Chapter Text
As soon as she was inside, Lauren’s eyes landed on Lorna, “I’ll be over in a minute.” Lauren said before running over to Lorna, she didn’t wait to hear Andy’s response, she also didn’t notice him watching her curiously as she reached Lorna. Lorna hugged Lauren to her side briefly before deciding that the girl was after something.
“What’s wrong with Tay? I mean, she said that she wanted to go with only Gus so that they could catch up, but she sounded like she was hiding something.” Lauren asked softly.
Lorna just smiled over to her young friend, “Lauren, you’ve got to know… Taylor loves you, she really does, but she doesn’t know you. Give her time, she’s already begun to open up to you, but she… isn’t very good at the whole talking about her feelings in an… in a way that helps. She’ll talk about things she’s been through, but she’ll be detached, almost as if she’s reciting a shopping list rather than explaining her past. It… it’s a lot to grasp.”
Lauren nodded sadly; she had noticed that about her older sister.
“Something else,” Lorna said, “take some time to be with your family. Don’t immediately blank them just because you wanna fight and they don’t want you to. Clarice and John were both singing your praises for how well you worked under pressure, but your parents are still seeing their little girl get caught up in a war.”
“I’m not a little kid anymore.”
“No, you’re not, but you are to them. You’re their daughter that they’ve always been terrified will end up like Taylor, and now they’re watching as you follow her into the fire.” Lorna sighed as she glanced over to where Andy was stood watching them, “see, they’re worried about what you’ll become if you carry on down the path of siding with Taylor and John. Gonna be honest, it worries some of us, too.”
“Why?” Lauren asked, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.
Lorna just scoffed, “really? You’ve seen their self-preservation tactics. They’re non-existent. They’re treating you as though you’re a trained fighter, you’re not. We’re worried that they’re gonna forget who you are and it’ll end up with you dead.”
After a moment, Lauren headed over to Andy, stewing over Lorna’s words as she grabbed lunch with her family.
*****
The radio had been the only noise in the van for all of ten minutes before Taylor glanced over to Gus.
“What’s up?” He asked, his voice startling Taylor, she curled up tighter on her seat, drawing her knees up to her chest before glancing over to Gus.
Taylor let out a breath before muttering, “what part?”
“I heard you tell a Little Bird that you wanted to spend time with me, I assumed you meant more than a nice silence the whole way down.”
Taylor gave a tight smile as she searched Gus’ face, he was looking healthier every day that the conditioning was gone from his mind, and he was able to look after himself properly. “Seeing you here… it’s like a dream I’d given up on. Seeing you with Imogen, I can’t believe that you’re holding her, reading her stories. I can’t believe that you’re finally home.” Gus took Taylor’s hand, running his thumb over her knuckles as she continued to speak, “but I can’t help but feel sad every time I see you with her… When you went on that mission, I’d just found out that I was pregnant. John had heard the heartbeat.” Gus smiled at the thought, he remembered the excitement and fear they’d felt when Taylor was pregnant with Imogen.
Taylor felt her heart break a little bit more at the sight of his smile, “He told me the day before you were to go on that mission.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Gus whispered, trying to ignore the mixture of emotions filling him. He knew Taylor had her secrets, she’d always had them, but she’d never kept anything hidden about their family.
“You were going on that mission, I didn’t want you distracted. I begged John not to tell you until you were both home safe.”
Gus shook his head, “I would’ve stayed home.”
“I know, but I couldn’t risk it. We were expecting the plan to go a lot better than it did. If it had gone right, then there would’ve been more casualties if you weren’t there.”
Gus could see the tears forming in Taylor’s eyes, “what happened to it?”
“He was stillborn. When John told me that he couldn’t hear the heartbeat… It’s all my fault.” Taylor was crying now.
“No, it’s not.”
Taylor let out a wet laugh, “How’d you figure that?”
“When you were pregnant with Imogen, when we visited the doctor, she told us that the chances of you having a successful pregnancy were less than 3% and would get lower if you had a successful pregnancy due to scar tissue. Taylor, losing our son wasn’t your fault.” Gus pulled Taylor to his side as best he could while driving. He knew Taylor would blame herself even if he told her not to, “hey, the Citadel injected you with those chemicals,” he reminded her softly, “they are the ones who damaged your internal organs. Nothing that happened was, nor will it ever be, your fault.” Gus was determined to show Taylor that no matter what, he didn’t blame her for anything that had gone wrong.
*****
Reed and Sage were both focused entirely on the computer screens, searching through the files to determine what Sentinel Services was doing, “looks like the first drive is all police files on mutants.” Reed said as he looked over all the files briefly.
“The encryption is deeper on this one.” Sage muttered, her eyes moving unnaturally fast as she scanned over the files, “it's much deeper. I think they’ve been upping their encryption since we broke into the headquarters.”
