"Vaughn. . . Vaughn you have to hold on!" a voice called out to him. He was weak and his chest felt like it was on fire, but he mustered up the strength to speak.

"Sydney . . . ? Wh-where . . . what . . ." but those were the only things he could allow himself to say without yelping in pain, or passing out.

"Vaughn, you're at the naval hospital. Everything's going to be fine. I promise you. You just need to hold on." Sydney's voice was pleading, and as the focus returned to his eyes, Vaughn could see that she was holding back tears.

Then, he remembered. He had been going to meet with Lehman and out of nowhere they had been ambushed. Lehman was shot, and there had been plenty of gunfire aimed at himself. He remembered Sydney's voice and then it had all gone black. He assumed he'd passed out.

"Sydney . . . Lehman? Prophet 5 . . ." he tried to muster up the strength to say the words but they were barely audible. Apparently though, Sydney understood and explained.

"Lehman's dead. He never had a chance. And the information on Prophet 5 was taken by those men. Vaughn, you need to rest, okay? They're taking you to surgery right now and you need to save your strength. Do you understand? You have to be all right . . . there's so much you have to look forward to now. I need you - our child will need you."

Child? Oh my God, our baby. Sydney, oh Sydney, why was I so stupid? I should never have gone after this information after I learned you were pregnant. I can't believe I was foolish enough to let you come along. . . what if this had been you? Oh God, what have I done . . .

Sydney felt as if the walls of the waiting room were about to close in on her. Everything had just being going so fast lately. First there had been the accident, Vaughn had been kidnapped, she had learned about Prophet 5, and of course, the biggest news of all. She was pregnant. Her. Sydney Bristow. Spy extraordinaire. She was known all throughout the CIA for her offbeat tacticsand had completed missions that she was not expected to survive. She had been shot, suffered through electro-shock therapy and had been hit by a car a time or two. Yet none of these things scared her as much as her next mission - motherhood.

Sure, ever since childhood she had dreamed of becoming the perfect mother. Always there for her daughter, sharing secrets, asking about crushes and braiding her hair, all while enjoying some fresh baked cookies and a cool glass of milk. The perfect suburbanite mom. But that was in the future. Not now, not while she was still with the CIA. Not after learning that Vaughn wasn't actually Vaughn, but Andre Michaux. Her life had been turned upside down in a matter of days, and now she learned that Vaughn - her love, her life - might not pull through.

Just as Syd thought she was about to lose herself completely in her thoughts of woe, her father entered the hospital. She was filled with mixed emotions - on one hand, she now had a shoulder to cry on, yet on the other, she wasn't sure how he would react to the news about the newest member of the Bristow clan. She walked over to him and told him the news about Vaughn.

"He's still in surgery. No one's come out and told me anything."

"I hope you understand what you've done." The look on Jack's face indicated to Sydney that she was in for a very serious conversation.

"What?"

"Your heroic efforts to help Vaughn were short sighted. You acted impetuously without the benefit of the facts." Yep, that was her father. He was never great at showing empathy, so he used big words and lectured a lot instead.

"You don't know what you're talking - " Jack cut her off.

"Sydney. Vaughn is not the person you think he is. He's been working with a known criminal." Now he was just stating facts that Sydney already knew.

"Renee Rienne. I know."

Jack's face remained without expression, but he was surprised by this news. Still, he continued on with his lecture. "Then what on earth prompted you to risk your on life, not to mention your professional integrity?"

Sydney sighed. This was it. Time to drop the bombshell. "Dad. Vaughn and I - we're having a baby. There's an explanation for all of this, if you'll let me tell you."

Her father still wore his patented blank expression, but when he heard the news his eyes flashed. He looked as if he was about to retort until a doctor came out of the ER. Sydney's heart nearly leapt out of her chest.

"Is he out of surgery?" she asked tentatively.

"He's in recovery now," the doctor told her. "But the organ damage he sustained is significant, so our expectation is that we'll stop the bleeding . . . but we'll know more in the next twenty four hours."

In the next twenty four hours. How many times have I heard that before only to receive a phone call telling me that someone I know is dead? Too many. I'm not going to go home and wait for Vaughn to die without seeing him.

"I need to see him," Sydney told the doctor.

"You can wait in his room until he wakes up." The doctor turned around and left the room, leaving Sydney and Jack alone together.

"Sydney, I'll do everything I can to help you both." Jack told his daughter with true sincerity. Sydney nodded politely at her father and headed to Vaughn's room. Jack's cell phone rang.

"Yes?" he answered.

It was Dixon on the other end. "I just spoke to Director Chase. According to her, Dean wasn't in special investigations. Went off the grid two years ago."

"Status?" Jack asked, with a hint of curiosity creeping into his voice.

"He was presumed dead."