Word count: 2993

"𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐄?"

Elizabeth's eyes blinked open, rather slowly. Her back was aching, yet again, as she straightened up.

She had fallen asleep on the green sofa chair that was a few feet away from Five's bed during the early morning. It was no help to her aching body that she had been sitting there ever since she finished fixing Five up. 

She looked to the clock to see that it was only a few minutes past six, and that explained the absolute exhaustion she was feeling.

She rubbed the back of her head, her eyes drifting to the now-awake Five, whose eyebrows were furrowed as he looked at her.

"Oh, good. You're up." She stood up with a small sigh and walked over to him as he slowly sat himself up. "How are you feeling?"

He ignored her question and asked, "Why were you sleeping on the couch?"

"Because I was worried, Five," she sighed once more as she unbuttoned the bottom of the pyjama top.

"About" —his eyebrows furrowed— "me?"

She stopped, her fingers grazing his bare stomach as she stared at him incredulously. "Who else?"

"I don't know," he muttered as she checked the gauze, which, luckily, had not been as blood-soaked as she had feared. "Maybe Diego or some shit."

"Diego?" she scoffed. "I don't need to be worried about Diego. Right now, I need to be worried about the idiot who decided that shrapnel in his stomach was no big deal."

"Ain't me," he mumbled. "I don't see any shrapnel in my stomach."

"Because I took it out, dumbass," Elizabeth chided as she slapped him lightly on the arm. "Now answer the question: How are you feeling?"

"Well, my arm hurts now," he answered with an amused smile as he watched her rebutton the last few buttons. After seeing her glare, he added, "Otherwise, I'm fine."

"Good," she exhaled as he shifted over to the middle of the bed. He patted the empty space next to him, and she sat down on it, leaning her back against the headboard. "So, what happened? How did you even get hurt?"

Five waved a hand through the air dismissively. "I just blew up a couple of rooms, might've killed one or two people."

"You . . ." She stared at him for a moment before sighing. "Okay."

He was quiet for a few moments, his eyes thoughtfully watching her face as she looked down to her lap.

After a minute, he tentatively asked, "Are you . . . mad at me?"

"Hm? No." Elizabeth shook her head as she looked back up at him and murmured, "I'm just tired."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "How long did you stay up?"

"Until" —she thought for a moment, squinting her eyes up at the ceiling— "four?"

"What?" he questioned, his eyes growing wide with worry. "Why?"

"I was just worried about you," she answered with a shrug. "My mind couldn't rest."

He frowned as he shifted a bit closer to her. "I'm sorry."

Elizabeth only gave him a short smile in response.

He sighed as he shook his head and told her, "You should sleep."

"No, no, there's no time." She quickly shook her head, straightening up as she pointed out, "We have stuff to do."

His eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "What stuff?"

"I don't know, but there's probably something, right?" she questioned with a small shrug. "There's always something going on."

"There's nothing going on right now." He pointed down at the bed as he ordered, "Sleep."

She sighed, "No, Five, I think that we—"

"Go to sleep."

"But I don't want to—"

"Sleep," he insisted as he put a hand on her shoulder and pushed down on it.

"Fine," she grumbled as she lowered herself so that she was now laying on the mattress. She pulled the covers over her but didn't close her eyes.

Five watched her. "Your eyes are open."

She shrugged. "So?"

"That means you're not sleeping," he pointed out, his eyebrows raising.

"No, it doesn't." Elizabeth pouted. "Maybe I sleep with my eyes open."

"You don't."

"I do."

"You don't."

"I do."

"You don't."

"I do."

"Elizabeth."

"Five."

He laid down next to her, wincing as he turned onto his left side so that he was facing her.

She turned onto her right, bringing their faces only a few inches away from each other.

Five's voice was rather soft as he questioned, "If I close my eyes, will you?"

She nodded stiffly. "Yes."

He gave a small nod and then closed his eyes.

Elizabeth then took the chance to adore the features that she had been dreaming about looking at when she had been trapped: the silky hair that she always loved to play with; his cute nose that always scrunched up whenever she said something stupid; the soft lips that she would love to kiss just one more time . . .

He peeked one eye open and then sighed as he opened both of his eyes.

"You liar."

Elizabeth pouted. "Nuh-uh."

"Your eyes were open," he accused with furrowed eyebrows.

"No, they weren't," she refused.

"Close your goddamn eyes, Elle." He brought his hand to her face and gently closed her eyes for her.

"Rude," she mumbled.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry that I care about you," he scoffed lightly as he pulled the cover higher up over her.

Keeping her eyes closed, she wrinkled her nose, doubting his words as she muttered, "Do you?"

"Of course I do," he said softly, his warm breath tickling her nose. "I . . . I care about you a lot."

Elizabeth could feel herself slipping into sleep more and more. Her voice was barely more than a whisper as she questioned, "How much?"

He was quiet for a moment, which worried her. Her body grew heavier and heavier as her mind drifted into a dream state, but just before she fell asleep, she swore she heard him whisper,

"More than anything in the world."

