10
Nothing Ever Goes Right For A Hargreeves
Five looked at himself in the mirror and picked at the suit that Allison had brought for him. It fit him somewhat, the arms were the perfect length in the blazer but the legs were too big, bunching around his skinny knees. He felt an itch brewing on his chest and began to scratch at his shirt. The whole suit was itchy.
Five glanced at the clothes that he had changed out of resting on the bed. A button down shirt and jeans. It had only been two days since he had gone shopping with Klaus and Allison, and he already wanted to put those clothes back on.
He turned back to the mirror and picked at the fabric trying to get it to fit better but his efforts were still in vain. The suit still looked frumpy and the itchiness hadn't left. Five sighed and began to take his blazer off, hanging it on the closet door.
What an exciting tuesday night, he thought to himself. Tomorrow Allison's custody fight would begin to see if her visitation rights would be taken away completely. She had managed to book them a hotel on the night they left, separate rooms of course. It was a grand hotel, only something that would have been built in the 1920's during the start of the silent film era. There were several floors towering towards the sky complete with their own balconies and hot tubs.
Five's room was on the third floor. He supposed it was stylish, he couldn't really tell. Most of the room was white with gold plated pieces and murals of cranes flying covering the walls. It was the original wallpaper kept maintained to precision. Allison's room was right across from his, although she wasn't there. She was down the hallway on the phone talking to her lawyer about everything that she needed to do.
Taking a few paces towards bed, Five sat down feeling the covers and mattress sink underneath his weight. Five looked down at the suit again and felt a pang within his chest. Why had he not gone with Allison? He didn't want to be on his own. A powerful pound went through his head and he clutched at it. No, not again. He was getting tired of this. He began to push the images down trying to think of other things but the memory came in full force and threw him back into the apocalypse.
He was sitting at his library home and scratching at the beginnings of a beard that had started to appear on his face. He was looking at the ground at a drawing of a birthday cake he had done himself. It was October 1st 2024 and what he considered his eighteenth birthday. He laughed to himself and stared at the drawing. How pathetic. It was the wishes of a child to celebrate his birthday with his siblings. Five growled and began to punch the birthday cake. He began to punch faster and harder. The dust rose and swirled in rivers.
Five! He heard Delores say and he turned to her with a sweating face and heavy breaths.
I know you're upset but-
Five laughed. Did she really want an argument right now? She knew he was upset, he wanted to get his anger out in peace but of course she interrupted.
"But what Delores? Are you going to tell me that they wouldn't have wanted me to act like this? That they would have wanted me to keep going. That's what I have been doing! That's what I've been doing!" He screamed into the air and punched the ground again.
He removed his hand and looked at the scratches that had appeared on his fingers, his knuckles had started to bleed the skin all but shredded to bits. He began to raise his fist again.
Five, please stop! You're going to hurt yourself. Delores pleaded.
He looked across her and although she never showed any emotion on her features. It was the tone in her voice that stopped him. He sighed and lay down in the dust staring at the sky.
"It's been five years." He whispered and draped his arm across his eyes.
Five years of surviving and nothing else. Five years of failed equations and nothing to show for it. It was his eighteenth birthday and he was spending it without his siblings. He wondered what they had done for their eighteenth. Would they have all been still at home? Vanya's book focused on their childhood and what she had done after. There was very little in terms of what his other siblings had done.
He could imagine that Diego would have been the first to leave, the only thing that had kept him there would have been their AI Mother. Five had a gratitude towards her but he had never really been infatuated with her like Diego had been. The others would have followed but he knew Luther would have stayed. Forever his Father's little servant.
Five began to set up and looked at the grey sky. What a birthday. All he had done was injure himself. He clambered up and walked over to his stack of booze that he had started to gather when he was around fifteen. When he had first found them in the cellar of a house he had been a bit hesitant to drink them. However almost dying of thirst had soon convinced him. Now he couldn't care less. He picked up the bottle of rum and unscrewed the cap. He could feel tears pricking his eyes and wiped them away. He was an adult now.
He began to chug the rum not caring if got a hangover in the morning. The tears were coming fresh and fast. Why was he crying? HIs mind was already hazy. He kept drinking and drinking until there was none left. That night, Five Hargreeves had drunk himself to sleep on his eighteenth birthday.
Five gasped to himself as he came out of the memory. That was the fifth one now and they were getting more frequent now. His older self was showing him his memories and he had no way to fight back. At the moment although they had been hard to see, they were about the apocalypse, it was something that he could cope with to a degree. The degree being very small because the memories had felt real to him, like he had been there although he hadn't experienced anything yet.
The memories were still around the teenage years, he had wondered if his older self was trying to use some sort of tactic and if it was wearing him down, it was working. He hadn't heard his older self's voice for a while either, so he didn't know what to do about all these memory flashes.
He lay down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. So far, Allison hadn't noticed that he had been having flashes of memory but what about if she did catch him spacing out? He supposed he could lie and say that he had a headache but what good would that do? She would only mother him.
There was a soft knock at the door. Five got up from the bed and opened it.
"Hey Allison." He said as he looked up at her.
