"You got it buddy! You got it!" Taylor couldn't help but grin as Ezra took off from his hands.
It had been a long time since Taylor had been rollerblading himself, but he'd decided it was well past due that his elder kids learned for themselves. Penny hadn't quite been ready for the blades yet, so she had a set of pink and white skates. As Taylor held her hand following Ezra up the footpath, Natalie sat on the other side of the park watching River tackle the play equipment.
"Don't go too far!" Taylor called after his son, having trouble keeping up while attached to Penny.
It wasn't long before he'd disappeared behind some shrubs. Taylor sighed, swept a giggling Penny up into his arms, and sped up. As he turned the corner he suddenly saw his son being held up by a large blonde man with glasses. He stopped in surprise.
"You okay Ezra?" he asked, eyes on the man.
"He just had a little trouble stopping," the man chuckled as Ezra nodded, after helping him turn and head back to Taylor.
Ezra landed in Taylor's legs and grabbed hold so he wouldn't fall.
"Ah… thank you," Taylor nodded in appreciation, "it's hard juggling two of them sometimes."
"And soon it will be three," the man smiled, before going back to the folder he'd been holding in his left hand.
Taylor hesitated.
"I'm sorry, do I know you?"
"We've met, in passing," the man waved him off, "no mind, I'll be out of your hair in a moment."
"What do you mean?" Taylor frowned, suddenly feeling very vulnerable with his children in tow.
The man held a finger up as he read through the document, wrote some notes, then closed the folder and offered another smile.
"I just needed to borrow your power for a moment. I hope you don't mind."
Taylor blanched, then clicked. He pulled Ezra behind him.
"Guffrey?" he felt he had to make sure.
"Taylor," he nodded in return, and then turned to walk away.
"You came to Tulsa just to borrow my power?" Taylor frowned.
"And I would have done it without you even noticing," Guffrey kept walking.
"You've done it before," was more of a statement than a question.
"Goodbye Taylor," he waved, before putting his hand on a man's shoulder and teleporting away.
Taylor hesitated, adjusting Penny on his hip, before turning around and pushing Ezra back toward where Natalie sat.
"Who was that man, Dad?" Ezra asked as he picked up speed.
"Just someone Daddy knew a long time ago," Taylor assured, glancing behind them before looking up to see a worried look on Natalie's face, "why don't you take the rollerblades off for now and go help your brother?"
"But Daaaaaaad!"
"No `but's, help Penny with hers too."
As Taylor finally reached his wife, she shifted Viggo's stroller so that he could sit beside her. Ezra and Penny both sat on the pavement in front of them as they worked to take their shoes off.
"Are you alright?" Natalie asked.
"Fine," Taylor nodded, "I'll elaborate when prying ears have moved on."
As if on point, Ezra glanced up. Taylor nodded with an `I know you' look on his face.
It took a good few minutes, but the kids were finally off to play with River. Taylor took note that Viggo was asleep, then leant over to give Natalie a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Okay, I'm officially worried now," she smiled at him.
"Oh ha ha," Taylor scorned.
He looked up at Ezra again.
"We ran into Guffrey," he said after a moment's silence.
Natalie hesitated as she ran the name through her head.
"Guffrey?" she gave up.
"Marshall, Guffrey," Taylor looked her in the eye.
"Oh. …Oh!"
"He… borrowed my power. To read some documents," Taylor looked confused, "and made it clear it wasn't the first time he'd done so."
"When's the last time you saw him?"
"The first time, I guess. When we helped Christian out that time," Taylor rubbed his face, "he's been doing it without us even knowing about it."
Natalie was silent for a long time, considering. Eventually Taylor looked to her again, then frowned.
"What? What are you thinking?" he was cautious.
Natalie glanced up at him, and then rocked the stroller a little.
"Taylor, don't hate me for suggesting this…"
"Go on," Taylor already didn't like the sound of it.
"…But Guffrey is the only other Dathrian we've ever even heard of that has the power share… power."
Taylor leant back in his seat, looking back at Ezra.
"I don't like it," he said straight out.
"He doesn't have to know about Ezra," Natalie shrugged, "I just think… if he's going to be around regardless, and we can't really tell the YIRAAS that `hey, he's going to be here this time tomorrow' and mean it, maybe we should at least consider forwarding on Ike's contact details."
Taylor gave her a look that told her he thought she was crazy.
"Just a phone number or something," Natalie insisted, "he probably won't even go along with it. But we just tell him that Ike's working on his power library, and if he helps, he helps! If not, no big. But if he does, then maybe we can learn something. For Ezra's sake."
Taylor rubbed his face awkwardly.
"It could all go south so fast," he shook his head, "I don't like it."
"How about we put it to Ike?" Natalie reasoned, "We'll see what he says before we decide anything. But basically you're doing Guffrey a favour, and he should be doing you one in return."
"That's not really how their minds work," Taylor insisted.
"Their?"
"Yeah. Bad guys."
"Taylor even I know each one of them is a different person and would handle a situation like this differently," she said pointedly, "and from what I remember and what you just told me, Guffrey isn't someone you spent a lot of time dealing with."
"No I know," Taylor nodded, "it's just…"
He sighed.
"Chris was really scared of him, you know?" he squinted, watching the kids play, "and I'm not sure if it was just a deep-seeded fear ingrained into him from childhood, or if it was a genuine modern-day `this guy is not someone to mess with' fear."
"The childhood fear is completely understandable in that sense," Natalie assured, "and I'm the first to admit, you know… I haven't really spent much time with Christian, so I haven't been able to get a read on him. Maybe if I did I could set the record straight."
Taylor looked her in the eye again.
"I'm not convincing you, am I?" her eyebrows rose.
"Not really, I'm sorry," Taylor mused.
"But don't you want to learn more about Ezra's power? Like its range? Its strength?"
"Of course I do," Taylor sighed, "I'd just… rather go back to the home planet than get information from someone who's a serious danger to our family. And not just our family, but my family. Ike was involved in that rescue too."
"Don't you think that if Guffrey wanted revenge on you that he would have taken it by now," Natalie pointed out, "I mean why use you, quite happily, for however long and then suddenly ruin a good thing he has going?"
Taylor scoffed.
"Thanks."
"You know what I mean," Natalie scorned.
"I know. I'm sorry," Taylor shrugged, before witnessing Penny fall from a swing. In a flash he was up and darting forward.
"Taylor-" Natalie sighed, before letting him go.
She glanced down at Viggo before watching as Taylor tended to his (only slightly) injured daughter.