Chapter 13

"A space whale?"

Ben had expected a bit more of a reaction until he remembered who he was confiding in; Five had the flattest expression he'd ever seen, voice following suit. Four would've asked with overly-dramatic inflection and full body gestures; Five just looked up at from beneath his brow.

"Apparently there were four incidents; once on a foreign planet with giant tree-like monsters; the next on a spaceship which he swore was actually a living creature - hence the whale; third time, still on the whale but it had crashed and died so he was on some moon or drifting rock in space-"

"This is Klaus we're talking about, right?" Five interrupted, his connotation clear.

Ben sighed and sat down next to his brother in the surveillance room. "I know how it sounds. But given the last few weeks, he deserves the benefit of the doubt. He's sober; he's been sober for a while now. If we want to start being a family, we need to start trusting each other."

Five's lips pursed together begrudgingly with a sigh through his nose. "And the fourth time?"

Ben barely hid a victorious smirk. "Obsidian-like city on a planet with a pulsating sun literally coming through the planet. Apparently there were creatures there too but they were very elusive."

Five hummed, fingers tapping against the desk, eyes distant. "Well obviously a sun and a planet can't share the same plane, it would disintegrate." Five paused, head tilting.

"What?"

"Unless they weren't sharing the same plane," Five mumbled as he reached forward and flipped open a notebook and started scratching his pen over the lined pages.

Ben's eyebrows rose a bit, waiting. Five continued ignoring him so he assumed he'd been dismissed. "Okay," he stood and made his way to the door, hesitating a moment - nope, still ignoring him. He walked out, closing the door softly behind.

Vanya smiled at him as she paused from her trek down the hallway. "Five in there?"

"Yup. He's not coming up from his notebook anytime soon. Sorry."

Vanya chuckled, "That's okay. Allison heard back from Eudora; she was able to call in a favor. They're going to release Patrick under house arrest for now until they can revisit the case. Apparently," she smirked pointedly, "his blood work was rerun and found to have Rohypnol in it, which reacted with one of his other medications and caused him to basically go crazy for a few hours."

"Huh," Ben nodded knowingly. "Wild that the hospital's first sample was found to be contaminated," he said with feigned conspiratorial interest.

"I know, right?" Vanya smiled again as they walked down the hallway together. "Allison posted the bail anyways and is footing the bill for the team of lawyers to handle the defamation of character."

"What about Claire?"

"She's staying. And," Vanya raised a brow, "the judge agreed to allow Patrick to serve house arrest here so he can be near his daughter."

"And because we live in a mansion with forty-something rooms probably helps."

"Exactly."

"Well," Ben's head tilted humorously. "This house is about to get a lot more interesting."

"Tell me about it."

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"What'cha doing?" Diego's knuckles tapped lightly on the door frame, not entirely sure if he was welcome.

"Wallowing in self pity," Klaus said dejectedly as he stared out his bedroom window.

Diego shifted uncomfortably. "Would you like to be doing something else?"

"Gods yes," Klaus scrambled to the edge of his bed, desperately hopeful. "Are you going somewhere?"

"Claire and I were going to hit up Burke's street."

Klaus' brow lifted a bit. "You're going shopping?"

Diego shrugged a self-conscious shoulder, eyes trailing the wall above his brother's head. "She wanted to get something for mother's day and I thought you...well you're always digging in her closet-"

"Can I drive?" Klaus cut him off excitedly as he jumped to his feet.

"No."

"Can I have spending money?"

Diego licked his lips at that and couldn't stop the snort of laughter or the smirk that followed. "You think you deserve spending money?" he teased.

"It's not for me," Klaus quickly clarified.

Diego felt his smile dissipate along with any remaining humor. He blinked and stepped closer to his brother, tilting his head to ensure he had his attention as he rested a hand on his brother's thin shoulder. "You know none of us blame you for what happened, right?"

"Oh, well," Klaus responded softly, his eyes unable to remain locked with Diego's. He drew in a deep breath. "Doesn't really change anything though, does it?" He smiled sadly at his brother.

Diego nodded slowly with pursed lips. "Like you said...sometimes it hurts to win."

"Actually what I said was you always have to hurt to win, but I get where you were going with that."

Diego smirked as he drew in an obviously patient breath and lovingly mussed his brother's hair. "Yes, you can have spending money. But only if you use some of it on yourself."

"Well," Klaus said, slightly scandalized, "if you're gonna be a bossy bitch about it."

Diego patted his head. "Good boy."

"By the way," Klaus hedged as he followed him out of his room, "who's the old lady wandering around that keeps bursting into tears?"

Diego rolled his eyes. "That's Gloria; from the Temps Commission. You killed everyone she knows."

"Oh," Klaus said lightly, uncertain how he felt about that. He didn't like hearing he'd murdered a slew of people, but he also didn't mind the time lord assholes being a thing of the past. "Thought she looked familiar."

Diego paused at the stairs. "Why did you spare her?" he asked in such a way that let him know Diego had been pondering this for some time.

Klaus drew in a deep breath, his eyes squinting above his brother's head. "I guess I thought it'd be funny to watch everyone squirm over what to do with the old bag. I mean, on one hand she was like the central handler of all communications within the super evil club, but on the other hand she looks like Tweety-birds grandmother."

