Who else thinks that this reader traffic malarkey is amazing? I mean seriously man, I never quite appreciated the extent to which fanfiction is applicable! :D
"You've got everything then?" Lily asked the group and they all nodded slowly. They were lounging outside a café, eating ice cream, drinking coffee, their bags of shopping around them. No one felt like doing much as the Spanish heat dominated the atmosphere, although they knew they should get back to the house within the hour in order to be packed and ready to go.
"Is she asleep?" Alex asked and leant forwards to see Eva's face that was hidden by Paulo's shirt as he held her. "No, just quiet." He smiled at her.
"She doesn't talk much," Li observed and she tilted her head at Eva.
"She's quiet but clever, trust me," Lily said ominously. Her point was proven as Eva held up a mobile phone and began to play with it.
"Hey," Li laughed, "how did she get that?" Li checked her pockets and found that her phone wasn't there; she took it from Eva who didn't protest.
"Her mother's turning her into a mini-criminal," Alex said and slid down his chair. Everyone raised an eyebrow at Lily who sighed.
"I taught her a trick-"
"You taught her how to pick-pocket." Alex corrected her and Lily rolled her eyes.
"When I was a kid I used to hang out with a gang that made their living by pick-pocketing tourists," she shrugged, "I wanted to see if she could do it." Lily finished feebly.
"She's two; don't you think we should teach her to ride a bike before we teach her to steal?" Alex asked and closed his eyes as though the sunlight was soothing him.
"It could be handy to have a thief in the family," Hex contemplated and everyone felt too lazy to laugh and so just smiled at him instead. "So what kind of things can we look forwards to in T&A Alex?" Hex asked and Alex sat up straight to address the team.
"Pretty much everything we used to do, perhaps they'd make it more advanced though I can't see how they would." He thought for a moment, "they'd train the mechanic in every known vehicle we'll be using, as a medic they'd expect you to be able to handle minor injuries and first aid," he looked to Paulo who nodded. "As navigator," he said to Amber, "they'd expect you to be able to get us through any type of terrain with as little information as possible. Li," she glanced at him, "I hope your knowledge on animals is still just as good as your knowledge of plants-"
"I might be a botanist but I remember everything about animals, don't worry. Although my martial arts haven't exactly been exercised in a laboratory." She added quickly.
"And Hex," Alex turned to him finally, "well your art is your own." He said and moved forwards to drink his coffee.
"Come on!" Amber stood up excitedly; she had forgotten the adrenaline rush that came along with these missions, the excitement of saving the world once more. "Let's get a move on!" She said and had already begun to walk away. "Hex carry my bags." She added quickly.
"What?" He said indignantly but was silenced by a look from her. It took them twenty minutes to travel to the town centre and shop for their equipment, but the ride back seemed to take less time, they were at the house in an instant. Everyone immediately began packing when they got to their rooms and the house was alive once more. Lily was surprised to see that everyone was still the same when it came to packing for she had witnessed it a few times; Li was always ready first, shouting at the rest to hurry up. Paulo, in his usual lazy fashion, was last. Amber always went back for something, Hex wandered in whenever he felt Amber wouldn't yell at him about something and they would go out to find Alex was already in the car. She laughed as everyone gathered at the door in this way and indeed Alex was already conversing with their driver.
"Alright," Alex said walking back to the house, "we ready to go?" Everyone nodded, hardly able to suppress their smiles.
"Goodbye Lily!" Li was the first to say and hugged Lily.
"Bye, have fun." She said as they broke apart.
"Can I get a goodbye Eva?" Li asked the little girl in Lily's arms, she moved forwards to Li and kissed her cheek, there was a resounding "awww" in the hallway. "Thanks!" Li said and moved out of the house.
"Adios." Paulo moved forwards and got his kiss from Eva too. Hex and Amber moved forwards at the same time and while Eva kissed Amber Lily hugged Hex and they swapped.
"She's like a mini you!" Amber exclaimed as she moved away.
"Take care guys!" Lily called to them as they went to the car as well. Alex turned to her and she shook her head. "Bye." She said quietly, he kissed her forehead seeing as that's the only part she'd let him kiss.
"Daddy!" Eva shouted and wriggled in her mother's grip to go to him, but Lily held her tight.
"Daddy's leaving." Alex said to her and kissed her cheek. "But he's coming back." He whispered to her.
"Don't talk in third person," Lily said to him, "you'll confuse her grammar." He looked at her and for a moment she seemed genuinely annoyed but then they both laughed. "Come back soon." She said and kissed him quickly as they heard Li call to them from the car.
"I love you guys," Alex said as he walked out of the door.
"Daddy." Eva put her arms out for him to pick her up but he couldn't, he turned back around and waved. He got in the car, Alpha force waved to Lily and Eva who waved in return.
