Story: A world of chances, left behind
Chapter: Blast from the past
Rating: PG 13 at the moment for minimal course language but the rating will probably change later when I get into it a bit more.
Disclaimer: Oh if it were mine I wouldn't have an overwhelming urge to kill JJ Abrams for what he has done to all the S/V shippers. So I must say that JJ owns it and all the other stuff.
A/N: Chapter 3. I will admit that I had given up on this story. I had better things to do but now I'm back to it and I hope all who read it enjoy it. I live in Australia and we are so behind the times. We have only 3 hours of 24 left until we get Alias season 2. (of course we've been downloading episodes off the internet) Anyway enough of me. Geneissen
Summary: An old friend is about to make their way back into Jack and Irina's lives but will his presence be welcome? Meanwhile Sydney's desperate search for her memory takes an unexpected twist.
~*
Irina moved like a quiet shadow along the dark walls of the psych ward of the Lord of Mercy hospital.
There was hope, the contact might very well still be in one of the rooms waiting for her to come. But she knew that he wouldn't be forgiving and neither would she. Oh there was a past, an evil past but it was time to return.
A nurse rounded the corner of the dark corridor and Irina pushed herself up against the wall as hard as possible hoping that the nurse didn't see her.
She stopped by a janitorial cupboard and opened it triggering a light. She sensed someone moving behind her, working in the psych ward someone was always trying to escape, she spun around.
Irina launched a fist into her face knocking her back into the cupboard and to the floor, she pulled out a handgun and pointed it at the poor nurse. "Which room is Neilvi Prolochavitch in these days?"
To scared to move the nurse remained on the floor on her back, she could feel the blood on her face. She stuttered, "Uh. he's, he's in number uh nine."
"Thanks," Irina said holstering her gun. She began to walk away but stopped, "You might want to get some ice for that nose, I think it's broken." She swung the door closed locking the nurse in.
She kept moving and soon came to a room with a big nine marked on the door. She tried it but it was locked, aiming her gun at the lock, she fired three shots and kicked the door in.
Alarms sounded as soon as the door was opened. The gunshots had been heard by Jack sitting out side in the get away van.
"What the hell did you do?" Jack's voice sounded in Irina's ear.
"Would you give me a minute please." Irina said, quickly trying to determine if the lump huddled in the corner was conscious or not. "You know Jack a little credit wouldn't hurt."
Jack scoffed and sat watching the floor plan of the hospital, red dots for security guards, several red dots were heading towards room nine. Jack was hoping that that credit would kick in any time because he was ready to create a diversion.
"It's you." The lump said as Irina cautiously crossed the room to it.
"Yeah it's me. How have they been treating you here?" She stood over him to be intimidating, casting a darker shadow over him.
"Like crap," He coughed, "So did you just come to create an uproar or am I saved."
"I've come to get you, or kill you, which ever works better for you." She said pointing the gun at his head.
"That depends on the terms, what do I have to do to live?" He pushed to his feet, making Irina look up at him.
"Work for me." She replied simply still with the gun aimed at him.
"Well it was working pretty well before, what happened?" He said circling her.
"Is that a yes?" she followed him with the gun knowing that he was one to pull a stunt like running or strangling her.
"Of course." He walked to the door and peered out. "I hope you know where you're going." He looked at the now flashing red corridors.
"Jack get us out of here." She spoke into her comm.
"Right." Jack started typing away at his computer, enhancing the scene. "Go to your left there should be a corridor along that left hand side that will lead you to a stair well. It's all clear."
"Left," she commanded and they both began running.
They ran for about twenty meters before rounding the corner. A sign hanging from the roof told them that there was a staircase. Irina led the way into the staircase and they began their descent.
"There are security guards about to enter the door you just passed." Jack informed them.
"Run," Irina yelled spinning and shooting the first guard that entered the doorway. She jumped the rest of the flight and kept running.
The security guards were now firing back at them as they fled.
They burst out of the door at the bottom of the stairwell and ran for the exit. Three guards were on wait there. Guns were aimed at them as soon as they were spotted.
Irina shot one guard directly in the center of the head, while the former lump grabbed the other two and slammed their heads together.
They admired their work for about five seconds before the door to the stairwell swung open again and a hail of gunfire erupted.
