A/N- Again, thanks for all the reviews, that's what keeps me writing. You guys are the best. All right, here's part five.
Trust Me
Chapter Five
Jack walked up moments later, accompanied by a very short man with a nervous, wide-eyed expression.
Sydney smiled slightly at her mother, walking away.
"Good morning, Irina. This is Marshall, he'll be your Op-Tech for this mission." Jack said in a somewhat clipped tone.
"Nice to meet you." Irina shook his somewhat clammy hand.
"It's a pleasure, Miss Derevko, or Irina, or whatever you want me to call you, I don't really know because we've never met, and frankly I'm a little scared of you and I really don't want to make you mad by calling you the wrong thing and-"
"Irina's fine." She cut him off.
"Right. Well, here's my first little invention," Marshall pulled out a box which held two small diamond earrings, "Which I'm actually really proud of because it's the first time I've gotten audio/visual to work this well in jewelry and it's actually kind of a technological breakthrough if you think about it because these babies can broadcast in color and we're talking about earrings which are like you know this big, but it's practically like watching digital television from where we'll be seeing the broadcast and Jack told me that you always wore the same pair of diamond earrings so Mr. Sloane and Sark won't think it's weird that you're wearing them, and even if they did check it for bugs, they're undetectable by most devices, so you know, you're good to go." Marshall smiled proudly at Jack and Irina, and was met with two identically furrowed brows.
"Wow, tough crowd." He joked.
"Anything else, Marshall?" Jack asked.
"Um…I guess that's all." He looked down at his shoes. Jack Bristow and Irina Derevko officially freaked him out.
Marshall shuffled off to go listen to techno in his new CIA office as Irina started to put the earrings in.
"He seems..." Irina was at a loss for words.
"I know. But he's brilliant, really, and he's saved both mine and Sydney's lives more times than I can count." Jack shrugged.
Irina grinned.
"I'll take your word for it." She still struggled with the earring.
Irina let out a very dramatic sigh. Jack rolled his eyes.
"Let me do it." He said begrudgingly.
She smiled at her victory as he leaned over her, putting in the earrings. Irina enjoyed the feeling of Jack being this close to her while it lasted. Their proximity right now was both familiar and awkward as Jack pulled back slightly.
"Done." He said, stepping away from her almost immediately.
"Thank you."
"Everything you see, say, and hear will be broadcasted directly to my desk. Your helicopter leaves in two hours." Jack pulled something out of his jacket pocket, a bracelet.
"What's this?" Irina looked at him curiously.
"You remember the C4 necklace?"
Irina nodded.
"Well, apparently, explosive jewelry is now available in a wide-range of styles," Jack said as Irina tried not to laugh at his completely serious expression, "This is the bracelet that basically has the same capabilities, it's just much less conspicuous. Try to take it off at any time or engage in any activity I find suspicious-"
"I know the drill, Jack." Irina said, taking the bracelet and putting it on, hearing a slight hum as she snapped the clasp. As soon as it was on, it didn't make a sound.
"Any questions?" Jack leaned against the desk behind him, crossing his arms.
"What exactly is the CIA going to do with the intel I provide from this? Am I supposed to destroy Sloane and Sark's alliance from within, or just clear a path for agents to infiltrate?"
"We need to see the mission goes before that can be determined. This attachment to the bracelet serves as a communication device. When we need to speak to you, the bracelet will send out heat pulses. Get where you can be alone, and push the attachment, we'll speak with you through that."
Irina snapped the small silver attachment onto the bracelet.
"Anything else?" Jack looked very eager to leave.
"No." Irina said, looking away.
"Well, then, have a nice flight." He walked briskly away.
She sadly watched him leave.
~*~
"Mr. Sloane, there's someone on the premises." Sark looked curiously at the surveillance screens as Sloane entered the room.
"Well who the hell is it?" Sloane asked, leaning over Sark to look at the screen.
"Hold on…I'll get an ID." Sark froze the screen as the woman looked up.
She was wearing large dark sunglasses, but even so, she looked very familiar to him. He couldn't quite figure out why.
The database was scanning all the names of people Sark and Sloane had given clearance to be on the premises. The screen came up NO MATCH.
"Go take care of whoever it is, Sark. We can't have random intruders."
"Yes, sir." Sark took a rifle off the wall, leaving the room.
Sloane sat down to watch the confrontation and make sure everything went smoothly.
