Thanks to everyone for their support! Your reviews are all amazing- I really enjoy writing this story and your reviews/follows/favs make posting it super worthwhile. I also made this chapter a bit longer than the previous ones- as a reviewer suggested- and I'm glad I did! It feels like a proper chapter from a proper story now! :)

I've had several questions about if I'm going to bring Fox and/or Yassen in. The answer is… I'm thinking about it! I can see a bit of potential for the idea, so yes, I suppose I will bring one of those two in. Won't tell you who at this point (Fox, Yassen or both!), though, because that would spoil it! ;)

Disclaimer: I don't own Alex Rider!

"Rider?"

Alex got himself under control with a huge amount of effort, and looked up at Snake with a blank expression. "Yeah?" he tried to keep his voice as carefree as possible, but the result was hardly nonchalant.

"What's going on? Who is Carson?" Snake questioned, returning the phone to its cradle on the kitchen bench.

Alex noticed that Snake hadn't bothered to ask him if he was alright. Still hating on me after I asked Ryan what he was doing in my study? Too bad, Snake. Why should I answer your question? Alex remained silent, causing Snake to sigh in exasperation.

"Rider, you're a twenty something year old MI6 agent. You should be able to answer me, knowing that it's critical the Unit sent to protect you understands the situation,"

Alex frowned. They thought he was over twenty? The SAS Unit obviously couldn't judge ages very well, considering that he was actually eighteen. Alex shook his head. "Not this time, Snake," he murmured, walking away from the SAS soldier, but stopping when Snake reached out a hand and gripped his shoulder.

"Rider," the man ordered firmly, causing Alex to scowl.

"Stay out of my business, Snake," he snipped back with a glare. "You lot really are too noisy for your own business, aren't you? Ryan walks into mystudy-in the middle of the frickin' night- and now you're demanding to know about something which doesn't concern you," The grip on his shoulder tightened, and Alex winced slightly. Snake was pressing on a bruise. "Get your hand of me," the eighteen year old spy ordered harshly, but the hand stayed where it was.

"Ryan wanted to make sure that he could trust you, Rider. You're meant to be looking after him, and you're really not doing a very good job," Snake pointed out. "Reading your mission reports would have helped him feel safer, because he would have evidence of your skill. Mrs. Jones said you'd be able to look after him, but sometimes her words are not enough. He needed to see confirmation of your ability to believe her,"

But Alex had zoned out after the second sentence. "…you didn't do a very good job on this mission Rider, and now they're going to..." no. He couldn't think about that now. Choking back the memories of the last time someone had said that to him, Alex forced himself to stay in the moment and shot back bitterly "Looking after a kid was not in my job description. Besides, you're here now, aren't you? Why don't you look after him?"

"Ryan needs your help. You're an MI6 agent, you understand his position better than we do," Snake countered calmly and Alex realized that it was a good thing he wasn't having this conversation with Eagle or Wolf. They would have completely lost it by now.

But of course, just because Snake was calmer than his teammates, didn't mean that he would be getting any answers. "You're closer to him than I am," he argued.

"That's no excuse. He probably used to look up to you, Rider,"

"Get your frickin hand off me!" Alex yelled angrily, the emotionless expression suddenly shattering like a glass mirror being smashed by a stone. Swearing loudly, Alex raised both hands and twisting out of the man's grip.

By now, Eagle and Wolf had run into the kitchen and were watching the argument. At the sight of the two SAS men, Alex grimaced.

"What's going?" Eagle asked.

Alex crossed his arms, rolling his injured shoulder in an attempt to remove some of the pain. "Nothing," he replied grumpily.

Snake rolled his eyes. "Agent Rider is acting like a moody teenager. There could be a security issue, but he's refusing to tell me anything," The stress he put on Alex's title portrayed how much he disbelieved Alex had reached agent status.

Wolf took a step forward and met Alex's gaze with a sharp scowl. "Act your age, Rider," his tone was cold. "You're not a teenager!"

