Note: Hey yall, I'm back from a fantastic nine days in LA! I have tan lines and I'm sunburnt but I'm ready to write! I missed Addie and Alex :'( You guys too, of course. Quick thoughts on this chapter: this one may seem a lil slow but it was intended to be raw and intimate, focusing on the growing bond between the two characters... and I also figured it would be nice to finally reveal what happened to Joshua, Addie's brother haha. It still feels like there's something missing in this update so beware, I may be tweaking things a bit.

Translations from the last chapter: "Rien ne pèse tant que un secret." - Nothing weighs more than a secret.

"Ç'est dommage" - What a shame.

"Ç'est la vie" - That's life.

YK: Oh hello, it's always nice to know that there's someone out there who doesn't like my story :) All the more reason to keep going and try harder, right? Though i'm not going to throw a tantrum and become overly defensive, I would like to point out that while you're correct about there being a number of AR fanfics with Mary-Sue spies, you seem to have missed my reason and motivation for writing my own. The existence of another fanfic w/ a female role opposite Alex Rider shouldn't be a discouragement to writers with a similar idea. For me, it's an opportunity to put my writing to the test and make my creativity and skills stand out. By the looks of your review, you may not have read past the first chapter because all your words are focused on is the fact that I happpen to have a female lead and not on my writing technique or plot. Regardless, I am only more motivated to continue this fanfiction and make it unique, all the while using ALL feedback to better my writing skills. Whether or not you're even reading this, I appreciate the time taken to voice your thoughts :)

Mary A. Evans: Yes, you are very right about that! I thought about that while writing the dialogue but I figured Alex would correct himself as to not confuse Addie... but now that I look back, it probably would've been funny to include that. darn.

Thank you all for your amazing reviews! I enjoyed reading your thoughts on what's coming up next and the relationship between Addie & Alex.

xx

Chapter Seven – Eiusdem Generis (Of the Same Kind)

-Addie-

"Test facedown, Mr. Andrews, or I'll dock twenty points off your final exam and assign you a project on quantum mechanics."

Phillip Andrews, who sat two seats in front of me, straightened up and flipped his test over. Even if he had read some of the questions, I doubted looking at them in advance would've helped him. He'd never been the brightest kid on the block yet somehow he'd managed to maintain a C at best in AP Physics all year.

Today was Wednesday, Mr. O'Brien's favorite day because it was the day he gave out pop quizzes and tests. Apparently there was some advantage since it wasn't too early in the week when we were still "recovering from the weekend's hangover" or too late when we were "looking forward to the weekend's hangover."

"Miss Daniels?" I looked up to see Mr. O'Brien gazing at me. To this day I couldn't get over the fact that he looked so much like Jon Cryer from that TV show Two and a Half Men except with wired glasses and a permanent frown. He was much taller too, well over six feet. "I hope you'll do better on this test. Your score on the last one wasn't so pretty."

I cringed. This class had always been one of the hardest for me and when I'd decided to slack off two months ago, it had earned me a solid D. I was hoping I would do better this time because I had Alex, who seemed to understand traveling at light speed the way I understood swimming the butterfly.

I waited for Mr. O'Brien to pass before sneaking a glance over my shoulder. Because of alphabetical order, Alex sat in the back of the room, next to Noelle Stacy, unfortunately. He'd admitted to me a few days ago that he disliked her (though he played nice) and I constantly had to bite back the urge to prance around her singing, "He doesn't like you, he doesn't like you!" like a six-year-old. Come to think of it, it was a huge relief that he hadn't fallen for the stunning, aspiring gymnast. Just the thought of him looking at her the way other boys did sent annoyance and something else rushing through me…

Alex had been chatting politely with Noelle and suddenly turned his head, meeting my eyes. It took me a moment to force a smile onto my face as a "good luck" sort of gesture but before I could see if he returned it, Mr. O'Brien had moved in my line of vision. When he finally made his way to the front of the room, I saw that Alex was no longer looking at me but the thick packet of paper on his desk.

