As usual I'm sorry for my inconsistent uploads. I'm actually right now working on winding down this story (don't worry- that won't be coming just yet I'm prewriting) so I can work on even bigger and better projects. As always thank you so much to anyone who keeps up with my stories and is kind enough to leave a review.

Calabasas, California, 1986

With an irritated sigh Five pushed himself off the motel bed to check out the window for any sign of Martha. She'd gone out to get them something to eat a little over an hour before and he was beginning to grow inpatient. She wasn't the type of person to leave him hanging. In fact, she was the type of person to walk 5 blocks to find a payphone and let him know she was going to be late. But as he searched out the window for the third time there was still no sign of her.

Maybe she crashed the car on the way back.

Five turned to face the mannequin sitting in a chair next to the bed. "That's not funny Deloris." He said, walking over and returning to the spot where he'd been. "You know it's not like her to be late."

Deloris chose not to reply. It was clear that she was jealous and somewhat threatened by his friendship with Martha. She was so used to things just being between her and Five. The fact that there were now other people involved in their dynamic was admittedly putting a strain on their relationship. He turned his attention back to the television playing the nightly news.

It was about another half hour before Five heard the sound of a key in the motel door. Martha rushed inside holding not only a takeout bag but a few shopping bags from different department stores. He swung his legs off the bed and stood up as she set the bags down on top of the table next to the door.

"It takes two hours to pick up dinner?" Five asked, unable to keep his tone cool. He had spent the entire time sitting there worried sick and all the while she was out shopping?

Martha rolled her eyes at him and shoved one of the department store bags into his arms. "No. But it takes two hours to track down an almost exact replica of your favorite sweater you ruined last month." She said with just as much attitude. "You're welcome."

She turned his back to him to unpack their dinner and he opens up the bag to look at its contents. The sweater she was referring to was a pullover wool sweater that was a dark grey with a navy diamond pattern. He wore it as much as possible and it was one of the few articles of clothing he'd ever attached sentimental value to. Maybe because it was the first birthday present someone outside of his family had given him. Maybe it was because Martha had given it to him. Either way the sweatshirt he pulled out of the bag was a spitting image of his old one.

When he looked up to thank her he saw that she was sitting in a chair that she'd pulled up to be next to Deloris. She had another shopping bag in her lap that she was digging through and he wondered what other surprises she had in store for him. "What's in there?"

Without looking up she pulled out a long, thin, aquamarine sequins scarf. "I saw it in the store and thought Deloris would like it." She explained, wrapping the garment around the mannequins neck. "You keep her wardrobe too limited. A woman needs to feel exceptional every once in a while." She also pulled out a bottle of nail polish in the same color and set it on the table beside her. "This will be for after dinner."

Five blinked at her a few times, even more stunned than he had been by her present. They'd been partners for over a year and she was still a constant surprise. "You know that… she's not real, right?"

Martha turned in the chair to face him. "Do you know that?"

"Of course."

She shrugged her shoulders and stood up. "She's important to you. Whether she's real or not doesn't really matter does it?" she said. "It takes more than being supportive in the field to be a good partner." She started towards the bathroom and placed her hand on his shoulder as she passed him. "Eat that food you've been waiting so long for."

Martha walked the short distance to the bathroom and shut the door behind her. Five pulled his new sweatshirt over his head and sat down in the chair next to Deloris, adjusting the scarf a bit, a small smile appearing on his face.

Maybe she's not so bad after all.

Five's smile grew, something that actually happened now that he had both Deloris and Martha supporting him and allowing him to feel comfortable. "No," he agreed, "She's alright."

When most people saw that his closest companion was half of a mannequin they looked at him like he was crazy. Martha never judged. And Five couldn't think of another person who would ever buy Deloris a gift. He needed to stop underestimating her.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

In early May sitting on the roof of the apartment building, even in London, the heat was causing everyone to shed the few layers they had. Klaus had abandoned everything except for a pair of tight jeans. Martha had on a tank top with her hair tied up and had her head back against her chair. Allison was attempting to fan herself with her hand. Even Diego, who was practicing aiming on a target hung up on one of the walls, had abandoned his usual attire for a t-shirt.

