alderwitch

"No, no," Taylor said reluctantly as they returned to the car. Her hand stole accross the console to rest on his leg. As they drove away, the set of her shoulders slowly relaxed as her skin stopped prickling with dread, "I'll manage, Jack, and I think he really is the best doctor we can go to. I wish I knew why he gave me the creeps but I know you trust him. That's enough for me." Taylor didn't think she'd be able to sit still until noon but within minutes of curling up in her corner of the couch, she drifted off to sleep as the stressful day took its toll, book forgotten in her lap and her cheek resting against the couch's armrest.

She laughed at that, dimples flashing in both cheeks, "More than on our toes, I'd say. Mom's a spitfire." Taylor shook her head and looked up at him, her eyes still amused, "So are we painting this room the old fashioned way or do I get to use magic for my half?"

February 2nd, 2010 Dear Diary, Tried to talk to Zoe about her home today. That was a giant failure and a half. She's still in must not tell mom about her future mode. Am very worried about the immenent explosion of her relationship with Eddie. Its lasting longer than I anticipated but I still don't think its healthy. Can't figure out a way to approach her without firing up her rebellion instincts. Might try prodding Mike into talking her. She seems like a daddy's girl. I'm still sad about that. I'd like to hope that its because we were close in her world but fear I may be sugar coating it for my own mental health. Still unable to seduce Mike with my wicked ways (ha-ha). I'm pretty sure I heard his brain explode when he patted my boobs. Still thinks he's going to crush me but won't admit it. Silly. Doesn't he know that he's not capable of hurting me? Company is doing well. With the capital accruing, I'm out of risky gambles to increase it. Its more of a challenge actually to keep it under the radar than to make piles of money, so that keeps it interesting. Still haven't told Erin about her healthy nest egg but she won't believe me she's earned every cent. The manor's almost restored but the teleporter's giving me fits still. The 60s super tech is behind the curve but Gramps won't think of switching over the fission cells. I can't blame him, Grams made all of it and its like saying goodbye. His emotions still go blue when we're downstairs. I wish I could make him and Mom talk. Stubborn.... The entries skipped days, sometimes weeks but held little back and each was written in Alex's neat and precise hand. It was a very juevinile activity but the writing was anything but as each pink page was filled with thoughts and feelings of a mind much older than any sixteen year old girl.

"So that you can mount a suicidal attempt to take him out? This isn't an episode of Buffy, where we've all been waiting for a teenager to come and save us all. He has an army to do his bidding and he lives in a fortress in the protected city in the heart of the Terminus. If you had even a snow ball's chance in hell, I'd send you there myself." Taylor said flatly, still in her seat and her hands still laced together. "But you haven't a prayer."

"I hope he gets your eyes," Taylor said suddenly. It was such a human desire, when there were so many other traits for Taylor to worry about the baby inheriting. For the moment, however, she let herself indulge in playing the time honored game of trying to decide which features would mesh the best. She smiled helplessly at him and admitted, "I've always thought you had such stunning eyes."

"If they could be successfully, yes, but even the nearest dimensions have so many tiny variabilities that it is very, very hard to duplicate a succesfull experiment." Taylor said with a trace of weariness in her voice, "Especially if there's any forwarning. Which is why your world was checked and you were checked when you came through. I would be very surprised if our super scientists don't have contingency plans for such an event. If that provides you any small comfort. It is true that Prime remains a very tempting target."

Alex watched Mark dive into the pool and then Faith's indecsion before settling on a pool chair. She glanced around at the rowdy pool and gave a little shrug. Alex kicked over to the side of the pool and floated out. With gesture, she sluiced the water off telekinetically and headed over to join Faith and try and make an effort to include her. Her smile was open and friendly, "Not a swimmer, hunh?"

"I'm okay," Taylor replied automatically and then shook her head almost immedieately, "No, actually. I want to teleport as fast and as far away as I can but I'm going to make myself walk down to the car and drive home with you. And then I want a shower" She shuddered involuntarily and squeezed his hand hard enough that a normal man would have had bruises. Taylor took quick steps alongside him, her pulse still hammering in her ears, "I don't want to sound ungrateful but Archevielle makes my skin crawl. I don't know why. He was perfectly civil. Its taking a lot of my attention to stay solid, actually."

