AN/ Sorry this took so long to update, school was demanding my attention, but now that i have a week off I might update another few chapters (do not hold me to this). Thank you so much for all of the lovely reviews, I can't believe how much positive feedback I got for that first chapter! Anyways, thanks for reading and if you spot any mistakes, feel free to point them out and I'll change them. :) (Sorry if this chapter is awful btw)/

The next two seconds passed in what could only be called blind panic. Blind because Alex squeezed his eyes shut halfway through the jump. Panic because he realised that there was an abundance of sharp objects inside the truck.

The familiar crunch of something breaking accompanied his graceless crash landing. As luck would have it, he had managed to avoid landing on top of a pitchfork, only grazing it with his lower leg, however the same could not be said for his forearm. A small, stray metal scrap had managed to lodge itself about an inch deep into his skin, just missing any major veins and he assumed that the earlier crunch was one of his ribs.

The piece of metal was small, only the size of a large pebble but it still hurt like a bitch and Alex had to take a moment to compose himself before looking at the damage. For a half-baked, idiotic and potentially suicidal plan, the damage taken was reasonably little compared to many others.

It's only fun if you get a scar out of it… Alex thought to himself dazedly.

With the adrenaline rush wearing off, the pain in his arm was becoming ever more prominent and Alex knew that he had to get the metal out of it before the wound became any worse. Gingerly, he rolled up his slightly damp sleeve which was thankfully black and hissed as he saw a bead of blood ooze out and trickle down his hand. Fortunately the wound was thin despite being deep, restricting the amount of blood coming out but it would probably need a few stitches after the scrap was taken out.

Alex gritted his teeth. Alright…Okay, you've got this- it's like ripping a plaster off. Do it quick- Alex tugged suddenly and cringed as the rough, serrated edges tried unsuccessfully to cling to his flesh. Once out, the offending material was quickly discarded; thrown into a bush for some horrified person to find later. With the metal now removed, blood began to ooze out faster than before and Alex hastily dug around inside his pockets to find something to mop it up with. He didn't want to make a mess in this poor man's van. God knows what someone would think if someone looked inside and saw blood splatters everywhere.

A packet of tissues, a sock and a piece of ripped tarpaulin later, Alex was patched up to the best of his abilities. Considering everything, he was actually quite pleased that he wasn't dead and that the driver hadn't heard him fall into the truck.

He must be partially deaf or something. I wasn't exactly quiet…

For the next twenty minutes, Alex busied himself with trying not to fall out of the truck when it came to sudden, screeching halts at traffic lights and trying to get the GPS on his phone to work. Although he was somewhat familiar with Cambridge, he trusted Google maps a lot more than his memories from three years ago to guide him to Emmanuel College. All he knew was that it was somewhere in the middle.

As the truck gradually slowed down as it entered the main city, Alex noticed just how many people were on bikes. They were everywhere and some seemed to be riding with a death wish. Alex decided that he would probably have to get out of the truck soon. Now that they were off of the motorway, there was a much higher chance of him being seen lying next to the pitchfork and that would raise more questions than he was willing to answer.

At the next set of traffic lights he swiftly vaulted out of the truck, making sure to hide his tarpaulin-wrapped arm under his hoodie. The tarmac was still wet from the earlier storm which had thankfully eased off a while ago. Alex was only slightly damp. With all the grace of a cabbage, Alex landed in a particularly large puddle, managing to both soak his trainers and splash a small dog with the dirty water. The owner of the dog looked extremely offended and like she was about to yell at him so Alex decided to save himself the bother of a confrontation and by running away. It wasn't exactly the worst thing that had happened that day, but he was already late, bleeding and wet and just wanted to get to that cursed lecture hall already so that he could sleep.

A vibration in his pocket told him that Tom had just messaged him. Tom was the only person who ever messaged Alex. It was quite sad really.

After quickly looking at Google Maps and happily noting that he was just a five minutes' walk away, Alex opened the text.

"Hey, the talk just started, I saved you a seat near the back. You should probably get here soon, I think Mr Jackson has noticed you're missing. Do you know a Mr Smithers by any chance?"

