*Earlier that day*
Alex woke up to a delicious scent wafting up from the kitchen. He glanced at the clock on his bedside table. Why was someone cooking breakfast at 7am? On a Saturday! With a resigned sigh, Alex rolled out of bed, his sudden hunger at the smell of food outweighing his desire to go back to sleep. The rowing season had ended so Saturday mornings were once again his own to spend as he pleased. And for the most part, that had meant lying in and lounging around until mid-morning before getting on with his day.
Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he made his way down the stairs, Alex was utterly unprepared for the sight that met his eyes upon entering the kitchen. Yassen Gregorovich… flipping a pancake with a perfectly timed flick of his wrist, the pancake spinning in mid-air before landing, cooked side up, in the frying pan where it started to cook with a satisfying sizzle.
"Good morning, Alex," Yassen greeted as he returned the pan to the hob.
"Morning," Alex mumbled. The man's incessant ability to always be awake no matter what time of day or night it was was infuriating, especially this early in the morning. He and Ben had volunteered (despite Alex's protests that he didn't need babysitting) to 'look after' Alex while Jack was needed at home in America for a few weeks, so the three of them had become used to each other's habits. Yassen, for instance, was used to the fact that Alex wasn't a morning person and, to Alex's relief, quietly continued to make pancakes while he flicked on the kettle to make himself a cup of tea. Alex glanced around the kitchen. When he and Jack made pancakes, it usually ended with flour absolutely everywhere; over the counters, floor and often themselves but Yassen, like with most things, cooked with precision. If he had made a mess at any point (although Alex doubted that he had), it had been dealt with instantly and the kitchen was now spotless, other than the sauces, fruit and cutlery that Yassen had laid on the countertop.
Once his tea was made, Alex slumped into one of the chairs at the kitchen island. Yassen wordlessly slid a plate of chocolate chip pancakes in front of him and Alex looked up incredulously. Since he had moved in, Alex hadn't seen the man eating anything other than porridge or granola with fruit and yoghurt for breakfast and he had rolled his eyes the last time Alex filled a cereal bowl with Coco Pops. Yassen merely replied with a look that Alex was too tired to try and decipher so, with a mumbled "thanks", he turned his attention to the plate before him.
"So what are your plans for today?" Yassen asked once Alex had finished his breakfast and felt much more awake.
"Nothing much really. Football this afternoon and I've got some homework to finish off," he said with a yawn.
Just then, the sound of the key turning in the lock and the front door opening echoed along the hallway.
"Morning!" Ben called as he came inside.
Alex and Yassen both returned greetings of their own.
"Smells good," he said approvingly, appearing at the kitchen door.
"Where'd you run this morning?" Alex asked, taking a sip of his tea.
"Along the river. The views are much better than I normally have. Usually it's just back alleyways and housing estates," Ben said as he filled the kettle and flicked it on. He turned and leant against the counter while he waited for it to boil. "And Wolf messaged me. He's being discharged this morning so I'm going to pick him up soon."
"That's good! I'll come with you," Alex said.
"Are you sure?" Ben asked, surprise momentarily flickering across his face before he regained control of himself. Alex understood why Ben was surprised; he didn't like hospitals and although he had gone to see Wolf a couple of nights ago, he hadn't really been comfortable for the whole time they had been there.
"Yeah, I'm sure."
Half an hour later, the three of them were in the car on the way to the hospital. Alex was looking forward to seeing Wolf again but a heavy feeling had settled in the pit of his stomach, as it always did when he was faced with the prospect of a visit to the hospital, even if the patient was someone other than himself. Alex focused on his breathing. Deep breaths. In and out. And he tried to reassure himself with the fact that they weren't even going to stay in the hospital today - they were just going to pick Wolf up and leave again. And with Yassen and Ben by his side, he was undoubtedly much safer than he had been many of the other times that he had been in hospitals… even the times that he had been assigned MI6 protection.
"Are you alright, Alex?" Ben asked as they climbed out of the car, trying not to show the extent of his concern for his young charge nor the fact that he could see Alex trying not to bounce with nervous energy.
"Yeah I'm okay… I'm just not a fan of hospitals," was the reply.
"I know," Ben said, putting an arm around him. "But Wolf'll be glad to see you-"
"-And we'll be out again before you know it," Yassen added reassuringly, ruffling Alex's hair. The two men exchanged a glance that Alex didn't see. Now that they were spending more time with Alex, they could both see the toll that the many missions he had been forced on had taken on him, even if he was usually very good at hiding it.
