James' last day

Another cherub 1shot on a missing moment in the CHERUB books I wrote this trying to get past a writer's block so hope it is good.

James stirred groggily in his bed on CHERUB campus and was in no mood to get up. He was too tired. He rolled over and tried to get back to sleep but knew deep in his heart he knew it was useless.

Fifteen minutes later he groaned and decided he had better get up, or all of his friends would kill him. So despite his body begging him to stay under the covers he got up rubbing his eyes. He went into his bathroom and took a leisurely shower.

After a shave and cleaning his teeth he walked back into his room dressed in boxers and socks. He looked around his room. There were boxes and boxes of stuff piled everywhere. His chest of draws and wardrobe were empty, and his room was the cleanest he could remember it being in nearly two years. James sighed sadly; today he was leaving CHERUB campus as an agent forever! After thirteen missions (including the one he went on at the start of the killing) and five years he was leaving. He grabbed the clothes he had left out and dressed quickly. He picked buckled a watch to his wrist and then headed out.

As he left his room he saw his best mate Bruce Norris heading into a lift. "Hey Brucey boy wait up". He jogged into the life which Bruce was leaving open and then the doors closed and the lift headed down.

Bruce looked at him for a second and then spoke "hey James you ok"? James nodded slowly. Bruce smiled "look mate I know what you have to do today and it will be hard, but I am here for you, so is Kerry, Gab, Lauren and all the rest of us."

James smiled at his friend. "Cheers mate it is hard and right now I want some breakfast". Bruce smiled. Then James said "speaking of Kerry where is she now"?

Bruce just smiled again. "Canteen mate they are all down there, I was meant to get you but I was gonna see if you were already down there first". James grinned at his best mate and then the lift opened and they stepped out and to the canteen.

James walked in and saw all his friends sitting at a table along with his sister, Rat and his mates Andy, Jake, Kevin and Dante. They were talking and looked completely normal. James felt a bit sad. Had they forgotten that he was leaving today?

Then Kerry saw him and her face broke in to a smile. She got up walked over to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Hey James listen as it is your last day today lessons are all called off why don't we go have some fun paintballing".

James smiled he loved paintballing. He kissed her and said "yeah sounds good" and then went to get some breakfast.

He sat down with all his friends and they all greeted him. James was happy that nearly everyone was there; Kerry, Bruce, Gab, Callum, Conner, Shakeel, Mo Lauren and he was even happy to see Bethany. "Hey guys". Then he realised somebody was not there and it was Kyle. Even though he had not expected him to be there he was still sad that he was not.

After breakfast James and his friends went down to paintballing. They split into two teams

Team 1

James

Bruce

Shakeel

Gab

Mo

Team 2

Kerry

Callum

Conner

Lauren

Bethany

They decided to play capture the flag. Each team went to one end of the paint ball zone and a blast from the air horn signalled the start of the game.

James sprinted through the trees and plants with Bruce and Mo next to him. He was glad the ground was hard or this game would be impossible. He ran to the left and slid down an embankment and knelt by the trunk of a thick tree. He had decided he would stay back and defend with Gabrielle and Mo while Bruce who was the fastest would get the flag, and Shakeel as the biggest would defend him.

He slowly crept forward and heard shots in the distance. He dived for cover and felt a paintball wiz over his head. He turned and saw Lauren and Kerry shooting at him. He raised his gun and shot them aiming at their Goggles. The balls hit them on target and he ran back shooting at them. He hit Kerry in the stomach and that made her run for cover but Lauren who he completely missed started to run after him.

James sprinted back through the forest plants whipping him and dodging between trees. Paintballs flew over his head from Laurens random blasting. He sprinted downhill and ran into a clearing and ran straight into the back of Callum (or Conner) and knocked him over. He jumped up and felt three paint balls hit him. Two in the back and one in the leg. He saw the other twin aiming his gun and saw Lauren firing again. He saw the twin he knocked over getting up and he realised it was Callum. The twins were amazing shots and teamed with Lauren there was only one result; pain! Not standing any longer he shot Lauren quickly and sprinted off.

James started to run to the back of the trees and soon heard Lauren and the twins running after him. He now cursed the hard ground because the twins were good cross country runners and would catch him easily if he just ran. So he started to sprint off through the trees alternating paths all the time.

