The next morning, Rachel did her best to avoid Diego. She asked Five to spatial jump her between the bathroom and the second bedroom to delay an encounter with his brother. Upon returning her to the bedroom after she showered and dressed, Five put his hands on her shoulders as she brushed her hair.
"Rach, I love you, but I'm not going keep helping you play this weird game of hide and seek with Diego. We have bigger things to deal with than my brother's irrational outburst."
Rachel looked at him through the mirror with puppy dog eyes. He gave her one of his fake smiles.
"It's cute that you think that expression would have the same effect now as it did when we last looked like this."
The girl sighed.
"I know…it's just…he's been kneeling outside the door there for the past two hours. I kind of wondered how long he would keep it up."
Five's eyebrows shot up to his hairline.
"Seriously?"
A muffled voice reached them from outside.
"If you knew that, why would you just leave me here?"
Five walked over to the door and pulled it open. Before them was Diego, getting up from his position of kissing the floor. Rachel put her hair brush down and stood up.
"Punishment?" the girl suggested, awkwardly.
"You know what? After what I said, I'll take that. Look, Rach, I'm so sorry. I was in a bad headspace last night. After talking to…Five," it looked like admitting that part physically hurt him," and getting some sleep…I realized I was overly emotional, out of line, and I had no right to turn all of that on you. You can tell I mean all of that and love you, right?"
The boy looked between his brother and partner, wondering if they could hurry up with their resolution. Luckily for him, they did. Rachel ran over and hugged Diego.
"Don't you ever yell at me like that again," she told him, after pulling away.
"Yes, ma'am."
"Good. Now do I smell coffee and eggs?"
Five plowed between the two on his way to the kitchen. Rachel couldn't help but laugh while Diego gave him an annoyed glance.
"He won't admit it, but coffee is his first love. Elliott's making eggs? Doesn't he usually just eat cereal for most meals?"
"Oh, its Luther making eggs for an army. I'm not sure whether or not it's even to share."
Rachel nodded in understanding before the two made their way to the kitchen. Five already had his yellow mug of coffee. He had been kind enough to get one for Rachel, too. He handed her the mug before going to lean on the doorframe of the kitchen. Diego started looking through the refrigerator. She could see Elliott milling around in the living room.
"Morning, Luther," Rachel said to the man at the stove.
Her eyes widened at the overflowing amount of eggs in the pan. If it was for him alone, Luther had developed quite the appetite in the year he was here. He turned and smiled at her.
"Hi, Rachel. Good to see you again. So, Elliott mentioned you all went to a gala last night to talk to dad?'
Rachel leaned against the edge of the kitchen counter.
"Yeah. It was quite nice until the end."
Luther looked over at her in surprise.
"What happened at the end?"
"Friends of Diego's ruined the party," she smirked around her coffee mug.
Diego spoke up then, leaving the fridge to pace the kitchen in his frustration.
"No, no, no, I don't understand. They keep following me."
"Wait, who?" Luther asked.
"Those Dutch sociopaths."
"They're Swedish, you idiot," Five pointed out," Hired guns paid to eradicate us before we do any more damage to this timeline."
Diego turned to his brother, glancing at Rachel every so often.
"Yeah, but why now? I mean, I'm…fine for three months until you showed up."
"Yeah," Luther spoke up," I was here for a year and no one messed with me."
Rachel shrugged. From a previous timeline where she died, it sounded like the assassins had not actually been after her if she got killed by her own self. The three all looked over at Five.
"Even if it was my fault, which it isn't, we only have six days before the end of the world, and the closest anyone's gotten to Dad was that driveway at the consulate."
There was a lull in the conversation before Luther looked back at his eggs.
"Well…" he sighed, "That's not exactly true."
The three in the kitchen all looked at him with suspicion.
"What do you mean?" Five asked.
All three moved closer to hear his story.
"I saw him."
Luther then told them how he saved up money after being unable to find any of the others. He got on a Greyhound bus all the way back to New York. There, he made it back to the Academy and saw Reginald Hargreeves at a party. When Luther crashed it, he got a tongue lashing from their dad about how time travel is impossible, that he hates children too much to adopt, and if he did he wouldn't let them look as ragged and simian-like as Luther appeared to him. He then kicked him out.
During the story, Luther finished the eggs, which he put in a massive bowl for himself while he, Diego, and Five took a seat at the kitchen table. Rachel was seated on Five's lap due to the lack of enough chairs in Elliott's kitchen.
"That's pathetic," Diego responded to the story.
"Yeah, well, at least he didn't shank my ass."
"No, bro, she shanked your heart."
There was a moment of silence while they all accepted that as a true statement.
