"Oh well I'm sorry to hear that Taylor. But I can see that your sister went out of her way to see you, so I'm sure you can put that off for a night. Family is important after all." She said, and I could see Gary nodding along.
Sam decided to speak up again "Yeah, Dad and I have been doing okay staying with some family friends until the fire damage is repaired. But it's not the same without Taylor around."
Gary chipped in "Completely understandable, being separated from family can be…hard sometimes. I don't see any reason why she can't tag along while you go out for some dinner, right Julia?"
"I guess not." Julia conceded.
"Great, I'll get you some money for a restaurant. You should try visiting either Yvette's or Zackary's restaurants." He turned towards me "In case you don't know Taylor, Yvette serves french food and Zachary has BBQ. If memory serves, they should be having some good specials tonight. So either option should be affordable."
"Those both sound nice." I said, trying to add some enthusiasm. Apparently there were some cliques in the Brockton Bay restaurant world. Some of it was based on the business owners' relationships and who they were friends with. But there were sometimes gang related sympathies or antagonisms at play ("Never go to Stu's diner, that guy is a dyed in the wool Empire 88 sympathizer.")
"Super. And Sam, do you have a ride back tonight?"
"My Dad can pick me up after he gets off work. Friday's tend to have the longest hours for him since he doesn't like leaving stuff undone for next week."
"Oh yeah that sounds like Danny, tell him I said hello and that if he ever feels like catching up that I'm up for it."
"I'll be sure to do that."Sam agreed. Gary nodded and ducked out of the room to retrieve the money.
Maria checked her watch and then looked up at us "Well now that you're here me and Gary better be going soon. There's at least three birthday parties that are expecting their food to be delivered tonight. When you're done with the lemonade you can put the pitcher with what's left back in the fridge."
"Yes Mom, I know where to put the pitcher."
"I'm sure you do. You've just been forgetting a lot lately. Just this week you forgot your backpack at school. You really need to keep track of it better, those school textbooks aren't free."
I tried not to wince. Julia had to leave her bag at our little hideout before our failed raid and she didn't have time to grab it before she had to be home.
Gary came back with a few twenty dollar bills and handed it to Julia "Well we all get distracted in our head sometimes dear. I trust you won't forget to pay at the restaurant?"
"No dad. I know how you feel about dine and dashers."
"Great, how about we leave you alone to catch up? We should be back around nine or ten o'clock or so. So the same curfew of home being home by 9 pm applies as usual. Sounds good?"
"Yeah" Both me and Julia said. Honestly the faster Julia's parents and Sam were separated the better.
Sam didn't seem bothered by them leaving by the look of it, which suggested she wanted to be alone with us as well. Whatever she wants, it had better be good or else she's going to find out what it's like to be covered in insects on every part of her body. Though before Gary and Maria started leaving, she sprung a suggestion I should have seen coming.
"Before you go I have to say you've been such nice hosts. You don't mind if I stop by here more often to see Taylor do you? I'd rather not lose touch since she doesn't use her cell phone much."
"Not at all, we're always glad to see Julia making new friends. As long as Danny's fine with it we'd be glad to have you come visit. You've been good company yourself. Always nice to see kids with an interest in business." Gary complimented.
"It's been a pleasure talking with you too," Sam complimented in turn.
Julia's parents thankfully got up to leave before Sam could get them to agree to anything else. Like letting her move in here too god forbid.
Julia gave them a few more promises that we would behave as they got ready to go out. Me and Sam simply stared at each other in silence for the next minute as I stood by the living room entrance, with her sipping some lemonade while I let my glass stay empty on the coffee table. Sam decided to break the silence.
"Soooo… you think that you bombed your math test today huh?"
"I did fine. Julia was just exaggerating" I ground out. If she was trying to get a rise out of me it wouldn't work.
"I'm sure she was." She said smoothly. I decided to hold my tongue until Julia was back in the room.
Once I heard the door latch Julia was back in the living room like a shot. I wasn't sure if she was as displeased as I was that Sam was here before. But now I'm pretty sure her intensity won out by a mile from the look on her face when she returned.
"You have a lot of nerve showing up here after trying to force Taylor into the wards. Are you here to try and threaten me to join too?" Julia questioned with a very heated tone in her voice.
"Nope" Sam said nonchalantly, popping the p "Though if you are interested I can get you some brochures."
Julia turned cold now "I'm not. What. Are. You. Doing. Here?"
Sam didn't seem intimidated at all, almost ignoring Julia to finish her glass of lemonade. When the glass emptied her straw made an obnoxious sucking sound.
When she finished drinking she replied "Am I not allowed here? I just wanted to talk to Taylor. Did you think we were never going to see each other again or something?"
