Disclaimer: I do not own the Alex Rider series.

Claimer: I do own the AIS and all characters from the AIS (e.g. Desiree Swan).

Chapter 7

It was Sunday morning. Alex's sixteenth birthday. Except for Jack and the birthday boy, no-one else was up yet. Alex still lay in bed, while Jack was downstairs preparing breakfast. For once, it hadn't been Desiree or Jake that woke the teenage spy.

When they'd returned home the previous night, it was to find Jack frantic with worry. Her shouting could be heard from outside the house, and when they entered they found Jack pacing around and yelling about how irresponsible MI6 were. They also found a cowering Agent Crawley, who all but bolted out the house when informed by Banks that he was no longer needed.

Jack had then ordered them to sit in the living room, and had gone to the kitchen only to return with glasses of hot chocolate. She'd then drawn the Australians upstairs before they could even touch their drinks, because she wanted to know if they had gotten Alex anything for his birthday.

Alex sighed and rolled over, glancing at his clock. It read 7:42. He groaned slightly. All the bruises he'd obtained last night now screamed at him. He'd also managed to strain some of his muscles, having not had a chance to warm up. Now they were also screaming at him in pain.

Soft footsteps approached his door, and a moment later it was quietly opened then closed, Tom now standing in the room with a wrapped box in his hand. He looked at his best friend and threw him his present.

"Happy sixteenth mate," he said, before sitting down on Alex's bed.

"Thanks," Alex said, putting the present to one side as he sat up. "What are you doing here?"

Tom glanced at him and sighed slightly.

"You know when we slipped those sleeping pills into Desiree and Jake's hot chocolate?" He began. Last night when Jack had dragged the Australians off to question them about Alex's gift, Tom, Alex, Ben and Andrew Banks had slipped into both of their hot chocolates a couple of sleeping tables, which had promptly dissolved in the drink. They didn't want the two waking them up at 5:35 again, especially not on a Sunday, and Alex's birthday to boot.

"Yea, what about them?" Alex asked.

"Well, I think we over killed on that one," Tom said, "I went into Jake's room and he's just stirring. But I went into Dessi's room and I couldn't wake her up at all. I mean, if it weren't for the fact that I could actually see her breathing, I'd have thought she was dead or something."

Alex stared at his friend for five full seconds before blinking and muttering "crap" under his breath. He got out of bed, not even bothering to change, and crept out of his room, Tom on his heels. Together they crept down the hall towards the room Dessi was sleeping in.

Alex slowly opened her door and went inside, Tom choosing to stay out by the door. The room was dark, the curtains were still drawn. There was a lump on the bed that roughly resembled Dessi's form, though it wasn't moving. Slightly panicked, Alex moved towards the bed.

"Dessi?" He murmured softly, reaching out to put his hand on where he assumed the girl's shoulder was.

His hand never made contact.

At that moment, a large sheet fell onto his head and around his body, shutting out the dim lights and plunging him into darkness. Surprised, he let out a shout.

Across the hall someone, probably Ben, fell out of his bed surprised by the loud shout. Alex could hear muffled laughter coming from the general direction of the door. As the boy struggled to throw the sheet off him, he could feel hands tying the ends together, swiftly trapping him inside.

"And that's for drugging my drink!" a voice exclaimed exuberantly from somewhere above him.

"Dessi?" Alex said, stopping his struggling. "What? How did you know about the drug?" Alex sat down on the bed with a huff, fighting to remain upright when he sat on the edge of the sheet and it threatened to pull him down.

"Tom told me," her voice sounded very close to his ear. Under the sheets, Alex raised an eyebrow.

"Did he, now…? Did Tom also happen to mention to you that it was his idea in the first place?" Alex asked. There was a pause, and the muffled laughter he'd previously heard by the door stopped suddenly.

"No…He didn't," Dessi said softly, glaring at Tom.

Suddenly Alex felt the pillow which he was sitting on yanked out from beneath him. Tom gave a short yell, before dashing off, chased by Desiree who was now armed with a pillow.

Alex could hear the girl chase his friend around, hitting him repeatedly with the pillow which the boy begged for mercy. The teenage spy also heard the other MI6 agents yelling at them to stop, and Jack calling them from downstairs to inform them that breakfast was ready. Alex had to struggle quite a bit to be free of the sheet; the girl had tied some extremely complicated knot extremely tightly around his stomach.

Just as he freed himself, Tom charged into the room, diving under the bed which Alex was sitting on. Close behind Tom, Dessi entered, holding her pillow at the ready. Alex saw that the girl was already changed, wearing jeans and a long sleeved shirt. The heating in the house was on so there was no need for a jumper.

"To-om," Desiree called in a sing-song voice, "I know you're under my bed!"

