So sorry for leaving this thing to rot on my flash drive. Really I ought to be posting this like every few days until its finish seeing that the whole things is done but I keep forgetting that its even there.

So anyway if you aren't too mad go ahead and Read & Review. I'll probably post the next chapter this Friday night.

"He isn't as severe as you made him seem." Wolf's fiancée commented as he brought Alex into the sitting room of their house. Alex was asleep but he looked much better than he had the day before and he seemed as though he could wake up at any moment and start fussing about being carried.

After Wolf laid him down on the couch he said, "Well he has improved since last night. But I was supposed to make the situation seem worse than it was so I could know for sure if you could handle it."

Rachel nodded reading through the file they had been given depicting his course of treatment for the two days he would be with them. She eventually sighed, but not because it was going to be hard; she liked her work, helping people was what she loved to do and the fact that it would be for Saturday and Sunday meant that she wasn't terribly inconvenienced either. No, she sighed because the child should not have had to be transferred from the hospital where he would have had optimum care in the first place and definitely not for a lack of security. But she didn't say anything about it because Ryand had made it clear that he didn't want to talk about it.

Once the medical personnel had given Alex an okay and left, Rachel decided to take this opportunity to study her temporary charge before he awoke.

He was lying on his back slightly inclined and his breathing was easy and deep despite his broken ribs meaning he was on moderate to heavy painkillers.

The bandage around his head was tight enough to show a good size nut around his right temple where his head had hit the pavement and his right cheek was still bruised and tender to the touch. But otherwise his face was a healthy color and he seemed comfortable. So Rachel left him and went to talk to Wolf in the kitchen.

When Alex came to, he didn't feel nearly as weak and tired as he had the last time he'd woken up except for a slight aching of his head. He was also beginning to remember other things from that day in addition to what Jack had told him. But the hour or so leading up to the crash was still an empty chasm.

But now he had a new source of confusion in the form of frighteningly strange surroundings. For the second time in so many hours he was in a place that he had no recollection of coming to and unlike the hospital where it was fairly easy to figure out that that's what it was, he had no idea whatsoever of where he was now. He looked around the room trying to gather some idea as to why he was here or where here was.

From the look of the room it seemed to be someone's living room that they had either just moved into or were soon going to move out of because there were labeled boxes scattered around the room. The rest of the room was normal. On the wall adjacent to him between an end table with mail on it and a fake tree, was a doorway leading to a hall from which Alex heard voices.

He listened, straining his ears to hear what they were saying. It was fairly obvious that it was a man and a woman from the sound of their voices but what they were saying was seemingly unrelated bits and words. "then…couldn't…hospital…. good thing…from them...her." Alex stopped listening. He looked to the rest of the room to find a way to escape. The mid morning light shining through the bay windows on the opposite wall illuminated the otherwise dark room and Alex began to see potential instruments in an escapade. What was being said in the room beyond didn't make Alex feel in the least bit confident in his surroundings.

Not knowing what was really going on was frustrating to say the least and downright dangerous otherwise. Jack had said that he'd been hit by a car crossing the road but Alex knew that he was always careful. The only way he could have been hit was if he hadn't seen, heard or otherwise had any warning that it was coming and Alex knew that he wasn't that easy to surprise. That meant that there was the possibility that this had been deliberate. If that was the case he wasn't going to stick around to find out if these people were for or against him. He needed to escape before they found out that he was awake.

He sat up gingerly, pausing as his head started pounding more aggressively. He ignored it and slowly scooted over to the end of the sofa that was closest to the side yard window that was about 8 feet away on the adjacent wall.

He knew that if he could get to that window and out then he could probably hide and gather some strength before he was found;his captors wouldn't be expecting him to have been able to move.

After a few seconds observation, he noticed an umbrella stand with two umbrellas in it back at the other end of the sofa. Taking these he was able to use them as makeshift crutches but it was insanely difficult with only one functional arm and leg. If one of the umbrellas slipped out from underneath his arms the resulting fall and following pain would serve to alert them anyway. But he managed to get over to the window without incident.

Opening the window and getting onto the windowsill were fairly easy but once he had swung his feet outside and closed the curtain behind him a wave of dizziness over came him. He wavered a little bit on the sill as he heard footsteps coming toward the room he had just vacated. Without further deliberation he let himself fall the 4 feet to the ground below. Although he tried to dissipate the force of the fall by rolling on contact, his casted foot took a lot of the force and the pain that ran up his leg nearly caused him to scream.

He feel his body protesting and he knew that his escapade was coming to an end. The only reason he had been able to do any of this was because of the pain meds that his blood stream was saturated with but the widespread aches he was beginning to feel were telling him that the meds were wearing off and he probably wouldn't be able to move when they did.

He quickly scooted out of view of the window in case the woman he'd heard decided to look out of the open window. He rolled over to a very small hedge and tried his best to hide behind it then he listened.