"You have from when I say 'Go' until the bell rings." Turning back to my own desk, I took a deep breath. "Ready… Set…" I gripped my pencil and the corner of the test, all of a sudden feeling unable to focus on the one hundred points waiting for me to gain or lose them.

"Go."

Alex was waiting for me at the classroom door once the bell had rung and all the tests had been collected. Neither of us said a word as we walked down the hallway together, probably because neither of us wanted to say it first. From the frustrated silence that had endured through the test and after the bell rang, it wasn't hard to tell that everyone was thinking the same thing.

"That was horrible."

"No kidding. I thought about giving up halfway through."

"Halfway through?" Alex scoffed. "I thought about giving up after the first page!"

I playfully elbowed him. "I'm sure you did better than me." As we pushed through students to get to the front doors, a brilliant idea occurred to me. "Hey, I've got an idea!"

"Oh God."

"Shut up!" I smacked his arm while he cackled. "Seriously, I'm in need of some fattening ice cream after that brutal test. Why don't we walk down to the McDonald's down the street? It's just past the playground." I looked up to see him furrowing his brow. "What? Don't tell me you don't eat ice cream."

He shook his head. "No, of course I do. It's just that… We have a French test tomorrow. And you have physical therapy tonight."

We stopped just outside the doors of the school, letting the high schoolers flow around us like we were a pile of boulders in a rushing river. "We'll be back before four. And that French test? We both know you'll ace it," I replied, raising an eyebrow. "I'll let my mom know if you're that paranoid." As I typed out a text, he touched my wrist, sending a tingle through my arm.

"Prove it to me." Alex's eyes sparkled with something I couldn't put my finger on, but that might've been because my skin was burning in the spot he'd touched.

I showed him the text, which read: Hey mom, Alex and I will be back by 3:30. He glanced up at me with a skeptical look. "You didn't even mention where we're going—"

"Oh, chill out, Alex," I huffed, starting in the direction of the playground. "Come on. I know ice cream will help you with that."

"Ha-ha, very funny."

When the playground came into view, I turned to Alex, casually saying, "You know, I really think Riley thought you were his Power Ranger come to life." I recalled that particular day, smiling at the memory of the little boy begging Alex to teach him how to fight and Alex saying "Only if your mother says you can," which, of course, she didn't.

Alex was looking at the ground as he said, "Yeah… That's not the first time someone has thought that." Something in his tone made me look back up at him.

"What do you mean? Alex, what you did was amazing. Riley will be forever thankful—"

"Everyone seems to think I'm Superman," Alex continued as if I hadn't spoken. "Everyone wants me to save them." He barked a laugh, making me jump. "I'm forced to deal with switching between Clark Kent and the costumed superhero when Simon says. 'Simon says to drop what you're doing right now, Alex, and go deal with the possible mass murder of children.' 'Oh, you can go home now, Alex, but wait—Simon didn't say we were done with you yet. We've got some eco-terrorists we'd like you to face as well.'" He then stopped in his tracks, still not looking at me. "Did Superman even have a choice?"

I wasn't sure if he was being rhetorical or actually asking me, so I stuttered, "Um, I—I don't—"

"I guess it wouldn't matter either way." Alex shook his head then glanced around briefly before waving a hand towards a nearby bench. I followed him, feeling slightly numb and confused.

"Alex… I don't understand." I stared at him, waiting for him to explain.

Instead, he lifted his eyes to mine and I was taken aback. Ever since we'd first met, they had always appeared to be guarded, locked with a key even he didn't want to use. He'd let the door open a crack the day at the beach and now… it was almost completely ajar, letting raw anguish and hurt seep through. "What about you, Addie?" he asked, his voice just above a whisper. "You made the choice to do this. You insisted that you wanted to risk your life." Alex's gaze seemed to burn into me and I looked down at my hands.

For a long time I'd always told myself that I would never let anyone too far in. For two years, even Arianna and Kylie didn't know the truth about what happened to Joshua. It had been a secret that my parents and I suffocated in and locked away, doing nothing more than ask why. And Alex seemed like the first step to overcoming something that had torn me apart. "It was two years ago," I began, biting my lip. "My brother, Josh… He was twenty-one then and undercover on his first major assignment involving drug cartels in Mexico. My parents and I were really proud of him and scared at the same time because, you know, there's always that chance of no return. But he was—had been—a really dedicated agent." I smiled a little. "He taught me some of the stuff I know. We were always competitive in everything we did.

