Due to mocks and an appalling lack of time, updates will now be every Friday.
Alex remembered the last time he'd been camping. He'd been seven and Ian had taken him into the forest to learn survival skills. Ian had told him it would be the routine stuff but along the track he suddenly lost his uncle. Years later, he'd realised it was intentional, but at the time he'd been absolutely terrified and thought Ian would be mad at him for getting lost. He'd been forced to spend the entire evening and a bit of the night searching for his Uncle.
Hungry and cold, he used the skills Ian had already taught him to find some berries which he knew were edible. Then, to stay away from any predators that might have been lurking around, he'd taken refuge on a low branch, using his backpack as a pillow. Ian had intentionally made sure Alex had been given the bare necessities possible so he'd only had a torch and some spare clothes. No food, no way to contact him.
In the morning he'd been woken by Ian who had told Alex that he should have found him. It turned out that he hadn't actually been that far away from Alex and had left tracks. He did however congratulate Alex for finding food and not killing himself, and also for his choice of shelter. Age seven, Alex didn't care much for Ian's words and flung himself at the man, relieved to know he hadn't been abandoned.
The next 'camping trip' they took Alex found Ian relatively quickly and instead of revealing himself, took all of his food and waited until morning. Ian told him he was proud of him.
In an effort to make this camping trip as comfortable as possible, Alex was still injured after all and they didn't want him getting ill, Wolf had called up a friend and asked to borrow their tents which were one of the newest models.
The problem was that none of them weren't used to these sorts of tents. They were used to easy to put up, convenient tents that were good if you were hiding out. They had come with instructions however none of them seemed that good at following them. Alex, who had been excused from trying to help because of his ribs, watched them with faint bemusement, wondering how it was that none of them had a single idea what they were doing. Alex thought about helping as he had put up similar tents in the past, but considering how they'd hijacked his supposed file without his permission, left them to struggle a bit longer.
Eventually, Wolf realised they were never going to get them up and saw Alex watching them with a small smile.
"Hey Cub. You won't happen to know how to put these up, would you?" Alex's smile became wider and a cheeky glint entered his eyes.
"Maybe," he replied and Wolf groaned. The kid was going to make him beg, wasn't he?
"Think you could help?" He asked and Alex shrugged.
"I could, but I'm pretty comfortable." That was true. Going out into the fresh air had been a good idea. He wished he could go for a run and stretch his legs, but he doubted they would let him go alone and he didn't really want company. So instead he was content to sit and bask in the spring sun.
"You've got to sleep in these too, you know," Snake pointed out but Alex was unconcerned. He'd slept in worse, and there was no way he was going to wait until night to help them. He left them to fumble around for another ten minutes before demanding they give him the instructions. For 3 SAS soldiers and an MI6 agent they really did a piss poor job following a simple set of pictures.
Finally, after a half hour of Alex directing the men and all of them getting frustrated when things still weren't working, the tents were set up, the second tent going up much smoother than the first.
The sun was beginning to set, the blue sky turning a light orange colour and all of their stomachs began to rumble. They quickly set up a fire and had a meal of sausages and beans since camping limited their culinary choices. It didn't matter though, the real thing they were looking forward to eating were the smores.
As they each sat with their own sugary creation, Eagle started the conversation.
"So Cub, have you been camping before? I mean for fun."
Alex was fairly certain his trips with Ian didn't count so shook his head. "Not properly. I camped out with my friend in his garden once but it was hardly camping. It started raining so we ended up sleeping indoors anyway."
"You have friends?" Eagle said, and realising that his surprise at that sounded rude he clarified. "That is, uh, you have friends? Do they know about your um…lifestyle?"
The way he phrased it made Alex snort. "Yeah they do."
Ben suddenly realised that Alex must be feeling lonely. After all, the only people he really had time to spend with were four adults. "You know, you can always have them over some time," Ben offered. "Not a party or anything but if you warned us beforehand it would be fine."
