During my research for this chapter I google-mapped the distance from my flat to MI5's HQ and freaked out because it's a fifteen minute walk away. I feel like being in such close vicinity to national security means I have to delete my internet history ahahahaha. Now come at me bro.
Also, before you read this I have to point out that there is a typo in DB that makes a massive difference to the story hahaha. Lily had Eva at 27, NOT 21!
It's been such a crazy long time since I've written for Alpha so I hope I do them justice!
~ 4 years ago ~
Alex Craig almost spilt coffee down himself when he read the name of the criminal he was to interview that morning. Stamped across a file containing a thick wad of papers, in black shiny ink, was the name of a man he never thought he would see again. The blonde put down his flask and picked up the file to look closer at the name as though he were accusing his eyes of playing a trick on him. As he squinted to see the name, something crossed past the light that flooded into his office from the hallway and caught his attention. He looked up for a brief second to see his secretary, Claire, walk past with a cheery wave. He smiled at her softly before placing the file back down on his desk.
"Ugh," Alex grunted and put his head in his hands before pulling at his hair, hoping that the pain would wake him up a little more than the coffee had. He was still tired from the long hours spent in his office the day before, overseeing the security measures taken for the London Marathon. It was boring and uninteresting work but nowadays any public event in London went on as though taking place in a 'Big Brother'-like state. Eyes and ears everywhere, looking out for any sign that something could go wrong. And under Alex's sharp gaze, nothing ever seemed to. London was safe.
Glancing around his office, which he was still getting used to after only six months of starting work here, he frowned with unease. This place was so different to anything he was used to. He hated the indoors and he hated the view. From his window he could spy the City of London; huge concrete buildings towering over one another as though competing to block out the sun. London was suffocating under its own weight and bursting at the seams with commuters and bankers and models and criminals…the list went on, there were just too many people. Alex had entered London bright eyed and full of enthusiasm for his new work, but the city seemed grey to him, lifeless and isolated from oxygen. He longed to be somewhere he could breathe. Back out in the greenery and fresh air. But no, Alex sighed as he turned on his laptop, he was here, keeping the city safe.
The jarring sound of a mobile phone buzzing against glass caught his attention and he glanced to his right to see his phone lighting up with the promise of a text message. With a small smile, Alex unlocked his phone and read the message:
You know when you were little and your parents would say: 'if everyone jumped off a bridge, would you jump off the bridge?'
His smile broadened a little and he typed his reply: Yes. ?
It sounds like the premise to an M. Night. Shyamalan movie. The bridge where everyone goes to die.
Alex laughed as his fingers rapped on his phone quickly: Plot twist: the bridge is actually a portal that everyone takes to secretly avoid the impending doom of an apocalypse.
Oooooh, so if you don't jump you're actually condemning yourself to a gruesome death? An instance in which we can never know the true value of our decisions until they're made. That's some Philosophical shit right there. I like it.
Alex relaxed back into his chair and replied: I like you.
I like dinner.
With a glance at the clock, he knew he had only a few minutes before he had to go down to the bunker for interviews. He needed to say goodbye quickly so asked: 7PM at Arts? His heart skipped a beat for a moment as she did not reply straight away. Eventually the phone buzzed again:
Ok, now I love you.
He sighed with relief and, as his fingers hovered above the keyboard lit up on the small screen, his eyes flicked to the files on his desk as he debated telling her what he was about to do. In the end he decided that what she didn't know couldn't hurt her. He left her with: I love you too.
MI5 has a series of underground bunkers dotted all over London. Some speculate that they interconnect via tunnels built during the second world war, almost like a private tube service. And some people are idiots, according to Alex who took no pleasure descending the steps into the bunker that lay somewhere beneath the Tate. Coffee flask still in hand, shaking blonde hair out of his eyes, Alex attempted to read the file he had been too tired to read earlier. With an Information Security Manager in front of him, relaying all the information in the file anyway, Alex had no need to open the file but wanted to be thorough. As they entered the bunker, Alex's vision of the file was compromised as a shadow fell onto the papers. He glanced behind him to see Wane, a Security Officer, who was broader and taller than Alex, stood behind him and waiting to open the door to the cell for Alex to enter.
