Alex woke the next morning, blinking the sleep from his eyes. He was awake, alert and upright in seconds. He stretched his arms above his head, feeling the uncomfortable tug of stitches at his side.
Shifting slightly, he lifted his t-shirt to examine the wound. Less than two weeks old, but healing well. A, what could be described as perfect, bullet wound. Through and through, missed anything vital and didn't even chip a bone. The perfect shot. For Alex, anyway, not so much for the shooter. Alex's return shot was much more accurate.
Alex swiftly pulled a first aid kit from under the bed, redressed his bandages, and moseyed downstairs. He flipped on the coffee pot, propping himself on the island to wait.
"Morning," Alex said without turning.
"Morning, Cub," Eagle replied without missing a beat. "Hope you've made enough enough for two."
"No actually, I was hoping that last night was just a particularly terrible nightmare. Seems hope doesn't go for much nowadays."
"Hear hear," Eagle huffed, leaning past Alex to take the now finished coffee from the stand. Eagle turned in a confused circle.
"Mugs?"
"To the left. Top shelf."
Two plain white mugs were retrieved and Alex and Eagle sat in silence. Alex took his coffee black, meanwhile Eagle searched the cabinets for sugar.
Alex discreetly studied Eagle over the rim of his brew. It had been almost three years now since Brecon Beacons, and plenty had changed. Eagle himself looked more or less the same. Same military style blond hair and pale blue eyes. Maybe a bit tanner from tours abroad.
It was more his aura that had changed. A little sadder, a little more mature. But at the same time, a little happier, a little more put together. And certainly, he acted like a whole new person now that he was out of hell. He was almost... Dare he say... Nice.
But then again, Alex had only interacted with him a few minutes, so plenty of time for his inner douche to come out.
There was a new scar on Eagles collar bone, just peaking out of his shirt. It looked pretty recent too, which matched what Jones had told him. K Unit was, apparently, fresh from their second tour in an undisclosed place. Jones had been pretty vague on what went down, but Alex figured it didn't really matter. They weren't there to swap stories and cry.
Jones had decided that with Alex's recent injuries, he shouldn't be alone in the house. It might also have to do with the bounty on his head and the assassination threat.
Anyway, with his old unit just back, what better time for a reunion?
Thanks Tulip, as always.
He was interrupted from his musing by the hollow thud of an elephant stomping down the stairs. Or more accurately, a Wolf. Closely followed by a Snake and a Fox.
The rest of the unit converged in the kitchen, helping themselves to some coffee. Fox took the seat to Alex's direct right. The man made no attempt to hide the fact that he was putting Alex under extreme scrutiny.
It hadn't been as long since they had seen each other, but they'd hardly met up recently. They had been on two missions together within the first few months of Alex's return, almost two years ago.
This also wasn't Fox's first time at the house. He had been sent to, for lack of a better word, collect Alex for meetings at the Bank. He hadn't heard much about him in a long while.
Last thing he'd gathered was that Fox had reunited with his old Brecon Beacons chums and had decided to finish SAS training and join them in the field. Fox had been just in time for K Units second tour.
Alex was, once again, pulled from his thoughts by Wolf. This time though, it was deliberate as Wolf coughed pointedly into his hand. Alex, just as pointedly, ignored him. After a moment's pause, Wolf repeated the action significantly louder.
"Gotta cold, Wolf? Should I fetch a blanket?"
Colour rushed to Wolf's cheeks.
"No, Cub. Listen," as if he wasn't already listening, "I think we have some explaining to do," oh you think so, aye? "and we'd like a few answers too," wouldn't you just, "so maybe we should have a chat," yeah, maybe we should.
Alex resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He could tell that Wolf was much more nervous than he let on. Clearly, he was out of his element. And where Alex would usually jump at the chance to torment Wolf, now didn't seem to be the right time.
So Alex simply nodded, picking up his still steaming mug and walked towards the couch in the other room. He turned at the doorway to silently beckon K Unit. They quickly followed, four chairs scraping the tile in unison as they hastily rose.
