Putting the phone down her dad stood looking at it for a few seconds, then lifted the notebook he'd been writing in and inspected that for some time. Eventually he turned to look at Taylor who was sitting in the living room armchair watching him, Vespa perched on her hair.

"Well," he said, shifting position a little on the sofa opposite her to make himself comfortable. "That changes things."

She raised an eyebrow, wordlessly asking him to expand on his statement, which made him smile briefly. She was aware that she'd picked the mannerism up from her mom, and knew he recognized it, which was at least part of the reason she did it. It reminded both of them of something they mutually missed, but in a good way.

Leaning back, he flipped back a few pages, examined the top one, then met her eyes. "So. Apparently the hospital administration seriously got a bee in their bonnet about your case." He paused as she broke down giggling, sighing faintly, and waited with a good humored expression until she ran down. "Pun not intended," he added dryly, making her grin for a moment. "Anyway. What I was told was that there have been a statistically unlikely number of injuries arising from activities at Winslow, which have been escalating in severity for the last couple of years. The hospital has noticed this, and as mandatory reporters, dutifully did their job and reported them to the relevant authorities. Unfortunately it seems that those authorities subsequently did not do their duty and investigate, or if they did, half-assed it like you wouldn't believe."

He flipped the page while she listened intently. "At least one prior case was reported to the police, but for some bizarre reason nothing came of it. And when the hospital lawyers dug into it in the last week, which from implication suggests they engaged a private investigator who knew his stuff, they managed to determine that the cop who took the report strangely enough appears to have far more money in his bank account than he strictly speaking can come up with a good reason for…"

"Winslow bribed him, you mean," she said in a flat voice.

He shrugged, his eyes flinty behind his glasses. "That is the logical assumption, yes," he agreed. "Or at least someone bribed him. They're still working on proving it was directly at the hands of Winslow's administration, but their lawyers are apparently fairly sure they're in it up their eyebrows one way or another." He looked back at his notes while she suppressed the urge to visit Blackwell and find out just how dangerous her large hornet form's venom actually was. Slowly.

"So that cop is toast, basically. They've got more than enough evidence to get him fired, and are suing him to boot, but that's only part of the problem. The Mayor's office is extremely unhappy about all this, because Brockton General is one of the major draws to the city due to Panacea, and their expertise in dealing with mass casualties. A sad reflection on Brockton Bay, I guess, but practice sure helps. They get all too much practice. And their own administration has a lot of influence on the city, so when they get pissed, the Mayor sits up and pays attention." He shrugged slightly as she nodded. "I've met the man. He's a politician, but he's still a decent guy, and he takes his role more seriously than most people in his profession do."

"Yeah, you've mentioned that before," she nodded.

"Now, we come to your case. Which was the most serious of them to date, although there was apparently at least one previous student who nearly ended up dead from trauma early last year."

Taylor thought, then slowly nodded. "Oh. Right, I remember that. I didn't hear exactly what happened, but… I think it was a hispanic guy? Got jumped by some of the fucking wannabe-Nazi assholes from what I heard. He didn't come back to school and no one wanted to talk about it, not that anyone really talked to me anyway. But I overheard some girls gossiping about it in the bathroom. I… think he got stabbed or something. Which sounds perfectly plausible, knowing Winslow."

Her dad stared at her for some time. "Jesus," he finally muttered, lowering his eyes back to the notes. "Why the hell I agreed to let you go there is…" Shaking his head, he visibly headed off what was likely to end up as a rant and took a few deep breaths before continuing, "The lawyer said that the hospital warned the school that it was on extremely thin ice at that point and also escalated it, again, to the School Board. They were assured that everything would be put in place to eliminate bullying, stupid pranks, and any other danger. Even got it in writing. Reports were made, yet again, and they thought that this time it might actually stick." He looked up at her. "Until you were brought in."

Taylor looked back at him. "They weren't happy."

