Hello all! Sorry for going so long without an update but I haven't had much motivation for writing lately. I still don't, but I have a few chapters pre written and I've written more this week than I have in a couple months so I figured I would upload. Again, I'm sorry for the sparse uploads but I promise I'm working on it! I at least hope this was worth the wait.

Attaboy bar, Lower East Side New York City, 1924

In a hidden speakeasy, in the basement of a laundromat, Saturday night was in full swing. The band was playing, the customers were dancing, and in the middle of the room two hitmen chased their third shot of vodka down with a lemon wedge. Normally they had to do a lot of persuading to get bartenders to serve Martha. But in a time when serving alcohol to anyone was illegal they didn't even ask her how old she was.

They both winced more at the lemon as they set their shot glasses down on the table with two loud thuds. When they first started working together Five had found it annoying and over the top that Martha insisted on dressing appropriate to the time period. As time went on he rather enjoyed seeing her vast wardrobe. Her spaghetti strap dress was decorated in beads and she twisted her finger through the long pearl necklace she had on.

By that time Five was 32 years old and they were beginning to receive occasional looks when they were out together. It didn't help that Martha sometimes looked younger than she was. Though most people assumed they were related somehow some people caught on that their relationship was something more.

Though what exactly it was Five wasn't sure.

She was more than his partner. She was his friend, his family. He felt more at home in Martha's presence than he ever had in the house he grew up in. If he had to live the rest of his life only ever with Martha he thought he would get on just fine. Of course he would miss his family. Despite how they grew up he missed them every day. But Martha managed to fill most of the hole left by their absence all on her own.

There was something else as well. And, despite his impressive vocabulary, he had no clue how to articulate it. Maybe it was her. Martha was a difficult person to describe using words alone. Or perhaps it was him. Emotions and feelings were never a subject Five preferred or excelled at. Either way he supposed it didn't matter much. He and Martha were just him and Martha. What else was there to say?

When the band started up a new song Martha perked up and looked at them over her shoulder. "I love this song!" she slurred, her eyes going wide with excitement as she turned to face him once more. "We have to go dance."

Five instantly shook his head. Martha was occasionally able to convince him to dance to the radio in the privacy of their motel room after a few drinks, but in public? Absolutely not. "No way, Martha."

"Come on, Five." She whined, putting her hand on his arm and giving him a light shove. "Live a little, will you? You're off the clock, it's time to have fun."

Her words didn't persuade him and he shook his head once more. "You know I hate dancing in front of people."

Martha groaned and moved to get up from her chair. "Fine. I'll dance on my own." She said, "Maybe I'll even find a handsome man to keep me company while I'm at it."

Five rolled his eyes at her as she stumbled her way over to the dance floor. It wasn't that she wasn't attractive, Martha was beautiful. But she looked her physical age, both in appearance and attitude. Despite the number of years she lived and the occupation she had there was still an innocence about her that was uncommon. Putting it simply, without delving into the issue of her true age, Martha was jailbait.

He went to the bar to order them both another round of drinks. Though the illegal moonshine made in the back wasn't quite the same as a whiskey or scotch it still got the job done.

Five returned to the table and placed Martha's drink at her seat to wait for her to return. He was used to being alone with his thoughts, just not with music in the background. Instead he cast his gaze out to the crowd, looking for his partner. He found her almost instantly, her blonde hair bouncing as she danced and her beaded dress reflecting against the low lights. Five expected to see her dancing her heart out. He just didn't expect to see a man dancing with her.

He was close to Five's own age and decent looking. Black suspenders over a white dress shirt he was the classic 1920s gentlemen. Except for the fact that his hand was much too low on Martha's waist and his eyes weren't quite meeting hers. Five didn't exactly consider himself a jealous man, and he knew Martha could take care of herself, but she was borderline wasted. As her partner it was his job to protect her. Even when they were off the clock.

Five stumbled to his feet and made his way over to her. About halfway there, over the mans shoulder, Martha's face lit up when she saw him approaching. She said something to the man and stepped away from him and came over to meet Five in the middle.

"Are you here to dance with me?" she asked hopefully, a wide grin spreading onto her face.

"Yeah, I am." He answered reluctantly.

If it was even possible her smile widened and she threw her arms around his neck. His hands found her waist (her actual waist, not the part of her the previous man had been holding) and allowed her to take the lead.

Slowly but surely some of his reluctance faded away until he allowed himself to have fun. Seeing how happy such a sacrifice made her made the embarrassment of dancing in public worth it. Especially when something that was relatively simple made her look like the happiest woman in the world.

