Here we go guys!!!! I guess you can call this a filler chapter, but a lot happens in it. Thank you everyone who has read and reviewed! It means so much! Anyway, enjoy chapter 10!

Chapter 10

Alex woke with a start. His head was throbbing, and his flashbacks popped in and out of his vision, which made him slightly dizzy. Using his elbows, he propped himself up to take in his surroundings. Three men rested against a bunk parallel to his own, and then another was resting above the three on the bunk. They were all surrounding the center man who had a clipboard in hand along with a pen. They were quietly arguing amongst themselves.

Wolf, Snake, Eagle, and Fox. Alex sighed with relief. Dim light came through the window and fading with every minute that passed by. Snake glanced up from the heated conversation that had seized hold of the men. "Good to see you Cub." replied Snake. Wolf, Eagle and Fox looked up as well.

"Damn Cub! You scared the living shit out of me!" replied Wolf.

"I didn't know shit was living." Alex made a face as if he was pondering that statement and then smirked. Wolf smirked as well. Snake slowly got to his feet and walked over to where Alex lay. He put his hand to Alex's forehead to check for a temperature, promptly checking his pulse, and then pulled out a small flashlight from his cargo pants and shinned it in his eyes.

"Glad to see that you're pupils aren't dilated any longer. So, for the most part you're healthy but there's your PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) and then…" he trailed off. He glanced at Alex's chest and Alex followed his eyes to where his bullet wound scar lay hidden under his white shirt.

"Oh."

"Care to explain?" replied Snake while sitting down on the end of the bed. He held his gaze at Alex with a questionable look.

"Explain what?!" barked Wolf while getting to his feet in anger and frustration. He took a step towards Alex and Snake.

"Are you going to tell him before he goes into one of his many paternal rampages, or should I?" Snake's eyes twinkled with concern and inquisitiveness. Alex didn't put forth any effort to speak. Snake glanced at Wolf and then rested his eyes on Alex. He took the silence as his answer so he continued.

"Cub got shot."

"What?!" Wolf bellowed. Eagle slowly stood up while tucking the pen in his pocket and folding the clipboard under his arm.

"I got shot." replied Alex while slowly spinning around so his legs dangled over the side of the bunk. Wolf gave Alex a scornful look and while Alex attempted to continue, "It's not that bad. It was almost a year ago and besides—"

Wolf almost screamed at the top of his lungs while cutting Alex off, "I'm still comprehending the shot part. Damn it Cub!" Wolf shook his head in disbelief. He turned to face Fox who was just watching the whole scene pan out. "Did you know about this Fox?" Fox glanced up at Wolf and then slowly got to his feet as well.

"I did. I was his summer training program adviser." Wolf growled in annoyance.

"Whose the bastard that shot you?" By now, Wolf's facial expression looked like a Wolf.

"Not sure really. Some Scorpia sniper." replied Alex while shrugging like the incident was nothing important.

"Scorpia? You're telling me that you pissed off Scorpia? Damn, where did you get shot? The leg? Arm?"

Snake intervened. "No, I would say about three centimeters from the heart." Alex cringed from the glare that he was receiving from Wolf. Wolf's face turned red with anger while his eyes showed with sympathy and a paternal look.

"Cub," Wolf replied while trying to calm down and get an explanation from the teenager. "You didn't find the need to tell us this because?"

"It slipped my mind?" replied Alex while trying to see if that excuse would work. He dipped his eye contact and decided that his bare feet were quite interesting.

"What meds are you taking?" replied Snake while producing a serious expression.

"None at the moment." Wolf and Snake both sighed.

"Man, it's like having two mother's taking care of one cub!" Eagle and Fox both snorted in amusement.

"Glad to see this amuses you guys, but seriously cub, any physical therapy at all?"

Fox intervened this time. "I tried to get Blunt to look into medication and therapy, but he didn't believe that Alex needed it. I also think that there were political reasons as well, but I don't have that kind of clearance yet."

"Well at least you had some kind of conditioning." Snake said in a tone that expressed that he wasn't at all pleased with that decision.

"Cub, look at me." Alex didn't immediately turn to look at Snake.