"I can't believe we let him out from under our noses!" the man shouted sounding faintly familiar.

"Just look around and calm down. Maybe he's still in the area." The woman answered

Suddenly Alex heard footsteps running toward the section of the yard where he was hiding.

"Call Eagle and tell him we have a worse case scenario in play and need help!" the man shout close to him and Alex suddenly recognized the voice as Wolf's. All of a sudden, what Jack had told him about Eagle being involved came back into his mind. Perhaps the rest of K-unit was too.

This served to confuse him even more but he did know that he was safe.

Using his healthy hand Alex dragged himself out from the shrubbery and then since Wolf's back was turned to him, he called out questioningly "Wolf?"

Wolf whorled around in astonishment and it took him about five seconds, between the open window and Alex's exhausted but unharmed appearance, to realize that he had been trying to escape.

"What the hell are you doing?" Wolf came up to him, his worry instantly turned to fury. He took in Alex's drawn and pale face, his dirty casts and the fact that he seemed to be having some trouble breathing. Before Alex could explain himself he continued shouting "How the hell are we supposed to keep you safe when the first thing you do when you open your eyes is try to kill yourself. I step out of the room for a minute! and you jump out of a window! I could send you back to that second rate hospital we saved you from and save you the trouble you know. Is that what you want?"

"I'm thinking about it." Alex answered indignantly. He didn't know what was going on and surely Wolf knew that and could understand why he would do something like this.

Was it so hard to imagine what he would do if he woke up in a strange house having no idea what was going on with him in the first place.

"But I'm not really sure," Alex continued miserably "Since I don't know what you saved me from."

"Don't start with your sarcasm Alex; you could have hurt yourself worse than you already are." Wolf countered harshly "I don't see why you would pull something like that anyway." He made a motion to carry him back to the house but Alex waved his arms away and scooted back to the wall of the house angrily

"For your information" he yelled indignantly "The only reason I'm not wondering what the hell am I doing half wrapped in white is because Jack told me that I was hit by a car, emphasis on told. I have not the slightest idea why I'm here instead of in a hospital or where Jack is or anything else for that matter. I don't remember!"

Alex felt his throat growing raw so he toned down his voice a little ignoring the curious look on Wolf's face as he listened.

"So I have to assume- since it's not uncommon in my line of work-that someone is trying to kill me. If I'm in a strange house with strange voices down the hall and I don't know what the hell I'm doing there shouldn't I try to escape if only so that I don't have to find out the hard way?" He coughed again thoroughly frustrated by Wolf's lack of understanding and his own ignorance of the situation.

"It wouldn't be so hard to see if you weren't such a jerk when it comes to listening to people." Alex was again interrupted by a coughing fit, one that didn't subsided immediately. Wolf could plainly see that he was in pain by the look on his face. Before Alex could protest again Wolf picked him up to carry him back to the house. He didn't comment on what Alex had told him but he definitely didn't accuse him any further either.

"I didn't ask for your help you know, I've-" Alex continued not realizing that Wolf had acknowledged the misunderstanding.

"Be quiet Alex, we'll sort it out inside just shut up right now will you."

Alex gave Wolf an evil glare but really didn't have the strength to fuss any further so he laid still and quiet, closing his eyes to try and ease the now monstrous pounding of his head and the various pains all over his body.

As they approached the house Wolf quietly asked "Do you really remember nothing?" a hint of worry had crept back into his voice.

"Nothing after lunch break that day." Alex answered brusquely

At that moment Rachel came out of the house running towards them down the steps of the house, when she saw Wolf bringing Alex back she stopped short.

"Is he okay?"

"Mostly," Wolf answered simply

"Well?" she questioned further.

"It's not an emergency so I'll explain inside." He answered giving Alex an extremely annoyed look although Alex didn't see it.

When they got inside Wolf put him on the same sofa "Stay put and don't move else I'll make you regret it more than you already do." Rachel was confused to say the least especially since she thought the boy was asleep but she said nothing. "If something happens call for help," Wolf continued "DON'T take it upon yourself to dangle out of a window." His tone had lost most of its bite but he was still very ticked off about what Alex had done.

Alex gave him a very slight nod to which he replied "Good." Then he motioned for Rachel to follow him into the kitchen.

"Shouldn't we deal with him first I mean he's a mess and-"

"He can wait for now." Wolf cut her off leading her from the room eager to set things straight.

Alex listened in on the conversation for a while realizing that Wolf was partially telling Rachel about his unique situation and it occurred to him that Rachel must be Wolf's wife. For a moment he spitefully thought up the notion that Wolf was too mean to have a wife. But he quickly dismissed the thought as unfair and childish. Just because Wolf was mean to him didn't mean he was a mean person to his wife. Besides although Wolf had jumped to conclusions, his reasons for getting angry were legitimate.

