[✓] 𝐼𝑁𝑇𝐸𝑅𝐿𝑈𝐷𝐸 | 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒

𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞. 𝑙𝑢𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟

Word count: 2870

"𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 right thing to do?" Valerie questioned agitatedly as she and Five walked out of the mental institution.

"What? Rat Diego out and crush his dreams of saving the president?" Five raised his eyebrows before he scoffed, "Yeah, it was."

"I don't know, it didn't seem like he was doing too well in that place," she sighed, looking back at the building over her shoulder anxiously as she felt an uneasy feeling creep up in her stomach. "We could've at least trapped him at Elliott's place while we looked for the others instead. Tied him up or something."

"You think making him stay all day, every day with that lunatic would be better than that mental hospital?" His chuckle lacked humour as he shook his head. "No."

"Yeah, but . . . at least we'd get to see him. I mean, he's been by himself for the past three months, I'm sure he'd feel better around his family," she reasoned with a frown. "Maybe we should've just let him escape, and then we could've kidnapped him or something."

"You know we can't risk anything," he said softly, slipping his fingers through hers and gently squeezing her hand in reassurance. "If Diego somehow manages to stop the assassination . . ."

"I know," she sighed, giving him a small nod.

"Anyway," he cleared his throat before resuming, "before we do anything else, we need to get a first aid kit or something."

"Why?" 

He stopped looking around and stared at her for a moment. "Oh, I don't know, maybe for the hole in your stomach?"

She shook her head as she reassured him, "No, it's fine. Look, I haven't used any of my speed for the past couple of hours, and—" She swept the side of her blazer to show that the wound was already halfway through mending itself, quite visible through the hole in her dress. "It doesn't even hurt anymore. We should just focus on finding the others."

Five hesitated for a moment before he sighed. "Fine. But don't you dare use your speed until it finishes healing."

"You know I can't promise that." She gave him a half-smile and a small shrug. "Anyway, can we go back to Elliott's or something? I want to fix this hole in my dress."

"All right."

Five grabbed her hand, and spatial-jumped the both of them back to the kitchen of Elliott's place. Elliott, who had been in the middle of spreading butter on his toast, jumped, nearly cutting himself.

"Did you guys find number four?" Elliott asked after recovering from the surprise attack.

"Technically Number Two," Five mumbled.

"Yeah, it's a no-go." Valerie gave Elliott a small smile before asking, "Do you happen to have a sewing kit?"

"Uh . . ." 

Elliott disappeared into a closet, a few things clattering around as he looked for one. He reappeared after a moment, his face slightly red as he handed her a small, plastic box that was labelled as an emergency sewing kit. 

"Kept one from when I accidentally ripped my pants while selling one of my TVs."

"I'm assuming they didn't buy the TV?" Five questioned in amusement as Valerie took the kit from him. 

Elliott shook his head as he gave a small sigh. "Nope."

After giving a mutter of thanks, Valerie took the sewing kit with her to the living room and opened it. 

She took out a needle and a grey thread that was close to the colour of her dress and began to work on closing the small rip. It was small enough that the stitching was barely noticeable by the time she was done, which she was quite thankful for.