"I don't remember inviting you. So why here?" Julia's tone had shifted from cold to dangerous.
"Well I know you're not going to come to me for obvious reasons. So logically if I wanted to see Taylor I knew I'd have to come visit you. Your parents offering me some great lemonade was a nice bonus."
"You think you're being fucking cute right now, aren't you?"
"It's what I do best. You should try it. I can tell you're on the way to an ulcer from how much you worry."
Julia turned to me "I'm starting to think you downplayed how much of a little shit your sister can be."
"Yeah, I forget sometimes that most people aren't used to her shenanigans." I turned to my sister and sighed. "Okay Sam. What do you want? You're already on thin fucking ice for showing up unannounced like this."
"Would you believe me if I said I wanted to patch things up after our fight?" I narrowed my eyes at her, and she seemed to get my meaning. "Guess not. Well for what it's worth I am sorry about getting angry like that. My head wasn't exactly in a good place that day."
I caught the wording of her apology "But you're not sorry for what you said."
"If I did apologize about that it wouldn't really mean much, cause I still stand by my points."
"You still want me in the wards?"
"Want? Yes. But I've accepted that I can't really force you."
"Well how high minded of you. Did you just come here to say that?"
"Well there was something else I wanted to show you." She grabbed her backpack and pulled out a manila folder with some files in it. "I just printed this off the city website while I was at school, freshly posted today. It's the initial damage report from your fight with the empire. The city likes making these so they can show the feds how bad their parahuman problem is, so it's pretty inclusive."
She held out the folder to me. I took it from her while Julia sidled up to me to take a look, though she found time to send Sam a withering look her way before I opened the folder. I opened it and the document seemed legitimate, though one part caught my eye immediately as I inspected each page.
"Hold on! Over a hundred grand in damages!? That can't be right!" I shouted. It was more like over one hundred and twelve grand and change, but the point still stood. This number was way higher than it should have been.
"How can it be that much!" Julia nearly shouted as well. She was clearly reeling from that total as much as I was.
"If you check the itemized list in the appendix, you'll notice a line item for 'Blackout damages'. You guys do remember baiting Hookwolf into hitting a power pole right?" Sam said evenly.
In fact I did remember that. Hookwolf was chasing us at one point and Julia had pointed out that he was vulnerable to electricity. So as he was chasing us down she suggested we take advantage of that by using the power lines so we could ward him off. I was almost out of breath and convinced I was about to die so I followed her lead.
Thankfully it worked, and we managed to put some distance between us. It helped that Dauntless and Armsmaster arrived to slow him down. Though just as we got far enough away from Hookwolf, Cricket and Stormtiger caught sight of us again and I suddenly had other things on my mind.
I turned to the appendix page with the itemized costs, and sure enough the different costs related to the blackout were the largest expense. The next biggest line item was the medical bills from the half dozen bystanders that were injured. I cringed a bit at that one. We had tried ducking through a store to lose Hookwolf when he was chasing us. But he followed us and so he injured several people as he smashed through the store.
I tried to put on a brave face. "Look, we were going to die if we didn't do something to get Hookwolf off our backs."
Sam didn't miss a beat "I'm not saying you shouldn't do what you need to survive. But there are better ways. What's your plan next time Hookwolf shows up and chases you?"
"We'll deal with him from long range, now that we know his weakness we can figure something out."
"And what about if the other heavy hitters come after you, like Lung or Kaiser? You won't always have the luxury of trying again later. You think you're planning things out, but what you end up doing is making things up as you go along."
"How would you know?" I said indignantly.
"I know because I do it too. It's not necessarily a bad way to do things, you just need to know when it's a good time to do it. Kind of doing it right now in fact." Sam said nonchalantly.
That took me a bit off guard. "What? What are you talking about? Are you saying you came here with no plan?"
"No I do have a plan, but the plan I started with and what I ended up doing are two very different things. For example I didn't exactly plan on talking about the ins and outs of the catering business today while I waited for you but that's what I ended up doing with Julia's parents. I wasn't even sure you'd both be coming home together or not."
Julia took that as a cue to ask her own question "Then what was your plan coming here? All you've done is give Taylor a half assed apology, tell us how bad we are because we can't avoid collateral damage, and threaten my secret identity."
Sam seemed to take issue with Julia's assessment "Okay to be clear I am not threatening your identity. I'm sorry if you thought I was. I only told my dad about Taylors identity because it was kind of unavoidable. So far I've kept my mouth firmly shut about your extracurricular activities when your parents were around. I would happily leave you alone completely if you weren't involved. "
"So you want me to just abandon Taylor?" Julia asked hotly, and I couldn't help but feel a little warm feeling in my chest at how strongly she said that.
