NOTE: I don't own Alex Rider or any of the other characters (except Falcon and even then, he's not completely mine either because I've copied off of a real life person and my idea of what they could be, but you didn't need to know that and ok bye).

A week full of recovery later and Alex was discharged from the hospital. Free to return to the safe-house, he was given plenty of pain medication and lists of instructions and possible side effects that might occur from being shot in the stomach.

It goes without saying that he didn't read them, and didn't tell the others about it either. He didn't need to be coddled.

It was already incredibly embarrassing that he'd had a panic attack in front of Falcon, that he'd broken down right before the eyes of the probably-now-very-concerned SAS soldier.

He promised himself, as soon as he was completely coherent and not doped up with drugs and painkillers, that that would never happen again.

Closing himself off from the world, he ignored the team's questions and gentle probes for information. Wolf's anger, Snake's quiet frustration, Eagle's determination, and Fox's sad looks couldn't affect him.

Mrs. Jones's phone calls went unanswered.

Tom's texts went unread.

In the end, it was the silent acceptance from Falcon that broke him.

*******************************

"Alex." There was a knock on the door.

Alex chewed softly on his pencil, algebra spread out in front of him on his bunk in the bedroom they all shared. He still had so much homework left over from last year.

"Alex." Falcon said again.

Alex ignored the way the bed dipped as Falcon sat down next to him. He ignored the shakiness in the soldier's voice and concentrated instead on the small threads coming loose on his sweatpants, the bone deep ache in his midsection, the hunger pains that he refused to satiate, the numbers swimming before his eyes.

"You should eat something." Falcon spoke softly.

"'m not hungry." Alex mumbled around the pencil, his fingers involuntarily reaching up and running through his dark blonde hairs.

Falcon sighed, long and drawn out.

"I know you're hurting. And I want to help you. But I can't if you won't stop pushing me away and hiding behind your walls."

Alex said nothing. There was nothing to say.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is...I'm leaving."

Alex stopped breathing.

Wait. What?

Falcon's quiet voice went on. "There's this politician who needs a bodyguard for some meeting overseas and I need the extra experience. Headquarters called yesterday. It shouldn't take longer than three days and then, if everything goes well, I'll be back."

Alex took the pencil out of his mouth with shaking hands, refusing to meet Falcon's searching eyes. He'd been in the profession long enough to know that things never went as planned, something always went wrong, and he wanted to call out, scream, cry, anything, to make Falcon stay. Please don't leave. Please.

"Just thought I'd let you know." Falcon got up and patted Alex softly on the shoulder.

Alex didn't respond. He still couldn't breathe. Please. No. Don't go.

"Alright." Falcon sighed again and turned to leave. "Goodbye Alex. Don't carry the world on your shoulders."

He shut the door, and a whimper tore from Alex's mouth, tears spilling over.

"Please, come back. I need you." He whispered to the empty room, but no-one heard. "Please"He gripped the pencil in his hand harder and harder, eyes glued to the door, waiting for Falcon to come back. He was coming back, right?

Snap.

The pencil broke under his shaking hands, and with it broke the last shred of resolve and hope he might have had.

He couldn't move a muscle, completely frozen.

Why did everyone always leave? Why did he always have to ruin everything?

The use of his limbs came back to him in a flash and he raced down the stairs and out the door, his lungs burning, his mind tripping over itself, blending in memories of other people who left and never came back.

It's safe to say his scrambled brain didn't registered the others standing outside waving goodbye to their team-mate. He rushed past them, running after the black car quickly pulling out of the driveway. He had to get Falcon to stay. He had to say sorry.

His pulse thrummed against the hands of the soldiers who held him back as he strained to break free.

"Let me go!" He screamed. His face felt wet, while white hot panic simmered under the surface of his skin.

"Alex."

"Breath."

"Stop screaming."

"Eagle, get the tranq."

"I have to say goodbye!" Alex struggled.

His surroundings changed to a dull brown and black, with the rigged Land Rover pulling out of Razim's compound.

"Jack! Don't go!" he screamed, the pinch of the needle lost in everything else.

"Jack? Who's Jack?"

"No idea."

"Alex, can you hear me?"

But Alex was gone, trapped, lost, lost in an endless desert of brown and white and red. Always red. Always burning. Always dead.

Fox's face hovered over Alex's open pupils, but all the boy saw was a burnt-out shell of a vehicle, and a laughing woman with red hair.

He closed his eyes and let go.

******************************

An expletive fell from Wolf's lips as the trembling boy collapsed into his arms, his brown eyes rolling back in his head, no longer struggling.

"Get him inside, and then I want to know what just bloody happened."

