And here, the long-awaited - sort of - 14th chapter of ILP. A birthday present for Von, so you've got her to thank for this! Have a great day, hon!

DISCLAIMER: You're having a laugh, right?

Alex looked at her, rather nervously, and risked a small smile. "Oh." He said, weakly. "Um… has he?"

Elena smiled. "Of course he has – though it was remarkably little." She gave her grandson a pointed look, and Wolf, leaning against the wall by the window, shrugged, rather red-faced. Alex was going to have to get tips off this woman. She smiled, leaning forwards and patting his blanket covered knee. "But I'm sure I'll get to know you much better now." The smile ratcheted up a few watts. "It's not every day that I discover that I have a brand new great-grandson."

"Abuela, he's not actually my son, you know that, right?" Wolf said, uncomfortably.

"Yeah, I'm only temporary…" Alex added, quickly.

Elena shot her grandson a Look, but smiled sweetly at Alex. "What a strange turn of phrase." She said, calmly. "While you're here, you're here, and just as I'm sure Jaime treats you like his son," Wolf had the grace to blush – again. "I will treat you like my grandson. Great-grandson."

"Ah." Alex, rather at a loss at how to react to such casual generosity and affection, offered her another weak smile. "…Thank you."

"It's nothing." She gave him one last smile before her expression turned serious. "Now, Alex – Jaime tells me that you're having problems with your school work?" Alex bit his lip, but nodded, slowly. "It's nothing to be ashamed of!" she was quick to assure him. "And I am sure that there is an excellent reason for it. And I am also sure that I will be able to help you. So – what subject in particular are you finding difficult?"

Alex was torn between a sense of almost crushing gratitude, and heavy embarrassment. When he'd told Wolf that he was having trouble keeping up at school, he hadn't meant it as a hint, or for Wolf to feel that he had to do something about it – it had just been a fact. He was falling behind at school, and he had needed Wolf to know that at the time. "I didn't mean…" he began, voice low, face red, entire body stiff with embarrassment. "I didn't mean for you to think-"

Wolf offered him one of his lighter frowns. "Cub." He interrupted him, firmly, "If – they – aren't going to do anything to help you out with this, when they put you in this position, I will." He held up a hand to stall the argument he was pretty certain was coming. "And it's not because Im feeling all that philanthropic, either. It's just I don't want to have to waste my time helping you out later on, when you're living rough because you failed all your exams and had to drop out of school."

Alex blinked at him. "Thank you." he said, slowly. "I think."

Elena cleared her throat, loudly and obviously. "So, Alex. Which subject in particular, then?"

Alex shrugged, unconsciously playing with the sheet. "Well, languages are fine – I mean, they're skill-based, and the GCSE exam isn't that difficult – for me, at any rate." He flushed a little at that. "Sorry, I didn't mean to sound arrogant…"

"Don't worry, I'm sure it's perfectly true." Elena reassured him. "Go on."

"Maths is kind of the same, and it's the easiest to catch up in, if you understand the basics…" he risked a glance up at Wolf before continuing." I guess – English, I've missed a lot, and with all the set texts and coursework, it's a lot to catch up on. But it shouldn't be too hard to catch up!" he added, quickly. "It just takes time…"

"Oh, English is never easy to catch up on without a teacher, not the way you do it here – all those silly poems and special words." Elena interrupted comfortably. "I recommend having some tutoring in that… it will help you with motivation, at least. What else?"

Alex nodded, with an uncomfortable little smile. Well, er… really, it's just the subjects where there's a lot to learn – Chemistry, Physics, Biology, History… maybe Latin, too, but not so much; that's just learning the right declensions, and all that." He looked up at her, and was startled to find that she was painstakingly noting them down in a small leather diary. "Really, I don't need a tutor!" he said, quickly. "I can teach them to myself, I just – haven't got round to it yet."

"If there's an easier path to take, for schoolwork at this stage, you should always take it." Elena advised him, with another easy smile, shutting her notebook, and slipping it back into her bag. "And it is really no problem at all, Alex – it will give an old lady something to do, which would be kind, no? I will find you a tutor, and then you can stop worrying about your schoolwork, at least." She leant forwards, and Alex met her eyes, which were surprisingly sharp, catching and holding his gaze effortlessly. "I think you have enough to worry about, hmm?"

Alex stared at her for a second, but said nothing. Elena didn't seem to expect a reply, in any case, smiling warmly at him as she sat back, saying,

"In fact, maybe it would help if some friends your age could visit you here, to help you relax… it must be difficult, having only my grandson and his friends to talk to…" she paused, and Wolf made a mental note of the suggestion. He'd found that it generally paid to listen to his grandmother's suggestions. She fixed Alex with friendly eyes, and continued, "So – since my grandson apparently knows nothing of importance about you whatsoever, tell me about yourself."