Anyway, we were hoping he'd come back, like any other family would. My seventeenth birthday was just two weeks after he'd left for Mexico and we didn't know how long he'd be." My throat tightened and I swallowed, trying to speak through it. "Two days before my birthday, he called to let me know that he'd be home the next day and that he… he had something special for me." I bit my lip harder, looking up at the sky in hopes of preventing the tears welling in my eyes.

"Addie." Alex was staring at me intensely. "You don't have to tell me this."

Shaking my head and quickly wiping away runaway tears, I insisted, "No, I do. I… I want to." When he didn't protest again, I continued, "That next day when he was supposed to have come home, someone came to our door. We thought it was Josh and no one else—why would we?—but it was David Reyes. I didn't know him well at the time, but he'd worked with my brother a lot. According to him, a bunch of dealers and smugglers found out about Josh's cover. We still don't know how; he was always such a careful person. But they went after him when they realized who he really was and…" David's voice echoed through my head and I clenched my fists. "When Josh didn't show up to his dead drop with Greg Olsen, his case officer, the CIA sent people to his hotel room." I looked at Alex but barely saw him through the memories flashing through my mind. "They could hardly recognize that it was him," I nearly whispered.

Alex opened his mouth but I twisted off the silver ring I always wore on my left index finger. It was carefully engraved with the tiny, intimate words that meant more than the world to me. Handing it to him, I explained in a shaky voice, "It says 'May God be with us together and apart.' He had it made when he first arrived and picked it up the day I spoke to him on the phone." My vision blurred and I felt my cheeks tingle with more tears. "He… David said it—it was in my brother's pocket. My birthday present. It was the only thing those bastards didn't take after they… w—when they…"

My walls finally fell. After years of mourning in solitude and refusing to accept the truth, I now came to understand that none of it had worked. No matter how hard I'd tried to wrap the covers of denial around myself, there had always been that inevitable cold of loss and sorrow seeping through. And here I was, crying in front of someone else, unable to reel in my pent-up emotions that were gushing out.

Strong arms wrapped around me, making me stop momentarily to see Alex's cotton blue tee under my nose. In spite of the seventy degree weather, his body was comfortably warm. I leaned into him, trying to mold myself into the soft yet firm gesture. And his smell… that fresh, clean smell was so overwhelming and homey, five times more appealing than Axe or Old Spice deodorant. I immediately felt my cries dying away as his fingers stroked my back, calming me, soothing me.

Once the tears stopped running and my sobs faded into sniffles, I pulled back tentatively, overcome with shyness. This was the most intimate we had ever been and though it felt wrong, it was also tempting. I realized that as my skin danced and prickled with longing. Alex's face was just within inches of mine and his eyes were full of gentle concern but underneath them something else raged. For a moment I was lost in these confusing sensations while he brushed away the remaining tears on my cheeks, watching that unknown fire of emotion flicker behind the cloth…

The jolting awareness of what was happening sent me into a panic. Even though a voice in my head was willing me not to, I searched for a way out. Still seeing his eyes watching me, I said the first thing that came to my mind: "Your shirt."

Alex jerked back, clearly confused. "What?"

I looked everywhere except in his eyes. "Your shirt… I think the entire city's waterworks exploded on you." Hastily I wiped the excess tears off my face, glad that I'd worn waterproof mascara. Ugh, I must've looked like a mess.

"Oh." He blinked and glanced at his sleeve. "Don't worry about it. You're lucky it isn't my favorite shirt," he joked. When I attempted a smile and failed, he returned to that benign, sensitive part of him I suddenly felt vulnerable to. "Addie… I'm so sorry."

Staring across the street at the playground, I watched several kids running around, chasing each other, and climbing all over the equipment. "I'm glad I finally told someone." Forcing myself to look at Alex, I continued, "You ask me why I choose to be a part of the CIA, to put my life in danger. You could say that I get a thrill out of busting bad guys and you wouldn't be wrong. But I also do it for Josh. He died doing his job and trying to get back home to us. He'd always been my best friend, my teacher, my protector… I want to make him proud." My voice cracked on the last word.

