Crawley had thought that the call he received was strange. Since the beginning, Jones had insisted that one of them had to be at Alex's side, and now she was the one calling him to meet her. He should have questioned it further.

"What do you need?" Crawley asked when he saw Jones in the reception area talking on the phone.

She looked at him and frowned. "I have to go," she said to whoever was on the phone before turning to him. "Crawley, what are you doing here?" she asked, and now it was Crawley's turn to frown.

"You called me. You said that you needed to talk right away," he explained.

She shook her head. "No, I've been on the phone for the last hour. I didn't call you."

Both of them understood the gravity of her words. "Shit," he said, turning back and running to the room he had just left. It had been a setup to get Alex alone, and Crawley fell right through it.

"Alex!" Jones called out as soon as they spotted Alex. He was out in the hallway, leaning against a wall, looking rather unstable on his feet.

The boy turned to them. He was pale, blood was running down his arm from where he had ripped out the IV, and the bandage on his leg was also slowly being stained red.

"Alex, what happened?" Mrs. Jones asked.

Crawley looked inside the room, eyes widening as he saw the bullet hole lodged in the medical equipment.

"There was a man. I saw him at Point Blanc."

"What did he look like?" Crawley asked.

"Uh, he had a scar down his face."

Crawley and Mrs. Jones looked at each other. They both knew who Alex was talking about.

"Go, call for backup," Mrs. Jones ordered Crawley, who was already running down the hallway.

"What is all this yelling in a hospital?" Alex's doctor suddenly appeared. "Alex, what are you doing out of bed? You shouldn't be on your feet," the doctor said, raising his voice when he noticed Alex's condition.

Alex was getting paler by the minute, the adrenaline clearly running out, the room starting to turn upside down.

"Let's get you into a bed," the doctor said, already predicting that the boy would pass out.

"Merde," Alex heard the man curse under his breath at spotting the bullet, or maybe he was mourning the broken equipment.

Alex was barely conscious by the time they got to the bed. His body hadn't been ready for that kind of activity.

"Prep him for transfer. We will leave as soon as the helicopter arrives," he heard Mrs. Jones say. He was going home then, back to Jack and Tom. He barely managed to fight a smile.

"What?" the doctor asked incredulously. Alex felt the hands leaving his body for a moment before returning. "He is highly unstable to get transferred. I won't allow it," the man said.

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice. The order is clear: stabilize him for the trip. It's too dangerous for him to stay any longer," Mrs. Jones said, and Alex could see her turn around to leave the room as more nurses entered.

"Mrs. Jones," he called out as the needle was inserted back into his arm.

She stopped and turned to him. "That man killed my uncle," he revealed. She didn't seem shocked. Did she know that? Did she know that man? Maybe they had played him from the beginning. He was not surprised.

His line of sight got obscured by someone strapping the oxygen mask back on. At least he was going home.

Despite the medic's disagreement with Mrs. Jones's order, an hour later he was already inside a medical helicopter, straps securing him to a stretcher around his chest and legs, trapping Alex. It seemed a little excessive and claustrophobic, but according to the doctor, he shouldn't be moved thanks to the fresh stitches on his leg.

"What is that?" Alex asked as he saw the doctor injecting something into his IV.

"Something to keep you calm. Your body needs rest and the stress from the trip can be highly detrimental. This is a compromise. When you wake up, you'll be in London," the man said, emptying the contents.

"Oh," Alex was already feeling his eyes starting to shut down on their own. He didn't appreciate getting sedated, especially after Point Blanc. He didn't have time to protest before he was asleep.

Mrs. Jones got in the helicopter as the doctor got out. He wouldn't be staying for the trip; someone from London was going instead. "I already sent everything necessary to the hospital," he informed her. She only nodded before closing the door. The sooner they got out of there, the better.

The fact that Gregorovich was alive was unsettling to her. It was a danger they didn't see coming. It wasn't just Gregorovich; it was all that he represented, SCORPIA. SCORPIA was the real problem, the real danger, and if they were back, they had a real problem on their hands.

She looked at Alex, eyes closed, hurt and bruised. It was her fault that he was in that current situation, but she couldn't deny that he had prevented a bigger problem. Most importantly, he had flushed SCORPIA out in the open. He was the only witness that had seen Gregorovich.

Unfortunately, Crawley wasn't successful in their search. If it wasn't for the bullets in the hospital room, Mrs. Jones would have doubted if the assassin had really been there.

The helicopter finally began its descent. Fortunately, the trip was smooth and Alex was already showing signs of waking up. She would have to call Jack. The boy deserved to have someone who cared for him, and now that they were in London, someone else could be assigned to guard the room.

She followed to the room they were putting Alex in, the hallways familiar to her, having countless times made this exact path to brief someone whose mission had gone south. When she arrived, the nurses were already leaving the room, Alex clearly awake and rubbing his eyes. An incredibly childish gesture that pained her even more.

"Alex," she called out, making him look at her.

"We're in London now?" he asked, looking around. It hit her that he was probably looking for Jack.

"Yes, Jack is on her way. Alex," she informed, sitting down. "I want to talk about what happened. The man that you saw was Yassen Gregorovich. We thought that he was dead."

