A/N: PLEASE READ! Alrighty, this is my new story (obviously). I'd like to begin by saying that this chapter starts off SLOWLY. But believe me when I say that the rest of the story is much faster paced. It gets better towards the end, and chapter two is much better. So if you can tough it through the first couple pages, you should be okay. It needs to be that way, maybe you'll realize why later on.

Okay, I'm still iffy about this story, so I'd really like to gauge everyone's reactions, but if you have a flame I'd like to request that you wait until you read chapter two to bash my story. I'm not against bashing, so long as there's some constructive criticism mixed in with it. I can take it. Ummm...not sure what else to say, so enjoy!

Resistance is Futile: Chapter One

There are magical moments in every person’s life. But, while beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so are those moments. For Alexis Kensington, there was nothing more magical than waking up on Christmas morning. The smell of the pine tree and cinnamon mixed in the air, sending a rush of holiday cheer through her veins. That was something that only people who were passionate about holidays understood – Christmas is not about the presents or even the cookies - although they are incredibly delicious. There is a certain feeling to the holidays…a certain spirit that can overcome a person. The smells, the decorations, and the love – that’s what makes Christmas special. And last, but certainly not least, is family. Spending time with one’s family is possibly the most magical thing about any holiday.

As Alexis’s icy blue eyes popped open, family was the first thing that came to her mind. A smile crept onto her face and the image of her father entered her mind. How wonderful it was to be spending her entire Christmas vacation with him! In her third year at Harvard, Alexis felt as though she never got to see her father anymore – holiday breaks were not cutting it at all. Granted, Secretary of Defense is a difficult and dangerous job, but he also retains the title of “father” and some might put that treacherous job above the former one.

Unable to withhold her excitement, Alexis quickly threw off the covers and sat up. Long, dark brown hair cascaded over her shoulders and she pushed her bangs to the side upon standing up. Warm, flannel pants adorned her legs and she pulled a Harvard sweatshirt over her camisole to complete the cozy feeling. The smile could not be wiped off her face and she almost fell over trying to put on socks and scramble downstairs at the same time.

A call of “Daddy!” rang through the foyer as Alexis raced through the house and into the kitchen where her father sat on at the table, drinking a cup of coffee and leafing through some papers. He quickly shoved the aforementioned parchment into a manila folder and stood up to envelope his daughter in a bear hug.

“Merry Christmas, Daddy,” she sang into his ear.

Edward Kensington smiled as his heart swelled with love for his beautiful daughter and squeezed her even tighter. “Merry Christmas, my princess.” Alexis enjoyed seeing the corners of his eyes crinkle as they parted. “It never ceases to amaze me how incredibly excited you always seem to be on Christmas morning.”

“Well,” Alexis began, strolling over to the counter and pouring herself a cup of coffee, “Christmas just so happens to be the most fantastic holiday of the year, ergo my excitement is justified.”

A chuckle escaped the Secretary of Defense as he accompanied his daughter into the living room. There resided what Alexis claimed to be their best Christmas tree ever. The blue eyed girl quickly walked up to the tree, enjoying the way the white lights glinted off of the shiny wrapping paper adorning the seemingly endless array of presents. “Honestly, Daddy, I can’t even get within five feet of the tree.”

Hazel eyes sparkled in the lights of the tree as Mr. Kensington took a seat on the couch. “Beautiful presents for a beautiful girl.”

Alexis scoffed lightheartedly as she set down her coffee and carefully picked up a small box covered in silver wrapping paper. “That doesn’t even make sense.”

“Hush and open your presents. You’re ruining the moment for your father.” His rich voice rang out through the living room. He had always been an intimidating man, but never to his daughter – only to her dates.

A quick glare at her father was all that Alexis could manage before curiosity and excitement got the best of her and she tore the paper off, discarding it and turning a small, black velvet box over in her hands. She gave her father a suspicious look before opening it, but he only shrugged, doing his best not to smile.

Popping the lid off revealed a single key. A car key with a silver “L” on the black head. Alexis almost dropped the box as she gaped. “A-A Lexus? You bought me a Lexus?”

Edward was now grinning from ear to ear as he basked in his daughter’s shock. “As I said before, beautiful presents for a beautiful girl.”

“But Daddy –”

“Ah ah, no buts. The last time you got a car was for your sixteenth birthday and I think it’s about time for a replacement.” Alexis grinned at him, and he gave a knowing nod. “Don’t even begin to pretend that you don’t want it.”

