Jump then Fall

When people say things that bring you to your knees, I'll catch you

Perhaps the first sign about Rose's boyfriend being a manipulative bastard should have come from the fact that his first name was Alan. Alan Atros. The only Alan which Rose had ever met in her life was Alan Blunt, the head of the Special Operations of MI6. And look at what a heartless, blackmailing, lifeless jerk he was.

Perhaps the second sign that Alan was a conniving git was the fact that his last name was Atros. Atros, the accusative form of the Latin word "atrox" meaning "cruel". But then again, in this day and age who knew even two words in the dead language?

Perhaps the third sign that Alan Atros was a sorry excuse for a human being should have come from the way his eyes always seemed to linger on other women, those whom he had no right to look at in that way. He was, after all, not dating any of them.

But, even so, it took Rose Allende, the youngest MI6 agent before Alex, quite a while to figure out that the sneaky, sly, stupid boyfriend of hers was not as perfect as he seemed. Oh sure, he had the looks and the charms, but inside he was just a shrivelled black soul who delighted in making the life of those around him as miserable as possible.

Of course when Rose had found out, the backlash had been massive.

Messing around with a MI6 agent who was able to kill you in twelve different ways without leaving any forensic evidence, who was trained to extract the most delicate pieces of information from the mouth of the tightest lips, who could shoot a sniper with eighty seven percent accuracy from a two hundred and fifty metre radius, was not a smart idea.

Alan Atros learnt that the hard way.

He is still in hospital in the intensive treatment ward. He'll probably be there for a while, especially after all the other women take out their revenge too. But still, beating the crap out of someone doesn't heal the hole they left inside your heart.

It's now three weeks after Rose landed her ex-boyfriend in hospital, and Alex was getting really worried. The woman, to whom he was protégée, had simply not been herself at work. Coming late, zoning out, not eating. Even giving Alex breaks when she'd convinced him previously that she didn't even know the meaning of that word.

It had been nine months since that fateful Friday when Alex had signed the MI6 contract. If he was completely honest, he rather enjoyed the work. There weren't as many missions, though there was a lot more paperwork. Mountains of that stuff. And, Rose being the slightly sadistic woman she was, had grinned evilly at Alex before shoving her own paperwork at him too. And yet people often wondered why he constantly complained about being the "fun-loving, happy and cheerful" woman's protégée. She was not fun-loving or happy. She was highly sadistic, and revelled in Alex's pain. Or at least, that was his view.

So it had been a great shock to walk into the office two days after Rose's breakup to see the woman doing her own paperwork. And while it had been nice for the first two hours, Alex soon got extremely worried.

And now, three weeks later, he was bordering on having an anxiety attack.

Agent Ben Daniels had tried his best to talk his former protégée out of her slump; he was, after all, far better acquainted with Rose. But so far, the man was not having much luck. He'd even gone to his wife for advice, but nothing seemed to work with getting Rose out of her head.

Which was why he, Alex, Jack, Tom and Sabina were now grouped together at the entrance to the bank, MI6 headquarters in disguise. The five of them were waiting for Rose to come out so that they could corner the woman, perhaps kidnap her, and drag her back to Alex's house to figure out how to get her out of her hole.

The plan however, hadn't been as well thought out as they had thought. For one thing, they'd forgotten how suspicious it looked for five people to be constantly hanging around the entrance to an intelligence service – the guards at the bank had thrown them wary glances every ten seconds in the first hour, and it was only after Alex and Ben had flashed their MI6 badges that they'd prevented the guards from either arresting the five of them, or shooting them first and asking questions later.

The second part of the not-well-thought-out plan was the misjudgement of time that had led to the aforementioned suspicious guards. They'd forgotten the fact that Rose now came out of her office hours later than she normally would, almost as if she was dreading facing the outside world. As a result, the five of them ended up waiting outside the bank for five and a half hours, getting severely bored. By the time Rose finally showed up, the sky had already darkened.

Alex and Ben each grabbed one of the woman's arms and, without waiting to hear her surprised complaints, dragged her bodily into the car. Jack pulled out of their parking spot as soon as the doors had shut. Tom and Sabina helped to buckle Rose's seatbelt, while the woman tried to fight off the two highly disgruntled MI6 agents.

It was a relief for both parties involved in the back seat struggle when Jack finally pulled into the garage. Rose was immediately dragged out of the back of the car by Alex and Ben, despite her protests of being able to walk, while Tom and Sabina followed with amused smiles on their faces. Jack just rolled her eyes and left for the kitchen to start making dinner.

Rose was dumped rather unceremoniously on the living room couch, with Alex and Ben flanking the woman either side while Tom and Sabina each pulled up chairs on the sideline. They didn't want to get too involved...just in case.

"Alright Rose," Ben started, "What's wrong with you?"

Rose stared at the man rather incredulously. "You kidnap me, force me into the car and drag me into Alex's house, and you're asking what's wrong with me?"