—☾—

"Wakey, wakey, eggs and—hey!"

Elizabeth woke up from the noise a few hours later, feeling rather warm. The warmth, she soon realized after a moment, was coming from the arms that were wrapped around her—Five's to be exact.

Her cheeks immediately reddened, but he didn't notice as he woke up, both of their attention now on Klaus, who was standing at the doorway with wide eyes and a silver bell in hand.

"Are your guys' clothes on? Please tell me your clothes are on."

"Our clothes are on." Five rolled his eyes as he unwrapped his arms with a glance towards Elizabeth. He slowly sat up, slightly wincing from the pain in his stomach.

Klaus grinned. "Oh, sweet. Family meeting, downstairs kitchen, now." He twirled his bell once more before leaving the room, leaving the door wide open.

Elizabeth rubbed her eyes and sat up, glancing towards the clock that told her that it was half-past nine. Her cheeks were still flushed, and she was sure that Five could see the pigmented colour as she slipped out of the bed.

"We should, uh, go, I guess," Five mumbled as he got up, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Mhm." She did not like the awkward tension that had been created.

They began to walk towards the door, and Elizabeth noticed that his limp had only gotten worse. She put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him before he could go any further.

His eyebrows furrowed, and his eyes glanced towards the hand as he gave her a questioning look.

"The less you walk, the better." With her free hand, she made a portal in the empty space in the room, the gold energy rushing out.

"Thanks," he murmured before stepping through.

She followed, arriving in the basement kitchen, where Klaus was pouring coffee into small, blue-rimmed teacups. Luther was sitting at the right of the table, opposite Klaus, wearing a grey sweater with the hood over his head.

Klaus handed Luther his cup of coffee, but just before he could take a sip of it, Five snatched it from him. He took a large gulp of it as he sat down in the chair next to Luther, but soon wrinkled his nose and put the cup on the table.

"Jesus," he glowered. "Who do I gotta kill to get a decent cup of coffee?"

Elizabeth sat down in the chair between Luther and Five, giving a small smile of appreciation to Klaus as he handed her the cup. She took a hesitant sip, then wrinkling her nose in the same fashion Five had. It was pretty gross.

Luther leaned his head against his right fist, his eyebrows knit together tightly. "Can we get started, please?"

"Anyone seen any of the others? Diego? Allison? No?" Klaus picked up a metal spatula from the edge of the table. "All right, then, this is the closest thing to a quorum" —he smacked the spatula on the island, causing Luther to scrunch his face up in pain (rough night?)— "that we're gonna get. Now, listening up. There's no easy way to say this, so I'm just gonna spit it out."

The three of them stared at him as he gazed off into the distance.

Luther furrowed his eyebrows. "Klaus."

"I conjured Dad last night."

There was only silence as the three of them exchanged wary looks. Five grabbed his cup of coffee once more as Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.

"You said you haven't been able to conjure anyone in years," she pointed out, causing Klaus to give a small nod.

"Ah, yes, I know, but I'm sober. Ta-da! I got clean, yesterday, to talk to someone special, and then ended up having this" —his voice lowered— "conversation with dear old Daddy himself."

Luther sighed. "Has anyone got some aspirin?"

"Top shelf, next to the crackers," Five responded almost immediately, gesturing towards it with his cup.

"We have aspirin?!" Elizabeth exclaimed, now much more focused on this than whatever Klaus had just said.

"Hey, hey, hey. This is serious, guys, all right?" Klaus whined as Luther got up from his chair. "This really happened, I swear."

Luther groaned, staying in his seat. He rubbed his temples, staring down at the table as Five gave Klaus a mocking smile.

"Okay, fine. I'll play," Five sighed as he put his cup onto the table and leaned forward. "What did the old man have to say?"

"Well, he gave me the usual lecture about my appearance and my failures in life. Yada yada yada. No surprise there. Even the afterlife couldn't soften a hardass like Dad, right? But he did mention something about his murder, or lack thereof, because . . . he killed himself."

Klaus looked down solemnly for a moment before flickering his eyes back up to them, wanting to see what their reaction was.

The three of them stared at him for a moment before Luther rolled his eyes.

"I don't have time for your games, Klaus," he sighed as he stood up, taking his hood off.

"I'm telling you the truth, Luther," he insisted softly. "I'm telling you the truth."

Elizabeth peered at the desperate Klaus curiously, her eyebrows furrowing as she asked, "But why'd he do it, then?"

He gave a small shrug as he answered, "He said it was the only way to get us all home again."

"No." Luther shook his head immediately as he scoffed and continued, "Dad wouldn't just kill himself."

"Ah, you said it yourself." Five shrugged as he looked towards the larger man. "He was depressed. Holed up in his office and room all day and night."

"No. There weren't any signs." Luther shook his head once more. "Suicidal people exhibit certain tendencies, strange behaviours—"

"Like sending someone to the Moon for no reason?" Klaus pointed out as he raised his eyebrows.

