Disclaimer: If I had MY name on those Alex Rider books, I wouldn't bother using a pseudonym here. And this story would be published on paper, not just the web!

Striving to Survive

Chapter 1

Sick from Space

Alex woke to a pounding headache.

The feeling was not new to him, and his instincts immediately kicked in. He remained still, feigning the idea that he hadn't yet awoken. Perhaps he'd be able to glean extra information, or at least have time to orient himself.

Then he realized that he was lying on something soft, with a warm covering, and not a cold hard floor. He heard a familiar voice singing off-key to an American song he recognized.

With relief, he remember that he was home now; in his own bed, with Jack downstairs. Safe. It seemed that he was much more used to the danger of his missions than the familiarity of his own home, anymore.

Sighing, he attempted to sit up and get out of bed. He soon realized this was a bad idea, as he was overcome by dizziness and his head and stomach protested vehemently. Grunting, he flopped back down onto his pillow, resigning himself to a lie in. At least he felt better than he had the day before, although that wasn't a very uplifting thought, as it was hard to think of feeling much worse than he did now.

On his return from space two days ago, he'd been immediately picked up by the Australian Coastal Guard and sent to hospital to await his visa. He didn't remember most of what had happened, for he'd been almost delirious with fever and other symptoms (1) that had struck him from his space adventure. From what Jack had said the previous night, before he'd fallen deeply asleep, he'd been drastically ill. Apparently, it was very hard on a still-developing, young body to be forced in and out of space with no conditioning.

Who would have thought? Alex mentally snorted. Of course the American government and astronomers that had sent him out had known how bad it was for him. But they'd been desperate and he was "the only one who could help"- a phrase he was quite sick of hearing. At 5' 8" and having a well developed athletic body, he wasn't a small fourteen year old. In fact, he was sure there had to be astronauts that were smaller than him, ones that were well trained and could have been flown in to take his place in the outer worldly mission. But, as usual, the task was left for him to handle on his own, with no regard to how it may affect him.

Alex was brought out of his thoughts, as he heard his bedroom door opening. Jack came in, a smile on her face, carrying a tray of food.

"Hey there. You're finally awake!" She set her burden on his bedside table and sat beside him, on the edge of his bed. She looked concerned as she brushed some of his hair off his forehead, but seemed to come to herself a moment later and her usual grin came back. "It's nearly lunch time, and you never sleep this late. But that doctor guy that dropped you off yesterday said you'd probably sleep a lot, that it was good for your recovery and all that, so I just let you be. He said you'd probably be tired and kinda sick and have a headache, for a couple more days anyways, and I thought you might as well sleep it off. I heard you shifting a bit ago and knew you were coming around, so I went ahead and made you some food. They said to try and give you regular food now, but watch carefully and don't overdo it. So I just made some of everything I thought you might like, just in case. Well, most everything, you know I don't have the patience to make anything really fancy, but if you'd really like I could-"

"Jack." He interrupted her babbling with a gentle grin. She was always like this when he just got back from a mission. "It looks great. Thank you."

Summoning his strength, and steeling himself to the nausea, Alex slowly pushed himself into a sitting position. His head pounded ferociously, but he managed not to show his extreme discomfort; he didn't want Jack to worry more than she already was. He reached over for the tray, knowing he probably wouldn't be able to eat much, if anything. But he was willing to give it a try, to appease Jack and show he appreciated her effort. As he looked down at the toast, pancakes, eggs, yogurt, and juice, his stomach lurched. He swallowed down the nausea, with a forced smile at the perceptive Jack, and stuck a spoonful of yogurt into his mouth. After a few spoonfuls, he actually noticed the nausea decreasing a bit. There was no way he would be able to get down the greasy eggs or toast, but the yogurt actually seemed to help. He glanced back up at Jack, with a sincere smile this time.

The American wasn't looking at him anymore. She was gazing out the window with a worried, sad expression on her usually cheerful face. He hated to see her looking like that. She often would gaze at him with that expression and she spent too much time worrying over him when he was on assignments. He wished things were different, and he didn't have to cause her such angst.

"Jack? What is it?" he asked gently. She jerked out of her thoughts to look at him. "Look… I'm sorry I put you through all this. You shouldn't have to deal with me and all my issues. I know you worry a lot and-"

"Alex, chill." Jack cut in, placing two fingers on his lips with a mock-stern frown. "Sure, I worry about you when you're gone, but that's only 'cause I can't help but care about you. Hun, I've known you since you were a kid, taken care of you, and I'm not gonna stop now. I don't want to leave or be rid of you, and as long as it's within my power, I'll be here for you, to give you whatever support I can offer."

