Sparrow Academy | Evening

[defenderofdesmoines]

So. This was a hell of a facility. A zen garden, a home theater, a state-of-the-art kitchen, and now Annie was pressing a button on a treadmill to slow it down, since Sloane -- the pretty one that Luther obviously had noticed from the very minute he saw her -- had graciously offered to let them finish their jog in the gym.

Part of Annie was genuinely really impressed by the whole joint. A larger part of Annie was, unfortunately, reminded of Seven Tower, which was also a pretty dope place to hang out and work and live, but that also ultimately kind of didn't mean a whole lot.

At least Sloane seemed like she was genuinely nice. Annie was a terrible judge of character, sure, but she wasn't picking up anything but honest kindness off of Sloane. (And like -- maybe something reciprocal towards Luther? Possibly just wishful thinking, but Annie was maybe kind of getting a vibe.)

"I have to admit, you guys have some pretty sweet digs," she observed as she stepped off her treadmill earlier than she would have liked, thanks to a return of that slightly-sweaty queasiness from earlier. God, what was wrong with her?

Luther	"This place is incredible!" Luther was totally fine being held captive here, this place was awesome. "I always wanted the Umbrella Academy to be like this. You guys do stuff together." Aw, Luther.
Annie	"Aw, Luther," Annie said aloud, frowning a little. "We can do more things together. I didn't know." She would organize a weekly family game night so fast, Klaus wouldn't even be able to dig up a dirty board game.
Luther	"It's fine," Luther said with a wave of his hand. "After Ben died, everything went to shit. Everybody had their own agenda, and it was like pulling teeth to get anybody to actually care. And then, I guess, after awhile, I stopped caring myself."
Sloane	Sloane gave Luther a sympathetic look. "You're not what I was expecting."
Annie	Annie was helping herself to some water, but she would have to have been both blind and distracted to not catch the way Sloane was looking at Luther. That had not been addressed to the both of them. "Luther's great," she offered, perhaps a little obvious -- but, like, it's not like these two were being the slightest bit subtle, either -- and took a sip of water. And then...immediately regretted it. The entire weird, queasy day hit her again the instant the water hit her stomach, and the color almost immediately drained out of her face. "Oh -- God. Be right back." And fortunately, earlier, the tour of the house had included the restrooms.
Reginald	Reginald had just had his pills so he was vaguely aware of a blonde rushing past the door to his den, but he didn't think too much of it. Seven kids, people were rushing all over the place in this goddamn house. He did turn up the volume on his TV though. He was trying to watch T.J. Hooker, damn it.
Annie	Annie took a little extra time in the bathroom to straighten her hair and help herself to some organic, top-of-the-line mouthwash before ducking back into the hallway from whence she'd came. And while she had said she would be right back, she kind of wanted to give those two lovebirds a little space. She'd already been feeling a little like a third wheel, as it was. And besides -- "Is that William Shatner?" Reginald Hargreeves watching television. Maybe the weirdest thing she'd seen all day, and Annie had been held captive by tentacles earlier.
Reginald	"Who else would it be?" Only one man could play T.J. Hooker. "You're not here to threaten me more, are you?" Because if you were, please wait until a commercial break.
Annie	"I don't know. Are you going to abuse your kids in front of me again?" Annie asked conversationally, drifting into the room and crossing her arms around herself. She still felt gross -- gross enough that she actually might sit down and watch TV with this old man she hated -- but she was trying to play it off, still. Maybe...maybe they had been poisoned. And Luther's ape constitution could just handle it better than hers could! (But that also didn't really line up with how Sloane was acting with him, either. Hmm.)
Reginald	"Don't be ridiculous. Those weren't my children." Reginald pulled up a tin from the coffee table in front of him. The ones normally meant for sewing supplies but crazily enough this one actually had food in it. "Cookie?"
