Chapter 24

"Be glad we're doing a stake out, not a chase."

Desiree rolled her eyes at Gibbs's grumble. "Whatever."

"I'm being serious," Gibbs hissed, annoyed. "If it weren't for the fact that you'll be getting plenty of rest, I would've had you forcibly restrained and bundled off to the hospital."

"I repeat: whatever."

"You're impossible.

"I know," Dessi said smugly.

They were currently in a very dirty apartment, overlooking a relatively busy street. They were here on stakeout, using the information Ziva had managed to extract from the spy ring (good 'ol Ziva and her threatening ways).

After refusing point blank to be sent to the hospital, and also somehow managing to insult the paramedic while she was at it, Desiree's foot had merely been bound up, and she'd been given a firm order to remain rested and to keep her foot elevated, compressed and ice-packed to keep down inflammation and swelling.

Thankfully for all of them, it had merely been sprained, rather than broken.

And so, the moth eaten couch in the corner was officially Dessi's, who was also on twenty four hour duty, while the others were rotated around. It was rather boring, but at least her companions kept her entertained with either stories or antics. If they weren't complaining about how she should be in a hospital bed.

The badly beaten down door opened, and Snake walked in with some Chinese take-away and his usual first aid bag.

Seeing him, Gibbs got up with a sigh of relief. "Call me if anything happens."

"Will do," Snake said cheerfully. Desiree waved goodbye as Gibbs left.

"So," she said cheerfully, leaning back on the couch, "What've you been up to?"

"Eh, not much," Snake said, passing over a box of what appeared to be fried rice with prawns, "I did managed to convince Alex to go to the hospital though."

"Finally," Dessi said, rolling her eyes.

"You're one to talk."

"It's not like I needed to go."

Snake choked on his lunch, and spent the next minute trying to cough up his wayward food.

"You've got to be kidding!" He spluttered, accepting the water bottle Desiree wordlessly handed him and downing half in one go. "Out of everyone, you probably needed to go the most!"

"Hey, I am perfectly fine," Dessi objected, turning back to her lunch. "It's just a sprain, isn't it?"

"You were trapped under a slab of concrete for God-knows how long," Snake said, deadpanned, "The only reason we know about the sprain is because you can feel it. There might be tonnes of internal damage we can't pick up, simply because you were too stubborn to get a check up!"

Dessi rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything else.

They finished their lunch in silence, after which Snake set about making sure all the surveillance equipment were still working and recording. Then he sat down for the wait, telling Dessi a story about a crazy kid named 'Cub' who'd rescued them from RTI training by crawling out a drainage pipe and sending the Green Jackets tumbling away.

"Stuff of legends," Snake said fondly. "There're still people regurgitating those stories at Brecon Beacons. You know, I still can't associate Cub with Alex. It's too...I dunno. Weird, I guess."

One of the monitors let off an alarming series of beeps, indicating that they should change discs or risk losing their footage. And it was while Snake set about doing that, that he heard Desiree suddenly vomit onto the ground.

Immediately, he spun and hurried over to her side.

"Dessi?" The question was there, as he felt her forehead for signs of a fever.

"I'm fine," Desiree frowned, confused. She certainly felt fine.

Snake bit his lip. "No temperature...you feeling dizzy? Dazed? Answer me; we'll clean that up in a sec."

At Desiree's shake of her head, he began to rummage around in his medic bag.

"There might have been BZ gas residue in that factory," he explained, "And I'm not taking a chance."

"Wait, what?" Dessi said, her voice growing louder with panic as Snake pulled out the thickest needle she'd ever seen. "Snake, don't you dare –"

The rest of her words were cut off with a scream as Snake injected her with the needle.

.

Alex blinked, staring up at the rundown apartment block which their stakeout was taking place. He thought he'd just heard a scream.

Whatever. I'm probably hearing things.

It wasn't until he'd unlocked the door and opened his mouth to let Snake know that his shift was over, that Alex realised he had indeed heard someone scream.

He watched with barely concealed amusement as Desiree threw Snake the dirtiest glare she could pull off. In turn, the SAS man was carefully disposing of an excessively large and empty needle. It was quite easy to put two and two together in this situation.

"Wipe that smile of your face, Rider!" Dessi snapped, having turned and caught sight of Alex, who immediately tired to pull his innocent look.

"Who, me?" He asked, looking around.

The girl rolled her eyes, before turning her glare back on Snake.

"Uh, yeah," Snake said, a little nervously, "I'll just be on my way..." He probably broke the world record for the fastest time someone could disappear from sight.

And then, it was just Alex and Dessi in the room. Alex crossed over to Desiree, before sitting uninvited next to her. "So, why did he just stab you?"

Dessi rolled her eyes. "He thought there was BZ gas in the factory. Apparently, he did it as a 'precaution'."

"To be honest, I didn't know you were scared of needles," Alex grinned.

"I'm not!"

"Really? Then what was that scream...?"

"That was a massive needle, Alex! You try getting stabbed by that thing and we'll see how you react!"

There was a beat of silence, before Alex whispered: "Scared." He quickly dodged out of the way of the hand that tried to whack him, before going over to check the equipment.

"So, how come you never told me about your time as Cub?" Dessi asked, shifting slightly on the couch to find a more comfortable position.

"Well, I just figured you knew," Alex said.

The unspoken meaning behind his words didn't go unheard, and Dessi cocked her head as she observed his figure. "They didn't mention much of what went on at the training camp in your file."

In her mind though, she could still hear the memory of their first fight all those years ago. "Scorpia took away my parents, MI6 took away my life! The only thing I have left are my memories, and now thanks to you I don't have that either!"

Right now, she was counting on the fact that Alex had been too numb to read the majority of the file...his file, at the time. Even after four years, she still felt a twinge of guilt whenever she remembered that incident.

Thankfully, the boy turned around with a grin. "Well then, let me educate you on the many legends of Brecon Beacons!"

And so saying, the boy popped himself back down next to her, and began to describe to her the assault courses, high zip wires, and RTIs. Alex's retelling was infinitely more amusing than what had been described in his file...though Dessi was certain that he'd missed out some parts, and over-exaggerated others.

One thing that did come as a surprise though, was the fact that Alex had pushed Wolf out of a plane.

"You've got to be joking!" Dessi laughed. "Wolf? Scared of heights?"

"I know," Alex grinned, "But...don't tell him I said that, will you?"

"Oh, don't worry," Dessi said, resting her head on his shoulder, "I very much like you alive."

Alex smiled, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Thanks...I think."

Unfortunately for them, that rare moment of peace and silence would not last. For a second later, having caught sight of the image on the screen, Desiree froze.

"That's him," she breathed, jerking upright. "Michaelis Menten."

"What?" Alex quickly got up, long strides taking him to the window, "Are you sure?"

"Positive."

Alex spun, grabbing the headset on the table and quickly turning it on.

"Headquarters, this is Rider," Alex said into the headset. "We have eyes on our target. He is conversing with four other men...erm make that five...six...okay, now they're heading into the rundown shop opposite our location."

There was a beat of silence, before the reply:

"Hold tight Rider, we're on our way."

.

Yes, I am evil to end it there. But I thought it was a good place...

I really wanted to give Alex and Dessi some time alone, after what I put them through last chapter...

Tune in next time for Ziva's revenge! I can't wait to write the next chappie!

Anyways, leave a REVEIW! Come on, guys, I know we can make it past 100!

Love Chariots99