Wow, I'm absolutely blown away by all the feedback!

Thank you very much to everyone who favourited, alerted or reviewed!

Over 40 alerts, 25 favs and lots and lots of hits! all in just three days! Thanks so much!

It was slightly hilarious to open my emails in the next morning and have close to 100 new messages!

Special thanks to an anonymous reviewer 'bb'.

Disclaimer: If I owned Alex Rider, Sabina wouldn't exist. (Sorry all those Sabina fans! She just rubs me the wrong way!) And Alex would probably end up with a bloke. (Yassen??? Wolf???) (sorry for anyone who just got their hopes up, this is almost definately not going to be slash.)

But anyway, on with the story!

Observations and Occupations

For days after the incident, Ferret watched the boy in question, trying to figure anything out about him. Yet even with the continuous taunting by the soldiers, the teen remained emotionless and unsolvable. He noticed the new additions to the camp and the boys regular visits to each building they were housed in. he figured himself that the first person – a thirty-something year old man with brown hair and a slightly crooked nose – was a tutor, having spied some of the books Cub carried, yet the second person was a mystery.

For a man almost finished his training with the SAS, Ferret didn't like the idea that someone could withhold so much information about themselves. And yet after a week of watching him, he was still no closer to solving the puzzle that Cub presented.

As his last week at the base – hell – began, he decided that the only way he would be receiving the answers he wanted, would be to confront the teen. He just wondered if this would be comparable to suicide.

Alex smirked down into his meal. He doubted anyone in the camp would relate the slight twitching of his lips to a smirk, but Alex had learnt from the best. He had firmly imprinted himself on the style Yassen had presented himself through. Emotionless and untouchable. So he found it funny when the SAS soldier, Ferret he found his name was, continued to watch him 'discretely' for a week after the incident.

Did the older male honestly think he didn't notice when he happen to be loitering outside the cabin he used for his lessons and meetings with his psychiatrist? Or that he didn't notice the persistent glances during meals? The men of the SAS had no concept of the word 'subtle'.

Therefore it came as no surprise, a week and a half later, when Ferret finally confronted him, once again in the showers when the rest of the camp were, presumably, in the mess hall. Thankfully, this meeting was timed, and Alex found both of them comfortably dressed, and his own wounds unexposed.

"Cub."

Alex spared the man a glance, "I'm called Cougar."

Ferret couldn't keep a wry grin off his face at that, "You'll always be Cub around here kid."

Alex didn't both to acknowledge him this time, and Ferret found the situation rapidly becoming more and more uncomfortable, until the point he felt obliged to open his mouth and speak.

"What's with you, anyway?"

He flinched at both his own stupidity and the cold glare he received.

"Classified."

He winced again, knowing, as an SAS soldier, he shouldn't have found himself in such a situation with a teenager, one where the kid in question was in control of the meeting and he resorted to speaking the first thought that came into his mind.

He had to remind himself that he already knew the boy was trained in this sort of thing, obviously much more than the average SAS soldier.

'Wonder where else he's trained… or what his job is even. People say he's Special Ops…'

He shook his head to clear the thoughts, realising he had been standing idle for more than just a few moments now and the teen had turned back to his shower and flicked the water on, waiting for it to warm considerably.

"So you are special ops? I thought they were making that up."

"It's none of your concern why I'm here. And you can stop watching me, people may start believing you have inappropriate feelings for me."
Ferret spluttered in indignation, "I'm not- it's not like- who says that!?!"

"No one, but the sergeant is starting to notice your obsessive staring. And the cooks. The other soldiers will start noticing soon. So stop watching me."

Ferret was about to argue back, but found himself unable to as the boy quickly slipped his top over his head, and his eyes immediately wandered back to the bullet wound.

It was entrancing. The edges were still slightly puckered, but the red inflammations around it had lessened drastically. How often had he shot a bullet similar to the one that had punctured Cub's chest? How many similarly shaped holes had he created in small paper targets? None of the practises showed the way the skin around the wound became inflamed, or the way the wound would forever mar the skin. The paper targets were reeled in and thrown away. Ferret wondered how many times he would create similar injuries on people, and how many times out of those the target would survive.

He forced his eyes to divert from the kids chest as the boy removed the rest of his clothes, nonchalantly. Ferret found himself wondering if this kid had no sense of modesty, or if he was simply so unabashed about other people seeing his body that it no longer occurred to him that he should feel some sort of embarrassment.

He leant against the counter where Cub's clothes were laying, and waited for the boy to finish his shower, determined to get answers.

Meanwhile, he pondered what he already knew.

Cub was most likely SO. He heard they were rather twisted from the officers' talk, only they would consider using children. The kid had been shot in the chest. Obviously whatever they had him doing was dangerous, and he was either really crap at it, or he was better than he could even begin to comprehend. He didn't think it was the first. And he also knew the teen had been at Beacon Brecons before.