"This is ridiculous." He said suddenly, turning towards Martha sitting next to Five on a bench that had already been up there. "My aim is fine, I don't need to practice."

"It's not about aim." She replied without picking her head up. "It's about maintaining focus under stressful conditions."

"It's not even that hot out."

"It'll settle in." With a small groan she picked herself up and got to her feet. Five, who had been dozing off beside her, was suddenly alert when he felt her move. "Let's try something else."

She walked across the roof and over to the target pinned up on the wall. Martha ripped out the thumbtack and when she let go of the target it was suspended in the air. "A moving target under stressful conditions."

"I still don't see the point of this." Diego muttered as he pulled out a knife and hit the bullseye with ease.

"Then humor me." Martha replied.

Diego rolled his eyes and chose not to verbally reply. He was certainly the last to warm up to their unexpected guest but it seemed he finally had. His questioning of her tactics didn't last long and he was no longer harsh while speaking to her. He had even smiled at something she said the night before. Both Martha and the target circled Diego on the roof, every so often changing direction at the last second. She was trying to figure out how to outsmart him, Five could tell, she just couldn't figure out how.

Her face lit up for a fraction of a second before it quickly evened out. "Tell me about Eudora." She said

"No."

"Tell me." She repeated, taking a few steps towards him. Her words came out more articulated and the siblings wondered if she was using her abilities to influence him.

They got their answer when Diego's expression looked glazed over for a moment. He shook his head before speaking. "She's dead. What else is there to say?"

"Lots." Martha replied. "You were close with her. How did you meet?"

"On a case."

"One you assigned yourself to?"

He sent her a half-hearted glare. "Yeah, maybe."

"Were you involved with her?"

"I'll answer that question when you do."

"Funny." She said flatly. "I think that's all the answer I need."

Diego rolled his eyes at her. "Oh, is that so?"

"Let me take a guess; you two had something, but what you both wanted was different. She's focused on work and you were too rouge for her. You kept showing up to crime scenes, sure, to help. But it was mostly just to see her for a little while. And the more you involved yourself the more you got to see her."

Diego threw another knife that landed with a particularly hard thud. "And what's it to you, huh? Or are you just some kid that can't keep her nose out of people's business?"

"I'm 6 times your age." She reminded him. "And you're angry at the commission, I need to know why. You need to learn to either use that anger to your advantage or let it go. Letting it take over you isn't an option. I'm trying to help you with that."

"And why aren't you mad, Martha?" Diego asked, turning away from the target and towards her. "They turned you into a freak. Why not blow the whole damn place up?"

She scoffed at him. "You think I'm not angry? Of course I am. But I know better than to make revenge my motivation. It makes you reckless and sloppy when we need to be calculated and well planned."

"Yeah, and for what?" Diego asked. "What if none of this works? What if we walk in there and get ourselves killed?"

Martha stared at him, her mouth open but no words coming out. After everything she'd experienced it wasn't exactly a surprise that words didn't typically get to her. But what Diego said made her shoulders tense and her lips purse. "You know what, I think you've done enough for today." She quickly turned her back to him. "Vanya, you're up."

Diego looked like he wanted to say something more, likely an apology, but ended up staying silent and going to sit down when Vanya reluctantly got up.

It was clear she was nervous. The only person she'd practiced in front of was Martha. Had she gained enough control to do okay in front of her siblings? She glanced back at them and received a thumbs up from Allison.

"I don't know if I can do this." She whispered to Martha. "Maybe we should go downstairs."

"Stressful conditions, remember?" Marta said, then leaned in and dropped her voice low. "I know you're scared of what they're going to think, but it doesn't matter. With enough practice you'll be more powerful with them."

"I don't know…"

"I do." Martha stepped back. "I want you to push me back. As hard as you can. Don't worry about hurting me I can catch myself if I need to."

Vanya looked uncertain but didn't argue. She held her hands up in front of her and when she pushed them out Martha stumbled backwards.

Both women smiled and Martha stepped closer to her. "Again." She said, "Harder."

A shallow crease settled between Vanya's brows and she repeated the motion of her hands. This time, however, Martha fell back about 2 feet. She quickly caught herself and made to get closer to Vanya but she pushed her back again.