"No I'm not," Tom's muffled voice came from under the bed and Dessi grinned in triumph. Alex got off the bed, sensing a chance for revenge, and crept under it so that he was behind Tom. The boy didn't notice; he had his full undivided attention fixed in the direction of the door where he knew Desiree still stood.

Alex crawled up to his friend and whispered a soft but sharp "Boo."

Tom yelled in shock and shot out from under the bed, where Dessi was waiting. The girl grinned and began to repeatedly hit him with her pillow.

"DESIREE ANNE SWAN!!! COME HERE THIS INSTANT!" Jake suddenly yelled from the door. Dessi hit Tom one last time before throwing the pillow at Alex who was just emerging from under the bed.

Jake grabbed the girl when she reached him, and dragged her into his room, slamming the door loudly behind them. Even with the door closed, the entire household could hear Jake's muffled shouting, berating the girl for waking everyone up.

Tom and Alex looked at each other.

"I think we got her into trouble," Tom whispered.

"…and we do not hit others with pillows! I know that boy can get annoying, but I expected better of you!…"

"Yep, we definitely got her into trouble."

"We are so dead," Alex sighed, getting up off the floor to which he'd been frozen to.

"Where are you going?" Tom asked, scrambling to his feet.

Alex raised an eyebrow." Er…to get changed," he said, gesturing to his pyjamas.

"Oh," Tom said, and in the dim lighting of the room, Alex could see that his expression was a mixture of relief and disappointment, "I thought you were going to break those two up."

Alex snorted as Jake's shouting echoed in the background. "Mate, I'm not that suicidal. Besides, it's my birthday, and I'd rather not be killed today thanks all the same."

"He can't be that bad can he?" Tom asked, tailing Alex out of the room.

"Well, that depends. Do you see Ben trying to stop him?" Alex asked. Tom turned to see Ben poking his head out of his room, a slightly worried expression on his face. However the man didn't get out to stop the fight.

"No," Tom said.

"That would be because he's met Jake."

As Tom watched, Andrew Banks came out of his room, clearly deciding that Jake had been shouting for long enough. Alex hissed a warning under his breath, just as Banks opened the door. Immediately, the AIS unit one leader's anger was turned towards the MI6 agent. After about five seconds in which Banks stared at the man, stunned, he came to his senses and quickly shut the door, bolting downstairs to the relative safety of the kitchen.

"And that's why," Alex said, before closing his door for some privacy.

After he got changed, Alex and Tom made their way downstairs for breakfast. They were joined by Ben, who informed the teenage spy that he'd put his present on the boy's bed. Alex grinned happily. With all the extra people in their house, he was getting more presents than he normally would.

When Desiree finally emerged from Jake's room, she was extremely disgruntled. Alex and Ben glanced at her with expressions of sympathy, Tom with an expression of shock. He'd never heard anyone shout for so long, not even his parents. Banks was extremely quiet, and didn't say a word. Jack put a plate of her famous scrambled eggs in front of the girl, who merely picked at it with a scowl on her face. The bruises she'd received had developed into a full black eye overnight, something that probably didn't help the girl's mood.

Jake came down some time after, and he was immediately thrown a death glare from Jack, who empathised better with Dessi due to her acquaintance with Alex. Jake ignored the American, sitting down beside Ben and quietly eating his slightly-and deliberately-burnt breakfast.

Alex glanced around the table. The air was filled with extreme tension as the two AIS agents refused to even look at each other. Tom glanced at Alex, and an unspoken message passed between the two friends.

"Jack, can we be excused?" Alex asked, standing.

"Sure," Jack smiled, "Oh, and happy birthday Alex. I'll bring you your present after I've done the dishes."

"Okay, thanks." Alex almost dragged Desiree up the stairs to his room, Tom following close behind. The three of them sat down on Alex's bed, Dessi with a small sigh, and lapsed into silence. Tom bit his lip before deciding to break it.

"Dessi?" He said, and the girl turned to him with her crystal blue eyes, "Sorry about the whole sleeping pills thing. We just didn't want you to wake us up again."

Dessi smiled. "Don't worry," she said, "I needed a good night's sleep anyway."

Alex thought for a moment before asking, "How come the pills didn't have a huge affect on you? They're meant to knock you out for a good ten hours, and you were awake at, well, before seven forty-two."

Dessi grinned mischievously. "I could taste the pills in the hot chocolate," she said, and Alex and Tom traded a grimacing look, "So I wasn't about to drink the entire thing."

"That explains so much," Tom said.

"Oh, and by the way Alex," Dessi added, "Happy birthday."

Alex grinned. "Thanks."

