Taylor Hebert, Medhall Intern [Worm Fanfic]

[Ack]

Yes, this is another story about an unpowered Taylor Hebert as an unpaid intern to a powerful organisation.

But what if she interned, not for the PRT, but for Medhall? The Brockton Bay Heart of Darkness itself?

While having no idea who was running the show, of course.

(And no, this will not be a crossover with Slippery Slope. That story is that story and this story is this story).

And just to spice things up, she's not the only intern on site.

Without further ado ...

Disclaimers:

1) This story is set in the Wormverse, which is owned by Wildbow. Thanks for letting me use it.

2) I will follow canon as closely as I can. If I find something that canon does not cover, I will make stuff up. If canon then refutes me, I will revise. Do not bother me with fanon; corrections require citations.

3) I welcome criticism of my works, but if you tell me that something is wrong, I also expect an explanation of what is wrong, and a suggestion of how to fix it. Note that I do not promise to follow any given suggestion.


Index

Part One: Introduction (below)
Part Two: Highs and Lows
Part Three: One of Us
Part Four: Battle Lines; Drawn
Part Five: Glorious Schadenfreude
Part Six: Stepping Up
Part Seven: From Strength to Strength
Part Eight: Plans and Schemes
Part Nine: Showing Respect
Part Ten: Unlikely Heroes
Part Eleven: Moving Forward
Part Twelve: A New Player
Part Thirteen: Ongoing Developments
Part Fourteen: Moving Along
Part Fifteen: More Troubles
Part Sixteen: Training Day
Part Seventeen: Curiosity, Meet Cat
Part Eighteen: Threads
Part Nineteen: When in Doubt, Run Away
Part Twenty: All For One
Part Twenty-One: Running the Gauntlet
Part Twenty-Two: Debrief
Part Twenty-Three: Second Wind
Part Twenty-Four: Return to Medhall
Part Twenty-Five: Assault! (No, Not Him)

 

[Ack]

Taylor Hebert, Medhall Intern

Part One: Introduction


[A/N: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]


The elevator ride seemed to take forever. Or maybe that was just because I was sharing it with Greg Veder. I mean, I didn't dislike Greg, but there wasn't much I liked about him, either. He didn't join in on the bullying, I guess. Though it didn't help when he was so clueless that he accidentally helped them out. At least, I chose to think it was by accident, because otherwise he was a better actor than anyone I'd ever seen before.

I eyed the numbers as they crawled upward, and nervously straightened my skirt. It was a denim number that went to below my knees, because it was the only skirt I owned, and I didn't want to show up at my first day of work experience slash internship looking like a typical teenage girl. It wasn't that I had any particular yearning to get a job at Medhall, but I really, really wanted this work experience gig to go on for just as long as I could stretch it out. Three half-days a week away from Winslow and the three girls who spent all their time making my life a slice of hell? I'd have to be insane to want to screw that up.

Of course, that was the problem with Greg. He was good at screwing things up for me, and nobody ever gave me a do-over. I'd been cautiously optimistic about my chances of remaining at work experience for the entire period until Christmas, right up until I'd heard that he was doing it with me. Now, I gave myself a week, tops, before he managed to screw this up, too.

"So hey," he said almost breathlessly, even though neither one of us had been talking up until then. "Did you hear the latest about Shadow Stalker?" The tone of his voice suggested that he was the only one who knew the news, and that it had potentially world-shaking consequences. I had my doubts on both points.

"Let me guess," I said sarcastically. "She captured Lung and Kaiser on the same night, and she's being inducted into the PRT Hall of Fame?" Shadow Stalker wasn't someone I held a lot of admiration for. She was a teenage vigilante whose exploits showed up sometimes in the papers, usually with the notation 'badly beaten' or 'crossbow arrow' attached. Not exactly someone I saw as a role model. Now, if she could come to Winslow and clean the place out a little, I could get behind that. Maybe dangle Sophia Hess out of a third-floor window by her ankles for a little bit.

Well, I could dream.

His expression was startled. "No! Where'd you hear that?" Before I could tell him I was joking, he went on. "No, I found out from PHO this morning that she's joining the Wards. She's always been pretty kickass. Now she'll be even cooler, with the tech the PRT can give her."

I shrugged. "I guess. Wonder how she'll get along with the others?" Shadow Stalker had been on her own for some time, while the Wards were by all reports a close-knit team. I hadn't seen any news stories about her teaming up with them which might've led to this development. Then again, I was pretty sure there was stuff going on behind the scenes that I was never going to learn about.

To my everlasting relief, just as Greg opened his mouth to reply, the elevator doors dinged and slid open. I stepped out of the elevator, clutching my shoulder-bag close to my ribs, and looked around to see who I should be reporting to. Greg hurried after me, somehow managing to look dishevelled in his freshly ironed shirt and slacks (I made a bet with myself that he hadn't done the ironing) and semi-neatly combed hair. I guessed it was just his general air of uncoordination.

"Miss Hebert, Mr Veder." The voice was female and filled with authority. "You're late. I was expecting you ten minutes ago."

Oh crap oh crap. I refrained from checking my watch as I turned toward the person who had addressed us. She was in her forties, wearing a severe business suit and an even more severe expression. Black hair was pulled back over her scalp and bundled into a bun that bullets would probably bounce off of. She was also carrying two manila folders. "Uh, ma'am, I'm sorry. From the clock in the lobby I thought we could get here with time to spare—"

She countered my apology with a sniff that brought me up short. "Here at Medhall, we are on site and ready to start, at fifteen minutes before time. You would do well to remember that." Stepping forward, she stopped before us and subjected us to a glare that should by rights have seared us down to the bone. Her expression of disdain never wavered; in fact, I was pretty sure that it had intensified. "Understand this. The internship program is contingent on a tax break for Medhall. This is the only reason you are here. Moreover, it's not a large tax break, so if we decide that either or both of you are more trouble than you're worth, then we'll write it off. And you with it."

Beside me, I heard Greg gulp audibly. Either I was made of stronger stuff than him or I was just plain used to being looked down on, because her scathing words didn't really bother me. It wasn't as if it was personal. She probably loathed us because we were interns, not because she knew us. It was almost comforting.

She leaned slightly closer, making me think of drill sergeants in war movies. I had no doubt that she'd have recruits wetting their pants in less than ten seconds. "Do you understand what I just said, or do I have to repeat myself?" Her tone made it abundantly clear that making her repeat herself was a very bad idea.

"Ma'am, I understand what you said," I replied quickly, restraining myself from trying to go to attention, because I had no idea how that was really done, and she'd probably think I was making fun of her. Or she'd critique my attempt, which would probably be worse. I didn't even try to include Greg in my statement; let him sink or swim on his own. Heartless that may sound, but only to anyone who'd never tried to do a class project requiring his input to succeed.

Beside me, Greg made a strangled noise that she obviously chose to interpret as agreement with what I'd said. The decision was a lucky one for him; if she'd let his brain get into gear, the gear of choice would be Reverse. I'd heard him speak when he was relaxed and in familiar surroundings, and that was bad enough. God only knew what idiocy his malfunctioning brain-mouth filter would let through under these circumstances.

"Good." Her forbidding demeanour relaxed ever so slightly. Now she only looked as though she beat up muggers for light exercise, as opposed to terrifying them into submission by sheer force of will. "My name is Ms Harcourt. You will call me Ms Harcourt or ma'am. I will be your supervisor. You will come to me for instruction. You will not speak to any of the executives in this building." She held out the two folders. "These are your induction folders. You will read through the material in them, fill out your details where necessary, and initial each page after reading to confirm that you have understood the material." She pointed at an open door; there was a table visible inside. "You will do your reading in that interview room. Once you have completed your induction, you will report to me. My office is that one over there." She pointed at a closed door with HARCOURT embossed on it. "Is there any part of this that you do not understand?"

"No, ma'am," I said crisply. I was starting to get the hang of this place, I hoped. Turning, I headed for the interview room.

"Miss Hebert!" Her voice cracked across the room like a whip. I froze, mid-step. Oh, crap. I didn't asked to be dismissed, or something. Well, there went my work experience and with it, my reprieve from Winslow.

Slowly, I put my foot down and turned back toward Ms Harcourt. "Yes, ma'am?" Whatever she said, I was going to put a brave face on it. Even if she said I was being fired from my job of unpaid menial labour.

"You forgot to ask me for a pen," she snapped. "You'll need one for your induction papers." From a hidden pocket—she certainly didn't carry them in public—she produced two retractable ballpoints.

"I don't need one, ma'am," I said, trying not to sound smug. "I brought my own." Greatly daring, I patted my shoulder-bag. From the hangdog look on Greg's face, it seemed that I was in a minority of one; sheepishly, he reached out and took one of the pens and mumbled something that might have been thanks.

"Hmm." She narrowed her eyes, possibly trying to figure out what else I had up my sleeve. I tried to look helpful and intelligent and prepared. "You think ahead. Good." For all that the praise was grudging, it sounded genuine. "Commence." Turning, she strode toward her office.

After a moment, I had to remind myself to breathe. I wasn't being kicked off work experience! And my new boss had said something nice! As I turned toward the interview room, I let myself feel something I hadn't experienced in some time; hope.

This might actually work.