Luther shifted to face his body towards the other man, his eyes narrowing as he muttered, "I swear to God, Klaus, if you're lying . . ."

"I'm not." He shook his head profusely, raising his hands as he softly insisted, "I'm not."

A voice came from behind them. "Master Klaus is correct."

They all turned to see Pogo walk in, his walking cane in hand. He stopped a few feet away from behind Five, both of his hands clutching the top of the cane as he spoke to them. "Regretfully . . . I helped Master Hargreeves enact his plan."

"What?" Elizabeth breathed out, staring at him with the same shock the other three had.

"So did Grace. It was a difficult choice for both of us. More difficult than you could ever know." Pogo took a few steps towards them, his brown eyes mainly focused on Luther. "Prior to your father's death, Grace's programming was adjusted so that she was incapable of administering first aid on that fateful night.

"Sick bastard," Five muttered.

Luther looked down at the table, his eyebrows furrowed as he questioned, "So the security tape we saw?"

"It was meant to further the murder mystery." Pogo paused. "Your father hoped that being back here, solving it together would reignite your desire to be a team again."

Five tilted his head as he asked, "And to what end?"

"To save the world, of course," Pogo answered.

"All right." Klaus's voice flitted in a gigglish manner.

"First the Moon mission and now this." Luther's eyes slowly turned to the chimpanzee, darkening. "You watched me search for answers and said nothing," he accused as Pogo bowed his head down in shame. The volume of his voice grew to a shout, "Anything else you want to share, Pogo? Any other damn secrets?"

"Hey, calm down, Luther," Elizabeth said gently as she lifted her hand towards him.

Luther pushed her hand down as he stared straight at Pogo. "No, I won't calm down. We've been lied to by the one person in this family we all trusted."

"It was your father's dying wish, Master Luther. I . . ." Pogo sighed deeply and shaking his head. "I had no choice."

Luther took a few steps toward him, his voice low. "There's always choice." He stared at Pogo for a few moments before walking past him and towards the stairs.

Klaus sat down in the seat opposite Elizabeth, letting out a small sigh as he leaned the side of his face against his clasped hands. She looked back as Pogo walked away, his walk much more sluggish than usual.

Five infused his fingers with his hair as a distressed look came over his face. He turned around in his chair, murmuring to them, "I gotta think."

Elizabeth shook her head as she protested, "Five, I don't know if you should—"

He disappeared.

"—jump. Okay. Cool." She looked towards Klaus, who was staring off in front of him and gave a small pat to the table. "I'm gonna go. See you later, Klaus."

Elizabeth decided not to make a portal, instead using the time it took to go back to the third floor to think.

How could Pogo and Grace keep something like this from them? Even if Reginald had wanted to keep it a secret, so what? He sucked! Why would they keep listening to him even after his death? Although, she understood (slightly) where Pogo's loyalty lay.

Did Reginald really orchestrate his own death just because he thought that it could get them back together? Even if his plan of a family reunion had worked, them stopping the apocalypse seemed like a real slim chance.

But the apocalypse . . . How had he known there was an apocalypse on its way? Surely, he hadn't travelled to the future just as Five had, nor did he have some sort of prophetic power. Not that she knew of, at least.

He had always been saying that he was preparing them from looming doom, but Elizabeth always thought that it was a load of bologna. Just a scare tactic. But apparently not.

But how had he known?

She reached the third floor, and it didn't take long for her to hear the worried pacing that was coming from Five's room. She knocked on the door, and it was soon opened by a stressed Five, whose hair was now rather messy.

"Oh. Hey," he greeted quickly once he had realized that it was her. He stepped to the side, hurriedly beckoning her in as he muttered, "Come in."

Elizabeth stepped inside, closing the door behind her as she began, "Five, I was thinking—"

"How did he know?" he cut her off, his voice almost frantic as he began to pace around the room once more. "How did he know about the apocalypse?"

"That's what . . . That's what I was going to ask," she mumbled as she sat down on his bed.

"It doesn't make sense," he continued, his expression troubled as his pace quickened.

"Maybe he . . . he . . . he . . ." She squinted her eyes as she looked towards the ceiling, hoping that perhaps she would be struck by a sudden epiphany. She wasn't. "I don't know."

"How did he know the date? How did he know to kill himself a week before? Or that there even was an apocalypse coming?" Five's voice only grew more and more distressed as his speed picked up.

"Okay, okay, Five—" Elizabeth got up and placed her hands on his shoulders, effectively stopping him. She stared into his eyes, pleading with him to relax as she pointed out, "We're not going to figure anything out unless we calm down."

He took a breath, closing his eyes as he nodded. "Okay."

"Now . . . maybe let's go talk to Klaus?" she suggested. "He was the one to talk to Dad after all."

"Yeah . . . Klaus . . ." Five breathed out, nodding slowly. He grabbed her wrist, his fingers wrapping tightly around it as he began to pull her towards the door, and muttered, "Let's go."