"No, no, no. If anything you guys are better off sticking together at this point. You've made too many enemies to go out by yourself anymore."
As reassuring as it was that Sam wasn't suggesting that we split up, I tried to go back to the original question "Then what are you doing here?"
"Simple. There's an old saying 'If the mountain will not come to Mohammed, Mohammed will go to the mountain'."
"Sam, it sounds an awful lot like you're quoting that old episode of Protectorate 911. Specifically the one where a horde of Egyptian mummies show up."
Apparently she wasn't phased by me calling her out. "Wisdom comes from many places. And what I'm saying is that since you're not going to become wards, I'm going to bring the wards training to you."
"You want to train us?" Julia said, a little astonished.
"Yep, granted a lot of the stuff related to PRT rules and regulations wouldn't apply to you. But I could teach you how to actually be heroes instead of the next couple of Shadow Stalker's." As she said that I straightened up and was about to refute her but she added hastily "And not in the way you think I mean Taylor!"
"Then what do you mean?"
"That you can't just be a hero who plays by their own rules. Shadow Stalker tried that and the PRT got tired of her going around nailing people to walls real quickly. She lasted only a couple of months before she got arrested for going too far and was press-ganged into the wards."
"She doesn't seem to be all that bothered by it."
"Yeah she might put up a tough act but she's living on a cliff edge right now since she's on probation. Wouldn't take much to push her somewhere even worse like juvie or even Madison."
"If you're trying to scare us Sam, it won't work."
"Well you should be scared. It may not look like it but I'm pretty scared of what could happen to you if you fuck up too badly. Dad is scared as well. That's why I'm offering to help you."
"I think we're fine on our own."
"Maybe you are, but you could always do better." Sam switched to Julia. "And how about you? What do you think about letting me help you?"
"Wh-what? Me?" Julia said, clearly taken off guard from being put on the spot like that.
"Yeah you, I'm extending this offer to the both of you. I'm offering you information and advice you'd never find on the internet."
Julia was silent for a few seconds before she asked "Does the PRT know about this?"
"Right now, no. I can't guarantee they'll never find out but I'm taking some precautions. For example I currently don't have my wards phone on me right now. I got a burner instead." To demonstrate Sam took out a generic flip phone. "It helps that I'm on a reduced schedule right now so I have some extra free time to help you out with."
"Why should we trust you? What's stopping you from just handing us over to the PRT the second it becomes convenient?" Julia questioned further.
"There's nothing stopping me from screwing you over now. I wouldn't even need to talk to the PRT, just your parents. But I won't, because I want to get through to you guys that I'm not your enemy here."
"Well that's just magnanimous of you. But I haven't forgotten that the main reason Taylor is staying here is because of you. That and her dad doesn't want her to be an independent hero."
"She's welcome back home at any point as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure I could get dad to loosen up about his hangups about Taylor's career choices if he knew I was there supporting her. This is me trying to meet you halfway on this."
I could hardly believe my ears. "Are you really saying that after less than a week you've done a complete 180 degree turn about me being an independent hero?"
"Not exactly, I still think it's kind of dumb but there's no reason I can't help you avoid making some simple mistakes. For example I'm guessing that you were probably going to try going out on patrol this weekend right?"
"Maybe? Do you have a problem with that?"
"Not necessarily, but if you want to avoid wasting your time I would suggest keeping an eye on the area between 6th Avenue and Lords Street. That's one of the big hotspots for muggings, with all people heading home after they go out for the weekend. Just a little tip."
I hadn't known that, and I couldn't just ignore it because it came from Sam. And as difficult as Sam can be sometimes, she was still my sister. I didn't want to be alienated from her forever. But I still felt like she wasn't telling me something. Like she had an ulterior motive somewhere.
"So you're just going to help us out of the goodness of your heart?"
"Well there is one more reason I'm doing this. Do you remember how you said that I don't care about anything that doesn't affect me? I want to prove you wrong."
"Prove me wrong?"
"I do care about this city, Taylor. I care about it a lot. I'm thinking if we can just get a few more good heroes we can fix the gang problem. Like how Dad thinks the ferry can fix the local economy. And I can help you be good heroes."
"What makes you think we aren't good heroes.?"
"Because right now you're still basically newbies. You need help if you want to survive your learning curve. Heroes are supposed to help each other out. You remember me helping you out with those empire capes right?"
I did remember. Me and Julia were exhausted when Sam had shown up. My birds were basically gone and my bugs were getting eliminated faster than I could collect them. I had actually felt reassured when she showed up. Like we were getting a lifeline after finding ourselves in the deep end. So I swallowed my pride and replied "Yes"
"Then all I'm asking is that you give me a chance to help you. Consider it repaying me for that little favor if you want."
