Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is an understatement

[Grace Taylor]

Grace rolled her eyes at fourteen the rest of her life was looking like a very long time to have her dad like that, maybe Stephanie could fix him somehow though Grace figured it wasnt a big deal. Nope her dad had always been his own kind of weird and protective and of course anything bad was instantly the end of the world. “Related yeah somehow, still not entirely sure how.” Grace explained to her dad honestly she didnt know what her mother had seen in him if he was like this with her but then adults she didnt even pretend to know what went on in their heads.

Her attention was taken by Steph for a moment when she was explaining about her brothers and sisters. “Wow, thats a lot of family.” She said having no idea what it was like to have brothers or sisters until Zach that was. Grace grinned at Owen who spoke about the family, “FBI, that’s cool and a twin too.” She said excitedly, she hadn’t met any of these family members yet she thought. Peter she had heard about at the house though she hadn’t met him either. “One talented family huh and look at me, I just get high school... great.” She said with a sigh, “Then when I get to do adult stuff I’m going to do something like that, super cool stuff.”

Grace laughed a little when the frog was to stay in the bathroom, yeah right but then what was the big deal. They had dogs too so really what was one frog, it took up less space than a dog. “I make no promises but I’ll try.” Grace said looking to Stephanie with a grin, oh there were so many things she could do with that frog, put it in their bed to scare them or just let the frog out in the living room. Too many ideas to contain she thought as she chuckled looking at Allison. “Adults are so weird about frogs... not that you’re weird but.” Grace said looking between Allison and Owen, great insult the guy she thought.

Grace motioned for Allison to follow her up the stairs to go see the frog. “So what else do you like?” She asked the girl not sure where to start as family apart from her dad had been a bit of a mystery until Zach and Steph and not Owen and Allison and finding out that there were several other Harris’ children around that she didnt even know existed.

Tag: Benjamin Taylor, @owen, Stephanie Taylor,

[Benjamin Taylor]

There were times when Ben wondered how he had ever managed to get a daughter like Grace, she might say the wrong things, be annoying at times and test his patience like no other human being could do but he would never swap her. She reminded him a lot of what he had and what was the right thing even at fourteen she was the one person who reminded him not to screw up with Stephanie, in a not so subtle way. He caught the talk about the Harris family, Ben had a brother who he was close to but then life happened and now it was just him.

His mother too but then that hardly counted when the two had barely spoken since the accident. Federal agent, doctor, teacher, nurses, ballistic tech and college well he could only imagine what the youngest two would become but he had to nod to Grace. They were a talented family indeed. When the frog conversation came back Ben wanted to ground Grace for even saying those words ‘I’ll try’. Honestly he never raised her to be an I’ll try sort but then company and a frog.

Ben should have known better and gotten rid of the frog to someone else in the class as soon as Stephanie had found it in the sink. Animals he liked, frogs were things he never had done and the same with most reptiles and snakes. It was an uncomfortable feeling to need to watch his back for Kermit around the house but then he knew exactly what would happen if he chose to relax about it. The next ‘class project’ was staying at school and not getting home ever in the history of school.

Glancing at Owen he wondered what there was to talk about that required them all; he nodded not sure what was going to be discussed. There were a few options that ran through his head along the lines of Stephanie and himself but he was unsure why that would be brought up now and not months ago. Ben followed Stephanie as she led Owen into another room. “So we need to sit down for this?” Ben asked curiously though he still had no idea what was about to be spoken about.

[Deleted]

For a small woman, his little sister sure had a tight grip when she needed it, he let her pull him into the other room, away from Allison and Grace, once they were out of earshot Stephanie let the vice grip on his arm go, “Owen, spit it out.” the ordered. Ben followed behind, something Owen was glad about because he honestly did not know how Steph was going to take the news, and if she decided to start beating Owens arse, it would be nice to have someone there to pull her off of him. “So we need to sit down for this?”

Owen looked over to Ben, "You can if you want, though I don't know if it would help." he replied, "I need to talk to ya'll about Allison." he paused, he had months to go over how he was going to tell Steph, and now that he was here actually doing it all his planning on what to say was failing him. So he did  what Steph had told him, he just spit it out. "She is your daughter." he said looking to Stephanie, "Zachs twin to be exact." he added cautiously as he waited for her reaction. 

TAG: Stephanie Taylor,Benjamin Taylor,

[Deleted]

“Adults are so weird about frogs... not that you’re weird but.”

