ENJOY!
Alex and Ben were standing at the back of the shooting range trying their hardest not to laugh. James and Kerry were shooting, or attempting to. They had hit three bulls eyes each, none of them perfect and out of roughly 100 shots each, Lauren was standing next to them and was not even trying to conceal her laughter.
"Lauren, why don't you try!?" James snapped finally,
"I don't need to learn yet so therefore it is not necessary." Lauren replied,
"Alex?" Kerry asked her voice slightly annoyed, so far the newcomer had done barely anything in their training, mainly due to Snake pulling medical reasons out of thin air. Alex glanced at the medic,
"Snake?" He asked,
"I don't want you to. Not yet, end of the week." Snake replied,
"Go." Wolf ordered, "Fox, Cub, Lauren and Snake, go." They departed and headed to the hut,
"Why aren't you actually shooting?" Lauren asked,
"You're perceptive, you know that?" Ben muttered, over the past ten days Lauren had shone at all the tasks, bar shooting, and shown a talent in noticing things. Like the white lie Snake had told.
"I don't like shooting." Alex admitted,
"Why?" Lauren queried,
"When James and Kerry aren't on the range I'll show you." Alex sighed, despite his best intentions Lauren had grown on him, leading K unit to tease him about having a crush. Alex had tied Eagle to his bed, hidden Wolf's gun cleaning kit and Snakes medical manuals given Ben some of Smithers nausea inducing bourbons. But when Wolf had stormed into the teens hut to demand he return it Alex played the saint and denied any knowledge of the matter. He thought, just to be on the safe side, he would sleep in Rats old bunk that night and return the things later, he did want to live after all.
"So, what's on timetable for now?" Snake asked,
"Shooting, but as Lauren isn't doing that we'll have to start languages early." Ben replied, she grinned and lounged on Alex's bunk,
"So. What today?" She asked,
"How are you with Farsi?" Alex asked stealing Ben's bunk and grinning,
"I have as much knowledge of that language as a five year old would." Lauren replied, "So, when do we start?"
"Why are you so eager to learn new languages?" Snake groaned only being bi lingual himself in English and French.
"I like to be able to survive anywhere, and Alex is a great teacher, my Russian, Spanish, French, Italian and German have improved drastically since he started." Lauren shrugged, "Farsi, teach me." She ordered, Alex grinned and the lesson started.
"What the hell?" James asked as he walked into K units hut and saw Ben and Snake playing cards then Alex and Lauren sitting cross legged across from each other talking in a foreign language, one he couldn't understand. Alex seemed to be teaching and Lauren was... absorbing what he said, she flashed him a grin then said something hesitantly, then raised an eyebrow at Alex who grinned, he corrected something, James laughed as his sister groaned and muttered something complementarity in Russian, Alex shot back another insult in Spanish, from there the language insults began.
"Shut up!" Wolf bellowed finally having enough,
"Sorry." Both blondes who had been bantering stated, then they paused and repeated the sentiment in English, Ben snorted amused.
"Just when you were going a whole day without any Russian Cub." He teased,
"You are taking a long time to recover from Russian this time." Snake frowned, concerned,
"Fox's already been through that." Alex brushed off their concern and returned to teaching Lauren the finer points of conversational Farsi. It was Swahili next.
"When is he going to be training with us again?" James asked pulling out his Russian textbook,
"When I clear him, why? You doubting his abilities?" Snake asked a warning in his voice, a warning James took no heed to.
"Yes, I am doubting his abilities, all I know is that he has been here before and managed twelve two on the assault course, which must be bull as Wolf can only get twelve thirteen, apparently his hand to hand is so advanced he doesn't need to train, the only words he needs to get out of shooting practice is 'I don't like guns' which must mean he doesn't know what they can do and has probably never shot one before, be holds himself above us simply because he is MI6 unlike us who are 'measly' MI5 he gives us unrequited pointers, where he doesn't even participate in the activity," James rant went on, until eventually Alex's patience was gone, he stood up and brushed past James, by the time he was out the door the rest of the hut was realising James was on the floor unable to move, they had briefly heard a 'screw you James' and then he was gone, Kerry instantly crouched at her boyfriends side and went to help him up,
"What'd he do to me?!" James exclaimed still unable to move, Ben sighed and grabbed one of his arms, Wolf grabbed the other and they hauled him upright, then Ben pushed a few pressure points and caught the teen as his legs buckled,
"Good as new." Ben then turned to the rest of him old unit,
"I haven't seen Cub like that since Wolf stuck his foot in his mouth." Eagle groaned,
"Tell me about it, same plan?" Snake asked,
"Yep." The three others nodded and confirmed,
"Fox, you go get him, lets face it, three years and we still have no hope of finding him unless he wants to be found, we'll go get the rest of the stuff." Wolf ordered,
"Fox," Snake called, "I know its redundant but I feel the need to remind you to be careful with him."