"They were about as far from happy as it's possible to get," he agreed darkly. "They completely lost patience with the entire thing, and decided that enough was way more than enough. It had to stop, no matter what. So they started going back over all the records of every single case in any way associated with Winslow or anyone even slightly connected to it, found no end of issues during their audit, fired at least four people who were also apparently taking bribes from anyone who turned up with a big old sack'o'cash, are suing them into the ground on top of having them arrested, by the sound of it got at least one PI to investigate everything in sight, and are apparently intent on absolutely fucking anyone who was involved from the ground up. And they've looped in the Mayor's office, the FBI, and the state governor. Who apparently isn't impressed either. It's turned into a total shitshow."

"Finally bureaucracy working for the little guy," she quipped with a wry grin, which made him chuckle.

"More likely mostly for itself, but the fallout is indeed helping the little guy," he responded, looking amused. "They're worried about being sued themselves, for a whole pile of reasons. So it's preemptive action in one sense, well deserved revenge for causing them a lot of trouble in another, and just general anger at complete incompetence and causing so many medical problems for the rest of it. In total there's about forty five million dollars worth of lawsuits already filed and god alone knows what the end total will be. Even if they lose half of them, which the lawyer didn't think was likely, they're going to practically bankrupt Winslow's school board and at least one legal firm. Plus several individuals who you'd probably recognize on sight."

Taylor grinned nastily. "Good," she replied, feeling quite pleased in general.

He looked like he agreed wholeheartedly. "Anyway, that's the basic story. Now, the part that affects us. Or you at least. Two parts." He thought for a moment. "Three. Three parts."

She started giggling again and he grinned. "Part one. Your schooling is obviously going to be affected by all this, as is that of everyone else at Winslow, because that place is probably going to get shut down for some weeks while the city runs their own investigation. My guess is that they'll probably fire the entire lot of them and then try to restart with a whole new staff, but that's going to take a while to set up. Assuming they can even find anyone who wants to work at a place with the reputation Winslow is likely to have very soon."

"It's already got a shitty reputation," she accurately pointed out. "For very good reasons."

"Yeah, but that's going to get a lot worse when this hits the papers," he replied. "It'll be one hell of a scandal. So, going back to Winslow isn't going to happen any time soon. Which leaves about nine hundred students kind of in limbo."

"Home schooling exists," Taylor noted. He nodded.

"Indeed, and for a lot of them that might happen. I'm going to have to check, but I suspect they'll also try to place the students with other high schools around the city. It's early enough in the semester they can probably do that reasonably easily although the schools aren't going to be happy about it. In the long term it'll probably be whatever Winslow becomes that takes most of them on, but it's possible that they might filter out the higher-achieving students and permanently place them at better schools." He shrugged a little. "I expect it'll take some time to sort all this out. Weeks at least."

"At least I don't need to go back, so that's a win already," Taylor smiled.

"You still need schooling so I'm not going to just let you sit at home all day turning into horrifying insectoid monsters," he replied, with a small frown which made her smile widen.

"Of course not! I can home school during the day and be a horrifying insectoid monster evenings and weekends!"

Her dad sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Quite. Let's move on." Vespa waved at him with one foreleg and he groaned under his breath, looking back at his notes again.

"How is this my life now?" he muttered, causing her to snort with laughter once more. "Right. Where was I? Oh, yes, schooling. For now, we'll look into the home schooling process, but if it turns out we can get you into a real school I'd much prefer to do that. I think you need other kids your age who aren't out to get you around you."

"Do such bizarre creatures exist?" she queried with a thoughtful look. "I expect they're very rare if they do. We should capture one for science should we locate it."

He gave her a dry look. "You done?"

"For now."

"Good. Sarcasm aside, young people do need peers. And if you immediately say there are lots of those at the docks I shall glare at you." He pointed sternly at her, making her close her mouth and look innocent. It didn't fool him based on his expression.

"That would be wharfully punny of me, so I'll resist," she commented, making him wince hard and groan.

"So we'll wait and see what happens on that front," he went on after a moment of recovery and a minor warning look which made her smile angelically.

"Part two," he carried on after flipping the page and examining it. "I asked about the lawsuits, and expressed the point that we were also very unhappy with Winslow. Quite vigorously."

