Empathy [Ben Hargreeves]

Episode Seven. Part III.

"The Day that Was"

"We should have taken him to the hospital," Allison worried as she and Diego carried an injured Five into the Academy after Elle opened the front glass-paneled doors for them.

"A kid with a shrapnel wound might raise some questions," Diego retaliated as they shuffled across the hallway and into the living room.

"Yeah, well, so does the murder shrine in Harold Jenkins' attic."

The siblings gently set Five's limp thirteen-year-old body on a couch. Thick red blood seeped through his Umbrella Academy uniform and covered his hands.

"He's still losing a lot of blood. What do we do?" Allison asked for direction from Diego.

"We gotta get the shrapnel out."

"I'll get the tools," Elle offered. "Then I can emotionally numb him." She started to walk towards the stairs to go to the medical room when she stopped in surprise at who stood before her.

Diego straightened up abruptly when he also noticed and walked quickly in the direction that Elle had been headed. "Mom?" he called softly.

"Oh hello, Diego, dear."

Mom looked beautiful and, well, alive. She wore a 50's pink poodle skirt with her blonde hair down in small ringlets.

Diego was calm, but Elle unfroze and rushed to wrap her arms around her robot mother in a hug. "Hello to you too, dear Elle," Mom said with a chuckle. Her embrace was like warm sunshine against Elle's skin.

"What..." Diego started in confusion. He gently moved Mom's left arm from where it was placed on Elle's back and looked at the roughly sewn skin. "How are you still... walking around?"

"One foot in front of the other. Why? How do you do it?"

Elle squeezed Mom once and released her. She had almost forgotten why she had gone in that direction in the first place. "Oh! Mom! You've gotta help Five." She tugged on Mom's silky hand. "He's injured, and it's bad."

Once Mom had Five relocated upstairs and under her care, Elle took a moment to breathe. Sitting on the floor outside of Five's bedroom, she realized how quiet the Academy halls were. Where was Klaus? Luther?

Allison and Diego stood in the doorway of Five's room discussing Vanya's disappearance in hushed tones. Mom was inside, tending to her son's injuries like she was programmed to do. Delores was placed on the chair facing Five's bed.

"There's no answer at Vanya's place, and the receptionist at her music school said she was a no-show for her lessons today," Allison was saying.

Diego only nodded and turned away from the room.

"Hey, are you okay?" Allison asked. She nearly tripped on Elle's legs because her blonde sister was inconveniently located on the floor in the hallway. Allison caught herself on the wall, and Elle shot her an apologetic look before pulling her knees to her chest.