"When am I not?" Ben flashed their medic a smile and jogged off,
"Moron." Lauren hit her brother over the head and left the hut, tailing Ben, she lost him in the woods, then found him again by following voices.
"-Right to," Alex was saying, he had his back to both her and Ben so hadn't been seen yet,
"He didn't, the only basis for that was on the fact he hasn't seen you, we both know if you didn't know what you know you wouldn't be alive today." Ben replied, "Come on, normally you would have laughed at that and resumed whatever you were doing ignoring comments like that, what's wrong?"
"What makes you think something is wrong?" Alex countered, "Aside from that, maybe its an off day, maybe my shoulder hurts."
"You took nearly two weeks to break out of speaking Russian, normally you do it in under a week, a day for each month you spoke it. You have been preoccupied and not concentrating, you slip on on the simplest things and let James rile you up. Normally I would have put it down to the mission, but this is a positive holiday compared to what you normally do, then I would say it would be working with cherubs, but you knew they existed and have already been through that fury. Therefore something must have happened in Russia." Ben concluded,
"You have improved." Alex commented,
"I learnt from the best." Ben inclined his head at Alex, "The senior field agent after all is supposed to teach their junior."
"Don't worry, I still have an awful lot to teach you." Alex laughed lightly, Lauren was shocked, Alex was the senior field agent!
"So what happened?" Ben pressed, Lauren couldn't hear the next words but they obviously meant a lot. Ben's back stiffened but then he moved and wrapped his arms around his ward. Lauren sighed silently then crouched behind the trees giving them a moment. When she heard branches snap as they left she followed. They headed to the combat area and slipped of their jackets, then they took up fighting stances,
"I'll mind you shoulder." Ben promised,
"Thanks, Snake would kill both of us otherwise." Alex grinned, then they sprang. Slowly Lauren felt her jaw drop as they fought, Alex was... Good, really good, within seconds Ben was on the floor, he frowned,
"Again." The elder spy demanded. This fight lasted longer, nearly three minutes. Still Ben lost, the third fight ended up in a draw when they both dropped to the ground exhausted calling a truce. Alex staggered to his feet and offered Ben his hand,
"Enjoy the show?" Alex and Ben called,
"How?!" Lauren gasped out blood rushing to her face,
"Spy." The two spies pointed to themselves,
"No, how did you learnt to fight like that?!" Lauren managed to speak.
"Classified, I'm afraid." Ben replied in Farsi cocking an eyebrow, testing her, the teen frowned deep in thought,
"I'm afraid." Lauren translated what she could slowly as they headed back to her hut, Alex and Ben repeated 'Classified' in Russian, Spanish and French before just telling her the English.
"Oh!" Lauren grinned and repeated the multiple translations to herself a slow smile spreading across her face, "Thanks." She slipped inside, but was unable to shut the door before James and Kerry saw them,
"Alex!" Kerry blurted,
"Kerry." Alex replied coolly, "James." He turned ignoring the cherubs, Ben led him into the hut and someone pulled him into a rough hug,
"He's an arse hole." Wolf stated gruffly letting go and ruffling his hair,
"And that's from someone who knows first hand what an arse hole is." Eagle added with a grin, Snake led the blonde over to his seat at the table and forcefully sat him down.
"Dinner time I believe." The medic pulled off the bed sheets that had been covering the table to reveal fruit, sweets, tea and hot chocolate, all almost unheard of things in BB.
"You didn't have to," Alex exclaimed,
"We know, you need to really begin to accept we don't always do things out of guilt, but because we want to. You were pissed, rightfully so, so we decided to cheer you up. This is the result, now drink up." Snake handed him a mug pleased with the slow smile that was spreading across Alex's face.
