When they got to the car, Fox and Snake managed to get a very limp Alex into the back seat, which they lowered so that he was lying flat. Ben climbed into the driver's seat and waited until Snake was in and ready to go before he set off. As the medic of the group, she began checking Alex over more thoroughly than she had whilst they were still in the compound, cleaning and rebandaging his wounds and talking to him as she worked. His job was to get them out of there as quickly as possible so that they could get Alex the treatment he needed.

"Alex," Snake said, lightly touching one of the few un-injured sections of his arm. "I need you to open your eyes for me." He groaned but did at least manage to open them for her. "Can you tell us what happened?"

"I didn't know the answers to their questions. They didn't believe me though," he croaked weakly.

"Do you know who they were?"

"They didn't say, but I didn't recognise them."

"Alright, Alex. I need you to try and stay awake for me, okay."

Alex nodded, before asking "where's Yassen?"

"He's with Wolf and Eagle. Fox is driving. You're safe now, Alex. Just try and relax for me while I check you over and sort out your wounds."

They weren't far outside of London and Alex was stable enough to not need immediate treatment, so they agreed to drive directly to St Dominic's instead of one of the closer hospitals and then needing to transfer Alex later. While he was driving, Snake called ahead so that the doctors knew to expect their arrival, and Dr Roger Hayward, Alex's physician, was waiting for them when they pulled up outside the emergency department. They got Alex safely onto one of the hospital trolleys and Snake debriefed the doctor with as much information as she could while Ben parked the car.

He sat in silence for a moment once he had turned the engine off, and allowed himself to shed a tear; it was always the same when Alex was involved - whilst he was part of the mission, 'Fox' was in control. He was a soldier first and foremost, but as soon as the crisis or danger was averted and he was alone, Ben's emotions always came to the surface. This time had been worse than normal though. Alex hadn't been on a mission. He had been going about his day as a normal sixteen year old when he had been kidnapped and tortured. The fact that he was still only a teenager had not changed how he had been treated. It never did. He realised that he was clenching his hands in his anger, and gently unfurled them to reveal the marks that his nails had left in his palms.

Taking a few deep breaths to bring himself back under control, Ben prepared to head into the hospital. He slowly crossed the car park, made his way through reception and climbed the stairs, using the time to prepare himself before he arrived at Alex's room. He knew exactly where he needed to go without being told - Alex was always put into room nine on the second floor of the hospital - and was met by Diana Meacher as he opened the door from the stairwell. She was one of the nurses who had looked after Alex during his previous hospitalisations and they had got to know one another quite well.

"Back again?" she asked, in her soft New Zealand accent.

"Yeah. Back again," Ben agreed, gloomily.

"Go right in. He's still downstairs with Dr Hayward, but you can go in and wait for him. Jack's already in there. Let me know if you need anything."

"Thanks," Ben said, before walking into room nine and being greeted by a very frantic looking Jack Starbright.

"Is Alex okay?" she asked.

"I think so, Jack, but I don't know very much."

"Do you know what happened? No one has told me anything."

"I can fill you in with what I know," Ben said, sitting down on one of the chairs and gesturing for Jack to do the same. "Mrs Jones and Smithers received an SOS alert from Alex at just before 14:00 this afternoon."

"How did he send that? I didn't know he had an emergency beacon?"

"I don't know if he knew about it to be honest. I think Yassen Gregorovich was the one to activate it because he had it with him when we arrived, but I could be wrong."

"Yassen Gregorovich," Jack said, pondering aloud. "I've heard that name before."

"He's an assassin," Ben explained. "I believe he was responsible for a lot of what happened with Damien Cray."

"What was Alex doing with an assassin? And why would he have set off an emergency beacon? And how did he even know about it if it was him?"

"I don't know Jack. I guess we'll find out when Alex comes up or Yassen comes in."

"Wait, why would he be coming here?"

"He was helping Alex escape when we arrived. He had bandaged his wounds and was about to get Alex out when we found them. He stayed behind to cover Snake and myself as we left to bring Alex here. Believe me, Jack, I think we all want answers from him as much as you do."

"He bandaged Alex's wounds? How badly has he been hurt?"

Ben took a deep breath. His next sentence was not going to be an easy one to say out loud, but he was saved from answering by the ping of the lift doors opening. They both immediately jumped up from their seats and walked to the door; as they had thought, it was Alex being brought up, with Dr Hayward and Snake walking beside his bed.

