Surgeon? That was the name of the healer that Amy had suggested could help her, the one that had a year-long wait for non-Protectorate members. How had Toybox secured the cooperation of one of the biggest names in the national Wards roster?
As if sensing her question, Melissa smirked. “Never underestimate the connections of a well funded Tinker collective.”
Taylor felt relief flood her, because the recovery from such a surgery was going to be complete hell, but if they could bring in a cape that specializes in surgery, it would make her Winslow plans so much smoother if she wasn’t in immense pain on top of dealing with whatever bullshit Emma would inevitably try to pull.
Not one to stand on ceremony, Taylor pulled Melissa into a hug, something that was happening fairly frequently of late. She hadn’t realized just how much she had missed having someone like Melissa in her life until she had stepped into that void. She wasn’t a replacement for her mom, but Taylor wasn’t trying to make her into one. She was just someone who genuinely seemed to care about her, and happened to be a woman.
Nothing more.
Wiping at her itchy eyes, Taylor took a step back. “Thank you, for everything. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t vouched for me with Toybox…”
“Think nothing of it, Taylor,” Melissa said. “Now, are you still on schedule or do you need to delay things?”
“Everything is on track, even if I did have to delay getting the brace designs submitted for the shop. Software is one thing, mostly a one and done bit of work and the occasional update for security, but hardware is something I have to build per order.”
Melissa nodded. “True, but it’s also where you make the most money. You get to charge for your time in addition to materials. Even my cheapest knife design is almost thirty thousand dollars, and that takes just five minutes for me to run a three hundred dollar store bought through a sharpener.”
“Do they know you don’t forge the blade yourself?” Taylor had to ask, though she already knew the answer.
“Trade secret,” Melissa said with a wink. “I won’t tell if you don’t.”
Taylor snorted, moving back to her work bench. “Work on my next project will certainly speed up once I have my mental interface properly integrated.”
“A fully cybernetic body, right?” Melissa asked, looking over her shoulder at the display.
“Yeah,” Taylor confirmed. “I’m also developing a control platform for remote controlling a body without a brain. I don’t want to have to hot swap things constantly, and this way, my cape identity can be active at the same time that I’m going about things in my civilian life.”
“Clever, but can you really pull it off?” Melissa asked.
“I think so, and I’m going to make a proper attempt at it,” she answered. “It’s going to be a fun challenge, seeing what can be automated with software and what I will need to consciously control.”
“Just keep us in the loop,” Melissa said, patting Taylor on her shoulder. “Now, it’s getting late so you should probably get home and get to bed early. Tomorrow is going to be rather exhausting for you after all.”
Taylor chuckled, making sure all her project files were in order before putting her workstation into sleep mode. “Alright. You’ll be there?”
“I have to make sure the blades I’ve provided work properly, don’t I?” she asked with a teasing lilt. “Of course I’ll be there for you, Taylor. I’ve basically taken you under my wing and I’ll be damned if you had to go into something like this without some support.”
Taylor felt her eyes burn and gave Melissa another quick hug. “Thank you. I know I say it a lot, but it never feels like it’s enough.”
“And I appreciate it, each and every time you say it,” Melissa said softly. “Now off you go.”
“Yes, Mom,” Taylor said in a mocking tone before she hurried off. She didn’t want to think about how much saying those words had affected her, nor let Melissa see her tears falling freely.
----------------------------------------
Taylor ate breakfast in a hurry, her father looking on strangely as she did. He’d obviously realized that Taylor was excited for something, but she didn’t care if he suspected something. He would be heading to work soon, and she would pop over to Toybox for the installation of her cyber brain. She would then have the weekend to recover, just in time for her return to Winslow.
That was certainly something she dreaded, but plans were in motion, and should they fail, she could always take the test for a GED and get out that way. She didn’t want to, as it felt like admitting defeat, but as a last resort it would work.
“Will you be alright on your own?” her father asked as he got up from the table to put his plate in the dishwasher.
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Taylor looked up from her mostly finished plate of scrambled eggs and toast, a slight smile on her face. “You always ask that.”
“I always mean it,” he said. “You’ve got your mother’s stubbornness, and I do worry. Sort of comes with the whole fatherhood thing.”
Taylor’s smile grew, because for as beaten down as he had been of late, he still tried to show that he cared about her. There wasn’t much more he could do, she understood that much. He still tried, and that counted for something.
“I’ll be fine, go do what you do best, I’ll be here when you get back.”
Her father smiled, patting her on the head. “See you for dinner, little owl.”