Alex stiffened at the order. If this was what teenagers did, then he was acting his age. "I am-" the words slipped out of his mouth before he could stop them; stemming from the urge to stand up- to fight- for himself.

"So, you're really a successful eighteen year old agent? Somehow I don't think so," Wolf said sarcastically, leaning in the doorway. "Stop lying and making excuses and blaming everyone but yourself. Start acting like a proper agent!"

"Think whatever you want, Wolf," Alex replied bitterly, deciding that he wasn't going to put with this argument for any longer and walked out of the kitchen towards his study.

Eagle watched Alex leave curiously. "You know, he does seem a little young to be an operative," he said thoughtfully, tapping one finger on his chin in contemplation. "How did this conversation start?"

Snake looked at the phone where it sat in its cradle and sighed. "Mrs. Jones told me to tell Rider that the assassin he caught was sent by a terrorist organization called Red Dawn. She also wanted me to say that someone call Tony Carson was alive,"

Wolf looked a little bit doubtful. "This arose because you passed on a message?"

Snake shook his head. "I don't know. But when I told Rider that Carson was alive, he froze. Just for a moment- it looked like he had gone into some sort of trance. He looked almost scared, and then guilty. So I asked him what the problem was, and he said that it wasn't any of my business,"

Eagle's expression changed from curious to thoughtful. "You know, he said a very similar thing when Ryan was in his study. I think that Rider's hiding something from us. We could always try breaking into his study later tonight to get some answers,"

Snake gave Eagle a 'you can't be serious' look. "I'm pretty sure Jones wouldn't be too pleased if that happened. Besides, we haven't been trained in silent movement, but Ryan has and Rider caught him last night,"

Eagle gave a wide grin and ignored Snake's condescending tone. "Then we could send Ryan in to get some mission reports and we could read them and find out all Rider's 'secrets'," for dramatic effect, he rubbed his hands together in mock conspiracy.

Wolf gave his team mate a gentle-well as gentle as an SAS solider could- whack on the arm. "Rider caught Ryan the first time; of course Ryan would get caught if he did this again. Let's just go ask Rider what's going on," their team leader had always been a great one for the direct approach.

Snake shook his head, watching as Eagle rubbed his arm and feigned hurt. "You know that will never work- I mean look at what just happened here. Rider's not giving away anything. I think it would be better to keep an eye on Rider, without him knowing of course,"

Eagle, who was back to being serious, nodded his approval of the idea. "I agree."

For Alex, the rest of the day passed without any incident, but that was probably because he stayed in his study. He told himself that it was just to finish several pieces of paperwork he had forgotten to do- not to avoid K-Unit or anything. It wasn't until six pm, when he had finished sorting through the files of older missions (something that didn't really need to be done) that he decided it would probably be a good idea to come out of his study and go see how Ryan was doing. Getting something to eat might also be a good idea as well, if his rumbling and rather empty feeling stomach was anything to go by.

Ryan was standing in the living room and K-Unit were nowhere to be seen, something which Alex was rather pleased about. As Alex approached Ryan, he could see that the younger agent was practicing kicks and punches.

"What martial art do you do, Ryan?" Alex asked as he began to make dinner.

"Karate," Ryan grunted as he swept one leg out in a powerful side kick.

For the first time in what felt like forever, Alex gave a grin as he walked back into the living room. "So do I! What grade are you?"

Ryan smiled briefly before launching into a series of elbow strikes. "First Kyu. I was meant to go for my black belt a while ago, but working for MI6 had cut into my training time and I never got the chance. What grade are you?"

"Second Dan. I can understand missing out on gradings and lessons because of MI6, though. When I was a First Dan, I had to miss out on several Karate events. I'm still rather annoyed about it. But, Karate is a great skill to have when you're working for MI6. It's gotten me out of several rather dangerous situations,"

Ryan paused and frowned, and Alex instantly knew that he had said the wrong thing. "You've been working for MI6 since you were a First Dan, and now you're a Second Dan. How long have you been working for MI6?"

Alex shrugged, hoping Ryan didn't know his true age. "A couple of years," he replied vaguely.

