IMPORTANT:
Takes place after Scorpia rising but Blunt is still the head of MI6 and Alex remains living in Chelsea after refusing the Pleasure's offer to live with them. Alex finds he cannot escape from MI6 for as long as he lives in the country. Oh dear.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
A/N: When I started writing this, it was 5am on Boxing Day, but I got the idea for this when I woke up on Christmas morning and it's the thought that counts, right?
Alex opened the door to his Chelsea house. It was 2am on Christmas morning and he was just returning home from his latest mission. Some self-righteous idiot had been trying to fund themselves through weapons smuggling and had had to be taken down. The mission had been a long and bloody one and now all Alex wanted to do was sleep. Screw Christmas, he had to see Blunt and Jones for debriefing as soon as he would be able to make the trip without dozing off, so first, sleep. He tromped noisily up the stairs, force of habit to be silent overridden by tiredness, and with Jack gone there was no one to be woken up. Halfway up he realised he could have just slept on the couch but by the time his brain had fully processed the thought he was closer to his own bed. He was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
[Break]
The doorbell shattered the silence. The harsh artificial tone was almost painful to Alex's ears, Checking the clock – 7am. Great. About 5 hours of sleep in 3 whole days. Whoever was at the door was a dead man.
[Break]
Earlier…
Ben Daniels was not a very happy man. It was Christmas Eve and for some reason he had agreed to work for the next couple of days. After receiving his assignment, to test out government holiday security at the parliament, or more specifically the Prime Minister's office, aided by a certain gadget maker of course, he had gotten so far as to have planned his way into the parliament building when he received a call from the 'bank' requesting his presence for a meeting with Mrs Jones. This could only mean one thing: a new assignment. The previous mission had been guaranteed to be an easy one with little to no chance of being shot at, but now? Hell, everyone knew that the bosses themselves only called you in for briefing on the really suicidal missions, and the last three to have been put through these missions had been marked MIA. Ben sighed. This was not going to be one of his better Christmas's.
Ben Daniels knocked on the office door and waited to be invited in. Upon receiving a muffled enter he opened the door and seated himself in front of the rather imposing desk. Mrs Jones was sitting directly before him, which could only mean one thing; Mrs Jones was acting head of MI6 which meant Blunt was…
"Shouldn't Blunt…" Ben trailed off nervously, finding himself unable to complete his question without coming off as being rude or impudent.
"Blunt has taken leave to spend to spend the week with his wife and child overseas. Rumour had it they were a bit annoyed over his workaholic nature and threatened to take him to counselling."
Ben was unable to fully comprehend her words. Blunt had not just a wife but a child? And did Mrs Jones just start her sentence with 'rumour has it'? This was unreal, this was... This had to be a joke. There was no other explanation.
Mrs Jones laughed at his expression, "Just kidding Agent Daniels, he decided to spend to spend the day with his girlfriend in France." Ben's jaw dropped as his brain shut down.
Mrs Jones laughed once more, "I'm sorry Agent Daniels, I couldn't help myself; agents make such fine targets. But onto the mission, as of now you are no longer Agent Daniels but Fox. I am unable to authorise new missions without Blunt's permission, as I am only acting head for the day, however I can request the SAS to loan me a unit for the week. This mission may be one of the hardest you have been on yet and is of great importance to the nation. A weapon of ours is under threat and we are at great risk of losing it. You as part of the original K-Unit will fix this. Do what you must, details are in the folder," and with that Jones handed over the innocuous folder on the desk and recognising the dismissal, Ben left.
"Oh, and Ben? Good luck."
[Break]
Alex opened the door with a yawn, switch knife grasped firmly in the same had as held the door knob. Ben. Wolf. Snake. Eagle. These thoughts ran through his mind for a while, not really registering, Some part of him had realised on opening the door that he was safe and there was not threat and consequentially his brain had gone to sleep once more.
After about a minute of staring at each other Snake spoke up in his soft Scottish drawl, "I think we broke him."