"How is he?" the two of them asked in unison.

"He'll need rest and time to recuperate, but physically he'll be fine," Dr Hayward answered curtly. Ben knew that the doctor was concerned about Alex's association with MI6, so his blunt reply was more to do with the fact that Alex was back in his care, and that he wasn't here for something routine that any sixteen year old might have been hospitalized for.

"His wounds have been cleaned and stitched," Snake told them after the doctor had left. "He's got a couple of cracked ribs, a bruised lung and some bad bruising to his chest and stomach, but he'll heal up okay."

Ben understood the elephant in the room that neither medic had spoken about - Alex's physical wounds would heal, but there were probably some new mental scars which would take longer to heal, if they ever did completely. Diana Meacher came in and began to set up the various machines to monitor his vitals and checked his fluid line. Alex looked so small as he lay motionless on the crisp white hospital sheeting. He always did, but this time it was worse. Usually, Alex had an idea of what might be going on, even if he had been coerced into working for MI6. This had been personal.

Diana left, with a word to shout if they needed anything, leaving Jack, Ben, Snake and Alex alone in the room. Jack was sitting on a chair next to the bed, holding Alex's hand and in too much shock to speak, Alex was unconscious and the two SAS agents were comfortable sitting in silence until either Alex woke up, or someone else entered the room.

About half an hour later, Alex was still unconscious and the only sound in the room was the beeping of his monitoring equipment and the rhythmic breaths of the four of them. Ben heard a nearby door opening and closing, followed by the sound of several boots hitting the ground rhythmically as their owners walked down the corridor. A few seconds later, Wolf, Eagle and Yassen Gregorovich walked in.

"How is he?" they all asked.

Snake gave them a brief summary of his injuries, and summed up by saying that his physical wounds would heal okay, again leaving the question about his mental ones dangling in the air. Wolf then gave him and Snake a rundown of what had happened at the compound after they left with Alex. All of the guards were either dead or in custody, and the man behind it all was currently being interrogated in one of MI6's prison cells. They had left MI6 to work out what was being planned. Right now, the adults in the room cared about one thing and one thing only - Alex's wellbeing.

It wasn't long after Wolf, Eagle and Yassen arrived that Alex began to wake up. The assassin had been quite quiet, and had refused to tell them much until Alex was awake. 'He deserves to hear it from me first,' was all he had said. No one else had anything to say, so they all just sat in silence until Alex stirred and groaned. Instantly, the people in the room seemed to come back to life; Jack gently embraced him, Eagle pushed the button to alert the doctors and nurses that he was awake, Ben ruffled his hair and Snake began to check his vitals whilst they waited for the doctor. Ben knew that she wouldn't be satisfied taking someone else's word on Alex's condition, and would stay with him as though she were primarily responsible for his care.

Dr Hayward arrived in the room seconds later, so everyone, other than Jack and Snake, moved away from the bed to give the doctor space to work and check his patient. Once he was done, he gently changed the position of Alex's bed so that he was sitting up slightly, rather than laying completely flat, and spoke.

"I'm prescribing you a minimum of two weeks of rest and recuperation Alex, once you are discharged. You need time to heal, and with your cracked ribs, bruising and all of those stitches in your chest and arms, that will take time. I'll be back to check on you first thing in the morning so try and get some sleep, but ring the buzzer if anything changes." His last few words were more directed at the six adults in the room than they were Alex, Ben knew.

"Could I have a moment alone with Yassen?" Alex asked almost immediately after Dr Hayward had left the room. His voice was still hoarse, and there must have been something important on his mind to make him ask almost immediately after he had woken up. No one moved for a moment, but then Wolf and Ben stood up almost simultaneously. Snake and Eagle took that as their cue to leave the room too - Wolf was still technically their leader after all - but Jack looked unconvinced.

Ben could tell that she was concerned about leaving Alex in the presence of a known assassin, but inexplicably, he knew that Yassen wasn't going to harm Alex. If his suspicions were correct, he had been responsible for alerting MI6 in the first place and Ben had seen him getting Alex out of the compound. He didn't understand the assassin's reasoning, but trusted that Alex would be okay if the two of them were left alone. It was also a good sign that Wolf obviously trusted the man enough to leave Alex with him or he wouldn't have signalled to K Unit to move out. Ben didn't know if Yassen had said anything after he and Snake had left, but the fact that both he and Wolf were happy to leave Alex alone with Yassen spoke volumes. And Alex had specifically asked to be left alone with the assassin; he did at least have enough self-preservation skills to have avoided that if he thought that Yassen would have been a threat.

