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"No, you go now!" Lauren exclaimed,
"I am not going now! You are, then Kerry, then me!" James shot back. They were at the top of one of the trees on the assault course and arguing about who would be the next to climb down, Alex had already gone. Kerry groaned as the siblings bickered,
"Shut up!" She finally exclaimed,
"NO!" Both stopped in their rants to snap at her, within seconds Kerry had both of them in headlocks, Lauren and James in a moment of sibling agreement flipped her back and tried to repeat the gesture with her, in their desire to outdo the others they forgot they were standing on a small platform at the top of a tree. Lauren hooked her foot around Kerry's ankle and she fell backwards onto James, who was grabbing Lauren. James put his foot back to stop them falling and found nothing but air.
"SHIT!" James exclaimed and they fell,
"OW!" Kerry exclaimed as her belt was caught and they stopped falling, they all grabbed each other in confusion and looked up, above them was a pissed off Alex quickly followed by Ben, Eagle then a glowering Wolf.
"You idiots! You could have died! You are lucky Cub was there to catch you, there are no safety nets in that part because we don't believe people are stupid, or petty, enough to get into arguments about climbing down a fucking tree." Snake wasn't there to snap at Wolf for his language, and K unit doubted he would anyway. Wolf's rant continued until he was just glowering at them and the three of them were shaking.
"You." He spun on Lauren,
"Yes sir?" She squeaked, Eagle smirked at that, he had been there as well.
"You have been performing well up to now, but that little stunt up there ruined that opinion. You shouldn't argue about that! You are a team, you need to learn to collaborate." Wolf snapped,
"Yes sir."
"You." Now Wolf turned on James, "I didn't expect that from you despite your abysmal performance here so far, you are a cocky and arrogant little -"
"Language." This time it was Eagle playing mediator.
"And you." Wolf now turned on Kerry,
"Yes sir?"
"You were the only one who showed the tiniest bit of common sense up there. Yet you should have tried to break it up earlier." This was as close to a compliment Kerry was ever going to get.
"Thank you sir."
"When you all arrived, due to your current... career choice, I expected you to be good. I expected you to be at least on par with Cub when he arrived. But I guess I should have known better, Cub after all is a freak of nature." Wolf flashed Ben an amused look. "Now my is for you to be up to par with Cub's first appearance here by the time you leave." Wolf nodded happy he had scolded them enough.
"In short and simple English, he wants you to be on par with an 11 year old who, at that precise moment in time, hated the world." Eagle summarised with a smirk. "Shooting range so we can give you the next ultimatum."
"Ben." Lauren sounded meek, embarrassed and sufficiently told off. Just what Wolf had aimed for.
"Yes?" The spy queried,
"Where is Alex?"
"With Snake." Ben replied,
"Why?!" All three teens demanded,
"Well lets just say holding you three up with a shoulder that was recently shattered isn't the smartest thing he has ever done." Ben replied,
"Nor is it the stupidest." Eagle put in back to being his hyper self.
"... back," They heard Snake's soft medical voice and headed towards it, "OK, I'll bind it so you remember not to use it, I know any sling I give you will be gone in seconds." He sounded affectionately exasperated. A few minutes later they reached a back room and saw the pair inside, Snake was helping Alex slowly pull his top down,
"Hey. Sorry I wasn't faster." Alex smiled slightly at them, the three teens blinked,
"Did you just apologise?" Kerry managed to get out,
"Yep, you get used to it, ignore him." Eagle clapped her on the shoulder then they headed to the range where Wolf was standing,
"Is Alex going to shoot today? Or do medical injuries or personal preference prevent it?" James asked scorn in his tone.
"Oh for fucks sake." Wolf growled, "Cub, shoot." Wolf handed the blonde a gun.
"Why?" Alex asked,
"I am sick and tired of his comments about your inability to fight hand to hand, your inability to shoot or do anything weapon related every single time it comes up." Wolf growled.