~*~
Irina felt her heart beating hard against her chest. She had scanned the building for snipers, but had seen none. She figured that if she just walked right in, they would see this as a courageous move and possibly accept her more quickly.
"Hands on your head!" She heard a familiar British accent shout.
Irina complied, suddenly feeling the barrel of a gun against the back of her head. Where the hell had he come from? Sark had certainly gotten better at stealth, she thought with a smile, remembering some of his earliest disastrous missions.
"Identify yourself or I'll shoot." Sark said, frisking her quickly for weapons.
"Sark…it's me." Irina said softly.
She heard the gun drop to the ground, so she turned around to face him, taking off her sunglasses.
Sark was speechless for a moment, his blue eyes wide with shock.
"Irina?" He rasped, his usually confident voice shaking slightly.
She nodded, smiling.
"What…what are you doing here?" He asked incredulously.
"I'm back, baby." She grinned.
Sark laughed, shaking his head.
"Where the hell have you been? Do you have any idea how worried I was when you just disappeared for months?"
"I went into hiding for awhile. The CIA was practically breathing down my neck, I decided it was the best course of action to make myself disappear."
"Why didn't you tell me? I could have helped." Sark still looked confused and a little hurt.
"I should have told you, Sark. I didn't have time to enlist any help. I'm sorry. But I'm back now. I've been hearing rumors about you and Sloane's new arrangement. I couldn't resist coming to see for myself if they were true."
"So here you are." Sark shook his head, smiling in amazement.
"Here I am." Irina smiled, putting her hand on his shoulder affectionately.
"Sloane's not going to believe this." Sark sounded excited as they turned to walk back inside together.
~*~
"So how did everything go this morning?" Sydney asked her father, picking at her chicken caesar salad.
She and Jack had finally decided to go out to dinner together at Sydney's favorite restaurant.
"Everything went fine." Jack said, obviously distracted by something.
Sydney sat in silence for a moment.
"You seem worried about something."
He looked vaguely annoyed.
"I'm fine." Jack sounded as if he really didn't want her to pursue it any longer, and Sydney didn't really feel like starting a fight, so she tried to think of a way to change the subject.
She thought of the reason she had asked him to go to dinner with her, and cringed. Vaughn. She had to tell him sooner or later, and she certainly didn't want him to find out from any other source. She and Vaughn were getting serious very fast and it seemed strange to keep something like this from her father, even though that's what she had been forced to do most of her life. She was tired of not telling him things.
"Dad, I need to tell you something." She started hesitantly.
Jack looked up at her curiously, waiting for her to continue.
Sydney took a long drink from her wine glass, preparing herself. This was ridiculous. She was an adult. It's not like he was going to take her car away for the weekend or something. She was almost thirty; this shouldn't scare her.
"Agent Vaughn…Michael and I…we-we're dating." She said this all in one long fumbling breath.
"What?" Jack sounded angry.
"We started dating…right after the take-down of SD-6."
Jack was silent for a long moment, staring at his spaghetti plate.
"Dad, don't be mad at me."
"I'm not mad at you."
"Yes, you are!"
"It's just that…I think you're behaving a little rashly is all."
"How so? We waited two years before we even thought about it! And SD-6 is gone, so there's no protocol against it now!"
"Both of your jobs are in jeopardy if the CIA finds out." Jack pointed out.
"Oh, please, I think I'm smart enough to know to keep it under the radar, Dad. I just wanted to tell you because I thought, or I guess hoped, that maybe you could find it somewhere in your heart to be happy that your daughter has finally found someone she loves! Most fathers want that for their children! But you're not like most fathers are you? You can't even pretend!"
"Sydney, Sloane could very well still be out there. In fact, the odds are greatly in favor of it. For all we know, he could have someone watching us, the two agents who betrayed him for years. He's already threatened your life when he called you on graduation. If you make one move against him, and he finds out you're seeing someone, especially someone you claim to "love", what do you think his first move in retaliation would be?"
Sydney looked at her father for a long moment, her eyes flashing with anger.
"I should have known you'd see it this way. Relationships are nothing to you except a weakness. You can't see that anyone could ever open their heart to someone and not expect deceit in return. Just because you've decided to live your life refusing to ever let yourself feel anything for anyone doesn't mean I have to live the same way! I want to be happy, Dad! I'm thrilled that I'm in love with someone, and if that puts us in danger, well, what the hell doesn't? Sometimes, love is worth the risk. I don't care what you think about Vaughn and me. But someday, for your sake, I hope you can figure that out." Sydney slammed her fork down, grabbed her coat, and left.
