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❛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘ. ᴘᴀʀᴋᴇʀ ᴇғғᴇᴄᴛ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐎𝐍𝐄 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅɴ'ᴛ ɪᴛ ʙᴇ ɴɪᴄᴇ
ᴛᴏ ʟɪᴠᴇ ᴛᴏɢᴇᴛʜᴇʀ ( ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴋɪɴᴅ
ᴏғ ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ ᴡᴇ ʙᴇʟᴏɴɢ ) ꒱


❝ I WANT TO JOIN THE CIA ❞

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[ the first year ]

The first week was the hardest. It was arguably the most difficult for Five and Alexa; nobody would take two teenagers without adult supervision seriously. They were denied entry to bars, given weird looks when they went to the grocery store and they couldn't even rent a hotel room because the minimum age limit to do so was eighteen (not to mention that neither of them had an ID or money.) They would've gone to their siblings for help (well, Alexa would've) had everyone not been in a similar predicament. Besides, when she suggested it, Five had flat-out refused:

"What, do you think those morons would have an easier time getting their lives together than us? You've already done it before— twice, I might add— more successfully than the others! And I'm a genius, so there's nothing we can't figure out together."

While she'd appreciated his sentiment, she knew it was coming from a place of pride and now wasn't a good time for his ego. She'd huffed in response: "well, we better get to figuring things out quickly or we're going be sleeping on the street."

Luckily, they found a solution as walked through the city. Amidst all the buildings with neon signs that boasted the Hargreeves name, there was a local library tucked away between the impressive structures. That was as good a place as any to start since the staff was used to seeing patrons of all ages; they wouldn't be bothered, kicked out or questioned as to why they were there.

They spent long hours reading up on both history (to see if they were still wanted for being a part of the Kennedy Seven— thankfully that part of the past seemed to be erased) and looking up what jobs were available to them. Alexa did most of the computer work seeing as Five wasn't very technologically advanced (sure, he could work a time-travelling briefcase, but it turned out that he had no idea how to rename a file.) She searched for their birth records and was relieved to find that, somehow, they did exist in this timeline (one Kugelblitz was enough for her, thank you.) That would at least make it easier to assimilate into adult life once they came of age.

Five preferred to be away from the children who ran around the library unattended and who didn't understand the concept of inside voices. Alexa— who had been around her noisy siblings longer than he had and then elementary-aged children for her job— didn't mind the noise at all (in fact, she couldn't stand dead silence.) So, because of their inclinations, they didn't spend much time together during those initial days. She knew that it was a necessary evil to make the most out of this new life (and that Five was used to being on his own, and that losing his power was harder on him than it was for her), but that didn't stop her from sending wistful glances towards the back corner of the library where her boyfriend was tucked away with a mountainous pile of books.

Whenever she needed a break, she would abandon her computer and go visit him. Each time she came by, it seemed like he'd collected more books, making almost a fortress around himself. She had no doubt that he'd read at least half of them. It usually took him a couple of minutes to notice that she was even there, which gave her time to admire his handsome features— especially when his brows were furrowed in concentration, the hunch of his shoulders as he read and how his hair flopped in front of his eyes as he bent his head.

Then something would make him look up and his features would smooth out— although there was always a little sign of stress that remained— as he saw her standing there. "Lexa."

Her heart skipped a beat as it always did when he said her name so fondly. She maneuvered carefully around his piles of books to get to the armchair he was sitting in. The blonde prodded his side lightly with her finger. "Scoot over."

He did as she asked, making a space large enough for her to squeeze into. It was a tight fit; her left leg was pressed against the side of the chair while her right was squished against her boyfriend's (not that she was complaining.) She scooted around a little, turning so she could comfortably curl up against his side. Resting her head on his shoulder, she peered at the pages he had open before him. "What are you reading?"

Five showed her the cover— some academic book about how to find a job— and asked, "how's your search going?"

She went limp against him, groaning in complaint. "did you know that literally every job asks for a fixed address and you have to be at least sixteen! It's like they don't want homeless kids applying for a job or something."

The corners of the boy's lips twitched upward in faint amusement. "We're not homeless, Lexa. And we're not kids, either."

Alexa waved a lazy arm around their surroundings. "We live in a library, Fi— and we don't even really live here! We're homeless."