The light from the hall was shining on her face and Five saw a faint glimmer of tears on her cheeks.
"Hey Five, I wanted to see how you were doing." It felt like a poor excuse to talk to him. They had only spoken around an hour ago.
"I'm okay." Five said and opened the door wider to let her in.
Allison walked in and looked at his suit.
"Hmm maybe I should have got you a smaller suit." She said looking at his arms.
Five was so skinny he wondered if going another size down would have made any difference. He blamed the state of his body on the apocalypse and he doubted his older self had looked after himself.
"It will do. What did the lawyer say?" Five asked, changing the subject.
Allison scrunched her face up as she tried to smile. It was a poor attempt.
"That it's going to be a difficult case and that I may lose. They said because of the circumstances of me rumoring her, which in their eyes believe that I'm taking away her free will that it will not go in my favour. My lawyer said to keep fighting because it's going to be one of my toughest battles yet-," Allison paused to let out a heavy sob. "She's right, this is the hardest. Harder than stopping any apocalypse."
Five frowned. He wasn't the best at comforting people, at all.
Before he could say anything Allison had wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him tightly. He stood awkwardly for a moment before putting one arm around her and patting her back. He stood there for a moment letting Allison sob into his shoulder. She released the hug after she started to dry sob and wiped away her tears.
"Will you be able to even see a glimpse of her?" Five asked, because if there was something he could do. He wanted to help his sister any way he could but he wasn't where he could even start.
"I don't know Five. Unless I'm supervised by Patrick and the entire court I have no idea." Allison's voice was cracking, although her tears had dried out a while ago, she was still upset.
You can't do anything, boy. This is beyond you.
His older self's voice. The old man sounded tired.
Maybe it was beyond him, or maybe it wasn't. Five knew he wasn't powerless but what could he do in a court? Or why had he even come in the first place? He had been a spur of the moment decision to come with Allison. He had wanted to support her and another was that he wanted to meet Claire. Even if that meant sneaking her out of the court. He assumed she would be going.
"Patrick won't let you near her will her?" Five mumbled.
Allison nodded.
"Yes. It's hard to believe that he was my husband once." She muttered.
"How did you meet him? I don't think Vanya's book mentioned the two of you meeting." Five replied. Then again, he doubted Vanya and Allison had been talking then.
Allison froze for a second and sighed like the weight of the world was resting on her shoulders.
"I was nineteen and on the set of my second major role. He was one of the sound technicians. I thought he was quite attractive and so walked over there and we ended up together." Allison said.
It was a vague description and Five was sure there was more to the story. He didn't want to press any further because he was sure that it brought up painful memories for Allison and she was already going through so much, he didn't want to add to that pain even further.
"I know you will be able to see her again Allison. I'm sure of it." Five said, but he sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than her.
Allison forced a smile.
"I don't know Five. I better go to bed, it's going to be a long day tomorrow. Make sure you're up." She patted his head, realized what she was doing and took her hand away quickly.
Five had liked it. It had been warm and comforting but he didn't say anything about it as she began to walk towards the door.
"Goodnight Five." She said as she closed the door behind her
"Night." He said as he watched her leave.
Five reached up and touched his hair where Allison had patted it. He patted the spot, it didn't feel the same as her's. Her's had been a mother's touch.
The anger that Allison felt threatened to consume her as she watched her husband walk down the corridor. He glanced her way before disappearing towards the court doors, he didn't make any gesture towards her. Only looked at her as if she was a minor inconvenience.
"Allison, are you ready?" She heard Five ask as he came walking down the corridor. He ran a hand through his hair and looked pale.
"As ready as I'll ever be." She muttered.
"I'll be waiting outside." He said with a nod.
Five wasn't going to be allowed inside because technically Five Hargreeves had disappeared seventeen years ago and if he had come back, he was supposed to be 29 years old. Not thirteen. Allison hadn't wanted to get into complicated matters although he still had to wear a suit to enter the courthouse. She didn't dare rumour a full court of people to get her brother in, no matter how she wanted him to be there. She would have to do this on her own.
She looked at Five's jacket and tried to straighten it pulling at the lapels. He let her and then moved away, shoving his hands into his pockets.
"I am going to fight for her, Five." She said, trying to fill herself with confidence. She wanted to see her daughter again, this what her whole battle had been.
"You are. You can do it." Five encouraged.
Allison breathed a deep sigh and then began to walk away from Five down the hallway, her footsteps echoing across the marble floor.
The courthouse that her case was being held in was one that had seen many famous cases come and go. The most notable being an outlaw in the 1940's running an underground bar during the prohibition era. Allison felt like a criminal, although she wasn't being sent to jail.
She walked further down the court house towards where the courtroom would be. Her lawyer would meet her on the outside. As she got closer, she could feel her heart hammering in her chest. Allison saw her lawyer waiting for her by the door, looking through a stack of paper that she had.
Sai Patel was one of Hollywood's greatest lawyers, there was no case that she wouldn't take as long as that case included a woman and not a man, then she would fight for them. Allison doubted that she had many met like her case, where the person had powers. In fact that had been Sai's selling point and the reason that she had wanted to take Allison's case on.
