Chapter 6

Pogo brought Andy to Grace, to show her what had happened the previous night. Andy hadn't been prepared for it. A very real pang hit her in her chest at the sight of Grace's eyes remaining focus-less, and her arms hanging limply from her side. A prickle formed in the back of her throat.

"She was always so kind to me." Andorra said. "I mean, I know she was programmed to be that way, but it was nice. Both of you were."

Pogo offered a small smile and a thankful nod. Andy took a deep breath and cleared her throat. She gave Pogo her full attention and forced herself to smile as happily as she could, all things considered.

"It was good seeing you again, Pogo." She told him.

"Are you certain there's nothing I can do to convince you to stay?"

"No, sorry." She shook her head. "I think I've had enough 'family time' to last me a while."

"Of course," He said with a nod.

"You don't happen to know where Klaus is, do you?"

"No, I'm afraid not. Master Klaus has a tendency of disappearing."

"Right," She nodded. "Well,"

Andy offered Pogo a hug, which he reciprocated. She cared deeply for Pogo, and hugged him tightly to show it. He'd been far more of a father than the Old Man ever was, and if it weren't for him, she'd have likely died on the streets when she was a child.

When the two parted, Andy asked if Vanya still lived in her old apartment. Pogo said she did, and with that, Andy left. Her things awaited her return near the door. She wanted to be able to make a quick escape when it came time to leave. Part of her was genuinely worried that if she had to stay long enough to pack, she might not catch her flight.

Something would undoubtedly pull her back.

Andy made her way to Vanya's apartment, but paused half-way down the hall when she spotted Allison locking the door. After securing it and slipping the keys into her purse, Allison turned and froze in her spot when she noticed Andy, too.

"Andorra," She said, her voice mimicking her shock. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to speak to Vanya." She replied. "I take it she isn't home."

"Uh, no. She's at rehearsals."

"Hm," Andy mumbled. She shifted uncomfortably on her feet, a sentiment she knew Allison shared. They were rarely –if ever- alone. Andy glanced at her watch. She had about five hours until she needed to be at the airport. "Do you know when she'll be home? I'd like to tell her goodbye before I leave."

"No, I don't. Sorry."

"Okay, then."

And with that, Andy turned. She'd nearly made it to the stairwell before she paused. There was a nagging feeling that she couldn't shake, one that she hated she felt at all. Perhaps some part of her just felt like she had to apologize because she, genuinely, never intended to speak to Allison again.

Turning, she noticed the actress had closed roughly half the distance between them before being seen and paused.

"I want to apologize." Andy said.

Allison's brows tugged together slightly. "For what?"

"For my outburst yesterday. There were a lot of things going on."

Allison's expression softened and she nodded gently. "I'm sorry, too." She took gradual steps forward until she and Andy were little more than arm's length from each other. "I was kind of an asshole to you when we were growing up."

"Nah," Andy shook her head dismissively. "You weren't that bad, honestly. You and Luther were more indifferent. I could handle your snide comments and dirty looks." She noticed Allison squirm just a little with the memory. "But I couldn't stand the way you treated Vanya."

Allison appeared genuinely confused when she met Andy's gaze. "What do you mean? We were barely allowed to talk to her growing up."

"Are… are you serious?" Andy had some trouble believing her ears. Allison nodded a bit sarcastically with in turn made Andy angry. "She tried to spend time with you guys, tried to, but every one of you always told her to piss off, told her she wasn't welcomed because she wasn't special, and then when she did leave you alone, you'd turn around and blame her for not wanting to spend time with the family."

Allison's jaw tightened and her back straightened just a bit. In her heels, she stood a few inches taller than Andy, and as a result, she was given the chance to stare down her nose at the brunette.

"You don't know what you're talking about." She said in a clipped voice.