Irina tried to push through the glass door but found it locked, she shot at the glass before kicking the panel out. It shattered on the ground with an amazing bang.
Jack pulled up in the van and they piled in. Irina slammed the door and Jack drove as fast as possible.
When they were far enough away Jack turned to face the man they had just extracted. "Hi William, how have you been?"
~*
Sydney rubbed her aching head. Three days and still nothing. Her father had seen that broadcast and she knew it. Why wasn't he responding?
Waiting offices of any kind were annoying, the CIA's waiting rooms were the worst.
She had made an appointment with Dr. Bridges - the testing man - just like he had suggested and was about to undergo her first hypnosis.
"Sydney." He opened the door and his arms. "How are you."
She went to him. There was something about him that you wanted to trust. She had only met him once and he was acting as though they were old friends. "I'm fine, how are you?"
"Oh, managing. Please come in and have a seat." He moved aside and allowed her to enter. "Would you like some tea or coffee?"
"No thank you." She replied sitting on his long violent red couch. "I'm a bit anxious."
"Don't be, I'm going to take care of you. I'm really glad that you decided to come and see me." He wheeled a machine over to her and gently began to stick the little wired pads on her face. "Lay back and relax."
She did, she looked at the ceiling for a minute before letting her eyes wander the rest of the office. Degrees from Harvard University lined the bare walls, other walls were lined with shelves full of books from 'The art of Psychology' to Dickens and Roberts. A lonely desk sat in front of a large window that overlooked LA and several chairs were placed strategically over the room. All his furniture was antique and covered with outrageous materials. Sydney liked this man.
"Okay are you ready?" He said taking up a seat near the monitor and was armed with a notebook and pen.
"Yes I'm ready." Sydney closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Picture your self walking in pure nothing. You don't know where you are going and you don't know where you come from. You don't know your name, you know nothing. You look in to the vast, spacious nothing and you become tired. You lay down on the nothing and sleep. You are asleep but still listening to the sound of my voice."
His voice was smooth and caring, Sydney listened closely not wanting to do anything wrong as she slipped carefully into a peaceful sleep.
"What can you see Sydney?"
"Nothing, only black." She was so tired now. She was so tired that there was no onset of panic when she realized that she knew nothing.
"The blackness fades and you are on the streets of Hong Kong. How did you get there?" He studied the monitor as she called up the image in her mind.
"I don't know." The image fluttered back. A red light was flashing. She frowned as she tried to climb to her feet but was too weak. "I'm in an alley."
"How did you get in the alley?" Dr. Bridges asked pushing his little reading glasses up to his eyes and glancing at the monitor.
Sydney frowned again. Damn flashing red light. "I really don't know, there was a car. It was maybe black." Her head spun as the events of that night suddenly went backwards. "A black car, a Mercades. There is a smell like expensive cigarettes and men laughing."
"What happened between the time when you heard the men laughing and when you woke up?"
Sydney considered it. "I was unconscious. I couldn't see properly and I was dizzy. The smell of the cigarettes was making me nautious. I'm cold."
Dr. Bridges crossed the room and got a blanket out of the closet, he went back to where Sydney was still frowning and laid it gently over her. "Why are you frowning Sydney?"
"There is a red light, it's flashing and it's annoying."
"Just relax." He opened one of her eyes and checked her responses to a light.
"I'm just gonna call Kendall." She said stirring a bit in the chair.
Bridges assumed that this was the bit were she contacted Kendall from a phone booth. He had a feeling that he was attacking this whole thing from the wrong end "Let try something a bit different. You are back in the nothing. Take me to Will dead in the bathroom."
Sydney shuddered. "I was scared, I hit her."
"Who was it that you hit Sydney? Do you remember?" Bridges asked making notes on the machines beeping.
"Francie, only it wasn't Francie - it was Doren. There was a lot of fighting and shooting. Glass everywhere." She shuddered a bit and stirred.
Sydney threw a draw at Francie.
"What happened after your fight with Doren?" Bridges asked still scribbling on a note pad.
"I don't remember." Sydney frowned. "Blackness I guess then there was a helicopter, but I can't see properly and I'm very weak. I don't remember anything else."
