Radioactive

6. CONSIDERATION

The cherubs looked up from the files and Zara and John looked at them carefully, Alex looked down at the picture of Janet Shepard: the woman had long, dark hair, just like her children, wary sapphire eyes, and a pretty face that had seen much neglect and years of constant moving around. Alex could see herself reflected in Janet's appearance, she snapped the file shut with disgust and gave it back to Zara, Alec followed suit, the same look of hatred plastered on his features, and the cherubs sat back in their chairs. Zara stacked the files and studied the expressions of the cherubs, after a brief pause she spoke.

"I can understand if you don't want to do this mission-" She began but Alec cut in.

"We'll do it," he said without reservation. Alex, John, and Zara gaped at him, he simply stared at them in turn and his eyes finally rested on his sister. "Won't we Alex?"

"I-I-I...er...I don't think I can," she finished in a whisper.

"What?" Alec hissed. "This could be our chance to finally get some answers!"

Alex shifted uncomfortably in her chair under Alec's scrutinising stare, thankfully Zara spoke up on her behalf. "I don't want either of you rushing into any decisions or feel as though you are obligated to give an answer now. I will give you a week and then you can give me a definite answer."

Alex nodded gratefully and her brother huffed in annoyance, the cherubs were dismissed from Zara's office, Alec stormed off before Alex could say anything to him, leaving her to stand in the Mission Preparation building alone. She shoved her hands in her pockets and began the long walk back to Main Building, it was well into the night, Alex could barely see the path beneath her feet as she ambled back in the dark.

The loneliness was crushing.

It was bad enough that she had found out that her mother was an international criminal but now her brother, her only family, was ignoring her. She sniffed back the tears that threatened to overflow and shivered as she realised that she wasn't wearing a very warm jacket, she pulled the leather closer to her body and sped up her pace.

She passed the fountain that sat in front of Main Building and she jogged the last bit to the automatic doors, the long corridors were ghostly empty as Alex proceeded to the elevator, she clicked the button for her floor, the sixth floor, and waited patiently as the lift began to move. Alex leant against the mirror and yawned, the long day had taken it's toll on her body and she thought vaguely of her bed. The elevator doors slid open and Alex walked to her room, she paused outside her door and considered going to see Alec but she stopped herself and unlocked her door. She'd see him the next day.

*

The next day, lessons began again. Alex found herself suddenly drowning under stacks of homework assignments and her mind was constantly on the mission, she was pretty sure that she wasn't going to go on it but she really wanted to talk to Alec about it. She hadn't seen him since the meeting with Zara, he had been deliberately avoiding her in the corridors and didn't sit near her anymore in lessons, in the dining hall he would sit as far away from her as possible with Rat, leaving Alex to sit with Lauren and the others with a sad expression.

"Hey Alex, what's going on with you and Alec?" Bruce asked one day. "You guys haven't said a word to one another since we got back from London."

Bruce had told everyone the story of the Russian guys and now everyone on campus knew about the incident, it didn't take long for news to travel around campus.

Everyone looked at her expectantly for an answer and she sighed, she wasn't really supposed to give out information on mission briefings but she didn't care.

"Well when we got back, Zara took us to her office and we sat down with John Jones to discuss a mission they'd like to send us on together," she began and then finished quickly. "It turned out the mission was to infiltrate some organisation that belonged to our mother."