A/N: Wow, half eight on Tuesday morning and I'm already updating. For once I don't need excuses! Yay! I'm sorry I didn't update on Christmas Day. I was planning to... but my fiancé stole my laptop for the day. Grrr. Anyway, thank you for all the wonderful reviews. This chapter is slightly light on Greg, but we have a lot of him next chapter, so don't worry. Now on to the Chapter!
DISCLAIMER: Not Mine.
***
He didn't know how much later it was but, when the man came back, he had figured out what was happening to his arm. He had some unfelt wound there. It had become infected. Without treatment, he could contract blood poisoning and die.
The light was flicked on again and the man came to stand behind him. For the first time, Alex saw a sign that he was more than a recording – his shadow. He was tall and athletically built, but Alex could guess no more.
"Here," said the voice. "Drink."
A hand, fair skinned and elegant, held out a sealed bottle of water.
Alex didn't move. He couldn't.
"Do not be stupid, Alex. It is sealed. You can see it is sealed. It is not poisoned."
"I'm tied to a chair. Exactly what do you expect me to do?" said Alex, acidly.
There was a slightly surprised grunt. The hand withdrew for a second, then the bottle reappeared, opened. It was held to his lips and Alex felt the clean water trickle down his throat. He gulped at it greedily.
When the bottle was eventually removed, almost empty, Alex spoke again.
"Why am I still alive?" he asked.
"Because I haven't killed you yet," said the man.
"You said you were going to torture me to death."
"Did I?" asked the man. Alex could almost hear the smirk in his voice and frowned.
Had he? No, he hadn't. He had asked what if he said he was going to do that.
He felt something prick his arm and tensed, pulling futilely against his bonds.
"Relax," ordered the voice. "It is just antibiotics. You will die without them."
"What do you want?" asked Alex, angrily.
The answer came a few moments later, followed immediately by the now familiar clanging of the door.
"To know you."
***
That night, Greg tossed and turned, his dreams haunted by strange images. People he didn't know in places he couldn't have been. Soldiers asking his opinion. Bad guys- he knew they were bad, something to do with the threats and weapons and general violence surrounding them – looking at him with hatred and contempt, contempt that changed rapidly to disbelief and fear.
And blood. Everywhere blood. Blood and pain and violence, all centred on him.
He woke up, shaking and sweating and nauseous, to the darkness of early morning. The red light of the cheap alarm clock told him it wasn't even 4AM yet, but somehow he knew – a weary knowledge that seemed bone deep – that he wouldn't get back to sleep. Sighing, he levered himself up off his makeshift bed and went to take a shower. Maybe washing the sweat of himself would make him feel better.
He entered work for the lunchtime shift with bags under his eyes and straining not to yawn. He wasn't surprised to see Nick there. The man couldn't cook to save his life and so ended up here almost every mealtime when he was off duty. He nodded to the man as he slipped on his requisite black apron and received a brief nod in return. Briefly, he wondered how Nick's team were – even if they had creeped him out a little at first, Wolf at least seemed nice – but his attention was quickly absorbed by the many tasks he was responsible for that day. Tired as he was, they took all his concentration.
***
Bear sighed and hung up his phone, nodding briefly in response to Greg's silent greeting. It had been Snake. He was worried about Wolf. Apparently he had gone over to the man's after their celebratory drink, thinking Wolf might still have his phone – obviously he didn't as Snake had now found it – but Wolf hadn't been there.
Wolf had been planning to go home and figure out the mystery of Greg, all three of them had realised that much, but since then the man had dropped off the map. Snake didn't know if Wolf had vanished or was simply ignoring them, but neither seemed to be good news.
Bear tried to calm the man - after all, their glorious leader was probably sick of the sight of them and it had only been a few days – but it was difficult when Bear was just as worried. As much as they might try to ignore the fact now, Wolf never disappeared. He never ignored his unit. He acted as their leader on or off duty, if they needed it, and he couldn't do that if they couldn't get in touch with him.
Sighing, Bear finished his drink and stood. He was meeting Eagle and Snake outside Wolf's apartment in ten minutes and it would take all of that to get there, even in good traffic. He looked at his watch and sighed. He was going to be late.
Snake and Eagle were already there when he ran up the last flight of stairs, on time, if barely.
"No answer?" he grunted, not waiting for their head shakes to confirm his suspicions.
"Do we break in?" he asked.
"Give him one more chance to answer," said Snake, ever the voice of reason.
Bear started forward and hammered on the door.
"Wolf? Wolf?! If you're in there, open up before we have to kick down the door!"
They waited, but only heard silence.
Bear sighed, and stepped back from the door. He had actually begun shifting his weight, preparing to kick, when the door opened.
Wolf stood there. He looked awful, and was quite plainly drunk.
"Can't a man drink in peace around here?" he snarled.
Snake sighed and pushed past him, completely ignoring the anger in his leader's harsh words.
Eagle and Bear followed closely behind.
"What happened?" asked Snake bluntly.
Wolf looked at him for a moment, patently confused, before his face paled and he strode quickly towards the sofa, grabbing a bottle from beside it and gulping down the clear amber liquid, before sinking into the sofa.
Bear and Snake exchanged a look. Wolf hated whisky. He'd rather drink anything else, if given the option.
Eagle sighed and pulled out his phone. Only Fox could deal with Wolf when something pushed him to drink excessively. Eagle and Snake had only seen him like this once before, and Bear never, but Fox had been in the army with Wolf, both accepted to the SAS at the same time, Fox having joined the army aged sixteen, a year after Wolf. Rivalry had become friendly competition which itself had become friendship. Fox knew Wolf probably better than his own parents. If anyone could snap him out of it, it was him.