"Not for much longer," he amended, his fingers tightening along the edges of the book. "Not if I can help it."

She tilted her head to look up at him, a bit surprised by the vehemence in his tone. Five's green eyes had turned as hard and flinty as a newly-cut emerald, the determination clear on his face. (It was a rather attractive look, if she were being honest, but she didn't know why he was so worked up about this. All of their siblings were homeless right now.)

But what Five wouldn't say was that he felt— at least somewhat— responsible for their situation. He'd failed her more times than he could count, yet she was still here. She still loved him and she hadn't left him, even though he deserved it. Now was the time he was going to make it up to her. He wanted to be the provider— the protector— that he never got to be. He needed to show her that he really meant to stay this time, and finding a safe place for them to start their lives was exactly what he would do.

☂︎ ☂︎ ☂︎

As much as Alexa loved books, there was only so much work she could stand before she had to do something else entirely. They were closing in on the end of their first week in this timeline and she could feel her concentration waning. Not only had she spent most of her time trying to find a solution for their situation, but the world tended to end within the first ten days that they arrived. She (ironically) felt like she was a child again: she couldn't sit still, her skin itched, there was a nagging voice in the back of her head that said her siblings were somehow in danger.

Even though she didn't have her powers of protection anymore, it still felt like she could sense any threats that might be around them. She didn't like being far from Five— more so than usual, anyway— and gave up her computer search to sit with him, at his feet on the library floor so she could keep an eye on him. He caught her rubbing her arms furiously one afternoon. Frowning at her apparent discomfort, he slid out of his suit jacket (no longer as cleanly pressed as it had once been) and offered it to her.

"Cold?" he asked, thinking that was why she was doing the motion.

While it wasn't the right answer, she still took the dress coat from him and put it on, relaxing as she felt the lingering warmth from his body wrap around her. "Not exactly. Antsy would describe it better. I keep thinking something is going to go wrong. And. . . and I can't sense anything anymore. I don't know if our siblings are in trouble, and if they were I couldn't help them. . ." She trailed off, feeling frustrated and helpless as she hoped her boyfriend would understand.

His expression softened and he patted the small cushion space next to him. "Come up here, Lexa." Once she had cuddled into his side and he'd put an arm around her, he sighed. "I know what you mean. I keep forgetting that I can't blink. The other day I tried it and I knocked over that pile of books." He pointed to a nearby stack he'd made. "We're getting close to the anniversary of our apocalypses, aren't we?"

She nodded. "If the world ends again, we won't even be able to do anything about it. We wouldn't be able to get our siblings together to even try."

"I don't think it's going to end this time," Five replied. "We existed in this timeline. Viktor doesn't have any powers. We're not wanted criminals. So far, all factors that contributed to the last apocalypses are accounted for."

"Yeah, except for dad," Alexa pointed out. "His name is on everything. That's not normal."

He gave her shoulders a comforting squeeze. "Don't go looking for things that aren't there, darling. You'll drive yourself crazy."

Some of her anxiety eased at the nickname. She snuggled closer to him, wrapping her arms around his waist. "Okay. . . okay, I'll try. I think I might take a nap."

The boy gave her a fond smile and leaned down to press his lips affectionately against her golden hair. "I'll keep watch."

☂︎ ☂︎ ☂︎

It was day eleven before Alexa finally let herself do something fun. The eve of the longest timeframe they'd had (the ten days in Dallas after Five had arrived) passed without so much as a hint of destruction. To celebrate, the blonde went over to the kids' arts and crafts table. She sat on the floor with the children who were already there and pulled a piece of plain printer paper towards herself and grabbed a few colors. Art had always eased her mind and she needed to take comfort in it now.

She was so absorbed in her creation that she didn't notice she'd attracted the attention of some of the kids who were working on their own projects. They were all younger than her, most in their early or mid-elementary school years. A girl with dark blonde hair watched her with curious gray eyes until she grew bold enough to sidle over to the teen.

"Are you drawing cheese?"

The question made Alexa jump; she hadn't expected anyone to talk to her. She looked at the young girl, who met her gaze with wide eyes. Then she looked at her drawing and dropped her orange pencil like it was made of fire. A half-formed Kugelblitz— mostly just explosions of orange, yellow and red— stared back at her. She hadn't even realized that was what she'd been drawing.