~*~
"Look who I found." Sark announced, entering the room where Sloane was talking on the phone to Emily.
Sloane put up his hand asking Sark to wait a minute, still not turning around.
"All right, I miss you too, sweetheart." He said, going to hang up the phone.
"Tell Emily I said hello." Irina said, grinning.
Sloane almost dropped the phone, spinning around in his chair.
"I'll call you later." He said quickly, slamming the phone into the receiver.
"Irina?" He gasped.
"In the flesh." She smiled, leaning against a table.
"How-whe-you…" He stammered, unable to pick question.
"Rumors of you and Sark's alliance have been everywhere. I heard of it from one of my former contacts, and decided to see for myself. No one else really thinks the two of you would have the audacity to pull it off. I thought otherwise." She smiled at her former friend.
Sloane shook his head, completely shocked.
"It's been a long time," he said, standing up, "I must say, you've turned out quite a bit different from the woman I knew twenty years ago. Not that I don't respect the work you've done…but you were hardly the innocent schoolteacher." Sloane laughed.
"I don't know about that…she taught me everything I know." Sark said, grinning.
"Well, you're hardly innocent." She looked at Sark, raising an eyebrow.
The three new allies stood in comfortable silence for a moment, not knowing that the CIA was getting full video access to this conversation. Irina didn't even realize she was playing with the bracelet on her wrist.
"Is that new?" Sark asked, gesturing towards her bracelet.
"Oh, yes, it is. Bought it for myself to celebrate coming out of hiding." Irina smiled, feeling her heart beat a little faster as she desperately hoped the bracelet didn't look suspicious.
"I see you stopped wearing your wedding ring. I always thought that was one of your more interesting quirks." Sark continued.
Damn, she'd forgotten how observant he was. In truth, her ring was locked up in some CIA vault, taken from her when she had turned herself in.
"I'm sure Irina doesn't want to dwell on the past," thankfully, Sloane interrupted, "I'm assuming you're here to help us in our operation?"
"That's right. Put me to work. These past few years have been mind-numbingly dull." Irina smiled.
"Well, we have plenty to keep you busy." Sloane said, relieved they had such a powerful new ally who was already familiar with Rambaldi's work.
~*~
A/N- That's it for now! Please leave me reviews!
Trust Me
Chapter Five
Jack walked up moments later, accompanied by a very short man with a nervous, wide-eyed expression.
Sydney smiled slightly at her mother, walking away.
"Good morning, Irina. This is Marshall, he'll be your Op-Tech for this mission." Jack said in a somewhat clipped tone.
"Nice to meet you." Irina shook his somewhat clammy hand.
"It's a pleasure, Miss Derevko, or Irina, or whatever you want me to call you, I don't really know because we've never met, and frankly I'm a little scared of you and I really don't want to make you mad by calling you the wrong thing and-"
"Irina's fine." She cut him off.
"Right. Well, here's my first little invention," Marshall pulled out a box which held two small diamond earrings, "Which I'm actually really proud of because it's the first time I've gotten audio/visual to work this well in jewelry and it's actually kind of a technological breakthrough if you think about it because these babies can broadcast in color and we're talking about earrings which are like you know this big, but it's practically like watching digital television from where we'll be seeing the broadcast and Jack told me that you always wore the same pair of diamond earrings so Mr. Sloane and Sark won't think it's weird that you're wearing them, and even if they did check it for bugs, they're undetectable by most devices, so you know, you're good to go." Marshall smiled proudly at Jack and Irina, and was met with two identically furrowed brows.
"Wow, tough crowd." He joked.
"Anything else, Marshall?" Jack asked.
"Um…I guess that's all." He looked down at his shoes. Jack Bristow and Irina Derevko officially freaked him out.
Marshall shuffled off to go listen to techno in his new CIA office as Irina started to put the earrings in.
"He seems..." Irina was at a loss for words.
"I know. But he's brilliant, really, and he's saved both mine and Sydney's lives more times than I can count." Jack shrugged.
Irina grinned.
"I'll take your word for it." She still struggled with the earring.
Irina let out a very dramatic sigh. Jack rolled his eyes.
"Let me do it." He said begrudgingly.
She smiled at her victory as he leaned over her, putting in the earrings. Irina enjoyed the feeling of Jack being this close to her while it lasted. Their proximity right now was both familiar and awkward as Jack pulled back slightly.
"Done." He said, stepping away from her almost immediately.
