Meanwhile

With Ben nagging endlessly in his ear, Klaus was eventually able to find Allison's house again. It was a quaint little thing; a two-story gingerbread house that looked like it had stepped right out of the some vintage real estate magazine…but then again it was 1963. Brick-clad walls shrouded white wooden panelling and curtain-trimmed windows. It was nothing like the mansion in which he had taken up residence for the past few years, but it was sweet and nothing like what Allison had previously owned. But if Klaus' previous catch-up with his glamorous sister was anything to go by, then it sounded like the humble apple-pie life was much more her speed now…Not counting her involvement in spearheading the local race protest movements of course.

Admittedly it was a little harder to find the cottage in the dark, stumbling around under the vestiges of Ben's possession and that didn't even take into account his unfamiliarity with the area. Unlike Five or Diego, Klaus wasn't particularly good at good at memorising directions. But that's okay; that's why Ben was here: to nag and laugh him in the right direction like a shit Sat Nav. Honestly, he thought he'd done well enough, even with Ben's contest giggles and snickers whenever he tripped over hidden trash littered about the streets, his own gangly legs or the protruding curbs that bumped at his sandal-clad toes.

Eventually the gingerbread cottage came into view (after knocking on a few wrong doors of course) and Klaus found himself sauntering up the little brick steps to the front door on Luther's orders to play the dutiful brother to gather up their wayward family members for their final hurrah, even when he wanted nothing more than to curl up and sleep off the rest of the possession hangover. Allison was a big girl, she could handle herself—she'd done so on more than one occasion and he shuddered violently when the incident involving a pair of her cherry red heels came to mind. The incident in question had occurred only a few weeks after he'd tripped in Mom's heels down the stairs and had to have his jaw wired shut whilst it healed; but he'd been a persistent little shit—"Had been?"—and gone in search of his a pair of his sister's to try again. Needless to say, the boys had quickly learnt what stealing her things would result in from then on. It still made him shudder, all these years later.

KNOCK KNOCK!

It was Raymond 'Ray' Chestnut who ended up fearfully (and then confusedly) peering out through the sheer curtains covering the door's windows that night. Even if he was Allison's second husband, Klaus was still surprised that he'd stuck around this long. As her brother, Klaus knew how insufferable—how dramatic Allison could be, but it was nice to know that at least someone was toughing it out with her. And she seemed genuinely happy with him. "Hey, Ray-Ray" Klaus greeted languidly as the door was cracked open just enough for the other man to poke his head out. "I'm so sorry it's late, but, uh—"

"—Klaus, this is not a good time" Ray cut off as he tried to close the door on him; but no one ever said Klaus wasn't persistent. Almost to the point of being an annoyance—almost.

"Oh, I'm sorry—Allison! Hey!" Spotting his sister, the gangly man easily slid past Ray (despite his best efforts) and into the house where he embraced her, pulling her close as his calculating eyes quickly darted to the trail of blood splattered against her cheek. "I was so worried about you! Thank God you're okay! What's uh—what's the matter?"

Pulling back, he gestured to the splatter on her cheek with worry swimming in his eyes and a surge of innate protectiveness in his heart. A protectiveness that was echoed by Ben at his side and he was sure bled into his tone when he continued on. "You guys been…wrastling in here or something?"

"Heh…" Allison sighed as she sullenly pointed towards their couch like a child pointing to the monster in closet. Following her finger to the once starch piece of furniture in question as Ray shuffled awkwardly in the doorway of their living room, Klaus found himself face-to-face with someone. Or more accurately, two someones. The body of the dead Swede (as described in detail by an irate Five only hours before) and his ghost standing over it with a disbelieving stare like he couldn't believe what had just happened.

"Oh, oh I see" Klaus muttered as he rose from the investigatory crouch he'd fallen into and began to roll up his sleeves in preparation. "It's gonna be one of those kinda nights, huh? So are we burnin' or buryin'?"

22 November 1963

Sometime later when the morning sun had begun to peek over the horizon, Klaus found himself languidly lazing on Allison's couch as he chatted to Ben, as both his sister and his newly traumatised brother-in-law wrapped the dead Swede up in their checkered rug. "God…!" Allison muttered under her breath with a sigh as she tied off the knot around the Swede's legs. "Why are people so much heavier when they're dead?"

"…You got a lot of practise at this?" Ray joked half-heartedly.

"…" Allison merely shot him a look that told him just how much she really knew about the subject. Or at least, that's what Klaus understood the look to mean. In any case, it was enough for the hesitant smile to fall from Ray's lips and sit back, warily watching as his wife cut off the blood to the Swede's legs with surprising strength, trussing up the dead man up like a prized pig.

"Yeah…" Klaus chuckled in agreement, not quite sure if he was agreeing with Ray or Allison.

"Hey! So, what was it like when I possessed you?" Ben pestered his brother, shifting next to him as he brought up the topic again for the umpteenth time since his sudden expulsion the day before. Klaus had ignored him for the most part, far more occupied with his pounding head as he traipsed the dark streets with Luther's orders stuck on a perpetual loop in his head, like an annoying broke record.

"It was like…sex with one of the lesser Baldwins" Klaus replied, inwardly gleeful at the deadpan expression he was levelled with and the confused twin glances from the sister and brother-in-law at his feet. "I mean, you can feel him clattering around in there, but do you really care? Why? What was it like driving all this…hot business?"

"It—it was like having no skin…but still wanting to touch everything"

"Oh yeah…?"

