Title: Official Secrets

Author: SweetlyDesolated

Category: Alex Rider; one-shot

Warnings: Mentions of violence and body harm

Disclaimer: I don't own Alex Rider and Co., no matter how much I beg.

Claimer: Ruska Slaton is mine.

Summary: Ruska never imagined starting a job as a nurse in St. Dominic's would bring certain secrets into the light.

The thick packet of paper slid before her. "If you would, please sign and initial on all of the flagged areas." The man settled back in his chair and Ruska sighed. She glanced down, and was very surprised. Her expression must have shown as the man, her soon-to-be boss, explained, "You can't work here without signing those secrecy forms."

Ruska nodded and picked up the pen. This was the last form between her and working at St. Dominic's, the prestigious hospital she had wanted to work for once the idea caught in her mind in her early teenage years. The packet of paper was thicker than it looked, as it was multiple forms with carbon copies underneath. Ruska guessed they would be filed away somewhere different, if she needed to sign the Official Secrets Act of the Government in order to work at a hospital.

The pages slipped by, and Ruska sat back in her chair with a pleased grin. The man smiled back at her and shuffled the act together in a neat pile, opened a drawer in his desk, set them inside, and locked it tight. He stood and walked around the desk, holding his hand out to her. "Congratulations, Ms. Ruska Slaton, you are now officially an employee of St. Dominic's Hospital for Government Agency Workers."

Ruska stood and shook the man's hand. The name was a little surprising, but she could understand the secrecy behind it. "I'll have someone show you the ropes. With the amount of chaos around, I'm sure you'll be acquainted with everything and everybody in no time.

"Thank you, Mr. Roshville, for this opportunity," she said as he led her from his office. She was gestured to precede the man down the hallway and sounds amplified as she approached the main center of the hospital. Ruska entered the room with a grin. This was her future, and it was something she was proud of.

The next few months passed quickly as Ruska acclimated to her new work hours and the secrecy involved. If someone neat, such as a person high up in the government, came into the hospital, she was unable to tell her family she had treated him or her, instead saving the thrill for herself and new nurse friends to enjoy.

A few nights previous had been an excitement, as one of the high-ups in MI6, the Special Operatives, had been admitted for torture wounds. Now, three days later, Ruska was being assigned to check and redress his wounds if the agent was to be checked out that day. His doctor had already signed the discharge papers, but his wounds needed to be looked over once more. She was a bit puzzled, as three days seemed a short time to be held for treatment, but Ruska dutifully gathered the charts.

The name caught her attention – A. Rider – and the agent's age – twenty-three – her age. She remembered a teen at her old school, a young Rider who had been absent a lot and came back to class with wounds of all sorts. Was this the same A. Rider?

Ruska smiled at her folly. Of course it wasn't the same. Alex Rider, trouble maker, had shaped up between their fifteenth and sixteenth years. No more disappearances and long absences, though Ruska briefly remembered him becoming emancipated after his guardian died in a car crash.

She chased her memories away and gathered the materials needed from one nurse cart of many stationed through the hallways. She followed the ascending numbers until she found the room, 9, matching up to the one on her chart. With a polite knock to the door frame, Ruska entered the room with a bright smile. The figure on the bed smiled wearily back as his conversation with two buff men in military fatigues broke off their speech.

Her happy smile disappeared as she truly assessed who this person laying on the bed was. Ruska steadied herself against the door frame as the thought zoomed through her mind. It is him; it is Alex Rider!

Gathering herself, Ruska entered the room. According to her, Alex and the men never noticed her falter. "It's good to see you again, Alex, though certainly not under these circumstances," Ruska commented once she had helped her sometimes-friend to sit up so she could redress his back. The two men had continued their conversation in the hall when they saw the nurse was there to treat the young man.

"Excuse me, but who are you?" Alex asked her.

Ruska smiled. "I'm Ruska Slaton; we went to school together." Her eye brows rose as she assessed the slash marks along his back. A few were deep, though stitched together well, but Ruska was surprised all the same that he was getting checked out. She set aside the blood-stained bandages and opened the gentle cleaning salve. With a steady hand, she smeared the paste over the wounds. The antiseptic scent irked her nose, though Ruska ignored it as all of the wounds along Alex's well-muscled back (hey, she could still admit he had a nice body even under the torture marks) were covered.

Alex made no sound as his wounds were treated. He was a little surprised that Ruska Slaton, a girl he had been somewhat friends with in school, was now a nurse at the hospital of secrets. Her hands were steady against his back as the slashes were disinfected and tightly wrapped with bandages that were secured across his chest.

Ruska helped her patient to lay back on the bed. Alex's features relaxed as the numbing properties in the paste set to work, erasing the itching and pain from the gashes. "I never thought I'd see you again," Alex commented as Ruska gathered her materials.

She smiled over at him. "So I take it you're an official secret?"

Alex nodded. "I have been for a while now."

"I'll just complete your papers and you'll be free to go," Ruska said, suddenly serious as the men entered the room again.

Alex smirked his thanks as the soldiers helped him out of the bed and ushered him into the bathroom to clothe in civilian wear rather than hospital garb. The pile of papers attached to the clip board at the foot of his bed was flipped through quickly; Ruska checked off various boxes and signed at the 'x' at the bottom, displaying that the patient had been looked over and could legally leave.

On a separate piece of paper, Ruska wrote:

Here's my number if you ever need to talk.

After all, you're an Official Secret. I'm privy to those Secrets now.

Ruska Slaton

With one last glance to the men standing outside the bathroom, Ruska left the slip on the rumpled bedspread and left the room.

Yeah, I really have no idea what goes on in hospitals. The only time I was really there was for birth and treatment for my condition which was after I was born. My brother visits the ER yearly, but I never go. If anyone has any corrections, please leave them in a NICE review :)

Thanks for reading!

~Deso