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"There's one," Allison said, pointing.
Vanya shaded her eyes and squinted. "I don't see anything."
Five caught a glimmer of sun catching on segmented steel legs in the direction Allison had indicated. A moment later, the killer robot emerged fully from the cover of the squashed SUV. "Heads up!" he barked, tightening his fists. "It's coming this way."
"Stay back, everybody," Luther said, standing up from behind their own improvised shelter of a fallen brick wall. "I've got it."
"Nah nah nah I've got this one," Diego said, hefting a piece of rebar.
Before Luther could move, Diego launched the rebar like a javelin. It struck the robot right in the center of its spherical body.
And bounced off, having failed to cause so much as a scratch in the robot's shiny surface.
"God DAMN it!" Diego shouted, and ducked back down just in time for the robot's laser beam weapon to fire harmlessly over his head.
Covering his face protectively with his arm, Luther bull-rushed the robot. Crashing into its body, he knocked it over, and then immediately started tearing its legs off. One, two, three, four. Once he'd finished that, he pounded the helpless body section, crushing it like a big metal ping-pong ball. It screeched and sparked. Black smoke belched from the holes where the legs had been, and the bitter smell of burning electronics drifted back to Five and the others.
Klaus wrinkled his nose. "Blech. Eau de fried circuitboard. Tell me again—why are the rest of us here?" He pulled a flask from his jacket pocket, and took a drink.
"Because I am never letting the five of you out of my sight again," Five told him with a scowl.
"Klaus has a point," Allison said. "Luther and Vanya are the only ones who are remotely useful against these robots. Couldn't the rest of us have just had a nice beach day, or something?"
*snick* *splortch*
Eyes wide, Klaus raised his hand to touch the shuriken that was suddenly sprouting from his chest. And then with a gurgle, he toppled over.
"Klaus!!!" Allison shrieked.
"Fuck!" Diego yelped, spinning around to face the new threat.
Shit. Well, that was going to need undoing.
"Klaus has a point," Allison said. "Luther and Vanya are the only ones who are remotely useful against these robots."
"Vanya!" Five shouted. "Six o'clock!"
Vanya spun and her eyes widened at the shuriken-wielding robot that had just crested the top of a pile of rubble behind them.
The color bled abruptly from her face and the background rustlings of everybody's little movements suddenly became an acoustic foreground. Vanya thrust out her hands and the robot was flung away, tumbling end over end through the air and finally crashing into the side of a hill fifty yards away.
Allison nodded. "As I was saying."
Luther strode back over to them, rubbing his knuckles. "Nice one, Vanya," he said, giving her an encouraging smile.
Vanya's pigmentation went back to normal, and she returned Luther's smile. "Thanks."
With all of the killer robots in the immediate vicinity cleared out, they decided to stop for lunch. The decision was precipitated by the presence of a bombed-out grocery store, still full of food.
"Careful of the broken glass," Allison called out, picking her way down what had been the produce aisle. "Um, I think these apples are okay."
"I've got some bread," Luther said, holding up a bag in each hand.
"This reminds me of the very early days of the apocalypse," Five said. "God, the meat's barely even started to stink."
And just like that—he was there. Ash drifting from the sky. Rubble, the reek of decomposing flesh.
A hand on his shoulder made him flinch. He instinctively power-jumped away from it, spinning on his heels to face his attacker when he landed.
It was just Vanya, looking worried. Vanya in the collapsed grocery store.
"Are you okay, Five?" she said.
"Yes," he snapped.
"You know," she said, "I don't think I ever apologized. For when you first told me about the apocalypse, and I didn't believe you?"
"Don't worry about it," he said. "It's fine."
She frowned, delicately. "It isn't, though," she said. "That must have been such a terrible thing to go through. And you were so young, and all alone."
She was so young. "It was a long time ago," he said.
"Still," she said. "If you want to, to talk about it—"
Ugh, the soft pity in her eyes was unbearable.
He'd made a mistake bringing it up in the first place.
He clenched his fists.
"I've got some bread," Luther said, holding up a bag in each hand.
"Great," Five said. "I'll find us some peanut butter."
They spread out their picnic lunch on a grassy hill. The day was a little chilly, but the sun beat down warm on their skin. The sky was a vibrant blue apart from a few fluffy white clouds.
Five's siblings (minus one, always minus one) were safe and in sight. He couldn't ask for more.
"But seriously, this sucks," Diego was saying around a mouthful of peanut butter and jelly. "We stop two fucking apocalypses and now we're the B-team?"
