CHAPTER FOUR — RENDEZVOUS

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for hacking you last week." — alexia ortega

A THROBBING PAIN IN HER SKULL WAS WHAT THE TEEN WAS GREETED WITH UPON WAKING UP IN A STRANGE PLACE. The last thing she remembered was failing their mission of retrieving information on Cobalt and then being compromised and then... the explosives. All those poor people hurt, or worse, and for what? Then Alexia remembered being pushed from the blast before the last of the Kremlin burst into flames. It had been Ethan.

Oh crap! Ethan!

Where was he? The girl lurched upwards in a panic, her eyes darting around frantically in search of the man. The first thing she noticed was that she was in a hospital as the familiar blinding white lights caused her to wince upon opening her eyes. Screams and moans of the injured echoed down the corridors as victims of Cobalt's bomb were rushed into care. Nurses and Doctors rushed about, their arms brimming with medicines, bandages and all sorts of supplies to give aid. They truly had their work cut out for them.

But where was Ethan? Or Benji? Or Jane? There was no one there. She was all alone again.

Alexia groaned as she sat up on the hospital bed and rubbed her throbbing head with the palm of her hand. Whipping her head around, she searched desperately for the man that saved her life. He was right beside her when the bomb went off, so he had to be here. He just had to be.

The teen glanced down at her body and scanned her limbs for injuries. Small cuts littered the exposed flesh on her hands and her legs, there were small flecks of dried blood on her palm from the clump around her head. It was stuck in her hair around the wound but she didn't have the time to get it out. She had to find Ethan and the team. Swinging her legs over the side, she planted them firmly on the ground but as she went to take a step forwards, her knees almost gave way under her. It took Alexia a few moments to regain her footing then she grabbed her bag that was at her beside and hurried out of the room.

Maybe Ethan and the team were in the other rooms? Alexia had no idea.

Hospital beds lined the walls, each with a casualty of the Kremlin attack awaiting medical care. The girl turned away at the sight. It was so horrific. Why would anyone want to see the world in this much pain? All these poor, innocent people. And Alexia had no clue how many there were dead. She hoped to Rosalind Franklin that there weren't many.

Alexia continued in her frantic search for her Father, until a passing nurse stopped her in her tracks. "я в порядке и мне нужно идти, иначе моя семья будет волноваться." Alexia lied rather easily, a lie constructed partially from the truth just like the best ones were. Translation: I'm fine and I need to go, otherwise my family will be worried.

The Nurse then offered to phone someone for her, but the teen quickly declined and insisted she had to leave. Her heart raced wildly inside her chest as she waited for the Nurse's response. Fortunately, once the Nurse realised Alexia was indeed alright and that her wounds were simply superficial, she allowed the fifteen—year—old to leave. But of course, she had to sign out first. Then, the small hacker vanished into the crowd and slipped out of the hospital.

Upon setting her foot outside, Alexia was greeted with a swarm of police and government vehicles. Now that didn't look good. Her plan was to find a computer — her weapon of choice — and then figure out where Ethan and the others were. But all the Russian police surrounding the hospital, it wasn't a good sign.

Sweat started to bead down Alexia's head, softening the dried blood clumped into her hair. Her hands shook unsteadily and her breathing came out in short pants.

Come on Alexia, pull yourself together.

With a calming breath, Alexia then started to casually walk down the street and past all the officers who were dashing around. Mixtures of Russian and English made their way into her ears, so it was a good thing she understood both. And from what she could overhear, they were trying to set up a perimeter to catch the man responsible for the Kremlin bombing. Alexia furrowed her eyebrows. If he had escaped from the hospital, then he clearly wasn't Cobalt, unless Cobalt had been reckless. But that didn't sound like the man they were after.

So, they were after someone else.

Alexia ensured to keep her distance to avoid suspicion as she watched as the man in charge listed off a description of their target. 5'7''. Brown hair. American. Barefoot? Now, that was odd.

Then she continued to observe, intrigued, as the agent pointed to the wire above them, telling his colleagues how the man used his belt to slide down and onto a passing van. Escaping a seemingly impossible situation? Now that sounded like someone she knew: her Father. Which wasn't good for anyone because it meant this agent thought Ethan Hunt (or whoever he knew him to be) to be responsible for the Kremlin and not Cobalt. Very not good indeed.