"Thank you."
"Everything you see, say, and hear will be broadcasted directly to my desk. Your helicopter leaves in two hours." Jack pulled something out of his jacket pocket, a bracelet.
"What's this?" Irina looked at him curiously.
"You remember the C4 necklace?"
Irina nodded.
"Well, apparently, explosive jewelry is now available in a wide-range of styles," Jack said as Irina tried not to laugh at his completely serious expression, "This is the bracelet that basically has the same capabilities, it's just much less conspicuous. Try to take it off at any time or engage in any activity I find suspicious-"
"I know the drill, Jack." Irina said, taking the bracelet and putting it on, hearing a slight hum as she snapped the clasp. As soon as it was on, it didn't make a sound.
"Any questions?" Jack leaned against the desk behind him, crossing his arms.
"What exactly is the CIA going to do with the intel I provide from this? Am I supposed to destroy Sloane and Sark's alliance from within, or just clear a path for agents to infiltrate?"
"We need to see the mission goes before that can be determined. This attachment to the bracelet serves as a communication device. When we need to speak to you, the bracelet will send out heat pulses. Get where you can be alone, and push the attachment, we'll speak with you through that."
Irina snapped the small silver attachment onto the bracelet.
"Anything else?" Jack looked very eager to leave.
"No." Irina said, looking away.
"Well, then, have a nice flight." He walked briskly away.
She sadly watched him leave.
~*~
"Mr. Sloane, there's someone on the premises." Sark looked curiously at the surveillance screens as Sloane entered the room.
"Well who the hell is it?" Sloane asked, leaning over Sark to look at the screen.
"Hold on…I'll get an ID." Sark froze the screen as the woman looked up.
She was wearing large dark sunglasses, but even so, she looked very familiar to him. He couldn't quite figure out why.
The database was scanning all the names of people Sark and Sloane had given clearance to be on the premises. The screen came up NO MATCH.
"Go take care of whoever it is, Sark. We can't have random intruders."
"Yes, sir." Sark took a rifle off the wall, leaving the room.
Sloane sat down to watch the confrontation and make sure everything went smoothly.
~*~
Irina felt her heart beating hard against her chest. She had scanned the building for snipers, but had seen none. She figured that if she just walked right in, they would see this as a courageous move and possibly accept her more quickly.
"Hands on your head!" She heard a familiar British accent shout.
Irina complied, suddenly feeling the barrel of a gun against the back of her head. Where the hell had he come from? Sark had certainly gotten better at stealth, she thought with a smile, remembering some of his earliest disastrous missions.
"Identify yourself or I'll shoot." Sark said, frisking her quickly for weapons.
"Sark…it's me." Irina said softly.
She heard the gun drop to the ground, so she turned around to face him, taking off her sunglasses.
Sark was speechless for a moment, his blue eyes wide with shock.
"Irina?" He rasped, his usually confident voice shaking slightly.
She nodded, smiling.
"What…what are you doing here?" He asked incredulously.
"I'm back, baby." She grinned.
Sark laughed, shaking his head.
"Where the hell have you been? Do you have any idea how worried I was when you just disappeared for months?"
"I went into hiding for awhile. The CIA was practically breathing down my neck, I decided it was the best course of action to make myself disappear."
"Why didn't you tell me? I could have helped." Sark still looked confused and a little hurt.
"I should have told you, Sark. I didn't have time to enlist any help. I'm sorry. But I'm back now. I've been hearing rumors about you and Sloane's new arrangement. I couldn't resist coming to see for myself if they were true."
"So here you are." Sark shook his head, smiling in amazement.
"Here I am." Irina smiled, putting her hand on his shoulder affectionately.
"Sloane's not going to believe this." Sark sounded excited as they turned to walk back inside together.
~*~
"So how did everything go this morning?" Sydney asked her father, picking at her chicken caesar salad.
She and Jack had finally decided to go out to dinner together at Sydney's favorite restaurant.
"Everything went fine." Jack said, obviously distracted by something.
Sydney sat in silence for a moment.
"You seem worried about something."
He looked vaguely annoyed.
"I'm fine." Jack sounded as if he really didn't want her to pursue it any longer, and Sydney didn't really feel like starting a fight, so she tried to think of a way to change the subject.
She thought of the reason she had asked him to go to dinner with her, and cringed. Vaughn. She had to tell him sooner or later, and she certainly didn't want him to find out from any other source. She and Vaughn were getting serious very fast and it seemed strange to keep something like this from her father, even though that's what she had been forced to do most of her life. She was tired of not telling him things.