Sitting in a rough circle on Alex's multitude of couches and arm chairs, there was a brief moment of awkward silence. It was broken suddenly, not by someone speaking, but by Fox choking haphazardly on his coffee, which he had been rapidly drinking to avoid starting the conversation.
Alex sighed inaudibly. All the awkwardness was beginning to grate on his nerves.
"You okay there, Ben?" Alex figured he'd show a little concern.
"Yeah, fine," Fox choked in reply, face turning an interesting shade of puce.
"Great. So anyway..."
"We don't exactly know why we're here," Wolf cut in.
"What do you mean? What did '6 tell you?"
"Basically, that one of their agents was injured on assignment and needed some protection until the Heads could fix the problem, or until he was better and back in the field," Wolf explained.
"They never mentioned that the agent was our old under aged unit member," Eagle put in.
"They also didn't elaborate on how you were injured or how serious it is," Snake added.
Alex nodded, taking a second to absorb the information.
"That's basically it really. I was on a mission, I was injured. Shot just below the rib cage. Through and through. No internal damage. The people I was investigating, the Arae, cliché name right?, managed to escape and they said they would come a knocking."
"So did '6 tell you why you need us?"
"I don't."
"You don't know?"
"No, I mean I don't need you. I'm actually perfectly fine, but MI6 clearly doesn't agree. Jones seems to think a few minor injuries makes me incapable of defending myself," he said, his voice cool and his eyes dark. "So you guys just need to hang out here until we get the okay, okay?"
Alex got a lot of vaguely confused looks. Before they could start asking questions, he decided to change the topic.
"Okay. Now some ground rules. Like I said last night, my room and my office are off limits. If you're hungry, make something. If you're bored, entertain yourself. There's movies under the telly and board games and cards down stairs. Laundry is downstairs too. I don't care what you do as long as you aren't bugging me. I've got a ton of work, so I plan on spending the duration of your stay in my office. If we can get through this without me seeing any of your faces I'll consider it a success. That goes for you, too, Daniels," Fox gave him an incredulous look,"we aren't friends, so don't expect any special treatment, got it? Any questions?" he added the last part with a glare that didn't exactly invite questions.
When all he received was four dumbstruck looks, Alex nodded at his success.
"Good. Final rule. No questions."
Alex then quickly retreated upstairs, leaving his drained mug of coffee on the table.
As soon as K unit heard the office door click shut, they erupted in noise.
"What the actual-"
"What a-"
"-hell was he even-"
"I don't-"
"-warm welcome."
"-talking about?"
"-even understand."
"I didn't realize he was even an agent anymore," Wolf whispered.
Fox opened his mouth to say something, but aborted the question quickly. Unfortunately the other members of K unit noticed.
"Anything you want to say there, Foxy? Hmm?" Eagle asked pointedly.
Fox chocked a bit, "Well, I've told you before about my time with MI6?" K unit mumbled the affirmative. " And you know I left because I didn't agree with the way they treated one of their agents?"
"He was MI6's top agent, you said. The one we heard about from the Sergeant?"
"Yeah him. Well, it was Cub. Cub was the agent."
"Cub was the agent? Faster than a snake, clever and quick and resourceful and with a one hundred percent success rate? That agent?"
"Yeah, that one. I told you he was young, didn't I?"
Eagle made a frustrated noise, "We thought you meant, like, twenties! Not a literal fetus."
"What does MI6 want us here for, then?" Snake asked, "If Cub is as good as everyone says, why does he need us? If he's so fast and strong and bloody smart?"
"Damaged, too." Three heads whipped around to glare at Wolf. "Don't deny it, that's what everyone says! He's quick and he's quiet and he's crazy brilliant. But they also say he's unstable, unnerving, reckless verging on suicidal, and dangerous," Wolf finished, keeping his voice quiet.
A melodramatic, A-team teenage spy? This was going to be harder than they thought. Challenge accepted.
Next: K unit doesn't like the 'no questions' rule.
