Chapter 14: Chapter 13
Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognize. This is a re-uploaded chapter.
The sun was just beginning the set on the second day of Eagles freedom when he finally came upon a town. It was small and quaint. Holding the basic necessities of a town with a few small restaurants and a small, but useful, police station.
He had walked through one field after another, coming to the obvious conclusion that farming was a big part of what kept the town running. Eagle was tired, hungry and beyond thirsty. He had been able to find a stream during his journey, but that had been so long ago, and he hadn't eaten in days. A small café that sat on the corner of two street looked beyond inviting, and he struggled to walk past the door that offered water, food, and warmth.
The walk to the police station was agony. His legs felt like jelly, and his ankle was swollen and sore, not having gotten the rest it deserved. He had only slept for a few hours the night before, paranoia had set in and each rustle of the leaves had made Eagle feel like there was someone right behind him. His clothes were caked in dirt. His ankle had protested greatly when he had tried to climb a tree, and therefore had ended up sleeping on the ground.
On top of all this he was full of worry, his anxiety at an all-time high as thoughts of what Josh could have done with his team ran through his mind constantly. They could already be dead for all he knew. They were definitely punished for his escape, something Eagle had only thought about after that first night in the woods. He had tried to reassure himself, telling himself that if he had not taken the chance then Wolf would have probably killed him.
Eagle constantly questioned why he even kept going, exhaustion throwing him into fits of despair. He had to remind himself that if they weren't dead. That they still needed his help. If he gave up when they weren't dead, then they would most certainly be dead soon. Cub and John didn't deserve to die that young.
Then he would push himself to keep going.
There were a few people out, and most of them stopped to stare as he shuffled by. Not that he blamed them. He knew he looked like hell.
However he didn't have the energy to worry about some random strangers passing judgement on him when he had been through hell and back. That, and he was completely focused on trying to put one foot in front of the other.
He had looked up for only a second, trying to gauge how much farther he had to go, and then the world had started to turn. Drained of energy and too exhausted to realize what was happening until it was too late Eagle went face first into the concrete. He heard, rather than felt, his nose break. Twisting his head so he could breathe he felt the blood run down his cheek and his nose throb in pain. He didn't think too much about it as his body registered the fact that he was in a horizontal position, and suddenly the sidewalk felt much more comfortable.
"Sir? Sir! Are you ok?" The voice came from in front of his face. Eagle cracked open his eyes to see a young girl who looked to be only fourteen staring down at him in pure concern.
He tried of lift himself up, only to fall back to the ground with a flop. There was darkness creeping into his vision. A single thought made itself known.
"My friends. They need... they need help." Then his world went dark.
-Line Break-
The annoying beeping would not stop.
Of course he knew what it was and where he was. He remembered falling face first on the concrete right in front of the police station. He remembered everything, even the stuff he wished to forget.
That didn't mean the beeping of a heart monitor was any less annoying.
He didn't want to wake up, he actually thought about going right back to sleep. The bed was surprisingly comfortable for a hospital, and everything still hurt, but his team mates were still stuck in that hell, and he needed to get help.
The light that assaulted his eyes was painful and he was forced to close them again before opening them back up, much more slowly this time, allowing them time to adjust and focus.
In the chair next to him sat the girl that had asked him if he was okay after he had fallen. She must have been the one to call the paramedics. She was asleep, and Eagle wondered why she was here, and more importantly how she had got in.
Eagle pressed the nurse call button and a couple of seconds later a woman that looked to be in her mid-fifties walked in, graying hair pulled back into a tight bun and soft smile on her face. She had laughter lines and her smile was genuine as her eyes sparkled. Eagle could already tell she was much nicer than the nurses back at Brecon Breacons.
"Well good morning sleepy head! How are you feeling this afternoon?" She picked up his chart and looked it over, flipping a page over after a minute. "You're looking much better then when you came in. You were very dehydrated, slightly malnourished, sleep deprived, and covering in cuts and bruises. Not to mention the broken nose. Your ankle was also swollen, but we think that it was just a bad twist. How are you feeling?"
"A little light head, but much better than before." He said with a smile before getting to the point. "I need to talk to the police. I have to get a hold of MI6. It's an emergency."
"Of course. I'll get a hold of the police as soon as I finish checking your vitals." Eagle didn't argue. It was often the kind ones that were stubborn. She was just doing her job after all, and Eagle would rather not waste more time arguing with her just because she wanted to make sure he was okay.
There was another question he needed an answer to though.
"Who is she?"
Suddenly there was a chuckle from the chair that Eagle had pointed to. Both he and the nurse jumped.
"Sorry." She smiled "I'm your sister silly, I know it's been awhile since mum and dad split but I would think you still recognize your own sister." She smiled and something told Eagle to just go with it.
"Jeez, sorry. Last time I saw you you were only what, nine? Can't blame me for not immediately recognizing you." It was the first thing that came to mind, so he just rolled with it, and it must have worked better than he though, because the nurse just chuckled and shook her head.
"I'll be right back." She said after writing something in his chart and slipping out of the room.
"Who are you?" Eagle immediately turned to the girl in the chair once the nurse was out of sight.
"Sorry, I was just worried. I wanted to make sure you were okay. It was easy enough to get in, just claimed to be your sister." She gave a smug smile before she seemed to think of something that instead replaced the smile with a frown. "I also…kind of…needed a place to stay last night."
