Diego pulls up to the police station and Ashlinn looks out the window.
"Can I know the plan now?" She asks and she could see Diego roll his eyes from the rearview mirror.
"I know this Jenkins dude has to have a record. We just gotta get our hands on his file." He says and Ashlinn raises her eyebrow.
"And your plan is what? Waltz in there and just ask for it?"
"I know the station like the back of my hand, sis." Diego says and Ashlinn gives him a weird look, who says 'sis' unironically? "I've spent a lot of time inside."
"In holding cells and handcuffs?" Ashlinn leans forward and Allison holds back a smile. She wasn't wrong.
"Whatever. Here's the plan." Finally, Ashlinn listens closely.
"I'm just gonna blink in there and get the file." Five says, confused as to what Diego was talking about.
"No, that's not...you don't know the ins and outs of this place, okay?" Diego says and Ashlinn nearly laughs. He's still trying to be Number One.
"I literally just did this yesterday." Ashlinn looks at Five with utter confusion. He was with her and Luther yesterday. Was it when he disappeared?
"What?"
"Well, my yesterday, not your yesterday." He corrects himself, but that didn't help Ashlinn's confusion. "It'll take me two seconds. Why don't I just go?"
"Listen to me," Diego speaks over him. "You are not going in there. I made a call. That's what a leader does. He leads." Diego says and Ashlinn pokes her head through the seats.
"Yeah, I don't know if you know this, but Five doesn't really do well with other people telling him what to do." She says before turning her head to look at Five with a slightly condescending smile. "No offence."
"Shut up." He says as he pushes her back.
"Everyone just, stay here. I'll be back in two seconds." And before any more protest, Diego gets out of the car leaving Five, Allison and Ashlinn.
It was silent for a few minutes before Ashlinn leaned forward again and Five rolls his eyes, knowing that she was going to annoy him with more questions.
"I'm just curious when you said your yesterday, what did you mean by that?" She asks and he just sighs.
"It's a long story, I'll explain later." He says and Ashinn glares at him.
"What is with this mean and mysterious...thing you got going on? I'm a naturally nosey and therefore annoying person and you're just making it worse." He rests her arm on the shoulder of Five's seat and she places her chin in the crook of her elbow as she looks at Five.
"I don't have to answer anything I don't need to. I tell you everything that's necessary for you to know. Nothing more. Nothing less. There isn't anything mysterious about it." He explains and Ashlinn nods, leaning back a bit.
"So, you admit that you're mean?"
"What? I never said that."
"Well, I called you mean and mysterious and you didn't deny the mean part." She shrugs as she leans back into her seat and she looks at Allison who seemed very interested in their conversation for some reason. If she was being honest, Ashlinn completely forgot she was here.
"I'm as mean as much as you're annoying." He comments and Ashlinn laughs.
"Trust me Five, not even you can be that mean." It was silent in the car again.
"Hey, do you guys mind if I make a phone call?" Allison asks and Ashlinn shakes her head.
"Not at all, there's a payphone just down the road, on the corner I think. We'll come with you." They all leave the car, and Five shockingly didn't put up a fight as they walk a couple feet down the road. Allison goes to the payphone and Ashlinn and Five lean against the building wall just across from her.
"What are you gonna do when all of this is over?" Ashlinn asks and Five looks at her with confusion.
"What do you mean?" He asks and she looks at him.
"Well, this has been your mission for forty-five years. I don't know about you, but to me, that's a hell of a long time to be focused on this. Do you have a plan for when you succeed? Or have you thought of it?" She asks and looks at the ground in silence.
A moment passes before Ashlinn speaks up again. "You haven't thought about it."
"No. There's no guarantee that this will work...there's no point in getting our hopes up." He says and she frowns.
"You need a little hope to keep you going. It's all that keeps me going anyway." Ashlinn smiles at him as he looks at her again.
"Is that why you're so painfully optimistic?" He jokes and she lets out a small laugh.
"That and the fact that I have leprechaun blood running through my veins." Ashlinn jokes and Five lets out a loud laugh. She smiles at him. That's the first time she's heard a genuine laugh from him.
"Wow, that is such bullshit."
"Trust me, I know. I mean, where did that stereotype come from? Not one Irish person acts like that." The two of them laugh among themselves.
"Wow, how mentally unstable do you have to be to have this much bullshit optimism and be cracking jokes three days before the end of the world. Any normal person would be freaking the fuck out." Ashlinn laughs at herself.
"On a scale of one to ten, I'd say about an eight." Five answers and she digs his shoulder.
"It was a rhetorical question, dipshit."
"Ouch, and you call me mean." Ashlinn just rolls her eyes.
Diego walks up to them, and she and Five push themselves off the building and step toward Diego.
"You're welcome," Diego says as he hands the file to Allison, who just got off the phone. Ashlinn leans forward, trying to get a good look at the file as Allison looks through it.
"Holy shit," Allison exclaims as she looks closer at the file.
"What?" Diego asks and she turns the file so they all can see the mugshot of Harold Jenkins.
"Harold Jenkins is Leonard Peabody." She says and they all look at the file and then back at Allison.
"Who is Leonard Peabody?" Ashlinn finally asks the question they all wanted to ask.
"Vanya's boyfriend."
YOU ARE READING
Replacement (The Umbrella Academy)
Fanfiction________________________ Ashlinn Sheehan. Born October 1st 1989 in Waterford, Ireland. She had loving parents and and the best life she could ask for. Until she was thirteen. She moved to America with her parents who ended up being brutally murdered...
