A/N Thanks for all the reviews and I know nothing much happened in
the last chapter but this will make up for! This Jack's reaction and
actions to Vaughn text message. There's some Irinia/Jack stuff thrown in a
little bit! I'm so sorry this has taken SOOOO long but I haven't be able
to access my fanfiction account. ENJOY and PLEASE REVIEW!!
Jack rolled his eyes at the new rookie standing before him, scared out of his mind. The rookie was a new recruit and barely in the agency for six months. The veteran leaned into his chair and sighed. The aged chair squeaked under his weight being thrown to the bolts of the chair. The Joint Task Force was the most boring place to be early in the morning and he wasn't one to get bored easily. His chest filled with a deep inhale, positively showing his distain for new recruits. This one was babbling about sitting in on a meeting or some handler or another agent- in all honesty, he had stopped listening to moment he walked towards him. Finally, there was something to distract him. There was a text message on his phone and it was vibrating. He would answer it just yet.no, he would let it distract him for another moment or too.
"But Mr. Bristow-" the rookie exclaimed. He was simply silenced by Jack's raised hand as he dug into his pocket for his cell phone. It had started to vibrate against his thigh and it was annoying him. "Mr. Bristow, please!"
"Stop." Was the gruff answer as he saw the simple text message on his screen:
Jack- Sloane found out about Syd. We're in the attic. Assassins are downstairs. -Vaughn
Jack inhaled sharply, "Leave." He glanced up with his steely gray eyes with that revealed his rough nature. The agent didn't have to be told twice. He got up to his feet from the chair he was nervously sitting in and ran out of the little conference room. Jack waited a moment but then followed, with his normal exterior of being cold and unable to speak to. Director Kendall had started to do his traditional pace about the office. He looked irate, per normal. His black suit blended in perfectly with all the other black circulating about the building. Things could never go right his eyes and the world was coming to an end everyday but he would save it by screaming at someone at some point during the day. But. But, he and Jack had this wonderful type of respect and it was an understood contract.
His eyes met Jack's and immediately rolled his eyes in response, "What Jack?"
Jack held his phone out towards Kendal, who quickly scanned the message. It was uncharacteristic of Jack not to be able to express his emotions but it was a case concerning his daughter. This was a foreign feeling to the cold veteran but sometimes, actions speak louder than words.
"Sydney's been discovered." He finally was able to speak.
Kendal's speech went rapidly from there. Jack's eyes still focused on the phone and what might have happened. He shook his head softly and tuned into the conversation. Agents from all over were coming towards he and Kendal like moths to a flame. Emotions already started to run high as soon as Kendal mentioned Agent Bristow and it wasn't Jack. Sydney was loved around the Joint Task Force. There was a certain pity involved with any one who had contact with Irinia Derevko.
"Is Vaughn with her?" Kendal barked towards to Jack.
"That's who the message was from."
"Okay, we're going to need two complete field make-overs. I want them to be able to travel out of the country together. You two," he turned towards two young agents, "I want you to go and gather commercial plane tickets, passports, credit cards, and whatever else they need." The agents nodded and ran off. "We need full psych standing by, you," another agent was pointed to, "go get Barnet and whoever else is here today." His voice was strong and continued on until there were only a handful of agents standing around.
Finally, after Kendal was barking order for a full five minutes, Jack broke his thought train and announced, "I am going to go and speak to Derveko." A thousand pairs of eyes shot towards him but he managed to ignore the blank stares and walk away from the group. The area fell silent as Kendal opened his mouth to speak but promptly decided against it. Jack walked over to a nearby desk, brusquely demanded three items that were promptly concealed within the jacket of his navy blue suit.
His foot pattern quickly brought him towards the familiar area, where he flashed his id badge and walked through the three gates. It was so cold over here and she deserved whatever she had coming to her. *She should be dead.* He tried desperately to convince himself that she was not worthy of breathing but then, he had never completely given up on Laura, er, Irinia. No matter what, she had to been seen as Irinia not Laura. Laura died over twenty years ago. His eyes fell onto his, well she could be called his wife. Her eyes were set on the glass, looking up into oblivion.