But why had he come back?

If the kid really was as good as he thought he was, surely he wouldn't need more training. And with such a recent gunshot, there was no point bringing him here so early…

That was another question, who shot him? And if they were aiming for the heart, would they be pissed he survived?

That was it, wasn't it? Cub was here for protection and the training he would get to do once better was just a bonus. He smirked in self-satisfaction at having figured out the mystery finally.

He jumped when a voice sounded from right beside him.

"You figured it out then? Fine, now keep it to yourself."

Ferret turned round, startled to face the blonde teen, completely caught off guard by his – completely dressed – presence beside him. How hadn't he noticed the shower stopping?

As if reading his thoughts, the boy gave him a calculating stare before saying, "I can become undetectable if I want. Now make sure you keep your mouth shut, if I hear anyone talking about it, it's your balls."

The kid stalked out, pausing at the door to glance briefly over his shoulder at the pale man, "You know, if you'd figured it out maybe a week ago, you could have had a possible future in S.O.'s. Just a bit slow."

Ferret stared at the door in shock as it banged shut behind the teen. Did Cub just… taunt him?

What was this world coming to?

Today was a good day. Not only had he been given the go-ahead for joining in the physical aspects of training – 'Provided you don't strain yourself, and stop if you need a break' the overcautious doctor had told him – but also it was Ferret's last day. He had found no small amount of humour in the man's constant attempts to understand him more. The man had even taken to sitting opposite him at dinners if he was late finishing, staring intently at him and suddenly shooting a question at him, as if he thought to catch him off guard would result in him throwing his life story out into the open from shock.

But, while the man had humoured him slightly, he would be glad to see the back of him. Not only had Alex received darker glares from the rest of Ferret's unit for the man spending so much time on him, but he was becoming weary of the constant attention. It was his job to blend in with the background, ignoring the people around him. And while Ferret was pestering him, he was still the centre of attention.

He had been expecting the taunts to last about a week, before the soldiers got tired of it – with the exception of K-Unit, they would never tire of tormenting him, not that it bothered him anymore – but with Ferret's constant attention, the soldiers just found their spite renewed and fresh taunts to spew out every day.

Though double 'oh' nothing would ever get old.

So, this morning he woke sharply, and, instead of heading to the mess for a long breakfast, he waited for K-Unit before following a short distance behind them as they set a steady pace down the track.

He was surprised that Wolf stayed in front of him the entire time and didn't try anything on him, but he just shrugged it off, if Wolf wasn't going to give him a hard time, he wasn't going to say anything. He was pleased to find, at the end of the run, that he'd kept up easily with his teammates, having been worried after his few weeks' recuperation. Of course, he'd yet to do any of the more… challenging tasks yet. He was sure the assault course would take a chunk out of him before he finished. Not to mention he was scheduled for hand-to-hand combat today. Wolf was probably holding himself back for that before he had a go at him.

However, even as combat training came around, Wolf didn't even spare him a glance. The three of them quickly settled into a three-way spar, leaving him to observe from the side for a minute. He shook his head while smirking, amused at the behaviour of the soldiers; they were doing him a favour really. He took a stance at the side of the room, closed his eyes, and began moving through the kata.

He was halfway through when he heard the slight creak from the floorboards in front of him. He immediately dodged left, opening his eyes sharply, and a split second later Wolf's face met the unrelenting wooden floor, a forearm pressed to the back of his neck.

He left it there for several seconds before moving back, Wolf immediately springing to his feet and turning to try again.

However Alex wasn't paying attention to him anymore, and dodged from instinct. Wolf lashed out with his foot, causing Alex to raise his forearm again to block, gripping the ankle with his other arm immediately afterwards and pulling towards himself, causing Wolf's feet to slip from beneath him and a loud grunt to emit from his lips as the breath was forced out of him.

Satisfied Wolf wasn't about to get up again to attack while his back's turned, Alex twisted to face the door and stood to attention, acknowledging the sergeant's presence.

He saw, more than heard, the other two jump to attention behind him, followed by Wolf as he pulled himself up, rubbing his back before taking up a similar stance.

"Good work Cougar. Wolf, we're going to need to talk about your teamwork skills…" he left the sentence hanging, allowing Wolf to grumble under his breath without reprimand as he moved out of the doorway. "Someone to see you Cougar."

Alex would have groaned when he saw Mrs. Jones if he had been the same teenager he was before he encountered Scorpia. Instead he immediately saluted, standing straight until she allowed otherwise. The rest of K-Unit looked on curiously, not understanding the import of Mrs. Jones.

