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

Summary: Unwanted praise and undeserved chastisement. The joys of leading a double life.

Author's Note: Double chapter. Why? Because I felt like it. Expectations has two entries in the timeline because there's a bit more than a week between the two scenes.

Edited: 20.12.10

33. Expectations

Date: Jan. 26th (Sunday), just before the start of chapter 25, "Soft Centres" (Timeline: http :/ shiruy. livejournal. com/ 3602. html)

"You exceeded all our expectations, Alex. I really don't know what to say."

He was sitting propped up in his bed, an extra pillow stuffed against the small of his back to keep the pressure off his shoulders and upper back. Even days later the smallest bit of friction made him feel like the burning oil that had soaked through his shirt and set his skin ablaze was still there.

Mrs Jones waited a few seconds to see if he'd answer before continuing, "The labs came back with with their final estimates. While your actions did cause several million dollars of damage, you also saved hundred thousands of lives. After they were briefed about the situation quite a few of the governments of the potentially affected countries have expressed their wishes to thank the agent involved."

Oh great, he thought with a grimace. More publicity. "What did you tell them?"

The woman smiled thinly. "We were very sorry to inform them that the agent succumbed to the injuries he sustained during his mission. They all offered their sincere condolences."

Alex blinked. "You told everyone I'm dead?"

"You have been marked deceased in every file that mentioned you," Mrs Jones confirmed, looking rather pleased with herself. "It seems that after your transfer to St Dominic's your burns became infected and that, coupled with an old heart injury acting up, was too much for your body to handle."

"Wow." He smiled, half relieved, half incredulous. "That's too bad."

"Yes, it's all quite unfortunate," she agreed, a spark of humour in her dark eyes. Then she became serious. "What it effectively means is that all records of an 'Alex Rider' working for MI6 have been erased and we'll use your uncle's name to deal with your paper work. We tried to get rid of everything we could get at about you, so I hope people will have a harder time getting information about you now."

"Good." That really would be an advantage for once. What use was going in undercover if they already had a file on him, like Sarov did, for example?

Mrs Jones nodded her agreement before getting her gloves out of her pocket and starting to put them on. She was getting ready to leave. "Your doctor said that you will be ready to check out on Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest. Once you have had some more time to rest we will call to set up a training schedule with you, as per our agreement. That all right?"

"Yeah." It would have to be.

"Okay. Well, then I'll see you in a week or two." She slung her scarf around her neck and smiled at him. "Trouble seems to find you everywhere, so please be careful. We all want you to get better soon."

She said it like he had some kind of illness, not a fractured ankle, bruises over bruises and a back half-burned to hell. He returned her smile, aware that his own had an edge of sarcasm to it. "I'll try not to get kidnapped again."

Date: Feb. 5th (Wednesday) - 9.10 am (Timeline: http :/ shiruy. livejournal. com/ 3602. html)

"I had such high expectations in you, Alex. I really don't know what to say."

The teen stared at the clock above Mr Bray's head and wondered how long he'd have to listen to this. Yeah, so he had missed another two and a half weeks of school; wasn't his fault people thought it was fun to drug him and stuff him in a van.

"After our talk back in December I thought you were really going to make an effort, but then that incident during your trip to Greenfields happened and now this..." The headmaster shook his head. "Your doctor's note says that you had a bout of glandular fever and you injured your ankle falling down the stairs."

Alex raised an eyebrow, trying to quell his impatience. "Yes, and?"

Mr Bray frowned. "And quite frankly, you don't look like you just recovered from a fever. As a matter of fact, it looks like you were on the losing end of a fist fight."

Ah, the healing cuts and bruises. He hadn't thought that the few remaining marks visible on his face and neck were that bad or he'd have waited until next Monday to go back to school. "I was still running a fever when I got out of bed, so when I tried to go downstairs I got dizzy and took a pretty bad fall. That's all."

"Mhm," the man nodded, clearly not believing him. "Alex, if you have any problems you know you can talk to us, right? We want to help you."

It was like a bad echo of their conversation two months back. "Thank you, sir, but as I said, I just got a little careless. I'll be more careful in the future."

Mr Bray stared at him for a few seconds before nodding sharply. "Fine. But if you change your mind my door is always open." He leaned back in his chair, his whole demeanor becoming more official; seemed like that part of their talk was over for now. "Meanwhile, several of your teachers have expressed their concerns about your ability to keep up. You've missed a lot of school and the term has barely started. I suggest you get yourself a tutor as soon as possible."

Alex nodded, trying to look at least a little contrite. "Yeah, Jack's already looking into that. I'll do my best to make up the work I've missed."

Between the schedule MI6 set up for him, his daily burn scar therapy appointments at St Dominic's and catching up to the rest of his class it'd be a wonder if he found the time to breathe over the next couple of weeks.