Another update? I can't believe it either. Summer is proving to widen my need for writing; I don't know where it's all coming from! I'm so excited to finally be wrapping up this story after so long of thinking about how it's going to end. We're so close to the conclusion of Caught in the Fading Lights.

Chapter 13

"Getting out of here today mate, I swear." Fox grumbled, tapping his fingers idly on the metal frame of his hospital bed. Sat near the foot of his bed in a chair was Snake, who nodded at his comment as he flicked through a magazine.

He placed it down on his lap to look up at his teammate. "You, Wolf and Eagle should be released today, though they're a bit concerned about Wolf's head. You know, no one in either the SAS or MI6 is against you staying a bit longer. Everyone knows Scorpia's some deep shit to mess with. That shoulder was badly damaged." Snake advised before taking a sip of his coffee.

Fox nodded reluctantly, tired of being practically tied to a bed for the past five days. Admittedly, he'd spent the first two of them unconscious, but the past three had been a drag of medical examinations mixed with crappy novels. The highlight was the few hours he'd been allowed out of the goddamn bed to talk with his unit. Though an MI6 official had taken his statement, Snake had done the full debriefing, being the least harmed one, which he considered himself lucky to escape from. It was bad enough the first time; he had no interest in reliving it.

And through it all, Snake was probably the strongest of them all at dethatching himself from the situation in order to handle it better; god knows as a medic it was important he could do so. Especially now.

"Bastards didn't need to knock us out to bring us in, I swear I'm gonna find the guy who got me in the shoulder and I'm gonna kick his face in." Fox stated, rolling his shoulders in frustration.

Cracking his knuckles and yawning, Snake agreed. "I can see where they're coming from; Alex was pointing a gun at us and for all they know, we could have all gone nuts. They probably found the complex; they would've seen the mess we left. Maybe we did."

The unspoken truth was left behind them, allowing Fox to ask the question that had hung in the aftermath.

"And, Alex?" Fox murmured, eyes downcast.

Unable to quite help himself, Snake frowned a little at the thought. "He woke up yesterday evening for the first time, properly lucid, that is. Though on a mix of reasonably strong painkillers and mild anti-psychotics, he's pretty out of it right now."

"Anti-psychotics?" Fox asked cautiously, well aware where it was going.

He nodded. "Yeah, PTSD seems pretty severe from the initial examination, but right now they're just trying to touch base. I don't quite agree with it, but I do think he needs time to physically recover and get his shit together before he comes off them. We're gonna be stuck in counseling for the next three months probably, at least, and we barely had any relationship with either Jack or Ash. God knows what's in the future for him."

"You and Ash … " Fox trailed off, not quite sure how to form what he was trying to say.

Snake shook his head; "Not for a long time, enough to disconnect myself from it. Ash was already an open wound for Alex, but losing Jack … " he took a breath before continuing:

"Well that, it was probably like a stab to the heart."

# # # Line break, time skip 2 weeks later # # #

Like any stereotype, it rained that day.

Her family had been told that she died in a house fire, that her body was unrecoverable. It was better that way, for them to think she passed out from smoke inhalation than to know the truth.

Besides, it would be considered a security breach to know anyway.

The Americans stood on one side of the gravesite, crying over an empty coffin. On the other side, the five of them stood in solitude. All donned in plain black suits and ties, none of them had bothered with umbrellas. Despite the memories the threatened to overwhelm when they thought of Jack, of how she died, no one had the capacity to cry.

For if tears were to be shed, it was likely that they already had.

But Alex stood in the centre, Snake's hand resting cautiously on his shoulder. Was it comfort or restraint? The expressionless, dead look on his face spoke no truth, yet whispered no hint of a lie. There was absolutely nothing there, but it became more terrible to observe when one looked into his eyes.

Brown was always associated with warmth and security, but Alex's eyes were ice. They were the dead, airless centre of a hurricane, a stalactite threatening to drop. Nobody had the reserve to look at him in the eyes, not even his unit. Maybe because of the threat of them, but maybe because of what was buried beneath the defence system: sadness, hatred, fear, loss, remorse … maybe even thoughts that led down a darker alley, drifting away from the security of sanity.

The teen held a single sunflower in his hand. Her family had told him that it was a poor choice, that she wouldn't have wanted anything but roses. But he knew that they blamed him for her death, whether they knew so or not. That was okay; he did too.

But he also knew that the sunflower was her favourite flower; that it was a symbol of happiness and the brightness that Jack emanated. That made is all just right. Never mind the fact that he wasn't supposed to have chosen her flowers until she had lived through her life, to a ripe old age. He shouldn't have had to pick a flower, pick a colour, until her hair had greyed and her eyes were lined with hundreds of crinkles where she smiled. Jack would have aged with grace, but she never had the chance.

The weight, the depth of his despair forced him down to one knee as he dropped the flower into the pit.

His unit allowed him to stay there whilst the vicar spoke and the family said their last goodbyes. He remained there until her family went for the reception, until the first man arrived ready to burying the coffin.

But then that was enough, because his suit was soaked through and his lips were tainted blue. If he had cried, it was indistinguishable from the raindrops. Eagle one side and Snake the other, they pulled him up and gently led him away in silence, unable to form words that could satisfy what really needed to be said.

Or maybe because there was nothing left to say.

Authors note:

How do you think it's going to end? What did you think of this chapter? Let me know what you thought in the sweet little review box below!