After the fight, Five had resumed reading and scribbling in his books as they waited for the food that was due to arrive, so Rhea tip toes along the floor to the bathroom to freshen up. Al had already left, so she hoped the floor wouldn't mark and give her away.

She decided to stay in her workout gear since Klaus had ruined her shirt earlier and after a quick wash in the sink and spritz of perfume, she felt better.

Her energy fields took a lot longer to conjure than usual, due to the excessive use earlier, but eventually she makes it into the ring to sit opposite Five with the freshly delivered pizza. Upon her arrival, Five set down his books to tuck into it with her.

"See, food is exceedingly important to help with your 'thinking'. And pizza is the ultimate cheesy carb-y goodness. Gino's Italian has the best in the state," Rhea proclaims after a few bites.

She then startles Five by dropping her current slice back in the box and rises to get up, "Oh bugger! I should probably go get Diego, he'll be pissed if he finds out he missed out on Gino's."

Before she can stand, Five halts her movements by catching her wrist. "Diego, shmiego – he's not here and I'm hungry. No way can we let him inhale our dinner. Besides, the guy could do with losing a few pounds, we'll be doing him a favour," Five coldly remarks.

Rhea's eyes widen at his random jibe, but she lowers herself back down. "Diego's in great shape. Besides, don't you want the chance to hang out with one of your brothers? They've all missed you, you know. And I'm sure he - like the others - would be able to help us with this eye thing too and -"

"- I told you before, I don't trust them. We don't need their help," he snaps.

"They're family - your family. Surly you can trust them over a girl you met just yesterday?!"

"It doesn't matter, alright? I'm 58 years old for Pete's sake; I'm allowed to have my reasons."

The finality in his voice makes Rhea bite her tongue. No Rhea, don't argue with him again, you're here to forget the drama for one evening, she internally chants to herself. So, she keeps quiet and the two of them continue to eat in peace, though Rhea doesn't really mind because she's really enjoying the delicious food.

/

Five swallows his last mouthful of pizza and reaches for the brown paper bag, "Now why don't we try that relaxing thing." He takes out the glass bottle to take a generous swig before he passes it over to her.

She gladly accepts it and does the same, relieved he's broken the silence.

"If you say so. But you gotta admit that that pizza was divine."

"I can't remember the last time I had pizza..." He pauses in thought, "possibly back in the 80's in Rome, but that was a long time ago. This is not as good as that, but I'll admit it's close."

"You went to Rome? Gosh, I've always wanted to go there. Was it wo–wait - what, did you just say? The 80s?"

"Yeah, I was only there for a night or so, and I had to eat something," he states as if it was obvious," It's the Italian flour that gives their pizza that extra fineness though, I think."

"Hello. Earth to Five," she waves her hand in front of him.

"What?"

"How were you there in the 80s? You said you went forward in time, not back. I thought you said you were stuck there?"

"Oh fuc – forget it. Forget I said anything." He shifts uncomfortably as though he's realised he's said something he shouldn't have.

Rhea pushes his shoulder gently, "Aw come on. You can't say something like that and leave me hanging!"

"Forget it," he warns and looks away from her.

"Fiiiveee. Come on, I won't stop bugging you until you do!" She teases.

Five groans in frustration as he can't avoid the mischief shining behind her big, green, pleading eyes. So he relents,

"I may have met someone when I was in my late 50s. She gave me a job within an organisation who can time travel using science. Now, stop asking me questions. It's too dangerous for you to know this stuff."

Five shoves the now empty pizza box away with his foot, annoyed at himself for letting such a stupid comment slip out. He pulls his knees up and wraps his arms loosely around them after he takes another large gulp of whisky.

"Did this 'organisation' have something to with those goons last night?"

"My, my, you are a clever one. How you could put up with dunderhead Diego, I'll never know," Five states and shakes his head before he presses the bottle to his lips again.

Although Rhea is puzzled by his random ribbing of Diego, she continues to press, "You agreed loser explains first. You said you'd tell me what last night was about. Are you not going to explain at all?" She pulls the bottle out of his grasp and looks at him expectantly.

"Pretty sure you were the looser, or did my hand around your throat not count," he says smugly.

