They hugged when she walked through the door.

"So what did you learn today?"

She pointed at a chair, "furniture."

"That's good, anything else?" She still didn't understand any of the individual words other than 'good' but it was one of the few phrases she knew.

She pointed at Angels foot, "paw."

"You didn't know that one already?" There was confusion on the dog girls face, had she gotten it wrong? i

"Wrong?"

"No, you're right. You did good." 'Good', that meant it wasn't wrong. Was that what 'right' meant too?"

"What 'right'?"

" 'Right' means not wrong." So she was right! She was getting a good grasp on... the language. (She still didn't know if it had a name, let alone what the name would be if it had one.)

She had studied her best while dog girl was out, repeating old words she knew and trying to figure out new ones. On a side note she really couldn't wait until she understood enough to just read a dictionary, but sentences... Well baby steps.

She was getting better, ever since she got worse. Her power had been taken from her by Contessa, or whoever Contessa had taken her too while she was out cold, drastically reducing her swarm, but not all of it was lost. She could still control the smaller creatures, the bugs and such.

Angel whined, taking her mind back to the present, and she resumed her 'scrachies'.

"You and Angela have a good day today?" Had dog girl just changed topic? Language was hard when that happened.

"Yes?" Dog girl made a face.

"Today, did you enjoy it? Was it good?" Today, good?

"Yes." She had played with the hollow bugs, trying to find a way to keep them safe outside of her range in the wild.

That would be necessary if she wanted her swarm to extend any significant distance outside of her normal range since there where predators who'd eat them otherwise. She was experimenting with bug built nests, such as ant hills and logs filled with termites.

"You getting along well with the others?" 'Others' that meant the people and dogs Dog-girl kept around. She didn't like them, couldn't trust them.

"Angel."

"I know you get along with Angela, but have you at least tried to talk with anybody else? I'm sure you'd get along with Spoofy, he's kind like you."

She didn't know the word for it. Not for how she felt towards Dog-girl and Angel, or how she felt towards Others.

"Why don't you give them a shot?"

"Shoot?" She had heard the word, using her swarm, before, 'he went down in one shot' and it was often right after someone said 'don't shoot' so she figured they meant the same thing. She thought it meant something like kill, or the way they used to kill.

"No. How should I explain it... They're nice. Friends. Give them a chance."

"Danger." That went both ways of course, she could handle fighting better than anything else, but she wasn't invulnerable.

"You don't have to be scared of them."

"Others scared."

She didn't necessarily mean these ones, though that seemed true if their reactions to her swarm was anything to go by, but rather that there where others out there who where afraid of her, who would hurt her before she could hurt them. She never knew who they where, but she remembered what had happened after she defeated the golden man, how they had chased her. That was the reason she never left the house and why she didn't use her powers overtly.

"You think they want to hurt you?"

"Someone."

"... Alright. You don't have to talk with them."

She was surrounded. She thought they where enemies, prepared her swarm to attack just in case, but she couldn't be sure, even if she was better at telling the difference since she was fixed.

In an instant her swarm was annihilated, and she started to send the attack command, trying to reach a hollow bug to extend her range, the closest one wasn't unreasonable far away either so it was certainly possible.

As soon as her range encompassed another bug it could be used, and she directed them in a way to avoid the instant destruction that had happened before, even if she didn't know exactly what that had been.

Her enemies weren't fighting close quarters, allowing her to make some headway towards the hollow bug, but she'd still need to get past them. One fired a fire-blast and she ducked beneath it, then the world shook.

She sensed her swarm attacking the people around her and opened her eyes to see Dog-girl. Immediately the bugs stopped attacking her, keeping up the attack on the others.

"Stop, Taylor." Her swarm halted, mid air for the fliers and where they stood for the rest.

"You had a nightmare, Taylor, but you're safe."

"Can you get these bugs off of me now!" one of the younger people shouted.

"Give me a minute!" Dog-girl shouted back.

"Can you take your swarm outside?" If she did she'd be defenseless, that'd be bad, but Dog-girl was there, she'd be safe, so she did as she was told.

She reached out to Dog-girl. "Stay?"

"Sure." Taylor enveloped her in a hug, Dog-girl hugged back.

She was getting better rapidly now, unsurprisingly following dozens of conversations at once, at all times, helped a lot with grasping languages and she was back at your average fourth graders level already. The same could probably be said for her understanding of the world around her, but it was always improving and the more she learned the more she remembered.

Her mind went to her swarm, as it often did whenever she wasn't talking to Rachel. She could sense how it stretched out, through the portal and across both Bet and Gimmel, away from Brookton. She felt the Ant hills she used as Bigger bases for her relay bugs as well as the smaller holes the other ones hid in.

