Taylor woke up sometime in the middle of the night curled up by the door. Her eyes and throat ached and she could feel the remnants of her tears staining her face.

She got up and used the bathroom washing her face, and brushing her teeth. She went downstairs and got a drink of water. It looked like her dad's mysterious lady friend had left she thought as she looked out the window at the driveway. That was good. She didn't want to think how she'd react if the person was still here.

Hydrated, and cleaned up she went upstairs and got into her pyjamas and climbed into bed.

She awoke in the morning to the smell of bacon and eggs. She wandered downstairs and found her father hard at work cooking up breakfast. "Morning" she mumbled pushing the hair out of her face.

"Morning, I've called you in sick today." he said.

"huh?" she said as she sat down at the table, still feeling emotionally exhausted.

"There are some things we need to talk about," he said as he brought a plate of fresh bacon over to the table. He then sat down at his spot and started dishing food up onto the two plates.

"Like?" Taylor said suspicion tainting her voice.

"Like where you were last night?" A hint of accusation lacing his voice.

"That's… I don't know. I wandered for a bit, then I ended up at Winslow. I wanted to know why. Why they treated me like they did. I didn't want to come home and fight with you, I didn't want to stay at the PRT and fight with them. I didn't feel like I had anyplace I could go." Taylor rambled.

"And you didn't go to HARP?"

She shrugged. "I was mad with everyone, some of that redirected to Layla. I didn't want to see her." The lie was barely hidden.

"I don't want you around that woman. I've asked the PRT to take over your early release days."

"No!" Taylor shouted jumping to her feet. "Absolutely not!"

"Yes! Layla was being vague about where you were last night, and Miss Militia told me some of the concerns they have about HARP. You are done with that place, I don't want you getting involved in whatever it is they are hiding."

"Oh, I see how this is. Cosying up to Miss Militia is what is important. Selling me out for a woman." Anger, and vile dripped from her words. She started to twist and storm away.

"Taylor get back here now!" Danny yelled. It was rare he let his temper loose around her. She couldn't think of a time it was aimed at her. She stopped and span back around to face him.

"What angry that I'd insult your bed partner?" She spat, more anger rising in retaliation to his.

That seemed to catch Danny off guard. He stopped and took a deep breath.

"Nothing has happened between Miss Militia and me." He said forcing his words to be calm.

"You mean nothing has happened yet." Taylor spat back.

"Taylor, calm down. Think rationally." She just stared at him. "I know you are having difficulties with the PRT. Miss Militia can help you sort those out."

"You mean like she has so far? She ignored my complaints has me working with a misogynistic prick, blamed me when the PR guy called me a boy, and is now making moon eyes at my dad. And lets not leave out the fact that she is taking away the one person who is willing to take me seriously and help me."

"Layla is hiding things from you!" Danny yelled back.

"I know!" Taylor yelled back. She stopped and took a breath. "That is why I didn't go there yesterday, but she found me and told me, I know what she was hiding."

"Well, what is it? She is some super villain?" Danny accused.

"No, the absolute opposite. At the same time I can't say. It isn't my place." Taylor said trying to sidestep the argument.

"She has you keeping secrets. And you wonder why we want you away from her?" Anger once again creeping into his voice.

"I'll keep going to the fucking Wards, but if you make me give up HARP then I'm done." Taylor declares issuing an ultimatum.

"You're grounded. No heroing, no after school activities, no HARP. I'll call the police to retrieve you if you go there." Danny says, calling her on her ultimatum.

"Fine!" Taylor yells and storms back to her room. Slamming the door behind her and throws herself onto her bed.

The stalemate of the house lasted the entire day. Neither talking to the other. She had overheard her dad briefly talking to someone on the phone. She had her suspicions as to who, but didn't hear much of the conversation.

She went to school the next day. The cloud hanging over her head made most people keep away from her.

When she saw Mary she ran up to her. "Hey can you deliver a message to Layla for me?"

"Sure!" Mary replied. "But won't you see her this afternoon?"

"I'm grounded, and banned from going to HARP at the moment. Can you let her know." Taylor said.

