A/N- Thanks so much for all the awesome reviews! Keep 'em coming! Oh little correction- it should have been Syd's sixth birthday in Jack's dream. Anyway, on with the story!
Always
Part Two
Irina heard Jack stir next to her, and woke up with a start. She had always been a light sleeper.
"Jack…are you awake?"
"Yes."
"What's the matter?" She asked softly, rolling over to face his back.
"I just had a dream."
"About Sydney?"
"Yes." He sounded like he didn't want to talk about it anymore.
"Goodnight, Jack."
"Night."
~*~
Vaughn wanted to lose consciousness. He didn't want to be aware of what was happening to him anymore. He didn't blame Sydney- he knew she couldn't talk. They were probably going to kill him anyway; it would be pointless to blow her cover as well.
It was strange thinking that he might be dead soon. He felt like there was still so much for him to do. He wanted to obliterate SD-6, get married, have a family, and grow old in Florida where he and Syd could go jogging in matching windsuits. But that was never going to happen. He didn't want to die.
Vaughn was vaguely aware that the man finally left the room. His arm was broken, and he was pretty sure he had a black eye and a busted lip. Before the man had left, he had hit Vaughn in the mouth with what he assumed to be a baseball bat. One of Vaughn's back teeth felt very loose.
He forced one eye open, slowly turning his throbbing head to see Sydney struggling against her restraints. She noticed his gaze.
"Vaughn…I am so sorry. I'm going to get us out of here, don't worry. It'll all be over soon." She tried to smile assuredly at him, but the tears flowing down her cheeks made it a little less comforting.
~*~
"Irina…wake up. We've got to go." Jack shook her shoulder slightly.
She blinked a few times to get used to the light and saw that Jack was already fully dressed. Of course. She couldn't remember him ever sleeping later than 8:00 in the entire time they had been married. She smiled slightly at him, still a little bleary-minded from sleep.
"Ten more minutes?" She asked.
"Irina, come on. We don't have time for this." Jack was a little taken aback at how unprofessional she was being.
"All right, all right. I'm going to go shower." She got out of bed, walking towards the bathroom.
"Hurry- it's already 8:30."
"I think we'll be fine, Jack-we're meeting him at 10:00, right?" He heard her ask as she turned on the shower.
"Right. " Jack said, distracted by checking over their gear again.
A few moments later, she turned off the shower. Irina walked back into the room in her towel, her long dark hair dripping on the carpet. Jack looked up for an instant, and felt his heart jump slightly. She was so beautiful. That was the one absolute truth he knew about her.
Irina turned to look at him and their eyes locked. Neither spoke for a moment. Neither knew what to say.
Irina finally looked away, grabbing her black outfit off the chair. Jack looked away as she began to change. How did she still manage to have this undeniable effect on him? It was like every wall he had spent so long building up crumbled when they were together. He couldn't let her keep doing this to him, and he could certainly never act on these emotions. No, that would be the worst thing he could do.
~*~
Sydney had rubbed her wrists raw fighting the handcuffs. They weren't very strong; she could feel them start to give against the back of her chair. She rubbed harder, breaking the skin but not feeling a thing.
Finally, one chain link broke. Sydney felt the rush of adrenaline that came with the promise of escape. The man must have taken the key to the rest of their shackles with him though, she would have to wait until he came back. But when he did…this time she'd be ready. She looked over at Vaughn and her resolve was strengthened.
~*~
Jack and Irina checked out of the hotel at 9:30. After being wonderfully polite to the desk clerk, they left quickly, Jack dialing Caleb's number on his cell phone.
"Would you be interested in refinancing your home?" Jack said in a British accent, alerting Caleb that they were on their way.
"I don't do business over the phone." Arthur Caleb said curtly, hanging up and heading for the warehouse immediately.
"So you've worked with this man in the past?" Irina asked.
"Yes, but always under different aliases. His information has never proved false, let's hope that trend continues."
They reached the parking garage then, just as a light rain began to fall. A dark black Mercedes was the lone car parked there, with a tall, red-headed man sitting inside it. As soon as he saw Jack, he got out and walked over to the elevator, ignoring them. They followed nonchalantly, getting in with him. As soon as the doors closed, the man pushed the Emergency Stop button.
"So nice to meet you both." The man said in a Cockney accent, smiling widely to reveal startling white teeth.
