They could hardly recognise the young male in front of them, somewhere in the back of their minds it had registered as being cub but there was little, if anything, of that young care-free boy left in the cold, detached eyes that searched them all carefully one by one. They could all feel the shivers and prickles that the dark look sent through them as they tried to decipher the stranger before them.

'Hey guys' Ben smiled slightly as he leant against the kitchen door frame, making sure everything was going well with the introductions. Though admittedly he wasn't surprised at the tense room he walked into, Alex was anything but friendly and talkative to others these days.

'Fox!' They all greeted in surprise, except eagle who decided to be his usual self and grinned

'Man, you've gotten a little old since we last saw you. Thought you'd be less grey'

'It's nice to see you too eagle' Ben did little but roll his eyes with an amused smirk at his friends comments. Even more so since it had only been a few weeks since they had last met up, still staying close friends even after, what eagle had called, ben's 'mid-life crisis' of joining mi6

Alex, who had been watching them silently until now, decided he'd had enough. he had no idea why the newcomers were even here, they were probably sent as protection, though Alex couldn't help but think they're more likely to kill him than any terrorist organisation is anyway.

Without saying a word he slowly stands from his seat at the table, careful to hide his limp and the pain from the others, and makes his way out of the room, bumping shoulders with Ben on the way out the door to reassure the older man that he was okay, just fed up of the useless chatter. Ben nods almost unnoticeably to the boy in understanding and takes the seat that Alex had just vacated.

The men watching assume that the bump to the shoulder was a disrespectful act of annoyance and couldn't help but judge the boy negatively. He hadn't even said a word to them.

Ben could see the thoughts going round in their eyes and let them get on with it as he got up and poured himself out some of the fresh coffee. it was always fresh, Alex could barely function for more than an hour without constant refills.

He didn't bother offering the others any, he could see they'd already had plenty before they came by the way their eyes were darting from place to place and eagle was finding it impossible to stand still without twitching or fiddling with something. He wasn't a spy for nothing.

'Damn brat needs to learn some manners, he should show some respect' wolf grumbled finally vocalising his annoyance as Ben sits back down with his drink cradled in his hands, biting his tongue.

'Why?' Snake asked. The other SAS men looked at him like he was crazy ' no, I'm serious. Why should he? We met him two years ago and we did nothing but torture him for the whole two weeks or so that he spent with us. So why should he show us respect? What have we done to deserve it?'

'That's kinda true' eagle agreed reluctantly, scratching at the back of his neck awkwardly. Even wolf gave a sigh of resignation, knowing deep down that snakes words were true but unwilling to go as far as to admit it.

'He's still a brat' the leader grumbled, much to the amusement of his team mates who knew just how difficult it was for him to admit to being wrong.

Throughout the conversation Ben said nothing, letting them make their own minds up, no matter how much he wanted to jump in and defend the youngest inhabitant of the safe-house. He couldn't help but think back to the Brecon beacon days and feel bad for the way they had treated the unfortunate boy. God, if he had only known the truth back then.