Alexis rolled her eyes to the top of her head, pretending to really think about it. Finally, she let out an exaggerated huff. “Well, if you insist.”

Edward laughed at his daughter’s antics and patted the seat next to him on the couch. Alexis quickly obliged and wrapped her arms around her father’s neck, giving him a quick hug and a peck on the cheek. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” he replied, placing an arm around Alexis’s shoulders. “It’s waiting for you up in Boston. The brochures and manuals are in another box. God only knows when you’ll get to it.”

A giddy look plastered itself on Alexis’s face as she thought about driving her brand new Lexus throughout Boston. Granted, she was neither vain nor spoiled, but that was what made moments like this so much sweeter. She never asked for expensive cars or jewelry or clothes, but when she did receive them, it was a nice treat.

“Now, for your present.” Alexis scooted off the couch and searched for the gift she had wrapped the previous night – the last one to go under the tree. Upon spying it, she brought it over to Edward and placed it on his lap before sitting back down beside him.

Edward used a technique opposite to his daughter’s as he carefully unwrapped the gift and placed the paper on the floor. Taking the lid off of the navy blue box caused the breath to catch in his throat as he spied what it contained.

A picture, enclosed in a magnificent silver frame. A beautiful blonde woman whose arms encircled a tiny girl with matching blue eyes. Edward ran his hand over the glass cover as a sea of memories poured into his mind. Her laugh, her smile, her touch…Lillian Kensington…his wife.

“Daddy?” Alexis’s voice broke into Edward’s thoughts and he glanced up to meet his daughter’s aqua eyes. “Do you like it?” Her voice was gentle as she laid a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“I absolutely adore it. Thank you, Alexis.” His eyes sparkled, but this time it wasn’t from the lights of the tree. Memories of Lily always caused his heart to ache, but he had become better and better at disguising it. She died of breast cancer when Alexis was only seven, and Edward had never stopped loving her. “You remind me of her so much. Same eyes, same laugh, same smile…same stubbornness.”

Alexis chuckled at the last quality. “You tell me that all the time, but I never get tired of hearing it.” She was about to say something else, but was interrupted by the ringing of Edward’s cell phone. He quickly fished it out of his pocket and flipped it open, holding it up to his ear.

“Hello? No, Fisher, that’s not what I told you. No, the envoy to Pakistan. That’s right. Two million? Was he serious? Tell him –” Edward’s voice caught in his throat as he caught his daughter’s gaze. She looked neither upset nor angry, but disappointed, which was possibly worse than the first two combined. Edward’s work had always claimed a majority of his time, and the only thing he regretted about that was the time he was unable to spend with his daughter. “Tell him that I’ll discuss it with him tomorrow. Today is Christmas, and I intend on spending it with my daughter. Bye, Fisher.” With that, he flipped his phone closed and stuffed it back into his pocket, causing Alexis to smile.

“Daddy, you didn’t have to do that,” she insisted.

He smiled back at her before placing the picture she had given him on the coffee table and standing up to fetch another present for her. “Yes I did.”

-

Alexis balanced the phone between her right ear and shoulder as she folded her jeans and placed them on her bed along with the rest of her clean clothes.

“I can’t believe he got you a car!”

Laughing, Alexis shifted shoulders. “I couldn’t believe it either, Eva.” Eva Wentworth, Alexis’s best friend and roommate was on the other line. “He said it’s waiting for me up in Boston.”

“That’s so exciting, Lexi!” While Alexis typically hated being called ‘Lexi’, Eva was the only one allowed. “How’s the weather out in D.C.? Cold?”

“As always. It’s revoltingly hot and muggy in the summer, and absolutely freezing in the winter.” Alexis placed two more T-shirts on top of a pile before sitting down on her bed and sighing. “How’s California?”

“Splendid,” Eva jokingly boasted. “Warm and sunny…”

“I hate you.” Alexis flopped back down onto her pillows and took the phone into her hand to give her shoulder a break. “Hey, you still haven’t told me what your best present was.”

“Well…” As Eva began to elaborate, Alexis was startled by the sound of glass breaking from the first floor. She jumped and sucked in a breath. “Lexi, what’s wrong?”

Glancing at the clock, Alexis saw that it was past one o’clock in the morning – her father was certainly in bed. That could only mean one thing… “Eva, I think someone’s in the house,” Alexis whispered.

“What?”