"We wouldn't have had to stop two apocalypses if we hadn't also caused both of them," Allison pointed out. "I'm not sure we really want to call that a feather in our cap."
"Dad said this was a chance to prove ourselves," Luther reminded them. "As a team."
"Yeah, while the fucking Sparrows save the Eiffel Tower," Diego grumped. "That's our thing! We save the Eiffel Tower!"
"The people of this town deserve our help too," Luther said. "Even if it's less prestigious, it's still important."
Diego scowled. "And where the fuck did all the killer robots in this timeline come from, anyway? I don't see how us having dinner with Dad in 1963 caused this."
Five shrugged. "Butterfly effect. You can never predict these things."
Klaus perked up. "There's a butterfly?"
"Klaus, baby, you should eat some food," Allison said, offering him a sandwich.
Klaus shook his head, and took a swig from the bottle of wine he'd nabbed from the grocery store.
"Seriously, Klaus," Allison said.
"Wow, you sound just like Ben," Klaus said, wrinkling his nose. "Klaus, do this. Klaus, don't do that. Klaus, do this but not like that."
"Man, haunting you must have sucked," Diego said.
With a dramatic swing of his upper body, Klaus turned to face Diego and took a deep breath. Five expected some kind of angry rejoinder to follow, but instead Klaus started blinking rapidly, and then tears spilled out of his eyes.
"Yes," Klaus said, in a wavering tone. "I think it did."
Diego's face fell. "Oh shit man, I didn't mean it."
Klaus let out a high-pitched whimper and then pressed his hand over his mouth, too late to muffle it. Tears were streaming from his eyes now.
"Oh Klaus, Klaus," Allison said, and scootched over to wrap her arms around him. "It's okay to miss him. We all miss him."
And then, as Five watched in horror, Klaus started sobbing openly. Diego, Vanya and Luther all started edging closer to him—Diego hugged him a little awkwardly on the side opposite Allison, Vanya patted his knee, and Luther started rubbing his back.
Allison turned an expectant look toward Five.
Five clenched his fists.
"There's a butterfly?"
"Klaus, gimme that," Five said. He snatched the wine bottle from his brother's hand and took a long, comforting swig.
"Huh?" Klaus blinked at him. "Rude."
"You know what's rude?" Five said. "Not sharing."
"Klaus, you should eat something," Allison said, holding out the sandwich.
With his hands temporarily bottle-free, Klaus shrugged and accepted the PB & J.
Five sat back, and felt his shoulders relax.
Crisis averted.
It had only been three days—subjectively speaking—since Five had unlocked his short-time-rewind power. But he already shuddered to imagine life without it.
Everything went so much more smoothly when do-overs were available.
The negotiations with Reginald Hargreeves about giving the Umbrella originals a place in this altered timeline had been a masterpiece of delicate time-fuckery, if Five did say so himself. Drawing the old man out to see what he wanted and what he feared, and then backing up to preemptively dangle the wants and circumvent the fears. And it had taken skill, even on top of the power. It wasn't as though Five could bumble through brainlessly, trying and trying until he got it right; he was constrained by the rewind-limit, which seemed to be about three minutes at the outside. And then three minutes to recharge, afterwards, so he couldn't chain the jumps to go farther back.
If Reginald had suspected what was happening, he had given no sign. Five was quite sure that the rewinds were undetectable to anyone other than himself; certainly, none of his siblings had noticed a thing, even though he'd explained what he'd done in the barn.
He'd used the rewinds to avoid getting his hair ruffled by Luther; to dodge at least three sweaty hugs a day from Klaus; to prevent two separate battles between the Umbrellas and the Sparrows; and of course to save his idiot siblings repeatedly from the killer robots.
They'd been training for this kind of thing since they were children. You'd think they'd have learned to keep their heads down by now.
"So anyway," Klaus said, ambling along as though he were making his way through a scenic park rather than over the rubble of a blasted town center, "we pulled up to the roadblock and everybody was freaking out, like, hide the drugs! Hide the drugs! And then this badass looking soldier with a facial scar like—" he snaked a finger up the side of his cheek, leering, "—he knocks on the window and Keechie rolls it down and oh my god what do you think happens?"
"I can't even imagine," Vanya murmured.
"He offers to sell us hashish!" Klaus exclaimed, flinging his arms in the air. "At like half the price that we paid in—ack!" Klaus went sprawling forward onto the rubble-strewn ground.
Five tensed and clenched his fists, ready to rewind time at the first sign of a fatal injury.
