A/N: So, it turns out the shifts that end at 12.30 AM leave you feeling sleepy and headachey and in desperate need of a shower. On the other hand, lazy Sunday mornings that involve getting up at 10 and then eating CocoPops while watching Finding Nemo are really rather epic, so I guess it all evens out. I was going to update this last night, when I got home, but seeing as I couldn't type, or think, in a straight line, I figured it'd probably be better if I waited until after I had slept.
And yes, this is an update after just a week. And you'll get an update next Sunday as well. And no, you can't go skiing in Hell, just yet. Let the snow settle, first.
Anyways, onto the chapter!
-o-O-o-
The house was dark when he got back. It wasn't unusual at this time of night. They had to keep suspicions down and lights blazing in a house all night would hardly be the best way to do that. It was still an hour or so until dawn, though, so Alex was fairly certain someone would be up.
He was right. His quick knock on the door was met with footsteps and a pause as the answerer checked him through the peephole before the door was pulled open.
Tom stood in the doorway, a grin plastered to his face. A grin that quickly faded when he saw Alex's guest.
"Who's that?" he said, confused.
"I'll explain inside," said Alex, carefully lifting Aaron out of the blanket and pushing passed Tom into the kitchen.
"Who the hell is that?" asked Matt, when Alex entered, unconsciously echoing Tom. "We're not a bloody day-care centre, you know!"
"Let's go find the others, so I only have to explain this once," said Alex wearily. "They in the other room?"
"Yeah," muttered Matt, heading into the living room, Tom close on his heels. Alex followed with Aaron and his guilt weighing him down.
The resistance soldiers took one look at the serious expression on Matt's face and began to file out. The policy of need-to-know only was firmly ingrained within the ranks. Alex was surprised to see Sabina slipping out among them. He guessed she must have made some friends among the soldiers. It made sense. She'd been here for a while now and she always had been a friendly person.
He cast an eye around.
"Where's Emily?" he asked, as he took in the usual suspects scattered around the room with various expressions of confusion and accusation on their faces.
"In bed," said Matt. "She's not on the nocturnal rotation anymore. You think she should be here?"
Alex nodded and Matt signalled Davies to go and get her.
They waited impatiently for her to arrive so that Alex could explain things, but no sooner had she walked through the door in pyjama bottoms and a tank top, still rubbing sleep from her eyes when yet another distraction delayed them.
Aaron began waking up.
"wh're we?" he murmured, nuzzling against Alex's jacket.
"Your safe," said Alex. "I promise."
But Aaron was becoming more alert by the second.
"Where's Daddy? What am I doing here?"
"Shh, shh," soothed Alex, tugging the kid up to face him. "I promised I'd keep you safe, yeah? Your dad's just got a bit of work to take care of, and he wants you safe. I said I'd look after you."
"You know my dad?" asked the kid, relaxing slightly.
"That's right," said Alex, telling the first outright lie. "Now, go with my friend Tom and he'll find you somewhere to sleep, yeah?"
"I'll fill you in later," promised Alex in a whisper as Tom came over and lifted Aaron into his arms.
"You better," scowled Tom.
The door had barely closed behind them when the others turned back to him.
"Start talking," growled Wolf.
"That," began Alex, "Was Aaron. Aaron Faulkner."
"Faulkner?" said Snake, disbelievingly. "You kidnapped his son?"
"Yeah," said Alex, his head ducking another couple of inches.
Reactions were mixed. Davies nodded thoughtfully once, while Matt and the SAS looked angry, but could obviously see the sense in it.
It was Emily and Graham's reaction that stuck in his mind. Graham gave him a disgusted look and walked out, while Emily paused only to slap him before following.
"Look," said Alex. "I'm not proud of what I did, but this way, there is barely any risk to our people and we are far more likely of getting the information we need."
He paused, thinking. "Speaking of information, I picked up these."
Leaning forward, he gathered together the files he had stolen and dropped them onto the table in the middle of the room.
Automatically, Fox leaned forward, but he stilled at a movement from Wolf.
"We need to sort out some stuff first," said the soldier. "First of all, we need to get rid of secrets that the kid could relay when we return him."
"Is there anywhere we can move the soldiers to?" asked Snake.
"We've got several other safe-houses," admitted Matt. "We normally move on rotation to reduce the risk but…"
"But you haven't been recently because you don't quite trust us, yet," said Alex, perfectly calmly.
Matt nodded, but at least had the grace to blush.
"Well, we move the soldiers out, then," said Alex. "How many of the women are here, as well?"
"About twenty," said Matt. "Same as the soldiers. We've hardly got all our forces here, after all."
Alex nodded. He had noticed that the force on the assignment to extract Matt had been bigger than what he had seen here, but had thought it politic not to mention it.
"Ok, well I'm going to suggest we move them as well."
"It'll have to be tonight," said Davies. "We don't want the kid seeing any more than he already has. If he returns to his father, he could tell everything."
"When," said Yassen, firmly.
Davies shot him a look. "I thought you were an assassin?" he sneered. "We have to be realistic here. If we return the kid, there is nothing to stop his father from telling everything. If they know what information we've got, then it becomes worthless. And that's assuming that his father even does as we tell him. We may have no choice."
"I don't kill children," said Yassen, icily.
"Look, we'll deal with that when we get to it," said Matt, rubbing his forehead. "Chad, I'm sending you to Safe-house Orchid to take charge of those getting displaced from here. It should be empty at the moment."
Davies nodded. "Shall I go and tell them to get ready, sir?"
Matt nodded and Davies quickly left.
"We should also move our planning out of the general living area," commented Alex, glancing around at the boards scattered on the wall.
"Once the others have gone, we'll have six free bedrooms, upstairs. We can turn one of them into a strategy centre."
"Strategy Centre?" asked Eagle with a grin. "I like it."
"What's in the files?" asked Fox, finally giving into temptation and crossing to the pile.
"Stuff that looked important," admitted Alex. "I didn't really have time to do more than flick through. Oh, and there was a map on the wall that I got a photo of."
He chucked his phone to Matt, who quickly opened the file. "I've got a laptop I can load this on and get a better look at it," he said.
"Great," said Alex, standing up. "I think I should go and find Graham and Tom."
"I'll come with you," said Yassen. "We need to talk."
-o-O-o-
A/N: So, what did you think? I had a bit of difficulty with their reactions to Aaron, I must admit, and I think they might have let Alex off too easily for what he did, but most of them can probably see the sense behind it. That said, I really, REALLY don't like Chad Davies. Grr.
Anyway, please review and let me know what you thought? Remember, reviews are love!