"I heard, yeah," Taylor chuckled. "It was impressive."

"Thank you," he replied in a dignified manner. "I do what I can. Apparently, though, the hospital was expecting this from involved parents when they became aware of what was going on. They'd have reached out at some point, but since the news hit PHO yesterday they've had several of them call and make the same inquiries I did. I'm told that while we're perfectly free to launch our own lawsuits, and if we want them to the hospital will make the parts of their investigation that aren't covered by privacy laws available for that purpose, the lawyer I was speaking to suggested there was a possibly better method."

"Which is?" She watched him with interest.

"Joining in on their lawsuit. He pointed out that the damages we'd get might be higher if we sued separately, for a whole pile of legal reasons that get very complicated, but there was also the possibility that we'd lose. He didn't think that was likely considering the overwhelming evidence against Winslow, but he raised it as a possibility. And, of course, it would be an expensive process anyway. Hiring a lawyer, getting all the facts, going to court… it adds up fast and while I could get a lot of help from the Union that wouldn't eliminate the problem."

Taylor nodded slowly, understanding the issues involved fairly well. "But if we let the hospital do all the work…" she mused out loud.

"They cover all those costs. Exactly. They also have a lot of really good legal people who would be far out of our reach, a hell of a motive to squeeze the other side until they collapse like a crushed beer can, and a seriously enormous budget to throw at the problem. Along with enough political pull with the city and the state to make sure no one can manage to sweep it under the carpet." Her dad shrugged. "The downside is that when they finish chewing up Winslow and the school board, we likely won't get as much compensation as a separate case might produce. Maybe. Who knows, really, the amounts involved are so high that even a small percentage of it is more money than either of us would ever see in our lives otherwise."

"How much is that?" she queried curiously. He grinned.

"He wouldn't go into specifics, but the implication was in the ballpark of at least a million or so."

She nearly fell out of her chair, making him laugh. "Holy shit."

"Yeah, that was kind of my reaction too," he commented while she tried to get to grips with the sum. "Remember, that's not a guarantee, and we don't know how long it will take before the case even gets to court, since they're still gathering evidence and so on. And he thought they might in the end just settle out of court rather than drag things out to the bitter end. Which is probably the best outcome in a sense as it would be quicker and simpler, but who knows? Those people are corrupt beyond belief and provably stupid since they clearly didn't think any of this through. It was inevitably going to come out sooner or later." He shrugged once more as she nodded agreement, still slightly reeling at the news.

"I told him we'd discuss it and think about what we should do. You're the one who nearly got killed by those assholes, it's your decision, Taylor."

"Go with the hospital," she immediately replied.

"You're sure?"

"Yeah. I know we can't afford a high powered lawyer and I don't want to cause you any more problems than I already have," she said, staring at the carpet. After a moment he got up and moved to sit next to her, the chair being barely large enough for this. It brought back a memory of the pair of them, or Taylor and her mom, sitting in that same chair while one parent or other read to her when she was little and she felt momentary nostalgia.

"Look, Taylor, I know we've had problems between us for far longer than we should have done," he said quietly, putting his arm around her shoulders. "I didn't talk about things I should have, I drowned myself in grief and threw myself into work to try to cope, and in the process I forgot the most important thing in my life, that being you. And you had your own issues you didn't tell me about, for what sounds like similar reasons. We're far too much alike in some ways."

She looked up at him, Vespa rotating on her hair to get a better view too. He was smiling softly and sadly. "Annette was the glue that held this family together in a way. With her passing, we… didn't stick as closely any more. To both our detriment. But never for a moment believe I have ever considered you any part of the problems we, I, have had. Life is often hard, and it's far too easy to end up just trying to deal with the day to day difficulties and lose sight that there's a lot more to it than those. We both did that. And it didn't do either of us any favors. But…" He sighed a little. "I think we're slowly coming back from the edge. I sure hope we are. I'm bitterly regretful that it took what happened to make me take a long look at myself and see how much I fucked up. You should not have had to go through any of what you did. And I love you deeply, you are my daughter, who I would do anything for. So, if you want, I'm quite prepared to take on Winslow alone no matter how hard it would be."