Vanya looked around wildly. "Robot? I didn't hear anything."
"Oooowwwwwwwwwww," Klaus moaned from the ground.
"I think he just tripped," Luther said, peering down at Klaus a little skeptically.
"You okay there buddy?" Diego asked.
Klaus pushed himself up. His lip was bloody, and the palms of his hands were scraped raw. He sniffled, eyes tearing up as he regarded his hands.
Okay, Five wasn't going to rewind time to save him from that. "Pull yourself together," he said. "If the eyewitness testimonies were correct, we've still got about twenty robots wandering around."
"Hang on," Allison said. "He's bleeding."
"Barely," Five muttered.
But Allison had already crouched down next to Klaus. "Give me your flask, Klaus."
Klaus looked wary, but he'd always had the habit of obeying Allison. He pulled out the flask and gave it to her. She opened it, sniffed it, and then splashed the contents over his scraped palms.
Klaus hissed. And then looked betrayed. "Hey! That was for drinking!"
"Honestly, Klaus, I think you've had enough." Allison accepted the clean gauze Diego had just wordlessly passed down to her, and wrapped it over Klaus's palms. Then she took another wad of it and dabbed at the cut on his lip.
Klaus sighed, submitting to the attention. "I bet you were a great mom," he murmured.
Allison froze.
Klaus's eyes went wide. "Oh. Oh, Allie. I'm sorry, I— me and my stupid mouth."
"It's all right," Allison said, tightly.
"No it isn't," Klaus said. "You lost the person you loved most in the entire world. Your whole life with them didn't even happen. You should be, you should be screaming. The whole time, you should be screaming."
"It's all right, Klaus," Allison repeated, sounding a little angry this time.
"No it isn't," Klaus insisted, and scrambled up onto his knees so that he could fling himself against her, arms catching her in a fumbling hug. "It isn't."
Five expected her to push him away, but instead she started to cry.
Klaus squeezed her and petted her hair, and Allison sobbed.
Oh god. Five's bile rose at the sight—his tough sister's pain on display like underwear in the bombed-out shell of a bedroom.
Well, he knew what he would want in Allison's place.
He clenched his fists.
"He offers to sell us hashish! At like half the price that we paid in—huh?"
"Look where you're going," Five said to Klaus, his hand planted firmly on the idiot's sternum. "You were about to trip over that telephone wire."
"Oh." Klaus blinked down, a little dazedly, at the snarl of fallen utility cables that he'd been about to stumble into. "Uh, thanks. You're always looking out for us, aren't you Five?"
Five sighed. "You don't know the half of it."
Five wouldn't have thought, on a day spent fighting swarms of killer robots, that he'd end up using his rewind-power more times to save his siblings from emotional breakdowns than to save them from the robots. But that was how it was working out.
He'd only had to reverse two deaths for Klaus, one for Diego, and one for Vanya. But the breakdowns?
By the end of the afternoon, he'd seen Klaus burst into tears five times, Allison three times, and—particularly disconcertingly—Diego once. (Who could've predicted that finding a fucking novelty rabbit's foot key ring in the rubble of a drugstore would set Diego off? Well, now Five knew. Forewarned was forearmed. The second time through, Five had kicked the thing under a fallen makeup display before Diego saw it.)
Luther and Vanya, at least, hadn't cried at any point. Thank Zeus for small favors. Although, Five had rewound time once to save Vanya from going off on a maudlin tangent of wondering whatever had happened to Harlan and Sissy—it was a valid question, but it wasn't like she could do anything about it today. Five had nearly left Luther alone to wander through a wistful monologue about his efforts over the years to please their father, but as they'd neared the point-of-no-return three minute mark the big guy had looked so glum. Anyway, Five had felt like he owed him one by then, after all the free rewinds he'd been giving the others. So Five had pulled back as far as he could, and changed the subject. Luther had been much happier reminiscing about his favorite barbecue place in 1960s Dallas.
"I think we're done here," Vanya said, squinting against the setting sun. "We should head back to the truck before it gets dark."
Five agreed with her assessment. In the end, they'd found and destroyed 37 robots. That was three more than their intelligence had claimed were in the swarm that had leveled the town, but a nine percent margin of error wasn't too worrying. More importantly, it had been in excess of an hour since they'd heard a mechanical whirr or seen a flash of those fast-moving segmented legs.
"You think they're gonna rebuild this place?" Diego asked idly, picking his way over bits of rubble.
"I understand there's a federal relief fund for robot-related property damage," Five said. He'd overheard somebody talking about it at the refugee center this morning.
