Chapter 1- collection

"At ease and take a seat soldiers." Blunt ordered. The 4 men took their seats and watched Blunt intently, waiting for him to tell them which death trap they were being sent to now. The truth is, they were all angry. Because only a fortnight ago they had returned from a hard assignment, and were promised a month's leave. Their leader knew it was too good to be true, this was MI6, what else were they to expect from these people?

"K-Unit." He addressed them as their unit, not individually. "We need you to do a protection job for the son of an old comrade of yours." This got their attention. "I believe his codename was Jaguar?" it wasn't a question; of course he knew the answer to that. "But his real name was John Marcus Rider. If you didn't already know, John was the world's best spy. An amazing success rate most in our world would think as impossible."

"Sir, Jaguar was killed 5 years ago, why would his orphaned son need protection?" it was James San Luca, who is known as Wolf who questioned him. Being the leader, it wasn't surprising.

"Because, Mr San Luca, the boy was taken in by Jaguar's brother, Panther, or as the world knew him, Ian Joshua Rider. Last month, Scorpia killed Ian for messing up their plans. It was when they researched Ian, as they do before they kill them; they discovered that Ian was not only John's brother, but had John's only living descendant. They were still angry at John. That's part of why they killed Rider. Anyway, Ian had a housekeeper who took custody of the boy, but last week she too was killed at their house in front of Alex, who is John's son. He is… understandably distraught."

The Unit had been uncharacteristically quiet during Blunt's description. Thinking about Jaguar and Panther brought back harsh memories of when they had been told they'd died. They hadn't spent much time together, but John and Ian were both memorable men, who had been amazing at camp.

Eagle and Fox didn't mind protecting a kid for a while; it was just another assignment to them. They'd never even thought about kids coming into the picture. Especially this, probably emotionally messed up, kid, who Scorpia might possibly want to kill. Poor kid though. Eagle did almost like this, to him, being the immature and childish one of the group, it was someone else who might pull pranks with him and share the blame.

Wolf didn't want to look after some kid, but he wanted to at the same time. He had always admired the two brothers, and wanted to make it up to them when they saved his life, by protecting the only living Rider. But then again, he didn't want a kid! He was confused and just didn't know what to do.

Snake was already decided. Not only did he not want to back down from an assignment, which is something he's never done before, but he wanted to look after and protect an innocent child from the clutches of Scorpia, the world's most ruthless criminal organisation. Especially the son of Jaguar, who he too, like wolf, admired. And he had been almost friends with Panther. He couldn't let them down. He wouldn't. Not only this, but he felt he was mentally ready to look after a child. He was now 33, and almost like the mother of the unit, not to mention the medic.

There was silence. But Wolf broke it. "Sir, I, we…."

Snake shot him a death glare. He wanted this and had a feeling Wolf was just about to decline.

"I think we need to talk this over, Mr Blunt…" Wolf began.

Blunt looked at them sharply, but agreed none the less: "yes of course, take as long as you need"

The words sounded innocent enough, but Wolf knew that he didn't want them to take forever; he wanted a quick decision, a yes.

Snake stood up and dragged Wolf out of the office and into the corridor, taken by surprise, he didn't stop him. Eagle and Fox followed behind them.

"…what the hell Snake, you can't expect us to look after a kid, much less protect him from bloody Scorpia! We can't even keep a flipping plant alive, and you expect us to look after a 5 year old? Are you insane?" Wolf was practically growling at him.

"Jeez Wolf, calm down!" Eagle exclaimed, alarmed by Wolf's sudden turn.

"Wolf. We owe this to John and Ian. The kids vulnerable and needs someone to protect him. And when have we ever turned down an assignment, eh?" Snake countered. He was right. Wolf didn't answer him. It was true, they'd never turned down a mission, so why now?

"Exactly Wolf, never."

