Wow thank you so much for all the support on this story already! This chapter is definitely a lot longer than the last one but I hope you'll stick with me. Also some periods of time have been changed for continuity's sake, so if the timeline of this story and the show don't match up please forgive me! I did the math as best I could. Anyways I hope you enjoy!

April 12th 1997 6:45 pm. Greenwich, London, the top floor of the oldest apartment in town.

The Umbrella Academy, a family that thrived on personal space, had been crammed into a 2 bedroom apartment for 7 excruciating days. It was bad enough that they'd failed to save the world but now they had to spend time together. Alison and Vanya had one room, Five and Luther had another, and Klaus and Diego were sharing the pullout couch in the living room and had the majority of the responsibility of being lookout. Even while the rest of them were eating dinner in various spots in the living room Diego was still sitting in the windowsill with his eyes glued on the street.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Klaus asked in between bites of his dinner. "These commission people aren't going to stand outside with a sign announcing their arrival. They're going to be sneaky about it."

"It's better to be safe than sorry." Diego replied flatly.

"And you never know with them." Five pointed out. "They aren't always subtle. They like to make a production of things when they can."

"That's helpful." Klaus said sarcastically.

Vanya, who was sitting on the couch next to Five, turned to face him. "And you haven't heard anything from them? Is there a chance they don't know where they are?"

Five shook his head. "They know. Truthfully I think they're so certain our plan is doomed that they're just letting us try."

No one knew how to reply to this statement. They continued to eat their food in silence.

Diego looked away from the view out the window long enough to crumple up the wrapper from his dinner and toss it into the garbage can across the room. Imagine his surprise when he looked out the window and spotted a young woman standing in the middle of the street that hadn't been there a second before.

"Girl with a briefcase." He said, his voice coming out as startled as he felt.

Everyone dropped their food and hurried over to the window to get a look at the woman. In the late 90's everyone was dressed in black or plaid she stuck out like a sore thumb. Underneath high waisted bell bottom jeans they could see chunky platform heels. She had on a cropped, long sleeve floral sweatshirt that went down past her wrists. As they all watched her as she looked up at the building and used her hand to shield her eyes from the sun. Though her outfit and platinum blonde hair made her look ready for a trip to the beach it was clear, despite the distance, that she was pale. Even for London.

Diego forced the window open and reached for one of his knives. "I can probably get her in one go, we'll just have to worry about witnesses."

Five grabbed the knife from his hand and yanked it out. "No, let me handle this." He said sternly. "Don't do anything to hurt her, got it?"

He hardly waited for a response before he disappeared from the room. The siblings all looked at each other, used to Five's erratic behavior by then but still surprised that he seemed determine to handle everything on their own. But, for once, they were fully working together.

The young woman was still squinting up at the building when Five appeared on the sidewalk 10 feet away from her. Up close it was now undeniable that he knew her. She was an unforgettable type of person to anyone that knew her. Uncharacteristically for him Five felt his hands begin to clam and his stomach start to churn as he approached her. Seeing her in the same outfit she had been in the last time they'd been together was jarring. Was he asleep, living in a particularly realistic dream. It wouldn't have been the first time she came to him in an unconscious state.

She dropped her hand back to her side and her gaze fell onto him. Both of them seemed frozen in their place for a moment. He knew he looked different from the last time they'd seen each other, but she looked exactly the same. Not a day older. Maybe not quite as vibrant, but other than that identical.

"Martha?" he asked, her name feeling foreign on his tongue when it had once been so familiar.

A smile exploded onto her face and she walked towards him until she was standing on the sidewalk only a few feet away. She was close enough that he could reach out and touch her, but he was afraid to do so in case she was just a figment of his imagination and she would disappear if he did so.

"You look young." She said, surveying him. Normally such a statement, and such a close gaze on him, would have made him feel small and insecure. But he knew she didn't mean it to make fun of him. She was, after all, used to seeing him in his mid to late 20's. Just as he was used to seeing her tanner and better rested.

"You look tired." He pointed out in reply.

For a moment he feared she would be offended. They used to take lighthearted jabs at each other all the time. But they hadn't seen each other in 30 years, and after the radio silence Five didn't have a clue how she felt about him.

But some of his worries faded away when a wide smile broke out on her face, one that brought back a million memories. "Touché." She said. Martha leaned down and set the briefcase on the ground with a small thud before looking back at him. "I missed you."

The words were hard for her to say, it was clear to him. Martha preferred to say things with actions rather than words. And though he just wanted to be happy about the fact that she was there he had decades worth of unanswered questions that were constantly nagging at him. "I wrote you all the time, and I never heard back. I thought you'd died on a mission. I thought I'd never see you again."