I stared at Sam, and she stared back at me. Julia was also staring but Sam was focused on me. I tried to think of some reason to not trust her but they all just sounded petty after what Sam had said. And despite it all she was still my sister. After a minute of silence I looked over at Julia.
"Do you think you can trust her?"
Julia looked at me "If you're willing to trust her after everything I guess I can too. It'll make us even after she saved us I guess. Though I will have to say that my house is off limits to her until I say otherwise. I don't care if my parents gave you permission."
I focused back on Sam "Fine, we're willing to give you a chance in theory. But we'll need a little time to decide if we should accept your offer."
"That's alright, I do have one more condition of my own that I want to mention."
"And what is that?"
"Generally before the PRT starts training us they do a bunch of evaluations and tests to figure out our powers and what we need to work on."
"So you want us to do some tests?"
She made a so-so gesture "Kind of. You, I'm relatively familiar with from all the PRT reports analyzing and speculating about your power. So I'd just need to fill in some blanks here or there." Then Sam looked at Julia "But for Julia I'd need to be more in depth to figure out what exactly she can do. Cause I don't have much of a clue"
"You don't know about my power already?" Julia asked
"I have a vague idea you're a thinker but not much other than that. If that's the case we'd need to sit down and do some basic thinker tests to make sure we're not missing anything. That and get to know each other a bit."
As reassuring as it was that Sam didn't know Julia's power, I still felt concerned on Julia's behalf that she wanted to know.
"Is this not negotiable?"
"If you want to get the most out of this then yeah, kind of."
I checked with Julia again "Do you think this should be a deal-breaker?"
Julia considered it for a moment and said "I guess if we end up working together, she'll need to know eventually."
Sam seemed satisfied with this "Good. Since we've confirmed there aren't any automatic deal-breakers, we can take some time to sleep on it. How do you guys feel about deciding before next weekend starts?"
"I don't have a problem with that." Julia confirmed.
"Me neither" I echoed.
"Super. Now that that's out of the way I'm curious about those restaurants that Mr Fairchild mentioned. I always enjoy a chance to eat ou-…."
"Sam, don't push your luck."
"Killjoy. Fine, Taylor has my number so you can call me once you've decided if you want my help or not. I'm also open to any more questions that you may have." Sam said as she got up from the couch. She picked up the pitcher of lemonade to pour herself another glass. "Also you got to tell me how your mom makes this lemonade, I wasn't kidding about it being good."
"I'd have to ask her, but I imagine you'd start with some lemons." Julia sardonically replied.
"Oooo A smartass. I think we're going to get along great." Sam replied with a smirk.
She took out the straw and decided to chug down the lemonade quickly. I felt the need to chastise her "You know Sam, you're allowed to use your table manners when the adults aren't around."
Sam finished her glass and sighed in contentment before replying "I could, but who has time for that?" She then returned the glass to the table and made her way to the door.
Julia decided to give her a reminder as she left "Remember, my house is off limits until I say otherwise."
"Don't worry, despite what you may think I do have some self control." She opened the front door and turned her head towards us with a smirk. "I'll let you two lovebirds discuss my offer over your romantic candlelit dinner tonight by yourselves."
My brain took a second to process that last remark and my response was an automatic "We're not dating Sam! We're just friends!"
"Okay, I don't judge either way." she said, though the smile on her face didn't go away as she quickly closed the door behind her.
I looked over at Julia to see her staring at the door, probably still processing what Sam had implied. I felt the need to reaffirm what I said. "We are just good friends… right?"
Julia snapped out of her stupor to answer "Yeah. Friends. Just…. really good friends."
I feel like I should have known something like this would happen.
A/N
-So a big return to Taylor's perspective. I wanted to have the interlude be another character so we're seeing Sam's approach to reconciliation from Taylor's perspective here. The feelings have cooled a bit so she's more willing to listen to reason, if still hesitant to agree to anything just yet. Of course their relationship problems haven't been completely resolved yet but it's a start. I think we'll have one or two more chapters before we finish the arc so you can look forward to that.
-If Sam's plan seems like it's out of the blue I figured it would be a little tedious to describe every little step of Sam coming up with her offer. Just know that Sam started off with a plan to find out more about Julia, thought about how the PRT did power testing, then had a light-bulb moment of offering that testing and training to them without the PRT involved. Of course how well that'll go is something you'll find out about soon enough.
-I'm not big into shipping or anything but it's always fun to explore the blurry line between really good friends and romantic partners. I'm not committed to pairing anybody up but I'm willing to explore potential romantic relationships when they make sense in the story.
-Feel free to leave feedback. I'm always looking to improve and I appreciate the replies.