"Are you sure it's alright if I come over for awhile, 'Lex?" Tom Harris asked he and Alex Rider slowly made their way to the Rider-Starbright household.

"Sure, why wouldn't it be?" Alex asked curiously.

"Well I know you still have a lot of coursework to finish for school. And I didn't want to make you even more behind, just because I don't want to go home to the parents from hell," Tom explained.

"Actually, I'm already caught up," Alex replied proudly. MI6 hadn't bothered him for awhile so he had gotten totally caught up in school.

"Really? That's great, and it means we'll have more time to hang out," Tom said excitedly. His parents were at the last stage of their divorce; splitting everything down the middle, and that wasn't going over too well at home.

"Great," Alex said with mock disappointment, to which, Alex gave a playful shove.

The continued their rough-housing until they reached Alex's house.

They went up the stairs, opened the door, and headed for the sitting room.

"Jack! I'm home! And this really weird kid followed me home!" Alex joked referring to Tom.

"Speaking of weird kids Alex; who's the blonde kid, naked, in the tub?" Tom asked smugly, holding up a photo album from Alex's childhood.

"Hey!" Alex said snatching it from Tom's hands, but looking around there was a lot of his old stuff was strolled out in the middle of the sitting room. A box of Alex's old baby clothes, and quite a few boxes of pictures, and home video's.

"Why is all this stuff out?" Alex mused, more to himself than Tom.

"Hey, look there's a video already in," Tom was saying grabbing the remote and hitting play.

The screen turned to white reveiling, snow everywhere and you could see three people at the top of a tall hill. A man, and two young boys. It was Alex, Tom, when they were eight years old, and Ian Rider. The camera suddenly zoomed in and you could see Ian putting a sled down onto the soft snow and the two boys climbing on, then Ian went back behind the sled, bent down and gave a big shove sending Alex and Tom down the snowy hill. When the sled came to a stop at the bottom of the hill, near Jack and the camera, you could hear the boys laughter as they got off the sled. Then they each picked up an end of the big sled, and headed back up the big hill to Ian, so they could do it again. And all the while all three of them were smiling, especially Ian when Alex came up and hugged him around the legs, because of his shortness.

"Wow, I had forgotten about that. Hey do you still have that sled?" Tom asked Alex.

"Tom, I highly doubt you can fit on that sled let alone the both of us," Alex replied.

Then, the swinging door to the kitchen swung open, and Jack stepped out.

But this wasn't the normal happy, boisterous Jack that was normally bouncing around the house, this Jack was pale, quiet, and her eyes were puffy, which indicated to Alex that she had been crying.

"Jack what's wrong?" Tom asked before Alex could. He had also noticed Jack's disheveled look.

Jack looked at Alex, "Uh, MI6 is in the kitchen."

That caught Alex by surprise. But it didn't take long for him to realize that was why Jack had been crying. Alex saw red. Messing him was one thing, but coming into his home, and antagonizing Jack, making her cry, was completely crossing the line.

Jack saw Alex's murderous expression, "Alex, no wait, you don't understand-"

But Alex ignored her, dropped his bag, and stormed into the kitchen. But he was utterly unprepared for what was waiting.

There was seven people in his kitchen. Blunt, Jones, the entire, K-unit, Crawley and another agent he thought he didn't recognize and if he did he probably saw him in passing at the Royal and General bank. But he didn't even spare any of them a second glance. His sights were on Blunt and Jones.

"What the hell are you people doing here?" Alex all but shouted.

"Well, Alex we needed to talk to you," Mrs. Jones explained gently.

"Then why didn't you call like you normally do, instead of coming here and getting Jack upset?" Alex glared.

Jack then came back into the kitchen, "I sent Tom home. You can call him back later if you'd like. And Because they thought it would be better if they told me first, before they told you. And for once they were right, because Alex, this is gonna be kind of a shock for you." Jack said putting an arm around his neck, rubbing his shoulders slightly.

Alex turned his gaze to Jack, " What's going on?" he asked warily.

Alex saw Jack's eyes well up again, but she was smiling, "It's about your uncle."

Alex was stumped. That definitely wasn't what he was expecting, "What about him, Jack?"

Jack thought for a moment then said, "Alex, you look around and tell me."

Alex was utterly perplexed, thinking that Blunt, Jones, and especially Jack had all gone off their rockers. But in any case, Alex decided to humor Jack. But he still had no idea what looking around the kitchen had to do with Ian Rider.

