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❛ ᴡᴀsᴛᴇʟᴀɴᴅs ᴏғ ᴛɪᴍᴇ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ғɪʀsᴛ-ᴄʟᴀss ᴘʀɪᴏʀɪᴛɪᴇs ꒱


❝ MAKE SURE THE KIDS
DON'T WANDER OFF ❞

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Wednesday, 8:15 a.m. (again)

"Klaus, shockingly, has a point. What gives us a win this time?" Diego asked his assembled siblings (minus Five and Vanya). Before anyone could answer, blue electricity crackled in the air and two bodies fell out onto the bar table. Five landed heavily on top of a brunette girl.

"Je-Jesus!" Allison exclaimed as she stumbled backwards.

"You guys, am I still high, or do you see them too?" Klaus asked.

Dolores groaned, her face nearly glued to the black box underneath her. "Five, get off me."

"Five, where have you been?" Luther demanded, talking over the girl.

Five climbed off the table and slid to the floor, the impact jarring him slightly. Dolores closed her eyes for a moment, wishing she could sleep for a few minutes on top of the briefcase. With a sigh, she sat up, wincing and rubbing her face. Glancing down at the floor, the jump seemed farther away than it was supposed to and she braced herself, crashing straight into her husband who caught her quickly and gave her a worried look.

Before he could pry into her wellbeing, though, Allison ran forward to help steady the brunette. Alarm was evident in her tone as she questioned them worriedly, "are you alright?"

Even Luther was surprised at the ungraceful landing. "Who did this?"

"Irrelevant," Five answered sharply, unwilling to have his siblings pester Dolores about her health before even he knew. He took Allison's coffee from her hand and downed it quickly.

"So, the apocalypse is in three days," he began as the brunette straightened beside him. "The only chance we have to save our world is, well, us."

"The Umbrella Academy."

"Yeah, but with me and Dolores, obviously. So if y'all don't get your sideshow acts together and get over yourselves, we're screwed. Who cares if Dad messed us up? Are we gonna let that define us? No. And to give us a fighting chance to see next week, we've come back with a lead." He held up the paper. "We know who's responsible for the apocalypse." Allison took the paper from him and unfolded it as he explained: "this is who we have to stop."

"Harold Jenkins?" she read, while Diego chimed in, "who the hell is Harold Jenkins?"

"I don't know yet, but I do know that he's responsible for the apocalypse, so we have to find him and we have to do it now," the boy answered as he threw the empty coffee cup across the room.

"How is he connected to what's gonna happen?" Luther asked.

"I don't know."

"Wait, so you just got his name?" Diego wondered. He stepped forward. "That's it?"

"That's enough," Five answered shortly.

"There's probably dozens of Harold Jenkinses in the city!"

"Well, we better start looking then."

"I'm sorry, am I the only one that's skeptical here?" Allison protested, looking around at the group. "I mean, how exactly do you know all this about what's-his-name?"

"Harold Jenkins," Five replied promptly. "You know those lunatics in masks who attacked the house?"

"Oh, yeah, I think I remember those guys," Klaus agreed from his seat on the couch as he scratched the back of his neck.

Dolores sent him a sympathetic look; the glimpse she'd gotten from her memories hadn't been pleasant. Her attention returned to the group as Diego grumbled, "yeah, the ones that attacked us while you two were getting drunk."

"Yeah, them. They were sent to stop us from coming back and preventing the end of life on Earth."

"The Temps what?" Allison asked, crossing her arms.

"Our former employer," the brunette put in helpfully. "They monitor all of time and space to make sure whatever is supposed to happen, happens."

"Exactly," Five said with a nod. "They believe the apocalypse is coming in three days so I went to Commission headquarters and intercepted a message that was meant for said lunatics— 'Protect Harold Jenkins'— so he must be responsible for the apocalypse."

There was a heartbeat of silence where Dolores thought everyone had processed what they said. She shouldn't have hoped for such an easy route, though, as they all started talking at once. Allison's voice rose above the rest: "do you have any idea how insane this sounds?"

Sighing, the brunette buried her face in her hands, not having the energy to deal with Five's dysfunctional siblings. The pressure was on them to save the world with only three days left and now they had the name of the man responsible. All she wanted to do was just go. Sitting around and talking wasn't going to help and the myriad of protests were giving her another headache.