And after gathering as much information she could, Alexia slipped away undetected into the Russian streets. She had no phone, no passport and no way back to Spain. She was stuck. And that left her with only one option: find the team.

As Alexia strolled down the cobbled pavements, a genius plan came into her genius mind. She was going to do what she did best and it was going to led her to them and to her Father, or whoever came first. She was going to find them. That was something she was sure of.

THE FIRST THING ALEXIA DID WAS CAREFULLY STEAL A CAP FROM A STAND TO COVER HER BLOODIED HEAD. She was getting tired and worried of people giving her strange looks as they passed. Stealing was wrong, she knew that, but she was desperate. Then she pinched a pair of sunglasses from a store further down the street and slipped them onto her nose. She didn't have a lot of resources so she had to do the best she could to disguise her identity. And it wasn't too long after that that she managed to acquire some directions to the nearest internet café where her plan would properly take shape.

A small ding echoed overhead as Alexia entered the café. Her eyes quickly scanned her surroundings and noted the cameras positioned throughout the room. It didn't take her long to figure out the blind spot which she immediately made her way over to. No one could witness what she was about to do. It wasn't exactly legal. But desperate times called for desperate measures.

Back when Alexia first learnt to hack — much to the displeasure and astonishment of her Mother and Uncle — she vowed not to use her talents, already knowing the danger they would bring to her family and to others. She knew that if she continued down that path that she would lost her family one way or another. So, she put her skills to rest. But after the death of her Mother, everything changed. Alexia broke the vow she made and used her talents to help her in quest. Since then, she had broken two men (one of whom was her Father and a secret agent) out of a highly secured prison and then helped a team of agents sneak into the Kremlin itself. Alexia Ortega had come a long way since leaving Spain and there was no turning back now.

She switched on the computer in front of her and instantly began to work. Her fingers danced across the keys in a rhythmic and deadly motif as she made quick work of hacking into the system. It didn't take her very long to sneak her way into the network of the local police force which granted her access to all their current information and their resources. Which included the security cameras she was looking for. The police may have had their manpower and their weapons, but Alexia had her 160 IQ and a speed at coding that might as well be a weapon.

Cautious of her surroundings, Alexia then found the camera footage from the hospital she was at and rewound the tape until she found the part the man outside the hospital had been talking about. She was right; it was her Father.

Despite the darkness from her glasses, she could tell who it was on the slightly static tape. There was no mistaking it. "Wow." She breathed out in awe as she watched Ethan slide down the wire with his belt and then land on the roof of a van before rolling off onto the cobbled street below. Alexia cringed. That must've hurt.

It was a race against the clock: she had to find Ethan before those cops did. Picking up the pace, Alexia scoured the system, looking for the cameras with Ethan in them. It wasn't easy, she had to admit, he was good. But, not as good as her. She managed to find his trail and followed him on the cameras, watching as he pinched a pair of boots for his bare feet and a jacket for his uncovered chest. At least now the girl knew where she got her stealth and light fingers from.

As each frame passed by, Alexia kept an eye on the time-stamps pressed into the corners and watched as the grew closer and closer to the current time. She looked for the last frame she could before pinpointing the location. It wasn't that far. Thank Archimedes.

A relieved smile spread across her lips. She was going to find him... again. She wasn't going to be trapped in this country alone. With a few presses of some keys, Alexia wiped any evidence of her crime from the computer before tugging her cap down over her shades and fleeing the café before she could be spotted. She really was starting to get the hang of this whole 'secret-agent' business.

Alexia dashed down the streets, weaving around the people in her path as she ran after the agent. Some people gave her weird looks as she passed but Alexia paid them no mind. Corner after corner, Alexia sprinted along the Russian pavements in a desperate search for the man she believed to be her Father. Then, with one final twist in the road, she finally spotted a man with a black hoodie pulled over his head not that far away. Sure, it could have been anyone in a black hoodie, but Alexia knew it wasn't. 