This slowed the twins down but running through the trees James forgot an important thing; Roots! He got his foot caught in a large one and fell. Dropping his gun in the process. He quickly scrabbled up but got shot three times in the ankle. That caught him off balance and he fell forward not picking up his gun and rolled forward a few feet. He got up again but it was in vain because he then felt a shot in the back of his head and then another and another and he lost focus in his vision and he tumbled forward and collapsed into a tree. He knew this was it; he was in for severe pain!

His vision came back focused and saw the twins pointing guns at him. He guessed Lauren had fallen behind. The twins smiled James had no defences and his gun was several feet behind them and Lauren was not far behind. They aimed their guns at him. James closed his eyes and waited.

He heard shots then he heard screams. Both from the twins. He opened his eyes and saw the twins getting shot with millions of paintballs and soon there backs were a mass of paint and they sprinted off. James saw three people in front. He knew they were Bruce Shakeel and Mo. They helped him up and Mo chucked him his gun. "Cheers guys how did you find me"?

Bruce smiled (although you couldn't see it under his mask) "we got the flag and realised you were missing, so we left Gab to guard the base and went to find you, when we saw Kerry and shot her until she told us Lauren was after you, then we saw her and the twins and you in the distance, when Lauren got left behind we let Mo deal with her and well you know the rest".

James smiled and high fived them all "c'mon we need to go help Gab" they all nodded and sprinted back.

James' team ended up winning with four captures to one. It had all ended with Lauren with the flag and the whole team shooting her to pieces and Gab getting an easy capture.

James left his room after his shower and saw Kerry's door was open. He walked over to it and saw she was sobbing quietly. He walked over to her and gently touched her shoulder "hey Kerry what's wrong"?

She looked up with tears sliding down her face and threw her arms around him. She sobbed into his shoulder. James hugged her gently and let her cry saying nothing.

Eventually she calmed down and looked at him "James what the hell do you think is wrong? You're leaving today to go to America and we won't see each other until Christmas and then I might not get accepted into Stanford and if I don't we won't see each other for months at a time and when we do it will be for really short time periods and I don't think that would work and I really don't want to lose you". She clung onto him and buried her head in his chest.

James was touched that she cared so much "look Kerry I know this is going to be hard but you get some of the best marks on campus and will defiantly get into Stanford and this will work out and if it does not we will always be friends".

Kerry looked at him and smiled "yeah James like you said once nothing should get in the way of that". She pulled his head down and kissed him on the lips with all the passion she could muster, when it broke she started pulling him down to the canteen "come on James one last meal on campus and I know we have something that will make you happy". James just smiled and let her pull him downstairs.

When James got to the canteen all his friends were waiting for him and he sat down next to Kerry. Then he felt two hands cover his eyes and heard a voice he would recognise anywhere "guess who mate"?

James turned around batting the hands away from his eyes and saw his best friend in the world; Kyle Blueman. James broke out in a huge grin "Kyle mate where you been man". He hugged his best friend and slapped him on the back.

Kyle smiled "well I sure as hell was not going to say goodbye to my best mate before he went to America, although now you're leaving Kerry again do you think I could convince her I am straight"?

James punched him playfully "shut up Kyle now sit your ass down and have some dinner". Kyle smiled and sat next to him and pulled Bruce's untouched plate towards him.

"OI" yelled Bruce "get your own plate asshole" he yelled with a smile on his face and bumped fists with him "how you been man I ain't seen you since Christmas"?

Kyle smiled "been alright uni is a pain but I get by". Everyone nodded and started to eat. Then Kyle turned to Bruce again "hey Bruce I heard you shagged little Bethany Parker" he said in a low voice.

Bruce turned red "if you so much as mention that again you will wake up with one of my business cards with Bruce Norris kicked your ass printed on them, while the doctors mend every bone in your body and try to pull your dick out of your but".

Everyone laughed Kyle never failed a wind up. "Jesus Bruce calm down just joking" said Kyle.

Bruce smiled threateningly "you better be" and he returned to his plate. Dinner went much the same way and after a cake baked by the Campus chef James returned to his room to see Campus security moving all his stuff downstairs into a truck.