"You know what else is insane?" Five was saying as he pointed to himself. "Dolores and I look like fifteen-year-olds, Klaus talks to the dead and Luther thinks he's fooling everyone with that overcoat. Everything about us is insane. It always has been."

"He's got a point there," Klaus agreed.

"We didn't choose this life, we're just living it," he told them firmly, "for the next three days, anyway."

"But the last time we tried to stop it, we all died," his sister pointed out. "Why is this time any different? Why shouldn't I go home to my daughter?"

"Because this time we're here. We have the name of the man responsible. Guys, we actually have the chance of saving billions of people." He looked at Allison. "Including Claire."

"You know her name?" she asked in surprise.

"I do," he nodded, "and I'd like to live long enough to meet her."

Allison paused for a moment to think before a look of determination entered her eyes. "Alright. Let's get this bastard."

"You had me at Gerald Jenkins," Diego added.

"Harold Jenkins," Dolores corrected him. She lowered her hands by her sides as she straightened her shoulders, finally preparing to go. Immediately, she winced. Bad idea.

"Whatever. I've already lost two people this week. I'm not losing anyone else," he declared as he headed for the archway and to the door.

Five looked to his brother. "And Luther?"

"Yeah, you guys go," he answered. "I'm gonna stay behind and go through dad's files. I still think this has something to do with why he sent me to the moon."

"Seriously?" the brunette grumbled, earning a glare from the larger man.

Diego echoed her disbelief: "now you wanna make the end of the world about you and dad?"

"No. 'Watch for threats.' That's what he told me," Luther said defensively. "You think that's a coincidence? This all has to be connected somehow."

Allison tried to convince him otherwise and placed a gentle hand on his arm. "No, we should all stick together."

"We don't have time for this," Five grumbled.

"Let's roll. I know where we can find this asshole. Klaus, you're with me," Diego told him decisively, jerking his head towards the door.

"Yeah. I. . . I'm good. I think I'll, uh—" The man stood up, wobbling slightly as he did so. "I think I'll pass. I'm feeling a little under the weather, so. . ." His voice faded as he left the room.

Diego shrugged at his departure and the four of them filed out of the room and headed for the car.

✧✧✧

The car ride was awkward at best, with Diego and Allison being the siblings Dolores had least interacted with. The motion of the driving vehicle didn't help much either and she kept her eyes closed for most of the time, praying she wouldn't act on the nauseous feeling in her stomach. If she showed signs of discomfort, it would distract Five from the mission. She could pull through. She had to.

They pulled up to the police station and Diego parked the car as he said, "I know this Jenkins dude has to have a record. We just gotta get our hands on his file."

"And your plan is to, what?" Allison asked, "waltz in there and ask for it?"

Her brother looked up into the rearview mirror to watch the off-duty policemen who were standing around and drinking coffee as they talked. "I know the station like the back of my hand, sis. I've spent a lot of time inside."

"Handcuffed."

"Whatever. Here's the plan—"

"Plan?" Five interrupted him, furrowing his brows. "I'm just gonna blink in and get the file."

"No, that's not. . ." Diego trailed off. "You don't know the ins and outs of this place, okay?"

"I literally just did this yesterday."

The dark-haired man turned to look at him, confused. "What?"

"Our yesterday, not your yesterday," he explained. "It'll take me two seconds. Why can't I just go?"

"Listen to me," Diego answered, turning around to look at his brother better. "You aren't going in there. I made a call. That's what a leader does: he leads."

Dolores blinked drowsily. "I thought that was Luther."

"Yeah, well, Monkey-man isn't here," he told her. "Just stay put. Allison, you're the babysitter in charge, okay? Make sure the kids don't wander off."

Five's face twisted into an expression of anger as Diego unbuckled and got out of the car. "I'm not a kid!" he protested furiously after him. A small laugh next to him caused the boy to turn and glower at the brunette, though the anger wasn't directed at her. "It's not funny."

Dolores couldn't help the smile that curved on her lips. "It is a little bit."

"It is not."

"I can't stay in this car any longer," Allison said after her brother had disappeared. "I need to call Vanya."

"Same here," Five agreed. He opened the door and slid out. He blinked over to the passenger's side and opened Dolores' for her.