Reaching up she wiped a tear from her eye, then smiled at him. "Thanks, dad," she replied after quite a long silence, her voice almost inaudible. "I'm so sorry I kept all those secrets too. I should have talked to you a long time ago. Or gone to the cops, or Emma's parents, or… fuck, I don't know, done anything but sit there and take it like I did." She rubbed her face with both hands as he listened. "Maybe this could have come out differently if I hadn't just withdrawn into myself so much."

"Perhaps," he nodded. "It might have been better. On the other hand it might have been worse. We simply don't know, and can't know. All we can do is deal with what happened. And if I have to mortgage the house to sue those bastards I'll do it with a smile. To be honest I'd burn the fucking place down with the same smile, but I'd get a reputation if I did that, so I should probably restrain myself."

Taylor giggled for a few seconds. "I've had almost the exact same thought several times. I guess we are a little too similar."

"Road flares and the spare gas can?" he queried with a look in his eyes that made her grin as she nodded.

"Yep."

"That's my girl." Hugging her, he looked highly amused. "Best reserve that for something really serious though. Hard to walk back from."

"Fair enough. So what do you think we should do?" She watched his face.

"Let the hospital deal with it. You're right. It's much less costly, painful, and time consuming. As I said if you really don't want that, we don't do it, so don't reject it just because you don't want to cause a problem. Because while it would be hard, it would also be worth it. However I do think it would be more sensible to leave this to the experts."

Taylor nodded slowly. "Yeah. I'm honestly fine with that. I don't care how they get screwed, all I care is that they get screwed. And I don't want to live in a cardboard box because I bankrupted us."

"I'm sure we could find a really nice cardboard box," he assured her with a grin. "I know people at several shipping companies."

Laughing, she felt better about their relationship than she had done for a long time. Since she'd woken up in hospital it had been steadily improving and seemed to be heading back to where it used to be, for which she was profoundly grateful. Both of them were definitely healing from their own traumas, and helping each other to heal.

"All right. I'll call the hospital legal people and let them know we're on board," he added, managing to get out of the chair and go back to the sofa, where he sat again while retrieving his notes. Writing a few words, he flipped the page again.

"So on to part three. You're going to be left here on your own a lot of the time. That worries me, not because I don't trust you, since I very much do, but because I don't think being isolated all the time is really a good idea."

"I'm not isolated, I've got lots of little friends!" she remarked with a broad smile, Vespa rearing up on her four hind legs and waving the front ones at him cheerfully. "Like the spiders, and the cockroaches, and the termites, and the centipedes, and…"

Pinching the bridge of his nose, her dad waited for her to stop, then sighed heavily while she giggled. "That is not quite what I mean and I know you know that. Human friends. People who can talk with you."

She scuttled the Vesta body down onto her hand and raised it to her eyes, regarding it thoughtfully. "I wonder if I can make insects talk?" she mused, causing him to sigh even more heavily.

"Again, not quite what I meant. And please don't. That thing is bad enough without it talking."

"Hey, Vespa is cool," she protested, the insect rotating on her palm to fix him with a glare. Or as much of one as something without human features could produce.

"I'm not… entirely… certain your definition of cool and my definition of cool are the same," he said doubtfully after thinking it over, which made her shrug, smiling. "I am entirely certain that a lot of what you can do will give most people the screaming heebie jeebies. God knows a hornet that size is kind of worrying. The thing you get when you use your power is terrifying."

"That Nazi sure thought so, yeah," she commented with a reminiscing smirk. "You should have seen him run! He could have qualified for the Olympics."

"Oddly enough I believe you," he muttered. "If it wasn't a Nazi I'd feel sorry for the bastard. But under the circumstances, well…" He shook his head as she grinned. "Good job."

"Thanks, Dad."

"And don't think you've successfully distracted me from the point I was raising."

"Darn. So close."

Looking slightly amused, he put the notebook down and leaned back. "I'm fine with you being here on your own, Taylor, you're a responsible girl and smart too. But I still worry about your social life."

