Going Home?

Disclaimer: I don't, nor will I ever, own Alias or any of these characters, except Amanda, who is mine to do with as I wish.

A/N: Normally this I where I would thank you for all the great reviews, but when I typed this my previous chapter was not even up on the site yet, so I have no reviews.

So, I'll use this to ask if any of you have read the alias novels. I've read the first and third one, but I can't find the second and fourth ones. Tell me if they're even worth looking for! ___________________________________________________________________________________________

Sydney is taken to a holding cell. She is given clean clothes to change into. She is given a blanket and pillow for the hard metal cot.

Kendall tells her it is for her own protection. He expects her to object; she doesn't. She has no other place to go anyway. She lies down on the cot and is soon asleep.

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"Agent Bristow?"

Reluctantly, Sydney opens her eyes and sits up. "Mmm. What time is it?"

"It's after 9:00," the guard replies.

"In the morning?" Sydney asks incredulously.

"Yes. Will Tippin is here to see you."

"Oh! Let him in!" Sydney stands up and runs her fingers through her hair, willing it not to stick up in its usual morning fashion.

"Will!" she cries as he walks in. She runs to hug him.

"Syd!" Will says, amazement in his voice. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

"Will, has it really been two years?" Sydney asks softly, stepping back at the same time so she can see his face.

"Two long years."

They move to sit on the cot.

"How…how are you alive? I thought…when I saw you…"

"Vaughn. He came looking for you and found me. Some substitute," he jokes. "The doctors told me another few minutes and it would have been too late."

"Will, I…I want to know everything. What happened while I was…gone?"

Will puts his arm around Sydney's shoulders. "How much do you already know?" he asks carefully.

"Oh, well, let's see," Sydney says sarcastically, and starts ticking of points on her fingers dramatically. "My dad's missing, Francie's dead, Vaughn's married…" She could continue, but her voice cracks. She presses her fist to her mouth to keep from crying.

Will pulls her against his shoulder. "Oh, Syd. It's okay. You can cry," he says awkwardly. "This must be so much to take in…"

"Yeah." she takes a deep breath then continues. "But I'm okay," she says, pulling away a little so that he'll loosen his arm. Instead, he removes it completely, much to her disappointment.

"So," Will begins after a moment of silence. "Where are you going to stay? After they let you out."

"I don't know," Sydney says miserably. "I haven't had a chance to figure *anything* out."

"Really? Uh, well, you could stay with me," Will says quickly.

Sydney looked up at him. "Yeah?" She smiles.

He blushes. "Yeah. I have a little two-bedroom apartment about twenty minutes from here. It'd be nice to have a little company." Will smiles that awkward grin she remembers so well.

"Okay," Sydney says simply.

They both sit, smiling and happy, for several long moments.

"Will, what *happened* to you?" Sydney smiles and shakes her head at the look of confusion clouding Will's face and at the complete abstractness of the question. "I *mean*, what happened after you were found?"

"I went into a coma. For four months. I was hospitalized for almost a year. The only contact I had with the outside world was through Dixon and Vaughn. They'd only talk about light, neutral subjects, like how the kids were doing in school or what marshal had done lately. Anytime I'd ask about you, and I did ask because I wondered why you weren't coming to see me, they'd change the subject, and if I ever persisted to ask they'd suddenly remember they had something to do. They didn't tell me you were missing until they started believing you were dead, about three months after I came out of the coma," Will told her, his voice dripping with the pain he'd felt at this discovery. "It was almost like I just reappeared after a year when I got out of the hospital, for all I knew about what had happened."

"So that's why you haven't changed as much as everyone else," Sydney mumbles to herself.

"Yeah. It's almost like I lost a year, too," he says softly, understandingly.

"Yeah." Sydney pauses. "I'm sorry, but I'm glad you're still the same."

"Yeah, I'm glad you're the same, too. I guess I expected you to be different, somehow. You were out there, living, doing something. I was in a hospital bed, not doing anything." He pauses, and then looks at her intensely. "It *was* two years."

Sydney moves closer to Will and he puts his arm around her again. "I know," she murmurs. "I know."

"Ahem, Agent Bristow?" the guard is at her door again. "Agent Dixon is here to take you for a physical examination."

Sydney stands up quickly. "I'm coming." She turns to Will. "I'll let you know when they release me."

Will stands up and follows Sydney out.

"Sydney! I can't believe…we all thought you were dead!" Dixon cries, pulling her into a quick hug.

"That seems to be the consensus around here," Sydney says good-naturedly.