"Okay Sydney, I think that will do for today. You are in the blackness again and when I say 'now', you will wake up. Three, two, one, now."
Sydney opened her eyes and felt amazingly refreshed, like she had just been sleeping. "So what do I remember?" She asked keenly.
"Not a lot, you remember feeling dizzy quite and a helicopter but that's all. I want you to make another appointment for next week and we'll work on it some more. What do you think?" Bridges pulled the little wired pads off her and wheeled the machine away again.
Sydney chewed on her bottom lip for a minute feeling that this whole thing was a waste of time and that she would never get her two lost years back. She sighed, it wasn't going to happen in one session. "Yeah okay then."
"Good, good. I'll see you next week then." Bridges hugged her just as he had when she walked in the door. "I'll see you next week then."
"Yep." Sydney said and left.
When Sydney had gone, Dr. Bridges sat at his lonely desk and read over the notes that he had taken from Sydney's brain patterns and her memory.
He reached over his desk, picked up the phone and hit one of the speed dial buttons.
"Hello." The young British voice answered.
"She remembers little to nothing." Bridges replied.
"Good," the voice said again, "let's keep it that way.
~*
"I'm never going to get my own apartment." Sydney said when her and Vaughn arrived home from work that day.
"You just have to keep looking, something will come along." Vaughn replied swinging the door closed behind him. "Meanwhile you're free to stay here."
"Thank you. I'm going to jump in the shower." Sydney headed for the stairs.
"Yeah, then you're going to have to tell me all about your appointment with Dr. Bridges." Vaughn said going his own way towards the kitchen.
"Yep sure thing." Sydney went upstairs to shower.
When she returned in her flannel duck pajamas, Vaughn was on the phone talking very seriously.
"I don't think that it's necessary sir." He spoke into his mobile phone while pacing the lounge room.
There was a pause when Vaughn was listening to the other persons reply and then he spoke again. "I'm fully aware that you are the boss but where is the point in sending her off to Russia when we don't even know if they will still be there and they probably won't be. I mean, we don't even know if that was them."
Another long pause. "Yes, okay fine." He hung up the phone and turned to where Sydney was standing in the doorway.
"So, what is happening in the world of espionage this evening?" she asked leaning against the door jam and watched his frustration ease.
"Nice pajamas," He complimented looking her over from head to toe.
"Yeah I had a feeling that you would." She said sarcastically. "So what's going on?"
"Apparently there was a break in and out of the Lord of Mercy hospital in Russia. Kendall thinks that your parents were involved." Vaughn informed her.
"My parents?" Sydney gasped, suddenly unable to stand still, she began pacing the lounge room just the way Vaughn had been only minutes ago. "What happened?"
"Well some guy called, Neilvi Prolochavitch broke out last night, assisted by a woman with a Russian accent and a very powerful right hook." Vaughn continued. "Sound like your mother?"
"It could be, but how many women out there have Russian accents and a great right hook? It could have been Anna." Sydney said trying not to get too excited about the prospect of see her parents again.
"Yes that's true." Vaughn considered. "The nurse who was assaulted said that she didn't get a very good look because the woman had a gun pointed at her and she was too scared to move."
"Well both Anna and my mother fit the 'get what I want and take down as many people as possible in the process' description." Sydney said dully, still pacing.
"Well Kendall wants to know who this is Neilvi Prolochavitch guy is." Vaughn continued. "His file is being sent here guarded by four US army officers, must be big."
"Great," Sydney replied, "Something to read."
Vaughn scoffed, "Yeah well be prepared because we're going there now."
"What?" Sydney stopped pacing long enough to look at Vaughn in disbelief.
"Go and put on something that won't quack if you sit on it the wrong way, Kendall wants us in there for a briefing, now?"
"I guess that neither of you will be wanting any dinner then." Kate appeared in the door way now.
"Not at the moment darling." Vaughn said going to her and pulling her into his arms.
Sydney made a quick retreat to change and left Vaughn with his steaming wife.
~*
About a dozen agents filled the room that Sydney and Vaughn had just entered. Kendall was standing at the front of the room waiting for them to arrive.
"Welcome take a seat." Kendall summoned them forward and they took seats at the table just in front of him.
