Mrs. Jones and Crawley arrived at the military runway an hour later, it was a quiet day there, so the helicopter was one of the few scheduled to land. Nevertheless, they had brought a few agents as backup if a problem raised up.

Sometime later the noise of the helicopter made them put in their position covering a safe area raising their weapons, Mrs Jones and Crawley mimicked preparing their guns.

The helicopter landed, an DGSE agents left from the door on their side.

"Mrs. Jones, a pleasure to see you as always. I believe you have been briefed on the situation " the man said. Mrs. Jones almost groaned when she saw him, the man that always tried to flirt with her every time she saw him

"yes, we have. So if we can get this over. You know our process takes a while" she said annoyed that the man was stalling

"yes I do know your protocol" he gestures to the helicopter and Mrs. Jones could see a few of the DGSE agents open the door on the other side pulling the person out, but from where they were standing she couldn't see who it was.

"I admit I warned him, but this one was insistent that he wanted to be brought here"

Mrs. Jones watched as the man finally appeared in the line of sight or better she say, boy.

"Alex?" she asked surprised, next to her, she heard Crawley murmur something.

"Mrs. Jones" the boy said in relief relaxing against the two men holding him

Mrs. Jones could almost not recognize the boy. His hair had grown since she last saw him. He had deep bags under his eyes, a tired appearance covered his face and he wore clothes that barely fitted him, being too large on him, and the most prominent was the deep bruise around his neck.

Instantly she lowered her gun. "Lower your weapons" she yelled instructing the rest of the agents.

"oh so you do know him" the DGSE agent said surprised

"what the hell is this?" she inquired angrily

Crawley step forward towards the agents holding Alex, making them release the boy so that Crawley could take hold of Alex guiding him in their direction.

"we also have our own protocols for Scorpia, Mrs. Jones. You're not the only that had problems with them"

"He is not a Scorpia agent, you know that from the alert we sent a month ago that he had been kidnapped by Gregorovich"

"A month with Scorpia is too much a risk already, you know that. And then he is dead and suddenly appears alive? If you believe that he is innocent that's on you, we don't take that kind of risk"

She sighed looking at the boy "are you alright?" she knew what some secret agencies were capable of doing to Scorpia agents.

"Never been better" he said clearly in a sarcastic tone.

Her eyes stopped in his handcuffed hands, looking at Crawley "I don't have keys on me" he said

"the keys" she demanded extending a hand to the agent

The man sighed digging his pocket taking the small key reluctantly giving it to the woman, who immediately passed them to Crawley.

"You are making a mistake, Mrs. Jones" he warned

"I appreciate you contacting us" she said turning to Crawley who had bent down to unlock the handcuffs, watching as Alex massaged his wrist wincing.

"Alright let's get going" she finally said, opening the car door for Alex to get in, entering herself in the passenger side, and Crawley in the driver place.

Has Alex closed the door he wanted to sigh in relief, finally he was one steep home, but then he froze suddenly remembering, jack the cameras at his home, the footage that Yassen showed him.

He reached forward "you have to get Jack. Yassen showed me, they have cameras in my house" he said.

Mrs. Jones turned to him reassuring him "don't worry Alex we took care of everything, jack is safe. Blunt will explain you everything."

Alex leaned back in the seat exhausted "do you have some water?" he asked when he realized his mouth was so dry it hurt, he probably had the strangling to blame but still he hadn't drunk anything in over a day.

This time Mrs. Jones looked at him through the rear mirror "No Alex, we will get you something when we arrive" she said

Alex couldn't help but feel like a kid in the back of his parents' car bothering them every few minutes, he couldn't help but think he never had that chance.

They arrive shortly after that not having changed their headquarters since last time. Crawley and Mrs. Jones quickly ushered him inside, towards Blunt office.

"Did you handle everything?" Blunt asked the moment they got in not bothering to look from the file that he was reading

"it's best that you see for yourself" Mrs. Jones said

Finally, Blunt looked up looking surprise when he saw Alex standing there

"Alex, we thought you were dead" Blunt said in his calm feature as if the fact that he was standing there didn't faze him

"yeah, I thought I'd pop in and surprise you. I have to admit I expect a welcome party at least" he said shrugging his shoulders.

"We obviously have a lot to talk about, why don't you wait in the meeting room, and I will call Smithers" he said getting up as Alex followed the agents out of the room, to a large table next to a wall full of screens.

As soon he sat down on one of the chairs Mrs. Jones slide him a sandwich sitting on a paper plate and a bottle of water.