"You know Alex, they don't actually like you, it's their job." Gregori scorned slowly walking around Alex who was tied to a chair, "Jack was out of obligation, and that comradeship from your SAS buddies," He laughed maliciously, "Well, lets just say, they're being paid well," The knife that was in his hands reflected the light as he flipped it and caught it, suddenly the knife was no longer in his hands it was in Alex-
"ALEX!" Ben's voice woke him, he sat upright and bolted to the bathroom retching into the loo Ben following behind frowning, gently he supported his ward and rubbed his back in soothing circles. Eventually the teen collapsed against the wall rubbing his side where he had been stabbed and shut his eyes still shaking uncontrollably. His eyes flew open as the world tilted and the floor disappeared,
"Ben, put me down." Alex murmured too weak to really fight,
"Not a chance." The ex SAS man replied grimly, he put Alex down on his bed and then sat opposite him, "You should tell them what you told me." He prompted, Alex opened his eyes again to see three SAS men staring at him.
"Russia was bad." Alex started,
"We gathered from the bruising." Snake commented.
"That was just the start, nothing really, the-"
"Nothing! Cub you almost got fucking raped again." Snake hissed fury rolling off him in waves it was nothing compared to the three other glares he was getting. Wolf and Eagle had guessed, but having it confirmed was another thing all together. Ben was angry at the way Alex dismissed it.
"Yassen got me out." Alex whispered,
"If that wasn't the problem, what was?" Wolf asked detecting a further story,
"Yassen." Alex breathed,
"What about him? We know you are conflicted in your opinion with him, what with your dad, Ian and-" Snake was cut off,
"He didn't kill Ian." The blonde blurted,
"WHAT?" Three voices exclaimed,
"Yassen didn't kill Ian. SCORPIA couldn't risk it, Ian was getting too close and they needed him gone, Ian looked too much like John so they knew there was a personal link, they couldn't risk Yassen bottling out at the last second so they got someone else to do it. Gregori Mann. He's the one who had kidnapped me and stabbed me, the nightmare I just had. When I was released from hospital Yassen found me and demanded to know what had happened. I told him and he went to find Gregori, he killed him but not before Gregori could gloat about killing Ian.
"Yassen had forgotten that everyone thought he had killed Ian and wanted to set the score straight with me. He told me two things, one he didn't kill Ian." Alex frowned yet looked as though a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders,
"And the second?" Ben prompted,
"Helen made him my god father." At the shocked looks he elaborated. "Yassen knew John worked for MI6 but didn't sell him out, the reverse actually. Yassen kept feeding information to John about SCORPIA and when John died, he fed it to Ian. But he got to know John and Helen, and me I guess, well before they died. Helen asked for Yassen to be a god parent. Some fucking great role model god parents I have. One murdered my parents and tried to off me and the other is a trained assassin." Alex said nothing as he let his unit absorb that information. Ben slipped an arm around him and kissed the top of his head,
"Go to sleep." He murmured.
"No." Alex replied stubbornly exhaustion showing in his voice. Slowly the three other members of K unit fell back to sleep but the two SO spies stayed awake, Ben slowly running his hand through his partners hair until his breathing steadied and the teen fell asleep, Ben smiled and went to lie him down, his plan was scuppered when Alex refused to let go of his top. It was an old reflex that Ben hadn't seen since Alex had first trusted him, Ben woke him from his nightmares made Alex tell him then waited for him to fall asleep, as part of his subconscious didn't want to be left alone he refused to let go of his guardian. Ben had found he didn't mind, as long as Alex felt safe, but that had been in a double bed, not an SAS cot, and Alex had been smaller then.
Sighing the spy wriggled down in the cot making himself as comfortable as possible before shutting his eyes, in no time he too was asleep.
"I'm not waking them, they're adorable." Eagle murmured eyeing the two spies sleeping on Cub's cot,
"We went through this before breakfast, someone has to wake them, we have breakfast for them so they got half an hour more sleep than the rest of us. Wolf wake them." Snake sighed,
"No. I value my life." Wolf snorted, he caught something out the corner of his eye, "They're awake anyway." Ben was smirking,
"I am, Cub is not." Ben sighed, as one the others in the unit looked at him, "I know, he is asleep and I am not waking him."
