Where Will We Be Five Years From Now?

Neither of them had the money–or credentials–to buy a car, at least right then. So, they packed up their hotel room and found an international bus. The drive on the buses they took was long. They had to stop multiple times as there wasn't a bus that went from Red Mesa all the way to Salem. Well, there might have been, but Henry didn't like the idea of having that on any kind of record. If someone wised up and looked for them in Red Mesa, they'd just find that bus route and assume it was them. But here, stopping somewhere in upper Nevada, the bus routes split. Then each of those split further as they wound through the country, some going up, some doubling back, some moving East or West. So, although technically possible, it was incredibly ridiculous. There was one point where they rented a hotel and then, packing food and water, walked from one town to the other. Good luck tracking buses when they skipped one! As if they would, but they couldn't be too careful.

If Henry met them, it would be on his own terms.

They were in Salem, and wow. Ellie didn't exaggerate. There were trees, plenty of clouds, and it was cold and windy. Dammit if Henry didn't immediately buy himself a nice thick coat. The low was barely above freezing, shut up Dave.

Dave opened the door to their newest hotel room. "Look, Henry, if it's too cold in the winter, we can go back south. Texas or Louisiana."

"Louisiana has too many hurricanes and Texas reminds me of Howie," Henry grumbled, reluctantly parting with his pretty blue coat.

"Howie was from Texas, right?"

"Mhm. Lived on a horse ranch when he was younger, he said. He never did tell me where he was born, just where he lived after being orphaned."

Dave plugged in his phone and sat down. "Okay, so, we've narrowed it down to about a dozen places. I looked at my resume so I can start applying for jobs tomorrow morning. Did you write yours?"

"I can't write a resume on my phone, can I?"

"I did."

"You're a cop, though. They probably teach you that in cop school or something."

Dave snorted. "Cop school? Are you serious?"

"Do I look like I know where people learn to become policemen?" Henry walked around the room, looking over the walls and inspecting their current living space.

"The academy," Dave stated. "You go to an academy to learn and qualify to become a police officer."

Henry shrugged. "We don't have thief academies. I mean, we do need qualifications."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I'm not qualified to work communications, for example," Henry said. "I technically could in an emergency situation, but I get distracted too easily. I'm qualified for field work, like heists, and training. So, I can test other people and train others, if necessary. Burt is qualified for communications, but not for groundwork. I'm qualified to fly the airship, but I won't because I'm not the chief. In emergency situations or ones where the chief is unable to fly the airship for any reason, Dad Right, Sven, and I are all trained in flight, and flying would go in that order. I can conduct meetings of my own with people outside the Toppat Clan but am not allowed to go alone with high-priority people because of my kleptomania. I might steal something on accident and piss them off and no one would be happy about that. It's pretty nuanced once you really get down to it. What, did you think a criminal was a criminal?"

Dave opened his mouth to speak, and then stopped himself. "…actually, a little bit. But you can't name every branch of military or station in the force."

"You're right. I can't."

Yeah, Henry couldn't name every branch of government or station in the police force. Dave didn't know every position in the Toppat Clan. But such ill knowledge slowly got rectified over the months they spent together in Salem. Dave found himself working as a mall security guard–Henry had yet to stop calling him "mall cop"–and Henry found himself working in a warehouse. So, it wasn't fun, per say. He made a few new friends, but Henry never talked about really any part of himself. It wasn't that hard; he'd been doing it since middle school. So, his reputation as being a physically able amputee with a knack for stealing and an ex-police mall cop boyfriend appearing out of thin air was met with many theories, each wilder than the last. Henry's favorite was that he was a veteran who got injured and discharged after stealing something–Henry's kleptomaniac nature hadn't been shy to present itself–and he ran away, taking his cop boyfriend with him. They had to go into hiding lest they were found out. Hey, they were able to afford a car and a small house, at least, through almost completely legal means.

None of Henry's new coworkers felt like calling the police on him, or even their bosses when Henry found he was holding onto something he shouldn't be. After all, he'd return it with an apology. He also took out whoever wanted to go out for drinks on occasion. The best way to keep the heat off was to have a few friendly allies, right? Also, being somewhere cold helped.

