TWENTY-SIX; DO YOU HAVE A JOB?
SABRINA STEPPED OUT OF THE PRECINCT AT THE END OF HER SHIFT, SHIVERING A LITTLE AS SHE PULLED HER COAT ON. The autumn breeze tangled her hair and made her teeth chatter, but she didn't really mind. She had come to like almost every kind of weather besides humidity.
The clocktower in the city square chimed twice, which was convenient because Sabrina didn't have a watch. She looked up and down the street, before thinking to herself that perhaps it was a good idea to take a stroll. So, she stopped at her apartment, picked up Gary the dog and started a long, hearty walk through the town.
Her feet hit the pavement rhythmically as she walked through the business district, her mind wandering in several different directions.
It seemed as if she finally had a quiet moment to herself.
"Sabrina?"
Never mind. She looked up at the sound of someone calling her name, and recognised the face of Luther Hargreeves poking out the window of a plumbing van. She stopped, softly tugging at Gary's leash so he didn't keep walking. "Oh, hello Luther."
The overgrown man went to respond but was interrupted by the shop alarm of the corner store blaring angrily. Klaus ran out with arms full of random goods, a gigantic smile on his face. When he saw Sabrina, he screamed and threw everything towards her. "Brie, catch!"
Sabrina's eyes widened as various items flew through the air, and she dove forward, catching only one or two. Her and Klaus made eye contact and began to giggle, and she watched as he fell to the floor to embrace Gary. "What're you doing around here, Klaus?"
"Hello, small man. How are you?" Klaus cooed towards the dog, peppering kisses across the furry forehead. He then squinted up at his friend. "I'm with them."
"Hey!" the security guard from the corner store stomped towards them, and Sabrina pursed her lips. "You gotta pay for those or I'm calling the cops!"
The woman didn't have to ask if Klaus had any money, because he almost definitely didn't, so she reached into her back pocket and pulled out a twenty dollar bill, handing it over. "There you go pal, have a good one."
The security guard huffed, and with a final glare, turned on his heel and stalked back to the shop.
"Sabrina," Luther grunted as he pulled himself out of the red van he and Five were sitting in. He struggled a little, and ended up a little red in the face when he managed to get his feet on he ground. He looked up at the brunette woman, who had helped Klaus gather all of his crap. "It's good to see you again."
Sabrina forced a smile. "You too, I guess. Don't any of you guys have jobs?"
"Well, I was on the moon-" Luther began but trailed off, averting his gaze to the ground. "Listen, uh, Diego trusts you, right?"
Sabrina nodded. "I like to think so."
Luther adjusted his coat. "Right. Well, there's something we need to discuss at the house...about Dad. I think he'd like it a whole lot better if you were there."
"I thought you weren't a fan of having me around," Sabrina quirked an eyebrow, and Luther shifted uncomfortably. She watched him closely, a small suspicion consuming her. She wasn't sure whether or not to trust Luther, he seemed like a good enough guy, but his loyalties were a little too closely aligned with Reginald's.
God, Diego was rubbing off on her.
Luther hesitated, trying to find the right words to say. "It's complicated. Look, you're Diego's family. If he's chosen to keep you around then you must be important to him, so that means you're important to me, too. You're special, like us. It's my job to look after the team, and now you're a part of it."
Sabrina tensed a little at the end of his little speech. "I've seen what the 'team' has done to Diego, and to Klaus. All of you are probably traumatised from everything Reggie made you do, and I was lucky to have not been found. I'll be there for Diego and Klaus, but that's it. I'm not part of the Umbrella Academy."
"It's what my dad would have wanted," Luther tried to reason, but Sabrina shook her head.
"Your dad's dead, he doesn't get an opinion."
Luther clenched his jaw, but didn't say anymore. He nodded once, and turned back to the van. Before he got back in, he looked back at her. "Be at the house in an hour, alright?"
He didn't wait for a response.
★☆
Sabrina tapped her foot against the floor as she sat on the couch, listening in on whatever it was the others were talking about. Luther had taken what she had said quite literally, and decided that if she didn't want to be in the Academy, she could sit in the back and wait for everyone else.
Of course, Diego had protested, but this was one fight he couldn't win. Mostly because Sabrina had accepted that Luther's rule was fair enough.
So, she sat in silence and made sure to only speak when spoken to.
Diego and his siblings were gathered around a small box television, which was playing a tape from the night of Reginald's death. Sabrina had to fit the pieces together from everything she heard them say.
"Do you really think Mom would hurt Dad?"
"You haven't been home in a long time, Vanya. Maybe you don't know Grace anymore."
"If he was poisoned, it would have shown in the coroner's report," she couldn't help but smirk a little at Diego's sarcastic tone.
"Well, I don't need a report to tell me what I can see with my own eyes," Luther said irritably.
"Maybe all that low gravity in space messed with your vision," Diego replied. "Look closer. Dad has his monocle. Mom stands up. Monocle's gone."
"Oh, yeah!" Klaus exclaimed, his mouth hanging open. Diego turned around and stepped back, making brief eye contact with Sabrina. He winked, and she grinned.
"She wasn't poisoning him. She was...taking it." Diego stepped towards the couch and looked back at Luther. "To clean it."
"Then where is it?" Luther inquired. "No, I've searched the house, including her things. She doesn't have it."
Sabrina's eyes bore holes into the back of Diego's head. She picked up on his body language, and how he hesitated before speaking. "That's because I took it from her. After the funeral."
Sabrina furrowed her eyebrows in surprise. Damn, he was good.
"You've had the monocle this whole time?" Allison snapped. "What the hell, Diego?"
"Sabrina, why didn't you say anything?" Luther called out, and Sabrina's jaw slacked.