"Come on, Jack. Let's go and get a cup of tea or something."

"I'd love a hot chocolate if you're going to the café," Alex croaked. "I'll be fine - I just want a few minutes," he added, seeing Jack's face.

"If they've got lemon drizzle, I'm sure he'd appreciate that too," Yassen said, and Ben couldn't tell if he was joking or not. Alex just smiled weakly, as though it was an inside joke that the two of them shared. Reluctantly, Jack allowed Ben to lead her out of the room and towards the café downstairs.

Alex turned to face Yassen the instant the door was closed and they were alone.

"I'm-" he began in a hoarse whisper.

"I'm sorry, little Alex," Yassen said, cutting him off, which seemed to puzzle the teenager. "This isn't how today was supposed to go."

"But… my watch-"

"-None of what happened today was your fault," Yassen said. He pulled the chair that he had been sitting in towards the bed and sat down. "In fact, most of it was mine." He had used the time while Alex was unconscious to think about how much he would tell Alex today, and had decided not to go into detail about why he was tortured if he could help it. If Alex asked, he would answer but would prefer to do it when he was stronger.

"Those men were there for me - they only took you because you were with me, and I was there because of you… because I wanted to talk to you…" he trailed off, thinking where best to begin his explanation. He had been thinking about it while Alex had been unconscious, but there was so much to explain and he didn't want to overwhelm him.

"Ian was always concerned that you could become a target because of his work, and because of everything that happened with your father and Scorpia. If one of his enemies discovered your existence, they could have used you against him. And that did happen on at least one occasion that I know of. So, he had Mr Smithers adapt every single watch that you have ever owned. They have all had an alert beacon with an audio link that could be activated if you ever got into trouble. Before today, it was a precaution that, as far as I know, had only ever been used once, when you were five, nearly six-" He was cut off by a knock at the door, and Ben Daniels appeared after a moment's pause.

"I've got your hot chocolate and cake, Alex."

"Thanks Ben," Alex whispered hoarsely.

"No problem," he said, ruffling Alex's hair before he turned around to leave, and Yassen picked up the narrative again.

"Scorpia were mounting an operation in Liverpool Docks, and I was in charge of the team creating a distraction. We held everyone in a shopping centre as hostages because we needed to spread the police and SWAT team response… which is where your uncle happened to stop for lunch-"

"Wait, sorry, I know this is a conversation between the two of you," Ben began, "but did you just say that you held people hostage in a shopping centre in Liverpool?"

"Yes," Yassen said, without any intention of elaborating.

"When was this?"

Yassen thought for a moment. "Just over eleven years ago."

Ben froze. "That was you?"

Yassen looked at him quizzically, waiting for Ben to explain.

"I was there. I was in that shopping centre. Wait, if you're talking about this, that must mean that Alex you must have been involved?"

"Apparently I was there too," Alex croaked.

"How old would you have been? Like five?" Alex nodded, not wanting to speak if he could help it.

"You're that Alex?" Ben exclaimed. "The little kid who got separated from the rest of us?"

"Yes, he was. I knew that he would be safer in a room with me, rather than with the other Scorpia operatives."

Ben was clearly deep in thought. "You were looking for an MI6 agent weren't you?"

"We were actually just creating a diversion. Announcing that we were looking for an agent was a sure way to get the attention of both the police and security services. We hadn't planned for an actual agent to be present in the shopping centre but it did add authenticity to our presence there. It was an unfortunate coincidence and incredibly bad timing that Ian and Alex showed up just beforehand."

"So that feeling of deja vu I got earlier when you pulled me under the table as those men fired their guns into the air…"

"Yes, little Alex, you had been in that exact position before with your uncle. We had always planned to separate one hostage who would be shown as proof of life and the moment I saw you entering the shopping centre, I knew it would be you. As the leader of the operation, I would be left alone with the hostage we chose and, as I said, I knew that you would be safer alone in a room with me than with someone else from Scorpia, even though our plan never involved hurting anyone.

"We got MI6 involved too, to increase the pressure and make the threat seem genuine, so you had actually met Mr Blunt and Mrs Jones before they made you work for them, but you were probably too young to remember that day very well. That also meant that you were too young to really understand what was going on, and you were quite happy drawing a shark on some paper I gave you. When I received word that the operation at the docks was completed, we let all of the hostages go, except you, Alex."