"I was there." Andy said angrily. "I saw it. And you have no idea how much you actually hurt her when we were growing up, do you? I didn't give a shit what you did to me. I'd been through worse, but you were terrible to your own sister. Klaus and Ben were always off doing their own things, but you, Luther, Diego –well," she cut herself off quickly. "Diego's an asshole to everyone, but yeah. That's why I hated you. I never understood why you guys thought her not having powers meant she was the odd-man out. We're the freaks."

Allison said nothing, and Andy didn't truly expect her to. So, with a halfhearted wave, and a resolve to try and hook up with Vanya again later, Andy left.

It really did bother her how to Hargreeves children treated one another. There was normal sibling rivalry, but they took it to a new level. She had no idea why, either. They were horrible to each other, and then were surprised when their sibling was horrible back. Andy never understood it. They were lucky enough to have a family and didn't even appreciate it. Instead, they seemed to lament it.

The sun had set some time ago and the clock was ticking toward ten o'clock that night. Needless to say, Andy had missed her flight.

Sitting in the den on one of the bullet-ridden couches, Andy had her phone to her ear and her face buried in her hand.

"What's that name again, ma'am?" The woman on the other end of the line asked for the third time.

"Klaus," Andy said through a tight jaw. "Hargreeves." She proceeded to spell each name for the inept secretary.

"Okay," She said in a sing-song tone. She heard the faint click of a keyboard. "I'm sorry, ma'am. There's no one here with that name. Are you sure he was brought to this hospital?"

"No," she sighed and fell back, staring up at the ceiling as she did. "He might have been brought in as a John Doe, overdose most likely."

There was more clicking. "I'm sorry, ma'am. We haven't had any overdoses so far."

"Check the morgue." Her confrontational edge had vanished, replaced with a genuine fear that Klaus had finally killed himself this time. "John Doe, Caucasian, thirty years old, thin build, dark hair."

More clicking. "We have two John Does, but I'm afraid one is a gentleman in his sixties, and the other is an African American gentleman, thirty years old."

Cold swept through her. She thanked the woman on the end of the line and hung up before pulling up the number to another hospital and repeating everything she'd just gone through.

She couldn't find Klaus anywhere, and Andy knew where to look. More than once when they were younger, she'd gone out to find him because she was scared. More than once, she'd called hospitals and morgues, and shitty little no-tell motels. She usually found him eventually, and brought him home to sober up.

But she couldn't find him now.

She knew something would happen to keep her from leaving. She knew she would be stuck again if she didn't run away as quickly as possible, but what was she supposed to do? Andy promised Klaus that she'd say goodbye to him in person, and she meant it. She had no intentions of walking away without seeing him again.

Andy dragged herself into the house. She needed to sleep, if only for a little while, before she started her search again. She'd spent the night and the majority of the day going from one shitty motel to another with a picture of Klaus. The longer she trudged through the city without making headway, the worse she felt. It simply meant that the likelihood of Klaus in a ditch somewhere was higher. When she came across one place that was roped off by the police, she'd thought at firs they found an OD in one of the rooms, but no. She overheard a few of the cops talking about how another officer had been shot and killed. Andy felt bad for that, but moved on. Clearly, Klaus wasn't there.

As she closed the front door behind her, she heard voices in the other room. If anything, she could ask the others if they'd seen the brother they seemed to give the least of a shit about, but then she heard a familiar voice.

Anger instantly swelled within her as she charged toward the library. The moment her eyes fell to Klaus, sitting on the couch surrounded by his siblings, that anger turned to rage.

"You must be fucking joking." She snapped, drawing attention to her quickly.

"Hey, Andy." Klaus greeted with a crooked smile and weak wave. "How's it goin'?"

Her brows rose as she looked at him with wide eyes.

"How's it… are you serious?" She stepped deeper into the library. "I just spent the last forty hours, forty hours, scouring every hospital, morgue, police station and shitty motel in the city trying to find you, and you've been here the whole time?"

"Well… no."

"Then where?" She snapped. He jumped, but she didn't care. She was exhausted and furious.

