Okay guys, so, this is how it's gonna go. I originally written three one shots on Wolf's guardianship of Alex and I decided to just post them all in the same story. Since pretty much everyone who reviewed said this would make a good full length story I'm gonna run with it. I guess you could consider this a preview of sorts. Anyway it might take a little while as I'm in the process of two other AR fics as well as THe Woes of Brookland. Let me know what you think of this.

Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider.


Parental Concern

Cub was the type of kid who never wanted to ask for help, even if he desperately needed it, because he didn't think he'd get it or he thought that whatever was wrong wasn't important enough to ask about. Wolf had learned that over the course of his six month long guardianship of the boy. Cub didn't like to talk about himself, his past, or his job simply because it was near impossible for the boy to trust anyone.

A few months ago when they'd had their first major fight, Cub had taken off and when he wasn't back by the next afternoon Wolf had gone to look for him. It had taken both him and K-Unit two days to find him and by that time Wolf was beyond frustrated. Cub had holed up in his old home in Chelsea which had been stripped clean some weeks prior. Snake had thought that Cub would go there but they'd had no idea where the place even was. In the end, Fox had used his MI6 connections to get the address.

Wolf had gone to the house by himself and found Cub sleeping on the floor in what was his room. After waking the kid and catching him from taking off again Wolf took him first to the hospital and then home. When they'd reached St. Dominic's Cub had refused to get out of the car and after a strict warning that if he moved Wolf would handcuff to the steering wheel, the man went in by himself to fill the pain medication prescription.

They never really talked about the fight; Wolf felt uncomfortable about it and Cub just didn't talk about anything. Cub took his pain meds and went to his check ups like he was supposed to and that was that.

Wolf left several times for assignments with the SAS but so far hadn't been gone for more than a week. His unit had been bumped up in the ranks and they were now practically choosing their assignments. None of them wanted to back to Iraq and none wanted those three-month-long assignments were you basically sat on your arse and twiddled your thumbs while watching the desert.

Cub had also been sent away a few times on missions. Wolf was never been told what they were about probably because MI6 knew he'd raise hell about them. Some were simple two-day assignments and some the kid would be gone for weeks only to come back beat up and exhausted. He rarely talked about what happened unless it some random blurted out detail that had nothing to do with the conversation they were having.

Eagle, who was a master at inane chatter, was the first to notice that Cub would say random things that didn't fit with what was going on around him. It was like the boy simply couldn't keep a normal conversation anymore; his mind was just too jumpy.

After his last mission Cub had come back almost dead quite. He'd been quite before but now he was like a zombie and Wolf had no idea what to do about it. The boy would get up in the morning, go to school, come home, and shut himself in his room. Their attempts to draw him out failed and by week's end he was having nightmares.

Wolf hadn't realized that nightmares could be so violent but Cub's had him thrashing and screaming in his sleep. Several nights in a row Wolf busted into the kid's room, turned on the light, and held him down before either the nightmare ended or Cub woke up. About a week later the nightmares actually started to make the boy sick and several times Wolf caught him leaning over the toilet bowl puking his guts out. By that weekend Wolf decided that something needed to be done whether Cub liked it or not. As predicted Cub resisted.

"I'm fine," he insisted.

"No, you're not," Wolf almost growled feeling his patience leave him. "You're all messed up." Cub stabbed at the scrambled egg on his plate with a bit more force than necessary, a dark look on his face.

"I'm fine," he said again and Wolf heaved a frustrated sigh.

"If you say that again, I'll put duct tape over your mouth," he warned and Cub rolled his eyes.

"But-" he started.

"I don't want to hear it Cub, you're going," Wolf told him.

"I don't want to go to a shrink," the boy almost whined.

"Who does?" Wolf shot back. "You need to talk to someone and since you won't talk to me you're gonna talk to this guy." Cub proceed to go into an almost-pout that six months ago would never have happened. "Cub, it's either the MI6 shrink or the psychiatric ward. It's your choice." Cub's face took an expression of disbelieving horror at the ultimatum.

"You wouldn't," he said.

"I would," Wolf assured him.

"That's not fair!" Cub exclaimed.

"Tough," Wolf told him. "You need help whether you think you do or not. These nightmares aren't healthy Cub. Look at you, you're exhausted!"

"I'm-"

"For the last time, no, you're not fine and, yes, you're going," Wolf snapped at him his tone conveying that the conversation was over. Cub responded by pushing his plate away with a clatter, leaving the table, and slamming his door when he got his room.

Wolf rolled his eyes at the blatantly teenage response and three hours later he barged into the room to make sure Cub was ready to go. Cub told his guardian that he could get there by himself but Wolf wanted to make sure he actually went instead of running off. The appointment with Dr. Grevin lasted two hours and when Cub came out Wolf could tell he was mentally exhausted. On the ride home Wolf asked how it went.

"It was okay," Cub said tiredly.

"You feeling okay?" he asked still concerned about whatever it was that plagued the boy.

"I'm fine," Cub mumbled.

"You know, I'm really starting to hate that statement," Wolf said annoyed that those two words come out of Cub's mouth every other sentence.

"Yeah, me too," Cub replied with a small smile. "It makes for a boring conversation."

"You're one weird kid," Wolf said with his own smile. Cub shrugged.

"Keeps it interesting," he said and Wolf ruffled the kid's hair. The rest of the ride was spent in a comfortable silence.