He stretches his arm out to get the bottle back, but Rhea sways it to the other side of her out of his reach and pokes her tongue out at him.

"That didn't count. Now stop diverting and explain, please," she pouts.

Five's eyes glance again towards her lower lip, before he sighs and retracts his arm to rest it on his knee.

"Fine. The organisation's called The Commission. They supervise and manage the space-time continuum."

He holds his hand out flat but she tilts her head to the side, "Yes, continue."

Five mirrors her action whilst rolling his eyes but obeys. "They make sure that all events on the timeline that are meant to happen, happen. I worked for them for a few years before I came back here simply because it was the only way to escape that hellhole. I've done unimaginable things, things you couldn't even comprehend…"

Accepting this was enough for her mind to process for now, Rhea drinks deeply before she relinquishes it back to him to do the same.

"So, tell me. You dated my brother. Why?" Five asks, expressionless.

"What sort of question is 'why?'" She laughs, but Five just stares at her and waits for an answer.

"Well, we met when I arrived at the academy. I soon picked up that he had a stutter and I wanted to help him with it like your Mom did. A kid in one of my foster homes had one too, so I learnt from her that I just needed to be supportive and have patience. I have no idea what happened to her mind you, since I moved on to another foster family a few months later, but I like to think I helped a bit... Anyway, yeah, Diego was really sweet, I liked spending time with him and a relationship just sort of… developed from there really."

"You were in foster homes?" Five frowns and hands the whisky back.

"Yeah… since I was 6. I lost my both parents. So I had no one… but I'd rather not talk about that right now - if that's ok," she says wistfully.

"Sure," Five nods.

The silence returns and the whisky bottle is slowly passed back and forth while both are lost in thought.

"I lost everyone too," Five murmurs as he looks across the room at nothing in particular. Rhea gives him her full attention even though she doesn't expect him to elaborate, but he surprises her when he does, "The day I jumped."

He laughs without humour, much like he did when he told them about the Twinkies. "You all took in that I arrived after Armageddon, but not one of you asked about yourselves…"

Rhea doesn't comment, assuming it was obvious that those who believed him had gathered that they were dead if he was the only survivor on the planet…

"I found them… when I got there. Just... Just lying there. Not moving…not breathing." Five breaths out deeply, finding it difficult to recall the haunting memories he thought he'd long buried. He shudders and looks down between his knees.

Rhea quietly gasps at his words and shuffles towards him, immediately following her instinct to get closer to wrap an arm around him for comfort. Five doesn't react to her side-hug; he just looks up straight ahead again and continues.

"I saw Luther first – he was older, but I knew. I knew it was him… I had to look away, but I easily spotted another body. It was Diego. He was face down and covered in rubble, just like Luther was. I walked over to him and I tried to shake him, stupidly thinking he was just knocked out or something… I even lifted a few rocks off him so he could get up, but- but he didn't get u-up," his voice breaks.

Rhea leans closer into his side to bring her other arm up to hold his limp hand in hers. Her heart clenches from witnessing this vulnerability she, probably like their adoptive siblings, never considered him capable of.

"Allison was next to him... She was blonde, but, it was her… I was so delirious that I got up to try run away… but then a few feet away, I saw Klaus. He looked so different - because he was older like the others were - but his eyes... His eyes were the same as the ones I had looked into and laughed with just that morning."

Five squeezes her hand back - so softly, that she doesn't know if she imagined it or not - before he reaches out to take another heavy gulp of alcohol to try burn some of the ache way.

"Oh my god, Five. That's... unimaginable! Seeing your family dead… I'm so, so sorry you had to go through that…at such a young age as well. That must have really messed with your head." Rhea uses her free hand to wipe are her wet eyes. She couldn't even imagine how she would have felt seeing her siblings dead. She slides her arm down from across his shoulders to his waist and rests her head on his shoulder. He doesn't embrace her back, of course, but she hopes her contact brings him something.

"I dug their graves. It took me two days, but I did it. I was only a kid. A kid at the end of the world who had to bury his whole world…" Five gently pulls himself out of her embrace to stand.

"After that, I spent days looking for Vanya and Ben. Shovelling god knows how many piles of rocks to try uncover them. Eventually I had to give up searching to go find myself some shelter."

