Hello! I'm back. Thank you so much to Jessi-endings, mariseje, and prone2dementia for your help/encouragement. It made me reaaaallllly happy! So…moving on...

Disclaimer: I was born in California. I am a high school girl. And my name is Horowitz. Anthony Horowitz.

Not.

I don't own any of the characters in this story except for Shelley!

They walked into the elevator in silence. Shelley could feel the anger rolling off of Alex in waves. She didn't really understand it either. But it didn't matter to her. No one tells Shelley what she can or cannot do.

"Why did you have to do it?" Alex said breaking the silence. "I tried to give you an out and you ignored it."

The elevator dinged. The two teens made their way to Alex's car: silver Mitsubishi Eclipse. As they got into the car, Shelley started speaking. She knew she had to try and make him understand this if they were going to work together.

"I ignored it because it wasn't an out. Not for me anyway. Maybe you can live a normal life after everything you have seen and done. But for me, it's just not possible. I've been in this life since I was seven. I've seen the cruelty in the faces of the sick bastards I met at Scorpia and Malagosto. It's impossible to forget that and move on. Not to mention that everything they ever taught me means that I will never be able to be around people without looking for something that will go wrong. And when it does I will always be in the thick of it. No matter how much you want to think otherwise, even you know that this life is inescapable. It's the life we will always lead." Shelley said.

Alex stayed silent through the car ride after that. He knew she was right. And it made him loathe MI6 and Scorpia even more.

The car pulled into the driveway. Alex made his way over to the doorway. He opened the door and silently let Shelley into his house and in doing so, silently accepted her as a part of his life.

Alex woke up. He felt the fingers running through his hair and remembered some of what had happened the night before.

"Shelley?" he said, as he looked up at her.

"Hmm?" she replied still lost in her memories.

"Did I hurt you?" he asked and hearing the distress in his voice she leaned down and whispered.

"Like you ever could. You can't land a punch on me when you're awake. What makes you think you're a better fighter when you're asleep?" she joked trying to relieve him.

Evidently it worked because he smiled and said

"Want to give it a go right now?"

She laughed and rolled off the bed.

"Come and get me." She teased, beckoning at him.

He leaped off the bed and they began to spar.

K-Unit walked in from the showers. They saw the two spies sparring and decided to watch. They were fluid, amazing fighters. Every kick, punch and deflection was perfect. They matched each other in skill but each had their own advantages. Alex was stronger and taller. Shelley was more agile and quick. They couldn't get a single hit on each other!

Eventually Eagle got bored.

"Okay okay we get it! You're super spies. Jeez no need to show off."

Just realizing that they had an audience, the teens stopped fighting. Alex got an unhappy look on his face.

"What, does the sight of us really make you unhappy?" said Snake.

"No it's not that. I should have realized when you came into the room. If you were an enemy, we could very well be dead right now." Alex said mostly to himself.

The Unit just looked at each other. He was right after all. And normally, he would have noticed right away.

"Maybe you just need to eat something. After last night you must be exhausted." Cat said, forgetting that the team had tabooed that topic.

Before Alex could figure out that they had witnessed his "episode" Shelley jumped up, ran to the door and yelled at Alex.

"If you don't take a shower soon, I'm going to use up all the hot water!" she sang the last part and ran to the specially built individual shower next to the regular men's showers.

Alex, having a love for hot showers, ran.

Soon the entire team was showered and dressed and walked over to the mess hall. They had been given the week off, along with Alex and Shelley, after what had happened.

Shelley heard a noise upstairs. She had been washing the dishes while Alex took a much needed nap on the couch after school and football practice. Hearing the noise again she made her way upstairs, avoiding the creaky third step to avoid alerting the intruder of her presence. Slowly she rounded a corner, taking her gun out of her waistband as she moved. She pointed it into the room. Nothing was there. Slowly she made her way down the hall. As she reached Jack's old room, she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. The door wasn't locked. It was always locked. Someone was here. Suddenly she turned around to face a familiar man.

"Joseph? How is that possible? I thought they got everyone! You should be-"

"Dead? I know. But I had to make sure you didn't destroy what I worked my entire life for. It's been a year Night." He said using her old codename. "And Scorpia is back."

Shelley heard the sound of a gun's safety being unlocked. Before she could say or do anything, he pulled the trigger. She collapsed on the ground, a crimson stain spreading over the cloth on her stomach.

Downstairs, Alex alerted MI6 as the sound of a gunshot woke him up.

Grabbing the bullet proof Kevlar lined jacket Smithers had provided on some of his first missions, Alex made his way upstairs. He saw a Hispanic man holding a gun and Shelley on the floor with blood all around her.

Alex lost control. He attacked the man killing him with two fatal strikes. Soon five more men came into the house, surrounding him and Shelley. Immediately, he knocked two of them unconscious. Anyone who got too close to Shelley was killed with a bullet to the head. Two more died like that. Only one man was left. He grinned at Alex. Scorpia never forgive. Scorpia never forget. He jumped out of the window.