"It's within both the scope of his abilities and within his personal predilictions, yes. It is possible. I can think of some places that such a thing has occured. I don't know if your world is among their number, but it wouldn't surprise me if the apocalypse was from Friendly's machinations." Taylor agreed quietly, her gaze on Erin's face as she explained. Her tone was even although she didn't provide anything but the truth. "It wouldn't the first time."

"Hmm... as long as we call him JC or Jace and not Junior." Taylor said after a moment of thought, rolling the name around in her mind. She wrinkled her nose at him, "So will you be teaching the baby super secret vampire languages or just English and Cantonese?"

Taylor's expression was remote, polite but cool, her lips set in a stern line but it wasn't directed at Erin, as her eyes weren't focused on the girl. Her focus was somewhat inward as if shifting through memories or chosing her words, both of which she was actually doing. She might not have been in costume, but she was in that mindset and in high mystic mode, her answers came after long and thoughtful pauses. "I'd hesitate to call him a person, but he's one of Omega's most valued minions." Taylor said finally before the silence could grow opressively thick. She steepled her fingers together, chin tilted downward as she fixed her gaze on the desk, "He specializes in horrific experiments in his 'hospice' on Nihilor and, when he can, uses the foul knowledge he gleans from his mad experiments on worlds that have caught Omega's attention. Oh, yes, I know of Friendly."

Her heartbeat thrummed steadily under his fingertips and Taylor covered his cool hand with her own, trapping it there for a moment. Her smile was soft, dimples flexing in her cheeks, "Jack, you'll do fine. There's books, you know, about becoming a parent. And my mom and dad will be able to help, at least with the baby-end if not the metaphysical heritage he may or may not inherit. We'll just take it one step at a time." She reached up and stroked his cheek, her smile widening into a playful grin, "Speaking of steps, what about a name? Any thoughts? Family traditions? Outright vetos?"

"Based on need versus danger versus gut instincts." Taylor said wearily, holding her hands up, fingers cupped, "Its like a scale. Even prime can't hold all refugees or even a fragment. Also, they might be needed on their world as personally unfair as that might be. So with every person who stays here, there's a little more 'weight'." Here she dropped her hand, raising the other like a scale tipping out of balance. "Eventually, it causes the fabric to warp under the weight and then dimensional tears start to appear. Which makes it easier for more people to trickle through, which leads to more tearing. So you choose and you do your best to choose as well as you can."

"It's not a spell book," Taylor said with a faint smile, "It's a journal. My journal. I started keeping it when I first started. I hope it might prepare you for the... emotional ramifications of this job." Taylor sat down again, folding her leg up under her. Her wedding band winked in the light as she gestured vaguely, "The fighting, that part is easy. When you know the person is bad, or out for personal gain. But sometimes it is a refugee who doesn't want to go back to a war torn world. Or worse." Her lips flattened, memories etching lines around her full mouth before she shook off the thoughts.

"Yes," Taylor said simply to the question as she moved behind the desk to sit down in the thick chair. "There are some who out strip my knowledge of matters arcane, but not many. And fewer still in this realm. Of those, there are even less who can safely enter and leave that realm." She tucked her hands in her lap, legs loosely crossed under the desk and fixed Erin with a patient look.

At first glance, the library looked like any bibliophile-with-money's dream. A closer examination revealed the delicate looking inscriptions that ran along the library shelves and ringed the large geometric rug on the floor. The curio cabinet in the corner, however, seemed to hold a lot more jars that seemed better suited to a kitchen countertop than an expensive library and their contents didn't bear a close examination. Of course, James had sent word ahead as even if he was dropping her off for an arranged meeting, it was always good to check that there was no emergency spell casting in what he laughingly called the Sanctum Sanctorum. The doors to the library opened and a small asian woman stepped in. Taylor didn't look much like her alter-ego in the loose cream tunic top and faded denim jeans. The Eye of Heshem still circled her throat but she'd pulled her hair back into a casual knot and she had a still shiny paired engagement ring and wedding band on her hand. She shut the door behind her quietly and nodded politely to Erin, gesturing for her to have a seat. Erin could see that she was barefoot except for a pair of thick socks as she crossed the floor towards her desk and leaned her hip against it while she waited for Erin to make herself comfortable. For such a small woman, her voice was surprisingly low and husky,"James said that you had questions that he couldn't answer. Can I get you something to drink?