Twenty minutes later, Fox entered the flat. Snake and Eagle sat on either side of Wolf, with Bear sitting across from them on the chair. Wolf hadn't spoken a word, but at least they had managed to get the whisky off him and replace it with a bottle of water.
Fox frowned at Wolf.
"James," he snapped, "Snap out of it. You're being ridiculous."
Wolf didn't even respond. Fox snarled irritably and pulled a bowl out of the cupboard. He filled it with water and dumped it over the almost comatosed Wolf. When he still didn't move, Fox frowned.
His next step was to get a glass of water and dissolve a tablespoon or two of salt in it.
"Drink it," he said, and started to gently encourage Wolf to drink.
Snake, realising what Fox was doing, fetched a large plastic bowl.
Soon Wolf was throwing up, ridding himself of the alcohol not already in his blood stream. Next, Fox shoved him in the shower and told Snake to keep an eye on him while he cooked his friend some food. If he knew Wolf, he had probably not had a decent meal since he heard the news.
When Snake eventually pulled Wolf out of the shower, Fox had a large plate of pasta with cheese sauce on the table. Not exactly nutritious, he knew, but one of the few things he could make out of what Wolf had in his woefully stocked fridge. The salad on the side and the large glass of orange juice added some semblance of balance to the meal, but Fox knew that the salad at least would be ignored unless he insisted that Wolf ate it.
Fifteen minutes later, Wolf had gained some semblance of sobriety and Fox sat sombrely next to him.
"I would have told you sooner," he said, eventually, "if I had known you hadn't been told. I just... presumed..."
There was a short pause.
"I'm sorry, mate."
"He shouldn't have died," said Wolf, hoarsely. "He shouldn't have trained with us; he should never have been involved with them at all."
There was no anger, anymore. It was a simple statement of fact.
"He was just a kid," said Wolf, his voice almost breaking.
Snake and Eagle, both who had been listening in confusion, went white and quickly moved away.
When Fox had finally got Wolf to bed, with help from Bear, they sat him down and stared at him.
"Cub's dead, isn't he?" said Eagle.
Fox nodded.
Bear looked around nervously. He had never known Cub and really didn't want to be here for this.
"I'm going to go. I'll see you all soon, ok?"
They didn't even glance at him as he left.
"How?" asked Snake, slightly disbelievingly.
Fox shrugged. "He just... disappeared. He had just completed a mission. The retrieval team actually saw him at the rendezvous, but by the time they got there, he had vanished."
"Wait... mission?!" exclaimed Eagle, his eyes going wide. "You mean he was actually at Beacons because he needed training?"
Again, Fox nodded.
"But... he's just a kid!" exclaimed Snake, angrily. "How could they...?"
"Necessity makes bastards of us all," said Fox wearily. "You know the depressing thing? The kid was good, really good. He had me beat hands down. And he was jumpy at the end of that mission. Something had shaken him. He thought he was being followed, but couldn't catch so much of a glimpse of the guy. He had no idea who it was as he had taken down his latest enemy entirely. Nothing – literally – remained. And MI6 didn't listen. They never did - to him, at least. After everything he did, they didn't listen and now he's dead."
"When?" asked Eagle.
"Eight months ago. They searched, hard. They wanted their best agent back, after all, but they couldn't find him. He was declared legally dead six months ago and they held his funeral. No questions were asked. The official story was that he had just vanished from home one day."
"And Wolf found out..."
"The day before yesterday," said Fox. "I would have told him... I just thought he already knew..."
"No one blames you, Fox," said Snake numbly.
Eagle sighed. "I just... can't believe it. I can't believe we thought he was a joke. I can't believe..."
"I know. Believe me, I know."
***
A/N: Please review, I always like to know what you think! Oh, and a bit of an explanation on SAS. A lot of the time, people have the entire of K-Unit at Point Blanc, but Horowitz never mentions any except Wolf being there... so my theory is they train together, but the higher ups pick the soldiers as individuals for missions based on their specialities... or that's what I'm using for this story. That ok with everyone?
Hope you all had good Christmas Days and have a fantastic New Year!
Oh... and to the reviewer "Yassen Gregorovich" – Thank you. Your review was well, and originally, written. It made me laugh. BUT, you didn't give me a way to reply to you. This may be because you aren't a member, but you didn't even leave me a real name so I'm slightly disappointed. If I could reply to you, I would say that I'm sorry, but Yassen is an antagonist in every book he is in. He's an assassin, not a nice guy, no matter what we all wish.
Thank you to everyone who reviewed, I'm glad you like the story. If you like the chapter, or even if you don't, review!
Oh, and can I take the opportunity to advertise the Reviews with Meaning discussion forum, based around, rather obviously, leaving good reviews, replying to reviews and trying to reduce the number of one or two word reviews. Basically, we have a wall of fame and 'How to leave reviews with meaning'. So if you all leave nice long, meaningful reviews, not just on here, but on other peoples stories and if you get yourself nominated, your name will go up there and everyone can thank you! (Ok we're working on the prestige, we swear. But wouldn't it be nice to get rid of "update" or "update please" or "Update soon"? It's nice to know that people like the story, but why do they like it? What could be improved? What is their favourite? Is it getting familiar to another story?)
Anyway... after that massively long AN... Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, enjoy the holiday... and REVIEW!