Chapter Text
The ringing in his ears wouldn’t go away no matter what.
Alex should have been far, far away before the explosive he had planted exploded. There was enough time to make a quick exit, with some leeway and Smither’s explosive gadgets had never let him down before.
But he had been delayed by the unforeseen arrival of two guards, here to investigate the source of the odd noises.
Alex had been forced to make a split-second decision, resulting in him diving behind a small alcove obstructed by a few plastic crates. Alex slowly crouched down, careful to not give his position away to the very noisy guards sweeping the room.
“Maybe it’s a mouse or something.” The first guard stated, sounding unconcerned.
“It could be, but it didn’t sound like a mouse. It sounded like something much bigger,” the second guard said, eyeing the laboratory around him suspiciously.
The lab grew quiet as the guards turned on their flashlights, inspecting the area around them carelessly.
Alex grew tense, his mind frantically counting down the minutes it took for the bomb to explode.
The wait was agonizing.
Finally, after a few minutes, the guards left. Alex could still hear them leisurely conversing as they left through the entrance they came, their voices fading as they got further away from the laboratory.
There was no time to waste.
Alex quickly made his way through one of the side entrances, his feet making no sound as he slipped through the door, taking extra care to not alert any more stragglers.
He had only just made his way out of the building before the bomb went off. The noise was deafening.
Alex was thrown off his feet, the force of the explosive carrying him into the air with the ease of a kite flying in the wind. He landed hard, some ten meters away, wheezing and coughing from the fumes emitting from the burning building.
For a moment, Alex didn’t move, waiting for his breathing to steady and taking inventory of his injuries. He was pretty sure his ribs weren’t broken but bruised from the fall. His lungs seemed fine. There was still a ringing in his ears that he couldn’t get rid of no matter how much he tried, but his eyes were working just fine.
He looked around. According to the vague memories he had of the laboratory’s blueprints, there was an open-air parking lot a few minutes ahead.
Feeling defeated, Alex began to crawl away in the vague direction of the parking lot. Was he even going in the right direction? He was determined to acquire a car and somehow, drive himself to the nearest hospital. Ian had taught him the basics of how to hotwire and drive a car a few months before his unfortunate, Yassen-induced demise.
Adults drove all the time! Surely, it wasn’t too hard to figure out?
He moved himself a few feet before his arms gave out and he slump to the ground.
No!
Alex tried to move his uncooperative arms, but instead, only managed to twitch a few fingers. His vision grew blurry and his eyes started to close.
The last thing he remembered was a vaguely familiar voice shouting his name in alarm and warm arms wrapping themselves around him in a comforting embrace before passing out.
___________________
Swimming in and out of consciousness, Alex recalled strong arms carrying him gently.
He was placed on a soft surface and buckled in.
A car, Alex thinks hysterically, his hands wandering to the familiar shape of a seatbelt buckle and the reassuring feel of a seatbelt strapped across his body released the tension Alex had been feeling ever since the bomb he planted had blown him sky-high.
Bad guys who wanted him dead didn't take time to think about his safety first.
His mysterious savior got into the driver’s seat, turned, and said something that Alex couldn’t quite make out.
Alex’s blurry vision could barely make out a familiar-looking silhouette and he interrupted the man mid-sentence.
“I can’t hear you,” Alex slurred, brain too sluggish to force his mouth to enunciate the words clearly.
The man stiffened and cautiously placed a warm hand across his kneecap before withdrawing.
Instinctively following the warmth, Alex slowly reached out to grab the man’s hand, heedless of the pain in his ribs.
“Stay.”
The man gently pried himself free to start the engine. Before long, Alex found himself falling into the welcoming embrace of unconsciousness.
He was safe for the time being.
___________________
The next time Alex awoke, he was in a bed. The bed wasn’t particularly soft – it felt like a firm hotel bed that Alex had slept in so many times before in his childhood when Ian had taken him to different countries.
Maybe it was Ian who had helped him. He couldn’t think of anyone else who would bring him to a hotel room to patch him up after an explosion –
Hang on.
Ian was dead. His uncle had been dead for over a year.
Memories came rushing back – the mission from M16, the bomb he planted, the guards, the bomb explod –
Alex got up and staggered to the small bathroom opposite the bed, emptying the contents of his stomach into the toilet bowl.
The bomb exploded.
There were people still left in the building.
Oh my god, what if he killed them? The guards that had come running to investigate a small commotion Alex had been stupid enough to cause in the first place –
A warm hand, lain on his shoulder stopped Alex from spiraling further into a panic attack. Alex didn’t look up, continuing to dry heave into the toilet bowl. A water bottle was handed to him. Alex took it, taking note that the cap had already been opened for him, before drinking the water in small sips to calm his churning stomach.
The hand on his shoulder slowly migrated to the nape of his neck, and calloused fingers rubbed soothing circles into the sensitive skin.
It was comforting. Alex and the unknown man stayed silent, one kneeling in front of the toilet bowl and the other offering reassurance. The repetitive actions were like a balm to Alex’s racing heart. He gradually became aware of the cool plastic rim of the toilet bowl, and of the pain in his shaking arms when he had clutched at it like a lifeline. His breaths stopped coming in short, panicked intervals and slowly evened out.
His racing heart subsided, and Alex’s thoughts gradually became more rational.
Relaxing into the hand massaging his neck, he turned to look up to the mysterious man who had plucked him right from the site of an explosion, gratitude on the tip of his tongue -
He stopped short. Stiffened in preparation for an attack that would never come.
It couldn’t be.
He met the cold, glacial eyes of Yassen Gregorovich.