Life as We Know it [Five]

Ten

Do you prefer going to the movies or watching them at home?

"Hey, what about your job?" Five asked unexpectedly. They were driving back to Elliott's at a leisurely pace, so unlike usual but Emery guessed the boy was trying to draw this out as long as possible so he had more time to build up his battery again so he could deal with his family when they reached Elliott's.

"Shit." Emery cursed. "I forgot about that." He said, mind flashing to the way Old Hank must have cursed his name out fifty different times in fifty different ways and how everyone else was probably shaking their head each time his name was mentioned.

"Saving the world is a full time job." Five pointed out.

"That's true, unfortunately. I guess I'll drop a letter of resignation or something when I get the chance... but what will I do when this is all over?"

"You can't expect we'll live out the rest of our lives in the 60s, Emery. We're going back to 2019. That is if we survive."

Emery hummed. "Yeah, I always knew. Maybe I'm just used to this life, you know?"

"...Would you want to come back to the present with us?" Five asked.

Emery knew it was a trick question from the start but there was something sincere and genuine in his question. "You know if I stayed here, I might disrupt the timeline and cause another apocalypse for 2019. I can't stay here. None of us can, you know that."

Five hummed and drew his attention back to the roads ahead.

"Their hotdogs are weird here anyway." Emery said after a while to dispel the tension.

Five cracked a smile. "That's because they're not loaded with shitty preservatives."

"Fair point." Emery said.

They rounded the corner and drove down the street, pulling up to Elliott's like so many times before and teleporting inside to save 'precious time' as Five had called it though Emery suspected he was just lazy.

"Where the hell have you two been?" Diego asked the moment they walked in.

Five sighed and recounted the events of the past few hours as he helped himself to a cup of coffee and downed the whole thing in steady sips as he explained, everyone listening closesly as he did so.

"So what, you just let her go?" Diego asked after Five had finished.

"Well, Vanya had a lot to process. She'll come around. I know she will."

"What about the guys that went after her?" Diego asked. He was shirtless on the couch as Lila hovered over him, getting ready to rewrap his wound.

"The Swedes?" Five asked.

"That's what those fuckers named themselves? Are they even Swedish?" Emery asked.

"That's besides the point." Diego said. "I mean, how do you know they won't go after her again?"

"We don't." Five replied.

"Mm, any idea who sent them?" Lila asked, leaning back when she was done with her work.

"Oh, I have my suspicions." Five said, smiling widely at the girl with anything but kindness. Emery narrowed his eyes. He knew what that smile meant. "But right now, our priority is finding Dad and getting answers, 'cause everything else depends on it." Five said, sitting down.

"Which, for the record, I found him already." Diego explained.

"And then let him stab you with your own knife." Emery added.