Alex woke up first before opening his eyes, he was comfortable and warm, his body wanting nothing else than falling back asleep, to escape reality and all the pain that he had been suffering since his uncle died. At least when he was asleep nothing hurt, nothing troubled him, nothing bother him, in his sleep he was free, when he was awake, he was a prisoner of his mind, MI6 or SCORPIA, he was never left alone. He wanted to fall back asleep he really did, but a heavy and vibrating weight on his chest made him open his eyes to see what it was.
He was still sluggish and the feeling that his eyes were glued shut didn't help, one more reason to not even try to open them. Eventually he opened them to look at the dark room lighted only with a small breach from the barely open door that let some light entered from the hallway.
Finally, Alex mustered the strength and the will to lift his head from the pillow to see what was weighting him down only to see a cat. Alex froze in confusion, last thing he remembered he was in the safehouse, and he could bet that they didn't have a cat, maybe he was still asleep, and this was all a dream, or maybe he finally lost his mind and was starting to see things
The cat must have noticed that it was being watched since he opened his eyes lazily looking at him with disinterest before stretching its limbs and getting off him jumping to the ground with a soft thud.
Alex watched confused as he watched the cat leave the room before he let his head fall in the pillow. He probably should get up, and wash his face, perhaps that would help in not imagining animals or demons if things got out of hand.
Alex slowly got up sitting on the bed looking around the room, despite the low lighting he could see that this wasn't the room that Crawley had taking him last night, not even close, from the decoration alone he could see that he wasn't even on the safehouse any more.
He frowned, he didn't remember being moved, did something happen? Did Scorpia find him so fast? If so that would be embarrassing for him and for MI6
He imagined he wouldn't get another room from Scorpia, not one this nice at the moment they probably want to give him a dark cold damp cell and a bullet, or something worse, probably something worse, much worse.
He got up stumbling in the direction of the open door, the best way to find out was to see for himself, and deal with the consequences later. He walked out of the room following the hallway reaching what looked like to be the kitchen. There was a woman sitting on one of the chairs, a woman that he recognized, very well, a woman that he spent the last few weeks hating with all his heart.
"Alex, you're finally awake" she exclaimed putting down her phone on the table
Alex looked at her like she had grown a second head, was he having a fever dream or something, first the cat and now her, from a dream this had quickly become a nightmare
"Mrs. Jones, what are you doing here?" he asked confused, his voice coming out rough like he had spent the day before shouting.
"Well, Alex, considering that this is my home. I was just finishing breakfast" she gestured to the table only then Alex noticed the empty dishes in front of her.
"Your house-" Alex begun interrupting himself when he remembers something "Wait you have a cat? "Alex asked surprised, said cat choosing that moment to enter the kitchen rubbing itself against Alex legs.
"Is that really so surprising?" Mrs. Jones asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes" he responded without excitation "what its name?" Alex asked while bending down to pet the cat making it once again start to purr.
"It's Q" she responded.
"Just Q? Like one letter? Did the keyboard stopped working, and you decided that a letter was good enough?"
"It's the name of a character in James Bond" she explained.
"ahh so do you sit on the couch petting him while you do your work?" he asked getting up
"Just eat your breakfast, so we can go" she said pushing a cereal box towards a place on the table.
Alex sat down pouring some into a bowl. Cereals were not something he had for breakfast, Ian had forbidden that in the house, it was too sugary and had no nutritional value he explained that to Alex numerous times, a growing boy needs vitamins and protein, not artificial sugar, was said numerous times.
"So how did I end up here? Did you want to have a sleep-over?" he asked after eating a spoonful of sugary cereal, wincing as the rough texture went down his throat, sending pain with each swallow.
"You don't have any more questions about my cat?" Mrs Jones asked looking at him.
"Well now that you ask" Alex said thinking "don't you have to feed him?"
"He has an automatic feeder" she responded pointing at the corner where the machine was stationed.
"Well, that's a shame. Cats bond though the love of food, your cat is going to love the machine more than he loves you" he said as the cat sat in front of the bowl clearly waiting for it to be filled.
"I give him treats" Mrs. Jones cleared her throat before continuing "as for your first question, Scorpia attacked the safehouse last night, Crawley took you out in time. Apparently Scorpia had the knowledge of the location of the safehouse and many more, it was all inside of the flash drive you brought. So, for the time being you'll be staying with me".
"Seriously?" he asked, surely, she couldn't be serious, Alex refused to believe that MI6 master plan was for him to live with Mrs. Jones
"It won't be for long, Alex, we've dealt with this before" she reassured.
"Yeah, and it ended up with my parents killed" Alex said eating more of the cereals.
"That won't happen again, Alex" she said, and Alex almost believed her, he wanted to believe her.
Alex didn't say anything as he looked at his now empty bowl of cereals, he watched as Mrs. Jones left the kitchen only to return a moment later with her purse and keys in her hand.
"Are you ready to go?" she asked, but it wasn't really a question, more an order in form of a question. Regardless Alex got up and left alongside Mrs. Jones, but right as she closed the door, they heard the sound of the feeder going off and the cat meowing in happiness. Alex looked at the women with a smirk on his face "see" he said like he was proving his point, making Mrs. Jones sigh.
As they left the building Alex noticed all the agents stationed on the exits guarding the flat, it was then that Alex realized that MI6 wasn't joking around this time, but somehow Alex wasn't very hopeful anyway, considering that last time he was taken right under his nose by a traitor agent. Scorpia could have easily bought any of the man that were in charge of protecting the flat.
Shortly after they arrived at the department headquarters, Alex couldn't help but wince when looking at the old building, there was nothing positive that he could remember happening when he stepped inside something that MI6 owned. He was apprehensive walking inside, especially now when he had a broken wrist hanging on the strap attached to him, this whole situation made him feel exposed, knowing that now, more than ever Mi6 had him in the palm of their hand, they could make him disappear and no one would even notice it. As far as he knew no one besides MI6 knew that he had escape Scorpia, not one person that cared for him knew that he made it back home, safe and sound just to be held captive one more time.
"Crawley" Mrs. Jones greeted making Alex get out of his thoughts, just because they were MI6 it didn't mean that he was safe, they had proved him that already. Alex looked as Crawley walked in their direction with a duffle bag hanging on his shoulder and a cup of what Alex could guess coffee in his hand.
"Good morning Alex, I hope you're more awake than last night" Crawley said clearly mocking him
"I feel like I deserved my beauty sleep" Alex responded.
"What do you have, Crawley" Mrs. Jones asks eying the bag that the agent was holding
"Clothes for Alex" he said passing the bag to the teen. Alex didn't even want to think about someone else going inside his bedroom messing with his stuff. " And I got your medicine, take one now" he instructed passing it to Alex.
Alex put the bag on the floor to take the pills, having just one functional arm while the other was strapped to his chest. Now that Crawley mentioned it, he realized that his arm was stinging in pain, something that he managed to ignore until now, but couldn't hold off very much longer. Immediately he put one pill in his mouth preparing to swallow it dry before Crawley gave him to a paper cup he was holding. Alex took a swig pushing the hard pill down his throat taking note that it was not coffee that Crawley had given him, like he originally thought, but it was tea, lemon tea with honey. Alex remembered what the doctor what told him to take for his throat, he was shocked that Crawley took time of his day to get him this.
"Thanks" he said after he downed half the cup, enjoying the relief that the hot tea provided him.
The man didn't acknowledge his appreciation instead he looked at his watch "we have to go".
"Where?" Alex asked.
"You have an appointment with doctor Lambert"