The brunette climbed out and winced slightly as she bent to avoid hitting her head on the frame. The boy gave her a suspicious look though she pretended not to see it as the three of them made their way to the payphone. Allison made a beeline for it, inserting coins into the slot. Before she dialed the number, though, she turned to look at the two teens. "Don't move," she told them sternly before she turned back to the phone.

Five huffed in irritation and opened his mouth to complain about it loudly, but he froze as he watched Dolores lean slowly against the wall of the building. Her right arm was wrapped around her waist as her fingers disappeared into the fold of the jacket.

"Dolly?"

"Mmm?"

"Are you okay?" His tone had taken on the suspicion his eyes had held.

She opened her eyes to meet his, trying to appear innocent. "Right as rain. Why?"

His expression hardened at her answer. "You ducked in front of me as we left. You couldn't have escaped unscathed."

"Maybe I'm just lucky," she told him lightly, hoping the guilt from her lie wouldn't creep into her voice.

He gave her a disbelieving look. "There were shards flying everywhere. It's almost impossible for them to have missed you."

"We disappeared at just the right time." She shrugged and ignored the twinge it sent up her side. "We have really good timing."

He looked exceptionally displeased with her response, though he had to drop the subject for the time being as Diego had reappeared. Five faced him. "So?"

"You're welcome," he said, handing the boy a file.

Allison, finished with her call and joined them. She snatched it out of her brother's hand and opened it. She flipped through it quickly, stopping as she came on a photo of the man and her eyes widened. "Holy shit."

"What?"

"Harold Jenkins is Leonard Peabody."

✧✧✧

"Be careful, okay?" Allison said as the quartet exited the car and began to walk towards Jenkins's house. "We don't know what Peabody's capable of."

"Yeah, he didn't seem dangerous when I first saw him," Diego retorted. "He looked kinda scrawny."

"Yeah, well, so are most serial killers and mass murderers. I mean, look at him." Allison gestured to Five.

"Thanks," the boy answered, unaffected.

As they made their way up the porch steps, Diego asked, "so, what does this guy want with Vanya?"

"I don't know. How about we ask him after we kill him?" Five answered sarcastically.

"Whoa, whoa." His brother paused, holding out his hand to signal for quiet. "Hey, look. I'm gonna burst through. . ." He trailed off as he realized Allison had disappeared. "You know what? It would be nice for people just to stick to—"

That was all Dolores had heard as Five grabbed her hands and blinked them inside the house. They heard an explosion of glass from the front door and went to see what had happened, which turned out to be Diego following through with his plan. He collapsed in a heap on the ground, groaning in pain.

"Subtle," his sister said, staring down at him as she walked in.

Five reached over and twisted the knob, allowing the door to open. "You know, the door was unlocked."

Diego got to his feet slowly and shook off the glass that had scattered around him. "Yeah, well, my way works just fine." He pulled a knife out of its sheath. "Spread out. Yell if, you know, you're in trouble."

"Ah, inspiring leadership," the boy said with a roll of his eyes.

"One of the greats," Allison agreed in the same tone.

"Come on, Dolly."

Dolores followed her husband into the living room. There was nothing about it that screamed I'm about to end the world. It was rather standard with a couch, a coffee table, TV, and a bookshelf with dusty books. It could have been anyone's home.

"Why are we still here if he's not?" she asked, trying to not let the exhaustion she was feeling creep into her voice.

"We're looking for clues, Dol," he reminded her.

"Like what?"

Five shrugged. "We'll know it when we see it."

The brunette stood in the middle of the room as Five poked around. Even if this man did happen to be a serial killer or something, it felt odd to invade his privacy. It was then that she realized she'd never been to another person's house.

A part of her wondered if this realization came with the blood loss she was currently facing, but the larger part was suddenly very concerned about this fact. The only other house she'd ever inside was the Academy and that wasn't really a house. Growing up without friends or much of a social life meant that she'd had no other reason to go to someone else's home. With the exception of The Commission— which she didn't think counted, anyway— she'd only ever been inside two homes. This seemed important for some reason.

She was abruptly pulled from her unfocused thoughts as Allison called: "guys, you need to see this!" from somewhere upstairs.

Diego fell into step beside them as they headed up to where Allison was. The attic door was open and the ladder was down, so they took turns climbing up into the dimly-lit space. Allison was standing in front of a cabinet where posters and photos of The Umbrella Academy were displayed, but it wasn't any sort of trophy case Dolores had ever seen. On the paper images, the siblings' eyes were scratched out, while on the figurines, their faces were melted off. She shivered slightly and wrapped her arms around herself. This very much had an 'end of the world' feeling.