Ryan nodded. "So, you began to work for them at fourteen?"

"Uh, no," Damn it! He shouldn't have been so open with Ryan! And seriously, things were going from bad to worse. He couldn't even improvise a decent lie in front of the younger agent.

"You're eighteen at the moment," Ryan pressed.

Alex sighed, resisting the urge to snap angrily at Ryan and all his questions. "Okay, fine. How did you know about my age?" he paused as a certain thought struck him. "You saw it in those files on my study last night, didn't you?" Ryan gave another nod. "Can you tell me what you were doing in there?"

Ryan sat down on the couch and looked at Alex warily. "I wanted to make sure you were as good as Jones said you were, by looking at your mission files and stuff. I needed to be able to trust you since you're protecting me. I guess you're good, I mean you caught me and I barely made a sound,"

"You didn't trust Mrs. Jones' word?"

Ryan frowned. "No," he said simply. Alex nodded- he could identify with that attitude.

"Fair enough," he replied quietly, and Ryan looked at him curiously. Alex decided that a little bit of a distraction was called for- he didn't like anyone to know too much about him. "Hey, I usually use the old guest room for my Karate practice. It's down the end of the hallway, and has punching bags and sparring gear and other stuff set out. Would you like to use it?"

Ryan gave another small smile. "Sure,"

…..

Several hours later, after they had eaten dinner and cleared up the dishes and K-Unit had come and gone, Alex found himself heading towards the old guest room. Ryan's Karate session in the living room had reminded him that he hadn't practiced in a while. Well, unless you counted knocking Barker unconscious as practice.

After doing some warm up stretches, Alex began to practice kicks, blocks and punches, before moving into kicks and katas. He was halfway through a kata when the door swung open. Ryan stood there, wearing lose shorts and a tee shirt, holding a drink bottle. He paused when he saw Alex.

"Oh, sorry, Rider. I'll come back later,"

Alex shook his head. "You don't have to go just because I'm here," he replied and Ryan came into the room, setting down his drink bottle and warming up behind Alex.

Several minutes later, Ryan was in the middle of a kick and Alex was stepping backwards, arms raised in a blocking motion, his back to Ryan. At the last moment, he caught Ryan's foot coming at him out of the corner of his eye. There wasn't enough time to step away and avoid it, so Alex twisted around and blocked it.

Ryan, who hadn't been aiming for Alex, jumped at the contact, spinning around into a reverse elbow strike. Alex had seen the strike coming, recognizing the way Ryan had twisted his shoulders around, so he stepped out of the way before retaliating with a leg sweep and knocking Ryan to the ground.

The kid rolled backwards and leapt to his feet immediately, narrowing his eyes as he looked at Alex before launching a front kick at Alex's chest and following through with a sidekick. Ignoring the boy's icy expression, Alex calmly blocked both kicks.

A punch came towards his face, so Alex grabbed Ryan's wrist and stepped to the side, twisting Ryan's arm around and putting him into an arm lock. Ryan hurriedly stepped back on Alex's foot in an attempt to break free, but Alex had been expecting the move and kept his grip.

"You need to kick and punch faster. Don't assume the enemy will be finished with the first strike, because sometimes they aren't and they can still grab your limbs if you don't strike fast enough," Alex advised, releasing Ryan's wrist. "Try it again, and keep your guard up this time,"

The boy nodded and twisted around in another side kick. Alex stepped around the end of the kick and grabbed Ryan's ankle before pushing the boy over. "Do you see what I mean about kicking fast?"

Ryan sighed. "Okay. I'll try it again," he said, blocking Alex's knife hand strike, and retaliating with a hook kick. His kick was much faster this time, and Alex had to step back to avoid it.

"Nice job," Alex grunted, coming in with a punch and a roundhouse kick. Ryan had stepped back to avoid the punch, but had stepped into the range of the kick and nearly gotten hit.

"Sneaky," he muttered and Alex gave a small laugh.

"I try to be."