"Jack." Her voice acknowledged his presence with a tone of remorse. "What brings you here?" She rose to her feet in all the elegance of a ballet dancer. Before she had joined the KGB, she had trained everyday to become part of the Russian Ballet, a dream her wonderful mother had instilled on her since birth. All dreams were dashed after her father was killed and she had received an offer to join a regiment of money, power and above all, respect. She had Sydney's eyes that could probably eat Jack alive but this time, she just starred at him with her typical cat-like watch.
"Sydney's been discovered." His voice was low. The measure of anxiety was finally beginning to register in his voice. His little girl's life was in danger and there was almost nothing he could do about it. Grant it, he and Sydney weren't exactly close but they had gotten so much closer that she could stand to be in the same room with him. He never realized how wonderful and smart his own flesh and blood was. Sydney was the most important thing in his life.
"Arvin?" She hadn't been expecting this. Sydney was too smart to be caught by the likes of Sloane.
"I think so." This wasn't supposed to be happening to either of them. Sydney was as much a part of his life as she was in hers.
She walked towards the glass and moistened her lips. "What is to become of her?"
"She's going to Madrid with Mr. Vaughn and they're going to stay there until it's safe."
"Oh," She sounded pleased and surprised, "Mr. Vaughn's with her?" Her rose lips almost curled up into a smile.
"Yes." He suddenly avoided her eyes. "He was at risk too." His gray eyes met hers again and she quickly looked him over.
"There's something else." She knew him well. After all, she had studied him from afar, dated him, married him and had his child.and somewhere along the way, she had fallen in love with him. Yes, she was in love. And it was because of that love that she memorized every part of him, mental and physical. "What is it?"
"Yes. I think it would be wise for you to tell Mr. Vaughn the truth about his father's death." He didn't exactly know what had happened but from what he knew, it was nothing like it seemed. Nothing was ever like it seemed.
"Jack, would you get my a tape recorder and legal pad? I need to tell Sydney and write to Mr. Vaughn."
"I already have it." He dug into his pocket and pushed a tape recorder, yellow pad of paper, and two ink pens into a mail like slot at the bottom of the wall in front of him. "They need to know the truth." He knew exactly what she would want. He was in love with her. It was her that deceived him, not the other way around and somewhere along the line, since she had been back in his life, he had remembered why he loved her. Not wanting to think about past love anymore, Jack turned, without looking at her, and started to walk away.
"Jack!" She almost desperately called after him. The tears in her eyes were suddenly swelling and she just needed to hear something reassuring from him. It was an adolescent desire for her but sometimes, even the most eloquent and strong of women need reassuring.
His breath stopped for a moment and he turned around, painfully slow. The look he gave he asked the question that raced in his mind; what?
Words were coming more slowly for her all of a sudden. It was almost like everything had escaped her mind and replaced by tears, threatening any moment to escape the brims of her eyes and damage her skin. "She'll be fine. She has my strong will and stubbornness. She'll be fine?" The last question was barely a comment or a question but Jack nodded, almost smiling a sad little smile remember his daughter's fierce determination, a trait from both parents.
"She has to be." His eyes met hers as he nodded and turned, "I'll leave you with your thoughts. I'll be back in a half of an hour." And as softly as he had come, he left.
Irinia watched the glass until the last trace of him disappeared. Her hand quickly groped for the pad, pen and tape record, refusing to let her eyes wander down. She turned back to her cell and sat, her back facing the glass and brought the tape record up near her mouth. Her eyes were still perched looking up a bit. And she started to speak aloud, "Sydney..I need you to be alone when you're listening to this and you need to leave Vaughn alone when he is reading my letter. This is going to be hard for me to say. I've never admitted half of these things aloud and there going to very difficult for you to here. Please keep that in mind. There are so many things that I need to tell you and I don't know where to start." No, she knew where to start. She hit stop, erase, and then rewind, "I need to start at the beginning. You were the most beautiful child a mother could ever hope to have. You were the perfect baby.never cried or fussed. But you had my strong-will and your father's stuborness and we both know how stubborn your father can be."
Again, wrong wording! Erase and rewind.
"But you had my strong-will and father's stubbornness. And we both know what a combination that is. But I need to tell you something that you need to do." That she should do. Erase and Rewind. "That you should do. I know how you feel about Mr. Vaughn and before I go any further I think you should go ahead and make your move."