"Likewise, Agent Caleb. I'm Agent James Wellington and this is my wife and fellow agent, Emily." Jack motioned towards Irina, hoping her disguise was enough to assure Arthur that this wasn't Irina Derevko. Surely he had heard of her.
"Thank you so much for your help on our mission, Agent Caleb. We were coming up with no leads on the disappearance of two of our agents." Irina shook his hand.
"Of course, Mrs. Wellington. If you two will follow me to my car, I can take you to Agent Bristow and Agent Vaughn. Keep in mind though- I can only lead you so far without the chance of discovery by the Alliance. And helping CIA agents probably wouldn't up my standing at SD-9." Arthur smiled again.
"Of course, Agent Caleb. We're grateful for any help you can give us." Jack assured him as he released the emergency stop button and the doors opened again.
The three people quickly and nonchalantly scanned the garage for anyone watching. No one was there, and the rain outside was becoming an all-out storm.
Irina and Jack got into the back of his car, as Agent Caleb got into the driver's seat. A silence fell between the three of them. The only sound was the rain pounding against the window. Finally, Agent Caleb spoke.
"So, you two are both agents and you're married? That's kind of cool." He grinned at them in the rear view mirror.
Jack and Irina didn't say anything, waiting for him to continue.
"So how'd you two meet?"
"A Christmas party thrown by a friend of mine. I'd been working at the CIA for awhile, and she'd just started." Jack said, smiling as if remembering this fictitious memory.
"I gave him my number at the party, and we dated for a year and a half until he finally proposed." Irina said jokingly.
"Do you two have any kids?" Agent Caleb asked.
"We have a son in college." Irina said, remembering that their alias profiles had mentioned that.
"Does he want to go into the CIA?" Caleb asked.
"I hope not- I wouldn't wish this life on my child." Irina refused to look at Jack when she said this.
Silence fell again as Jack was dying to reply angrily to her comment, but knew that probably wouldn't help their cover much. He clenched his fists slightly, staring out the window as thunder rumbled in the distance.
~*~
Finally, after what seemed like hours of driving in silence, they reached a large office building.
"Welcome to SD-9." Caleb said, looking up at the building with an expression of hate.
Irina and Jack sat there, waiting for him to explain how they could get to Sydney and Vaughn.
"All right, so here's the situation. I can get clearance to visit the prisoners; if I do it under the guise that I want to take part in the questioning. But the only problem is, my clearance won't come through until 10:00 tonight, standard procedure."
"Why didn't you ask for clearance yesterday?" Jack demanded, frustrated at this delay.
"You have to schedule a meeting to get a clearance. This was the first time my superior could meet with me."
Jack frowned, but didn't say anything else.
"Anyway, so I'll get clearance tonight, and I'll call the two of you as soon as I get there. I can only guarantee an hour block of time when you two can safely enter-that's as long as I get with them. I'll be alone with them in there from 11:00 to 12:00 tonight, you two can safely enter then. But escaping is up to you. I can't help you there."
"As we expected." Irina nodded.
"How do we know how to get there?" Jack asked.
"All right, well, until I call you, you'll stay in a SD-9 safe house. We use it to harbor agents who need to disappear for a while. Its air conditioning system is connected to the system in the building where Sydney and Vaughn are being held. It's the only way I can think of to get you in without the security cameras seeing you. At 10:30, I would suggest starting to go through the vents. These glasses," he handed them two pairs of thick, dark glasses, "are capable of viewing through solid metal. With these, you'll know when you're above the proper room. The room they are in is on the 3rd floor. The vents will all be labeled starting with the number three. If you get there in time, it will be just be me in there with them. If not, you enter at your own risk."
Irina and Jack nodded, tucking the glasses into their vests.
"Here we are. That's the safe house over there. I can get you in, and just wait there for my call." He pulled up in front of a dark, small building that was connected to the very back of SD-9 headquarters.
He stepped out of the car with them, pulling out his agent identification. The guard at the front looked at his pass, then looking at Jack and Irina.
"They're with me." Agent Caleb explained.
The guard nodded, opening the door to the safe house. Agent Caleb walked in with them. It only had one room, and it looked much like a very sparsely decorated apartment. Books lined one wall; it had a television and two beds. There was a small closet, and a fridge.
"Sometimes our agents have to stay here for months at a time. We like them to feel like they have all the comforts of home." Agent Caleb smiled.
"Thank you for this, Arthur. We truly appreciate it." Jack said sincerely, as Irina put their gear on one of the beds.