After a while Alex got tired of listening and began drifting in and out of sleep. By the time Rachel and Wolf returned he was cold, in considerable pain and the only thing keeping him awake was his hunger. In short he was very miserable and uncomfortable, he concluded that Wolf had deliberately done that to him.

"Are you still awake Cub?" Wolf asked and Alex was glad to have Wolf slip back into using his codename. It sort of meant that he wasn't quite so mad at him anymore.

"Yes" he answered without opening his eyes.

"Okay then listen, Rachel here is going to fix you up and then you'll eat. I don't want you to give her a hard time; she's a certified nurse and my fiancée, if you make trouble for her you're not going to like it. She didn't have to say yes to this when I asked her so she's really doing this out of the kindness of her heart. I'm sure you can appreciate that." Alex nodded tiredly but sincerely, looking from Wolf to Rachel who had a kind but neutral expression.

"One last thing," Wolf continued "If she asks you anything, answer. Your antics forced me to tell her about you." He was interrupted by a loud rapid knocking at the door. "But she's trustworthy." He added as he left to answer it.

Alex didn't know what to make of Rachel's expression now that Wolf was gone as she studied him. It seemed to be a mixture of curiosity, annoyance, concern and amusement all at once.

When she spoke to him though, her voice registered concern and a little displeasure.

"So where did you hit when you fell from the window?"

"My feet took most of the force."

Her face softened "Let me see it."

As Rachel tended to Alex's various injuries-redressing what need to be redressed and making sure nothing had come out of place- Alex began to calm down somewhat. He was beginning to understand what was going on by listening to K-unit who were talking rather loudly. He eventually found out that Scorpia was responsible for what had happened to him and the revelation greatly annoyed him. When would Scorpia get out of his life? Everything bad seemed to stem from them.

It scared him too because if he had the same kind of luck as the rest of his family then he was soon going to be dead too.

Suddenly he felt a sharp shooting pain in his right ankle as Rachel examined his casted leg. He yelped and pulled it away but for some reason Rachel gave him a stern almost displeased look.

"Do you like sports?" She suddenly asked

"Yes," he answered cautiously

"If you were thinking of becoming a pro then you could very well ruin your career before it starts if you keep this up." Alex felt a prick of indignation but he held his tongue.

"Your leg was broken in four different places one of which was your growth line; its what cause that leg to get longer as you grow. If you pull another stunt like that or get into the habit of putting premature stress on that leg it could stop growing. Since I'm pretty sure that you're just starting your growth spurt then you could very well end up with one leg considerably shorter than the other."

By the expression on his face she could tell that he was at least mildly concerned.

"I understand your reasons for what you did but if there's a next time try and think it through to avoid unnecessary detriment to yourself first okay?"

Alex knew that there was good sense in her words and he really didn't want a hanging leg.

"I will."

"Good, now I suppose you're hungry right?"

Alex was grateful for her hospitality "Anything that's filling would be great."

She nodded getting up from her stool by the sofa.

"Thanks a lot." Alex added sincerely

"I'm glad I can help. I'll be back in a few with something for you."

Not long after she'd left Wolf came in with the rest of his unit, but before any of them could say anything Alex demanded to know what was going on.

"I'm sure Wolf has already told you have amnesia." He annonced "Please explain what's going on." he said

"Hopefully that's the only thing wrong." Eagle answered "Who knows what kind of person you could have morphed into if it were worse."

"He means we're glad you're mostly okay." Fox corrected

"Thanks"

"Well as you probably heard from Wolf's loud mouth, Scorpia is the one who's behind everything." Eagle began as everyone found a seat.

It took two hours, counting lunch, to get everyone's questions answered and it only stopped then because Rachel insisted that the patient needed to rest so he could heal and Alex did not object. He was exausted, already drifting in and out of consciousness between questions. But before he actually went to sleep he insisted that he ask one more. Slightly propping up himself to stay awake he asked "When will I be able to see Jack? I know she must be worried."

"She is" Eagle confirmed "but it isn't safe for her to simply visit."

"One of us will bring her to see you for a short while just before we move you again." Wolf explained "Hopefully MI6 will be able to sort out this crap soon because I know we won't be able to hold them off for long and if we don't well…"

"Then someone's going to draw a big red X on Alex Rider." Alex finished seriously "I get it." He shrugged "But I also appreciate everything you all are doing for me. I know you didn't have to and as corny as this sounds I really do feel safe around you guys."

"We won't let you down Cub." Snake answered

Rachel glanced at the four men with a pained expression from the doorway . After telling Alex to get some sleep she hung around to make sure the men actually left him alone. Consequently she heard the rest of the conversation. "I suppose this is one of those times when I'm supposed to mind my own business." She said "But I know this isn't right."

The men didn't know what to say so they remained silent and Rachel left. But for a while afterwards the men were quietly contemplative before going their separate ways.

There you go. Hope you enjoyed. For those of you who are looking for an For Better Or For Worse update its on the way. I can't give a definite date but its now on my primary list for updates.