Title: "Recoil"
Author: Waterdancer aka AquarianLady
Email: jch114@hotmail.com
Website: none at this time.
Feedback: YES YES YES
Distribution: CD ALL DAY. Anyone else please ask.
Disclaimer: Anything Alias related (Vaughn, Devlin, SD-4,SD-6, Weiss, Donovan the dog) are all the property of ABC and Touchstone Pictures. It is the creation of JJ Abrams and Bad Robot Productions. Diana Rochelle is mine. Marie and Brendan Devlin are mine.
Summary: A woman from Vaughn's past comes back.
Rating: PG-13 for language.
Classification: Action/Adventure, Drama, and a dash of Romance.
A/N: Special thanks to the AIM gang, Robin for the fantastic beta, and Thorne for telling me that you like what I write, that means a lot.
****
"What is it with you and self-destructive women?" Weiss asked as he came into Vaughn's office and sat down.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know any self-destructive women," he responded, never taking his eyes from the open file on his desk.
He held up two fingers. "Sydney Bristow for one, and there's the little matter of Diana Rochelle."
"Diana's not self-destructive and neither is Sydney," he replied, still reading the file in front of him, feigning non-interest.
"You may be right," Weiss agreed, leaning back in the chair. "Did I mention that someone is about to be debriefed right now? And it's not Sydney. "
"Oh? Who is?" He felt his heart skip a few beats. He had heard that Diana had received the information from Sydney, and she was supposed to be at a safe house in LA. He wasn't sure if he was ready to see her again.
"Diana," Weiss said with a small smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.
"She's here? Is she okay?" Vaughn asked, finally taking his eyes from his paperwork.
"Yeah, she's fine. She's in the main conference room waiting on Devlin and someone else."
Vaughn looked at Weiss; then looked at his office door. Leaving to go see her, to check on her would leave him open to ridicule from Weiss. The same ridicule he received every time Sydney was in the building. He looked at Weiss again, and he could see the small smile forming.
"If you want to go see her, I don't think she'd mind," Weiss started. "Just be sure to be out of there before Devlin arrives."
Vaughn was already walking out the door.
****
He found Diana pacing inside the conference room. She was wearing a simple black dress, and her hair was pulled up in a French braid. In her hand was a Styrofoam cup. Inside it was probably the standard government-issue coffee: bland and lukewarm. He saw her wince as she took a sip.
When he shut the door behind him, she stopped by the window. "I wondered if you'd come." He knew she hadn't seen him, but he remembered what she had once told him. I always know when you step into the room: Your scent always gives you away. She took a sip of her coffee, and this time she managed not to wince from the taste.
"I wanted to make sure you were okay," he told her as he walked farther into the room.
"You have every right not to want to see me, you know that, right?" she asked, with her back still turned to him.
"I know that but I couldn't stay away," he replied as he walked across the room and leaned on the wall next to her.
"You could have told me to go to hell when I called, Michael," she said, continuing to look out the window. He wished she would look at him, let him see her eyes.
"I know but you needed me--I mean you needed help, and I was in a position to offer it," Vaughn said quietly. As he watched her, a strand of hair came down; he fought the urge to move the hair out of her face.
"Thank you," she replied, finally facing him. She reached up and touched the nape of his neck. "You've cut your hair," she smiled at him, "I like it."
He resisted the blush that was threatening to come up on his face. "Thanks," he said, not taking his eyes off of her. His heart was beating a thousand times a minute as he looked at her. She was still as beautiful as she had been five years ago. Her dark hair had gotten longer, and her eyes, while still bright, seemed to hold something behind them.
"I'm sorry about what happened in Barcelona, Diana," Vaughn said. He watched her eyes start to tear up, and no longer did she look like the woman in those surveillance photos, or the woman whose case file he had stayed up the night before reading. She looked like the same Diana from five years ago, the one who cried at end of Bambi.
"I know that it's my fault, Michael. I'm the reason that they're dead. If I hadn't urged them to go in against their instincts, we would have never attempted that operation. All the signs were there: it took us a matter of minutes to get into SD-4's air duct system, and I should have saw it coming," she said softly.
