Note for this chapter that it tells roughly the same time period from each characters point of view, one after the other.

This was the hardest chapter to write so far, I just couldn't get it to work and I'm still not all that happy with it…

Disclaimer: I own this disclaimer. Yup, it's true! A disclaimer saying someone actually owns something for once! Sadly that something is not the Alex Rider books…damn.

After listening for a couple of minutes for movement downstairs, Daniel tiptoed across the landing, or at least he tried to. He might be used to making speedy getaways and beating people up, but he wasn't exactly what you would call light footed.

Cursing silently as the bathroom door creaked slightly behind him, he glanced around to make sure the boy wasn't following him. But all he could see from where he was, was a still uselessly unconscious Mike slumped in front of the sink. He listened for a second. Neither Mike nor the brat made a sound, but he could hear movement from downstairs. Daniel muttered angrily to himself under his breath. He had left the kitbag in plain view of anyone entering the front door. He hadn't planned to; he had just dumped it there as he rushed off to see what was happening to Mike.
This 'Jack' person had evidently seen it. But why had he gone off snooping round the rest of the house? Daniel just figured that he must have been looking for the Alex kid.

He slowly did his best to creep down the stairs, wanting to take the latecomer by surprise. True he would have had to be thick to not notice that something odd was going on here, but Daniel wanted to get him out of the way as smoothly and quickly and quietly as possible. And that would be much easier if his victim never even saw him coming.

The first step went fine, as he carefully eased his weight onto it with barely a sound only the quiet swish of the hem of his baggy jeans making a noise as they brushed against the carpet The second stair, however, creaked as he shifted his right foot onto it.

Once again a foul string of swearwords bubbled up behind Daniels lips.

This whole thing was just going crap, and it was really, really annoying him now.

With just a quiet hiss of anger, he continued to slide quietly down the stairs, stopping briefly after every step to listen out for more sounds, either from the brat or Mike upstairs stirring, or the guy downstairs moving about. Eight stairs down he suddenly thought he could hear a faint voice talking downstairs. All he could hear was the slightest of mumbles. He couldn't tell if it was more then one person or where exactly it was coming from, but he was pretty sure it must be that Jack person talking, as he had seen no one else enter the house. Perhaps he was on the phone to some friend or other, telling them what was going on or asking for backup.

What ever he was up to down there, Daniel now had a voice to guide him towards where ever Jack was…

Jack stood in the middle of the kitchen, clutching a knife in indecision. She had just heard a creaking noise from upstairs again. This time it was the second stair down; that stair had always creaked loudly.

There's always one, isn't there? Either one floor board that groans when you put your weight on it or one door that squeaks when you opened it. And that stair, second from the top was their one.

It could be Alex, one part of Jacks brain told her. It could also be an insane axe wielding maniac, another part replied.

She wanted to shout Alex's name, wanted to check if he was okay. But her throat seemed to have swollen up; she could barely breathe, let alone shout. She was just too scared. And anyway, if there was an insane axe wielding maniac in the house, shouting was probably not the best thing to do.

But what was? She had to save Alex. If he's still alive, that pessimistic little part of her mind nagged.

Backing away from the door that led to the stairs, (even though she couldn't remember making the actual decision to start walking backwards), she spotted the house phone.

It was old, battered and not quite as pale cream as it used to be, meaning that the thieves hadn't bothered trying to steal it.

'The Police!', the citizen in her cried. Yes, that was the right thing to do. Jack picked up the phone, still clutching the vegetable knife in her other hand.

Incase of emergencies, just dial 911. That was what her parents and society had drilled into her as a child. And this was definitely an emergency, so that's what she would do. Except, this was England, so she had to ring 999 instead.

Beep, beep, beep.

999

Ring, ring, ring.

"Hello, this is emergency services, which service do you require?"

"The police!" Jack hissed into the phone. The stupid noise that the buttons made as she pressed them (which she hadn't ever really paid much attention to before) had been agonizingly loud to her so she wasn't about to start shouting down the line.

"Hello, you are through to the police, how can we help you?" Another female voice asked moments later.

"I think there's someone in my house! I've just got home and everything's out of place and there's a bag half full of things! And, and I'm not the only one here, I mean, I'm not the only one who lives here. But I think someone else is in the house because their bag's still here. If they weren't here, the bag wouldn't be either! And I just heard a noise from upstairs, I swear I did!" Jack's whisper got more and more panicked as she went on. She could tell she was babbling but couldn't be anything to stop the hysteria rising up in her voice. Jack was just so scared, for herself and much, much more so for Alex.

"Shhh, shhh, calm down. Everything's going to be alright." The voice replied soothingly.

"So you've returned home to find what looks like a burglary in progress?"

"Yes!"

"And you're not the only one living in the house?"

"No! Alex is here as well. He was asleep when I left. I think…I think who ever it is whose broken in is up their with him! I heard the stairs creak! Oh God, I'm so worried."

"Right, we will be sending a police car round as soon as possible."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'm so worried. He might be dead already…" She was so relieved to know that the police were on their way, but still so, so worried for Alex.

"Thieves usually don't want to kill anyone, they are often only after your possessions." The operator said, trying to reassure her.

"But what if it's not just a robbery?" Jack moaned in despair. Though she didn't know it, by now her voice was raised just loud enough for Daniel to hear it from the stairs.

"A police car will be arriving soon, just stay on the phone and try to remain calm. Chances are, if the thief heard you arrive, he or she has probably run away so they don't get caught. Have you seen any sign of…" There was a pause. "…of Alex since you got home?"

