Sapphire & Jasper

By: Aubrie1234

Luckily, they managed to get home before Drew and Doc, where they acted innocent when the two arrived. Doyle tried to act surprised when Drew and Doc asked him to take a look at the video he had brought back, and he didn't have to act when he saw it, even though he knew what Alex was gonna say. His heart ached when he saw how sad and tired his boyfriend looked and wished he could take it all away from Alex, but he'd only be able to do that once he caught up with the other.

"So, do you know what the riddle means?" asked Doc.

"Of course I do." Doyle, who had been sitting in a chair to view the video on a laptop, stood up, "It's related to the photos Alex took of us. Let me go get them." It didn't take long and Doyle quickly came back with the small album. He opened it and tried looking through the pictures as he went on, "It could refer to where the pictures were taken, though, which was in New York City."

"Maybe even the apartment where you lived?" Drew wondered. This caused Doyle to pause.

"...Honestly, that could be it. Alex told me once that the apartment was part of MI6's assets for their spies, so they have control of it and he could have hidden something there." Doyle closed the album.

"Then let's head there." announced Doc.

"Are we going too?" Zak asked. For once, he didn't sound excited.

"We can't leave you home alone." Drew said, "But if you don't-"

"We'll go." Francis said, causing Zak to look at him in surprise, "I have to for protection, anyway."

"Oh, right." Zak looked sheepish, "I keep forgetting that you're still kinda in danger." Francis gave him a withered look.

"Let's go, boys." Drew tugged them along and the cryptids were told to stay behind, so as not to arouse suspicion. They did so, but not without wishing the humans some luck in their efforts to find Alex.

After arriving in NYC, the Saturdays, Doyle, and Francis began looking for the new piece of information that the ex-spy had left behind, starting with the apartment, and to their surprise, it was still standing. However, asking for the apartment room in question gave them no results, as it 'didn't exist,' (Doyle knew that was a lie, he used to live there) so they decided to try another tactic: calling and asking Ben to help them with the apartment.

"Doyle, why are you calling me this time? Don't tell me Alex is in trouble again..." Ben groaned.

"Then maybe you should get a new phone or something if you don't want me to call anymore." Doyle shot back, "Anyway, I need you to do me a favor."

"Yeah?"

"I need you to help us get access to the apartment where Alex and I used to live." If he could see Ben, Doyle was sure the spy would've had a surprised look on his face.

"And why, exactly, should I do that?" Doyle was unfazed to find Ben's tone a little more threatening.

"I know it's a safehouse, but Alex may have left something behind for me to find."

"What? Doyle, what's going on?"

"Look..." Doyle explained to Ben all that had happened in the simplest of terms, "So, could you help us get access to the room?"

"Good lord..." If Doyle was there, he would've seen Ben shake his head, "I'm not getting involved this time. I'll help you, but I'll get in serious trouble for this. Alex is basically a fugitive, do you understand?"

"You don't have to, I could hack it-"

"And then you'd be arrested and never seen again." Ben sighed, "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Just give me a second..." Doyle looked back at the lobby of the building as one of their phones began to ring and the receptionist picked it up. She spoke to the other end of the line, glancing at the family, and then put down the phone. Ben returned to the other end of the line and said, "They're kinda suspicious about it, but I got you guys in. Don't be long, though."

"Thanks." Doyle hung up and when they tried the receptionist again, she allowed them up and handed over the keycard, if with some suspicion. Doyle closed his eyes and tried to take calming breaths as the elevator went up the levels. When he opened his eyes, he found his family giving him worried looks and knew they wondered if this was a good idea, but he was certain that this is where they had to go.

"Ben said we can't stay long, so try to look around as quickly as you can." Doyle spoke. No one responded as the elevator stopped and opened the doors to a hallways of doors. Doyle led the down the hall, knowing the way so well, even though it had been 13 years. When he got to J26, he stopped and stared at the door in apprehension. The apartment held no bad memories for him except for a few, he was only scared to enter because it had been so long and he wasn't sure what to quite do. He took a deep breath to calm himself down again and slid the keycard into the slot to open the door. He didn't hesitate as he opened the door and walked inside, turning on the lights. His breath caught in his throat as he took in everything, where it really hadn't changed. All was clean of course and there were some differences in decor, but it was overall the same and he felt sadness crashing down on him.

