A.N. Hey guys! Here's my submission for the Week 4 fic exchange, prompt: "On a mission with K-Unit (Alex is a spy and they knew), Alex sees a stray dog (or any animal) and he wants to take it back with him but everyone else seriously does not think it's a good idea". Let me know if this was yours? xx

I hope I'll be able to review all the other Spyfest fics soon and reply to reviews, but I've just started a pretty intense two week summer school so if I have no brainpower left/get really into it and study/ actually socialise (?!) then, well, I still adore all of you and hopefully I'll get there eventually.

Disclaimer: I don't own Alex Rider. Or any adorable puppies *cries*

Alex knew he must look as bad as he felt - he'd had to climb over barbed wire to escape the compound, ripping his clothes in at least five places and giving him several scratches, including a nasty gash on his leg; he could feel the blood running down from the wound. He had managed a run until he reached the trees, but as soon as he reached sufficient cover he allowed his exhaustion to catch up with him, trudging through the woods to reach the RV point on the other side.

The compound, well-concealed by "private property" signs and potholed roads, was only a few miles out from the nearest farms, so it wasn't long before he reached a small lane on the far side of the trees. Half-climbing, half-falling over the fence to reach it, he thought at first in his near delirious state that he was imagining the soft, high-pitched whines.

Still, he wasn't a spy for nothing. He paused long enough to establish that it was real and coming from a ditch on the other side of the road. "Approach with caution" was his motto; he found a long stick and crept forwards silently (a pointless exercise, after the noise he made on the fence, but it was a strong habit).

Alex liked to think he had a pretty decent grasp of his emotions, but it turned out that overwhelming amounts of cuteness required a very different kind of control to being interrogated. If K-Unit were here, they would've mocked him mercilessly for the way he melted at the sight of the tiny, pathetic creature and its wide eyes staring into his own.

The dog's fur was mud-splattered and bedraggled, clinging tightly to a painfully thin body, but on closer inspection Alex guessed it was a Berner puppy or something similar. It wasn't wearing a collar and looked like it was a day away from starving to death, not to mention the paw it held clear of the ground, so he picked it up (it was a boy, he noticed) and gently wrapped it in what was left of his jacket.

"C'mon, boy," he muttered. He figured, if he didn't come across any missing dog posters, he could assume it was abandoned.

He set off down the lane, staggering like a drunkard.

"I should give you a name," he decided. He tried to think of something punny, but for once no inspiration struck him and he gave up. "You can be called Jack. It's a good name."

He felt a prickle in his throat at the thought of his guardian - he could never remember her without a sudden rush of images (red hair and a laughing smile, scrambled eggs, an explosion ripping through an old car in the desert-)

"A good name," he repeated, and stumbled on.

"Cub?"

"You're alive, thank god, the sergeant would've had our heads-"

"You're late."

"-if anything had happened to you, and-"

"Did you complete the mission?"

"-he can be seriously scary, you should've seen him last week when-"

"How badly hurt are you?"

"-Shark from D-Unit gave half the camp food-poisoning, you'll never believe-"

"Shut up, Eagle!"

Wolf glared at him and the rest of the unit also stopped talking over each other. Alex blinked several times in succession, but it didn't do much to help him process the barrage of questions.

"Okay, first things first," Wolf said, taking charge. "Alex, was the mission a success?"

He nodded, and blinked again to clear the black spots threatening to take over his vision.

"Good. But we completed our tasks ages ago. What held you up?"

"This 'n that," he mumbled.

"That's not an answer - Cub, are you okay?"

Alex barely heard him for the ringing in his ears and didn't bother with a reply, pouring his energy into staying upright.

"Any injuries needing urgent treatment?" Snake took over.

"Leg," Alex said.

"Alright, take a seat here-"

"Not my leg," Alex interrupted, forgetting that he was losing a lot of blood himself. "His."

There was a short pause. "Uh, whose?" Snake asked.

Alex held out the bundle. "Jack's leg. It's hurt."

The soldier stepped closer and sighed in exasperation.

"Cub, why do you have-"

"Just take the dog, Snake!" he pleaded, doing his best impression of Jack's puppy dog eyes. The effect was ruined by more tired blinking, but he got what he wanted. Satisfied that the animal was being taken care of, he yawned and the ringing grew louder, and then he heard no more.

He came to in stages: firstly, he realised he was cold, and goosebumps were raised on his skin. Then he was conscious of the hard ground beneath him, pain blossoming where his head had smacked the earth. Finally, awareness spread to his legs. The one with the gash was stinging from antiseptics and a warm hand was pinching the skin together, a ticklish sensation starting at the top.

"Lie still, Cub," Snake scolded when he lifted his head to look. The warning was unnecessary as he was too weak to hold it up anyway.

"I'm closing the wound with medical glue," the soldier explained, guessing that he preferred to know what was happening to his body. "You lost too much blood and fainted."

"What about Jack?" Alex asked, remembering.

"Right now I'm more worried about you."

"But he's just a puppy!"

"And you're just a cub - I mean, kid," Snake argued. "Why do you even have a dog, anyway?"

"He was by the road 'n I thought I should take him home 'cause he was abandoned."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Wolf said.

"Why not?"

"Well, for starters, his owner is probably looking for him."

Alex snorted and Wolf, glancing again at the puppy, realised that this was unlikely. He pushed on anyway with other reasons.

"You won't be able to keep him. You're away half the time and the other half you're too injured to take him for walks."

"Not by choice," Alex retorted.

"Keep telling yourself that. Either way, it doesn't change the fact."

"A dog is for life, Cub, not just for Christmas," Eagle added, grinning.

"So you're just going to let Jack die? After I carried him all this way and named him?" He watched K-Unit exchange uncertain glances with a degree of satisfaction.

"No," Snake said, "but I'm not looking at him until I finish with you, so would you please keep still?"

"And that still doesn't mean we're letting you keep him," Wolf said hurriedly. "We'll just make sure he doesn't die then take him to the RSPCA, yeah?"

Alex scowled in a way that made it clear he didn't intend to listen to K-Unit, only keeping quiet so Snake would work faster. When his leg was released, he sat up too quickly and bit back a groan as another wave of dizziness.

"Careful!" Snake exclaimed too late, reaching out to steady him.

Alex brushed him off. "I'm fine," he said, getting to his feet, only swaying slightly. "Can you look at Jack now?"

"I'm not a vet, Cub," Snake said.

"You said you'd look at him!"

"I implied that I would, so you wouldn't get up while I was glueing your leg shut. I don't know anything about dogs."

"Fine," Alex spat. "Then let's go find a vet."

He picked the bundle containing the puppy up and started hobbling towards the jeep, which was parked at the end of the lane where it met a wider road. K-Unit exchanged glances and rushed to gather everything up and follow him.

"I guess we can't let it die…" Snake said.

"Alex would murder us," Eagle agreed. They both turned to look at Wolf, deferring to the leader of the unit.

"Whatever," Wolf said, rolling his eyes. "But we're not letting him keep it, alright?"

A few days later, Alex returned triumphantly from his mission to his house in Chelsea with a limp, a new puppy and a bag of dog food. He'd make it work, and he wasn't about to let anyone stop him.