"Why?"

"We couldn't risk the police and SWAT teams rushing in and arresting us the moment we released the hostages. By taking you to a separate location, we ensured that we would have a clean getaway." Yassen paused once more and took out his wallet. Inside one of the slots was a business card, which he carefully peeled open to reveal a hidden compartment inside. "I still have the original drawing that you gave to me, but I shrunk a scanned copy of it," he said, handing the card over.

Alex took it and examined the drawing for a few moments. "Did…" he began, hesitating. "Did I sit on your lap in the car?"

Yassen laughed softly. "Yes. We didn't have a car seat and you were not happy about going anywhere in the car without one, but you were okay with the compromise of sitting on my lap." He paused and chuckled again. "You tried to get me to play 'I spy'."

"Wow," Alex croaked. "I really had no danger perception, did I?"

"It's hard to say because you weren't ever in any danger. Your father and uncle were the closest thing I had to a family for a very long time. Ian always knew that it was me when we met, whatever my disguise was, and we looked out for each other when we bumped into each other in the field."

"So did he know that it was you who took me?"

"Yes. He set off your SOS beacon the second we appeared, but when we separated all of the children away from the adults, I made sure that I took you so that he would know that you were safe. Apart from anything else, I didn't want to risk him attempting anything and putting both himself and the operation in jeopardy, and he knew that I wouldn't let any harm come to you."

"So you're saying we met twice before that rooftop in London with Sayle?"

"We'd actually met a few times, Alex. I tried to kidnap you from school once."

"What?"

Seeing that the conversation was going to continue with events that Ben hadn't already been involved in, he quietly made his way back out of the hospital room to give Alex and Yassen privacy to continue their conversation. Yassen wasn't sure if Alex had noticed in his exhausted state, but he gave Ben a 'thank you' nod before the SAS soldier left the room, which he returned.

"Scorpia had been contracted to get revenge on MI6, and they decided that the best way to do that was to kidnap you. The executive board never actually told me what they planned to do, but I assume it was either going to be to use you to blackmail Ian and MI6, or to train you up on Malagosto and turn you into their own child assassin. As it happened, your class was late being released, so I didn't have time to take you before Jack showed up. That night I saw Ian and we came up with a plan to keep you safe."

Alex looked exhausted. It would have been a lot of information to take in, even if he hadn't been tortured earlier that day. "Would you like to take a break, Alex? I can tell you more another time."

"No," Alex said fiercely. "I want to hear more."

"Okay. One day, I'll tell you everything, but for now I'm going to jump forward to just before your ninth birthday."

"Oh I remember that one. Ian was actually home for it!"

"Yes. We met on an assignment a couple of weeks before your birthday, and we were both with other agents, so our fight had to look real. He was wearing body armour and I shot him in the chest at close range so that I could escape, which cracked a couple of ribs and he spent the next three weeks behind his desk recuperating."

"You're the reason that Ian was home?" Alex said, slightly surprised.

"Yes, but the two of us actually met again just after Ian got back from that mission, at your karate class."

"Wait, were you the sensei who showed up once and did a demonstration with Ian and was never seen again?"

"Yes."

Alex paused, as though he was trying to work something out.

"But doesn't that mean that Ian had cracked ribs when you fought?" Yassen knew that he was thinking of his own currently cracked ribs and wondering how anyone would be able to handle being thrown to the floor without being in agony.

"Yes, it does. But I was gentle when we were doing the demonstration. It was when one of the students asked to see the Kuzushi Waza in an actual fight that it would have been more painful for him. But you also have to remember that Ian had fought with much worse injuries than cracked ribs and bruising before and he agreed to participate, which he wouldn't have done if he didn't think he could handle it.

"I'm going to jump forward again; the last time we actually met before Stormbreaker and you were told about me, we were in Wales. You were preparing for your DofE with a week of activities-"

"-You were Greg?" Alex interjected.

"Yes, I was. That was another coincidental meeting; I was on a job and, to be honest, I hadn't expected you to be there, but I was glad to see you again. I stand by my statement that you would make an excellent activities instructor, Alex. You're a natural leader and you have all the skills."

"Yeah. If only MI6 hadn't taken all the things I used to enjoy doing with Ian and associated them with death," Alex said dryly, before closing his eyes in anger and resting back onto the pillow.

"You can make new memories, Alex. You can do them with friends and turn them back into things that you associate with enjoyment, rather than your missions," Yassen suggested softly.