"Oh he can be weird, but weird is better than being plain and boring." Allison replied as she started to follow Grace up the stairs, she kept a hand on the banister, cautious about her bad leg suddenly deciding to go numb like it loved to do at the worst times. "I like swimming." she replied, "Though I have not been in a while since we have been moving and have not found a pool near our house yet." that and between Owen working and Allison just not really feeling like leaving the house, she had made due with the bathtub, some water was better than none. "What about you?" she asked, "Do you like anything else or just frogs, which is cool if you do everyone has their thing." she did not know if she was sounding like a weirdo or not, great way to make an impression on a new person by coming off as someone who had the social skills of a door knob. 


TAG: Grace Taylor,

[Stephanie Taylor]

[attr="class","tomhov"]

TAG
Grace Taylor Benjamin Taylor
@owen @allie

NOTES

Stephanie looked towards Owen as he spit out the information. Though when he mentioned Zach’s twin she felt angry with rage. That ordeal had been nothing but heartbreak for her at the time. She bit her lip to keep from screaming out that Zach’s twin was dead but she started pacing. Every now and again sending a glare in Owen’s direction.

“You knew!” She fired off rather loud. The urge to ask what happened and how surpressed as she grabbed Owen and pinned him against the wall. Stephanie was furious. “You knew and you kept it from me.” She could tell that Allison was somewhat well adjusted to Owen. Which underneath Stephanie was thankful for having a brother who had done whatever.

“You know what. Don’t even say anything else.” There was a million questions running through her mind. Stephanie let Owen go and ordinarily she would have ran out the front door slamming it. Though with Ben there she moved closer to him. Her body she could feel it tensing and she was quiet. How was she supposed to explain things to Ben. He knew about Zach but she’d never told him about Allison.

Stephanie was trying not to throw Owen across the room. She really needed to calm down and she was trying to catch her breathe. Steph was beginning to learn it was okay to calm down when Ben was around. Though this was far from easy to do; she was still breathing in such a manner that suggested Owen needed to take a step backward. Stephanie glanced up the stairs even though both girls had disappeared up the stairs and into the bathroom with the frog

STEPHANIE TAYLOR
HEY NUTCASE! STOP BITING THE COMMAND STAFF

✿

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[Grace Taylor]

Grace grinned and laughed, oh she knew weird though there were days when all she wanted was to know what it was like for boring. “Yeah you’re right, I guess boring and plain would be less fun.” She said as Grace turned to see if Allison was alright. She hadn’t thought much about the stairs as she wondered if it had been the greatest idea to ask the girl upstairs. Grace was about to say the frog could come to her though the conversation changed to swimming.

“You should come over again, we could go together there’s a great place in town where I go. I can’t really swim that well more like float and aim in the right direction but it’s a start.” Grace admitted, sure her dad bugged her about swimming being a life skill but she was a teenager and swimming hadn’t really been high on her list of things to learn given she had her nose in books at times more than anywhere near water.

“Frogs, more like a class project I knew the ‘grown ups’ would be all... weird about. Not really my thing but a school thing.” She said grinning because of what was asked, “Music is good and I love adventures. Even if it’s a fake tent in the garden and staying out late telling stories. That and mystery stories but if that makes me sound crazy I swear I’m not I just like getting lost in a mystery, to be somewhere else and trying to figure out what is going on.” Grace knew she had that side from her mother though she only knew what Ben had told her to do with that.

“I know I should have asked before but are you alright with the stairs?” Grace asked not sure if she was afraid of them or there was a problem. To Grace it was just easier to straight out and ask, something she had picked up from Stephanie even if it wasnt exactly tactful to do so. Still Grace had the mind of a teenager so she didnt automatically jump to anything other than afraid or she hadn’t got stairs at her place. “The frog can come to you, there’s no problem.” She offered not sure what to say or do.

Tag: @allie

[Benjamin Taylor]

First thing first if it was a sit down type of conversation then he had no idea what Owen was about to land. The children were alright, Allison was with Grace and Stephanie was right there so unless it was about another Harris family member his mind was at a loss until he heard Own talk about Allison. She seemed to be a great kid on first impressions, he doubted his mind would ever change on that though Ben chose to stand rather than sit simply because he had no idea what he would need to do.