"I didn't realise he still did that." Snake said with a fond smile,
"He hasn't for two years, Russia must have really shaken him up, and you know the three places he feels safe, he has two of them here, he's not waking due to the fact he feels safe." Ben sighed,
"True, he feels safe here and with you, and to an extent us, and at home. With you so close and being here he must feel really safe." Snake's smile grew,
"Yet despite feeling safe and therefore having an ability to sleep no human can sleep through a conversation, especially when their pillow is the one talking." Cub grumbled, his voice rough, K unit jumped in shock, Ben just smirked.
"Thought you'd got used to that by now." He commented cocking an eyebrow,
"We had but-"
"Shut up." Alex grumbled and wriggled back down under the sheets, he coughed badly, Snake frowned and felt their youngest members forehead,
"You feeling OK Cub?" The medic asked feeling for his pulse, the frown deepened,
"I'm fine, just tired." The teen pulled his wrist away and turned over, Ben rolled him back and Snake reclaimed the wrist. Alex rolled over leaving his wrist in the medics grasp causing Eagle to chuckle lightly. There was a knock at the door, Wolf opened it glowering,
"Uh... Lauren's not feeling great." James stuttered scared of the unit leader,
"I'll go see her in a minute, you Cub are to stay exactly where you are." Snake warned then left. Alex rolled over then sighed,
"Ben." He complained,
"What?" The spy asked pulling a top over his head,
"You were my pillow." Alex pouted and glared. The spy rolled his eyes and sat on the cot again, Alex grinned and promptly fell back to sleep, the three adults exchanged worried glances,
"He's not feeling well." Wolf muttered, Ben ran his hands through the teens hair worry etched on his face. Alex never went to sleep voluntarily. Ever.
It was so extreme that when they had found out about the nightmares Alex had refused to sleep with them in the building. Eventually Snake had threatened him with sedation and he had slept. Gradually the nightmares had decreased until they were just after stressful events, such as finding out that the man you had spent the past three years believing shot our uncle didn't, and that he was actually his godfather as well, and always after missions. It was one of the many changes that had occurred due to the increase in trust between them. Yet still Ben was trusted the most.
"We're back." Snake announced entering the hut with three teens trailing behind him dejectedly, "Thought we'd get the two sick ones in the same place." He pointed at Ben's cot and Lauren obediently went and lay on it. "Cub."
"Is asleep." Wolf replied pulling his shoes on,
"Bullshit." The medic replied,
"Trust me, we thought the same, he is well and truly asleep." Eagle chuckled,
"Well he is until I move." Ben corrected,
"You shouldn't be his pillow then." Wolf stated, the three other adults looked at him with raised eyebrows, "Fine." Wolf grumbled admitting that he knew that Ben would do anything to help Alex sleep better.
"Breakfast. I'll be back to check on you after that then sporadically during the day." Snake stated, Ben stood eliciting a sigh from Alex,
"Wolf, there's something wrong with the pillows here, they have an annoying habit of moving." He grumbled, Eagle laughed,
"I'll be back soon to make sure you take your meds," Snake stated,
"Aren't they old enough to do that themselves?" Kerry queried,
"Yes but one, they may be asleep, and two; I know Cub." Snake glared at their youngest team member,
"Me, not take my medication!? When have I ever done that?!" Cub exclaimed mock affronted,
"Do you want me to answer chronologically or alphabetically?" Ben smirked,
"Cub, the fact that you haven't tried to escape or tell us that you are fine just goes to show how bad you are feeling, you need to take them, they make you feel better." Snake groaned.
"You sound like Dr Manning." Ben chuckled.
"I normally deal with Cub in less life threatening situations, for example he is normally conscious when I treat him. When Dr Manning does he is usually hanging on by the skin of his teeth, you Fox are no better." Snake glared at the two spies,
"Occupational hazard?" They replied in unison, three glares were all they got in response,
"Breakfast. Go." Alex pointed to the door and they six traipsed out, "Night Lauren."
"Night Alex, soon I will drill you on all the cryptic things you say, but when I no longer feel so shit." Lauren mumbled,
"Sound plan." Alex agreed. They were both asleep in minutes.
So... Please review, I swear more will happen soon and they will go on the mission... Promise. Give me any ideas you like they'll be welcomed :D