"There was no way for you to have known that there would be trouble. There wasn't, Diana," he said leaning closer to her, a reminder of the days when they used to talk after their cases. He could see a small shudder go through her body as he said this. She was scared, that was something he--and everyone else--had not often seen. He wanted to take her into his arms to shield her from all that had happened in Barcelona and in Rio.
"That was part of my job, Michael. I was the one who was to make sure that there would be no trouble, and I failed," she said bitterly, wiping tears from her eyes. "I'm sorry. You've already done so much, and now I'm laying more of this on you."
He ran his hand through his hair, and shook his head. "You don't ever have to worry about that, Diana. I'm here as long as you need me."
"Are you, Michael? I don't want to suck you into this mess. It's too much for me to ask you to deal with." She looked at him with sad eyes that spoke more to him than anything else she could say. She needed him, and he was going to be there for her.
He placed a finger on her lips, and said quietly, "I'll decide when I've had enough, okay?"
"Michael, I—".
"Excuse me, Agent Vaughn," a clerk said, poking his head inside the room. "You told me to let you know when Mr. Devlin was on his way, and—"
Devlin walked in behind the clerk. "I'm already here. Hello, Diana."
"Ben." Taking her eyes away from him, she walked over to her old supervisor. She had always been much more relaxed around Devlin than Vaughn had. While he no longer was tongue-tied or nervous, he still didn't feel as comfortable as she did. "How have you and your wife been? How's Brendan?"
Vaughn looked at Devlin as he smiled at Diana. He hadn't seen him this relaxed in a few months. She had that effect on people. "Brendan is doing well, he's starting at UCLA this fall. Marie and I are doing fine."
"That's fantastic," she replied smiling and crossing her arms. "Do you mind telling me why I'm here? I've already given a full report."
"I've read your report. There are a few things that we need to discuss. We'll begin as soon as the agent assigned to your case arrives. Please have a seat." He gestured towards the seat across from him.
"Sir, I can leave if you want," Vaughn said as he started towards the door.
"Actually, Agent Vaughn, this also involves you since you were the one that Agent Rochelle contacted and arranged for her extraction. So, please, I need you to have a seat as well."
Diana and Vaughn looked at each other and sat down. Vaughn on one side of the table, and Diana across from Devlin.
What is going on? The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, telling him that something wasn't right with this scenario. Vaughn looked at his watch, and glanced over Diana, willing her to make eye contact.
"I'm sorry that I'm late. I was still in a meeting when you left the message for me, sir," a voice said as the door to the conference room opened.
"It's all right. We were just getting settled," Devlin said, pulling some files out of his briefcase.
Vaughn stood up as Haladki walked into the conference room. "Sir, what is he doing here? Agent Rochelle isn't any of his concern."
"Agent Vaughn, Haladki is the agent assigned to her case. He noticed some items that were unclear in her report, so that's why this meeting was called."
He looked over at Diana with a worried glance, and she met his gaze with one of her own. Diana's isn't one not to give an accurate report. She nodded to him as if to say, 'I'll be fine'. He sat down, defeated, and glared at Haladki, who was taking a seat next to Devlin. Haladki pulled out a tape recorder and placed it in front of Diana. "If you don't mind, I'd like to tape this conversation."
"I have nothing to hide," she said quietly, looking directly at Haladki.
"Good." He pressed record on the machine. "For the record, could you state your full name and your current place of residence?"
"Diana Elizabeth Rochelle. My file lists my place of residence New Orleans, but I haven't spent many nights there in the last five years. I was born and raised there. "
"Diana--may I call you Diana?" Vaughn managed to hold back the angry retort that was fighting to get out. The way that Haladki was talking to Diana sounded like a man trying to pick up a woman in a bar. There were still too many men in the Agency who still had a sexist attitude towards their female co-workers. He had watched Diana fight those attitudes over and over when they worked together. Her fighting spirit had been what first attracted him to her.
As Sydney's handler, he had watched her struggle against the same attitudes. Lambert had been a prime example. He had only seen the body, not the incredible agent Sydney was.
"No, you may not. Agent Rochelle is fine," she said with an edge to her voice. She had always been able to take care of herself. Vaughn didn't bother to cover the smirk on his face. He doesn't know what he's getting himself into.
Haladki sat up straight and started acting like the professional that he wasn't. "Okay, Agent Rochelle, would you mind telling us what happened in Barcelona with your team?"
