After rescuing Alex Rider from Scorpia where Yassen has held him captive for a year, the K-Unit is granted some down time. Which would be much easier said than done if Alex Rider was doing more than simply following commands and there wasn't something wrong with Wolf.
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A/N: This is my first Alex Rider story! I hope there will be many others. It's got the timeline mostly written out, so I know where I want the story to go. For those of you following my Numb3rs stories, I will update 'Missing, Presumed Dead' when I'm able to finish my PCP paper, which is almost done. I wrote this on Friday afternoon and I'm curious to see what you say.
Reviews and constructive criticism are welcomed and encouraged. I will be using British slang in the book, but I am American, so some of my American slang may come out as well. 95% of the book will probably be in American English, but I may slip some British English spellings in there when I can. Flames are also welcomed, but they will be roasted with marshsmellows. I hope you enjoy.
## Break ##
Alex Rider swallowed hard as he attempted to release his hand. It hurt like hell, and he knew it wouldn't let up. He closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep as the man made his way in. He knew his rules: only obey orders.
"He hasn't woken up yet." The words did not sound like they were from Yassen, but Alex did not wake up anyway. Alex swallowed hard and kept his eyes tightly squeezed shut. He had not been ordered to wake up, and so he wouldn't. Sleeping in the dark or even laying in the dark always brought Alex some relief – relief from the hours of endless orders.
Another man spoke, sounding like he was frowning. "Who was he with when he found him?"
"They're dead."
"Just give me a name, Wolf. He's living in our flat; we need to know this information if we want to help – hell, his real name's not Cub; what is his real name?" That was Snake's voice. What was Snake doing here? Alex remembered Snake; he was nice – maybe. But Alex still didn't open his eyes. He knew his orders. Besides, Snake had taunted him during his training - why should he roll over and trust him?
"Alex Rider," Wolf said. His voice sounded reluctant. Alex wondered why. "I don't know what to tell the rest of the team about this."
"Well, you could try telling them the truth like you did me," Snake responded with a shaky laugh. "Why didn't you take him to the hospital?"
"Snake, he worked for the bloody M16. He was held captive by Yassen for a year. If I took him into the hospital and said I was his new guardian – which I am, thanks to the bloody M16, who I hate and who Cub is never working for again. They would just assume I'd been abusing him."
"Great, Wolf, and by your neglect to take him to the hospital –."
"Just shut up!" Wolf responded and Alex reminded himself he couldn't move. He wanted to get away from Wolf. He didn't need Wolf's help.
"Fine." Snake sighed as he took Alex's hand, wrapping it in an ace bandage. Alex could sense his pause in movements, and guessed his hand was injured although he didn't remember that particular injury. "Alex, it's time to wake up," he responded with a tired sigh. When Alex didn't respond, he shook his body. Alex managed to keep his eyes closed. He knew that he could not open his eyes until he was ordered to do so.
"Try this," Wolf responded. He grabbed Alex under his shoulders and dropped him from the bed to the floor. "Wake up. That's an order."
Alex instantly opened his eyes, blinking rapidly. He clutched his newly bandaged hand and wrapped his arm next to his body. He had woken up, he had obeyed that order. He blinked and winced. Surely they couldn't punish him for moving into a better position, could they? They were K-Unit after all. He wondered what they were doing here. Whatever it was, it was a welcome relief, Alex decided. It was certainly a much better option than Scorpia.
"Alex, where does it hurt?" Snake asked as he bent down to Alex's level. Alex lowered his eyes to the floor. Follow the rules, and they won't hurt you, he thought. He knew that he was supposed to lower his eyes in the presence of a superior. That lesson had been badly learned. When Alex hadn't lowered his eyes in the presence of Yassan once, the killer had taken Alex's hand and stuck it into a pot of boiling water. He had not raised his eyes to anyone else sense. While he wasn't sure if Snake would be considered "superior" to him or not, he knew it was better not to take his chances.
"Alex, tell him where it hurts," Wolf snapped. He grabbed Alex's arm and yanked it back up. Alex refused to even grimace. The last time that he had grimaced in pain, he'd been beaten extra for making a facial expression, even though Yassen's crony had liked it. "That's an order."
Snake glared at Wolf. The glare made Alex shiver, which he hoped didn't show. The last thing he needed was giving K-Unit any sign of a weakness. It was already clear that Wolf would not hesitate to hurt him. "Wolf, you're hurting my patient," Snake responded with a glare. He pointed towards the door. "I don't care if Alex is only responding to orders. This is my room, so get out."
"This is my flat, and the kid had bloody well better tell us what happened," Wolf responded, his eyes glittering dangerously. Alex resisted the urge to back away. The punishment for that was being belted.
"This apartment, flat, whatever you want to call it, is shared by the SAS and rented by all of us, Wolf. And this is my room." Snake rose and looked Wolf directly in his eyes. "You're not helping me, so get out."
Wolf sighed and slammed Snake's door behind him. Snake bent back down to Alex. "Alex, you want to talk about what happened?"
Alex froze, not moving. This was a trick question. Every single operative gave him a different response – how was he supposed to know what was going to happen? Some of them wanted him to repeat back what he'd done, some of them punished him simply for talking.
Snake sighed as he moved towards the first aid kit. "I guess I should tell you what happened first. We found you at Scorpia on our latest mission. Wolf was drugged with something, we're not sure what; Fox and Eagle are pretty much okay, although Eagle's got to be on crutches for a few weeks. That leaves me and Fox. M16 wants to cover this up, so I'm the team medic. Fox can't take on any missions by himself, so we're all here until Eagle and Wolf recover. And, you, too."