"Alright, Alex?" Wane asked in his usual, gruff voice. The blonde, who felt somewhat intimidated by his colleague's massive physique, moved out of the way to let hi, unlock the cell.
"Yeah. You?" Usually Alex would speak a little longer to Wane but, the taller man noticed, there was something strange in the blonde's demeanour. It is why he had asked in the first place; Alex kept adjusting the cuff of his shirt beneath his jacket and running his hand through his hair with the look of someone who were in a hurry. Wane grunted a response but Alex was barely paying attention.
He put down his coffee outside the room and entered the cell. It was a small room with vinyl flooring from the seventies and horrible white lights that seemed to hum. In the middle of the room was a table and two chairs, nothing else. The only thing that gave away the true function of the room was the man sat one one side of the table; his plastic chair was nailed to the floor and his hands cuffed to the table in front of him. As Alex approached the table, he threw the files onto the desk and sat in front of the man who didn't even flinch. Alex took his seat and proceeded to open the file and rummage through it in silence.
The man watched him with obvious disinterest, sucking on his teeth and lounging in his chair as though his situation did not bother him. His skin was dark and cracking like the earth of a rocky desert. With the look of someone who hadn't eaten in weeks and lost a lot of weight very quickly, his orange overalls seemed to swallow what little there was left of him as they hung off his bones. His hair was smoothed back and tied into a small bun at the nape of his neck, revealing his true colours with the 'three dot' tattoo just beneath the bun, confirming his affection for the Holy Trinity and his gang.
"Hector Ramos," Alex said and saw the man finally react to something; he had winced upon hearing his name spoken with the harsh 'r' of a British accent. "I trust you know why you are here?" The man opposite Alex clasped his hands together on the table and leant forward as though about to have a pleasant conversation.
"Sin." He spoke the word as though he had never spoken before; his voice seemed to rattle around in his throat and come out as a guttural sound.
"Yes," Alex nodded. SIN, or Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional, was the National Intelligence Service of Peru. Was. A spotlight shone on the organisation a month ago to reveal scandals and kidnappings and drug trafficking coverups. The agency was disbanded and criminals with a UK affiliation were sent to London to be rehoused. "You are going to serve out the rest of your sentence in Rikers Island, New York." The man shrugged and scratched at his dry skin, Alex watched in distaste as dead flakes of skin were caught under the man's nails and dragged off his arm. A few moments of silence passed as Alex signed off on Ramos' papers, before he looked up.
"Do you know me?" The question seemed to catch the criminal's attention. He looked at Alex with wide eyes, full of surprise, before shrugging his shoulders.
"Does it matter?"
"Let me rephrase; do you remember me?" There was something in the sharp, authoritative way that the young man asked the question, that made Ramos smile. He took in the blonde hair, hard grey eyes, that cold look of disgust and almost laughed to himself.
"I do." Ramos answered Alex with a little more respect.
"You have a daughter."
"She doesn't want to know me." The man responded but was secretly curious; had she kept contact with this boy after all these years?
"Lily Vargas." As Alex spoke, Ramos laughed.
"She took her mother's name then?" The government agent leant back in his chair and appraised the ex-drug lord for a moment.
"I'm going to ask her to marry me." Alex was met with a stunned silence. "I wanted your blessing."
"Usually you ask for the blessing of a man you respect." Ramos muttered.
"Call me old fashioned, but you are still her father."
"You want me to allow one of the kids who destroyed my empire, to join with my daughter under the eyes of God?" His voice turned to a dangerous whisper, his index finger tapped on the table as though trying to pin down Alex's point.
