Brian shook his head.  “No.  There’s got to be more to it.  You’ve been distant, driven, and you’ve done some very un-Taylor-like things in the past few weeks.”

She does focus ridiculously hard on Dinah. It’s not far-fetched that it’s partially a form of denial about the other things driving her.

I ate some of the plain brown rice.  Could I tell him?

“There is more to it.  Lisa and I talked it over after the Endbringer thing.  She doesn’t like the Dinah situation either, even if she’s more willing to roll with it.”

Where is this going?

“Right.  Just for the record, I’m not in love with the kidnapping and confinement of some kid, either.”

And yeah, it’s much the same case with Grue, though he’s even less willing to do something about it.

I nodded.  “So Lisa suggested the deal.  But knowing Coil, and from what Lisa says, and from the way Coil framed it when I posed the deal to him and just my gut, I- we don’t think he’s going to let her go.”

Oh right, I forgot she was the one behind that idea.

But yeah, good to hear she’s not completely fooled.

I shook my head, “I can’t.”

“Right.  Just like you rejected Hookwolf’s suggestion that our groups take a break.  I won’t say that hearing you muttering to yourself was the entire reason I refused his offer, or even half the reason, but it was a factor, and I think I deserve answers for going up to bat for you.

Coming clean about how much she wants to help Dinah might be healthy for Taylor, though I doubt Brian will approve.

What’s going on?”

“I made a deal with Coil.”

Brian folded his arms, much as I was doing.  “What deal?”

“I made a deal with the devil.”

Although judging by my ToC “titles”, the devil was Kaiser.

“He said that if I can prove my services are worth it, he’ll release Dinah.”

Which he’s not going to do. Coil can set the bar however high he wants, and unless she changes her mind significantly, Skitter probably isn’t going to go through with leaving Coil’s employ if he doesn’t release Dinah – especially since neither party set a timeframe for it – because it feels too much like giving up and failing Dinah, and I think Coil has that figured out.

It’s a sucker’s deal that allows Coil to put lots of pressure on Skitter with no real risk of her going “fuck this shit I’m out”.

Noting my pain, Brian commented, “I can’t help but worry you’re self destructing, Taylor.  You can’t go up against the Nine to protect people you don’t even know.”

That’s what the heroes do. And even then, two out of the five heroes we’ve seen actually encounter a Slaughterhouse member without that Slaughterhouse member coming specifically to nominate them ran away without a fight, and at least two of the others didn’t have that option.

“I can.  I’ll manage.”

“How much sleep did you get last night?”

He’s onto her.

“Dunno.  Two or three hours, but I slept in.  What time is it?”

“Nine.”

“Maybe four hours?”

Better than nothing, but not enough.

“You’re going to run yourself into the ground at this rate.  Or get yourself killed.  Take your time.  Go on the defensive, tell your people to stay out of trouble and avoid drawing the Nine’s attention, rest.  You can work on this territory thing over the next few weeks, instead of days.” 

Grue is right. Taylor has been working herself way too hard, and still feels guilty about not working harder.

Taylor is decent at understanding people, but she tends to ignore the potential for there to be sides to them that she doesn’t see, and she’s had a history of a very black and white view of people that still hasn’t quite left her. She’s just stopped equating that divide with the hero/villain divide.

“I think reckless may be a very good word to choose,” Brian replied.

Her impudence can result in recklessness, yes. That’s gotten her in trouble more than once.

“No.  It’s…” I reached for the word and couldn’t find it.  I was too tired, and my brain wasn’t really in that gear.

“I’m surprised, sometimes, at how much attention you pay to us.  You seemed to have Rachel down cold, and your description of Lisa seems pretty apt.  Makes me wonder how you’ve analyzed me.”

To be fair, she got a little help when it came to Rachel, and Lisa is her best friend.

But yeah, Taylor is a fairly good judge of character. We’ve seen that plenty of times.

“I’m not all that.  Really.  There are exceptions, but dealing with people isn’t my thing,” I said.  Feeling awkward, I distracted myself with the rice, taking it off the propane stove and scooping some out into a bowl.

She’s better at understanding people than at dealing with them.

Holding the pot, I pulled at the wrong muscle and felt my rib protest.  I winced, and I wasn’t able to hide it. 

Ow.

Grue pulled off his helmet and the darkness dissipated around his head.  It was Brian’s frowning face I saw, now.  “Your dad is fine.  He was already fully checked out and sent home.  Lisa is… less fine.”

Uh oh.

“Don’t say that.”

“It’s not life threatening.  I just don’t know if it’s hit her yet.

Good, so she’s alive at least. That was not a death euphemism.

But… if what’s hit her yet? Did something about the injury mess with her ability to continue working on the team or something? Or… make her mute? No, she’d notice that pretty quickly…

Coil’s doctor stitched her up, but he told her to expect a scar.  I don’t know if it’s shock, the blood loss, or if it’s that she hasn’t seen herself in a mirror, but she doesn’t seem to care.  Cracking jokes, even.  Isn’t- is it sexist of me to wonder why a girl doesn’t care more about her looks being spoiled?”

