Hey guys, I know this chapter is really short, but that's the way I'm formatting this story: with really short chapters, but equally short lengths of time between updates. Except for the next few days; I'm going away with my sister to the coast where there's no internet... All I can say is that I hope I get to do a lot of fishing, because I might just lose my grip on sanity without internet access!!
Chapter Two, Uncertainty
As impatient as he was, Alex found the wait in the Royal and General's lobby near unbearable. He'd burst into the building, demanding to the receptionist that he be allowed to go see Mrs. Jones immediately. Although the receptionist knew him by sight, she'd still insisted on him waiting there whilst she buzzed upstairs.
"Can you please hurry the hell up?" He begged the red haired girl, "This is really important!"
The girl listened to something on her headset for a moment before nodding to Alex.
"Yes," she said, a little grumpy at the way he'd treated her, "You're allowed up now."
Alex shot her a quick smile of gratitude before hurrying into the elevator. Presumably the machine was pre-programmed, because it moved up quickly without any help from him. Alex barely waited for the doors to slide open before bolting through them. He stopped when he realised Mrs. Jones was waiting for him on the other side.
"Blunt wants to know what's going on too," she said by way of introduction. She led the way to her boss' office, "Seeing as you never come here willingly, he's a little curious."
Alex nodded tensely; for once glad he was going into the grey man's office.
"Alex, take a seat." Alan Blunt looked much the same as ever, motioning to the uncomfortable looking chair in front of his desk. "What do you need to talk to us so badly about? The receptionist downstairs said you were quite rude."
Alex didn't bother feeling insulted by that remark. He dived right in, determined to get this whole thing sorted out.
"I think I saw Yassen Gregorovich."
That statement didn't have quite the conversational oomph Alex had been expecting. Mrs. Jones frowned at him, one cheek bulging out slightly as she stored her customary peppermint there.
"Excuse me?"
Alex bit his bottom lip, realising that maybe this wasn't going to be as easy as he'd expected. But then, that was fair enough; it's never going to be easy to explain you were just saved from being run over by the world's best assassin who, incidentally, is supposed to have died after being shot in the chest at point-blank range.
"Um, in the street," Alex explained, "I walked into the road, and a car was going to hit me, but this man pushed me out of the way. I think…I know it was Yassen."
Mrs. Jones exchanged a worried glance with Blunt and Alex felt his heart sink. There was something in their eyes he didn't like.
"Alex," Mrs. Jones said gently, "I'm not trying to be, well, cruel here, but did you realise you hit your head?"
Alex frowned, instinctively putting his hand up to his forehead, just below his hairline. To his surprise, he could feel sticky, half congealed blood. He hadn't known; he'd been to intent on getting to this point.
"But…" He trailed off, studying his bloodied fingers in confusion, "That doesn't mean anything! I know what I saw…"
Mrs. Jones shook her head and glanced at her boss again. Blunt nodded, seemingly a sign for her to continue.
"Alex, that may be the case," She agreed, but Alex knew she was humouring him, "But regardless, I think you're in shock. That's perfectly understandable considering that you were nearly killed, but you need to understand, people make mistakes when they're in shock and that's-"
"No!" Alex exclaimed, jumping to his feet, "No I'm not in shock! I know what I saw! Don't you think I'd have the man's face committed to memory, considering he killed my Uncle and nearly had me killed as well in a bullfight?! Not to mention the whole thing with Cray!"
It was no use though, Alex could see from the expression on Mrs. Jones' and Alan Blunt's faces that they still didn't believe him. He sighed and sat back down, knowing that in this respect, he was getting nowhere. Mrs. Jones looked at him sympathetically and put a hand on Alex's shoulder.
"Look, I know this must be frustrating," she said as kindly as she could, "But trust me, Alan and I know what we're talking about."
"Yeah, sure," Alex muttered, not able to work any real bite into his voice, "Just like all the other times."
Mrs. Jones chose to ignore that comment and led Alex out of the office and into a smaller room halfway down the hall. A woman in pale blue scrubs was standing, seemingly waiting for them.