“I just heart something break downstairs. My father’s asleep and I’m the only other one here.” Alexis’s breathing was ragged as she crept closer to her door and backed herself up against her coral-colored walls, sliding down the wall until her rear end met with the white carpet. “Shhh.”

Alexis could hear the unmistakable sound of someone climbing the stairs. After living in the same house for twenty-one years, that sound was very familiar. From the lengthy time in between creaks, Alexis could tell that someone was trying to go unnoticed.

“Alexis,” Eva whispered. “What’s going on?”

Creeping back further into her room and finally into the closet, Alexis sat down and let out a shaky breath. “Someone’s in the house, Eva. I heard them creeping up the stairs.” She was careful to be as quiet as possible.

“Oh my God. Alexis, you’ve got to call the cops!”

“I’m going to, but I have to hang up to do that.”

“Oh my God. Alexis.”

Determined to keep calm, cool, and collected, Alexis quietly pressed the ‘end’ button on her phone before punching in the numbers 9-1-1. Her heart pounded as the line rang, she prayed that someone would pick up, and then scolded herself for doing so. This is 911, they have to pick up!

“911, what’s your emergency?”

“Hi,” Alexis whispered. “Someone has broken into my house. 487 West Lockwood Avenue.”

“WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?” Roared an all too familiar voice from down the hall. Alexis’s heart began to pound even harder than before.

“Hurry!” With that, she closed her phone and threw it onto the ground. Jumping up, she opened the closet door and slowly walked to the door of room. Cracking it, she peaked out. Moonlight illuminated parts of the hallway. Adrenaline raced through her veins as she spied her father’s open door at the end of the hallway.

“THIS IS ABSOLUTELY –”. Silence. Tears formed in her eyes, but Alexis couldn’t will her legs to move. Maybe they didn’t know she was there. Her father wasn’t…he couldn’t be…why would they do that?

“We’ve got him,” came an accented voice.

“Where’s the girl? We were told he had a daughter.”

“Var is going to take the Secretary down to the vans. I’ll take care of the girl.”

Alexis’s eyes widened. They knew. Before she knew what she was doing, Alexis had thrown open her door and was racing towards the stairs. She heard shouts around her, but didn’t pay attention. All she cared about were the stairs. She had to get out of there. From the sound of it, her father was still alive. The sound of a gun caused Alexis to emit a scream as she scrambled down the stairs, practically tripping when she finally made it to the bottom.

“Get her!”

Her original plan to go through the kitchen and out the back door was foiled as another man wearing all black came out. Having no time to do anything else, Alexis stopped dead in her tracks. The man made to grab her, but before she even had time to think, she punched him. He stumbled backwards out of shock, giving Alexis just enough time to bold past him.

Shit, that hurt! She had never punched anyone before, and it was not something she wished to do again. It felt as though her hand had been broken. Upon reaching the back door, she found it open and fled out into the freezing night air. Alexis suddenly realized that she wasn’t even wearing shoes. Just flannel pants and an old T-shirt. Well this is just fantastic. Sprinting down the porch steps, she heard footsteps and realized that someone was behind her.

He slipped on the last step and fell on top of her, pinning her legs to the ground. “Get off me!” She screamed. As soon as he began to get up, Alexis freed her legs and kicked him off of her before getting up and running towards the driveway. This proved to be a bad idea as she saw a van parked out there with more men dressed in black. “Dammit,” she half muttered, half cried.

To her dismay, one of the men saw her and pointed. She spun around, only to collide into another man, bringing both of them down in a tangled mess. Something warm and sticky ran down her temple, but Alexis had no time to pat attention to that as she got to her feet and took off across the lawn, through the snow in bare feet. The freezing air was beginning to get to her and goose flesh broke out all over her body.

Unable to help herself, she glanced behind her only to find that no one was pursuing her. The men were piling back into the van which was now speeding off down the street. Once she returned her gaze to where she was going, it was too late and Alexis tripped over a tree root, falling flat on her face. She lay there for a moment, attempting to catch her breath as her mind reeled from what had just happened.

The gunshot from earlier must have woken the neighbors up, because the lights were on next door. If that didn’t, then the sirens coming up the road certainly would.

-

Fifteen minutes later, Alexis found herself sitting on the back of an ambulance, surrounded by police men and CSI agents. Her house was being taped off and Alexis had just finished being questioned by a police officer. She winced as an EMT dabbed rubbing alcohol on her head wound.