One night at the bar after watching a football game, Henry swiped a woman's wallet right out from under her nose and then nearly got in a fight with her boyfriend when he tried returning it. Dave–the most sober one there being the designated driver–somehow pulled him out of the tense situation. One of Henry's coworkers–after checking his phone–pointed out kleptomania was a disorder that therapy could help. Henry instantly disagreed with the notion. Therapy was for people who were messed up, and Henry wasn't messed up. But after the recent almost-fight and encouragement from all of his friends there, Dave, and even the bartender, Henry grumbled a "maybe" and went home. The next evening, he found his calendar modified to fit a booking in a few weeks. He just sighed and took his suit to get dry cleaned. He'd go, as long as Dave did, too.

A few days into their new home, Henry got a text. Ellie.

[Henry?] 12:45 PM

[Listen, I know you're probably busy, but we need to talk.] 12:45 PM

12:50 PM [What about?]

[Where are you? This… probably needs to be in person.] 12:50 PM

12:50 PM [Ellie, I said I wasn't going to tell you guys where we live.]

["You guys"? What about your best friend who hasn't even been in the Clan for four months? I thought we were all going to meet sometime anyway; you, me, and Charles.] 12:51 PM

12:51 PM [Oh, is that what this is about? I mean, sure.]

[No, that's not what this is about, but seriously, I do need to talk to you.] 12:51 PM

[Please?] 12:51 PM

12:52 PM [Alright, alright. Let me just call you, okay?]

Henry didn't want his location in a text history of all things, and she seemed okay with it. There was a little surprise he'd be somewhere so cold and muggy as Oregon, but she expressed no further surprise or interest in where he lived. Instead, she asked for a place and a time. As Henry's lunch break was winding to a close, he offered to meet at seven, just past dinner, at one of the local diners.

When Ellie met, she was dressed up in a suit but didn't have her hat, making Henry–dressed in a simple t-shirt and jeans–feel severely underdressed. Immediately, he was caught off guard by the seriousness in her expression. "Henry," she stated, sitting down and cutting out all friendly formalities. "I was planning on tell you this at the airship, but that didn't work out."

Henry sat down across from her. "What… do you mean?"

"Okay, look. Henry, I'm a double agent. I was hired by the government to infiltrate the airship and find some way to bring the Toppats down."

…what.

"But!" she went on quickly. "I didn't know you were a Toppat. Or had been or whatever you want to call this. I… I was planning on outing the Clan but finding some way to get you out of it. Like an exception or pardon or something."

"…"

"But it didn't work out like that," she went on. "You remember when I tried to talk to you? I walked in on you and Dave."

Vaguely, he could recall that night, trying to sleep in his bed after their tentative confession. "You looked pretty tired."

"I didn't get any sleep that night," Ellie admitted. "I was planning on taking down the Toppat Clan the next day. But seeing you… just… asleep–or trying to–with Dave, it just… Dave was a prisoner, you know? The government made the Toppats out to be ruthless, and I thought you'd been corrupted by them. But no ruthless murdering thief would fall in love with a security guard. No ruthless, murdering criminals would risk wound and death to keep each other alive and safe. So, I abandoned the plan. Even after you left, I just… I couldn't do it. I couldn't make you watch as your family was taken away from you because you made the decision to save his life. I'm not telling you to come back. But I am telling you that… the Clan is still safe. Tonight I'm going to talk to the chief about all this. I've still got some info he'd probably find useful about the government."

Henry shook his head. "That… is crazy."

"Pretty much."

"Thank you, Ellie."

A smile formed on her face and she punched him in the shoulder. "Of course, Papa Hen! I couldn't do that to you, man! Now, where's that boyfriend of yours, huh?"

Ellie… was a good friend.

But trouble wasn't fond of leaving Henry alone.

One December night a few months after they left, Henry watched as the new lady talked about this new orbital station that was now in a steady orbit around the Earth. The report wasn't too fast, just some things about the Toppat Clan being untouchable and wreaking havoc–including stealing a giant emerald. When the report ended and went to something mundane he couldn't care less about, he rewound it to watch the report again. Dave found him after the fourth rewind, his navy-blue top hat on his head, and dragged him away.

Henry's cybernetics needed to be recharged. Normally, he'd plug his arm into the wall and go to sleep. By the morning he'd be good to go. But he didn't have his charger cord. His shoulder was plugged into the wall by a phone charger of all things, now. It fit, and the little yellow light on his shoulder usually hidden by the plate told him it was working. But it wasn't that fast. He'd plug himself in at night and wake up in the morning to a barely charged appendage. As he used his arm and spine more in heavy labor, he needed to charge more. After the first few weeks, it was just annoying. But two months had passed, and so had the term "annoying."