The three of them made their way through the almost identical looking corridors that would have been a perfect maze but for the fact that they had visited a couple of days before and knew the way. There were signs on the walls but if you didn't know what to look for, they would be as helpful as a plaster covering a newly amputated limb. Ben kept talking to Alex, trying to distract him from their surroundings by talking about their plans for the rest of the day.
"Hey Cub!" Wolf greeted as they entered his room, pulling Alex into a bear hug. "This is a nice surprise!"
"How're you feeling, Wolf?"
"Great thanks. I've been discharged so we're good to go."
Ben could tell that Alex was relieved that their visit to the hospital really was going to be in and out in under five minutes; he'd relaxed a great deal compared to when they had first arrived in the car park. Ben had just picked up Wolf's bag and they were all preparing to leave when they heard the sound.
Gunshots. Followed almost immediately by screaming.
Ben's thoughts instantly turned to Alex. He knew that Alex had once been kidnapped from a hospital and the experience had nearly led to Alex's death. He was trying not to show it but Ben could see that he was thinking of that night at St Dominics. There were more gunshots. They were still a distance away but they were closing in. Wolf's room was one of the first that anyone coming up the stairs or lift would come across - the further away Alex was, the better.
"Go!" Ben said to Yassen, nodding at Alex who wasn't really paying them any attention but was staring at the door. His hands had tensed into fists at his sides and Ben knew that he was mentally preparing for a fight. "We'll cover you." Wolf nodded determinedly, taking the gun that Ben offered.
Yassen nodded in understanding, his own gun already in his hand and moving to Alex's eyeline. He spoke softly to Alex while Ben strode to the door. He opened it and peered around the frame, his gun raised ready to shoot. Their corridor was clear of gunmen but he knew that the situation could change at any moment. Yassen and Alex appeared behind him and, after a nod from Ben giving him the all clear to move, Yassen pulled Alex out of the room behind him and then pushed him in front. There was only one set of entrances to access this floor and Yassen led them away from the stairs and lift. Ben and Wolf took up their positions on either side of the corridor. They would do all they could to block off the attackers and keep Alex safe before reinforcements arrived.
Yassen guided Alex down the corridor. He knew that he was leading them away from their only exit routes but that also meant that he was also leading them as far away as possible from the gunmen. They arrived at an empty looking room near the end of the corridor and Yassen quickly cleared it to make sure that it was secure before closing the door behind them.
"Alex."
"Yeah," he replied absently, his eyes fixed on the door and his hands clenched in fists, just as they had been in Wolf's room down the corridor.
"Alex," he said, putting a hand on Alex's shoulder. "Look at me."
But Yassen didn't get the chance to say anything to reassure Alex as the door to the room crashed open. The earlier gunshots must have been a diversion to try and get them to split up. To take Alex as far away from the potential danger as possible and corner him... and they had fallen into the trap that had been set. Yassen still had his gun in his hand and he shot and disarmed the three men who had just stormed the room but not before one of them managed to get a shot fired at Alex. But it hadn't been a bullet that fired from the gun. He had been shot with some kind of dart. Anaesthetic, perhaps, which made sense if this had all been part of a plan to capture him.
"Alex," Yassen said urgently, looking into his eyes. His pupils were already blown. Not a good sign.
Alex began to sway and almost immediately his legs buckled from underneath him. Yassen caught him and lifted him onto the bed.
"You'll be okay, Alex. We'll look after you," he said, trying to reassure Alex as much as himself. His words were empty though and he knew it; he didn't actually know that Alex would be okay, given that he had no idea what he had been injected with. He felt sure that it would be something to incapacitate him to make him an easier captive but it could just as easily be poison, although a bullet would have been a much more efficient way of killing Alex if that was their plan.
He stormed back to the pile of men that he had left in the doorway. They were a mess, breathing raggedly in their pain. He had not been aiming to kill them; they would likely have important information regarding whoever had ordered the attack and could therefore be interrogated. And that information could be used to protect Alex in the future.
"What was in the needle?" he asked coldly.
None of them replied. He had no patience to play their game. His bullet had torn out one of the men's kneecaps. He stood on it, exerting more and more pressure until the man was gasping, soundless in his pain.
"I will not ask again."
"Our employer designed it," one of the other men, clutching his bloody shoulder, hissed. "It activates the fear centre of the brain and subdues the target."