"Ethan!" She called out and as soon as the name fell from her lips, the man came to a halt.

He turned on the spot to find a young girl in sunglasses and a hat staring at him and he knew. It was Alexia. Relief washed over his face at the sight of her safe and sound and he watched as she pulled off her hat and glasses before tossing them into her bag. They stared at each other, neither one moving, as a relieved smile was shared between them. When he pushed her from the blast he had done it to protect her and when he awoke in that hospital with no idea where she was, it scared him more than he'd like to admit. But now she was here.

Alexia rushed over and then came to a stop just in front of the agent. Both of them wanted nothing more than to encase the other in a tight embrace, but they each believed it was a line the other didn't want to cross.

Ethan's relief morphed into concern when he spotted the dried blood on the side of her hair causing him to instinctively raise his hand to touch it. "I'm fine." Alexia reassured him after swatting his hand away.

"How'd you find me?" Ethan asked, stuffing his hands deeper into the pockets of his stolen jacket.

Alexia gave him a sheepish smile in response. "I may have hacked into the local police." Eyes widening in, Ethan stared down at the girl. She couldn't tell whether he was angry, shocked or somewhat proud. Possibly a mix of all three. "In my defence, it was the quickest way to find you." Explained Alexia before she added to further her point. "My passport is in my bag back in the van, so I can't get out of the country without it. You're my only shot out of Russia."

With a deep sigh, Ethan nodded his head, knowing the teen was right. "Okay, fine." He gave in before giving the girl a small smile. Alexia returned it. Before she could even take a step forwards, Ethan paused and reached into his pocket and withdrew a handkerchief from his stolen jacket. He knelt down on the cobbled pavement to dip the edge of the material in a collection of rainwater whilst Alexia observed him curiously. What was he doing?

Ethan returned to his feet and then cautiously reached out with his spare hand to grip Alexia's chin. Then he carefully dabbed the wet cloth against the side of Alexia's head to try and wipe the dried blood from her skin. The girl winced at the contact. Alexia wasn't sure she expected to come from Ethan's mouth next, but it wasn't what he said next.

"Why do you think you're my daughter?" He asked softly, catching the girl off guard.

Alexia's body stiffened. Ethan kept glancing at the girl, awaiting an answer, as he continued to clean the red stains from the side of her skull. With a nervous gulp, Alexia then replied, reaching into her bag for her pocket knife. She used her thumb to push back the cover to where she had hidden the slip of paper her Mother had given her the week prior. "My Mom gave me this." She informed Ethan and as soon as he placed the now blood-red handkerchief back into his pocket, she handed it to him. Ethan treated it like it was a bomb and was so careful as he unfolded the paper and stared at the words written sixteen years ago. The name of her mother toppled from his lips causing her brown eyes to widen in shock. "You remember?"

"Of course." Ethan replied, his voice so quiet it was almost a whisper. "It was a long time ago, but Lilith Ortega isn't the sort of woman you forget." He smiled softly at the memory of the kind and lively woman who made his stay in Cadiz some of the best weeks of his life. Curiously, he raised his eyebrow at the girl and inquired. "Why now?"

Some part of him already knew the answer. He just hoped it wasn't true.

A tear trickled down her cheek. "She, uh, died. About a week ago." Revealed Alexia as her heart clenched at the mention of her late mother. "She gave me that minutes before it happened." A week? Death was not an unfamiliar thing to Ethan Hunt and neither was grief. But for a young girl to have lost someone as close to her as her Mother, he didn't even want to imagine the pain she was in. Now he really regretted letting her in on the mission. But as Alexia had previously noted, there was no turning back now.

"I'm so sorry." He condoled sincerely as he swung a comforting arm around her small shoulders. "I promise you, Alexia—"

"Alex." She interjected causing the super-agent to look down at her. "Or Lex. It's shorter than Alexia." Not Lexi. Not yet. That name was what her Mother and Uncle called her.