Alex didn't even see where she got it but he immediately he took a bite eating the food in three bites barely chewing before swallowing.

He goes to open the bottle but stopped as his wrist flared in pain, instead brought the bottle to his mouth twisting the lid, opening the bottle, proceeding to drown half of its contents right after, enjoying the cold refreshing feeling on his throat not noticing Mrs. Jones and Crawley exchanging looks.

Just as he put down the bottle, Blunt arrived with Smithers on his side

"it's very good to see you Alex, you do never cease to amaze." Smithers said as he took a seat

"at least someone is happy" Alex said

"alright let's begin" Blunt said ignoring his comment. "We know that Yassen with the help of the agent that we send took you to the airport in pretence that you were a sick patient. Yassen took you to Italy and then to malagosto where you remained" Blunt told him reading off a file

"if you knew where I was why didn't you come?"

"politics Alex, we can't simply conduct a mission on another country"

"I asked for help, I sent it to jack" 

"We know she showed us. The problem is that Scorpia is paying the Italian government a considerable amount of money to have their school in Italy. I talked to them and explained your situation, but they didn't budge" Alex gave up on the matter he knew he wouldn't get no where with the topic

"what about Jack? Scorpia have cameras inside my house, Yassen shown me the live feed, they threaten that they would hurt her " he asked once again

Blunt didn't answer immediately " We decided that Miss Starbright would be safer back home"

"Back home?" he asked afraid of the answer

"in America"

"You deported her?" Alex asked incredulous "I did what you asked, and you still deported her?"

"We didn't deported her Alex, she was sent home to her family, we actually received a report that she his working in a pretty well known law firm"

"oh" was all Alex had to say, perhaps Jack was safer away from him, he was just a burden to her, a kid that was thrown to her that just got in the way of her plans

"Alex we need to know what happened while you stayed in Malagosto, did they told you anything?" It was Mrs. Jones that asked this time, and he immediately knew the underline of that question

"He told me about my father" he said, noticing the heavy atmosphere that fallen in the room

"He showed me the newspapers and the video, he told me everything" he told looking at Mrs. Jones

"Alex-" she begun but immediately he cut her

"I know, I know that you didn't do it. I found out when I was escaping"

"How did you found out?" Blunt asked

"I broke into Yassen room, I found the folder, it had everything. He lied to me to get my compliance" Alex was ashamed to admit that he let himself get fooled that easily

"but he didn't get your full compliance since you already were escaping" Blunt noted

Alex shrugged his shoulders "I let him train me, I did what he told me to do. I didn't have much choice."

"what did he made you do?"

"a little bit of everything, he made me run every day, he made me fight, shooting practice, swimming, survival training..."

"were there others there?"

"yeah, but I didn't spent much time with them, they didn't like me much, they were jealous that Yassen was teaching me and not them."

"so he did train you personally"

"yes, he had his own schedule planed out"

"what change for you to escape?" Blunt asked and Alex looked at him like he grown a third head.

"What do you mean 'what changed'? I wasn't there willingly"

"We know, Alex. Tell us about the night you escaped then" Blunt reformed the question

"Yassen was always watching, the only moment that I was alone was at night, even then he locked me in my room and took my shoes with him. That first night when I sent the email he caught me before I could hit send. He was the one who allowed me to send it, he wanted me to lose hope. He told me about my dad next and I believe him, he showed me newspapers and a video, he had all the evidences, so I believed him. I was angry, for a while, I wanted to avenge my father, but then it stopped. It didn't matter if you had killed my father, I just wanted to come home, I didn't want to be like him, I didn't want to be a killer" before Alex could continue Mrs. Jones interrupted him

"Alex, your father was a great man, he was one of our best agents he saved a lot of lives. He wasn't a killer and neither are you" she reassured

Alex shook his head in denial "but I am, they made me one"

"What do you mean?"

"I killed someone" he finally confessed, the words heavy on his tongue

"Alex, nobody will blame you for doing something Scorpia force you to do"

"they didn't force me" he admitted

"OK, who did you kill, do you know the name" Blunt asked

Alex nodded his head slightly "yes, it was Julia Rothman" everyone in the room looked at him shocked "it was the night that I escaped. I went to Yassen room in hopes that I would find a gun, but I wasn't planning on using it on someone. I had to go to her office to get the boat keys, but she caught me. I threatened with the gun, and she jumped on me, the gun went off hitting her. She died right there"

"Are you sure that she's dead? " Blunt asked which Alex merely nodded his head

"that is great news then, you don't have to worry"

"I'm not a killer" Alex insisted

"no, Alex, for what you explained you acted on self defence" Mrs. Jones reassured

"now where was Gregorovich during all that?"