Wolf looked up at his team mates. Snake's face was confident. And Eagle and Fox agreed with him. Wolf was cornered and he knew it, sighing in admitted defeat so the unit would know as he trudged back into the office.

As they entered the room, Blunt looked up from the file he was reading. From the looked on their faces, he gathered that they were going to agree. He knew they would from reading their files.

"Mr Blunt we accept the assignment, could you give us a bit more detail on the mission please?" Wolf asked, keeping his voice low.

"Okay. Glad you have agreed. Anyway, we want you to take him into your house for 2 months until we get Scorpia to leave him alone for sure, and during this time you will be paid as if it was a normal assignment. I have a debit card to give to you, Mr McCarthy. That will pay for his food and clothing and whatever."

Snake looked up. "Why me sir?" he asked. He was puzzled why Blunt had said him, but also glad because he wanted to get the responsibility for Alex. Snake knew what was coming next.

"Well one of you has to sign fostering documents, as we have to do this legally. Of course. And you are legally approved for fostering, are you not?" it was a rhetorical question; he and everyone else in the room already knew the answer. Snake had considered being a foster parent and/or social worker, before he joined the SAS.

"Yes sir" Snake signed the documents and took an envelope that contained Alex's passport, the debit card and some other things he might need, for long term, as well as short. Did Blunt know that he was considering looking after the kid, even after the protection job was finished? It was impossible, although the man wasn't the head of MI6 for nothing, was he?

Wolf was beginning to get impatient. He wasn't a patient man anyway, especially when he was nervous and flustered.

The short, grey haired man, at the desk typed something in his computer and looked up at the SAS men before him, they had no idea what they were getting themselves into, he thought amusingly to himself. It wasn't often he thought like that, but this was a special case including a 5 year old that could be very useful to him in the future.

"One of my agents will bring him up, his rucksack as well."

Fox was suspicious. Blunt was keeping something from them, and he didn't like it. They waited for a minute or so, and then they heard the sound of two people's footsteps, only one sounded as if they were being dragged. Then the sound came from a high pitched, young voice; "hey get off me, leave me alone, let me go, I wanna go home, get off!" Despite the protests, the other the footsteps continued as there were no protests or little people in this case, Snake could guess.

The door opened and an emotionless man dressed in a dark suit and sunglasses stepped in, dragging a small blonde haired figure in behind him.

The boy looked up, and the K-Unit gasped.

Alex was a miniature John. Blonde hair that hung in strands over his forehead and eyes, deep dark brown eyes and a natural tan. Hell, even the lips, nose and eyes were the same shape, as were his ears. It was frightening.

Everyone was shocked. Well the K-unit was. Blunt was looking at Rider, waiting for him to do something, react to the men in the room.

Alex looked at the 4 big men looking at him open mouthed. He was terrified. He hated it in here, and he didn't like the look of the big men, and he hated the mean man who had dragged him into this room with the grey man that didn't show any facial expressions. He just wanted to go home to be with Jack, but she had died right in front of him. The blood had been horrific. He had cried. But he didn't cry now, not in front of these weird men.

The mean man still had hold of his collar. He gritted his teeth, kicked him in the private's, making his collapse, and ran out the door, sprinting out of the fake bank and hopefully never returning.

Eagle was watching Alex curiously, waiting to see what he would do, and could've laughed when he kicked the man in the nuggets and made a runner. But then his thoughts turned to Scorpia, who were possibly out to kill the kid, so he ran out the room after him, Fox running at his heels. He too had come to that conclusion, not to mention he really didn't want to spend his night looking for a 5 year old around London. They ran out the bank, and were about to turn left, when they saw a flask of blonde turn the corner to their right, without any communication, they ran off to the right.

Wolf was still frozen like ice in shock. That boy was like a young John. And the way his eyes had scanned the room, and then made a hasty decision to kick and run, it was just like John once was, before the SAS. They had been collage friends, and then joined the army, and then were selected for the elites together. Losing him was hard. And now another version of him had shown up. It was just too much.