"Alex." Alex slowly turned his head. Alex's sad cold brown eyes met Snake's.

"When was the last time the scar bothered you?"

"What time is it?" Alex asked. Eagle looked at his watch.

"ten after eight."

"When I was sprinting." Wolf growled.

"You didn't find the need to tell me that there was something wrong?"

"It's one of those types of pains that you tuck away in the back of your mind for later."

"That's really comforting Cub." Snake said in disgust.

"So where are you going to put me when it comes to teams?" Alex replied out of curiosity and to change the subject.

" Nice job changing the subject. This won't be the last time we discuss this Cub. But because I think we have other subjects to touch on, then I won't tell you the color, you'll find out with the rest of your classmates, but I will tell you that you're a team leader." Snake replied while making a mental note to continue the conversation on a later date seeing as they had three weeks to talk.

"I don't think everyone will be happy with that idea. They'll start to wonder if I have connections here."

"Nah, if they do ask why you're a team leader and they whine that you didn't finish the evaluation, you have my permission to say that you did." Wolf replied while taking the clipboard away from Eagle and glancing over the names that were printed on the sheets of paper.

"You might as well go get something from the Kitchen Aids. They probably won't be happy about it, but I'm sure that they'll give you something. You still have a gun control seminar that you can't miss." Alex checked his watch and then his stomach growled.

He slowly got to his feet prepared for how his body would react. His feet held under him, but he tensed from stiffness. All four men were watching him, making sure that his knees didn't buckle under him. He slipped his feet into his trainers that were stationed by the door, and walked to the dinning hall.

Once the Kitchen Aids reluctantly gave Alex something to eat, and he had finished the small meal of bread, cheese, and an apple in the dinning hall by himself. He didn't have anything else to do, seeing as he had about three and a half hours to burn before the seminar. At about nine thirty one of the Units stormed into the dinning hall. They were covered in mud, twigs and small leaves that they hadn't brushed off their uniforms. They spotted Alex sitting on one of the table benches speaking to himself in Russian. They all smirked when they saw him because they thought it would be fun to poke at one of the kiddies.

"Hey kiddie." The obvious leader of the unit replied.

"What do you want?"

"Touchy touchy. What are you doing here kiddie? Do you miss your mummy? Do you want a warm bottle of milk and a blanket?" Alex rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I kind of do. I haven't seen my mum in fourteen years, oh and I would rather not deal with SAS scum like the likes of you."

"Is that a threat kiddie? Because my mate here Dragon is a black belt in just about every martial art out there."

"That's nice." Once he said that, Alex switched to Japanese. "Would you please tell your jack ass unit leader that I really don't want to deal with him tonight. I'm rather quite tired, and I have more important things to do." Dragon looked dumbstruck. Alex switched back to English. Dragon relied the message back to the leader.

"What's your name boy?" replied the unit leader while taking a few steps toward Alex.

"Alex Rider. But the units who know of me call be Cub."

"Never heard of you." The leader replied.

"Is there a problem men?" replied the Sergeant while walking through the doors. He spotted Alex and continued to walk farther into the dinning hall.

"Ah Cub, Wolf told me you would be here. Come, there's something that I need to talk to you about." Alex followed the Sergeant out the door and into the yard that was in front of the dinning hall. They continued onward to the Sergeant's office.

"So what is it that you need to talk to me about?"

"Nothing. I just thought you might need some help. I know you could handle the men on your own, but I didn't want a relapse of what happened earlier today."

"What unit was that anyway?"

"S-Unit. I'd be careful around them. They're the next toughest unit next to yours. You're treading on thin ice. So always stay on guard."

"Where is the seminar this evening?" Alex replied remembering that that was next on his agenda for the night.

"It's on training field two. A-Unit is hosting it. Let see here, it's 2215 hours. Do you have your time table with you?" Alex reached into his pocket and pulled it out. He handed it to the Sergeant. He looked it over. "Just remember to meet me here at 0530 hours for shooting range practice. Go ahead and start walking over to field two. If you walk, it'll take you about forty-five minutes to and hour to get there. So you might as well go." Alex nodded his head. He turned away from the Sergeant, and started to head to his bunk. He needed to grab something before he headed off toward the field.