<><>​

The interview room contained several chairs and a water cooler in the corner. I pulled out a chair, sat down, and opened my folder. My bag went on another chair beside me, and I began to rummage through it for the zippered pencil case. As I found it, I heard a trickling noise. I looked up to see Greg at the water cooler, running himself a cup.

"Greg!" I hissed. "What are you doing? Didn't you hear Ms Harcourt? We're supposed to be getting these pages filled out and initialled, not goofing off!" Unzipping the case, I picked out a pen I knew to be reliable.

"Oh, relax, Taylor," he said, sitting on one chair, then half-turning it so he could put his feet up on another one. "We can take our time at this. She just wanted us out of her hair. I bet she's like Blackwell, all shouty when we're in front of her, doesn't give a crap when she can't see us." He leaned back in his chair and took a slow sip from his cup. "I interned for my uncle's firm last summer. Trust me, I've got this crap nailed."

He sounded very sure of himself, but I wasn't so certain. "What if she comes and checks on us? I mean, she just told us to fill out these papers and get back to her."

"What, she's gonna come over here from her office just to make sure we're doing it as fast as we can?" He took another drink from his cup. "I doubt it. Anyway, I can see her office door from here. You worry too much."

Something caught my eye, and I looked up into the corner of the room behind Greg. A clear glass dome held a security camera, with a glowing red light next to the lens. It moved very slightly, angling down toward Greg. My eyes widened and I opened my mouth to say something, but before I could, the camera waggled from side to side in an unmistakeable motion.

A lot of things became clear to me. We were under observation, and I'd probably passed some sort of test for noticing. But whoever was on the other end of the camera didn't want me telling Greg about it. If it wasn't Ms Harcourt, I would've bet every dollar I owned that she knew about it. The next question was simple: did I risk my internship by sticking with Greg and giving him the heads-up, or did I do what I was told? The answer was depressingly easy to arrive at; I kept my mouth shut and started to fill out the first page. I'd come to Medhall to do work experience. If Greg wanted to goof off, that was his look-out. I wasn't getting in trouble for him.

"Hey, do you play Space Opera?" he asked as he poured himself another cup of water. "It's an online space game, where you can—"

"No," I said briefly. "We've only got dialup at home. And I don't have time to play games like that." Or the inclination, I added silently. "You really should be filling out your form." Focusing back on the paper, I returned to filling out my details. Wonder of wonders, my curt tone must have gotten the message across, because he shut up then and drank his water. Or maybe he was just thirsty.

I was about halfway through my paperwork, learning about the safety regulations as they applied to mere interns, when Greg finally deigned to start looking through his folder. He muttered and mumbled as he filled out the personal-details sheet, causing me to grit my teeth. I knew from experience that pointed glances wouldn't work, and I suspected that Ms Harcourt would object if I hit him with one of the chairs—if only for the sake of the chair—so I ignored him and carried on.

It took me another ten minutes to finish, while Greg seemed to think that filling out his details was enough work for the time being, given that he settled back in his chair and put his feet up again. At least he wasn't muttering to himself any more, which I considered to be a bonus. I kept on reading, studying each sheet in turn. When I figured I understood the contents of each, I initialled it and turned to the next one.

I had to hand it to Ms Harcourt; the induction folders were comprehensive. Not only were there ample safety regulations, but I had floor plans to study so that I knew where the bathrooms were (among other things), and also a list of the executives along with photos so that if one happened to address me, I knew who it was. Topping the list, of course, was Max Anders, CEO of Medhall and someone with whom I was entirely unlikely to interact.

I was on the second to last page (a list of the parahuman villains of Brockton Bay, and the required procedure for responding to an attack by each one. The procedure for a depressingly large number of these was 'run and hide') when a rustling sound caught my ear. Looking up, I saw Greg was simply flicking through the sheets and scribbling his initials as fast as he could. Unless he'd acquired a page-at-a-glance speed-reading ability in the last hour, he certainly wasn't taking any of the material in.

"Greg, you're really supposed to read those before initialling them," I muttered, trying to get my exasperation across without raising my voice. "Those are important safety regulations you just skipped straight past."

"Wow, relax, Taylor," he said confidently. "I told you, I've done this before. Nobody ever expects you to actually learn anything from an induction. If there's an emergency, they'll tell us what to do. I mean, seriously. We're just kids. Nobody expects us to actually be responsible." He tapped the stack of papers with his pen. "This here's just for insurance purposes."

I'd been warned not to tell him about the camera, and I'd tried to warn him without telling him about it. If he didn't want to listen, that was no skin off my nose. So I initialled the page and turned to the last one, which was basically a document requiring me to assert that I'd read and understood the rest of the induction package before I signed it. I ticked the box that said 'YES', then signed. With a sigh, I closed the folder and stood, bending backward to work the kinks out of my spine. Greg went back to skimming the induction papers, dashing off his initials as fast as he could turn the pages.

It would, I decided, be very irritating if he turned out to be correct.

Greg completed the last page of his induction folder at just about the same time that I finished putting my pencil-case back in my shoulder-bag. "There, see?" he said smugly, bouncing to his feet. "One-tenth the effort, and I got it done in the same time you did."

I refrained from carrying out the impulse to dope-slap him and point out the camera. Months of bullying had honed my situational awareness (or so I liked to think), but he was still as clueless as when he'd walked into the room. "Let's just get this over with," I said as I slung the strap over my shoulder.

Picking up the completed folder, I left the interview room and made my way across to Ms Harcourt's office, with Greg sauntering beside me. He was gracious enough to let me get to the door first, or maybe he'd realised that I was perfectly willing to elbow him in the throat if he jumped in front of me. Raising my free hand, I knocked on the door.

It opened almost immediately, confirming my supposition that Ms Harcourt had been watching the video feed. "You've finished already?" she asked, her brow creasing heavily in suspicion. "That didn't take long."

Doing my best not to grit my teeth at Greg's almost palpable air of told-ya-so, I offered her my folder. "I've read every page through carefully, ma'am. If you believe I need to study it more, I will."

"Hrm." Without taking it, she turned her attention to Greg. "And you? Have you read your induction paperwork through carefully?"

Anyone but Greg (and I meant that literally. Anyone.) would've spotted the bear-trap lurking in the undergrowth. But he just stomped right ahead without a care in the world. "Sure did, Ms Harcourt. It's all right here."

As he offered his folder with a flourish, I cringed inwardly. On a scale of one to ten for 'ominous foreshadowing', Ms Harcourt's question hit about eleven and a half. If my instincts were correct, a ton of shit was just about to land on the back of Greg's neck. I just hoped that I wouldn't be caught in the splash radius.

"Very good," she said with a contortion of her face I belatedly realised was supposed to be a smile. "Come on in. There are just a few things left to do."

My brain registered her words, but refused to process them. He's going to get away with goofing off like that? Oh, that's just not fair. Doing my best to ignore the smug look he gave me behind her back—because the alternative was grabbing him by the scruff of the neck and bashing his face into the doorframe—I followed her into the office.

Things just didn't add up. The camera, the leading question … I didn't get it. The moment Greg opened his mouth and lied to her face, Ms Harcourt should've been all over it like a school of piranha. Or maybe a great white shark. But she'd accepted his words at face value. This internship suddenly began to look sucky all over again; not because Greg would get me 'fired' but because he'd be breezing his way through it while I didn't dare not do everything by the book.

"Mr Veder. Miss Hebert. I have one more thing for you to do." Ms Harcourt's clipped voice brought me back to the present. She was standing next to a large metal trash-can beside her desk. From where I was, I could see that it was mostly full of papers. The thought Wow, she uses a lot of paper in one day clashed with the secondary thought Right, so we've got to empty that. Yay.

She turned toward us and I registered two things. The first was a faint smell of lighter fluid. The second was a lit match in her hand. My eyes opened wide as she tossed the match. It described a perfect parabolic arc into the centre of the trash can.

I hadn't been imagining the lighter fluid. The instant that match touched down, everything caught. Within a couple of seconds, the trash can was alight from side to side, flames leaping a yard into the air.

"Fire!" yelped Greg. "Fire! Fire!" With an admirable turn of speed, he bolted from the office, leaving his induction folder flopping to the ground and spilling paper everywhere. "Let me outta here!"

I was also halfway out the door, but not to seek refuge. Fixed in my mind was one of the pages I had carefully studied. Entitled 'Fire Safety', it had clearly shown the fire exits, the WIP phones (I had no idea what the acronym stood for), the locations for the manual fire alarms … and the fire extinguisher closets.

The closest of these was only a few steps away. I reached it and dropped my shoulder-bag and folder to the floor before wrenching the door open. Within hung a large red fire extinguisher. I couldn't recall what the green triangle meant, but they had to have anticipated paper fires when they equipped the closet. With a grunt, I took up the extinguisher—it was heavy!—and lugged it back to the office.

By the time I got there, Greg had run straight past the clearly marked fire exit door not once but twice, and was pulling open random office doors, apparently in the hope that the fire exit might be concealed in one of those. I put him out of my mind, having more important matters to deal with.

Ms Harcourt was standing in the office doorway with an electronic device in her hand. Her thumb was hovering over a large red button when I edged past her. Inverting the extinguisher—I'd read somewhere that you had to do that—I pulled the pin, awkwardly aimed the nozzle at the roaring blaze, and squeezed the trigger.