He stuffs his hands in his pockets and wonders towards the ring's edge, his back still to her.

"It was over a week later when I found what was left of the library. Part of it was barely standing, but as I sorted through the pile of books, I discovered Vanya's. With nothing else to do - apart from trying to survive in a desolate world - I began reading it so I found out from that that Ben had died a few years after I left…"

Noticing that Five had reached out to hold the ropes as he said this, Rhea guesses, "Finding out about Ben must have made you feel like you had lost them all over again."

"Yeah."

Her mind screams at her to ask. She knows she shouldn't make this about her, but she waits a few beats before she says, "Five?"

"Yeah?"

"You mention the others… not to sound like a narcissist or anything but was I with them?" She notices his shoulders tense from his grip tightening on the ropes.

"I mean… I know you didn't know me then, but you know me now, all 5 foot 5" of me…" she laughs nervously, "do you remember seeing me there?"

He doesn't answer her for a few minutes and just when she's about to say 'forget it' he utters, "No… No, you weren't there."

"Oh." That shocked her. "Okay… I guess I was with Vanya somewhere," Rhea tries to justify, but doesn't believe her own words.

She had powers.

Vanya did not.

Vanya should have been hidden somewhere where they thought she'd be safer.

Rhea should have been there with them fighting to try stop it.

/

The evening after she and Five parted ways at the gym was uneventful. Rhea returned to her flat, had a shower and the two sisters began to watch a movie together. Unfortunately, Rhea didn't make it past the opening credits before she fell asleep - too emotionally exhausted from her conversation with Five and physically drained from their game of cat and mouse. Vanya had kindly thrown a blanket on her before she went to bed herself, and so Rhea woke up the next morning still on the sofa when her phone's alarm went off.

Silencing the alarm, Rhea regards all her email notifications with a shudder since it was a harsh reminder of all the work she had to do. But, it would have to wait because she had agreed with Five she'd run surveillance on the MeriTech guy with him.

Vanya had already left for rehearsal - no doubt late as usual - so Rhea was able to get ready without the stress of having to lie about where she was going. She changed out of her pjs into a pair of her signature black skinny jeans, and then decided on a white t-shirt and a plain hoodie so she wouldn't stand out on the stakeout. After applying her usual light layer of foundation, eyeliner to her water lines and some mascara, she stares at herself in the mirror. Gosh, without Allison's help, I really am just a plain Jane, she criticises herself before she grabs her keys and phone to leave.

Flashing to outside Five's bedroom door, a memory comes into mind, so she turns the handle and walks straight in unannounced. He's standing over a big, olive green duffle bag and swears when she enters.

"Shit, Rhea. Ever learn how to knock?" he complains and promptly zips the bag closed before she can see what's inside.

"You entered my bedroom via my closet yesterday. I didn't knock today. Now, we are even."

"Yesterday was a miscalculation. That was on purpose."

"If you say so... Just such a shame; I thought I'd be walking in on you in your little Spiderman underpants or something - the guys would have loved that," she giggles.

"Oh aren't you just hilarious?" Five says, fixing her with a droll look, but there was a slightly amused light in his eyes.

"Yup," she beams, popping the 'p', a habit of hers Five notes. "Now, let's go before Lance gets into work. His shiftiness has something to do with the lab, so it makes sense to go there first."

/

They use the fire escape to leave the house; Five claiming that he didn't want talk to the others or let them know what they were up to. He takes the bulky bag with him on his back, but doesn't explain why, so Rhea doesn't ask.

They pass Klaus rummaging in a dumpster outside. Supposedly Klaus is looking for the other half of a bagel, but the hip flask in his grasp implies he's actually gunning for another bender. It wasn't even 9am... Rhea wants to take Klaus with them to keep an eye on him, but Five strongly objects to the idea by claiming that Klaus only wants money and they shouldn't be funding his drug habit. She reluctantly agrees with this and she leaves Klaus behind to follow Five after promising to catch up with him later.

A plumbing van was conveniently left unattended at the other end of their alley, so Five hopped into the front seat to 'borrow' it to drive them both to the lab.