"He wasn't on the island, that was why I escaped that night. He told me that he had an assignment. The other class left during the afternoon for an overnight exercise. It was my only chance of escaping"

"We know you took a boat off the island, and then what happen?"

"The guards started chasing me, I knew that that would happen. The island used gas to cook meals they stored them in the kitchen, that was why I had took the gun. I fired towards the kitchen windows to make an explosion. That distract the guards chasing me, so I jumped off the boat and swam to the coast"

"you manage to fire a gun from a boat and hit a window at night?" this time it was Crawley that asked

Alex shrugged his shoulders then he remembered

"wait, why did everyone thought I was dead?"

"Because of this" Blunt said pressing a bottom on a remote. Alex turned to the screen watching a satellite footage of him escaping the boat, as the explosion happen it lighted the screen. The light covered Alex jumping off the boat. Alex watched as the boat continued without him, the guards all shooting at the boat until a bullet must have caught the fuel deposit causing it to explode.

"Oh" he said

"it was a mistake on our part"

"Now let's continue" Blunt said turning back to him "you said Gregorovich put a tracker on you, do you still have it? This building blocks signals, but it still is a security breach"

"He put a wristband when I arrived, it was skin tight I couldn't take it out nor pick the lock. After the boat incident I broke it apart with a rock"

"Did it inject you with something?"

"Inject?" Alex asked confused

"I already saw a newer model of tracker that injected a smaller on when broken. A safety mechanism. So did you feel anything when it broke?" Smithers explained

"no I don't think so" he didn't remember if he felt something, the pain had covered everything

"can I check? Better be safe" Smithers asked already coming to sit next to him

"I don't think you'll be able to see anything" he murmured as the man pushed his sleeve back

Alex watched as his wrist was revealed under the fluorescent light. It wasn't much better since the last time he saw it, in fact it looked worse.

"This is definitely broken" Smithers said turning his arm up

"yeah, who knew that in a fight between my wrist and a rock, the rock would win"

"well the good news is that I don't think anything was injected, but if it was, it will show in the x-ray"

"Very well, we are done for now. Crawley will take you to the hospital"

Crawley was up before Blunt even finished talking. Alex lazily got up as well, he was more tired than he thought.

As he was following the man he suddenly remembered "wait" he exclaimed making everyone look back at him "I brought something from Rothman office" he said bending down to take the pen drive from his sock. Thankfully he had decided to hide it in the bus, so the French secret services didn't take it away "it was hidden in one of her drawers, I don't know what it has inside, it could be her sex tapes from all I know" he said holding the small device 

"Smithers will look into it" Blunt said sending the man to take the drive from Alex hand.

With that out of his hands he followed Crawley outside to a car. The agent once again held Alex door open gesturing for the boy to get in. Inside was another agent waiting for them to get in.

As Crawley closed the door the car moved forward. The drive was spent in silence something that Alex was thankful for, he had done enough talking for today.

Soon they arrived in front of a hospital, one that he instantly knew that wasn't a public one, just for the grand entrance and the lack of people waiting in the lobby.

Crawley went to the front desk, talking to the woman quietly while handing her something. It made sense that the secret services would have some sort of protocol with hospitals that ensure that their identity would remain a secret.

Alex didn't have to wait much, because as soon Crawley was done talking, a nurse came and guided them to a room where she took his height, weight and blood, the process plainly reminded him of Scorpia own examination

The nurse wrote everything on his file leaving the room with the reminder that the doctor would be seeing him shortly.

Alex was left alone sitting on the examination bed, with only Crawley in the room. The man stood by the door watching him with a calculated gaze, it would be awkward, and maybe he would make fun of the man if he wasn't so tired and in pain. In this few hours Alex felt his adrenaline slowly run out, his lack of rest was making itself noticeable, his arm was useless with every movement he made his wrist protested in pain, even his throat was starting to bother him, with every word he said coming out rough.

Soon the doctor entered the room making Crawley turn around his hand grabbing something near his hip, Alex didn't have to guess what, relaxing the moment he saw it was the doctor.

"Hello, Alex, I heard you got some problems that I can help" the doctor said pushing a chair to sit in front of Alex, Crawley always attentive his eyes never left the man.

"Let's start with the bigger problem, shall we? Let's have a look at your wrist"

Alex, pushed his sleeve up wincing when it put pressure on his swollen wrist, we should have picked a t-shirt.