With a blaring hiss, it blasted white powder over everything. Some settled on my glasses, but I had no hands free to wipe them clear. I just kept moving forward until I was firing the stuff into the trash can itself. Smoke and ash billowed up, making me cough, but I didn't let up until the extinguisher ran dry.

I stopped to catch my breath and take stock of the situation. The fire was definitely out. I'd plastered that entire side of the office with white powder, and gotten more than a little of it on myself. Smoke filled the office, forcing me to stumble back to the door, then a few steps beyond, to get a breath of clean air.

"Well done." Ms Harcourt loomed up beside me, even as men wearing high-vis gear and breathing apparatus ran into her office. "You can put it down now." She held my folder and shoulder-bag.

I blinked, then realised she meant the extinguisher, which I was still clutching like a protective talisman. It felt quite a bit lighter now, probably because I'd emptied it all out on her test. Releasing the cylinder, I let it swing by my hand for a moment then dropped it to the carpet with a dull thud. The last of the smoke scratched at my throat and I coughed. "I'd speak to maintenance if I were you, ma'am," I said. "There's a fire sensor and a sprinkler head in your office, and they both failed to go off." I knew why, of course. She'd probably had them both disabled for this test. But in order to pass the test, I couldn't act as though I knew it was a test. In fact, even though there was smoke spreading across the ceiling, none of the fire sensors were going off.

"Quite," she replied, sounding almost amused. I was pretty sure she knew that I was playing along. "I'm going to need you to visit the infirmary, to ensure that you're suffering no ill effects from smoke inhalation, before we go on."

"Sorry about the mess I made of your office," I said instinctively. I knew which floor the infirmary was on, of course. It was going to be a pain getting rid of all the powder.

"Oh, that's not my office," she said as she led the way to the elevator. "We maintain a dummy office area, which we use for training situations such as this. Our in-house emergency crews need to be kept on their toes, after all."

As well as your interns, it seems. But I didn't say a word as we stepped into the elevator.

<><>​

I lay back on a bed with my shoes off and an oxygen mask on my face. Air that was slightly cooler and drier than I was used to breathing wreathed its way into my lungs. I felt a little light-headed, but that was probably due to the fact that I was breathing almost pure oxygen. When I'd first put it on, the doctor had encouraged me to inhale as deeply as I could, which had started a coughing spasm. This had passed quickly, though. Now I was just lying back and enjoying life.

"How do you feel?" The doctor came over to stand by my bed. I gave him a thumbs-up. He offered me a professional smile; I vaguely wondered how many people he'd seen high on oxygen. The idea made me want to giggle.

There was one of those clothes-peg thingies on my finger. The doctor checked a readout on the monitor next to me, then unclipped it. "Blood oxygen nominal. Pulse strong." Leaning over me, he examined my eyes. "Look up. Look down. Look left. Look right." He made a notation on the clipboard. "The redness is going away nicely."

"Thank you, doctor. You can go now." Ms Harcourt stepped up alongside him. For a grown woman, she could move very quietly. She looked down at me, and a small frown appeared on her brow. "You surprised me, you know. I expected you to show Mr Veder the fire exit and to seek safety, but you went above and beyond. Why didn't you just pull the fire alarm and leave?"

Reaching up, I took the oxygen mask off. Breathing the purest air I would probably experience ever had given me a level of mental clarity I was unused to. "Because the fire extinguisher was closer," I said. "Do you do this with all your interns?" Inwardly, I winced. Apparently, increased clarity came with reduced judgement as to what I was about to say.

Her lips compressed slightly, though I didn't know whether it was due to what I'd said or something else. "Given that you're the first two interns we've taken on in some years, the answer would be 'yes'. Do you feel fit to start work?"

"I suppose so." I pushed myself to a seated position and swung my legs off of the bed. My head didn't spin, so I slid off the bed and landed on my feet. I nodded at Ms Harcourt. "I feel all right, though I'm going to have to look up the contract Dad signed for me to come in here. Because when he finds out what happened, he's gonna get very unhappy, very quickly. Just saying."

She tilted her head to one side. "Mr Veder is saying much the same, though in somewhat stronger language. The word 'lawsuit' keeps cropping up. But you aren't saying it. You don't even seem particularly put out. Why is that?"

"Part of it's the oxygen high, I think. I knew that I wasn't in any real danger. And I'm reasonably certain a big-name company like Medhall wouldn't pull a stunt like that unless you had every safety precaution in place and your lawyers had all their bases covered." I shrugged. "Which is why I want to see the contract and figure out how you worded it." I found a chair and sat in it to pull my shoes on.

There was the other aspect, of course, but I managed not to talk about it. Being able to step up and fix a problem had felt exhilarating. It wasn't just firefighting, but solving problems in general. Is this how superheroes feel? I didn't know, but I liked it.

Also, I found I was willing to put up with quite a lot to keep my internship from going belly-up.

"Very well." Either I was getting used to Ms Harcourt's manner, or she was deliberately being less intimidating toward me. "Come with me, and matters will be explained."

<><>​

"When my mom hears about this crap, she's gonna sue you guys into the bedrock! I'll probably end up with a controlling interest!"

I heard Greg's voice before I saw him. He sounded more agitated than I'd ever seen or heard him before. When I opened the door and entered the room, I was a little surprised by his appearance. I shouldn't have been; the ranting had given me plenty of warning.

His previously-combed hair was all standing on end, probably from running his hands through it. Somehow, his clothes had gone from 'neatly ironed' to 'salvaged from the bottom of the laundry hamper'. It must have been a boy thing.

I'd caught him in mid-pace alongside a table. On the other side of the table sat a woman in a business suit, with a briefcase on the table in front of her. He turned to face me. "Taylor!" he exclaimed. "You're all right!" Two paces toward me, he stopped. "You are all right, aren't you?"

"I'm fine," I said lightly. "How are you? You look … rumpled there."

"Oh, I'm great!" he said, his voice tinged with hysteria. "Couldn't be better! I come to do a nice easy internship, and on the first day I'm catapulted into a life-threatening situation, masquerading as training!" He stomped over toward Ms Harcourt. "You guys are so sued, I'm telling you that!"

"You will sit down, Mr Veder." Ms Harcourt didn't raise her voice, but she didn't have to. It wasn't so much a command as a prediction.

All of Greg's bluster and fire … vanished. Hastily, he drew out a chair and sat down in it. Before I needed to be asked, I also pulled out a chair and took a seat.

"Thank you, Miss Hebert." Ms Harcourt turned to the business-suited woman and nodded. The woman took the briefcase and snapped the latches open. She lifted the lid, took out a familiar-looking document, and slid it over to me. A moment later, a similar document was skated across the table to Greg. "Do you recognise these forms?"

I picked mine up and scanned it. "Yes, ma'am. It's the form my father signed to allow me to intern at Medhall."

Greg looked over his more carefully, then went back through, scrutinising each page as if suspecting forgery. Ms Harcourt let him go on like this for thirty seconds, then cleared her throat.

"Oh!" He jumped as if he'd been shot. "Yeah, this looks like what my mom signed. Doesn't get you off the hook, though. There's nothing in here that says we'd be exposed to life-threatening situations."

Ms Harcourt ignored the threat. "Clause twelve. It states that interns will undergo the same safety training as regular employees. Correct?"

"Well, yeah, but …"

I didn't say anything. Turning to clause twelve, I found a notation that referred me to Appendix G at the back of the form. I flicked back to Appendix G, which stated that regular employees agreed, by virtue of signing, to undergo 'regularly scheduled* emergency drills' including (but not limited to) simulated chemical spills, earthquake, supervillain attacks … and fires in the office space.

I almost skimmed over that asterisk, but then my eyes were drawn back to it. Frowning, I looked down toward the bottom of the page, and there it was.

* Including at most one (1) unscheduled surprise drill to be carried out once per employee per calendar year, at the discretion of Medhall upper management. Results of unscheduled surprise drills to be assessed as per any standard drill.

"But nothing, Greg," I said out loud. "They're covered. That was an unscheduled surprise drill, which we actually signed up for."

"What?" he yelped. "But … no!" Frantically, he paged through the form until he found clause twelve, then followed the same path I had to Appendix G. Finally, his eyes went to the bottom of the page. For a good thirty seconds, he sat there while his eyes flicked back and forth along that single paragraph, looking for a loophole.

"No, that's not right," he protested. "Taylor got smoke inhalation. I'm mentally scarred. We've suffered harm from your stupid surprise drill. We can still sue."

The woman with the briefcase lifted out a weighty tome and dropped it on the table; Greg jumped at the solid thump. The title read simply MEDHALL COMPANY POLICY.

"Part D, section three, subsection four-B," said Ms Harcourt. I had zero doubt that she was quoting verbatim. "Any Medhall employee, contractor, temporary employee or otherwise signatory to the Medhall Company Policy, having suffered injury or malady as a direct result of Medhall policy being enacted, will be compensated immediately and without contest, with the full cost of external medical treatment necessary to treat the injury or malady. A bonus sum of one thousand dollars will be paid out upon completion of treatment. Should the injury or malady be sufficiently treated in-house, or should there be no lasting effect upon the person of the signatory party, the sum of one thousand dollars is still payable."

