She with The Flowers in Her Hair| Number Five

🌺CHAPTER 23: Just A Drop🌺

There was so many things to be said about the Hargreeves that walked down the alley and into the boxing den. The older ones... no, the older looking ones looked quite dejected. The big and brawny Luther trudged along the halls still carrying Five, the boy now passed out in his arms. Diego went ahead of them, holding on to dazed young Ellie while he opened the door to the boiler room. Five was laid down onto the bed, his body and his face looked odd, both of which in a relaxed state, and the rare sight had almost stunned the two brothers.

"Funny if I didn't know he was such a prick. I'd say he looks almost adorable in his sleep." Diego said to Luther, not taking his eyes of Five's sleeping form.

"Well don't worry. He'll sober up eventually. Be back to his normal, unpleasant self." Was Luther's reply, his eyes glinting with awe as he watched his brother on the bed.

"Well I can't wait that long. I need to find what their connection is with these lunatics before someone else dies..." The man with the knives trailed off as he helped Ellie sit down by the foot of the bed next to Five. Once he was completely satisfied, he got up and placed Delores on one of the stools, then proceeded to retrieve knives from a drawer. Luther on the other hand scrunched his forehead. His thoughts going to Five's earlier statements.

"All that stuff he was saying before... what do you think he meant by that?" He spoke to his brother, hoping for an answer. But thumping footsteps pulled Diego away from even entertaining the question. Luther's words were shushed as his brother approached the door, pressing his ear to it and then immediately taking a step back positioning himself and a knife ready to go. He opened the door, his knife a glick of a wrist away, when a bellowing voice scolded him. "You throw another one of those damn knives at me, I'm pressin' charges."

"What do you want Al?" Diego asked the man, opening the door wider so that he could enter the room. The man limped inside leaning on to the railing.

"I ain't your secretary. Some lady called for you, said she needs your help."

"What lady?" Diego said clueless as to who it could be.

"I dunno. Some, uh, detective. I think she said her name was, uh, Blotch or something."

"Patch?" Diego asked, but the name seemed to have awakened the dazed teenage girl. Her eyes focused again, zeroing on Diego. "Patch?" her question, barely a whisper caught the attention of the men, Diego in particular puzzled from how it seemed like she knew her.

"You okay Elle? You know her? She must need my help."

" She needs you to meet her at the motel, a dump in Calhoun. Said she found your brother." The man said nonchalantly, finally walking out leaving all the conscious people in the room to scrunch their eyebrows in pure confusion. Diego stood there for a few seconds before his head whipped towards the direction of the bed, seeing Five's sleeping form. "Well that didn't make any sense."

A few more seconds passed before the realization finally dawned on the brothers. "Klaus." They both said sighing, Diego already grabbing some more knives. "Wait, wait? What the hell happened to Klaus?" Ellie said, anxiety bubbling from the thought of Klaus missing. The two men noticed that she was clearly getting worked up and her breath was labored.

"Calm down Ellie. I need to help Patch."

"Do you mean, Captain Patch?" She asked, her mind drifting to the woman that had been kindest to her in the lowest moment of her life, years ago.

"That's her mom..." Diego trailed off, looking at the girl, one of his eyebrows up in question.

"Let me come with you..."

"Ellie, no. It could be dangerous... stay here just--"

"-- Please, I need to know if Klaus is okay. Those Psychopaths took him, he must be scared shitless. Plus if this is Captain Patch's daughter, I get a chance to pay her back for something from a long time ago." Diego looked at her face, her soft features pleading out to him. Her eyes most especially poked at his heart. He thought briefly before extending a hand out for her to take. This made the girl jump up, running towards the man, the two rushing outside to the car, Ellie still holding onto Diego's hand.

" You know, if this happened when we were younger, I would have blushed like a schoolboy. Little me liked you so much, I even hated Five because of it." Diego admitted, laughing slightly at the end of his confession.

" I know you did, you should have just said something, but I'm an empath so what was the use, right?"

"If I had said something, back then. Would it have stopped you from running after Five that day?" The question made Ellie smile at Diego.

" I Suppose not. I would still have followed him. But hey, I could have never been Patch to you. You're talking to me right now and your mind doesn't put her thought on the backburner. Now go on Hargreeves drive, time to be a knight in shiny spandex."

~~~

To say that the motel was a dump, was putting it quite lightly. The entire aura of the area was miserable and the air could have most possibly smelled like ass. Ellie and Diego rushed out of the car, splitting up in hopes to find Klaus and Patch as quick as possible. Ellie was the one to trail the second floor, every single door was closed shut, occupants probably asleep at this hour. She walked down the halls, her feet stopping by the only opened door. She peeked inside, trying to sense a presence only for her to feel a nearly fading connection. Her heart dropped as she felt someone reaching out and desperately holding on. She squinted, trying to see in the darkness and there was the form. A woman lay barely alive, in pool of her own blood. Ellie's instincts kicked in, rushing to the woman's side, willing her to hold on. The dying woman's mind was easy to infiltrate, the girl tried her best to help the woman hold on to what sliver of thread she still had but the wound was too great for her to ease with her own mind. And Ellie knew just what to do.

As if on cue, Diego walked to the second floor witnessing how Ellie pressed on the giant gash in Patch's stomach a bloody bullet lying next to them and Ellie's eyes dilating in her concentration. "Diego, press on this, don't just stand there." Diego snapped out of it and did as he was told, he watched Ellie still in some sort of focused daze and was surprised when she pulled a knife from his belt, wiping the woman's blood from her hand and slashing her own palm with the blade. Diego was mortified at what she did but didn't want to remove the pressure he had on Patch.

"Ellie what the fuck are you doing?!" He asked but the teenage girl only ignored him, kneeling besides Patch's head an placing her bloody palm onto her mouth. Ellie's blood seeping into her mouth. After a few seconds, Eudora finally calmed, her breath evening out steadily. Some color grazing her cheeks. 

"You can let go now Diego. She's gonna be fine... look." The man hesitantly removed his hands and saw that the bullet wound was healing. He watched it unfold in confusion but the an overwhelming amount of emotion had washed through him. Eudora had almost died right then and there, in his arms and he couldn't have done anything to save her. He was careful to hug her closely, tears streaming down his face and sobs freely escaped his lips. His cries, something so unlike his usual façade was heartbreaking, and Ellie was no exception.

She let Diego revel in the emotions, up until sirens began to sound in the background, quickly getting louder and louder, the eerie red and blue lights beginning to illuminate the room. "Diego we need to go." She urged the man who still had tears in his eyes. "This is a crime scene. we need to go. I promise I'll leave her something." Diego finally stood up, trusting fully that Ellie would leave something in Eudora's mind. "If she's anything like her mom, and I'm pretty sure she is, she'll be up in no time." 

EDITED