But Yassen saw that Alex had fallen asleep. He had been fighting to stay awake while they spoke but, exhausted from both his beating earlier in the day and from all of the new information that he had received, he had succumbed to sleep almost the second that his head hit the pillow. The business card with his shark drawing was still gently clasped in his hand on top of the covers. Yassen got up and put the business card in Alex's wallet (which he had placed on his bedside table), and opened the door, signalling to Jack and K Unit that they could come back into the room. Snake immediately checked both Alex and the monitors and saw that his vitals were all stable.

"What did you say to him?" several voices asked.

"The truth." Yassen said simply. He wanted to give Alex the option of whether he told their story to the five other people who had just come into the room. He had had his choice taken away from him so many times before that it didn't seem fair to take this away too. If Alex wanted to tell them about how connected they were then he could, but Yassen wasn't going to do it for him, unless he asked. "If, when Alex wakes up, he wants to tell you, he will. But it will be his decision whether he does so or not."

The six of them sat in silence whilst Alex slept, and when he woke up just after midnight a couple of hours later, he looked a lot better than he had done beforehand.

"How are you feeling, Alex?" Jack and Snake asked at the same time.

"Sore. But I'm okay."

Alex didn't say much and it was clear that he was going over everything that Yassen had told him before he fell asleep. His whole world view had just been upended as he realised that Yassen had been a big part of his life, even though he hadn't known it until then. As they had done a lot that evening and night, the seven people in the room sat in companionable silence. Alex going between sleeping and waking, Jack had fallen asleep with her head next to Alex's and the others were dozing off occasionally too, although never all at the same time. Diana Meacher came in a few times to check his vitals, but there was nothing of any concern.

It was just after six in the morning when Dr Hayward came in to check on Alex again. Yassen and K Unit were all awake, but Jack's head was still resting next to Alex's on his bed as she slept. After getting a quick rundown of the night from Snake, although Ben was sure that he would have already checked the charts and spoken with the nurses, Dr Hayward began his own examination of his condition. Alex had woken up almost immediately as the doctor came into the room, but he tried not to disturb Jack as she slept next to him as he was checked over.

Satisfied with what he saw, Dr Hayward announced that Alex could be discharged later that morning, provided that he was in the company of someone with medical knowledge. Snake immediately volunteered, as did the rest of K Unit and Yassen - Snake might have been their primary and most qualified medic, but the others had received sufficient medical training as part of their SAS training, and Ben assumed that Yassen might not have received formal training (although it was very possible that he had) but either way he would be competent enough to deal with any complications. Ben also felt reassured that the presence of K Unit and Yassen Gregorovich should be enough to ensure that Alex's prescribed rest and recuperation was enforced. None of them would allow him to get into any strenuous or dangerous situations, either that MI6 wanted him to get involved in, or that he would bring upon himself.

Later that afternoon, with Alex comfortably ensconced in his bed and asleep once more, Snake drew up a rota for who would look after him when, starting that evening. The house was big enough that they could all stay rather than coming and going. The pairs were Wolf & Snake, Eagle & Jack and Ben & Yassen, and they would take 8 hour shifts. Seeing as Jack was the only civilian amongst the group, she and Eagle had the 10:00-18:00 shift, Wolf and Snake had 18:00-02:00 and Ben and Yassen had 02:00-10:00. Alex didn't have a head injury, so neither Snake nor Dr Hayward were worried about a concussion, but someone needed to be awake in case his cracked ribs and bruised lung caused him any breathing problems or he showed any symptoms of secondary drowning.

It was early evening and Ben was cooking a shepherd's pie for the seven of them. Wolf, Snake and Eagle had gone to get their overnight bags and Snake's extensive medical kit, Jack was upstairs and Yassen was napping on the sofa. Alex appeared in the kitchen, looking much more well rested, if still moving rather gingerly and sat down at the breakfast bar while Ben cooked. Everything was quiet in the Rider household... until the rest of K Unit showed up with their bags a couple of minutes later. Everyone had timed it perfectly to be around in time for dinner and Ben called them to the table, carrying the big dish of shepherd's pie over and placing it on the mat, and asking someone to grab the vegetables. It was oddly domestic to have the four SAS soldiers, teenage spy, world renowned assassin and Jack sitting around the table and eating dinner together, but no one seemed bothered by their dining companions... other than Jack who hadn't taken to the idea of having an assassin in the house.

