Yes! I have found time to write alongside revision, probably should have been sleeping.. Oops.
"What?" Grace called from the living room.
"M! Could you come here a sec?" Jack called over his shoulder, by the time the American medic was at the door Alex's shirt was back on and he had his arms crossed on his chest, the universal symbol for; piss off because I am not telling you anything.
"What's up C?" M asked confused.
"Him." The three brothers pointed at Alex. Jack grabbed his wrist and dragged him into the living room.
"See! Hand shaped bruises! Jesus people just ask me to follow you!" Alex threw his hands up in the air, wincing as it pulled at his injuries and flopped on the sofa between Ben and Wolf.
"Saw that." Six voices commented in unison.
"Saw what?" Adi asked thoroughly confused.
"He flinched." Ben exclaimed ruffling Alex's hair as the blonde batted him away half heartedly.
"He has a lot of explaining to do." Jack growled looking at the boy, "They all do."
"I don't see why I should." Alex shot back.
"You are here to protect our daughter! I think we should know if you are in a fit state to do so." Harold ground out.
"Fine then, get someone else you trust!" Alex sighed.
"I trust him." The voice was quiet. "It's not a hasty decision, I have been thinking about it since he vanished. I. Trust. Him." Adi insisted.
"You know pretty much everything about us don't you." Charlie sat forward, leaning on her knees, hands clasped.
"Give or take." Ben replied slowly.
"Then let us ask questions, they don't all have to be about Alex, they can be at all of you, dilute it in a way." Charlie compromised.
"If we must." Snake sighed. The front door opened without someone knocking, causing every member of the Gideon family, and the SEAL's to stand in defence. Alex rolled his eyes.
"Tom?" Alex called, knowing full well who it was.
"No it's the loch ness monster, I got tired of Scotland so thought I'd try London instead." An amused voice shot back.
"Good to know." Ben laughed
"Glad you're back." Tom entered the living room, not blinking twice at the fact nearly 10 guns were aimed at him.
"Yeah, back last night." Alex grinned, Snake stood and examined the cut leaking blood down the side of his face.
"Bowl or plate?" The Scottish medic queried.
"Table." Tom replied grinning wryly. "Ducked to avoid the mug." He elaborated.
"Damn, they've run out of plates and bowls now?" Eagle sighed.
"Pretty much." Tom laughed, humourlessly. "Who's the guests?" He waved his hands at the Americans.
"Adi Gideon and her family." Ben waved a hand at them.
"Isn't protection supposed to take place within their own country" Tom grinned, then actually looked at his best friend. "Bastards in the CIA did it again." Tom muttered annoyed.
"Got it in one. How come he can read you like a book and we are still struggling?" Luke complained.
"He's known me so long I'd be worried if he couldn't." Alex grinned.
"Guessing you want to stay the night?" Ben guessed after Snake had patched up his head.
"Yeah. At this point I'd sleep in the bath if it kept me away from them." Tom sighed.
"Tam, I swear our parents divorced in months, not the four years it's taking his." Luke sighed, comprehension dawned on the Americans faces, slightly anyway.
"What's going on?" Tom asked sliding down the wall holding a mug of tea.
"They're about to grill us about our... strange relationships I believe." Eagle replied bouncing up and down.
"Damn, I'm not moving, I want to see him talk his way out of this one." Tom grinned fiendishly.
"He's such a good friend." Alex sighed throwing a pillow at him,
"Thanks Al!" Tom sat on it. The blonde pouted then stole the one behind Eagle.
"HEY!" Eagle went to grab it back but Wolf stopped the bickering before it escalated.
"Oh, as you're so eager to answer questions I think the first should be aimed at you." Snake grinned, sitting back. The room rearranged itself so that the Americans faced the British, plus Tamara and Luke.
"I'll start." M volunteered, "Why isn't Jackal here?" It was obviously the wrong question as all the others stiffened.
"Jackal isn't... technically, part of out unit." Wolf answered slowly.
"He's been passed around them all, he doesn't fit with any of us, he's been with S, L and U, now he's with us, but after this exchange he is joining a recruit unit. If that doesn't work he's moving bases." Eagle shrugged.
"Why didn't he get along with your unit?" S asked confused.
"He had a rather large hole to fill, amongst others." Snake smirked slightly.
"Whose?" W asked, thoroughly confused.
"Hello." Alex and Ben waved.
