Here's chapter 7
The next day Alex slept for most of it. At first Wolf thought that something was wrong when Alex still hadn't budged at 1:00pm after going to bed at 9:00 the night before, but Rachel explained that his body was working overtime to fix the damages so he needed the rest. So Wolf let him be. When Alex did finally get up it was just in time to have supper and see Jack.
"Eagle is on his way to pick up Jack so you can see her." Wolf explained after they'd ate as he carried Alex back to the room he had first tried to escape from. Alex of course hated being carried but with his right hand and arm in a cast he couldn't operate crutches or a wheelchair with any degree of efficiency yet. Technically he wasn't even supposed to be in one until the doctors gave him the okay to move around.
"After that you're going to Fox's place" he continued "You should know that he has two daughters, 4 and 9 I think and I'm not sure he explained you being there to them."
"I hope they're not Fiona Friends." Alex wondered out loud
"What?" Wolf asked completely confused
"A stuck up bitch that I had to deal with when I was undercover with a family once." Alex explained
"No, Kyle isn't the kind of man to raise girls like that."
"Lets hope so, I ended up shooting Fiona in the leg with a stun dart to shut up her up."
Wolf's eyes widened slightly
"Not that I would do that of course." Alex added quickly "But they may blow my cover."
Wolf nodded "Well you'd better get along with them. MI6 says that their trying to work out a deal with Scorpia; your life spared in exchange for something else but they aren't cooperating; you may have to do this for a while yet."
"Well of course they wouldn't." Alex answered annoyed "If ever there was a two legged bitch it was Julia Rothman. She had my parents killed because my dad married my mom instead of her. If she were still alive she'd hate me like poison and since her cohorts are just like her MI6 is going to be hard pressed to find something they'd rather more than my life." Alex continued miserably "I thought they could do something better."
"Aren't you overreacting Cub. You know, exaggerating. Why would a set of people like Scorpia get blindsided by the life of a child? Surely you're not that important."
Wolf reasoned his skepticism evident.
Alex frowned "I feel so loved." He scoffed now in a very bad mood "I'm not exaggerating. The fact that I'm a child makes it worse. I messed up their plans by myself so they lost their client and a whole lot of money with him. To make matters worse I accidentally killed their director, Rothman, not to mention gave them a bad rep." He sighed angrily "I don't think I'm exaggerating. I just don't know why I didn't see all this before so I could have been more careful."
"I see" Wolf responded darkly "Well they may have to go to extreme measures but MI6 is going to make sure they leave you alone." and he said it with the sort of finality that meant that the argument was over. "So don't worry."
Wolf left him after that and a few minutes later Eagle arrived with Jack. Although Alex was still in a dark mood, he perked up himself for her sake.
When Eagle brought her into the sitting room where she saw Alex sitting up by the window looking almost well, her face fairly lit up with a brilliant smile. The next second Alex found himself the victim of a size-able hug that left him felling slightly embarrassed but much loved.
Eagle smiled from the doorway as Jack continually asked Alex if he was okay, checking over him herself to affirm his claims of relatively good health.
"A real overbearing big sis huh Cub?" he teased
"She's good to me." Alex answered noticing how tired she looked "What can I say?"
Eagle nodded, uncommonly touched by the scene. Maybe it was seeing Cub reunited with the only sort of family he had left or seeing Jack able to calm her worry. Or maybe it was because he didn't have a significant woman to worry about him or to come home to yet. His previous girlfriends hadn't worked out well at all.
Which ever it was he was glad to see them together again. So he backed out of the room to give them a bit of privacy until it was time to take Jack back home again.
"I was so worried about you, Jake told me that you had still been in severe condition when the doctors agreed to move you and I wasn't sure you would be getting the kind of care that you needed." Jack sighed heavily "This job that you have is getting to me and I'm not even doing the work." She ruffled his hair pulling it out of his face ever mindful of the bandage around his head. "One of these days you're not going to be so lucky."
"Are you trying to depress me?" he asked in a joking tone but he was actually partially serious. "Cause its working."
Jack smiled sadly "I don't want to depress you Alex but this is becoming too much. You've got to think about where this is going. Don't you want a future? You can't spend the rest of your possibly short life running from killers and I refuse to grow old and gray worrying about you instead of enjoying the good moments."
Alex nodded "I know."
Jack sat quietly savoring the fact that he was indeed okay before she asked "So are you being treated well?" she seemed a bit on edge.
"Of course," he answered firmly "Wolf's fiancée is a nurse so she's been helping me."