Much to Alex's chagrin, everyone in the house coddled him, refusing to even let him make his own cup of tea. It was fine for the first couple of days, when he was still extremely bruised and stiff, but on the third day his stubbornness won out. Alex had slept so much that day that he was not tired now that the rest of the world was asleep. So he, Ben and Yassen had decided to play a game of Monopoly to pass the time. They were setting up the game when Alex announced that he was making a hot drink.

"Do either of you want anything?" he asked.

"I'm coming with you," Yassen said.

"Seriously?" Alex deadpanned.

"Deadly," Yassen replied just as straight-faced. "Ben?"

"I'll have a tea please."

"I can make my own cup of tea, Yassen. I'm not an invalid."

"I never said you were."

"So, let me make the tea."

"If you pull your stitches and Snake kills me for it, it's on you."

"Oh please, we both know that you could take on all four of them at the same time if they weren't armed with guns. And even then you could probably still take them."

"How rude!" Ben retorted, mock offended.

"But alas, they do have guns, little Alex."

"So do you," he countered. "And other than Ben, they're all asleep. You could take their guns or even just remove the clips. Or, you could just restitch my wounds before your shift is over and Snake wakes up."

"Do you really think that Snake wouldn't notice if you suddenly had new stitches, Alex?" Ben asked laughing. "I'm with Yassen on this; you've been told you aren't to do anything strenuous and you do not want to be a bad patient for Snake. If you hurt yourself, she'll have you on mandatory bed rest for the next three weeks and then she'll kill us for allowing you to get hurt on our watch."

"I'm making tea! Not running a marathon or something!" he argued.

In the end, they relented and let him make the tea (under heavy supervision from Yassen) and Alex filled the kettle with enough water for the three of them. And now that he had won the battle of making his own tea, he asked something that had been weighing on his mind for the last few days.

"Is everything you said to me at the garden centre and in the hospital true?"

"Yes. It's all true, Alex."

"So…" he wasn't really sure how to ask his next question, or even if he wanted to hear the answer. He took a deep breath and looked Yassen in the eyes. "So, if you didn't kill Ian, do you know who did?"

Yassen's expression softened.

"I do. And if you want to know, I will tell you, but not until you have been cleared and discharged by Dr Hayward. That will give you the time you need to consider what finding out who was responsible for Ian's death will mean for you."

"Okay," Alex agreed quietly as the kettle boiled, not that he had any choice in the matter. He turned away from Yassen and poured the hot water into the three mugs that he had laid out. As the tea brewed, Alex turned around again and asked another difficult question.

"One day, will you tell me about Ian? And my dad?"

"Of course I will, little Alex," Yassen said, pulling him into a gentle hug, wary not to disturb any of his injuries. "But that's not a conversation for right now. When you're ready, we'll talk for as long as you want and you can ask anything you like. If I can, I will answer your questions with as much or as little detail as you like." He pulled back out of the hug. "Come on, Ben will be waiting for us to start the game. I'll get the milk for our teas."

"Thank you," Alex said softly, and absentmindedly stirred the teabags in the mugs while he waited. Yassen poured the milk in, and Alex took the bags out.

"What's taking you two so long?" Ben called from the living room.

"You're so impatient," Yassen called back as he grabbed two of the mugs, leaving Alex just his own mug to take through to the dining room to join Ben for their game. He placed their tea's down on the table, whilst Ben helped Alex into his seat.

"I'm still not an invalid," Alex complained, but he didn't actually resist as he was helped down.

It was just before four in the morning when Wolf awoke with a start, hearing raised voices coming from downstairs. Jumping quickly out of bed, he grabbed his gun and ran out of the bedroom. The door to Eagle and Snake's room opened almost simultaneously and they all silently ran down the stairs, guns raised, to find the source of the commotion. They found it in the dining room.

Alex, Ben and Yassen were sitting around the table, part way through a game of Monopoly, and were in the middle of a heated argument. The three SAS soldiers bursting into the room and ready for a fight interrupted the three of them and they all began to laugh at the sight of them looking around for the danger. Well, Ben and Yassen laughed. Alex laughed briefly and then stopped, wincing and rubbing his chest as the shooting pains from his cracked ribs hurt him.

Wolf, Eagle and Snake all just looked at each other bewildered at the sight before them and decided that it was too late in the night to deal with whatever was going on. Nobody was in danger and Alex was fine, so they all just turned around without saying a word and went back to bed, the sound of Ben and Yassen's laughter following them up the stairs.