“It reads like a shopping list,” Reed noted, “whatever program the Sentinel Services is working with, they seem to be cherry-picking mutants based on the powers they want. They're not even pretending this is legal.” He glanced through a couple more files until one caught his interest, “that’s… that’s Mackenzie,” he whispered causing Sage to look over.
“That doesn’t surprise me, I mean, Taylor’s one of their most wanted. Taylor and John. They’re international terrorists according to multiple governments.” Sage explained nonchalantly, she didn’t feel like explaining Taylor’s past to Reed right now. That was up to Taylor. “For future reference, her name is Taylor. It’d do you well to use that name.”
Reed quickly realized that he wouldn’t get any more information from Sage so turned back to the files; it showed a penciled drawing of someone who looked a lot like Wes with very similar powers.
Sage watched as Reed left the office, waiting until he was out of sight before calling John.
“Something happened?”
Sage rolled her eyes at John’s immediate response. “Possibly. The files from Baton Rouge, one of them was Taylor’s. Reed saw it and began asking questions, wanted to give you guys a heads up but didn’t feel like being the one to interrupt her and Gus. I threw him a bone, saying you and Taylor are international terrorists, but that’ll only keep him down for so long.”
John laughed for a moment before turning serious, “keep an eye on him, and the files. Let me know if anything develops.” The call clicked off as John hung up.
“You’re welcome,” Sage muttered into the dead line.
*****
Marcos pulled the car to a stop outside the mansion that Carmen lived in, he couldn’t stop the niggling doubt growing in his chest, but he knew that Carmen would call Sentinel Services if he didn’t show up.
Heading inside, he tensed when his eyes landed on Carmen, “I was beginning to think you weren't going to come.” She commented condescendingly.
“I almost didn't... I got out of this for a reason.” Marcos muttered back, glancing around the mansion, and taking in his surroundings.
“I remember. ‘To fight for your fellow mutants’. Nothing to do with the girl with the green hair.”
Marcos’ glare tightened on Carmen at her comment, “can we leave her out of this?”
“Of course. I'd like nothing better. Marcos, the truth is our little reunion could be a good thing for everyone, your mutant brothers and sisters included.”
Marcos resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Carmen’s statement, “yeah? How's that?”
“Your people, my people, they have a lot in common... The hiding, the fighting, the Feds. I mean, how is it so different?”
“Maybe because we don't sell drugs for a living?” Marcos shot back bluntly.
Carmen rolled her eyes, a fond smile on her lips, “my point is we can help each other. You have power, I have money. And together? Think of the possibilities.”
“I think there's a good possibility we all end up dead or in prison.” Marcos muttered, clearly not convinced.
“So stubborn. I've missed you. Just hear me out.” Carmen said with a grin.
*****
Reed began searching for Lauren, but he couldn’t find her anywhere. Eventually, he found Caitlin teaching some of the younger kids. She made her way over to Reed while the children (including the four girls) looked at some pea plants. “What’s the matter?”
Reed let out a breath, “we have a situation. You know the boy that Lauren has been spending time with? Wes?”
Caitlin pulled a face but nodded, “yeah. I'm familiar. I'm not a fan, but Lauren seems to like him. And I’ve decided to start picking my battles with her. At least she’s not running off to attack police this time.”
“I've been going through the mutant criminal files,” Reed explained, “and I think he's in them. Sounds like he's been conning people, robbing stores in Cartersville.”
“Okay, that... doesn't sound good, but we can't overreact.” Caitlin reasoned, “Lauren's been through a lot lately. We… we just need to take this slow.”
“We're not talking about parking tickets. I need to talk to him.” Reed growled. He couldn’t deny the fact that he was still trying to figure out the information from Taylor’s file.
“You need to talk to her. She's not gonna be happy about this. The worst thing you could do would be to go on the attack.” Caitlin countered, trying to get her husband to see sense.
“You're right.” He said with a sigh, “I’ll talk to her.”
Knowing that Lauren was meant to be training, Reed decided that that was the best place to begin his search for her. He heard Lorna shouting commands and advice to the teenagers she was training. “Here to train?” She asked as she aimed a slate at him.
“No, no, no. No. Uh, I need to talk to Andy.” Andy pulled off his blindfold and headed over to his dad. “Hey. How's it going?”
Andy shrugged, “good. You know, at least if we get attacked by some tiles, I'll be ready. What's up?”
“Where's your sister? I thought she was supposed to be here.”
Andy just scoffed and shrugged, “yeah. Me, too. I don't know. Not sure.”
“Well, I need to talk to her. Is she with Wes?”
Andy stammered over his words as he tried to lie, “I-I don't know. She just said they were going out and that she'd kill me if I said anything, okay?”
“Believe me, Andy, you are the least of her worries right now.” Reed muttered before leaving the makeshift training room in order to go and continue his search for Lauren.