here's the next chapter! for one of the first time i am actually quite confident about this chapter, as i really enjoyed writing this and wrote it all in an hour! sudden motivational boost there, thanks cousin Sam!

anyways, same thing as i've said before: i really hope you enjoy, please review, glad you're reading my story etc xxx sorry if i seem rude but i'm tired, oh and two more things!

1. this story is almost finished!

2. if i dont post before then ... MERRY CHRISTMAS!LET IT SNOW PEOPLE!

Enjoy 3

As Eagle and Wolf left the house at more or less 12 with their little blonde ward in tow, and Fox went for a walk to the petrol station to buy some snacks and newspapers, it gave Snake some time to think.

And think he did.

All the recent events had been buzzing in the back of his mind for the last 2 days, as it was now 2 days ago that all the chase events happened, and now he had a real chance to strategically think each of them through. To recite the events to himself, and to think more of the future, the future of the little boy he and his unit were protecting.

To be honest with himself, deep down he knew, however cruel that this thought would be: protecting Alex from Scorpia was the least of his problems. Alex's he meant. The thing, organisation that Alex needed protecting from was MI6.

Snake now knew that these government agencies were heartless. He thought they might have a little soul in them, they were run by people after all. But no. they were cold hearted, killers by profession, by heart, by mind.

And now they were going to train children to do an adults work. Disgusting.

And how MI6 had received information that Scorpia were going to make a hit, so they tell them to get out and go to a safe house, only to find themselves being shot at just before they were there. Alex had awoken, and had starting crying as he saw what was going on: the entire K-Unit with their guns out, shooting out the windows, and hearing the metallic ping, a very loud one, every time their car was struck by a bullet.

Distressing much?

Just after 3 of the 4 Scorpia vehicles had been shot in the tyres, ensuring them to go wild and crash and burn, MI6 decided to make their appearance, the agents in the stereotypical cars. By this time, however, the unit had ran out of ammo, therefore however pissed they were for MI6's spectacular late arrival, they didn't complain. They didn't want to risk losing Alex too early.

Alex had been hysterical, and it took a lot to calm him down. Whilst Eagle, the most childish of the group kept him as distracted as possible, the K-Unit drove back. The threat was neutralised apparently. Yeah, like they didn't know that the attackers were dead? The dead bodies on the floor and in the burnt cars weren't enough? Sometimes they wondered in Military Intelligence sector 6 actually had the intelligence that was in their name...

So getting back rather late, they had stayed in the lounge to sleep, Alex in the arms of Eagle as he dozed. Wolf and Snake had been talking quietly, about Alex, and their career's and the war and everything that seemed to be going wrong in the world.

They spoke for a long time.

Fox had been communicating with a man called Smither's, the gadget master of MI6. He was, admittedly, a genius. And probably one of the nicest people in the organisation. Wolf, being the team leader, probably should have been monitoring the situation and the communication between the pair, but at the same time…wouldn't doing that mean he did not trust Fox? And Wolf definitely trusted Fox.

They wouldn't normally have stayed up, but after a serious red alert threat and a gun fight/car chase, the K-Unit could neither sleep nor trust to have Alex unprotected for even the shortest amount of time. No, this didn't mean that they came into the toilet with him; they weren't pervs or anything like that! They stood outside the door. It wasn't like Alex needed protection whilst peeing.

Snake then switched his thoughts to the future, of the little blonde boy that he was starting to develop paternal feelings for, how someday he would be a killer, and in constant danger, and more threatened…and…and….and….and….and….

A single tear slid down David's face.

….meanwhile…..

After Wolf wrestled Alex into the car seat, which was even harder than usual considering the traumatic events from the former day, Eagle hopped in the back with the whining child and they drove off. MI6 had replaced the bullet damaged car yesterday, replacing it with a burnt orange coloured Nissan Pathfinder. Gorgeous looking, bullet proof like the last one apparently. And it had a Ferrari speed engine? Yeah, this car was gorgeous. Wolf was one of those guys that admired every car, however crappy it was; he tried to find the positive's. Where to begin with this one?

They drove listening to the radio. Well, Wolf was listening to the radio, not to mention driving and trying not to swear and rant about London traffic like he normally did. Eagle was teaching Alex how to play a thumb war, and although Alex lost every match to Eagle's considerably stronger and bigger thumbs, he kept trying like a lost Spaniel every time it got sent away. Cute!

The place they were going was like heaven for kids. Especially active kids. Especially active kids that were crazy. Especially the active male crazy kids. Especially the ones that liked running around and climbing and playing and fighting and running into stuff and falling.

Yes, Eagle and Wolf were taking Alex to the play barn.

(A/N: I don't know if they have Playbarns in any other country apart from England. So I'm just saying playbarn is this massive inside play area for little kids with climbing and slides and ball pits and ladders and everything like that. Enjoy carrying on reading!)

