"Alex get out from under the car, or Wolf is going under after you" Snake threatened, voice like steel, but Alex shook his head, gulped and stayed where he was.
Wolf was very close to losing it. He slid himself under the truck, grabbed the boy's torso and pushed him out from under the car, into the ready hands of Snake. Alex wriggled and tried to get away, but with no success. He was carried by Snake, who had one hand round his chest and one under his bottom, allowing now escape. Pouting, Alex was put in the car seat. It was one of the ones with 3 straps; one for each shoulder and one for in between the legs. Snake, as he had been approved for fostering, knew that it was mostly used for younger children, and the ones who had tendencies to get out of the normal car seat during car rides because they had figured out how to undo them.
He almost laughed at the little boy's face, whose eyes were shooting daggers at the strap between his legs, as he was frowning and pouting. The man got into the passenger seat, Wolf driving, with Eagle and Fox either side of Alex. They had decided it was better for Alex's car seat to be in the middle, for the obvious reasons.
Alex was leaning his head on the back of the uncomfortable car seat, fidgeting and shuffling every few seconds. There was no comfort in this cold hard seat. They had made him use this one since he undid the seatbelt in the more comfy one and had jumped out of the, luckily, slow moving car.
Wolf was getting even more annoyed with the blonde in the back of his car. With the fidgeting and the absent minded feet kicking, he was ready to strangle him. The car ride was quiet, until Eagle and Fox decided to wrestle. In the end Snake had rolled up the newspaper by his feet and whacked them on the head with it. Alex's hair was ruffled from being in between the childish fight. They pulled up outside the shop, and then Wolf turned to Eagle and Fox, grinning.
"Eagle you get the lovely job of getting him out the car and to the shop, and Fox you get to be the one to get him in the seat in trolley, got it?"
Eagle easily got Alex out of the car, holding him so he couldn't hurt him or the car. Then Wolf locked the car. They both grumbled insults at Snake and Wolf as the two men sauntered off to the shop. Fox went over to the trolley park and Eagle carried Alex, who was struggling slightly.
He set him down on the floor, his hands firmly holding the boys little shoulders, as Fox brought over the trolley. Alex's eyes narrowed as he watched the man open up the seat. He turned to run, or hobble with his stupid ankle, but Eagle still had him.
"Come on Kid, just get in the trolley! It's not that bad!" Fox exclaimed, but Alex shook his head.
Eagle thrust Alex over to Fox who grabbed him, and went to his plan B. He tickled Alex, making him squeal in laughter. Seizing the distraction, he picked him up and practically through him into the seat and buckling it before he could even register what had happened. A deep frown emanated across Alex face and his young features darkened. Fox chucked and walked into the big shop, avoiding the swinging legs that were trying to hit him in the stomach. He whistled a merry tune, satisfied that he had got the kid in the trolley in barely any time at all.
He caught with the rest if his unit in the dairy isle. They were arguing over whether to get chocolate or fruity yoghurts. Snake wanted to get fruit because it was healthier but Eagle wanted to get chocolate, and as Eagle often thought like a child, he just couldn't see Snake's point of view. Wolf was agitatedly tapping his foot, watching them argue. Fox decided to just watch them argue with Wolf, while Alex fiddled with the strap in the seat, trying to escape.
After a minute or so, they were getting stares from the public, along with 'ooohs' and 'awwwwwws' from ladies as they saw Alex, with his big round chocolate eyes and ruffled blonde hair.
Wolf snapped, grabbing one 6 pack of fruit and one of chocolate, chucking them in the trolley, before walking off in the direction of the alcohol. Fox followed after him, just in case. And Eagle grabbed the trolley before Snake could, walking off in the direction of the chocolate. Snake sighed and ran after them; it was going to be a long trip.
… … … … …. … … …. …. … … … …. … …. … … …. ..
3 hours later, they left the shop, the trolley over flowing with carrier bags, which were filled to the brim with the food, and some clothes they had brought for Alex, which was paid for by the banks cash card they had given Snake. There was so much that they'd ended up having to get Alex out of the seat for more space. Said child was in the arms of Snake, his arms round the man's neck, head resting on his shoulder, looking behind them as they walked back to the waiting truck. It was a good thing that the boot on those trucks was so damn big!
Wolf was in a very bad mood after having to deal with Eagle for so long, so he was speeding and scowling Fox had grabbed shotgun and was now texting his girlfriend, Fleur. Eagle was humming Snow Patrol's 'set fire to the third bar', whilst Snake was just sitting, thinking about Alex. He felt helpless. As the youngest child in a young family, he had no experience in children apart from the classes he had attended on fostering, which had been quite a long time ago.