"Jesus Christ, Henry, you need to stop spending so much time outside, it's not good for you!" Dave heaved, all but dragging Henry into their room from their quaint little car. After the man had collapsed at work, Dave somehow teleported to the warehouse. That or broke a few traffic laws. He had gotten the help of a couple of Henry's coworkers to bring him into the car. At that point in time, Henry had been awake and huffy about the attention, but complained of needing nothing more than some sleep and could barely walk on his own two feet. Dave made a half-hearted excuse about blood sugar or something and drove him home.

Henry mumbled but couldn't quite answer. In fact, it was hard for him to understand the words going into his ear. His left arm was deactivated, he could feel his other arm and legs starting to give out as well. God it was getting hard to breathe. He'd never had asthma or bad food allergies or whatever. He remembered getting breathless after hard exercise, but that was nothing compared to how… tired he was. He usually got an elevated heartrate after so much activity, and he breathed more. But not now; now his heart was struggling to beat and had he stopped breathing? No, he was still alive, but there was a mostly numbed pain in his chest, now.

Dave dumped Henry onto their clean bed, smearing the dust Henry had collected on their blanket in the process. He hadn't wasted a breath before he dragged Henry up to the pillows and plugged his shoulder into the wall. "Henry? Henry! Can you hear me? Henry! Tell me you're breathing, please tell me you're–hsss! No!" Dave swore to himself and got up onto the bed so he was semi-level with Henry. With Henry's weight distributed, but Dave's concentrated mostly on his knees, the bed sunk unevenly. He set the heel of his hand on the center of Henry's chest, his fingers level with his armpit, set his other hand on top of the first and bent forward so his shoulders were above the center of Henry's chest. He mumbled numbers under his breath as he started compressions, skipping the first ten's place whenever necessary.

"…seven, eight, nine, thirty." Dave let go, glancing at the man's face. Although Henry had gotten a little pale, some of the color returned to his face. Still, he wasn't breathing nearly as well as Dave wanted him to be. He tipped Henry's head back, plugged his nose, held onto the bony part of his chin, and took a deep breath. One second in, move your head to get clean air, another second, start compressions again. Thirty compressions in fifteen seconds. Keep going until help arrives. But help wasn't going to arrive. Dave just needed to keep going until the man's stupid cybernetics started functioning properly enough to let him breathe.

One and a half torturous minutes passed before Dave could feel Henry's breaths in earnest. Dave let go and checked his wrist. His heartbeat had become steady, as did his breathing. The color had returned to the man's face. Dave sighed and bowed his head, his shaky hands on his knees. He almost lost him. Dave almost lost the man because he didn't recharge his batteries. It had been a joke at first; Henry trying to weasel out of chores by claiming his arm was tired and Dave playfully calling him any random appliance name when looking for him. "Microwave! It's dinner! Where are you?" "Laundry's done, Hairdryer. It's your week and I would like to sleep on a bed with sheets tonight." "I'm not calling you in sick for work because you're tired, Flashlight. Get out of bed."

But this was no joke. Henry had nearly died. Dave nearly lost him. God, Dave nearly lost him. This fun little life they'd tentatively built, where would it go? Dave enjoyed being a mall cop, but he knew Henry wasn't entirely content working in a warehouse. Dave had been urging him into taking some community college courses, go into something he might like more. But that was for naught if he died because he wasn't plugged in properly with the proper equipment.

"I don't need a charger cord," Henry had dismissed one evening over dinner. "I have that phone cord. I'll be fine."

"Henry, I know you don't want to, but… maybe we should–"

"No." Henry's lackadaisical expression, one Dave knew to be a fake cheer to cover his nervousness, vanished and he stared at Dave with hard eyes. "I'm not going back. Dad Reginald hasn't admitted he was wrong. He hasn't learned his lesson. Until he does, I'm not coming back home. I don't want to put you in danger for my own convenience getting a faster charger cord."

Well, Henry was asleep now. Barely alive, he probably wouldn't be awake for a while. Dave ran his hand over Henry's wrist, stopping as his fingers touched the man's wristband. He never took it off under any circumstances. Not in the shower, not at work, not when changing clothes. Dave knew he was bluffing. If he truly never wanted to see his parents again, he would've gotten rid of the wristband that could tell them Henry's exact location. If Henry didn't want to go there on his own, fine. But Dave wasn't going to sit here and watch the man kill himself over pride. Pride and fear, technically. But Dave wasn't afraid.