Many of the agents, Sydney had never seen before. She scanned the room, seeing a few familiar faces before her eyes locked on someone she hadn't yet to reacquaint herself with yet.
Eric Weiss was sitting at the far end of the same table. He smiled at her and she smiled back, astonished. He mouthed 'good to see you' at her and she mouthed 'you too' back.
"Well now that we're all here, I'd like to start." Kendall addressed the room. "At approximately four hundred hours standard west coast time, two people we believe to be the fugitives Jack Bristow and Irina Derevko, broke into the Lord of Mercy hospital in Russia and freed a man known to them as Neilvi Prolochavitch. Prolochavitch has little if no record there -"
"Then why are we all here if we have no where to go on the Prolochavitch case?" Sydney asked, angry that she had been called out of her warm pajamas for this.
"This may have very well involved your parents Agent Bristow." Kendall said.
"You, for some unknown reason, have just assumed that my parents are involved." Sydney said standing. "Didn't you not, only a few days ago tell me that there was no way that my parents were running their own intelligence network? Prolochavitch could have been wanted by anyone. How do we know that it wasn't Anna Esponsoa that freed him? Or even someone one following Sloane's orders?"
"Agent Bristow, please calm yourself and sit down." Kendall ordered, staring at Sydney like an angry owner would with a disobedient dog.
Vaughn pulled on her hand and she went stubbornly into her seat.
"Prolochavitch did give us something to look at." Kendall passed around copies of his mental health check. "These records show a supposed mental illness, schizophrenia. He kept talking about how the government we're looking for him, that 'the man' would come back for him and that the power would soon be known, that Ramboldi was right about everything and that Laura had made a believer out of him."
"Laura Bristow?" Vaughn tested. "Whoever this Prolochavitch was, knew Irina as Laura Bristow."
"That's what we believe Agent Vaughn." Kendall replied. "That means that while Derevko was under the alias of Laura Bristow, she gathered a following or plotted to break from the KGB and start her own net work with Prolochavitch."
"But wasn't she working with Kassanau?" Sydney asked confused.
"Somehow I don't think she worked with anyone, they all worked for her." Kendall offered, pouring himself a glass of water.
"But you think that this Prolochavitch was working as a partner?" Vaughn thought that he might have found something.
Kendall sipped at the water for a moment staring at the blank white wall of the room. He sighed and put down the glass. "This is what I think. Derevko came here in duty to her agency, she already knew about Ramboldi before she came, she offered to do this because it gave her time to plot and to plan what she was going to do with Ramboldi. She was here, being a good wife and mother while plotting world destruction. She might have been out for a walk one day when she meets Prolochavitch, they talk and whatever and he decides to join her in her plots. Some time passes, she fakes her own death and returns to Russia, she bides some more time and the KGB falls, she's free. Prolochavitch joins her in Russia. Over the next twenty years they build up a following, the whole world's on their tails. Everyone wants a slice of Ramboldi, perhaps Prolochavitch wants a bigger slice then Derevko is willing to hand over, there's a fight, Prolochavitch ends up in a mental home."
"I just find one flaw in that theory." Sydney spoke dryly. "Prolochavitch is a Russian name. They way you are talking, he is an American. Now your either right and he is an American and Prolochavitch is an alias or he's Russian and we are once again no where."
"You're right." Kendall sighed. "Do you remember hearing anything as a child. When you were with your mother at home or walking threw a park? Anything at all?"
Sydney shook her head. Her mother had known that she wasn't a stupid child. Her mother was a smart woman, otherwise she never would have fooled her father as long as she did. "No I know nothing."
Kendall opened the brief case on his desk and handed Sydney a photo. "Did you ever see this man as a child?" He asked handing her a photo of Prolochavitch.
"No." She replied.
"I did." Vaughn said staring at the picture in disbelief.
Everyone looked at him waiting for an explanation.
"That's my father."
Chapter: Blast from the past
Rating: PG 13 at the moment for minimal course language but the rating will probably change later when I get into it a bit more.
Disclaimer: Oh if it were mine I wouldn't have an overwhelming urge to kill JJ Abrams for what he has done to all the S/V shippers. So I must say that JJ owns it and all the other stuff.