Erase and rewind.
"Go any further, you need to confess what is bottled up so tightly.something that I find so interesting."
Erase and rewind. "He feels the same way. And I know that you are strong enough to move first. Checkmate."
Erase and rewind.
"If you have a fear of him not feeling the same way, Sydney, he feels the same way. He has confessed this, indirectly, and you are meant to be with each other. There are certain things that are destined and you are one of them."
Erase and rewind.
"And this is one of them. I must keep this short. I want to tell you to circumstances that led to your Mr. Vaughn's father's death. As you may or may not know, his name was William Christopher Vaughn, the same middle name of your handler. We were on separate mission in Pakistan and somehow or another, we ended up in the same general vicinity. At this point, you were barely two and I had received word to go and collect a document from a building in Pakistan. Apparently, I was the only one they trusted with this. I left on my vacation, leaving you in your father's care as I went off. The mission went off without any mistakes. I entered the library of the building I was in and encountered William. He was looking for a different document and had no knowledge I was going to be there. We barely had time to do anything but look at each other because guards came into both doors, one on each end of the narrow hallway and before I could turn, I was shot with a tranq dart in my hip. They had seen me enter. William suffered a similar fate. We were bound, gagged and transported to that prison. We were put in the same cell and assumed that we were partners. From that moment on for about three weeks, we spent every moment with each other. We ate whatever food they gave us together, slept across from one another and were tortured together. We became so close. I talked about you constantly and he spoke of his little boy, who was around eight. He spoke of love almost daily, love for his wife Nanette, his son who always remained nameless and his country. He had the most love for the CIA. Almost more than you or your handler or your father. But William was gorgeous in ways only you would understand. He and his father are identical. And somewhere along the line, I fell for him."
Erase and rewind.
"I fell in love with him."
Erase and rewind.
"I developed feelings for him. I'll never know if he felt the same way but the guards picked up on my attraction to him. We tried to escape so many times, through the sewers, the mine field, everything you could possibly think of but we were always captured and horrifically tortured. One day, February 23, we were taken out of our cell and back into the torture room. They tortured us for hours until I was slipping in and out of consciousness from lose of blood. I was much worse off than he was. They didn't mind him as much as they hated a female spy. See Sydney, it has always been tough for women today."
Erase and rewind.
"It has always been tough to be a female spy. After the torture was finished, William was brought closer to me, I was strapped to a bed. His green eyes were so friendly and understanding. He was beautiful. We were given a choice. They would kill us both, using the slow methods they were using or if one of us was the kill the other, they would let the other go and receive full medical attention." The tears started to rush to her eyes as she spoke but she forced them back down, "I barely opened my mouth when William told the guards that he would be the one who died. I cried and screamed refuting him but he was solid and said that I had a baby girl to worry about. I remember screaming about his little boy and he said, I'll never forget it, he said that his son was destined to take on his work. He was going to be a CIA because of his death. I cried so. I was about to kill my love."
Erase and rewind.
"I was about to kill my best friend."
Erase and rewind.
"My confidant would die by my hand. I was un strapped, still bleeding horribly. I was handed a gun and William stood across from me. There were three guards on me, one with a gun to my head, one to my back, one to my abdomen and on William, there was a guard holding a gun to his back. There, they told me to pull the trigger. William told me something I was supposed to tell his son and my daughter. I practically tattooed it to my body, 'Never say you killed me. Never regret this decision. I die for my country and I die for my son and your daughter.' I honestly don't know whether this makes the situation that much better or worse. But, I-I pulled the trigger and everything went black. I woke in a hospital, in the states. I never knew if he had died or if I, by some miracle missed. It wasn't until years later that I found out I had and that they had mutilated his body. It was the worst moment of my life. Almost as bad as faking my death or leaving you. Sydney, I cared for him.
Erase and rewind.
"Sydney, I was in love with him. Please, forgive. Please. I love you. I love you." Tears overcame her and she started to sob as she hit STOP. There was no way to erase and rewind her life. If she could take one thing back, she would have maybe pushed harder to have William kill her or figured out an escape plan that wouldn't result in her re-capture. The tears fell as she picked up the legal pad and started to write the letter to Vaughn, sobbing inconsolably as she wrote his last name.