"This is where you lived?" Doc was impressed.

"Of course I did, why would I lie about any of this?" Doyle walked into the kitchen, musing, "I loved this place, even though I was cooped up here for so long. This was my first home. I remember, first time I really had a chance to talk to Alex one-on-one, where I kinda tried to defend myself with one of these chairs." Doyle gave a sad smile as he rested a hand on one of the backs of said chairs, "He was sorta creepy, being a spy and all, but he was a good guy and we warmed up to each other, leading to everything else."

"It sounds like you lived in a fairytale, in a way." Drew added. Doyle snorted.

"Kinda, but it was also far from it. Most of the time things were good, but every so often we had to put up a front." Doyle moved from the kitchen, through the small living room to one of the bedrooms. In there, he gazed around, looking at everything and just trying to take it all in,, "Have I ever told you what happened to us? When I lived here, alone in the city, I was captured by this sex trafficking ring and was gonna be sold to people who just wanted me for nothing more than their toy, and it seemed like it was gonna end up that way. But then Alex bought me and saved my life, and he was supposed to do the same with other people, but I never knew if he did. However, as part of the deal with the guys who sold me, Alex had to hurt me to make it look like I'd been used whenever they came over to check on us, and so he did. That's how I ended up with the scars on my wrists. Except for those nights, everything was good. First we were friends, then we fell in love, and we were fiancés until the night Alex left me behind for the mission about Francis. I stayed here, doing my best to wait for him, but then the trafficking guys eventually came by for their monthly checkup and I had no choice but to run. It was around that time that I started believing that Alex intentionally left me behind, seeing as he was gone for two weeks at least and I had to hide to not get captured and hurt again. I stayed on my own for several years until I met Van Rook five years ago, and you know the rest. That's what happened to us, that's our story." Doyle closed his eyes, "I know you said no more secrets, but there are some parts of that life that I just can't share yet, mostly because it either still hurts or because it's too sensitive to share. Maybe one day I'll tell about them, but not now." He shook himself, as if to rid himself of the feelings, "Let's just grab what Alex left behind and get out of here. I love this place, but I can't stay here forever again." He opened his eyes and began to search around for the object, whatever it might be, too focused to notice the looks on his family's faces about the story. Sure, they knew Doyle had had a hard life, but they didn't realize how hard this piece of goodness had hit Doyle. He'd been happy for the first time in his life, not running away, but it wasn't completely happy and eventually he had to leave it all behind again for eight years, only getting some of it back when he found not just Drew and his family but also Van Rook. He had seemed pretty happy before he found them, but they realized that in reality, he'd only been happy once he found Van Rook, who actually gave him a place to live and something to do as well as friendship, and maybe that was all Doyle had ever wanted after the heartbreak he had suffered.

"Here it is!" Doyle had returned to the living room and found a piece of paper on the table, reading it and smiling, "This is the next riddle, and Alex says that he's doing good." He smile fell, "At least, I hope he's good and not lying." He shook his head, "Anyway, this is the riddle..."

Thirty men, but only two women,

Yet these two hold the most power.

Dressed in black and white they could fight forever.

Who are they?

"Hmm..." Doyle gazed at the letter again and took off a glove, running his fingers over it as if trying to uncover something he couldn't see, "And maybe he's got a secret message on this, because I don't think he'd just leave the riddle to his whereabouts in plain sight." He tried holding the paper up, but to no avail, so he slid his glove back on and took the paper over to one of the lamps and laid it against the glowing bulb. Soon another message could be seen on the paper and he smiled.

"Surprising how well invisible ink can work, huh?" Taking the paper off, Doyle checked the time on his sat phone and frowned, "We need to leave soon, it's been five minutes."

"But what did the riddle mean?" asked Francis, the first to speak up since Doyle's reveal.

"It's related to chess. I think it's a warning about not letting ourselves get caught in checkmate." The redhead gestured for them to leave the room, where they closed the door behind them and began heading to the elevator.