Annie	She considered refusing the cookie -- again, obvious poison! -- but that might tip him off. Also, it was just sort of weird that this man also ate cookies, in addition to watching TV. Maybe he was a nicer guy with the Sparrows? "Thanks," Annie said, accepting the cookie. "And those were totally your kids in another life, but you're gonna have to talk to the guy in the shorts if you want a good explanation." Seriously, Annie understood, but not well enough to explain it to a dude like Reginald who would probably have follow-up questions.
Reginald	"That 'guy' in the shorts is precisely why I didn't adopt those miscreants," Reginald said. He nodded approvingly at Annie accepting a cookie. "That'll help settle your stomach."
Annie	"Can't blame you there." She wouldn't adopt Five, either. "Sorry -- I guess you heard?" She jerked a thumb vaguely in the direction of the bathroom she'd been hurling in, looking faintly embarrassed. A change, to be sure, considering back in 1963 she would have vomited her tiki drinks right on Reginald's shoes if given the opportunity. (...that actually made her wonder, now that she was thinking about the 60s, whether it was her fault the Sparrows didn't have a Grace the way the Umbrellas had. Oh, shit.)
Reginald	Reginald nodded, turning back to T.J. Hooker. "Don't worry, in most cases the nausea subsides after the first trimester."
Annie	...what? What? With all of this going on -- with the Sparrows, and the hotel, and Stan, and the kidnapping, and drawing hearts around Sloane and Luther -- Annie hadn't even considered the best reason she might be feeling so gross this morning. More to the point -- how the hell would Reginald know? "What did you say?" she asked, trying to convince herself she'd heard him wrong.
Reginald	"Your morning sickness," Reginald said, looking back over at her. "Though that's a silly name, isn't it? Probably been feeling nauseous 24/7. A man probably invented that term." Reginald Hargreeves: Feminist.
Annie	"Time travel always makes me feel gross," Annie noted, mostly to herself, because she had been intermittently queasy, but -- there had been so much else to focus on. So many other things she could blame. "How -- how do you know I'm pregnant? I don't even know I'm pregnant." And now she was saying it out loud, and...as nervous as she suddenly felt, Annie was also entirely confident that Reginald was right. They hadn't been trying for that long, but it was very possible. Hopefully this version of their world still had pregnancy tests.
Reginald	"Oh. Well, let me be the first to congratulate you." No, he was not going to answer her question. We didn't need to have the alien discussion on top of the pregnancy discussion. "Mazel tov and all that."
Annie	"Thanks." Annie was still looking a little shellshocked at the news, and one of her hands had unconsciously come to rest on her still-very-flat stomach. "I'm...gonna head back. But thank you. Enjoy TJ Hooker." For anyone playing at home, she was managing to keep the cookie down without any threats to the contrary, even as she stood up and headed for the door to return to Luther and Sloane -- whose romance, suddenly, had taken a backseat to how Annie desperately needed to get out of here and buy a pregnancy test. Of course, she was still going to have to wait.
Luther	When she got back she'd find Luther in totally different clothes than the ones they had been kidnapped in. He was wearing a sweet maroon tracksuit with the Sparrows logo etched on the breast. "Annie, look!" he said excitedly, turning so she could get the full look. "They hooked us up."
Sloane	Sloane just as excited as Luther, handing Annie a set. "We've got some for you too. Ben wants to meet us all in the sitting room."
Annie	"Oh, neat." Annie really tried to match their excitement, but this track suit was the absolute last thing she cared about right now, so -- if anything, she maybe came across as sort of nervous and keyed up. Hopefully no one wondered why track suits inspired such a reaction in her, because -- if Reginald was right, she couldn't tell anyone yet. Not before Diego. A moment later, Annie had changed into the offered suit -- the maroon kind of suited her, who knew -- and had trailed uncertainly into the sitting room with Luther and Sloane, her mind entirely on her far-away husband and the supposed (she really wanted it to be true, the more she thought about it) child inside her. (Children, maybe. Probably? Maybe. She needed to get out of here.)
Alphonso	Jayme and Alphonso seemed to be finishing up a conversation about something that had happened to them while at the store. "I wasn't screaming," Alphonso said. "I was kicking his ass."
Jayme	Jayme rolled her eyes. "You couldn't breathe, but..."