Martha had a way of making him feel needed beyond his powers more than anyone previous had been able to. Five found himself hoping she knew how much he needed her.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

With his head under the water in the bath the voices were muffled, only slightly easier to ignore, but Klaus was quickly running out of stored air. His lungs were burning and his throat was closing up. Still he pushed himself to stay under just a few seconds more. Just a few more seconds of as much peace and quiet as he could get.

Fully running out of air sent him catapulting into an upright position and as soon as his head surfaced he gasped for air. As he caught his breath his body was too full of adrenaline to notice the many other people in the room with him. But as soon as air started to travel in and out of his body Ben kneeled down next to him with a concerned expression written across his face.

"You're pushing yourself too much." His dead brother said.

Klaus' first instinct, as usual, was to reply with a harsh sense of sarcasm. This instance wasn't the first time he had to remind himself that Ben's hovering was out of concern. "I know my limits." Klaus eventually said, pushing his wet curls off his forehead. "Besides, I'm not planning on dying in the bathroom of this shitty flat."

"I would hope you weren't planning on dying period." Ben said.

Klaus knew his answer wouldn't make him feel any better so he dunked his head back under the water.

Klaus didn't like drugs. He liked the silence they and relief from withdrawals they provided him. Sure, the high was exciting, and non spirit related hallucinations were cool. But a light buzz was what he had preferred before he realized what else substances could do for him.

Really and truly the only reason he poisoned his body on the daily was for the alone time. They were the only thing that made the spirits go away. He'd tried everything else.

When he sat up once more the roar of voices crammed into the small bathroom was paired with knocking on the bathroom door. "Yeah." He managed to choke out, knowing if he waited too long to reply his family would likely assume the worst.

"Dinner just got here." Martha's voice called to him inside. "Are you almost done?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be right there."

As reluctant as he was to leave the small relief the bath provided him he pulled the plug to drain the water and grabbed a towel off the rack. He wrapped it around his waist and kept left his hair to air dry, not quite in the mood for fun, and wiped the steam off the mirror. He looked like shit. He always did when he managed to get sober.

Only a matter of minutes later he opened the bathroom door and in his peripheral vision immediately spotted Martha. She was leaning against the wall and her posture straightened when he stepped out of the bathroom and into the hall. "You, uh, didn't have to wait for me to eat." He said, obviously confused why she was still there.

She glanced into the bathroom for a fraction of a second before looking at him. "You sounded… I don't know. I thought something was wrong, that maybe you'd want to talk."

"Not really."

"That nothing's wrong or that you don't want to talk?"

He allowed himself a smile. "You're smart, Martha my dear." Klaus said before turning and heading to the hall closet, where he was keeping his clothes. He shook his head when he heard her footsteps following him. "So you're our therapist as well as our trainer?"

"Not exactly." She said, taking wider steps to catch up with him. "More like a concerned friend."

"Well, no need to be concerned." Klaus replied, opening the closet and digging for an outfit that suited his momentary taste. "I'm sober right?"

"Problems don't end with sobriety."

He glanced down at the scars and collapsed veins on the inside of her elbow. She was still wearing a tank top and ponytail from helping Luther with his one on one earlier that day. "Did you have withdrawals when they got you off that stuff?" she nodded. "Well imagine all that plus dead people screaming in your ear 24/7."

She winced at the thought. "You can't quiet them?"

"Don't you think I would if I could?"

Martha once again followed him as he went back to the bathroom to change into his clothes. "Well that's what we'll work on, then, isn't it? If you can get them to quiet down then, in theory, you can get them to do anything."

"Only problem is that they haven't shut up since I was 4 years old." He stepped into the bathroom and shut the door behind him. Klaus let out a sigh when he didn't hear her walk away. "Not to sound like Allison, but I think trying to fine tune my powers is a waste of your time."

"I don't think so."

"It's out of my control, unlike everyone else. It's not just up to me. You shouldn't bother."

"It's my time to waste, isn't it?"

Klaus changed into his clothes without saying another word. Sure enough when he opened the door she was still standing there looking expectant. "You shouldn't get your hopes up with me, Martha. No one else does."

She crossed her arms across her chest. "Well if you ask me that's the problem."

He wasn't quite sure what she meant, and she grabbed him by the wrist and pulled her towards the room she shared with Five he found himself silent of protest. She shut the door behind her and grabbed a sweatshirt from the dresser and looked much less self conscious once she pulled it over her head. "I understand why they under estimate you, that's an experience with drugs that's not unique to you. But I think you could potentially be more powerful than they are. The possible exception being Vanya."

Klaus scoffed and sat on the edge of the bed. "I appreciate what you're trying to do, but lying doesn't make me feel any better."