"You mean Rachel?" Jack asked "Jake introduced me to her and the rest of the unit. She seems like a nice person."
Alex nodded "And she knows about my big secret now too. But Wolf says she's trustworthy." He studied the pattern on the sofa
"Speaking of secrets" Jack bit her lip nervously "There are two other people that know now as well."
Alex's head shot up but he instantly regretted the movement as his neck began to ache.
"Are you okay?" Jack asked frantically as he winced and groaned
"Yeah you just startled me," he answered cautiously "So who's been initiated into the secret sect of the spy?'
Jack suddenly wasn't sure of whether his joking tone was a sign of his displeasure or his indifference.
"Do you know of Jason Blackwell and Elaine Campbell from school?" she asked
"Jason and I used to hang out but I don't know Elaine."
"Well they were especially curious as to why you had disappeared again. Tom told them you had been hit by a car but-" she paused for a second so Alex interrupted "But they didn't believe him right? Everybody thinks I'm some sort of psychotic shady character who's-" Jack cut him off after hearing enough "No it was nothing like that. They actually had wanted details that Tom couldn't give so they got suspicious. Later they apparently looked you up at the hospitals in the area but they didn't find you."
"Since of course they didn't think to look at St. Dominic's." Alex inferred slightly intrigued
"Right, the two of them turned up at the house Friday evening just after Tom and I had been talking about what's going on and it was safer to tell them then than to let them look for the truth elsewhere. We're sure they're trust worthy and they really do seem to care. Especially Jason, he came to see me yesterday evening wondering if there was anything he could do and he said to let you know that he looked forward to seeing you when this was all sorted out."
Alex was quiet for a little while "They truly understand how hard and important it is to keep?" He asked quietly
"They understand that if nothing else. Even I think I might have been a little too harsh but I needed to make sure they got the point."
"Well, sometimes I wish I could share it with someone else. It can be such a burden sometimes. So as long as they don't reveal anything I'm fine with it."
There was a light knocking on the doorpost and Snake, Fox and Eagle came in. "Sorry but times up." Eagle informed them gently. "We've got to move him now."
"I understand." Jack picked up her hand bag and hugged Alex again. "Its good to know that there are people you can trust, who can help you, isn't it?" she asked as she pulled away.
"You have no idea." He answered earnestly
After an exchange of thank yous, good byes and other sincere pleasantries, Alex found himself in the backseat of Fox's truck with Snake and Fox upfront on their way to his next temporary home. The motion of the car was lulling him to sleep but he refused to let his eyelids close, since as far as he was concerned that was all he'd done today. He decided to find out more about where he was going.
"So Fox," he began "Wolf told me that you have two daughters."
Fox nodded "Callista and Deanna, and things will go fine for you if you leave them be which you most likely will since they're only 4 and 9 respectively."
"Well no problem there." Alex answered.
"But the question is will they bother you." Snake pointed out in his quiet way.
Alex paused for a second "Well will they?" he asked.
"That remains to be seen". Fox answered. "I understand that Callista is nervous around strangers. But Deanna has no qualms about asking questions despite how much we've taught her to respect people's privacy. She's inquisitive and that's what I'm worried about."
"Well then I'll just make myself as repulsive as possible." Alex decided.
Snake laughed out loud and Fox shook his head with a slight smile on his lips. "I doubt that will work but we'll see." he said.
…………………………..
The next day Alex awoke to the sound of a bell chiming 12:00pm. Frustrated with himself for sleeping so late again he tried getting up rather quickly and strained his bruised ribs again. He yelped in pain and fell back on the bed with a quiet curse. To his surprise Fox's chuckle floated over to him from some where else in the mostly bare room.
Alex got up more slowly and examined his surroundings. It was a small spare room with one window in the far corner of the room opposite the bed he was in and next to the window was a desk and chair on which Fox sat, watching him with an amused expression on his face.
"You need to give yourself a break kid;" he continued "you're not going to heal in a day."
Alex frowned at him. "It is that much fun watching me sleep or are you that boring?" he asked irritably but Fox ignored the tone of his voice and got down to business.
"Earlier today Wolf informed us that Eagle was being followed this morning and no matter where he went, the person was able to track him.
We think someone has bugged him but we don't know who or how. Later when he was taking the Tubeto try and shakethe follower, a man bumped into him in the jostle- we know now that it was another tracker- and according to Eagle he said something as he passed and I quote, 'No good comes of hording the kid only bad' and that's it. Obviously Scorpia is on to what were doing." Fox studied Alex's serious but not frightened expression.
