Story: Beyond

Author: Steph (stephanie406@juno.com)

Disclaimer: Don't own Alias, or any characters thus portrayed. It all belongs to JJ Abrams, Bad Robot Productions, ABC, etc.

Rating: PG-13 (for now)

Spoilers: post "After Thirty Years"

Note: I love HTML, really, I do, but I have yet to figure out how to get it to work on these uploads… so as before, the [brackets] take place of italics

"Here" a voice said, breaking through Will's thoughts. His eyes focused on a glass of water and a bottle of aspirin being held out to him.

"Thanks" he mumbled, taking both from Jack. Who would have thought that Jack Bristow was considerate enough to look after someone? Let alone Will Tippin, AKA, Sydney's snoopy reporter friend.

Speaking of Sydney… "Where's Syd?" he asked abruptly. His suspicions rose when a flash of some emotion was quickly replaced by Jack's well-known and reputed poker face.

"I don't know," he answered.

"What do you mean, you 'don't know'?!" Will felt himself getting angry. "She came with you, didn't she?"

When Jack didn't answer him right away, Will found all the truth he needed in the older man's silence. Will slumped dejectedly in his seat. "We left her behind, didn't we?" he barely croaked out. 'Oh dear God, please let her be all right, wherever she is' he silently prayed.

"There was no other choice, Mr. Tippin. There was a meeting time and place. She knew what would happen if she didn't show on time. It was for everyone's safety" he finished, his voice gentler now than it had been. "She'll be all right, Will."

Will didn't find the reassurance comforting.

His mind switched mental tracks. "Jack" he said hesitantly. "Would they have killed me had I actually known anything about this 'circumference'?"

"Probably" Jack admitted. He handed Will a damp towel. "To clean yourself up with" he explained at Will's puzzled look.

"Oh." Will paused, and even more hesitantly then before, told him "Jack… thank you. Thank you for not telling me even when I wanted to know. Thank you for saving my life. Mostly, thank you for caring enough to save me."

Will met Jack's gaze, held it for a minute, then had to look away from the most emotion he'd ever seen present in this man's eyes.

Maybe he did appear to be an evil ogre most of the time. But under that façade was a man who truly cared for his daughter, and for the welfare of her friends.

Will wanted to cry. His eyes welled up, but he refused to give in to them. Not now. Not again. Hopefully there wouldn't be reason to.

He bit his lip, tasting blood. Yet more blood. Who knew if he'd just done that to himself, or whether he was still tasting blood from his "emergency dental work" earlier. He no longer cared where the blood came from; although he was passingly surprised he could still taste and differentiate the taste of it.

'Sydney, where are you?' his mind called out desperately.

Maybe he'd allow himself to cry once more after all, seeing as how he was here, thousands of feet in the air and hundreds of miles away from where Sydney was. They'd had to leave her behind. And the distance between them only continued to grow as the plane continued towards LA.

AN: Okay, sorry the updates are so slow. They would seriously be more frequent. But my computer isn't online at work yet (their IT dept is seriously slow about getting my acct reactivated). So I've been handwriting chapters. I'm up to about 14. So as soon as I get them typed (and am happy with amount of feedback I'm getting), you'll be seeing updates… As always though, lemme know what you're thinking!