A/N: Chapter 3. I will admit that I had given up on this story. I had better things to do but now I'm back to it and I hope all who read it enjoy it. I live in Australia and we are so behind the times. We have only 3 hours of 24 left until we get Alias season 2. (of course we've been downloading episodes off the internet) Anyway enough of me. Geneissen
Summary: An old friend is about to make their way back into Jack and Irina's lives but will his presence be welcome? Meanwhile Sydney's desperate search for her memory takes an unexpected twist.
~*
Irina moved like a quiet shadow along the dark walls of the psych ward of the Lord of Mercy hospital.
There was hope, the contact might very well still be in one of the rooms waiting for her to come. But she knew that he wouldn't be forgiving and neither would she. Oh there was a past, an evil past but it was time to return.
A nurse rounded the corner of the dark corridor and Irina pushed herself up against the wall as hard as possible hoping that the nurse didn't see her.
She stopped by a janitorial cupboard and opened it triggering a light. She sensed someone moving behind her, working in the psych ward someone was always trying to escape, she spun around.
Irina launched a fist into her face knocking her back into the cupboard and to the floor, she pulled out a handgun and pointed it at the poor nurse. "Which room is Neilvi Prolochavitch in these days?"
To scared to move the nurse remained on the floor on her back, she could feel the blood on her face. She stuttered, "Uh. he's, he's in number uh nine."
"Thanks," Irina said holstering her gun. She began to walk away but stopped, "You might want to get some ice for that nose, I think it's broken." She swung the door closed locking the nurse in.
She kept moving and soon came to a room with a big nine marked on the door. She tried it but it was locked, aiming her gun at the lock, she fired three shots and kicked the door in.
Alarms sounded as soon as the door was opened. The gunshots had been heard by Jack sitting out side in the get away van.
"What the hell did you do?" Jack's voice sounded in Irina's ear.
"Would you give me a minute please." Irina said, quickly trying to determine if the lump huddled in the corner was conscious or not. "You know Jack a little credit wouldn't hurt."
Jack scoffed and sat watching the floor plan of the hospital, red dots for security guards, several red dots were heading towards room nine. Jack was hoping that that credit would kick in any time because he was ready to create a diversion.
"It's you." The lump said as Irina cautiously crossed the room to it.
"Yeah it's me. How have they been treating you here?" She stood over him to be intimidating, casting a darker shadow over him.
"Like crap," He coughed, "So did you just come to create an uproar or am I saved."
"I've come to get you, or kill you, which ever works better for you." She said pointing the gun at his head.
"That depends on the terms, what do I have to do to live?" He pushed to his feet, making Irina look up at him.
"Work for me." She replied simply still with the gun aimed at him.
"Well it was working pretty well before, what happened?" He said circling her.
"Is that a yes?" she followed him with the gun knowing that he was one to pull a stunt like running or strangling her.
"Of course." He walked to the door and peered out. "I hope you know where you're going." He looked at the now flashing red corridors.
"Jack get us out of here." She spoke into her comm.
"Right." Jack started typing away at his computer, enhancing the scene. "Go to your left there should be a corridor along that left hand side that will lead you to a stair well. It's all clear."
"Left," she commanded and they both began running.
They ran for about twenty meters before rounding the corner. A sign hanging from the roof told them that there was a staircase. Irina led the way into the staircase and they began their descent.
"There are security guards about to enter the door you just passed." Jack informed them.
"Run," Irina yelled spinning and shooting the first guard that entered the doorway. She jumped the rest of the flight and kept running.
The security guards were now firing back at them as they fled.
They burst out of the door at the bottom of the stairwell and ran for the exit. Three guards were on wait there. Guns were aimed at them as soon as they were spotted.
Irina shot one guard directly in the center of the head, while the former lump grabbed the other two and slammed their heads together.
They admired their work for about five seconds before the door to the stairwell swung open again and a hail of gunfire erupted.
Irina tried to push through the glass door but found it locked, she shot at the glass before kicking the panel out. It shattered on the ground with an amazing bang.
Jack pulled up in the van and they piled in. Irina slammed the door and Jack drove as fast as possible.
When they were far enough away Jack turned to face the man they had just extracted. "Hi William, how have you been?"
~*
Sydney rubbed her aching head. Three days and still nothing. Her father had seen that broadcast and she knew it. Why wasn't he responding?