"Dad, I need to tell you something." She started hesitantly.
Jack looked up at her curiously, waiting for her to continue.
Sydney took a long drink from her wine glass, preparing herself. This was ridiculous. She was an adult. It's not like he was going to take her car away for the weekend or something. She was almost thirty; this shouldn't scare her.
"Agent Vaughn…Michael and I…we-we're dating." She said this all in one long fumbling breath.
"What?" Jack sounded angry.
"We started dating…right after the take-down of SD-6."
Jack was silent for a long moment, staring at his spaghetti plate.
"Dad, don't be mad at me."
"I'm not mad at you."
"Yes, you are!"
"It's just that…I think you're behaving a little rashly is all."
"How so? We waited two years before we even thought about it! And SD-6 is gone, so there's no protocol against it now!"
"Both of your jobs are in jeopardy if the CIA finds out." Jack pointed out.
"Oh, please, I think I'm smart enough to know to keep it under the radar, Dad. I just wanted to tell you because I thought, or I guess hoped, that maybe you could find it somewhere in your heart to be happy that your daughter has finally found someone she loves! Most fathers want that for their children! But you're not like most fathers are you? You can't even pretend!"
"Sydney, Sloane could very well still be out there. In fact, the odds are greatly in favor of it. For all we know, he could have someone watching us, the two agents who betrayed him for years. He's already threatened your life when he called you on graduation. If you make one move against him, and he finds out you're seeing someone, especially someone you claim to "love", what do you think his first move in retaliation would be?"
Sydney looked at her father for a long moment, her eyes flashing with anger.
"I should have known you'd see it this way. Relationships are nothing to you except a weakness. You can't see that anyone could ever open their heart to someone and not expect deceit in return. Just because you've decided to live your life refusing to ever let yourself feel anything for anyone doesn't mean I have to live the same way! I want to be happy, Dad! I'm thrilled that I'm in love with someone, and if that puts us in danger, well, what the hell doesn't? Sometimes, love is worth the risk. I don't care what you think about Vaughn and me. But someday, for your sake, I hope you can figure that out." Sydney slammed her fork down, grabbed her coat, and left.
~*~
"Look who I found." Sark announced, entering the room where Sloane was talking on the phone to Emily.
Sloane put up his hand asking Sark to wait a minute, still not turning around.
"All right, I miss you too, sweetheart." He said, going to hang up the phone.
"Tell Emily I said hello." Irina said, grinning.
Sloane almost dropped the phone, spinning around in his chair.
"I'll call you later." He said quickly, slamming the phone into the receiver.
"Irina?" He gasped.
"In the flesh." She smiled, leaning against a table.
"How-whe-you…" He stammered, unable to pick question.
"Rumors of you and Sark's alliance have been everywhere. I heard of it from one of my former contacts, and decided to see for myself. No one else really thinks the two of you would have the audacity to pull it off. I thought otherwise." She smiled at her former friend.
Sloane shook his head, completely shocked.
"It's been a long time," he said, standing up, "I must say, you've turned out quite a bit different from the woman I knew twenty years ago. Not that I don't respect the work you've done…but you were hardly the innocent schoolteacher." Sloane laughed.
"I don't know about that…she taught me everything I know." Sark said, grinning.
"Well, you're hardly innocent." She looked at Sark, raising an eyebrow.
The three new allies stood in comfortable silence for a moment, not knowing that the CIA was getting full video access to this conversation. Irina didn't even realize she was playing with the bracelet on her wrist.
"Is that new?" Sark asked, gesturing towards her bracelet.
"Oh, yes, it is. Bought it for myself to celebrate coming out of hiding." Irina smiled, feeling her heart beat a little faster as she desperately hoped the bracelet didn't look suspicious.
"I see you stopped wearing your wedding ring. I always thought that was one of your more interesting quirks." Sark continued.
Damn, she'd forgotten how observant he was. In truth, her ring was locked up in some CIA vault, taken from her when she had turned herself in.
"I'm sure Irina doesn't want to dwell on the past," thankfully, Sloane interrupted, "I'm assuming you're here to help us in our operation?"
"That's right. Put me to work. These past few years have been mind-numbingly dull." Irina smiled.
"Well, we have plenty to keep you busy." Sloane said, relieved they had such a powerful new ally who was already familiar with Rambaldi's work.
~*~
A/N- That's it for now! Please leave me reviews!