Alexa swallowed against her suddenly dry throat and tucked her shaking fingers into her lap. To take her mind off the shock of the image, she smiled at the girl. "I was thinking more along the lines of orange sherbet."

There was no point in telling a child that it was the end of the world. The girl crinkled her nose. "Sher. . . bet?"

"It's like ice cream but it's mostly fruit-flavored," she explained. "What are you drawing?"

The child excitedly pushed her picture towards Alexa. "It's a rainbow unicorn. It shoots rainbows out of its mouth and farts glitter. That's how it flies," she added seriously.

Alexa's lips twitched into an amused smile. "Does it have any other powers?"

The blonde shook her head. "No, but her favorite food is zombie brains. I'm Ava! What's your name?"

This is what I missed about kids, Alexa thought affectionately. They were so chaotic and fun— and not in the kind of way that brought about an apocalypse. She introduced herself: "I'm Alexa."

Ava's eyes lit up. "We have the same first letter!"

"We do," she agreed. "I've got more letters than you, though."

"I'm Jax," a brown-haired boy chimed in, warming up to her now that she was proving to be friendly. He pointed to the remaining girl. "That's Libby."

Alexa smiled at the kids. "What are you guys making?"

"A dinosaur!" Jax declared happily. Libby was more shy than the other two as she had yet to speak and held up her drawing of some stick figures so that only her eyes could be seen over the top of it.

The blonde studied their drawings for a moment before she complimented them, "you guys are really good artists! I can definitely see a dinosaur. And Libby, is that your family?"

As the quiet girl nodded, Jax leaned over the table. He ignore the pencils that were now pressing into his stomach as he looked at Alexa's drawing upside-down. "Why is yours so splotchy?"

"It's. . . abstract," she decided, making a mental note to throw the paper away as soon as possible.

"What's abstract?" This was Ava again, and Alexa could tell she was the sort of kid who asked 'why' just for the sake of it.

"It's a kind of drawing style," she said. "It's usually just a bunch of shapes and colors that are supposed to represent something. Like, maybe, your dinosaur would be a green blob with triangles to represent the teeth."

Jax frowned. "Then how do you know what anything is?"

"You use your imagination," Alexa told him. "If I hadn't said that this was sherbet, what would you think it was?"

"Swiss cheese that's on fire," he stated plainly.

She couldn't help it; she started to giggle at the absurd image. As she laughed, Alexa realized how much she'd missed teaching. Kids were more creative than most adults gave them credit for. Jax and Ava giggled too, but they were clearly doing it just because she was, not because they knew what was funny. Once her mirth had subsided, she nodded at him. "That's a great interpretation. My favorite thing about abstract art is that every meaning is right."

The kids stayed for another hour or so, talking about art and other things as they colored. Ava even asked for her help in drawing a picture that she could color, "like my own coloring book!" she'd said, and Alexa had been happy to fulfill her request. Then Jax had asked for a picture, too (once again of a dinosaur.) She was so absorbed in spending time with the children that she didn't notice she was being watched by one of the librarians. It was only after she was alone (and had tossed her drawing of the Kugelblitz in the trash) that the older woman approached her.

"You were really great with those kids," she said.

Alexa turned towards her, a bit startled at the sudden conversation (after being one of the last thirteen people in the world by the time the Kugelblitz hit, being surrounded by normal, common citizens again was taking some getting used to.) She noticed the woman's name tag (Beth) and knew she was a part of the staff. (The old childhood fear of being caught by authority still lingered and she hoped that she wasn't in trouble.) "Oh. . . um, thanks."

"I saw your art, too. It's a shame that you threw it out."

The blonde shifted uncomfortably. "Um. . . yeah. I didn't like it."

Beth seemed to take an assessment of her character before she offered, "you know, we could really use someone like you here. We've been trying to get a kid's art program off the ground— nothing fancy, just something creative that they could do— but we don't have anyone to run it. If you were interested, I could talk to someone about getting you a job here. You'd have a few other responsibilities, of course, but that would be the main one."

Alexa's expression brightened. "Really? I could teach?" She backtracked quickly. "I'm only fifteen, though. I've been trying to look for a job and most people want someone who's older."