Staring at the gun Alex realized that he had, for the first time, after nineteen missions, killed in cold blood. But before he could think too much he felt blood seeping through his socks.

"Oh God. Shelley! Shit!" he said.

Suddenly he saw Fox running towards him. In a daze, Alex saw the other MI6 agents who had arrived; finally, take the two unconscious men in. he saw Fox running with Shelley to the ambulance. He remembered getting into his car and breaking every single traffic law in his haste to follow them to St. Dominic's hospital.

He remembered being called into MI6 headquarters and being told he was going to Brecon Beacons again. Alex watched emotionlessly at the shock took over the Head's face when he didn't protest like the 4 other times he had had to go there.

Alex remembered as though through a veil everything that happened until he found out that Shelley was going to live.

The next part he remembered clearly. He had run into Shelley's room and, seeing her awake, ran to her bed and kissed her for the first time.

She had been shocked and had just stared at him as he pulled away. Then she had wrapped her arms around him and hugged him as he started to cry. She had never seen him break down, not after his missions, or after Sabina had been killed or ever. And it made her want to protect him. So Shelley did the only thing she could do to make him feel better while she was in the hospital. She made fun of him.

"Awww does wittle awex need a tissue?" she said in her best baby voice.

Alex laughed a little through his tears. Then he became serious again.

"I killed him, Shelley. I killed the guy who did this to you and two of his friends." He said breaking down again.

"Shhhhh, its ok Alex. You did it to help me and that is the best reason anyone can have to kill someone. To help another human. You are not a monster," she said reading his mind.

Three weeks later, after Shelley was released and Alex had been through weeks of almost constant therapy, both of them were back in Blunt's office. He told them he would give them a month, at Alex's request, before they had to go to Brecon Beacons. He told them it was for safety reasons and that they would be training with K-Unit.

Shelley was happy. She couldn't wait to see the Unit again, especially Eagle. Eagle had helped her pull many, many pranks in the past year whenever the unit had unexpectedly shown up at Alex's house.

And Alex was happy too, because even though he had failed to keep her safe, he knew the Unit wouldn't.

They walked into the mess hall to be greeted, as usual by the stares of their fellow SAS soldiers. Some of the stares were friendly, some curious, some awed, and some hostile. The unit ignored them all and walked over to an empty table putting down their trays.

Suddenly, they heard a round of catcalls. Some of the SAS recruits had taken a liking to Shelley and it was starting to get on their, especially Alex's nerves. He stood up and looked around, his eyes cold and his expression blank.

"Who was that?" he asked with a low, dangerous voice.

"Alex, leave it." Shelley said forcefully.

" Yeah, Alex leave it." Said a recruit named Otter.

"Actually Alex, let me help you." Shelley said her voice deceptively innocent.

Slowly the two teen spies walked towards the recruits. Two units came forward.

"Why don't you two go back to school? You don't deserve to be here. You probably have rich mommies and daddies waiting for you. You haven't worked to be here like all the rest of us," said one of the team leaders.

All of the veteran units started to whisper to each other. They all knew about the two spies. They were legends at the SAS but the recruits hadn't been told that yet. Here was a chance to have a bit of fun with them. The units started betting on who would win in the unavoidable fight. The soldiers who were reluctant in believing all the stories about the spies bet against them, after all it was eight on two and they were teenagers, while the majority bet that they would win.

"And what work have you done, hmm? Camping trips and shooting practice? Sounds like the American Boy Scouts to me," replied Shelley.

Suddenly one of the soldiers punched her. Immediately Alex had him on the ground and sat on his back twisting the offending arm into a painful position.

"Didn't mummy tell you never to hit a girl?" he hissed.

"What girl?" the man muttered. Hitting a particular pressure point, Alex knocked the man unconscious.

"Pathetic," he said. "Who's next then?"

All seven of the remaining men attacked. Alex easily deflected all of their blows, not bothering to throw any himself. Noticing this, the men became even more agitated and increasingly sloppy. But still all Alex did was block. Then seemingly out of nowhere, the men started to disappear one by one. The men, in their rage, didn't notice their team members dropping and out of ignorance didn't notice that the girl had gotten up and was a better fighter than they were, especially with her stealthiness. Soon, all the men were down and neither Alex nor Shelley had broken a sweat or lost their breath.

"Well. That was easier than even I expected." Alex told Shelley as the hall broke into excited chatters.

"Yup. These SAS men can be such buffoons. They always think that I'm just here to be protected by you. Idiots," she replied as they walked back to eat their breakfast.

The eight unconscious men weren't moved from their positions on the floor all through the meal.

Soooooo….what do you think? Remember no flames please!

And all ideas are welcome! I still don't really know where I'm going with this story so help is appreciated!

~cj