The siblings watched in amazement as they continued this routine and moved across the roof, Vanya pushing her back even when Martha began to use a fraction of her powers. They moved all the way across the roof until Martha reached the edge. The closer they got the more anxious Five became, and when the back of her ankles hit the ledge he was practically vibrating.

Martha glanced down at the drop off the building behind her before looking back at Vanya. The struggle on her face was visible and Martha managed to step forward about another foot and a half. A grunt of effort escaped Vanya and with another push of her hands Martha flew backwards. Her legs slammed against the ledge and she stumbled backwards, her arms flying out as she began to fall over.

Before anyone had the chance to react Martha froze in mid air, catching herself with her own abilities. Vanya clapped her hands over her mouth in shock at herself and Five quickly jumped from the bench where he was sitting to standing on the ledge in front of her. He held onto her hand as she brought herself back onto the roof, his face looking pale like he had seen a ghost. Five opened his mouth to insist they were done but as soon as her feet were on the ground she slipped her hand from his grip and she ran over to Vanya.

"That was amazing!" she exclaimed, putting her hands on the woman's shoulder. "My god, Vanya, that was great!"

She shook her head in protest. "No, it wasn't! I could have killed you."

Martha scoffed at her. "Oh please. That's what I wanted you to do, I knew I could catch myself." She was beaming at her, looking almost as happy as she had the day she arrived when she first saw Five. "Your progress is fantastic. I'm really proud of you Vanya."

Her face flushed pink and she seemed to be too bashful to reply.

"You wanted to go over the edge of a 15 story building?" Five asked her, coming over to the two women. "Are you crazy, Martha?"

"I'm an enthusiastic teacher."

He rolled his eyes at her. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

She smirked at him. "You're old enough for one even if you don't look it."

Five didn't seem to be in the mood for jokes. He grabbed onto her hand and in a flash they had disappeared from the rooftop and into their shared bedroom. Once there he closed the bedroom door so they would continue to have privacy once his siblings came down. "This isn't funny, Martha."

"It's a little funny."

He groaned and turned to sit on the edge of the bed, propping his elbows on his knees and covering his face with his hands. When he looked back up at her Martha's smile had disappeared and she looked to be feeling guilty. "What would have happened if you didn't catch yourself quickly enough? And we would have been forced to watch you die? Did you think about the possibility of that happening?"

"Not really." Martha admitted. She came over and put her hands on his shoulders. Even through the fabric of the shirt he wore her touch was comforting. A solid reminder of both her safety and presence. "You could have seen me get killed a million times before. I don't know what's so suddenly shocking about it now."

"I'm worried about you." He answered as if it was obvious.

She shook her head. "You've always been worried, what's different now?" she moved one of her hands to rest on his cheek. "Talk to me."

He wasn't sure if he was just comfortable with her or if she was using her abilities to sway him but he found himself talking before he really thought about it. "I guess my fuse has gotten shorter since you've been gone. And it doesn't help that I'm surrounded by my family."

He tilted his head up to look at her and saw that she didn't seem completely satisfied with his answer. "Why are you so angry, Five? You've always been a jerk but this is different."

Five laughed before he realized she wasn't kidding. There was a humor in truth and Martha knew better than anyone how mean he could be. "It's nothing."

"It's something." She insisted.

He held onto her hand and pulled her to sit next to him. Her knees touched his when she turned to face him but Five found himself looking at the floor instead of her. "I guess…" he began, "you've only been here for a week, and I don't know what I would do if something happened to you before we really had the chance to live."

Something they often wondered aloud about is what they would do if they were no longer in the commission. There they sat, ties cut, and the beginning of a real life sitting at their feet. After what she had escaped it would be a true tragedy if Martha died before she got the chance to truly live whatever life she wanted.

In his peripheral vision he saw her tilt her head down. "I never really thought about it like that." She admitted.

"I just don't understand why you have to keep putting yourself in situations where you could hurt yourself."

She shrugged her shoulders. "If that's what it takes to prepare for the commission then that's what it takes."

"Well my heart may completely stop next time so please stop doing it."

"I'm used to there being no threat of harm in the commission." She confessed. "During experiments or training if anything serious happened to me they could just go back in time and avoid it. I avoided a lot of concussions, apparently." Martha shook her head, "I guess that's an adjustment to the outside world that's taking a while."