"How can you tell that from a simple riddle?" Doc wondered, a little skeptical.

"Well, Professor, even though neither of us were big chess fans, we knew enough about it and I know Alex better than you do." Doyle glanced at the letter again, "We're not the only ones hunting him down, y'know, so he's just warning us to be careful and not get outmaneuvered by the enemy."

"You don't think Scorpia's chasing him?" asked Drew, "He said it himself on the video."

"I know and it's plenty possible, but there's something about that that doesn't sit right with me. I don't know why he'd lie about who's after him, unless he's really just running away and hoping we catch up." Doyle tucked the letter into his pocket as they reached the bottom floor, "I'll read the next riddle once we're on the airship and I've already got an idea of where to go next..."

As they chased down the clues, they could never seem to catch up to Alex in time and the blond always slipped away, but they were determined not to give up. Or, at least, Doyle was. He didn't know about the others but he wasn't giving up on Alex. He also tried not to let himself get discouraged as the days passed, soon becoming a week and then two. It was almost Thanksgiving when they got another call, this time from Ulraj and, like Maboul's, it seemed that Alex had made a visit and left something behind. They explained to him a little bit about Alex and found that, somehow, he'd managed to visit Ulraj directly (getting past the guards and such) and gave him an item. Alex didn't give much more than his name and the Saturdays', though.

"Maybe I should go alone, let you guys have Thanksgiving-"

"Oh no you don't." Drew grabbed Doyle's arm to keep him from leaving, "We are going together, even if the holiday is coming up, understand?"

"Yes ma'am." Doyle was grinning as he said it. Drew then smacked him gently on the arm, saying she wasn't that old, and Doyle laughed. He hadn't laughed in a while, it felt good. Having to run around the world after Alex had worn them all down and, despite his insistence in following the trail, Doyle was beginning to wonder if this was one of Alex's 'wild goosechase' pranks he used to do to Doyle, then wondered why Alex would be pulling it in the first place. There really was no reason to, but Doyle couldn't mark it out. With the ex-spy, anything was possible, especially considering his luck. As it was, it didn't take them long to take a journey down to Kumari Kandam to meet up with Ulraj. The young prince offered to go up to the surface to see them, but the Saturdays didn't mind. Francis was the only one who had a problem with it, but Doyle managed to convince the boy to join them with the promise that he'd stay by Francis' side the whole time. Even though Francis felt guilty for causing the whole debacle, he only really felt safe around Doyle, and it was weird but he didn't question it at the moment. This was how he found himself, swimming at the bottom of the ocean after getting out of the Saturdays' sub and keeping close to Doyle as they entered Kumari Kandam.

"First the desert, then the sea. Where are we going next, the sky?" Francis muttered as they swam along.

"I'd like to say yes but I don't think it's possible to have a city in the sky right now." Doyle said. He was the only one dressed differently from the others, using his old mask as his helmet with a air tank hooked up to it. He could have used one of Doc's extra jumpsuits but he already had his own stuff and didn't see why he needed to use the extra.

"It's possible, just very improbable."

"I'd love to visit a city in the sky!" said Zak.

"Not now, boys." Doc said, "Ulraj is just ahead." They did as told, though Doyle rolled his eyes behind Doc's back.

"Welcome!" Ulraj greeted, "It's nice to see you all again."

"Good to see you too, Ulraj." Drew returned, "You mentioned you had a bag from Alex?"

"Right here." He took a small bag out of his pocket and handed it to her, "I think that bag is waterproof, so whatever's inside should be fine."

"You didn't check?" Ulraj shrugged.

"Alex asked me not to. He said it was too important." Ulraj glanced to Zak and Francis but didn't say anymore. His eyes were questioning, however.

"Well, thank you for holding this for us." Drew handed the bag to her brother, "We'll check it out once we're back on our ship."

"I wish you could stay longer, but I suppose you have a job to do." Ulraj wished them luck as they departed, but not before Zak assured him that he'd explain everything later. Once they were in the sub, Doyle set to work on opening the bag to get to the contents, which turned out to be another flashdrive. Doyle plugged it into the sub's computers to view it and soon found himself looking at another video file and Alex's face. Alex didn't seem as tired this time, nor as sad, which surprised them, and the background of the video was set in a more homely, darker room. He then began to speak.

