Title: let's go break the law just one more time

Disclaimer: not my characters

Warnings: implied torture/violence, mindgames

Pairings: none

Rating: PG

Wordcount: 720

Point of view: third

Prompt: any, any, I got a tortured mind/And my blade is sharp/A bad combination/In the dark

Brock is sent undercover with gun-runners in his third year at the CIA. He only realizes he (or someone else) fucked up somewhere when he gets knocked across the back of his head and shoved into a hole. He has no idea how long he's in the hole, but he hasn't died of dehydration by the time they come for him.

He still has no idea who the boss is when he's dragged out, given a bottle of water and half of a banana, and then pushed into the back of a van. He'd fight, but his balance is fucked, and then his body rejects the food, so he's heaving in the back of a van, trying not to cry for his mama. He's thirty goddamned years old.

By the time the van stops and the men drag him out, he's mostly calmed down. His fear has turned to anger, but he forces himself to hold his tongue. They're probably gonna torture him, but he's trained for that, and he knows that his team is gonna come for him. They have to come for him.

They don't come for him. But a blond man crouches down in Brock's cell and smiles. "Hi," he says. "Are you hungry?"

Brock knows exactly how it works, but he falls for it anyway.

.

He honestly didn't know much prior to the mission that went sideways, but he tells it all to Alexander. He's pretty sure months have passed by the time Alexander sits down across the table where Brock's meals are served and says, "So, you ready to go home?"

Brock blinks at him. "You're gonna let me go?"

Alexander smiles at him. "Don't you want to go home?"

It's not like he has a family, or even many friends. His team never came for him. "Couldn't I…" he ventures. He has no idea how high in the organization Alexander is, or who he answers to, but Brock raises his chin and says, "Couldn't I stay?"

Alexander's smile widens. "I'd like that, Brock."

.

He has to build his strength up. Alexander says, "I'll be back to check on you," and pairs him with a guy named Jack Rollins who doesn't talk much, but beats Brock's ass for the first few weeks. The first time Brock wins the spar, Rollins grins at him. They jog around the property most mornings, though Brock still has no clue where they are, and Rollins makes sure he eats regularly.

Rollins is American, too, Brock thinks, though they never talk about anything important.

Three months into the training, Alexander comes back. Brock doesn't know it, though, until his sparring partner (a guy twice his size) has him on the ground, panting and tapping out, and Alexander kneels down beside him as the guy gets up.

"You're better than this," Alexander says, and Brock looks at him, and he thinks, You're right.

It doesn't matter who Alexander is in the organization; he's got Brock's loyalty for life.

.

Brock's always had a lot to prove and no one who gave a shit. But he's got a chance to become someone now, and the guys here are different from his team back in the CIA. He knows that Rollins would come for him, if only to put him down before he spilled secrets, and he knows that Alexander is watching, so he's gonna prove that he can be an asset.

He and Rollins are sent after people who might become threats, after snitches, after rivals and those who anger the boss. Alexander returns every few months, always with new orders, so Brock knows he's gotta be high up, trusted.

Four years into it, Alexander sits down across the table from Brock and says, "How'd you like a promotion?"

.

So Brock is given command of his own team, the elite, and Alexander holds out a hand. "Alexander Pierce," he says. "Welcome to the organization, Mr. Rumlow."

Brock and his team are Alexander's best, his chief enforcers, the ones who keep him safe. He shakes Alexander's hand firmly and says, "Thank you, Mr. Pierce."

.

There was a life before this, but Brock was a nobody then. He's a somebody now, and he's the best at what he does, and the best thing that ever happened to him was the CIA leaving him to die.