Five looked up at her and when their eyes met she squeezed his hand. "I don't want anything to happen to you, Martha." He said. "You just got back."

"Nothing's going to happen." She assured him. "Not until we face the commission, at least."

"Even then."

"You can't say that."

"I just did."

Martha let out a sigh and turned her body away from him slightly. "What if Diego is right?"

"The only person that's ever been right in my family is me."

She punched his arm with the hand that wasn't linked with his. "Realistically, we are walking into a death trap. We have a really good team but are we really a match for the commission? The technology they have is other worldly. They have thousands of people working there. There's eight of us and all we have is a stolen suitcase and an unhealthy dynamic. They're all right, I'm in over my head."

"You're not."

"I am." She insisted. Martha stood up and began to pace the room. "Maybe we should have a back up plan, a way to hide. I mean, it's different if it was just me going into the lion's den. But if I walk you all in there and something happens to you I…" her voice trailed off and she stopped pacing to look down at the floor. "I just don't know what to do, Five."

Her demeanor, guilty and shameful, and her voice, soft and broken, made her seem like not much more than a scared little girl. It wasn't a sight he was used to seeing. Her switch between merriment and brutality was something familiar. But seeing her genuinely broken down was foreign before her arrival in London and he still wasn't sure what to say.

"We have time before that." He attempted. "Time that we'll use to plan and prepare."

She shook her head, wrapping her arms around herself. "You don't know that." She said. "Do you really think that they don't know where we are? That they aren't watching us and planning a counter attack every time we say something? I took one of their suitcases to get here. And who knows, maybe the chip had a tracking device after all."

Her rambling sounded like something that would have come from his own scrambled brain. Five shook his head despite the fact that she wasn't looking. "Don't say that." He scolded her. "Speculating won't do any good. Think practically."

She tilted her head up towards the ceiling and threw her hands out to the side. "What's the point?" she asked him. "I mean, maybe we shouldn't be so certain things will be okay. Maybe we should do all the things we want to do before we die."

"Martha, stop." Five scolded, standing up and walking forward until he could tilt her head down to look at him. "If the others hear you talking like this they'll be out of control."

"What's the point?" she asked again. Only instead of looking angry like she had before she looked tired. Her voice came out in a whisper, like she could no longer muster the energy to speak much louder. "Do you know what you want to do before you die? Because I do."

He looked at her, trying to decide what it might be that she was thinking of. Her expression was hard to read and on the surface seemed to be blank. But there was something hidden, he just couldn't identify it. "I do know." He answered. "But I'm not worried. I have time."

"I want you to be happy, Five."

"I am happy."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "You're not."

Actually he was. He was filled with more hope than he'd felt his entire life. He had his family, and each of them were making an effort to do better. Including him. And he had Martha. Five considered himself a simple man. He couldn't think of much more to ask for.

"I am happy." He assured her. "Are you?"

"I think I'm too worried." She answered. "I think to myself if I died tomorrow morning, would I have lived a fulfilling life? For the most part I have. But there's things I want to do before I go."

"Things like what?" Five asked. "We'll do it tomorrow."

Martha shook her head at him. "It's not the kind of thing you can just do on a Wednesday afternoon." She said. "It's alright. I suppose it's not the worst thing in the world if it doesn't happen."

"Tell me what it is."

"No."

"You're impossible."

She smiled, though it seemed somewhat sad, and she surprised him closing the distance between them and wrapping her arms around his neck. For once Five wished his ability was being able to read people's minds since she seemed so set on not telling him what she was thinking. But all he could do in that moment was hug her back and hope she would change her mind and open up.

"We're going to be fine." He said into her hair. Though he too had his doubts about how waltzing into the commission would play out there was no need to voice them when she was obviously upset about it. "Then you can do all the things you want without worry."

Her head was perched under his chin and he felt her tilt up towards him. "Yeah." She said. "Maybe."

They stayed like that, standing in the middle of their room silently embracing each other, even after they heard the front door open and his siblings enter the apartment. It was only after they started calling out for them that the two separated, faces red, and went outside to return to the rest of the group. As he followed her out into the living room Five felt his skin buzzing with the ghost of her touch and he pretended like he forgot something in the room so he could go and compose himself.