Epilogue

Christmas Day, fifteen years later...

"Daddy, daddy, wake up, look at what Santa got me!" came the voice of a small three-year-old girl who was jumping up and down on her parents' bed.

Alex Rider yawned as he blearily opened his eyes and sat up, seeing his youngest daughter sitting on his legs and smiling at him, whilst his twin sons looked on from the doorway.

"Has Santa given you lots of presents, then, Jackie?" he asked as his wife looked on in amusement.

"Yeah! There's a big pile of presents under the tree, and some of them have my name on them! Please can we open them now?" Jackie had her father wrapped around her little finger, and try as he might he couldn't seem to resist her big puppy-dog eyes.

"Alright then", sighed Alex, swinging his legs out of bed and picking Jackie up, whilst the twins, John and Ian, raced downstairs ahead of them. Behind him, he could hear his wife Mia getting up as well.

Once they'd reached the sitting room, Alex set Jackie down on the floor by the tree, amused to see that John and Ian had already chosen identical-looking packages to open as soon as they were allowed. Jackie immediately went for the biggest present, wrapped in pink sparkly wrapping paper, which clashed horribly with her short red hair, inherited from her mother. In contrast, John and Ian looked like mini versions of Alex, their ten-year-old selves almost indistinguishable from old photos of him.

"On your marks, get set, GO!" shouted Alex, laughing as his children immediately tore into their wrapping paper. Other families might take turns to unwrap presents, or wait until after breakfast, but in the Rider household it was tradition to be as noisy and boisterous as possible. The next few minutes were filled with the sound of paper tearing and exclamations of delight as the gifts were revealed. At some point during this, Mia managed to make it downstairs and snaked an arm around Alex's waist as she looked on at the scene. Once upon a time, this would have been very uncomfortable for Alex, but now he relaxed into his wife's embrace. After the dust had settled, there were only a few presents left, which Alex and Mia opened in a much more dignified manner, creating the right amount of faked surprise and delight at the umpteenth pair of socks or crude crayon drawing from their children.

0o0o0o0

Another Christmas tradition at the Rider household was for friends to come over for lunch. As a result, a few hours later the doorbell rang. Alex answered the door to reveal Eagle and his pregnant girlfriend Frankie, Wolf coming up the drive behind them. Snake arrived five minutes later with his wife Sarah and teenage daughter Skye, and finally Ben Daniels showed up with his fiancée Sophie. This was the one occasion every year where K Unit would reunite and catch up with one another about the goings-on of that year.

"So what's new this year?" asked Eagle.

"I'm back at Brecon Beacons as the new Sergeant, in charge of training and things," said Wolf. Very much a military man, Wolf was still very much single and had only recently retired from active service.

"I'm still working at St Dominic's, specialising in limb injuries now," said Snake, who had improved on his medical skills to get a job as a doctor, working in St Dominic's with the MI5 and MI6 patients. "Sarah has started her job at a new school as well, teaching English."

"I finally proposed to Sophie," said Ben, smiling at his fiancée. "We're getting married in the spring, and you're all invited, of course. I've gotten a desk job now, improving relations between intelligence and military organisations, because we all know how shocking they are at the moment. Sophie's been helping me with organising my paperwork, 'cos she works as a secretary. Obviously she doesn't see anything confidential!"

"I've started working at the local gym as a karate instructor and fitness trainer at the weekends, but my main job is still in that computer security company," said Alex. "Mia has started teaching art to some local kids and I've been teaching John and Ian some French, just for fun."

"And finally, me," Eagle said. "As you can see, Frankie's pregnant—she's due in May, but we don't know the gender of the baby yet. I'm planning on stopping my job as a bodyguard, it's too risky, but I'll probably do some training in the close protection company I work for."

Conversation continued like this for much of the afternoon, as the various people inquired further into the events of the past year. During a quiet moment, Alex observed the scene in front of him and drank a silent toast to those who weren't here with him to share this moment of peace—Jack, the Pleasures, Ian and his parents. But he also reflected on how wonderful his life was now—a beautiful wife, three amazing children and a satisfying job knowing that he was imparting information that could save someone's life. He no longer had to worry about the next crazy psycho looking to kill him; his greatest anxieties were over his children, like any other dad. All was well.

A/N: so I know some of you probs won't be happy with this ending, or you think I should write more chapters before this epilogue, but I've really lost impetus for this story and it's becoming a struggle to get the next chapter up each time instead of a pleasure. Someday I might come back to this story and fill in (at least some of) the 15-year gap, but until then this story is officially finished!