A smile made its way onto Ethan's face. "I promise you, Lex. When this is all over we'll figure this out, okay? We'll take a DNA test." Alexia stared up at him in surprise. That was something she hadn't seen coming. She didn't think he would be so accepting — he hadn't been before — but something must've changed. Ethan was in fact petrified. Alexia being his was becoming to seem less and less impossible by the minute and that frightened him. Not only would it force a target upon the teen's back but it would mean he had already missed out on so much of her life. And he was starting to like her. "But for now, lets get out of here. I have a rendezvous ready to pick me, well, us, up."

Alexia nodded and then the two disappeared into the dark streets as night began to set in. Ethan Hunt and Alexia Ortega were together and nothing was going to separate them again. But as they headed towards the rendezvous, Ethan's arm still resting over her shoulders, she couldn't help but think back to everything that had already happened. The Kremlin had been blown to smithereens, Cobalt's files were stolen.

Alexia didn't have to be the genius she was to know that this was only the beginning.

THERE WAS A SLEEK BLACK CAR WAITING FOR THEM WHEN THEY ARRIVED AT THE EXTRACTION POINT. Ethan cast her a reassuring look before the door was opened which allowed the two to hop inside. Alexia entered the vehicle and sat down only to find two men sitting in front of them. They stared at Alexia wearily as she found her place on Ethan's left. She couldn't blame them. "Mr Secretary." Ethan addressed the older of the men before them as Alexia closed the door behind her. His words caused her to whip her head around in disbelief. The Secretary. He was there.

Wow. Alexia really was in it now. She started to ball her skirt material into her fists as she tried to avoid their gazes. They weren't going to like her when they found out what she had done.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the worried look on the Secretary's face and the despair glinting in his eyes. But after the Kremlin bombing everyone was on edge. "Who's the girl?" He asked, getting directly to the point, and cast a look towards the girl.

Alexia turned to Ethan who gave his approval with a nod of his head. He trusted these people, so, Alexia decided, she would too. "Alexia Ortega." She answered and the man across from her dropped his jaw in shock.

"You're on the Spanish Government's watchlist of potential recruits and highly skilled individuals." He informed them. Alexia shrugged nonchalantly at the news. It wasn't exactly a surprise to her, she knew graduating early with the IQ she had would catch someone's attention even if they didn't know about her computer skills. Not to mention she could already beat an adult in a physical fight, thanks to her Uncle. But Ethan and the Secretary were most certainly surprised by the other man's announcement.

"It's not like I check my own file." Alexia defended with another shrug. With a calming breath, Alexia then turned to the Secretary and gathered enough courage before admitting. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for hacking you last week."

An exasperated groan fell from his lips and he rolled his eyes at the girl. "Great. Our security was breached by a thirteen—year—old."

"Fifteen."

Alexia shot a glare at the man. Which probably wasn't the cleverest idea considering he was the Secretary of the IMF. He could probably ship her off to a black site where she would never be seen again with a simple button. Don't mess with the top secret government agency leader, Alexia had to remember that one.

The unknown man opposite her stared at her curiously, tilting his head slightly. "Why are you here?" He inquired, asking the very question she knew to be on the Secretary's mind.

"She came looking for me." Ethan suddenly replied before Alexia even had the chance to open her mouth. "She believes I'm her Father." Alexia nudged the man beside her with her foot and shot him a small glare too, having thought they were going to keep that nugget of information to themselves. However, Ethan knew these people, he knew that he had to tell them because without a proper reason they wouldn't let Alexia stay with him. They would probably drop her back in Cadiz the first chance they had. Now both of the agents in front of them understood, now wearing small smiles as the hack to the system suddenly made sense. "I wasn't aware you were in Russia." Ethan quickly changed the subject.

"I'm not." The Secretary replied. Ah, the iconic technically not being somewhere when they obviously were. A secret agent classic. "Not since a bomb blew up the Kremlin." Then the car finally started to move and Alexia's hand instinctively reached out for a seatbelt, but hesitated. If they had to get out of the situation fast, it was best to not put it on. "Yesterday I flew in to accept the Order of Friendship from the Russian Prime Minister."

Alexia grimaced. That wasn't going to end well with the Kremlin in pieces.

So not only had Cobalt destroyed evidence of his crime, he had destroyed peace between two nations. Really was a two birds, one bomb situation.