Stephanie was... she had her ways of reacting to things and without a clue of what was going on Ben decided it might be better if he could at least try to keep Stephanie level headed. Ben was slightly unsure if Owen was more in a position to do that being the doctor but then given he was the new giver. Ben was mid thought when he head those words ‘your daughter’. Now that had been the furthest thing from his mind but the second part of what Owen said had Ben scrambling for the conversation.

Perhaps he was too tired to have registered it but Ben was certain beyond all doubt Stephanie had only told him about Zach, the Zach who well enough said but there was a twin and that twin was in the house right now. Had Stephanie not told him there were two children, one or two it hardly mattered but had she intentionally deceived him about it? They were married, it was hardly the dinner conversation he thought that they would have though would he have ever known about it at all.

“Shhhs.” Ben said waving his hands to try and quieten Stephanie, the last thing they needed was for Allison to come in or overhear or did she know already? Ben was still working it through in his own head when Stephanie grabbed Owen. So she was taking it about as well as she took things with him at times. When Stephanie let Owen go he gave the man an apologetic look for a moment. “Stephanie he’s telling you now.” Ben stated as if that made much of a difference to anything but he was trying to stick up for Owen.

It was hardly easy coming there and saying that. Ben moved to try and stand between Stephanie and Owen. “Sorry...” He said to Owen as he could see Stephanie was tense and quiet, two things he knew well enough himself would never go down well. Just keep calm and understand he thought to himself for a moment. “Does she know Owen? Allison I mean, that ... you know about this?” He said hoping it made more sense than it seemed to in his own head.

“Okay why don’t we all just take a seat and take a minute to figure this out.” He said trying to play a version of peace maker he was unfamiliar with. If it was Grace he would simply have given her a time out or yelled at her but then raised voices right now he doubted would end well for anyone in the room let alone the house. “Steph, over there.” He said pointing to the chair as he glanced at Owen, “Owen why don’t you take the couch?” He asked seeing that it was closest to the door just in case he thought as he glanced between the two Harris’ wondering if he was going to have to try not have them kill each other.

@owen, Stephanie Taylor,

[Deleted]

"We should go sometime, I need something to do and swimming isn't that hard, treading water is just like riding a bike but minus the bike part and you're in water and I've never been camping before, though I guess setting up a tent in the living room could also work." Allison replied as she kept moving up the stairs, partially ignoring Graces question about the steps. "Lets just say that majority of my left leg is metal and likes to occasionally loose feeling. So I am kinda of a robot." reaching the top of the stairs she turned and gave Grace a smile, "See, I'm good. Now where is the frog?" she asked. 

TAG: Grace Taylor,

[Deleted]

“You knew!”

And there was the reaction he was expecting, Owen knew it was stupid to expect his sister to act any other way, this was Stephanie they were talking about. He managed to keep his face blank, even as she grabbed him and slammed him against the wall, "You knew and you kept it from me.” he had a reason, several reasons, but he could wait to defend himself till she was at least an arms reach away, less chance of her busting his nose. “You know what. Don’t even say anything else.” she let him go and started pacing, typical Stephanie. 

Then Ben apologized, and Owen broke his silence, "I wasn't expecting anything less." he replied as he kept his eyes on Stephanie, “Does she know Owen? Allison I mean, that ... you know about this?” Owen glanced over to Ben and slowly nodded. "I felt that it was only right to tell her, given the circumstances and not knowing how things would turn out at the time." he had always been the honest one out of all ten kids, there were few things that could could ask Owen on and not expect him to be (sometimes brutally) honest and straight forward. Ben directed he and Steph to take separate seats, but Owen remained standing where he was against the wall. "When I learned about her I did not tell anyone due to the fact that I did not know if she was going to make it through the next four months, when she ended up beating the odds, we then had to face the very long recovery road. Between finishing my residency and taking care of her, I did not have time to bring anyone else into the mess and I knew what you were going through at the time..." he had spent days on end beside that hospital bed, lots of long nights with no sleep, thankfully the hospital cafeteria knew how to make a good cup of coffee.  "She is stubborn and tenacious....like a Harris should be...like her mother." he looked down to the floor and chuckled softly. 

TAG: Stephanie Taylor,Benjamin Taylor,

[Grace Taylor]

Grace chuckled and nodded. “Yeah swimming is fun, you can act like a fish or a star fish or really any fish but it is like riding a bike.” Grace hadn’t thought of it that way before as she grinned. “Never been camping? Seriously, right we need to fix that. I’ll ask dad and see if you can come with us next camping trip, it’s fun it really is. I mean sure flys and stuff isn’t so great but the rest is. Sure the living room works just as well too.”

