[✓] 𝑆𝑇𝐴𝑅𝐿𝐼𝐺𝐻𝑇 | 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒

𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲-𝐨𝐧𝐞. (𝑢𝑛)𝑠𝑢𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑓𝑢𝑙

Word count: 2845

𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐙𝐀𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐇'𝐒 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒 opened, Five and Diego were in the same position as when she had passed out, leading her to wonder if it had only been a few minutes.

Though what led her to believe otherwise, was the fact that the pain had reduced. It was there, for sure, and the burning in her stomach didn't let her forget it, but much, much better.

Oh, the miracles of sleep.

"Elle," Five breathed out as he saw that she had regained consciousness. "Are you okay?"

"I'm better," she mumbled, glancing down to her stomach to see that it was now cleaned of any blood—probably from Five or Diego wiping it with a wet cloth—and that the bullet wounds were slowly, but surely closing. "I know I won't die, so that's a positive."

Slowly, she sat up, despite Five and Diego's protest, wincing slightly the pain shot up for a brief moment.

As Five released her hand to use his index finger to tilt up her chin, she noticed that her hands were now also blood-free, and she used them to quickly button up her shirt and carefully pull her dress back over her top half.

"You feelin' okay enough to tell us what happened?" questioned Five, who seemed a little more relieved than before as she gave him a small smile.

"Yeah," she sighed. "So . . . long story short, I time-travelled."

"What?" both Five and Diego questioned simultaneously, their eyes widening.

"The Handler came in, killed" —she swallowed, licking her dry lips for a moment— "all of you, and then was killed by the Swede. I had only been shot once, and I was fine, so I made a portal and time-travelled back a few seconds."

A look of recognition came over Five's face at the last few words, but he seemed to have decided to keep that part to himself for the moment as he asked, "And the three other shots in your stomach?"

"Right," she nodded before continuing, "the Swede was going to kill you, but when he saw that I was making a portal, he shot me, which wasn't too fun."

Five cupped her cheek, his thumb gently grazing against her skin as he gazed at her and murmured, "Well, thanks for saving us, then."

She let out a small chuckle, then winced. She had forgotten how debilitating a stomach wound could be.

She then turned to Diego, who was sitting on her other side and staring at the ground, his fingers curled. She quickly clasped his hand with her free hand, drawing his attention to her, and murmured, "See, Eggo, it wasn't your fault. You were dead."

This seemed to have reassured him slightly, but he still shook his head.

Elizabeth sighed, her lips settling into a frown before she leaned towards Five and murmured for him to return in a few minutes.

Once he had gone (though he had left rather unwillingly), Elizabeth put her hands on Diego's shoulders. "Diego, you have always tried your best to protect me. You can't be successful every time."

"I'm more unsuccessful th-than I am successful," he scoffed.

"But I'm not dead, right?" she pointed out with a small smile. "You can't always act like a hero, Diego, but that doesn't mean you aren't one."

Diego was quiet for a moment, and she took that time to rest her head on his shoulder.

He gave a low chuckle as he glanced down at her stomach and said, "This feels a lot like old times."