"This is a library, not a corporation," Beth answered. "We'd rather have someone closer to the children's ages so they feel at ease. You could relate to them more than someone older."

"There's. . . one other thing," she admitted reluctantly. "I don't have a fixed home address."

The librarian's smile became sympathetic. "I know that this is none of my business, but is it because you've got a tough home life?"

Try more like no home life. But Alexa decided it would be best to let the woman believe what she wanted to believe. "Yes."

Beth nodded. "I thought it was something like that. I've seen you and that boy you're with almost every day, all day. Yours is not the first situation I've experienced like that. We can help you."

She hesitated, not wanting to ask too much of the opportunity that had just presented itself. "Would. . . my boyfriend be able to get a job here, too? He doesn't like kids much, I don't think. Maybe something to do with the inventory? He's really good with numbers."

The older woman considered her request. "I'll see what I can do."

Alexa returned to Five triumphantly, beaming at him as she informed him brightly: "I got us both jobs!"

He looked up from his book and smiled fondly at her. "I knew there was a reason why I kept you around."

She stepped around his books to get closer to him. As he lifted his head to look up at her, she bent over and closed the distance between them to kiss him sweetly on the lips. When she pulled away, she replied teasingly, "you love me."

He leaned forward to give her another peck and murmured, "that I do."

☂︎ ☂︎ ☂︎

A few weeks later, Alexa and Five had settled into their new routine a little more. While her boyfriend was having a harder time at being normal than she was, it had certainly become easier now that they had jobs. Granted, jobs that paid minimum wage (she cursed her father for that— he'd reset the entire fucking universe and he couldn't have made minimum wage a little higher?) but it was still a job.

Her skin still ran with the ghostly imprint of prickles every now and then, warning her of non-existent danger. Sometimes she couldn't fight the urge and abandoned her task (as long as she wasn't dealing with kids) to go find her boyfriend and make sure he was alright (he always was.) That at least helped to ease the nagging in her mind that her siblings were in trouble. They hadn't heard anything from the others since they'd abandoned each other so she had no idea if they were okay or not. At least she could check up on Five to reduce her ingrained protective instinct. She knew it would never go away completely— nature versus nurture and all that— but it made it more manageable.

That much was made clear one day as they neared their third week. She'd been putting away some new pamphlets that the library had gotten in when the red, white and blue colors of her country caught her eye. It was a brochure advertising the CIA, with the trademark symbol of an eagle and a shield on it. The shield caught her attention the most as it reminded her of the bright blue ones she used to be able to produce. Her fingers twitched in response, impulse making her try to bring them into existence (nothing happened, of course.)

The words were what made her take a second look: safeguarding the secrets that help keep our Nation safe. We are the Nation's first line of defense.

SAFE.

DEFENSE.

PROTECTION.

That was her specialty. Or, at least, it used to be. The words jumped out at her, catching her interest. She knew it was nearly impossible to get into the CIA unless you knew somebody or had a particular talent that they were looking for, but something inside of her said this was it. This was how she could continue to protect her siblings, even when they were states or continents apart. And Alexa did have a special talent: she was good at making things happen.

She'd forged a life for herself after the Umbrella Academy disbanded, hadn't she? And with no real social experience at that! She'd graduated college, become a teacher. In the 60s, she'd managed to get a job even without identification and had found a place to live. Now, in this timeline, she'd been able to do the same. Who was to say that getting into the CIA would be impossible for her?

Sure, it was a one-eighty from being an art teacher, but she'd rather make sure that her siblings were safe in this unknown timeline than do something that she really loved. Besides, she could always do art on the side. A plan began to form in her mind as the next few years began to lay themselves out in neat order.

When she sat down with Five at their lunch break that day, she put her plan into action. Alexa studied her boyfriend across the table, taking in his handsome but haggard features— weeks without a real home were wearing on both of them. She tried to guess what he would say to her proposition, but for the life of her couldn't get a read on him; it really could go either way: he could be super supportive or be an ass and insist that it was outside of her capabilities. So, she began hesitantly: "Fi, there's something I want to talk to you about, but I need you to promise me that you won't laugh when I tell you."

