•Lonely is more than an adjective• || A Number Five x Reader Story

Chapter 19 - Focus is key

I had to give up 10 minutes into Five scribbling all over his wall. He was clearly very deep into his thoughts since the room had been in complete silence the second he picked up his pen, albeit the infrequent quips he spoke to Dolores, which was a little insulting considering there was an actual human in the room with him. I sauntered out, trying to see if he was going to say anything, but I'm not sure he even noticed. Maybe I needed a break from his attitude. It was strange. Sometimes it seemed like he hadn't aged a day, and others it was so blatantly apparent that he was an aged man. His lack of awareness of others when he was focused was something he'd had since childhood, but even now it was still just as irritating.

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"Five!" I'd been shouting at him for the last minute, but he was dead to the world as he scribbled away on his leather clad notebook. Irritation ran through me as I gave up and just took the book from under him, finally getting his attention, even if it did come as a scowl. I rolled my eyes as I closed the book and used it to provide Five with a heavy smack to the head.

"Last minute training. Come on or Dad will kill us." Placing the book back on the desk, I turned to leave, not allowing myself a glance back to see if the boy was following me as I hurried to the training room. Five stumbled in minutes later, dressed haphazardly from the last second summon, and fell in line with the rest of us just as Dad entered the room.

"It has come to my attention that none of you have any reasonable emergency responses. You may indeed be able to save many people, but what of the injured. It can take longer than someone bleeding out has for an ambulance to reach you, so we are going to start learning to respond to this type of emergency." Learning first aid was going to be so much better than the grueling exercises we all had to go through otherwise, so I felt myself relax. The room fell silent, like my ears couldn't take in the vibrations my fingers could feel echoing through the room. My feet weren't on the ground as a pressure in my abdomen pushed me over. The feeling was somewhat familiar, but I can't place why. My vision was both as clear as day and pitch black, like someone was trying to take away my senses from the inside. I knew I was surrounded by a barrage of arms beneath me as I toppled backwards, but my skin couldn't feel them, and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't move my eyes to see them as they remained locked on the growing stain on my shirt, and it was almost like the deep red colour brought back my senses all at once. All my siblings around me were screaming, hands grasping at my clothes to keep me upright, lowering me to the floor. The pain was so gut-wrenching I could hear it in my ears, but nothing was louder than my own gasping breathes as my body convulsed and struggled against the arms that held my down. Hands pressed against the blossoming stain, eliciting a cry from me so harsh I could feel it ripping out my throat from the inside. The strength to keep my head lifted to look down at my stomach left me, and my eyes were thrown to look upon my father in front of me, stood at the other side of the room with dead eyes, gun still smoking.

It was about as loud when I woke up as it had been when I passed out. I tried to sit up, but as I moved my hand to push myself up I found it was tightly locked in the grasp of someone else's. Two's hands were clasped around my right hand, Three and Four on my other side clutching my hand between them both. My attempt to sit up alerted the trio to my awakening, as I shuffled to sit up, pulling my hand from Two's to rub my eyes in an attempt to clear my vision. The rest of my siblings albeit Seven were situated in seats around the room that they must dragged in from around the house. Mum stood in a corner behind Two, hands readied with a defibrillator, which she set down with a shudder as I rose as if she had somehow been stood tensed. I realised the noise I was hearing was the throbbing in my eardrums as the the attendants in the room sat in silence, watching me expectantly. My gaze fell upon Five slumped in a chair, knowing full well he should be causing a ruckus right now.

"He was threatening Dad, so Pogo sedated him..." One mumbled, giving Five a heavy handed nudge to which he didn't even stir. I gave a soft grimace at Dad's actions, only to realise what had happened prior to all this. My shirt is long gone, strewn across the floor so bloodied it was hard to tell it had previously been white. Bandages caked with dry blood fell away in my hands as I tugged at them and I let my fingers trace over the mangled scar upon my torso, no longer feeling any pain.

"How long?" This was hardly a routine I wanted to have, but soon I wouldn't be able to count my shot wound scars on two hands.

"Three days." Three's voice is quiet, but her hand tightened against mine, revealing how she felt.

"Procedure?" I swung my legs over the table, pulling my hand from its trap in order the steady myself against the table as my feet hit the floor and my legs threatened to give in from lack of movement. It took a moment, but I regained my strength quickly, letting go of the table to walk forward and drag my wings over the surface until the hit the floor and I could shake them out, stiff from laying on them.

"Nothing. Mum's been watching you, but Dad just left us all to deal. We did our best." My eyes fall again to the larger of my scars, examining it lightly and giving my stomach a few prods to see the damage. A curt nod completes your analysis as my head raised again.

"Good to know I can survive a shot like that. Pogo will probably tell you it perforated my colon, but it seems like I can heal that myself. Good job?" I did my best to reassure my siblings, but they all just stared at me like I was insane.

"How can you act so calm about this? Dad shot you!" I cast Six an uneasy smile as my shoulders rose to shrug.

"Hardly the first time." The room was nothing but pity as I stood before the room, half dressed and caked in days old blood. Feeling a little put off by the barrage of eyes around me, my feet carried me out of the room and towards my bedroom so I could clean up and regain a little dignity.

My shirt was not behaving as it should as I tried to keep it lifted to apply disinfectant to my new scar, just in case the others had failed at their first first aid lesson. Each time I shifted to get a different angle, my shirt just fell right where I was trying to dab, leaving me scowling at fabric.

"Need some help there?" My hands let my shirt fall back into place as I looked up to see Five leaning in my doorway.

"It's just in case, I'm fine." I threw the damp cotton ball in my hand away, smoothing down my shirt to hide my stomach which was red from scrubbing it raw to get rid of all the old blood. Five's face was contorted in repressed anger, as he clearly was holding himself back. My body shifted to move onto my bed, tilting my head to the side to signal the boy in my doorway to join me. He obeyed reluctantly, dropping himself beside me with enough force to make me bounce.
"I'll kill him." Five's voice was almost calm, but his fists were clenched so tight his knuckles were white.
"With his itchy trigger finger I don't think you'd make it through the doorway," I shot Five a cheeky grin which was met cold eyes.
"This isn't funny, Eight," my face fell quickly to remove the smile that had been there moments before, realising Five wasn't going to budge. I found myself trying to avoid his eyes, knowing the malice that was laced within them. The tension got to a point that I had to look at him, as he hadn't budged for a while, staring at me until I looked at him. Our eyes met and I found myself wincing in his glare.

"We could leave." He didn't have to say it for me to know what he was trying to say.
"No. We can't." I tried to keep my stance firm, but his eyes were locked on the door as if I wasn't even there.
"If I can time travel, he can't follow us, and we can get away from this forever and you'll be safe." He was almost in a trance, his thoughts holding so tight onto the idea of leaving that I could even pry his hands apart.
"Five, please. It's not safe, and we've got nowhere to go, we're too young to be out alone especially in a different time. Please listen to me, we can't!" But there really was no getting through to him when he was focused.