A few hours later N-Unit was slowly making their way back to their cabin, covered in mud and laughing their heads off; Owl had tripped and landed face first in a huge mud puddle and when his team started laughing he pulled Panther in after him. One thing led to another and soon they were all covered in mud, had kitchen duty until the end of time, and were congratulating themselves on a day well spent. K-Unit had barely blinked when they all came in covered in mud, Wolf had just shrugged and informed them that things like this had happened to them all the time with Cub around only usually he just sat back and let it unfold without actually getting himself or his hair messy at all. N-Unit hit the showers and spent a little time grumbling about having to sleep on the floor but before long they were all fast asleep except Alex. He stared up at the ceiling willing himself to sleep but his body knew the nightmares were coming and wouldn't even let him close his eyes.

Just as he was about to resign himself to a sleepless night of staring at the door on "guard duty" it slowly creaked open. He froze, hand slowly slipping down and retrieving the knife strapped to his leg. His eyes adjusted a bit and he realized with a bit of shock that it was Evans, who had awkwardly walked away during the reunions, saying that he was going to let them have their space for a while. He motioned for Alex to come outside and for a moment they both stared at each other until Alex realized that everyone else was asleep, even if he did wake them up there was a possibility that someone would get hurt if Evans was a threat.

"Adrian is going to absolutely kill me." he thought to himself wearily as he slowly rose, snagging another knife and a gun on his way out the door.

Evans was waiting for him about 50 yards from the cabin, leaning against a tree with his arms folded across his chest, he looked a bit awkward, "I'm not sure what to call you." he admitted with a self conscious chuckle, "Some of them call you Panther, some of them call you Cub, Ben calls you Alex, and your file says Ian."

Alex didn't need to ask how exactly he knew what was on his sealed file, he had been out of the business for less than a year, that wasn't long enough to forget what he had learned there- he doubted a century would be enough for that.

Alex shrugged, "Tell me what you want and I'll tell you what to call me."

Evans looked at him thoughtfully, "You're a weird kid, you know that?"

Alex's face closed off, "Weird, yes, kid, no. Your employers made sure of that- I assume that's why you're here?"

A guilty look crossed his face, "I'm sorry, I'm just-"

"Following orders. Trust me, I get it." Alex said, sounding exhausted. "Call me Alex, or Rider if you like. Do I have time to say good-bye or gather a few things?"

Evans shook his head, "I've got most of your weapons in the chopper, you'll be getting a few extras when we get to HQ and whatever weapons you need."

Alex's eyebrows rose, "You mean they're actually going to give me weapons this time around? Did Blunt regain control of his mind while I was gone?"

Evans snorted, "He's calling you in isn't he?"

"So no then. I hope he's prepared for a lot of sarcasm and a few death threats."

Evans paled, "They wanted me to tell you that your lack of respect won't be tolerated anymore, that you were behaving like a child, if you want to be treated like an adult, with weapons privileges, pay, and well..."

"Being in the SAS." Alex said quietly.

"Yeah, then you're going to have to act like an adult."

Alex groaned, "Understandable, but annoying. Riling them up used to be one of the high points of my day."

Evans nodded slightly, "Also, they wanted me to tell you that N and K-Units are going to be providing back up for you and you'll probably see them in a few weeks- no need to wake them up to say good-bye."

Alex looked disgusted, "Of course not, that might raise some objections from people that actually care about me and are trained to break into secure facilities. Come on, I want this done with."

Evans nodded and they walked in silence towards the chopper, just as they were about to take off Evans looked over at Alex, "Look, Rider, I really am sor-"

"Don't waste your breath. I get it, I was expecting it anyway. Could you tell them that I'll be fine though? They're going to freak out when they wake up and I'm not there and you're coming back here I'm assuming."

Evans agreed, "They're going to kill me where I stand for this."

Alex just shrugged and looked out at the camp one last time before closing the door forcefully, "Usually I would make some sort of sarcastic comment or reassure you if I was feeling merciful but it's completely true."

Then he leaned his head back and went to sleep, dreams plagued with yelling, gunfire, and explosions.

Falcon woke up yawning well before it was a suitable hour to get up and automatically reached his hand over to his right where Panther usually slept to shake him awake. His hand hit an empty sleeping bag. Falcon sat bolt upright, scanning the cabin for his missing teammate.

Just then the agent that Fox had brought with him, walked in, looking like he had gotten no sleep, but Falcon barely acknowledged him as he shook Owl and Lemur awake, Panther wouldn't just wander off while all their nerves where still on edge from his explanations and MI6 talk. He turned around to bark at Evans to do something useful when he noticed that he had woken K-Unit up.

He looked at them solemnly, "I have to talk to you."

Ben paled, "Evans, where's Alex?"

"It- it should only be for two weeks or so and they said it wasn't too dangerous-"

"Evans, where is he?" Ben said in a deadly, angry voice, slowly rising to his feet and slightly shaking with rage.

Evans ran a hand through his hair, "I don't know. I got orders to bring him down to headquarters, it was a three hour flight there, he'll be gone by now."

"Fuck!" Wolf roared, slamming his fist into a wall and storming towards the door. Viper grabbed him by the arms and yanked him back in, face tight, trying to calm his own breathing and keep Wolf inside the cabin.

Falcon finally finished computing what was going on and launched himself at Evans who sidestepped gracefully in the way only a spy can, "You bastard!" Falcon roared, "What did you tell them?"

Evans shook his head, eyes darting around in search of an ally or an escape route, neither of which he found, "Nothing. They already knew. I got a phone call telling me to bring him in without alerting anyone, I started to argue and they basically told me that if I didn't do it they would get someone else to and I would never work in the intelligence community again."

Eagle glared fiercely at him, "So you gave up a fifteen year old who just got over PTSD and torture wounds so you could keep your job?"

Evans stared at him warily, "They would have blacklisted me, I would have been fair game to any criminal organization that had something against me; I've got a little girl at home, I can't risk her. Rider seems like a good kid but I can't risk my daughter for him."

Lemur attempted to keep glaring at him but wasn't able to, "Fine. What do we do now?"

Wolf sat down heavily, looking as if all the fight had gone out of him. "We wait. Eventually he'll either show up in the middle of the night or '6 will send us in to extract him. Either way we're not going to know where the hell he is for another two weeks."

Ben was pacing, fingers ghosting over the right side of his stomach where there were still bandages and feeling ready to go back and kill the man who shot him again. He had no doubt that if it wasn't for the god damned bullet wound they would have him in the field with Alex; instead he had to sit here useless and worry that the brother he had just gotten back was going to disappear again.

Alex hesitated at the familiar door of the office, knowing that if he knocked on the door there was no going back...but on the other hand if he didn't they would just drag him back and force him into the office anyway. Eyes deadening slightly with the realization that this was really happening he lifted his hand and tapped lightly on the thick wood door.

"Come in." He heard and although it was muffled Alex stepped back. He hated that voice and he had the misfortune of having it feature in every single one of his nightmares. He took a moment to steel himself and walked inside.

"Alex. How good to see you again."