8 ○ Umbrella Academy

Making Ammends

We all sat around a TV in the livingroom, the video of Dad's death playing over once again, struggling to hear Vanya over the crunch of Klaus' potato chips. "I mean, do you really think Mom would hurt Dad?" she asked in disbelief.

"You haven't been home in a long time, Vanya," Luther simply stated. "Maybe you don't know Grace anymore."

"If he was poisoned it would've shown in the coroner's report," Diego point out in gentle sing-song. I knew of his innocence without having to prowl through his mind, but the fact that he'd had Dad's monocle was nagging at me, if only for Luther's sake.

"Yeah, well, I don't need a report to tell me what I can see with my own eyes," Luther sighed, fully invested in this.

"Maybe all that low gravity in space messed with your vision," Diego grumbled, stepping closer to the screen to rewind the tape. "Look closer." He hit play and relayed, "Dad has his monocle, Mom stands up, monocle's gone."

"Oh yeah!" Klaus clapped as Diego came to stand beside me.

"She wasn't poisoning him, she was...taking it." I frowned and turned my head towards him, remembering the glass and gold piece wrapped around his fingers. "To clean it," he added, avoiding my gaze as he leaned on the hutch propped against the back of the sofa.

"Then where is it?" Luther wondered. My lips parted but I struggled to speak, unable to rat out Diego to our siblings despite our differences. "No, I've searched the house - including all of her things. She doesn't have it." Sure hope he didn't find my stash of stolen things.

"That's because I took it from her," he slowly admitted, making me turn around to face him fully, my scarred brow drawing close to the other in confusion. "After the funeral."

"You've had it this whole time?" Allison asked sharply, her glass of liquor lowering to her hip. "What the hell, Diego?"

"Give it to me," Luther instantly demanded.

"He doesn't have it anymore," I quickly defended, turning my head toward Luther but my eyes not having left Diego's. "He threw it away."

"You what?" Luther growled, my body turned towards his and I put my hands on his chest as he stepped forward, needing to keep the space between them as Allison laughed and lifted her glass.

"Look, I knew that if you found it on Mom, you'd lose your shit, just like you're doing right now," Diego pointed out.

"Diego, you son of a bitch," Luther's tone only got lower, taking a step forward against my arms.

"Hey, no. Calm down," Vanya stepped in, my head snapping to Diego as he started walking around me. I removed a hand from Luther's chest to keep Diego at bay, too, when he held up his fists. "Look, I know Dad wasn't exactly an open book, but I do remember one thing he said," she continued, able to hold everyone's attention a moment. "Mom was, well, designed to be a caretaker, but...also as a protector."

"What does that mean?" Allison asked. Slowly, I was able to step away from Luther, putting a hand on Diego's shoulder and taking him a couple steps back as well.

"She was programmed to intervene if someone's life was in jeopardy," Vanya explain with a light shrug.

"Well, if her hardware's degrading, then...we need to turn her off," Luther decided in a hard tone.

"Woah, woah, woah, woah, wait," Diego quickly spewed, moving out from under my hand and out of my reach. "She's not just a vacuum cleaner you can throw in the closet. She feels things, I've seen it!"

"She just stood there, Diego, and watched our father die!" Luther protested, taking another step closer.

"I'm with Luther," Allison almost instantly agreed. The disagreement around the room made my head spin, the conflictions in everyone's heads combining in a sickening effect.