James knew they would check all his stuff onto a plane and another team in America would unload it all and would take it to his room at Stanford.

As he walked down to reception to hand his key into reception, he heard a shriek and a small blonde haired boy ran to him and threw his arms round his waist begging to be picked up. It was his five year old godson Joshua Asker.

"James, James, James" he said excited but his voice was shaky and James realised Joshua was crying. He bent down picked him up and looked him in the eye.

"Hey cool guy what's up" he asked

Joshua looked at him tears in his eyes "James why are you leaving today don't you like it here anymore".

James shook his head and laughed "no mate I am too old for this place I need to leave buddy but you will see me again okay, I am not gonna just leave and not see you again, now come on Joshua give me the smile I know you have".

Joshua assured by his words smiled at him.

"Ok mate now I have to go now but you mummy daddy Tiff and Jonah can come wave me off".

Joshua nodded and they walked outside. He saw that everyone was there; Kerry, Kyle, Bruce, Gab, Conner, Callum, Shakeel, Mo, Lauren, Rat, Andy, Bethany, Kevin, Jake, Dante, Zara, Ewart, Tiffany, Jonah, John, Meryl and even Mac.

James said goodbye to everyone he shook hands with John, Ewart and Mac. He hugged Bethany, Zara, Tiffany and Jonah. Then he turned to his mates; Shakeel, Conner, Callum and Mo. "guys we may have not always been as close as we may have wanted to be but we all did basic training together, even though Callum got injured and you helped me through it, and if you had not done that and been the best mates anyone could ask for I would not be here, and I thank you for that". Then they bumped fists and slapped each other's backs.

Then he turned to Gab. "Gab we may not have been especially close when we were younger but after you got stabbed I was so scared, like I would have been if Lauren got stabbed. It was then that I realised I loved you like a sister and I still remember the time we kicked those guys asses in the bowling alley".

Gabrielle laughed at that and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek "James you are like my brother as well but if you break Kerry's heart again we are gonna have a little sibling rivalry". James burst out laughing and hugged her back.

Then he faced Bruce "Bruce when I first saw you in the dojo on the day I was recruited and you kicked my arse I hated you for it but then after you apologised on my first day we became mates and even though we only did one mission and a training exercise together I think we were good partners".

Bruce laughed "I agree James and I loved that mission we went on –he started whispering-I especially loved the part when you shagged Lois and I got to wind you up about it". James stifled a laugh and punched him on the arm.

He then took a deep breath and turned to Kyle "Kyle I have you to thank for everything that has happened in the last five years, if you had not had a recruitment mission in that crummy council house, I would never have come here and met everyone I see here today, we had two missions and many training exercises together and that brought us closer, Kyle I love you mate thank you". Then he hugged him and Kyle thumped him on the back.

"I love you too mate now speak to Kerry she's getting anxious".

James turned to his girlfriend took a deep breath and spoke "Kerry ever since that first day of basic training I loved you. I may not have realised it but I did. And cheating on you with Becky and Dana were the worst mistakes of my life and I was lucky for you to trust me enough to let me go out with you again, I know you're worried about this working out but it will. I promise I will not look at another girl this year and I will always love you like I always have, even though I abused your trust and took your love for granted, and I promise never ever to do that again".

Kerry looked at him with tears in her eyes and she snogged him with all the passion she could muster and spoke "I believe you James and I love you too and you had better e-mail me soon".

James smiled kissed her and nodded said another quick goodbye to everyone else and got in the back of the taxi taking him to the airport. He waved out of the back window and laughed as Joshua ran after him only to be picked up by Ewart.

James sat back down and thought as he drove out of the campus gate. He knew that whatever he did for the rest of his life nothing absolutely nothing would be as good as the five years he had just had. As he drove on looking at the lights of passing cars, he knew the missions would never stop. His next mission was university. Then he knew he had the biggest mission of all; the rest of his life.

He thought about the ideal way that would turn out; Marry Kerry, have a few kids, teach maths somewhere like at a university, live in the city or the country make a decent wage and live a normal life.

James knew it sounded soft but that was all he needed to perform the mission well.

THE END

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