He looked up from the book he was reading to see the serious expression on her face. The brunet put a clean napkin in the book to mark the page he was on and closed it to give her his full attention. "Of course I won't laugh, Lexa. Your ideas aren't nearly half as moronic as what constitutes a thought from our siblings."

"Thanks," she replied dryly. "Anyway, I really mean it. I think I know what I want to do for the next few years— that's not a library job. It's not really in my skillset— or, well it kind of is, but not like how it was before—"

Five's expression softened as the blonde began to ramble nervously. He reached across the table to take her hand, giving it an affectionate squeeze to ease her anxiety. "Lexa, just tell me. If it's something that I think you can't do, or learn how to do, you know I'll say so. But I won't laugh."

"Right," she said, taking a deep breath. "Well, here goes: I want to join the CIA."

Her boyfriend stared at her and didn't speak for several long moments. She watched him worriedly, anticipating his response. He must think that this was a really stupid idea if he hadn't said anything yet— he was probably coming up with an epic snarky remark that would make her wonder why she ever thought she could achieve something like that in the first place.

Finally, he reacted, and it wasn't anything that she had imagined: he stood up sharply from his chair, his face an indiscernible mask. Her gaze followed the motion. "Fi?"

"Stand up."

Alexa's skin prickled, but this time in a good way. That was his authoritative, 'don't question me' voice. So, she did as he said. Still a little mystified, she let him lead her by the wrist out of the break room. He made a beeline for a quiet corner of the library where no one usually went. Once they got there, he wasted no time in pushing her gently against the bookshelf so that her back was pressed against the spines of the novels behind her. He didn't give her a chance to question his motives; all she got was a glimpse of dark, heated green eyes before his lips were on hers.

She let out a squeak of surprise but quickly welcomed the kiss, her hands coming up to grasp the lapels of his suit jacket to keep him close. She could feel the heat of Five's body pressing against her as his hands moved decidedly away from her waist. While she normally wouldn't have minded a heated make-out session with her boyfriend (even the public area wasn't the problem), she had just delivered significant news that he had yet to respond to. So, with a great amount of self-control, she slid her fingers between them so his lips pressed against them instead.

Noticing the change, Five pulled away, but only marginally. It took every ounce of restraint that she possessed to not go right back to kissing him at the passionate look he was giving her. Her words came out more breathlessly than usually when she spoke: "Fi. . . I'm not complaining, but I need to know what you think about what I said."

"Wasn't it obvious?" he asked, his voice lower than it normally was, his head tilted towards hers so that their noses brushed. "I was picturing what you would look like in a suit. You'd be lucky if I let you leave the house like that."

The blonde felt her face heat up, though she was pleased that he seemed keen on the idea. "So. . . you think I could do it?"

Five gave her a look that implied she should already know the answer. "I know you can do it. Now, can we get back to what we were doing?"

"Really? Here?"

"Where else?"

Well, she couldn't argue with that logic. But she still pointed at him sternly and warned him: "if anyone catches us, you are so dead."

--

Luckily, they weren't caught, and as Five was tucking his shirt back into his pants, he gave a more verbal opinion: "Lexa, don't get me wrong— I think you'd make a super-hot, badass agent— but I don't really see you as a company woman. That's more my style, isn't it?" He sounded a little bitter about this, as if he still couldn't believe that his other self had built the Commission. "Wouldn't it make more sense if I joined the CIA? I know you were looking forward to doing something that you love."

"I thought you wanted retirement," Alexa pointed out as she adjusted her skirt. "Joining the CIA is kind of the opposite of that. And besides, I would be doing something I love: protecting our siblings."

"I do," the boy replied, in response to the retirement part. "Trust me, I do. But bureaucracy isn't something you're used to. Besides, what am I supposed to do when you're at work all day?"

She smiled at him fondly, reaching up to fix some of the hair that had fallen out of place as she'd run her fingers through it while they'd been kissing. "Well, I know the answer to that: be my trophy boyfriend."

He arched a brow at that, repeating incredulously, "trophy boyfriend? And here I thought you liked me for my intelligence."

"Nah," Alexa said easily. As Five walked by her, she playfully smacked him on the butt. He turned around in surprise, but then gave her a wolfish smile in return. "That's just an asset. Don't you know I'm only with you for your body?"

