Stuck With You | Five Hargreeves

Chapter 28: The Commission (Part II)

It has been around 15 minutes since Number Five made his way into The Handler's office after she had asked him over for lunch. He had already finished eating his food and he was sitting by the desk completely zoned out pretending to pay attention to whatever the woman was rambling about.

Five knew that every single minute he spent inside the Commission the chances of him getting caught just kept getting bigger. So far, it seemed like everything was just going terribly wrong for him and the worse was that he had the pressure of knowing the whole world relied upon him.

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to find any remarkable information about the apocalypse from the file he stole from Dot's desk. He even almost got caught inside the bathroom by no other than The Handler herself. So he knew he had to take the file back to the case manager's room and place it exactly where he found it to not raise any suspicion.

All the boy could wonder was if he was going to be able to keep the promise he had made to Cassie. He didn't want to let her down after all the crap he had put her through. But considering how everyone seemed to be on the watch for him he just didn't know anymore if he would make it. All he could do was wish for the best.

"Care for dessert?" The Handler offered all of a sudden completely snapping the boy out of his own thoughts.

"I had a bad Twinkie in the apocalypse once. It kinda put me off desserts." Five replied to her trying to engage back in the conversation.

"Please, indulge me." The woman insisted holding a glass bowl full of candies out to him. Five looked back at her and sighed proceeding to take one as he figured it was just candies."What's that taste like to you?" The Handler asked lighting up a cigarette as she watched the boy eat the candy.

Five savored candy for a few seconds before the exact thing it tasted like hit him. "The 1950s?" He asked a little hesitant as he looked back at the woman sitting in front of him.

"Precisely right. Our clever metaphysics division concocted a way to perfectly distill an entire decade into a single candy." The Handler explained proudly. "This one's modeled after the Fudge Mutt, America's favorite in 1955." She said as she took a specific candy with yellow wrapping.

"Remarkable." Number Five said acting amazed and sat back on his chair not knowing what else to say about it. It really was impressive.

"You'll be happy to know it's the very division that's building your new body." The Handler said getting the attention of the boy by mentioning this. "Oh, that reminds me. I have something for you." She said with a smile on her face before pressing the intercom button on her desk. "Carla?" The woman called out to what the boy guessed was her assistant.

"Yes?" The Handler's assistant replied through the other end.

"Would you bring the box in, please?" The Handler requested.

"Certainly," Carla replied before hanging the intercom.

Five looked over to the door as he watched a woman walk in holding a large box into The Handler's office and placed it on the desk before leaving. The Handler stood up and walked closer to the boy as he stood up as well looking at the box that was placed almost in front of him.

"Go ahead. Open it." The Handler encouraged Five as he looked over to her and hesitantly opened the box taking a look at what was inside. It was a suit. "Clothes make the man, Five. Won't it be nice when you can actually wear it? Very soon, I assure you. They're perfecting your body as we speak." The woman said taking close attention to the boy's reaction.

Five stared at the gift a little confused at first but as The Handler spoke it all began to make sense. He had thought that the body replacement was another of The Handler's empty promises but it seemed like she was being very serious about it which caught him by surprise. As good as a body replacement sounded to him at the moment he just knew he couldn't take it especially if it was made by the very same people who turned him and Cassie into cold blood murderers.