"Hey, Doyle." Alex greeted with a small wave, "If you're watching this, then you're persistent. I'm glad." Alex held up an envelope, "This is the last clue. However, you don't get to see it just yet. Scorpia, though, is finally starting to leave me alone, so maybe I can come home soon without needing to give you this." Alex put down the envelope, "I really don't wanna give it to you. If I do, it means I had to go to one of the last places I want to be. Just be safe, okay?" The video then cut out to show an image for a few seconds, then cut out completely. Doyle sighed.

"Oh Alex..."

Doyle was surprised at Alex's willingness to take him out of the apartment a second time and he wondered why the blond was doing this. Was there something going on? Was it because Alex wanted to give him a present? Doyle was curious but stayed quiet, allowing Alex to do what he wanted. He followed along as Alex led him to some of the sights of the city, such as the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center. His favorite place to visit was the Central Park Zoo, being with the animals and watching them be themselves, and he felt nice about the whole trip. Alex was always against taking Doyle out, mainly because he wanted to keep the other safe, so who was he to look a gift horse in the mouth over this amazing trip?

"So, how's the day been for you?" Alex asked as they took a small afternoon break in another part of Central Park.

"Great!" Doyle was grinning as he hugged a small stuffed penguin he had gotten from the gift shop, "Just, what was this all for? I mean, it's not my birthday and certainly not yours..."

"I know that." Alex sat back against the bench, looking up into the sky. Doyle stared at him a moment, then looked into the sky as well. Alex went on, "The day's beautiful, isn't it? Especially the sunset."

"Yeah."

"Kinda reminds me of your hair." Doyle blushed.

"It's not that red."

"Doesn't have to be." Alex turned to Doyle, "It's as beautiful as you are, but maybe that's a lie." Alex smiled, "You're way more beautiful than any sunset." Doyle didn't look at the blond, blushing even harder.

"Don't say that, Al. I'm not that pretty."

"You are, even if you don't think so." Alex raised a hand and rested it on one of his boyfriend's, touching the new gloves he'd bought for Doyle. It may have been warm weather, but with the scars beginning to settle on Doyle's wrists, they wanted to hide them somehow. The redhead moved his hand to grasp Alex's, still keeping one on the toy penguin he held. Alex frowned when Doyle gave him no response.

"Something wrong?" he asked. Doyle shook his head but didn't say a word, "Love, you're worrying me. Is there something I did that you don't like?"

"No, it's not that." Finally, Doyle looked at him and Alex could see sadness in his eyes, "I'm just wondering why you brought me out here, and I'm afraid to ask." Alex blinked.

"Why? Do you think I'm gonna suddenly tell you to leave?" Doyle looked down at his feet, watching as he scrubbed a shape into the ground below.

"A little, yeah. You hate taking me out of the apartment, so why?" Alex softened.

"Doyle, I'd never bring you out here for something like that. I've got something else that's really important I wanna tell you."

"Then tell me." Alex glanced around for a second, then stood up. Doyle followed Alex's movements, ready to stand up himself, but was prevented from doing so when Alex took a small box out of his pocket and got down on one knee.

"Doyle Blackwell, my sweet little Strawberry, my Rockin' Robin, the Peter Pan to my Wendy, the light of my life, will you please marry me?" Doyle stared in shock for a few seconds and Alex began to grow worried that Doyle would reject him when he was suddenly enveloped in a hug. He had to stomp down his instincts to free himself and hugged back as Doyle cried into his shoulder, saying something along the lines of, "Yes yes yes!" When he pulled away for a moment, a large smile was on his face as tears streamed down from his eyes and he said, "You are such a cheesy doof but I love you for it!" And he put his head on Alex's shoulder again. The spy allowed tears to come to his eyes as well, glad that Doyle had accepted his proposal and that they could be together from then on. After a few minutes of crying, they eventually cleaned themselves up and Alex showed Doyle the engagement ring he had picked out, which also had an engraving on the inside. Upon reading it, Doyle laughed, as it said, 'From Britain With Love.'