Alex was surprised, that Sunday, to find that he had another visitor, other than K-Unit, and Elena. Tom turned up at the hospital, awkwardly clutching a bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk, wearing a battered old anorak and an uncomfortable expression, both of which got him curious looks from the hospital staff.

Collapsing into the chair next to the bed, and plunking the chocolate down on the table, he said, quietly, "So what's wrong with you this time?"

Alex shrugged. "Pulmonary contusion."

There was a brief pause, before Tom said, "I'm sorry, say what now?"

Alex grinned. "I've got a pulmonary contusion."

"Which is what, in English?"

"Slow bleed into my lungs." He explained, reaching for the chocolate, opening it and breaking off, before offering it to Tom. "It's all sorted – or nearly all sorted – now. But they're keeping me in to check that there aren't going to be any 'complications'." He pulled a face. "I think they're overreacting, cos I feel fine now, but…"

Tom shrugged, and paused for a moment, sucking absently on his bit of chocolate. "I don't think they can really overreact too much – I mean… you were bleeding into your lungs, so… yeah. Better safe than sorry, and all that, right?" There were a few minutes of silence before Tom spoke up again. "Are you going to be alright to play football?"

Alex almost laughed; it was strangely liberating to have to deal with such a standard, ordinary concern. "Yeah, I'm sure I'll be fine to play football. It'd probably be good for me, actually – get me back onto my feet, and all that, get me healthy." He frowned a little. "But – how did you know to come here?"

Tom shrugged. "Your guardian rang me." He said, casually. "I think he must have got the number from your phone? Said you might 'like to see another kid'…"

Alex considered this. "That's – actually kind of scary."

"Yeah, it was." Tom agreed. "Put it this way, I didn't think I was being offered a choice on whether or not I wanted to come and see you. It was kind of like, 'go and visit Alex or die'."

"I don't mean what Wolf said was scary, I meant that the fact he rang you at all was scary." He thought it over for a few seconds. "He's been doing this whole 'parental' thing at the moment, and it's a bit… I don't really know what to do with it. I mean – he's Wolf. He's SAS. He's not supposed to do parental, you know?"

"I'll swap you for my parents, if you like?" Tom offered, half-heartedly. "They're unparental enough."

That successfully changed the subject, and when Dr. Davies appeared nearly three-quarters of an hour later, they had both managed to shake off the melancholia that had somehow managed to invade the room earlier.

"Good afternoon, Alex." He smiled at Tom. "And you are…?"

"Tom Harris. You're Alex's doctor?"

Davies nodded, as he began to check over the various machines monitoring Alex, checking the chart at the end of his bed, and asking Alex a couple of nicely impersonal questions. Tom waited patiently until it seemed like the doctor had finished his checks, before piping up.

"So – what exactly's wrong with Alex?" he asked, curiously. "He said something about a – pulmonary confusion? – but I don't get what that is… he's bleeding into his lungs?" he paused, and shot Alex an apologetic look. "Shouldn't he be, like, um… dead?"

Davies paused, also glancing at Alex. "A pulmonary contusion is a little more complicated than that, but yes. It is essentially a bleed into the lungs; Alex's was quite advanced when we caught it, but he's basically fine. Give him maybe a couple more days, and he should be fine." He glanced at Alex again, but he couldn't quite decipher what the doctor was – apparently – trying to say. "Don't worry about your friend."

He left, and Tom left shortly after that, only to be replaced by Wolf and Eagle, about half an hour later, at six. Wolf had come armed with his most impressive glower, and Eagle kept shooting his friend faintly worried glances.

Alex added his own rather wary look to the collection. "Um… hi." He tried, cautiously. Eagle gave him a grin, and Wolf nodded at him. "Is something wrong?"

"He's sulking." Eagle whispered, just a little too loudly. "And he didn't really want company coming here."

"I'm not sulking." Wolf snapped. "And I didn't not want company, I just didn't want you coming along. Do you practice being irritating, or is it natural?"

Eagle shrugged. "I'll get you for that one." He promised, easily, and turned back to Alex. "So, how you doing, Cub? Anything interesting happen, recently?"

Alex cocked a disbelieving eyebrow at him. "Yeah, cos fascinating things happen to me when I'm in hospital." He returned, voice dripping with sarcasm. "What on earth could- no. I'm not saying that."

