15

Epilogue

He's Home

2 Weeks Later

As Alison walked into the kitchen, she saw Five sitting at the table a piping hot cup of coffee near him, the steam still coming off it. He was staring at the cup, his hands firmly placed on the table. She felt a pang of guilt, it was her fault that he was like this. He had been strange since had woken up, he had spoken to them every now and again but he kept himself holed up in his room the past 2 weeks. Only choosing to come out for quick snacks, instead of proper fact that she had caught him this early in the morning, was quite a miracle.

She was half debating if she would leave because she was pretty sure that Five would blink out of the room as soon as he noticed that he had company. However she was proved wrong, when Five turned around to her.

"Are you going to be hovering in the door all day, or are you actually going to come in?" He said with an exasperated sigh. His voice cracked on the last word, but he sounded tired. More tired than when she had last spoken to him.

"I didn't want to disturb you." Allison replied as she walked towards the table. She came to stop by a chair and stood awkwardly behind it.

"I was already awake." He rubbed his eyes and Allison could make out his dark eyebags that were even more prevalent than before.

She grabbed the back of the chair and breathed in deeply. She had been wanting to talk to Five ever since he had woken but the moment had never been right. It was now or never.

"Listen Five, I don't know how much you remember-," She began, trying to find the right words.

"About you rumouring me, you mean?" Five snapped, looking down at his coffee.

Allison winced. Hearing it come out of Five's mouth was worse than what she initially thought it would sound like.

"Yes. I never meant to do it. I never meant for any of this to happen so if you don't forgive me than I understand-,"

Five held his hand up in the air.

"I know you didn't mean for it to happen. I suppose Ripley would have shown up sooner or later, but it's not that I don't forgive you. It's that I don't think I've broken your rumours completely." He said punching the table.
Allison blinked. When Five had first woken up, he had started acting like his fifty eight year old self so all of her family had assumed that her rumours had been broken through his fight with Ripley.

"What do you mean?" Allison said. She pulled the chair out and decided to sit at the kitchen table.

Five hesitated for a moment.

"I feel different. I don't really remember what my other self was like but I do remember making a deal with him when we fought Ripley. Whatever happened after that deal, it's made me feel like this and I hate it." Five spoke down to his coffee. Allison looked across to it as well and noticed for the first time that his coffee wasn't black. Instead it was a warm brown as if he had put milk into.

"When you say you feel different, what do you mean?" Allison was still having a hard time trying to figure him out, from what she had seen. He seemed his normal self but she couldn't help but glance at the coffee again.

"When I first became like this, I still felt like myself, I still felt like an adult." Five said, his voice full of disgust.

Allison nodded. Although he had been weird seeing her brother exactly as he had left, it was quite clear that from when she spoke to him that he wasn't the thirteen year old that they remembered. He had spoken, clearly sure of himself. That had been a hint of the child that they knew but apart from that, it had been believable when he had said that he had got the equations wrong. Even during the few weeks when they had been trying to prevent the two apocalypses, Five had often reminded his siblings of his status as an adult and he wasn't going to let that go.

"And now I feel more like a child than I ever did before," He ran his hand through his black hair. "Damn it, I'm not making any sense."

Allison wasn't sure what to say, because how did she know what her brother was going through? Her rumours had caused this and she didn't know what to do. She could only silently listen.

Five sighed before speaking again.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is I feel young again, and I hate it. I hate it, my thirteen year old self is still here somewhere and I look nothing like my age. I should be getting ready for my retirement, I was supposed to be protecting you guys until my last years. That was my purpose and now I feel lost." He then took a long drink of his coffee before slamming it down causing some of it to spill on the table.

"Coffee doesn't taste right if I don't put milk in. Damn it, I hate this." Five muttered.

He looked up across at Allison and she was sure she could see tears in his eyes. It stunned her for a moment, she had seen his younger self cry but this was different. The cool and collected Five was no more, and looked like he was about to burst into tears. Five had always seemed indestructible and it was hard to remember that he was only human, just like the rest of them.

"There has to be something you can do Allison. Rumour me again, I can't deal with this." He put his face into his hands, and it was then that Allison finally understood.

Whether her rumours had brought this on or not, it always bound to happen. Five had been running riot over the last month or so, and he hadn't stopped. Alison believed that he might not have stopped over the last 45 years, and now that he was finally resting, everything that had done was coming back to him. Perhaps that was why he felt so young and vulnerable. It might have been a long time before the feelings came, so Allison could only assume her rumours had only quickened the process. Five was finally breaking.

"I'm not going to do that Five, I made myself a promise that I would never rumour you again, and you can't run away from your feelings. I think it's time for you to finally rest." She said, and started to reach out a hand towards him. She wasn't sure if he was going to push her away but watched as he flinched when her hand rested on his blazer sleeve. He had started wearing the uniform again, but she was hoping that might not last long. Five flinched but he didn't move.

"Then what am I supposed to do Allison? I don't know who I am anymore." Five said, his voice sounding so young.

Allison noted the tears that had started to fall down his cheeks. Part of her wondered wanted to reach out and give him a hug but she felt like that was maybe going a bit too far.

"We can figure that out together Five. You've been running for so long, don't you think it's time to finally take a break?" Allison said, breaking out into a smile.

Five didn't reply, instead looking down at his coffee again. Tears were dropping onto the wooden table.

Allison then got up out of her chair and wrapped her arms around Five. She hoped that she wasn't going to get maimed for it. He froze for a second before he warmed himself into it. Allison smiled to herself, this was nice. She was finally hugging her brother, like they were meant to hug.

Five had a long way to go, there was trauma that he would have unpack for years to come. In fact all of them had trauma that they needed to unpack that would take every one of their siblings years to get through. Five had a lot though. The only thing that they could do was help each other get through everything, after all they were all a family.
Allison still had the court date to sort out, and she wasn't sure what would happen with Claire now but she hoped that the outcome would be good. For once maybe things wouldn't be so bad.

Initially Allison had thought that rumouring Five had been a bad mistake, and perhaps the worst thing that she had ever done. True it had brought a lot of things forward, for the younger Five to confront but then again it had also done some good. It had brought them a lot closer as a family. Perhaps it hadn't been a mistake at all, and now could allow Five to finally heal.