Bound by Duty | Five Hargreeves

13. Closure is a myth

I brush through my hair, sitting at my vanity with conflicting thoughts and hatred in my bones. Hatred for my life, for the mission, and honestly? Hatred partially for my mother. Making this mission so much more goddamn difficult.

Standing up, I brush down my soft blue dress, assuring it fit me right, before walking out of my room and grabbing myself a cup of much deserved coffee. "So, what?" Diego asks as I pour the coffee, "You just... let her go?"

I take the cup and head into the living room, where I find Lila patching up Diego, and Five pacing back and forth. But no Vanya. Shit. "Well, Vanya had a lot to process." His eyes find mine, scanning me silently, before turning away with a shrug. "She needs time. She'll come around... I know she will." I smile softly, moving over and situating myself on the couch opposite Diego and Lila.

"What about the guys that went after her?" Diego asks, glancing over at Five with a bored expression. Lila looks up at Diego, before discretely looking over to me. I shrug, silently reminding her that I had mentioned Five knew about the blondies, but hadn't met them yet.

Five furrows his eyebrows, turning to Diego. "The Swedes?" He asks, shaking his head. Elliott comes into the room, handing Lila and Diego a coffee, placing a third cup on the table for Five.

"Yeah," Diego hums, tilting his head as he watches Five pace. "I mean, how do you know they won't go after her again?" We don't. I glance over at Five, only to find he's already looking at me.

I raise an eyebrow, shrugging. "We don't." Five sighs, rubbing his forehead and stuffing his other hand in his pocket. Lila takes a sip of her coffee, before placing the cup down on the table.

"Mm," She exhales, licking her lips. "Any idea who sent them?"

Five smirks slightly, reaching down for his own cup of coffee. "Oh, I have my suspicions." Lila and I share a detached glance, one so quick nobody picked up on it. "But right now, our priority is finding dad and getting answers," He shrugs, "Cause everything else depends on it."

"Which, for the record..." Diego shrugs as Five takes a seat beside me, raising his hand. "I found him already."

"And then let him go," Five interrupts, placing one leg over the other and leaning against the couch arm. "Before we could have a meaningful conversation."

I make a small hissing noise with my lips, pursing my lips and shrugging my shoulders. "Not the mention the whole..." I clear my throat, gesturing to his injury that Lila was currently fixing up. "Father son interaction."

"He stabbed me." Diego deadpanned, glaring at me for a moment, before sighing, knowing deep down my sarcastic remark was very much needed. In Reggie's defence, he had absolutely no idea who Diego was. It's 1963 after all, not 2019. And last time I checked, Reggie's dead in 2019 anyway.

Five shakes his head, leaning forwards. "I'm surprised he waited this long, Diego." He mutters, "We've all had the urge." Lila and I let out unstoppable laughter at Five's comment, Elliott awkwardly joining in as he takes my empty cup from my hand.

"Good one." Lila grins, extending her hand, silently beckoning Five for a high five. Instead, the girl only got a cold hard stare from Five, so I reach forwards and give her a high five instead.

Five looks over at me with a glance that said 'really?', to which I wink and shrug, leaning back against the couch with a smug look on my face. The boy sighs, turning back to Diego, "Good thing I know where dad's gonna be tonight." He extends his hand, handing Diego the card we found the other night before Five was brutally attacked by the adorable little monkey.

"Where did you find this?" Diego asks, reading the card. Lila leans in, resting her head on his shoulder, also looking at the card. A small smirk forms on my lips as I begin to realise why Lila didn't want to kill Diego when mom said she should— I did think it was weird, Lila never said no to an easy kill.

Five hums, leaning back against the couch beside me. "Found it at his office while he was busy stabbing you." He says, tilting his head.

Lila hums, and Diego lets out a sarcastic laugh at Five's stabbing comment. He begins reading the card out loud, and while he does so, I move to Five, gently pulling down his collar. "How is it?" I ask quietly, examining his stitches, not wanting to draw too much attention, knowing Five would kill me if Diego or Lila saw, literally.

He nods, chewing his lower lip and offering a short smile. "It's fine." The boy exhales, "A little tight, but it's new, so it's bound to be." His eyes find mine, and he nods. "Despite the fact you got your skills from sewing class, you did quite a good job." I roll my eyes, smirking slightly at his comment.

"Woah—" Elliott mutters, catching our attention. "Hoyt Hillenkoetter?" He asks, causing us to look at him with confused expressions. What did he know? "Are you serious?"

I raise an eyebrow, leaning forwards and chewing on my lower lip as I watch Elliott with careful eyes. "Elliott?" I ask, "What do you know?"

Lila gasps, turning to Diego. "We should go." Her eyes find mine, "Says there's gonna be a seafood tower." I grin, sitting up straighter. A small smile forms on Diego's lips, and he nods slightly. The look was like that of a love sick puppy— oh... oh... I'm so teasing Lila about this later.

"No," Elliott shakes his head, moving over to stand beside Five. "Hillenkoetter is... is one of the Majestic Twelve." He says, clearly beyond exciting at this revelation.

Diego frowns, "The hell is the Majestic Twelve?" He asks, causing Elliott to widen his eyes and look over at him. I smirk, chuckling slightly. "What?" He asks, noticing Elliott's flabbergasted expression.

I exhale, shaking my head and resting my hands on my knees. "Not everybody is aware of this sort of stuff, Elliott." I purr, forcing the man to nod his head quickly. "It's a secret committee." I explain, turning over to Diego as Lila shoves a potato wedge in his mouth.

"Uh," Elliott nods, moving over to his board of weird artifices and papers. "Scientists, military, uh... deep state." We all turn, following him with harsh gazes. I spin around, sitting on my knees, leaning my elbows on the edge of the couch. "No one knows what they really do."

Diego sits up, groaning at the pain it causes on his injury. "Wait, so they're government?" He asks, and I already know exactly where his mind is headed. Kennedy.

"Shadow government." Elliott replies, pointing his finger towards Diego as he hastily searches through his papers for something in particular. "Yeah, Kennedy was the first president to try to push 'em into the light, but these guys are not to be trifled with." Oh don't tell Diego that. "Oh... here we go, right here."

He walks over with a picture, placing it on the table in front of me and Five. I spin back around, moving to the edge of the couch and leaning forwards, biting the inside of my cheek as I examine the photo. Elliott points to the man at the front, "That's Hoyt."

My eyes flicker across the page, silently analysing and remembering each and every man. Seven on the left of the photo, one at the back, and three on the right, making up a total of... hold on. I frown, shaking my head and pointing to the photograph. "Elliott, there's only eleven people in the frame."

Elliott nods, not taking his eyes off of the photograph. "Well... that's because they've only identified eleven so far." He mutters, fiddling with his fingers.

"Who's the twelfth?" Diego asks, looking up at Five for a split second, before his gaze returns to the picture frame. Five looks up at Diego, raising an eyebrow, to which Diego widens his eyes. We all had a pretty good guess who was number twelve...

Reginald Hargreeves.