She talked with Mary for a few minutes. Catching up on the gossip that Mary loved to spread, but her heart wasn't in it.

In Math she sat at her normal desk. Chris then came into the room and sat down at the desk next to her instead of his usual.

"Hey, haven't seen you around for a bit." He said, wiggling his eyebrows like some secret code.

"Yea, don't think I'll come back to the club." She replied.

"What? What happened." Chris asked.

"Can't talk about it here." she answered while obviously glancing around the room, hoping he would take the point.

She wasn't sure what she was supposed to do on her early release days. She refused to go to the PRT, wasn't allowed to go to HARP, under threats of involving the police, and she didn't really have any reason to hang around school. If the school caught wind that she wasn't going to her release program she could get in major trouble to the point of expulsion.

Instead she went to the boardwalk.

T: Hey Lisa, want to grab a coffee. I could use a break.
L: sr, Brockton Beans in 20?
T: See you there!

Taylor went to the agreed upon location, ordered a tea, and found a table outside looking out over the Boardwalk. She sat sipping her tea until Lisa showed up.

"Hey Lisa!" she greeted.

The blonde carried her mug of coffee from inside and sat down at the table across from her.

"What's got a bee in your bonnet?" Lisa asked.

"In a fight with Dad over one of my after school clubs." Taylor grumbled.

"Ahh, well glad I can distract you for a bit."

Taylor took another sip of her tea. "So what is your after school club up to."

"What want inside information." Lisa teased with a grin.

"Hardy ha ha, I'm grounded from playing opposition for the time being." Taylor replied.

"Oh good to know, we'll be sure to plan all of our dastardly deeds in the meantime oh mighty slayer of silver wolves."

Taylor instantly started looking around making sure no one was close enough to hear. Before glaring at Lisa.

"We are safe. I already checked." The girl said with a self satisfied grin. "So what are you going to do?"

Taylor shrugged. "I don't know. Not sure what I can do. I'm banned from volunteering at HARP." And with it went her source of information on what she was. "And I refuse to take part in my other after school club."

"Oof, so you did get press ganged. That sucks. Definitely need to be on our guard then."

"They just keep treating me like I'm a fragile child." Taylor said with a bit of a whine.

"Well you can keep up your stalemate. Maybe daddy dearest will give in." She said.

They sat and chatted for a bit. It was good to talk to an… acquaintance, maybe friend.

She went home at the time school would normally end. She was surprised when she saw her Dad's truck, and the motorcycle sitting in their driveway. Taylor entered the house with her hackle raised.

When she entered she saw her dad and the olive skinned woman sitting at the table.

"Who are you, and why are you here?" she accused.

"Taylor where have you been!" Danny yelled.

"Out. Couldn't hang around school and I refuse to go to the PRT." Taylor retorted.

"I told you that you were grounded. I wasn't kidding about calling the police on HARP."

"Well good thing I wasn't near HARP." She spat back.

"Let's all calm down, sit down, and talk." The woman that Taylor was 95% sure was Miss Militia said. Taylor pulled a chair out and threw herself into it before folding her arms and glaring at the two adults.

"Now then, even if you don't like it your still required to come down to the PRT, otherwise Arcadia will come down on you hard."

"Going to rat me out?" Taylor accused.

"No, but we are legally required to report employment information such as hours worked. So it will get back to them." Militia said.

"Don't care, this is your mess. If you just stayed out of my life I'd be good." Taylor responded like a petulant teenager.

"Come on, lets talk this through like adults." Militia continued.

"Ever since you signed me up for the wards my life has become a mess again. I was happy before. I spent time with people I enjoyed, I was learning lots, my skills were rapidly increasing. Then I get press ganged into the wards get treated like an idiot, get removed from the other things I enjoy and for what. So I can patrol when and how you tell me to." Taylor ranted.

"Taylor, you never gave me a chance to look into your accusations." Militia began.

"You could have just believed us!" Taylor shouted.

Miss Militia sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Yes I could have, but that isn't how things work in large organisations. There are rules and procedures. I was going to come to your next class and observe, but you haven't had one since."