Alex shut the door and went to sleep on the couch.
[Break]
Four hours later the doorbell rang once more. Dragging himself off the couch Alex groaned, he could have sworn he went to sleep in his own bed. As he stared through the peephole, he was confronted by the sight of K-Unit arguing amongst themselves.
"… Of course he'll let us in! He's a bloody teenager, that's why he was asleep at seven," Snake argued.
"That or he really hates us," Wolf growled, "This is a waste of time, I say we break the door down."
Ben sighed, "Yeah, after that he'll really want to speak to us."
"Why don't you just pick the lock?" Eagle piped up.
Alex grinned.
[Break]
5 minutes later found Ben furiously trying to pick the lock while the rest of K-Unit attempted to casually shield him from the view of anyone walking past. Meanwhile, on the other side of the door a young teenager was bent double in silent laughter, one hand clutching his side and the other holding the lock down.
A few muffled curses later Ben decided to change tact, "On the count of three we'll charge the door, alright? One… Two..."
Alex frantically opened the door, not wanting to have to replace it, resulting in Ben and Wolf halting their charge but Snake and Eagle slamming into them from behind. By the time the tangle of limbs had been sorted out, the door was firmly closed once more.
"Well, shit."
[Break]
Alex smiled at his phone, containing the Christmas wishes of Tom and Sabina. Tom was currently in Italy with his brother and Sabina was holidaying in the Mediterranean. Meanwhile he was sitting at home contemplating whether it was worth the hassle to make eggs for breakfast or if he should stick with cereal. Man his life sucked…
Another knock on the door. Alex went to open it with a sigh.
"What?"
"Merry Christmas!" chorused K-Unit.
Alex stared. It hadn't been a merry Christmas so far, couldn't be, not without Jack… As he felt his eyes begin to well up he made to shut the door once more.
"Wait," started Ben, putting a foot in the door, "come on Alex, we're here to talk to you, could you just hear us out?"
Alex glared. With Ben's, no, Ben's, foot in the door he couldn't do much else.
As team leader, Wolf bravely decided to speak first, "Well, we were informed by Jones that you were home alone for Christmas so we decided to stop by."
"With or without orders to do so?"
Snake spoke up, ever the diplomat, "It isn't like that Cub and you know it. You're too young to spend Christmas alone, it's a time to be with family and friends and units are a family. If we could just have your parents number to explain to them why you'll be away then-"
"Dead," Alex cut in.
Ben proceeded to start bashing his head against the wall.
Snake, Eagle and Wolf looked startled for a moment.
"Cub, I'm so sorry-"
"Oh Cub, we didn't know-"
"Shit, Cub, I-"
"It happened 13 years ago. I'm over it."
"Then, is there a way to get in touch with your guardian?" Eagle asked, recovering the fastest and completely missing Ben's not so subtle signing that he should shut up.
Alex closed his eyes briefly, not wanting his old unit to see him in tears. "What do you want?"
"Christmas is a time for family Cub, let's celebrate!" Ah yes, Eagle was tactless as ever. What family was there if he had no parents and was home alone?
"And as much as I hate to say it Cub, we've done you wrong. You've earned a place in this unit and consequentially this family. You're one of us, Cub." Wolf's gruff voice was at odds with the words he spoke, but Alex could tell that he was sincere and the rest of the unit agreed.
"Well guys, I don't know what to say I… Thank you all so much. By coming here, you demonstrated to me the true meaning of Christmas and for that I would like to thank you all from the bottom of my heart."
"Really?" asked an ecstatic Eagle, grinning from ear to ear.
"No!" growled Alex as he stomped on Ben's foot and slammed the door shut.
On one side of the door were four confused soldiers, startled by the sounds they were hearing. On the other side was a boy, only 15, sobbing as he collapsed against the heavy wooden door.
