She heard a knock coming from her office door. She wasn't at the rig, so it was likely something to do with the Wards. That was usually what it was when she was in her PRT office. Of course officially Armsmaster was in charge of the Wards, but he had deputized her as his 'second in command' to take charge of them for him. Really it was just that she had a lot more patience for them then he did. He would occasionally check in, make sure everything was running smoothly, but left the day to day to her.
"Come in!" she yelled.
Taylor and Missy came in. Something was obviously bothering them. She couldn't imagine what. Taylor had barely been a ward officially for a few days.
"Miss Militia, I've" Taylor started.
Missy then interrupted, "Excuse me."
"Yes, sorry. We've, come to file a complaint. Corporal Fitzgerald is giving us a dumbed down self defense course because we are girls. The boys are all complaining about how they are bruised and sore after their classes, meanwhile he hasn't taught me a single thing in three days." Taylor went on.
This wasn't ideal. She would have to check in on this, hopefully she could find time soon. She was just absolutely swamped at the moment. Piggot had been on her case about a number of things, and Armsmaster had also dumped several reports onto her lap which he wanted resolved ASAP. Add in that she was just plain tired, not physically, but it had been so long since she had really stepped back and taken some time off. It had been weeks if not months since she had hung out with friends outside of work, let alone something like a date. Memories of her brief time with Michael flashed through her mind before she squashed them.
"I'll look into it, but for now you are still required to attend."
Hopefully that would be enough to assuage the girl until she had some time to investigate. For now though she had a pile of reports to read and sign off on.
Another knock came to her door. It couldn't have even been forty five minutes later she reflected. "Come in" she said with a weary sigh. She was never going to catch up on this paperwork at this rate.
Corporal Fitzgerald came in, absolutely fuming.
"That girl!" He yelled his cheeks flush with puce.
"Slow down and keep it professional," she said guessing where this was going.
The man did his best to restrain himself, but the color in his cheeks didn't fade. With deep breaths and deliberate words he got it out. "I had Paladin for training today. She is completely insubordinate, arrogant, and pigheaded." He ranted. "I don't know what you expect me to do with her, she is unteachable.
Miss Militia sighed, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Can you start at the beginning."
"Since I started teaching her she has been pushing back, acting like she knows everything already. She even tried to take me down when that wasn't what we were practicing. Then today she just storms out of room."
This was great, as soon as they get rid of one teenager with an attitude they get a second. What was she going to do…
"Alright I'll talk with her." Miss Militia said. She avoided bringing up the allegations that Missy and Taylor had raised, Fitzgerald was obviously not in the mood to rationally respond to them. Maybe she could supervise their next class. See what was going on herself. Yes that could work. "When is your next class with her? I'll swing by and see what is going on myself." There hopefully that was an acceptable compromise to both parties.
Another day, another stack of reports. Although these happened to be for the Protectorate instead of the Wards. Still she tried to keep PRT office hours at this time of day in case any of the Wards needed her. She groaned under her breath when she heard the knock on her door. Why couldn't she just get through these things. God she needed to get out of here and take some time off, she had been working way to many hours recently.
"Come in!" she said.
In came someone she truly wasn't expecting, Johnathan Ellis. She rarely interacted with PR. That was largely a duty that went to Piggot and Armsmaster. Of course she was constantly aware of it in her workings, but it wasn't something she dealt with day in and out.
"Johnathan, how can I help you?" She asked.
"I just had a disastrous meeting with one of your wards," he hedged.
"How so?" She could only think of one Ward who would have been meeting with the head of ENE PR. Just what she needed, more issues with the obstinate girl. She questioned once again why they had to push so hard to get the girl enrolled. If she didn't want to be here that much they should have found some other way to engage with her. Sadly it was out of her hands. Piggot and WEDGDG thought her recruitment was important.
Johnathan took a seat across from her. "So I had Paladin in, wanted to run ideas past her. Started with names, just in case she was up for a change, plus there were some issues, albeit minor, during the focus tests. You know, got to make any changes like that upfront. Plus I wanted to avoid any potential problems from the religious crowds."
Hannah nodded. Made sense.
"She didn't seem too pleased about that. When it became obvious she wasn't going to budge I moved on to showing her some of the mockups we had. She had some legitimate complaints so we moved on to the next one and the next. She didn't seem interested in anything I had, which is unfortunate."
He took a deep breath and thought for a second. She just gave him time to tell his story at his own pace.
"Eventually I gave up on anything my team had prepared, obviously they were on a different page than she was. So I drew up something on the spot, and she got offended. Yelled about boob plate."
Militia rolled her eyes. He probably thought it was in commiseration, but really: boob plate?
"I may have put my foot in my mouth then… she stormed out."
"How so?" Hannah asked, breaking her silence.
"I was trying to explain how we could differentiate her costume from her civilian form. I may have said something about making her costume more feminine."
"Which she took as a statement about her natural body." Hannah said seeing exactly where the already angry girl's mind went.