A/N Next chapter coming soon!!!!! Please R&R!
Jack rolled his eyes at the new rookie standing before him, scared out of his mind. The rookie was a new recruit and barely in the agency for six months. The veteran leaned into his chair and sighed. The aged chair squeaked under his weight being thrown to the bolts of the chair. The Joint Task Force was the most boring place to be early in the morning and he wasn't one to get bored easily. His chest filled with a deep inhale, positively showing his distain for new recruits. This one was babbling about sitting in on a meeting or some handler or another agent- in all honesty, he had stopped listening to moment he walked towards him. Finally, there was something to distract him. There was a text message on his phone and it was vibrating. He would answer it just yet.no, he would let it distract him for another moment or too.
"But Mr. Bristow-" the rookie exclaimed. He was simply silenced by Jack's raised hand as he dug into his pocket for his cell phone. It had started to vibrate against his thigh and it was annoying him. "Mr. Bristow, please!"
"Stop." Was the gruff answer as he saw the simple text message on his screen:
Jack- Sloane found out about Syd. We're in the attic. Assassins are downstairs. -Vaughn
Jack inhaled sharply, "Leave." He glanced up with his steely gray eyes with that revealed his rough nature. The agent didn't have to be told twice. He got up to his feet from the chair he was nervously sitting in and ran out of the little conference room. Jack waited a moment but then followed, with his normal exterior of being cold and unable to speak to. Director Kendall had started to do his traditional pace about the office. He looked irate, per normal. His black suit blended in perfectly with all the other black circulating about the building. Things could never go right his eyes and the world was coming to an end everyday but he would save it by screaming at someone at some point during the day. But. But, he and Jack had this wonderful type of respect and it was an understood contract.
His eyes met Jack's and immediately rolled his eyes in response, "What Jack?"
Jack held his phone out towards Kendal, who quickly scanned the message. It was uncharacteristic of Jack not to be able to express his emotions but it was a case concerning his daughter. This was a foreign feeling to the cold veteran but sometimes, actions speak louder than words.
"Sydney's been discovered." He finally was able to speak.
Kendal's speech went rapidly from there. Jack's eyes still focused on the phone and what might have happened. He shook his head softly and tuned into the conversation. Agents from all over were coming towards he and Kendal like moths to a flame. Emotions already started to run high as soon as Kendal mentioned Agent Bristow and it wasn't Jack. Sydney was loved around the Joint Task Force. There was a certain pity involved with any one who had contact with Irinia Derevko.
"Is Vaughn with her?" Kendal barked towards to Jack.
"That's who the message was from."
"Okay, we're going to need two complete field make-overs. I want them to be able to travel out of the country together. You two," he turned towards two young agents, "I want you to go and gather commercial plane tickets, passports, credit cards, and whatever else they need." The agents nodded and ran off. "We need full psych standing by, you," another agent was pointed to, "go get Barnet and whoever else is here today." His voice was strong and continued on until there were only a handful of agents standing around.
Finally, after Kendal was barking order for a full five minutes, Jack broke his thought train and announced, "I am going to go and speak to Derveko." A thousand pairs of eyes shot towards him but he managed to ignore the blank stares and walk away from the group. The area fell silent as Kendal opened his mouth to speak but promptly decided against it. Jack walked over to a nearby desk, brusquely demanded three items that were promptly concealed within the jacket of his navy blue suit.
His foot pattern quickly brought him towards the familiar area, where he flashed his id badge and walked through the three gates. It was so cold over here and she deserved whatever she had coming to her. *She should be dead.* He tried desperately to convince himself that she was not worthy of breathing but then, he had never completely given up on Laura, er, Irinia. No matter what, she had to been seen as Irinia not Laura. Laura died over twenty years ago. His eyes fell onto his, well she could be called his wife. Her eyes were set on the glass, looking up into oblivion.
"Jack." Her voice acknowledged his presence with a tone of remorse. "What brings you here?" She rose to her feet in all the elegance of a ballet dancer. Before she had joined the KGB, she had trained everyday to become part of the Russian Ballet, a dream her wonderful mother had instilled on her since birth. All dreams were dashed after her father was killed and she had received an offer to join a regiment of money, power and above all, respect. She had Sydney's eyes that could probably eat Jack alive but this time, she just starred at him with her typical cat-like watch.
