Vaughn sat staring at his office wall.  He had been looking at Alice's picture earlier, but guilt ate at him as he studied her smiling face.  Because he kept seeing Sydney's face instead of hers.

His best friend walked in and smiled at him.  "Any word from her yet?"

"No," Vaughn told him, feeling both relaxed and nervous at the same time.  "I don't expect to hear anything 'til she gets back."

Weiss looked at him, and Vaughn knew what that he was seeing more than Vaughn wanted him to see.  "Your girlfriend's name is Alice, right?"

"Would you shut up?"

His friend continued to tease him.  "I'm just checking to see--"

"Get out of my office," Vaughn told him with a grin on his face.

Weiss left, but Vaughn's thoughts didn't leave with him.  He was way too attracted to Sydney Bristow.  He couldn't even say why; he had seen pictures of her for years from their place of prominence on Jack's desk and walls.  He hadn't felt anything looking at that smiling face from the frames, but after he met her, he couldn't stop thinking about her.

He remembered when Jack used to tease him about introducing him to his daughter.  It had been years since he had mentioned it.  In fact, Vaughn didn't think Jack had mentioned it since Vaughn told him that he planned to join the CIA.  It didn't matter.  Jack had other plans for him now.  Sydney needed him as a handler, not a potential boyfriend.

He looked back over at Alice's picture and ordered himself to get his attention back where it belonged.

***

"Sydney, what are you still doing up?"

She looked up from her studying and smiled.  She saw herself reflected in her father's eyes and knew that she looked terrible.  The exhaustion showed on her face.  "I needed to get this paper done, and I wanted to talk to you."  He looked towards his bedroom.  "Mom's asleep," she told him.  "We had a really--"

He shook his head as he sat down his briefcase.  "Not here.  Let's go for a walk."

Sydney nodded and shut her book as she stood.  The night air surrounded them as they stepped outside.  She shivered.  "Do you want my jacket?"  He began to unbuttoning it.

She shook her head.  "No.  I just--"

They were both silent as they walked past the swimming pool.  He spoke first, his voice strained.  "I heard that today's operation was close."

"Yes," she agreed.  "Because the disks were encrypted, Vaughn almost didn't get them back to me."  She looked away from him and fought the tears away.  They stayed in her voice.  "I ran home after the debriefing and took a bath.  I felt dirty."

He put his arm around her as they continued to walk around the back yard.  Kissing the top of her head, he muttered, "Being a double is a dirty job, Sydney.  I wish you had agreed to witness protection."

"I know."  She put her arm around his waist and squeezed.  "I know."

She stopped walking and turned to look up at him.  He closed his eyes and then looked back at her.  He knew she was about to tell him something that he didn't want to hear.  "Dad, before I left, Mom told me that she worked for SD-6."

His eyebrows lifted in surprise; he obviously thought the strain had gotten to her.  "Sydney--"

She shook her head.  "I mean at the bank.  She asked Sloane, and he let her tell me."

"Damn."  He looked away, and she knew he was hiding his reaction to her.  "How close are they?"

"She calls him 'Arvin'."  Sydney heard the bitterness in her own voice.

Jack chuckled.  "Well, I did, too, at one time."

"What?"  Her face showed her surprise, despite her effort to hide it.

"Sloane was at our wedding.  He was a close friend of mine," he told her, putting his hands in his pockets.

"What?"

Jack reached out and pushed her hair away from her face.  "He worked for the CIA back then."

"Why did he leave?"

"I can't tell you that."

Sydney felt a flash of anger.  "Can't?  Or won't?"

"Won't."  Sydney's jaw clenched as Jack smiled.  "You don't have the clearance, Sydney."  He leaned closer to her, looking into her eyes.  "I'm an old rule follower."

She thought about the rule she recently broke and the consequences.  "I should, more than anybody, know the consequences for breaking rules."

"Sydney!" He pulled her into his arms and hugged her.  She breathed in the scent of his cologne and remembered all the times he had held her when she was a little girl.  Everything had been okay when she had been in her daddy's arms.  "I didn't mean it that way."

"I know," she told him.  "But I should."  She sighed and pulled away.  "Okay, I guess I'll accept that answer."

"For now," Jack told her, knowing what she was thinking.

She tried to smile.  "For now."

"So, your mother told you.  I guess that means you'll be seeing her more at work.  Which is good."  He looked everywhere but at her.

"If I want to spy on my own mother," Sydney said bitterly.  Jack didn't say anything and she realized, "They've ordered you to spy on Mom, haven't they?"

"Yes."

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault."  He turned and walked a few steps away from her.  Staring up at the sky, he said, "She made her choices, and we both have to live with the consequences."

Sydney remembered something that had occurred to her on the way home.  "What are the consequences for you, Dad?"

"Don't worry about me, Sydney.  You have no responsibility for anyone besides yourself."

She walked up behind him.  "I love you, Dad."

He turned to look at her.  His smile was tired.  "I love you, too."

Silence filled the air again.  Somewhere, someone honked a horn.  Sydney tried to gather her courage and tell him what she had learned.

"We should go back--"

"Mom knew what they were going to do to Danny," she told him.

He stopped walking.  He became completely still.  It didn't look like he was even breathing.  "What?"

"I asked Mom at the bank if she knew, and she told me that she did."  Sydney hated telling him this, but she had to talk to someone about it to tell someone about what she had found out tonight.

"What she didn't tell me was that she tried to stop it."

He turned slowly to look at her.  She saw the flash of hope in his eyes.  "How?"

"Tonight, I had dinner with Will and Francie, and Will told me that Danny had plane tickets to Singapore."

He suddenly became the focused agent again.  It was amazing for Sydney to watch.  "Will?"

"He's been investigating Danny's death."

"What?"  Jack cursed and Sydney flinched in surprise.  She wasn't used to seeing her dad angry.  "Sydney, he'll be killed if he gets too close to SD-6."

Tears filled her eyes again.  "I know, Dad.  I made him promise not to look into it anymore."

Jack began to pace.  "So, you believe Laura tried to save Danny."

"Yes.  Dad, when she told me that she knew, I hated her.  But when Will told me about that plane ticket--"

"I'll tell Michael about it tomorrow.  Have him check into it."  Sydney could hear the despair and the hope in his voice.  "And see if your mom was the one that bought the ticket."

"She did.  She loved Danny, Dad.  You know that," she told him.

He stared at her.  "Why is it so important to convince me?"

Sydney sniffed.  "Because she's my mother.  And you're my father."

He shook his head and Sydney saw defeat rest on his shoulders.  "The past is the past, Sydney.  We can't go back to it."

"Dad, she tried to save Danny.  We don't know, yet--"

"The past is the past," he repeated.  "Now, go to bed and get some rest."  He kissed her forehead and left her alone in the yard.