In His DNA
Alex was sitting in a jail cell. Again. This time, it wasn't even his crime, though. He had been with Tom and James all last night. Sure, the other boy on camera looked like him, but so did James and his friend hadn't been arrested.
Alex let out a sigh. A policeman came in. "You should just confess. We have blood from the scene and I'll bet the judge will approve our warrant to get yours to show a match."
Alex raised an eyebrow. He was uninjured, for once. "You can have one better. Do a medical exam. I don't have any open wounds. And you can have all the bloody blood you want. BECAUSE I DIDN'T DO IT!"
The policeman had frozen slightly as Alex raised his voice. He paused for a second. "Well, we can take you up on it. I'll have to get some paperwork from your guardian, in that case."
The man's tone had turned soft and slightly pitying. Wait, did he think Alex was just crazy? Ah, fuck it. "I'm sure Jack will fork it over if I tell her it's alright."
The policeman shrugged. He could tell the man was resigned to this whole thing. "I'm going to need a last name, address, and phone number for your guardian?"
Alex began carefully reciting the details he had memorized at the age of seven. The man wrote them down and stuck the note in his pocket. "Alright. I'll try to get a nice doctor for your exam."
Alex shrugged. Honestly, after the pure creepiness of Steiner, he was sure it wouldn't bug him either way. There was a pause. He realized that the man was expecting a reply. "Thanks?"
The policeman nodded and had an awkward expression. He looked a bit strained. "Don't worry about it, kid."
He lightly patted Alex's hair and left. Alex heard him muttering about possible psychotic breaks. Well. At least he was being nice-ish. Alex was going to call that a win. He leaned back in the chair and felt himself zoning out. His heart was pounding. He hadn't committed that murder. But what if nobody believed him?
Some time later, the cell door opened to Jack and a man in a lab coat. He cleared his throat. "I'm here to examine you. Your guardian insisted on being here. We can have her wait outside if you're-"
Alex waved him off. The doctor looked like he was about to blush. Alex thought he seemed like a nervous fellow. Then again, he was being accused of murder. "Nah, Jack is like my older sister. She can stay."
What followed was the most awkward medical exam of his life. Then again, he would rather Jack was here in case they tried anything dodgy. Alex could tell that Jack was thinking the same thing. "You're, um, very healthy, aside from the healed bullet wound and burn scars."
The doctor's voice squeaked slightly at the end. Alex gave him a dry look. "I would hope so."
The doctor let out a breath and began pulling out blood tubes. Jack was seated at the table with her arms folded. Alex could tell that she was pissed about the whole ordeal. At least she was mad at somebody else and not him. Jack was a bit scary sometimes. "Next up is the blood draw."
Alex held out his arm. The doctor sighed and began the very familiar process of drawing his blood. He heard rather than saw the tubes click.
"All done."
Alex gave him a faint smile. "You're good."
The doctor ran a hand through his hair. "I specialize in hematology. I wanted to do genetic testing and research."
Alex raised an eyebrow. The doctor closed his bag with a snap and sealed the blood in some sort of container. "What happened?"
The doctor gave him a dry look. Jack was still glaring at both of them. What? He was curious. "Too many paternity tests where the father was not as expected."
With that, Alex was left alone as Jack and the other man swept out. The cell was filled with silence. He could only hope that they didn't fuck up the DNA test now. Alex had a niggling suspicion about who had committed the murder. Julius Grief might wear his face. But they had entirely different fathers and mothers. And he had been sloppy enough to leave blood at the scene.
Alex leaned back and stared at the ceiling. To his knowledge, nobody at SCORPIA had taken his blood. He doubted that Julius planned anything this intricate on his own. They were both his enemies. And Julius would fit right in with their little club of murderous sociopaths, thank you very much. He stared off into space.
Alex could almost hear the people talking outside of his cell. The bed was rather uncomfortable. The walls were bare. He was bored, but he knew that escaping was a bad look. Alex drummed his fingers as he waited.
Alex wasn't sure how long he'd been asleep when the cell opened. There were two very apologetic-looking officers and the doctor. The doctor looked exceedingly frazzled.
"Congratulations! You're not the father!"
Alex barked out a laugh. The officers stared at the two of them. "Well, we're very sorry for accusing you. Between the medical exam and the negative DNA test, you're free to go. If you require counseling, you can get it through the NHS."
Alex scrubbed his face. He was just very tired. "Thanks, but I just want this all to be over."
The officer gently clasped his shoulder and helped him out of the bed. Alex felt slowly more alert as they led him out of the station. Jack was waiting for him. And looking very pissed. "Don't worry, Alex. I knew you hadn't done it the whole time."
Alex followed her out of the station as she began to go on a tear about the police arresting his innocent self. He tuned her out as his thoughts turned more contemplative. It was interesting. Most of the time, his father's DNA got him into trouble. This time, it had gotten him out.
Fin
Based on a prompt by mediaboy (see story summary). This is the 322nd work in the Winds of Change 2022 Alex Rider Prompt event, where a new prompt (plus a short 1-3K work) is posted every day. For more details, see the AO3 collection. We have an index of all the prompts used in this event so far and going forwards - join the discord to get access to the online index (and to take part in our events, chat about everything and anything, and meet a load of awesome people!