She nodded, not daring to say a word. She hadn’t heard that nickname since her mother had passed on, and it twisted her stomach into a knot. Melissa came to mind, and the guilt piled on. She wasn’t her mother, Taylor kept repeating that to herself over and over. That didn’t stop her from seeing her as a sort of mentor, and Melissa had made no attempt at correcting her when she did treat the woman like she was an aunt, or more.
The reminder hurt, but she had to accept that her mom wasn’t coming back. As the door closed, Taylor finished the last of her meal and stood to rinse the plate. She had forgone her crutches without her father there to witness, leaving them propped up by the table as she had taken to doing when he wasn’t around.
She wouldn’t need the braces once the day’s events were done, though she expected to struggle thanks to the atrophy her muscles had no doubt suffered. That would be a challenge when it came to Winslow if things went sideways, but she had the excuse of needing crutches to fall back on.
Taylor hurried back up the stairs once everything was put away and grabbed her things before she triggered her personal transponder and opened a portal to Toybox. She stepped through and emerged into her lab. Immediately the lights came on and all her systems began their boot up processes.
The transition was always a little funky, between the differences in air pressure, humidity and temperature. Her lab was set to Dodge’s standards for safe operation of tech, which her room was far from matching thanks to how drafty the old home could be.
She smiled, feeling more at home in her personal lab than she did in her own bedroom. The legs that would be a part of her future body were coming along fairly well, and all her other projects were in good order. Taylor still had almost an hour before things were set to begin, and she took the opportunity to head over to the break room and grab a cup of tea.
“Good morning, Taylor,” Melissa said from her place at one of the tables.
Taylor smiled, waving as she moved to the hot water machine. It was one of many items that could be ordered from the catalog, a purely recreational device that produced the perfect cup of hot water for tea or coffee. It had a place for coffee grounds to be added, or tea leaves as she was more inclined.
Once she had her cup in hand, she moved over to the table and took a seat across from her mentor. That first smell of her cup was always a bright spot to her Toybox visits, as was the sip that followed. Melissa kept a blend on hand that was intimately familiar to her, as it had been her mother’s favorite. She had no idea where it came from, and had never questioned Melissa on that. She was just happy to have found it again.
“Nervous?” Melissa asked.
“A bit,” Taylor admitted.
Her mentor smiled. “Jacob will be bringing Surgeon, before long. She wanted to get a look at the setup and go over things before it was time to begin.”
“Sensible,” Taylor said.
No matter how much she checked and cross-checked things, there was always a chance she had missed something. The more eyes looking things over, the better. Once their cups were drained, the pair made their way to the same lobby Taylor had entered through on her first visit to the Tinker collective.
Vivian was already in the lobby, and Taylor hadn’t expected her to be there. Looking up, the woman smirked. “Still going through with it?”
“I am,” Taylor admitted, unsure of the woman’s angle.
“Good,” Vivian said. “Some of us were sure you would chicken out, so good on you for sticking with it. Trusting your tech to that level, I’d be nervous as fuck no matter how sure of myself I was.”
“We’re taking every precaution we can,” Melissa said. “Hence bringing in Surgeon.”
“Be nice to see the kid again,” Harry said. “Jacob doesn’t bring her by very often.”
Taylor almost jumped, not having seen the man seated off in the corner. Even after a few weeks, she still hadn’t gotten over the embarrassment she felt anytime they were in the same room together.
“Cranial going to meet us in the lab?” Melissa asked.
“Yeah, they had some things to take care of on their own first,” Harry said. “They mentioned they might provide remote support depending on how crowded the room is.”
“That’s fair,” Taylor admitted. Her lab wasn’t the biggest within Toybox by any means, she just didn’t have a reason to request an expansion just yet. “If Surgeon is as good as her reputation, that is probably the best place for them.”
Nobody disagreed with her assessment, which surprised Taylor. She wasn’t used to people respecting her opinions on things, especially adults. She couldn’t help but lament that if Winslow had even half that much trust in her word, she would have never ended up in the locker in the first place. She would have also never met those in Toybox.
She would have never met Melissa.
That thought made her throat itch, but she was distracted by the portal device whirling to life as reality warped. Jacob was the first to step through before he offered his hand to a young blonde girl. Her hair was halfway down her back and slightly wavy as if it had been recently curled. She wore a belt filled with tools along with a pristine white apron that she doubted would remain as such before the day was done.
Taylor’s power struggled to make sense of some of the tools, but others gave her a few ideas that she planned to expand upon in the near future. Jacob stepped forward as the portal closed and smiled fondly.
“Always nice to have a warm reception,” he said. “Most of you have met her, but for our newer members, allow me to introduce you to my daughter, Surgeon.”
Taylor blinked, looking back at the enthusiastic girl whose smile had only grown. She took a step forward and curtsied. “Hi everyone! You can call me Riley. I’m looking forward to assisting with this project!”