Ahh.

Hey, we’re back to Brian’s lowkey sexism – and this is also a great example of why it’s not as bad as it could be: he’s self-aware about it. He knows some of the view of women his dad beat into him isn’t right, he’s just not entirely sure which parts, and he’s trying to correct himself.

“It’s easily possible she does care,” I said.  I was thinking back to her interactions with our enemies in fights.  In particular, our run-ins with Glory Girl and Panacea during the bank robbery and Jack Slash last night seemed to stand out.  “I think maybe she handles stress and problems by throwing herself headlong against them.  It’s how she operates in costume, against serious threats and unexpected situations.

That sounds about right. It’s what she does – she catches enemies off-guard by acting completely unfazed and uses that along with her knowledge to manipulate them.

It makes a lot of sense that she’d extend that M.O. to other problems.

There’s a word I’m trying to pin down, it’s not reckless, but-”

Brash? Spiteful? No, spiteful sounds more like Amy when she’s dealing with Taylor. I think I’ll go with brash.

Actually, looks like brash has a lot of meanings that don’t all fit what I’m going for. Impudent is probably better.

“There were people in danger.  My people.  I thought a forty-five percent chance of survival was worth the risk.”

Honestly, it didn’t seem like she considered the risk much at all.

He tapped his finger against the forehead of his helmet.  I could almost make out the noise through the thin emanation of his power.  “Could you ask your employee to give us some privacy?”

Grue really doesn’t like what he’s hearing, it seems. Makes sense – Taylor’s heroic side is showing again.

“I can go for a walk,” Sierra said.

“Thank you,” I told her, “I’ll signal you with my power when we’re done.”

The range of Taylor’s power is quite practical.

My heart was speeding up just a bit as we waited for her to leave.  I distracted myself by limping over to the propane stove that was positioned on the countertop and checking the rice.  There were containers and boxes of food arranged on the counter that Sierra had apparently checked and deemed edible.  Nothing especially good for breakfast.

Of course, because we can’t have the morning improved by good breakfast.

As the door closed behind Sierra, I hugged my arms against my body and said, “Please don’t tell me you asked her to leave because you have bad news about Lisa or my dad.”

…ahh. No wonder her heart was speeding up.

“Employee?”  I suggested.

“Your employee just informed me that you fought Mannequin last night?”

Oh, never mind, I guess.

“Yeah.”

“Are you suicidal!?”

This is not an unreasonable response, regardless of how much Taylor has proven her skill. Mannequin is quite dangerous and Grue may be just as aware of Mannequin’s power being well suited to keeping bugs out as Taylor was.

“He’s not that strong,” I said, defensively.  “I mean, scary as fuck, he’s strong, but he was beatable.”

“Do you not recall the very specific numbers we got on our chances against these guys?  Fifty-five percent chance we die if we fight them!”

Oh yeah!

Then again, who knows what sort of scenarios were counted in that? Do 1-on-1s count, or did Dinah assume all-on-all? We just don’t know.

Coil isn’t always careful enough with his wording when asking for the numbers, as highlighted when Dinah was first introduced. Minor differences in the terms and points where he’s not specific enough can make a major difference in the numbers.

The second my bugs settled on the intruder and felt that familiar emanation of outward pressure, like a faint breeze, I calmed down.

That would be Grue. Hi!

I felt a mite embarrassed as I made my way downstairs to greet Grue.

It’s okay, he was probably expecting it.

“Christ, T- Skitter!” he exclaimed, the second he saw me.

…right. “Every bug” is probably a bit much.

“What?”

“Your, um-” he gestured at Sierra shaking his hand, agitated.

Drone. If it were up to me, anyway.

So what did Sierra do, when– oh! That’s not it. Taylor seems to have forgotten she’s out of costume.

Whoops!

“Skitter!  You’ve got company!”

Did Regent come with Charlotte, or is this someone else?

Most importantly, are they friendly?

I think the best scenario would be that it’s Tattletale, already recovered enough to be up and running.

Every bug I had in the cabinets and corners of the room streamed forth to check the intruder, my thoughts immediately shifting into a combat mode.  What escape routes did I have?  Could I help Sierra if there was trouble?  What tools and weapons did I have on hand?

It’s a bit paranoid, but it’s entirely justified right now. For the most part, Sierra and Charlotte wouldn’t know who is or isn’t friendly, with the exception of Grue, Lisa (in Charlotte’s case), the Coildiers (and as far as I’ve gathered, the Coildiers aren’t exactly uniformed) and the more obvious Slaughterhouse members like Mannequin, Shatterbird and Crawler. And none of the last three would be the type to stop politely at the entryway.