[Break]
After discovering that the milk had expired while he was out on his mission, Alex settled down in front of the living room window watching the snow with a plate of bacon and eggs. Tears ran down his cheeks as he remembered past Christmas's with both Ian and Jack. It was hard to believe that only last Christmas he had spent with both of them in Spain. Back then they had planned this year to be Barbados. But what was the point? Everyone who had ever cared for him had either drifted away or been killed because of the spying. It was only a while before he too would die on or for the job. Alex got up as he finished the last of his meal, leaving the plate in the sink instead of bothering to wash up. His eye caught the knife left lying in the sink since the day he left on his mission. Bright. Sharp. Deadly. His dark thoughts were interrupted by the doorbell. A part of him was relieved, thankful even, but another, darker, part of him was disappointed.
Alex glanced through the peephole. Ben was standing on his doorstep, alone, a contemplative expression on his face. Ben it was, then. He opened the door, and was immediately pulled into a warm embrace and it all came crashing down. Jack's death, Ian's funeral, the parents he never knew, the friends he used to have. And as Alex sobbed into Ben's chest, the older spy remained on the doorstep, head bowed over the boys as if trying to shield him from the burdens of the world.
[Break]
Alex and Ben were sitting in front of the fireplace, wrapped in blankets and nursing steaming mugs of hot chocolate, because it really wasn't a good idea to stand out in the snow for prolonged periods of time.
"Alex," Ben began, "I asked Mrs Jones for your file after you shut the door on us the last time. She gave it to me. I'm sorry. About Jack. About Tom. About, well, everything."
Alex stared down into his drink. He knew he should mind but… He didn't. In fact, it felt… Comforting… That someone knew what it was like to be Alex Rider. That someone had cared enough to find out and then admit it to his face. That someone cared enough to comfort him afterwards. "Thank you." Alex glanced at the kitchen clock. 5pm. Still plenty of time left to make up with K-Unit. "Where'd the rest of the unit go?"
Ben smiled. Meaning to or not, Alex had just referred to it as his own. As it was. "I left them to go to the bank; I wasn't so sure you'd like them all reading your file."
"Thanks, Ben. I appreciate it. Thank you for-" Alex was interrupted by the doorbell.
Ben grinned evilly and motioned for Alex to go get the door.
[Break]
Opening the door revealed Wolf, Snake and Eagle standing on his doorstep. With a tree. Eagle for some reason was covered in tinsel and baubles. Alex decided that really, he didn't want to know.
An awkward silence filled the air.
"Cub, either you let us in, or we break down the door."
Alex stepped aside. The three soldiers stared at each other in shock before Eagle let out a whoop and Snake clapped Wolf on the back, precariously balancing his end of the tree in one hand, congratulating him for the idea. "And we got here before Foxy boy too! Yuss!" Eagle cheered to the heavens.
"Actually…" Ben spoke up from behind Eagle, leaning on the side of the house and casually tossing a snowball in his hand, having hurriedly let himself out the back door at the sound of the bell. As Eagle turned towards Ben he found himself with a tightly packed snowball splatting against his chest.
Wolf and Snake looked at each other before barrelling past Alex with the tree, not wanting to miss out on the impending snow fight.
And Alex smiled, looking out over the snowy garden, as Eagle shoved a fistful of snow down Ben's shirt only to be met with a playful shove into the ground where Eagle was acquainted with a face-full of snow. Wolf and Snake ran past him on their way out, both immediately forming balls of snow and hurling them at one another. Both missed with one hitting Ben and the other getting Alex, and no matter how generous he was feeling there was no way that this could be written off as a mere accident. Ben and Alex made eye contact as the war commenced, Wolf and Snake versus Ben and Alex, with Eagle attacking anyone and everyone.
And Alex laughed, even as a loosely formed snowball caught him in the face, as he realised that this was what Christmas was all about.
Wow, I finished ^^
And guess what? Even though it's past 8am Boxing Day over here it's still Christmas around America :D Woo!
Merry Christmas everyone! :D
Virtual mince pies and reindeer cookies to those who review ;)