So, yeah. This entire 'story' will just be a bunch of outtakes from The Best Friends. Plot bunnies, discarded ideas, really bad ideas, OCC, crossovers, and just things I wanted to get out of my head but certainly didn't want in the real story. It's pretty rough, mostly unedited, and riddled with plot holes. There will also not be any set order to what is published when.
I guess I'm publishing it just to publish it. Hope you enjoy my blooper wheel!
This chapter was ultimately replaced by "All Your Fault" which was my Christmas chapter based off of a Psych episode. This is a crossover with the movie Four Brothers but you really don't need to have seen it to understand the chapter. It's Tom-centric. Time lines are mutilated in here so please do not bring that up. There's a reason it wasn't published in the main story.
Only Tom could have taken a life threatening situation and turned it into the ultimate adventure. This was because Tom -at least in his own head-understood how the world worked. It couldn't be denied that he didn't fully understand anything from Alex's world but in his own messed up reality, he understood perfectly. It also couldn't be denied that Tom was a special brand of crazy. Some people liked to write it off as unique or quirky, but others fully maintained that he was part crazy.
It wasn't a dangerous or a self destructive crazy, he was just crazy. And he did things without thinking. He did things for the heck of it or just to make certain people squirm, like K-Unit. They were always really fun to mess with. Alex no longer reacted to his actions very often. He was so used to it, and in the brief time he hadn't he barely reacted then either. That was probably why they were so close. Alex was the one person who actually somewhat understood what was going on in his head. Jack was a close second; everyone else was just lost.
But then one day he got lost in a city he'd never been to in a country he'd never been to. They were in Detroit to hang out with Sabina who had accompanied her father on a job. The man was writing about gang violence and corruption. He'd chosen Detroit because, apparently, there was a gang who was tearing the streets up as they lived it up. Tom had lost interest soon after that and started poking Eagle who had merely grabbed his finger and threatened to break it. He'd started poking Alex after that.
Tom never learned K-Unit's real names. He was sure if he thought real hard he'd come up with them; he'd heard them before. But he preferred the codenames. It made them sound cooler.
So anyway, they were in Detroit and in the airport's parking lot. Tom was trying to convince Sabina that Alex was no good and that he was the better of the two. She just laughed at him. But then the gunshots started and suddenly everybody was scattered. Tom and Alex ended up taking off in a different direction than everybody else. And then he'd gotten separated from Alex. And then the cops came. And then he found himself at the police station waiting for a local social worker to take him home with her until a parent or legal guardian could come pick him up. He didn't think to call Eagle's mobile or Jack's or Alex's. He was having too much fun.
There was also the matter of the little boy who had some serious problems and decided to latch himself to Tom in the brief time he was at the social worker's home. Alex maintained that it was because Tom attracted the broken like a magnet. Look at Alex, look at his ex-girlfriends, look at anyone close to the boy. Tom thought it was because he was a kinder soul than most. Alex said to keep dreaming.
/
"Full house gentlemen," Tom said, laying down his cards on the desk. The cop across from him, a rookie named Green, threw his cards down with a shake of his head as Tom swept the four Milky Ways and nine packets of M&Ms towards his already huge candy pile.
"How the hell did you get so good kid?" the guy on his left asked. Tom didn't know his name.
"Well, Mr. Copper sir, my best friend is an international super spy who doesn't know when to turn off the poker face so I've gotten pretty good at reading people's tells. It helps when a super elite team of soldiers starts giving you pointers too." They all shook their heads at what they thought was his over active imagination.
"Well, however you got so good, I'm just glad we're not playing for real money," the guy on Tom's right added.
"Who needs money when you have candy," Tom replied. They shook their hands and dealt another round. Tom had a terrible hand but in the end was able to fool them all into folding. They groaned and Green and Lefty finally gave up and left to go back to work. Righty stayed with him.
"You play good," he complimented.
"Thanks," Tom replied. "My friend's sister taught me how to play."
"Hmm, you know I keep forgetting," he said leaning forward elbows on the side of the desk. "What's your name?"
"Tommy Eagleton," he lied easily. Some would say lying was his second language.
"Right, so what, you're from England?"
"London," Tom confirmed. The guy nodded. The silence that followed would have been awkward had Tom ever been bothered by awkwardness.
"Long way from home," the guy noted.
"On holiday," Tom replied. "Visiting a friend who moved to the States about a year ago. I've been trying to convince her to go out with me instead of the kid I came over with but she's not buying it." He really didn't want to date Sabina and everybody knew it but it was fun to flirt with her. She was a pretty girl. The cop laughed.