"At least everybody got out okay," Luther offered.
"Did they?" Vanya asked. "Klaus, have you seen any ghosts?"
"Oh, he has not been seeing ghosts today," Allison said. Klaus's arm was slung over her shoulders, and his head was bobbing loosely. Five did a short spatial jump to pull ahead a bit, and saw that Klaus's eyes were glassy and unfocused.
Luther let out an annoyed snort. "He could've tried to help."
"I tried to help," Diego pointed out, pulling one of his knives out of its holster so he could flip it. Flip, catch. Flip, catch. "Didn't get me very far. But that doesn't matter, right? Because we're all on the same team. Team Zero. Some days we need precision; some days we need brute force. Today was a brute force day. What was Klaus gonna do?"
Vanya let out a shy grin. "Guys, how crazy is it that I'm bringing the brute force?"
"It's great to have you with us, Vanya," Luther said earnestly. "I wish we'd had you along on the missions when we were kids." And then his face fell. "Maybe Ben wouldn't have—"
Oh fuck, Five was going to have to rewind time again, wasn't he? Maybe just back as far as mentioning the relief fund, and then he could get them all talking about this timeline's mad scientist problem—
And then Five suddenly realized that Luther hadn't even continued his thought about Ben, because Allison had interrupted with a brusque "Guys?! I need a little help here."
Five looked over and saw that Klaus was now sagging limply, and Allison was struggling to hold him up.
Luther reached her side and easily took Klaus off her hands—holding him up by the shoulders. Klaus's head lolled bonelessly to the side; his eyelids weren't quite closed, but only the whites of his eyes were showing.
"Well, I can carry him to the truck," Luther said.
Allison stepped back, rolling her shoulders. "I think you're gonna have to."
Vanya took the wheel on the way back to the city. Five would've preferred to drive, but his siblings stood firm in their position that driving privileges were restricted to those with licenses.
At least Five got shotgun.
They'd been on the freeway for about fifteen minutes when Allison said, "Oh my god, Klaus isn't breathing."
Five's adrenaline spiked. "What?" He craned around to look back, but had trouble seeing past Luther and Diego, who were in the SUV's middle rank of seats.
"There's no pulse," Allison reported from the back, in a tone of thinly veiled panic.
Oh fuck. Oh fuck.
Five clenched his fists.
"So then Lila pulled a strip of bacon out of her sock," Diego was saying.
Five remembered this. Three minutes ago. Harmless anecdotes from the loony bin. Diego hadn't gotten weepy.
"Allison!" Five shouted, twisting around in his seat. "Check if Klaus is breathing!"
"Huh?" Allison said from the back. "No, he's fine, he's just ... oh my god his lips are blue." She went to check Klaus's pulse, but Five already knew what she'd find.
He clenched his fists and concentrated, tried to conjure up that icy feeling of sliding backwards—nothing. He couldn't go back again until he'd gone three minutes forward.
"What's going on?" Vanya asked, with a quick glance over her shoulder.
"I don't understand," Allison said. "He can't have had that much to drink."
"He was drinking all day," Luther pointed out.
"Not more than usual." Allison turned to them with wide eyes. "I can't find a pulse."
"Check his pockets, Allie," Diego said.
Allison quickly patted at Klaus's coat, and came up with a white bottle. "Morphine," she said, squinting at the label. "Where the hell did he get that?"
"The drugstore," Five realized. Where Five had been so pleased with himself for hiding the rabbit's foot. "Fuck."
"Vanya, pull into the breakdown lane!" Diego barked. "Full stop, flashers on! We gotta get him out on the ground, I'll do CPR!"
By the time they hit Five's three minute mark, they were all out of the SUV, gathered around Klaus on the pavement. Luther was doing chest compressions and Diego was doing breaths.
Five clenched his fists and slid back down that icy slide.
"So then Lila pulled a strip of bacon out of her sock."
It was no good. There was nothing he could do from here. "Allison, check on Klaus," he said, tasting bile.
"Huh?" she said. "He's fine, he's just ... oh my god his lips are blue."
This time, Five let it play out.
Vanya pulled over. Luther and Diego did CPR.
Somebody must have seen them and called emergency services, because in less than five minutes the wail of a siren announced the arrival of an ambulance. The paramedics took over from Luther and Diego, looking reassuringly professional with their oxygen pump and their defibrillator.
And then, when the paramedics pronounced Klaus dead, Five went back and watched it all again.
Nothing changed. There was nothing he could change.