They silently looked at each other for several moments. Alex found himself immensely touched to know that, no matter what he did, or what happened on his 'missions,' Jack would always be here for him to return to. Forcing past the sudden lump in his throat, Alex swallowed and nodded.

"Thanks Jack. I… well, it's great to know that I still have someone whom I can trust is actually looking out for me. Of course," he added with a wry grin, as Jack smiled reassuringly, "this doesn't mean that I'm ever going to eat broccoli, no matter how good you say it is for me."

The redhead chuckled with a challenging look, and Alex went back to slowly forcing down some more of his meal. At the absence of Jack's retort to his refusal to eat 'healthily', however, the youth could tell there was still something wrong. His aching head gave a particularly painful throb, as he tried to figure out what to do.

"There's something else then?" Jack looked up, her face indecisive, "Jack, if there's anything I can do, if I could change what I have done, I would. I-"

"No, no, Alex. Look, see… my grandma, back in the states, is really sick. That's all. I… well, I didn't get a chance to see her when I was in the states. She was away visiting other relatives, since we all thought she only had a year or two left with her terminal disease… But I guess it's worsened and- and she could go any day now…" She trailed off, her face anguished.

"Oh Jack, I'm sorry." Alex reached forward, his meal forgotten, and put one of his large, callused hands over her slightly trembling petite ones.

"It's just… I used to be so close to my grandparents, and… I haven't seen her since before I came to England. I don't want her to- to die before I can say goodbye!" She sighed, looking mournfully and longingly into space.

"Jack… why don't you go back to America and be with your family? Your visit earlier was cut short anyhow…"

"No. Forget it. I couldn't leave you alone again. After what happened the last time I went off to America and left you on your own… I'm not going to make that mistake again. I told you, Alex, I'm going to look after you-" Jack's insistence was cut off by Alex quickly interrupting.

"I never said you had to leave me here. I wouldn't want to intrude on a such a personal reunion… but I could stay out of the way. I'd love to meet your family and see where you grew up and all. Tom could email me his notes and any assignments I need to get done from school- he's offered before. And… actually, Jack, I think I could use a bit of holiday right now. One where I don't spend all my time just… surviving."

The redhead studied him for a time before she answered. "Are you sure? You've missed so much school already, and I don't know if you're up to traveling."

"I have missed a lot of school, so a week or two more shouldn't matter much. Besides, this will give me more time to catch up, and like I said, Tom can send me the current assignments and lectures. As for traveling… I've been shipped around in a lot worse condition than I'm in now." This last comment didn't seem to reassure Jack at all, so he quickly added, "But didn't you say the doctor thought I should be recovered in a couple of days? We could leave in a few days, that would give me the weekend to start feeling better. It'll take a few days to get a flight, pack, and make the plans anyways, won't it?"

Jack nodded, thinking it over. She seemed to really want it to work, but was cautious for Alex's sake. "Well I suppose it could work… I have some extra money saved up… enough to get us a couple of tickets… and I know my parents would love you, wouldn't mind putting us up at all… I did promise you, before that whole Ark Angel mess, that we were going to take a good long vacation away from bloody MI6. Didn't come through with it as well as I could have, did I?" She gave him a guilty, regretful grin and noticed the long untouched meal. "Are you done eating? Okay then. I'll go take care of the rest of this, then make some calls. Why don't you get some more rest… Are you sure that you want to do this? You still look pretty sick…"

"I'll be fine. Promise. I'm already feeling loads better today, than I was yesterday. I want you to be able to see your family, Jack. People only have one lifetime; don't let a little worry for me stand in the way of you being with your grandmother before she's gone. And besides, I think this trip could be good for me as well. So go on, I'll try to help out with the packing as soon as I feel like I can stand without passing out." But he spoke with a grin, and Jack shook her head at what she thought were antics.

"Okay. I'm leaving… I think this will work, kid. You're not going to have to deal with anymore of that spy stuff, not if I can help it."

As she left the room, back to humming off-tune, Alex relaxed back onto his pillow. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. He was doing it for Jack, he didn't think she should be stuck to his crazy schedule. Yet, he meant what he'd said. All of it. Things were looking up for once, in a long while. He slipped back to sleep, thinking of a long break from the spying, running, killing, hurting, and espionage that he was so good at, but hated so.

Unfortunately, as had happened so often in the past, things just weren't going to work out how Alex wanted them to. His past had no plans to leave him alone to set a new future, and things didn't look up for long.

1) I'm not sure what symptoms there would be actually, you can use your own imagination.

So, I hope you all liked it. I'll see what I get for reviews before I bother writing more. This is my first fic I've written, and I'm hoping it's okay. I have some pretty fun ideas for future… but it depends on whether people like the fic enough for me to go on. So- it's up to you guys. Review!!