Alex felt that his sixteenth birthday came with the best haul of presents than all his other birthdays put together. Jack had got him the World of Warcraft game, along with an extremely glittery birthday card. Tom had merely given his friend money, since Alex went with him everywhere to prevent any attacks, the boy hadn't been able to get his friend a present and keep it a surprise. Ben and Andrew had pitched in together and gotten the boy a new phone, touch screened with an emergency button installed that would alert the MI6 of danger should he press it, along with another button that would instantly connect him with Mrs Jones.

Smithers too had sent along a present, a Swiss army knife with more contraptions added to the usual knife; there was a miniature dart which contained a liquid so potent that the person injected would not wake until at least twenty-four hours later, small but powerful explosives capable of blowing up entire walls, and a couple of white tablets which Desiree had identified as suicide tablets that would cause death within five seconds of swallowing them. The gadget expert had also sent along a card, which had exploded after a minute of opening, much to the amusement of Tom and Dessi.

Even K-unit had pitched in with a group present, an eight gigabyte iPod touch. Apparently they hadn't like Alex's old iPod. Along with the [really badly] wrapped iPod was a slightly dirtied card, signed by Wolf, Snake, Eagle and Shark (Ben's replacement).

Last but not least were the two AIS agents. They'd both gotten their presents for him in Australia. Jake had gotten the boy a boomerang, an Aboriginal artefact that returned to the owner after it was thrown. The boomerang came with strict instructions not to throw indoors for fear of a rather painful death which Jake himself would inflict, birthday boy or no.

Desiree had gotten Alex a rather peculiar present which she insisted that he told no-one about. She'd also made him open it away from the others, especially Jake. The two went to Alex's room to open the present. The boy didn't even bother to open the curtains as he sat on the floor, wanting to find out what the 'secret present' was. This resulted in the two spies having to squint slightly in the dim lighting of the room to see properly.

Dessi's present was about the length of a USB, though a lot thicker, with a coat of deep blue paint that softly shimmered in the light. The object had three distinct layers that could be rotated in or out. Once the top layer was rotated out, there was a small sliding hook which released a long and thin tube. The tube was to be inserted into a lock, where it sprayed out white foam which then effectively blew the lock apart, thus opening any lock without the need to pick it. The middle layer was a fingerprint sensitive thumb drive. Dessi programmed it so that it would only accept Alex's fingerprints; any other foreign fingerprints would cause the USB to self-destruct. The final layer consisted of twelve miniature but deadly knives that were no bigger than the tip of Alex's pinkie. Nonetheless, they were sharp.

"Where did you get this from?" Alex asked in a hushed voice as he pulled out one of the knives and accidently cut himself; he didn't even feel the knife cut into his finger, just saw a sudden burst of blood.

Desiree winced slightly at the question. "From…well, out of our Covert Weaponry Storage."

Alex raised an eyebrow as he tried to stop his bleeding by applying pressure. "I take it you didn't get permission to take this then?" He asked. Dessi scowled slightly, grabbing his bleeding hand and a couple of tissues, and pushed down on the cut that way.

"No, I didn't," Dessi said, "And I'd really prefer if you don't tell anyone about it. Especially not Jake, or MI6. Not only will I be in a lot of trouble, you'd get it confiscated, and I had to smuggle it out of AIS security and customs."

Alex grinned and pocketed the rather unusual gadget with his uninjured hand. "Don't worry. I won't tell a soul," he promised. Then he looked up into Dessi's crystal blue eyes. For the first time he realised that they were alone in his room; after Dessi said that no-one should see his present, he'd kicked everyone out except for the girl.

Alex's breath hitched slightly in his throat. Dessi was sitting so close to him, her eyes sparkling in the slightly dim room. Her black eye wasn't actually all that visible now, due to the slight absence of light. She was still holding onto his hand, trying to stop the bleeding. Or maybe it had already stopped bleeding. Maybe she was just holding onto his hand.

He never found out. Tom barged loudly into the room and demanded to know what was taking Alex so long, and what the secret present was. Seeing the two in the dim light staring at each other and holding hands didn't even raise any alarm bells in the boy's head.

Alex hastily jerked his hand out of Dessi's and stood, muttering some excuse about needing fresh air before bolting out the room. Tom and Desiree gaped after the boy, bewildered, before Tom turned to Desiree with an expectant expression on his face that she could only just make out in the dim lighting.

"So," Tom said, dropping to the floor, "What did you get him?"

Desiree smiled.

"Classified."

Tom groaned and fell to the floor.

"Why? Why must you always classify every God damned thing as classified?" He whined.

The girl pretended to think before breaking out into a grin.

"Classified."

Tom's forehead made contact with his palm. Honestly, spies could be very annoying when they wanted to, especially when they took it upon themselves to 'classify' every bloody thing on the planet.

"So you can't even give me a clue?" He wheedled.

"Well…it took a while to smuggle out of Australia…" Dessi said.

"So it's…illegal?" Tom guessed.

"Um, not exactly."