"What social life?" she asked wryly. He pointed at her.

"Exactly. You shouldn't just lurk inside like one of your spiders, you need to meet people. I'm not saying you should become a social butter…" He stopped himself and put a hand on his face as she began giggling again. "Oh, Jesus."

"I could! I could become a social butterfly!" she gasped as she rolled around laughing. "With an internet stream and everything! Ooh, now I want to see what would happen if I did that!"

"Annette, I need you," he grumbled under his breath. "This is getting silly."

"Mom would have loved it," Taylor commented.

With a small regretful smile he nodded. "Probably. Your mother was…" He fell silent and shook his head sadly. She felt the same emotion, but could see that both of them were dealing with their mutual loss in a much more healthy manner than even a couple of weeks before, which seemed like something her mom would have approved of. When she finally calmed down after the hilarious thoughts his comment had sparked died away a little, although she put a pin in the concept of a social butterfly since it seemed far too good to ignore, he resumed, "I'm not going to force you to go out and make friends, or anything like that. I'm merely suggesting that it might be something you should consider. You've been pushed into being alone far too much, even when you were in school, and that's not what you were like when you were younger. If you want to sit in the house studying your bugs and home schooling, fine, I'll live with that, but…"

He paused for a moment, thinking, while she considered his words. "Perhaps you might also want to think about doing something else," he finally added.

"What?" she queried.

"I'm not sure, honestly, but I would like you to at least think about it," he replied. "If you want you can come to work with me sometimes. There are plenty of spare rooms you can sit and read in, and I know you know quite a lot of people at the Union who would be pleased to see you again. It might be a little less lonely than being here all day. Get you back into the mindset of having people who aren't out to get you around the place." Her dad watched her face as she considered the idea. Eventually she nodded.

"Yeah, I could do that sometimes, sure," she agreed. "And I bet there are all sorts of cool insects lurking around the docks."

"Oh, god," he sighed. "I didn't think of that."

She grinned widely. "I did."

"I repeat. Oh, god."

"Hey, I wonder if there are any more asian hornets around the docks? Seems like that would be the place they might turn up," she pondered out loud, stroking Vespa with one finger. Her dad blanched. "I bet there might well be other neat imported insects too…"

"Oh god is no longer strong enough," he mumbled as he got up and went into the kitchen seeking coffee, based on the rattling sound that occurred moments later. Giggling she followed, Vespa flying back onto her head. "Please try to restrain your urges to collect every lethal arthropod known to man," he begged as he looked sideways at her while filling the kettle at the sink. Her answering smile didn't seem to reassure him.

"Do you mind if I get a few terrariums?" she asked innocently. He froze, then turned to put the kettle on the stove while muttering something under his breath too faintly for her to make out other than a general impression of bemused horror. "I promise I'll keep most of the bugs in them."

Having turned the stove on, he lowered his head with his hands resting on the edges, apparently communing with the appliance, until he finally took a deep breath and turned around. "I suppose, considering your power, it's probably not unreasonable. So all right. But, for me? Please don't overrun the house with swarms of huge venomous insects? Or even huge swarms of normally sized venomous insects. The neighbors will talk." He smiled as she hugged him.

"Thanks, dad. I won't cause too much trouble."

"That's what they always say," he sighed. "I did to my own dad. Then when the cops turned up, he got very sarcastic, and made me pay for a new shed out of my own money."

Gazing at him with her eyebrows up, she slowly asked, "Um… what happened?"

"Youthful indiscretions, and that's all we'll say about it," he replied with dignity. "The statute of limitations may have run out but I have no wish to give anyone who may be present any ideas she doesn't need."

Laughing, Taylor started making them some lunch, pulling various things out of the fridge for sandwiches of epic sandwichness. After watching her for a while, he cleared his throat, making her turn her head to him inquiringly. "One other thing," he began. She raised the eyebrow again. "I…" Swallowing, he started again after having had trouble getting the words out. "I think we should probably get cellphones. Because if you're here on your own, or out, I want to be able to contact you in an emergency."