Taylor threaded her fingers through Jack's, her gaze shifting from his face to the injury and then sweeping glances to the rest of the party. She hesitated for a moment, torn between trying to explain things to her family and agreeing with Jack. Finally she said quietly to Stesha, "Would you tell my parents that Jack was hurt in the fight and I'm taking him for... medical attention? That I'll call and explain everything tomorrow, I swear?" She gave Stesha a grateful and pleading look before she nodded to everyone else, "Thank you all so much for all of the help. Yes, we'll let you know if we think there's going to be a follow up attack." When we know there's going to be a follow up attack... Taylor shook the thought away and squeezed Jack's hand as she whispered back, "I love you too."

1d20=19

"Well if he's in the city, we can head up to the rooftop and I can see if I can ferret out where he's gone to ground. It might take a bit though. Anything else you needed from me?" Taylor asked curiously, her expression relatively mellow at the tale of interdimensional bounty hunters. "Are you planning on aprehending him or am I going to stuff him in my cloak and drop him back off in Johnny Cash land?"

Taylor flinched at the whine of projectiles, one ear on the battle. She continued to hiss the chant out through her teeth as she crouched down, trying to make herself as small a target as possible. It went against the grain to huddle in a crouch on the floor in a fight but they were desperately trying to buy her time and Taylor wasn't about to let that go to waste. One knee on the ground, Taylor balanced the book on her other thigh, grabbing jars out of the base of the cabinet blind. When her fingers closed on a thick candle, she pulled it out and set in on the ground between her and the cabinet.

Taylor patted his chest gently, her other arm slipping around his waist. She smiled faintly, the dimple deepening in her cheek at Jack's righteous tone. "Honey, I don't think we're talking about getting into the details. If the metaphysics make my head hurt, chances are good they're not going to be a real popular conversation topic. Its more about not ruining a big reveal." Taylor glanced back at Stesha and did a quick Jack-to-human translation, "There's no one we mind finding out by word of mouth in the super hero circle. We'll make sure we contact our team tonight and Jack will probably call Elena. Other than that, we won't be doing anything big."

Taylor dutifully held still, resisting the urge to rub at the tingling goosebumps on her skin until Archevielle gave the all clear. She stepped back over to Jack's side and repressed the desire to suggest they go home *right now*. Taylor rubbed the skin of her arms and tenatively touched the fabric of her shirt over her stomach. She supposed the doctor would consider it rude if she were to lift her shirt to check the skin below. "Do we wait around for the results or will you just call us?" Taylor asked as her hand creeped back into Jack's. She didn't answer the doctor's question as Taylor didn't want to be rude but she didn't want to lie either. She gripped Jack's hand tightly, her posture ramrod straight and shoulders squared. She was trying for cool and detatched but she might as well have been shouting, Get me out of here. Get me out of here right now.

"I don't think the counter guy could keep up with me." Taylor said with a wry grin and a blush, glancing down at the very thin fabric. Better not to think about the shape shifter shifting into her and changing. Even for Taylor's life that was more than a little weird. Instead she leaned over to give Grim a hug, "Thank you, Lynn. Its my favorite color."

"Sometimes the enemy is unbeatable, but that doesn't mean its not worth fighting," Taylor disagreed quietly. She pushed up out of her chair and walked over to the wall, fingertips searching over the leather tomes with familiarity. There were books in all languages, most of them ancient but she pulled a slim, unmarked volume from the shelf. "Dracula is too old to rush his hand and, for the moment, the timing to pick a fight is poor." Taylor walked back over and held the volume out to him. It didn't look so much like a spellbook as a journal. "I'd rather focus on your training than borrow trouble."

Alex, being Alex, had noticed Quark's absence in the classes they shared. She'd frowned when it started to get to the weeks mark but the teacher's didn't seem overly concerned. Still, she'd made a point to keep a mental eye out for him. When he blipped back onto her radar, Alex closed the book she'd been reading and made quick excuses to her roommate as she headed down to the cafeteria. In the off hours, the cafeteria was relatively empty, so it was easy too pick up a tray and head over to the younger student. "Hi!" she said cheerfully as an introduction. "I haven't seen you in class for a while."