Martha's face fell slightly and Five wished he could take his words back but she spoke before he got the chance. "They wouldn't let me contact you. They didn't even give me your letters." She sighed and looked away from him for a moment. "You know how they are. Nothing gets past them, especially mail." Martha shook her head. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before I was coming. I didn't exactly have the opportunity."

"You don't have to be sorry." Five assured her. "I'm glad you're here, Martha."

She looked back at him, seemingly shocked that he would say such a thing. Five was, frankly, shocked by her shock. "You are?"

He laughed, "Of course I am. You think I wouldn't miss you after everything we've been through?"

She shrugged her shoulders, "I just thought…" she began, but her voice trailed off and she never finished what she was saying.

Martha took the last few steps towards him and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into a tight hug that he returned immediately. With her platform heels and his younger body she was taller than him, which was fine with Five since it allowed him to hide his face in her hair while he composed himself. Maintaining a poker face was something Five excelled at. Except for when it came to Martha. It was safe to say he had a soft spot for her.

"Why didn't you come sooner?" he asked her, for once not really caring if he sounded pathetic. "I've been so worried about you."

"Don't think I didn't try." She told him. "Our circumstances in the past 60 years haven't exactly been identical."

"50?"

He felt her nod. "The commission has been trying to fix the apocalypse mess you guys made for 30 years. Which is partly why I'm here."

Five stepped back from her, though not enough to completely separate the two of them. "Did they send you here to terminate me?" he asked her. "Because if they did I just want to talk to you for a little bit before we fight to the death."

Her eyes went wide like a deer in headlights. "What? Five, oh god, no." she quickly shook her head. "No, no, I'm here to help you guys. Right now the commission isn't interfering but if you get too close to succeeding then they'll step in."

"Yeah, they already did." He told her. "So you're going to stay with us?"

Martha nodded. "Of course I will. I mean, if you want me to."

He laughed again. "Are you kidding me? You're my partner. I need you more than ever, Martha."

Her face flushed bright pink. "Okay." She said. "I'll stay."

They headed back inside the building to go back upstairs to the apartment where the rest of the Umbrella Academy stepped away from the window. The show was over.

"Who the hell is that girl?" Luther asked, sitting on the armchair he had occupied before she showed up. "Did Five ever mention her to any of you?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Well she's obviously with the commission." Diego said, the only one still at the window. "She came here with a briefcase. And she's clearly not from here, or now."

"Yeah but Five obviously trusts her." Vanya chimed in. "So maybe she isn't actually with them. I doubt he'd be so… welcoming of someone that would be a threat after everything that's happened."

"Maybe it's not that he trusts her." Klaus said. "Maybe it's… some other kind of feeling."

It took a moment for the other 4 siblings to understand exactly what Klaus was insinuating. When they did they all reacted with a combination of scoffs, headshakes, and expressions of shock.

"What?" he asked. "Why is that so outlandish?"

"Have you met Five?" Allison asked him. "He's the last person that would risk our safety for some girl."

"Yeah, but she's clearly not some girl." Klaus argued. "When's the last time you saw him hug someone? We didn't see him for 7 years, and for him it was 40. Did he give any of you hello hugs?"

Klaus, for once, had a point. Five wasn't exactly warm and fuzzy. He and Vanya had been closer to each other than anyone in the house at one point and she could count the amount of times they'd hugged on one hand. Even then she couldn't ever remember him holding onto her so tightly, like he never wanted to let go.

"But don't you think Five would have mentioned if he was close to someone in the commission right now?" Luther asked. "Especially after everything that's been going on? We need as much help as we can get, and I don't think Five would leave out something like that just for the sake of keeping secrets."

"Well, either way, we should be careful of this girl. Diego said, resuming his post by the window. "I don't care how well Five knows her, we can't just automatically trust her."

While none of them wanted to believe that Five would put them in any kind of danger they each knew from experience that emotions could easily get in the way of rational and critical thinking.

Outside in the hallway Five grabbed hold of Martha's hand before she could reach the doorknob. "Before you go inside," he said when she looked over at him, "I just want to warn you about my family. They're nosy, and they're gonna want to know everything about you. So if you have to tell me something in private we should probably go somewhere else first."

A small smirk spread across her face. "You know if you want to be alone with me you don't have to be so subtle about it."

Five felt his cheeks flush bright red and he quickly released his grip on her. "That's not what I meant." He said, sounding more defensive than he'd meant to and shoving his hands deep in his pockets. "I just meant…"

"I know what you meant, Five." She told him, "I'm just teasing you." Martha turned so she was fully facing him. "There's things they need to hear too. We'll catch up afterwards."