They spotted Lance walking down the road after he had picked up some coffee from the same café Rhea had insisted on stopping at. If she was on a day job, she needed the caffeine she had insisted, so Five had grudgingly pulled over so she could fulfil her wish. She then took great pleasure in pointing Lance out to him when she sat back in the van with two takeaway cups of black coffee in her hands.

/

Five parks across the street from MeriTech in order to make sure they get a clear visual of the entrance to watch all of Lance's comings and goings. They see the guy in question enter shortly after the van's brakes squeal in protest from Five's dreadful stopping technique.

"And now we wait," Rhea comments absently.

"Yeah, now we wait."

Whilst Rhea sips her coffee, she watches the other members of staff trail in and out of the building. She also takes in their surroundings in case they needed to make a quick getaway if Lance spotted them. With cup in hand, Five watches out the window too, but his gaze also drifts down to the bag in between them every so often. He doesn't do anything with the bag, but after a while it starts make Rhea a little nervous. He'd been very quiet all morning; not that he was a big talker anyway, but he seemed very agitated and guarded which was very uncharacteristic of him.

Startled by the phone in her jeans pocket as it began to ring, Rhea promptly pulls it out to have a look. It's her partner Daniel, again. She decides to ignore it, silencing the ringer to let it go to voicemail. Finding leads to save the world was far more important than work right now. It isn't long before the phone vibrates again so Rhea throws it on the dash - the vibration makes the phone buzz from side to side where it lay.

"Who's so keen to get a hold of you?" Five asks, curiosity getting the better of him.

"Oh, it's just a colleague from work. No big deal - it can wait," Rhea shrugs, looking out of the window to her right.

The third time the phone vibrates, Five slightly leans over to have a look, and sees 'DANIEL' flash up on the screen with an image of an attractive, curly haired brunette who looked to be in his late twenties, early thirties.

"Seems like Daniel, is very persistent in wanting to talk to you…"

Rhea's head whips around at Five's words and she takes the phone back and out of his view.

"He will get over it. No point in solving my clients' issues right now when they are all going to die next week, is there?" She turns off the phone and tucks it back into her pocket.

Five continues to look at her with an unreadable expression, so Rhea moves her attention past him towards the entrance to keep an eye out for anything suspicious.

After about an hour and about the 10th time of seeing Five's eyes shift back to the bag, Rhea bursts, "If you need something from your bag, just get it. God, we're meant to be staking out the lab, not looking away every few seconds."

"It's nothing," Five states.

"It's obviously not, you keep looking it like you've got a dead body in there or something and don't know what to do with it – er, wait, there isn't actually dead body in there… is there? Because I thought that weird smell was just the van," Rhea questions, eyes wide and wary.

"It's not a dead body," Five affirms, rolling his.

"Well, whatever it is, just get it out so you can get focused."

"I told you. It's nothing," he hisses, gritting his teeth.

"Fine, if you won't open it, I will," she teases, putting her now empty cup on the dash and beginning to shuffle towards the bag to pretend to open it.

Five instantly lurches forward out of his seat to lean protectively over it, subsequently ending up very close to Rhea with his face inches from hers.

"Back off, little girl. None of this even concerns you," he growls at her, teeth bared.

She's hurt by the cheap insult, but she's also confused why he just snapped at her for something so trivial. Though he was talking about the bag, she got the feeling his words meant the situation as a whole.

"I was just joking, Five. Calm down."

"I said. Leave it."

"Fine. If this doesn't concern me, as you say, maybe I should just go."

"Fine. I work much better by myself anyway - you just distract me from what's actually important with your trivial childish ways anyway," he sneers, grinning sarcastically.

His attitude really throws her because she had thought they had come to an understanding or even a comradery over the last two days - especially after last night.

"You're such a bastard," she mutters, which only makes him grin more. "That's not actually a compliment," she tells him wryly.

Neither of them move, too angry to speak. When their eyes meet, she was almost convinced that the anger she saw in his stormy blue eyes was being replaced by something else. For a split second, she thought he was going to kiss her, but was gone before her brain could fully process it, so she promptly pulls away to climb out of the van.

She throws Lance's address that she had scribbled down on a piece of paper at him, before slamming the door and spatial jumping away.