"It's not a lie." She insisted. "Luther and Diego's abilities are huge assets but are very limited. So are Allison's. Five's are spectacular but can be unpredictable. And Vanya is only learning." She came over to sit next to him on the bed. "You've resisted strengthening your abilities out of fear your whole life and look how strong you are already! Solidifying Ben without trying to? That's amazing, Klaus."

After a lifetime of being told he was a disappointment Klaus' mind was unable to truly process what she was saying. "This guy that's meant to face me-"

"Daniel?"

"Yeah." Klaus said. "There's no way I'll be able to get to where he is in time, right?"

Martha let out a small sigh. "No." she admitted. "But you do have one thing going for you."

"Which would be?"

"Daniel controls his spirits by force. Like all powers his get exhausted and sometimes the spirits can slip away or even rebel." Martha explained. "You won't be able to get to the point of having full control over them, but you don't necessarily need to. All you really need to do is learn to indefinitely solidify them and build a rapport with them. Why force them to do something when you can get them to want to do it?"

Klaus looked around at the spirits that had followed him into the room, a new one in his late teens joining the bunch. "Most of them are too out of it to help much."

"We'll focus on the ones that are." Martha said. "Daniel is a jerk to his spirits, they don't want to work for them. If you can get yours to like you than they'll fight with more gusto."

"She's right." The younger spirit said, standing across the room. "Danny doesn't have much enthusiasm."

Klaus blinked at the spirit a few times, in a state of confusion only for a moment before a though occurred to him. "What was the name of the other guy that was there with you, the one who went missing?"

"Adam." Both she and the spirit said at the same time.

"I'm a bit more than missing." He then added.

Martha looked back and forth between Klaus and the spot where Adam was standing that appeared empty to her. "What is it?" she asked, looking back at Klaus. "Is he here? He's dead?"

"It appears that way." Klaus said.

Adam wasn't how Klaus had pictured him in the slightest. Since he was made to go against Five he imagined Adam to have similar looks and stature. On the contrary Adam was tall, muscular, and kind looking. He had dimples on both sides of his tanned face and despite his clear physical strength, had a gentleness about him. As the fact that he was dead sunk in with Martha he came over to kneel in front of her.

"I'm sorry." Klaus said, suddenly feeling incredibly awkward that he was the reason she'd found out about the death of someone who was clearly her friend.

Martha shook her head. "It's okay." She assured him. "I had a feeling. I just didn't expect him to keep tabs on me."

Adam rolled his eyes at her. "Is that a joke?"

"I don't think he believes that." Klaus translated.

"I just figured he'd have better things to do."

Both Adam and Klaus laughed, knowing there was nothing better to do in the afterlife than spy on your loved ones.

"I always knew she'd be the one to break out." Adam said to him. "She was kind of a Hellraiser."

Klaus repeated what she said and it was then Martha's turn to laugh. "Sounds like something he'd say." She said. "Five too."

"I'm really glad they found each other." Adam said. "She talked about him a lot. She ahd us fooled that she was on our side, but he was the one we were worried about changing her mind."

Klaus threw his hands up in the air. "Even he knows you and Five are a thing?" he asked dramatically.

Martha slapped his arm and shushed him harshly. "Keep your voice down will you?" she hissed. "Because if anyone overhears you'll be the one explaining what you're talking about."

He laughed. "Oh gladly." He said. "Can't wait for you to hear what I've got to say."

She rolled her eyes at him and glanced at the door as if to make sure no one was coming. "You're an idiot." She said to him. But he could tell by the look on her face that she didn't intend it to be mean.

"It's excruciating watching them and not being able to interject."

"Tell me about it." Klaus agreed.

Adam suddenly turned serious and shifted towards Klaus. "I hope you know she knows what she's talking about." He said to him. "All of it. You have to get the others to trust her."

"What did he say?" Martha asked.

"That I have to help the others to trust you."

She snorted. "That's likely."

Adam shook his head and attempted to put his hands on her cheeks but they went right through her. "Since when are you such a pessimist?" he asked despite the fact that she couldn't hear him, then looked over at Klaus. "They really ruined her. Five knows it too, I can tell. They ruined all of us, but they got her the worst. I don't think I would have seen it if I hadn't died."

He sounded almost glad about it. "That's a bit morbid." Klaus pointed out.

Adam shrugged. "The whole thing is morbid, isn't it?" he asked. "And now I can go wherever I want. Whenever I want."

"You could have done that if you escaped like she did."

He shook his head. "I was too brainwashed to even think of it." Adam said. "Besides, I didn't have someone waiting for me on the outside like she did."

"So does everyone know about that?"

"Know about what?" Martha asked.

"You and Five."