"Fine." Alex muttered, he weighed the gun in hand then went through the checks disgusted at the ease at which he could do it. The confidence of the three Cherubs faces was slowly disappearing,
"The way I was taught, or the way you were taught?" Alex asked disgust in his tone,
"To prove a point, you." Ben told him. Alex shut his eyes then looked at the target, a simple bulls eye, no human cut out or human shape in sight. He breathed deeply, composed himself, flicked the safety off, glanced at the target then emptied the clip only moving slightly. Then he took a second clip from Eagle and emptied that one without looking. He then dismantled the gun and dumped it unceremoniously on the table.
"Happy?" He asked Wolf scornfully.
"You moved." Eagle frowned, Ben thought back to the way he had moved and where the bullets would have consequently gone and laughed,
"Thought you'd prove you could aim as well?" Ben checked,
"Thought I'd get two birds with one stone." Alex shrugged as his target was reeled in.
"Shit." James breathed, in the target was a smiley face with a nose, most of the shots had gone through the nose. Eagle tapped the nose and indicated the one shot that had gone a little awry,
"You're slipping." He commented,
"Personally I don't think it's a bad thing to be bad at." Alex shot back,
"That's slipping." Kerry choked out.
"Yep, should have seen him when he came here for selection never missed a shot." Eagle grumbled, "Put me, the unit sharp shooter, to shame." He ruffled Alex's hair and the teen stuck his tongue out in response. James stared for a minute trying to get his head around the fact that a person who stuck their tongue out was able to shoot like that.
"Lauren, you're up." Alex called. The blonde girl paled,
"I've never done this before." She whispered clearly terrified.
"How about you three go with those two and Cub and I teach Lauren?" Ben suggested.
"Sounds like a plan, come on." Snake led them away a few stalls down.
"Now, Lauren, this is a gun." Alex stated with a smirk. She elbowed him.
"Very funny Al." She mock glared.
"I try." He was terrified inside, he had never taught someone how to shoot from scratch, he had taught Snake his version of shooting, how to incapacitate a person without actually killing or hurting them, he had refined Ben's shooting skills to be more '6 based as opposed to SAS but he had never taught anyone from scratch. As he watched Ben go through the different parts of a weapon and how to clean it he couldn't help but think of Malagosto. He had managed to get over all the flashback triggers that had come up, but with the help of his unit. He had tried by himself, but it hadn't worked.
Ben watched Alex out the corner of his eye worried. The teen had paled drastically and looked like he was trying to avoid thinking about something. He noticed Snake watching Alex carefully as well trying to work out what was going on, then medic suddenly stood up straight and looked at Ben,
"Flashback." He mouthed, Ben's eyes widened and he turned back to Alex who was shaking ever so slightly with the effort to stay in the present. Over on the other side of the shooting range the three SAS men were having a quiet debate, a decision was reached and Eagle jogged over,
"Fox, Cub, just remembered Sarge wanted to see you about something, he said it wasn't urgent." Eagle stated, Ben nodded concealing his relief, then he gently led Alex out the shooting range and into then hut. There he sat the teen down on his cot and crouched in front of him,
"Alex, Alex, you there?" Ben asked seeing his gaze was far away, he saw horror, pain and disgust cross the blondes face and quickly moved to the next tactic. He grasped the teens thin wrist,
"Al, can you feel me holding you?" Ben asked, there was a small nod, "That is what is real and now, come on. Come join me in making fun of the shit Cherubs." Slowly his eyes were focussing but he was still pale and shaking. After a little more coaxing on Ben's part Alex's eyes returned to the normal haunted green, he was still pale and the shaking increased,
"I didn't want to." He choked out, tears threatening to spill, Ben wrapped his arms around his charge and slowly calmed him and the words came out slowly and broken at first, then free and flowing, "They made me shoot targets, I was fine with that but then they changed to human cut outs, I couldn't shoot them. That's when I developed the alternative shooting but that just got me told off and punished. I had to try and shoot like they would want me to, and," He broke off as his voice cracked, "And I did. I hated Malagosto from start to finish."