Their sparring sessions lasted for another forty minutes, when Alex decided that they should probably stop since it was nearly ten o'clock and he didn't intend to fight all night. Ryan reluctantly agreed, and Alex was pleased to see that the younger agent had enjoyed their impromptu sparring session.

The silver glinted briefly as it flashed across the moonlit space, disappearing in a blossom of crimson red.

(… "It's like the beat of a heart, Rider,"…)

Those hearts had been stopped, and his whispered apology had been drowned out in the blossoming river- a stream of a thousand red teardrops which glistened like rubies (but the drops weren't treasures) in the pale light.

(They weren't precious to anyone- not even to him anymore)

Blood money?

(traitor)

He'd woken from many nightmares in the past, and it was always exactly the same. First came the surge of adrenaline- the worry that he was still back where it had taken place, and doing those same terrible (but honorable- at least that's what everyone else had told him) things. After that he would catch his breath, knowing at least that it hadn't occurred again so he was safe for the time being.

Then, he would look around his dark room, trying to ignore any moonlight which seeped into the room and created shadows. (Or, had he created those shadows? Was the moonlight clarifying what he had done, or trying to hide it? It had been an innocent bystander at the time...)

Alex groaned as he went through the familiar motions of waking after a nightmare. Was it too much to ask for a night of uninterrupted sleep? Grimacing, Alex rolled over in his bed.

Creak.

Obviously, a night of interrupted sleep really was too much to ask for. Alex groaned softly. The creak hadn't had anything to do with him shifting position- so someone else was awake and moving around in his house.

He grumpily got out of bed, deciding that if this was Ryan trying to get into his study again (although he wouldn't be able to this time, because Alex had locked the study door) then he really would blow up at the kid before dropping him back at MI6 in the middle of the night. K-Unit and their protectiveness of their 'own' be dammed.

If it was an intruder, then they would get their head shoved through the nearest wall, because Alex really wasn't in the best of moods after getting only three hours of sleep for two nights in a row.

But, walking softly down the hallway, Alex realized that it was not an intruder. Ryan was just going to the bathroom. Alex was just about to go back to bed- it would be awkward if Ryan came out and saw him now- when he heard the unmistakable noise of retching.

Ryan was being sick. Alex rushed forwards, and found that the toilet door was still opened- Ryan must have been in a hurry.

"Are you alright?" he asked softly, once Ryan had finished throwing up into the porcelain bowl.

The younger agent jumped in fright, pivoting on the spot with arms raised in a block. Alex noticed that he face was stained with tears and he looked absolutely terrified.

Registering that it was Alex, Ryan's expression changed from one of terror to one of anger.

"What the hell are you doing, Rider? Why the hell were you watching me? " Alex said nothing, so Ryan continued. "As far as you are concerned, this didn't happen, got it? Bloody spy, always getting to know all about everyone else's business, but keeping all your secrets! Piss off, Rider! You may think you're the best super-agent, but you can go to…"

Alex remained silent throughout Ryan's barrage, knowing that the mix of terror the nightmare had caused and embarrassment of being caught crying was affecting the young boy and causing him to get angry. Alex took a deep calming breath, full of empathy for the trembling child in front of him. It was tragic really, how MI6's abuse and manipulation had taken this kind of toll on the boy.

It had happened to Alex before (and it still did) and he didn't want it to continue to affect Ryan. The kid was still yelling at him, and Alex knew that unless he took action, Ryan wasn't going to stop anytime soon. So Alex took a cautious step forward, watching Ryan carefully like one would a panicky animal. The boy's voice raised a notch in volume, before Alex quickly reached one hand down and gave the child's brown hair a gentle ruffle.

"It's okay, kid," he removed his hand and spoke softly, which caused Ryan to immediately stop yelling. Was it just his imagination, or had Ryan leaned into the touch? "It happens to everyone," he murmured to the boy. There were no promises of 'it's all going to be okay' or 'you're safe now'. Ryan didn't need those, because they simply wouldn't be true for him. They were all in danger, and Alex couldn't promise that everything would be okay- not when assassins, terrorist organizations and Commanders of terrorist groups were hunting them down. However, he could assure the boy that it was okay to be scared, because everyone felt fear at some point during their life.

