Tad felt it was time for a little discussion with Taylor. He stood outside of Taylor's door for a moment.
"Now, remember. Do not get impatient, loose your temper or exhibit any other negative displays. You are to remain calm and cool at all times, no matter how much he evades your questions. You are more likely to pick up on things this way," Tad thought to himself firmly.
He knocked on Taylor's door.
Taylor
"Come in," Taylor called, writing down some lyrics that he'd thought of that afternoon.
He figured it might have been Ike or Zac coming to say goodnight.
Tad
Tad gave himself one last reminder to stay calm, opened the door and stepped inside.
"Taylor," he said with a nod. "I just came by to apologise."
It had taken him two hours practicing in the mirror to say that right.
Taylor
Taylor smirked to himself, not even bothering to look up from the desk as he continued writing.
"For what?"
Tad
Typical.
"Well, we've both been thrust together unwillingly, and even though I'm supposed to be looking after you that doesn't mean I should be treating you like a child. Obviously, you're not, and I've been doing you a disservice by treating you like one," Tad said.
It was partly true. He had been treating Taylor like a child and knew it. Wasn't sure he was really sorry for it though.
Taylor
Taylor hesitated in his writing, recognising by the tone of his voice that he was at least partly sincere.
"And it took three months to come to this conclusion?" Taylor finally put the pen down and swivelled his chair to turn and look up at Tad.
"What makes today so different?"
Tad
"Yesterday," Tad replied promptly. "Or perhaps... the day before? You went off somewhere without telling me. And I kinda gather that you had your brothers cover for you while you were gone. You're an adult, you shouldn't have to sneak out like I'm your mother or something. Especially out of your own home. Well... more your home than mine anyway."
Taylor
Taylor hesitated again, lost for words for a moment. He could tell that Tad wasn' t lying, but he still felt as if he was missing something.
Damn his power.
"Well I'm not going to return an apology if that's what you're looking for," he insisted, beginning to put the papers on his desk away.
Tad
"No," Tad replied, making a conscious effort not to sound annoyed. "What I'm looking for, aside from an acceptance of my apology is some respect."
Isn't that the truth!
"Tanya didn't get me to hang around just to make you uncomfortable, y'know. I'm here because no one wants you to kill again. And I can't stop your alter ego if I don't know where you're going to be. Okay, fine you don't want to tell me what you're doing. Could look suspicious given the company you keep, but for all I know you could be cruisin' for chicks. No one ever said that you had to tell me why you were going particular places, just tell me the places. For your own sake. I'd prefer it, personally, if I knew what you were doing too, but," and Tad shrugged, having opted to let that point go, "it's not essential to the job at hand."
Taylor
"And if you'd realised that in the first place we wouldn't be in this position now," Taylor sighed, stopping himself from rolling his eyes.
"Some things just have to be done, like what happened yesterday. You might not like it, and heck we might not like it, but some things we just can't let you in on no matter what the consequences."
Tad
Tad paused briefly, interally struggling with himself to stay calm.
"Maybe if you treated me with a bit more respect I wouldn't have pushed the issue. And quite frankly I don't care if you think you're saving the world. Just keep me informed as to where you are so I can stop you from going off the deep end. Because I'm sure that whatever it is you're doing it is not going to be worth going psycho and going on a killing spree. And even if you think it is, I'm sure the friends and family of your victims would disagree."
Taylor
"Well in this case you had nothing to worry about in that field," Taylor insisted, "even if I had killed it wouldn't have mattered. Rest assured that if I had thought I would have been a danger I would have made sure someone came with us to rectify that."
Tad
"Aha, but I did worry," Tad pointed out. "And, no offence, but I can't rest assured on your word alone. That's not how my job works. Okay, y'know what? Fine. If you're going to insist on going on little trips like that, at least do me the curtosy of making sure you go with someone who can at least contain you if something does go bad, letting me know who they are and providing contact numbers both ways. Surely you can see this is intended for your continued well being as well as any potential victims?"
Taylor
"Well if you can't rest assured on my word alone, or that of my brothers, then you have some trust issues you need to work on. We're not liars. And going by that if I told you I was always careful in that sense, what cause do I have to believe you're going to take my word for it?" Taylor shrugged.
"You're not the only person watching me in case I do something stupid you know."
Tad
"And you have badly misinterpretted me if you think I'm accusing you of being a liar," Tad frowned. "Tell me Taylor, if you were in my shoes, wouldn't you think it was prudent to take the word of someone with a multiple personalities disorder with a pinch of salt? And I never said a thing about not trusting your brothers word - although having said that, neither have ever actually said anything to me of that nature. Are names and powers really all that much to ask? And of course, appropriate contact details, with your friends and with your brothers if you don't trust me with them."
Tad fought briefly with himself to prevent himself from saying the next part sarcastically.
"And I'm sure that your reasons for not trusting me have nothing to do with thinking of me as a liar. Neither of us know each other, so I can even understand your not trusting me with the contact details of your friends. So long as we can contact them in an emergancy, and they can contact us. Goodness knows, there are things I couldn't and wouldn't trust you with."
Taylor
"Well for one thing I don't actually have the contact details of those I went out with the other day, and any other information about them I'm not authorised to give," Taylor shrugged.
