Thanks SOOO much for the feedback on the last chapter. So many of you gave your wonderful opinions on the POV change, and I think we'll all be happy with the decision I've come to: it'll be in 3rd person, but will revolve around Alex and his thoughts like usual.
ALSO WTF THIS HAS LIKE 100 REVIEWS THANKS SO MUCH I LOVE YOU ALL
And it's my birthday on the 9th of May, I'm turning 14! Yay!
Tell me what you think about this chapter, please, and if you want me to include something you want to see happen at some point in the story feel free to leave a suggestion. I have a plot, but it's pretty open for anything you guys want to see. Just don't get too crackish, please!
There's a little time skip here, and I know you guys probably wanted to finish the day in the way I was writing before but I really felt like this was best to help me jumpstart the plot and its progression.
Also it was super fun to write it like this.
Thanks! Review, follow and favourite, please (how about a nice juicy review - it can be my b-day prezzie? Hehehe)
I LOVE U ALL TANKS SO MUCH
-Isaac
** JUST A LITTLE BIT EDITED TO BE BETTER ILYUGUYS STAY COOL
Alex's eyes feel like they're stapled open. He can't for the life of him find the energy to close them.
He's been awake for so long that the sky outside is beginning to fade from navy to violet, and the birds still in their nests this time of year are starting to cheep. B-Unit are all sleeping, but Alex isn't.
He wants to. He needs to. But he can't.
Alex finds it hard to get to sleep, these days. It could be the pain of the burn on his right shoulder, because he has no medication for it. Maybe it is the anxiety of being quite deeply undercover for the foreseeable future. Or possibly it's because he doesn't want to suffer any gruesome nightmares again.
Maybe he is scared of having The Dreams, the ones were everything is just Red. Alex thinks he hates them more than the others.
Alex runs over the events of the day before in his head again. For what felt like the 100th time, and probably is.
Arrive, Breakfast, Assault Course, Languages, Lectures and Unit Exercises, Lunch. Tame, simple, easy.
After Lunch, it was the Hike. Alex had enjoyed the peace but hated the way the straps of his weighted bag had rubbed his injury. B-Unit were focused and quiet, wanting to get the worst part of the day (in their opinion, at least) over with. Alex on the other hand, thought was nice to have had a bit of time to his own thoughts.
Then they'd had some Gym time with A-Unit. Bear had wanted to spar with him, so he and Alex had spent the hour dodging each other's punches and forming splatters of bruises over each of their torsos. To Alex, it was the best part of the day. Bear was a great fighter, smart with wickedly fast fists. Alex was creative, well-trained and used to fighting big, bulky men (to near death, usually). It was quite evenly matched.
On the plus side to that, Alex now has a lot more of his Unit-mates respect and Bear seems much less intimidating, now that he knows the man becomes just as theatrical as Panther when he's injured.
From there, Alex had slipped into Lynx's character a bit more comfortably.
After the fight and before dinners, they had to sit down and re-strategise all of B-Unit's formation and procedures.
It was during this hour or so that Alex's had his undercover skills tested by the Unit.
***This is a mix between Alex's and Croc's POV but in 3rd person just fyi***
"Christ Lynx, you don't need to bother with shooting, you can just whip out your boney little elbow and the target would be done for. Ugh, Christ, my bloody ribs." Bear moans, shifting in his seat as his chest thrums with the pain of a fresh bruise.
Lynx smiles, just a little quirk of his lips as he shrugs with one shoulder. He doesn't reply, but the three men on chairs around him feel the little bit of pride in the compliment.
Croc watches him, eyes zeroed in on his movements for any sign of injury. Really he doesn't mean to be so coddling, but there's something about Lynx that seemed pained and just...vulnerable. Maybe it's because he's younger than them, quite obviously.
Croc had never taken any other soldier into his Unit so easily, and there had been quite a few. The title of B-Unit's 4th had been cursed since their Selection days. Most quit because they don't like them as people - either Panther too weird, Bear too blunt or Croc too scrutinising - and those are usually the people that don't last too long in the SAS. The one guy they'd ever even liked, their original 4th from when they were in Selection, had to leave because his sister was too irresponsible and bitchy and he had custody of her little girl (sometimes they meet up for coffee, when B-Unit are on leave, and the once-Rat usually brings his tiny niece. Seeing Tim and Sarah interact is always the best thing ever). No one has ever gotten on so well with them so fast. It's almost suspicious. Lynx seems too perfect for them that Croc just can't slip into the groove that Bear and Panther are in with him.