As he talked, Alex looked down, noticing that the left pajama sleeve had rolled up Ryan's arm and that the tip of some sort of marking was hidden beneath it.

"What's on your arm?" he asked, gently rolling the sleeve up further, exposing some sort of circle shaped burn. "How did you get this, Ryan?"

Fresh tears began to roll down the boy's cheeks. "They…they tortured me…made me a slave, and… this is the branding mark," the boy said between sobs.

Alex gently put an arm around the boy's shoulders. He had remembered the boy clutching his arm the other day after he had ran after the two men. One of them must have been responsible for the branding mark.

The boy turned and buried his head in Alex's top. The older agent gently ruffled Ryan's hair again, waiting until Ryan's sobs had subsided into little hiccups. Once Ryan had calmed down, he stepped away from Alex and looked embarrassed.

"Uh, thanks, Rider,"

Alex nodded, expecting the reaction. "No problem," he replied simply and walked out of the bathroom, leaving Ryan behind him. To say anything more would have been pushing it, making the boy either feel crowded or become further embarrassed. Alex knew that both reactions were the last thing he needed, because they would cause Ryan to 'shut down' and prevent him from talking about his experiences again.

Alex smiled softly as he walked back down the hallway to his room and flopped back down on his bed. That encounter had gone way better than he had expected, especially considering that he still had no idea about the whole 'psychology' thing. He lay awake- not about to fall asleep again after the nightmare- feeling slightly content.

Ten minutes later, there was a knock on his door. Alex always kept his door open, mainly so that he could hear what was happening in the house, so he rolled over to see the visitor.

It was Ryan.

"Hey, umm, I was wondering if you could… you know… since I couldn't sleep and…there are two beds in my room…If you don't mind…" the younger teen trailed off hesitantly, clutching at the doorframe nervously.

Understanding what the boy was getting at, Alex stood up and nodded, following Ryan into Ian's old room, which had been turned into the spare room. There were two beds; Ryan had been sleeping in the one closest to the door so Alex headed towards the one by the window and settled into it, hearing Ryan get into his bed behind him as he did so.

There was silence for a few seconds.

"Goodnight, Alex," Ryan said sleepily.

"Goodnight, Ryan." Alex replied with a grin as he realized that was the first time Ryan had used his first name. The kid was alright, he supposed. Perhaps he could settle for being kinder and more open with Ryan for the duration of his stay. Maybe like a … small attachment. Not enough to hurt if the attachment was broken, but enough to have some sort of small friendship.

Of course, the SAS Unit living next door was a different matter entirely. And Alex told himself that there was no way he was going to be friendly to them because they obviously hated him and were only here for their precious Ryan's protection and didn't care about him at all, so why would he even want to be friendly with them anyway?

They didn't even know who he was. And they didn't care to find out.

And to be honest, he didn't care about them, either.

(Or so he told himself…)

"Right. So we haven't heard or seen anything which suggests the presence of someone watching the house," Wolf said gruffly the next morning as everyone gathered in the lounge in Alex's house.

Eagle nodded. "The only problem that we currently have is Carson sending assassins after Rider and the two people Ryan shot at the other day still being at large. But neither enemy knows our exact position, so we should be fine to stay here while MI6 tracks them down,"

Sitting on the couch, Alex gave a small sneer as he noticed that when Eagle referred to him, he hadn't bothered to use the title 'agent'. It'd simply been 'Rider'. The SAS Unit seemed to be determined to talk about him like he wasn't there.

Of course, that was because they obviously wished he wasn't there.

The sneer disappeared as he realized that perhaps there was a way he could disappear for a brief period of time. MI6 was taking far too long to find Carson and the people who chased Ryan. And Alex had always lived by the idea that if you wanted something done right, you did it yourself.

It was time to do some hunting.

So, yay, Alex and Ryan are getting along. But Alex and K-Unit still aren't... ;)

Thanks for reading!