Snake immediately took Alex from Wolf and carried him inside and up the stairs, placing him on Falcon's bed, since Alex's own was covered with uncompleted homework. Wolf followed, thoughts swirling in his head.

He watched as Snake carefully lay the boy on the bed, a pair of Falcon's sweatpants that Alex had stolen nearly falling off the teen's skinny frame.

"He's so small." Snake's voice brought Wolf out of his head, and he looked at the SAS soldier in surprise. "How old do you think he really is?"

"I don't know." Wolf replied honestly. "I don't think it really matters though."

"Wolf!" Snake was shocked; it was written all over his sharp features.

"What?" And now Wolf was being defensive.

"Don't you care, even just a little? This kid is seriously messed up, and obviously, he doesn't have anyone left to care. How can you say that it doesn't matter? We were lied to to, Wolf, we were bloody lied to and now MI6 is making us clean up after their bloody mess, and you say it doesn't matter?" Snake had started out angry, and ended up quiet, his face tight with betrayal and anger, tears gathering in his eyes.

But Wolf knew better than to feel for someone. It always got you in trouble.

"It doesn't matter, because what happened is in the past now." Wolf sighed, before putting his hands on Snake's shoulders. "Look, we can't help Alex by stressing over what we can't change. Even if we did manage to help him, they'll just send him back and ruin it all again."

"So what are you suggesting? That we just ignore him?" Snake shook off Wolf's hands.

"Maybe that would be the best thing. For all of us." He looked away from Snake's piercing gaze.

"Do you even hear how selfish you're sounding?" Snake scoffed, before pushing past Wolf to leave. "I can't even bear to be in the same room with you. Don't try to come after me, because we both know I could make your death look like an accident. I'll come back when I'm good and ready." He slammed the door shut.

Wolf collapsed onto one of the beds, putting his face in his hands.

"Take good care of yourself, alright, Wolf?" Falcon gives him a good long hug, his eyes sad. "Try to keep your temper under control and make sure Alex eats and drinks enough. I think my leaving him is hitting him hard, so if he gets really bad, just, I don't know, keep him alive. If I manage to come back, I don't want to find him half-dead, ya hear?" He punches Wolf's shoulder, playfully.

"Hey. Don't talk like that. Of course you'll come back." Wolf chuckles, but he can't keep the worry out of his voice.

"I don't know, Wolf. I've got a bad feeling about this." Falcon looks away, his voice low, his eyes glazing over, staring at something in the distance.

"You're getting that look again." Wolf remarks, after a few moments, concerned. His team-mate has been quieter the last few days, and he's often found the soldier doing nothing, frozen, staring at his hands, or at something else entirely, lost in his head.

"What?" Falcon jolts back to reality. "Oh, sorry. Just thinking about stuff." He shoulders his bag and shakes Wolf's hand one last time.

"Don't let it get to you when you're out there, man. Whatever it is, it's not worth your life." Wolf tries to reassure Falcon, but something in his chest is sinking.

Falcon's next words are so quiet, Wolf isn't sure if he heard them at all, or if he just imagined it.

"Sometimes I wonder."

Wolf looked up, and rubbed his face with his hands, giving the unconscious boy on the bed a good long stare.

He'd never gotten a chance to ask Falcon what he meant by the words he wasn't even sure he'd heard, because no sooner had he uttered them, then the car door was closing and Alex was screaming and all the careful masks that had been upheld for so long were crumbling into nothing.

Falcon was gone (a feeling his gut said that he wasn't going to be the same if he ever returned), Snake was furious (and probably for good reason), Eagle was struggling with Fox's return (he wasn't talking as much and completely avoided Fox like the plague), Fox was trying to come back into his life (not going to work, mate, sorry, but not sorry) and then there was Alex, whom he knew nothing about.

Wolf cursed under his breath in frustration. "Why does life have to be so bloody complicated all the bloody time?"

He glared at the floor, and that's when he noticed something sticking out from under Alex's mattress. It was a corner of book, or paper, crumpled and obviously hidden.

Wolf got up, and slowly, as not to damage it, pulled the little booklet out. It was a passport. An old one. Battered and with pages folded.

He opened the book carefully, eyes widening at the picture inside, the name, the birth date, everything.

"No. Bloody. Way."

He looked at Alex's blank face, and whispered words that he never thought he'd say.

"You're John Rider's kid."

Thar we go. Hope you enjoy! I know it's short, but you guys deserve a new chapter and the next one is a big one so I decided not to combine.

I noticed that this one is verging a little from my original timeline, but oh well. 

Please feel free to leave a comment, vote or just...whatever you feel like. Not pressure. BUT THANKS TO THOSE WHO DO COMMENT! IT IS VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!!!

Over and out,

AgentAlexxRider101

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." - Jeremiah 29:11