"Careful kid, that's where a lot of violence starts," the guy warned with a smile.
"I'm sure it does," Tom agreed, shuffling the cards just for the heck of it.
"It must suck to spend Christmas Eve here," the guy said, with a touch of sympathy. Tom shook his head.
"I've had worse," he said thinking of two years ago when his parents had both been home, drunk, and angry. He'd spent the next day with Alex and Jack. Ian had been on a job. It had been one of the best holidays in a long time. The cop nodded in an understanding way. He probably saw a good amount of ruined holidays in a city this violent. Tom was actually surprised to see that none of them appeared as if they had anything to do. Alex was in town after all. Surely, something was being blown up.
"Hey, Maskson!" came a shout from the front desk and the cop turned in acknowledgement. "Mercer's here to pick the kid up." Tom started stuffing his prizes into his pockets. He almost didn't have enough room and the cop shook his head at how ridiculous he looked with puffed out pockets full of candy. Tom gave a cheeky grin and walked towards the front with a happy grin on his face. His back was a little stiff from where he had hit the ground-well, thrown to the ground by Alex. But other than that he was fine.
When he got to the waiting area of the station he saw an older woman in a large, worn down coat. She had a bright smile and kind eyes. Tom thought that she'd have looked very pretty in her younger years. Since she was the only one there for the moment he went right up to her.
"Hello," she said, sticking her hand out. "You must Tommy." He smiled, nodded, and shook her hand. "I'm Evelyn. You'll be staying at my house. Are you ready to leave?"
"Yes, I am," he said quickly and she tried to fight a smile for reasons unknown to Tom.
"Well, I've already filled out the paperwork so let's get going. Are you hungry?"
"Nope," he said brightly as they went out into the freezing cold. "I won a bunch of candy." She didn't know what he meant and he never elaborated.
/
They got to Evelyn's house at two in the morning. He would have felt bad about making her get out so late but she seemed fine. She never even yawned. She gave him a bunch of blankets and a pillow and he crashed on the couch. He didn't wake up until somebody poked him. He cracked an eye open to see two black boys, one his age, the other a little older, standing right next to him.
"Who're you?" the younger one asked.
"Tommy," he said bluntly, too tired to come up with anything sarcastic or strange.
"I'm Angel, this is Jerry," the boy replied. "You the reason Ma left at midnight?" Tom nodded.
"Yeah," he said.
"Where are you from?" Jerry asked. "You don't sound American."
"I'm from Mars, pleased to meet you," he said and Jerry rolled his eyes.
"Fine, don't tell me."
"Whatever you say," Tom said and received a glare in the process.
"Boys, come eat," Tom heard Evelyn shout from what he assumed was the kitchen. That got Tom up and around and he followed Angel to the table. Tom was a bit surprised to see a little boy, no more than nine, sitting at the table already, his brown hair sticking up in every direction and looking a little scared for some reason. He sent Tom a wary glance as he sat down in the seat next to him.
"When's Bobby coming?" Angel asked.
"He should be here this afternoon," Evelyn said.
"Who's Bobby?" Tom asked. He was pretty sure he was the only one to see the little kid perk up as if wanting to know the answer to that question himself.
"He's our brother," Jerry mumbled, more concerned with his pancakes. Tom took a good look at the people around him. None of them looked like each other. Either they were all foster kids or Evelyn liked to adopt. He guessed the latter, she seemed the type. He nodded in acknowledgement.
"So, Tommy," she said, sounding as if she was bracing herself from some sort of backlash. He didn't understand why. He was crazy, sure, but he wasn't the violent type. Violence was too easy and Tom preferred a challenge. "Is there someone I can call for you?" Tom adopted a thoughtful look.
"Not really," he said. "Mum and Dad are back in England and my brother's in Venice somewhere, though he might be Amsterdam by now."
"What about the people you came with?" she questioned.
"Oh, no, I don't know what happened to them," he said. "Jack should be looking for Alex and Alex is probably hiding somewhere."
"What are you talking about?" Angel asked, looking highly confused. The little boy had perked up at 'Jack'. "What's Jack got to do with this?"
"I think he means a different Jack, Angel," Jerry said.
"Your name's Jack?" Tom asked, looking at the kid next to him. He nodded but didn't speak. "Anyway, Jacqueline, but we call her Jack, is Alex's sister and Alex is my best friend. I came over with them but we got separated. I don't know where they are or even if they have their mobiles."