She stared at him in mild disbelief, not ever having expected him to go back on his long dislike of the devices after what happened to her mom. "I may have overreacted," he added quietly. "I was not in a good place back then. And I'm honest enough with myself to admit I might have made a mistake."

Putting her knife down and wiping her hands on a cloth, Taylor moved to him and gave him a long hug. "Neither one of us was in their right mind back then, Dad," she said very softly. "I understand why you felt like that. I kind of felt the same. But you're right. It's time to move on."

Stroking her hair, careful to miss Vespa, he smiled. "I guess it is. We'll go into town and find something tomorrow after work." Looking at his watch, he continued, "I'll have to get back as soon as we've eaten, though. I have way too much stuff to finish off today."

"Sure." Releasing him she busied herself finishing the sandwiches and put them on the table while he made himself some coffee and her some tea. Soon they were eating. While he was chewing, he watched Vespa fly down and start eating a small portion of ham Taylor had kept back for her hornet body. He examined the insect, frowning very slightly after a moment or two.

"Is that thing growing?" he asked slowly. She looked at him, then at Vespa. "I could swear it's a little bigger than it was when you found her."

"Insects don't really grow like mammals do once they're mature," she replied, also studying Vespa. "They shed their exoskeletons, but adult hornets don't do that." She hadn't paid attention to what he was claiming, she had to admit, but… "She does look a little larger," she finally said, carefully inspecting the insect. Leaning back she pulled one of the kitchen drawers open behind her, rummaged around, and pulled out the old wooden ruler they kept in there for historical reasons. Putting it on the table she walked Vespa over it and aligned the rear of her abdomen with the start of the thing, then looked at where her head was. "Two and a half inches exactly." Spreading the wings, she measured across from tip to tip. "Three and three quarter inches wingspan."

"Christ, that's a big hornet," he said, looking both impressed and a touch worried.

"She's at the upper limit the books say is typical for this species," Taylor agreed, feeling quite pleased about that. "I'll keep an eye on her measurements though. I can't think why she'd be growing, but who knows? It's probably just your memory, you are ancient after all." She grinned impishly as he glared at her.

"Thirty eight is hardly ancient, you young foolish child," he replied with a haughty look of his own. Both of them laughed after a moment.

"I'm sorry we didn't talk properly for so long, Taylor," he said once he'd taken a few bits of his last sandwich, sounding deeply regretful. "I missed this more than I can say, and forgot how much I missed it. You're a wonderful daughter and I wish I'd told you that more. I'll do my best not to fall back into that self-destructive mindset, but I can't guarantee everything will be smooth sailing. But if I do, I need you to pull me back out, OK?"

Smiling fondly at him and feeling better about life in general than she'd done for years, Taylor nodded. "Of course. And if I get all moody and teenagery, you try to make me stop, too."

"Assuming I can. Moody teenagers are a force of nature," he quipped, then finished his coffee as she giggled. "But I'll do my best." Checking the time again, he stood. "Right, then, I need to get back. I'll call the hospital when I have a moment and sort out anything we need to do for the legal case. I expect we won't get much information until either they settle or it goes to court, where you might end up as a witness. I personally doubt it will go that far, but who knows?" He shrugged. "Those people are idiots."

"Yeah," she sighed. "Tell me about it."

Walking around the table he patted her shoulder, smiled at her, and added, "Thanks for the sandwiches. I'll see you around six or so."

"OK." Getting up she gave him a quick hug then once he'd left the kitchen started cleaning up. The front door shut moments later and through the various insects she was monitoring she could sense him getting into his truck, which started and drove off down the street. Satisfied that things seemed to be going pretty well at the moment, she put the crockery and cutlery away, wiped everything down, and turned back to the table. Bending over Vespa she studied her hornet body again. "Bigger? Huh. I wonder…"

Flying the insect body onto her hair, she went upstairs to do some more research into interesting insects that could be found locally while wondering if you could mail order some of the ones she'd found out about from the literature…

That seemed to have some promising applications if it could be arranged, she thought with glee.