Alex nearly choked when he saw Smithers' name. Was it really Smithers or just someone with the same name? Alex hadn't seen the man since Egypt even though he'd been on a few more missions. Alex had found himself missing the man's jolly reassurances and badly named gadgets.

Alex became so lost in thought that he almost didn't notice that he'd walked straight past the front gates of the college. He would have carried on walking if he hadn't seen the school coach still parked on the side of the road. Alex took a moment to glare at the coach driver for leaving him behind before turning into the gates with a group of young people he assumed were students. It was moments like these that he was glad to look older than he was, otherwise the security guys at the door definitely wouldn't have let him in so easily- they barely even glanced at him.

Once inside, Alex silently marvelled at the perfectly mowed lawn and beautiful old building before texting Tom for directions to the lecture room. The reply was almost immediate. He was about to make his way there when a student carrying a pile of books and folders pummelled into him. He was unable to hold back a small cry of pain as his ribs took their second beating of the day.

"Ah shit. Sorry about that…should've been looking where I was…hey are you okay?" The student looked vaguely worried.

"Yep, I'm fine," Alex wheezed as he stiffly bent down to help gather the books that were now scattered across the floor, "I just had a bumpy start this morning."

"It's four in the afternoon."

"Yes. It is... Hey, do you by any chance know how to get in through the back of the lecture hall here? I'm late and don't want to just waltz in through the front entrance."

The man frowned then shrugged. "Sorry, I've never really used that room. I think there are some stairs that lead there but I'm not sure."

Alex could tell that the man wanted to leave by his awkward fidgeting so he quickly said thanks and purposefully made his way towards a random door and opened it with gusto. Upon entry, Alex paused, realised he had made a massive mistake, internally screamed, backed out of the room, and internally screamed some more.

He had found the lecture hall alright. And then he had just burst in right behind the speaker.

Maybe nobody noticed…

Alex's phone buzzed.

"That was quite the entrance there mate. You might want to get away from the door- Mr Jackson's coming out."

Sure enough, moments later Alex heard footsteps behind the door and he had just seconds to scramble away and hide behind a pillar before a very angry physics teacher stalked out into the courtyard, muttering something under his breath.

Alex could feel the wrath emanating off the man, who seemed to have something against him, and decided to make a dash for the nearest other door before he was found in his terrible hiding spot. What kind of spy was he if he couldn't evade a teacher? He could hear the footsteps coming closer and felt like he was in primary school again, playing hide and seek, however possible expulsion was now the forfeit. Pulling up his hood so the Mr Jackson couldn't see his trademark dirty blond hair, Alex suddenly made a dash for a group of students in front of the door in hope of using them as cover. He almost thought he had gotten away with it when he heard his teacher shout something unintelligible from not too far behind him.

Alex groaned and rolled his eyes. Couldn't this man just let it slide?

The group of students provided a good barrier between Alex and his rampaging teacher; Alex had no trouble nipping between them but Mr Jackson who was a fair bit broader than the slight teen had to physically part the bodies in his way. This gave Alex a good ten seconds to get through the door and decide whether to go left, right or to hide. He almost felt like he was playing Outlast, just without the constant threat of death.

Hiding seemed like the best option, seeing as he had no idea of the layout of the building, so he quickly pushed open a random door so that it was swinging when Mr Jackson arrived, then ran back to the door he had just come through so that when it opened seconds later, he was hidden by the heavy wood.

Alex held his breath as he waited, hoping that the physics teacher would notice the swinging door on the far side of the room. He couldn't move yet, but the heavy door he was hiding behind was slowly closing and if Mr Jackson didn't leave soon he would surely notice Alex standing there. The seconds ticked by and just as Alex was about to admit defeat, Mr Jackson took off towards the swinging door.

The spy wins this round I'm afraid, Sir. Alex chuckled to himself as he slipped back out into the courtyard.