"Well, why don't we go ahead and try," Evelyn suggested though Tom didn't think he'd be getting out of it. He nodded. They finished eating soon and while the family went to do presents, as the younger kids certainly weren't waiting for this Bobby character, Tom started calling people. He got three different voice messages. Then he decided to call Wolf. He'd memorized the man's work number when he'd taken the address.
"Wolf," he answered gruffly after three rings.
"I wish you a merry Christmas," Tom said sweetly.
"Harris," Wolf growled. "What the hell are you doing? This is my work number."
"And I have a job for you," Tom replied. He could practically see Wolf's anger.
"Oh yeah? And what would that be?" he asked, making the mistake of humoring him. Really, you'd think the guy would know better by now.
"Well, there was this shoot out, and now I can't get a hold of anybody. They held me at the police station for like five hours last night but it was okay because I totally won a bunch of candy in a poker game with three cops who have terrible poker faces. Then this really nice lady from social services picked me up and I'm at her house right now and they won't let me leave without a parent or guardian so I called you."
There was a brief pause after his ramble before Wolf shook himself out of it.
"I'm not your parent or guardian," he said roughly, but he didn't sound very mad anymore. "Where is Eagle?"
"How should I know? I just told you I haven't been able to contact anybody," Tom said rolling his eyes at Wolf's short memory span. "Can you please come get me?"
"Why don't you call your mother?" he snapped.
"Because," Tom said but didn't continue.
"Because?" Wolf probed.
"I don't want to talk about it," Tom replied quickly. "Can you please come get me?" He heard Wolf sigh.
"I'll be there as soon as I can," he said. "But my first priority is finding Eagle. You stay exactly where you are, I'll call you when we can come get you."
"Okay," Tom said. "Thank you."
"Whatever, sit tight."
"Yes sir," he said and the line went dead. Tom gently placed the phone back onto the receiver and went to the living room. Evelyn looked up as he entered.
"Well?" she asked.
"I got a hold of, um, Remus," he said hoping none of them read Harry Potter. It was the first name he could think of and Remus did hint at the Wolfy persuasion. Thankfully, nobody called him out.
"And who is that?" she asked.
"My other brother," he said. It technically wasn't his lie. Wolf had told that to a waitress once when Tom was getting them in trouble for kidnapping and he was trying to blow it off. Tom may have completely ruined the lie and almost gotten them arrested but it didn't mean he couldn't continue it now.
"Okay, when will he be here?" she asked.
"He's leaving for the airport now but he's coming all the way from London, so it will be awhile," he said.
"That's okay, stay as long as you need to," she said with another smile.
"Thank you," he said honestly. Jerry and Angel went out a little after that to play street hockey and Evelyn went to the kitchen. They'd invited Tom to come out with them but he'd declined with the excuse that he'd had enough of the cold last night running from rabid Snorkacks. He got some very strange looks but they let it go.
The little boy, Jack, wandered in from wherever he'd been hiding and came up to Tom. From what Tom had been able to gather, this was rather brave and figuring that Evelyn was the social worker taking care of a severely abused boy, he was impressed about the bravery.
"Yes?" he asked as quietly as he could. The kid had a permanent deer in the headlights look about him and in all honesty it made Tom a little nervous. Jack held up a small bell, like the one's sewed onto collars and harnesses, that had clearly been cut away from something. It was attached to small piece of red collar. The bell didn't jingle and it was a fair bet that the ball that had gone inside of it had been taken out. Tom took the little bell from the boy's outstretched hand.
"Thank you," he said and Jack climbed up onto the seat beside him. There was a safety pin on the back and Tom immediately pinned it to his hoodie. It clashed horribly with the orange but he didn't care. It wasn't as if he wasn't used to looking insane. "You wanna watch Frosty the Snowman?" Tom asked and the little boy nodded his head. Tom changed the channel to the old movie.
He glanced up to see Evelyn in the doorway. She looked stunned and extremely happy. She gave a Tom a grateful smile. He wasn't sure if this was a huge milestone for the kid but he nodded anyway.
/
That night Bobby got there. If Tom wasn't so used to the SAS soldiers he might have considered being nervous around the obvious gang member. It took him all of two moments to find out that Bobby was one of the people Sabina's Dad was writing about. It helped that the walls in this house were extremely thin and they weren't the quietest of people. It seemed that Jerry and Angel wanted to run with their older brother. He wondered how Jack fit into this little family.
