Authors Note: I must admit to you all, this one was fun yet also really hard to write. One of the greatest mysteries in the books is what happened to Mrs. Jones's family. We know she was married and at some point had two boys but no one knows for sure what happened to them. This is what I think occurred. This is set before the Alex Rider books of course. Enjoy! Read and Review please.
The sound of the front door busting in woke Mrs. Jones from her slumber. It took her half a minute to process the sound, but once she did she silently sat up and grabbed the MI6 issued gun from under her pillow. Grateful that she had worn a casual pair of sweats to sleep in that night instead of a nightgown she shoved her feet into a pair of sneakers that were lying next to her nightstand.
She leaned over and gently shook her husband of five years awake. She slapped a hand over his mouth when he went to say something. "Someone is in the house," She whispered.
His eyes widened but he did not say anything when she carefully removed her hand. Instead he sat up and grabbed his glasses from her when she passed them over. Their hands touched and he stared into her eyes. "Are they from your job?" He whispered.
Mrs. Jones winced. "I don't know." She did in fact know. Only last week she was in the field busting up a new ring of human traffickers. Something went wrong and a few got away, but the deputy head, a Mr. Alan Blunt told her it would be taken care of.
Her husband studied her and sighed. "Tulip, we have talked about this. You have to stop lying to me."
"I'm not." Mrs. Jones said weakly, knowing he did not believe her. "Look, we will talk about this later-"
"Come out where ever you are you b***h!" An angry voice shouted from downstairs.
Mrs. Jones stood up. "I've got to go. Stay with the kids." She began to leave to room.
A hand grabbed her wrist, stopping her. "No, Tulip! I've got a bad feeling. Let's just grab the kids and leave. We can call the police later, when we are all safe."
"Robert, I can't," Mrs. Jones said softly. "I have got to stop him. I can stop him. If he gets away tonight, weeks of work will be wasted. This is my job."
Her husband stared at her with wide eyes as if seeing her for the first time. "So you care more about your job then your family?"
Her own eyes widened with hurt, "Robert, what?"
Robert took a deep breath and cupped her chin gently. "Nothing, flower. I'm sorry. Go stop him. I'll stay with the kids. Be safe. "
Mrs. Jones nodded and silently opened the bedroom door with her husband following. She headed right towards the staircase and he headed left towards the boy's room. He gave her a nod of encouragement before he went in.
Taking a deep breath, Mrs. Jones headed down the stairs with her gun out and ready. Her ears were straining to hear any sound and her own heartbeat echoed in her head.
At the bottom of the stairs she looked around carefully. Her cheerful living room greeted her, covered in family pictures of herself, Robert, and their two boys, Luke and David.
After checking that the room was clear she continued on to the kitchen, noting the absence of one of her knives from the knife block. After glancing at the crayon drawings on the fridge, she stepped out of the kitchen to the dining room.
As soon as she crossed the doorway into the dark room, a hard hit to her head took her by surprise and everything went black.
…..
Mrs. Jones groaned as she woke up, ungluing her sticky eyelids from each other as they strained to adjust to the dim lighting. The ringing in her ears faded and she noted the dried blood suck to the left side of her face from a gash in her forehead. She was sitting in a metal chair bolted to a cement floor with her arms handcuffed behind her and her ankles tied with wire to the chair legs.
She glanced up and her eyes widened. "Robert!" Her husband was tied up in front of her, hanging from a hook in the celling by his wrists. He was beaten, bruises very visible against his pale skin. A crude gag made from a bandana was in his mouth, barbed wire connecting his bloody ankles.
He seemed to be dead, but he raised his head a bit to look at her when she called. Mrs. Jones almost gasped at the look of anger in his eyes that was directed at her.
Footsteps echoed behind her and a man appeared. He was tall and muscular, dressed in a black suit with a red tie. His dark hair matched his dark, soul-less eyes. "Ah, Mrs. Jones, you're awake. Took you long enough."
"Let him go." Mrs. Jones demanded. "He has nothing to do with this. It is me you want."
The man chuckled. "How noble of you. Actually it's both of you I want."
"Who are you?" Mrs. Jones asked. "Why are you doing this?"
The man laughed. "I'm Mr. Collins. Why am I doing this you ask? Well Mrs. Jones, you have been a very naughty agent lately, taking down my ring like that."
"You're the head of the human trafficking ring aren't you?" Mrs. Jones whispered. "One of the ones that got away last week."
"Why yes, of course." The man chuckled again. "And I must tell you that MI6's recent involvement has cost me more than half of this months assets. That makes me mad."
"I'm sorry about your business, but what does that have to do with me and my family?"
"I think you know, but I will spell it out for you regardless. You were the head agent on my case. Since you have released half of my property, you and your family will be helping to make up for the lost items."
"They're not items, they're people!" Mrs. Jones yelled furiously. The man glared and harshly backhanded her, making her head snap back and the room spin.
Instead of looking at him, Mrs. Jones looked around. They were in the back room of a warehouse, one that was probably abandoned years ago. The metal walls were rusty and had mysterious stains on them. The windows in the air were all broken, and cold England air rushed in to greet them.
"Where are my sons?" Mrs. Jones asked fearfully. When the man smiled creepily she asked another question. "What have you done with them you monster."
The man began pacing, taunting her with his smile. "Now of course you and your hubbie are going to be sold, but well, me and my boys here, we decided that your two kiddos would make up the loss of profit another way."
"You mean-"
"Yes. Bring in the little whores Mike!" Mr. Collins yelled to someone behind her.