Yassen resisted the urge to lash out; he didn't need screams of agony to add to the fear that the drug was causing. Instead, he took a deep breath and imagined hitting out, the man screaming out in pain. Then he turned and walked back to Alex.
"Alex. Alex, look at me." The teenager's eyes had been closed but now they opened. They were completely glazed over and out of focus and Yassen saw no recognition in them.
"What happened?" Ben and Wolf had appeared in the doorway, summoned by the gunshots when Yassen had fired his gun.
"They ambushed us. The gunshots were probably used to split us up and make it easier to get Alex. I took them out but not before they shot him with something. According to him" -Yassen said, pointing at the man with the injured shoulder who was now whimpering in pain- "the drug activates the brain's fear centre and subdues whoever is injected with it."
The two agents swore before both rushing over to Alex's side. He showed no more recognition that they were beside him than he had Yassen. There was absolutely nothing behind his eyes to show signs of cognitive thought. Yassen didn't even know if he could hear them or if he was currently stuck in some kind of nightmare induced by his fears. And Alex had lived through far too many real life horrors for his brain to pick and choose from. He could be reliving any number of events that he had barely escaped from with his life. Or the drug could be causing him to be experiencing something completely new, using the fear he had felt then and layering it over a new scenario. Yassen had no idea. He didn't like not knowing. And, most of all, he didn't like that he had no way of helping Alex.
"How did they even know that he'd be here?" Ben whispered, more to himself than to the room.
The three men exchanged a look. None of them knew the answer to that question and that made all of them nervous. Nobody had known that Alex was going to come with Ben to pick Wolf up. So had they seen Alex at the hospital a couple of nights ago and planned an attack for if he came back? Or had they been watching the house, looking for an opportunity to make their move? And if they had been watching the house, why hadn't Yassen or Ben noticed? But more important than answering those questions right now was getting Alex to safety.
"We have to get him out of here," Ben said a second later, echoing Yassen's thoughts out loud. "The gunshots might have been to separate Alex from all of us but they are probably still planning to take him when they get here."
"Agreed. Except the hospital will be in lockdown so we can't just walk out of here."
The three adults stood quietly for a few moments, deep in thought as to the best way to get Alex to safety.
"What if we take him out as a patient?" Ben asked.
"That could work," Yassen agreed, thinking through the logistics.
Just then, Alex sat up and mumbled something that sounded like 'dying' before he broke off into completely unintelligible words.
"If he says that and someone overhears, we will be stopped," Yassen said, pushing his own horror at what Alex was currently experiencing aside so that he could focus on getting him to safety.
"What if he was a psychiatric patient?" Wolf suggested as he helped Alex drink some water.
So that was how Yassen Gregorovich found himself helping Alex into a straitjacket to get him out of the hospital. The boy was still completely out of it, entirely dependent on Yassen to hold him upright and move him forward. As they moved towards one of the side exits, with Ben and Wolf walking ahead of them and clearing their passage, the corridors became more and more deserted as patients hid from the danger and doctors and nurses rushed to where they were needed. Alex slowly regained some control over himself. At least, he was able to call for help a couple of times, not that anyone (other than Yassen, Ben and Wolf) heard him.
As they reached the penultimate corridor before the exit, Ben slipped into a second straight jacket. They reasoned that if Ben sounded like a psychiatric patient too, then anything that Alex managed to say in his confused state would also sound like delusions. Yassen was glad that they had taken the extra precautions when Alex shouted for help, saying that he was being kidnapped, although the terror and panic in his voice was like a punch in the gut. The drug certainly induced fear. Ben's proclamation that he was the Prime Minister, in addition to Yassen warning the security guard that Ben had just bitten one of the doctors, completed their disguise and Yassen smiled to himself as the door was opened to allow them out. He breathed a small sigh of relief once they were in the open. They still had to get Alex to a safe house and find out what was in his system but he was out of the hospital and safe from those who wished to harm him.
"Wolf and I are going to stay and help with containment and capture. We'll meet you at the safe house," Ben said once Alex was safely strapped into the car. Yassen understood. They needed to know who had orchestrated the attack, why they wanted Alex and how they had found him.
"We'll see you there," Yassen said as he opened the door to climb into the driver's seat.