He rolled his eyes at her teasing, turning his head away to hide the faint redness of his ears. They'd never really had the opportunity to be domestic and while he certainly could get used to it (and quite liked this relaxed, flirty side of his girlfriend), he wasn't over the adjustment period yet. He trailed after her, muttering lightheartedly to himself, "well, I do now."

☂︎ ☂︎ ☂︎

[ the second year ]

"Why do you want to work for the CIA?" the interviewer asked Alexa. They were sitting in a barren room that was completely devoid of color, without even a single piece of art on the walls.

She was dressed as professionally as she could manage considering she and Five would still be counted as a low-income family. She rubbed her arms— a habit that she was apparently picking up due to the absence of her power. "Protecting people is important to me. Growing up, my father ingrained in me a sense of duty; if I could do things that others couldn't, I should put those skills to use. If I was a part of the CIA, I could share in something that was bigger than myself and work with others who have similar aspirations. . ."

Sometime later after they'd thoroughly discussed a few more questions, the interviewer asked, "how well do you cope with stress?"

Alexa almost laughed, but she was able to keep her composure. "Very well. When I was younger, I was in a lot of high-stress situations and did my best to pull my weight. . ."

"Tell me about a time when you had a disagreement within a team. How did you resolve it?" the interviewer questioned her as they neared the end of their discussion.

"I have six siblings," the blonde informed him. "We argue a lot. Most of the time we can't even decide what topping to put on a pizza but we do, eventually, decide. I'm usually the one who helps them come to a compromise— it's the main reason why none of us have murdered the others yet." The man's face remained impassive as he jotted something down. She realized that might not have been the best response and laughed a little nervously. "Figuratively speaking, of course. We'd never actually kill each other. . ."

☂︎ ☂︎ ☂︎

[ the third year ]

As usual, Five had been right: adjusting to bureaucracy hadn't been easy, especially as a woman in a male-dominated field. Alexa was aware of the looks she got from some of her coworkers. More than a few times she'd had to subtly put her self-defense skills to work so that her colleagues would keep their hands to themselves (even those who put their hands absentmindedly on the small of her back made her skin crawl.) She refused to tell her boyfriend about these instances since him going on a murderous rage in her place of employment would surely get her fired. They really didn't need that, especially since they now had a small apartment to upkeep.

It wasn't all bad, though. Being a low-level intern was difficult, sure, but most of the other interns treated her with respect or ignored her entirely, which was better than the other option. She took advantage of every opportunity she had to impress her superiors as she wanted— needed— to be in a position of power to protect her siblings. At least she had access to resources to find them, now.

Luther, Diego and Lila had stayed in the city. Ben had gone overseas to do something in banking, gotten caught up in a scam and was now in prison (which only proved her reasoning for taking this job: her siblings needed help.) Allison lived in the suburbs with Claire and her husband from the sixties (who was somehow in this timeline— Alexa hypothesized that she had changed the universe to her will when she pushed the button in Hotel Oblivion), Ray. Klaus lived in her basement. Viktor had moved up north to Canada, probably to get away from his crazy siblings. Knowing where her family was helped to ease the anxious itch her lack of powers created. It made it easier to focus on her job, even if the tasks that the more advanced agents gave her were mundane.

The interns sometimes got to stand in on their superiors' meetings as long as the information wasn't classified. They were there to observe— speaking was forbidden; the only sound they were permitted to make was their pen scratching against the paper as they took notes. While this was slightly more interesting than pushing papers, Alexa always dreaded the halfway mark of these meetings when the more experienced agents would take a break for lunch.

Their main boss, Joel, would come over to the interns, but to her specifically. He would give her the same condescending smile every time as he held out a slip of paper to her. "Our lunch order, sweetheart. And make sure you get it right this time— I like extra mayo on my sausage sandwich."

He gave her a wolfish grin— as if his innuendo wasn't immediately obvious— that was nowhere near as attractive as Five's. She snatched the paper from him, swallowing down the disgust that filled her throat with acid. Neither of them moved after that; Joel was clearly waiting for her to leave first (to stare after her in a way that would count as workplace harassment.) Alexa knew better and stayed rooted in her spot.