"Not saying what?" Eagle grinned. "'What could possibly go wrong?'" Alex glowered at him. "Oh, someone's been taking lessons from Jamie, haven't they?" he grinned, totally unaffected, "Look, Cub, I've lived with Wolf. Nothing you could do, facially, could possibly scare me. Ever."

Alex sighed. "Worth a try, though, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, maybe." Eagle leant forwards. "Look, Cub, just because you're in hospital doesn't mean you shouldn't capitalise on it – you do know that girls really go for the sick, sensitive type, don't you?"

Alex gave him a worried look. "I'm sure they do – though, I don't want to know how on earth you'd know that – but I think they're probably less keen on the 'lying in a hospital bed' type." He smiled, sweetly, at the older man. "Any other useless advice you'd like to share?"

Behind Eagle, Wolf's lips twitched. It was as near to a smile, Alex knew, as Wolf was likely to get when he was in this much of a snit.

"So – why are you sulking?" he asked, curiously.

"'M not sulking." Wolf repeated, firmly.

"Leeds lost." Eagle explained, succinctly, reaching for a piece of the chocolate which Tom had left behind.

Alex shook his head. "Leeds always lose." Eagle grinned; Wolf winced. "What's the prob… oh." He looked at Wolf. "You support Leeds?"

Wolf shrugged, rather defensively. "I lived there for a bit when I was a kid. And they're not that bad! They're just…having a bad season."

"Bad decade, more like. When's the last time they won against any decent team?" Eagle asked, reaching for some more chocolate, before Alex slapped his hand away. "And, didn't they lose to Watford last year, playing for a Premiership place?"

"They'll get better." Wolf said, firmly.

"I didn't know they were playing this weekend?" Alex asked, curiously.

There was a brief pause, during which Eagle twisted to look at his team mate, a large, faintly evil grin spreading across his face. Finally, Wolf said, voice pained, "It was a re-run."

Alex ran through several responses to that in his head, before deciding against saying anything. There were times when it just wasn't worth it. Wolf stood up, after a brief pause, nodding at Alex, and glowering, pointedly, at Eagle.

"I'm going to go and drown my sorrows." He announced, heading for the doors, catching, as he left, Eagle's muttered remark,

"In what? We're not allowed alcohol…"

Wolf had almost reached the lift when Dr. Davies intercepted him.

"Mr. San Luca!" The doctor's smile was a couple of shades off outright friendly as he approached Wolf, tucking a clipboard under one arm and holding out his hand to shake Wolf's.

Slightly taken aback, Wolf shook his hand, and waited for the doctor to speak.

"It's good to see you again; and, just to reassure you, Alex is much better – we can probably discharge him in a couple of days, subject, of course, to regular check ups. I just thought it would be a good idea for us to talk over the plans for Alex's follow-up treatment." He gestured that Wolf should follow him to his office, warm smile firmly in place. "Shall we?"

"Let's." Wolf inclined his head, uncomfortably aware of the sarcasm he hadn't been able to purge from his tone, and hoping that the doctor hadn't picked up on it.

"I've arranged all the necessary follow-ups to Alex's injuries," he began, as they headed down the corridor to his office, "And I've worked out a provisional timetable for you to OK – if it fits for you, then I'll write Alex into those slots. Oh, do have a seat."

"What, exactly, is he having?" Wolf asked, sitting and accepting the piece of paper Davies handed to him.

The doctor took his seat behind the desk, and gave Wolf a searching look. "I don't know if you know how serious Alex's injury was, Mr. San Luca…"

"I only know what Alex's told me." He admitted, slowly, "Which isn't much. I wasn't his guardian when it happened."

"No. Well, Alex sustained major injury in two areas – one, his pulmonary artery was ruptured by the bullet, and two, the bullet punctured a lung." He paused for a second. "Alex was fantastically lucky to survive – it's entirely likely that, had he been an adult, he wouldn't have survived. As it is – well. We reinflated his lung, but it's likely to give him some trouble, as I think we've recently found. Hopefully, we're going to perform some further tests on him, to find out whether Alex is at risk from another incident like this."

Wolf frowned a little. "Do you think you can get him back to full health? I mean," he paused for a moment, framing what he wanted to say, "He's an active kind of kid," Davies allowed himself a wry little smile at that. "I can't see him being happy at having – restrictions – on what he can and can't do, you know?"

"Mr. San Luca, Alex was shot in the chest. While of course, we hope that we can get him fully fit again, there are no absolute guarantees." Seeing Wolf's frown deepen at that, Davies added, reassuringly, "However, we are hopeful that he'll make a full return to health, now that he's got the appropriate help."

Wolf nodded. "And what is this 'appropriate help'?"

