Title: Waiting
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: AU (disregards I.N.T.E.R.V.I.E.W.S.)
Pairing: Implied 4/3
Summary: They can't do anything but watch it burn. Watch, and hope that their teammate wasn't caught in the flames.

Notes: I have to list the pairings like that, because otherwise they magically turn into fractions. I could fix it easily enough, but I could also just type them like that, so why bother? Also, this takes place sometime when they're older, possibly in the TND that pretty much everyone who writes fanfiction unanimously agrees will happen...
Edit: I had someone look over this, but it wasn't my usual beta. And, of course, I noticed a few (nit-picky) errors not long after I posted it. Oh, and I have to give a shout-out to Making Some Toast for being the fastest person to review anything I've ever written. Thanks for reviewing at all, by the way.

RE-EDITED by the most awesome beta ever; Lunar. The one who should have done it to begin with. But SOMEONE was too impatient. Well, excuse me for HAVING A JOB.

Disclaimer: I do not own Codename: Kids Next Door.

It's ten PM on a Friday. Normally, everyone would be getting ready for bed, tired and sore after a difficult mission, or the boys would be roughhousing and playing video games on the big monitor while the girls had a slumber party in Numbuh Five's room. This, however, wasn't normal. School is out for the holiday, and Abby's parents had decided to take a family trip to see her relatives who live out of state.

Wally walks into the living room, and Kuki is right where he'd left her – in front of the TV, eyes locked on the screen, but unfocused and glazed to the point that he doubts she is really seeing anything, cheeks stained with tear tracks that have dried without being wiped away, and cell phone clutched in hand like a lifeline. However, her knees had buckled sometime after he had left, leaving her crumpled on the ground.

On the screen, he can barely tell that the thing engulfed in smoke and flames is a building. Tall jets of water rise up as the rescue workers do their best to combat the fire, but he can tell they're not getting very far. He hasn't been away for long, and the situation has already gotten worse.

"So," he begins, swallowing thickly when his voice suddenly refuses to continue, "was that the place she's staying?" He winces, because he sounds so damn casual, as if he were asking about the cruddy weather. He's never been the best with words.

"Yes." Kuki answers softly. "I checked the address three times." She sounds broken, nearly robotic. And he really wishes that Numbuhs One and Two would get back soon from wherever they went, because just hearing Kuki sound broken makes him feel like something inside him is on the verge of breaking, too.

Not sure what to say, he tosses the pillows he has retrieved from his room on the floor behind her, and tries to arrange them in a comfortable pile. Thankfully, the other boys return at that moment, each with their own armfuls of pillows, and Numbuh Two with a large, fluffy blanket Wally's sure its from Numbuh Three's room.

Somehow, they've all come to a unanimous decision without speaking. The boys throw the pillows together against the couch, now having plenty to make a supportive pile, and Hoagie situates himself in the middle, each of the other boys sitting to one side of him. Wally reaches forward and grabs Kuki's shoulders, tugging her backwards. She jumps at his touch and looks away from the TV for the first time, only then noticing the nest they've made.

She allows Numbuh Four to pull her back, sitting between his legs and welcoming his arms wrapped around her shoulders.

"Have you tried to call again?" Numbuh One asks.

"Four times." She mutters. Then, she jolts away suddenly, her grip on her phone so tight that her knuckles are white. "I have to keep trying. I can't stop on four." She says, hitting buttons frantically.

After a few seconds of furious typing, during which Wally's pretty sure he hears plastic crack under her fingers, she thrusts the phone out into roughly the middle of their group. There's a brief pause and the sound of ringing fills the room, put on speakerphone for them all to hear. Wally's not sure if it's because Kuki didn't want to be under their intense stares while they wait for her to tell them if Abby picks up, or if it's because she's already had to listen to that terrifying, empty ringing four times already, and now she doesn't want to be alone.

There's a click and the ringing stops. Numbuh Five's voice fills the room.

"Hey. Numbuh Five says she can't pick up the phone right now, but leave a message and she'll get back to ya soon."

Kuki's hands start shaking a beat into the recording. A loud beep echos, the phone recording silences, and it takes a minute for Wally to realize that Kuki either can't or won't move. He reaches for the phone and closes it, the finality of the snap makes him sick to his stomach.

"She's fine." He says suddenly, voice full of painfully fake optimism and certainty. "I mean, her dad's a doctor and we all know Numbah Five. She and her family are helping the survivors however they can, and there's no way she can hear her phone in that chaos. That's why she not answering. She's fine."

He can only hold the smile on his face for a few seconds, and he turns his face away from the others when it falls. He wants to give them some kind of comfort they can cling to, but he's never been the best liar.

Nigel and Hoagie mutter quietly between themselves, Numbuh Two proposing a rescue mission, and Numbuh One saying that there's nothing they could do and, if anything, they would probably end up getting in the way. Wally agrees with Hoagie; he wants to be there, to hunt down Abby himself and get her to safety, pull her from flaming wreckage if need be. But he knows Numbuh One is right. If there was anything they could do, the local unit for that area would already be doing it.

A quiet sound from the TV draws his attention, and he sees that Numbuh Two has taken it off mute. The reporter on scene has an overly cheerful voice, in spite of the horror directly behind her, and Wally wishes he could yell through the TV for her to look around for Abby and make sure she's safe.

"The number of injured is rising fast, and so far, twelve have been found dead."

Numbuh One grabs the remote and mutes it again just as Kuki chokes on a sob. Wally wraps his arms around her and she turns in his lap, half lying on him, so she can press her face against his shoulder and cry. It's not the silent, shocked tears that had leaked from her eyes before; now, she cries in loud, body-wracking sobs as she clings to him and he can feel his hoodie getting damp. He hugs her tightly and pets her hair, and he feels Numbuh Two's arm wrap around both of them to press them to his side.

"Th-They" Numbah Three eventually stutters out through her tears. "Earlier, they s-said it was a bomb. Why would a-anyone-?"

"I don't know." Hoagie cuts her off, leaning over to press a kiss to her temple. "But she'll be okay. I'm sure of it. After all, she's Numbah Five. She can make it through anything."

Wally and Nigel nod in agreement and Kuki sniffles.

A few moments later, the room goes dark and Numbuh Four figures Numbuh One turned off the lights. Hoagie pulls the blanket over all of them.

They fall asleep like that, piled together on pillows in front of the couch, the room lit only by the orange, yellow, and blue lights from the TV.

At six AM on Saturday, the phone rings.

-End-

Note: The ending is intentionally vague, so you can decide what happened. (In my own little happy world, Numbuh Five was never at the hotel, had no idea what happened, and just didn't hear her phone going off.)

Now beta'd the right way.

Love, Lunar.