Waiting offices of any kind were annoying, the CIA's waiting rooms were the worst.
She had made an appointment with Dr. Bridges - the testing man - just like he had suggested and was about to undergo her first hypnosis.
"Sydney." He opened the door and his arms. "How are you."
She went to him. There was something about him that you wanted to trust. She had only met him once and he was acting as though they were old friends. "I'm fine, how are you?"
"Oh, managing. Please come in and have a seat." He moved aside and allowed her to enter. "Would you like some tea or coffee?"
"No thank you." She replied sitting on his long violent red couch. "I'm a bit anxious."
"Don't be, I'm going to take care of you. I'm really glad that you decided to come and see me." He wheeled a machine over to her and gently began to stick the little wired pads on her face. "Lay back and relax."
She did, she looked at the ceiling for a minute before letting her eyes wander the rest of the office. Degrees from Harvard University lined the bare walls, other walls were lined with shelves full of books from 'The art of Psychology' to Dickens and Roberts. A lonely desk sat in front of a large window that overlooked LA and several chairs were placed strategically over the room. All his furniture was antique and covered with outrageous materials. Sydney liked this man.
"Okay are you ready?" He said taking up a seat near the monitor and was armed with a notebook and pen.
"Yes I'm ready." Sydney closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Picture your self walking in pure nothing. You don't know where you are going and you don't know where you come from. You don't know your name, you know nothing. You look in to the vast, spacious nothing and you become tired. You lay down on the nothing and sleep. You are asleep but still listening to the sound of my voice."
His voice was smooth and caring, Sydney listened closely not wanting to do anything wrong as she slipped carefully into a peaceful sleep.
"What can you see Sydney?"
"Nothing, only black." She was so tired now. She was so tired that there was no onset of panic when she realized that she knew nothing.
"The blackness fades and you are on the streets of Hong Kong. How did you get there?" He studied the monitor as she called up the image in her mind.
"I don't know." The image fluttered back. A red light was flashing. She frowned as she tried to climb to her feet but was too weak. "I'm in an alley."
"How did you get in the alley?" Dr. Bridges asked pushing his little reading glasses up to his eyes and glancing at the monitor.
Sydney frowned again. Damn flashing red light. "I really don't know, there was a car. It was maybe black." Her head spun as the events of that night suddenly went backwards. "A black car, a Mercades. There is a smell like expensive cigarettes and men laughing."
"What happened between the time when you heard the men laughing and when you woke up?"
Sydney considered it. "I was unconscious. I couldn't see properly and I was dizzy. The smell of the cigarettes was making me nautious. I'm cold."
Dr. Bridges crossed the room and got a blanket out of the closet, he went back to where Sydney was still frowning and laid it gently over her. "Why are you frowning Sydney?"
"There is a red light, it's flashing and it's annoying."
"Just relax." He opened one of her eyes and checked her responses to a light.
"I'm just gonna call Kendall." She said stirring a bit in the chair.
Bridges assumed that this was the bit were she contacted Kendall from a phone booth. He had a feeling that he was attacking this whole thing from the wrong end "Let try something a bit different. You are back in the nothing. Take me to Will dead in the bathroom."
Sydney shuddered. "I was scared, I hit her."
"Who was it that you hit Sydney? Do you remember?" Bridges asked making notes on the machines beeping.
"Francie, only it wasn't Francie - it was Doren. There was a lot of fighting and shooting. Glass everywhere." She shuddered a bit and stirred.
Sydney threw a draw at Francie.
"What happened after your fight with Doren?" Bridges asked still scribbling on a note pad.
"I don't remember." Sydney frowned. "Blackness I guess then there was a helicopter, but I can't see properly and I'm very weak. I don't remember anything else."
"Okay Sydney, I think that will do for today. You are in the blackness again and when I say 'now', you will wake up. Three, two, one, now."
Sydney opened her eyes and felt amazingly refreshed, like she had just been sleeping. "So what do I remember?" She asked keenly.
"Not a lot, you remember feeling dizzy quite and a helicopter but that's all. I want you to make another appointment for next week and we'll work on it some more. What do you think?" Bridges pulled the little wired pads off her and wheeled the machine away again.