"You're SAS." Grace asked confused.
"I was first, then got seconded. Alex got seconded to the SAS." Ben explained.
"Oh." That seemed to be the only response possible.
"Simple one now. Whose house is this? Ben, Wolf, Alex and Tamara live here." Will asked curious.
"Mine." Alex smiled slightly. "When I turn 18." He added. This made the others pause.
"You're not 18." Grace repeated. Alex grinned.
"So cute." He wiped away an imaginary tear.
"Give them a break, you're ID states you're 18 and we thought you were like 16 when we met you." Eagle commented.
"I still don't know how you managed to convince yourself that a 12 year old was 16." Alex sighed.
"You were in an SAS camp, partly, we didn't want to believe you were any younger then 16." Wolf added in.
"Good point."
"12 in an SAS camp." Grace looked pale, and the SEAL's looked slightly ill.
"And he kept up." Ben grinned.
"It was only for 11 days." Alex tried to make the whole escapade better.
"11 days!" Harold exclaimed, apparently Alex's plan hadn't worked.
"But I did go back and complete selection at a later date. Albeit with three people who had already done selection." Alex smiled slightly.
"Wait, 11 days in selection." M hissed.
"Maybe? I wasn't allowed near a gun or jumping out an aeroplane." Alex tried, again, to show it all in a better light.
"Al, no matter how you paint it, you still went through SAS selection for 11 days." Tom added 'helpfully'.
"What were you doing at an SAS camp at 12?!" W sighed.
"What did your parents have to say about it?" Grace asked faintly, Alex smirked as the rest of those who knew the answer stiffened.
"Not much funnily enough." Alex grinned.
"Wait, Al." Tom cut in. "CIA, FBI and some SEAL's yes?" He checked.
"CIA, FBI, Interpol and some SEAL's." Ben corrected.
"So their all in some intelligence of some sort." Tom rephrased.
"Yep." Alex confirmed.
"That must have been your idea of living hell." Tom frowned, worried. Alex glanced across to flash a grin at his friend and froze.
"Al." Ben murmured, having seen it as well.
"With you." Alex agreed.
"What?" Grace asked.
"Light reflection from the top of the building over there." Ben stated.
"And..." Will raised an eyebrow.
"Reflected from the glass of a rifle sight." Wolf put in, watching the building out the corner of his eye, it was only now that the others comprehended the gravity of the situation.
"Grace, Harold, Adi and Charlie, you go to your parents bedroom." Wolf ordered, "Tom, Luke, Harry and Will, the main bedroom upstairs." He continued. "39th unit Snake, time to play cards. Go." Wolf stated, K unit, Ben, Tamara and Alex all gathered around the table in the middle as Snake pulled out a pack of cards, then dealt them with a ease that astounded the Americans, considering the situation. It was only now Adi realised the strategic layout of the living room, no bullet could hit any of the ten remaining, due to lack of a clear shot, or sight.
Charlie grabbed her sisters arm and pulled her upstairs dragging two of her brothers along as well, it was surprisingly subtly done for managing to get a third of the occupants of the house out in one go. Next went the parents, through a different door and lastly Luke. All gone within minutes and all done subtly. The sniper would be none the wiser.
"So, meet at the base of the building in three?" Alex said, almost conversationally, standing and stretching before heading to the kitchen, Ben in tow. The snuck out the back door and over the fence. Next Wolf went to get the phone that was ringing, Alex had called it.
"Tamara! Phone for you!" He called, those two left the house the same way as the spies. Lastly Eagle headed for the bathroom, before leaving the house as well.
Wolf quietly snuck up behind the sniper, eyeing up the pressure point that would cause immediate unconsciousness, at the last second the sniper swore, and reached back to grab a cleaning cloth, when he couldn't find it he looked back, straight at the SAS man who had just launched himself at the sniper in the hope of incapacitating him before any damage could be done. He managed to swing the gun around and fire once before Wolf knocked the weapon out his hands, Ben joined the fight as the man threw a vicious kick knocking Wolf over, he twisted trying to avoid landing on the rifle and slipped over the edge, Tamara grabbed his wrist as Alex grabbed his other and together they managed to pulled him back over, then Tamara rejoined the fight and within seconds the man was unconscious. They all looked down at themselves.