"And no, I wouldn't think it was prudent actually. Because to my defense I give everyone fair warning before any kind of change happens anyway."
Tad
"Well, there's your problem," Tad said firmly. "Set up a line or something specifially for this if you have to, but there should be a contact system of some sort. And what happens the day you don't see it coming, hmm? What then? And for that matter, how do we know you don't have some third personality we haven't knowingly met yet?"
Taylor
Taylor glared suddenly.
"Because if there was another one in there somewhere, Tanya would have told me about it," he insisted.
"It seems I have more control than you think. And those friends are mobile, there's no logical way to keep in contact with them. And some I'd prefer not to anyway."
Tad
"Tanya is not infallable," Tad said slowly, as part of his effort to stay calm. "And speaking of Tanya, you are aware that I have to write up reports for her? Now, how is it going to look when I send her the next one involving yesterdays incident? Tanya went to a lot of trouble to keep this quiet, and to prevent you from being locked up. She trusts you a heck of a lot more than I do. And what happens if this kind of thing happens again? Aside from the fact that it makes me look incompetant, it also reflects badly on you, as all of this if for your benefit."
He paused a moment.
"And there are ways of keeping contact even with the most mobile of people. Perhaps just whenever you decide to go out on one of your little outings you get yourself one of those prepaid cell phones, give the phone to them and the number to us. When it's done, the phone can be disposed of, no harm done."
Taylor
"I have a cell phone," Taylor pointed out, holding it up for emphasis, "and I also have a pager. And yes, I know you report to Tanya. She's already found out about what happened the other day anyway. She won't hold it against you - she knows it was purely my doing."
Tad
"That's hardly the point," Tad frowned. "The point is that you ran off without telling me. When you had need of a body guard when you were a kid touring the world in your band, you can't tell me that you didn't keep him appraised."
He refrained from refering to the band as being 'little'.
"Keeping me in the dark doesn't help the situation, Taylor. And to the annoyance of both of us, you need me. Unless one of your friends has a way of snapping you out of it that we don't know about."
Again, refrained from describing his friends as being 'little'.
"Because I'm sure we're both aware that I don't want to be here, looking out for a..." Tad paused, quickly trying to think of a non-offensive discription, "man on a mission just because I'm the only one who can turn his alterego off."
What he was really thinking was "over-privlaged, self absorbed, irresponsible brat".
Taylor
"I'll have you know that Jason was nothiing like you," Taylor said calmly, "he didn't need to be told everything. And he was actually a pleasure to be around so he more often than not got invited when we went anywhere anyway."
He hesitated, thinking over the second thing Tad had said.
"They don't 'snap me out of it' so to speak," he worded carefully, "but they do have ways of dealing with it, I assure you. Of course, not that you'll take my word for anything."
Tad
Tad ground his teeth for a moment.
"Then why don't you tell Tanya about those lovely friends of yours, and maybe she'll let me get out of here, and back to some real duties," he replied. "Isaac doesn't need me as much these days, so maye control is starting to return. Of course, unless one of your friends wants to stay with you guys, then you'll have to stay here with Zac who can immobilise you at least. And have your brothers capable of contacting your friends so they can come over and snap you out of it, or whatever it is they do."
Taylor
"My 'friends' aren't the kind to just drop everything and come running if something like that happens. Their jobs are full time, and they only make time for me when they can," Taylor shrugged.
"Thus why I don't get to see them often. And Tanya knows who they are. And again, we can't contact them."
Tad
"What a shame," Tad replied. "And here I was so looking forward to getting back home."
He considered for a moment. His object here, first and formost, was to get information. But he recognised that in order to do that, he would either have to get Taylor so angry that he would blurt things out, or gain his trust. While Tad had succeeded well in the former method in the past, this was a more long term exercise, and so the latter was the better tactic. Go for peace. That was the best option.
"Okay, well, I'll check with Tanya that it's cool - this isn't a case of not trusting you, Taylor; it's part of my training that I have to verify these things. Just, please, from now on would you let me know when you're going out so that I don't start running around like some chicken with its head cut off next time? You may not believe this, but I was genuinely worried yesterday when I couldn't find you."
Taylor
"Will wonders never cease?" Taylor murmured under his breath.
"And how do I know you'd let me go?"
Tad
"Let me put it this way," Tad said dryly. "I have been - temporarily anyway - put under Tanya's authority. If Tanya doesn't have a problem with it, and otherwise allows me to do so, then why should I stop you? I'd been breaching my authority if I did. Whereas, at the moment, it's breaching my instructions to just let you go wandering off like that."
Taylor
"Then why don't you call Tanya tomorrow and have it out with her?" Taylor suggested.
"Work out exactly what your position is, and then let all three of us know."
Tad
"I'll do that," Tad nodded.
He held out his hand.
"Truce?" he asked, managing a slight smile.
Taylor
"How about... we wait on it?" Taylor suggested, eyes on Tad's hand.
"An apology can't cure everything, so to speak. Let us know when you've spoken to Tanya."
He turned back to his desk.
Tad
Tad sucked in the side of his bottom lip.
"Yeah, I'll do that," he replied.
He turned and left the room. Well, he felt a little short changed by the whole experience but hopefully it would turn out productive in the long run. He wasn't sure but it looked like there was something corrupt going on, and he was going to stop it if it was the last thing he did.