Not Even Close || Number Five x Fem!Reader

Chapter 96

BEN WENT AHEAD afoot for hours until it was high time he noticed how he ached from head to toe. It was only then he also noticed he had no idea where he'd been walking around. Fortunately, he stumbled upon a map.

However, it wasn't as helpful as he thought, seeing as he could feel his whole vision spin. And so, he stood in front of the map longer than he expected himself to, trying to prevent himself from losing his entire balance.

"Hello, Benjamin."

His concentration averted from him when a familiar voice suddenly called on him. "Sy," he turned to Grossman who was resting on the bumper of his van, "where the hell have you been?" Oddly enough, Grossman was more serene than scared, unlike the first time they met.

He felt more intimidating, in fact. "Where's my daughter?" He asked, "Did you find her?"

"Oh, we found her, all right." Ben nodded, "We got lit up by a bunch of friendly townsfolk strapped with Uzis."

Sy reacted with nothing but a shrug, "I said it was a dangerous job." He told him, matter-of-factly.

"You also told us that Jennifer was your daughter, which is total horseshit. She has no idea who you are." Ben shot back. Seeing as they were the only people in the middle of the woods, he figured that he might as well make the confrontation. "Why are you even here?"

"So you talked to her?"

Grossman's remark rolled his silver tongue back up. "Yeah." Now that he thought about it, Ben might have not regretted going in on this rescue mission. And thinking about it made his shove his hands down his coat pockets deeper, if that were even possible. "We totally hung out. Nice girl, really." He sighed out the swelling of his chest.

The way he felt giddy made Sy Grossman grin. "So now you understand." He declared.

"Understand what?" Wondered Ben.

"How special she is."

"I mean, yeah. She seemed cool." Ben said. The silence Grossman brought made him feel as though he had to be more profound than talk like a teenage boy. "To be honest, I can't stop thinking about her." He added.

As romantic as it sounded, a part of him was concerned. He only met the girl hours ago -- no one's ever made him feel like he's unable to stay in one place if he didn't see her. He wasn't sure if it was still a cliché romantic notion or something more.

What's even more concerning was the approval on Sy Grossman's face as he stood up to fully face him. "Where is she now?" He asked in confidence.

Ben wasn't sure why he was exhilarated at all at the fact that his daughter was missing. Nonetheless, he answered him transparently. "Taken by two weirdos with... fanny packs." He terribly recalled, "Gene and... Jean something."

It wasn't, however, what Grossman meant. "Okay, listen to me very carefully," he walked up to him, "This is an extremely volatile situation, okay? You can either believe me or not. It doesn't matter." He said, "Either way, she's in grave danger. We need to get her back immediately."

"What do you think I'm doing?"

"Where are you siblings?"

"Forget about those losers. I'm running point now. And I'm--"

In a literal blink of an eye, abrupt flashed of images sudden strobed over his vision. Her cries for help and alpacas and the red glowing rash kept popping up frantically, it made it hard to to bear.

She was, indeed, in grave danger.

Jennifer thought the couple that abducted her were just another set of people that wanted to protect her from who knows what. She thought they had good intentions -- they gave her alpaca milk after all.