OK random start, but please tell me what you think! ENJOY

K unit collapsed at the end of the assault course exhausted silently congratulating themselves on their group time. It was one of their personal bests, and they were down a unit member. The elusive Cub had been taken by '6 three weeks ago and they had yet to see him again. Three years ago Cub had returned to Brecon in soggy Wales haunted by something they couldn't see. They had been harsh to him at first, none of them wanted him here again, but he had grown on them. He was now treated as the younger brother none of them had wanted. Fox, no longer in their unit, had been closest to him having become his guardian three years ago.

Slowly, so very slowly, facts about him had begun to appear. When he had first returned he had been put in selection with the rest of the recruits, all 120 of them, but in the second week had collapsed for unknown reasons, after a long stint in the infirmary he was released and the Sargent ordered Cub to be reunited with a newly returned K unit. They had disliked him at first but when Wolf had grabbed him around the waist to stop him running away and had felt the ribs under his clothes and the flinch that accompanied the pressure he had been pinned down and medically examined by Snake.

After the discovery of seven broken ribs and four fractured along with multiple cuts they had become closer to him. They couldn't get him to talk about it but no one could mistake the relief on his face when certain names occurred on the 'binned list'. Now Cub, against all their wishes, Cub included, can gone on two tours with them and constant missions, in which K unit were usually back up and sometimes Ben was there.

"Hey, Cub's back!" Snake exclaimed seeing a familiar figure slip into their hut,

"Sir!" Eagle called pointing to the hut and the figure,

"Go. Don't be late for the talk!" He bellowed at them leaving the other units at his mercy, they ran over to the hut and burst in, Cub was in the corner slowly pulling his top over his head and hissing in pain, Snake went over,

"Hey, let me help, you aren't doing anything to help yourself." He murmured shocked at the exhaustion and sorrow on his face,

"What happened kiddo?" Wolf asked perching on his cot across from them, the teen shut his eyes and shook his head,

"How did you get these?" Snake asked examining the bruising and cuts along the youngest members back, "Explosion?" He suggested when there was no response, a slow nod was all he got in response, Snake finished his medical administrations and threw Cub one of his shirts, it was huge on his due to it being one of Wolf's that he had stolen and used as sleepwear.

"I'll check your legs when you wake up, you need to sleep." Snake sat him on his bed and pushed his down,

"We'll make your excuses if they even know you're back." Wolf promised and ruffled his hair, "Sleep well kid," No one else saw this side of Wolf, the parent side. He had a two year old son and a one year old daughter and loved them dearly, he couldn't imagine what Cub had gone through to make him like this.

"Something bad happened." Eagle announced as they left the hut,

"No shit Sherlock." Wolf growled,

"No, something really bad." Eagle insisted,

"He's right, normally even after bad missions he jokes around and tells us after he has slept if he needs it, he banters with us and jokes around. He got shot and still tackled Eagle when he stole his chocolate. But he had no bad injuries physically..." Snake sighed,

"We need to call Fox, he always seems to know what to do with Cub." Wolf decreed. They sat in their seats and waited for the weapon safety talk to begin. Two hours later they were called by the man to stay behind,

"Sir?" Wolf queried,

"Your fourth member, he is on base?" The teacher snapped,

"Out cold sir." Snake replied coolly.

"That's no excuse, he should attend everything with his unit. Dismissed." They left,

"Arrogant little-"

"Language." Snake cut off Wolf's wonderful expletives. They jogged to the hut to collect Cub for dinner but stopped short when they saw him still fast asleep when they had entered, "Out." Snake mouthed herding the others out.

"Hey, where's Cub? Heard he was back!" Lynx called as they entered the mess,

"Out cold." Snake replied again,

"Medically?" Lynx queried,

"Nope." Wolf grabbed his food,

"But you just went in there." Lynx stated,

"Yep." They sat next to him,

"And he is still asleep." Lynx certified,

"Don't worry, we're as confounded as you are." Eagle clapped his friend on the back.

"So, let me get this straight." Jaguar leant forward, "Cub, the Cub who is infamous for waking when a pin drops, slept through you three thundering your way to the hut and bumping everything inside it, and it is not a medically induced sleep."