"Since he knows about Luther, maybe he's been avoiding the rest of us trying to talk to him," Rachel noted.
Elliott wandered in at that moment, hovering in the doorframe.
"Is that my bathrobe?" he asked Luther.
Rachel failed to hide a smile as Luther looked over at the man, mouth full of eggs.
"No."
Elliott just nodded, not bothering to fight over it. Five rolled his eyes.
"Look, who cares what he shanked? He knows something about time travel."
"Um…" Elliott's voice broke in, "Wait, why don't you just do your thing and, uh, time travel us out?"
Five sighed in exasperation. Rachel hopped up as her partner tapped her. He headed back toward the coffee maker while she took his seat.
"Anyone care to explain?"
Luther picked it up first.
"First time he tried, he got lost in the apocalypse."
"Second time, he ended up without hair on his balls and shrunk his girlfriend's breasts," Diego continued.
Rachel gave him a nasty look, making him give her an apologetic look.
"Last time I tried," Five picked up," I scattered my family across three years in Dallas, Texas, possibly triggering a doomsday. Any more questions, Elliott?"
Elliott, hands on his hips, shook his head.
"Uh, no."
Diego shook his head and looked at his large brother.
"Guys, you're missing the big picture here," Diego spoke up," Dad is the ringleader of a sinister cabal that's planning to kill the president."
"A cabal?" Luther asked surprised, mouth full of eggs.
Rachel cringed at both Luther and Diego.
"Oh, that conspiracy idea is still in your head…"
"Ignore him," Five interrupted, "Look, the way I see it, we have only one option."
"Oh, yeah? And what's that?" Luther questioned.
Five sighed.
"It's time to get the Umbrella Academy back together."
Diego and Rachel grinned at each other.
"Hell, yeah," Diego said, "Family meeting."
Luther continued stuffing his mouth with eggs.
"Okay then, can one of you three get Allison, please?"
Rachel put a hand to her neck.
"Is she able to talk now?"
"Yeah, she healed up."
"You two still a thing?" Diego asked, trying to be casual about it.
Luther made an uncomfortable twitch of his head. Diego leaned in toward his brother.
"Do we need to talk?"
"No, she's married."
"Whoa. Dude, that's rough."
Luther gave his brother an egg-filled smile, chuckling. Rachel shuddered and got up, moving toward her partner.
"I can handle it."
"I'll get her," Five announced, putting down his coffee cup," Can you get Vanya without, uh, squeezing her to death?"
Luther glared at his brother.
"I'll try."
Five reached out to Rachel and they were gone from the kitchen. They appeared again outside the car.
"So," Rachel noted, "You know Allison's address?"
Five opened the passenger door, urging Rachel inside. After shutting the door, he put his hands in his pockets and started heading to the driver's side door. Once inside, he started the car and they headed out.
"Elliott found it on the floor by where Luther slept last night, and I took it before he could return it."
Rachel just shook her head. Typical Five.
They reached the house in a very short amount of time. Getting out of the car, Rachel began examining the house before her. It was a cute house, relatively small, on a quiet corner. It had both brick and white siding. A white wooden stair led up to the front door. She could sense Allison inside, enjoying herself quite thoroughly. A smile broke across Rachel's face, the feelings inside were two hazy feeling drunks. Aside from Allison, Klaus was inside as well.
Five marched up the steps quickly, Rachel following behind him at a moderated distance. As he raised a hand to knock, he paused with a frown. Leaning closer, the two of them heard loud laughter from inside. Five turned to look at Rachel, then noticed the smile on her lips. He opened his mouth to speak but, after the sound of a few things crashing inside, Allison opened the door. She stared at the two of them in shock. It was now pushing noon, but she was still in a nightdress and house robe.
"Oh my- Rachel?! Five?!"
Five hadn't been prepared for the hug Allison threw at him. Rachel let out a soft laugh as her partner patted his sister's back in the awkward hug, willing her to let him go. His eyes widened as the smell of alcohol. Clearly, Allison had been day drinking for quite the time if he could smell it. Rachel then ran up and gave her a hug.
"Hi, Allison. It's great to see you."
Allison pulled back and waved a hand.
"Come in, both of you."
Five and Rachel stepped into the home. It was beautifully decorated. To the left of the hallway was a living room that attached to a dining room. Past that in the back was a kitchen. They also had an upstairs. Rachel's gawking stopped as Klaus came giggling around the corner.
"It's Five and Rachel!" he practically sang.
Five made a sound in his throat between annoyance and contentment, sending a look at Rachel. She nudged his shoulder good naturedly.
"Well, at least we won't need to make another trip…" he conceded to her small prank by omission.
