A/N: I am giving you this as a gift really early, because we have reached an awesome 12 people reviewing per chapter!

Please R&R!

Challenge at the bottom. Thanks to Jayden95 for beta.

"Alex!" Blunt's voice, suddenly fatherly, turned towards Alex. The man's green shirt was soaked in sweat. Fox's face was furious; Alex felt bad, in a way. He knew Fox had once hero-worshiped the MI6 head. Now, his hero was marred.

Alex couldn't help but feel grateful that someone believed his story. That is, until the next words came out of his so-called father's mouth. "I've been so worried about you! They couldn't find you, and then…" The look on his face was indeed worried. If Alex didn't know better himself, he would have thought that his father really cared about him.

There had to be a first time for everything, right? Still, Alex was not fooled. Blunt had pulled this routine before on many different teachers. He'd send one of his men to "retrieve" Alex, and go and pick him up from the school. Then when Blunt got to the school, Alex would be missing. He would use his "calming father" routine to find Alex, and eventually Alex would be found. It was all apart of the plot to get teachers to stop questioning him.

But this time he'd made a fatal mistake. Or rather, Barkley had. When he'd kidnapped Alex, he'd also kidnapped a highly trained SAS solider. And if there was one thing Alex had learned about the SAS during there time here, he'd learned that the SAS did not take their duties lightly, and they refused to be bribed.

"Go to hell, father." Alex's words were nothing venomous. "I've already told Eagle anything. You may as well take off now."

"I told you not to tell anyone our secret!" Blunt responded angrily as he stalked towards Alex. Alex wrenched himself out of Wolf's arms and glared at him.

"Well too bad for you," Alex responded. "You also told me never to listen to strangers, and you're stranger than any person I know." He stalked off towards K-Unit's hut. Eagle moved off to follow him.

"You," Fox responded, turning to Alan Blunt, "Are a filthy, low-life piece of trash. The only regret I have in this life is ever having respect for you. I hope they arrest you, you piece of shit."

"You respected me once?" Blunt responded, grabbing onto Fox's arm.

Fox shook it off. "In your dreams, Blunt. Go to hell."

"Did you hear that?" Blunt demanded, glaring at the sergeant. "He just verbally assaulted me!"

"You just physically assaulted your son and one of my officers!" The sergeant responded. "You and I need to have a chat in my office before the local police officer gets here. Wolf, Fox, make sure his piece of trash co-worker is alive enough for transport. I won't stand for child abusers on my lot."

## transition ##

"Do you care about your son, Mr. Blunt?" the sergeant asked, sitting down in his office. He wasn't worried about Blunt getting arrested or at least revoked from his position. Blunt had hired someone who had physically and verbally abused his son. He'd assaulted one of his officers, and held one officer hostage.

There was no way the sergeant was going to let this SOB run free any longer, especially not in a position of law enforcement. But while he didn't care about what happened to Alan Blunt, he did care about what happened to his son. He saw a lot of promise in Alex Blunt and he didn't want it to go to waste.

"Of course I care about my son," Alan responded, accepting the glass of water the sergeant handed to him. The sergeant smiled, glad he'd watched all those old-time television shows. NCIS had a few things going for it, even if they were from America.

The sergeant sobered. Best not to let the units – especially Eagle – know about the television in his hut. Not after he'd heard about what happened to D-Unit's television. Although, if D-Unit really wanted to protect their electronics, they really shouldn't go around vandalizing Eagle's cabin.

"Then what do you what to happen to him once you get arrested?" the sergeant responded.

"You can't arrest me!" Blunt responded, furious. "I've done nothing wrong."

"You've done nothing wrong." The sergeant was using the voice he normally reserved for when one of his cadets really screwed up, which wasn't often. He didn't even reserve this voice for Eagle's stunts. Truth be told, not that he'd ever admit it, he liked Eagle's stunts. They gave him something to write his wife about when she was away.

"Let me begin to explain what you've done wrong." The sergeant's voice was cold and calculating, yet it was as plain as if he had been explaining basic English to a toddler. "Firstly, you've assaulted one of my men. Secondly, you held another one of my men hostage. Then your co-worker in crime took a shot at another one of my men." The communication radio that Wolf had shoved at Fox when he'd said "go get help" had actually been on, and the sergeant had heard everything. "Fourthly, you've abused your son, quite possibly since birth."

"I never laid a hand on the boy!"

"Don't patronize me, Mr. Blunt." The sergeant was deadly cold now. "I don't give a rat's rear end about what will happen to you. I am worried about your boy. What are your wishes for his care?"

"I'm going to be caring for him, of course." Alan's smile was frosty cold.

"I think not. One of my men or I will care for him." The sergeant checked his watch. "Help will be arriving shortly, and they'll arrest you, and then you'll have no say in your son's care. Let me ask you again: Who do you want him to be cared for by?"

"I never wanted that child," the man said. He wasn't aware that Wolf and Alex had returned from the first aid hut and Alex listened. "I never wanted him! You decide, if you're suddenly going to be so caring."

"Fine," the sergeant responded. His voice became as flat as if he were discussing the weather. "Then I will take custody of him, since I seem to care more about him than you do. Always wanted a kid." He pressed the paper forward. "Write something up."

He glanced up to see Wolf and Alex standing in the doorway. "Wolf, I need to speak with Alex for a few minutes. Do you mind keeping your eye on our guest?"

## transition ##

"I don't want to go with him," Alex responded as he walked out with the sergeant to his hut. "If you make me go with him, I'll shanghi to Spain. Or to America. Or somewhere else," he added defiantly.

"Listen to me, Cub."

The use of his codename stopped Alex dead in his tracks .

"I'm not going to let you go with your father. I don't condone any type of child abuse, whether it's neglect or outright abuse. But I need you to do something for me first. Can you show me the scars Eagle saw?"

Swallowing hard, Alex Blunt did something that he had said he would never do: he lifted up his shirt and revealed his horrible, ugly, back.

The sergeant placed his hand on Alex's shoulder as Alex lifted his shirt down. "Thank you," he said. "I know that was difficult for you. And you won't be going back with Alan Blunt if there's a bone in my body – or one of my recruit's body – left that is still breathing."

"But what's going to happen?" Alex asked nervously.

"You are going to stay with me, and my wife, Jack. She's flying back in from the states next week from visiting her friends in Holiday in America. You'll be staying with us – not as a guest, but as a permanent member of our family."

Alex remained silent, waiting for the sergeant to continue.

"Jack is Fox's brother," the sergeant responded. "She changed her name to Starbright so as to forget her past. Imagine my surprise when Jack showed up as my wife and Fox discovered his sister was married to his boss."

Alex remained silent, although he could picture the look on Fox's face. He was just waiting to hear the words "this is a joke, and you're really going back."

"At any rate," the sergeant said, "I don't think that foster care is the best place for you, and although I think one of your unit members would give up their position to care for you, I don't want them to have to make that decision. But," the sergeant added, "Only if that's okay with you."

Alex opened up his mouth to respond. Was it okay with him? Did he want a total lifestyle change? Was the sergeant joking?

Worse… what if he was about to wake up and discover it all was a dream?

Challenge: Will the sergeant take custody of Alex?

Will he wake up and discover it's all a dream?

What will happen to Blunt?

Make up your own challenge!

Please R&R. When you're done here, don't forget to vote on who should be the next victim in my Alex Rider next story via my profile page!

Hope you enjoyed your gift!

Next chapter will be longer.