Diego snorted and broke into a fond smile, chuckling at the admission as they continued their trek down the stairs.

Claire had been ecstatic about going shopping with the Krakken and Séance. They'd parked Diego's car and then trekked it up and down Burke's street where rows of shops and stands lined the road. They'd just come out of a cafe with coffee in hand, tea for Claire who insisted she was adult enough. She even had the barista label hers as Little Witch to match her uncle's nicknames that she'd also insisted be written on the coffee's. She really was a miniature Allison.

They drifted in and out of several clothing stores and gift shops, Claire and Klaus introducing Diego to professional browsing and bargaining. They were in a fancy women's clothing store when Klaus' eyes were drawn to the large, storefront window. He felt his muscles tense up as he spotted a familiar face across the road. He made sure Diego and Claire were occupied before slipping out of the store.

The round faced woman smiled brightly at him as he stopped a couple feet from her, out of arm's reach. Pedestrians passed around them as if they were within a bubble.

"You're a ballsy bitch, aren't you?" Klaus asked lightly but with a clear edge to his voice.

Kenny's mom tilted her head and with a shrug. "You exceeded my expectations," she said proudly.

"What did you do to me?"

"Oh, well," she looked suddenly sheepish, "that was an oopsie."

Klaus' brow rose. "An oopsie?"

"Science isn't perfect," she laughed, as if she'd just included him on an inside joke. "The hypothesis was solid but the energy distribution was all wrong. I'm surprised your brain didn't explode within your skull," she belly laughed jovially.

Klaus chuckled and nodded along scoffingly. "I don't suppose you're here to have another go at it?"

"Oh no, silly buns," she waved him off. "The data analysis proved exactly what I'd hoped for."

"Oh? Pray tell."

The woman quieted a moment and Klaus felt like a guinea pig being fondly admired by its owner. "Salvation."

Klaus had about twenty varying sardonic responses all of which he chose to bypass under the weight of anger and annoyance. This woman's oopsie had nearly destroyed everything he had left in life. Anger didn't begin to justify what he felt rolling around within. He took a step closer, chin tilting down a bit, face calm. "Who are you, really?"

Kenny's mom beamed at him, hands clasping over her heart before simply disappearing once more.

Klaus felt his shoulders drop suddenly, not realizing he'd been nearly vibrating with tenseness. He ran a hand over his face and then noticed his brother standing just outside the store, watching him anxiously. He walked over in time for Claire to exit the shop and take her Uncle's hand.

Diego nodded once at him, concerned and suspicious eyes raking him over. Klaus nodded back with pursed lips as he stepped onto the sidewalk.

"What was that about?" Diego asked lightly for Claire's sake.

Klaus eyed the storefront, bypassing the question. "I'll be right back."

Diego frowned as Klaus pushed past them. "Where are you going?"

The bell above the shop's door jangled as Klaus stepped through. "To have a discussion with security."

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Five had about seven thick books opened up around him and countless more notebooks and documents spread all over the late Reginald's office, which he now claimed as his own personal thinking space. He even had a laptop that Vanya had purchased him, opened on the desk with several web pages opened to varying informational sites.

He was intently scribbling into his notebook, head bouncing between the paper and the screen. He'd been at it for hours and had zero plans of stopping anytime soon. That is until a hand slapped a large envelope onto his notebook. He lifted his head a bit, an impatient glare directed toward his lanky brother who was lucky he'd had knee-jerk reactions trained out of him at a young age, otherwise he'd have shoved his pen in Klaus' eye socket.

Curiosity won out though as Klaus stepped back, leaving the envelope. "What's this?" He opened it and dumped out several recently developed pictures of a crowded street.

"You're next fix."

Five glanced up at that, surprised by the seriousness in his brother's tone and was left even more confused as the taller man exited without another word, just a final dark glance backward before the door closed.

He returned his attention to the pictures which he spread out, hovering Reginald's fancy magnifying glass as he leaned over one of the photo's. He squinted as he recognized his brother in mid-conversation with a familiar red-headed woman. He quickly identified the same woman was in each of the photographs and leaned back in the chair, hands linking contemplatively across his chest.

He grinned.

THE END

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POST NOTES: Or is it? I plan to continue this series with another installment. Haven't started that story yet but I've got a good idea where I'd like to take it. Unfortunately, another rabbit trail has taken me down a differing path for the moment. I'm hoping to finish this other off-set story I'm working on and then return to the final installment in this series. Thank you so much for sticking with it and giving it a chance. I hope it brought some joy to some of you; I certainly enjoyed writing it!

Oh, and I apologize for writing what is technically a song-fic - well...started out as a song fic and turned into something else entirely. Yes, Out of Nothing At All by Air Supply is every bit of a cheesy 80's rock ballad but I forgot how much I loved it until I heard it on the radio for the first time in forever and the scene of Ben and Claire doing the coordinated dance for a sad Klaus who watched with teary eyes would not leave me alone. So again - apologies for the cheesy moment there but, well...it is was initially started this story so I couldn't not include it :)