A/N: thank you very muchly BrazilianPrincess and Hunter of Darkness i'm glad u liked mi story enough to review it plz do more reviews inspire me more P even if its me going ovr stories -
enjoy chapter 4 XD
Attack on a Tigress
At about four, Alex got a call from Shumila that she was home. She sounded like she was grinning when she told him that he should listen to Jack far more often.
He got a call from Jack about ten minutes later asking him to bring home some bandages.
"Why…?" he asked slowly, letting one of his friends take over the game for him for a bit.
"Shumila tripped on the way home, she couldn't see where she was going," said Jack breezily, "it didn't start hurting till she sat down. You're exactly the same you know."
Though he was still suspicious, he let it go, and did as Jack asked. He got home at about seven, to find the house unusually quiet and subdued.
"JACK!" he called, worry setting in, "you there?!"
"Hang on," she called, her voice getting nearer, "coming down."
As she walked down the stairs, he could immediately tell something was wrong. She looked tired and more scared than anything else
Alex began to worry.
"What happened?" he asked immediately, "who is it? Has something happened to George?!"
Jack grinned at him. "Chill kiddo! Nothing happened. I'm just a bit tired that's all."
He frowned at her. "Where's Shumila?"
Jack hesitated.
That was answer enough.
He stormed up the stairs and pushed his way into Shumila's room.
She was sitting on her bed, reading an Urdu book. She looked relatively peaceful and calm.
If it wasn't for the fact she had her back thoroughly bandaged and another round her waist, and that most of her skin was badly bruised or cut, one could have thought that nothing much had happened at all- it was as though it happened to her everyday.
When she looked up at him in surprise, he could see a bruise forming just above her eye and her lip was swollen and bloody.
She went pink under his glare and gathered her blanket up to cover herself up, all she was wearing was a spaghetti strap top over her bra. She felt odd wearing such brief clothing in another's home.
"What?" she asked, her voice steady and calm, but her blush cancelled out this charade.
"What do you mean what?!" he stammered, looking completely shocked, "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOU?!"
She scowled at him, and went back to reading her book, ignoring him stubbornly.
He sighed, that really wouldn't have gotten her to talk to him, and he knew it. He sat on the bed and tugged the book out of her hands. "What happened Shumila?" he asked, politely, pointedly looking at her eyes, "who did this?"
"An agent. Tracked me down, got to me after I got out of the shops. They dragged me down an ally way, but I was struggling too much. We fought." She shook her head. "They scared my back again in the end and told me that was something to remember them by. I think they thought I was dead. It's not as bad as it looks. They watched me grow up, so I don't think they could have done too much damage to me." She shrugged, and held out her hands again for the book, her face completely emotionless, as though the attack on her life meant nothing to her.
Alex stared at her, suddenly very tempted to hug her, but she would have been in too much pain.
"Does it hurt?" he asked softly, taking her hand instead.
"Only if I let it," she shook his hand away from her's, and took back the book. "I don't think I can make dinner tonight," she added, casually.
"All right," muttered Alex getting up, feeling surprisingly snubbed.
He walked out of the room quietly closing the door behind him.
Though she was refusing to talk to him, he felt angry. The thing was, he was angry with himself; he had let her go out on her own, knowing his job was to protect her from something like that. He hadn't been there to make sure she was all right. He hadn't been at home to make sure her injuries were properly looked after, seeing as Jack must have panicked seeing the girl walk in with such injuries.
He was a spy. The longest spy of the Youth Movement and he should have known by then that he couldn't take such risks! Especially with a guarding job. Especially with someone like Shumila Hussain. She had possible more enemies than him.
As he tried to assume a more casual expression as he came down stairs to talk to Jack about dinner. But even as he managed it, it was obvious to Jack he had been effected by the damage done to the girl.
Back in her room, Shumila went over the day's events. How she knew she was being followed as soon as she walked down the street out of the local shop. She had started up a small conversation with the Afghani man behind the counter in their native tongue. It had felt good to finally speak it with someone who understood the language. So she had taken much longer than she should have.
She forced herself to remember how the men followed her, how she was stupid and didn't try to break into a run. She knew very well she'd have been able to out run them. Even if she lost her things on the way. She did anyway.
The memories guided her through the tortures they put her through.
First the guilt of abandoning her family, stopping her brother, betraying them. Trying to make her come back, that she wouldn't be punished. An our right lie. They wouldn't take her back properly. They'd kill her eventually.
Secondly threatening her, telling her they'd kill her then and there, how her father would have her tortured. The madness her mother was going through. That too was a lie. Her mother was too strong. She fitted in perfectly with the assassins she married into. Though she loved her daughter, and would do nothing to harm her, Shumila knew her mother would never back her on running away.
Thirdly, attacking her, putting her through physical pain. Forgetting entirely that she had been trained since before she could talk to cut pain out of her system till she needed it. To heal herself.
Finally, how she killed them. Letting the animal in her take hold of her. How she completely forgot the restrictions on her back and snapped the man's neck with a quick tug with her knee at his back. His name was Rashid. An Indian man. A widower. Hating life and everything in it for loosing his wife and son. The other man with his throat cut, her hazel eyes boring into his blue. His name was Benjamin. An ex-CIA man. Changing sides for the money, after abandoning the troops when he came to Afghanistan. No one knew of his past.
She called MI6, told them what happened and forced her way home, into the open arms of a worried Jack.
Alex would find out the details, of how the people were killed, and probably why they tried to kill her. But she wouldn't tell him. She was far too ashamed. She had killed her own people. To save her own neck. She could never go back.
And finally she knew she didn't want to. Murder ate at her soul and turned her into an animal she didn't want to be.
She didn't care where she lived, or if she had to turn into a prostitute. Anything was better than being a killer. Anything.
Later that night, Alex came in to check on the injured girl. He had been rather subdued during dinner, and Jack wasn't willing to talk. They both knew very well that after those attacks, Alex would probably be sent on a mission, and Shumila would either go with him, or be banished from their lives entirely.
Jack had come to like having another girl in the house, and Alex liked the company. He lost the feeling of something being wrong with her after that, and only found himself feeling friendship for the girl instead. Having her taken away would cut a large hole in the change of strategy.
He knocked on the door. When there was no answer, his heart started racing and he pushed the door open.
The light was still on and Shumila had fallen asleep, the book still in her lap. He chuckled slightly, and walked over taking the book away, and putting her in a more comfortable position to be sleeping in.
She winced in pain in her sleep as he moved her, but didn't wake up or do anything else. He knew the next day she'd probably start needing a dose of morphine or something similar to keep the pain at bay.
He also knew, that no matter what happened, that attack was the trigger for what was to happen to him and her in coming weeks.