"Sorry to rush, but Kendall will probably have me fired if I don't get you to your appointment on time, Syd," Dixon says.

"I'll come see you before I leave tonight," Will tells her. "Hey, if you need anything let me know. Your dad saved most of your stuff, put it in storage. I can get a key if you want," he offers.

"No, thanks Will. I'll see you later," she calls as Dixon leads her away.

"See you."

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"Sydney Bristow?"

Sydney is lost in her own thoughts, but her eyes snap up at the sound of her name.

"Yes?" She stares at the man in the standard green uniform anxiously.

He smiles reassuringly. "You're fine. There are traces of multiple sedatives in your system, but that was expected. As for the scar, I wouldn't worry. We can't draw any conclusions without actually making another incision, but it seems to have healed fine, what ever it was. We will need to know more about it, but that can be done later. We'll also have to run some more tests, but we won't know which ones are necessary until we get complete results from the ones we're running."

"So I can leave as soon as soon as Kendall signs off on it?" she asks tonelessly.

"From a medical standpoint, yes. Agent Dixon will be here any moment to escort you back to your cell," he says before he walks off, as if she is a criminal.

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Once again, data is downloaded from the CIA server as soon as it is entered. Irina shakes her head slightly as she reads it.

"Sydney," she mumbles to herself, "you would be better off if you would ignore your scar."

On a whim, Irina presses a button and an image of the main CIA room full of desks appears on the screen. She quickly finds the figure she is looking for. To her surprise, he sits at his desk with his head in his hands with no regard for the woman walking toward him. The woman Irina knows to be Amanda Lawrence-Vaughn. Irina's lips tighten into a thin line. She shakes her head again.

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"Michael, what's wrong?" Amanda asks.

Vaughn suppresses a groan. He'd made the mistake of telling Amanda that Dr. Barnett thought he should have a counseling session, and ever since she'd been checking up on him constantly.

Sydney would have noticed how much it annoys me, but not Amanda, he thinks. She doesn't have half the brains Syd does.

"Nothing, Mandy. Just stressed, that's all," he replies quickly.

"Are you sure? May be Barnett is right, Mike, it might help," Amanda says, pressing the issue for what Vaughn is sure must be the millionth time since last night. "She'll just go through your superiors if you don't schedule the appointment for yourself."

"Mandy, I don't need to see any damn psychologist!" Vaughn growls in a low voice.

"But…" she begins softly, genuinely surprised by his reaction.

"No! Now drop it. I've got work to do, and so do you." She is only two years younger than Syd, he thinks, but she seems so *young* all of a sudden.

Amanda retreats back to her desk obediently.

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"Will! Hi!" Sydney stands gratefully. She has been in this cell for nearly four hours with nothing to do, ever since she arrived back with Dixon.

"Hey! Great news, Syd, they sent me to tell you. Kendall signed off on it, you can leave tonight! Now, if you want," Will explains. He enjoys the look of delight that appears on her face.

"Great! If I have to stay in here one more second I think I'd go crazy! If that's okay with you, I mean." She looks hopefully at Will. "Everything in here reminds me of my mother," she adds, looking around at the sterile walls and the cold steel cot.

Will nods slightly. "Come on, Syd," he says, gripping her arm and gently pulling her toward the door.

Once they are in Will's discreet, and standard CIA style, dark blue sedan, Will says, "I thought we would stop by the storage place first so you can get some of your stuff. Just enough for a few days, we can sort through the rest of it this weekend. "

"Okay." Sydney is quiet for a long moment. "Thanks, Will."

"For what?" he asks.

"For letting me stay with you. If I get in your way, just…"

"Like I said," he interrupts firmly, "It'll be nice to have some company. I don't get out much lately," he admits.

"Still, this is great of you."

He glances at her and smiles. "It'll be just like old times."

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"Ugh, it's going to take forever to find anything in here!" Sydney moans as she looks into the large storage room.

"Naw. Clothes are mostly over there," he says, gesturing at one corner. "Anything else can wait until this weekend, right?"

"Yeah. I guess it'll have to."

Almost half an hour later, Sydney finally finds boxes of clothing. "I'll just take one of these," she says, finding some with some long-sleeved shirts and jeans.

"Here, I'll take it. You make sure there's nothing else you need," Will says, taking the box from her.

"Okay," Sydney says, turning back to the boxes and randomly opening some of them.

Then she opens a box with a small picture album on top.

She can see a picture of herself and Vaughn in it.

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Okay! Now, I think that's a little better than my other endings, isn't it? Now, please click that lil' review button, I have to go finish chapter 6...