The girl got another hug that she returned easily as Klaus ran up and spun her around. Klaus smelled even more strongly of alcohol. She suspected he had started day drinking before Allison.
"So…what are you two doing here?"
Five gave one of his signature smiles to his family.
"We need to have a family meeting. There is a lot to discuss. Luther and Diego are already where we're meeting. Vanya will be there as well."
Allison's smiling face faltered a bit.
"Vanya? She's…she's okay to see us?"
Rachel gave a small smile.
"Yes. Far more than you would think…since she has amnesia."
"Wait, amnesia?"
"Yeah, she got hit by a car when she got here. You'll see. But the sooner we get going, the better."
Allison excused herself to change, running upstairs. Klaus did the same, exiting after his sister. Rachel meandered around the small home in the interim, looking at pictures of Allison and her husband. Walking into the kitchen, she smiled at a picture of Allison on her wedding day. She could not help but wonder how things would pan out for Allison and her husband. The goal was to leave and go back to 2019. But some of the Hargreeves had full lives here... Rachel shook her head. She had been staring at the picture longer that she had realized. Turning, she spotted Five watching her from the doorway to the kitchen.
"You okay?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at her.
"Oh, yeah. Your…Your sister makes a beautiful bride."
Rachel pointed to the picture she was looking at. Five went over and examined it himself. He looked back at his partner.
"You're worried about her and her husband if we figure this doomsday out."
The girl could not help but laugh.
"I've clearly been with you too long if you can just tell me what I'm thinking."
Five moved over to her and placed a hand on the side of her face. He kissed her forehead.
"I really need you to stop worrying about everyone else all the time."
"Then I wouldn't really be me, would I?"
Five smiled.
"True."
Rachel caught a whiff of alcohol, causing her to turn to the kitchen counter. There was a messy blender and alcohol bottles opened beside it.
"Oh, morning margaritas. That'll do it…"
The two heard loud stomping down the stairs, signaling that Klaus was ready. He appeared in a black shirt, black pants, and sunglasses. Allison followed not too far behind him in a plaid dress and light purple jacket. The two stopped in the living room and began complimenting each other and laughing. Five gave Rachel a look that showed he clearly did not want to deal with this. The blonde smiled and moved toward the two drunks.
"Alright, off we go. We have a car out front. Let's go."
She began herding them out. Rachel had to remind Allison to lock her door once everyone had exited the house. Allison and Klaus hopped easily into the backseat, chatting all the way about the goofiest things. Rachel would toss in questions about what they were saying occasionally, just to be involved. Happy drunks were the easiest drunks for her to be around. Unfortunately, Five had never been a happy drunk, just a surly one. When they got back to Morty's, the two were calmer, but still easily amused.
"Is anyone here? Hello?" Allison called out as they stepped inside.
Klaus came in rambling some French. Rachel smiled over at Five who had a sour look on his face. She was thrilled that everyone was together again, even if it was chaos every time. Her and Five stopped by the center display of Morty's first floor.
"Oh wow. Look at this old stuff," Klaus noted.
They all then looked up. Standing at the railing above was Vanya, Luther, Diego, and Elliott.
"Oh, wow," Klaus got more excited," I know this is impossible, but…did we all get sexier?"
Allison stared up at her sister.
"Vanya," she said quietly.
The girl above broke into a smile.
"I can't believe I have a sister."
The sentence shocked Allison, her jaw hanging open. The others came down from above to greet each other. Allison returned Vanya's smile.
"I missed you."
"Thank God someone did."
There was an awkward pause before the two hugged tightly. On the other side of the display, Diego grabbed the side of Klaus's neck, both greeting and shaking his brother.
"Oh, you are drunk."
"Yeah. No, just a little…just a few…"
Diego raised an eyebrow at Rachel who nodded quickly.
"A couple blenders full and then some," she whispered.
Klaus seemed to notice the hugging sisters when he turned.
"Oh, that's so sweet," he announced, moving into the hug.
After allowing them a moment, Five looked toward his inebriated brother.
"Klaus. Is Ben here?"
"Oh, uh…no."
The three hugging separated as Klaus sighed.
"No, unfortunately, ghosts can't time travel."
Five turned and began heading back upstairs.
"All right, then. Let's get down to business."
Rachel and Luther were the first to follow, the others heading up at their own leisure. Elliott began rushing around getting sweet teas. Rachel noticed a suspicious looking bowl of mystery jello that she did not want to interact with. She simply sat on the couch, with Vanya following suit shortly after. Allison perched on the couch arm, opposite end from Vanya. Klaus wandered around investigating Elliott's living space. Luther took a seat in the chair farthest from Allison, which was diagonally across the room from her by Elliott's worktable. Diego and Five stood.