She rolled her eyes and got to her feet, walking right through Adam. "He was right." She said, "You guys are nosy."

"We're nosy because we care." Klaus said, referring to both his family and Adam with a gesture of his hand. "Besides, he told me all I needed to know about you."

She whipped around to face him. "He did?" she asked. "What did he say?"

"That you guys were, you know, involved."

"What else?"

Klaus didn't want to betray the small amount of trust his brother had in him, but it was clear those 2 were hopeless and needed someone's help. It was entirely possible that their days were numbered with their inevitable face off against the commission looming in their future they should have been making the most of their time together, not tiptoeing around the issue.

He let out a sigh. "Alright, alright. He basically said that he feels like he messed up. He never really talked to you about what was going on because he thought you guys were going to be partners until the end of time and run off into the sunset."

Her cheeks flushed. "That's what I thought too."

"Why did you guys stop working together anyway?"

She let out a sigh and leaned against the windowsill. "It was my fault." She admitted. "I was reckless. They realized our partnership wasn't exactly traditional and decided we were more of a risk together than an asset." Martha shook her head and quickly changed the subject. "What else did she say?"

There wasn't much more Klaus wanted to reveal. Though he did enjoy meddling people's business he figured these were the types of thing they ought to say to each other directly. But that was something they clearly didn't plan on doing. "Not much else. Just that he doesn't really sleep because he stays up all night making sure you're okay."

"He does?" Klaus nodded. "Lying son of a bitch. I asked him if he was sleeping okay a couple of days ago and he said he was."

"Maybe he doesn't want you to worry."

"Bullshit. I'm always worried."

"You should tell him that."

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

The light from the street lamps shinning in the window was just bright enough for him to read the clock on the wall. A quarter past 1 and Five was still awake. He had actually managed to sleep for almost 6 hours the night before, but ever minutes of it had been plagued with nightmares, most of which had to do with either the apocalypse or what happened with Martha at the commission. Was getting a little bit of sleep even worth it when it was always so horrible? He didn't think so.

When Martha turned over besides him he assumed she was just stirring in her sleep. It wasn't until she spoke that he knew she was awake. "Five?"

He turned on his side to face her. "Yeah?"

"You're awake?"

"Yeah."

She sighed and pushed the blankets off her torso. "Do you think they're right?" Martha asked. "Do you think I'm wasting my time, that just the 8 of us can't do it all on our own?"

"I think my family is full of idiots who have never stepped foot in the commission." He replied. "You know what you're doing."

"Do I?"

"You do." He assured her. "Why are you so worried? What's going on?"

She shrugged. "I'm just thinking about what will happen if all this doesn't work."

"It will work."

"You don't know that. What if it doesn't?"

Five hesitated. She was right, he just didn't want to admit it. "Then we'll figure it out."

"And if they try to separate us again?"

"We don't work for them anymore." He said. "They can't tell us what to do."

A smile spread across her face and she suddenly scooted close enough to wrap her arms around his waist and rest her head on his chest. Even with his younger, smaller, body they still fit together like 2 puzzle pieces. He rested his chin on top of her head and crossed his eyes, enjoying one of the rare instances of relaxation.

"What's the first thing you're going to do when we stop the apocalypse?" she asked him.

It was a game they liked to play back when they spent hours at a time in motel rooms. What would they do if their life was different somehow. Five never liked the scenarios that would have prevented them from meeting.

"I don't know." He admitted. He had spent the last 45 years of his life with the apocalypse always on his mind. Even if it was towards the back. What would he do with himself once it was no longer a worry. "I guess figure out where and when I want to live. What about you?"

"I'm gonna get a back brace."

"What?"

"You think the commission is gonna keep me like this after we go up against them like that?" Martha asked. "No way. They're going to let me age, and my back will get worse."

It was easy to forget about Martha's condition since it was still in its early stages. The shape of her spine was really only noticeable if he really looked for it, and even then it was slight. Still, it caused her back pain when she pushed herself too hard. There were countless times he'd had to help her into bed at night after a particularly challenging mission. The thought of her condition getting any worse was not a pleasant one.

"Maybe we could make some kind of deal with them." Five suggested, "One that includes keeping you this age."

"And they can age you up too." She added.

"Or maybe they could keep us the same."

Martha looked up at him, her eyebrows hopefully climbing up on her forehead. Seeing how happy his suggestion of a possibility made her caused his stomach to do a summersault. "Really?" she asked, "You'd want that?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"I just thought you'd want to go back to your real age." She said with a shrug.

"I thought so too." Five admitted. "But now I'm not too sure."

Five figured there were worse things in the world than not getting his proper body back. He also figured that not getting to be with Martha because of his age was one of those worse things.