"Yes." The blonde answered confidently. Ramos shook his head in disappointment.
"I don't know what she sees in you." It was not that Alex's ego was hurt, nor did he care much for Ramos' remark, what shocked Alex was the fact that the man spoke as though he truly knew his daughter. "She is like her father; she takes risks and plays out her life as though every moment were her last." The Peruvian gestured to Alex with a frown; "you are so safe. So boring-"
"I just need you blessing." Alex repeated. After a moment Ramos shrugged.
"Sure," he responded and, as Alex stood to leave he added: "I'll be surprised if she says yes." The Brit left without another word, leaving Ramos in the room alone. The man pondered for a moment over his daughter, wondering where she was, what she had made of her life.
"Hello, papà." A voice called out from behind him and Ramos nearly had a heart attack. He clutched at his chest and twisted in his chair as best he could to see his daughter. Lily, now in her late twenties, approach him from a door on the opposite side of the room to which Alex had just left.
"Mija (daughter)." He gasped in shock, putting his hands up to his mouth. "You have come to see me?" Lily dressed casually in a black t-shirt and jeans, her long brown hair tied up loosely in a pony tail. She looked the same, her father noticed, just taller and more confident than she had been as a teenager. The girl took a seat opposite her father and appraised him; wondering how much of the truth she should tell him.
"No." She responded to his question. "I'm here on business." Technically true. Her father blinked away tears at a chance to see his daughter again but Lily did not budge from her hatred. She leant back in her chair, much more at ease than the British boy had been, much more in control. Suddenly, memories of the last ten minutes entered Ramos' head.
"Your friend was in here earlier." His body language changed; no longer was he straight-backed and carefree, he hunched over pitifully and wiped his nose. But Lily knew the fragile and delicate old man facade was to try and get her to pity him. It was not going to work on her. She took a deep breath and indicated to the papers she had brought in with her.
"Yes, it says so on your file." The woman picked up a single sheet of paper and removed a pen from her jeans pocket to write something down. "it also says he believes that you will be best observed in America." Lily murmured and placed a thick black line through the words Rikers Island. "I contest; South America is your home. You should stay there." Ramos smiled and clasped his hands together in gratitude.
"Mija, always coming through for me." She smiled at him a sickly, disgusted smile before shaking her head.
"Your forget of course that drug dealers have a worse fate in South American prisons than in American ones." The look of relief was wiped from her father's face. He stared at her blankly; so it had come to this? Lily said no more for there was no more to say. She was about to stand from the table when her father caught her attention:
"He is going to propose to you." Lily froze and shifted her weight to sit back down in the chair properly. She glanced to the door through which Alex had left.
"Did he ask for your blessing?" She asked, dreading the answer.
"You know him well." As her father spoke, Lily closed her eyes in frustration.
"Yes, because he is a-"
"Safe bet." Father and daughter stared at one another from across the table. Both from different worlds yet tied together by the single notion that they shared blood. So why, when her father called Alex a 'safe bet', did Lily hesitate? "You and I are more alike than you care to acknowledge." Her father commented, noticing her stony silence.
"I know what I am doing with my life." Lily said confidently. "And I am in control of yours." She stood, scooping up the files on the table. "I have seen to it that the estate goes to the Vargas' completely. That's for what you did to mamà." She walked around the table. "Other than that, everything is in order." When she was by his side, she stopped and sighed. Within a moment, Lily struck the side of her father's head with the files in her hands, causing him to cry out and cradle his skull in surprise. "That is for ruining the surprise of my engagement."
~ Present day ~
Lily Vargas has been called many things: a 'perfect student', a 'beautiful woman', a 'slick trigger-finger', a 'talented dancer' and a 'wonderful mother'. She had never been called a 'good cook'. In fact, she was a terrible cook. But following the events of the previous year, she had dedicated herself whole-heartedly to the craft and vowed to be the mother on the cosy North London street on which she lived, who made the best cookies come Christmas time. It was yet to happen, admittedly, but she was trying her best.