Footstep faded off into the distance before returning with two more sets. Another man appeared in Mrs. Jones's line of sight, short and fat with a satisfied expression leading two half naked figures towards Mrs. Jones. "Luke! David!" Mrs. Jones shouted.
"Mommy?" The littlest figure asked. He stumbled, falling on the floor.
"Baby! Are you two okay?"
The littlest began to cry. "My tummy hurts mommy. I don't like it here. I want to go home."
"It's okay Luke. Mom and Dad will get us out of here." The oldest said confidently. He was fourteen, with deep brown eyes and chocolate hair that fell over his forehead in curls. His own eyes were red rimmed and dried tear tracks cut into the grime on his cheeks.
"I'm just going to leave you all to talk for a minute." Mr. Collins said before he walked away with Mike following.
"I am so sorry. So, so sorry." Mrs. Jones whimpered, eyeing her sons and her husband.
"It's okay Mommy." Luke said. "Don't cry." Mrs. Jones gave him a weak smile.
"At least were together." David said sadly, smiling at his dad who nodded at him, even though the motion made him wince.
"What happened?" Mrs. Jones asked.
David winced and let out a half hidden sob. "I don't want to talk about it. I never want to talk about it."
They sat in silence for a minute, enjoying what could easily be their last minutes together as a family.
Suddenly gunshots echoed through the warehouse, followed by a very faint call of "SAS, everyone down on the floor!"
"Were going to be saved!" David whispered excitedly.
"No your not." Mr. Collins stated angrily, entering the room and stalking towards the family with Mike to his right and another mysterious man to his left. The kitchen knife was gripped in his hands. The gunshots got closer as Mr. Collins approached.
"What are you doing?" Mrs. Jones asked as the man grabbed David. "Let him go! What are you doing?"
The man laughed. "What I should have done earlier after I was done with the slut!"
"No!" Mrs. Jones screamed as the man sliced the blade through her sons throat. "No! No! No!"
Mr. Collins dropped the body and Mike grabbed Luke, who was weakly struggling and crying at the same time. He handed the boy to Mr. Collins who repeated the move right before the SAS team shot him and his partners dead.
"No! No, no, no, no, no! Those are my babies! Please, God, please no. Don't take them!"
The four man SAS unit moved in. "Ma'am I need you to calm down." One said softly.
"No! No!" Mrs. Jones sobbed, throwing herself towards her sons as soon as another man had gotten her untied. In a minute her husband was next to her sobbing as he cradled David towards his chest.
The next few hours passed in a blur, but when Mrs. Jones was next aware of her surroundings, she was lying in a hospital bed surrounded by steadily beeping machines. The sun was setting, casting red light across the room. She looked to the chair at her right and saw Robert sobbing silently to himself. She reached over to grab his hand but he pulled it away before she could.
"I can't do this anymore Tulip. I just can't."
"Robert, what? What do you mean?" Her voice was scratchy and dry. He handed her a glass of ice chips and pressed the call button to summon a nurse.
He let out another heart breaking sob, before trying to steel himself for something. "Tulip, we're done. I can't take this anymore. None of this would have happened if you had just listened to me in the first place."
"Oh." She knew that she should have felt something then, sadness, anger, but she didn't. Instead she just felt numb.
He glared at her, making her breath stop. Robert had never looked at her like that before. "I went to the bedroom to get the kids. A man was there. If you were there with me we could have taken him out and left with the kids, but you weren't. You were more focused on your job then your family and I don't even know you anymore. The man tied me up and got a buddy into the room with him. I had to watch as the two bastards took advantage of our kids, as they screamed and cried. I could do nothing. Where were you?"
Mrs. Jones wanted to say something, anything to make it better, but she had nothing left to say. "I'm sorry." She said at last.
"You're always sorry." Robert said bitterly.
"Doesn't mean it's not true." Mrs. Jones said weakly.
"Doesn't change anything either."
"No, I suppose not." Mrs. Jones eyed him sadly as he kissed her one last time. "Goodbye Robert."
"Goodbye Tulip. I'll send you the divorce papers tomorrow." Her now soon to be ex-husband turned to go.
Tulip sat there in silence before speaking again, making him turn back. "Robert, I don't want to get divorced. I want to be Mrs. Jones forever. I want us to still be together. Please don't walk out that door. Let me fix this."
He smiled sadly. "Not everything can be fixed Tulip."
"Please, you're all I have left. Don't leave."
He smiled sadly. "Keep the name Tulip, but I'm leaving." He walked away, his footsteps echoing down the hospital hall.
A nurse hurried in, beginning to check her vitals and ask her questions. Mrs. Jones just lay there, feeling numb and listening to the hospital equipment beat steadily around her.
A few minutes later of just staring through her window, reveling in her inner pain more footsteps entered into her room. She slowly looked over to see Alan Blunt standing in her doorway.
"Emotion is weakness Mrs. Jones." He stated, his eyes giving away nothing, not a hint of sympathy in his body.
"Yes. It is." Mrs. Jones agreed blankly. "Why are you here Mr. Blunt?"
"Please, call me Alan. After all, we're going to be working together."
"Excuse me?"
"I've been sent here to congratulate you on your promotion. As of two hours ago you are now deputy head of MI6, serving only under me and the Queen of England herself."
Mrs. Jones blinked, processing the information. "I don't understand, you are the deputy head Mr. Blunt."
He cleared his throat. "Former deputy head. Blackwell had an accident and I am now the head of MI6. I have picked you as my deputy."
"Very well then." Mrs. Jones said, turning back to her window and watching the sun go down.
"I shall see you on work Monday Mrs. Jones." With that the man turned and left, his departure silent as death.
"Until then Alan."
So, how did you like it? Let me know!