When Five had first met Martha she had been unreadable. He could never tell what she was thinking. But over time, and lots of nights sharing motel rooms, Five eventually learned how to read her as easily as a book. He'd at one point knew her almost as well as he knew himself. Now, however, as they stood in the hallway in 1997 he had no idea what she was thinking. He hated that they were practically strangers to each other again. Five was certainly a different person than he had been the last time they'd seen each other, and he was sure she was too.

"Should I be worried about what you're going to tell us?" Five asked her. He wasn't used to seeing her so serious. Or at least serious for Martha.

He fully expected her to crack some kind of joke to lighten the mood, something Martha had a knack for. Instead she just smiled at him, with a hint of sadness in her expression. "You probably should be."

Martha opened the door and walked into the apartment only moments after the rest of the Umbrella Academy had stopped talking about her. They all watched carefully as she set the briefcase down on the coffee table and sat down next to Five on the couch. Similar to their brother her face was young but something about her mannerisms was much older than she appeared to be.

"I should have found a way to call ahead." She said, mostly to Five. "Considering everything that's going on the sight of someone with a briefcase must have been jarring."

"Yeah, I almost plunged a knife in your chest." Diego cut in.

"But I'm sure," Five quickly added, "that if calling ahead was easy you would have done it."

Martha shrugged. "You know how things are with them. You have a very short window of opportunity to defy them."

"So if it's such a trouble why did you come?" Diego asked.

Five opened his mouth to snap at his brother but Martha spoke before he got the chance. "I understand that the position all of you are in is frustrating but, believe it or not, I'm here to help all of you." She leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees. "The commission is well aware of where you all are and what you're planning. My guess is that they're giving you a false sense of hope before they inevitably send someone to terminate all of you."

"Lovely." Klaus said sarcastically.

"Which is why I came." Martha continued. "You guys have already successfully saved the world once. But the commission did what the commission does and got in the way of your plans. You need to figure out how to save the world without them interfering."

"And you can help us with that?" Luther asked, unable to keep himself from sounding skeptical.

She nodded her head. "There's no way you can go behind their backs when you don't know how they work."

"That's why we have Five." Diego pointed out.

Martha looked over at Five, suddenly looking ever so slightly nervous. "A lot has changed since you left. They're doing everything they can to stop you. Going back in time and stealing documents, killing anyone that might be able to help. There's now an entire team specifically dedicated to keeping an eye on all of you. It's only three people, but it's enough."

"Yeah, but that's all typical for them." Five said. "It's extreme, yes, but not completely outlandish."

"That's true." Martha agreed. "But tracking down the other 36 children born the same way as you is."

No one was expecting her to say such a thing. The Umbrella Academy had always known there were other children like them out there. The idea of finding out who they were had always been exciting. But thinking about those children, now adults, as people partnered with the people trying to kill them wasn't quite as exciting.

"What are they doing with them?" Vanya asked. "We've never met any of them so they can't be there for intel."

Martha shook her head. "No," she agreed, "They're not." She shifted on the couch, growing increasingly uncomfortable as the conversation went on. "They're training them, turning them into the perfect weapon to beat you. Pumping them full of steroids and other drugs to make them stronger faster."

Klaus whistled. "Jeez, all that for us?"

"Oh of course." Martha said. "They want you to think that they're not threatened by you, but that couldn't be further from the truth. They're terrified."

"But if they're terrified that means we have a chance, right?" Alison asked, perking up slightly. "Otherwise they wouldn't care."

"You definitely have a chance." She confirmed. "But it's a matter of doing everything in time. I have a briefcase so we can jump backwards or forward a few times, but I wouldn't trust something that belongs to them."

"Neither would I." Five chimed in. "As soon as they find out which one you took they'll track your every mood."

"And I doubt it will take very long. They're still working on replacing all those ones you destroyed."

"So how are we supposed to figure out how to save the world and go around their backs at the same time?" Diego, ever the pessimist asked, because that sounds pretty impossible to me."

"That's because doing both at the same time is impossible." Martha said. "Which is why we're going to worry about the commission first. Then we'll take it from there."

Suddenly everyone was even more overwhelmed than they already where.

⁂. ⁂ ⁂

After talking about as much as their brains could handle Alison and Luther ran to pick something up for Martha to eat while Vanya got her a change of clothes for the night. Five could tell his siblings were suspicious of their unexpected guest but pretended like he didn't notice. No matter how much time had passed he knew he could trust her.

They made small talk on the couch while she ate, all while Five was itching for the opportunity to talk to her alone. He could tell she was exhausted because she practically started falling asleep in the middle of eating. Five quickly pulled Luther to the side and asked if Martha could take his spot in their shared room. In that moment he was infinitely thankful he was sharing a room with Luther and not Klaus, knowing the teasing rom him would have been much worse. Everyone was still awake when they retreated into their now shared room and Five had the paranoid suspicion that his siblings would try to listen in on their conversation.

