Chapter 4: The Soldier

The rest of the flight was, as Alex kind of suspected, uneventful. When they finally landed, Alex got up and stretched his tight muscles, grabbing his luggage. The girls followed his example and they all walked off the plane together. As they wandered off the terminal, the girls were looking around for whoever the agent was that was supposed to be their aunt but Alex was careful to keep an eye on the neighboring buildings in case there were snipers. Cameroon tapped Alex on the shoulder and he glanced at her.

"Alex, we found Auntie Jessie," she said, motioning to a woman waving to them. Alex sighed with relief as he recognized the face of Erin Rivers. He had worked with her on a different mission. MI6 had assigned her to him the mission right after Jack had died, figuring a female presence might help him cope. Needless to say it didn't work in the slightest. Still, it was nice that they had paired up again.

"Auntie Jessie!" Alex said with a genuine smile. He gave her a big hug.

"Alex! How are you? I've missed you." Then she turned to the girls, giving them each a hug also. "And girls, my you've gotten big. I haven't seen you in ages! I'm sorry you couldn't stay at my apartment but it's a little small for all of you. How's about I take you guys to your hotel?" Jessie said. It was a quick thirty minute drive to the hotel. Jessie checked them in and walked them up to their adjoining rooms. She and Alex went in first, motioning for silence. Jessie handed Alex an electronic device and took out one of her own. They each took a room and walked their devices along the walls slowly. Next they scanned the furniture of each room and last but not least, the bathrooms. The four girls watched with mild interest.

"Alright, we can talk now," Jessie informed them when the two were finished. She turned to Alex.

"Alex I'm so happy to see you! Are you alright? How are you holding up?" She, of course, knew about Jack and she was being thankfully vague about it, knowing also, that he didn't like to talk about it.

"I'm great Erin! But god, Ben's gonna kill me when he hears I said yes to them again!" Alex said, grinning from ear to ear.

"Who's Ben and am I to assume that we are talking about MI6 when you say them?" Cammie asked curiously. Alex nodded.

"Yep, and Ben's an MI6 agent too. He used to be in an SAS unit with me, the K-unit. He's probably my best friend and the only one I can really talk to. No offense," he added casting a sideways glance at Erin.

"None taken," she replied. Then she held her hand out to the girls. "I'm Erin Rivers by the way, nice to meet you all." Everyone shook hands.

"So, what were you doing with those devices?" Macey asked.

"Looking for bugs," Erin and Alex said in unison. They glanced at each other and started laughing.

"Man! Even when we haven't seen each other in forever I love that we can still do that!" Alex said. Erin smiled, nodding in agreement.

"Alright well, I should leave you guys. You must be tired after that plane ride. I suggest dinner at Luigi's, an Italian restaurant just down the street and then you might want to get to bed. Tomorrow you guys will have to scout out Scorpia. Good luck!" Considering it was closer to seven o'clock Virginia time (ten o'clock California time), they decided to take her advice. The food, everyone agreed, was delicious, and by the time they got back to their room, they were all ready for bed, especially since they knew they would have a big day ahead. Cammie went and got dressed in the girls' room and Alex decided he might as well get dressed too, even though he knew he wouldn't sleep much.

Cammie gave a small gasp as she came back into the room she was sharing with Alex. He had taken off his shirt to change it for bed and it exposed his scarred torso for her to see. He whipped around, not having realized she'd re-entered until it was too late.

"Oh Alex," she whispered.

"Cammie! I can. . . uh. . . explain," he said, clearly horrified that she's seen. She walked over slowly, staring all the while at all the burns and scars scattered across his body. She placed a cool hand on his chest but pulled back when he shuddered slightly. Still awestruck she reached out again, tracing a particularly big scar in its diagonal path across his stomach. He exhaled breathlessly at the touch but didn't pull away.

"What happened to you?" Cammie asked. Glancing up to see him watching her. She held the gaze and as she stared into his eyes she didn't see the eyes of a boy, but of someone much older. They weren't the eyes of a teenager at all but the eyes of someone that had seen too much and grown up too quickly. They were the eyes of a soldier. She waited patiently for an answer and after a slight pause he gave it to her.

"Scorpia," he whispered. It was just one word, just one, simple word, and yet it made all the difference. In saying that one word, she could see and hear how truly broken he was, despite the masks and facades he wore 24-7.

"Cammie. . . Oh, am I interrupting something?" It was Bex and like that, the spell was broken. Cammie jumped, turning to Bex and when she glanced back, Alex had a shirt on and was moving toward one of the two beds in the room, a book in hand. If Cammie hadn't known any better, she'd almost have believed that she'd imagined the whole thing.

"No, definitely not," she said quickly, too quickly. She could tell that Bex saw through the whole thing but the other girl didn't say anything. "What do you need?"

"Oh, we uh. . . Just wanted to know what time we're leaving tomorrow and if we'll be back?" Bex glanced over Cammie's shoulder at Alex who had his head buried in his book. Cammie also turned, not sure of the answer. Realizing that the conversation had stopped, Alex glanced up at the two.