“Sorry,” he said gently. “I forgot to warn you that might sting.”

Alexis didn’t even roll her eyes at that comment. Her mind was still in a daze at what had just occurred. Her father had been taken – he could be dead. And she had almost lost her life. She sniffled from the tears that had just been shed and hugged the blanket tighter around herself.

A particular patch of snow held all of her attention and she stared at it in a daze. She should call Eva and let her know that she was okay…well, physically. She should call her aunt and tell her what happened. She should call Harvard and ask if she still had to come back at the same time as everyone else. Wait, what? Why was it that in times like this she always managed to think of the most ridiculous things? I’m kind of hungry. Damn it all to hell!

“Alexis Kensington?”

A voice pulled Alexis out of her thoughts. Lifting her head up, her eyes met with a pair of dark brown ones. She wasn’t sure what surprised her more: the depth of them, or how close they were. Alexis had been so out of it that she hadn’t even noticed someone walking over and standing not three feet in front of her.

“Yes?” Her voice was quiet and raspy.

“I’m going to need you to come with me.”

Arching an eyebrow, she gave him a questioning look. “And you are?”

“Andrew North; CIA.”

Standing up so that she would be more level with him, Alexis gave him a once over. He didn’t look old enough to be a CIA agent – mid-twenties at the latest. Weren’t CIA agents supposed to be much older than that? As she took him in, Alexis noticed how incredibly good looking he was. Dark brown hair to match his eyes and tanned skin along with his lean, muscular physique made him nothing short of gorgeous. Alexis quickly forced herself to snap out of it and focus on the moment at hand. “And why do I need to come with you, Andrew North?”

“I’ll explain later, but right now I just need your cooperation.” He took another step towards her and in response Alexis took a step back, not realizing that there was nowhere to go. Her legs hit the back of the ambulance causing her knees to buckle and she fell back into the sitting position where she started.

Startled, she looked back up at him and saw that he was trying to suppress a grin. She bit her bottom lip pushed a lock of chocolate hair back behind her ear. “Why can’t you just explain it to me now?”

“Miss Kensington, this is a matter of national security. I’m sure that you, more than anyone understand the importance of your father’s job. Your complete cooperation is needed right now.” His responses were always quick and sure, causing Alexis to raise her eyebrows at him. She wasn’t sure why, but his insistence on her cooperation caused a flame of anger to rise in Alexis and she wanted to childishly shout “No” in his face, but managed to restrain herself.

“Mr. North,” she began sweetly. “I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I’ve had a very stressful night. After having my home broken into, my father kidnapped, fleeing for my life, and being shot at, the last thing that I’m feeling right now is cooperative.” Though her voice might have been light, the underlying anger was hard to miss. Standing up again, she went to brush past him, but Andrew placed a hand on her shoulder, preventing her from doing so.

“I understand that your night has been difficult, Miss Kensington, but I also need you to understand that it is absolutely imperative that you come with me right now. You will receive an explanation as soon as we have one, but rest assured it will be much quicker than you would get one from anyone here.” He motioned his free hand to the surrounding police officers and tightened his grip on her shoulder, as if trying to prove his point.

Alexis shrugged him off and met his gaze with a glare. “Where is my father?”

“Seeing as it only happened twenty minutes ago, I’m unable to answer that question, but if you would simply come with me, we could find out.” He held her gaze until she broke it off and looked at the ground, biting the inside of her cheek in consideration.

Curiosity as to the whereabouts and the condition of her father won out over stubbornness in the end, and Alexis almost ‘harrumphed’ in defeat. “Fine,” she grumbled at length. “Lead the way.”

Without another word, Andrew took her hand and led her over to a black Mercedes Benz. He opened the passenger door for her, and slammed it shut once she was securely in with the seatbelt on. After starting the ignition, he pulled out of her driveway and sped down the street. Looking at the clock on the dash, Alexis found it hard to believe that it was only 1:45 AM. It was hard for her to believe that the entire ordeal had happened only half an hour ago.

Feeling eyes on her, Alexis looked over at Andrew who quickly tore his gaze away. “So you work for the CIA, huh?” He nodded in response. “You don’t look old enough to work for them.”

“I’m a Special Ops Agent. I don’t work for them so much as do their bidding,” he explained, not taking his eyes off the road. Alexis fidgeted in her seat and looked at the window. It had been a long night, but she didn’t see it coming to an end anytime soon.

-

Please review and let me know what you think!