"Yes."

"You're crazy."

"Look Rose," Alex intervened, "We're just worried. You haven't been yourself for weeks and, well, we miss the old Rose."

"So instead of just asking me outright, you decide to kidnap me instead?"

"Rose! Just answer the bloody question!"

"Don't take that tone with me!"

"Don't take that tone with me!" Ben countered.

Rose glowered at the man. "Why are you doing this to me?" She cried. "What did I ever do to you?"

"Rosalinda Charlotte Allende! Answer the freaking question or so help me God, I will kick your ass into next week during training tomorrow!" Ben almost shouted. Alex, Tom and Sabina stared at the man in shock – none of them had seen him lose it before.

Having spent a while as the man's protégée however, Rose had. And she knew that when Ben used her full name, it was time to back down. Well, the guy did carry a gun on his person. She was merely showing signs of self preservation...not cowardliness.

"Alright," she sighed, "So maybe I was a bit off these past few weeks..."

"A bit?" Tom asked wryly, "Rose, I dumped my entire plate of spaghetti on you last week and you didn't even bat an eyelid."

"Yeah," Alex piped up, "I mean, even Ben could see that he did it on purpose–"

Ben growled slightly. "Watch it, kid," he warned.

Alex ignored the guy. "Normally you would've either started yelling loudly enough to burst our eardrums, or broken his nose. But...I don't think you even realised it."

Rose rolled her eyes, before sighing again rather glumly. "I'm just really pre-occupied. Lately, all I've been able to think about is the breakup. And that pathetic excuse for a guy. He...he said some things before I broke his wrist...and..." Rose broke off.

"And..." Sabina said softly.

"And...well...I didn't want to believe some of the things he said. I don't want to believe what he said. But...I just can't help but replay that scene over and over again in my head."

"What did he say to you?" Alex asked, causing Rose to snort.

"Like I'm going to repeat it to your innocent ears."

"What did he say?" Ben asked, grinning evilly at the three teenagers when Rose leaned over to whisper in his ear. His grin quickly vanished, however, to be replaced by a look of pure loathing and anger. "That bastard! I'm going to kill him! How dare he–"

"Now you see why I was so upset," Rose smiled tightly. Ben merely growled in response, cracking his knuckles as if contemplating whether it would be more beneficial to comfort Rose or to make sure Alan Atros stayed in hospital for another ten years.

Alex leaned over to Sabina. "From that reaction, I don't think I want to know what that guy said," he whispered. Sabina nodded vigorously in agreement, her eyes wide with fright.

"Kids," Ben said rather harshly, "Could you give us a moment please?"

Alex, Tom and Sabina shared a look before they nodded at the man. On their way out, Sabina went over to Rose and pulled the surprised woman into a hug.

"Rose, I just want you to know that we're here for you. All of us," she added, glancing over at Alex and Tom who both nodded rather solemnly, "If you need anything, a shoulder to cry on, someone to kill your ex for you, don't hesitate to ask."

Rose smiled a real smile, the one which no-one had seen for ages. "Thanks," she whispered.

Sabina nodded and smiled in return, before turning and ushering the boys out of the room, closing the door for privacy. Or to block out any noise.

"Do you think she'll be alright?" Alex asked, slinging an arm around Sabina's waist.

Before either Sabina or Tom could give their opinion, loud voices began shouting swear words, death threats and God knows what else on the other side of the door. It was a good thing that the door was closed, otherwise the three would've probably lost their sense of hearing.

Tom winced slightly. "I think they'll be fine."

The three entered the kitchen to see Jack looking in their direction rather worriedly. Seeing the three enter, she tossed them a questioning look, to which Alex replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

They each helped themselves to a glass of juice, before down sitting at the table, readying themselves for the long wait. They spent the next ten minutes in silence, sipping on their juice and listening to snatches of the shouting that was still coming from the living room.

At last, they all heard the door open. Spinning around, they saw Rose and Ben enter, both looking rather worn out from all the shouting. When they spoke, the four could hear the hoarseness in their voices.

Rose looked much better as she and Ben sat down with the four. Sure, you could still see the sadness and anger lingering just behind her calmer exterior facade. But now her smiles, no matter how small, were reaching her eyes again. She laughed too; softly yes, but it was a start. And when Jack invited her and Ben to stay for dinner, she accepted for the first time in weeks.

Just as Jack stood up from the table to make one of her famous fast feasts, Rose and Tom made eye contact. Something in Rose's mind clicked, and her eyes widened in realisation.

"You dumped spaghetti on me on purpose!" She exclaimed.

In the next minute, Alex had pulled Sabina onto his lap, away from Tom as Rose lunged across the table for the boy. Tom barely managed to somehow get out of reach, almost falling off his chair in the process. He sprinted out of the kitchen, Rose hot on his heels.

Sure, she still hurt. It would be a long time before she stopped hurting. But now, she was on the way to mending.

.:X:.

Love Chariots99