"Snakes' going to murder us." Eagle muttered eyeing up the thin line on his arm the man's knife had gifted him with, a matching one on Ben's torso. The only one unscathed was Tamara, Wolf had bruises down one side from his collision with the wall. As one they all glanced at Alex who was smiling sheepishly, one hand clasped at his side.
"Please tell me that's..." Wolf ground out, Alex pulled his hand away revealing a large patch of blood.
"Oops." Ben caught his as he swayed. "Hurts."
"I'll bet it does. Lets see." Wolf had his phone out and was calling Jones, Eagle was calling Snake. 39th unit were doing a perimeter sweep.
"Christ. It's practically on top of your last one." Ben cursed fluently in multiple languages.
"Language." A Scottish and Irish voice snapped in unison.
"Snake, I said bring only yourself." Eagle sighed.
"He was there and I couldn't say no. It was obviously medical and you know how I get when there's something medical going on. M, you do those three morons, I'll do Cub." Snake apologised.
"Sorry." Alex said as soon as Snake was in hearing range.
"Don't say that, lets see." He waited patiently until Alex hand removed his hand, Snake sighed. "If I was to say St Dom-"
"NO!" Alex exclaimed.
"Hear me out." Snake sighed. "I could get you out before you had to stay the night. I wouldn't be saying it, because I know how much you hate that place, but with it so close to the other one I don't want to take any chances." Alex bit his lip trying to decide on an answer, finally he nodded, Snake deftly bandaged the wound and slipped an arm around his shoulders, supporting him to not to an extent where Alex would complain.
"Any serious ones?" Snake asked,
"Ben may need stitches, I'd like for both of them, but Eagle's is healing happily already and Wolf's just bruised, maybe a cracked rib, nothing a doctor could do we cant." M rattled off.
"Ben? Care to keep me company?" Alex grinned.
"Hell no." The Liverpudlian shook his head fervently.
"Any thing interesting happen while we were occupied?" Wolf asked,
"I just spent half an hour fielding questions from the SEAL's about why we all had such a large and strong dislike of Jackal." Snake sighed.
"And?" Alex asked,
"He didn't say." W pouted coming in through the door.
"Why did you use us?" C asked seeing Alex and Snake leave the room, obviously worse for wear.
"Because he doesn't know what we can do. He can't judge how we would react in a situation, unknown variables are something you need to avoid the best you can." S replied for Wolf, "I'd have done the same. I'd also have left M at home." He grinned as he offered a hand to Wolf who stood, wincing as he went.
"Damn, leaders that think alike. We're doomed." Tamara murmured to Ben,
"I heard that." Both snapped, then exchanged half smiles in amusement.
Adi marched into Alex's room, slammed the door and forcefully pushed Alex onto the bed, he was unable to control the wince when he landed.
"You, owe me an explanation." She hissed poking him forcefully in the chest.
"I do? In what way?" Alex asked sighing mentally, he had literally just returned from the hospital with Snake.
"You have lived in my house and met my entire family. I have no idea who your family is!" Adi exclaimed, Alex was gad the rooms were all pretty much sound proofed, an addition he had found out after Ian had died.
"You're living with them." Alex snapped, standing up and running a hand through his hair, he didn't want to do this now, he was exhausted, drugged and in pain. None of which led to him being able to think clearly.
"No I'm not, those are just individual people, some of whom you live with, some of whom you're in a unit with. Contrary to popular belief, your unit is not your family. Nor are the ones you live with!" She was now getting grumpy.
"Well in that case I have no family."
"You obviously do, everyone does, so are you just a rich little boy who disagreed with his family about certain matters, or maybe your parents work for MI6, you commented a while ago your uncle was never home, maybe a job abroad? Or too rich for you? The woman in all the photos, red hair, obviously not a relation, an au-pair, paid to raise you because your family couldn't be bothered?
"In your argument with Ben I overheard he said this was going to be hard for you. Why? Because we are a family that still acknowledge everyone, yours obviously doesn't, hell you don't even care enough about them to have photos of them up and around the house!" Adi was pacing unaware of Alex's anger gradually growing.
"So yes, you owe me an explanation as to why the hell I am having weapons aimed at me, why I have been moved half way around the world by you, why you vanish with no explanation at the beck and call of the CIA, who you supposedly hate, I think your parents are just rich bastards, high up in the governmental hierarchy. That's all you are a rich little daddy's boy who doesn't understand the gravity of the situation he is in. My cousin was tortured and killed, does that help you understand, I bet you can't even imagine what it's like to not have your massive house with your queen sized bed waiting for you at home. My cousin and best friend was tortured because of me. So yes, Alexander Rider, I believe you owe me an answer."
