•Lambent• {Five Hargreeves} The Umbrella Academy

Chapter 9- March 24, 2019

"Five, that one looks wrong. Are you sure that-" Five grabbed her waist and pulled her closer to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed their foreheads together.

"I'm sure. We have to get back. So we can stop it." She nodded, taking a deep breath. Five brought a hand up to brush her cheek. She leaned into his touch.

"Okay," she whispered. Five smiled. Dolores knew the equation was wrong but she trusted Five with her life. If anything did go wrong she knew Five would fix it.

"Okay?" Dolores nodded and gave him a small smile. Five pulled away and grabbed his notebook again, keeping one hand on her waist.

"Are you ready?" Dolores pressed a soft kiss on his lips.

"Yeah. I'm ready. I love you." Five smiled.

"I love you too, my ladybug."

•••••

The doctors in charge of handling the comatose Ellie Stevenson were being paid large amounts of money to keep quiet but some things were almost too puzzling. But the doctors kept their promise to their late boss. Ellie seemed to be aging 2.65 years in the span of a single year and her brain results remained similar to when she first got there almost sixteen years ago. They never knew why. They had almost given up hope that she would wake up. Until March 24, 2019.

Dolores awoke with a gasp. Looking around she didn't know where she was, all she could see was white. She tried to sit up to move but was pulled back, she clawed at her arm to remove the thing restraining her. When it let go a shrill noise filled the room. Not long after five people in white coats stormed in and began to check her. Lifting her arm up and shining things in her eyes. Dolores tried to push them back but her hair kept falling into her face. It was then she realized it wasn't braided.

"Where's Five?" The doctors shared a confused look but continued to settle the, now young, woman down.

"Someone call Lance, he's next on the list. Harrington, get some clothes for her," the doctor's calm voice caught the attention of Dolores. She seemed to be in charge.

"Where am I?" The doctor removed her mask and placed a comforting hand on Dolores' shoulder,

"The hospital, you'll be ready to leave as soon as your cousin gets here." She had so many questions. Why was she younger? Was any of that real? Was she dreaming? But the only thing she cared about was where Five was. But she just nodded with a nervous smile.

"Johnson, here are the clothes."

"Just set them down on the chair, thanks." Dolores looked at the stack of clothes.

"Can I have-?" Dolores froze with her hand placed on her leg, suddenly forgetting the word. She made a grabbing motion at her leg as the doctor watched patiently.

"Hose?" She asked. Dolores nodded.

"Of course. Go ahead and change, I'll be right back." Then the doctors filed out of the room to give the girl some privacy.

"She was asking for Five. Could this be connected to the disappearance of Number Five of the Umbrella Academy?"

"I don't know. We can check security later. There has to be some explanation for the rapid age regression. There were also signs of implantation in her arm. We'll need it removed before she leaves."

"It'll take a while. Lance works for Meritech, he shouldn't be here until later."

"Oh, he got the job?"

"Yeah!" Dolores looked at the chair where the clothes sat and slowly stood. As she did, something clattered to the ground. Her ring. She tried to put it on her finger but it was too big to stay in place. She frowned and placed it on the arm of the chair before grabbing the clothes.

•••••

"Wait, how does that even work?" Vanya asked, still trying to wrap her head around what had happened. Five sighed longly and shook his head.

"Dolores kept saying the equations looked wrong. Bet she's..." Five stopped himself and shook his head before returning to his sandwich. His Dolores was gone and he had no idea where she was. He could only hope that she's somewhere safe. His calculations showed that she should've landed with him in his yard but then again, he messed up the equations. It was his fault she's missing and probably scared and alone. He had broken his promise to protect her forever. He hated himself for it. 

"Dolores?" Five quickly looked for a distraction.

"Huh, guess I missed the funeral," he muttered while picking up the newspaper.

•••••

Dolores had changed and was sitting on the bed, playing with her ring when the nice doctor returned. Quickly, she shoved the ring into her pocket and stood up.

"Sorry about the wait," the doctor said, handing the hose to the girl.

"It's fine," she said. There was a beat of silence before Dolores remembered what she was going to ask.

"What's the date? The exact date?" The doctor flipped a couple of papers on her clipboard.

"March 24, 2019. Lance should be here soon. We have your fake I.D. and birth certificate ready for you. Everything should be taken care of but we have one more thing we need to take care of. The other doctors should be in here any moment." Dolores nodded even though she had no idea what half of that meant. She was used to it but there were too many things going on at once. She needed to get out and find Five. That was her first objective. Dolores was terrible with numbers, unlike Five, but she could assume they had about eight days left.

Soon two doctors came in one with a needle and one with a large knife. Dolores slid back to get closer to the wall, thinking it was a trap set by the commission. But the doctors began to laugh and offered her a smile.

"It's alright. We have reason to suspect there's been something implanted in your arm." Dolores had no clue what that meant but allowed them to do as they wished. She knew better than to object. The more she followed their rules, the faster she could leave. Five. She missed him so much. She hoped he would appear out of nowhere to scare her like he used to but it never came. She hoped he wouldn't be mad that her ring didn't fit anymore, it made her sad. One of the few gifts he had given her didn't even fit.