"Of course, Agent Wellington. Good luck to both of you." He smiled, walking out the front door. It closed with a dull thud.
"This entire place is reinforced with steel walls and doors." Irina noticed, sitting down on the edge of the other bed.
Jack was looking at the ceiling at the air conditioning vent.
"Something wrong, Jack?"
"No…I was just thinking, if he's lying to us, we're walking right into a very dangerous trap."
"You're so paranoid." She shook her head.
He looked coldly at her.
"Now, why would that be? What reason would I possibly have for being suspicious of people I think I can trust?" He asked pointedly.
"All right, Jack, point taken. But may I remind you, you asked me to come on this mission. If you have such a problem with trusting me, why would you do that?"
"I had just learned that our daughter might be in mortal danger. I was obviously not thinking clearly!" Jack said.
"Are you so sure of that? Maybe you were thinking clearly, and you wanted me to come for reasons you're not quite ready to admit!" Irina said, standing up.
Jack didn't reply for a moment, and she instantly wanted to take that back. He stared evenly at her for a moment.
"I'm not quite sure what you mean." He asked, daring her to elaborate.
"Forget it, Jack." Irina rolled her eyes, sitting back down.
"If you're suggesting what I think you're suggesting, let me assure you that you're completely mistaken." Jack said.
"Oh, really?" She stood up, facing him again.
"Yes. Really." Jack met her eyes, refusing to look away.
It was like two animals sizing up their competition, knowing that the lesser fighter would look away first. Irina crossed her arms, not even blinking. Finally, she spoke.
"You can honestly say that you feel absolutely nothing for me?" She said quietly.
"I don't even know you."
"You know what I think, Jack? I think you've been wondering ever since I came back how much you really do know about me. You know it would have been impossible for me to have been lying to you every single second of our relationship, and you're wondering which parts of Laura Bristow were Irina Derevko. And you're wondering if sometimes the woman you fell in love with was just me."
Jack still didn't speak, but she saw that part of him knew she was right. So she continued.
"You're also wondering if me being in love with you was completely an act."
Jack looked down for a moment, then met her eyes again. When he finally spoke, his voice was slightly hoarse and very quiet.
"Was it?"
~*~
A/N- Hehe, my first cliffhanger. Please review-the more reviews, the faster I write! Thanks again for all your input, please keep it coming-chapter three will be up soon!
Always
Part Two
Irina heard Jack stir next to her, and woke up with a start. She had always been a light sleeper.
"Jack…are you awake?"
"Yes."
"What's the matter?" She asked softly, rolling over to face his back.
"I just had a dream."
"About Sydney?"
"Yes." He sounded like he didn't want to talk about it anymore.
"Goodnight, Jack."
"Night."
~*~
Vaughn wanted to lose consciousness. He didn't want to be aware of what was happening to him anymore. He didn't blame Sydney- he knew she couldn't talk. They were probably going to kill him anyway; it would be pointless to blow her cover as well.
It was strange thinking that he might be dead soon. He felt like there was still so much for him to do. He wanted to obliterate SD-6, get married, have a family, and grow old in Florida where he and Syd could go jogging in matching windsuits. But that was never going to happen. He didn't want to die.
Vaughn was vaguely aware that the man finally left the room. His arm was broken, and he was pretty sure he had a black eye and a busted lip. Before the man had left, he had hit Vaughn in the mouth with what he assumed to be a baseball bat. One of Vaughn's back teeth felt very loose.
He forced one eye open, slowly turning his throbbing head to see Sydney struggling against her restraints. She noticed his gaze.
"Vaughn…I am so sorry. I'm going to get us out of here, don't worry. It'll all be over soon." She tried to smile assuredly at him, but the tears flowing down her cheeks made it a little less comforting.
~*~
"Irina…wake up. We've got to go." Jack shook her shoulder slightly.
She blinked a few times to get used to the light and saw that Jack was already fully dressed. Of course. She couldn't remember him ever sleeping later than 8:00 in the entire time they had been married. She smiled slightly at him, still a little bleary-minded from sleep.
"Ten more minutes?" She asked.
"Irina, come on. We don't have time for this." Jack was a little taken aback at how unprofessional she was being.
"All right, all right. I'm going to go shower." She got out of bed, walking towards the bathroom.
"Hurry- it's already 8:30."
"I think we'll be fine, Jack-we're meeting him at 10:00, right?" He heard her ask as she turned on the shower.
"Right. " Jack said, distracted by checking over their gear again.