"I've already explained in my report what happened." Her voice still held the same sharpness. Vaughn noticed how rigid she was sitting and wondered why she was acting that way now. Haladki was asking a legitimate question.
"In your report you stated that--" he flipped through some pages "--'The men just appeared out of nowhere.' Wasn't it your job, Agent Rochelle, to verify that everything was clear? "
"Yes, it was. That was part of my job," she said flatly.
"Can you explain how your team was ambushed?" Haladki asked with a sneer in his voice.
Vaughn watched as Diana's shoulders tensed. "As I've noted in my report, Agent Haladki, I'm not sure how we were ambushed. When we came out the air duct, there they were. That's all I have to say about that."
Devlin looked down at the file in his lap and nodded for Haladki to continue. "Moving on—why didn't you contact the CIA through the proper channels?"
Diana cocked her head to the side, and narrowed her eyes at him. "Are you new here?"
Vaughn watched Haladki's shoulders tense. Diana had started to intimidate him. "I did contact the CIA, but I was told that there wouldn't be any help coming officially."
"Is that why you contacted Mr. Vaughn? For help?"
"Yes, it was," she responded.
"Didn't you think that it was brash of you to contact him for help, given your past history."
Diana looked over at Vaughn, and shook her head. "Our past had little to do with why I contacted him. He's a good man, he would never leave a fellow agent out in the field without trying his best to help them."
"What about Patrick Williams?" Vaughn winced when he heard Haladki say that name.
"As I also wrote in my report, Patrick Williams, who was the team leader, also died in Barcelona."
"Interesting," he replied as he looked through more paper work. "Agent Rochelle, are you aware that Mr. Williams arranged for you two to travel together after Barcelona?"
"That was standard operating procedure after an operation. The team always traveled in teams of two. I would travel with Patrick, Marisa with Daniel, and so on," she said with a slight crack in her voice. Haladki and Devlin didn't hear it, but he did. Vaughn looked at her, confused. She's hiding something.
"That's not what your file shows," Haldaki said looking at her through narrowed eyes.
Diana leaned forward and put her palms flat on the table. "And you know as well as I do that the file on my team is vague at best. We don't give a lot of detail. It's dangerous--to us and to the Agency. And if you ever had to face anything more dangerous than a paper cut, you might understand that fact, Agent Haladki." She took a deep breath and leaned back in her chair. "I'm the only surviving member of that team, and I'm telling you that the team usually broke up after an operation. Your file won't show that."
Haladki slid some pictures to Diana. "Do you mind explaining what happened when SD-4 came after you?"
"I ran, which is something that I normally don't do, but the intel was important, and if I had been caught, I wouldn't be here right now."
"You were caught, Agent Rochelle." Vaughn really wanted to hit Haladki for that comment.
"The correct term is cornered, Mr. Haladki. I was never caught," she said confidently, crossing her arms in front of her.
"As I looked at these pictures last night, Agent Rochelle, I had to ask myself. Were all of these injuries that you inflicted necessary for you to get away?" Haladki asked.
"Mr. Haladki, have you ever been in the field? I'm not talking about a strawberry field or a cornfield. Have you ever seen field action?'
Vaughn covered his mouth to hide the grin on his face. He knew that Haladki hated the fact that he had never been anything more than a pencil pusher, and he loved the fact that Diana had also picked up on it. "I'm not sure my record is relevant, Ms. Rochelle."
"I'm going to take that response as a resounding 'No'," she said. "When you have spent as much time in the field as my team did, and you've seen the things that we had seen, then you can ask me if I thought my actions in Rio were necessary. Is that clear enough for you?" She stood up and walked over to the window. Vaughn resisted the urge to follow her. And the urge to slam Haladki against the wall.
Devlin watched her before clearing his throat. "I think we've heard enough," he said as he stood up. "Diana, there will be some agents here to take you back to the safe house. It was good seeing you." He walked over and patted her shoulder. He left the room with a reluctant Haladki following right behind him.
Vaughn watched her for a few minutes. He thought about what the hairs on the back of his neck were telling him. She was hiding something. "So are you going to tell me what's really going on, or are you going to continue to feed me bullshit?"