Found it, she thought groggily.

"All of our face are burnt off." Allison pointed out the obvious as she stared at the figurines in disgust.

"Well, that's not creepy. This guy's got some serious issues," Diego agreed as he peered over his sister's shoulder.

Dolores attempted to take a step forward, hoping to push past the two taller siblings that now stood in front of her view point but as her foot lifted, the room swam suddenly in front of her. Maybe climbing a ladder hadn't been a good idea. She set her foot down, though that didn't help the fuzzy black spots that entered her vision. "Shit," she breathed out as her arm tightened around her stomach.

At the quiet sound, Five turned away from the grotesque shrine, his brows furrowed as he glanced at her in concern. Allison continued to observe the display. "This was never about Vanya. This was about us."

The boy ignored her, choosing to, instead, reach out for his very pale-faced wife who seemed to be having trouble breathing. Their eyes met and he saw a flash of an apology, followed by guilt, go through them before they closed and her legs gave out from under her. Alarm coursed through him as she toppled and he leapt to catch her, lowering the girl gently to the ground before she made contact with it. His pulse pounded through him as blood roared in his ears, blocking out most thoughts except the ones that focused on his wife.

"Dolly?" he asked, shaking her. His voice was higher-pitched than he remembered it being as something akin to panic caused his throat to close and make words hard to come by. "Dolly?" he asked again, his voice nearly frantic as he shook her. "You said you didn't get hurt!" he protested accusingly to the unconscious girl in his lap. "You said we made it out in time!"

Allison and Diego watched with surprise as their normally composed brother became frantic at the sight of the brunette girl lying still on the floor. It was only when she heard the crack in his voice did Allison shake herself out of her shock and bend down to be level with the boy, making sure to gentle her tone as she tried to get his attention. "Five, hey— Five." He looked at her, his eyes wide and glassy in a way she'd never seen them before. "She's going to be okay, alright? I'm just going to—"

She reached out to lift the brunette's jacket to see what was going on underneath, but Five's hand flashed out and caught her wrist in a vice-like grip as his eyes flashed with anger. His tone had gone from high-pitched and nearly breathless to a low snarl in a second: "don't touch her."

"I'm just trying to—"

"I don't need your help," he all but growled at her. "We're just fine on our own."

With wide eyes, Allison nodded and he released her hand, allowing her to retract it and stand up again. Trying to take on the role of leader, Diego cleared his throat and said authoritatively, "right. We need to get her back to the house. Five, if you could just—"

He had begun to say let me pick her up, but the boy was heedless of his words and gathered the girl into his arms before he disappeared in a flash of blue. Diego sighed.

✧✧✧

It took Five four jumps to return to the Academy, partly because of his extra passenger but mostly because the weight of Dolores in his arms had thrown his whole world off its axis and he could hardly get his mind to focus on the final destination. All he could think about was that she'd broken her promise not to get hurt.

She couldn't have forgotten it so the only answer was that she'd gone against her word, but even then he couldn't blame her. He was to blame. He'd seen that she hadn't been "right as rain" as she'd claimed, yet hadn't pressed her hard enough to find out the cause of the issue. Now, she was lying unconscious in his arms and it was all his fault.

A final jump landed them in the infirmary of the Academy, a place where he and his siblings had spent quite a bit of time in growing up— even more so than most children. As reluctant as he was to part with her, fixing her was more important, so he carefully laid her down on the medical table. They'd patched each other up more times than he could count over the years, first with the limited medical supplies in the apocalypse and then whatever The Commission had to offer whenever he (rarely) returned from a mission injured, so he knew what to do. The silence in the room as deafening with Dolores' light breaths barely making a sound despite the fact he was working right above her.

The first task was to remove her clothes from the spot covering the wound, so he carefully maneuvered her out of the Academy jacket, which he tossed on the floor next to him. Then, Five used a pair of surgical scissors to cut through the strap of the overall-dress to open it, laying the flap of fabric on her non-injured side. His hands slipped on the lower buttons of her shirt and only then did he realize that they were shaking.