Snake had taken in everything and summed it up, fast. No-one else had noticed, but the look in the kid's eyes was fear. It was clear that he was terrified. He vowed to make that right. No 5 year old should feel like that.

The unfortunate agent recovered from the kick, and hastily left the room.

"Well, no you have met Alex; I think this session is over, you may return back to your house. You'll find his car seat in the lobby, his bag is there by the door, and tomorrow someone will drop round the rest of his things. You'll find when you get back there will be a bed, wardrobe, mattress and cabinet for him. All you have to do is put it together. I have to go now, but Mrs Jones would like to speak with you for a moment." And with that, Blunt walked out of his office, leaving them alone.

"Did you see him Snake? He was a mini John, and an escape artist! What the hell have we gotten ourselves into?" Wolf whispered.

"Yes, and did you see he was terrified? The kid's whole life has ripped apart and turned upside down! He's confused and alone and all you can think is what we've got to deal with!"

Wolf was astounded by the venom and hostility of Snake's words. He almost blushed.

"Look, I'm sorry okay? I've never dealt with kids before and I hadn't noticed he was scared because I was too shocked he was so like John!" Wolf apologized.

Snake's expression, once angry, softened into a slight smile. "Yeah okay I get what you mean. I'm scared too"

Right on cue, Mrs Jones walked in. She was a middle aged black woman with long dark hair, and an expressionless face like everyone else around MI6. The 2 men stood and saluted to her. She waved her hand as a gesture for them to be at ease. She was summing up David McCarthy and James San Luca. Snake, David, was the one she was most interested in. He was the one that Blunt claimed would end up adopting Alex. She was concerned for the boy's wellbeing, she cared, and it was her maternal instincts that did it. Her trained eyes scanned the room for danger, and when she found none, she stood formally to the right of Blunt's desk whilst the town men stayed standing, and alert.

"Snake, Wolf, I have come to give you some information about Alex that no file would contain because it is more on his personal side than any other, and what you need to do, do you understand?"

Wolf nodded. Basically she was giving us personal information about the kid, and almost helping us to understand and help him. Beside him, Snake nodded too.

"Now, I would appreciate it if you don't interrupt me whilst I tell you this. Understand?" she asked, tonelessly. They nodded again.

"Alex is just a child caught up in the world of espionage. He is little and he is afraid. Although he may not seem it sometimes, he is still only a 5 year old little boy with no-one in the world to turn to. He is confused. You, as a foster parent Snake, need to explain to him the situation as best you can to make him understand it fully, but you mustn't include the parts about spy's and assassins. That can wait until he's older, much older." She finished her longs speech, curtly nodded and left the room, once again leaving Snake and Wolf alone.

"Come on lets go. Eagle and Fox would've caught him by now, they're probably already waiting." Wolf said, unsure of what Snake was thinking, because he had his poker face on, showing no emotion. But Snake nodded and they left the room, picking up the big blue rucksack as they went.

Eagle followed Alex round the corner, and through the grave yard the kid had decided to run though. But after on 30 seconds he caught up with that little blonde haired boy, grabbing him under the armpits and lifting him up, yanking him back from the ground. Caught by surprise, Alex stopped moving, but only for a second, before he started struggling and kicking and shouting to tell the man to let him go. Eagle attempted to calm him, but with no such luck.

Fox came over to where he heard the shouting. Being a strategist, he slowed down and waited slightly, just in case Alex backtracked. Evidently, he didn't. Alex was going to hurt himself by struggling and kicking so violently. He was obviously panicking.

"Alex, Alex, it's okay kid were not gonna hurt you, just stop struggling, you're gonna hurt yourself." Fox said in his best 'soothing' voice. It didn't work. If anything, he started trying to escape even more. Fox decided to take the physical approach by grabbing his flailing arms and pulling them to his little side. By being restrained like this, Alex stopped kicking and struggling but continued shouting, only louder.

