Within the Apple Chapter 7E

*****

Danny surged into the hospital room, eyes searching for her daughter. He found her, lying in the bed where she was supposed to be, no sign of any additional injuries from the destroyed machine beside her.

The Cape he had spoken with earlier was in the room, and he’d passed Miss Militia as he arrived, she had gestured him into the room with some comforting words that he barely registered.

“Taylor!” He blurted, getting her attention. “Are you… are you alright?”

She nodded, whispering her answer, “I’m fine, Dad.”

“What happened?” Danny asked, looking at the smoking machine.

“No big deal, must have been a power surge,” The Cape told him confidently. “The fuse popped, but not before the surge blew out the capacitors. Those things make quite the sound when they blow, don’t they?”

“I… uh, guess so?” Danny said, thinking about it for a second or so. It sounded right, he guessed. As long as Taylor was fine, he wasn’t going to worry about it, he decided.

He focused on Taylor, “Are you alright?”

“I… I guess so?” She said uncertainly.

“You guess so?” Danny asked, concerned. “That doesn’t sound promising…”

“No, I mean… I feel fine, but… I shouldn’t?” Taylor said, sounding surprised. “I guess Panacea does good work. I just wasn’t expecting to wake up feeling good.”

“Ah, I suppose that makes sense,” Danny said as the cape, Magus, waved at Taylor on his way out the door.

“Who was that?” Taylor asked softly, eyes on the departing cape.

Danny smiled, “A Cape, by the name of Magus I guess.”

“A cape?” Taylor’s eyes widened, “No mask?”

“Doesn’t seem to care,” Danny shrugged before getting more serious, “He’s the one who brought you in.”

If anything, her eyes widened even more.

“A Cape got me out of the…” Taylor’s voice dropped off to almost a whisper, “locker?”

Danny nodded, “and called the police. They scoured the school, in addition to taking blood samples here, I’m told, before they let Panacea work on you. Miss Militia said something about possible bioterrorism charges, depending on how things come back.”

“Wow,” Taylor swallowed, “I… I didn’t think things could… change.”

Danny slumped, “Is that why you didn’t tell me about any of this?”

She looked away, “You had so much to deal with, Dad…”

“It’s my job to shelter you, not yours to shelter me, Taylor,” He told her gently.

“Dad, you weren’t dealing with what you already had,” She snapped before immediately withdrawing, “Sorry, I…”

“No,” Danny held up a hand, “That’s fair. You’re probably right, but that’s done now. This is the priority. The police will need a statement, probably tomorrow but they might come in now that you’re awake. Then we’ll call Alan and…”

“No.”

Danny looked up, confused, her tone had gone cold very quickly.

“Taylor… what?”

“We can’t call Mr Barnes,” Taylor sighed. “Emma was one of the bullies.”

“Emma? What? But…” Danny just stammered.

“I don’t know what happened,” Taylor said, “and I’ve thought about it a lot, but something happened. Something… changed her. It was like a switch being thrown, Dad… The day I left for camp everything was fine, the day I got back…”

She shook her head, “Nothing was fine ever again.”

Danny slumped, “And you think Alan knows?”

“I don’t know,” She admitted, “but he’s going to protect her, right?”

“Probably,” Danny mumbled, “or try at least. Your right, can’t talk to Alan, even if he doesn’t know it’s a conflict of interest. We’ll get another lawyer.”

“Dad, we can’t afford that.”

“You let me worry about that, Taylor,” Danny said, straightening up. “We’ll have to get to the bottom of this mess, and that’s going to take a lot of work… and some of it will probably be in court. We’ll need a lawyer, otherwise nothing will be resolved.”

Taylor reluctantly nodded, falling silent.

Danny did pretty much the same thing, sitting back in his seat, wondering just how screwed up things really were… and how did he miss it?

*****