Day 1, 2100, Brecon Beacons
Time passed and they let go of each other. Alex's head was swimming in a pool of questions he had for his Dad but judging by the look in his eyes, now was not a good time. They both turned to face the crowd that had unabashedly been staring at their intimate moment.
K-Unit was in the front of the crowd, looking anything but amused. Wolf looked a little sad but quickly exchanged the saddened look for one of indifference. Snake looked crushed, but Alex didn't understand why. Eagle had a confused look of his face and looked as if he wanted say something incredible stupid, which of course, he did.
"What's with the big huge reunion, didn't you just see each other a week ago?" Eagle asked, referring to the time Alex wasn't at camp.
John studied the way all three of them were looking at his son and came to a conclusion.
"So, you must be Alex's unit. And, by the look on your faces, you haven't been very welcoming to my son." John stated. The look on his face could be described as lethal, the same way Alex looked when he was on a mission. K-Unit shrunk back and immediately realized they were not to mess with him.
"Y-yes sir, we w-would b-be K-Unit." Snake answered, saving Eagle from answering.
"Right… anyway, let's continue with your lecture so you know a little more about me before you jump to conclusions like some of you already have." John answered directing a glare at Eagle. Honestly, Alex felt a little left out at this point. It was his father. John, seemed to notice and slipped an arm around Alex's shoulder and walked to the front of the room.
He started, "To recap, my name is John Rider and, as you can see, I am alive." At the last phrase, Alex went rigid, it wasn't everyday a dead parent came back to life.
"It is true that Scorpia tried to kill me with a bomb. The bomb wasn't properly placed to cause proper damage to a plane with the level of protection it had. It was a The Gulfstream G65 plane with the bomb placed in the front landing wheel. But, my wife and I were sitting at the far back close to the emergency equipment and an emergency door. About two minutes before the bomb went off, my wife, Helen, had to use the bathroom but the one closest to us was out-of-order. She had to use the one near the pilots' cabin. She was in the bathroom at exactly the moment the bomb went off. She and the pilots died immediately."
John still had his arm around Alex. He paused and squeezed Alex's shoulders before continuing.
"I was still in my seat when the bomb went off. Luckily behind my seat was the emergency equipment. And, because MI6 was paranoid, there were a couple of parachutes. I strapped myself in and jumped out of the emergency exit. Since the bomb exploded a few minutes after we had taken off, it wasn't that high in the air although the smoke made it hard to see after I opened the emergency door.
But, it was nothing I wasn't used to since I was a part of the Parachute Regiment a while back. The jump was successful. MI6 gave me a fake identity and everything but I was forbidden to make contact with any of my family of people who may have known John Rider."
He finished his choppy speech leaving a lot of questions left to answer. First was one from a soldier by the name of Tiger.
"Um… Sir? What position did you hold in the Parachute regiment?"
John replied in a one word answer, "Captain." That one word gave him twice the respect they initially had. "Next Question."
This time the soldiers raised their hands. John pointed at the soldier named Raccoon.
"Why did you come out of protection now?"
John answered, "Because Scorpia has made a threat against someone the head of MI6 said I knew, although she didn't tell me who." His reply left everyone but Alex wondering who that person was. Alex already knew who it was.
"Last question," John called. His deep voice was oddly familiar to Alex. John pointed to the lone man who raised his hand.
"Why did you not know your son was going to be here… sir?" He quickly added 'sir' to the end to make it sound polite. It didn't work.
John's face turned stony. His expression screamed 'why do you care' but his mouth let out, "Well, the head MI6 didn't feel the need to tell me that."
Alex smirked to himself. He knew that from experience. Lots of experience. John glanced down at his son. The look on his face said it all – he wanted an explanation.
The Sargent took this as a cue to step in and take charge once again. "Soldiers, you are dismissed to your barracks."
The men knew better than to disobey the Sargent's orders so they left immediately. Alex, however, stayed back. The Sarge noticed this and started to yell at the boy.