"Yes. I can't say I blame her for walking out. Can you offer her my apologies." He did look genuinely apologetic. She recalled he had some issues with Shadow Stalker as well. Maybe it was just teenage girls he struggled with?
"Sure Johnathan, I'll have a talk with her. I'll let you know when she is next available to continue the conversation." Great more demands on her time.
"Thanks." He said with a look of relief.
"Do you have a better idea of what she wants?" Militia said.
"Yea I think so. For inspiration we are going to go a bit more Medieval, knight in shining armor, all that jazz." He said, "Already got my team working on it." He pulled out a few early drafts and showed them to Militia.
"Hmm, from your description of the discussion this looks like it should work." She conceded.
"Thanks for bringing this to my attention Johnathan. I'll let you know after I talk to her."
"Thanks Militia, I greatly appreciate your help. Teenagers are not my strong suit." He said looking a bit embarrassed at the confession.
He stepped out of her office.
Taylor stormed out of her office. God how had that conversation gone so wrong. She replayed the conversation in her head. One place it had definitely gone wrong was her making any comparison to Hess. That was obviously a misstep in retrospect, the two didn't get along and given Taylor's history with the girl it wasn't surprising that the offhand comparison went poorly. All she could do was blame it on a slip of the tongue. A slip caused by her frustration at the situation, her tiredness, and general workload. It wasn't a great justification, and really she had no one to blame but herself.
Second she shouldn't have mentioned the issues with HARP. Watchdog had said to be cautious there, and she had just blundered in. She had misjudged how important it would be to the girl. The thought she cared so deeply about a volunteer job at a woman's shelter. It just wasn't something Hannah would have been into at that age, but then at that age she was struggling with adapting to a new country, language, and so many other things.
Then there was the obvious fact that despite what she had gotten from Johnathan she obviously had misunderstood the full extent of his foot in mouth moment as he said. Either the girl was way more sensitive about her appearance, or he had said something much more serious than he had eluded too. Likely it was someplace in the middle.
She just sighed and rested her forehead on her hands. Okay, first step was to try talking to Taylor again. Express her confusion, and the conflicting stories. Yes that was a good start. First though she would give the girl a bit of time to cool down.
A half hour later she had finished another report, signed off on it and then went and checked the computers to see if Taylor was signed in in the Wards area.
"Where did you go?" she thought aloud to the computer. It was showing Taylor as having left the building. Mid shift. If she wasn't still so early in her Wards career that would have earned her a console shift.
She picked up the phone and dialed Danny's number. She recalled seeing it on Taylor's application page.
The phone rang for a moment and then someone picked it up. "Hebert's, Danny speaking." The voice came from the other side.
"Danny this is Miss Militia." She spoke without a trace of her old accent. She had spent significant time during her high school and her Wards years working to eliminate that.
"Militia! Is something wrong? Is Taylor okay?" Panic rushed into his voice.
"I believe so. We got into an argument a bit ago. I was giving her space but when I went to speak with her again I discovered she had left the building." Hannah explained.
"She hasn't come home, do you know where she went?" Panic remaining evident in his voice.
"I don't. I suggest you try giving HARP a call. Unless she has a cell phone number I'm not familiar with?"
"I'll give them a call and let you know. Can I reach you on this number?" He asked, his words mashing together in his hurry.
"Yes, this number is good." she confirmed with all the calm that had been drilled into her through console time.
She sat back in her chair. This was turning into more and more of a disaster. When had she struggled so bad with a Ward. She couldn't recall a time. Well Hess, but that was more the girl screaming bloody murder at the entire world. Luckily the troublemaker was in holding until her trial came up for review next week.
She went back to her paperwork, anxiously awaiting the call from Danny. She knew Taylor would be fine, she would just be at HARP, but still something about the situation bothered her.
Her phone rang and she picked it up. "Miss Militia speaking."
"Militia, I couldn't get a hold of Layla, but the front desk at HARP said there was no sign of Taylor. I need your help. I have no idea where to look." The anguish was obvious in his voice. She didn't feel like she could say no.
Miss Militia debated. She couldn't show up in her costume without in turn outing Taylor, which left her going in her civilian guise. Which was its own barrel of issues. At the very least Taylor and Danny had both signed NDAs.
"Alright, I'll be there in twenty minutes," she said.
She switched into her civilian clothes and left the building via the parking garage where her prized Honda Shadow Phantom lie. She climbed onto the bike put her helmet on and twisted the key. The roar of the engine brought a sense of peace to her.
Everything would be okay. They would find Taylor and get this all resolved.
She rode the bike over to the Hebert's and parked along the front of the driveway in front of Danny's truck.
She went to the door and knocked.
The door flew open. "Taylor… oh hello! Uhh. What do I call you?" He awkwardly said obviously not expecting the unmasked hero.
"Hannah," she said with a shy smile. The situation was serious, but hey he was an attractive man about her age. She didn't run into a lot of those in her line of work.
They climbed into the truck and started driving around looking for anywhere Taylor could be. Hannah registered a watch with the console for any activity or 911 calls that could involve the girl.