He sat next to the little boy during dinner as well. It was scary how fast Jack latched onto him. Tom couldn't understand why either. He'd ask Evelyn later. Bobby was looking at him a little weirdly as were the two other boys. Apparently, they weren't quite understanding how he'd gotten Jack to like him so fast. Halfway through the meal the phone rang and Evelyn answered it. She'd brought in the cordless from the living room so that they wouldn't have to get up. She answered it, listened, then handed it to Tom.
"Hello?" he asked around a mouthful of mashed potato.
"Where are you?"
"Alex! You're alive! Good to know. You know this Christmas wasn't one of our best. We should do a re-do when we get home. Hey, do you think-" Tom was cut off by a very angry yell.
"TOM! I'm not kidding around! Where are you?" He'd shouted his name so loud, Tom had to rip the phone away from his ear and prayed it was still functional.
"God," Tom said lowly, a little pissed. "Hang on, I'm at a social worker's house. What's your address?" As Evelyn rattled it off he relayed the message.
"Stay there," Alex responded.
"Why does everyone think I'm going somewhere?" he asked but Alex had already hung up. That was annoying. He hung up. "They're on their way." Evelyn just nodded and the meal continued. 'They' turned out to be just Alex and Wolf. When Tom opened the door for them they pushed past, and Alex swiftly closed and locked the door.
"As soon as we find Eagle and Jack, we're leaving the country," Alex whispered. Well, that didn't sound good. Deciding he really didn't want to know what happened this time Tom simply nodded. He led Alex back to the kitchen. The other boy must have been exhausted because he placed both hands on Tom's shoulders and leaned quite heavily. It looked like he was simply pushing Tom into walking but that's certainly not what it felt like.
Both of the newcomers were a little banged up and Evelyn noticed. So did her four sons.
"This is Remus and Alex," Tom said, pointedly not looking at Wolf who thankfully was trained not to blow covers. The only indication that he was annoyed by the name was a scratch to his chin.
"Hi," he said a little stiffly.
"Hello," Evelyn said. "Well, now that you're here I need you to sign some release forms. Just stating that officially he's in your custody until you leave the country."
"Of course," he said.
"Where's Sab?" Tom asked sitting back down at the table to finish his meal. Alex grabbed Evelyn's vacant seat before he could fall down.
"On a plane back to San Fran," he replied, then stole Tom's bread, who then stole Angel's.
"Any idea where the others are?" he asked. Alex shook his head.
"Not a clue," he replied. "Turns out Sab's Dad was the target. Again. Some guy heard about his article and wanted to stop it from happening."
"Who was it?" Bobby asked, the only one fully informed about the reason behind Tom's stay. Evelyn had let him in on the situation as soon as she could pry him away from the younger boys.
"I don't know," Alex responded. Tom was distracted by the conversation between Evelyn and Wolf.
"Wait, I have to be a family member?" he asked and Tom sunk down a little.
"You aren't his brother?" Evelyn asked.
"No, I'm just the unlucky son of a bitch he called," Wolf responded a tad rudely. "Tom, why would call me if you knew it had to be a family member?"
"What are you talking about dear brother 'o mine?" Tom asked sweetly.
"Stop telling people we're related!" Wolf snapped pointing at him to emphasis exactly who he was talking to.
"If you aren't his brother then who are you?" Bobby asked.
"It's a long story," Wolf said.
"We've got the time," Evelyn pushed. She crossed her arms and looked rather impressive for such a small woman.
"Well, Tom is Alex's best friend, Alex has a sister, Jack, Jack has a boyfriend, Andy, and I'm Andy's teammate."
"Teammate for what?" Jerry asked, now interested.
"Army," Wolf replied simply. "Do you have a form for custody release to a government official?"
"Yes, I do, come with me." Wolf and Evelyn left the kitchen and with them the threat to Tom's person. There was silence until Alex spoke up.
"Are you wearing a bell?" he asked.
"Yes," Tom said. "I like this bell." Alex tried to smile to show that he cared but it didn't really work.
"Rey's really mad you know," Alex said. It took a moment for Tom to figure out who Rey was.
"Not my problem," he said.
"Actually it is, you're the one who called him."
"He didn't have to come," Tom maintained. Alex gave him a look and Tom knew exactly what he meant by it. No matter how much Wolf pretended not to care or to be a heartless person they all knew he wouldn't abandon Tom to a potentially dangerous situation in a foreign country. They all knew Wolf would have come and got him, even if he hadn't been alone on Christmas, which was something only Tom knew because he was insightful like that. Tom shrugged.
"Whatever."
"You know if you're gonna tell people you're related you might want to pick someone who looks like you," Angel suddenly piped up having finished his meal and digested enough to talk but apparently not think.
