A/N As promised, here's the next chapter, though it's a bit shorter than the others. Well, hope you all like it. Thanks for reviews, alerts and favourites, =) would even love some more =P

Have a great time everyone =)

CHAP 6

They ran off, Alex in front and me behind. The next task was crawling through the mud under barbed wire. Alex dived under and with a moments hesitation, Riley followed. Soon everyone was gong through, head to feet. I knelt down and slipped under after the last kid. Quickly I wriggled my body and used my elbows to pull myself along the ground. I almost laughed when one of the boys yelped as he caught his head on the wire, opening a small hole.

"Keep your head down!" I grinned, "It helps."

I slowed down slightly, taking a look at everyone. For school kids they weren't doing too badly. I spied a small shape sitting on the wire about two feet ahead of me. It wasn't big; only about half my palm. It was a small body, made of two hairy parts. Eight sticky legs jutted out.

I shrieked unable to stop myself. Rearing back I caught my head on the barbed wire and growled, knowing it was drawing blood. Jerkily I lay back down before I froze, unable to make my muscles obey, my eyes locked permanently on the creature.

Its fangs clicked slightly, as if it thought I was an appetizing meal. I wanted to shrink away from it black beady eyes. I couldn't look away, no matter how much I wanted to.

The rest of the kids had reached the end and were staring at me, waiting, just like the spider.

"Come on, Drie!" Alex shouted.

"Move it Double O Nothing's! If this was real life someone would be dead!"

I glared at the creature as if that would make it move, but it just sat there, watching me, always watching.

"Adrienne! Hurry up!" Alex yelled again.

"I, I can't," my choked words were barely louder than whispers.

"Keep going, you brats! Leave Kovac until she can get out! In life she'd be dead!"

Alex gave me one last look before running off with the others. Trying to breath deeply I kept my eyes on the spider, wanting to just move past it. I don't know how much time went by, but the tiny creature and I just sat there, staring at each other. The sky eventually opened up and dumped a flood on us. I half hoped the spider would be washed away but it clung silently to the wire.

My eyes flicked briefly around before resting back on the thing ahead. I didn't want to look away for too long, it might move and I wouldn't know where it was. You should always keep an eye on your enemies so you know where they are.

Something warm flowed over my eyes. Looking around slightly I realized what little I could see of my face was red. I hadn't realized my head was bleeding so much, I guess the fear numbed me to the pain.

Snake was still standing on the edge of the course, keeping an eye on me. At least it wasn't Yassen or a Scorpia agent; that would be really embarrassing. I think it was almost five thirty when I saw the others again. I still hadn't moved and cramp had taken over my body. My day had gone from good to horrible. I was cold, wet, and hungry, bleeding and slightly dizzy, not to mention still absolutely terrified.

"Still haven't moved Adrienne? Not scared are you?" Riley called, taunting.

"Fuck up!" I screamed back.

"Ooh, someone's touchy."

I blocked his voice out. He was nothing as he went past with everyone else, going to have nice warm showers. Alex stopped until Wolf yelled at him to go with the other kids. He gave me a concerned look before jogging off to the showers. I glared at Wolf as he knelt beside the wire.

"You're not going to go inside or have a shower until you have completed this whole course. To do that, you have to get past the spider. It's smaller than you are."

"You're a jerk." I growled, as if it was his fault.

"Get moving!" he screamed in my ear before walking over to Snake.

I inched forward about half a foot before freezing up again. The spider moved, stalking down the side of the wire. Grimacing I shrunk against the opposite side, keeping as much distance as possible. Slowly, just taking it's time it reached the ground. Please, please don't come this way. For once I got my wish; the creature crawled away from the wires.

Once it was about a metre away I scrambled forward carefully, ignoring my stiff aching muscles and praying I wouldn't rip anything. Slipping out from under the barbed wire I wiped my face on my sleeve, wincing as it passed over my cuts. Quickly I hurried on, slowly warming my muscles. After several tunnels, ditches, ladders, nets, ropes, a rolled ankle and thankfully, no more spiders I made it to the end.

Shaking I climbed into the waiting jeep, sitting huddled in the back, while Wolf drove back to camp. Alex and Snake met us outside our barrack. Trying not to rip any cold muscles I climbed out before Wolf pulled away again. Alex jumped over to me as I tried not to limp towards the door.