Right now she was looking through the dark glass of her oven as though her willpower were enough to cook the meat to perfection. Her hair, this morning placed neatly into a twisted bun, now fell askew following a few hours spent in the frenzy of her kitchen. Her cooking apron tied neatly around her waist was now stained and damp. She glanced up to the timer above the oven; it said only five minutes left but it didn't look cooked at all. Lily bit her lip.
"I don't think staring at it is a trusted cooking method." Lily looked up into the reflection of her kitchen in the glass of the oven. Her friend, Amber was sat at the kitchen table with a glass of wine, watching her with interest.
"Why do I suck at this?" Lily turned and leant back against the oven, her head hit the glass and she closed her eyes.
"You'll get better with practise." Amber encouraged her but Lily wasn't holding her breath. She was about to speak again when the kitchen door opened. A very well dressed Hex walked into the kitchen, holding a ten month old baby in one arm and his iPad tucked neatly under his other arm.
"Oooh, let me take him." Lily squealed and walked up to Hex who moved past her.
"No." He handed the baby to Amber who cooed and giggled at her son. "You said you wanted cook and Alex's parents are going to be here any minute." Lily stared at him with a bored expression; Hex had become so stern since becoming a father. He slipped his iPad out from under his arm and sat down at the table next to Amber. Lily was brought out of her sulk as Matt reached out across the table with his tiny, chubby arms and tried to grab hold of the fruit in the middle of the table. Lily smiled at him as he tried his hardest to make his tiny arm stretch the whole metre to the fruit; if only she had the same self-belief in her cooking abilities.
"And I'm starving." Amber added, reaching over to the fruit bowl and handing her son an apple. Matt looked as though he were in deep concentration as he opened his mouth wide, showing the two little front teeth he had, his drool rolling down his chin, before he attempted to bite the apple. Of course, it was useless to help him actually eat the fruit. Useless, no matter how hard he tried. Lily sighed, she had more in common with this kid than she thought.
"You guys could help a little." She muttered and handed Hex a glass of wine.
"No." Hex replied, looking at her from his iPad without moving his head, giving Lily the vision of her old headmistress looking at her over the rim of her glasses. "You said you wanted to learn. Do it yourself." Lily grimaced.
"You're going to be such hard-ass parents." She commented with a nod to the baby. Hex smiled to himself as he swiped across his screen a few times. "Here, I cut up some orange and apple for him." Without looking up, the hacker reached over and took a piece of apple to eat when Lily placed a plate in front of him.
"For your son." Amber said indignantly and batted Hex's hand away. "Thank you auntie Lily." She said to Matt as though trying to encourage him to speak but he had already become preoccupied with stuffing as much fruit into his little mouth as possible. "Have a little grace, sweetheart." As Amber spoke, Matt simply opened his mouth and let the fruit tumble out onto his shirt, after which he grinned up at his mother. Lily laughed and handed Amber a towel. For the second time, the kitchen door opened suddenly and the three adults in the kitchen looked over to the door with broad smiles.
"Hello!" Lily said brightly and held out her arms to embrace Li who walked in looking irritated.
"Lily!" She said with a faint smile. "God the flight was so awful." Li exclaimed over Lily's shoulder as they hugged.
Suddenly the kitchen was alive with a mess of noise and people. Luggage was clattering around in the hallway, coats were being thrown onto chairs and greetings were being shouted across the room. "Oh, you're a good man, Hex." Li exclaimed as she moved away from Lily and greeted him with a hug and he greeted her with a glass of wine. Li took it gratefully before moving on to baby talk with Matt who smiled up at her shyly.
"Paulo!" Lily grabbed hold of the second person who entered the kitchen in his usual lazy manner, a grin across his face, waving at Hex and Amber.