With one problem out of the way, Alex now needed to find the most inconspicuous way of getting into the hall before the teacher came back. From his brief glimpse inside the room, Alex had seen that Tom was sitting near the back, but still on ground level, near a window…

All at once, yet another awful plan formulated itself in Alex's mind. Quickly, he ran down the side of the building, searching for the right window. He cringed when he almost made eye contact with one of the pupils from the other school but continued his search and five windows later, Alex found Tom, who looked like he had fallen asleep on the window pane. He woke with a start when Alex tapped the window right next to his ear then proceeded to give him the most incredulous glare as Alex pointed to the latch on the inside of the window. Grudgingly, he flicked open the latch and opened the window just enough for Alex to slide through.

For some reason, Alex's usual grace seemed to have deserted him today and once again Alex's fall into the room was accompanied by the sound of screeching chairs, the clattering of the window falling shut and a loud exclamation of "Shit!" as he landed on his ribs for the third time that day. Tom tried to cover up the sounds with a coughing fit but that only served to draw more attention to them in the silent hall.

Alex could practically feel every pair of eyes turn to stare at them and he was exceptionally glad that he had landed on the floor so that he was somewhat hidden by the chairs around him. The same could not be said for Tom whose coughing fit was slowly dying down and face was rapidly turning red.

An entire minute of silence ensued- Alex counted the seconds on his watch, then the bemused voice of the speaker echoed through the hall, drawing back the attention of most of the teenagers.

"Well, I'm not entirely sure what that was, but as I was saying, that is more or less all you need to know about the tech department. If you have any questions, ask them now or forever wonder, because I need to leave here in less than ten minutes."

I know that voice!

Alex scrambled to get up from the floor and sit in the chair next to Tom (who was still bright red) to confirm that it really was the man who he hadn't seen for over a year. And lo and behold, there he was in all of his fat-suit, fluorescent shirt glory. Strangely enough, Alex actually felt slightly offended. The last time he had seen this man, they were being chased through the streets of Cairo by armed men who were intent on killing them both and Smithers had dropped the biggest bombshell he thought possible on him. After that he just left and Alex wasn't sure that they'd ever see each other again. Hell, he didn't even know that he was alive until now!

Alex was suddenly angry. The one person who he thought was his friend in MI6 had been blanking him for God knows how long, probably content in the knowledge that Alex was safe, but couldn't even spare a moment to let the latter know that he was back in the country.

Gripped by frustration and rage, Alex stood up with his hand raised. Tom looked startled and thoroughly confused and gave Alex a look that pleaded for him to not draw more attention to them than needed.

Alex ignored his best friend.

"I have a question Sir." Alex couldn't help the venomous tint in his voice. Although the room was large, his voice carried through the silent room. Once again, rustling could be heard as everyone in the rows in front of Alex turned to look at the one student who actually had a question.

Smithers' eyes briefly widened in recognition, then his features returned to their previous jolly expression. Not for the first time, Alex wondered how on earth his fat suit was so realistic.

"Of course sonny, fire away."

Don't "sonny" me. Alex clenched his uninjured fist inside his hoodie sleeve.

"Do you think it's important whether operatives are told that their partners are safe after dangerous missions?"

Wow Alex. Way to be discreet. That was in no way suspicious even though it had literally nothing to do with technology in MI6.

"Umm, I mean, like, you know, do you think operatives should always be able to contact each other even when they're split up, like do you have a `gadget' for that or something..?" Alex mentally face palmed, and even Tom sniggered next to him at that awful attempt of a cover up.

Smithers on the other hand looked slightly taken aback.

"That was quite specific I must say, but yes, I do believe that it is important that operatives know that the people they work with are safe, especially once the mission is over-"

Alex cocked and eyebrow and crossed his arms, in case Smithers missed the questioning look on his face.

"-however sometimes, for many reasons, the higher ups choose to withhold this information. No matter how much it hurts the team, sometimes it's better that some people are believed to be dead."

Of course.

"Does that answer your question?" Smithers was back to smiling brightly.

It wasn't his fault. It was Mrs Jones.

"Yes, thank you Sir." Alex smirked back at him, all anger from before gone. "Just one more thing if you don't mind though?"

"What is it?"

"Your fly's open."