I blinked, wishing I was still under the oxygen. My brain had worked so much faster then. "Does that mean … we get a thousand bucks?"

Ms Harcourt nodded once, curtly. "Each, yes."

The lady with the briefcase took her cue once more. Taking two thick envelopes from the briefcase, she slid one to each of us. I took mine up and opened the flap to determine that it definitely contained money. Not bothering to count it, I slid it into my shoulder-bag.

Greg was less restrained. Pulling the money out, he fanned it wide, then stuffed it back into the envelope and whistled. "Score!" Turning to face me, he winked elaborately, apparently trying to hide it from Ms Harcourt. I had no idea what the wink was supposed to signify, but Ms Harcourt was on the ball.

"Mr Veder," she said freezingly, "if you are considering launching a lawsuit anyway, be aware that your acceptance of the money specifically indicates that you consider there to be no lasting effects on you from the incident."

For a long moment, Greg blinked at her. " … what?"

"If you're gonna try to sue them anyway, Greg," I said impatiently, "you gotta give the money back. Keeping the money means you don't think there's anything wrong with you." Taking my envelope out of the shoulder-bag, I ran my thumb over the edges of the bills. "I know I'm keeping mine."

"But I'm a minor!" He looked from me to Ms Harcourt. "You can't hold me to any agreement like that!"

"Sure," I agreed. "You think your mom's gonna let you keep a thousand bucks you got paid under the table?" I smiled tightly at him. "Won't happen. Especially once she understands how the company policy is worded."

Now he looked betrayed. "You wouldn't tell her, would you?" Friends wouldn't do that to friends, he didn't quite say. Which was fortunate, because he probably would've been offended if I laughed in his face.

"I wouldn't have to," I said bluntly. Turning to Ms Harcourt, I went on. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I didn't mean to interrupt."

She favoured me with a brief nod, then fixed Greg with a gimlet eye. "Miss Hebert is essentially correct. Attempting to keep the money and also launch a lawsuit will involve a countersuit for fraud. If you wish to be free to sue … return the money. Now." She held out her hand commandingly.

"But … my money!" Greg clutched at the envelope in a way that reminded me of a certain wizened little character in a fantasy movie. My precious …

It was quite possible that he'd never held so much money in his hands before; I certainly hadn't. And while the smoke inhalation hadn't been exactly pleasant, they'd certainly gone all-out to ensure my well-being after the fact. "Greg, for God's sake. If you really think you're going to sue them, leave the money. Otherwise, take it." I caught his eye and mouthed the words, You'll lose. Emma's dad had talked about how companies beat lawsuits like this; they just kept appealing until the little guy ran out of money. And Medhall had the resources to appeal until Doomsday rolled around.

Greg let out a pained sigh. This was apparently the signal that he'd given up on getting a controlling interest in the company, because he tucked the envelope in his pocket. "Okay, fine. You win."

I personally didn't think getting a thousand bucks in the hand exactly constituted 'losing', but then I wasn't Greg. Thank God. "So, um, Ms Harcourt, what happens now?"

"Now, Ms Hebert, I will assign you your positions." Ms Harcourt looked sternly at me. "You showed initiative, but you also ran into a room where there was a fire without any sort of protective equipment. I think I need to keep a close eye on you, so you will be working for my personal assistant for the duration of this internship."

I nodded meekly. "Yes, ma'am." If not actually nice, Ms Harcourt had basically been fair with me. If I kept on my toes, I figured I could handle this.

"And as for you, Mr Veder." She bent her gaze upon Greg, and her expression was considerably more disapproving. "You failed utterly to take note of anything in the induction folder, including the locations of the fire exits. Then you lied to me. Until you can prove to me that you're capable of anything resembling actual responsibility … you'll be assisting the janitors." Her frown deepened. "And I will be getting a daily report from them."

Greg stared at her, his jaw dropping open. If I had to venture a guess, this was not how his previous internship had gone. "Janitors?" he squeaked.

"Janitors," she confirmed. "And be aware: we like our bathrooms sparkling."

It seemed, after all, that Greg'd gotten one thing right.

He had this crap nailed.

Just not the way he wanted.


End of Part One

 

[alethiophile]

Heh.

This is perhaps the most annoying Greg I've seen in a fic.

 

[Starfox5]

I wonder if the building will be standing at the end of their internship. And if they'll meet Rune in her civilian identity.

 

[Ack]

I wonder if the building will be standing at the end of their internship. And if they'll meet Rune in her civilian identity.

Click to shrink...

In no particular order:

Almost certainly.

Almost certainly not.

 

[CURRENT YEAR GUY]

I wonder if the building will be standing at the end of their internship. And if they'll meet Rune in her civilian identity.

Click to shrink...

Rune has been outed, it would be a pretty bad idea to have her in the one building where you actually keep your legitimate business practices.
The only time they'll likely meet is probably off the buildings grounds or as a delivery driver. Maybe they'll meet up when the building gets inevitably destroyed?

Also this Greg has to be the most annoying I've ever read, I don't think you can make a Greg more annoying unless you devolved straight into a crack fic. On the other hand, janitor Greg might have better job opportunities than quite a few of the people in Winslow considering they lack of jobs going around.

Personally i hope Greg makes a redemption arc of some kind, he NEEDS to be redeemed of his whineyness somehow.
Also you would think the ability to lie straight to a persons face would be a valued attribute to a business owned by a hypocritical, nazi leader. Just saying, that's probably the only reason Greg wasn't removed from the program outright.

 

[Ack]

Rune has been outed, it would be a pretty bad idea to have her in the one building where you actually keep your legitimate business practices.
The only time they'll likely meet is probably off the buildings grounds or as a delivery driver. Maybe they'll meet up when the building gets inevitably destroyed?

Also this Greg has to be the most annoying I've ever read, I don't think you can make a Greg more annoying unless you devolved straight into a crack fic. On the other hand, janitor Greg might have better job opportunities than quite a few of the people in Winslow considering they lack of jobs going around.

Personally i hope Greg makes a redemption arc of some kind, he NEEDS to be redeemed of his whineyness somehow.
Also you would think the ability to lie straight to a persons face would be a valued attribute to a business owned by a hypocritical, nazi leader. Just saying, that's probably the only reason Greg wasn't removed from the program outright.

Click to shrink...

When was Rune outed?

Lying's fine. Lying to your boss, not so fine.

Lying about having read safety briefings? Terrible idea.

 

[CURRENT YEAR GUY]

When was Rune outed?

Click to shrink...

Since she triggered in a juvenile detention center and broke out?
The PRT knows who she is, if they see her hanging/being hired at Medhall its going to raise some questions.

 

[Ack]

Since she triggered in a juvenile detention center and broke out?
The PRT knows who she is, if they see her hanging/being hired at Medhall its going to raise some questions.

Click to shrink...

Not really, I don't think.

If they have surveillance on her, they'll be trying to arrest her.

If they don't, she can come and go as she wants.

Living in at Medhall and being careful about entering & leaving (closed vans) solves accommodation problems. And the PRT doesn't broadcast secret identities as a matter of course.

 

[alethiophile]

I should also note that it's extremely unlikely there isn't someone at PRT/Protectorate who knows perfectly well who Kaiser is and that Medhall is partially an Empire front. Coil's info dump didn't teach them anything new, it just took away their excuse to pretend they didn't know it.

 

[Prince Charon]

I was on the second to last page (a list of the parahuman villains of Brockton Bay, and the required procedure for responding to an attack by each one. The procedure for a depressingly large number of these was 'run and hide')

Click to shrink...

To be perfectly fair, that is the most reasonable safety procedure for untrained, unarmed, unpowered individuals to survive being attacked by supervillains.

 

[The Halfa Wannabe]

To be perfectly fair, that is the most reasonable safety procedure for untrained, unarmed, unpowered individuals to survive being attacked by supervillains.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, but some of them cause enough collateral damage that the instructions shouldn't include hiding because that becomes far more dangerous if someone like Lung is escalating. Not to mention Hookwolf and the twins. in those cases it should be pretty much just run.

 

[Prince Charon]

Yeah, but some of them cause enough collateral damage that the instructions shouldn't include hiding because that becomes far more dangerous if someone like Lung is escalating. Not to mention Hookwolf and the twins. in those cases it should be pretty much just run.

Click to shrink...

That would probably be why it's the procedure for most of them, not all of them - though to be fair, in nearly all cases it depends on how far you run before you hide. In the rest, it's either too late to run, or you're not in much physical danger from them to start with.

For example, Tattletale is really unlikely to shoot anyone who isn't an immediate threat, so all you have to worry about is being tricked into giving up your secrets, being the target of a very insightful verbal beatdown if you set her off, or being kind of stalked by a Thinker who really wants to help you but is a teenage supervillain, if she thinks you're suicidal.

 

[The Halfa Wannabe]

That would probably be why it's the procedure for most of them, not all of them - though to be fair, in nearly all cases it depends on how far you run before you hide. In the rest, it's either too late to run, or you're not in much physical danger from them to start with.

For example, Tattletale is really unlikely to shoot anyone who isn't an immediate threat, so all you have to worry about is being tricked into giving up your secrets, being the target of a very insightful verbal beatdown if you set her off, or being kind of stalked by a Thinker who really wants to help you but is a teenage supervillain, if she thinks you're suicidal.

Click to shrink...

