Title: The Dream
Author : Alias424
Feedback: Yes, please!
Archival: Sure, just let me know where.
Disclaimer: Alias and its characters aren't mine; I'm just borrowing them.
Summary: What starts out as only a dream slowly becomes reality.
Rating: PG-13
Category: Romance/Angst
Chapter 1: Green Eyes
He reached down and kissed her, "You were great in Shanghai…" Sydney frowned and let her thoughts wander. Danny would think that she was in Chicago or Boston, London maybe, but definitely not someplace as exotic as Shanghai…and even if he did know, he wouldn't know if she was great while she was there…he continued kissing her before slowly pulling away. She gazed deep into his eyes…but Danny's eyes weren't green…
"Syd?…Sydney…" Francie was gently shaking her shoulder.
"Mmmm…" Sydney was reluctant to open her eyes; it seemed like she had just closed them. Her last mission had been long and difficult, and she had a few cuts and bruises that she was going to have fun explaining to Francie and Will. She finally opened her eyes and answered groggily, "What?…What time is it?"
Francie sat down on the edge of her bed. "It's quarter to nine. I saw your note on the fridge saying to make sure you were up for your meeting at 9:30." Francie was looking at her worriedly, and Sydney was glad the shades were pulled down in her room and her friend couldn't see the cut on her forehead. "I tried to wait up for you, but I was too tired so I went to bed. What time did you get home?"
"Four." Sydney answered, still half asleep.
"What?"
"I didn't get in till four. Airport security was high, and my flight was delayed…"
"You didn't get home from a business trip until four in the morning, and the bank still wants you to come in at 9:30!"
"Yeah, it's okay," Sydney replied, finally sitting up and getting out of bed, "I slept on the plane."
"Do you want anything to eat?" Francie asked on her way out of the room.
Sydney shook her head, and headed to the bathroom, relieved that Francie seemed to have no idea how hard it was to sleep on a plane, especially when you had just come close to being killed and your head hurt like hell.
She showered and dressed for work. She quickly covered the gash on her forehead with a Band-Aid, but that did not hide the dark bruise that surrounded the wound, and she sighed as she left the bathroom and gathered her things.
"Bye, Francie!" she shouted as she ran out of the house, trying to put off a confrontation until she saw her later. "See you tonight!"
Sydney glanced at her watch as she headed into Credit Dauphine. 9:37. Sloane hated it when people were late, but she didn't really care. "He should try going to sleep at 4:30 and then getting up before 9 o'clock," she thought.
She walked into the meeting room. "Sorry I'm late." She sat down and looked around quizzically, "Where's Dixon?"
"This is a solo mission; I'll explain why later," Sloane responded. He glanced at her head, "Looks like you had a rough time in China."
Sydney stared back at him and answered coolly, "Nothing I couldn't handle."
Sloane nodded and began his presentation. "This," he said gesturing to a picture on the screen, "is Juan-Carlos Campuzino, head of the research company Ciencia, which is located in a mansion in Valencia, Spain. He is hosting a party tomorrow night to unveil the company's newest wonder drug, a pill that heals broken bones in half the time, but that's not why you'll be there. We have received intel that Ciencia has recently drawn up plans for a vaccine against almost any bacterial disease or virus that could be used for bio-terrorism. Anthrax, Ebola…"
"Aren't there already vaccines for many of those biological agents?" Sydney interrupted him.
"Yes, but this can ward off almost all of them, and it lasts, literally for a lifetime. One injection and you'll never need it again."
"Impressive."
"Yes. Your mission is to attend the party and when Campuzino begins his speech at 10:00, gain access to his office and retrieve the outline for the vaccine. The keypad is located behind a Monet landscape. The unveiling is being held at the reception hall on the main floor of the laboratory, and Campuzino's office and those of the rest of the researchers are on the floors above it. Security at the mansion is going to be very high. You will be greeted at the door by a butler, who will thoroughly inspect the contents of any bag you carry and make you walk through a device that can detect metal, explosives, virtually anything. It would be able to pick up the frequency and the location of any communications device we could give you. For this reason, Dixon will not be accompanying you on this mission." Sloane sat down.
"If security is this high, how will I be able to bring in a lock descrambler?"
The room was silent for a moment. Exasperated, Sloane finally looked at Marshall, realizing that he would need some prompting, "Marshall…"
Marshall stood up and smiled, "Yes, um, because of the high level of…surveillance at this party, I don't have much to give you for this trip. But I do have, um, this one thing that not only is really cool, but it's stylish too. Okay, well," he picked something up off the table, but dropped it on the floor. "Oops, don't worry, I'll get that…" He bent over to pick it up and Sloane sighed. Sydney tried to hide a smile. Marshall picked up the object and showed it to her; it was a delicate hair clip. "Yeah, well, here we have a chic little hair comb, right?" He held it up to his hair. "I'd model it for you, but I don't think it would stay in my hair…um, anyway, you wear this to the party and look super stylish, but not only is it a hair clip. You take it off and presto! It's a code descrambler. You'll, uh, be able to get into Campuzino's office and open the safe for the vaccine plans with this." He sat back down, still smiling.
"But if Campuzino's detector will be able to pick up a communications device, won't it recognize this descrambler?"
"Oh!" Marshall exclaimed and stood back up. "I forgot, here's the best part." He picked up the comb and held it up to his hair. "You'll walk in with this on and go through the detector, and oh my gosh, it goes off! Beep, beep, beep!" He acts surprised. "Oh, uh, I'm so sorry! How embarrassing!…Well, uh, you might want to talk in Spanish, I mean they would still probably recognize English, but anyway…Wait you know, I almost forgot." He took the comb out of his hair and handed it to her. "This clip in my hair it was a present from my grandmother," He turned to Sydney and added, "Or it could be from your father, or uncle, your roommate from college, you know it doesn't matter." He began acting again. "It's made from precious metal, and I'm sure if I walk through again…" He walks a few steps, "See it didn't go off this time! The best part about this detector is that it can't tell the difference between just plain metal and a descrambler, it just goes off. If you take it off and go through it you'll be fine." He sat down again.
