Muddled Tears

by Kiamii

Chapter Thirty-Four "The After mentioned"

Note: Thank you guys for everything. This story was very fun to write and I hope I met expectations from Everlasting Changes that I did not fill there. Muddled Tears is the title because while we cry, we try to hide the hurt and lost we feel.

The door knob rattled a few seconds before stopping. The sounds of a key being inserted could be heard before the door opened to reveal none other than Ben Daniels. The now thirty-one year old man grinned as he caught sight of his beautiful wife humming in the kitchen; their youngest son was babbling nonsense to himself in the living room, playing with the toys in front of him as if there were no other more important thing in the world. Ben's grin widened when he caught sight of the banners streaming all across the house with streamers and balloons popping up randomly. Ribbons were intertwined amongst the stair railing and music could be heard from his eldest son's bedroom.

"Dad!" Ben heard as he turned around and looked up to find 8-year-old Alex beaming down at him before the boy ran as fast as he could down the steps and launched himself at his father who caught him with a loud "oomph!", falling into the thankfully closed front door. Alex laughed and Ben shot him a mock annoyed look before setting Alex down, lightly tickling the boy who squirmed, nearly giggling. At the sound of laughter, his wife appeared in the doorway holding up a spatula with that amazing smile of hers. He had asked Kaitlyn to marry him three years ago, after Alex had been permanently de-aged and adopted officially -birth certificate and all- which led to the birth of Alex's little half-brother James, now two years old.

"When is Uncle Derryck getting here?" Alex asked, hopping up and down in anticipation. A few years ago if Wolf had ever heard that from Cub's mouth, he would have socked him. Now, Ben had legally made Wolf Alex's godfather while Snake was James's. Wolf had gotten rather close with Alex and the boy had taken to him after the final de-aging. Strangely most of the trauma from is missions no longer swarmed Alex's head at all. It was as if the boy barely remembered he was once Britain's last hope. Mrs. Jones visited them occasionally but only to give Ben his missions and sometimes to say hello to Alex, giving him a gadget from Smithers or another though the gadgets no longer had an actual spy piece to them, more like toys that no other boy his age owned. Ben's parents -or more specifically his mother- were delighted to have Alex as a little boy to coo over once more, spoiling him with countless presents. Ben's father found the situation amusing, bemusing, and many other things but he was getting accustomed to Alex now that he knew the boy wouldn't age and de-age in the blink of an eye again.

"He'll be here in a few hours with Uncle Chris and Uncle Jason, OK kiddo?" Ben reassured, "They're stuck in the drive from the SAS camp, remember?"

Alex nodded obediently and went back up to his room after much shooing from his mother about peaking at his birthday presents. Ben came to discover Alex had, once again, nearly found out what he got from them it seemed. Having retained most of his intelligence and a few of his skills from his former life, the boy was quite capable of figuring it out so Kaitlyn was making him stay in his room until time for his birthday party.

The eight-year-old looked at his room happily and climbed onto the window seat under his window to look outside, thinking about how different his life was. He had pestered Mrs. Jones two weeks after the final de-aging and two weeks of constant worries texts from his friends. She had finally given in and had seven clueless- plus one knowing- teenagers sign the Official Secrets Act and were revealed the truth about their friend Alex who had been a spy and had undergone a de-aging accident, becoming Alex Daniels. Ever since then, teens made it a habit to hang out with him and offered constantly to babysit either Alex or his little brother James. Tom was still his primary babysitter but now Alex had others who knew who he was and were willing to treat him like their friend. Alex may have lost a lot of his memories from his past life, but he could still remember plenty of things. Like what the word for home meant in French. He was decently fluent in the former languages he studied, but after not having constant practice like his uncle Ian had made him do, he lost a lot of the accent in how he said the words nowadays. He wasn't too concerned about that though, merely content with what he knew and what he didn't remember.