"Of course we believe him." Fox continued after a moment's pause "so we've stepped up security which includes one of us being with you at all time wearing Kevlar even while you sleep."
Alex nodded apologetically as he listening gravely.
"We have notified MI6 so they've stepped up negotiations as well but they're also suggesting a complete identity change with a faked death instead" Fox shook his head sadly "I hardly think you want that but it's your choice. For now, we told them to keep trying to work out a deal but apparently Blunt is reluctant to pay up.
"Yeah he always was a miser," Alex remarked wryly "spare no human expense but save on as much gold and prestige as you can."
"Oh really" Fox asked knowingly "sounds like him. He's been head of that department for a while now but the problem with change in politics is that you never can tell whether its for better or worse."
Alex nodded trying to get out of the bed again. He tentatively swung his pajamaed legs out from under the sheet and tried his weight on them. Of course his uninjured foot held up fine but the large hunk in the right leg of his pants would take no weight and Alex realized that he really had set himself back when he had tried to walk that first day at Wolf's house. What Rachel had warned him of floated back into his mind but he pushed it aside. Fox just watched quietly until Alex had come to his conclusion.
"Are you hungry?" he then asked
"Why not," Alex answered in a very sour mood "Feast today because you tomorrow you die."
"Well I don't know about a feast but I do have some hamburgers." Fox humored him "Maybe some French fries on the side will suffice." He answered getting up.
Alex gave him a surprised look before he smiled slightly, a crooked grin that indicating that he wasn't as depressed as he seemed to be. "Thanks, that sounds good."
Fox came over to stand next to the bed. "Would you rather ride on my back?"
"Than what?" Alex asked carefully
"Than me carry you bridal style like we've been doing, because walking is out of the question."
"Former thank you."
"Come on then," Fox stooped down by the side of the bed and helped Alex unto his back. Once Alex had his arms tightly wrapped around Fox's neck he said, "Go ahead,"
When Alex was comfortably sitting in a chair at the kitchen table, Fox got to work making them two burgers. After watching him for a moment Alex commented "What is it that gives me the impression that you guys can't cook? You seem to be doing alright but if circumstances were different and you tried to offer me a home cooked meal by yours truly I would have declined every time."
Fox laughed "I don't know maybe it's the 'men can't cook' stereotype but I know you're smarter than that." He put a griddle on the fire with a little oil on high heat. " But just so you know, I don't have to depend on anyone to eat good."
"I'll know for sure when I taste the burger." Alex replied good-naturedly
"That you will," Fox replied throwing the beef patties onto the hot griddle.
After a comfortable silence between them Fox said, "You should know, that because of what happened, you're only going to be staying here today before moving on. I can't afford to put Sophia and the girls in danger you see." He explained
"Of course" Alex answered seriously "I wouldn't want anything to happen to them because of me anyway. Its bad enough that you all have gotten involved but Scorpia is my problem; I don't want anyone else to get hurt by them, and definitely not for me."
Fox put down the two meals on the table and sat down looking Alex dead in the eye.
"When one member of K-unit has a problem we all help him fix it. It becomes the team's problem. Same goes for you. Scorpia is our problem now so we're all going to fix it. Now eat your lunch and I don't want to here anymore of that kind of talk anymore."
Alex gave him a curious look but then he smiled "Some times you guys seem to be the bossy bigger brothers I never had but I can't say I don't appreciate it right now."
"That sounds more like it."
Halfway through the meal Alex tried to pick up his burger, which was becoming more difficult, when all of the contents of it flew out onto his plate leaving him with two sides of mayonnaised bread clutched in his left hand.
The state of the sandwich coupled with the look on Alex's face made Fox nearly choke. When he did manage to swallow his mouthful he burst out laughing which irritated Alex even more.
"You would laugh," He accused "Since it's partly your fault. You lather on mayonnaise like it going out of style, with all this beef lubricant in it, my sandwich was bound to fly to pieces."
His accusations only served to amuse Fox further. When he finally recovered his breath Fox suggested toothpicks to hold the burger together which Alex had now rebuilt.
"And just so you know there is no extra mayonnaise in any of these sandwiches
"It depends on what you think extra is." Alex responded just as they heard keys turning in the lock.
Ugh. Review if you like but this whole story has been a disappointment to me. I've learned a lot since writing this and all I can do is cringe as I read this. I know I could have done better than this. But I promised a chapter this weekend here you have it.