He looked at the K-unit, taking in the scene. Wolf looked irritated. 'But,' Alex thought, ' he pretty much looks like that all the time.' Fox, at least, looked happy to see him, giving him a big, reassuring smile when he caught Alex's gaze. But Snake looked really uncomfortable, but for what Alex still couldn't figure out. And finally Eagle...What could he say about this man? 'Well this will do,' Alex thought again. Noticing something about the man. "Eagle your zipper's un-zipped." Alex warned dully to the bored looking man, slouched down at the kitchen table, legs stretched out.

Eagle shot up, and quickly fixed himself, but seemed unruffled as he laughed and said, "Thanks for noticing, Cub."

Alex was suddenly fed up with the games. He hated being left in the dark, while everyone else knew what was going on, and apparently in this room that was just what he was.

"Jack, what does this have to do with-," Alex started but suddenly stopped as his gaze fell on a man in the corner of the room, he thought he didn't recognize....Until now.

Alex's mouth was suddenly dry, as he held his stare at a man he thought to be dead. This was the last thing he was expecting. He was mentally kicking himself for not noticing the man the minute he walked in. Yes, he looked older but that wasn't why he didn't recognize the man. The scraggly beard was what had thrown Alex off. Of all the years he had known the man, he had never seen more than a five o'clock shadow.

Through an open mouth, and wide eyes, Alex struggled to find his voice, "Ian?" he asked weakly.

Ian Rider, sitting at the kitchen table smiled warily at his nephew, "Surprise?" he asked faintly. Knowing from experience that Alex had quite a temper on him. And of course, as predicted, he was right.

"Surprise?You're gone for nearly a year, keeping me thinking you were dead, and all you say is surprise?Where were you? Did you even care that MI6 decided to send me on all those missions? Or did you care that I've gotten shot?" Alex asked angrily, firing questions at his uncle left and right. Alex wasn't sure if he was just in shock or what, but suddenly he was overwhelmed with anger toward his uncle.

Ian was shocked. This was a absolutely different child that he had known. This one was older,wiser, more closed off. And his eyes. Alex's eyes had always been serious, another thing he had picked up from his father. But now they looked hardened, like they didn't belong on the teenagers body.

"Alex, you've gotta know that I would never have left you alone to deal with this. Hell, if I could've stopped you from going through this in the first place none of this would've happened," he tried to explain, getting up and stood in front of Alex.

Then he was suddenly very aware of all the people that were listening in on the conversation between him and his nephew.

"Alex, why don't we take this into the sitting room for some privacy?" he asked.

Alex also noticed the unwanted attention, "Fine," he said and slipped out of Jack's arm, and walked into the sitting room silently.

"He's really changed," Ian breathed to Jack.

"I told you Ian, he's changed a lot since you left him," Jack said sadly.

"I Didn't leave him! It was a mission, just like any other. I had every intention of coming back!" Ian erupted.

"Sorry, sorry,bad choice of words. Calm down, just go in there and calm him down, Ian," Jack said staring worriedly at the swinging door that led into the sitting room.

Ian sighed, and nodded., then went into the sitting room. He found Alex glaring at the television, flipping furiously through the channels, not even bothering to admire at what was on the screen.

Ian went over and sat down beside him, gently taking the remote out of his hands, and turning the television off.

"Alex, we need to talk about this," Ian said carefully.

Alex turned to Ian, " Fine. Talk," he ordered.

"During the Stormbreaker mission,Yassen did shoot me. But unfortunately SCORPIA got to me before MI6 did. They found me, patched me up, and they tried to threaten me into working for them. I steadily refused. But they refused to kill me, well yet anyways, they wanted me to suffer. They put me in a cell, when they weren't having there 'fun' with me, trying to beat me into working for them I guess. Then, a few weeks ago MI6 was doing a infiltration mission on SCORPIA, where I was being held. I identified myself, and they took me to a hospital, for all my, uh, recent injuries," Ian explained. Waiting patiently for Alex's response.

Alex stared at Ian for a moment, "How do I know you're not lying to me? Again?"

Ian visibly cringed at Alex's accusation.

He thought for a brief minute, and there was really only one way to prove to Alex he was telling the truth. He stood up, and took off his shirt, reveling the many cuts, bruises, and burns that littered his body.

Alex gasped, and stared at his uncle. Then,suddenly felt awful for everything he said to him. He should have known better that to suspect such things of his uncle dead or alive. This man had raised him. He hadn't seen his uncle in nearly a year, thinking he was dead, and what was the first thing he did? Yell at him! 'Way to go, Alex!', he thought.

Alex felt ashamed, "Look, Ian, I-" he started, but got cut off.

"Alex don't apologize to me. I deserved what you said. But you've got to believe me, I never meant for it to happen like this. I had it all planned out, or so I thought," Ian said bitterly, as he slipped his white cotton shirt back on, wincing slightly as he pulled it over his head. Honestly, Alex couldn't believe his uncle was up and walking around the way he was, with all those injuries. But then again, Ian Rider had always been tough, and stubborn.