"All right. First off, I wanna say I'm sorry. I know I really screwed the pooch on this whole going-back-in-time-and-getting-stuck thing. But the real kick in the pants here is we brought the end of the world back here with us."
Klaus turned around from his browsing.
"Oh, my God, again? All of you knew? Why am I always the last one to find out about the end of the- Oh, my God. My cult is gonna be so pissed. Five! I told them we had until 2019."
"We have until Monday," Five informed him," We have six days."
Rachel looked at Allison.
"Did he say cult?"
Allison just put her hands up signaling she did not want to explain that one.
"Is it Vanya?" Klaus asked.
"Klaus," Allison scolded.
"What? It's usually Vanya."
The poor girl just turned away from the accusation to look at her time-travelling brother.
"Do you have any leads, Five?"
Diego handed Five a folder as he answered. Rachel knew it as the picture they had developed of Reginald Hargreeves during Kennedy's assassination.
"Yeah, we have one."
Allison was the first one to see the picture. Klaus moved around behind the couch to look over his sister's shoulder.
"Holy shit, is that Dad?"
"Yeah," Diego responded, holding back the anger in him that Rachel could feel.
She got up and moved over between Diego and Five. She put a hand on Diego's back. He gave her a half-hearted smile at her concern. The girl felt the stirrings of murderous intent within the anger which she hoped would phase out of him.
"That's him?" Vanya asked, having slid over to Allison to see the picture.
"And he's standing on the grassy knoll," Diego informed them.
"Diego, Rachel, and I have been trying to talk to Dad about what exactly this means. So far, we've got nothing."
"Not nothing," Diego interrupted," We know he's planning to kill Kennedy."
"Maybe. But we don't know who or what sets doomsday in motion. Could be Kennedy, could be something entirely independent. But if we know something changes the timeline, we have to make it right again."
"Yeah, but how are we supposed to fix it if we don't know what's broken?" Allison questioned.
Diego fielded her question.
"Oh, come on. Do the math. We know Dad's having shady-ass meetings with some shady-ass people. We know he's on the grassy knoll in three days to kill the president. So, I think we all know what we have to do."
He moved out from behind the chair. Both Five and Diego then spoke at the same time.
"Find Dad."
"Kill Dad."
Everyone's eyes turned to Diego, who had taken the conversation to a morbid place. Rachel put her hands on her hips in a degree of exasperation. Diego lacked a desire for his plan, but he did seem to feel it was the option to take. After a moment Allison scoffed and drank from the alcohol bottle Klaus had taken out of Elliott's kitchen.
"None of us are supposed to be here, right?" Vanya spoke up, "I mean, what if it's us? Has anyone here done anything to screw up the timeline?"
Rachel read guilt from every person in the room. There was an awkward silence once again in the room. Klaus shook his head, making a face while Allison poured alcohol into her empty sweet tea glass. Luther took a breath and the accusations began.
"Diego's been stalking Lee Harvey Oswald."
"And you're working for Jack Ruby," Diego accused.
"Allison has been very involved in local politics," Klaus added.
"Okay, you started a cult," Allison rebutted, making Klaus hiss at her like a cat and make claw gestures with his hand.
Vanya shook her head.
"I'm…I'm just a…a nanny on a farm," she stumbled out," I don't have anything to do with all of that."
"Well, maybe you do, we just don't know it yet," Allison suggested.
Rachel looked at her hand casually.
"You certainly seem to have a feeling of something you may have done…"
Vanya threw her a look, possibly the nastiest look the girl had ever given to anyone in her entire life. Diego whistled sharply.
"Listen to yourselves. Everything in our new lives is connected to Kennedy. That can't be a coincidence. Luther works for Ruby, Allison is protesting the government, Dad is on the grassy knoll, Klaus is…"
He hesitated at that one.
"…doing something weird and pervy but probably related. See, clearly, we were all sent back here for one special reason: saving John Fitzgerald Kennedy."
Rachel shook her head. That line of thinking was giving Five a lot of credit that was undeserved. As the arguing among the siblings picked up, Rachel could feel anxiety and sadness picking up in Five. She moved over to him.
"Five?"
He was zoned out, thinking deeply. She put a hand on his arm and shook him gently.
"Five."
"Guys, you all die."
The arguing around them halted.
"I was there. I saw it. And I wanna forget it, but I can't. I saw Russian nukes vaporize the world with all of you in it…"
Five turned to look at Rachel.
"Almost…all of you in it…in a war that never happened until we brought it here. And Hazel gave his life to save us, so you may need to shut up and just listen to me. I don't know if the things we've experienced here are all connected. I don't know if there's a reason for everything. But Dad will. We need to talk to him before everyone and everything we know is dead."
