Sabina whined in her 'I want something and I want it now' tone "Daaaddd…. When is Alex coming home?" Last night she had been fobbed off that Alex was staying with his friend, the Canadian Tom. She knew Alex and his bestie Chelsea Tom were not talking. She had also noticed Alex's bedroom was completely cleared out. Not one thing of Alex's was still in the house.

Edward stopped eating his muesli. He had been expecting this question since Sabina had returned from her school trip yesterday. His daughter had obviously planned the confrontation, since she was awake and dressed at 8 on a Saturday morning. "Alex left last Friday, ran away. He's not coming back. He wasn't coping here. In fact, he's not doing well at all."

"So he's going back to London then?"

"No, he's staying with Tom McMorin, Tom's grandmother is fostering him now. She has already filed paperwork to adopt Alex. Mum talked to Evie yesterday, it sounds like Alex has settled in there and is accepting help after his little hiccup on Sunday." Edward pulled off his glasses and used his shirt to clean the glasses, needing a pause to try and break the news their foster son, ex-foster son had tried to kill himself. Had planned to cut his throat rather than return to San Francisco. Alex had preferred the finality of death to living with them. In nine weeks, they had gone from close friends to only talking via intermediaries. "There was a problem with Alex crossing into Canada on Sunday, he had left here without permission and was refused entry at the border as a runaway. Alex then slashed his wrists in the mens room. He was taken to Vancouver Hospital and granted emergency residency. He was in a psychiatric unit for four days. The Canadians took a dim view to Mrs. Jones trying to reclaim custody. We were cut out of the loop, as we never had official guardianship and well, its all in the past now."

Sabina processed her father's grim statement. She did not need to track down any information. She already had the all the awful details of Alex's breakdown. Tom had emailed her on Monday to call her a complete bitch. The hard part was that she had been. Silent, blank and emotionless Alex had not clicked with her friends here. They all thought he was a weirdo and complete froot loop. Lacey and Dee had teased him. Only it wasn't good hearted teasing, it had been cruel and vicious bullying, actions she had condoned by her silence. "Thanks for eventually telling me dad. I've only been waiting since Monday for you to ring me about it. Tom had the decency to emailed me on Monday. Mum rang to say she could tell me when I got home, but told me that Alex had left. Where is she by the way?"

"In Vancouver, she went to see for herself that Alex is getting better and settling in to his new home. Look, Mum is not happy about any of this. She knows that we failed Alex. She has been working so hard all summer, she never gave Alex and his problems her full attention. I'm to blame for trying to shake Alex out of his funk. I grounded him for being difficult. I took the fact he was avoiding his appointments with the psychologist as I thought he was just being lazy, not that there had been a complete breakdown in trust. I didn't let Alex explain. Mum knows your friends were nasty to Alex as well. All the incidents at school have been discussed this week. We both want to hear your side of the story. Mum will be back around 8 tonight. I think you can expect Liz not to take your side. I'm also in the dog house. We can only learn from this and move on. Hopefully we can try and mend our friendship with Alex, thats if you want to."

Sabina was sat with perfect posture, staring at her dad. She shrugged her shoulders, "I'll think about it. The sad thing is Alex was being distant to protect himself and us. Those bastards in London ruined his friendship with Tom Harris, by accident rather than design I seem to have cut Alex out of my life rather effectively." Mum would give sage advice. She was thinking that she would only try to patch things up if that Mrs. Jones was truly out of the picture.

…

Cassian's mother, Leandra James was in the garden of Evie's home in Vancouver, busy on the phone. The woman had two phones, her personal phone and her business one. After her mistakes last year, her personal one was always answered first. She was also no longer CEO of a major studio, but back running her own, independent production company. Started with three young and very hard working film makers. Small budget, fresh and quirky projects and most of her workload handled by her very able assistant. Her son came first. He had arrived back from France clean and sober, but a completely paranoid mess. She had handed in her notice at work straight away and gone on emergency leave. Both of them had attended a two month long intensive therapy at a small clinic in Montana. Well away from LA and any chance of either of them going back into to their damaging old ways of ignoring their problems. She had rearranged her whole life as her son was more important than power, money or any job.

Parenting had been a hard and steep learning curve; which was still no walk in the park but having her beautiful, wild and opinionated son give his thoughts and feelings to her straight and for him to get the full brunt of her views in return was a million times better than what had almost taken place. Now, she was here to accompany her son on a visit with Alex Rider, a boy who had gone in undercover to that school and exposed the evil schemes of its headmaster. Casein had laid down the law, anything with her power and pocket was to be made available for Alex, for their saviour. It seemed that another student had also persuaded his father to do the same. Evie Blantyre had stated all medical expenses were being met by Dieter Sprintz. She had promised to meet cost of after school activities and holidays. Cassian was planning on spending his free time in Canada. She was currently on the phone regarding real estate in West Vancouver, near the ski resorts.

….

Liz had expected to get a real chewing over by Evie Blantyre. The woman was kind, pleasant and understanding. Looking after teenagers was hard. Liz had expected to be caring for a strong, independent young adult; mature and easy like her daughter Sabina. Alex had not been a bother, except he had been in denial and avoiding causing problems and admitting he was not coping. Frightened to be family, to care because all had been destroyed by MI6. He had for over a year, failed to deal with his life, acting out with extreme behaviour, forced into silence to protect Jack; damaging their relationship in the process. Alex had carried on in the only way he knew how. Now hew had been forced to deal with everything by his own breakdown. Evie would keep Liz and Edward in the loop. The wily activist aided by the local authorities in British Columbia, all adamant to put the fifteen year old boys health and well being first. Forget London, Washington or Ottawa trying to impose their ideals on national security. They should have thought about that before using a child in operations.

As another pot of chamomile tea was brewing, Lea came in from her phone call. "I think I'll need a few lessons, I have not skied since college. I absolutely refuse to start skateboarding. I should have a holiday place sorted by Christmas. I'll send the details to the other guys, might as well use it as a base for all of us when visiting. So, Liz I read your husband's book on Damian; to think I thought I knew the man and he was as bad as Hugo Grief."

…..

Alex had not done much skateboarding this afternoon, letting their guest have more use of Tom's spare board. It was easier to watch Tom and Cass practice runs and tricks. The blond was currently laying on the grass, just chilling with Cassian at the moment. Their friend had gone to get drinks and snacks, from the 7eleven two streets over on the other side of the rail tracks. It was strange to be allowed freedom and to be trusted not to fuck up. Evie stated the boys needed fresh air and to be back for five, as they were all going out for dinner.

The sky was a brilliant blue with large pale fluffy clouds that promised it would be raining tomorrow. Alex was not even worried about school on Monday. Evie had already removed his stitches from the deep lacerations on his left wrist. The smaller wound on his right wrist had only needed dressing. He was still tired and would be on iron supplements for at least six months, longer if he stuck to the vegan diet. Evie was a good cook and she was patient enough to show Alex how to cook. Beans, pulses, cereals, veg, seeds, fruit and nuts, even some stuff called 'quinoa'. So far he and Tom had only had a sneaky feast of hamburgers once, but Tom was likely to return with some form of contraband. Alex missed cheese and a milk the most. Last night he had dreamt of gorging himself on stilton, better than the normal nightmares. Maybe that was the plan with him and Tom, get them craving normal things, then you wouldn't be tempted by the big bad drink and drugs or in his case hacking himself to bits.