Disclaimer: I own my imagination but not Alias.. I own the many characters on here you dont recognise.. and also the puppies and the fish.. but JJ owns all the rest

A/N: Thanks for the reviews! I cant believe I got 5 on the last chapter! Hopefully Lena will come to her senses and come back and Irina will live happily ever after.. for the next season at least.. with Jack. Please enjoy and review or constuctively criticise if you want! Oh, and dont expect another chapter for two/three weeks, I have exams, your lucky you got this!

When Dmitri walked back into the room ten minutes later, things had calmed down a bit but not a lot. Celia, Stephanie and Vaughn had re-entered the room and were now sitting back down, avoiding the people around them. Stephanie couldn't bear to look Irina in the face and there was an awkward silence between Sydney and Vaughn, not knowing quite how to cope with their two warring mothers as they were expected to take sides. Celia had mellowed quite a bit though and could look Irina in the face without getting too furious, however she preferred to help her daughter with the kids.

What on earth is going on? She thought to herself. I'm sure they were all eating and talking happily before I left.

It seemed that seating all the kids together hadn't been a very good idea. They had picked up on the tension between their parents and as a result, Josh was being left out of conversation between Pierre and John, and couldn't speak to either of his sisters because he had wound them up too much.

I am not going to cry, I'm not going to look like a wuss in front of those two idiots. I can't cry, I just cant. I wish Mom was next to me, to talk to me and cheer me up.

Christina was near tears as she saw her father being shouted at down the other end of the table, and Georgia wasn't being much help asking her why. Claudia had taken an authoritative stance and was saying it was because he was bad, which just caused Christina to become even more inconsolable.

Papa isn't bad, Papa is good. These people are the bad people. Why did he bring me here? They don't like us. I wanna go home. Why won't Papa take me home? I want my Grandmama Donnatella to tell me happy stories, why couldn't we go see her at her villa, why did we have to come here. Why did Papa bring me here?

It seemed to Marie that the situation couldn't get much worse, but of course it did, and it started with one simple sentence.

Georgia was confused. Very confused. She couldn't figure out why everyone was shouting at each other so she took the decision to ask her older cousins.

"Pierre? Why is everyone angry with each other? Do they not like each other any more?" she asked with a frown, and tears welling up in her eyes.

"Of course they don't stupid. Your family are terrible people, its their fault everyone's mad" Pierre scoffed.

Josh took immediate insult to this and finally spoke up in defence of his family.

"Don't you dare call my sister stupid French boy. It's not her fault your family is pathetic and can't cope with problems."

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean? Your grandmother upset mine, not the other way around. And your sister is stupid, both of them are, Claudia has no brains whereas Georgia is a little cry baby."

"I SAID DON'T INSULT MY SISTER" Everybody at the table jumped for the third time since they had sat down at the start of the meal, and Sydney had finally had enough.

I can't take this anymore. It ends right here. I'm not repeating what happened to me to my kids.

She looks over at Vaughn, blinking her thoughts quickly in Morse code. He nods in agreement; she thanks her lucky stars that she learnt Morse code more extensively after her father was captured when they worked for SD-6.

The noise levels started to rise again after a moment and Sydney jumps up and bangs her fist on the table, not too hard but hard enough to gain everyone's attention.

"Right, that's it I've had it. Kids, leave the room." No movement.

"Now." She said it so sharply that Claudia, Josh, Georgia, Pierre and John immediately pushed back their seats and walked quickly out of the room.

"This was supposed to be a happy family meal and it's turned into one big argument. The meal is over. Yelena, I was happy for you and your family to come here but I made it very clear I wanted no trouble, unfortunately it seems your husband did not agree to those terms and therefore I am going to have to say goodbye."

"Sydney? There is no way in hell I'm sending them out onto the streets at Christmas, they are my family for godssake" Irina replied with a frown

What the hell is she thinking? I only just got my sister back, I thought she understood

"You don't have to Mom. Vaughn and I are leaving with the kids, you can sort out your intra family problems however you like, but I won't be around for it." Sydney then turned to Celia, Stephanie and Marie.

"Before I ask you back to our home, I want you to understand some things. I will not in any way tolerate people insulting or upsetting my children in any way. Celia, I want you to apologise to my mother who went to the trouble of cooking this lovely meal, and I want the three of you to talk to Pierre and John and explain what they have said is unacceptable and that it is not true."

Celia opened her mouth to object but Sydney saw this and cut her off.