Yeah but that's true of most of the Undersiders.

 

[Prince Charon]

Yeah but that's true of most of the Undersiders.

Click to shrink...

Only the 'not likely to seriously hurt or kill you if you aren't an immediate threat' part. Anyone with confidential information should still try to stay away from Tattletale or (to a much lesser degree, due to time/effort requirements) Regent, but Grue and Bitch can't do much there.

 

[alethiophile]

Most of the villains will still shrink from killing unrelated civilians. That's how you eventually get an alliance against you, like Bakuda did.

 

[Prince Charon]

Most of the villains will still shrink from killing unrelated civilians. That's how you eventually get an alliance against you, like Bakuda did.

Click to shrink...

Intentionally killing, sure. Causing injury, accidentally making you collateral damage, or standing in the wrong place so that you get injured or killed when Gory Girl goes Kool Aid Man through a wall to 'rescue you' is another matter entirely.

 

[Ack]

Intentionally killing, sure. Causing injury, accidentally making you collateral damage, or standing in the wrong place so that you get injured or killed when Gory Girl goes Kool Aid Man through a wall to 'rescue you' is another matter entirely.

Click to shrink...

"The procedure for more than a few heroes was also 'run and hide', which made me raise an eyebrow. Then I saw the name 'Glory Girl', and it all made sense."

 

[Death by Chains]

Oh, Greg, Greg, Greg. How do you do it, huh? How do you keep coming up with so many new and impressive ways to fuck up? Granted, most companies don't expect much from teenaged interns, but if you didn't get a clue-by-four between the eyes from how uptight and squared-away Ms. Harcourt was... God, I was introverted and socially blind as a teenager, but please, somebody, tell me I never had that little nunchi!

 

[macdjord]

So, I'm most of the way through with rereading the Internship/Deputy series. Which makes for lovely timing for it's dark mirror to start up...

 

[Ack]

Oh, Greg, Greg, Greg. How do you do it, huh? How do you keep coming up with so many new and impressive ways to fuck up? Granted, most companies don't expect much from teenaged interns, but if you didn't get a clue-by-four between the eyes from how uptight and squared-away Ms. Harcourt was... God, I was introverted and socially blind as a teenager, but please, somebody, tell me I never had that little nunchi!

Click to shrink...

This is the guy who caused Taylor to think that maybe he was trying to blackmail her.

 

[Prince Charon]

Oh, Greg, Greg, Greg. How do you do it, huh? How do you keep coming up with so many new and impressive ways to fuck up? Granted, most companies don't expect much from teenaged interns, but if you didn't get a clue-by-four between the eyes from how uptight and squared-away Ms. Harcourt was... God, I was introverted and socially blind as a teenager, but please, somebody, tell me I never had that little nunchi!

Click to shrink...

I really can't say, as I don't think we've ever met in person (and I'm not familiar with the term 'nunchi,' though context does suggest possible meanings), but while I've met people who were more oblivious than me, Greg is a bit of an outlier. A plausible one, sadly, but an outlier.

 

[Death by Chains]

Nunchi is a Korean word/concept, a snappy way of referring to what Westerners would call 'emotional intelligence' or 'social insight'. I think I first found it in a Cracked article, the same one that gave me the (delightful!) German term backpfeifengesicht.

 

[Gindjurra]

Nunchi is a Korean word/concept, a snappy way of referring to what Westerners would call 'emotional intelligence' or 'social insight'. I think I first found it in a Cracked article, the same one that gave me the (delightful!) German term backpfeifengesicht.

Click to shrink...

I will admit I had to look it up too, but at least reading this on my iPad made asking Siri quick and easy.

 

[SailorOfMyVessel]

This is awesome, thanks for writing!

 

[Xyshuryn]

In no particular order:

Almost certainly.

Almost certainly not.

Click to shrink...

I hope you do not mind if I have a preference as to which answer goes where.
I won't outright say which I prefer, but...

I have read Mauling Snarks and I think the scene with Jacob and the wrecking ball was very touching. And I also never bet on a building surviving Taylor, no matter the story.

 

[magic9mushroom]

For example, Tattletale is really unlikely to shoot anyone who isn't an immediate threat, so all you have to worry about is being tricked into giving up your secrets, being the target of a very insightful verbal beatdown if you set her off, or being kind of stalked by a Thinker who really wants to help you but is a teenage supervillain, if she thinks you're suicidal.

Click to shrink...

"tricked into giving up your secrets"

That's not how Tattletale works. You don't usually get the option of not giving up your secrets, and it's not about whether you make a mistake. The only real way to stymie her is to minimise contact.

 

[alethiophile]

"tricked into giving up your secrets"

That's not how Tattletale works. You don't usually get the option of not giving up your secrets, and it's not about whether you make a mistake. The only real way to stymie her is to minimise contact.

Click to shrink...

You can't keep all your secrets by doing everything right, but you can very much make it worse by letting her needle you and get reactions to feed back to the Inference Engine. Which she'll happily try to do.

 

[magic9mushroom]

You can't keep all your secrets by doing everything right, but you can very much make it worse by letting her needle you and get reactions to feed back to the Inference Engine. Which she'll happily try to do.

Click to shrink...

You could sit in front of her doing nothing while she talks at you and she'd still be able to read your reactions. As I said, the way to stymie her is to minimise contact - by which I mean stuff like wearing a helmet and loose clothing or simply not being in the same room as her. You do not have those options if the Undersiders are robbing your business, outside of "run away".

Also, I have my doubts about "inference" (a fanon term AFAIK), though it's not particularly relevant to this discussion.

 

[Ack]

Taylor Hebert, Medhall Intern

Part Two: Highs and Lows

[A/N: This chapter commissioned by GW_Yoda and beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]


Ms Harcourt's personal assistant was a blonde lady about five years older than me. Her perfect makeup, clothing and figure made me feel absolutely inadequate within seconds of meeting her.

"Hi," she said warmly, shaking my hand. "I'm Tracey Grimshaw. Your name is Taylor?"

"I, uh, yes, Ms Grimshaw," I mumbled. I wasn't used to people being friendly.

"Pfft, call me Tracey," she said, though I suspected she was pleased I'd gone with the formal greeting first. "Everyone else does around here. So, Taylor, has Ms Harcourt told you what you're going to be doing today?"

Numbly, I shook my head. "She just said to do whatever you told me to do. And if there's a real emergency, to leave quietly by the fire escape so the professionals have something to do."

Tracey laughed delightedly. "She said that? Wow, you must really have made an impression on her." She gestured toward the small side-desk in her office. "That's where you'll be working. I've never had an intern assigned to me before, so I'm afraid we're just going to be making it up as we go along."

"Well, I've never been an intern before, either," I confessed. "So what do you want me to do first?"

"First, I think I'll show you where the coffee machine is, and then … hmm." She seemed to consider her options for a moment. "You can use computers, right?"

"I'm not an expert," I said hastily. "But yes, I get good marks in Computer Studies."

That seemed to satisfy her; she beamed.

After an introduction to the break room coffee machine, and a brief course of instruction in how to make coffee the way Tracey—and Ms Harcourt—liked it, I was ushered back to what would be our shared office. With what came across as almost unseemly satisfaction, she carefully arranged the transfer of a laptop and a flatbed scanner across to the desk I would be using. Most of the problems involved ensuring that the cords didn't get tangled or unplugged, but eventually we had matters arranged to our mutual satisfaction. After that, I moved a large box of paper files to a spot beside my desk. A second box, this one empty, went beside the first.

"All right," she said, dusting her hands off, despite the fact that I'd done most of the heavy lifting. I didn't hold that against her; unlike my clothing, I doubted her apparel would stand up to any sort of exercise. "This is what you're going to be doing. We went fully digital with this sort of thing years ago, but someone found a few boxes of old files at the back of a closet somewhere, and now we have to integrate them with the rest of our records."

"So you want me to scan the files?" I wasn't quite sure what she wanted me for. Any idiot could work a scanner. Then again, right then I was probably the 'any idiot' they were looking for.

"Not just that." She indicated the laptop. "That's been set up to receive the input from the scanner. The optical-character recognition software is supposed to render the filled-out forms into the digital format we're using these days, but OCR has been known to throw up glitches. So you scan the files, then eyeball them to ensure that everything translated across OK, and enter any corrections. Then you check with the main system to see if they've already got that client number on file. If the system is working right, it will take the data you've entered and integrate it into the correct file."

"And if it isn't working right?" Because with my luck, it wouldn't be.

She gave me a brilliant smile. "Then it'll throw up a query and between the two of us, we'll try to figure out what's gone wrong. Any questions?"

I frowned. "Yeah. Isn't this sort of thing confidential? Won't I be breaking laws just looking at it?"

"Nope." She shook her head definitively. "We already had someone from Legal check it over. This is old data, stuff that's no longer current. There's nothing there that could be used against anyone."

"Oh, good." I eyed the box. It seemed to be quite full. "I guess I'd better get started, then." Sitting down in the office chair that had been provided, I leaned down and took out a stack of files. When I dropped them on to the desk beside the scanner, dust rose and I sneezed.

"Bless you." Tracey retreated to her own desk, waving her hand before her face.

Taking a tissue from my bag, I blew my nose. "Thanks." I opened the first folder and took out the file it contained. This was going to be boring makework, I knew, but at least it was boring makework away from Emma and her coterie.

