Heyy, so it's been a while! Yeah, I got really bad writers block, then distracted. So, I kept starting this and never finishing it. However, it is finally done. It's slightly shorter, and not great. But, Hopefully you'll enjoy it. Thank you for all the lovely reviews you left me. If you have time, please review this chapter. And I promise you, you won't have to wait so long for the next update.

Disclaimer - I sadly own nothing.

"Has the boy awoken yet?" Came the cold voice of the head of MI6. He did not really care if Alex was all better, he just needed him alive. After all, there were plenty more missions that they could potentially have for him, and Mr. Blunt was in no mood to find another teen spy that would be as capable as his Alex Rider. There would be no one with so little family and so much curiosity that would be willing to even consider such a job.

"Alex awoke briefly yesterday morning, and it looks like he will make a good recovery. The doctors say it could take a little while, but he should be fine." Mrs Jones answered in the usual careless tone she took when she needed to address the head of MI6 with fact. She left out the parts about how mentally this would take a huge toll on the teen spy, it wasn't like the man would care.

"And when will he be released from hospital?" Alan Blunt asked, his emotionless eyes meeting hers, he really just wanted to speak to the boy and see when it would be possible for him to start completing missions for MI6.

"In about a week, so this Sunday, he's meant to take it easy, but you know Alex, doesn't sit still" Mrs Jones stated. She was actually lying, Alex appeared more subdued than before, more removed, he had this look in his eye that told her what he'd been through was not something he had huge desire to repeat any time. Unfortunately, that information was not information that Alan Blunt would care about.

BREAK

Roughly a week after the brown eyes of the boy had finally opened and taken in a sight that surprised him, he was packing up everything that had been brought for him during his stay at the hospital. His movements were slow and stiff. He lacked the usual smile most exhibited at the prospect of going home, and there was the youthful air that most teens had, which he now also lacked. The one that meant they were up to all hours either partying or watching movies. He had neither of those things to look forward to. He had no one to go home to, or with. Everyone he cared about was gone. There was his one friend, but after the three month disappearance the boy doubted they'd still be friends. He had no youthful air because he was a lot older than his age.

For once he was alone in his hospital room. Pure coincidence and the only reason he was leaving. The four army men of K-Unit had taken turns to be the one to leave the room or guard. It meant that at almost all hours of the day someone had been in room. As a teen still readjusting to having people in his life, and having to deal with what had happened to him over the past three months it had felt odd. There was a feeling of finally being able to breath. Like he'd been holding his breath and was only now able to let it out. It did mean that he was leaving without them knowing. There was no way they'd let him leave the hospital all were set on having him say until the hospital physically threw them out. While the teen was enjoying the calm, he couldn't really take another day of the four bland walls, and the four silent army men.

Alex Rider was no average boy of fifteen years. He had army men guard his door, he lived alone, and he'd seen more than any person should ever have to but he hated hospital as much as the next teen. He didn't really want to home to a house that was completely empty, to a house that held good and bad memories. Some memories people would class as horrific, it was just a matter of prospective. However even that house seemed better than this room. Shoving the last of his stuff into the duffel bag he'd been brought, Alex gave the room one final sweep. Double checking for everything and anything. He had to leave no trace. He couldn't be baby sat by K-Unit for the rest of his teen years. They hated him, Alex could see it in there eyes. This was false the members of K-Unit had nothing but feelings of worry and concern towards Alex, but these two feelings were so foreign to Alex, especially when displayed towards him that he mistook it for hate.

Even if they didn't hate him now, the teen was almost sure what he was doing in that current moment would lead them to hate him. The back of his mind was telling him to just accept that the four men were now in his life, but he had issues with this, since upon their first meeting, all the men had treated him like a useless waste of space and he couldn't really take getting close to four more people who could very well be killed. Considering their line of work, it was really all the more likely. Alex had lost too much, he was sure that his heart would not be able to take another death. After all he was still a teenage boy with a small shred of hope that the world wasn't all bad.

Alex had a job that he hoped no other kid would ever have to suffer through. He had been broken and beaten. Tortured and been victorious. He lived every day knowing that there might just been someone waiting to shoot him down. Just like Scorpia had tried to. It really was only a matter of time before it happened again, and maybe on that occasion he wouldn't be as lucky as he's been. Most would disagree with that statement, but Alex took his victories when he could, and just being alive was one he would always appreciate.

Finally glad that he hadn't left anything as a clue, or any trace of himself in the room, Alex carefully put the backpack on his less injured shoulder and went to handle the discharge papers, that were not well protected. He was quick to take what he needed, fake the signature and the put it back. It only took a few minutes, and then Alex Rider was leaving that hospital and no one would stop him. Finally a free teen.