"Do you want a minute to say goodbye before we take him away?" the female paramedic asked. The other one was already looking at his watch.
Allison and Diego were holding each other. Luther was standing a little apart from them, looking shattered.
Vanya dropped to her knees next to Klaus—next to Klaus's body.
Five edged up behind her and put a hand lightly on her shoulder.
He ... he couldn't believe this was happening.
Five had buried Klaus and the others forty-five years ago, and spent the rest of his life trying to save them.
Once he'd figured out his time-rewind power, he'd thought that keeping his siblings alive would be easy.
How could Klaus— why would Klaus—
Under Five's hand, Vanya hunched herself more tightly down over Klaus's body. This was unexpected; Five wouldn't have guessed that Vanya would be the most overcome in the moment. As far as he knew, she and Klaus had never even been close.
And then he felt a faint static sparkle under his fingers.
Saw a quick pinprick dance of orange glow passing from Vanya to Klaus.
And Klaus's eyes popped open, and he heaved a frantic breath.
Vanya hitched a ride to the hospital in the ambulance, along with Klaus and the flustered paramedics. Nobody needed to say out loud why she was the obvious choice to stay by Klaus's side.
The rest of them followed in the SUV.
"Does this mean Klaus is going to get Vanya's powers?" Luther asked at one point, looking worried. "Like Harlan did?"
Diego punched him in the shoulder. "Gift horse. Mouth. Shut up, Luther."
"I doubt it," Five opined. "Unlike Harlan, Klaus already had powers of his own."
He was feeling relieved, but also unsettled. He'd failed to keep his sibling safe, but Vanya had stepped in to save the day. So many variables he'd forgotten to account for.
When they got to the hospital, they had to wait. And wait, and wait.
And then eventually they were told that Klaus had been admitted, but that he couldn't have more than one visitor at a time—until Allison heard a rumor that they were all allowed in.
"I thought you weren't going to—" Luther started, and then cut himself off and ran a hand awkwardly through his short hair, dodging the hard look she gave him.
So they all crowded into the small room. Klaus, in a hospital gown now, was sitting propped up on the bed. Vanya was in a chair at his side, holding his hand.
"Klaus!" Allison yelped, and ran forward to hug him.
"Careful!" Vanya warned her, just as Klaus let out a happy-yet-pained sounding whimper. "He has broken ribs."
Luther winced. "Sorry."
"No worries, no worries," Klaus murmured, fluttering his stupid long eyelashes at Luther. "Funny story, that's not even the first time somebody's broken my ribs doing CPR on me." And then he coughed, and groaned. "It would be nice if there was anything left in my system stronger than Tylenol, though."
"They gave you naloxone?" Diego guessed, running his hand absently up Klaus's blanket-covered shin. "That'll sober you up hard and fast." He patted Klaus's knee. "So I guess you're seeing ghosts again, huh? That why they put you in the psych ward?"
Klaus made a face. "Give me some credit, brother dearest. I learned a loooong time ago not to mention my spectral companions in front of the doctors."
"They think he overdosed on purpose," Vanya said.
Klaus shot her a quick, betrayed glare.
She shrugged. "You asked me not to tell anybody. I didn't agree."
Luther looked shocked and appalled. "You ... didn't, though, Klaus? Right?"
"No!" Klaus said. "Of course not! I just wanted to be, to be so fucking high. You know me, right? Soooooo irresponsible."
"Klaus," Five gritted out. "You fucking idiot. Do you have any idea how hard I've been working to keep you alive?"
Klaus flinched, and Vanya, Allison and Diego all glared at Five, like he was the one who was out of line.
Five considered rewinding time, mostly just so that he could yell at Klaus again. But Klaus would only remember being yelled at once, so it wasn't really worth it.
"Klaus baby," Allison said, perching on the bed next to him so that she could pet his hair, "I want you to talk to me. I thought you were doing okay."
"I am, I am I am," Klaus said, and he pressed his crossed hands to his sternum as though swearing a vow. And then his eyes widened. "Where are they?" he whispered. Five had never heard somebody's voice crack while whispering before.
"You mean these?" Vanya pulled something out of her pocket and dangled it—after a moment, Five recognized the dog tags that Klaus had been wearing since he visited 1968. "Sorry, you were kind of out of it when they took them off you."
Klaus snatched at the dog tags and then, to Five's discomfort, kissed them, cradled them to his cheek, and started to cry.
