I can't believe how negligent I've been with this story towards you guys. I know I don't like it that much and all, and its not that popular but you guys deserve some reliability. I said I would update regularly because it was finished.

Anyway I'm back. Seems like this fandom has grown a little tangled since I was last here. But I have a few more fic to add to the mess. I'm almost finish the next chapter of For Better Or For Worse and I've been working on a few others.

Here's the first installmemt in a Price of My Life marathon. Ending with the last chapter of this story on Saturday Night probably.

Enjoy.

Chapter 8

Fox instantly sobered and put his hand to his hip holster but did not draw his gun. By the time he reached the kitchen doorway to verify the sound, he heard the voices of his wife and daughters coming inside. Although he had relaxed visibly he didn't move from the doorway.

"Oh hi Kyle." A petite young woman about Jack's age greeted Fox with a peck on the cheek "I forgot that you would be here today." She said

"You forgot about Alex then." He answered returning the gesture

"Oh yes I did, I'm sorry. Where is he?" She apologized

"That's alright," he said moving further into the living room frowning at his silently broody older daughter. "What's the matter?" he asked gesturing towards Deanna who was sitting on the sofa. "She'll tell you." His wife answered obviously angry with the child.

"He's in the kitchen" Fox returned to the subject of Alex again "He's doing better now but don't forget what I said about the sensitivity of his situation."

"I know" she answered entering the kitchen.

Having been listening Alex was prepared for what he thought was going to be an awkward encounter. But Sophia, was a small woman with black eyes and hair and an easy manner about her that made Alex feel less on edge at first.

"You must be Alex, I'm Sophia." She offered her hand.

"I hope you're comfortable. Kyle doesn't usually bring people here so I'm not used to this but I'm glad I can help."

"Don't worry I'm fine." Alex answered "I hope I haven't caused any problems."

"Oh no when I said that I wasn't used to this I meant it's new not hard." She sat down at the table opposite him covering Fox's abandoned meal. She had sharp, pretty features in a small face and a neat, chin length bob. However her eyes were very piercing and Alex got the feeling she was scanning him even though her expression was friendly.

After a moment she gestured to his numerous casts.

"Does anything hurt? I'm surprised that you're up and about so soon after such an accident."

"I'm okay. Sometimes my head hurts but that's nothing serious. Basically I'm coping."

"Okay, well I'm glad you're doing better than when Kyle first told me about you. If you need anything just, say so and we'll see if we can help."

"Thanks" Alex answered hoping that Fox would soon return. He did but his daughter was close behind him. Deanna had her mother's looks especially the intense black eyes and she kept angrily pushing her curly black hair out of her face giving Alex a dirty look as her mother left and Fox told her to sit. Alex concluded that she was in some sort of trouble. He wished Fox would send him away- he was in no mood to listen to Fox scolding his daughter- but he knew that Fox wasn't going to break the rules for that.

"I want to know what happened" Fox was saying to her "And don't mind Alex, he has to be here right now but he'll soon be gone and he couldn't care less about your problems.

To emphasize this Alex closed his eyes and slightly leaned back in his chair. "I have no desire to listen to the troubles of a 9 year old girl." He said purposely using a condescending tone.

Her scowl deepened but she went ahead and explained to her dad what had happened to cause her to come back from school so early. Alex listened for a minute before his mind drifted back to his own problems.

If MI6 truly wasn't able to make a deal with Scorpia then he would only have one alternative. But he really didn't want to consider changing his identity. He was quite comfortable being Alex Rider even with all the downsides that came with it. But of course being someone else was better than being no one at all.

Still it was supposed to be a last resort. MI6 was supposed to try their hardest before leaving him no choice.

The thought rested heavily on his mind until Fox's daughter interrupted him. It was actually her staring that had bothered him. Some how he could feel it through his closed eye lids.

When he looked up in alarm and annoyance she was indeed giving him a thorough look over. Fox wasn't in the room, but Alex knew that he wouldn't have left for anything less than nature's call. When he acknowledged her with a low level glare, she spoke in a quiet voice that reminded him distinctly of Snake.

"Why are you so busted up?"

"I was in a car crash if you must know." he answered irritably

Her expression lost most of its frostiness which was replaced by sympathy.

"Oh sorry, that must have hurt."

"I don't remember much but I imagine it did." He answered cautiously

She nodded contemplatively "It's a good thing your face didn't get hurt." She continued

"Why?" he asked puzzled.

She looked slightly surprise. "You have a handsome face, you wouldn't want it to get busted up too would you."

"I never thought about it." Alex admitted

"Your face is important you know. Mum and Dad always say that it's what's inside that counts but I know what's outside counts too. That's why I always take note of a good looking face. I mean they act as though you should want to be ugly."

Alex was pretty sure this was an exaggeration but he humored her. "And what exactly do you call ugly?"

She got off her chair and took a jug of milk from the fridge. "That man who came to see Daddy yesterday was ugly."

Alex was surprise. He didn't exactly take special note but he wouldn't call any of the members of K-unit remotely ugly. So maybe she was talking about somebody else.

"What was his name?"

"Normally I wouldn't know but I was eavesdropping." She suddenly dropped her voice noticing her dad standing in the doorway listening "He said his name was something, something Crawley."

Alex laughed "Oh well I see what you mean."

"What's so funny?" Fox asked surprising Alex who didn't know he was there.

"Nothing really" he said "We were just talking about looks."

Fox sighed "Please don't indulge her."

"You are not off the hook young lady," he said sternly "But I need you go see your mom right now; I need to talk to Alex."