"You've done more than made him proud, Addie," he said softly. "You've grown up to be a wonderful, strong young woman. You will always be his little sister."

I searched Alex's eyes, wondering how such flattering words could be said. He could've just been being kind; you couldn't really say that about someone you met just over a week ago… could you? "We should go," I said abruptly, standing up. "I don't know about you but now I'm in the mood for hot cocoa and a blanket."

I would have added the fact that we had a French test to study for but from the glint in Alex's eyes, he wouldn't have believed me.

-Alex-

When I'd first arrived here in Virginia, I had come expecting the worst: a worthless mission, an abnormal, frightening family, and an utter waste of my time. I'd even anticipated a good old cloak-and-dagger plot to get me killed after my last failed assassination. Perhaps MI6 had finally decided to get rid of me.

But like any other experience of mine, the reality of this mission went beyond my expectations. Addie and I had become friends and I felt comfortable here… comfortable but not at home. And if I had to be entirely honest, I found it a relief to meet someone who had experienced almost the same things I had.

This wasn't a vacation though, I knew that. That much I knew from Addie's broken window sensors (which were repaired when we got home from Virginia Beach) and the information David had provided me on "John." At the CIA headquarters, the Sidekick picture I'd sent was run and John's face was found in the criminal database, uncovering him as Samuel Webb, a thirty-one year old who has only been in the criminal lifestyle for three years. He'd been employed by one of Castillo's men to gather Intel on Addie and her family, all the while figuring out how to get rid of me.

"An amateur, just like you said," Ben had said when he and David had stopped by to deliver the news. "Still got those killer instincts, Rider."

Except my supposed instincts seemed to only work in certain circumstances. Minutes ago, Addie had come clean about her brother, something she had never done before, not even to her best friends. Maybe she'd thought I would relate better, I didn't know. But something had pushed me to move closer and comfort her, to make a gesture I reserved for people extremely close to me. And now I felt like someone had ripped out a thread from the stitches holding in the memories and emotions I stored away… a feeling that felt free yet dangerous.

During the walk back to her house, Addie finally spoke up. "Have you spoken to Jack?"

My heart jumped in my throat and I stopped walking, a million questions running through my mind. "Jack?" How did she know about her?

Addie, having realized that I was no longer next to her, gazed at me cautiously. "Yeah…" she said slowly. "Jack. Your roommate."

All the panic that had been welling up inside dissipated and I let out the breath I'd been holding. Shoving the flashing images down, I shrugged and continued walking again. "I've talked to him once." It was true, but we hadn't said much since our conversation was cut short by Jack's parents visiting the flat.

"It must be nice."

"What?"

"Your friends knowing who you are, what you do," she explained, her tone filled with a certain yearning. "Not leaving you or hating you for it."

I raised a brow at her though she wasn't looking at me. "Is that what you're afraid your friends will do?" I couldn't say that I didn't understand where she was coming from; something told me that Arianna wouldn't react the way Tom had when I'd told him everything. She didn't seem the type to accept harsh truths with mere compliance or blatantly tell someone "Alex is a spy."

"I've known Arianna and Kylie for six years, Alex, and Derek for four. I've told them everything… everything that's never had to do with me working for the CIA. Do you know what I had to tell them about Joshua? Even when they knew he was an agent? I told them it was a boating accident."

I was about to offer a suggestion when the familiar sound of screeching tires made me whirl around. Two thoughts crashed against one another in my conscience, making me unable to make a decision. For one thing, the car careening around the corner was a Chevrolet like David's but at the speed it was going, the driver could have been someone else. Before I could throw Addie over my shoulder and run, the vehicle went from sixty to zero in a few yards, the shrieking of the tires piercing my ears, and the window rolled down.

Margot was staring icily at us and by the way Addie stiffened next to me, I knew there was something wrong. "Get in."

Note: Another random "challenge" question! Just one (;

What do you think is the big problem that's happened?