Klaus had been touching the dog tags during three of the five crying incidents that Five had reversed for him earlier in the day. Each of those had happened after Allison asked him how he was doing. The incidents had been easy enough to avoid on the re-takes by preemptively engaging Allison in conversation about something else—hair styles from the 1960s, or politics from the 2010s, or promising martial arts moves to try on killer robots.
Klaus was locked up in the psych ward. These tears weren't going to lead to anything good.
Five clenched his fists.
"No!" Klaus said. "Of course not! I just wanted to be, to be so fucking high. You know me, right? Soooooo irresponsible."
"Klaus," Five said, "does this have anything to do with the dog tags?"
Klaus's eyes widened, and his hands flew to his chest.
"Vanya has them," Five said quickly, before Klaus could panic.
Vanya gave him a puzzled look. "How did you—?"
"Why would this have anything to do with that?" Klaus asked, with an uncomfortable chuckle.
Diego snatched at the dog tags which Vanya had just taken out of her pocket. He squinted at them for a moment. "Klaus ... who was David J. Katz?"
"Oooohhhh." Klaus let out another lilting, evasive laugh. "Just some guy who worked in a hardware store in 1963. And died in the Vietnam War. And was the love of my life. No big deal."
Vanya looked surprised. "You met somebody in 1963?"
Diego shook his head. "No. Think it through. He met somebody in 1968."
"And tried to save him in 1963." Allison looked thoughtful. "The young gay man who didn't know he was gay yet. Right?"
Klaus gave a little nod. "But it was a total shit-show, so."
Vanya clasped Klaus's limp right hand in both of hers, giving it a squeeze. "I wish you'd said something, Klaus. Didn't we all talk about this at Sissy's house? About trying to more open with each other?"
"Mmmm," Klaus said. "I dunno, it never really felt like the right time."
Five felt a sudden, icy epiphany descend upon him. "Oh. Oh shit. I fucked up."
Everybody looked at him.
"Um, how?" Luther asked, after a moment's silence.
"I've been using my rewind power." Five ground the heel of his hand against his forehead. "I thought I was helping."
"Using it when?" Allison asked.
Diego frowned. "Helping with what?"
"Stopping you all from crying," Five said.
Luther gave a puzzled blink. "Nobody's been crying."
"Not in the revised timeline, no." Five sighed. "Klaus breaks down whenever somebody mentions Ben or if Allison asks him how he's doing. Allison breaks down if anybody reminds her of Claire. Diego breaks down if he sees a rabbit's foot."
Diego paled. "Eudora," he whispered.
"I thought keeping you calm was a good thing," Five said. "But in retrospect ... maybe not. Since we ended up here." He shoved his hands in his pockets, hunched his shoulders, and nodded at Klaus. "Sorry." And then he spun on his heels and walked out the door.
He didn't leave, of course. He stayed in the corridor outside of Klaus's room, leaning against the wall and glumly wondering whether it was even possible to keep his siblings alive.
Not even a minute had passed when Vanya emerged from the room. "It's not your fault Klaus overdosed," she said.
Five shook his head a little impatiently. "You don't have enough evidence to make that claim. In the timelines where he had a breakdown out in the field, everybody would have been watching him more closely."
"Klaus needs help," Vanya said, rather than directly addressing Five's logic. "And now he's going to get it."
"Hm," Five said. "Referring him to your therapist?"
She didn't even wince at the dig. "The hospital has staff, and outpatient care," she said mildly. And then, after a pause, "I never apologized, did I?"
"For what?"
"For when you first told me about the apocalypse, and I didn't believe you. I tried to refer you to my therapist. I thought you were having delusions, because of the time travel."
Five gave a little snort. "Water under the bridge," he said. "It's fine."
She frowned, delicately. "It isn't, though," she said. "That must have been such a terrible thing to go through. And you were so young, and all alone."
Five suddenly had such an intense moment of deja vu that he felt dizzy from it. "Have we already had this conversation?"
"Not that I can recall," Vanya said. And then gave him a kind of droll look.
"Ooooooh." Five let his head knock back against the wall. "Earlier today. In the grocery store. I rewound it."
"So," Vanya said, "who burst into tears? You, or me?"
Five shot her a glare. "Neither."
"All right," Vanya said, holding up her hands in mock surrender.
And then she didn't push him. She just leaned against the wall beside him.
"The apocalypse sucked," Five said, after a minute of silence.
"I can't even imagine," Vanya said. "Want to talk about it, a little?"
Five sighed. Considered rewinding time. Admitted silently to himself that that was a bad habit he'd been developing. Did not rewind time. "Sure," he said. "This place must have a cafeteria. Let's get coffee. And we can talk."