He turned around to face Alex. There was a second of confusion, then a moment of clarity as Alex realised who he was, followed by terror. What did Alex think he was planning to do? Yassen could only imagine what his fear induced mind would concoct if he still remembered that Yassen was, primarily, an assassin. The drug he'd been injected with had made him believe that Yassen was kidnapping him and, from the looks of him, he probably thought that torture was on the cards too. Alex mumbled something that sounded like 'Yassen… kill you too' and Yassen wondered whether he was remembering a warning that he had once been told.
"Alex," he said softly, trying to explain that he was safe. That he wasn't in any danger. But before Yassen could say anything more than his name, Alex's eyes unfocused and he knew that the boy was drowning him out, not listening to what he had to say. It didn't stop him from talking anyway, even if it probably wasn't resonating. As much as he hated it, Yassen knew that he would just have to wait for the effects of the drugs to wear off enough for Alex to understand. Resigning himself to an anxious drive, Yassen set off for the safe house.
Alex remained silent on the drive and didn't do anything until they had arrived. Yassen helped him out of the car and saw Alex looking around wildly. The safe house was very secluded, with every view of the house cut off by hedgerows. Nobody would be able to see them getting out of the car. He led Alex over to the front door and as they walked, Alex opened his mouth to cry out for help. Moving quickly, Yassen covered the boy's mouth with his hand so that he couldn't shout and hastily led him into the house. The last thing he needed was the police arriving to find a drugged Alex who was convinced that he had been kidnapped.
He settled Alex down on the sofa and grabbed his first aid kit and a glass of water. Alex still refused to acknowledge him and Yassen didn't know if he could hear him, but he explained what he was doing and why all the same. If Alex understood even a small amount of his commentary, he might begin to relax. He removed the straitjacket, extracted a vial of blood so that he could analyse it to work out what Alex had been injected with and then held the glass of water to Alex's lips so that he could drink. Next, he set up a saline drip to begin flushing the drug out of Alex's system. The test on Alex's blood would take a while to come back with a result, so Yassen took a seat on one of the armchairs so that he could keep an eye on Alex's condition. He was still completely out of it, despite the saline. Yassen kept talking. About some of the different things that they had done with Ben over the past couple of weeks. About Ian and John. Anything.
Ben arrived sooner than Yassen had expected him to. He checked the camera at the front of the house and saw Ben's car pulling into the drive. The agent rang the doorbell a few moments later and, with a glance at Alex who was staring with wide unfocused eyes at the drip in his arm, Yassen got up to let him into the house.
"How is he?" Ben asked as soon as the door closed behind him.
"Not good. He's still completely out of it and he's had nearly a whole bag of saline."
Ben swore. "Do you know what the drug is?"
"Not yet. The results should be back in a couple of minutes."
"Hopefully it's something we know and have an antidote for."
Yassen nodded but didn't voice his doubts. The attacker who had told him, albeit reluctantly, what the drug did had said that his employer had made it. That made it extremely unlikely that they would have an antidote, so they would just have to keep going with the saline and wait for Alex's system to clear.
"Did you find out anything from the men at the hospital?" he asked, changing the subject.
"Not much. They were all captured and have been taken to Liverpool Street. Wolf went with them to, uh, oversee the questioning."
An alarm went off, interrupting their hushed conversation.
"That's for the test," Yassen said, turning the alarm on his phone off. "He's in the lounge," he added as he went to check the result.
He had just glanced at the kit for long enough to see that there wasn't one specific drug coursing through Alex's system when he was interrupted by a shout from Ben.
"He's gone!" Yassen swore to himself and rushed to the lounge.
Ben was right. The room was empty, a small pool of saline on the floor beside the sofa where Alex had removed it, and the patio doors were wide open.
"I'll check the garden," he said, taking control of the situation and moving to the doors. "Check in here. He can't be anywhere else in the house or we'd have seen him as we talked in the hallway."
He looked around the garden but saw nothing out of place. He hadn't thought Alex had the strength to stand on his own, let alone get out of the house but he knew that he hadn't been taken. There were sensors surrounding the house and grounds so that anyone approaching from outside could not take them by surprise. That also meant that Alex was still within the boundary of the gardens. Ben finished checking behind all of the furniture and joined him at the doorway, also looking into the garden.
"Alex!" Ben called out desperately, but didn't get a response.
Rather than search all of the hedges by hand - there was nowhere else in the garden that Alex would be able to hide - Yassen grabbed his thermal imaging camera from the side and, after quickly scanning the house to make doubly sure that Alex wasn't inside, he returned to the door and scanned the garden. It didn't take him long to locate the teenager, lying motionless under the hedge.