A few moments later, she turned off the shower. Irina walked back into the room in her towel, her long dark hair dripping on the carpet. Jack looked up for an instant, and felt his heart jump slightly. She was so beautiful. That was the one absolute truth he knew about her.
Irina turned to look at him and their eyes locked. Neither spoke for a moment. Neither knew what to say.
Irina finally looked away, grabbing her black outfit off the chair. Jack looked away as she began to change. How did she still manage to have this undeniable effect on him? It was like every wall he had spent so long building up crumbled when they were together. He couldn't let her keep doing this to him, and he could certainly never act on these emotions. No, that would be the worst thing he could do.
~*~
Sydney had rubbed her wrists raw fighting the handcuffs. They weren't very strong; she could feel them start to give against the back of her chair. She rubbed harder, breaking the skin but not feeling a thing.
Finally, one chain link broke. Sydney felt the rush of adrenaline that came with the promise of escape. The man must have taken the key to the rest of their shackles with him though, she would have to wait until he came back. But when he did…this time she'd be ready. She looked over at Vaughn and her resolve was strengthened.
~*~
Jack and Irina checked out of the hotel at 9:30. After being wonderfully polite to the desk clerk, they left quickly, Jack dialing Caleb's number on his cell phone.
"Would you be interested in refinancing your home?" Jack said in a British accent, alerting Caleb that they were on their way.
"I don't do business over the phone." Arthur Caleb said curtly, hanging up and heading for the warehouse immediately.
"So you've worked with this man in the past?" Irina asked.
"Yes, but always under different aliases. His information has never proved false, let's hope that trend continues."
They reached the parking garage then, just as a light rain began to fall. A dark black Mercedes was the lone car parked there, with a tall, red-headed man sitting inside it. As soon as he saw Jack, he got out and walked over to the elevator, ignoring them. They followed nonchalantly, getting in with him. As soon as the doors closed, the man pushed the Emergency Stop button.
"So nice to meet you both." The man said in a Cockney accent, smiling widely to reveal startling white teeth.
"Likewise, Agent Caleb. I'm Agent James Wellington and this is my wife and fellow agent, Emily." Jack motioned towards Irina, hoping her disguise was enough to assure Arthur that this wasn't Irina Derevko. Surely he had heard of her.
"Thank you so much for your help on our mission, Agent Caleb. We were coming up with no leads on the disappearance of two of our agents." Irina shook his hand.
"Of course, Mrs. Wellington. If you two will follow me to my car, I can take you to Agent Bristow and Agent Vaughn. Keep in mind though- I can only lead you so far without the chance of discovery by the Alliance. And helping CIA agents probably wouldn't up my standing at SD-9." Arthur smiled again.
"Of course, Agent Caleb. We're grateful for any help you can give us." Jack assured him as he released the emergency stop button and the doors opened again.
The three people quickly and nonchalantly scanned the garage for anyone watching. No one was there, and the rain outside was becoming an all-out storm.
Irina and Jack got into the back of his car, as Agent Caleb got into the driver's seat. A silence fell between the three of them. The only sound was the rain pounding against the window. Finally, Agent Caleb spoke.
"So, you two are both agents and you're married? That's kind of cool." He grinned at them in the rear view mirror.
Jack and Irina didn't say anything, waiting for him to continue.
"So how'd you two meet?"
"A Christmas party thrown by a friend of mine. I'd been working at the CIA for awhile, and she'd just started." Jack said, smiling as if remembering this fictitious memory.
"I gave him my number at the party, and we dated for a year and a half until he finally proposed." Irina said jokingly.
"Do you two have any kids?" Agent Caleb asked.
"We have a son in college." Irina said, remembering that their alias profiles had mentioned that.
"Does he want to go into the CIA?" Caleb asked.
"I hope not- I wouldn't wish this life on my child." Irina refused to look at Jack when she said this.
Silence fell again as Jack was dying to reply angrily to her comment, but knew that probably wouldn't help their cover much. He clenched his fists slightly, staring out the window as thunder rumbled in the distance.
~*~
Finally, after what seemed like hours of driving in silence, they reached a large office building.
"Welcome to SD-9." Caleb said, looking up at the building with an expression of hate.
Irina and Jack sat there, waiting for him to explain how they could get to Sydney and Vaughn.
"All right, so here's the situation. I can get clearance to visit the prisoners; if I do it under the guise that I want to take part in the questioning. But the only problem is, my clearance won't come through until 10:00 tonight, standard procedure."