BREAK

As the leader of K-Unit, Wolf was the first to enter the hospital room that they'd been staying in for the past week. The doctors had managed to pull a few strings to allow the men to even be in the room to begin with. Mostly because they were government officials and when they asked for things people let them. It wasn't exactly a task for the men, they were good at sleep in uncomfortable places, getting little sleep and being partially alert all the times. It came with what they did. As men of the army they had to be able to handle conditions that no one else would want to. However, dealing with a recovering spy had been no easy task. The blonde boy had not made it easy for the four army men. After all they had just wanted to show that people cared and that he wasn't alone. This was why immediately after they entered Alex's room at the hospital they had a little bit of a panic coursing in their veins.

"Where the fuck is he?" Wolf yelled at his team mates. They'd been gone no more than three hours and yet somehow he'd managed to slip away. It wasn't like there had been anyone left to protect him directly at the door, but no one was allowed on that floor unless they had the jurisdiction to be there. They were all hopeful that the members of staff at the hospital had been vigilant on that front. They had not rescued him only for him to be taken away. They were coming with good news. MI6 were finally pulling together to allow the members of K-Unit to be the guardians of Alex. Mrs. Jones and Mr. Blunt had both known that it would be better that Alex be with people he knew and that were able to protect him and themselves rather than have the boy live alone. However this now empty room foiled their plan completely.

"Well, he can't have gone far, he had a huge limp and almost no money." Fox said, knowing that they had been careless in thinking that Alex would just wait around for them to get back. He was the kind of kid who no matter what always thought he would be better off alone than with people who really did care about him. Since he'd pretty much lost everyone else that ever meant anything to him.

"Not to mention he still looks a mess, he'll end up getting picked up by the police or something." Eagle said, trying to for once be the voice of potential reason in the slowly heating up argument.

"Alex is a very well trained spy, he'll get away. We just need to fine him" Fox told them. Knowing from experience that Alex was very well trained. They all knew that even if he hadn't been, he was the kind of kid that when determined nothing would stop them, not even the oceans or the lack of money he had. All four were left with the wonder of was he taken. As if sensing this, Snake walked out of the room to locate both the attending nurse and the doctor. Both of whom they hoped would be able to shed some light on the topic of where he'd gone.

The three men left in the room all took seats in different places. Wolf sat on the chair he'd claimed as his own just after Alex had awoken. Fox sat on the now neatly made bed, and Eagle had taken a seat just underneath the window sitting on the hospital floor, for the first time in his life looking a little defeated. He liked getting to know Alex over the past few days. Of course it was odd circumstance and they all had known that Alex hated it, but he and the others had tried their best to make him feel like he should. Like a Cub.

"So you say he managed to just walk out?" Snake almost yelled as he walked into the room quickly followed by a worried looking nurse and an unsure doctor, who was clearly worried about his job and his life. He hadn't know the importance of the boy, no one had. He was just another bruised and beaten kid who'd passed through the doors. They seemed to be getting increasingly more of those. The doctor looked at the four men he'd seen a lot of over the past week, however now, he felt a lot less safe. They were huge, and he was a fairly small guy. The army men could very much sense his discomfort, he wasn't good at hiding it. His hands were shaking slightly, he didn't keep eye contact long enough with any of them, and he always seemed to either glance at the clock or at the door.

"Listen, we didn't know. He managed to get the discharge papers, sign himself out and then he just left." The doctor said, flustered. "He shouldn't been pushing himself like that, and he shouldn't be alone. He could really hurt himself." The door finally meet each of the men's eyes for longer than a milli-second. "I looked at the footage and he appears to have just walked out. There was no one with him."

"Get Out!" Wolf roared, and the doctor and the nurse scurried like mice from the room. The three other men shared a glance and then found themselves laughing. Only Wolf could scare away a doctor and a nurse in that kind of a fashion. They did however promptly shut up as soon as they realised that they had a very serious issue on their hands. Cub was gone, he was injured and should still be in a bed. It didn't need to be the hospital bed, but somewhere where he could rest. He also really shouldn't be alone at such a time. If he feel over badly, or passed out due to either pain or some other injury that the doctors hadn't spotted, alone his chances were bad. It had pretty much been settled in those few minutes what they all need to do. Find Cub.

"Okay, We need to find him. Pronto" Wolf said walking to the door of the room and closing it. "Fox, what I need you to do, is find out where he lived before. Eagle, I need you to find a bus route map of London, Snake a map of the underground system, and I'll just get an actual map of London. Move out" He commanded before they could say anything against it. With a nod from each of the men they moved out to find Alex. It was really their top priority. The first and only thing on each man's mind. Wolf stayed in the room. He groaned out loud. He couldn't understand why the kid didn't just trust them. They were all on the same team after all. He just wanted the kid to be safe. To be brought up and hopefully kept away from doing things that could land him in the same amount of bother he'd just been in. He didn't want MI6 to ever wait three months before finding this boy. Not on his watch. Wolf swore loudly and then punched the wall closest to him. As if matters couldn't get any worse the sky had, in traditional London fashion gone a dark grey and the rain had begun to pour.

