OMG OKAY SO I KNOW ITS BEEN A WHILE AND IM SORRY BUT IVE HAD A LOT OF ISH GO DOWN LATELY ACK. BUT GOOD NEWS THO IM ALMOST ON MY SUMMER HOLIDAYS SO SOON THE UPDATES WILL BE A LITTLE MORE REGULAR.
**EDITED A LIL BIT TO BE EXTRA GOODIE
TIME SKIP AGAIN FORWARD TWO WEEKS
"Lynx!" Croc shouts for Alex from across the Mess Hall, startling him out of pushing his breakfast around his plate. The bland porridge and the flavourless, slightly browned fruit are the only things Alex can eat for breakfast without upsetting his stomach. However, there was only yogurt, warm oatmeal, and hash browns out when Alex got to the Mess Hall. He'd woken up early again, and the rest of the food wasn't out. He was tempted to snatch one of the highly fought over hash browns, but the looks of betrayal from Panther would be a boy more than Alex could take so soon in the day.
"Yeah?" Alex says as his Unit Leader slinks around the other tables in long urgent strides, creases between his eyebrows and mouth set severely. "What's going on?" Alex asks quietly. He's never seen Croc look like this before. And B-Unit don't care anymore that Alex isn't there when they all start to get up in the morning - though they were quite panicked the first time he'd gone to breakfast early, according to their identically relieved faces once they'd found him - so what has Croc in such a state? Part of Alex isn't looking forward to finding out. Okay, a lot of Alex isn't looking forward to finding.
God, he's only been here two weeks and already there's shit going down.
Croc drops down into the seat in front of Alex, heavily and uncaring of the thudding sound that resonates from the bench. His arms fold across his chest, and even though Croc's hands are tucked away Alex can easily tell from the strain in the man's arms that his fists are tightly clenched. Alex really starts to worry, now. He goes through the last few days in his mind, and tries to see if Croc's sour mood is his fault.
"You've been here two weeks." Croc speaks after a tense moment of silence. His voice comes out slightly strained, and his jaw is set so tightly Alex thinks it must be painful. Alex nods slightly, uncertainty starting to creep in. What's going on?
"And your file still hasn't come through to us." Alex almost feels scared of Croc when he looks so angry. But just a few missing bits of missing background inforThe mation, after knowing he comes from '6, has never made Croc this irritated before. Sure, the man has made threats on dragging him off to the Medical Ward many times to interrogate him like a mini-RTI session, but usually he was half-joking, and it was when Alex was purposely stepping around all of their innocent questions.
Croc's eyes narrow at Alex's face, but the fury in them isn't directed at him. Instead, they're distant and burning. Alex wants to know what's going on - where is Panther and Bear? If something so important is going on, where's their Unit Supervisor? Where's A-Unit? As Croc tries to pry his grounding teeth apart to continue, Alex's brain is hurtling dizzying thoughts around his head.
"And we've been training with you for two weeks." Alex doesn't bother to nod and just stares at Croc, skin starting to tingle uncomfortably with traitorous anxiety.
"And you're injured."
Alex chokes, momentarily losing his cool and curses himself for it as Croc settles him with a satisfied look. Great. There's part of Alex's cover blown.
"I'm not-"
Bam! Croc slaps his hands down onto the table, apparently at the end of his rope, and Alex would be lying if he said he was so spy-awesome that he didn't flinch. In his defence, it sounds an awful lot like a skin on skin punch.
"Shut up, Lynx. Don't fucking lie to me." Croc's voice is monotone and his face still stony, but Alex could easily spot the disappointment and tiredness in it. It reminds him vaguely of his uncle, Ian. The very thought makes his stomach burn bitterly.
Alex keeps quiet. There's no point in saying anything about it now. He's going to have to come up with some bullshit excuses for when Croc eventually drags him to Medical. (Would they buy it if he says he's severely allergic to antiseptic? That worked on the ditzy school nurse, once.)
"And fucking SO wants us on a fucking dangerous rescue mission with you, right fucking now." Croc seethes out, and Alex is too busy not breathing to feel any offence over the way Croc spits his name with unparalleled frustration.
Alex feels so cheated right now. He'd for some reason believed MI6 when they said he'd have no more missions, but of course that was just wishful thinking - the SAS are England's Elite. Of course, of course, of course they'd be snatched away for the dangerous shit that was so heavy the government needed a whole group of elite arseholes to fix their messes.
How could he forget his own second mission - he'd nearly been hit by a train before the official mission even started, he was then actually hit by a train after snowboarding down a very rocky and tree-littered mountain on an ironing board because he was trying to escape being nearly dissected by a crazy scientist who wanted to clone him - did clone him - and launched a snowmobile at a helicopter and-
That's enough of that, actually. Alex doesn't even want to think about that mission. He still sees Julius every time he goes to sleep, and sometimes his reflection has a bloody hole in between his eyes.
"What?" Alex eventually gathers enough breath to choke out, and he tries failingly to slow his heartbeat because it's beating so hard in his chest it hurts.
Croc's anger seems to drain out of him like a deflated balloon, and his shoulders sink down as he pushes a hand through his short hair, mussing it up in different directions. He exhales slowly, and when he tilts his head back up to look into Alex's pale, stoney young face his lips smooth out from the hard line into a gentle downturn of his mouth.
Alex is almost afraid that Croc's going to apologise, and he would in turn have to come up with an awkward acceptance, when the man stands up. He looks disturbed to Alex, and when Alex turns his head to see what Croc's staring at he sees the Sargent by the door of the Mess Hall - holding a mission file, and two standard bullet proof vests.
Alex hadn't thought when Croc had said now, he'd meant now.