I'd take that all day long.

<><>​

"Ugh." Greg slumped into the seat opposite me in the staff canteen. "Hey, Taylor. So, how's your day been?"

My nostrils twitched at the smell of bleach wafting off him. It made a change from that of dusty files. Not necessarily a welcome change, but definitely a change. "Hi, Greg. My day's been … okay, not as interesting as the induction was, but it's definitely bearable. How about you?"

"Cleaning." He groaned. "Do you have any idea how many bathrooms there are in this building?"

"I … uh, no." I did actually have an idea, from the floor-plans that had been part of the induction package, but I decided to let Greg have this one. "How many?"

"Too many." He groaned, running his hands through his hair. "I lost count. I am getting really, really good at scrubbing them. Even when they're clean, I still have to scrub them."

I suspected that his idea of 'clean' wasn't the same as that espoused by the janitorial staff; they may have been deliberately hazing him from time to time, but some of it was almost certainly justified. "Hey, it's all valuable work experience. Even if the experience just serves to teach us exactly how boring life is in the workforce." That was something Tracey had said. I was pretty sure she thought she was joking at the time.

"But I thought it would be more exciting than this. Or that they'd let us, you know, sit back and do nothing." He actually managed to look righteously upset.

"You had to know not all internships would be like your uncle's business," I reminded him. "Some places might actually make you do the work."

He gave me a dirty look, which only intensified when I smirked.

"Not fair," he muttered. "What've you been doing?"

"Making coffee and scanning." I rolled my eyes and took a bite from my pita wrap. I had to pause to chew and swallow, then I continued. "So much scanning. I never knew optical-character recognition could get so many things wrong."

He snorted, then glanced around. Maybe because we were interns, or maybe because Greg reeked of cleaning products, all the nearby tables were empty. Nonetheless, when he spoke, his voice was lower than before. "Talking about getting things wrong, maybe I'm getting things wrong, or …."

"Or, what?" I looked quizzically at him. "Don't tell me you're having second thoughts about this whole internship thing."

"No, no, it's not that." He leaned in closer. My eyes began to water from the reek of ammonia. "Some of the guys, the jokes they've been telling while we're cleaning the restrooms … they're a bit, you know, racist."

"What?" I stared at him. "Is that all?" I didn't tell jokes like that myself, but I had no idea what Greg considered racist. Some of the more off-colour jokes the Dockworkers had been known to tell were a little racially insensitive, but I knew the guys weren't about to down tools and take up with Kaiser.

He seemed taken aback by my dismissal of his concerns. "Well, yeah. I just … I just thought you should know. But I guess it's nothing."

I sighed. "Do you see anyone being harassed or taking offense at the jokes? That's when you need to say something. And by that, I mean speak to your supervisor on the quiet so they can say something. Okay?" Because if there was a faster way to get kicked out of an internship than by openly criticising your workmates' sense of humour, I wasn't exactly sure what it might be.

"No, nobody's being upset by the jokes," he conceded. "And they are pretty funny. I guess I was concerned over nothing."

"Mm-hmm," I agreed, taking another mouthful of food. In between doing the file scanning—I was halfway through the first box already—and fetching coffee, Tracey and I had been getting to know each other. She was nice, and friendly, and efficient. I liked her, and she didn't talk down to me. The endless scanning (and the occasional bug lurking in the paperwork) aside, I was really starting to enjoy the internship.

We chatted casually as we finished our respective meals, then dumped our trays and headed back to our duties. Greg was a little more reluctant than me; I got the impression the janitorial staff were enjoying putting him through his paces. Well, as I'd already told him, it was all valuable experience. Boredom, after all, was also something that one could experience.

<><>​

When I got back to the office I was sharing with Tracey, bearing a steaming cup of coffee for each of us, I found she had a visitor. A good-looking guy in his mid-twenties was perched on the corner of her desk and flirting with her so blatantly that a flashing neon sign couldn't have made it any more obvious. From all appearances, she was flirting right back. They looked around as I entered the room.

"Oh, uh, sorry," I said, reversing course. "I can go away for five minutes—"

"No, it's okay." Tracey shook her head, still giggling at whatever he'd said just before I came in. "Justin was just leaving. Weren't you, Justin?"

His mouth twisted in a wry grin, then he nodded. "Yup. Places to go, people to do. See you 'round, babe. We still on for Friday night?"

"Sure," she agreed, then reached out and prodded him in the chest with her forefinger. "But if you stand me up again, you can whistle in the wind for all I care."

He captured her hand and kissed her knuckles, eliciting a giggle and a blush. "I'll be there. Even if I have to tell the boss where he can shove his overtime." Sliding his butt off the desk, he straightened up and turned to me. "And good afternoon to you, Miss …?"

"Hebert," I said, startled that he was addressing me. "Taylor Hebert. I'm just the intern." As if he needs to know that, I chastised myself.

As he looked intently at me, I felt a blush of my own begin to rise in my cheeks. He was good-looking, after all, and there was an attractive sort of roguish charm about him. "Well, now. I'd heard we had a new prodigy in the office. Harcourt's been singing your praises over how you handled induction." Without giving me a chance to respond, he ducked past me. "I'd love to talk more about that, but duty calls. Oh, coffee. I'll take that, thanks. Bye!"

And with that, he was off down the corridor with my cup of coffee in his hand. I stared after him until he vanished around the corner, then at Tracey. "What just happened?"

With a tolerant smile, she got up and took her coffee from me. "That was Justin. He works in Advertising. To hear him tell it, he's their new rising star." With a roll of her eyes, she sat back down. "Just keep in mind that ninety percent of what he says is bullshit, and you'll be fine."

"And he's your boyfriend?" He wasn't totally my type. Not enough muscles, for one thing, and he was maybe ten years older than me. Plus, he'd stolen my coffee. But all that aside, the look he'd given me had been enough to make me feel just a little weak in the knees.

"Pfft, hardly." Tracey took a sip of her coffee, then chuckled softly. "That man will never let himself get tied down by anyone. We date occasionally, then he does something outrageous, then I forgive him and we date again." She held up the cup in mock salute. "Nice coffee, by the way. You've gotten it just right."

"And he got mine just right," I grumbled.

She waved off my complaint airily. "Oh, he does that to everyone. Steals mine too, when he can get away with it. Go, make yourself another cup. The files aren't going anywhere."

I was beginning to see the funny side of it as I went to do what she'd said. He'd been polite to me, though (given what Tracey had said about the ninety percent bullshit) I was going to take what he'd said about Ms Harcourt with a large grain of salt. But even if he was Tracey's on-and-off boyfriend, I could still look at him as he walked past.

Interning at Medhall, I decided, was getting more interesting all the time.

<><>​

"Three o'clock!" sang out Tracey as she stood up from her desk. "Time's up, Taylor. You can go home now, unless you want to stay back with us wage slaves. Or you're bucking for overtime." She grinned at me. "Unpaid overtime, in your case."

"That's because I don't get paid in the first place," I agreed. "Double nothing is still nothing." I finished closing the laptop down, and gave the stack of folders—greatly reduced from when I'd started that morning—a proprietary pat.

I was actually getting pretty good at it, I figured. More to the point, I'd belatedly realised where I'd gone wrong with a couple of earlier files, so instead of bothering Tracey with it, I'd figured out how to get back into the system and fix my mistakes. I was also learning the laptop's quirks, such as how the OCR seemed to recognise words and letters more readily if the page was scanned on a very slight right-hand tilt.

"So, how did you enjoy your first day here?" asked Tracey as we headed along the corridor.

"Well, from here on in I'll only be doing half-days," I pointed out. "But yeah, it was fun. In an oh-god-work-work-work sort of way." It had definitely been far preferable to spending the same amount of time at Winslow. The three half-days per week, I decided, could not come fast enough for me.

"Good," decided Tracey. "It's amazing how much work I got done for Ms Harcourt, while you were taking care of those files."

We reached the elevators where a burly uniformed security guard stood, arms folded. "Ms Grimshaw," he acknowledged her with a nod. I couldn't help but notice his scarred knuckles. This was a man who knew how to handle himself.

"Bradley," she replied, and favoured him with a beaming smile. "Taylor here's just going home for the day."

"Sure thing," he said gruffly, and pressed the elevator button for me. The doors opened almost immediately.

"See you Monday, Taylor," said Tracey as I stepped into the lift and pressed the button for the lobby.

"See you then," I replied. Once the elevator doors had closed, I leaned back against the wall and closed my eyes briefly. A sigh escaped me. Tension began to unravel from my shoulders.

The elevator arrived at the lobby and the doors opened. I headed out past the security desk, through the sliding glass doors, into the afternoon sun.

It had been a fun day overall, but the whole time I'd been wondering when the other shoe was going to drop. Was I going to say or do something that got me kicked out of the internship? Were they going to suddenly realise that they'd made some mistake, and they were replacing me with one of Emma's friends? Would I be changing places with Greg?

But now I was done with the day, and nothing like that had happened. Sure, Ms Harcourt had done her best to put the fear of God into us, but Tracey had been sweet, and even Justin and Bradley had been polite to me. And I had a thousand dollars in my bag. My head came up. I had a thousand dollars in my bag!

"Taylor!"