Alex shut his eyes trying to calm himself, trying not to let her have all his mucked up life story in one hit, but he was struggling, she had said too much against his family for him to just walk away as he usually would have done.
"Oh, you're mother didn't even teach you to look into a girls eye when formulating lies to tell her?" Adi scorned, the last of Alex's reserves went.
"No. She didn't, because, contrary to your belief, she wasn't rich or in anyway related to the government, she was a nurse. My parents and my older sister died when I was three months old. From there I was passed to my French aunt and uncle, who died when I was five in the 9/11 bombings of the world trade centre. They searched for my other uncle but he had been kidnapped by SCORPIA, which let me tell you, is no picnic. So, unable to find a family member I went into the system. I was adopted after a year by a husband and wife, the wife had been diagnosed with cancer so wanted to do something with her life before she died, there were complications and she died within three months, the husband fell to drink and spent the next three months, until someone actually caught on that these bruises were not from accidents, abusing me.
"So I went back into the system aged six and a half and stayed there until I was nearly nine going through all types of foster placements. Finally my uncle had woken from his coma and was healthy enough to look after me. Those three months he was there with me to start with were the longest single span I saw him for, courtesy of him still being a spy, until his assassination when I was 11, then MI6 got in contact with me, gee it's like it was almost planned. I cold speak a lot of languages, was more than capable of looking after myself and my foster placements had taken me on treats around the world so I could ski, dive, parachute jump. The perfect little spy.
"And so began my round of manipulation and blackmail. The woman in the photos was not any relation, no, but she was like my sister. They used her visa against me so I did missions for them, they shot my best friend so I would do missions for them. The used K unit, Ben, Tamara, anything and everything they could get against me to do missions for them. Then when I was just 13 Jack died, blown up to torture me. I moved to San Francisco, Byrne used my adoptive family against me with their visas. But I had pissed off the wrong people, my adoptive family were blown up, it took '6 four months to find me, the CIA didn't give a damn. At fourteen I was fostered by an ASIS MI6 couple, a mission went wrong and they were gone as well. Then Ben found me." He sighed,
"I was fourteen and about to be dumped, unceremoniously, at an SAS camp. Ben bargained and gained me three months recovery time with him, before I went and joined K unit, Ben following a month later. So Adenine, they are my family, like it or not." Alex finished then stormed out the room leaving a pale Adi in his wake. He grabbed his coat and was out the door in seconds.
"Was that Alex?" Snake asked alarmed.
"Yeah, Adi!" Ben called, a pale, shaking figure came down the stairs. "What did you say?"
"The wrong thing." Adi breathed curling up in a ball and wrapping her arms around her legs.
"What did you say? I need to go find him." Ben crouched before the girl who was going into shock.
"Why does it matter?" Jack asked confused,
"What she said dictates where he would go." Ben called over his shoulder.
"He told me about his family." Adi managed to get out. K unit, Ben and Tamara sighed,
"Cemetery." The said in unison, Ben turned to go,
"Wait!" Adi called.
"Yes?" Ben asked impatiently,
"So he has no family, none at all." Adi checked.
"What he has you're looking at." Tamara sighed, sliding down the wall. As one the Gideon family and the SEAL unit blanched.
"But-" Grace seemed lost for words.
"Lets put it this way, adoption, fostering, biological relatives, living on his own, Alex has done the works." Tom smiled sadly.
"Abuse, torture, manipulation, blackmail, a shit life. Alex has had the works." Snake finished grimly. Any other topic and he would have been teased for swearing, but no one had the heart to do so.
"I'll cook, lasagne OK for everyone?" Tom asked standing.
"You can cook?" Jack cocked an eyebrow.
"Al taught me." Tom shrugged.
"Alex." Ben murmured, the still figure was pale and standing in front of four graves, Alice, Helen, John and Ian Rider. "Come here kiddo." Ben turned him around and hugged him tightly, careful to avoid his bullet wound. "It's OK to cry, you're only human." Ben murmured, and, for once, Alex Rider did as he was told.
If you were expecting that you must be psychic, or magical, because I wasn't. Please review!