The doctor took his wrist, turning it over and prodding with his fingers, making him hold the complaints in the back of his throat

"how did this happen Alex?" the doctor asked while he was examining

"with a rock" Alex said simply

" we will have to do an x-ray to see how bad it is. In the meantime I will get you something for the pain" the doctor said getting up "lay down, while I fetch you medicine"

Alex laid down on the paper, watching as the doctor opened the cabinets retrieving everything he would need.

The man came back, installing an IV in his good arm "while the bag drains, I saw in your file that you had a head injury a while back. Did you have any problem with that?"

Alex was shocked that that information was in his file considering that he didn't go to the hospital, he guessed MI6 put that on there

"No" Alex responded

"alright" the doctor said shining a light in his eyes. "Open your mouth, I need to check your throat"

After a moment the man step back taking his gloves off "aside from the wrist everything seems OK. Your throat is bruised but nothing is damaged. I will prepare an x-ray to be done and send a nurse to get you ready while you take in the medication"

Once again, the doctor left leaving Alex alone with Crawley, who once again took his job in staring at Alex

"are you really going to stand there and stare the whole time?" Alex asked annoyed

Crawley didn't respond for a minute "yes" he finally responded, making Alex turn to him "great"

The nurse came in, handing him a hospital gown, after making sure that the bag was drained.

Alex changed clothes taking advantage of his now pain free arm, before he was taken out of the room to go take an X-ray. Of course, Crawley followed behind, but this time he had to stay in the observation room with the doctor leaving Alex alone under the machine.

"Alright, Alex, try not to move, this will only take a few minutes" the doctor said through a speaker as the exam began.

Inside the observation room the doctor watched through the glass the young boy laid on the table

"Military Operations, seriously?" the doctor asked, referring to the note on Alex file, to the other man that was in the corner of the room always watching, the man that didn't take the eyes off the boy since he came in.

"Is there any problem?" The man asked turning to him

"he's a kid, why he's involved with the secret services" the doctor couldn't help but ask.

This time the man took a step in his direction "I suggest you do your job, you signed the papers, one word out of this room and I can make you disappear. Remember that"

The doctor felt shivers run down his spine at the words, he turned back to the monitor seeing that he had everything that he need

"he has a fractured wrist, it's a clean break" he said reading the picture

"anything else?" the man asked coming closer to see

"no, just the fracture" the doctor said confused, he didn't know what else the man was looking for, and to be honest he was scared to ask

Finally, he stopped the machine getting up from his seat "I just have to put a cast, and he can go" he informed as the man followed him out of the room to retrieve the boy.

He made sure to do a quick job on Alex, wanting for the man to get out of the hospital.

"Alright Alex, I'm afraid that your wrist is fractured, I will need to put a cast on. So what colour do you want?" the doctor asked

Alex smiled jokingly "hot pink" the boy said looking at the man in the corner who rolled his eyes

"oh, we actually only have blue, normally is the colour you boys asked" he said gathering the supplies he would need

"that's a shame" the boy said, and honestly he couldn't tell if he was joking or not

When he was finally done Alex arm was encased in a dark blue cast " all done Alex, you can get dressed, while I gather your medication"

As the boy entered the bathroom to get dressed he turned to the man.

"I'm prescribing pain medication for the wrist" he said putting the medication on top of the table "for tonight, I'll prescribe that he takes this one" he said putting a single encased pill "it's a sleeping pill, Alex his exhausted and needs rest. People that went through traumatic experiences, that I'm sure is his case, have trouble sleeping no matter how tired they are" he explained

"all right I'll make sure that he takes everything" the man said putting everything in his pocket

"make sure he has a meal with that too"

Alex emerged from the bathroom now dressed in normal clothes, the blue cast pooping out from his dark clothes

The doctor took out a sling and put Alex arm in, making the strap rest on his opposite shoulder

"Make sure you rest, no putting pressure on your wrist. For your throat some honey tea if you want." The doctor listed "And you are all done. Any trouble you can come here"

Alex nodded, muttering 'thanks' as he was following Crawley out of the room. They didn't stop, going straight to the car, he guessed the bill would be mailed to them.

This time it was just him and Crawley in the car, so Alex had sat in the passenger seat, awkwardly putting the seat belt with only one arm.