"Firstly, I've outlined a programme of cardiovascular training, aimed to get his heart slowly up to it's previous strength – the bullet caused it a great deal of trauma, as I'm sure you can understand – and we're going to give him physio twice a week, in order to attempt to countermand the damage that was done to the surrounding area." He slid another piece of paper across to Wolf, "That's a referral for Alex to this gym; with a hospital referral, he gets a year's membership free of charge, and help from a trainer to make sure that he doesn't overtax himself. Also, I'd recommend that he comes to a couple of our dieticians classes." Davies gave him a quick, now thoroughly-professional smile. "Is there anything here you don't like? Anything I can change for you?"

Wolf shook his head. "No – but I, er… I don't know Alex's timetable that well. You'll have to run it by him, too; make sure that everything's fine with him."

Davies nodded. "Right" he stood, and Wolf followed his example, recognising a dismissal when he saw one. "Alex will probably always feel the effects of such a major injury, Mr. san Luca, but there's no reason why they should be made worse because no one bothered to help him." The doctor said, earnestly. "I sincerely hope that we're going to be able to help."

"Yes." Wolf nodded, rather awkwardly. "Um… thank you." he shook the doctor's hand, quickly, before leaving, with another slightly uncomfortable 'thank you'.

Alex was moping. Had he been asked, he would have denied all implications of mopiness, but he was honest enough to admit to himself that he was, probably, just moping. Hospitals were boring.

After Eagle had left the night before, after a long, and surprisingly mock-insult-free, adult conversation on various topics, Alex had finished the homework from the week before which Wolf had brought in, and had battled for nearly half an hour with a sheet of equations for Chemistry, involving the Mole, and something to do with calculating volume, and balancing the chemical formulae.

Now, however, by dint of begging help from one of the nurses, even that somewhat dubious entertainment was gone, and it was becoming a toss up between reading the crappy, out-dated magazines, telling him where to get a Brazilian (he'd actually started reading that article before deciding, a couple of paragraphs in, that he really, really didn't want to know), or reading his textbooks. Neither was exactly calling to him.

After a couple of minutes of deliberation, Alex checked the time – two o'clock, and "morning" visiting hours had just ended – and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, walking over to the little cupboard where, he vaguely remembered, his clothes had been put, freshly washed by the hospital themselves. There was a reason St. Dominic's had the reputation that it did, Alex was beginning to appreciate.

Sadly, it didn't make it any less boring.

Having found his clothes, Alex put them on the chair by his bed, and paused for a bit, leaning rather more heavily on the back of the chair than he was willing to admit. It was completely shocking, how easily he tired at the moment, and for a couple of seconds, he considered changing his mind. The crisp white sheets of the now-familiar hospital bed were looking more and more inviting.

Gritting his teeth, Alex slipped off the T-shirt that Wolf had brought him from the little flat to sleep in, and pulled on the one he'd been wearing the day he'd been brought in. He could do this.

Nearly half an hour later, Alex was fully dressed, and sat on the chair, feeling like a rag doll. He hadn't thought it was possible for him to feel this exhausted – and he didn't really think about simple things like restricted blood flow, and the hitherto ignored after effects of being shot in the chest, and then severely beaten. He just accepted as something else that had to be worked around; forcing himself to stand, he gathered up the books Wolf had brought in, and what passed for his pyjamas, slipping them into the backpack they'd come in. Checking the room once more, he pulled the backpack on, and headed down to the entrance.

"Alex Rider." He told the nurse, making sure to catch his breath before he even attempted speaking to her. The walk down here – even taking the lift – had completely robbed him of breath. The journey to Wolf's flat was suddenly looking incredibly daunting. "Um – checking out?"

"Do you have a doctor's permission, sir?" the nurse asked, voice bland and professional as she typed his name in.

"No, I'm, er – I'm discharging myself."

"I don't think that's a good idea, sir…" she gave him a firm look, which he returned, equally firm.

"I didn't ask your opinion, I told you what I was doing." He replied, simply. "I'm leaving. So you can either put that into the computer, or you can ignore it, but I'm leaving either way."

She looked rather affronted, and typed something into the computer, though Alex couldn't see – and couldn't muster the energy to care – what. When she spoke again, her tone was distinctly frosty. "You're free to go, sir."

He offered her a calm, polite smile, and headed for the doors. Once outside, he stopped on the steps, trying to get his breath back.

Perhaps this hadn't been such a good idea.

Shouldering his backpack, he made himself stand, and headed for the nearest Tube station.

Fox and Eagle got to the hospital first, at about half four. By the time Snake arrived at quarter to five, the pair of them were freaking out.