Luther suddenly ejected himself from his chair with a sigh.
"Okay, I'm out."
"Did you even hear me, Luther?" Five asked.
"Yeah. Yeah, I did. I heard a fifty-eight-year-old man who still wants his daddy to come and fix everything. Well, you can count me out. It's time we all grew the hell up."
He walked off to protests from his siblings. Diego ran after him. Five took a deep breath before turning to Rachel.
"Wish me luck in not killing him."
He disappeared and reappeared at the stairs. Rachel ran over to the railing to see the interaction.
"No one leaves until we figure this out," Five told his brother.
Luther grabbed the front of Five's clothes before tossing him off the railing.
"Luther!" Rachel shouted at him as Five disappeared from building before he could hit the ground.
Luther looked back up at her as she pointed at the empty space where he would have been.
"He was in my way. You know he's fine, isn't he?"
Rachel glared, but she could sense that Five landed in the back alley outside, mad as hornet while simultaneously impressed with his brother. While searching for him, she was surprised to notice another familiar person. Lila was outside somewhere. Rachel turned away from Luther who just continued on his way. Lila must have alerted Five to her presence because he was surprised, annoyed, and angrier. He also clearly meant to keep his promise of killing her. As she felt Five hesitating in the alleyway, Rachel tried something new. She sent a feeling of confusion, the feeling one gets when they have a question. Conviction rose in his feelings, with a degree of calm. He then took after Lila. Rachel took that as his way of telling her he would be fine on his own. She was honestly relieved that she had tried emotional communication. It was not clear at all, nor something she could probably do with someone other than Five, but she was quite proud of herself for trying.
Walking back into the living room, she found Klaus eating a bowl of Elliott's jello. She gave him a disgusted face as he addressed the women around him.
"You know, I could really go for some tacos right now. Allison? Tacos?"
"Shouldn't we wait?" Allison asked, looking back at Rachel.
Klaus waved a hand at them.
"You know those guys. I mean, it could take forever for them to bro it out. Rachel, tacos?"
Rachel smiled at Allison.
"I actually agree. I don't think those three will be back any time soon."
Klaus looked over at his quiet sister.
"Vanya, tacos?"
"Is there any way that tacos are gonna cause the end of the world?" she questioned.
Rachel laughed while Allison smiled, grabbing her purse. Klaus stood up with a scoff.
"I mean, there's only one way to find out, right?"
Author's Note: Hi, everyone! I want to start out by saying how much I appreciate the positive feedback from this story. The reviews are really what keep this story going. I've put all my other stories on hold to focus on this one because I have reviews here. There are a few things that have consistently been appearing in the reviews that I want to address. First let me start positive: I love hearing what you like about a particular chapter! That really helps me know what landed for you all. Unfortunately, some requests for what to show in the story are just not possible. I've wanted to incorporate what people are asking for but, and this is hard for someone with anxiety and a people-pleasing personality to say, I can't write certain things for this story. I absolutely understand the appeal for flashbacks where people want to know exactly when Five or Rachel began falling for each other, but that isn't how feelings work. There isn't this one moment where you realize you have a crush on someone or are in love with someone, not when you are looking back on a relationship. Realistically, we're not going to have more post-apocalypse flashbacks in this story unless future seasons of the show provide ideas. I've told their story there up to this point. To recap, before the apocalypse, Five and Rachel did not have crushes on each other. Five knew he could like Rachel, but he also knew that some of his brothers did, too. He actively chose to just like her as a person until he had no choice in the apocalypse. He redirected his feelings to postpone the inevitable. Rachel, while emotionally mature at fifty-eight, can't even tell when she started liking Five. She just did, because sometimes that just happens. We are in territory for flashbacks for The Commission now and their childhood is always an option. But flashbacks, while fun, aren't the story I'm making. These flashbacks are always connected to Rachel's memories in relation to what is occurring to her at the moment (only one related to Five's memories). They are supplements to the story, but not the story itself. Rachel is trying to focus on the present and their future now, so the story will reflect that. Additionally, all the chapters can't just be about Five and Rachel together. Love doesn't mean you have sweet moments all the time or stay by that person's side constantly. The story is also about Rachel and the other Hargreeves siblings, so they'll be getting more time with her. After all, she is family. TLDR: I'm sticking to where Rachel is mentally in the story instead of adding flashbacks that don't relate to her present. I just wanted to be upfront. I hope you all can understand and appreciate that. Thank you for loving Rachel's journey with the Umbrella Academy and I hope you all will continue to support her story!