As Crawley started the car, Alex noticed that he wasn't going in the direction of the department headquarters "where are we going?" he asked

"you're going to bed. I'm taking you to the department safe house" Crawley informed him not taking his eyes out of the road

"what? Just take me home, I can take care of myself"

"That won't be possible. Scorpia is after you, a team has been prepared to guard the safe house while you are there"

"a team? Don't you think that it's a little excessive" Alex muttered annoyed. When Gregorovich kidnapped him they only gave him one agent, one that had proven to be a traitor. But now they deemed necessary a whole team and a safe house

"do you have any idea what you have done, Alex? You destroyed their Malagosto base, it took them a lot of money to make that school happen, and you sent that place alight, on top of that you killed one of their board member. Believe me, no one has ever made so much damage to Scorpia that you have" Crawley explained and for a moment Alex could detect a bit of admiration in the agent tone.

"Point taken" he said just as Crawley turned and entered through an open gate. Alex had to admit that he thought that the safe house would be a house falling to pieces, but no, instead it was a well-kept place that could belong to the Friends. Now that he thinks about that it had probably been the case.

Alex followed Crawley out of the car watching as he took a card out of his pocket to open the doors. The place was crawling with agents that looked at him as he walked beside Crawley. It looked like this time MI6 wasn't playing around.

Finally, he reached a door, with an agent posted outside on it, scanning his card once again opening the door making a gesture for Alex to get in "clothes has been left for you, take a shower, someone will bring you some food with your meds. If you need something knock on the door" Crawley said, not waiting for an answer before closing the door

Alex didn't bother to check if the door was locked, Crawley had admitted that he would be locked inside but at that point he didn't care. He saw the clothes were left for him on top of the bed, picking them up he opens the only other door in the room revealing a bathroom.

He jumped in the shower after putting a plastic bag on his cast to not getting wet, washing all dirt and grime off his skin, and finally getting rid of all the salt that had dried, product of his dip in the ocean.

Dressing the clothes that had been left for him, he quickly ate the meal that had been brought for him while he was in the shower and took his medication that was on the tray as well. Sooner than he realized he was under the sheets fast asleep utterly exhausted.

While Alex was asleep the department was still wide awake.

"Crawley reported back, no tracker was found. They have arrived to the safe house" Mrs Jones reported to his boss.

"Any movement from Scorpia?"

"No, they've been quiet. No one has been spotted in Malagosto. Smithers is cracking the Flash drive that Alex brought."

"I already have" Smithers said entering the office

"Anything interesting?" Blunt asked.

"I didn't look, there are a lot of things in there".

"Let's have a look then" Mrs Jones said following Smithers to the meeting room.

The three of them sat looking at the files on the screen.

"There is a section of Alex" Smithers said opening. Inside were information of his background, address and school, and a few pages of information that would have to be read later in detail. Smithers scroll to the end where were a couple of videos "this is the most recent one, taken a couple of days ago" he said clinking it

The room was silent watching as it played. The screen showed the last training session that Alex had, it showed a footage in night vision, so they knew that Alex had been in complete darkness. They watched as the boy shot hitting the targets, in incredible speed completely blind.

"Jesus, how did he learn to do that with just a few weeks with them" Smithers said.

Blunt and Mrs Jones exchanged a look before Blunt said "alright see what else is on there"

Smithers went back to the files "locations, click on that" blunt ordered.

They watched has several addresses appear on the screen "there is our old headquarters. Martin must have given them that" Smithers said scrolling before he stopped in one "isn't this the one to our safe house? The one that Alex is staying" Smithers said looking at his boss.

"Call Crawley" he ordered getting out of his chair in incredible speed "see if there is more information on that" he ordered.

Crawley had spent the last hour doing security checks, making sure everything was working as it should before his phone rang.

"Crawley, get Alex out of there, Scorpia knows the location of the safe house" Mrs. Jones ordered from the others side of the line

Immediately the agent took out his radio "Security breach, evacuate immediately"

As soon as he said that, the lights outside lighted up the place, if anyone was outside they would be seen.

Crawley ran to the room where Alex was, opening the door he saw that the boy was still asleep, a bit odd considering the noise outside and the light that was entering through the window.

"Alex, wake up, we have to go" Crawley said immediately, getting no answer from the teen. Going forward he shook his good shoulder "Alex, wake up" he said a bit louder

This time he got a grown as a response. Why wasn't he waking up, Crawley wondered, but then he remembered the fucking medication that was supposed to help him sleep.

He looked behind him seeing the agent that had been guarding the door "you, help me get him up" he ordered already pushing the sheets back

Both of them picked up the young teen from under his arms, pushing him out of the room

"what is going on" Alex finally said in a sluggish manner

"scorpia knows where you are" Crawley said as they half carried him out of the house

"hmm, that's OK " Alex murmured in agreement, making the agent groan knowing that Alex was useless at the moment.