"Oh my god you are so cheesy!" Doyle gave him a kiss.

"But you said you love me for it!"

"Of course I do, you're my Alex, my Sweetcheeks, my Babe. I love you for no reason at all." Alex couldn't help but grin back because of that and took Doyle's hand, slipping on the engagement ring. Doyle went on, "Do I need to get you an engagement ring, too?"

"No, there's only one, but if you wanted to get me a promise ring, I wouldn't mind." Alex added a shrug to the end.

"Then why don't we go looking for one now?" Doyle tugged on Alex's hand but he stopped the redhead.

"Wait. Remember, we can't act like we're lovers in public. We'll need to pretend that you're looking for one for a girlfriend and I'm a good friend trying to help." This caused Doyle to drop his friend.

"I wish we didn't have to." He kissed Alex's forehead, "What's so wrong about loving another guy?"

"Tell that to the world." Alex gave him a kiss on the cheek, "Let's go."

After the last message, there was nothing. Upon looking for the location in the riddle (Doyle was certain that it was somewhere in Glasgow, Scotland from a reference to a mission Alex had once told him about), there was nothing to be found, even after a few days. This worried the family, as Alex had been consistent with his clues, so had something happened to the blond? If they hadn't been worried before, they were certainly worried now. Thanksgiving, as it went and passed, even though Alex hadn't been there before, it just didn't feel the same. Doyle didn't even want to contemplate what could've happened to Alex and so he focused on trying to do other things, such as keeping Zak out of trouble. That didn't quite worked out as planned, however, as he usually found himself somehow involved and in trouble as well, so he decided to stick with Francis and just do things with the green-haired boy. He had found out that the other surprisingly like punk music (a hidden love from his employers) and was now showing off some music to the boy, which was a reason why he originally didn't hear Drew come in the first time she had found them together.

"I'm surprised to find that you actually like this stuff, but I'm not complaining." Doyle spoke as he put on From Under the Cork Tree in a radio-CD combo player, "The others know I like punk rock but Zak's not allowed to listen to it with me, so I rarely get a chance to play it out loud."

"Why isn't Zak allowed to listen to it?"

"Subject matter and cursing in the songs." Our Lawyer Made Us Change the Name of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued began to play and Doyle grinned, "You know this one?"

"Who doesn't?" Francis smiled back. Doyle turned down the music so that they could talk and listen at the same time and took a seat beside Francis on the bed.

"So, what's your favorite song?" Francis shrugged.

"I honestly don't know, since I haven't listened to much of it."

"Then what's the song that introduced you to punk rock?"

"It would have to be Boulevard of Broken Dreams. I don't know what it was about the song but it just drew me in."

"Punk rock does that to you."

"Also..." Francis looked away at this and Doyle frowned. Francis hadn't worn his goggles since Alex had asked him to take them off in the confrontation before the attempted-kidnapping and the redhead could see doubt in the ex-agent's eyes.

"Yeah?"

"What's going to happen to me after everything is said and done? I can't just stay here, none of you have legal custody of me, the Gray Men do. They could be trying to get me back this very second."

"I doubt it." Doyle laid a hand on Francis' shoulder, "You're just 13. Anyone trying to have a person your age as an agent is doing it illegally. If they take us to court over this, we have evidence to suggest that and then they won't be so invincible."

"How?"

"We have footage of when you worked with Epsilon, who is a known agent. That would be able to at least suggest that you were being trained for something serious at a young age." Slowly, Francis nodded.

"I don't think that would be enough, but you have a point." The boy looked down, "And what of him? Is there anything to say about Father?" Doyle shook his head.

"We've kept an eye out a little, but there's nothing on Epsilon. Don't give up, though. I'm sure he's out there somewhere."

"Hopefully alive." Francis added.

"Of course he is."

"Caw!" Both of them looked up to find Zon at the window of the bedroom, causing them to be surprised and wondering what she was doing there. Doyle went to the window and opened it, allowing her to land on the sill, where she moved her beak towards him. In it was a letter, blank and plain as could be.