"Della is going to patch you up, okay?" Mrs. Jones said, before leaving the room. Alex watched her go, feeling very upset and betrayed.
"Alright Alex," Della said cheerfully in a rather grating cockney accent. Alex didn't bother asking how she knew his name. "Just sit up on the bed there; I'm going to have a look at that gash on your noggin."
Alex grimaced, but did as he was told, leaving his schoolbag on the floor. Della, pushing his hair back, studied the wound pensively. She pursed her lips and clicked her tongue.
"My, that's certainly an ugly little bleeder, but it won't bother you none. You're a lucky kid; it could've been far worse. Just hold still whilst I take care of it."
Mrs. Jones returned to Alan Blunt's office after dropping Alex off with Della. Her boss looked up at her as she closed the door to give the two of them some privacy.
"This isn't good Alan." Mrs. Jones said stressfully, sinking into the chair that Alex had just recently vacated. "He's convinced he's seen Yassen."
"I know, but what can we do?" Blunt asked wearily. Truth be told, dealing with Alex left him feeling drained. "He's not listening to us, he never does."
"That still doesn't help us decide how to deal with this," Mrs. Jones said snappishly, "We can't just let this go…You know what Alex is like one he really gets set on a course of action."
Blunt held up his hands calmingly.
"Tulip, this might be alright," he said, "You never know, Alex just might let this one go. After all, things are different now; he's back in school and from what I hear, Ms. Starbright is keeping him on quite a tight leash. She doesn't want him involved in anything dangerous any more then we do."
Mrs. Jones sucked on her peppermint for a moment, considering what her boss was saying.
"So we just leave things as they are for now?"
Alan Blunt nodded and went back to his paperwork.
"Exactly."
Although Della hadn't predicted the gash on Alex's head giving him too much trouble, she'd sternly demanded he take the rest of the day off, just in case. Alex felt his mood sink even further at that; when he returned to school tomorrow, he was going to be subjected to the teacher's dry, unsurprised remarks such as "So we're to be graced with your presence today Mr. Rider?"
"Alex! Oh thank God!"
Alex sighed and looked up from where he'd been waiting in the Royal and General's marble lobby. Della or someone had called Jack, asking her to come pick Alex up. As per usual, they'd skipped on the details, so poor Jack had had no idea what had happened. For all she knew, Alex could have been shot again.
"Hey Jack." Alex smiled faintly at her, trying to be reassuring despite his low mood. "Sorry about this."
Jack hurried up to him, studying his face minutely.
"Are you sure you're alright? What happened?"
Alex pushed up his hair out of his face so Jack could see where the gash on his forehead had been taped up.
"I nearly had a little mishap with a car. I wasn't hit, but I managed to pick up a small souvenir anyway."
Jack bit her lip worriedly and turned to the receptionist who was still sulking over Alex's rudeness.
"Can I just take him home now," She asked, "I don't need to sign him out or anything?"
The girl shook her head.
"Nope, that's all taken care of. Just make sure that he doesn't exert himself or anything."
Jack nodded her thanks and led the way out of the 'bank'. Alex followed her out, still trying to piece together the day's events. He'd been certain that he'd seen Yassen, but Mrs. Jones' argument was so logical… Alex felt uncertainty cloud his mind, scrambling his train of thought.
"We need to hurry," Jack said, sounding harassed, "I sort of parked in a no stopping zone, and I really don't want the car towed…"
Alex nodded and once they reached the car, promptly went on 'parking inspector lookout' whilst Jack searched frantically through her bag for her keys, cursing under her breath the entire time.
So intent on his respective job, Alex didn't notice the man in the black designer bomber jacket, suspiciously watching him from the entrance of a tourist souvenir shop. Once Alex and Jack had left, the man quickly slipped out of the shop and into the lobby of the Royal and General.
"Alright Alex, would you please tell me what's going on before my head explodes?!"