"Why didn't you ask for clearance yesterday?" Jack demanded, frustrated at this delay.
"You have to schedule a meeting to get a clearance. This was the first time my superior could meet with me."
Jack frowned, but didn't say anything else.
"Anyway, so I'll get clearance tonight, and I'll call the two of you as soon as I get there. I can only guarantee an hour block of time when you two can safely enter-that's as long as I get with them. I'll be alone with them in there from 11:00 to 12:00 tonight, you two can safely enter then. But escaping is up to you. I can't help you there."
"As we expected." Irina nodded.
"How do we know how to get there?" Jack asked.
"All right, well, until I call you, you'll stay in a SD-9 safe house. We use it to harbor agents who need to disappear for a while. Its air conditioning system is connected to the system in the building where Sydney and Vaughn are being held. It's the only way I can think of to get you in without the security cameras seeing you. At 10:30, I would suggest starting to go through the vents. These glasses," he handed them two pairs of thick, dark glasses, "are capable of viewing through solid metal. With these, you'll know when you're above the proper room. The room they are in is on the 3rd floor. The vents will all be labeled starting with the number three. If you get there in time, it will be just be me in there with them. If not, you enter at your own risk."
Irina and Jack nodded, tucking the glasses into their vests.
"Here we are. That's the safe house over there. I can get you in, and just wait there for my call." He pulled up in front of a dark, small building that was connected to the very back of SD-9 headquarters.
He stepped out of the car with them, pulling out his agent identification. The guard at the front looked at his pass, then looking at Jack and Irina.
"They're with me." Agent Caleb explained.
The guard nodded, opening the door to the safe house. Agent Caleb walked in with them. It only had one room, and it looked much like a very sparsely decorated apartment. Books lined one wall; it had a television and two beds. There was a small closet, and a fridge.
"Sometimes our agents have to stay here for months at a time. We like them to feel like they have all the comforts of home." Agent Caleb smiled.
"Thank you for this, Arthur. We truly appreciate it." Jack said sincerely, as Irina put their gear on one of the beds.
"Of course, Agent Wellington. Good luck to both of you." He smiled, walking out the front door. It closed with a dull thud.
"This entire place is reinforced with steel walls and doors." Irina noticed, sitting down on the edge of the other bed.
Jack was looking at the ceiling at the air conditioning vent.
"Something wrong, Jack?"
"No…I was just thinking, if he's lying to us, we're walking right into a very dangerous trap."
"You're so paranoid." She shook her head.
He looked coldly at her.
"Now, why would that be? What reason would I possibly have for being suspicious of people I think I can trust?" He asked pointedly.
"All right, Jack, point taken. But may I remind you, you asked me to come on this mission. If you have such a problem with trusting me, why would you do that?"
"I had just learned that our daughter might be in mortal danger. I was obviously not thinking clearly!" Jack said.
"Are you so sure of that? Maybe you were thinking clearly, and you wanted me to come for reasons you're not quite ready to admit!" Irina said, standing up.
Jack didn't reply for a moment, and she instantly wanted to take that back. He stared evenly at her for a moment.
"I'm not quite sure what you mean." He asked, daring her to elaborate.
"Forget it, Jack." Irina rolled her eyes, sitting back down.
"If you're suggesting what I think you're suggesting, let me assure you that you're completely mistaken." Jack said.
"Oh, really?" She stood up, facing him again.
"Yes. Really." Jack met her eyes, refusing to look away.
It was like two animals sizing up their competition, knowing that the lesser fighter would look away first. Irina crossed her arms, not even blinking. Finally, she spoke.
"You can honestly say that you feel absolutely nothing for me?" She said quietly.
"I don't even know you."
"You know what I think, Jack? I think you've been wondering ever since I came back how much you really do know about me. You know it would have been impossible for me to have been lying to you every single second of our relationship, and you're wondering which parts of Laura Bristow were Irina Derevko. And you're wondering if sometimes the woman you fell in love with was just me."
Jack still didn't speak, but she saw that part of him knew she was right. So she continued.
"You're also wondering if me being in love with you was completely an act."
Jack looked down for a moment, then met her eyes again. When he finally spoke, his voice was slightly hoarse and very quiet.
"Was it?"
~*~
A/N- Hehe, my first cliffhanger. Please review-the more reviews, the faster I write! Thanks again for all your input, please keep it coming-chapter three will be up soon!