Spotting Tom walking on the pavement outside, he grinned and slid off the seat in time to hear the doorbell ring. Moments later he heard muffled talking before his best friend entered the room whistling to some new tune he and Richard were listening to the other day. He collapsed on the bed and peered down at Alex, "'lo there shorty," he said cheekily, tossing his backpack to the side since he'd be staying the night as planned between the boys and Alex's parents. Tom was living with Jerry now who had moved back last year to let Tom finish his last year of high school as a senior and help him find a college to look into. Tom wanted to go somewhere out of states, but had ended up deciding on one close by due to Alex's distress upon hearing his best friend might be leaving within a year. Despite his intelligence, Alex did have the emotions of a young boy permanently now.

"That's a lot coming from you," rebutted Alex as he climbed onto his bed and pounced Tom who yelped indignantly, grabbing Alex out of reaction. The two boys wrestled for a little, neither backing down, until Tom managed to pin Alex down in his lap and proceeded to give the smaller boy a noogie, messing his dirty blond hair up exceedingly so. Alex yelped and squirmed against him as best as he could.

"Say Uncle," Tom threatened as he continued to painfully give the younger boy the noogie, the blond locks frizzing up at the contact.

"Never!" hollered the eight-year-old before he maneuvered himself to stab Tom in the stomach with his elbow, grinning when he was let go after a cry from Tom.

"Brat," huffed Tom as he rubbed his ribs with a wince.

"You asked for it," laughed Alex before his ears perked up at the sound of his name being called and he raced out of the room before Tom could catch him again and dangle him from the staircase... again. He ran down the stairs, nearly losing his balance once, until he collided into a much taller body. Looking up, he was scooped up into the arms of his father's friend, Snake. K-Unit grinned at the sight of the happy kid in front of them, each enjoying the fact that the Cub they had known so long ago was no longer flinching or glancing over his shoulder in trepidation. The fact that Alex was still small enough to be carried around always amused them and they made sure he knew this constantly. Alex was growing quite used to being lifted up, though he couldn't wait to be taller so that they couldn't any longer.

"Hey Uncle Chris," Alex chimed, wriggling around to be released from the soldier's grip.

"Heya kiddo," Snake said with a grin, letting the boy down and tousling his hair.

"How's Panther been?" Ben was asking Wolf who was mercilessly tickling Alex against him, having captured the boy as soon as Snake put him on the ground. Alex yelped and did his best to squirm away, failing as he dissolved into laughter. Tom had finally joined them downstairs and went into the living room to watch over Alex's baby brother. Wolf responded that Panther was doing fine and had actually improved greatly since Ben's last visit with the guy. Finally the team leader released his godson and smirked as Alex glared at him, trying to regain his breath. He stuck out his tongue and retreated to the kitchen to his mother before Wolf could retaliate again.

"Cub been behaving you Ben?" Wolf said with a smirk.

"Wouldn't know, been on another mission. Kaitlyn told me he managed to get his teacher's chair stuck to the floor and had locked a kid in a locker. How? I don't have a clue and I don't think Alex will fess up to me." Ben answered, shaking his head in amusement. Wolf laughed loudly at the pranks and was joined by Eagle and Snake who were just as amused by the intelligent former teenager. They headed into the living room where James toddled to his own godfather and was lifted up onto Snake's lap, babbling nonsense to the man and waving around a stuffed snake he had gotten for his first birthday. Snake smiled at his godson and bounced him around, grinning at Eagle's pout. They had an ongoing argument about Eagle's lack of a godson while Wolf and Snake both were godfathers.

"Jason, you have twin boys!" Snake argued, tossing a peanut in his mouth from the bowl he had sneaked into the room. He defended his stolen possession from Wolf's paws, keeping his attention divided between his two teammates while Ben shook his head, always the one to watch and step in when needed. Ever since he had named Snake his youngest son his godfather, Eagle had been rather a nuisance about it and even worse when Wolf was later named Alex's godfather a few weeks later at James' christening.