They roamed the up and down the neighborhood, the boardwalk, and even checked the Library.
Every so often one of them would call HARP, no sign of her or Layla. All calls to Layla went straight to her voicemail.
Finally they headed back to the house to see if she had shown up. They got inside to no signs of Taylor.
"Go sit down," Hannah said to Danny. He took a seat at the kitchen table resting his head in his hands. She started digging through the cupboards until she found some mugs. Then she put the kettle on and found some tea. A few minutes later she set the cup down in front of Danny and sat across from him at the table.
Hannah reached across resting a hand on his arm. "I'm sure she will be okay. She is strong, and I don't mean that in terms of superpowers, she can take care of herself."
He simply nodded his head. He tried to put a smile on. "Yea… she's strong."
They just sat there sipping their tea, both trying to put a smile on for the other. She tried to put the thoughts of how attractive he was aside, she knew this wasn't the time. Luckily she was skilled enough at putting on a face that she was able to hide any mooning or puppy dog eyes.
She released a sigh. Oh how this night had turned into a mess, how much of it was her fault. She caught herself before she could spiral. God, her thoughts were a mess. One way led to a childlike crush, the other led to guilt and self deprecation.
Her musings were interrupted by the phone ringing. He picked up the phone.
"Hey Danny, sorry my phone was off and I didn't see the calls." Hannah could just make out coming over the phone.
"Have you seen Taylor! She's missing!" Danny said panic ringing in his voice.
"Yea, she is with me. Something really upset her…" came the crackly voice over the line.
"Where are you, I'm coming to pick her up!" Danny said cutting her off.
"Can you make that an hour? Let me finish talking to her, maybe calm her down a bit." Layla said attempting to negotiate.
"Fine, but not a minute longer." His voice rumbled with anger and fury.
"Okay. I'll keep an eye on her. See you in an hour." the voice came over the phone.
He slammed the phone down. "Why didn't she tell us what was going on?" he asked, fury still flooding his voice.
"I don't know." Hannah said. She debated what she was going to say next. On one hand saying something could cause significantly more drama and widen the rift between her and Taylor. On the other, telling him was the right thing. The PRT didn't understand what was going on there and he had a right to be informed. "We… have concerns about HARP." she finally said.
"Concerns?" Danny said, his voice going quiet.
"There are signs… nothing to indicate they mean any harm to Taylor, but they are used as a cover for something. We don't know what." Hannah said, spilling secrets that she really wasn't supposed to.
"Why haven't you told me. Why is Taylor still associating with that woman?" the fury back in his voice.
"Because…" she released a breath. "Because our thinkers believe that any attempt to rip Taylor away from them will backfire. That our best chance is to take it slow and steady. I hinted that there were issues when I was talking with Taylor. That was the final straw that caused her to storm out."
"So you just leave my daughter in danger?" He cried.
"No, no of course not. We checked them for harm, there are no signs of that. We don't know what they are a cover for, but it doesn't seem to be harmful to her or the PRT." Hannah attempted to reassure. "That was always our first priority, Taylor's safety."
Danny rose to his feet and started passing the room. Hannah just sat there patiently waiting for him to collect himself, to process his thoughts.
"After I pick her up tonight then she is done." He said.
"Okay" she said before pausing. "We can sort out any issues with Arcadia." It wasn't her place to fight him on such things. Even if she thought the chances of it backfiring were greater than the alternatives.
He pulled her into a hug and sobbed. The drama of the night, the building fear, the panic all becoming too much.
She just hugged him tighter and held him through it.
They pulled up to HARP's office. She climbed out of the truck, leaned against it and let Danny do the talking. This wasn't her place to interfere.
A few minutes later Layla came down to the door escorting a near catatonic teenage girl.
"Oh god Taylor! I've been so worried about you. You ran away and didn't tell anyone where you were." He exclaimed as he swept her up into a hug.
Hannah watched a melancholic smile crossing her face. The thoughts that her parents didn't get to be there for her like this. Happiness that if nothing else Taylor still had her dad. Joy that Danny could care so deeply for someone. Sadness that she didn't get around to having children like this. So many emotions all at once.
They climbed into the truck and set off for their home. She sat there reflecting on what a day it had been. As soon as they got home the girl bolted for her room, slammed the door and started crying.
She pulled Danny into a hug once again. The roller coaster of emotions once more causing him to cry. She just held him through it.
"Oh god what am I to do with her. I've been so lost since… since Annette."
"Shh, its okay. I'm here for you." she said.
Author's Note:
When I wrote this chapter part of it was that I wanted to show that all three of them, Hannah, Danny, and Taylor are doing what they think is best. That no one is a villain here, but instead all three are making mistakes. That no one was right and no one was wrong. Then I posted the previous couple of chapters that have sparked a lot of discussion about which side is in the right.
I hope this chapter accomplishes its goal. In showing the other side, of showing that Hannah and Danny are acting out of care for Taylor, even if they get it wrong or are missing facts.