"No! Last I saw, he was asleep in his bedroom!"

"Just stay calm, deep breaths."

"Wait, do you need our address to find us?"

"No, don't worry. A police car is being sent to your location. Are you in the house itself?"

"Yes, I'm downstairs and Alex is upstairs. I think there's someone upstairs with him."

There was a pause and then Jack swore. "Oh God, oh no!" She whispered in shock.

"What? What is it?"

"I just heard lots of noise. Sounds like fighting. Alex might be good at martial arts but he's only fifteen! I have to help him!"

"Wait…"

But it was too late; Jack was gone, leaving the handset dangling from its knotted cord, a female voice echoing out of it but with no one near enough to hear.

Living was so much effort. Why bother? Alex felt so battered and bruised. And this sort of thing had happened so often… he just wanted to surrender to the pain. It would be so much easier to just give up. Sure, he would still feel pain if he did; there was no doubt at all that if he stayed here, he would be killed. But if he survived this, then there was next time, wasn't there? No matter what he did, something would happen to draw him back in into the world of espionage and danger again. He would get hurt, again, both physically and emotionally. And of course, there was never any guarantee that he would even survive.

He had been through so much…

Random memories, none good, flickered through his mind. Being chased by quad bikes. Finding out that Ash had killed his parents. Sabina, captive. Trapped underwater, drowning. Tricked by Scorpia into believing their lies. Shot in the chest. Blood, everywhere. A large snake incased in metal spikes…

He had been lied to, deceived, black mailed, used, attacked, tricked, abused, and betrayed… again and again. With a life like that, what was worth living for?

No! Never think like that!

Alex was a born survivor. And a Rider. It might seem so easy to just lay there, and so hard to get up, but since when had Alex ever taken the easy way out of anything?

No matter how much he wanted to just give up, the part of him that was born for the life of a spy (and so a part of him he would never admit to), would never allow that.

He was a fighter, and if he was going to go down, then he was as sure as hell going to go down fighting!

Pain pulsed to the beat of a drum in his head, every breath rasping and painful, his whole body feeling pummelled and bruised. But he pushed it all away to the back of his mind as best he could.

Time to show that idiot what a mistake he had made trying to burgle Alex's house.

And time to find out what on Earth had happened to Jack…

Slowly, with the care of a frail old man, Alex pulled himself up into a sitting position using the cold tap and the side of the bath. For a few seconds everything seemed to spin around him and he felt thorns of pain pierce his head savagely, making him want to throw up or faint. Or both.

Alex took deep, slow breaths, ignoring the discomfort in his throat and slowly drawing up his right leg, then his left. After being crushed under a fully grown man's weight for so long, moving them felt weird. But if he could cope with agony, he could deal with weird no problem at all!

And so, ever so slowly, Alex eased himself to his feet and stepped out of the bath. With every movement he felt new twinges in all sorts of tender muscles. But as he carefully stretched them, the stiffness worked its way out, taking away the pain with it. Sure, he would be sore in the morning (if he survived that long), and his head, arms and chest all throbbed at the moment, but with each passing second he was getting closer to being back to his old self.

Back to being alive.

He glanced at the first stranger as he crept over to the bathroom door. He was still out cold, his greasy hair stained with sticky blood. Alex leant down slightly, gritting his teeth in pain as he did, and warily pushed the man's shoulder. All that happened was that he slumped sideways a little.

Praying he wouldn't wake up anytime soon, Alex crept out of the door in time to see a foot disappear around the corner into the sitting room downstairs.

Whereas Daniel had taken a long time to walk down the stairs as subtly as possible, Alex new exactly which stair creaked and were to put his weight on each step to stop any other sounds giving him away. This meant he managed to make it down in less then half the time. Keeping such control of his muscles, as bruised as they were, wasn't very fun though.

Alex could hear Jacks voice drifting in from the kitchen. He wondered briefly who she was talking to, hoping it was the police, before he edged around the corner that the thief had disappeared behind just a short while ago.

From there Alex, could plainly see the criminal stoop down and pick up a little metal model of a hare that Jacks parents had sent her for her birthday a couple of years ago.

It immediately occurred to him what was about to happen. The statue was heavy and if swung with enough force, could easily be used to kill someone. And the way the man was grinning darkly to himself and swinging the hare from side to side left Alex in no doubt at all that he was going to use it on Jack.

Alex felt anger flare up inside him. There was no way he could allow this bastard to kill the one person that mattered most in the world to him. Jack knew everything about him, had always been there for him as a kid, had stuck by him throughout all that MI6 had thrown at him. She was his best friend, his guardian and the nearest thing to a relative that he had left.

So, despite the pain that he was already in, and the danger he was about to face, he threw himself across the room and at the older man.

EriKaBalDeL, here are my answers- On one side of their house lives a young married couple. To afford the rent on the house both must work, they are out at work and so not home to hear the fighting. The other house has just been put up for sale and is currently empty. In a couple of days it will be bought by MI6 and one of their agents will move in. They may or may not bother mentioning this to Alex. They might as well just wait until he finds out because his anger could make for some interesting drama XD

And as you can see, the Police have now been contacted.

My thanks, a million times over to With the What Now for checking this chapter over to me. (And man did it need it!)

If it wasn't for her, among many other mistakes, it would have read: the model of a hair that Jacks parents had sent her for her birthday a couple of ears ago.

(Model of a hair! Haha, what a rubbish present to get!

Please review nicely :3