Looking over to his ward, he saw that the boy was starting to fall asleep. Eyelids drooping, his body started leaning against the harness, and Snake was thankful that the thing was there. Alex's hand made its way to his mouth, and he started absentmindedly sucking on it. Snake's eyes widened, as he had no idea that the boy did that.
Eagle looked over to see Alex asleep, sucking on his thumb, and laughed, causing Fox to turn around and smile. Wolf ignored Eagle's laugh, as he was so ticked off with the man.
"Awwww he's soo cute!" Eagle exclaimed. They looked at him like he was crazy.
"What you think just because I'm all tough and buff and hard doesn't mean that I have a soft side?" he asked incredulously, squaring his shoulders. They rolled their eyes and looked away.
When they arrived back at their house, Snake was surprised that Alex didn't wake up from the tyres rolling on the gravel, but was none the less happy he didn't; it gave him a reason to not have to unpack the shopping!
Gently as possible, he undid the straps holding the boy down and lifted him out the seat. Alex didn't stir once, but he did wrap his arms round Snake's neck, after taking his thumb out of his mouth, but he didn't put it back in his mouth, instead the said hand clutched Snake's shirt tightly. Fox opened the door for Snake, and so the man made his way upstairs to Alex's room.
Eagle started singing songs from both Snow Patrol and The Script, whilst Fox and Wolf heaved the bags from the car. As you can probably guess, it ended in Wolf punching Eagle, in the face, which of course sent Fox into hysterics. Meanwhile Snake pulled back the covers of Alex's bed, slipping him into it. Snake was the oldest in their unit. He wanted children, and was waiting for the right woman to come, someone to spend the rest of his life with. Despite this he knew the dangers, and it was difficult.
Carefully, he slid the converse off Alex's foot, chuckling slightly as he thought about when they got it on his foot, and the easiness getting it off his foot.
… … … … … … … … … … …
The next day, they were all in the lounge. Alex was engrossed in watching Eagle playing Madagascar, again, as it was the man's favourite game. Snake was dozing on the sofa, as he had been up half the night calming Alex with a nightmare. Wolf reading through a TV guide magazine and Fox was on facebook, and once again talking to his girlfriend, Fleur. They had been going out for 6 months now, and although it was quite a long time, they were still at an early stage in their relationship as he had to go away on missions for the SAS regularly. But now he was seizing the opportunity to really get to know her, seeming as he was going to be here, in London, for 2 months.
It was only 11am. Rain drizzled from the ever grey sky. A normal day in the UK. But the household had a calm atmosphere to it where possible, but tense also hung in the air. The thoughts of Alex, and the possible death threats from the ruthless organisation, weighed down on them.
Then disaster struck; sudden disaster. The rain had just started bucketing down and the wind started howling; thunder shook the air as lightening electrocuted it. K-unit didn't really notice this; they had spent months and months in Wales, doing exercises that were bad enough without rain, so now they were nearly immune. But for Alex it was a different story. He had never liked thunder, but what child does? It wasn't just the thunder and lightning that terrified him, it was the memories that accompanied it that made him cry and scream.
The first roll sent tremors through his small frame. Tears prickled his small eyes and his fist clenched into small balls. No one had noticed this yet. He was holding onto whatever he had keeping him in this minute, this day.
But when another roll of thunder hit them, sounding like a bass drum being pounded in their ears, and when lightning lit up the sky. The unit paused from their activities to glance out of the window, and they all nearly had a heart attack when a panic based, terrified, bloodcurling scream erupted within the room, sending them into fumbling panic for their guns.
In a split second, all 4 men were standing in defensive positions, guns drawn and ready for action. Snake was the first one to come to his senses, to realise that the scream was from the 5 year old, the very one that was crying his eyes out on the floor, curled in a ball in the protected defence position. Waving his hand for the rest of the unit to lower their guns, he slowly approached the petrified boy in front of him and one kneeled down, unsure about what direction to take the situation in.
Images reeled in Alex head, memories and emotions; vivid, painful memories. It the one that then started playing in head that sent that wild scream:
Thunder rolled and rain fell like blankets outside as Jack carried a half asleep Alex down the stairs and depositing him on the breakfast bar. Her red hair was wild, and she was dressed in some loose fitting pyjamas. Alex himself was in his favourite khaki pyjamas, a gift from Ian for his last birthday.
He slid from the table to the awaiting chair as Jack went to get him his breakfast; a bowl of cookie crisp, his currently favourite cereal. As he happily munched on his cereal, Jack got some coffee and sat opposite him, like they did every morning. He grinned at her and she managed a half smile that didn't reach her bright green eyes. It was almost as if the death of his uncle hadn't affected him, which in hindsight, it didn't really. He was hardly ever around. She made small talk with him, she struggled, but he didn't notice.
She told him to go upstairs and get dressed. He didn't argue, he bounded off, full of energy. She sat at the table. Normal day, nothing out of the ordinary for them.