"He's over there," he said quietly to Ben, pointing out the spot where Alex lay.
"Do you know what he was drugged with?" Ben asked softly as they made their way to Alex.
"The test found a few different chemicals but I wasn't able to examine the results properly. Once we get him inside, I'll be able to have another look and hopefully sort out an antidote."
They reached the hedge. Ben pulled the branches out of the way and Yassen pulled Alex out from underneath them. He lay there, blinking in the sunshine, looking absolutely defeated. He didn't try to struggle or resist, but just looked up into their faces.
"Ben…" he mumbled after a few moments and Yassen was glad that he had recognised the agent. If he recognised Ben, he might realise that he was safe. But all hopes that Ben's presence might calm Alex down were dashed when he saw a flash of anger in his otherwise blank eyes and heard a word which sounded like 'traitor' slip from Alex's lips. Somehow, Alex had made the connection that if Yassen and Ben were together, then Ben must have become a double agent and also be his enemy. Obviously none of Yassen's attempts to put Alex's mind at ease and explain that they weren't enemies had worked.
Gently, Ben lifted Alex up and carried him back into the house. He took him upstairs while Yassen grabbed the first aid kit. They cuffed Alex to the bed, for his own safety more than anything else - if he couldn't get off of the bed then he couldn't try and escape and end up hurting himself - and Ben set up another bag of saline while Yassen examined the results of the blood test he had done. There were a few unidentified compounds and of those that had been identified, Yassen didn't have all of the components that he would need to make an antidote. They would just have to wait for time and the saline to clear the drug from Alex's system.
Alex woke up with a splitting headache and with no idea where he was. The last thing he remembered was Yassen making pancakes for breakfast… and maybe a car journey but he couldn't be sure. Had that been earlier that day? He was lying on an extremely comfortable bed although, when he tried to sit up, he found that he couldn't move. His wrists were cuffed to the bed. Where was he? What had happened? And why was he cuffed to a bed? How much danger was he in? Feeling a little like a detective, Alex looked around the room. There was some kind of drip going into his arm. The door to the room opened before he had finished his examination of his surroundings and Ben walked in.
"Back with us?" he asked hopefully.
"Ben? What's going on?"
"What do you remember?"
"Erm," Alex said, filling the silence while he thought. "Not very much."
"Well if you're not gonna become an escape artist on us again, do you want to come downstairs?"
"Escape artist?"
"Yeah you were drugged and confused and tried running away from us."
"I promise I'm not gonna run away," Alex said with a confused smile, proffering his cuffed wrists.
Ben laughed and unlocked the cuffs.
"Wait, who's 'us'?" Alex asked as he swung his legs off of the bed.
"Yassen. We'll explain when we've got you downstairs," Ben said as he sorted out the drip going into Alex's arm.
A flash of memory appeared in Alex's mind but it was gone too quickly for understanding to join it. His mind and body were still being affected by whatever he had been drugged with and Ben helped Alex down the stairs and into the lounge. Some more flashes came as he glanced around the room but, just as before, understanding did not come. Just as Ben helped in to sit down on the sofa, Yassen came in with a tea tray.
"How are you feeling?" he asked, concern evident in his voice.
"Alright, I guess. I have no idea what happened though."
"We'll be able to fill some of that in, but we don't know everything."
So with Yassen and Ben sharing the narrative between them, Alex began to understand some of the events from that morning. By the time they finished talking, Alex knew what had happened that day… although he couldn't remember any of it for himself. He remembered a vague sense of fear but nothing particularly. He supposed he should be glad of that, that he didn't have more memories of fear and pain, but it was disconcerting to have no memory of the day.
"So where's Wolf?" he asked eventually. He had many other questions but he had resigned himself to the fact that the answers weren't ones that Yassen and Ben could provide.
"He's back at Liverpool Street," Ben explained. "We captured everyone at the hospital who was involved and they're being questioned now."
"We will find out who was after you, Alex, and we will stop them," Yassen promised, resting a hand gently on his shoulder, and Ben nodded in agreement.
And, for once, Alex knew that he wouldn't be left alone to handle this by himself or only be given protection in exchange for going on a mission. Yassen and Ben would protect him, no strings attached, from anyone who tried to cause him harm. Not even Alan Blunt would have the guts to try and defy Yassen Gregorovich and expect to live to tell the tale.