"What's wrong?" he asked, casually, a little surprised to see them waiting downstairs, rather than up in Cub's room.

"Cub's disappeared." Fox said, voice taut. "He's just – gone from his room. We think he might have been kidnapped, or coerced into leaving…"

Snake stared at him for nearly a full minute in silence, before very slowly raising an eyebrow. "And did you even think about asking for him?" he asked, quietly. The sheepish pause that followed answered his question perfectly. "Oh, for heaven's sake, how the hell did you two get into the SAS anyway?" he headed over to the secretary on duty, flashed her a quick, concerned smile, and said, politely, "I'm here for Alex Rider? He seems to be missing…"

Her face froze into harsh lines of disapproval. "Yes." She nodded, tersely. "He discharged himself earlier today. Is there a problem?" she paused and frowned at him. "If you're his guardian, try and drill some manners into him, would you? Downright rude, he was…"

Snake frowned right back at her, thanking her quickly before heading back over to the other two. "Cub discharged himself earlier today, but she," he jerked his head back to indicate the receptionist, "Said that he was 'downright rude'… doesn't sound like our quiet, polite Cub, does it?"

"You think he was coerced, then?" Fox said, a hint of triumph in his tone.

"I think he might have been." Snake returned, more cautiously. "You can't let a little bit of emotional involvement cloud your judgement, Matt – we don't know what's happened, let's not go jumping to conclusions."

"I think the question is – do we ring James?" Eagle said, thoughtfully.

A moment of silence. Finally, Snake said, tentatively. "I think maybe we should wait until we've found something definite? No point worrying him about it right now, till we know what's happened… After all, Cub might just have got bored of hospital, and checked himself out, right?"

"Right." Fox agreed quickly. "Sounds like a plan."

"You just don't want to have to admit that we lost his ward." Eagle told them, with an easy grin. "But – we've got less than half an hour to find Cub before Wolf gets back to that flat of his, and from there, he'll come here, so I think you're going to find that honesty is the best policy."

"We could always go and check that Cub hasn't just gone back to the flat?" Snake suggested.

When Wolf got back to his flat, preparing to change quickly into something more comfortable and then head over to check on Cub – purely practical, it wasn't like he was worried about the little brat or anything – he was surprised to find his entire team waiting for him outside the door.

Eagle shrugged, rather shame-facedly. "I left my key inside last time I was here."

"O…K…" Wolf nodded, slowly. "But why the hell are you here now?"

A brief pause. Finally, they all spoke at once.

"Well, you see…"

"It's kind of like this…"

"It's nothing to worry about, really…"

"And yet, I still don't know what 'it' is." Wolf pointed out, dryly, fishing in his pockets for his keys. "What's got you all so damn worked up?"

There was another pause, before Snake said, slowly, "Basically, Cub's missing."

Wolf blamed tiredness for the fact that he dropped his keys. "Right." He gave them each a searching look. "And he's been missing for how long, exactly?"

"Um – we only found out at about half-past four?" Fox offered, eyeing his team-mate warily, much in the same fashion as he would watch a particularly dangerous bomb that he wasn't sure was about to explode.

Wolf gritted his teeth, as he moved over to the door. "So, you're saying that my ward – my," his voice dropped in volume but, if anything, gained intensity, "My underage MI6 agent of a ward, has been missing for at least an hour and a half now, and you waited this long to tell me?"

Snake shrugged, helplessly. "There was no point in telling you, we were trying to deal with it."

"Yeah, and a fine job you did of it." Wolf shot back, irritated, finally opening the door, and letting them in.

There were a few minutes silence, as they got rid of coats and, in Wolf's case, a couple of folders, in the hall way. It was Eagle who broke it, saying, rather confusedly,

"Mate, did you leave something to cook?"

"No." Wolf told him, shortly.

"Then what's that smell?"

Wolf frowned.

In the kitchen, the four of them could only stare in total disbelief at the sight in front of them. Cub was sat at the kitchen table, a couple of books spread out around him, a file open under his arms, which were currently pillowing his head, fast asleep. On the hob, a large pot of something which smelled suspiciously like curry was bubbling cheerfully. Even from the doorway, it was easy to see the pallor of near-exhaustion on Cub's face, so Wolf's response was gentler than it might have been – gentler than any of his team-mates could easily believe, in fact – as he woke the boy.

"Why, exactly, are you not in hospital, right now?" he asked, firmly, as Alex blinked blearily up at him.

Over. finito. Done. ANd it's 2.41 am exactly here, and I'm flippin' knackered, so excuse me while I go pass out somewhere.

Enjoy!

-ami zzz