Missy sat and read through her guide book as she waited for Tony and Gerard to get ready for a day sightseeing. Alex was sat in the small courtyard garden reading a biography of the astronomer Hershel. The PA was half tempted to go off on her own as Alex had no interest in anything she suggested. The weather report stated showers later and it was surprisingly cool. She had left summer in California for Winter in the southern hemisphere. She would suggest the opera house to start and if the weather turned foul they could spend the afternoon in the Sea Life Centre to see the Great Barrier Reef exhibit. It was not the time of year to go to the beach.
Slate grey clouds, thickened and rather than showers, torrential rain bounced off the roads. The taxi dropped the party off for their educational afternoon, with Missy three strides ahead already spouting facts and fun things to do.
Alex stood and stared at the Grey Nurse Shark swimming in the Aquarium above him. He still dreamed of the Great White that he encountered at Skeleton Key. The flat blank eyes, the deadly teeth and the sheer power and force of this ultimate man-killer. He had headed straight here, rather than wander through the other exhibits and habitats. Tony and Gerard were probably ohhing and ahhing over the wondrous sights of the Tropical Fish and Coral. He could guess Tony would not have come had he known about the shark exhibit. Too many nights spent calming a screaming teenager terrified from night terrors. The grey shape in the dark water was minute compared to he beast he dreamed about.
Missy walked up to Alex, "Enjoying the fish, Alexander."
"No... They need a Carcharodon carcharias for me to be impressed." Alex stated not taking his eyes off the shark behind the thick plexiglass.
"You like sharks?"
"No, they terrify me. I have regular nightmares about them."
"Based on some cheap horror movie then." Missy was surprised as the nineteen year old never normally admitted any weaknesses.
"No... I had a close encounter with one diving during a holiday in Cuba. 2001." Alex left the rest unsaid but he was drawn back to the day everything went to pot. He could have told Missy the gory details, he just ran through them in his head anyway. 27th July, the day the Gardiner's, Tom and Belinda, died, mashed to bits in the Devil's Chimney. The blood attracted sharks. Alex was in the water, looking for the CIA operatives, not Mom and Dad, never Mom and Dad. He still didn't remember loosing his legs. Only waking up ten days later in base hospital at Skeleton Key, crippled and very ill. Alex shuddered but did not shrink away as the massive fish passed directly over him, not two metres away. "I won't swim in the sea because of these things. Not even in England. I know I'm completely chicken". Alex totally empathised with Captain Hook, once the fine specimen of a predator got a taste they then waited to partake of the rest. The nineteen year old then walked off to the exit without looking back. In the disabled toilet, Alex carefully washed his face. He wanted to go home, wondering what else in the form of holiday entertainment had been planned. He started to pray.. 'please not the beach... please no watersports and definitely no trips to any mines.'
Gerard and Tony caught up with Missy as she was meticulously reading the information boards.
"Hi, you just missed Alex. He was being a bit odd, well no odder than usual really. I never knew he was petrified of sharks, told me they give him nightmares. I find them fascinating, I'd love to go swimming with them."
Tony looked at the dark shadow as the ultimate carnivore swept past in the tank in front of them. "I'll go find him."
Missy looked at her boss "What's the problem?"
"Alex has every reason to be afraid of sharks. The accident when Alex lost his legs, I told you it was a boating accident. There was a great white in the water. Alex had stopped diving because he saw a shark. The accident put Alex in the water, he doesn't remember what happened next, trauma induced amnesia. He remembers flashes in his nightmares. His foster parents at the time were killed. The report filed by the Cuban Authorities stated there was no remains. Sharks ate them. From what little Tony has told me, Alex was bonding with them, thinking he was part of the family. After the death of his uncle this was doubly traumatizing" Gerard had heard most of the details from Alex, most just slipped into conversation.
"I didn't know... I apologize unreservedly." Missy gushed, completely flustered by her faux pas.
The grey haired businessman, hugged his assistant. "In a round about way, its good for Alex to confront things. He has a habit of carefully controlling his life to be safe and not to upset the apple cart. A situation not heped by the fact Tony is perfectly happy to adhere to the status quo." The man then laughed, "Listen to me talking like an experienced parent. I must take note of Tony's idiom "you can only do what you think is right. You have a fifty/fifty chance of getting it right. Alex is not easy by any means, but he's charmed the pants off my sister."
...
In the cafe, he'd bought a brilliant blue, supposedly fruit flavoured, slushie. He sucked in the cool ice particles and began to feel a little less like a complete basket case. He'd have been drinking alcohol only the place was drier than the Sahara. He could have sunk about ten beers, no problem. He really wanted a bucket of gin and tonic to escape from the fact he was here.
Alex heard his father walk up behind him, he knew the pace and fall of Tony's footfalls perfectly. No one could imitate such sounds. "I thought you were enjoying the beautiful tropical fish, papa?"
"I was until I saw that huge shark." the actor said truthfully, no pussyfooting around the fact he knew Alex was upset.
Not wanting to share his thoughts and feelings, just yet. Alex took a long drink of the cold, sickly sweet beverage. "Remember how I used to drink these things all the time when you met me at the hospital in DC. The day you told me you had been granted my guardianship, Jon told me if they cut me open my insides would be blue from drinking so many much artificial crap. I laughed so hard at that blue stuff came out of my nose."
Tony remembered that very well. The nurse, who bought a huge bucket of icy foulness for Alex every day. The staff all spoiling a boy so unused to being cared pulled out the plastic chair and sat opposite his son. "Are you OK?"
"No, I wish I hadn't come."
"I can understand that."
The teenager looked at his father, who was so happy with Gerard, with this new life, with his work. His life with Jon in the past. The truth about his disquiet was not facing a shark but complicated by his own unhappy past. "I didn't mean to the Sea Life Centre, I meant to Australia. I.. planned to come after Athens, during my year off." Alex paused and collected his thoughts. "I know you hate when I talk about Yassen, but he knew my dad, he also was acquainted with Ash. He told me how my parents died, not a plane crash but a bomb on the fuel tank. They were murdered. Ash did it. He worked for Scorpia. When I got back from France I phones that Marc Damon and told him all the details of Ash's betrayal. It was the right thing to do, I guess. Now here has associations with death and betrayal."
"You should have said something, you could have joined me when I'm in Chicago in two weeks."
"I spoke to Missy, she's not fluent in Alex-speak. You know, when I ring up at odd times and state the obvious it means I'm upset about something but using avoidance and denial to my best ability." Alex then had a half smile on his lips. "Enjoy your afternoon with Missy and the evil stepdad. I'm going back to the house and going to sit in that hot tub and forget about spooks, murderers and sharks."