Looking to Lynx's face there is no pain, his body language is loose and relaxed, but it's something about the way he moves his arms that has Croc's Medic Senses tingling.
Couldn't for once they just have a regular man join their Unit? Is that really so much to ask for?
"Quit whining, Bear." Panther says with a hint of mischief in his lopsided smile. "But speaking of shooting..." The man whips around to Lynx, who suddenly has a (slightly petulant, not that Lynx would admit it) frown on his face. He'd been hoping he could avoid this conversation for as long as possible.
"What about it?" Lynx inquires.
Croc sits a little forward in his seat, his and Bear's paperwork forgotten on the rickety, stained table. This is the moment they've been working up to all day.
"Well, you're young for SAS, you've gotta admit." Lynx nods to Panthers statement, and the subtle inquiry about his age slips seemingly unnoticed.
"And as a Sharpshooter, usually you've gotta have years of experience with all sorts of guns." Bear joins in, and raises his eyebrows as he looks Lynx up and down, skeptically. "So, what I want to know, is how much you know. You can't be on this Unit if you're just gonna get us all killed."
Panther kicks Bear's chair with a little glare on his face. "What?" Bear exclaims. "We were all thinking it."
Panther looks as if he's about to reprimand the other soldier, he's got his Dad-Face on, but Lynx's soft and even voice cuts the tension left by Bear's too blunt statement.
"It's fine, really." Lynx says, seeming almost at ease, but there was a tenseness in him that he couldn't control and Croc couldn't help but notice.
Lynx takes a deep breath mentally, ready to spout off a bit of Alexei Gregory Smith's backstory. MI6 hadn't bothered to create one for him, so it is all in his hands to craft a believable and fitting history for 'Lynx'. But it isn't the first time Blunt and Jones have left him completely stranded like this, so Lynx is used to it.
"My family were either in the Army or '6, I grew up with a target on my head." At B-Unit's panicked faces, Lynx rushes to continue. "It's not like I've got a bounty on me, it was like a 'just in case' sort of thing. My Uncle taught me a lot about his side of The Job; he was SAS and MI6. Made sure I could defend myself."
Lynx's shoulders subconsciously tense, and his voice drops a bit of the 'story telling' tone when he talks about his Uncle. Croc sees it, and makes a note to himself to maybe ask the Sarge to look up - once he's gathered enough little hints, of course - about just how much of a prick Lynx's Uncle is to make him act so highly-strung.
"And then around a year ago, his undercover op went bad and they had to send in someone new." Lynx sighs, and rubs his thumb over his palm in calming circles. "The training was pretty...intense. The mission..." Lynx licks his teeth, trying to stop himself from getting too angry and straying from his pre-constructed backstory.
"Classified, but I can say it was much...harder than they'd lead me on to think."
Dark expressions litter across every face in the room. From what B-Unit have gathered from Lynx throughout the day, he definitely isn't one to complain. If he says his mission with MI6 was hard? They're not sure they really want to know what went down.
"There was a point when I was left without my long-rage stuff, and had to improvise." His smirk is a little bitter then, and B-Unit copied. They know just how gruesomely creative one has to be to get through the worser situations.
"So really, don't worry about me not having your backs on the field. Take my word for it. I'm a good shot." It isn't smug, there is no pride in Lynx's statement. Croc finds himself hurting, sympathising for him. Whatever this mission was, it had fucked him up. Croc makes a few notes to himself in his head to not be too much of an arse to him. He likes this one.
B-Unit unanimously decide that this is the soldier they aren't going drive away from them. Lynx doesn't have the expectation that the Unit was obligated to look out for him, as the newbie. But he still seems to understand that he is obligated to look out for them at all times. They can only return the favour once he's proved he's capable to stand on his own two feet.
Lynx seems ready to prove himself. It's admirable.
They accept his answer with little words, because it doesn't really need any to follow up with. Lynx has put a bit of trust in them by telling them about what they have no misconceptions was probably a very rough year, so in turn they put trust in his abilities. If only out of pity.
They work on their team strategies until Dinner. Lynx feels like he can let himself relax just a little bit, now that the first day was almost over.
(Croc had felt like Lynx's behaviour was finally explained, but when Lynx lifts his fork to eat his slop he's reminded of the bloody tape around the younger's fingers, and wonders if he even knows anything about Lynx at all.)
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