I looked around, instinctively clutching my bag closer to my body. Greg had just emerged from the building, looking somewhat the worse for wear. His clothing had gone from bottom-of-the-laundry-hamper to something even Goodwill would've turned down. The expression on his face was one I'd only seen in veterans in war movies, or capes after Endbringer battles. In short, he looked like he'd been chewed up and spat out.

"Oh, hi, Greg," I said, wondering if I should smile or if he'd think I was laughing at him. "What … uh, what happened to you?"

"They're mean," he said feelingly. "They're mean, horrible and nasty, and I don't think I want to work there any more."

"Why, what did they do?" I wasn't sure if I wanted to know, then I decided that I did. Just in case.

"Well, after we cleaned all the restrooms, we started doing repairs around the building. And they kept sending me down to Stores to get stuff they had to know wasn't in stock."

I could guess the rest from his aggrieved expression, but I raised my eyebrows enquiringly anyway. "What sort of stuff?"

He began ticking off items on his fingers. "Well, they were fixing the automatic closer on a door, and it closed to the left, so they sent me down to get a can of left-handed elbow grease. I was halfway down to Stores before I realised they were joking with me."

"Well, duh." I'd first heard that old chestnut when I was about six years old, listening to Dad and Kurt talking about Dockworker pranks.

"Yeah," he said. "So I went back up and told them, there's no such thing as left-handed grease. So they said yeah, our mistake, and told me to get normal elbow grease. But when I got down there, the guy said he was fresh out of stock."

"I see." I didn't say anything more, because I didn't want to laugh in his face.

He didn't seem to notice the way I was pressing my lips tightly together. "So when I got back to where the guys were, they sent me down again. If they couldn't get the elbow grease, they needed to balance the closer somehow, so they told me to go down there for a short weight."

I did my best to disguise my chuckle as a cough. "And I'm guessing the guy didn't have any in stock?"

Greg looked disgusted. "No. He just had me sit there for a bit while he looked around, then he sent me back upstairs."

It was too much; I couldn't resist. "So he made you stay for a short wait."

He stared at me. "No. Weren't you listening? He didn't have any. He …."

I waited, watching with interest as the enlightenment dawned on him. He actually mumbled the words 'short wait' a couple of times, then he stared at me, eyes and mouth opening wide.

"What?" I asked innocently, only to totally spoil it by snorting with laughter.

"You knew!" he said accusingly. "You knew! You let me tell you all that, and you knew!"

I was giggling hard by then. Briefly, I managed to get it under control as I held up one finger. "Elbow grease …." I sputtered.

"What? What about elbow grease?"

"Doesn't come in cans!" It was lucky we were at the bus stop by then, because I was laughing so hard I had to sit down.

He sat beside me, rolling his eyes. "And I suppose there's no such thing as spray-cans of striped paint, either?"

At this point, tears were rolling down my cheeks. All I could do was shake my head.

"Arrgh!" He ran his hands through his hair for what must've been the fiftieth time that day. "I feel so stupid! How do you know stuff like this, Taylor?"

Asking me that question at that point was useless. It took me a good five minutes to calm down before I was able to answer him. "Dockworkers," I explained succinctly. "My Dad works in the office. I've heard chapter and verse on every prank they've ever played on each other. Including the time someone zip-tied an air-horn to the underside of his chair. When he sat down, the air-horn went off and he nearly went through the ceiling. Kurt said later that he spent ten minutes chasing the perpetrator around the site with the air-horn, vowing to shove it someplace unpleasant." Though Kurt had never actually revealed who the perpetrator was, which made me wonder.

The bus pulled up; it was the line I wanted, so I stood up. Greg came with me. "Okay, at least please tell me that it was legit when they made me get a steam sample with a garbage bag."

I raised both eyebrows and gave him a frank stare. "Do you really want me to answer that?" Climbing on board the bus, I flashed my pass.

"Wait." Greg got on behind me. "So you're telling me that everything they made me go and fetch was a prank?"

"Unless there's stuff that was actually in stock, pretty much, yeah," I said. I found a seat and sat down. Greg sat beside me. "So what are you going to be buying?"

"What?" He looked at me as if I'd just invented the word. "Buying?"

"I got on this bus so I could go and buy some proper office clothing," I said patiently. "So I can fit in better there. Why are you on this bus?"

"Oh. Uh." He looked around, startled, as the bus moved off with a jerk. "I was, uh, I was talking to you?"

"Well, now you're talking to me and you're on the wrong bus," I said with a certain amount of acerbity. "Well done."

"Um." He seemed to think about this. "Maybe I should buy something to wear at work, too …?"

"Well, that depends." I raised my eyebrows. "Are you going to keep on with the internship, or are they too mean and nasty for you?"

"Oh. Right." He shrugged, apparently over his irritation from before. "Sure, I can go back. I mean, they're not gonna catch me with those pranks the second time around."

I seriously doubted that they'd used all their pranks up on the first day. After all, I had no idea how long they'd gone without new blood to inflict their fun on, but learning curves were a thing. "Sure," I encouraged him. "And if you were a good enough sport the first day, they'll probably let up on you from now on."

The janitorial staff of the Medhall building, I reasoned, were unlikely to treat Greg as horrifically as Emma and her friends treated me. Sending him on a wild-goose chase around the building was nowhere near as nasty as what happened to me on a regular occasion at school. As safety-conscious as the building management seemed to be, I couldn't see the staff being permitted to do anything that might physically endanger a minor, or even threaten serious humiliation. Like I'd said to him earlier (albeit jokingly), he might even learn something about how the world worked.

We rode on in silence. Or at least, I was silent. Greg lasted for one stop, then he started chattering about Space Opera; the levels, the capabilities and the various cheats and tricks to level up faster. It really seemed like his bad mood from earlier was gone, as though it had never been. If I'd been at all into computer games, it might have even been interesting.

The bus pulled up at the Weymouth Mall, and I got off. Greg did as well, though by this time he was well into a convoluted tale of how he'd somehow 'owned' someone on the PHO boards with information about some obscure cape or other. I knew that PHO stood for ParaHumans Online, but I'd never spent more than five consecutive minutes on there. My account might even have lapsed; I had no idea, nor any desire to find out. After all, I was never going to be a superhero, so what was the point in looking?

Once we got into the mall proper, I planted myself in front of Greg and waited until he ran down. To his credit, it only took him a few seconds. "What?" he asked. "Why have we stopped?"

"Because I'm going shopping for women's clothing," I said patiently. "Including underwear." After all, I had a thousand dollars to spend now. I figured I may as well splurge on something that fitted me properly rather than 'eh, good enough'. "If you're going to buy something for yourself, I suggest you go find it. The mall will be closing soon." Mentioning underwear to him was a calculated gamble. With some boys, it would draw them on. No doubt Greg had his share of teenage hormones, but they weren't distributed in that fashion. When I mentioned the dreaded word, he visibly blanched.

"Oh, uh, right, yeah," he stammered. "I'll, uh, I'll see you later. Monday."

"See you then," I agreed, putting up my hand in a brief wave. Turning away from him, I headed off to find a store that catered for my wishes. I decided that I also needed new shoes; either sensible flats, or maybe something with just a little rise to them. Nothing too dramatic; I was already taller than Tracey, and I didn't want to look like I was trying to tower over her.

(Physically, I was taller than Ms Harcourt, but I'd never be able to prove it. With her presence alone, that woman would have King Kong whimpering in the corner in about ten seconds flat.)

First, however, I wanted to test the adage 'clothes maketh the man'; or in this case, woman. A selection of feminine businesswear in one window caught my attention, and I entered the shop. I was already wearing my best effort at business attire, so the saleslady came over immediately. Cynically, I wondered how long it would have taken her to 'notice' me, had I been wearing my preferred hoodie and jeans.

I was still riding a high from my first successful day as an intern, so I put my best face forward. "Hi," I said, trying to present myself as Tracey would. "I just started an internship with Medhall, so I was looking for something appropriate to wear to work …?"

"Oh, well done!" she said, her face lighting up. The name 'Medhall' was definitely one that opened doors, I decided. Then she must have realised that I was still only a teenager. "You do realise, our prices are in the upper range for business attire …." Thus giving me the option to gracefully slink out of her store with my dignity mostly intact.

I was slinking exactly nowhere. "Yes, that's why I'm here," I said, matching the steel in her smile with one of my own. "You see, they paid me an up-front cash bonus to get outfitted. And I'm choosing to spend it here."

None of which was actually a lie. They had paid me up front, and if I opted to use it to get outfitted, then that was what it was for. One glimpse at the envelope with the stack of cash inside, and I was ushered into the back rooms.

<><>​

An hour later, I exited the shop, a pair of bulging shopping bags in hand. Once the saleslady had determined that yes, I intended to spend serious money in her store, she'd gone all-out. I had tried on half a dozen different outfits before they were satisfied, and we settled on two. Serious consideration had gone into which colour went best with my hair and my eyes, and my feet had been poked and prodded by a woman who then sorted through no fewer than fifteen boxes for a single shoe.