As Allison approached her, she waved to her without looking up from the stack of paper.
"It's going to be a tough one." She muttered and then looked up at Allison battering long eyelashes up at her.
"Do you think I can do it?" Allison asked her, biting her lip.
Sai smiled and rolled up her suit's sleeves.
"We are going to get your visitation rights if it's the last thing I ever do, Allison Hargreeves. Now come on let's go."
Allison followed Sai through the door and they walked into the courtroom. Allison kept her head down as she could feel people's eyes on her, watching her, judging her for the mistakes that she had made. Maybe everything she had ever done had been a mistake but she needed to do this for her daughter. She needed to be brave. She had people on her side.
She put her head up and saw the faces of her former family staring down at her. Claire's grandmother, her former sister in law and her grown up children. Had Patrick brought his whole side of the family with him?
As her and Sai got to the seat, she looked across at Patrick with his own lawyer. The man grimaced as they made eye contact. He looked away quickly enough. He had always been a more attractive man, but he looked a lot healthier now. His hair had been cut shorter, and his few days' stubble that he used to keep shaved was now a full grown beard. He looked a little wearier around the eyes, but it was the same man that she had once loved.
The problem had been that he had never loved her back. It was her deepest secret that she would never tell anyone, not even Luther. She remembered when she had first approached him, the way he had been messing around with his boom mike and trying to remember how it was supposed to work.
He had been starstruck for a second, surprised that she had even bothered him. Their first date had been wonderful, almost like a fairytale. It was on their fourth when she had overheard him talking to a friend about how he was only using her for sex because despite her fame, she was quite innocent. She had used her rumour on him then to make him fall in love with her.
It was the only rumour she had ever used on Patrick and the one rumour had worked up until he had seen her rumouring Claire. He hadn't confronted her but she knew he had thought about it and did not want to bring those memories up. Instead she had run away from it all, like she had always done. It was now time to face the consequences.
The judge walked in. He was a beefy man who's facial expression said that he clearly thought that this was an entire waste of time. He sat in his chair and slammed the hammer down.
"Court is now in session. I believe that this is a dispute between Patrick Jones and his former wife Allison Hargreeves, in breach of her signed contract. She was supposed to be doing a therapy session before a trail visitation with her daughter, is that correct?" He said reading from the papers in front of him.
Patrick's lawyer stood up, a small filipino woman who's smug grin caused a shiver to run down Allison's spine.
"Yes your honour, she claimed that she was at her 'father's' funeral. A Father who I believed according to her sister's biography was quite cruel." The woman brought out Vanya's book and placed it on the table in front of her. "I find it hard to believe that she wanted to go to the funeral of a man like that."
Allison couldn't breathe. This had to be a joke? What sort of bullshit reason had Patrick's lawyer come up with? No, this had to be his idea. It wanted to make sure that she would never see her daughter again. He was not about to take that away.
"Your Honor! Objection! Despite all of this he was still my Father," Allison began.
Sai then put her arm out and shook her head. "Let me handle this." She whispered.
Allison nodded, and let Sai speak. She had always been better at handling the court situations for her, especially with Patrick's Divorce.
"Allison is right, your honor. He was still Allison's Father, she would have had to go to his funeral. It was only right for her to do so, no matter what Reginald Hargreeves was like, she would still go to his funeral. As for her sister's book, I believe that his adopted children all split ways and haven't spoken since."
Except she had spoken to her siblings last week. However Allison wasn't going to bring that up when she knew she had only spoken to them a few days ago. When her and Five had left, they had left a note for the others to find so that she would understand where they had gone. It wasn't like there was a major apocalypse happening anymore so she trusted her siblings could hold it together for a few days.
"I have never know Sir Reginald Hargreeves and although you both bring up very valid points, I find it hard to believe that this domestic issue had to be served in a court of law. Can't you two sort it out without the use of the court?" The judge sighed.
Allison silently agreed with him, this all had been Patrick's idea but she supposed he didn't want to be anyway near her. Although the judge was being very unprofessional.
"Your honour!" Patrick's lawyer cried out slamming Vanya's book on the desk. "Allison Hargreeves has powers, who's to say she hasn't used them on us!"
"I haven't done anything at all, in fact I've barely spoken!" Allison said. "There are so many people in this room, I've never rumoured an entire crowd of people. It's impossible."
The woman laughed.
"You could be lying!"
"Did Patrick put you up to this?" Allison snapped glaring at her ex husband who had been silent.
"Enough!" The judge slammed his hammer down on the table. "This is a court of law not an elementary school yard!"
There was silence for a few moments until there was a warping sound and Five appeared in the middle of the courtroom. Allison's eyes widened as she looked at the boy, his clothes were ripped to shreds and there was blood dripping from his arm, a black bruise was forming on his face around his eyes in a perfect circle.
"Allison…," He breathed, only looking at her and not looking at his audience. "It's Claire, she's..she's been kidnapped." He said before collapsing onto the floor.
Allison rushed to his side as the court around her began to uproar.