"Thank you, Marshall," Sloane sighed and turned to Sydney. "Your alias is Liliana Juarez Salvino," he says, sliding her some documents. "A Spanish pharmacist. You'll find that her name is on the guest list. Any questions?"
"No," Sydney answered, shaking her head.
"Well, that's it then. Good Luck."
Francie and Will are sitting on the living room floor playing The Game of Life, when Sydney walks in. "Hey guys," she said cheerfully.
"Hi Syd, we thought you'd be home soon, so we played your piece for you," Will said.
Sydney put her things down and walked over to them, smiling, "Thanks."
"How was work?" Francie asked as Sydney sat down. "Did you make it to your meeting on time?"
"Almost," Sydney replied. "I was only a few minutes…"
"Oh my God!" Will exclaimed, putting a hand to her forehead. "What happened to your head?"
She pulled away, "It's really nothing…"
"Let me see," Francie demanded.
Sydney sighed and carefully removed the Band-Aid and let her friends examine her head. "Now, it's not as bad as it looks…"
"Jesus, Syd!" Will cried, "How the hell did you do that?"
"It was really stupid actually. You see, when I was in New York, the elevators in the office building were broken. I was late and I had a meeting on, like, the 20th floor. I was running up the stairs, I tripped, and…" She gestured toward her forehead.
"Are you all right?" Francie asked. "You didn't say anything about it this morning."
Sydney opened her mouth to respond, but Will interjected, "I swear, Sydney, someone would think you worked for the Marines or were a boxer or something, you get so beat up working at that damn bank."
She ignored him and spun the spinner. She landed on the Career Space and was about to pick her cards when the phone rang. "Will, pick for me," she said as she jumped up to get the phone. "Hello?" Will held up three cards to her and she pointed to one of them.
"Joey's Pizza?"
"Come on Syd, you always pick the accountant! Can't you be something exciting for a change?" Will shouted in the background. "Look, you have the police officer here…"
"Sorry, wrong number." Sydney hung up the phone and sat back down next to Francie. "I work at a bank, Will. When we play Life, I pick the accountant…Oh my God, that reminds me! I forgot some documents for my trip tomorrow." Sydney sprang up and headed for the door.
"You just got back from a trip! Why do you have to go on another one!" Will demanded.
"It's an emergency. One of our branches on the East Coast is in danger of going bankrupt. Honestly, Will, this trip won't take that long…"
"You work too damn hard for that bank! You…"
"Will…" Francie tried to stop him, but he ignored her.
"I mean, it's not like you're an international spy…"
"For God's sake, Will. She already has it rough enough, can't you just leave her alone?" Francie turned to him angrily.
"…out saving the world or anything. Then maybe I would understand…"
"If you only knew," Sydney thought, as she stormed outside, slamming the door behind her.
Vaughn sat in the warehouse looking impatiently at his watch. "Sometimes she's a little late, but it never takes Sydney this long to get here," he thought. She had picked up the phone when he'd called, he could recognize her voice as soon as she said hello, so he knew that she had gotten his call. He had known she had completed her mission successfully, so there must be some other reason she was late.
Just as his mind started to go through all the possible scenarios of car accidents, kidnappings, and robberies, he heard someone walking through the warehouse. Recognizing the footsteps as Sydney's, he jumped up to open the wire door for her.
She looked angry and Vaughn wondered what someone had done to set her off, but decided it would be wiser not to broach the subject. Instead he brought his fingers gently to the cut on her head, feeling her flinch at the slight pressure. "Are you all right?" he asked, concerned.
"Yeah," she responded flatly. Not offering anymore information on the subject, she walked past him and into the room.
He decided to press her for the information, "How did it happen?"
"Some moron with a two by four," Sydney replied, her back still toward him.
Vaughn decided that it would be best not to touch that subject anymore either. "You were great in Shanghai."
"What did you say?" She asked, quickly spinning around and giving him a strange look.
"I said, you were great in Shanghai," he answered.
She stared deeply into his eyes for a moment before replying, "Thanks." It hurt him to see her so upset. He wanted to take her into his arms and comfort her, but he knew that he couldn't. Sighing, he sat down on one of the crates in the room, and Sydney took a seat across from him. For a moment the room was filled with silence; she was still gazing into his eyes.
She looked confused and Vaughn wanted to ask her what was wrong, but suddenly she smiled. "So, what's my countermission?"
He returned her smile. "Pretty much standard. The CIA wants the real documents, and here are the false ones you'll give to SD-6," he said, handing her a folder. "Only Campuzino and the researchers at his laboratory really know what's in the vaccine, so SD-6 shouldn't be able to figure out that these plans won't work until they make a prototype. When they actually do realize that this vaccine won't work, they'll think the error lies with either Campuzino or the techs they have working on the project, not you."
"Simple enough. Anything else?"
"That's it."
Smiling wryly, she nodded and stood up to leave.
"Wait, Sydney…" Vaughn reached up and put a hand on her arm, maybe it was just his imagination, but he thought he felt her shiver. She slowly turned to face him and he reluctantly let go of her arm. "Be careful…I heard about the high security, and I…wouldn't want anything to happen to you…you're…you're the best agent we've got."
She smiled sweetly, and he thought he would melt, "I'll be careful." She turned and started slowly walking away.
"Good luck in Valencia," he called after her.