"At ease, Alex. It's nice to see you back to full strength and already taking down enemies double your size." She gave him a slight smile which he returned with an emotionless stance. He recognised the slight flicker of regret in her eyes before she ruthlessly squashed it aside to focus on her reason for coming.

"I'm sure you're curious as to why I'm here. Let's go somewhere more private to talk." She turned to the sergeant, "Your office is free sergeant?" she phrased it as a question, but everyone in the room knew it was anything but.

"Of course, Ma'am"

She motioned Alex out, leaving the sergeant and K-Unit behind.

The walk to the sergeant's office was short and silent, both of them ignoring the curious glances directed their way. Alex knew they wanted to comment, badly, but with Mrs Jones as an unknown figure to them, they knew that could end in a binning.

Alex closed the door behind her, before standing to attention, sitting when she allowed it.

"How have you been Alex?"

"Fine Ma'am."

She didn't even try to hide the wince when he said that. What had happened to the cheeky boy who adamantly refused to do any mission before succeeding with unbelievable results? Where had the boy gone who told them he wanted nothing to do with them? She had read the reports from the psychiatrist. None of them were good. She regretted deeply that they had only afforded him that expense when he agreed to become an official agent. If only he had had someone to talk to about this before, when he came back from his first mission, after he was threatened with dissection, once he had witnessed a man commit suicide in front of him, when he had had no one to turn to about Damien Cray. The list of moments of emotional upheaval was endless, and during all that he would have kept it all to himself. His late-guardian, Jacqueline Starbright wouldn't have been told, he wouldn't want to worry her even more with all the things he'd seen. She was nearly a mother to him, and Tulip suddenly felt extreme pity for her, to have to watch the boy who she regarded as her son be used again and again by the country. Put in places where grown and trained adults wouldn't last a second in, and come stumbling home hours, days or weeks later, battered and bruised.

And MI6 knew his friend, Tom, knew about what he did out of school, but what schoolboy could truly understand the horrors of the world. What schoolboy except Alex.

It was truly a pity he was so unique and exceptional, he was just too good to let go.

And he knew it.

She could see the resignation in his face when she had entered his hospital room. He had known what had happened before he'd even asked, even if he hadn't wanted to admit it to himself. He had yielded to the reality that he would never get away from this world. Not after everything he had done. And so he had joined MI6. Indefinitely.

She sighed, reaching into the handbag she had brought with her to the Welsh countryside and popping a mint into her mouth.

"I'll just get down to business then, shall I? We're having some trouble in Shanghai. Two of our agents over there have disappeared following investigation into the possibility of British citizens being abducted for the slave market. We'll kit you up on the way to the-"

She was cut off sharply by the sounds of shouting, storming feet, and finally several gun shots.

They both looked to the door instantly, Mrs. Jones taking several hesitant steps towards it before he pushed her back, out of sight behind the desk. He sidled to stand behind the filing cabinet beside the door, listening as the gunshots and shouting ceased, while the footsteps continued charging throughout the camp.

The sound of doors being kicked open became louder as the assailants worked their way closer to the office.

He listened intently, recognising when they kicked down the door of the second-in-command's door. There was another gunshot. Whoever had been hiding in there hadn't been lucky.

Finally they approached the door he stood beside.

He could make out two people panting heavily, but that didn't mean there wasn't others who were above them, and as such weren't doing any of the manual labour.

He'd just have to hope it was only the two of them.

Before he could consider it any further the door flew open, smashing into the plastic bin on the other side of the door causing it to spring closed again, leaving it slightly ajar.

These people were obviously amateurs then. No professional would let a door bounce back to hinder their view into the room. It was imperative they were able to see where they were going as soon as it happened. And the noise the men were making was outrageous. It's as if they didn't expect any danger.

They walked in, two of them, almost casually, looking in front of them as they did so. With their guns pointed towards it, they moved towards the desk.

And that was when Alex lunged.

I know, most of you are probably going to be like 'what was the point of introducing Ferret if he's leaving already?!?' Well, he was just there to emphasize Alex's reluctance to socialise or let anyone know anything about him - on the more emotional side, form any attachments, after what happened to Jack. He also played the part of understanding how special Alex is.

I just didn't really want to use K-Unit to do that, it'll be a while before Alex and them can civilly work together. And a lot of stories have Alex and K-unit getting along grandly as soon as they reunite, but - even though I enjoy those stories very much - I don't find that very realistic, even after Point Blanc.

I'm worried that I've pushed into the action a bit soon, I was going to do a lot more character developement and what-not first, but it just turned out that this all started now. Please let me know if you think I'm moving too fast! Just let me know how I'm doing!

Btw, the 'occupations' in the title refers to a take over of enemy land, not a job. Just want to clear that up incase anyone asks. I know, I could have used 'invasions', but that just gave the game away, didn't it?