"What's this, Jurassic?" He took it from her. She gave a small caw and shrugged. She had no idea, she'd just found it lying outside the compound and the nearest person had been Doyle, "Well, thanks anyway." He turned it over in his hands, trying to find if there was any address on it, but there was none. A little suspicious, he made sure his gloves weren't loose or anything and slowly opened the envelope. Inside was a single strip of paper with both sides written. One side had a name, the other had a small piece of a lyric. When Doyle read both of them, he paled.

"This… This is the letter Alex talked about." he said in shock and fear, "This is the one he said he didn't wanna give me."

"Then that means something truly bad must have happened." Francis was on his feet, "Do you want me to get the Saturdays?"

"Go, I don't care, just..." Francis nodded and ran off, leaving Doyle alone with Zon. The pterosaur gave a sad trill and bumped her head against Doyle for comfort. The ex-mercenary rubbed her mane as he read the two writings again. On the back of the paper was Alex's name, and on the front was a lyric from Green Day's Homecoming: 'So send my love a letterbomb and visit me in hell.' Twice Doyle had received a letterbomb, including the one in his hand at the moment, and he had a few guesses about why he was given the lyric. He didn't like any of them.

They had decided to interpret the lyric literally, as it was literally a letterbomb to Doyle, and he knew a few places Alex had referred to as 'Hell,' but the hardest part would be to pinpoint which place was the right one. That was what they were doing right now as they prepared to ride the airship to who-knew-where.

"There was a place called Brecon Beacons he called 'Hell on Earth,' but it's called that by all the trainees there, since it's a military training ground." Doyle marked out the name on the list he'd written, "He always said he would never go back to Cairo after what happened with Jack, so he might be there, but I think think it's a good choice because it's a capital and has a large military force. What would be the point of taking him there?" Another mark out. "He mentioned a lot of other places being hell, but not too bad." Several mark outs.

"That gives you two specific places." Zak said, looking over his shoulder, "Skeleton Key in Cuba or Cornwall in England. Why those two places?"

"Very big missions that changed his life. He never gave me the exact details of Skeleton Key, only that he defeated an old Russian general and that it affected him greatly. As for Cornwall, that's where he had his first mission."

"You missed one." Drew pointed to another place, "Point Blanc? In France? Why there?"

"That has to deal with Julius, one of Alex's biggest foes, but he never mentioned it much and I don't think that's the place." Doyle shrugged, "He never called it a hell but I could be wrong."

"My best guess would be Cornwall, then." Doc spoke, "You said it was his first mission, the one that basically introduced him to all these 'Hells.' If anything, I believe that's where we need to go, if just to be sure." Doyle tapped the pen he was holding on the table where he'd been working out the list, his family around him.

"Good point. We can go there. I just hope I'm not wrong..."

"We'll find him this time." said Drew, "I get the feeling we will."

"I hope you're right. And I hope we find him alive." Francis looked at Doyle and realized just how close the words were to the ones he'd spoken just minutes before. He wasn't as worried about Epsilon as Doyle was to Alex, but it helped him understand that they still had an immensely close relationship, moreso than what their files had listed. Maybe you just couldn't measure something like Love accurately. From the short time he'd been with the family, through the past month, he'd seen how devoted Doyle was to Alex, even though the man had been so angry before. Francis wished he'd been shown some love like that, where people cared about him instead of treating him like an asset, and this made him determined to help find Alex. Even if he couldn't have love and Alex had threatened him to save his life, he wasn't going to let his previous tormentor be torn away from Doyle and his love. It wouldn't be right.

Notes:

Some types of invisible ink + heat = visibility

Last time I felt such a surge in writing for something was the last time I worked on this, which lasted for months before I hit Writers Block in October. I hope this doesn't burn out too soon. And I don't think I said this in my AN for the last chapter, but I don't know what I'll be working on next after this. I'm hoping to work on the sequel or some of my other stories, honestly. In fact, there's a possibility I might go back to some of my older stories and write more for them, but I'm not sure yet. It really just depends on my mood.

Anyway, please read & review!