After he had gotten himself dressed, he once again bounded, only this time back to Jack. As he neared, he heard something, so he paused to listen.
"…don't harm him!" it was the sound of Jack's voice.
Slowly Alex crept so he could see into the room. There was a man in complete black so only his green eyes were showing, holding a gun to Jack's forehead. Alex's heart skipped a beat and his breathing was laboured.
"Oh I have no orders for that!" he laughed. A cold hard laugh echoed around the room.
He fired. A single shot. Alex screamed. A terrified, blood curling scream…
"Alex? Alex shhhh it's alright, it's alright" Snake soothed, alarmed by this.
He gently lifted Alex up and stood, holding him in his arms, rocking and continuing to sooth him as he clung to Snake like a life line and cried, screaming once again as Thunder struck.
K-unit stood, unsure about what to do with themselves. It's not like they could do much whilst their 5 year old ward was screaming in the arms of their teammate. Eagle's game buzzed in the back ground.
"Eagle turn your stupid kiddie game off or I am gonna hang you in the bathroom closet by your intestines and burn the house down." Wolf growled. Eagle didn't argue.
Then a shrill sound broke their awkwardness; Snake's blackberry. Wolf answered it, but not before checking caller ID, which was blocked. Frowning, he answered it.
"Hello", he grunted.
"Mr McCarthy, your presence is requested at the bank to discuss your account"
"This is James San Luca here, and we will be there soon, do we need to bring anything?" he replied, his voice hollowed.
"Yes, can you tell Mr McCarthy to bring ALL your paperwork with him?"
"Yes. Bye"
He was met by the gazes of Eagle and Fox, and a quick glance from Snake before his attention was once again returned to Alex, who was still crying endlessly, but at least the thunder had stopped.
Snake continued rocking Alex, who had yet to stop crying. The tight fist still clenched Snake's shirt tightly, which was now almost dripping wet. Although he knew it was the thunder and lightning that had scared him, he felt that it was something else that had made him scream.
Wolf's face was dark as he turned to address his unit.
"They just called, and want to see us all at the bank very soon, as in now really." He growled, feeling angry that they hadn't even given the kid time to settle in yet. It was ridiculous. The boy shouldn't be at risk anyway. MI6 should never have allowed that guardian to die, if only they had assigned protection to them. Being an intelligence agency, it shouldn't have got to the point that he was under protection because of Scorpia. But something seemed out to Wolf, but he just couldn't put his finger in it…
Snake looked up; helplessness had overcome him, making him pale and wide eyed.
"Wolf I…I don't think that's the best idea right now. He…he's practically lost it!" Snake whispered.
"I know, we shouldn't take him anywhere, much less to the bank, but I don't think we have a choice really" Wolf replied, defeat clearly etched in his voice.
"Hmmm maybe we can give him something to help him sleep, then they can't interrogate him or anything and then we will have no problems, not to mention it will help him with whatever shit he's dealing with" Eagle piped in. They all looked at him.
"…Eagle. That's not a bad idea!" Wolf muttered, shocked.
"Yes. However much I'm against drugging a 5 year old to sleep, it will help him" Snake replied, after weighing the pros and cons to find that they nearly all backed Eagle's idea.
Fox went upstairs to call Fleur, and explain why he had all of a sudden stopped chatting with her. Wolf left the room, muttering something along the lines of '…filling up my gun with bullets to shoot the god damn bastards', leaving Snake and Eagle alone.
Snake's attention returned to Alex, who was still crying, tears meandering down his tanned, soft skin in an unbreakable river flow.
"Alex." There was no response.
"Alex are you alright?" nothing.
"Alex stop crying" Mute.
"Alex, please." Tears continued to flow.
"Alex you're gonna go to sleep" the boy sobbed, but the tears never once faltered.
Snake turned to Eagle, who was sitting on the edge of the sofa, watching them intently. "However much I don't like your idea, can you take Alex whilst I go get the…stuff?" he asked, so Alex wouldn't hear.
Eagle was silent, but reached for Alex, who had not ever moved. Snake handed him over but had to pry his fingers away from his shirt, where Alex had a firm grip on it, very firm. Eagle then held Alex close to him, one hand wrapped round his torso, the other on the backs of the boy's head, which was buried into Eagle's neck. Needless to say, the only reason he wasn't falling to the ground was that his legs were firmly wrapped around Eagle's torso. Despite the fact that Eagle was actually very nervous about holding an emotionally torn up 5 year old in his arms, it felt…right in some way. It couldn't be natural instinct could it?
In the kitchen Snake slipped the contents of the sachet into the milk he had just warmed in their microwave. He felt bad about doing this, but it would help the poor boy he was protecting, wouldn't it?