Home comforts of the living room camping was great, also cold juice, snacks and tv versus the outdoors where a camp fire was a marshmallows and chocolate she could go either way when it came to camping. Grace raised her brow as she glanced at Allison smiling as she reached the top of the stairs. “Now that is so cool, not so great about the loosing feeling part but robot is awesome. I bet you’re going to be some sort of ninja warrior in the future.” Grace stated, honestly in her head to be part girl part robot was fantastic though maybe she was a little over enthusiastic about it.

“Oh the frog yeah...” Grace said as she motioned toward the bathroom door. “In here... you know the whole, adults don’t like frog thing and poor Harry get’s locked into the bathroom.” Grace explained as she pointed to the bath and the dark green frog in it. “See he’s great isn’t he? How could they be bothered by that cute green face?” She asked grinning.

Tag: @allie

[Stephanie Taylor]

[attr="class","tomhov"]

TAG
Benjamin Taylor,@owen
@allie,Grace Taylor,

NOTES

Stephanie continued to pace back and forth. She gripped her fist into a ball. The only thing holding Stephanie back was Ben at this point. She didn’t want to be shushed either and her look said as much, a piercing glare almost daring her husband to stand on her brother’s side of all of this. How was she supposed to explain? Stephanie had been told that Allison hadn’t made it, and it had just been easier to focus on Zach.

Stephanie wasn’t even remotely interested in taking a seat. She was still pacing. There was a part of her that wanted to just kick Owen out of the house and not speak to him. She’d done it before with other siblings for small periods of time. Though they had always gone back to talking.

She knew that Ben was not trying to get her to sit down. There was just a glare. That wasn’t going to go over well. Stephanie listened as Owen talk but it just made her angrier. “Oh and I didn’t deserve to know then?!?” Stephanie hissed at her brother. She didn’t usually go after Owen, but he’d messed up this time.

Sure she had been going through the whole fire disaster and recovery but he’d kept something important from her. “Stop talking Owen.” Stephanie pushed off the wall and then pushed Owen out of her way as she went into the downstairs bathroom and closed the door.

Stephanie refused to cry in front of others, it wasn’t her thing. She locked the door behind her and put her hands down on the counter beside the sink. Silent tears streamed down her face. Fingers gripped at the hard counter top, her gaze lost in the pattern she hated so much. It wasn’t for Owen to decide when she knew. Stephanie was angry, she was bitter. Trying to explain it to Ben... yeah she didn't need that heartbreak again.

STEPHANIE TAYLOR
HEY NUTCASE! STOP BITING THE COMMAND STAFF

✿

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[Benjamin Taylor]

Ben knew Stephanie could be... well hot headed at times but this he could understand was a shock as he nodded to Owen. He felt for the man trying to do the right thing if there was such a thing to be done. Ben had a tough enough time raising a daughter and he could only imagine the extra stress on Owen with Allison being ill and also with what he had just told Stephanie. The man had his respect in so many ways as he tried to stop anyone from killing the other.

“Ah well that’s a good thing, if she knows then it makes thing a little easier.” Ben said not really sure how it did but then at least there was no child to explain all of this too. He was still a little stunned as to how to take it, Zach had been a surprise to him and then how it had happened more so though they had gotten past that point and now. Well now there was Allison too to consider and what she wanted from all of this too though before all of that there was Stephanie to calm down about the entire situation though how or even if she should be calm was beyond him.

Ben smiled for a moment when Owen said that Allison was just like her mother, he had one that had taken after his previous wife and there was nothing greater than seeing their personalities. Ben saw Stephanie’s piercing glare as he was sure there was no coming back from that. Taking Owen’s side, well he knew a thing or two about raising a daughter though he could barely imagine what it would be like to think you had lost one only to find they were alive.

It seemed that neither side was going to take a seat as he kept himself stood just in case. Ben just stepped back and watched as Stephanie pushed Owen out of the way. He sighed as he knew that it would solve nothing thankful that Grace was upstairs with Allison and hopefully could hear none of what was going on. “She’ll come around, probably just needs a minute.” Ben said knowing that Owen would likely know better but he was all for being optimistic. Ben glanced at Owen waving him to follow as he went to go and find Stephanie in the downstairs bathroom. He stood outside the door for a moment before he knocked and stepped back.

