My dad ran his fingers through his hair, “I need to go handle this.  Can I… How do I contact you?”

Yes, please start keeping in touch. Please.

“I’ll leave you a message on your answering machine,” I said, “With my cell phone number, and my email in case I’m in an area where cell service is down.”

Sounds good.

“Email?” he asked.  “Where are you that you have access to a computer?”

A fancy new villain lair with electricity and plumbing and cool terrariums.

A few blocks from here.

“Just outside the city limits,” I lied, “Not far from the Market.”

Not the worst of lies.

“So you’re out of the way of any trouble,” My dad noted, with a touch of relief.

Maybe even one of the better lies. This man needs fewer reasons to be worried, even if his reasons not to be worried are untrue.

There was a noise as someone began prying one of the truck doors open, and my dad turned his head, frowning.  “But what are you doing here this morning?”

Ah, right, I suppose it’s a bit of a long way to run.

“Well,” he said, so quiet I could barely hear him, “You can always come home.  Any time, any reason.”

Poor man.

“Okay,” I told him.

What do you put in that word right now, Taylor? Do you intend to visit? Are you just saying it to make him think you might?

“What are you doing with yourself these days?”

Welp. Here goes the honesty.

Unless Taylor decides that he does deserve to know at this point.

I honestly think he does. He’s not gonna like it, but he deserves to know. This poor man has been wrecked by uncertainty since long before the story began. It’s about time to put some of that uncertainty to rest.

I struggled to find an answer, and was saved by the bell.  One of the men by the wreck shouted, “Danny!” and my dad turned.

Lucky break, Taylor. Lucky break.

“I miss you too.”

I’m so glad Taylor is being honest about this. Danny doesn’t deserve any less. She might have some trouble explaining why she’s not coming home, though.

Speaking of which, I wonder how much Danny has pieced together. What he thinks might be the reason she left in the first place, what she was hiding in 6.9 that she was so unwilling to tell him that she straight up fled and didn’t come back.

I wonder how much he knows about the villain named Skitter, whether he’s seen footage of the Undersiders and thought that one of them looked awfully familiar, whether he’s kept questioning whether there was actually something there or he was just imagining things because he missed Taylor…

“I… I don’t know how to ask.  I’m afraid to ask you to come home, because I’m not sure I can stand to hear you tell me you won’t.”

“Actually, dad, I’ve got this fancy new villain lair now with electricity and plumbing and cool terrariums, how about you come home to me instead?”

“I’ll take that… wait, villain lair?”

He paused, for a long moment.  Waiting for me to jump at the opportunity.  I stayed silent and hated myself for it.

I guess that’s one of the only ways to really say it without saying it. Taylor doesn’t want to say something Danny “can’t stand to hear” (which is somewhat guilt-trippy, but I think he was just going for honesty, not guilt-tripping her on purpose), but she doesn’t see actually going home with him as a viable option, due to the whole Coil situation, not to mentioned the continued masquerade.

Surprise etched his face, “You’re running during this…?!”

He made a visible effort to close his mouth.

Pfft. Yeah, things kinda went to shit around here.

It made me feel uneasy.  What thought process or concern was keeping my dad from opening his mouth about my running?  He’d been worried about it when the streets were relatively safe.  Was he that spooked at the idea of scaring me off again?

I really can’t blame him for being worried about scaring Taylor off at this point. Seriously.

He looked at the man who was standing near him, murmured something.  The man walked over to join the others in observing the damage around the damaged vehicles.

Time for some privacy, I see.

We were left more or less alone.

“You got my messages?”  I asked.

Oh, she’s sent messages… Did we hear about that in 8.8?

Either way, it’s a good thing. Assuming the messages were after Leviathan, I’m glad Taylor spared Danny from having to wonder whether the Endbringer had gotten her.

“I’ve listened to that answering machine so many times-” he stopped.  He was a good distance away, but I could see the lines in his forehead, “I miss you.”

There’s a decent chance this chapter might make me cry. My eyes are already getting wet with this paragraph.

I have been waiting so long for this reunion. Seriously, I’ve missed Danny.

Let’s find out how he’s holding up.

He stood on the ledge above me.  He was more tanned than I was.  He wore a short-sleeved button-up shirt and khakis and held a clipboard.

Oh, huh. I suppose he would end up working as a manager for a part of the rebuilding. I probably should’ve seen that coming, but I never thought about what his job situation would be after Extermination.

It set him apart from the other laborers, and the man who stood just behind him, wearing a gray t-shirt and jeans.  I knew in an instant, my dad was in charge around here.

Yep! The clipboard alone made that clear.

Looking at him, I couldn’t imagine how I might have thought he was Coil.  Even in a dream.

Hehe. Yeah, he’s not quite that bony, is he.

“Just out for my regular run.”

Oh, sure, Taylor, it’s the first time you’ve seen your dad in… over a month, I think, and the last time you saw him was during an argument. Sure, just act as if nothing’s changed.

My reaction wasn’t much different than if someone had stabbed me in the stomach with an icicle.

You know how I like to be certain about things… but I’m willing to take this as confirmation.

I’d thought of that mental image in particular because of the cold, horrible feeling in my midsection; fear, guilt.

Guilt is a really strong theme of this chapter.

My thoughts immediately went back to my nightmare from earlier.  I turned to look.

“It’s you,” my dad spoke, “Wow.”

Hi, Danny. It’s been a while.

Good to see you, man. 🙂

I could call on the others, if such a situation arose, and I expected them to call on me if the same thing happened.  But people would take time to get here, and the Merchants, the Chosen or whoever else was making trouble could keep making trouble until the reinforcements arrived.

True. I guess that’s why you’ll need employees.

It was tricky, and I didn’t know for sure how I’d handle things if-

“Taylor.”

Oh shit.

Danny? Please tell me this is Danny. We’ve had a fair bit of buildup surrounding him in this chapter, and it sounds like him and… I just really want it to be him.

The second option to come into my mind is Dragon, of course, but I think she’d still refer to Taylor as “Skitter”, or at least “miss Hebert”.

Of course, it could still be one of the other Undersiders (Grue’s the one most likely to talk to her like this), but I really doubt it.

Anyways, this?  This whole situation?  They liked it.

Of course.

They wanted to keep things this way, and that meant they were going to stop anyone else from fixing it.

Ahh, I see. That explains the airport, too.

They would intercept supplies, attack rescue workers and they would push construction vehicles into a heap on the beach.

Makes sense.

I’d have to deal with these guys.  It wasn’t just intercepting any groups that made their way into my territory.  That was easy, all things considered.  No, I also had to deal with the small army that would come marching through here wanting retaliation over my having kicked the asses of any groups that had made their way into my territory.

Oh yeah, that’s right, this is part of Taylor’s job description now.

Also, it looks like we’ve found our Infestation.