"We're going back." Li said quietly and stared out of the window. Nobody needed to ask what she meant, they had no idea where they were going in the car but they all knew, had this feeling that they were travelling back to how things used to be.
-6 days Later-
"This has to be the weirdest navigation exercise ever." Amber said to herself as she tried to focus on putting one foot in front of the other. It didn't help that she was blindfolded too and with a bag of rocks on her back. Two hours ago her supervisor had placed the blueprint of a house on a table in front of her, told her that a key was located in a certain room that she had to get to. So she had to memorise the map to such an extent that she could carry out the task blindfolded. She laughed; she'd always thought it was just a figure of speech. In honesty she was amazed with herself; she hadn't navigated anyone anywhere for a while now and was surprised at how good she was at it. For instance she knew exactly where she was right now according to the blueprint and other information she saw; if she extended her hand left she'd come across a door with two glass panes. She reached out left and felt the door, it was exactly how she though it would be. If she took a step right and extended her hand there was a table with a huge vase. She laughed as she found it; this was too easy.
Alpha force had been taken from Spain to London where they were not met with Brian Adams but his underling, Joshua Brent. The man explained that they would be going to a town called Dresden. Amber immediately informed them that Dresden was a town that was bombed by the allies during WWII and many parts of it were still ruins. Brent agreed with her and claimed that it was the ideal location for much of the T&A hat his department ran. So they had been here for six days, each doing their own exercises to develop their skills and then coming together in the afternoon to do a group exercise. Everyone was enjoying it; it felt good to be back up to scratch with their talents and spending time together again was a bonus.
"Ouch!" Amber exclaimed as she bumped into a door, she knew where she was going but hadn't been paying attention. She opened the door and felt for the doorknob on the other side because she knew the key would be there. She found it, "I found it!" She shouted into her microphone.
"Yes Amber but there's no need to shout at me." Her supervisor's, Hart's voice came in her ear. She put a hand to her mouth.
"Sorry." She whispered.
"Now you have to get back to base." Hart said. Amber smiled; this was way too easy.
"Hullo solider," Alex heard a voice behind him say and stood up to attention immediately.
"At ease," the voice said in a bored tone as though Alex should know better than doing that. Alex kept looking straight ahead as a figure came in front of him. Alex had been sat at a table, he felt like a school kid waiting for the teacher to come and tell him off. It was an odd office but one Alex was familiar with; hardly used no photos or decoration, just the desk and the filing cabinet. The man that walked around the table was Adam's representative, Joshua Brent. He wore an expensive suit and a bright white smile that had made the group cringe when they first met him. When Alex realised it was Brent he relaxed completely; there was something about the man that Alex didn't like, something that meant he didn't deserve such treatment. Anyway, in ranks Alex was higher than him so there was no need for that introduction. "Please, sit." Alex had already sat down before being asked, Brent noticed this and smiled even more. "So," he took a file out of his briefcase, "how're things going?" It was such a vague question that Alex was annoyed by it.
"Fine." He answered quickly, wanting to get this over with. Brent nodded, obviously not paying attention, and he flicked through Alex's file.
"how long have you been with Special Ops?" Brent asked, still not looking at him.
"Two years, one month." He said dully.
"Your first mission," Brent read from the file, "where was it?" Alex was surprised by the question but answered anyway.
"Primary location was London, Secondary location was Marlow, a town North-"
"Yes, yes." Brent waved a hand for Alex to stop, "that's what it says." He read some of the file again, "seventh operation with MI6 was in Kuwait, mission objectives were?" Alex realised why he was doing this now and so sat up a little straighter.
"Secure a perimeter around the Iraq/Kuwait border for our Prime minister to make his arrival-" Again Brent put a hand up to stop him. No one had told Alex this would be his assessment; his ability to retain information about situations, events, people he has worked with. He needed to know everything about the places he'd worked in and to Brent's surprise Alex remembered everything, even the trick question when Brent referred to a mission Alex had never done. Then Brent began to ask Alex questions about what he would do in certain situations, how he would handle a team. He went onto weapons, the parts of weapons, functions, new advances. They were in the office for a good four hours before the words game that Alex so wanted to hear.
"Assessment over, well done." Brent said and signed a few papers. "This is your last night here?"
"Yeah," Alex sighed; he quite enjoyed the exercises the groups did here, even though he had had the least training of them all seeing as he was used to doing this anyway.
"I hear you're going to see Paulo for flight simulation," Alex nodded even though Brent didn't look up; the man wasn't listening anyway.
"If you see Li could you tell her that I'm waiting for her in here, will she know where it is?" Alex laughed.
"This is the only fully intact building for five miles." He said and stood up. "How is her assessment going?" He asked and walked to the door.
"She sent two of our men to hospital," Alex smirked and walked out of the door; well martial arts were Li's speciality.