"Who knows, maybe they don't care about me, anymore," Dave mused as he squeezed the wristband. A button compressed under his fingers and he let go. Maybe they'd care more that their son is in trouble. Dave got off the bed and pulled out his phone. He was still in uniform and was technically still on shift. So, his work was the first place he called. He left, so he needed to apologize, but it was an emergency. After sharply pointing out Dave could've let an ambulance handle it, his superior acknowledged his absence.

Henry's superior immediately asked about Henry. He was going to be fine. But they needed to move back to his home across the country to get the appropriate care he needed. His heart and lungs were giving out on him, so they needed to return to the original hospital on a military base. That was fine, just call when everything's settled and make sure they knew Henry was alive.

The front door opened. Dave, sitting in the desk chair he pulled up next to the bed, jumped and bristled. So soon? …oh, right. Orbital station. He took a deep breath and listened to the footsteps cut through the tiny house. He recognized the two faces that appeared in their open bedroom. He hadn't gotten a good look at them before. In fact, his first time even hearing their voices came from the day the one with the curly mustache ordered Wallace to kill him. He had two top hats and yet somehow kept them out of his face and his bright brown eyes. That golden dollar sign with blue jewels compressed the ruffles on the chest of his shirt and the chain it belonged to wrapped around the man's neck. "Henry!" he exclaimed; the tone energized with fear. Beside him, his nearly black-brown eyes on Dave, was also Henry's father. Ginger with a handlebar mustache and a wide-brimmed hat that tried its best to shadow his face.

Dave got up, moving back in time to allow the chief around him and to Henry's side. Dave said, "He's alive and asleep right now. I had to do CPR on him a little while ago."

Reginald–Chief Reginald–turned to Dave. "Why is that?"

"His cybernetics," Dave claimed. "He left his charger cord at the airship. So, he's been using a phone charger, which kind of works. L-look, I tried convincing him to go back, but he refused to budge. Well, I don't want this happening again."

Chief Reginald narrowed his eyes and turned back to Henry. Right Hand Man still hadn't taken his eyes off Dave, who barely suppressed a shudder. Chief Reginald went on, his voice weirdly quiet, "Did he tell you why?"

Dave sighed. "Well, he told me you were stubborn. Honestly, if you're anything like him, I'd believe it. He's being incredibly stubborn about the ordeal. But… he was also worried about what would happen when he got back. He left if you could call it that, to save me, after all."

Chief Reginald sighed and sat down on the chair beside him. "How long ago did you plug this charger in?"

"About two minutes before I pressed the button on his wristband," Dave said. "So… about half an hour ago. If you take him off the charger now, you really should switch to his original one and keep him asleep for a while. If you wake him up now, he'll hurt himself."

"I'll get it." Right Hand Man's voice was a deep contrast to Chief Reginald's higher pitched voice. Then, he was gone.

Chief Reginald asked, "He truly said he wouldn't go back because I was being stubborn?"

And until he learned his lesson. But this should be lesson enough. After all, what could the chief have done to deserve his kid dying out of their equal stubbornness? "Yes. He never gave me a direct answer, but he was being just as stubborn. I guess neither of you have apologized?"

Chief Reginald shook his head.

Dave leaned on their desk and watched the clock. The big hand pointed to the "4" while the little hand pointed to the "9" on the wall.

"What have you been doing here?" Chief Reginald asked. "I've never seen him wear these before."

"Oh. He works in a warehouse, now," Dave informed him. "Eh, he didn't want to work fast food and he only has a high school degree and a shady lack of history for someone in his mid-twenties. He met some people and seems to like his work. It takes the charge out of his cybernetics more quickly using them so much."

"Does he enjoy it there?"

"Sometimes. Likes to complain about it, but he likes to go out on occasion and take his coworkers and I to the bar." Dave chuckled. "He says he never told his coworkers where he lived or what he did before. They picked up on 'Harry Smith' not being his real name. So, they've been making wild guesses."

"And he's happy here?"

