Chapter 4 – Arguments And Makeovers

They paused at the bottom of the steps.

'You want to walk or take the bus back?' Alex asked.

'Walk?'

'Fine by me; we'll get back late though, you might want to phone your Mum.'

Nikita looked down as they started to walk. 'Mum won't be there, she's never there; not anymore anyway. She hasn't been here since Dad drowned, she escapes to her own little world; Yassen could keep her here whenever he visited but he… he died a little while ago.'

Alex did a double take and almost walked into Nikita when she stopped at a pedestrian crossing; when they'd crossed he found his voice.

'You knew Yassen Gregorovich?' Alex asked; Nikita stopped and looked at him, frowning.

'You knew him?' she asked. Alex started walking again; he didn't want to get into a conversation about what had happened to him whenever he had run into Yassen Gregorovich; least of al the fact that he had killed his Uncle. Nikita ran to catch up to him.

'Alex?'

'He worked for Scorpia' Alex responded, keeping his eyes fixed in front of him. Nikita's eyes went to his face and she watched him closely.

'What is Scorpia?' she asked him; Alex sighed.

'It doesn't matter' Alex answered shortly. Nikita walked in front of him and stopped, looking straight into his eyes.

'It does to me' she said; Alex's face clouded.

'I don't want to talk about it, okay?' he almost yelled, pushing past Nikita and walking off.

'You didn't know him!' Nikita yelled after him; Alex turned on his heel and looked at her as she walked a few metres so they didn't have to yell down the street at each other and let everyone hear their conversation.

'Neither did you, because if you did you wouldn't want to know about Scorpia!' Alex snapped; he didn't want to start talking about Scorpia, there were too many bad memories associated with the organisation and Yassen, including the death of his Uncle and his own near fatal encounters with Scorpia; not to mention the fact that he almost played a part in a project that would have meant the death of many school children across Britain. Alex saw tears start to form in Nikita's eyes.

'I knew him better than you did' she said quietly, blinking away her tears 'You know nothing about him and what he did for me and my Mum so don't you dare say I didn't know him. He was as close to a father as I could get!'

With that last statement Nikita pushed past Alex and ran down the road; Alex watched her go before continuing to walk home at a leisurely pace; he reached his front door just as it started to rain.

After dinner Alex went up to his room and started doing some exercises for his arm; it still twinged every so often and the doctors hadn't told him to stop yet, and after the incident on the ropes he wasn't going to stop doing them in a hurry. He watched the rain pound against his window as he thought about something Nikita had said before she'd walked off.

'He was as close to a father as I could get'

Alex shook his head; he'd be seeing her tomorrow when they went back to MI6, if they were on relative speaking terms he'd ask her then. Then again, he thought, why should I if she can't accept that I don't want to talk about something. What if she keeps asking me about Scorpia? I just want to forget about them, but she's not going to until she finds out what they are is she? Alex pushed his thoughts to the back of his mind as he got ready for bed; he closed his eyes and fell asleep not long after his head hit the pillow.

When Alex arrived at the Royal and General the next morning he wasn't in the best of moods, he hadn't had a good night's sleep. He'd been waking up after dreams of Scorpia and falling back into a restless sleep before waking up about an hour or so later; at three in the morning he'd given up and started looking through the files Blunt had given him on who he was going to be for the nest week or so. Mrs Jones met him in the entrance and about five minutes later Nikita walked through the doors, Alex had enough time to notice that she had a black eye and a cut across her cheek before Mrs Jones led them down a flight of stairs. Alex had been here once before to prepare for his mission at Point Blanc, now he was preparing for a mission that would be very similar to that one. Nikita was shown into one room and then Mrs Jones led him to one further down the corridor.

'I'll be back to take you up to Alan Blunt's office when you're done' she told them before Nikita went into the room she'd been shown to.

A few hours later Alex walked into Alan Blunt's office and sat back in front of his desk.

'As soon as Nikita gets back we'll finalise everything and then you can leave' Blunt said, Alex nodded. The door opened and Mrs Jones walked in followed by Nikita; Alex swallowed subconsciously and watched her as she walked to his. Her hair was slightly shorter and had been styled, the many piercings suited her and the light make up they'd put on her made her look gorgeous. Alex looked away and to Blunt, mentally cursing himself for thinking that.

'You will find a few suitcases at your homes with new clothes in there that you will be using during this mission. You will be driven to the airport and Mrs Jones will make sure you are taken onto the private plane the school has provided for you both, she will be acting as Nikita's mother so act like she is. The plane leaves on Sunday morning, be ready to leave by nine' Blunt explained.

'What? You said we could stay until after the competition. That's on Sunday!' Nikita exclaimed. Blunt gave her a fixed stare but that didn't stop her sending him glares.

'You may leave' Blunt said and the two teenagers stood and walked out of the room.

A/N: Hello! Thanks to all my wonderful reviewers! Thank you to my readers as well! Well I hope my next update won't be as long coming. I've got my next two chapters all planned out, after that it's a little shaky at the moment. Sorry it's so short!

Ciao for now!

Starsword