Disclaimer: None of this belongs to me and I make no money with it.

Summary: The silence between them was thick with tension.

Date: Dec. 29th - 11.30 pm, between Drive and Innocence (Timeline: http :/ shiruy. livejournal. com/ 3602. html)

Edited: 05.12.10

15. Silence

The silence between them was thick with tension.

After they had arrived back at the hotel Alex had gone to take a shower [wash the number off before the agent saw it again and got suspicious] while Barner had locked himself up in his room. Now, almost an hour later, they were both in the living room and Barner was studiously ignoring him again while he was doing something on his laptop. Alex was quickly approaching the end of his rope and had taken to staring at the man intensely.

Finally, after a good twenty minutes of this, Barner looked up and snapped at him. "What?"

Alex smiled thinly. "Are you ever actually going to tell me what exactly you have done, what you have found out and whether we have to expect anyone coming after us?"

The agent scowled. "I've told you before, it's none of your business."

Alex scowled back. "I'm here and I'm your partner."

The man scoffed. "You are a useless tag-along that somehow bullied his way into coming here. Just because the higher-ups think they owe you something and you think it's fun to play spy-"

"I do not-" He stopped short and forced himself to calm down. He had dealt with people like this before. "I do not think being a spy is fun. I did not want to come here. MI6 is blackmailing me into working for them."

Barner laughed. Alex gritted his teeth in annoyance.

"MI6 doesn't need or want a child like you working for them. I don't know in what kind of pretty dream-world you live, but in this reality there are actual agents, professionals who are taught to do this job."

For a moment the teen was simply speechless. Why was this man so unreasonably antagonistic towards him? Even in the case that Barner's 'reality' had any shred of truth to it it would be more useful to be neutrally non-aggressive towards each other. But this idiot was spoiling for a fight.

He took a deep breath. "Okay. Fine. You don't want me here. That's fine, because I don't want to be here either. Unfortunately, we have to deal with it until our debriefing tomorrow night. Until then, I'd at least appreciate to know whether I have to be prepared to duck and run suddenly."

Barner had stood up in the course of their conversation and now he was coming closer. He still looked undeniably angry.

"Now listen here, boy," he hissed. "You don't tell me what to do. I'm calling the shots here. This is my mission and I have seniority here, no matter what Jones said."

Alex raised his eyebrows in surprise. That was what Barner was worried about? What the hell had Jones told the man?

"Look, I don't care about who's the boss. I don't even want to be here. Can't we just-"

"Oh, like you didn't force your way onto this mission! You are just like your uncle or whatever he was!"

...what?

Alex was speechless. Was this what this was about? Some old grudge against Ian Rider? Just how childish, or rather mentally unstable, was this man?

He stood up from where he had been sitting on the couch and backed away a few steps. He hadn't thought the agent could or would become violent, but now he found himself reevaluating that impression.

"I don't know what your problem with Ian is and it has nothing to do with me. Okay? I didn't even know that he was a spy until he was already dead."

Immediately, Barner's glower was replaced by an ugly smile. "Ohh, so he lied to you too, huh? Must have been quite a shock to find out that you never really knew the man. Did you cry?"

No, he hadn't. He hadn't had the time. Alex kept silent and gave the agent a calm, unruffled look, though anger was starting to simmer beneath the surface.

The man pressed on. "Is that why you are here? To be like your uncle? To make him proud? Do you think Rider is watching over you and feeling proud that his little nephew is following in his footsteps?"

That last remark stung because it had a shred of truth in it. Ian would have been proud if he could have seen Alex these days. He had literally raised him to become a spy. Alex still hadn't forgiven the man for that.

"What, you have nothing to say? Don't you want to defend yourself?"

The teen looked up. Barner had followed him and was standing in front of him again, the ugly grin still present. He looked like a overgrown schoolyard bully.

Suddenly, Alex felt very calm and very tired.

"I hope you feel better about yourself now," he sighed and turned away.

Barner stared at him in surprise - then he suddenly lashed out. Alex reacted without thinking and blocked the first hit. Then he spun around on his foot and swept the man's right leg out form underneath him, at the same time giving him a firm shove against his breast bone.

It was over before it had really begun, with Barner sitting on the floor in dazed surprise and Alex just standing there, tense and ready.

Then he spun around, grabbed his coat off the rack, forced his feet into his shoes and left.