"Ooh! Y'know Kiran and Yugi?" Ben shifted again as the thought popped into his mind, eyes lighting up in excitement. He looked like a puppy trying to get his owner's attention—Klaus could almost picture the tiny little tail wagging back and forth like a metronome.

"Er…" Klaus squinted his eyes as if looking like he was thinking would actually kick-start the process.

"The blonde & the ginger kids?" Ben tried again.

"Uh…" Klaus stuck out his tongue and rolled his eyes towards the ceiling.

"The two kids we picked up in San Fransisco?"

"…Nope, not ringin' any bells"

"Of course not, well anyway, turns out they grew up with Teddy!"

"What? I thought Vanny only had the one kid?" Klaus perked up at the news.

"No—no, before all that—they're part of the same group that Teddy was. That Garde group! With the School and everything!"

"Really? Did he—?" Whatever he had been about to say was suddenly cut off by the familiar whir and whoosh the Hargreeves were slowly starting to associate with time travel as it illuminated the living room. At their feet, Ray and Allison (who had been grunting and groaning as they hauled the corpse up) suddenly reeled back in shock, dropping the Swede back to the ground with a heavy thunk. "—Shit!" Klaus exclaimed in unison with Ben as both boys practically leapt over the back of the couch as Allison and Ray dropped the body in surprise, their nerves going haywire.

"Oh!" Allison gasped, waving her hands about in panic as Diego and some pint-sized bespectacled businessman blinked into the room with a black briefcase in hand. Much like the one that Five was forever going on about.

"Oh good!" Diego sighed in relief, eyes scanning everyone in the room and shoulders slumping down like a small weight had been lifted off of them. "All right, you're both here. All right, we gotta go"

"Diego! Jesus!" Allison swore, stomping her feet in frustration as Klaus & Ben slid back over the couch to cautiously settle back on the cushions like startled cats.

"Wow!" Chuckled the small businessman, suddenly all smiles. "Number Two, Three and Four. We almost have an Umbrella straight flush here!"

"Ray, this is my other brother, Diego" Allison defeatedly introduced the hispanic man as if she couldn't believe this was happening to her. Again.

"Hey, man" Diego sauntered across the room to shake the wary Ray's hand. Honestly, Klaus couldn't blame him, Diego was a bit of a nutcase—and that was coming from him. "Sorry to crash in here like this"

"Hey, who is this guy?" Klaus eventually pointed out the small smiley businessman.

"Herb" Diego replied shortly as he moved back towards the front of the room. "He worked with Five at the Commission"

"The Commission?"

"We monitor and maintain the time-space continuum" Herb helpfully supplied.

"Okay…" Klaus cocked an eyebrow towards Allison asking if she believed any of what he was saying, but he received no response.

"No, for real. I was just there—it was awesome" Diego added before turning to Allison, the known voice of reason. "Okay, I got to look at the timeline, I know what causes doomsday. It's Vanya"

"Wait, what?" Allison perked up, spine straight as a maternal tone bled into her words.

"How?" Klaus finally stood from the couch before he moved to gather with his other siblings.

"She's gonna blow up the federal building at Dealey Plaza, just as the President's passing through in…less than an hour" Diego replied checking his watch. "We gotta find her and stop her. Now"

"Wait, Vanya kills the President?" Allison queried, still trying to wrap her head around the whole idea.

"No, no, no—See, the explosion causes the motorcade to drive off—Kennedy lives. Everybody thinks Russia's behind it, even the President. But then Theo's alien hunters think Vanya's one of their targets and tries to kill her. They strike, Vanya strikes back, JFK joins in and before you know it, it's raining nukes"

"Okay, um…do—does anyone know where our nephew is? I mean, maybe he can help us with these—these aliens"

"He's back at the mansion! In the gardens!" Ben called from the couch. Sparing a glance over his shoulder at his deceased brother, Klaus repeated it for the benefit of his siblings.

"Well, let's go get him then!" Allison exclaimed.

"No! We can't!" Diego refuted, "There's no time. We have to go to Dealey Plaza now!"

"Holy shit…" Ray breathed from across the room, backing away from the scheming Hargreeves and catching their attention once more. Honestly, Klaus had entirely forgotten he was there…or how crazy they must've sounded. He was long-used to the crazy by now.

"Ray? Ray, baby" Allison cooed, trying to calm down her frightened husband like he was a startled deer. "Are—are you okay? Okay?"

"No, I'm not okay. First of all, this son of a bitch beams into our living room with yet another one of your brothers!" Ray pointed jerkily at Herb, "—And he's talking about stopping one of your sisters from blowing up some buildings with your alien nephew and I got a dead man wrapped up in my best rug, babe!"

"Okay, okay, okay! Can we—can we—Raymond—Ray, Ray—" Allison gently turned Ray's head away from the dead man on their floor as his whole world seemed to unravel like one of the loose threads on his favourite rug.

"Oh! We can have that shampooed" Herb interjected brightly before turning back to the others. "We also provide body removal services!"

Whilst Ray was busy breaking down, Klaus and Diego stood in the doorway watching the scene with rapt attention like they were kids again, people watching from the grimy windows at Griddy's Diner. Klaus almost wished that he had a box of donuts or a bucket of popcorn to nibble on as he took a sick sadistic pleasure in the realtime soap opera playing out before them. Like he said: used to the crazy. Soon enough, Allison was able to calm Ray down enough for Diego to usher all of them out into the street, leaving Herb to clean-up the mess they had left behind.