She felt small and insignificant, and the world felt wast and stable, even as she knew that for most people it was anything but. They had settled into a routine, sure, but by no means where they done reconstructing. Some places didn't even have power sources and established trade routes!

She felt the cities and settlements, several within her ever growing reach now, saw the streets filled with people going about their business, heard various trade deals go down. All of it outdoors, she didn't want to invade peoples privacy and beyond that bugs where unsanitary.

A call for help drew her attention, and the bugs in the area drew near. Looking inside she saw a girl on the ground, a man standing over her. As the bugs made their way inside she tried to take note of the womans state, didn't seem serious, just one blow, so she didn't need to call an ambulance.

Her Bugs formed a clone between the two.

"What happened here?"

"Wha- who are you?" The man said.

"I heard a cry for help." The clone turned to the woman. "Everything alright? Want me to help you leave? I can make sure he doesn't follow you or find out where you've gone."

"I-"

"Hey don't ignore me!" The clone had gotten enough mass to split, so she split it, keeping the conversation with the woman going as she addressed the man.

"If you want you can tell me what happened I'll listen. I can even tell the cops if you want to accuse the woman of something."

"You can't just barge in here, this is a private home."

"I'm pretty sure that if I hear someone call for help I can. And if you try to hit her I can stop you."

"That's not going to-" The man punched the clone, doing no serious damage.

"Do that again and I'll restrain you." As usual spiders had started to prepare a rope as soon as she thought a battle was coming and she began working it into the apartment.

"You think you scare me? I'll-"

"Punch me again?" He looked like he was going to punch it again, but then he thought better of it, took a deep breath and tried to calm down.

"Look. I'm sorry I flipped out on you, I've been very irritated lately. I'm also sorry I hit my girlfriend, can I talk to her?"

"She seems open to the idea, but if you hurt her again, I'll find out. The whole city is under my protection now and you can't run from me so keep that in mind."

The two came to a peaceful conclusion that day, and Taylor really hoped that it would stay that way. It was bad though, that the girl stayed with him, she should have left even if it just lasted a few days, stayed with a friend, gotten a fresh perspective on the event. But it wasn't Taylor's call to make, so she left it at that.

She fished out a notebook and wrote down the address and crime, she also left a few bugs inside just in case.

"It's late." Rachel was standing a short distance away.

"Sure is." Rachel made a face. Taylor still wasn't the best at interpreting facial expressions, but when it came to Rachel in particular it wasn't an issue anymore. She was displeased.

"You need sleep, Taylor. Staying up all night reading isn't going to fix you faster." She put away the book, it wasn't about that anyway.

"I'll just finish up with my swarm then go pass out in my bed."

"You get nightmares in you bed."

"That's fine." She got nightmares either way.

"Your swarm starts attacking everybody around you when you have nightmares." so maybe not that bad nightmares when she slept alone, but she still needed her own bed.

"... That's less fine, but I can't share your bed forever, Rachel. I'll have to get over it eventually." Rachel got a bit more aggressive, both in tone and in body language.

"Get in the bed Taylor. It's time to sleep."

"So how are things with the others? Grue still running the ship?"

"Tattletale is actually doing more of that now." She figured it'd come to that, Grue wasn't the best with crises like this, his PTSD would act up.

"I thought she didn't want to do it."

"They all want you back. I do too." That was so sweet, was she always like that? "Now go to bed." Taylor supposed that in a way she was, like a dog she got aggressive and territorial if she felt like you where threatening her but once you had her trust she was really nice.

"I should find my own home. That way it won't be a problem if I have a nightmare."

"Fine. Not now. Sleep." Taylor did as she was told, crawling into Rachel's bed, soon followed by the other girl.

Rachel hugged her tight as she closed her eyes.

"I think I just remembered something."

Rachel remained silent, but opened her eye a bit to show that she wasn't asleep.

"There was this girl, Panacea, she had a sister."

"Yeah."

"I think... We are kind of similar to them." The memory was vague, but she remembered trying to talk her out of a big mistake.

"Why?"

"The way you treat me is similar to how Panacea's sister treated her. Causes a similar problem too." Her voice was weak as she buried her face in Rachel's shoulder.

"Problem?"

"You remember, right? What happened in the end?"

"I think she broke her sister or something. Never really cared about it." The memory became clearer, Panacea had turned her sister into a doll, a crude imitation of her former self.

"She did... But before then they had a falling out which started when Panacea made her sister fall in love with her, something she regretted immediately."

"Why are you bringing that up. It's not like that could happen to us."

"You're right." Rachel's eyebrows knotted together as Taylor closed her eyes.

They stayed quiet for a while and Taylor felt the sleep creep up on her.

"Are you saying you're falling in love with me?" People rarely gave Rachel enough credit for her intelligence, she wasn't stupid, just had problems with interactions.