"Is Malagosto where they trained all the assassins?" Ben murmured, he knew the answer but to get his to recover from his PTSD and flashbacks he knew that all triggers had to be covered.
"Yes. And I was one of them. One of their best." The three others slowly filed in and took in the pair hugging on the bed,
"Hey Cub? You OK now?" Snake asked taking in the pale face, slowly Alex shook his head,
"It'll take more than that for me to forget Malagosto, but I doubt I'll have to teach anyone else how to shoot." Alex replied face still buried in Ben's chest.
"The kiddies are showering and changing, we made them run the assault course as payment for fucking up." Wolf stated changing the topic.
"I can't believe they actually did something that stupid." Eagle groaned flopping back in his bed.
"They need a leader, just to finalise decisions, otherwise something like that may happen again." Snake stated still watching the two spies from the corner of his eye, they had slowly moved so Ben was simply sitting next to Cub who was using him as a pillow.
"Not James, he's an arrogant sod, any power given to him would go to him head." Wolf growled, Snake crouched in front of Cub and gently took his wrist, his pulse was a little fast but not as bad as the medic knew it had been.
"Lauren?" Ben suggested,
"No, she's too young and any difference between her and James would lead to friction. She's the youngest so wouldn't garner that much respect despite her being the best, and the issue on top of the course was partly her fault." Alex commented,
"Cub?" Eagle offered,
"NO!" Alex exclaimed, "No."
"OK, no to Cub, that leaves Kerry." Wolf stated,
"She's good, has a level head on her shoulders, she follows the rules a little too much but that can we worked on. Yeah, I think she's a good choice, both listen to her and she's not the oldest but there is no sibling rivalry." Ben agreed, they all looked to Alex who was snuggled happily against Ben's side under his arm,
"Yeah, good choice." He agreed, "What's the time?" He asked through his yawn.
"Nearly 2100. Dinner then we have a night exercise." Eagle read off the timetable,
"Come on Cub." Snake said standing,
"'M not hungry." He mumbled, the three turned to Ben who was laughing silently,
"He said he's not hungry."
"It was coherent." Alex complained,
"May well have been coherent, but it was in Russian." Ben chuckled,
"Don't care what language that was, still not hungry." Alex stated eyes shut,
"And that was French." Ben laughed,
"Safety language." Snake cocked an eyebrow,
"Yeah, Cub? You OK?" Ben asked worried. French was the one language that wasn't associated with any mission or danger and it was the country he should have grown up in, it was the language he often slipped into when he was tired, scared, or having flashbacks as he had earlier, Alex hadn't known until they had told him but he always spoke about his past in French. Before K unit had had elementary French, now they were almost fluent due to the long conversations they had about Cub's past.
"Tired. Flashbacks wear you out, thought I was over PTSD though." He mumbled, still in French,
"No matter when you get over it, we'll always be here." Ben pressed a kiss into his hair then stood pulling the teen with him,
"NO!" Alex complained, Ben lifted his top and frowned, his hips and ribs were still showing under the muscle.
"You need to eat more." Ben scolded.
"Yes mother." Alex muttered flashing a glare at Ben who promptly ruffled his hair grinning when he unconsciously leant into it.
"See, your unconscious is on my side!" Ben crowed triumphantly.
"Fox." Alex stated,
"Yes?" The elder spy was cautious,
"Piss off." Alex tripped him as he walked past, Ben grabbed him as he went down and when the teen was on the floor he started tickling him mercilessly.
"MERCY!" Alex exclaimed as the rest of the room laughed, Wolf just cracking a smile,
"What's the magic word?" Ben teased,
"Please?" Alex tried,
"Nope." Ben grinned wider,
"Abracadabra?" Alex tried again, the tickling stopped. "Arsehole."
"Brat." Ben shot back.
"Now, now children," Snake scolded amused and glad Cub had recovered from the flashbacks. Now all they had was a night exercise and then they could sleep.
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