When they arrived, 2 pairs of eyes widened.

Alex's in excitement when he was the massive red building with kids his age running in and out of it.

Wolf's in horror as he saw how busy the place was, how many kids there were.

Eagle grinned at the reactions, undid the car seat and slid out the car, taking Alex with him. He rested the excited child on his hip and didn't let him get down when he struggled to. Eagle had read online that you had to check in first for fire safety reasons or something, so that was exactly what he did, letting Wolf pay for the price. Alex was too busy looking around in wonder to really notice much of what else was going on around him at the moment.

A massive multi-coloured climbing frame stood 40ft above them, and very wide. It was caged in of course, with netting. The frame was made of metal but coated in an inch thick of padding, making it more child and accident friendly. Hundreds of kids were everywhere, climbing and laughing, and in some cases they were crying. It was noisy and barbaric and hot and crowded. Wolf felt like a sunflower in a field of red roses, Eagle admittedly felt slightly uncomfortable but pushed it aside for Alex. And Alex was loving it. there were so many other people his age who were playing and all he wanted was to go and play with them and make friends.

The blonde felt himself being put to the floor, and was about to run when he turned round and questioned Eagle with his eyes: can I go?

Eagle smiled and replied gently "Go have some fun Alex. Come back when you want to, yeah?"

Alex nodded and slipped out of sight.

Wolf wondered if telling him to come back when he wanted to was the right thing to say, considering how clever the 5 year old was. How could undoubtedly use it to his advantage. But Wolf pushed that aside and wandered to the adult part that sold refreshments. He had to remember that he was here for Alex, for a good reason.

They were here because Fox had suggested it. He had said that maybe they should get Alex used to being around kids his own age, and getting used to tiring events. Wolf was surprised that Fox, out of all of them, had come up with this, as the man seemed to be not quite as attached as the rest of them. Eagle had been more than happy to take Alex to this adult hell/kid heaven, and Wolf had accompanied them because he felt that they would need some kind of back up in the event of an emergency. Sometimes one SAS man wasn't enough. Especially when it involved a 5 year old and Eagle together!

Alex gazed wide-eyed at the massive frame before him. everywhere he looked there were children, laughing and playing. But that was the problem. They were laughing and playing together, making him feel more lonely than ever before. He was considering going back to Eagle, tears beginning to shine in his brown eyes, when all of a sudden something, or someone, tapped him on the shoulder.

Whirling round, he came face to face with a pale skinned, black haired boy. They were roughly the same height, and could look into each other's eyes. Sea green met chocolate brown, the green happy, the brown sad and lonely.

"Hi!" the boy exclaimed, eyes gleaming.

Alex stared sceptically at the boy. Why was he talking to him? Part of the 5 year old wondered if it was some sort of joke, the dark side of him.

"Err … hi?" Alex answered cautiously.

"Do you wanna come and play with me? I'm on my own and you look lonely!" the boy asked him.

Alex smiled and replied "Yeah. What's your name though? The names Rider…Alex Rider" Alex remembered watching a film with Jack once where a guy in a tuxedo said that.

They both laughed at Alex's antics before the boy replied.

"My name's Tom…Tom Harris."

Silently, Eagle watched the exchanged from a distance. He decided to wait till Alex had found someone to play with before he left him alone. Before the black haired boy turned up, the man could see in his eyes that Alex felt lonely, and half wondered if he would come running back crying to him.

With interest, he watched their little exchange, and smiled when they both laughed at something that Alex had said. Trust slowly began to build on the blonde's face until they both ran off in the direction of the climbing frame's big red slide.

Sipping from the cup of apple and blackcurrant juice drink he had brought, Eagle didn't notice that someone had approached him until they sat down and said hi.

He jumped and almost choked on his drink. Almost.

"…Hello. How can I help you?" he asked politely looking at the person. It was a woman, probably at about the age of 25, the same as his. She had long black hair flowing over her shoulders and crystal blue eyes. Freckles covered the area on her nose and she was rather slim. And pretty.

She laughed at him, and he felt himself blush. Wait, why did he blush? He was SAS!

Seeing his confused face, she elaborated. "You just looked rather cute when you said that. I'm Cathy by the way. I saw looking at my son and the blonde boy. Is that your son or are you a pervert?" she asked with light humour. But even an idiot could hear the protectiveness in her voice at the same time though.

He smiled at her humour and replied easily "Don't worry, I am not perverted! He's my…foster son and he's not very social and he's very shy. He's had a rough life." Eagle replied as truthfully as possible.

"Awww the poor thing. You're so nice to foster the poor child." She said, flirty yet full of empathy at the same time. He liked this woman. He also noticed with interest that she wasn't wearing a ring on her finger, nor was there any sign that one had ever been there.

"Sooo….he's your son then….."