"Some of the stuff they did say may indeed have been true to some extent but I don't want either of them or my kids to know about it. It is in the past and it stays in the past. Will you agree to this? "

Celia is staring at Sydney with slight shock, yet manages to nod her head and mumbles " That's fine"

"Right then. We can leave now. Sark, it was good to see you and it was extremely nice to meet your family. I'm glad you found some happi…" Her words were cut off by a shriek and the words "Stop it, Please stop it". It sounded like Georgia and the adults suddenly became aware a fight was going on in the next room. Sydney raised her eyebrows "Vaughn, could you go and sort that out, I'll finish what I'm saying and I'll be out." Vaughn nodded "Right on it" and left the room quickly.

" Anyway Sark, I'm glad you found happiness and hopefully I'll see you on good terms soon. Katya, the same goes for you, give us a call next time you're in LA. Mom, Dad, I'll see you both sometime in the next week probably, and Yelena, maybe we'll see each other again some day. "

Sydney got up from the table, kissed both her parents on the cheek and walked out the door Celia had exited earlier. Once in the hallway she took a deep breath and willed the tears forming in her eyes to go away. She heard movement behind her and found Celia, Stephanie and Marie following behind her, and they came to a stop outside the den where Vaughn was telling off the kids. One look at Josh and Pierre explained whom the fight had been between, the black eye and bloody nose on Pierre and Josh's bloody lip said everything.

Marie rolled her eyes and pulled her sons out of the room, Georgia grasped Sydney's hand whilst Vaughn marched Josh out of the room and Claudia followed him. They were out of the house within the next two minutes, the kids were quite confused as to why they weren't going back into the room but knew better than to question their parents in the moods they were in. The ride back the house in the car was silent, Claudia sat in the passenger seat next to her father staring at the radio. She was too nervous to ask him if she could put in on, the wrinkles on his forehead were increasing every few minutes. Sydney sat in the back between Georgia and Josh, Georgia was taking a small nap whilst Syd treated her son's lip.

Poor kid. He really wanted a fun Christmas with his only cousins, and look what happens. Hopefully they aren't going to be like this for the rest of the week. I don't think I could cope with that. Oh God, Mom is going to kill me for leaving the dinner. She doesn't know my reasons, they probably think I repressed that memory. I wish I had.

In the other car however the noise levels were slightly louder. Stephanie was looking out of the window, trying to figure out how they would end up spending the rest of the day whilst Celia and Marie were patiently explaining to Pierre and John that they had got the wrong end of the stick, and that they weren't terrible people. Celia had been frantically trying to find a lie that they could utilise to cover the real reason she was mad at Irina. The kids had figured out it had something to do with their grandfather and Irina so in the end she told them it was because Irina and William had worked together as representatives from different companies. Unfortunately Irina's work deliberately got William into some trouble and the stress caused him to have a heart attack and he later died. She stressed that Irina's company was more to blame than Irina was, yet she used her to take out the blame on.

" I was wrong being like that towards her, but I was missing my William desperately. The reason Stephanie and I were upset was that I hadn't told her Irina was the one William had been working with, but we are fine now, aren't we Stephanie?"

Stephanie turned around at the mention of her name and nodded. " Yes" she replied "I'm sorry if our arguing upset you kids, I was just a little bit shocked, but I'm ok now, we're ok now."

Marie then spoke up "So will you two be able to play civilly with your cousins now? Neither you nor they have done anything wrong, you shouldn't be fighting with each other. Pierre, it would be nice if you apologise to Josh for upsetting him and giving him that lip. And if you apologise to his sisters as well for insulting them he may apologise to you for getting you in this state.

Pierre winced while his mother checked out his face but agreed to apologise. He didn't want to fall out with Josh, he and John had been planning to have lots of fun with him in LA, and he hadn't really meant what he said about Claudia and Georgia, he was angry and it was in the heat of the moment.

I hope this works, Sydney and Michel will be able to use this with their kids as well if they haven't already given an explanation. Oh dear, what if they already have said something different? We need to get to that house and fast….

Within ten minutes they had arrived at the house, and after everybody jumped out of the cars, they all set about making apologies. Pierre and John ran over to where Josh and Claudia were teasing Georgia for falling asleep and a couple of minutes later they were all smiling. Celia, Stephanie and Marie walked over to where Syd and Vaughn were standing and explained their cover story. It was agreed on as a good cover and Syd made a mental note to tell her kids it when they asked.

They started to head towards the door and entered the house. The kids went to the den and the adults were on their way to the kitchen when the phone started to ring in the hallway. Sydney doubled back whilst the others headed on, and this she became thankful for as she suddenly collapsed into the hall chair, in shock of the information she was receiving over the wire.