"Could say the same for you," Tom said, looking pointedly at all the brothers. Angel flushed as he realized what he said. "Just because we aren't brothers in blood doesn't mean we aren't brothers in hearts."
"Don't say that around Rey, he'll kill you."
"You know what Alex, shut up, that was a profound moment right there." Alex held up his hands in surrender and tried not to laugh. "Rey!"
"What!" Wolf shouted back from what sounded like the living room.
"I love you!" When Wolf responded by not responding Alex cracked up followed quickly by Tom.
"I thought his name was Remus," Angel said, making the two laugh even harder.
/
All three ended up spending the night at Evelyn's demand after she found out that they would most likely end up sleeping in the car as all three were broke. Wolf had spent the last of his paycheck on a ticket to America. Tom didn't understand why he just didn't contact MI6 and get a free flight on a private plane, but that was just him. Alex won the poker game for the couch so Tom and Wolf were stuck on the floor.
At some point in the night they heard screaming. Tom woke up to see Alex and Wolf by the stairs looking up into the hallway above. He moved to stand by them. Almost all the lights were on.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"That little kid," Alex said. "He's having a wicked nightmare." They continued staring until Wolf put his arm out to force them away.
"Go back to sleep guys," he said lowly. Both boys complied and Wolf went up to see if there was anything he could do. Tom had never heard a nightmare like this before. Jack screamed for ten minutes straight. Either they couldn't wake him up or he was just that scared.
"Alex?"
"Yeah?"
"Are your nightmares like this?"
"No, his are worse." A sharp, signal whistle sounded from upstairs and both boys sprang up and took the stairs two at a time. The entire Mercer family plus Wolf was in Jack's bedroom. The two boys stopped at the doorway.
"Water," Wolf snapped and Alex instantly sprang back down the stairs. The Mercer brothers didn't seem to know what to do. Evelyn was doing her best but it was a terrible nightmare. She was in over her head at the point as well. They could have really used Snake right about then. "Tom, bucket, kitchen, go!" Tom took off as well. He found it under the sink and dumped out the cleaning supplies stored in it before taking off up the stairs right behind Alex. They dumped the water on the boy and this time he became aware of himself. He'd been awake for a long time but now he snapped out of it. Tom shoved the bucket under his face just he leaned over the edge of the bed and vomited. The three visitors gave up their spots to the family and went back to downstairs to their beds. It took Tom a long time to get back to sleep.
"You okay Tom?" Wolf whispered, surprising the boy. He'd thought he'd been asleep.
"Yeah," Tom whispered.
"You sure?"
"Yeah."
"Can I ask you something?"
"Yeah," Tom said a little hesitantly. What could he possibly have to say?
"Why did you call me?" Tom hesitated before he answered. He considered lying but in the end just blurted out how he felt.
"No one should be alone on Christmas," he said. "No matter how cranky they are."
/
The next day found Tom trying to forcibly keep Alex and Wolf from killing each other. They'd all put themselves on house arrest as going out onto the streets now was more trouble than it was worth and with the real target already out of the city there was no point in them hunting down a bunch of people who didn't know them. It was also a good idea to stay in one place to make it easier for Jack and Eagle to find them. Wolf had spoken with them briefly before finding Alex and they'd all agreed to lay low for a day then meet up. They hadn't been able to get a hold of them again but all that meant was the mobile's battery was dead, like Alex's. Thankfully Wolf had remembered his charger so they had a line.
So with the forced inaction Wolf and Alex were climbing the walls and getting on each other's last nerve much to everyone else's amusement. Little Jack was even more subdued than normal but it was to be expected. Bobby had a surprisingly strong protective streak in him and Jack wasn't out of his sight very often that day. Tom couldn't even begin to contemplate what that little boy had gone through to have a nightmare like that.
The Mercers went out that night for dinner. It was their Boxing Day tradition. It made good bye a lot less sticky as twenty minutes after they left Eagle called to say they needed to meet at the airport, they were leaving. Alex was already in the cab another ten minutes later but Tom had hesitated.
"C'mon kid, it's not like you even know them," Wolf said a bit harshly from the front door.
"Do you think I'll end up like Jack?" he asked randomly.
"What do you mean?" Wolf asked, his curiosity compelling him a little further inside.
"They're always telling me I'm crazy," he said quietly.
"Jack isn't crazy," Wolf snapped, interrupting. "He's broken and you're not." They left after that. Many hours, thousands of holiday travelers, and a car ride later they were home. Finally. Tom was exhausted but despite what anyone thought it had been a pretty awesome, insanity filled Christmas holiday.