Martha sat down on the edge of the bed and seemed to deflate. He couldn't help but wonder what had happened to her. She had once quite literally been a ray of sunshine. She could have lit up a room just by being in it. In comparison to who she had been before she was dull.

"This is familiar, isn't it?" she asked, looking up at him. "Sharing a room?"

"Bed's more comfortable here than most motels." Five said, "And it doesn't cost a fortune to get something to eat."

She laughed quietly as a hint of sadness crossed her face. It was obvious she was keeping something from him and he wished she would just spit it out so he could help her.

"How's Deloris?" she asked him, the momentary sadness fading.

Five shrugged. "We… parted ways."

"What? Why?"

"We just didn't work as well together as we did during the apocalypse."

Martha frowned. "I'm sorry Five."

He simply shrugged again.

She let out a short sigh, crossing her legs underneath her. "I know you're upset with me. But please try to understand that I tried everything I could."

"I'm not upset with you."

"Then what are you?"

"I don't know." Five admitted. "I don't know how to feel." He began to pace the short length of the room, his fists shoved deep in his pockets. "I thought they sent you on a mission to purposely get you killed. I asked them about you all the time and they acted like they had no idea why you weren't writing me back. I thought I would never see you again, then I got stuck in time and stuck in this stupid body, and my family is trying to help me but there's no point. They can't give me what I need."

"What do you need, Five?"

"I need you." He confessed, not quite able to look at her. "I need my partner."

Suddenly Martha seemed wide awake. She practically jumped off the bed and stood in front of him so he was forced to stop pacing. "I know it didn't feel like it but I was always there. I kept tabs on you all the time to make sure you were okay."

"But if you could keep tabs on me why couldn't you call?"

"It's complicated, Five. Really complicated."

"I didn't think I could do it without you."

Martha put her hands on his shoulders with a firm grip. With both their feet bare he was now just a hair taller than her, which he hated since he had once gotten neck cramps from having to look down at her. "You can." She said to him. "And you did."

"I don't want to anymore."

She pulled him close enough to wrap her arms around his neck while his locked around her waist. Five didn't remember her being so strong. He wasn't one for physical affection, or any kind of affection really, but he felt himself relax for what felt like the first time in decades. It probably was the first time in decades. The world was ending and the commission was still after them but Martha was alive and for a moment that was the only thing that really mattered.

"I still have a picture in my wallet." He said, his voice muffled from burying his face in her hair. "The mission to Paris in '63."

"Can I see?"

He kept one of his arms around her waist while he fished for his wallet and pulled out a faded polaroid. Though they weren't exactly supposed to sightsee on missions they usually managed to get away with it. At the top of the Eiffel Tower they'd gotten another tourist to take a picture of them. Five was much older than he looked now, by about 10 years, while Martha looked almost exactly the same. She had cracked some kind of joke right before the picture was taken they had been too busy laughing to pose.

"I love this one." She glanced over at him. "I spent the while time up there pretending like I wasn't afraid of falling to my death."

"Yeah, you didn't do a very good job."

She laughed and rested her head on his shoulder, staring wishfully at the picture.

"I missed you, Martha."

"I missed you, Five."

⁂. ⁂ ⁂

"Told you." Klaus said after he and Diego stepped away from Five and Martha's room and retreated back into the living room.

Diego shook his head. "We don't know anything we didn't before. You're just jumping to conclusions."

He gaped at his brother. "Did we just listen to the same conversation?" Klaus asked. "We can't give him what he needs because what he needs is her? He and Deloris 'parted ways'?" he used dramatic air quotes to emphasize his point. "He has a picture of her in his wallet for Christ's sake."

"Either way it doesn't matter, does it?" Diego asked. "You've seen how he's neem the past week. There's no way he's gonna be focused on some chick while the apocalypse is coming. Once he's over the excitement that she's here he'll go back to normal. Or normal for Five."

"He seems pretty focused on her already." Klaus muttered while he collapsed on the pullout couch.

Luther chimed in now that they were within earshot. "Is it just me or is Five even more confusing than ever?"

"It's not you." The two brothers agreed simultaneously.

"He told me he was with Deloris for 30 years." Klaus said. "He never mentioned an actual human girl."

"Maybe they were never actually together." Luther mused.

"I don't care if they were married, I don't trust her." Diego cut it, one more sitting on the ledge in front of the window. "She's obviously hiding something, even from Five. This whole story about her going rouge to help us defeat the commission could be bullshit. She could just be trying to get out trust. She clearly already has his."

"So what?" Luther asked. "You think Five's old girlfriend is here to take us all out?"

Diego shrugged. "Maybe, yeah."

"Who the hell is gonna tell Five that?"