"Sydney's been discovered." His voice was low. The measure of anxiety was finally beginning to register in his voice. His little girl's life was in danger and there was almost nothing he could do about it. Grant it, he and Sydney weren't exactly close but they had gotten so much closer that she could stand to be in the same room with him. He never realized how wonderful and smart his own flesh and blood was. Sydney was the most important thing in his life.
"Arvin?" She hadn't been expecting this. Sydney was too smart to be caught by the likes of Sloane.
"I think so." This wasn't supposed to be happening to either of them. Sydney was as much a part of his life as she was in hers.
She walked towards the glass and moistened her lips. "What is to become of her?"
"She's going to Madrid with Mr. Vaughn and they're going to stay there until it's safe."
"Oh," She sounded pleased and surprised, "Mr. Vaughn's with her?" Her rose lips almost curled up into a smile.
"Yes." He suddenly avoided her eyes. "He was at risk too." His gray eyes met hers again and she quickly looked him over.
"There's something else." She knew him well. After all, she had studied him from afar, dated him, married him and had his child.and somewhere along the way, she had fallen in love with him. Yes, she was in love. And it was because of that love that she memorized every part of him, mental and physical. "What is it?"
"Yes. I think it would be wise for you to tell Mr. Vaughn the truth about his father's death." He didn't exactly know what had happened but from what he knew, it was nothing like it seemed. Nothing was ever like it seemed.
"Jack, would you get my a tape recorder and legal pad? I need to tell Sydney and write to Mr. Vaughn."
"I already have it." He dug into his pocket and pushed a tape recorder, yellow pad of paper, and two ink pens into a mail like slot at the bottom of the wall in front of him. "They need to know the truth." He knew exactly what she would want. He was in love with her. It was her that deceived him, not the other way around and somewhere along the line, since she had been back in his life, he had remembered why he loved her. Not wanting to think about past love anymore, Jack turned, without looking at her, and started to walk away.
"Jack!" She almost desperately called after him. The tears in her eyes were suddenly swelling and she just needed to hear something reassuring from him. It was an adolescent desire for her but sometimes, even the most eloquent and strong of women need reassuring.
His breath stopped for a moment and he turned around, painfully slow. The look he gave he asked the question that raced in his mind; what?
Words were coming more slowly for her all of a sudden. It was almost like everything had escaped her mind and replaced by tears, threatening any moment to escape the brims of her eyes and damage her skin. "She'll be fine. She has my strong will and stubbornness. She'll be fine?" The last question was barely a comment or a question but Jack nodded, almost smiling a sad little smile remember his daughter's fierce determination, a trait from both parents.
"She has to be." His eyes met hers as he nodded and turned, "I'll leave you with your thoughts. I'll be back in a half of an hour." And as softly as he had come, he left.
Irinia watched the glass until the last trace of him disappeared. Her hand quickly groped for the pad, pen and tape record, refusing to let her eyes wander down. She turned back to her cell and sat, her back facing the glass and brought the tape record up near her mouth. Her eyes were still perched looking up a bit. And she started to speak aloud, "Sydney..I need you to be alone when you're listening to this and you need to leave Vaughn alone when he is reading my letter. This is going to be hard for me to say. I've never admitted half of these things aloud and there going to very difficult for you to here. Please keep that in mind. There are so many things that I need to tell you and I don't know where to start." No, she knew where to start. She hit stop, erase, and then rewind, "I need to start at the beginning. You were the most beautiful child a mother could ever hope to have. You were the perfect baby.never cried or fussed. But you had my strong-will and your father's stuborness and we both know how stubborn your father can be."
Again, wrong wording! Erase and rewind.
"But you had my strong-will and father's stubbornness. And we both know what a combination that is. But I need to tell you something that you need to do." That she should do. Erase and Rewind. "That you should do. I know how you feel about Mr. Vaughn and before I go any further I think you should go ahead and make your move."
Erase and rewind.
"Go any further, you need to confess what is bottled up so tightly.something that I find so interesting."
