"Alex?"

"Ben?"

"Alex, can you hear me alright?" Ben asked. Alex gritted his teeth squeezing his eyes shut, he didn't want to see the pitying glances in their eyes. Another question popped into his head, was it only Ben and Eagle? Sudden dread overcame him. Was Wolf there? The man who hated him so much at training?

"Alex, we know you're awake." Tom sang in an annoying voice.

"Shut it, Tom." Alex groaned, wincing as he pulled an arm over his eyes to block out the bright sunlight.

"You don't mean that." Tom chuckled hollowly, watching his best friend in pain.

"Now Alex, this might hurt, I'm terribly sorry if it does." A scottish voice murmured quietly.

"Snake?" Alex asked before hissing in pain, what the hell was he doing?

"It's me. You had a shard of glass stuck in your side, I got it though, don't worry." Snake said, taking the cloth out of the water and carefully washing the wound.

"Exactly, who is here?" Alex said, trying to take his mind off the twinging pain in his side.

"Well, there is me, obviously." Tom said. "Then Ben, Snake and Eagle. Oh, and also Wolf."

"What did you do, Tom?" Alex said, fearing the answer.

"I found your phone, and called them." Tom said meekly.

"Why? Did this really need three SAS men and an MI6 agent?" Alex asked.

"I panicked, it was bad, Alex. Really bad." Tom said.

"I'm sure you're exaggerating a little." Alex sighed.

"No he's not, we thought you were dead, when we arrived." Ben said.

"Cub, we need to know what happened?" Wolf said softly, he already had some accurate ideas but he needed to hear it from the kid himself.

"Nothing, it was a accident at school."

"That's not what it looked like when that man beat you." Snake snapped, feeling furious that anyone could hurt a child.

"You don't know what you're talking about." Alex said fearfully.

"Alex, we can help you." Ben said earnestly.

"There's nothing to help with." Alex said.

"You have a broken leg, multiple cuts - which we need to talk about- on your back, bruising, and by the looks of it, a mild concussion." Ben said furiously.

Alex winced, so it was bad. Glen had never gone to such extremes before, the whole point of the secrecy was so that Jack didn't find out. She could've walked into his room at any point - if she was in- and seen him lying there covering in blood.

"As I said, I have no idea what you're talking about." Alex said, adamantly.

Wolf sighed in frustration, if they'd been a little nicer to him at Brecons Beacons, maybe he would trust them enough to confide in them.

"Now that Alex is stable, we need to relocate." Ben said changing the subject.

"Again?" Tom asked tiredly.

"We can't stay in your parent's house, Tom. We need somewhere secure and safe where Alex can recover." Ben explained.

"I need to go back home." Alex said weakly.

"You've got to be kidding, Cub." Eagle said, in shock.

"No, Jack, I have to go back."

"Jack, who's he?" Wolf asked.

"Jack's a she, not a he, and she looks after Alex." Tom said. "Jack's going to her parents tomorrow, Alex, she'll be fine."

Alex nodded, then winced in pain. "Where are we going then?"

"We can go to my house, but it's quite a distance from here." Wolf said.

"I don't live too far, it'll only be a fifteen minute drive." Eagle said.

"Great, Eagle, you can drive since nobody else knows where you live. Thank you for letting us stop here to fix up Cub a little, Tom." Wolf said.

"No problem, just... tell Alex to let me know how he's doing." Tom said quietly.

"Is it safe to leave?" Ben asked, looking up from his spot next to Alex.

Tom disappeared down the stairs for a few minutes before popping his head around the door, "You can leave."

"I'm really sorry about this, Alex." Ben said guiltily.

Alex frowned in confusion, what was he sorry about? His question was answered quite quickly as Ben carefully lifted him off the bed. The pain surprised Alex, normally he could rely on adrenaline to help him think past the injuries he sustained whilst on missions, but this pain seemed to cover his whole body and was so intense that it rendered Alex breathless for a few moments.

"I'm sorry." Ben repeated.

Carefully Ben walked out the room, he really hoped that his walk wasn't too rocky and causing Alex pain. He slowly went down the stairs, feeling incredibly guilty when Alex hissed in pain. They left Tom at the door and went to the car.

Eagle drove as fast as he legally could, while Alex lay across Wolf's and Ben's legs. Snake was regularly turning around from the front to check on Alex, he was worried about a particularly large cut on Alex's hip, which was steadily bleeding through the bandage.

"How much further, Eagle?" Snake asked through gritted teeth as he applied pressure to the wound.

"Not much, just around the corner."

"Stay awake, Cub, we're almost there." Wolf said, trying and failing to sound stern. He thought if it sounded like a command Cub may be more likely to listen to him.

"It hurts." Alex whimpered, he had never felt more vulnerable in his entire life.

"I know, Cub, we're almost there." Ben whispered.

The second the car was stopped, they jumped into action. Eagle showed them to the living room and Ben lay Alex on the couch. It hurt Alex, lying on his wounded back, but it was a lot better than Ben and Wolf's bony knees, so he didn't complain.

"Right, I need you to drink this, Cub." Snake said, coming out of the kitchen.

"What is it?" Alex asked.

"Just water, laced with a light pain reliever. I don't want it too strong, it isn't safe for you to sleep with that concussion, yet." Snake said.

Alex nodded, and took the cup. The effort caused his hands to shake, but he proudly noted, that he managed to drink every drop without spilling any.

"Good, now try to relax and Wolf and I will try to set your leg and properly splint it. It won't be as good as a cast, but you'll get one of those as soon as you're fixed up enough to go to the hospital." Snake said.

"This is going to be painful, isn't it?" Alex asked.

"Well..." Snake couldn't find it in him to lie, "yes, it will be quite painful."

"Brilliant." Alex sighed, before taking a deep, steadying breath. "Might as well get it over with then."

Eagle held Alex down, so that he didn't jolt and cause himself even more pain than he would already be going through. Alex couldn't see what Snake and Wolf were doing, Ben was blocking his view as he re-bandaged Alex's side, in the hopes that he wouldn't bleed through the bandages again.

Alex felt a scream build up and it felt like his leg was being smashed into tiny pieces. He gritted his teeth, trying not to make a noise.

"You can scream you know." Ben said quietly.

"No, 'm fine." Alex grunted.

"No, you're not. Eagle had his leg set once, he deafened the whole camp and refused to do anything for weeks after, because he'd 'had a traumatic experience'"

Alex laughed at the indignant look on Eagle's face.

"All done, Cub. You're stronger than many grown men." Snake said, standing up.

"Can I sleep now?" Alex said.

"Yes, but we will have to wake you every few hours, to prevent you falling into a coma."

Alex nodded and felt the darkness overcome him as he succumbed to sleep.

"He has a lot to explain." Wolf sighed.

"Yes, but allow him to rest for now."

An

i do not own Alex Rider ;)

Sorry for the delay.

Its none of your business will be updated later hopefully :)