"Well… I was kind of kidnapped by those psychos and then accidentally time traveled and then-" He was rambling and she wasn't in the mood.

"Shut up."

"Yup…"

"You made me promise not to leave without saying goodbye, and then you just disappear. Was that so I'd miss my flight home?"

"No,"

She ran her fingers through her hair, gripping it at the crown of her head in frustration. Klaus slowly rose from his seat and took a step forward, drawing her attention.

"You're not leaving already, are you?"

"Yeah," She said with a clipped sigh. "I've had enough of this place and everybody being in it for themselves. I'm going home."

With a brisk wave that was more to the room than any one person, Andy turned around to leave.

"No, wait, wait, wait," Klaus said quickly, halting her escape. Andy hesitated. "Hey," He looked at his siblings. "Maybe she can help, right? I mean, all hands on deck."

"Help with what?" Andy asked skeptically.

"Nothing," Luther told her. He looked at a crestfallen Klaus. "This is a family problem. Let her go."

Andy should have expected it, but for some reason, his callous attitude still surprised her. With a scoff, she shook her head. As she walked away, Andy flicked her wrist. Luther's coffee cup fell over, spilling the liquid all over him. He cried out, either from shock or the heat of it.

"Jesus," He grumbled before shouting at her. "Real mature, Andorra!"

Andy flipped him off over her shoulder before she made it to the foyer. She leaned down, lifted her bag, and left the Academy.

In the library, while the others spoke, Klaus still thought periodically of Andy. She looked so angry. He couldn't believe that she spent so long looking for him. It wasn't the first time, sure, but it still shocked him given they'd spent years apart.

"I mean, I was giving him daily updates." Luther's voice tended to drone on, slipping into the background and easy for Klaus to ignore, but for some reason, that brought him back to the moment.

"But, wait," Klaus said. "Five said that we all, like… died last time."

"Shockingly, Klaus has a point." Diego said while he casually flipped a knife around his finger. "What gives us a win this time?"

Luther opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a blue, pulsing cloud of electricity that appeared above the bar and instantly spat out Number Five.

Five landed on a briefcase hard, grunting from the force before tumbling off of the surface and to the floor. With a groan, he managed to get himself to his feet, and still without a word, snatched Allison's coffee away from her.

After he finished it, he threw it into the distance and turned his sharp attention on his siblings.

"So, the Apocalypse is in three days. The only chance we have to save the world is, well, us." He didn't sound entirely happy with the prospect.

"The Umbrella Academy, yeah." Luther said.

"Yeah, but with me, obviously. So, if y'all don't get your sideshow acts together, we're screwed. Who cares if Dad screwed us up. Are we gonna let that define us? No. So, to give us a fighting chance, I came back with a lead." He produced a piece of paper from his pocket. "This is who we have to stop."

Allison reached for the paper and he handed it over. She unfolded it while the others congregated behind her.

"Harold Jenkins?" She asked.

"Who the hell is Harold Jenkins?" Diego asked.

"No idea." Five replied. Their collective faces dropped.

He went on to explain everything the best he could, and Klaus attempted to keep up, but he felt like he was on fire. His entire body was in the midst of withdrawals –sweating, shaking, the works. He felt like he was going to vomit all over the expensive rug, but somehow managed to keep it down. At least for the time being, he managed.

"Because this time I'm here." Five snapped angrily, bringing Klaus back into the argument. "We can-" Five suddenly paused. He glanced around quickly. "Where's Andorra?"

"Gone," Luther said with a shrug. "Why?"

"No, no, no, no." Five growled. "We need everyone."

"We don't need her. It's fine." Diego said.

"Yes, we do." Five's voice remained sharp and short. "She was here last time, in the rubble just like everyone else. Where was she going?"

"The airport." Klaus said with a groan. "She's going to fly back home."

Five let out a loud, angry growl. "We need to get her back here. Now."