"Yep." Snake grinned, "Anyway, have you tried giving Cub sedatives?" Every unit who had ever worked with K unit shuddered,

"Good point." Lynx agreed, he looked at the three remaining members of K unit and noted the worry etched on their foreheads, "Bad one?" Three faces looked at him as though questioning his sanity, "Good point. He wouldn't be sleeping if it wasn't."

"We should take some food over to him." Snake commented standing and dumping his tray, he headed over to the kitchen and smiled warmly at the staff,

"Hey Snake, Cub back?" Gary the cook asked, he liked Cub, but tolerated K unit.

"Yep, any spare food we can take over?" Snake was handed a tray with sandwiches, three apples, chocolate and a selection of drinks on it. "Thanks, see you around." He left followed by Wolf and Eagle who was eyeing up the chocolate,

"Hey Cub, good sleep?" Snake asked gently as he saw the other waking up, "Not long enough obviously." He watched as Cub held his ribs as he sat upright, "Trousers off." He ordered, Cub slowly slid off his trousers revealing a beautiful collection of bruises and cuts, his ankle was also swollen, Snake tried probing it but the ankle was gone as soon as pressure was put on it.

"Sorry, that shouldn't be used can't tell if it's broken or fractured or sprained but I won't be able to tell if I can't have it."

"Sorry." Cub let Snake reach for his ankle again looking sheepish.

"What happened Cub?" Eagle asked offering the teen chocolate, he declined looking like he was about to burst into tears. "Hey, I'm sorry." Eagle slid an arm around Cub feeling guilty. Thirty minutes later Cub now fully checked but Snake and his dinner still left on the side the door burst open without knocking,

"FOX!" Three voices exclaimed, he brushed off the welcomes and headed to Cub,

"Hey, I just heard." He crouched in front of the blonde worry coating his face,

"I couldn't do anything." Cub's voice broke and with it the fragile shield he had built up around himself. Ben wrapped his arms around his ward letting the younger man just cry.

"Come on." Wolf dragged the other two out the hut. They were in shock.

"Cub, is crying." Snake couldn't seem to get his head around this fact. Eagle was repeating that statement seeing if putting stresses on different words made a difference in comprehending the statement. They walked around the camp once then returned to their hut, Fox was next to Cub on his bed under his arm. He looked fragile and vulnerable. He hadn't looked like that since he had told them about his past. He certainly didn't look old enough to be in the SAS.

"Hey, sorry about that." Cub started,

"It's fine, you want to talk? You need to eat." Snake reassured him. Alex reached for half the sandwich and handed it to Ben then took the other half for himself.

"Tell them Al." Ben prompted,

"It was Russia. Last night-" He broke off and cursed, then he went on to tell them about how his mission had been to find the arms dealers in Russia, he had gone undercover and found they were using an orphanage as a cover, there was over three hundred children in the building. The deal was done and the weapons bought, some things hadn't added up, the buyers were planning on testing the weapons by blowing up the orphanage, Alex had rescued 120 of the children and was just about to get the others when it had exploded.

"I should have realised earlier, I knew something wasn't adding up, they thought of children as collateral damage, I should have known something like that was going to happen." The tray of food was empty and the hut silent,

"Alexander." Wolf sounded angry, "In what world are to be blamed for that?" He growled,

"Where are the children now?" Snake cut in,

"An orphanage run by MI5 training children to be spies." Alex sighed, "But really they're just human listening devices, I've worked with them before. It's a good place though they'll love it there, most of them are bi lingual at least anyway. They will fit in."

"The ones you told us about, the one that thought you would be shit and they would spend the whole time training and looking out for you but in reality it was the other way around?" Eagle asked grinning, Alex laughed slightly,

"Yes, that's them." They had had a good laugh in the jungle when Cub had told them that. "Thanks." Alex murmured,

"No problems. You up for cards?" Eagle asked brandishing a pack.

"One last thing Al," Ben rubbed his neck looked sheepish,

"What?" He asked looking at his cards,

"Some organisation made a threat against a school in London, the upper sixth are coming here for protection." Ben explained,

"Don't say it Ben. Please." Alex was pale,

"It's Brooklands."

Basically I couldn't get it out of my head so it's going on here so I can exhaust this tangent then return to my others.

Any ideas on where this should go to speed up the process? Please review!