The other interns were all concerned for their own positions so she understood why they never spoke up for her (even if it wasn't right.) It was the same reason why she didn't say anything: her job was too important to risk. But this time— maybe because of Joel's blatant sexism— one of the interns did speak up. He had platinum blond hair and wore thick-framed glasses; she'd seen him around the office but had never talked to him. Now, he took the list from her, calmly prying it from her vicelike grip. "It looks like there's a lot more orders on here than usual. I'll go with her; she could probably use the help."

"No, Derek," Joel told him, his attention finally leaving Alexa. "Tim wanted to meet with you about the that Nightfall case."

"Well, tell him I'll be there right after I help pick up the lunch order. He can wait twenty minutes," the man— Derek— replied. He turned to her. "Come on. You go ahead— I'll be right behind you."

She gave him a slightly surprised look since he clearly knew why he should be behind her, then her expression became grateful. Taking a wide berth around Joel, she went out to the hallway as Derek followed in her footsteps. Once they were out of earshot of their boss, she said, "thank you. You didn't have to do that."

"Well, no one else was going to be decent," he answered with a shrug. "That was the most obvious come-on I've ever been an unfortunate witness to. Is he always like that with you?"

Alexa grimaced as they made their way towards the building's exit. "Yeah. Every time I think I'm ready to expect it, he gets to another level of gross."

The blond gave her a sympathetic smile. "I get why you don't report it but you should at least tell someone in case— God forbid— something worse happens."

"Well, now you know," she pointed out. "And you don't really have to come pick up lunch with me, by the way. That meeting sounded important."

"It sounded like it could've been an email," he corrected her. "And no way, I'm coming with. I'm sick of eating donuts and egg salad sandwiches every day." He paused, then added, "I don't think we've properly met. I'm Derek."

She shook his offered hand, a bit awkwardly since they were still walking towards the doors. "Alexa. So, how long have you been here? I think you were already an intern when I joined. . ."

Their conversation flowed easily as they finally got to the main doors and stepped out into the bright sunlight.

A/n: Here we go!

Although admittedly not the triumphant return I was hoping for (screw you s4), but here we are! As you can tell, I'm definitely going to be changing up what's considered canon this season (ABSOLUTELY NO FIVE AND LILA - what the HELL was that?!?!?!?) And don't worry, guys; I'm not going to give the disappearing treatment to Deianira! I have something planned for her and Sloane coming up. Also, Ray WON'T be leaving Allison since he's not the kind of person to do that. 

I know it might be a bit of an odd choice to have Alexa work at the CIA, but she was always going to do something slightly out of character like that this season. One of the things that annoyed me the most was that we didn't get any content of the 6-year time jump, so that's what these first several chapters will be about. I want to explore what the Hargreeves are like without their powers, Alexa included. Since Reginald had impressed upon her the importance of keeping her siblings safe, that's going to be a really big thing for her now that she doesn't have her invulnerability and shields. (Fun fact: before I knew about the CIA plot, I was going to have her run an underground organization that was kind of like the Keepers with the same purpose of keeping her family safe.)

The CIA arc is also going to be different with Alexa being there instead of Five. I really think they could've used that better. (I mean, COME ON!!! IT'S FIVE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!! How did he not notice the umbrella tattoo on the director's wrist?) Plus Derek was a totally flat character that was Just There™ so I wanted him to have a bigger role here. I have a totally different ending in store (which was the one good thing about the way s4 ended— I don't mind changing it since it sucked) where everyone lives and nobody dies :)

I cut the chapter off here since it was getting pretty long, but obviously it doesn't cover all 6 years. The timeline I've come up with might be a little confusing, so hopefully this explanation helps:

1. (This chapter) lays the groundwork for Alexa/Five establishing themselves in this timeline

2. Goes over what the rest of the family is doing at the same time

3. Focuses on Alexa's relationship with her nieces/nephews and siblings

4. Christmas chapter!!!

5. Throughout the years from Five's POV

All of these take place congruently. For example, something that happens in 'the first year' in this chapter takes place BEFORE 'the first year' in the next chapter and so on.

The only bad news is that I'm STRUGGLING with these chapters since there's so much I want to change. I keep second guessing everything I write because I'm afraid that it will be as bad as s4 was (I want to try to fix as many of the plot holes as I can and I don't know if in doing so I'll make it better or worse.) My one consolation is that I know it will be at least marginally better than s4 since Five/Lila will never exist, lol.