"How exactly did you have it planned, Ian?" Alex asked quietly.

Ian sat back down beside Alex, " I was planning on waiting until you were older, so you could make this decision on your own and not be pressured into this, like you were. Now, in the beginning I wasn't exactly planning on training you from when you were still a toddler. But the more I thought about it, and the more you grew on me... I don't know I think I panicked, thinking that if you did decide to give the spy world a try, I wanted you to be prepared. So I pounded everything I could into your head, that way I wouldn't worry about you as much, and you would be okay. But by no means did I want you to become a spy at a young age, especially fourteen. I don't know what Blunt was thinking but believe me, him, Jones, and even Crawley got an earful when they told me what they had done. And even more when Jack told me the truth," Ian said with a look of anger. Apparently just talking about it made Ian mad again.

"The truth?" Alex asked.

"Oh yeah. Blunt failed to mention that not only were you shot, but that they were blackmailing you. I personally just thought that you had volunteered yourself to spy. But Jack cleared everything up for me while we were waiting on you to get out of school," Ian replied, breezily.

"Why didn't someone come and get me out of school, instead of making me wait?" Alex asked. Not angry, he wasn't going to argue with MI6 actually letting him finish out a school day.

"Oh, everyone wanted to, even Jack. But I for one think that you've missed enough school this year, you slacker," Ian joked, giving Alex a gentle nudge on the shoulder.

"Well someone had to do your job while you were gone. Granted I didn't get a cute little office like you did, even though I personally think I did your job better than you," Alex joked back. For a moment everything was like it was before.

Ian laughed loudly before he grabbed Alex in a massive hug, pulling him close, "God, I missed you!" he said sincerely. The whole time he was in SCORPIA's cell when they weren't trying to get him to work for them or trying to get information, his thoughts weren't on himself, but on Alex. Wondering what had happened to him. Did he find out about his family? Did Alex hate him for it? Did Jack stay with him? Or did he have to go to a miserable boys' institution? Of course looking back on it he should have known Jack would never have left him like that. Alex and Jack were terrible close, a sort of bond Ian was glad Alex had. Ian owed Jack more than words could say, for staying with Alex.

Alex returned the hug generously. He missed his uncle horribly, no matter how much he tried not to show it. He missed their bickering, their time they spent together. He missed their pranks they pulled, if not on each other then on Jack. Though, Jack had gotten them in more than a few pranks herself.

They stayed like that for more than a few minutes, just enjoying being able so see each others presence again.

"Ian?" Alex mumbled into Ian's shirt, struck by a sudden thought, "Why is the K- unit in the kitchen?"

"Oh!" Ian said excitedly pulling out of the hug, holding Alex at arms length, "their our new bodyguards for awhile! Until, you know, we get everything straightened out with MI6 and SCORPIA."

Alex's face suddenly faltered. "We're gonna have to leave aren't we?"

Ian sighed sadly. "For awhile at least. But we're only going to a safe house near London, so we're not totally leaving. And if everything pans out we might be able to move back to Chelsea, and we can put this whole thing behind us. Though, uh, going to school in Brookland will be out of the question. I think you have a hard enough time explaining your absences, no since and having to explain why your dead uncle suddenly picking you up from school. That way you can start over."

"Will you go back into spying, again?" Alex asked quietly.

Ian's face got grim, "I really don't know, Alex. We'll have to wait and see. I don't know if I could live with working with Blunt for my boss everyday, like nothing happened. And this is another reason why I didn't tell you about my work. Or Jack. Having you two worrying about me the whole time would be torture."

Alex nodded, and the room got silent.

Ian suddenly turned to Alex, "I heard you told Tom about our little family secret."

Alex looked at his uncle, "Yeah I told him."

"Well I'm glad. You needed someone to talk to about all you went through. And Tom is just the person for that." Ian replied, "Of course I'm hear now. We're gonna have a long talk about all your missions. Got it?"

Alex only nodded uncomfortably.

"Good," Ian said as he stood up, grabbing Alex by the arm and pulling him with him, "Come on. Lets go back into the kitchen and tell everyone that we've kissed and made up."

Ian slung his arm around Alex's shoulder.

And both, uncle and nephew, walked into the kitchen.

A/N-well that ended horribly but I hope you liked the story. The reason why Ian isn't dead might have a lot of loopholes, but I did my best. Hope that it was believable.

And I wasn't sure how Alex's reaction would be to seeing his dead uncle again so I hope I made that as believable as possible.

Now I was planning on just making this a one-shot but maybe.....if enough people review and want me to keep the story going....I just might do that. But it might just be best to leave it as a one-shot....I'll let you guys decide. :)