After about an hour the rain outside seemed to come down heavier than before, but the four men sat inside at a small table in the cafeteria of the hospital. A place they'd become very familiar with over the past week. The coffee was terrible, as were the hot chocolates, but they'd found watching Cub reason enough to drink it and just attempt to be happy with it. They each picked up what Wolf had instructed, Fox was sitting with Alex's Chelsea address, Snake and Eagle with the bus routes and underground routes and then the actual map of London provided by Wolf.

"So, we are here, and Alex would want to go here." Fox plotted the two points on the map. Then looked at it himself. For the first time actually looking at the distance between the two points. "That's really quite far."

"There is a bus route that would take him from here to the nearest subway, here. The from there, he'd be able to get to Chelsea, but he'd probably still have to walk a good twenty minutes before he would actually get to his house." Snake said looking up from the map to the leader. They were at a loss, with such ground to cover and countless possibilities of how Cub could be getting home, none of them quite knew what to do, or how to deal with it. How could a fifteen year old be so stubborn? Wolf was ready to say he was downright selfish for making them, four great army men, spend even more time looking for the teen that clearly didn't want their help.

"What are we going to do?" Eagle asked, his eyes still glued to the map. He took a pencil and drew out four circles, areas to search. "If we take an area each and start looking then maybe we'll be able to find him. Although I do suggest we check his house first in case he's already there. No use for a wild goose chase if he actually managed to make it home. The three others nodded to this, and then headed out. All of them wondering why they hadn't thought to go check the home in the first place, see if he was there before starting a small panic.

Walking out to the car, Wolf was silent. All he had on his mind was the image of seeing Cub for the first time as he'd been laid out on the floor. The bruises, the blood, the skinniness. The way his chest appeared to not move. The way he'd just been limp and lifeless. It was an odd thing, since like all the other's he'd seen that before on countless occasions, but it was different when it was someone you knew and now all he could think of was how maybe they'd find him the same way. Like he'd said before, there was no way he burying a fifteen year old boy.

The drive itself was slow, the rain was pouring hard, and the traffic was slow moving. They were driving through London during rush hour traffic. As if the traffic in London wasn't already bad enough it was even worse now that it was rush hour. All they could do was sit in silence in the car, and hope to some higher power that Cub had made it home.

After what seemed like forever they finally managed to arrive outside the house. With Fox driving, he parked just in front, but had barely stopped when Wolf bolted out of the car. Seeing something the others hadn't. He was muttering under his breath and taking large strides up to the door. Sitting at the door, was Cub. Cold and shivering, dirty and wet. He was however breathing, and as Wolf dropped to his level, he just realised the boy was asleep.

"Must've passed out before he could get in the door." Fox said coming up behind Wolf. "Thank goodness he's here." Fox leaned forward and took the keys from the boys hand. He put it in the door, and opened it, while Wolf picked up the sleeping form.

"Shouldn't we take him back to the hospital?" Eagle asked as the four men, and the one teen (being carried) entered the silent house. It was a spacious home, but it was empty. There was no life and there was an air of unhappiness that was emitted from every crack in the paint.

"Nah, he'll just leave again. What's the point, if he doesn't want to stay then why should we make him," Fox answered with Snake nodding along with him. "If Alex wants to be home, then let's just let him have this. He's been through enough he doesn't need four army guys dragging him back to hospital. We'll just keep an eye on him, and hope for the best."

"I agree, Now, I'm gonna put Cub to bed, Eagle, Snake, why don't the two of you go to the supermarket and buy some food, Fox you want to stay here and just clean up with me. Once this guy's in bed." Wolf didn't leave any room for people to answer before he headed towards the stairs up to where he assumed Alex's room would be. Sure enough at the top of the stairs, the first room, had an old dusty picture of a younger, happier looking Alex and some girl. He pushed opened the door with his foot and stepped inside. The room was life most other teens that he'd ever come across.

Pictures littered the walls, the cupboard in the corner clearly old and not chosen by the teen. It had clothes hanging out of it, that had gather dust. On the desk were books, school books piled high, with one open lying on top of a notebook and a pen. Had Wolf not still had Cub in his arms then he would've looked to see what was being written. Clothes were on the floor as well as a few empty glasses, a skateboard, a karate belt. It was a side of the spy that he'd never seen before. He was sure they'd all never seen before. The part of Alex that was still a boy.

Wolf put Alex down on the bed. He changed his shirt into one less wet ignoring all of the angry looking cuts and the terrible looking bruises. He then took off the boy's shoes and jeans. He was then careful to not wake the boy and he put the bed covers around him. He was desperate to not wake Cub, but the boy was for the first time in a long while in a very deep and natural sleep. Wolf was glad. Alex had been through enough already. He deserved it more than anyone.