Laughing, Alex tackled Tom on the edge of the ball pit, causing them both to go tumbling into it, plastic waves crashing onto the other children and making them scarper. They both emerged with ear splitting grins and laughter. They'd lost track of time as they played roughly, both probably going to be bruised in the morning. Alex couldn't remember the last time he had this much fun, and couldn't believe he'd made a friend. A friend called Tom.

The two young boys hadn't realised how late it was until they paused to take a breath after they winded themselves as they fell into the ball pit. Nearly everyone in the playbarn had gone, and now only about 20 remained, and of course their parents. From where they were sitting they could see that Eagle was talking to Tom's mum. Well, Alex could see Eagle talking to some black haired woman, and Tom could see his mummy talking to some brown haired man.

"I wonder who Eagle is talking to?" Alex questioned. Tom answered.

"You mean the man talking to my mum?"

"Is the black haired lady your mum?"

"Yeah"

"Then she's talking to Eagle"

"Whose Eagle though?" Tom asked, obviously still confused.

Alex was thrown. Who was Eagle? He wasn't his daddy, his daddy had died. He wasn't his uncle, he had died too. He wasn't his house keeper, Jack died. Who was he then? Alex decided he would ask.

"I don't know really. My daddy died and my uncle died and my housekeeper died. I'll go ask him" Alex replied, biting his lip as he thought.

He lifted himself out of the ball pit, aware that Tom was following him but took no notice of it; too caught up in his own thoughts.

He bounded over to Eagle and hopped onto his lap, making the man jump. Tom went and sat on the lap of his mother, who ran her hands through his short black hair. He leaned against her chest.

Alex lent sideways against Eagle's chest, and looked up at him, brown eyes deep with emotion.

"What's wrong buddy?" Eagle asked, trying to sound casual but failing, as he was very concerned as to what was wrong.

Alex sniffled, his little hand starting to fiddle with Eagle's considerably larger ones, showing that he didn't quite know what to say.

"Eagle? What are you to me? Because my daddy died and my uncle Ian died and my housekeeper Jack died, and now you look after me with Snake and Wolf and Fox?" Alex explained, voice thick with is emotion and looking like he might start crying.

Eagle was stumped, and he noted that Cathy was watching him like she was assessing what he would say. What was he supposed to say to Alex, and more to the point; what was he to Alex?

He certainly wasn't a father, he wasn't an uncle, he wasn't step family, he wasn't an adopted uncle. He was kind of a foster uncle but at the same time, more of a foster guardian. Ah, and he had told Cathy that he had fostered Alex.

"Err, I'm not sure kiddo, what do you want me to be like to you?" he asked cautiously. He had told himself that he wouldn't get too close to the child, form too much of an attachment. Yet he had, and he was just about to make the bond stronger without meaning to.

Eyebrows tight in thought, Alex thought about it before saying it. "I want you to be like my uncle, only nicer and around more" he paused before continuing "and I want you to be like my brother, because Jack said that having a brother around was good because they are fun to annoy!" although it sure did sound young and immature, the meaning behind was wise.

Eagle blinked.

He wasn't quite sure what he was expecting, but he certainly wasn't expecting to have it said so wisely with so much thought behind it.

Before Eagle could reply, Alex yawned, a hazy look in his eyes. Looking over at Tom, who also looked tired, and then to Cathy, whose expression he couldn't read. Then he looked at the clock, and his eyes did a double take. It was already 7pm! Surely he had not been talking to this woman for that long! And where was Wolf? Maybe he had gone back to the car or something, he seemed to like it.

"Ready to go home Al? It's really late and you look tired kiddo" Eagle suggested.

"No!" he exclaimed, and both he and Tom started making for the ball pit, running as fast as they could considering they were short and tired. Just as the two boys made to dive in, at last minute Eagle caught both of them by the shirt, yanking them to his chest. Swinging them over his shoulder, he triumphantly walked back to the table where Cathy was laughing at the pouts on their faces. They wiggled on his shoulders but seemed too tired to really struggle. Once at the table, he lent down to allow Cathy to slide Tom to her lap, where he wrapped his arms around her neck and buried his face in it.

Eagle moved Alex round so he was lying in a more bridal carry, fitting perfectly and snugly. It seemed he was already half asleep, so he was careful not to jog him too much as he once again sat down at the table.

"Well, I better be getting this one home! Nice to meet you Matt! What's your mobile number? I am sure that Tom would love to meet Alex again, and I'd love to get to know you more!" she said cheerfully.

They exchanged numbers, and before Eagle knew it, he was already seated in the back of the car next to the sleeping Alex, eagerly telling Wolf about Alex's new friend, and his new friend.

Wolf rolled his eyes, thinking about how he would have to endure a 45 minute car ride with Eagle. But at the same time, he was glad to hear that Alex had found a friend.

At least Alex was happy….

….

….for now….

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