She shrugged seemingly unaffected by his threat. "Okay, bye Alex."

Alex acknowledged her with an absent minded nod looking at Fox seriously, he seemed to be worried. But before Fox was able to even open his mouth, his cell phone rang. He and Alex exchanged a glance before he answered.

"Hello"

Fox was silent for a few seconds in which his expression changed from cautious to almost frightened.

"Clarify!" he fairly yelled

"Do you mean only us or everybody in the house?" He demanded next

"How can I trust that?" Alex got the impression that something was very wrong

"Do you know what will happen if you're wrong?"

"I am not willing to take that chance. Keep them on our trail."

Fox's tone was meant that he had made up his mind. He hung up the phone looking the maddest that Alex had ever seen him.

"Don't move a muscle Cub; I'll be back." He said firmly and Alex dared not disobey as he saw Fox dart of the room and up the stairs. About a half a minute later Fox came running back down the stairs followed closely by his wife and daughters who went outside.

Finally Fox explained as he grabbed something from the counter behind him and came to help Alex up. "That was MI6, our location has been breached and an operative has been spotted on the way here now. We have to leave." As he carried Alex to his truck he said regret fully "According to Jones if I want to keep them off of Sophia and the kids I have to make sure they see us leaving the premises. I didn't want to expose you bu-"

"As I said already Fox do what you have to. I would have done the same in your place."

Fox nodded putting him in the back seat. Just as he was about to get into the front seat he saw a black SUV swerve around the corner. Fox told Alex to buckle up and get down as he slammed the door and gunned the engine.

As soon as the Scorpia operative realized that his targets were right ahead of him in a vehicle, he thought that his job would be easy. But he didn't count on Fox's phenomenally reckless driving.

After shooting down the one-way street that his house was located on, Fox took a series of rapid, sharp turns to get the guy off his tail but the other man was just as skilled at the wheel. Then Fox suddenly turned onto a relatively busy road, narrowly missing another car coming up the road that had the right of way. He then swerved in to the middle lane and accelerated down the road at well above the speed limit weaving between other cars till he realized in dismay that the light up ahead was red.

Knowing that their pursuer would also run the stop light if he did, Fox knew that that would not buy them any time. Instead he did something particularly dangerous.

As soon as he noticed the empty spot in the lane to his right, he darted through it and up onto the sidewalk thankful that there were no pedestrians to hit at the moment. He drove up onto the sidewalk completely and then started back down the street via the sidewalk. A number of people had to jump out of the way as he blared his horn.

Just as they made it safely back to the intersection they'd entered from to take a different route, Fox's phone rang again.

"I can't reach it now," Fox shouted over the constant car horns of the angry drivers. "See if you can reach into my side pocket and answer it."

Alex did as asked, retrieving the phone with only a little difficulty. It was Mrs. Jones again.

"Where's Fox?" she asked when Alex answered

"He a little occupied at the moment, you might have noticed." He answered sarcastically

"We need him to lead the operative away from the crowds. There's a country lane to the north of your current position where you'll find assistance. I'm sending the coordinates to his mounted GPS system now. You'll receive further instructions once all pursuers are eliminated."

"Does that mean we have more than one?" Alex asked but she had already hung up.

"That was the Jones. She said we need to lead the Scorpia man out to a deserted country lane she's sent to your GPS. You should see it now."

"I do" Fox took his eyes off the road for a precious second to check the screen on his dashboard

"Okay you need to hang on. I don't want you anymore busted than you already are."

"I'm sure that would be even less fun than the last time." Alex answered laying low

The chase continued for about another 15 minutes before they found them self on a pretty green street stretching ahead of them undisturbed for at least a few miles. Here and there a few trees dotted the sides of the street but it was mostly rolling fields.

Their pursuer, with a faster vehicle and no more obstacles was gaining on them rapidly.

Alex was frantically looking for some sort of helicopter, hidden truck even a legion of SAS soldiers who were supposed to be the assistance.

"Where are the blasted reinforcements?" they both exclaimed simultaneously

Alex glanced at Fox oddly and Fox returned the look. Then the phone rang again. Alex answered it on the first ring.

"Where-"

"Get down" she said "both of you."

Alex relayed the message to Fox and at that moment there was a high pitched whistling like a fire cracker and the vehicle 10 meters behind them blew up in flames.

The force of the blast tipped Fox's truck over causing them to tumble over but they were mostly unharmed.

Fox managed to climb out with only an achy cast for his efforts. Then he gently pulled Alex out. All though he was mostly fine Alex was still pissed off by MI6's timing. As soon as he saw Mrs. Jones he let her know.

"Make a memo to high marksmen Jones, unless of course you did the shooting your self then I understand completely." Jones ignored his insults assuming that that meant he was alright.

She started talking to Fox instead about the recent developments in the situation. He listened to Jones reports for a little before he interrupted angrily "Why are you the one everywhere? Don't you have people lower than you who deal with these sort of things cause I'm getting tired of seeing you. We have to rely on you for everything and I don't like that."

"Alex is a special case and we cannot afford any mess ups. I'm sure you're aware of the saying 'if you want something done right do it your self this is one of those times." she answered coldly

"Oh yeah." he answered knowingly "Look, we'll talk at the office when the others are present. You'll have to ride with Jones." He told Alex as he surveyed the damage to his truck. "And somebody, besides Jones, had better see about getting me a new truck." He added walking away.

If you can forgive me for my prolonged absence then leave a review. That is more my fuel than anything else.

Thanks