"I'm sorry," Alex whispered, his eyes lowered. It was the first words he had spoken in days, and his voice sounded rough, even to himself. But he felt like he owed Snake an apology. It seemed like the man didn't want to be here.
"Hell, kid, it's not your fault." Snake sighed as he got up and moved over to the first aid kit. "Listen, I'm sure at Scorpia they gave you this whole 'you're only supposed to follow orders' crap, right?"
Alex raised his eyebrows. How did Snake know that? They kept that information secret. Unless… Was Snake an operative, hidden within the K-Unit? Alex knew Scorpia had many spies. Alex backed away from Snake hastily, forgetting the punishment for that.
"Whoa!" Snake responded. "I'm not in with them, Alex. They're in the middle of crumbling to their knees. I just wanted to tell you that with me, you don't have to worry about the whole 'order' thing."
Alex nodded mutely. He would have to find out what rules did and didn't apply to Snake. Maybe Snake was just more laid back, because he wasn't… Alex gave up trying to figure it out in Snake's pretense and allowed himself to attempt to relax for a minute. He needed to keep his strength up.
"Okay, kiddo," Snake responded. He knew he wasn't going to like this. Alex may be a trained operative, but he was still just a damned fifteen year old kid. "How about you show me where you got hurt?"
## Break ##
Wolf was angrily pacing back and forth on the kitchen floor when Fox opened the door. M16 had appointed Wolf guardian of Cub – Alex, Fox reminded himself, Alex – for the next few weeks while they all recovered.
Taking down Yassen and many parts of Scorpia was a major deal, something to put on their private résumé for sure. But it would leave them with recovery duty for a few weeks. Not that Fox really minded. Because he and Snake didn't need recovery, they were put in charge of taking everyone else to their appointments and other stuff – Fox had a hunch that Blunt thought that they just couldn't function as their unit with so many men down.
It would be the smartest decision that Blunt had made yet, Fox thought in approval. He rummaged through the fridge and grabbed himself a bottle of water, taking a gulp. Eagle was seriously pissed he couldn't drive, and Fox knew that he had been in for it when he'd agreed to take the man to the hospital. It had been a long trip. If Eagle wasn't a highly trained SAS agent, Fox would have sworn that he would have had a severe case of attention deficit disorder.
"How did it go with the kid?" Fox asked.
Wolf sighed and leaned back against the sink. "He's awake."
"And…?" Fox asked, pressing for more details.
"You'll have to find out for yourself. Snake kicked me out of the room." Wolf then stormed off to his own room and slammed the door shut.
At least the kid had woken up, Fox thought with a tired sigh. Wolf had been acting oddly ever since he'd come back from the mission. Fox wasn't sure if that was because of the memories of the base or because of other issues.
It wasn't like Wolf could be complaining because of lack of space. After all, when Wolf had first disagreed to take Alex in, that was his first excuse. After that, Snake had said Alex could share his room. Fox was grateful. He had nothing against Alex, but he was scared of having an injured kid in his room. It seemed fitting that the medic of the team should be the one to take care of him, anyway. He made his way towards Snake's room and opened the door.
"How is he?" Fox asked, surprised that the kid was still sleeping; after all, Wolf had said that he'd woken up.
Snake shook his head as he leaned back on his bed. "Not too good," he admitted. "He'll heal physically; I'm not worried about that. I'm more worried about his emotional state of mind."
"His emotional state of mind? Hey, if Wolf was my guardian, I'd be worried about it too," Fox responded with a smile. He sobered quickly under Snake's glare. "What happened?"
"He's only responding to orders right now," Snake said with a tired sigh. "I think that Yassen probably trained him to do that – after all, he was with the man for a year. Wolf was what tipped me off to that," Snake growled. Fox could clearly see his anger that was masked all over his face. "He slammed the kid against the wall and ordered him to do what he was told. Naturally, Alex agreed. Then he did it again."
"Why the hell is M16 making Wolf Alex's guardian?" Fox burst out. "They should make you his legal guardian. Wolf is just asking way too strange, if you ask me," Fox grumbled.
"I don't know." Snake gave a tired sigh. "We're in no place to be protesting, though. I think that our best case scenario is to watch Wolf. I don't know what's wrong with him, but I need to find out. He'd been pissed at Alex before, but had never hurt him physically."
"Right, and as soon as Alex came back that changed all that. But why not fight for legal guardianship, Snake?" Fox questioned.
"You and I are both physically well, Fox. They're using our time and talents to help take care of Wolf, Eagle, and Alex. Which is fine. But remember that we are also both physically well," Snake responded as he rubbed his eyes.
"Which means that if either of us fight for custody, we'll be put back into the training camp or some shit, right?" Fox growled.
Snake nodded. "I'm going to wait and watch Wolf. If he continues to physically abuse Alex, I'm going to legally – without M16's help – remove him from Wolf's care. If he doesn't, we'll just address the other issues ourselves. For now, I've told Alex that I don't care about orders; he seems to be responding to that."
"You want me to do the same?" Fox questioned, sensing that was where this was heading.
Snake shook his head. "No, I think it's better that we give him some time. He's going to test me and see if I physically punish him, I think. Let's let him get used to one person. Just do me one favor, alright?"
"Sure," Fox responded.
"Watch Wolf while I'm gone," Snake responded as he checked Alex's bandage one last time before he stood up and grabbed his car keys. Fox knew that he was on his way to buy more medical supplies without even Snake even saying it. "And even when I'm here. I don't know what happened while we were at Scorpia's campground, but something did, and Wolf is not the same person."
Fox nodded. As Snake quietly exited the flat, Fox sighed as he ran his hand lightly over Alex's hair in what he hoped was a comforting gesture. Three days and everything he knew about the world, including Alex and someone who he had thought was one of his best friends, had changed.