"Alex, shhhh." Fox said. That didn't work either.

"ALEX WILL YOU PLEASE STOP SHOUTING AND STRUGGLING YOUR GONNA HURT YOURSLEF, WERE ONLY HERE TO HELP!" Fox shouted at the top of his voice. Alex froze. And started trembling.

He wriggled and kicked and punched and tried everything he could to make this man let go of him. He was absolutely terrified. Who were these strong men who held him up and kept his arms by his side? And when the mean man shouted, he started trembling absentmindedly. Shouting at him brought back the bad memories he tried so hard to ignore.

The man holding him spoke to the mean man for the first time; "Fox why the hell did you shout? Now the kids gonna bloody hate you!" the man was right. He did now hate the mean man. "Eagle the kid was gonna flipping hurt himself, I think he already has!" that man was right too. When he was kicking his ankle had started really hurting. Alex wasn't sure if these men were either weird or crazy, because they were both named after animals.

Alex was hanging limply in Eagle's arms, not moving nor doing much apart from breathing. Breathing was a good sign though. Gently, he lowered Alex to the ground, turned him around and let him go. He wasn't putting any weight on his right ankle though, so Eagle put a hand on the boy's right arm to take some of the weight for him. Which Alex gratefully leant on. Eagle was surprised by how light and fragile he was. Boy, this was harder than he anticipated.

"Alex, are you alright? Does your ankle hurt?" he said in his most comforting voice. Alex just nodded. "Okay then. We're not gonna hurt you, were gonna look after you. So are you gonna come to our car without running or attacking us?" Eagle asked again, softly and gently. They boy nodded again, vigorously. "Ok then let's go!" he exclaimed, his mature moment fading fast. Fox rolled his eyes. This fully trained adult SAS soldier couldn't be mature for more than 5 minutes at a time, once a month or so. It was amazing he passed selection.

Eagle walked off, Alex at his side, but was struggling to walk. He was tired, still slightly terrified and his ankle was hurting. The nice man, he now decided, who was apparently called Eagle, noticed he was limping. "Alex do you want a shoulder ride?" he asked quietly. Alex face brightened up, "yeah!" Alex grinned, his face shining. Eagle grinned, chuckling. The kids smile was contagious!

Eagle squatted and Alex jumped on his shoulders, laughing as the man stood up and he was suddenly 6ft off the ground. He started running, laughing to himself when Alex started making plane noises like a normal little 5 year old. The man waited until a chucking Fox caught up with them before continuing again, only this time walking normally as they reached the road.

Snake was reading through Alex's health record in the passenger seat, like any medic would, and Wolf was in the driver's seat, assembling and reassembling his .9mm Browning he carried at all times, when Eagle, Fox and Alex returned. It was quite a sight.

Two burly tall men were walking in their normal cautious walk, only they were both grinning and laughing like idiots, oh and the youngest one had a 5 year old on his shoulders, laughing and grinning just like them. But when they passed the entrance to the Royal & General, Alex tensed and the smile faded, replaced by a mix of coldness and fear.

Eagle, sensing Alex's tension, quickened his pace and whispered quietly so only Alex could hear "come on kiddo, don't worry" Alex just nodded.

When they reached the truck, which was a Nissan Navarra, he slid Alex off his shoulders and opened the door. But Alex didn't climb in; he just looked up at Eagle doubtfully. "Oh yeah, sorry Al!" Eagle gently lifted him into the car seat and did up the seatbelt for him. Eagle shut the door and him and Fox climbed in the truck. Wolf had slid the gun in his pocket just before they reached the car, so he didn't scare Alex when he saw it.

They drove away from MI6, each adult thinking about the one person that could change their lives: Alex.

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There's the first chapter, I've made a few changes to the one that was posted yesterday :D actually, I think there's only one difference. Oh well anyway this is my first story so thanks for all the reviews that I've already had! Plz review so I can make it better! x