Eagle was about to reply when the nurse came back, reporting that the police were on their way. Anything he had to say or any question he wanted to ask was pushed away as he remembered where his friends were at that very moment. The girl seemed harmless enough, and she had called an ambulance instead of letting him die on the sidewalk. She could stay for now, and then, once his unit was safe, he would try and help her.
-Line Break-
Ben had woken up Alex approximately every two hour for the past two days, and they had only had one situation. Ben had accidentally fallen asleep after staying up in order to keep Alex calm during his nightmares and in order to wake him every two hours. In the short time Ben had been asleep, Alex had ended up having what could only be a terrible nightmare. In short, he had ended up yelling out in his sleep. This had woken Ben up, who in turn had tried to wake Alex in the hopes of relieving whatever psychological torture his mind was putting him through. The problem had arisen when Alex had refused to wake, and mistook the comforting movement for an attack. Ben would later admit it was foolish of him to try and wake Alex, and that he probably should have treated it more like a PTSD episode than a normal nightmare. Ben had ended up having to pin Alex to the floor to keep him from hurting himself, and with Snakes help they had pulled Alex out of his nightmare.
To Alex all the days seemed to blur together. Dreams and reality began to blur and sometimes he had to consciously try and separate what was real from what was not. He slept most of the time, a growing concern to Snake, who tried to comfort everyone (including himself) with the thought that it was just his body trying to recover from the abuse, much like someone recovering from a cold.
Wolf, on the other hand, grew more worried over the fact that no one had come back to take one of them. The more time that passed, the more Wolf would paced and mutter to himself.
Two days later Alex woke complaining of hunger and a dry throat. They couldn't do a thing. True to his word Josh has allowed them food and water (though it was barely enough to survive on), but after an hour whatever was left was taken away. When Snake had once tried to keep water for when Alex next woke, Josh had threatened to take John next. Snake had hung his head and handed the water over, only to have it thrown back in his face. Josh had left with a smirk and the echoing words 'what a waste.'
Ben had eventually gone from waking Alex every two hours to every hour, gaining Snakes growing concern about the massive amount of sleeping Alex was doing. Ben began to worry that at some point, Alex wouldn't wake up at all.
With everything that was happening (or not happening) everyone's emotions were running high. If Wolf wasn't pacing the cell, then it was Snake. Ben was always at Alex's side, and when he had to sleep, Snake would take his spot. Wolf had taken to keeping John occupied as much as possible, telling him stories, having John tell him stories, drawing in the dirt on the floor. Anything to keep his mind off what was happening around him.
At one point, when John was sleep, and Alex had just gone back to sleep after being woken by Ben. Snake stood pacing the length of the cell. Wolf sat in a corner, John's head in his lap, eyes following Snakes path. Snake had been at it for almost a half hour before Wolf finally broke.
"SNAKE! Will you please sit your ass down before I force you?" It came out as a low growl, conveying his anger, but keeping the volume down so as not to wake John, who shifted in his sleep.
With a dirty look thrown Wolf's way Snake sat down, basically collapsing with his lack of energy. None of them got much sleep between the constant worry of when Josh was coming back, and the concern for Alex's health.
"You do the same fucking thing." He hissed back before deflating and sagging against the wall. "I'm just worried. Don't you think Eagle should have found help by now? I mean, it's been almost four days." Thanks to his worrying Snake had grown an ever present headache. Wolf however, had gained a headache from listening to Snake worry. Of course Wolf was worried, but there was only so much a man could listen to before becoming annoyed. Wolf had to have hope that Eagle had found help. Without hope he didn't have much else to keep him going.
"We are all worried, but the best thing we can do for now is help keep each other alive. Especially Cub over there." Wolf looked over at the child who was still sleeping. It wasn't the best sleep in the world due to nightmares, where they were at, and all the pain he was probably in, but it was sleep all the same. "I would love to know what gives him such horrid nightmares. What has that kid been through that causes him to have a nightmare every time he so much as closes his eyes? I mean Point Blanc was a one-time thing right?"
Wolf had told his team about seeing Cub at Point Blanc not long after he had returned. He hadn't given them full details, not wanting to completely ignore the Official Secrets Act, but he wasn't just not going to tell his unit about seeing their unofficial fifth team member almost get killed.
"Fox, you're MI6 now, you gotta know something about Cub." Wolf looked over at Ben following Snakes statement.
Ben sighed before turning to his team mates, he trusted them with his life, but he wasn't going to ruin the little trust Alex had placed in him. "You guys know I trust you, but Alex's life isn't my story to tell. That's something you're going to have to ask him yourself. Just know that Alex has seen a lot more than anyone his age should have to see. You have to be understanding when he's cold and distant. It's how he's lived for a few years now." Ben paused, looking up at Wolf and Snake. "Just know that he out ranks everyone in this room, and there is a reason for that."
A/N: Okay, this is a big change from the older version. I originally had Ben tell them about Alex's missions and such, but someone pointed out that earlier on I had Ben say that he wasn't going to ruin that little trust Alex had in him, so I changed it, and honestly I feel like this fits better. The scene is a little random, but it's also a good look in how everyone is doing with Eagle gone (which isn't too good, especially if your Alex). It also leaves room for me to possibly expand the story a little bit with some K-Unit/Alex bonding with Alex learning to trust them or something.