A/N: OMG so excited – went shopping today and now have an entire stack of books to read :D. Largest would be the complete works of Shakespeare, which I don't think I'll be reading all at once, somehow, but I also have Rapture, by Duffy (that's poetry btw), A book on the Buddha, Brother's Grimm Fairytales (I couldn't resist. I'm a sucker for fairytales and myths etc.) and the fifth part of the trilogy for Hitchhikers Guide. Plus a new sketchbook and the New Scientist Magazine. :D Ah, happy days. And it all cost me under £15. :D Got to love second hand book shops, yeah? Even better, was a charity book shop, so I don't have to worry about supporting big corporations or any of that moralistic stuff that people tend to babble on about. No-one has a problem with Barnados, do they?

In summary – you're lucky I already had this written or I'd be disappearing for a few weeks!

Sorry, just had to share my excitement. Lol. I know, I'm a complete geek. Anyone got any suggestions on which Shakespeare play I should read first? I know Macbeth, Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet quite well, so not them immediately, but apart from that, I would love recommendations!

Anyways, sorry about that (again). Onto the story!

Disclaimer: Not mine.

(Yeah, I know, my disclaimers are getting pretty boring, but I'm pretty sure you skip over them anyways by now. Hence the reason I could ramble about my excitement earlier: because no one is actually going to read it, are you? You're all too eager for the chapter. Oh god, I'm babbling again! Sorry!)

-o-O-o-

Alex was ashamed to admit that he had been avoiding Sabina. It hadn't been difficult, admittedly, given the fact that she had volunteered to take a shift watching over Steve and the other two injured men from Emily's – now Matt's – team. This just so happened to be during the day time when the men were confined to the attic. Alex may or may not have had something to do with that.

But despite his skilful avoidance, he was mature enough to realise that he owed her an explanation. He was a bloody spy, for gods' sake. He had faced down numerous psychopaths and saved the world more times than he could easily count, so why was he avoiding a conversation with someone who was absolutely not a threat to him.

He did owe her big time. First for saving his life on the beach and secondly for dragging her into that mess with Cray.

He hadn't had that many people who cared about him when he faked his death, surely he could have remembered to tell her?

But then, Sabina had never been a good actor. Tom could pull off grieving for his friend, Sabina couldn't have. And Alex couldn't afford to have anything that might hint he wasn't dead. MI6 were suspicious enough as it was, what with Wolf claiming he had shot him, then the clean up team only finding blood and a message from Scorpia.

He'd nearly did from blood loss that day and had spent the next twelve hours holed up in Wolf's apartment hooked up to a bag of O negative. He still had the scar on his arm. Still didn't know where Wolf had gotten the blood, come to that.

What were the chances that Sabina would see reason?

Well, she'd never been completely irrational. That was a bonus.

Of course... she'd seemed pretty upset. She'd gone to his funeral, apparently. Grieved for him, if you would. That wouldn't exactly endear him to her.

Fuck.

Well, there was only one way to find out. He'd have to speak to her.

He first got the opportunity first thing in the morning, when he was supposed to be trooping upstairs to join the other men on the mattresses.

"Sabina," he said, nervously scratching the back of his neck. "Can we talk?"

She looked at him coolly. "Alright."

He led them into one of the bedrooms. It was still early enough that it wouldn't look suspicious that the curtains were closed.

"I... I wanted to apologise," he said eventually. "It wasn't fair of me to leave you in the dark."

"No," she said, "It wasn't."

"But, you understand why I had to do it, right?" he said, desperately. "If MI6 had found out I was still alive..."

"They would have what?" she asked, coldly, "Made you go on another mission? Made you act like exactly what you are? You're a spy, Alex. Through and through! Even if they left you alone you would have been doing something dangerous!"

Ale winced slightly. It had been true when she knew him.

"That's not fair," he said. "And not true."

She raised an eyebrow disbelievingly.

He sighed, scrubbing a hand through his hair and sitting down on the bed.

For a long moment, they were silent.

"They would have killed me," he admitted, quietly. "They sent Wolf to do it."

Sabina paled.

"Oh, Alex," she sighed, sitting down next to him and wrapping an arm around his shoulder. He tried not to tense under her touch. From the way her arm dropped back to her side, he didn't think he had succeeded.

"I'm so sorry," she said.

"It's fine," he said, though in reality the betrayal still stung. "I got out. I spent two years living the good life until this whole thing came up. I just disappear again at the end of this and they can't do anything to me."

She smiled slightly. "Keep in touch this time, yeah?"

"I'll try."

-o-O-o-

The plans for president-napping (as it had been so aptly named by Tom) were coming along nicely.

The vice-president lived in an old house not far from where he worked. They had almost immediately ruled that out. There were too many variables. His wife and kids were there. As was a whole bunch of security. It could get... messy.

When travelling, he moved in a rather ordinary-looking sedan, but despite its unassuming appearance, the vehicle had more in common with an armoured tank than a regular car.

This, unfortunately, meant that the only place left for them to get to him was his place of work.

Luckily, that had been moved to a supposedly secret location after the resistance's attack to retrieve Matt. If they had asked Alex, he would have told them that keeping a location where so many people work a secret was implausible at best.

It took Alex and Yassen two days to discover its whereabouts by following various known employees, but they still needed more information. Normally, Alex would suggest kidnapping an employee for the information, but they couldn't afford to alert the enemy to a potential security leak.

Therefore, they had to develop a different plan.

Mathew, Wolf, Yassen, Alex and Emily were sitting in the kitchen. Most of the women were asleep, the men either out on patrol or taking their turn in looking after the upkeep of the house. Their spirits had lifted with the return of their leader, but slowly despondency was reasserting itself. It was becoming more and more important to secure at least a partial victory to raise morale.

"What we need," said Alex frowning at the table, "Is blueprints."

"And I suppose you're just going to pull them out of thin air?" sniped Matt.

"That isn't helping uncle," said Emily.

Alex really was getting a headache from that mode of address. Not only was Matt only about eight years older than his niece, but it wore on his very last nerve to hear someone declaring their familial relationship to the world. Especially in this situation. Was he allied with complete idiots?

And he didn't like the word uncle.

He'd never used it with Ian, had he?

He scowled and pulled his attention back to the room.

Yassen was looking at him thoughtfully, but everyone else's attention was focused on Emily still.

"-break in and find them."

"I'm sorry?" said Alex. "I zoned out there for a minute."

"We know where the blueprints of buildings are kept," repeated Emily, a little irritated. "We just need to break in and get them."

"Yassen's up for a little thievery, aren't you?" said Alex, turning to the Russian.

"Of course," said Yassen. "It will take one night with the correct information."

"And what will you be doing, Rider? Cowering in the attic?"

Alex sighed. "You really need to get your insults straight, Starbright," he said. "I can't be both a reckless adventurer who got your sister killed and a coward who hides in attics."

Matt flushed.

"And no, I won't be cowering in the attic. There are two things you need to conduct a kidnapping. Yassen is finding the perfect location, while I will be busy finding the time."

-o-O-o-

A/N: Hmm, I hope these dividing lines work now, I've tried so many things and they just keep disappearing. Anyone know why that's happening? It's rather irritating.

Oh, and don't forget to review!