Alex didn't have enough friends for a marginally large gathering, let alone a party, but he didn't mention that. Once upon a time he would have, but not since his missions kept him out of school for so long. He thought Tom might be willing to come over. Alex wondered whether Tom knew about Jack. He guessed it would have been in the paper, but then it may not where MI6 were concerned.
"I'll think about it," Alex said in response.
"I've been wondering," Snake said, and Alex had a feeling this was going to be one of those uncomfortable questions. "How does school fit around the missions? Do they just pluck you out randomly? It's ok if you don't want to answer," he hastily added when he realised that just asking might make Alex angry.
Alex considered the question. It wasn't that bad a question really, it wasn't asking about his missions directly. Then again, Alex was getting more and more reluctant to stop himself talking about the missions. There wasn't much point in keeping it secret and it would be better if they heard it from him than other sources. Still, he would only give up that information if asked from him in a manner he liked. Like how Snake had done it. Best not to let them get too confident.
"Not all of it is during school time," Alex replied. "But yeah, I suppose I just leave when I'm needed for a mission. Sometimes it's not entirely their fault." They look at him incredulously and he explained. "A couple of times trouble finds me first and the mission itself comes after. I kind of just end up getting involved. I'm lucky that way" He gave a wry grin that none of the other's returned.
"So…how many missions would you say you've been on then?" Wolf asked, unsure whether Alex will actually answer but figuring it's worth a shot.
Alex thought over it for a bit. "Four officially."
"What do you mean by officially?" Ben asked, noticing the careful wording.
Alex refused to talk about SCORPIA. That is something they don't need to know about. "Classified," he replied and though the men knew it was an excuse, they didn't push the topic.
"I'm guessing the previous mission is where you got your bullet wound," Snake said, and Alex, feeling they were getting a bit too personal for his liking, shut down.
"Maybe," Snake saw this was another uncomfortable topic, perhaps related to the other, and dropped it.
A tension filled the air that hadn't previously been there before and K-Unit decided they had asked enough about Alex's life. They suspected they wouldn't get anymore answers out of him even if earlier in the evening he may have been willing to give them. So instead, Wolf pulled out a pack of cards and they spent the rest of the night going through all the card games they knew. It was full of a lot of accusations, mainly towards Eagle, of cheating. Alex was pleased to note that no-one realised it was all him.
Alex woke with a start. Beside him, Fox stirred but otherwise didn't move. He stayed motionless until he realised it was Eagle's snoring that had woken him, something the rest of the men were immune to. Unlike the last time that had happened, he wasn't as glad as for once he hadn't had any nightmares. He guessed it was because he was sleeping in such proximity to the Unit and they somehow made him feel safe. Alex wondered when he'd started feeling that.
Bladder full and demanding emptying, Alex quietly moved out of the tent and moved to about a metre away. Far enough that they couldn't hear him, but close enough that he was still able to see the tents. He was about to return when he heard a rustle. Alex debated leaving it, it was probably just an animal, but his curiosity got the better of him as it usually did.
He crept towards the direction the noise had come from, taking care to make his footsteps as quite as possible. With any luck, an innocent animal would pop out, or maybe even one of Wolf or Eagle, who had been in the other tent.
Alex barely had time to stop the cloth that was shoved in his face. Going against his desired reaction, which was to inhale, he shut his mouth and held his breath to stop the smell of chloroform entering his system. He dug his shoulder back into his attacker and shoved the cloth away from him.
His attacker, obviously not expecting Alex to fight back, stumbled and Alex was able to get a brief look at him, not that it helped any. He was a man covered completely in black, a mask over his face to conceal his identity. His attacker came at him, quick as lightening but Alex was not going to allow himself to be taken that easily. He attempted to shout but just in time, his attacker shoved a hand over his mouth and kneed him in the stomach.
Alex anticipated it, so had sucked his stomach in, but it still seriously hurt. He attempted to bite his attacker to remove his hand but he wasn't deterred and moments before the man could hit him over the head, he pushed against him and managed to loosen the grip on him.
Alex kicked at the man, in an attempt to remove the grip completely and it worked for almost a second. In that second he was about to shout "Ben!" before something pricked him in the neck and it all went black.
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