Not Even Close || Number Five x Fem!Reader

Chapter 91

THEY WERE MET with dismay as it was a ghost town when they arrived at Sy's dry cleaners. Most of the things that there last night were gone — not a piece of dry-cleaned clothing was in sight.

Even pulling an all-nighter to finish cleaning them all out in one go wouldn't do the trick, Y/N thought. Not to mention, Grossman was nowhere to be seen. It didn't take them that long to realize that after seeing a map hanging by the running clothes conveyor.

"Well, looks like Sy flew the coop." Allison, who wasn't at all surprised nor thrilled, remarked.

Five took the map off from the coveyor before he contradicted Allison's speculation, "Or somebody got to him." He said.

"He did say he was in danger." Diego followed.

"Look at this," Number Five showed the map. There showed one city that was encircled with red ink. "New Grumpson, Maine." He read.

Diego took the map from his brother's hands out of bewilderment, "The hell's in New Grumpson, Maine?" He questioned, completely as clueless as he rest of them.

"Maybe Sy's daughter, Jennifer." Lila replied.

"Or maybe that's where our dry cleaner scampered off to." Allison rebutted once more.

Y/N couldn't help but shake her head at Allison, "I don't think he's that much of a rookie to leave a trail behind." She shrugged. Regardless, everything they saw within Sy's premises this morning was already odd enough for Y/N.

And Viktor was the first one to voice his suspicions out, "Or maybe this is all one big setup," despite the anger remaining laced in his tone. Then again, they can't just stand there and continue to jump into conclusions, can they?

"Well, there's only one way to find out." Five declared.

That was all that was needed to be said for Diego to be riled up, "Hell, yeah," he pulled out his keys. An excited grin was starting to grow in his expression, "Road trip."

Diego's eagerness overthrew his fatigue even amidst his tickling throat. While he was subtly regaining his balance in denial of how feverish he felt, reluctance had already preceded the others.

"Really?" Viktor started as they followed the suddenly quick-paced Diego. His arm hooked with Lila's for support as his vision started to spin, "Are we really doing this?"

"Hell, yeah, we're doing this." Diego exclaimed. It seems as though he wasn't planning on stopping to even discuss about this.

Until Lila also shared her uncertainty, "You do realize we have three, small children, yeah?" She reminded in hopes to slow her husband down.

"Lila," only he saw her as someone who needed convincing. "Look, today's Wednesday, okay?" He said with haste, "The twins have garden club and Grace has gymnastics, okay? Uncle Lenny will pick 'em up, okay? Come on."

"Yes. But wait, that's not the point."

"That is the point!"

The others patiently stood by the van and waited for the wedded pair to settle their conflicting thoughts. As Diego started pointing out that he's been spending most of his time with Lila's side of the family, the others were shuddering from the cold that was only making them feel worse.

Y/N, like the rest of them, was fighting the urge to lose her balance even when she stood with her two feet. She sniffed repeatedly rather than wiping her runny nose, attempting to prevent it from getting even more irritated to the friction of her handkerchief. Luckily, Klaus was generous enough to handed her a small pack of facial tissues. "You'll be fine." He kindly said to her, awkwardly patting her shoulder lightly with his gloved hand.