As the constant in his equation, Dolores' safety had always, always been his top priority. Even when he'd been trying to spare her the effects The Commission had on him, she'd been the single point of consistency in whatever the world had thrown at them and now he hardly knew what he'd do without her.

Shaking his head to focus on the task, he finally managed to undo the last necessary button to pull the fabric away from her skin and he sucked in a quiet breath at the sight of the wound. While blood had never affected him as violently as it had for his wife (how could it, with the way his life had turned out?), the sight of so much visible on her made his stomach clench at the reminder of how poorly he'd lived up to his personal promise.

Telling himself that it couldn't be as bad as it looked, he poured antiseptic on a clean cloth and began to wipe around the area where the shrapnel had entered her side since he needed to be able to see the wound before he could stitch it up. (How he would with unsteady hands was a problem he'd solve once he got to it.) The cloth soon turned pink from the residue around the injury, but despite the color he continued to painstakingly clean the area.

Five was so focused on his task that he didn't notice another person— being— enter the room, though he would have been hard-pressed in any normal circumstance as Grace never made much noise anyway. He did startle when a cool hand rested lightly on his shoulder and he turned. His eyes flashed dangerously at the intruder as his free hand went to the surgical scissors to convert them into weaponry.

Grace remained unaffected by the violent startle she'd given the boy and waited patiently for the recognition to dawn on his features, which it did a moment later. Smiling serenely at him, she nodded to the brunette girl on the bed. "Go on, dear. I'll take care of her."

He didn't go right away, uncertain as to whether he could trust her with someone so important (he'd always doubted Grace's capabilities even in childhood), but as he looked down at the scissors in his hand, he could see the soft movement they were making even when he was making an intentional effort to hold his hands still. Five turned to look at his wife laying on the table and the twist in his stomach returned as he took in her still, paler-than-normal features. For someone who was usually so animated, full of opinions and rarely rested, it was surreal to see her lying so motionless in a way that obviously wasn't sleep. Then, uncharacteristically, he turned back to Grace and sought for reassurance: "will she be okay?"

The woman's features remained soft and pleasant as she smiled gently at him. "Of course. I'll patch her up, good as new."

With that, the boy gave a jerky sort of nod in acceptance and turned on his heel, leaving the room without looking back. He knew any sort of drawn-out departure would ensure he'd stay.

✧✧✧

After leaving the infirmary, Five paced anxiously in the hall for what felt like several long minutes but was, in reality, only a handful of seconds. Unable to take the uncertainty, he abruptly turned and changed direction for the downstairs foyer, needing something to do while he waited. As he approached the entry hall, he saw a recently-returned Allison and Diego, who spotted him immediately. 

It was his brother who spoke first and Five was surprised at the concern in his tone: "did Mom make it up in time?"

It took a minute for the question to process but eventually he nodded. "Yeah." Then, he changed the subject. "Let's go."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Diego said, reaching out an arm to stop him. "What do you mean, 'let's go?' Are you seriously going to leave when your girlfriend is injured?"

Five turned to his brother, his expression cool and firm, though both of his siblings saw the distraction in his eyes. "The world is going to end in three days no matter what, Diego, even if my wife isn't on her feet. We need to get Jenkins while we can."

His siblings stared at him in stunned silence for a moment before Allison spluttered, "w-wife?"

"Is that all you picked up from what I just said?" he asked scornfully.

Diego's face hardened. "Even more of a reason not to leave, then. Allison and I, we've got this, Five. You're not coming."

The boy gave him a disbelieving look. "Am I supposed to leave the fate of the world up to a wannabe hero and supermom?"

The dark-haired man grit his teeth and did his best to ignore the insult. "Look, this is what I do for a living, alright? Now, you're going to march your ass back up to the infirmary and be there for your wife."

Five scoffed. "What you do for a living—"

"Five," Allison began sternly, interrupting what was probably going to be another insult, "you don't want her to wake up alone, do you?"

That got his attention and he turned his gaze to his sister. A desperate edge appeared in his tone. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Trust us," she answered simply. "And be there for your wife when she wakes up. In case you've forgotten, she protected you."

Of course he hadn't forgotten, but how could he sit around and do nothing? Whenever Dolores had been even slightly uncomfortable in the past, he'd always been able to remedy it right away. There wasn't really a way he could fix this and the helplessness was an unpleasant stranger to him. Still, as he watched his siblings depart again, he supposed the only thing he could do was give her time and wait.