"Yeah well having a godson is different," pouted Eagle, "they aren't really your kids and you can spoil them. If I spoiled Cameron and Christian, they'd become more evil than they already are. Besides, you have a godson and a daughter."

"Your point?" Eagle simply sulked before his phone rang and he cursed before heading outside, the sounds out "Hey honey! Yeah I just got back from the camp" ringing as he left the area. The men shook their heads in amusement while Tom grinned. He had been hired by Snake and Eagle to babysit their kids plenty of times, enjoying the extra jobs seeing as Snake's 3-year-old daughter, Faith, was quite the charmer and if brought her over to see the 2-year-old twins and James, she was capable of calming all three down. Wolf was the only one fatherless, but he had his godson which he said was enough for him, though his girlfriend Kary would probably argue that notion. Snake had met Sarah four years ago while taking Alex to the park with Wolf, later marrying her and ending up with a child. Eagle had yet to bewed the mother of his sons, Ariel, but was engaged to her at the current moment.

Tom glanced over at the kitchen to see Alex happily chattering to his adopted mother about something, Kaitlyn laughing at his words as she worked on the chocolate layered cake for Alex's birthday. Zach was currently at work and would be at the house in another hour or so while Alex's best friends Kacey and Lily would be showing up soon with Larissa and the gang. Tom smiled as he surveyed the area. A few years ago, he'd never expect any of this. He'd never expect Alex to be without Jack or Ian, to be a spy, and to even be a kid once more. He knew Alex wouldn't trade it for anything, this life he now had. He was able to enjoy both sides of his life without fear of being pulled into another mission anymore, though he had heard from Ben that Mrs. Jones had tried to get Alex interested in spying for when he was older, sending spy kits for kids as presents since Alex's memories were faded enough that he no longer had the fear of MI6 and found amusement in actual children toys thanks to time.

"Tom! Tommy!" Alex called, waving his hand in Tom's face and snapping the teen out of his stupor.

"Call me Tommy again and I'll-" he didn't get very far on his threat before the eight-year-old interrupted him as fast as he could.

"tie me to the attic pillars by my thumbs with a shoe string," Alex finished with a wide grin.

"One of these days brat I'll actually do it," Tom threatened, hiding the way his lips nearly quirked upward in amusement.

"Course you will," Alex said dismissively, "Now come play this new game with Uncle Derryck and me. I got it for my birthday from dad!"

"Fine fine," Tom laughed as he stood up to join the two in the game room in the garage. It had been a long four years of tears, fears and cheers among the group who knew Alex Rider. From a regular teenage boy to a super spy, he had experienced a world of hurt and grew up far too fast. At fifteen Tom had known his best friend would never be the same again. He knew now at eighteen that Alex was never the same person that he used to be. But this time, it was a good reason. He had a mother and a father. He had a brother and even a godfather. Friends who were his age physically and friends who were his age mentally, he had them. Though they had seen Alex go through some pretty emotional times over the years, they knew he had recovered. As Tom entered the room to see Alex thrashing his godfather at the new video game he had gotten, he couldn't help but smile and think about the difference. Yeah... life was good for one Alex Daniels.

Fin.

Author's Note: That's the end! No sequel either. At least I didn't plan one. I'm working on "The Little Soldier" now until that's done which is probably around another six to ten more chapters for that story. This story took me forever but I thank everyone for being patient with me and I really hope you enjoyed the fanfic story. I do not own Alex Rider series, though I wish I did of course. Who wouldn't? This was a tribute to my dad and there'll be more stories from me to come! I wanted to give K-Unit a family since they ARE getting old over there and Ben already had a family. If anyone wants to write a one-shot or derivation from this story, you're welcome to so long as you provide me a link so I can attach it in my profile. I'm frankly hoping someone could write a one-shot over Ben's proposal to Kaitlyn, or Wolf becoming Alex's godfather, but I just don't have the time to work on that.

Ciao,

Kiamii