"Oh uh, we might as well come back. We'll just be doing recon so it's not as if it's dangerous enough for us to move around a lot. I'm good with whenever you guys want to get up. We have to find the building Scorpia will be in but it's not that hard. I know what it looks like and the layout and everything. How about like 8?" Bex nodded and went back into the other room. Alex turned back to his book and Cammie got into bed.

"Alex are you gonna sleep?" Cammie asked. He shook his head.

"Nah. I'll be up for awhile. I can turn out the light for you though. I have a flashlight. She nodded, rolling over and closing her eyes. After a few seconds she heard the light switch click. She heard a page turn every couple of minutes and she was soon lulled to sleep.

Cammie woke up with a start and at first she didn't know what had woken her. The clock on the wall said it was three in the morning. She glanced around and her eyes landed on Alex's unconscious form. He was sprawled out on the bed with his book on his chest. His flashlight had fallen to the floor, casting a dim light around the room. She was just about to roll over and go back to sleep when she heard the low muttering. It was Alex. He was talking in his sleep. She tried to decide whether to wake him or not. She was reluctant to, since she knew this would be one of her only opportunities to learn anything about him. No, she wouldn't wake him.

"No stop!" He moaned. "Julius please, you can't! Julius!" Alex had broken out in a cold sweat and he looked pale. "Please Julius, she's all I have left!" She?

"Jack get out of the car! Please get out of the car!" He pleaded. His voice, which had been steadily rising, suddenly dropped to a whisper and it unnerved her. Cammie slipped out of the bed, padding across the room to Alex. Maybe she should wake him up after all.

"Julius please! Please!" The boy sobbed.

"Alex," Cammie whispered, shaking his shoulder. "Alex!" He bolted upright.

"Jack!" He cried breathlessly.

"Alex, Alex it's okay! You're fine. It was a nightmare. That's all it was, a nightmare." He shook his head and she could see the tears streaming down his face in the dim lighting. "No, it wasn't, it isn't. It's real. She's gone and I killed her!" He sobbed. "It was all my fault. She shouldn't have been there. You shouldn't be here! I shouldn't have gone to you. What am I gonna do? I can't do this on my own!" Cammie hugged him. Looking into his eyes and seeing his terror, she knew she couldn't just leave him no matter what he seemed to think was best.

"Shh. Alex I'm not going anywhere. What do you mean you killed her?" She asked gently, holding him.

"MI6 forced me on another mission. They faked a shooting by Scorpia and sent me away. I wanted her to come. She knew about them and she was always worrying. It was supposed to be simple recon but it's never that easy. We got caught and Julius, my clone, blew up the car she escaped in. It was all my fault. She wasn't supposed to be there. I was selfish. MI6 destroyed my life and Scorpia got rid of any reason I had left to live. I grew up without parents because Scorpia killed them. When I was fourteen, they killed my uncle and MI6 blackmailed me into my first mission. On my ninth mission in only two years, they killed Jack, and I've only been on a handful since. I'm almost 18 now and I have no one. I've had no one for nearly as long as I can remember!" His voice was filled with bitterness and regret.

Cammie pulled back slightly in surprise at his tone, remembering just hours ago as he joked around with her and the others. As she looked into his eyes, she saw the soldier she had before, along with an abyss of sadness. She couldn't take it anymore. She crawled into bed with him, laying her head on his chest and pulling his arm around her as he leaned back against the head board. He had quieted now and she almost thought he had fallen back asleep but when she looked up, he was staring at the wall directly across from them with an empty, haunted expression.

"Can I tell you a secret Cammie?" Alex asked, his voice so totally devoid of emotion that it made her look up. He was still staring straight ahead.

"Sure Alex," she said.

"People say a I have the luck of the devil that I've managed to survive through so many missions but I don't. I have the worst luck in the universe. Everybody I love is dead. I haven't got anyone left, nothing left to live for. My biggest secret is that I don't want to live through this mission. Don't get me wrong, I'm going to do everything I can to keep you guys out of it, but when push comes to shove, I don't want to live. The only reason I said yes was to wipe out the organization that took so much from me and after that's accomplished, I'm done. I don't want to be left on my own in a world I have no business in anymore." Cammie sat up, looking him in the face.

"You can't mean that Alex!" She exclaimed, but even as she said it she knew he did. He held her gaze steadily.

"Do you want to know why I hardly sleep?" He asked. She didn't. She already knew the answer, but she felt her head nod and heard herself say yes. "I hardly sleep because every time I close my eyes, I see her, Jack, being killed. Only in the dream, it isn't Julius killing her, it's me." Cammie felt her eyes tear up and she laid back on his chest without saying anything, knowing that her silence spoke for her. As she drifted off back to sleep curled protectively in his arms, she couldn't help but reflect on how the espionage world changed people, and for the first time in her life, she questioned whether she wanted to do it, to become the thing that ruined Alex's life.

A/N: I'm sorry this is so late guys. I'm going to try to get up the next chapter of this story later tonight. Thanks to everyone who review and who has made it this far. I really appreciate all you guys. Special shout out to Shamwow an Ilkspires. You guys have been so supportive. Thank you.

Please keep read and review! For those of you who have been reviewing, please keep doing so. Thanks guys and sorry again that this is so late. I have my own computer now but it doesn't have word so I have to try to convince my dad to let me use his computer. Hopefully that'll change soon.

Wolf out! ;)