Broken | Lucas North - Spooks/MI5 Story [Featured]

Chapter 10

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of Kudos and BBC. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.

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From Knightsbridge, Ros and Jo turned south towards the direction of Trevor Square. They could see Alexa's street straight ahead and as they parked the car, they saw the people gathered outside Alexa's front steps. A man lay on the sidewalk, dead from two shots to the chest.

As they flashed their badges, people begun talking to them at the same time, telling them about the blonde monster who had thrown a woman into the trunk of the car, the description of the car, and the name of the man who lay dead on the street. He had been Alexa's next door neighbor.

Ros ran up the steps and stopped just before the shattered door. Every sense in her body was on high alert. She could sense the adrenaline still lingering in the space around her. She smelled the scent of blood in the air, the flat deathly silent. Somewhere in the living room towards her right, Ros could hear the tick-tock of a clock.

She pushed the door open with her foot, her eyes gathering information as the scene unfolded before her. The floor was covered in blood, the mark of bare feet upon the rug, its imprint sending a chill up and down Ros' spine. On the floor, she saw shattered pieces of wood from the bannister that now hung precariously from the top, its bottom portion torn apart, broken pieces of glass and more blood.

Lots of blood.

With her gun still in front of her, Ros secured the first floor. Then she walked upstairs, avoiding the tracks of blood that seemed to be everywhere. Alexa had put up a hell of a fight, she thought to herself and as she reached the top landing, she saw the battered door lying on the bedroom floor. Beyond it was Alexa's unmade bed.

Something told her that she wasn't going to find anyone, but she'd been trained to secure an area first, then ask questions later, and Ros was doing just that. She walked towards the other doors, kicking them open one at a time. The first door led her to the bathroom and the second, as soon as she kicked it open, gave Ros pause. As she stepped into the room, she felt her chest tighten.

Ros had always known that Alexa returned from Moscow pregnant with some unknown man's child, but she'd never been interested in learning anything more than that. After all, it was none of her business.  But as she stared at the room before her, it was a reality that Ros knew she herself could never go through had it been her in Alexa's place.

I would never have had the child.

A rugby ball lay by the bed, along with the usual playthings of little boys that ranged from teddy bears to Lego blocks and books. On the wall were photographs of the little boy, his dark hair highlighting the deep blue of his eyes. If it had been just some random person, Ros would not have bothered to linger inside the room. She'd be out of that room within seconds of securing it and moving back downstairs to wait for backup or go after their target.

But this wasn’t just a random person.  Though it wasn’t something known to everyone at the Grid, Ros and Adam knew Alexa’s relationship to Harry.  She was like a daughter to her, and her son, a grandchild.  

Behind her, Lucas took the stairs two at a time towards the bedroom but froze as he caught sight of what he saw beyond the door where Ros stood. His heart caught in his throat, his mind registering the toys on the floor, the drawings on the wall interspersed with photographs of Alexa and a young boy, some together, and some just of him, with his impish grin and mischievous eyes.