"Now I'm headed back to Washington to hand the President my resignation." Sighed the Secretary grimly. Guilt ate away at the teen and she hung her head sadly at the news. Meanwhile, Ethan was staring at the unknown man opposite them, the one who was aware of who she was. "My Chief Analyst, William Brandt." He revealed, noticing Ethan's gaze.

Alexia shook William Brandt's hand after her offered it to her but Ethan declined the gesture. "Do you have a pen?" He asked instead.

"Pardon me?"

"A pen."

Brandt gave the agent across from him a strange look before handing him a pen as he requested. Over his shoulder, Alexia watched as he scratched the ink along the skin of his palm. A sketch quickly formed across his hand and Alexia almost immediately identified it as the man they saw in the Kremlin: Cobalt. She didn't know her Father could draw. He really had multiple tricks up his sleeve. "Ethan, Alexia, what happened at the Kremlin?"

Ignoring the Secretary himself, Ethan instead turned to Brandt. "Chief Analyst, you say?"

"If you're implying I made a bad call—"

Ethan cut him off. "European male. Fifties. About six-foot, 180 pounds. Blue eyes." He listed off all the notable features of the man they believed to be Cobalt. Then he raised his hand to show Brandt the drawing across his rough palm. Alexia couldn't help but smirk. "Who is he?" They all turned to the analyst expectantly.

Brandt sighed before staring at the sketch, trying to identify the man Ethan was describing. "A crude drawing, but by your description, that could be Kurt Hendricks. 190 IQ." Now Alexia felt very intimidated. "Served in Swedish Special Forces. Professor of Physics, Stockholm University. Specialist on nuclear endgame theory."

"Sounds like our guy." Alexia commented, arms folded over her chest.

Glaring at the girl for cutting in. Brandt then continued. "Asked to resign... Well, because he's crazy."

"Definitely our guy."

"Cobalt." Ethan said at the same time as Alexia which made the two men glance at them weirdly. "You have to alert the Kremlin that one of their strategists has a nuclear launch device and one of his operatives has the codes to activate it." Alexia pursed her lips as she recalled passing Cobalt (or as they now knew him as Kurt Hendricks) in the Kremlin. He had a case. That was a nuclear launch device?

Not good.

And Moreau had stolen codes from the late Agent Hanaway. Very not good.

All Cobalt had to do was acquire the codes from Moreau then he had the means to detonate a nuclear weapon. They couldn't let that happen.

The Secretary frowned concern, but Brandt still seemed unconvinced. "And what makes you say that?" He queried.

Ethan and Alexia exchanged a knowing look before the former revealed. "We saw him leaving the executive armoury, bag in hand. He set off that explosion to cover his tracks. It could be weeks before the Russians know it's missing."

Because they're too busy chasing after you, Alexia thought with a shake of her head.

"Unless we tell them."

"They won't listen to us." The IMF Secretary informed them with a sad sigh and Alexia knew this wasn't a good sign. "As far as the Russians are concerned, we just bombed the Kremlin." Oh crap. That was definitely not good. "The tension between the United States and Russia hasn't been this high since the Cuban Missile Crisis." Oh crap indeed. "And the blame, right or wrong, points to the IMF. The President has initiated Ghost Protocol."

Alexia had no idea what that was but it didn't sound like fun. This whole situation, it was waaaaayyyy above her paygrade — not that she had a job — and it was all getting a little two much for the teen to handle. Sensing her discomfort, Ethan discreetly reached out and grabbed her hand, squeezing it to try and offer some comfort to the girl beside him. Daughter or not, she was still a girl stuck in a situation she shouldn't even be in. And besides, he had grown to like her and would hate fir anything bad to happen to her.

"The entire IMF has been disavowed." Announced the Secretary and Alexia didn't have to be an agent to know that wasn't a good thing. If the IMF was down, who was going to stop Cobalt? He was so close to detonating a nuclear weapon so they didn't have time to wait for the IMF to be reinstated.

The muscles in his hand tensed as Ethan grew irritated by the mess they were in, but he put that aside. "So, what happens now?"