"Hey, don't bring me into this!" she retorted. "I didn't know, I'm not his goddamn babysitter!"
"You go, girl!" Klaus cheered with a mouth full of food.
Luther sighed deeply and held his hand out. "Give it to me."
"I threw it away."
"You what?"
Diego rolled his shoulders back and took a threatening step towards Luther. "Look, I knew that if you found it on Mom, you'd lose your shit, just like you're doing right now."
"Diego, you son of a bitch."
"Watch it, space-boy." Sabrina rose from the couch.
"Hey. No. Calm down." Vanya stood between the two men. "I know Dad wasn't exactly an open book, but I do remember one thing he said. Mom was, well, designed to be a caretaker, but also as a protector."
"What does that mean?" Allison asked.
"She was programmed to intervene when someone's life was in jeopardy," Vanya continued.
"Well, if her hardware is degrading, then..." Luther voice trailed. "We need to turn her off."
Sabrina's eyes widened, and she immediately looked at Diego. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. She's not just a vacuum cleaner you can throw in a closet! She feels things, I've seen it!"
"She just stood there, Diego, and watched our father die!" Luther snapped in response. He saw Sabrina take a step forward, and he held his finger up in her direction. "No, you're staying over there."
"I'm with Luther," Allison muttered.
"Surprise, surprise," Diego scoffed.
Allison's eyes narrowed. "Shut up."
Luther and Diego turned to Vanya. The smaller woman stuttered, and Diego cut her off. "She shouldn't get a vote."
Sabrina wanted to stomp on his foot at that comment, but she remained glued to where she stood.
"I was gonna say that I agree with you," Vanya scowled at her brother.
"Okay. She should get a vote," Diego walked over to Sabrina and crossed his arms. She softly elbowed him and shot him an irritated look. "What?"
"Don't be a dick," she whispered under her breath, and he exhaled softly, before looking at Klaus.
"What about you, stoner boy? What do you got?"
Klaus blinked a couple of times, a fed up expression on his face. "Oh, so, what? You need my help now? Oh, 'get out of the van, Klaus!', 'well, welcome back to the van!'"
"What van?"
Luther struggled to form words for a moment, not liking how he was being exposed for excluding Number Four. "What's it gonna be, Klaus?"
"I'm with Diego, because screw you! And if Ben were here, he'd agree with me," the grown man then hissed at something beside him.
"So that's three to two?" Diego asked, before looking over at Sabrina. "What do you think?"
"She doesn't get a vote, she's not with us," Allison shook her head.
Diego's glare was venomous. "Mom saved her life, twice. Brie was one of the last people to see Dad alive, and you're just making her sit here and keep her mouth shut?"
"She said herself that she doesn't want to be part of the Academy, so she doesn't get an opinion," Luther muttered. Diego grumbled something underneath his breath.
"It's fine," Sabrina said. "But regardless of a vote, Diego's right. She's not a piece of crap you can toss away when it breaks. And my name is Sabrina, not she."
Luther swallowed his response.
Allison rolled her eyes. "The vote's not final yet. Five's not here. The whole family has to vote, we owe each other that."
"Right," Luther agreed.
"No, we should wait," Vanya piped up. The siblings then walked out of the room, leaving Diego and Sabrina alone. She looked over and saw tears welling up in his eyes as soon as it was just her and Vanya that could see, and she reached for his hand.
Diego turned his head and froze when he saw Grace standing behind one of the pillars. Holding Sabrina's hand tight, he pulled her over to his mother with Vanya following behind. "Hey. How long you been here?"
Grace's expression was blank, but morphed into the familiar maternal love when Diego touched her arm. "You all seem upset. I'll make cookies."
She then turned and walked away, her footsteps echoing through the foyer.
"Do you ever wonder..." Vanya softly spoke, and Diego looked back at his sister. He let go of Sabrina's hand and tried to act tough once more. Sabrina couldn't deny the pang in her chest, but she knew him well enough to understand why he did it. "All those moments, with mom, the things she said. Like, was it her, or was it really Dad?"
Diego stared down at her, his eyes showing several mixed emotions. "What are you talking about?"
"Well, he built her. And he programmed her to be a mom, to be our mom." Vanya tucked her hands into her hoodie pockets. "Sometimes when I look at her, I just see him."
Diego tried not to look at Sabrina in fear he'd break. "Maybe that was true at first. But she evolved."
Vanya stared at him. "Well, how do you know?"
Diego's lip curled as he sneered down at Vanya. "Because Dad only loved himself."
He then reached back and grabbed Sabrina's wrist, pulling her out the room and back into the foyer, leaving Vanya alone. There was a sinking feeling in Sabrina's stomach as she moved further away from the shorter woman, but she knew there wasn't much she could say or do.
The pair walked through the halls in silence, mostly because neither knew what to say. Diego's grip on her wrist had loosened considerably, but he still made sure she was close. It was clear that she was his anchor, and he needed her by his side to stay stable, especially around his crazy family.
"I used to have a stutter, you know," Diego said softly as he and Sabrina sat on his childhood bed. He stared into space, as if recalling a far-off memory. "She helped me through it. She helped me through everything."
"You should go and see her," Sabrina put her hand on his. He looked over with wide, scared eyes. She'd never seen him so vulnerable. Lifting her other hand, she cupped his cheek, trying her best to comfort him. "And if worst comes to worst, I think it should be you, not Luther."
Diego turned his head and kissed her wrist, shutting his eyes so he didn't cry. "I don't want her to go, Brie."
Sabrina pulled his head down to rest on her shoulder. "I know, baby. I can't imagine how you must be feeling right now. But I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere."
★☆
we love emotional vulnerability
also hello I'm gonna try and finish this cause season two has been announced!!!! my deadline for season one is July 31st so lets goooo!!!!