Taylor was a bit taken aback by that. Was she really? Could things actually get better there.

"And what about the PR guy?" Taylor said, doubling down on her anger.

"He was really sorry, he immediately acknowledged that he put his foot in his mouth and screwed up with you. He was trying to avoid backlash from religious groups with your name, and the comment about your body was… just an idiot being an idiot. He profusely apologizes. I was the one who misunderstood him when he told me what he had done." Militia tried to explain.

So that was two for two. Militia did seem to have reasonable explanations for her actions, and the actions of those around her.

"And banning me from HARP?" She asked.

"We know HARP isn't what it seems on the surface." Militia began to explain.

"I know, but it isn't harmful!" Taylor shot back.

"We don't know that. We know they don't mean you harm, but if it is part of a gang then they wouldn't mean you harm. They would just want to recruit you."

Taylor thought about how to explain this. How to justify it without just coming out and saying she was an angel was the problem.

"Could we involve Layla in this conversation?" she asked. Hoping that the older angel could assist.

"She hid where you were!" Danny exclaimed speaking up for the first time in a while.

"As long as you are banning me from HARP then I'm not interested in being a Ward." Taylor said, once again laying down her ultimatum. HARP was her connection to what she was. Plus she helped people and she really had come to enjoy the work she was doing, the good she was doing.

"I told you the thinkers said you couldn't just rip her away from it." Miss Militia said to Danny.

Danny just grumbled at this.

"Can we come to a compromise?" Miss Militia asked the pair of them.

"I'd rather she do nothing, no wards, no HARP. Than go to HARP." Danny said.

"Well I can guarantee you that won't last." Taylor said. "I'm respecting the boundaries you set because I'm not yet ready to run away, but believe me it will come to that point soon."

Danny seemed absolutely stunned by that confession. That she would run away.

"You would run away? The police would find you at HARP right away, bring all sorts of trouble down on them."

Taylor knew that they would have ways of hiding her, moving her to a different city, or just not involving her in HARP but helping her setup else wise. They were angels, how could they not.

Taylor just shrugged. "I have my ways." she said, deciding to be mysterious.

"So we are at an impasse." Militia said.

"Look, I know what HARP does, I can assure it isn't some evil supervillain gang, or anything like that. They are as good of if not better an organisation than the PRT."

Danny looked skeptical at this. Militia just seemed intensely interested. "Can you tell us more?"

Taylor eventually decided to do some creative twisting of the truth.

"Look I swore to keep the specifics quiet. There was a supervillain, it was mastering Blackwell." she began.

"Your ex principal?" Danny asked.

"Yes, I don't know its goal, but it was causing a lot of problems, increasing gang violence, encouraging bullies, hiding things from getting back to the PRT. That kind of thing."

The two adults just nodded.

"When I was at the school last night I saw a group of individuals go in and take out the master." Taylor explained.

"You mean individuals related to HARP?" Militia clarified.

Taylor shrugged.

"So they are some kind of black ops anti villain group?" Militia asked.

Taylor shrugged again.

"Let's just say that Layla is accomplished with lots of weapons and martial arts. That she has been training me to the point that I could probably take the PRT trainer in a fight." Taylor said eluding to deeper things.

"Okay, lets say we believe you. They want to recruit you into this secret fight they have going in the background. Why aren't we seeing villains like the empire or Lung disappearing without us knowing why?"

"They have a type of enemy they target, ones that stay off the radar." Taylor explained.

Miss Militia looked thoughtful at this. "I'll need to look into this. If Blackwell was being mastered then a lot of her actions will need to be investigated."

Taylor just stared at the adults for a moment. "So, where do we go from here?"

Miss Militia looked to Danny in askance. He didn't look happy about it but finally gave in. "Get back to going to the Wards that way you don't get kicked out of Arcadia. Give Miss Militia a few days to double check what you are telling us with the PRT."

Taylor thought about it for a few minutes and then nodded her head. "Fine."

Miss Militia just looked relieved that they had found some level of compromise.

Author's Note: More drama, but that should be calming down soon.