"Hey, Lil-" But Paulo stopped speaking as Lily almost choked him. She held him tightly in embrace and put her lips to his ear to speak in Spanish:
"Stay in the kitchen, do not move." She moved away from him as soon as he nodded. "Hi baby!" Lily called out to a little girl who entered the kitchen in a pretty yellow dress, the child rolled her big blue eyes and walked through the kitchen.
"Mummy, I'm very busy, I've been away from the Moon Kingdom for too long." Eva spoke harshly as she hurried along to get back to the game she was playing.
"Whatever will the Moon Kingdom do without you, Princess?" Lily called in an overly dramatic fashion. At the door to the living room, Eva turned around and, at the ripe old age of 3, was embarrassed on her mother's behalf.
"Mummy, don't be a silly billy!" She shouted, turned on her heel and walked into the living room as Alex entered the kitchen. Lilly looked at him blankly and shrugged.
"Accurate diagnosis." She said in a 'fair enough' manner. Alex, who looked extremely hassled at having chauffeured his parents, Li, Paulo and Eva from the airport, called after his daughter in annoyance
"Eva, don't speak like that to your…oh," Alex's voice faded as he looked around the kitchen, "you decided to cook?"
"Yes." Lily said with fake confidence. "It's going to be great. Now, go away." Alex walked past her to speak to Hex and Amber who had driven to his house in the time he had been gone.
"Lily!" A man as tall as Alex, the same floppy blonde hair, walked in, looking far too big for Lily's little kitchen.
"Hi Steve," Lily greeted her father-in-law with a kiss on the cheek. "How was the flight?"
"It really was as awful as Li said." Alex's mother, a sweet, small, plump woman, entered after her husband and greeted Lily with a warm smile. She pushed a lock of strawberry blond behind her ear and gave her daughter-in-law a big hug. Lily was always taken aback by how strong such a small woman was.
"Hi Lynn," Lily choked as the woman rubbed her back in affection. Eventually, Alex's parents went to greet the rest of the group, leaving Lily to survey the scene. Everyone was greeting each other with warm smiles and affection, filling up the house with their laughter.
Alex's parents had arrived back from a holiday in Italy and Alex had agreed to pick them up from Heathrow seeing as he had to pick up Li and Paulo anyway. Alpha was gathering again to go to work in a couple of days and they had agreed to meet at Alex's and travel together. Lily was set to brief them on their work after dinner and following them leaving, she was to stay at home and look after Eva and Matt. As she thought about it, her gaze dropped. It had been like this for a while now and life had fallen back into the pattern she had when she was a teenager. When she had first started dating Alex, he often left her waiting to see him for months at a time. The only difference now was that she was responsible for her daughter and Matt. A DING from the oven timer indicated the food was ready.
"Ok, everyone out!" Lily announced to the room at large and began to push everyone out of the room. They protested as they had just become comfortable but eventually they began to slink away into the living room. Paulo, who was straggling at the back of the group, found himself being yanked back into the kitchen. He turned around to see Lily looking up at him with round, fearful eyes.
"What's up?" He said soothingly. The woman glanced around nervously and spoke in Spanish just in case someone overheard.
"Paulo, my saviour, please help me!" Alarmed, Paulo took a stance as though ready to run. Lily gestured around the kitchen. "I have no idea what I'm doing!"The handsome Argentinian laughed as he realised Lily was in need of his cooking skills.
"Of course."He said smoothly in his mother tongue.
"Oh thank you, if there's anything I can do for you, just name it."As she spoke, Paulo turned to her with a smirk.
"You can teach Li that thing Alex says you're good at."Lily's lips quivered as she tried to prevent them curving into a smile.
"You got it." She leant forwards to place a kiss on Paulo's cheek. As she did, Hex came back through to the kitchen, realising he had left Matt's plate of fruit.
"Hey, I…" upon seeing Lily kiss Paulo, he seemed to change his mind about retrieving the bowl, "am going in this direction now."
Reviews appreciated :)