AN: And I'm back for week two. I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed my week one piece. You really cheered up my day and I appreciate the words from all of you. Also, this took a lot longer to post than it should have done because had no idea what to name it. For some reason I've started to find creating titles for my writing extremely hard. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and I'd love to hear your thoughts in a review.

There's a message saved on Alex's phone. It's six months old.

It's only been played once but despite that, there's not there's no sign that it's ever going to be deleted. It's personal. Important.

Maybe that's why K-Unit is so intrigued. In the two weeks that Alex has been staying with them, he's not opened up once. The only things they know about him is that he can cook and he likes to exercise. They're not going to be writing a biography any time soon. So they back off, try to include him in their poker games, try to welcome him into their little makeshift family.

It doesn't work.

He still spends too much time by himself. He still won't hold a conversation for more than a minute. He slips from room to room silently. Once, Eagle caught him climbing out of his bedroom window, 'testing out the escape routes'.

It's eerie. So when they find his phone, still on the kitchen table, despite having gone to a friends for the night, they decide to take it. It's a lesson in personal safety, they say, he should always have a phone on him. They crowd around the table and it's Wolf who suggests that they see what's so important about this little device that Alex spends so much of his time staring at.

There's a passcode, but without a word Fox takes it and enters a six digit number.

They don't ask. He's MI6. He probably wouldn't tell.

There's an awkward moment when they don't know what to look at now that they've actually got into the damn thing.

"Check his messages," Eagle suggests.

He has three contacts. A girl called Sabina, who they've never heard of, Tom – the friend Alex is with right now – and the Bank.

The messages with Sabina are curious. They look at those first, because to uncover Alex's secrets they should start with the things they don't know. But - they're normal. Talking about school, homework, meeting up and parties. Except, the last message was sent six months ago. It's only one word. Help.

They exchange glances. Snake is the one holding the phone and now he hesitates. There's doubt in his face as he stares at the text.

"Hang on," says Wolf. "There was that voice message – remember?"

They do. The day after Alex arrived, he had sat in the sitting room, staring at his phone with eyebrows pulled together, his fingers going white. No-one had asked about it. He was still new, still settling in. They didn't want to pry.

Without another word, Snake searches the phone for voice messages. He finds them and dials.

The pre-recorded voice says it piece, telling them the number and the time the message was sent. Finally, the caller's voice comes through.

"Alex?"

It's a girl. It's impossible to place her age, definitely past adolescence, but not old. She could be anywhere from thirteen to thirty.

There's heavy breathing. A door creaks shut and somebody is whispering in the background.

"Alex, please. I don't know if you got my text. They're here. You – you need to come home."

The girl's voice catches and she lets out a small sob. Her voice in squeaking in strange places, but she's obviously trying to be quiet. The whispering in the background is getting louder and they can just catch a couple of words.

"-guns, we need-"

"-Alex-"

K-Unit exchange glances. They're not sure what is happening, but it's not good and they've got a bad feeling.

"Oh god," the girl chokes. "We're in the cellar, we've got nowhere to go. I think it might be SCORPIA."

Abruptly, all noise stops. Silence falls like an axe, sharp and sudden.

A door slams open and then there are boots and sobbing and a chuckle.

"You thought you could hide, did you?"

The voice is disdainful, cold, uncaring. They all know what's going to happen now. There's only one way this could end.

"Please, have mercy! Alex isn't-"

A gun shot. The man who was speaking gurgles. Two separate screams, too loud for the phone's microphone to cope with, crackle and almost become static.

"Oh my god, oh my god," someone chants.

A second gun shot sounds and this time there is no scream. There is only uncontrolled sobbing, teeth chattering together in shock.

"Sir, she's got a phone."

It won't be long now. K-Unit is not prepared for this. Whatever they had expected to find, it was not this.

"Alex, oh god, Ale-"

The final gunshot sounds. A moment later, the call ends. A voice tells them what numbers to press if they want to keep the message or delete it.

No-one moves.

They've just heard the murder, the assassination, of an entire family. Suddenly, Alex's strange behaviour, his bizarre quirks, start to make a little sense.

Eagle looks up at his unit. His face is pale, his jaw lax. "I had no idea," he says hollowly.

And that's the entire problem – none of them did.

...

There's a message saved on Alex's phone. It's six months old.

K-Unit doesn't ask and they don't pry and two months later, Alex joins them for poker and beats them all. Afterwards, as they finish their beers, he tells them everything. He tells them how he worked for MI6, how his guardian died, and how he killed his own clone, watched his godfather die and felt sympathy for the man who killed his uncle. He explains about his adoptive family in America, how he lived there for a while until they were all killed by SCORPIA assassins while he was distracted eslewhere. How he arrived home to find their bodies strewn across the floor, to have the police arrive two minutes later, how everyone was just too late.

He'd left his phone behind that day for K-Unit to find deliberately. He had wanted them to find out, but couldn't bring himself to tell them.

He has trust issues. He can't sleep and sometimes reacts excessively to small things, such as being touched.

But he's happy now. Or at least, as happy as he can be. He has a new family. People he can trust. People that can defend themselves if they are ever put on an enemy's hit list.

This is his life now, and he's okay with that.

They're all okay with that.