"Oh, come on! Just tell me!" Tom pleaded, his curiosity peaking.

Desiree smiled at him, but shook her head. "Sorry, can't."

"Why not?"

"Classified."

Tom groaned. "Desiree, you are the most infuriating girl I have ever met! Well, asides from Cindy…"

Dessi laughed. "Yeah, I try," she said.

"Try what?"

Tom and Dessi turned to see Alex at the door, a slightly sheepish expression on his face.

"Alex! Where'd you go?" Tom asked, beckoning for his friend to join them. Alex sat down.

"Oh, just downstairs to get a drink," he said, carefully avoiding Dessi's curious eye. Even he wasn't exactly sure what went over him…

"So, she won't tell me, so will you?" Tom turned to his friend.

"Er, tell you what?" Alex asked, confused.

Tom groaned and smacked the boy on the head. "What your present was!"

Alex grinned, massaging his head.

"Classified," he said.

Desiree burst into laughter as Tom began to beat the floor in frustration. He was seriously getting sick of the word "classified".

"If one of you doesn't tell me what it is, I'll…I'll…"

"Stutter at us?" Dessi grinned.

Tom stuck his tongue out at her. "Shut up," he said as the other two burst into laughter. Tom huffed and stood, giving them his best death glare. Unfortunately for him, the two spies had experienced a lot worse from Wolf and Jake, so the glare didn't really do much.

If anything, it made the two laugh even harder.

There was a loud knock on the door. It had an almost immediate effect on the household. Whereas before they were just sitting at the table, enjoying some peace after lunch, now they were all suddenly tense, alert for danger. Jake and Ben grabbed Jack and almost literally dragged her into the living room where it would be easier to shield her. Dessi and Tom retreated up the stairs slightly, so that they were out of range of any potential bullets but were still able to see what was happening. And Alex and Andrew went to open the door.

"Happy birthday Alex!" An all too familiar voice shrieked.

Suddenly Alex found himself in another bone-crushing hug. He staggered back, and would have fallen had Andrew not reached out to steady the swamped boy.

"C-Cindy! What are you doing?" Alex stuttered, trying in vain to throw the cheerleader off him.

"I came to give you your present, of course!" The girl exclaimed, finally letting Alex go for which the boy was extremely grateful of, "Here!" She handed him a wrapped box, not particularly big, but slightly overdone with ribbons. The entire thing was pink, even the card which was attached to the top of the wrapped present. There was a choked sound behind Alex; apparently Andrew Banks was having slight difficulty not to burst into laughter. Or to vomit.

"Er…thanks," Alex muttered, looking over the present with a slightly horrified expression that Cindy ignored.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow!" And with that the cheerleader flounced away, briefly stopping to wink at the horrified boy before climbing into the waiting car. Alex closed the door, looking as if he was considering throwing the present back at Cindy.

Alex looked at Banks, and saw that the man's face had gone red from suppressed laughter. Muttering under his breath about insane cheerleaders and MI6 agents who were traitors, the teenage spy pushed past Agent Banks to inform everyone else that there was no threat.

Desiree and Tom came down from the stairs to see the rest of the household gathered around the pink present, staring at it in a sort of revolting amusement. They wanted to see what was inside, but at the same time didn't want to know what the cheerleader decided was a present. Judging from the wrapping, the present itself would probably be something pink.

"Open it," Tom finally demanded after some time of silence.

Alex looked at his friend with dread before reaching out hesitantly for the present. Jack murmured something under her breath, and everyone else gazed, transfixed, as Alex untied the numerous ribbons which wrapped the present. Taking a deep breath, he ripped open the excessively pink wrapping paper. And froze in horror.

In his hand he held a baby pink stuffed teddy bear, complete with pink sparkles that didn't seem to want to stick to the bear's coat. For a second there was no sound. Then abruptly Tom burst into laughter, which set Dessi off, which in turn set everyone else off. They couldn't stop; every time one of them seemed close, they'd looked at Alex's expression and the bear, and had started again.

Alex got over his shock and scowled at his friends. Then he ditched the pink bear at Tom. It hit the boy in his head and bounced off, leaving the boy with pink glitter that stood out violently from his black hair. That was when Alex joined in with the laughter.

It was some time before they calmed down. In all the recent stress, with Scorpia's threat and last night's attack, they hadn't really had time to just relax and laugh, and pretend that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the world.

"Happy birthday Alex!"

And that's Alex's sixteenth birthday! To be honest, I'm not sure whether sixteen year olds enjoy playing WOW…but hey, my guy friends do, so Alex does now.

Anyways, how did you like that chapter? Was it good? Did it suck? Tell me in a review!!!

Thanks to all my anonymous reviewers, 'coz I can't personally thank you since you're anonymous…

Love Chariots99