Hex was in heaven, sure Amber took him somewhere close to that but this was something else. He was in control of a whole unit, it was amazing; the amount of power he had over a system and his team was unbelievable. He was sat at a station he'd become accustomed to over the past five days, talking to and keeping an eye on each member of his team.
"Agent A I'm going to blackout Light 23b so be ready to move," they had a navigator with them so didn't need his help on where to go, they just needed him to tell them how to get there. With a few clicks of his mouse and a password typed in he was ready to turn the light off. It was a huge search light that would look for intruders but he didn't worry too much about it; the program they had provided him with was sophisticated enough to handle anything surprising. What was surprising to Hex was that his supervisor, Manny, refused to sit with him, in fact hex had no one on his team with him at the moment. But he knew he was being watched and he didn't want to disappoint. It was also unnerving when he was told he was not allowed to name his team mates, they were just Agents A through D. He shrugged off the worries as soon as he reached the computer though. "Agent D camera 4d is about to rotate to the left, you will be out of view for twenty-two seconds; make your move." He watched from his own cameras what his agent did. "Alright, blackout begins in 5,4,3,2,1." He flicked the switch, this was too easy.
"Alright Alex," Paulo pushed him into the helicopter and sat next to him, "I'm only going to show you this once so pay attention." He said and began reading the dials, Alex expected him to explain but perhaps he knew that Alex didn't need to know. "Basic rules with any flying machine," Alex laughed as Paulo gestured that the helicopter could fly. "Treat your vehicle like your woman," he winked at Alex, "get inside her twice a day and take her to heaven," he pointed upwards, "and back." He pointed down.
"Is that all you ever think about?" Alex asked and Paulo shook his head, leant back and flicked a switch above him.
"Of course not," Paulo said seriously and flashed a smile at Li as she walked past the helicopter, she rolled her eyes and waved at Alex who leant across Paulo to talk to her. "Whoa whoa, Alex." Paulo said and pushed his friend away from him slightly.
"Hey, what's up?" Li asked as she approached them.
"Brent needs to see you for finally assessment." Alex told her and she chewed her bottom lip.
"Hmmm, have you had it?" She asked.
"I've just come back."
"What was it like?" Alex contemplated.
"It was the single most thrilling experience of my life." He said and the other two laughed at his sarcastic tone. "He's in the only standing building in this place," Alex informed her and she nodded.
"Alright, I'll see you later." And with that she was gone; Alex noticed the way Paulo watched her walk away for longer than was necessary. He put a hand on his shoulder.
"Perhaps there's still a chance?" But Paulo shrugged his hand away.
"No," he went back to examining the helicopter but Alex had a feeling he was just trying not to look at him. "How do you do it Alex?" Paulo said after a minute and Alex looked around to him in confusion.
"Do what?" He asked; worried by Paulo's slight lack of energy that he was used to.
"Stick with one woman?" Alex laughed but Paulo had made it sound like the most difficult thing he'd ever heard of.
"Easy," Alex got out of his seat and began to leave the flying machine, "I love her." Paulo grimaced. "Are you still in love with her?" Paulo nodded guiltily and Alex sighed; Alex had never been too good on relationships, his own one with Lily had been complicated enough. "Then why don't you-"
"It's the fact that I love her that I can't be with her." Alex tried to imagine what that meant, Lily had told him something like that when they were teenagers but he hadn't understood it then either. "I don't want to hurt her anymore." Paulo said quietly and got out of the helicopter after Alex. The blonde haired man put an arm around his friend.
"Give it time; maybe being back together will change both your minds?" Alex speculated and this seemed to work. Paulo got his usual energy and bounce back much to Alex's relief. They looked around the ruined town of Dresden, both happy that they had managed to come back together, that their lives were, to them, returning to normality. How wrong they were. For hundreds of miles away another man was making his move.
"Wasat?" Eva asked Lily and tried to jump so she could see the small white stick on the bathroom counter. Lily picked her up.
"This will tell mummy if she's having a baby." Lily explained; not sure if Eva understood those implications.
"¿Por qué?" Why? Eva asked and Lily found that Eva did sometimes ask the strangest questions, the woman sighed and put Eva down.
"Because your dad is a very smooth talker and I am very weak." She said sarcastically but Eva seemed satisfied with this answer and ran out of the bathroom. Lily sat on the edge of the bathtub and sighed; they'd been gone almost a week on T&A, they had no information on what their mission was about so God knew how long that was going to take. She sighed, she wished she hadn't been so harsh to Alex, even though he did deserve-
Her thoughts were broken as she heard a loud crash come from her living room, she walked out from the bathroom hurriedly, down the hall and to the front door.
"Eva!" But she stopped dead, her front door was on the floor, it's window pane smashed, glass scattered the floor and glittered in the lamplight. "Eva?" She called again and walked into the living room. "Ev-" For the third time that night she was stumped. Four strangers were stood in her living room.
And now the real story begins :D can i just point out that you should never take things at face value...everyone just keep that in mind ;)