"You okay?" he asked.

I checked where Snake was, a couple of metres behind us, before replying quietly, "At Malagosto we never did anything like that."

He laughed.

"But Scorpia training's still a lot harder."

"At least it got you in shape for the SAS." Alex grinned as he held open the door.

"Yeah and a whole lot of trouble too. I'd rather be in Moscow with my mum or with my dad or with both somewhere."

He looked sympathetic as I sat on my bed, "Are they dead?"

I didn't answer for a while. Snake came over and started inspecting the cuts on my head. He startled me slightly and I almost attacked him.

Eventually I looked back at Alex as he sat on the end of my bed, "My mum is. She died when I was ten. I had only met my dad twice before that, but he was at the funeral. Then I went to live with him."

"What happened to him?"

"As far as I know; nothing." I answered, wincing as Snake touched one of the cuts, with gloves on of course.

He looked confused, almost suspicious, "So how did you get recruited? They don't normally take people with families, not as far as I know."

I was saved from answering by Snake, "You'll need stitches in some of these."

"Well, go ahead and stitch them, then. I don't mind."

"Alright. Let's go to the infirmary."

I nodded and got up to follow him, leaving Alex's question hanging.

Tea came around quickly. All the kids, except Alex and I, were tired and hardly talked during dinner, before almost sleepwalking to their barracks. Slowly, after everyone else had left, Alex and I walked back to our hut in silence. We both had questions we wanted to ask but didn't really know how. At the hut we immediately climbed into our beds and talked quietly about school, making sure not to wake Sarah, though we both wanted to talk about our other lives. Eventually Alex connected the two.

"If you've been with Scorpia for a few years, how'd you manage to learn school stuff?"

I grinned, "A lot of the time I acted as a school girl to do whatever it was I was doing, so I went to school a few times. Apart from that, well, I guess you could say I was home schooled."

"You two stop talking and sleep." Wolf growled, walking through the door.

"Fine. Good night Drie."

"Night Alex."

Slowly I drifted off to sleep.

Something wasn't right. I knew that as soon as my eyes flicked open. I wasn't a heavy sleeper; even the smallest noise could wake me. Slowly I sat up and looked around the barely lit room. Wolf was snoring loudly, obviously still asleep. Snake lay spread over his bed, his chest steadily rising and falling. Sarah lay still on her bed the only evidence she was alive was the small rise and fall of her chest. My gaze fell on Alex last. The teenager was murmuring and tossing from side to side.

"No. No. Don't"

I jumped out of bed, my feet making no noise on the cold wood and hurried over to Alex's bed. Without thinking I shook him gently.

"Alex. Alex. Wake up. It's just a nightmare. Alex."

He moaned slightly before kicking his covers off. Again I tried to wake him. He bolted upright before curling his leg and lashing out. His foot caught me in the stomach. I flew across the room, landing on the floor with a grunt. Wolf and Snake jumped out of their beds while Sarah sat up and looked around sleepily.

"Don't shoot, I'm a medic!" Snake tried to negotiate.

Wolf had a gun in his hands and was holding it parallel to the ground. I'm not too sure what he was aiming at. Slowly I stood up, knowing I'd have some major bruises. Alex blinked a few times, trying to figure out his surroundings.

"Kovac? What the hell are you doing? It's two o'clock in the morning!" Wolf growled.

"Just stretching my legs. Geez, what else would I be doing?" I replied keeping my eyes on Alex.

He nodded slowly, very slightly as if to say thanks. I smiled at him, showing I understood.

"Well get back to bed, now!"

Slowly I climbed back into bed as everyone lay down in theirs. Silently I sat there and watched Alex. I don't think he went back to sleep, he seemed too shaken up. I didn't want to think about what it was. He was a tough kid but whatever the nightmare had been about it must've been bad. For no apparent reason I felt a twinge of guilt, or maybe, there was a reason. I worked for Scorpia, still did and he was Scorpia's enemy. We had shot him, tried to kill him and all because he saved people's lives and in the process messed our plans. Though rumor has it, working for MI6 wasn't even his choice, but once you're in the life, you can't get out and be normal again. I understood that. Eventually I lay back down and slowly went back to sleep.