Erase and rewind. "He feels the same way. And I know that you are strong enough to move first. Checkmate."
Erase and rewind.
"If you have a fear of him not feeling the same way, Sydney, he feels the same way. He has confessed this, indirectly, and you are meant to be with each other. There are certain things that are destined and you are one of them."
Erase and rewind.
"And this is one of them. I must keep this short. I want to tell you to circumstances that led to your Mr. Vaughn's father's death. As you may or may not know, his name was William Christopher Vaughn, the same middle name of your handler. We were on separate mission in Pakistan and somehow or another, we ended up in the same general vicinity. At this point, you were barely two and I had received word to go and collect a document from a building in Pakistan. Apparently, I was the only one they trusted with this. I left on my vacation, leaving you in your father's care as I went off. The mission went off without any mistakes. I entered the library of the building I was in and encountered William. He was looking for a different document and had no knowledge I was going to be there. We barely had time to do anything but look at each other because guards came into both doors, one on each end of the narrow hallway and before I could turn, I was shot with a tranq dart in my hip. They had seen me enter. William suffered a similar fate. We were bound, gagged and transported to that prison. We were put in the same cell and assumed that we were partners. From that moment on for about three weeks, we spent every moment with each other. We ate whatever food they gave us together, slept across from one another and were tortured together. We became so close. I talked about you constantly and he spoke of his little boy, who was around eight. He spoke of love almost daily, love for his wife Nanette, his son who always remained nameless and his country. He had the most love for the CIA. Almost more than you or your handler or your father. But William was gorgeous in ways only you would understand. He and his father are identical. And somewhere along the line, I fell for him."
Erase and rewind.
"I fell in love with him."
Erase and rewind.
"I developed feelings for him. I'll never know if he felt the same way but the guards picked up on my attraction to him. We tried to escape so many times, through the sewers, the mine field, everything you could possibly think of but we were always captured and horrifically tortured. One day, February 23, we were taken out of our cell and back into the torture room. They tortured us for hours until I was slipping in and out of consciousness from lose of blood. I was much worse off than he was. They didn't mind him as much as they hated a female spy. See Sydney, it has always been tough for women today."
Erase and rewind.
"It has always been tough to be a female spy. After the torture was finished, William was brought closer to me, I was strapped to a bed. His green eyes were so friendly and understanding. He was beautiful. We were given a choice. They would kill us both, using the slow methods they were using or if one of us was the kill the other, they would let the other go and receive full medical attention." The tears started to rush to her eyes as she spoke but she forced them back down, "I barely opened my mouth when William told the guards that he would be the one who died. I cried and screamed refuting him but he was solid and said that I had a baby girl to worry about. I remember screaming about his little boy and he said, I'll never forget it, he said that his son was destined to take on his work. He was going to be a CIA because of his death. I cried so. I was about to kill my love."
Erase and rewind.
"I was about to kill my best friend."
Erase and rewind.
"My confidant would die by my hand. I was un strapped, still bleeding horribly. I was handed a gun and William stood across from me. There were three guards on me, one with a gun to my head, one to my back, one to my abdomen and on William, there was a guard holding a gun to his back. There, they told me to pull the trigger. William told me something I was supposed to tell his son and my daughter. I practically tattooed it to my body, 'Never say you killed me. Never regret this decision. I die for my country and I die for my son and your daughter.' I honestly don't know whether this makes the situation that much better or worse. But, I-I pulled the trigger and everything went black. I woke in a hospital, in the states. I never knew if he had died or if I, by some miracle missed. It wasn't until years later that I found out I had and that they had mutilated his body. It was the worst moment of my life. Almost as bad as faking my death or leaving you. Sydney, I cared for him.
Erase and rewind.
"Sydney, I was in love with him. Please, forgive. Please. I love you. I love you." Tears overcame her and she started to sob as she hit STOP. There was no way to erase and rewind her life. If she could take one thing back, she would have maybe pushed harder to have William kill her or figured out an escape plan that wouldn't result in her re-capture. The tears fell as she picked up the legal pad and started to write the letter to Vaughn, sobbing inconsolably as she wrote his last name.
A/N Next chapter coming soon!!!!! Please R&R!