July Sunrays 2009
By Simply Shelby
Denial
Jack was leaving.
"I don't want you to go."
"That didn't work with Ian," the redhead puffed as she slowly filled her suitcases, "And it's not going to work with me."
Alex glared at her from where he was perched on the edge of the bed, arms crossed and pouting. "Where will you go?"
Haphazardly folding another blouse and throwing on top of the overflowing suitcase, his psuedo-sister glanced over at him. "Alex. I thought we already talked about this? You told me everything was cool."
His glare intensified. "Where will you go?" he repeated.
She sighed and crossed her arms back at him. "I don't know yet. And that's the point of the thing. I don't want to know where I'm going, I just want to go."
"Why?"
The stark rawness in his voice made her freeze. "You're twenty-years-old, Alex," she explained softly, "You don't need a nanny anymore."
"You were never a nanny, Jack."
She flicked her hand as if to shoo away the negative answer. "It's not like you ever needed one, anyways."
"Don't go. Please."
"Alex..." she hesitated, slightly. "This isn't... it isn't exactly healthy. For me or for you. I can't stay." He tried to interrupt, but she cut him off, "It's not like you'll never see me again. You can call anytime you like. I can come stay over--"
"Why don't you just stay here?"
"Alex--"
He turned his back. "Just go. Leave."
She reached a hand forward and laid it on his shoulder. "I'm not leaving you, Alex."
But she was still leaving.
Eyes
Cold, dull eyes stared back at him from behind steel bars.
"You're dead." Alex whispered, accused, and the eyes flickered away. "Another lie."
"No." The man's voice echoed harshly, reverberating against the grey, concrete walls.
He moved to strike his fist against the steel, but restrained himself before the flesh could make contact. "Are you saying you're a ghost come back to haunt me? To drive me mad until I submit?" His opened palm fell flat against his leg.
"I am not dead, Alex. I do not pretend to be anything other than what I am." The words mocked him in their honesty.
"Yassen Gregorovich is dead. I watched him die."
"The man you knew is dead. Forget about him, Alex."
"Who are you?"
The eyes watched him back. "Who I am is unimportant, Alex."
Something snapped inside the boy. "Stop calling me that."
"Who are you, Alex?"
Alex's hands shook and he stared into the hidden, familiar eyes. "Tell me about him," he demanded softly, sinking to the hard floor and folding his knees. He had no intention of forgetting. "Tell me how he came to be."
Eyes watched him cautiously and began their story.
Family
Orphan.
Alex had never really applied the word to himself before. He'd been too young to remember the loss of his parents. The thought had skittered across his mind at his uncle's funeral, but Jack had been there to banish it away.
"He's quite a brilliant child, isn't he?" Elizabeth Pleasure was watching his son intensely from her seat on the parlor sofa.
His mother-in-law had dropped in for a short, untimely visit. Sabina had rushed out to an emergency at the office just moments before Elizabeth had appeared on the doorstep. It was the sort of timing that put Alex's senses on alert.
"I imagine he must be a lot like you when you were that age. Your parents must have had a difficult time of it."
Alex shrugged and kept an eye as his son toddled against the bookshelves. "By that age, my parents were already long dead."
The woman stood and efficiently confiscated a familiar artifact from Ian's travels and replaced it with the boy's dummy. "That's right. Sabina mentioned that your uncle raised you. I just didn't realise how young you had been."
"Yes, you did." Alex called her bluff. "It's why you're here in the first place. And I appreciate your concern. Really."
She sunk back down into the sofa. "I should have known better than to con a conman."
"Is that what you think I am?"
Mrs. Pleasure huffed. "Would you prefer to be called a spy?"
"Government intelligence agent, actually." He smiled grimly. "Your husband?"
She nodded. "He came across some information on the Riders. Your father. Your uncle. Even your godfather. It wasn't that much of a stretch to think you..." Elizabeth switched tactics. "They all--"
"Died."
"Well, yes." Her eyes turned to his son again. "We've just wondered... you have a family. Why--"
Alex let his eyes focus on his son, as well. "I've been doing this since I was fourteen-years-old, Mrs. Pleasure. I've made many enemies over the years. Too many to simply walk away. Working for MI6 offers me and my family a certain amount of security and stability. Enemies are kept at bay and my family is kept safe. Without that safety net..."
The toddler reached up to grip the photo frame of Alex's parents at their wedding. And Alex swore anew to never let the past repeat itself.
Orphan.
His son would never feel this sort of hurt.
Ever.
Hunger
"You do know you can't live off of orange juice?" Sabina Pleasure peered inside the Rider fridge only to pull back at the lack of response. "Alex?"
The man in question didn't look up from the papers spread across the kitchen table, floor and counters. "Hmm?"
"You have five bottles of orange juice and nothing else." Her voice was disapproving.
Alex shrugged, comparing two papers and frowning. "I like orange juice," he protested, absently.
She splayed a hand across his point of view. "But what do you eat?"
There was a slight pause as Alex bent down and shuffled a few papers on the floor, laying them out like a giant jigsaw puzzle that only made sense to him. "Take away?" he offered finally.
"You can't live off of take away, either."
"Okay," he agreed amicably.
Seeing a pattern in his chaos, she switched a few papers around with her toes, filling in the edge pieces of his puzzle. He nodded his permission and thanks. "Of all the things MI6 doesn't do for you, couldn't they at least pick up your shopping?"
He glanced sideways at her. "Isn't that why I keep you around?"
She toed her trainers back on and kissed his temple. "How does curry sound?"
"That's fine." He smiled. "As long as you're not cooking."
AN: I promised myself that if I would write about Yassen, I could indulge myself in the other bits. As I don't have much experience writing him and honestly struggle with his character, please tell me how I did.