Dave shrugged. "I like to think so. I mean, there are times when he just gets in a funk that I can't bring him out of. I know he misses you guys and his friends. It was funny watching him be so shocked we had space outside of our house that we owned. Makes sense since he's never had a yard before. That's why our yard has a ludicrous amount of lawn decorations. He collects them like there's no tomorrow." Dave wrinkled his nose. "Sometimes from other people's yards." He did away with the look. "And having windows. I don't know where he lived in Red Mesa, but he said the last time he had a window in the place he lived was in the orphanage. Which blew my mind, honestly? How do you live for so long and so well without ever having had a window? Or, you know, needing to go outside to go over to someone else's house and not just walk down a hallway. Or a pet. He'd never had a pet before, even a hamster. I was considering getting a dog. Like a medium dog, not a small one and not one that was super big, you know. We talked about it a little."

Dave had a feeling the man was no longer listening to him. He hadn't turned even a little when Dave started or stopped talking, after all.

"A dog?" Chief Reginald echoed. "He wanted a dog?"

Dave shrugged. "I don't know. We just kinda talked about it. His friend has like a German shepherd mix. It's nothing solid, and I'm thinking against it because we're both working people. Dogs are a big responsibility, you know? More than a cat or a hamster. They're like kids; you can't leave them alone all day. They need plenty of attention and work. If you take your eyes off them for too long, they tear something up or poop on the floor or something. With him working at a warehouse and me as mall security, we wouldn't have the time for a dog. A cat or a hamster, maybe. But Henry wasn't thrilled with the idea of a rodent. Said he doesn't like their teeth and beady eyes or something."

Dave was just rambling by this point. And Chief Reginald was okay with that? Probably just wanted background noise or something. Dave was good with that.

The front door opened. In through their tiny house came Right Hand Man, wielding a long, rolled up cord. It was thicker than the puny phone charger currently connected to Henry. Chief Reginald replaced the cord, tossing the phone charger at Dave to take. Dave rolled up the phone charger. "Wonder what this month's electricity bill's going to be like. Maybe charging faster uses less electricity in the long run. Does that make sense?"

"Well, it'll be whatever it needs to be," stated Chief Reginald. "Once he has rested enough and wakes up, we'll talk further on the subject."

Dave nodded, though he knew the man wasn't looking at him. "Yeah." He resisted the urge to offer them drinks. They had a few snacks and bottles of water and various juices–neither Henry nor Dave had been given a sufficiently broad enough array of choices considering beverages whilst at the airship–but he had a feeling standing around their loved one who was actual breaths away from dying a few hours ago wasn't the best time. It was Dave's week to do laundry, and they had dirty laundry piled up. The bed was now included in that. Henry took a shower and changed clothes before even thinking about touching that bed after work. Since Dave didn't usually have dust or dirt on him, the bed was rarely visibly dirty.

"Hey," Dave broke the silence. "I can bring in a chair from the kitchen for you, Right Hand Man. We only have one desk chair."

"Sure."

Dave gave him a small smile and walked into the kitchen. Unfortunately, from where Right Hand Man was standing, he could still see Dave in the other room. In fact, he somehow found a spot that had a good vantagepoint of the dining area, part of the kitchen, the front door, and some of their living room. Two chairs sat around the table as Dave took one away.

Chief Reginald prodded Dave further, asking a few short questions and allowing Dave to go on a tangent with them all. How had he been handling the HOA? What were the neighbors like? Did they have enough to cover bills? Were they eating properly? Did they have a proper amount of clothes? Had Henry gone unconscious like this before?

That last question put a halt to Dave's light-hearted thoughts. Talking so much, answering such broad questions not only without a beat lost but always with a positive, his fears had begun to ebb. But now they were back with all the force of an earthquake. "No," Dave answered honestly. "There were a few times when he got pretty tired and needed to stay in bed a few extra hours. He always got pretty frustrated about it, since he didn't want to spend all day in bed. But nothing like what happened today."

"What… brought it on? Did he not get enough sleep the night before?"

"He did. It's just a Friday. Fridays are always the worst since he works all week. Normally he's better by Sunday. It was bound to happen eventually. He needs a full charge once a month, and he hadn't had one since he was at the airship almost two months ago." Dave sighed and bowed his head. "I should have forced him to go earlier. It shouldn't have come to this."

"It shouldn't have," said Chief Reginald.

…

Quite honestly feeling suffocated, Dave said a goodbye and went into the laundry room. The bed sheets and blanket and pillowcases normally went into their own load, anyway. Besides, it would take a few hours. By the time the washer was open, and the drier was working on the last of the clothes, a few hours would have passed. Henry might even be awake by then. Then the bed would empty, and Dave could finish it. Though it wasn't originally Dave's week to do the dishes, it was now.

Well, the electricity bill was going to be way lower next month.