"Now, I've been ordered to take you back to Washington and I'm sure they would like to talk to her too." He said and gestured towards Alexia who was biting her lip anxiously. Ethan squeezed her hand again and she started to calm. "The DOD will label you as a rogue extremist, Ethan, and will hang the Kremlin bombing on you and your team." Ethan's eyes shot to the analyst's gun, which only Alexia seemed to notice. They weren't going to take them, Ethan would make sure of it. "Unless you were to escape."

Wait... WHAT?

A smirk crept across the fifteen—year—old's lips as the man started to explain an escape plan. He was letting them go because he knew how important they were, that Cobalt had to be stopped. "Somewhere between here and the airport, having assaulted Mr Brandt and me and kidnapped the girl." Brandt stared at his boss in disbelief. Alexia was staring to like this Secretary guy. "You would then illegally scrounge whatever material you could from a backup supply cache that I've overlooked. The same cache were your team are waiting for further orders."

"Sir, you may want to..." William began but the Secretary waved him off as he kept his gaze on the agent and the teen hacker.

"You will then disappear, and this conversation never having taking place, your intentions would be unclear." He stated. The IMF was so cool. "But if any of your team is caught or killed, they will be branded terrorists." No pressure or anything. "Out to incite global nuclear war." Then he pulled out a small case and opened it, revealing about half a dozen USB sticks lined up in a row. Pulling one from the case, he offered it to Ethan. "Your mission, should you choose to accept it." Ethan, of course, took it. Thole system of the IMF was incredible, Alexia couldn't help but admire it. A solemn sigh escaped the Secretary. "Ethan, you were my best man. And I'm sorry it's come to this, after all the sacrifices you made."

Sacrifices? Alexia frowned and turned to her Father with a perplexed look across her face, but he ignored it. Realising he wasn't going to tell her, Alexia squeezed his hand just like he had done for her. He gratefully accepted the small comfort she offered him.

"If we don't meet again, I just want you to know, I've always considered you a friend." The Secretary gave his old colleague and friend a sad smile and then turned to the girl. "And you, you have some amazing talents. Just remember to use them for the right reasons." A small blush formed on Alexia's cheeks at his words and unbeknownst to her, Ethan was glancing at the teen with a proud smile.

But that moment was swiftly ended.

BANG!!!

A large explosion crashed into the side of the vehicle, followed by a storm of gunfire. Alexis immediately ducked down as Ethan yelled at them all to stay down and out of the way. Bullets tore through the glass with ease, scattering it across their bodies. The metal exterior of the car caught most of the bullets aimed towards them, but Alexia knew that it wouldn't last.

She stifled a scream as a bullet soared straight through the Secretary's head, killing him instantly. Another good life wasted and for what? Alexia had seen death before, but nothing like that. Ethan quickly wrapped an arm around the girl, pining her to the bottom of the car as bullets continued to sail through the car, barely missing them.

In that moment, the only thing Ethan knew he had to do was protect her. A child caught in the crossfires, an innocent life, a life that was possibly brought into the world because of him. She didn't deserve to die. So, he was going to be damn sure she didn't.

The next one to get hit was the driver who too was met with a bullet between the eyes. With no one behind the wheel, the car began to lose control and three current passengers were tossed about as the tires screeched and car swerved. Alexia held on tight to the only thing close — Ethan.

Then before they knew it, the car drove straight off the road and dived into the watery depths of the river. Alexia braced herself for the inevitable impact.

First the Kremlin, now this. Could they ever catch a break?

Rewritten as of: 12/08/23

This version is almost over 2000 words longer than the original and this was already the longest chapter out of them all. So, wow.

Alexia is so smart. Finding Ethan on her own with no help and none of her own tech. This girl really is a genius.

Also, Alexia and Ethan's soft moment >>>. I love them so much. Ethan's starting to lean into the idea that she's his daughter, especially after learning about her Mother.

Alexia already has a name for herself. As she should, she's a smart badass. Brandt knows her file so hearing Ethan is probably her Father, it makes sense to him.

In conclusion, I love her and I love her developing relationship with Ethan.

Anyway, thank you for reading!

Sincerely Rosie aka Winter326