Fei	Fei looked over to Annie and Luther. "Doesn't look like your family is coming to get you any time soon."
Luther	Luther looked over at Annie nervously. "I'm sure they're just...working out some final details."
Annie	That was all kind of alarming, and Annie really wanted to ask whose ass, exactly, Alphonso was talking about. "They like to have a concrete plan in place," Annie lied, badly. She needed to get out of here. She needed to go home, as soon as they could get her there. Everything had just changed, if Reginald was right.
Ben	"Relax," Ben said amicably. "You're free to go. As a gesture of goodwill. But I want you to pass along a very important message to your family."
Luther	Luther nodded eagerly. "Yeah, of course."
Ben	The smile was wiped off Ben's face. "Let Marcus go. And if any of you hurt one hair on him, we'll come for you. All of you. And I promise we won't be so hospitable next time." That's right, no free merch!
Annie	"Ben," Annie said evenly, reaching out to gently rest a hand on Luther's arm. "Threats aren't really cool, are they?" Even if, you know, she got it. And had made similar threats regarding what Diego and others would do if they weren't returned in a similarly timely, unharmed fashion.
Fei	"You'll do as we say or--" Fei stretched her shoulders and as she did a couple birds flew out of her back.
Luther	"Birds. In our brain," Luther said. "Got it."
Ben	Ben smiled at the understanding. "Don't forget your tote bag. Hope you enjoyed your stay."
Annie	With a tote bag for each of them, Annie and Luther were shown the door and found themselves...walking back down the street. It probably wasn't this easy? Except it did, indeed, appear to be this easy. Annie was still ready to fight if, say, Marcus was waiting for them up ahead, but she had more pressing things on her mind. Like how she had to make a stop at the nearest store. "That was -- weird," she offered to Luther. But weird in kind of a good way.
Luther	"It could have been worse, though," Luther said. "I mean, first time I've ever been given merch after a kidnapping."
Annie	"Yeah, usually all I get is a headache," Annie noted, and -- okay, while she was distracted by her own news, she also couldn't share that with Luther. So instead, she was gonna focus on his news. "Sloane's pretty great, isn't she?" she prompted.
Luther	"Yeah, she's really nice," Luther said with a goofy little smile. "Definitely the nicest of them." And the prettiest.
Sloane	As if on cue there was a whistle from above them where Sloane was gesturing out the window. Safe to say she wasn't whistling for Annie.
Annie	Annie was smiling, all the same, and immediately shoved her shoulder into Luther's arm. "Go get 'er," she stage-whispered, rolling her eyes up significantly towards Sloane and her window. Good for you, Luther! (And selfishly, Annie could now stop off at a CVS or something without having to make excuses.)
Luther	Luther's smile somehow got even goofier. "Thanks, Annie. I'll, uh, I'll catch up with you." Later. Way later.
Annie	"No rush," she assured him with a wink. Annie smiled at his retreating back, only staying long enough to make sure he got into the building before heading off to duck into the nearest pharmacy-like store she found. Half the shelves were in disarray, and near the middle of the store, she came across a teenage employee grumbling to himself as he cleaned up a whoooole bunch of spilled milk. Weird. In any case, it was pretty easy to find the pregnancy tests, and when she got up to the counter, she tried not to look as nervous as she felt. People bought these all the time, right? Annie gave a smile to the bored-looking, gum-chomping man behind the counter as she set the test down before she fell into a squat to survey their candy selection. Annie had barely reached for an Almond Joy when she felt it -- a current, or something that felt like one, whipped through the air, temporarily killing all the power in the building and sending the tabloids fluttering. When she stood up, all that was left of the guy behind the counter was a wad of gum. "...oh, shit," she breathed, looking around the store. "Shit." That wasn't good at all. Annie snagged her test off the counter, along with the candy bar, and was halfway to the door before she made an impulse choice and went back for a Charleston Chew, too. She was clearly gonna need them, no matter what the test said.

[adapted, once more, from TUA 3.02, 'World's Biggest Ball of Twine,' and preplayed with the always-fantastic knife_bender! NFB, NFI, but OOC is totally welcome!]

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