“Steph... come out please.” He asked not sure if she would or not but it was worth a try. “You guys need to talk about this.” He added deciding he had no part in it. If Stephanie had a daughter then that was fantastic and he would do all he could for the two of them and Owen too. He knew how much it had hurt her the first time they had talked about Zach and this, he could barely imagine but then shutting away never did anything.

@owen, Stephanie Taylor,

[Deleted]

Allison smiled upon seeing the frog, he was cute, even with the weird layer of slim covering his body. She leaned down and lightly petted the amphibian, "Harry is a good name, figuring in the Harry Potter books Harry the human was locked in a closet under the stairs, though you could have also named him Trevor, because there is a Trevor the frog in the books." there came the sound of a door slamming downstairs that caused Allison to glance back to the door, she wondered how Owen was doing with all the explaining and hoped the slamming wasn't because of that.  "Where did your class get him from? Did you hatch it from a tapole?" she asked as she went back to looking at Harry, "I think my dog would try to eat him if we had him at my house, Finn has weird tasted." 


TAG: Grace Taylor,

[Deleted]

Sometimes he wished he was more like Peter, his younger brother would have had no problem going head to head with Stephanie, they could go at it for days, sometimes weeks at a time, making people think that they hate each other and will never speak again only to go back to being best friends in a matter of seconds like nothing ever happened. But Peter never showed up at her house with her teenage daughter in tow with a drama of a story of how he found her, and how he did not feel the need to tell Stephanie till now. 

“Oh and I didn’t deserve to know then?!?”

He gave her a half shrug, "No, I just felt like at the-" Stephanie was quick to cut him off before storming out of the room, a few seconds later Owen heard a door slam. He glanced towards the stairs and hoped that Allison hadn't heard the noise and would come asking questions. “She’ll come around, probably just needs a minute.”  Owen sighed, "A minute? I just told her that the daughter she thought was dead is currently alive and well, upstairs looking at a frog." He should have brought James with him, the oldest Harris had always been the peaceful one...somewhat. Ben waved for him to follow along and Owen walked behind him as he lead the way to the bathroom, “Steph... come out please....You guys need to talk about this.” Owen gently moved Ben aside and moved to sit in front of the door, with his back against the door itself and started talking. "She had been kidnapped as a newborn and ended up in the foster program, where she eventually ended up with a family that was borderline abusive. Doctors think that they were going to use her as an organ farm, but that plan was messed up when she broke her leg and they found the cancer, her supposed family dropped her as the hospital and vanished."  Owens hand clenched into a fist, even though it had been a while, it still made him mad when he thought of where Allison had grown up. "They wanted to do a bone marrow transplant and it just so happened that I was the nearest match both location wise and blood type, good thing I joined the list after Lukes cancer. Anyway, I went to the hospital and figured how who she was and her situation with the foster program." Owen glanced at Ben then leaned his head back against the door, "And knowing what you went through and not wanting risking loosing her again, I decided to adopt her, it only seemed fair that she have a family, even if at the time it did not look like she'd be apart of it long. I didn't want you to feel the pain of loosing her twice." 


TAG: Benjamin Taylor,Stephanie Taylor,

[Stephanie Taylor]

[attr="class","tomhov"]

TAG
Benjamin Taylor
@owen

NOTES

The tapping on the door. She cringed. Silent tears were flooding her face. There was no way in hell she was opening the door. Biting at her lip she was skilled in keeping the breathing quiet even in an upset state. Her thumb ran along the edge of the bathtub as she stared into the mirror on the other side. The sound Ben’s voice… he really wanted her to sit and talk this out? At a time like this? Stephanie needed time to process things. But she couldn’t let the girls or even Zach see her like this.

Part of her wanted to know what other siblings were keeping the secret. Or her parents. Reaching for her phone in her back pocket she silenced the ringer. James would be the obvious choice to find out who knew what but Peter would let her cry without judging her. Though she wasn’t too sure that Peter wouldn’t go banging on Owen’s door to read him a riot act. Sometimes the “twins” were too much alike. Part of her wanted to text her mom. Amelia always knew how to handle things and it was the only female in her family who’d ever really seen her cry.

The more Owen talked the more Stephanie wanted to throw something and the door became the only thing stopping her right now. Where was Meg to help her kick some butt when it was needed? Stephanie still stared at the blank space of the mirror and the reflection of everything behind her. She looked as miserable as she felt.

STEPHANIE TAYLOR
HEY NUTCASE! STOP BITING THE COMMAND STAFF

✿

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