Alex raised a brow, looking up from his plate of Chinese take-out. Jack hadn't even bothered trying to cook, being too stressed out by Alex's 'head injury' and the need to call the school to inform them that Alex wasn't coming that day. It hadn't gone down well, the administrative dragon on the other end had growled at Jack about Alex's already poor attendance record and how they were going to need a signed doctor's note containing full details on the 'incident'.
"I nearly got hit by a car," Alex shrugged, chewing on an obscenely large mouthful of moo-shoo pork, "I thought that it was kind of self-explanatory."
Jack wrinkled her nose in distaste, although Alex thought might have been because off the less then appealing display of chewed up food Alex presented her with rather then his explanation.
"Nearly?" She asked, waiting for Alex to swallow his mouthful this time, "You mean you managed to get out of the way?"
"Um…" Alex tried to buy himself some time by taking a sip of his coke, "Sort of…"
Jack's brows shot up and a new tone of demand entered her voice.
"Sort of? What the hell does that mean?!"
Alex winced and put his glass down. He had a headache coming on.
"Well, I kind of had help…"
Jack's lips were pressed together in a thin, grim line.
"Alex, I don't want to hear another 'sort of' or 'kid of'! I want a full, detailed explanation of what happened and why you're so quiet now!"
Alex grimaced at his rapidly diminishing plate of food. Ever since returning home after the whole Snakehead affair, Jack had been more authoritarian then ever before. Alex knew it was because she was trying to stop him from getting into trouble again, but at times like these, it was a little irritating.
"Alright," he sighed, "I was going to get splattered all over the road, but someone pushed me out of the way."
Jack cringed slightly at the poor wording 'splattered all over the road', but nodded anyway.
"Go on?"
Alex swallowed nervously, fidgeting slightly.
"Well, this guy…I only got a really quick look at his face, but I knew him… Do you remember me telling you about Yassen Gregorovich?"
Jack paled slightly, but didn't lose her composure.
"Yes, a man like that is hard to forget…You're trying to tell me you saw Yassen?"
Alex shrugged half heartedly, appetite suddenly ruined. Jack shook her head slowly, obviously trying to figure out where to go from there.
"And that's why you went to Mrs. Jones?" Jack asked, "To tell them?"
"Yeah," Alex admitted, "I didn't know what else to do."
"And what did they say?"
Alex frowned, feeling all his uncertainty and confusion well up again.
"They said that I was in shock after nearly being hit by the car, that I was imagining things…Of course, having a head wound didn't help my case."
Jack sighed, the gesture tinged with relief. It was quite obvious that the prospect of Yassen being alive and in London bothered her.
"Well, they're almost certainly right," She said briskly, standing to clear the table. Alex followed her into the kitchen. "It was just a mistake."
Alex felt annoyed, realising that despite Mrs. Jones' sound logic and Jack's conviction, he didn't believe it.
"I don't think it was Jack," He said, trying not to sound argumentative, "I mean, why would I make that sort of mistake? I'm pretty sure that even if I was in shock, my eyes were working fine."
Jack look upset now and Alex realised he was pushing the matter a little too far. She dumped the pile of used dishes in the sink and turned to face him.
"Alex, listen to me," she said in a tone of weary finality, "you had a bad scare today, nearly being hit by a car like that. People react to those sorts of incidents in all sorts of different ways. With you, it was seeing Yassen. Who knows? Maybe it's because you have some unresolved guilt over the way he died. My point is though, don't start obsessing over this."
Alex didn't say anything, but Jack saw the mutinous look in his eyes. Feeling angry, she shook her head threateningly at him.
"Alex, I'm warning you," She said crankily, "Don't force me into action over this. I really don't want to, but I will if that's what it takes to keep you out of trouble. Understand me?"
"Yes." Alex replied sullenly, meeting Jack's eye. Jack turned back to the dishes, not noticing Alex had his fingers crossed behind his back.
Hehe, Alex is a misbehaved little brat, isn't he? That's okay though, he wouldn't be interesting if he wasn't, would he? Poor Jack though, trying to set down some rules...
Anyway, tell me what you think. Predictions, guesses, questions etc. are welcome as always. I love hearing from you guys :)