"Cub, what the hell do you think you are doing. I dismissed you! Do you even know what that means?" John stopped the Sarge before he could get too worked up.
"Hey Sarge, calm down, I wanted to talk to him."
"Well," The Sargent replied, "You could have said so." He angrily stomped off muttering something about 'incompetent fools' only adding to his humiliation. After the Sarge walked away, John turned to Alex and asked the one question that had been on his mind since the moment he saw his son.
"What are you doing here at an SAS training camp!? You shouldn't be here, you should be at home in Chelsea with Ian!" John's voice had a frantic edge to it. His son shouldn't be here, he should be at home doing whatever teenager were doing these days. But wait…no…could he be the one Scorpia was threatening? That couldn't be true could it? With his inner ranting, he almost missed the answer Alex gave him.
"I am now the legal property of MI6 now," Alex twisted the word 'property'.
"What are you talking about? What happened to Ian?" John asked already bracing for the worst.
"He was shot and killed by Yassen Gregorovich," Alex calmly answered to the man in front of him.
"How do you know who Yassen Gregorovich is?" Asked a shocked John.
"I met him once or twice…" Alex hesitantly answered. He knew better than to lie based on the stories Ian had told him.
"Start at the beginning." Commanded John. Honestly he had no idea n how to deal with Alex. He knew how to change diapers, burp him, and get him to eat his mushy baby food but not how to deal with a teenager! He was hopeless.
So, Alex did. He started at that fateful day the doorbell rang and continued to Jack. He told his Dad about how much he loved Jack and how much Jack had done for him. He told his dad about Tom and how he almost got killed because of him. Finally he told his Dad about Cairo and his mission that went downhill.
And his Dad listened. His brow furrowed and had a disapproving expression on his face when past Alex did something terribly dangerous and foolhardy. And smiled with a smug expression when he was proud of Alex.
Alex finished his speaking and looked down waiting for his Dad's response. John knelt and looked up at Alex. He whispered, "Hey Alex?"
Alex let out a small 'Hmmm'.
"Look at me." John silently asked of his only son. Alex complied and looked at his dad. The expression on John's face was one of pure happiness and a proud father.
"You did what you had to do. None of what happened was your fault." John looked down and whispered, "I just wish I could have been there for you."
"Well, I don't blame you. I blame Blunt and Jones for that." With that Alex gave his dad another quick hug. It was nothing special, just a Cub giving his papa Bear a hug.
While John and Alex were having an intimate moment, they didn't notice a figure slip away to hide into the shadows. The figure was Wolf. He had heard everything Cub had to say and was on the way to relay the news to the rest of the unit. Wolf had learned to respect Cub after the Point Blanc mission but he had just kept quiet about given that he had signed the OSA and all. He made his way through the dark and unforgiving woods taking the shorter way to the Barracks.
Finally, Wolf arrived at his Units' hut and entered.
"You wont believe what I heard…" Wolf started to say.
"So dad, where are you gonna sleep tonight?" Alex grinned at his father.
John, noticing the emphasis pun on the word 'dad' also grinned and replied, "Well son, the Sarge told me a bed had been set up in K-Units Barrack."
"Well, looks like the Sarge had a heart after all." Replied Alex.
Together they both exited the lecture hall and started walking toward the Barracks. A they walked John remembered a fairly important tidbit he forgot to tell Alex.
"So, the Sargent assigned me to train the Units for certain covert operations techniques." John stated, out of the blue. He still felt a little awkward with Alex regardless.
Alex replied, "Oh really, like what?"
"Well things like-" He cut himself off and instead said while wiggling his eyebrows, "You'll just have to find out with the rest of the men."
"But daaaaaaaad!" Alex whined sounding more like the teenager he was supposed to act like. That thought made John's heart clench.
"But Aleeeeeex!" John mocked back.
"Ya know dad, I think you should call me Cub when we are here." Alex replied, faking being hurt from his Dad's actions.
"Whatever you say, squirt," Replied John.
They reached K-Units hut and entered, not having a care in the World of what was going to happen in the future. They were happy living in the moment.