In the end, however, all the effort had been worth it. I now knew what truly comfortable underwear—and truly comfortable footwear—felt like. Both, it had to be said, supported me in all the right places. My purchases included two sets of business attire—one to wear and one to wash—plus a pair of shoes and a few sets of underwear (no way was I walking away with just one set). My thousand dollar payout was now sadly depleted, and I was wearing my ordinary clothing again (over the new underwear, because duh) and my new shoes (double duh). I didn't quite break into a dance routine as I stepped out into the corridor, but it was a near thing.

Believe it or not, I'm walkin' on air/ I never thought I could feel so free-ee ….

Weymouth was now closing, so I made my way to the closest exit. Moving with a confident stride, I stepped out into the open air.

Right into trouble.

I hadn't seen them through the glass doors, mainly because I hadn't been looking out for them. But Emma, Sophia and Madison had obviously seen me, or perhaps they'd been shadowing me since I came out of the store. Because I couldn't imagine them noticing me going into the store and not figuring out some way of making trouble for me.

"Hello, Taylor." Emma's greeting was as sharp and bright and deadly as an unsheathed blade. Her teeth, as she smiled at me, were almost as sharp. "What have we told you about shoplifting? Really?" Her voice was pitched loudly enough that nearby people turned their heads.

"I haven't been shoplifting!" I protested.

"No sense denying it, Taylor," Madison spoke over me. "It's quite sad, really. You just keep doing it." She gestured at my bags; while I was distracted by the motion, Sophia darted in and snatched one from my hand.

"Hey!" Hampered by my need to hang on to the shoulder-bag and my other bag, I tried to grab it back, but failed. Madison 'blundered' into my way, while Sophia handed the bag off to Emma. "Give that back! It's mine!"

"As if," sneered Emma, lifting one of my two suit jackets from the bag. So of course Sophia had grabbed the bag that didn't have my original underwear and shoes in it. "You never owned something this classy in your life. You could never afford anything this classy. Why did you even bother stealing it?"

"I didn't steal it!" I was starting to get upset, my voice becoming more and more high-pitched. This made me sound guilty, even when I wasn't; even when I didn't feel guilty. Emma was a past master at manipulating matters so that she came off as the good guy. All she had to do was push me off balance just a little, emotionally speaking, and I was easy prey. "I've got a receipt!"

A second later, I regretted saying that; it would've been smarter to get the attention of security or the cops and show them the receipt. But that was why they'd waited till I came outside. All the security was inside, where they couldn't provide any kind of inconvenient assistance. The adults on the outside with me were all watching the show but the problem was, they were leaning toward support for Emma and her friends.

"Receipt?" Emma dived into the bag and came up with the slip of paper. Examining it, she shook her head. "It's not real. I could make a better one up in my sleep." Her tone was so convincing that even I was taken in for a split second. Did the store give me a fake receipt for some reason?

"Are we surprised?" Madison shook her head, so sweet and petite I could've strangled her. "That's Taylor all over. She never thinks things through." She gave me a pitying smile.

"Give me that!" I tried to reach forward and grab the receipt, but this time Sophia intercepted me. She knocked my hand up and away, then slugged me in the stomach when I tried to push past her. I doubled up, gagging. Madison tried to grab my other bags from me, but I clung to them.

"No getting rid of the evidence, Hebert," she growled, then turned to Emma. "I know people on the force. I think we should take this stolen property to them."

"Stolen property?" I wheezed. "You're the ones who're stealing my property." I turned to the people around us, trying to appeal to them. "Can't you see it? They've been doing this stuff to me for months."

"I'm sorry, folks," Emma said sweetly, once again stealing the initiative from me. "We try so hard, as her friends. It's so easy to believe her, unless you know what she's really like."

"If she's been shoplifting, as you say, maybe we should hold her for the the police," said one man uncertainly, taking his phone out.

Madison tried again for my bags. I pushed her away, but Sophia tripped me. As I put my hand down to catch myself, she grabbed the second one from the shop and yanked it out of my grasp. I clung to my shoulderbag and managed to hang on to that, at least.

"No, don't bother," Emma said with all the authority of someone with a lawyer for a father. "It won't help. She'll just get a slap on the wrist. We'll just turn these over to the authorities, and they can return them to the store tomorrow."

"They won't be wanting these," Sophia said, digging into the second bag and pulling out the shoes and underwear I'd been wearing when I walked in. I cringed as she tossed them to the ground beside me, but not for the reason everyone seemed to be assuming. I didn't need anyone to see my used underwear.

"Eww!" shrieked Madison delightedly. "How long have you been wearing those, Taylor? A week?"

I couldn't win here. Every time I opened my mouth, Emma or Madison overrode me. Everyone was looking at me as though I was the thief and they were the tolerant friends trying to the right thing by me. Grabbing my shoes and underwear, I scrambled to my feet and ran for it. A couple of people tried to grab me on the way through, but I pulled free and kept running.

"It's the drugs, you see …." Emma's voice, bright and piercing, faded into the distance behind me.

As comfortable as they were, my new office shoes weren't the best for running in. I stopped halfway down the block and changed shoes. As I walked, I tried not to cry, and failed.

I'd thought nothing could ruin the great day I'd been having. The first day of my internship had gone perfectly. I'd aced the induction, I'd impressed my boss, and I'd even met some nice people. Tracey was nice, and Ms Harcourt was scary but fair. And then, just as I thought everything was going just right and I'd be able to show up in clothing worthy of a Medhall internship, Emma had managed to fuck things up for me yet again.

So much for being able to get away from her and the others for three half-days a week. Even outside school, I can't avoid them.

I took the bus home, curled up around my own misery. The bruises from Sophia's manhandling were painful, but hardly a problem. What hurt more was the loss of the money; or rather, the clothing I'd bought with that money. The clothing wasn't even for me, as such. It was so that I'd feel more like I belonged at Medhall.

By the time I stopped crying, I had coldly decided that I wouldn't tell Dad about anything that had happened. I wouldn't tell him about the induction, which meant I didn't have to tell him about the thousand dollars, or about Emma stealing my clothes. One set of underwear and one pair of shoes had survived the debacle, and I would by God wear those shoes to my internship at Medhall.

If I told Dad … I had no idea how I would do it. I knew I was holding too much back from Dad these days, but … he had too much on his plate already. Even at his best, he still wasn't over Mom. And at his worst, he was barely functional. Not as bad as the first few weeks after Mom died, but not good either. If I dumped this on him as well, I had no idea how he'd handle it. Or if he'd be able to handle it.

<><>​

So I went home, and I said nothing. I carefully wiped down my new shoes, and put them away. Taking the Medhall safety manual from my shoulder-bag, I read it from cover to cover over the weekend. And I took all the anger and pain and hurt from the theft and I put it away in a box, because I would not and could not let Emma see it in my eyes, when she saw me next.

On Monday morning, I went to school. If I didn't go to school, Emma would win, and it would be easier to not go, the next day. I had my shoes in my backpack, along with my shoulder-bag and the clothing I'd worn on my first day at Medhall. If I wore them to Winslow, Emma and her crew would stop at nothing to ruin them by midday; knowing full-well where I'd be going after that.

Fortunately, it seemed that she thought she'd screwed me up sufficiently by stealing my office clothing. I saw her mocking expression as she looked over the ratty hoodie and jeans I was wearing. That wasn't enough to break through my reserve, but when I saw Madison wearing one of the tops I'd picked out to wear under my suit jacket—of the three, she was the only one petite enough to pull it off—I nearly lost it. Only the certain knowledge that they were waiting for me to react let me keep my cool.

I went to home room. Computer Studies followed on, and then World Issues. The first was no big deal, as I didn't share it with anyone who had a problem with me. The second was more of a problem, given that Julia and Madison were both interested in making my life all sorts of hell. There was juice on my chair, of course, so I took another one at the back of the room.

The trick to dealing with it was not dealing with it. I didn't open my book, because that would invite Madison to dump pencil shavings over it. When Mr Gladly spoke, I listened with half an ear, keeping the majority of my attention on Julia and Madison. I wouldn't have put it past them to open my bag and pour juice inside. What was in there was more important than my grades, right then.

Time crawled toward midday. With every minute that ticked by, there was less time for Madison and Julia to pull a prank on me. I watched them; they watched me. Mr Gladly blathered on, trying to interest us in his subject when he had to know that more than half the class was watching the clock. Half past eleven. Twenty-five before twelve. Twenty to twelve.

Finally, the bell rang for lunch. I was out of my seat, yanking my over-full backpack on to my desk to shove the World Issues textbook back inside. That done, I headed for the door.

" … Taylor Hebert to the principal's office … Taylor Hebert to the principal's office …"

Still heaving the backpack on to my shoulder, I froze and turned. Madison and Julia looked back at me, cruel triumph in their eyes. It was obvious that they were behind it; them, and Emma and Sophia. Equally obvious was the understanding that no matter what I said, no matter how I protested my innocence in whatever bullshit scenario they'd cooked up, I would not get away from Winslow before the next bus went. Maybe the next after that. It would be just like Blackwell to keep me waiting for twenty minutes, just because.

I would be late to my Medhall internship, on my second day. Depending on how long they drew it out, I might not even make it there at all.

That was Emma's plan. That was why Madison and Julia hadn't bothered fucking with me. They'd just let me sweat, knowing what was coming.

Fuck. That.

Pivoting on my heel, I plunged out through the classroom door. To get to Principal Blackwell's office, I would have to turn left.

I turned right.


End of Part Two