"Clearly he wasn't. He was at Point Blanc," Alex frowned, recalling the moment. "It was weird, the way he looked at me. It was like he knew me, like he recognized me."

Mrs. Jones looked at Alex, and in his place, she could see his father. She knew that Yassen Gregorovich saw it too. The similarities were too big to ignore. Even without the assassin knowing that Alex even existed, even with a fake name, she could bet that Gregorovich knew who Alex was the moment he laid eyes on him.

"I saw him when I was trapped in the lab," Alex said, breaking the silence. "When I was down there, I saw some people: Stellenbosch, my uncle, and that guy. I knew they were hallucinations, but now I'm not so sure if he wasn't there."

'If I wanted you there, you'd already be' — that had to mean something, and Alex knew how to read between the lines.

"Alex, that man won't get any closer to you, alright? I'll make sure of it."

She wasn't able to hear an answer before the door snapped open, making her get up in alert, relaxing instantly when she saw who ran inside.

"Alex!" Jack almost screamed, running up to the bed, an almost unsure Tom behind her. "Oh Alex, what happened?" A hand went up to her mouth, looking at the state of the boy.

Mrs. Jones looked at him up and down and remembered that Jack didn't know anything. In fact, the last time she had seen Alex just a few days before, he didn't have a scratch on him — only that it was a clone and not Alex. But Jack didn't know that, and now Alex appeared with life-threatening injuries, hooked up to multiple machines.

"Jack," Alex said in relief. She was okay. All the doubts he had rushed out of his mind. "You're okay."

Jack only stared at him, confusion written all over her face. "Am I okay? Alex, you're the one that is in a hospital bed," she said, touching his face in worry. "You're burning up," she said, alarmed, already moving her arm to press the call button until Alex grabbed her hand with his bandaged one. "They know, Jack," he said in an attempt to reassure her.

"I'm happy to see you," he said, not letting go of her hand. Suddenly, he remembered that Jack hadn't come alone, finally noticing his best friend awkwardly standing in the room.

"Tom!" Alex exclaimed, his smile getting even wider.

"Hey," the other boy replied, not even looking at Alex.

Alex frowned, noticing that. "Is something wrong?" he asked, sitting up, the blanket falling off him, revealing the hospital gown.

Jack's eyes moved from Alex to Tom, and even Mrs. Jones, who had moved to a corner, was frowning, watching the exchange.

"Mate, you can't expect things to be the same. What you said was messed up. Steph won't even talk to me."

Alex's eyes widened in realization. The clone had done some damage after all. "What did he do?" Alex asked, his tone dropping.

"Who? The only one who did anything was you," Tom said, confused.

"No, it wasn't me. It was the clone," Alex explained, looking briefly at Mrs. Jones. He didn't care that he was breaching some kind of government secret.

"Clone?" Jack asked, confused.

Mrs. Jones sighed, probably not happy about the development of the conversation.

"Yes, I'm afraid that is the truth," Mrs. Jones intervened. "Part of Point Blanc's program was making clones of their students. Unfortunately, we brought Alex's clone in his place."

"What? And you're only telling us this now?" Jack exclaimed, enraged by the news. "If you sent a clone in Alex's place, where was he? Is that the reason you are in a hospital bed?" she asked, the last part turning back to Alex, watching him with new eyes.

"I got caught in an explosion. The clone hid me so no one would see me," Alex explained.

"Explosion? You— I mean the clone was with us for a few days. Are you telling me you were hurt and alone in the middle of nowhere?" she asked, turning to Alex for the last part.

He shrugged. "Yeah, but Jack, I'm okay. It's no one's fault. Except, you know, the clone's."

"Yes, it is. It's their fault," she said, pointing at Mrs. Jones. "They were the ones that dragged you into this. You had no business being at that school."

"Can we talk about this later? I kind of have a concussion," Alex begged, playing the injury card. Although it wasn't a lie that he had a headache.

Jack looked at him, her hand brushing his forehead, being mindful of the bandage. "Fine, but we will talk about this later."

"Fine," he said, rolling his eyes.

"Someone will be guarding the door while you're here. Any problem, you can talk to him," Mrs. Jones said, leaving the room before anyone had time to even open their mouths.

Alex let out a sigh, letting himself fall against the bed, finally relaxing and releasing the tension in his aching body.

"Jesus, Alex, I'm sorry. I should have known you wouldn't have said that. I should have known something was wrong," Tom reached forward for the first time.

"It's okay. You couldn't have known," Alex was quick to reassure. The clones were supposed to be perfect; no one was supposed to doubt they weren't the real person. He couldn't blame anyone for falling for it when he did too. "But you can make it up to me with some pizza," he added with a grin, getting a laugh from Tom.

"Sure, but I'll make sure it has anchovies."

"Nooo, I'm already in a hospital bed," he groaned dramatically.

The air in the room was lighter, and for a moment, things were back to normal. Alex might be stuck in the hospital, recovery might be slow, and perhaps half of the school might hate him right now, but he was home. He was with his family now.

Most importantly, he had found out who killed his uncle: Yassen Gregorovich. Just the name gave him chills. Something about him made his stomach turn. He didn't know why, but he would find out.