Sydney chewed on her bottom lip for a minute feeling that this whole thing was a waste of time and that she would never get her two lost years back. She sighed, it wasn't going to happen in one session. "Yeah okay then."
"Good, good. I'll see you next week then." Bridges hugged her just as he had when she walked in the door. "I'll see you next week then."
"Yep." Sydney said and left.
When Sydney had gone, Dr. Bridges sat at his lonely desk and read over the notes that he had taken from Sydney's brain patterns and her memory.
He reached over his desk, picked up the phone and hit one of the speed dial buttons.
"Hello." The young British voice answered.
"She remembers little to nothing." Bridges replied.
"Good," the voice said again, "let's keep it that way.
~*
"I'm never going to get my own apartment." Sydney said when her and Vaughn arrived home from work that day.
"You just have to keep looking, something will come along." Vaughn replied swinging the door closed behind him. "Meanwhile you're free to stay here."
"Thank you. I'm going to jump in the shower." Sydney headed for the stairs.
"Yeah, then you're going to have to tell me all about your appointment with Dr. Bridges." Vaughn said going his own way towards the kitchen.
"Yep sure thing." Sydney went upstairs to shower.
When she returned in her flannel duck pajamas, Vaughn was on the phone talking very seriously.
"I don't think that it's necessary sir." He spoke into his mobile phone while pacing the lounge room.
There was a pause when Vaughn was listening to the other persons reply and then he spoke again. "I'm fully aware that you are the boss but where is the point in sending her off to Russia when we don't even know if they will still be there and they probably won't be. I mean, we don't even know if that was them."
Another long pause. "Yes, okay fine." He hung up the phone and turned to where Sydney was standing in the doorway.
"So, what is happening in the world of espionage this evening?" she asked leaning against the door jam and watched his frustration ease.
"Nice pajamas," He complimented looking her over from head to toe.
"Yeah I had a feeling that you would." She said sarcastically. "So what's going on?"
"Apparently there was a break in and out of the Lord of Mercy hospital in Russia. Kendall thinks that your parents were involved." Vaughn informed her.
"My parents?" Sydney gasped, suddenly unable to stand still, she began pacing the lounge room just the way Vaughn had been only minutes ago. "What happened?"
"Well some guy called, Neilvi Prolochavitch broke out last night, assisted by a woman with a Russian accent and a very powerful right hook." Vaughn continued. "Sound like your mother?"
"It could be, but how many women out there have Russian accents and a great right hook? It could have been Anna." Sydney said trying not to get too excited about the prospect of see her parents again.
"Yes that's true." Vaughn considered. "The nurse who was assaulted said that she didn't get a very good look because the woman had a gun pointed at her and she was too scared to move."
"Well both Anna and my mother fit the 'get what I want and take down as many people as possible in the process' description." Sydney said dully, still pacing.
"Well Kendall wants to know who this is Neilvi Prolochavitch guy is." Vaughn continued. "His file is being sent here guarded by four US army officers, must be big."
"Great," Sydney replied, "Something to read."
Vaughn scoffed, "Yeah well be prepared because we're going there now."
"What?" Sydney stopped pacing long enough to look at Vaughn in disbelief.
"Go and put on something that won't quack if you sit on it the wrong way, Kendall wants us in there for a briefing, now?"
"I guess that neither of you will be wanting any dinner then." Kate appeared in the door way now.
"Not at the moment darling." Vaughn said going to her and pulling her into his arms.
Sydney made a quick retreat to change and left Vaughn with his steaming wife.
~*
About a dozen agents filled the room that Sydney and Vaughn had just entered. Kendall was standing at the front of the room waiting for them to arrive.
"Welcome take a seat." Kendall summoned them forward and they took seats at the table just in front of him.
Many of the agents, Sydney had never seen before. She scanned the room, seeing a few familiar faces before her eyes locked on someone she hadn't yet to reacquaint herself with yet.
Eric Weiss was sitting at the far end of the same table. He smiled at her and she smiled back, astonished. He mouthed 'good to see you' at her and she mouthed 'you too' back.
"Well now that we're all here, I'd like to start." Kendall addressed the room. "At approximately four hundred hours standard west coast time, two people we believe to be the fugitives Jack Bristow and Irina Derevko, broke into the Lord of Mercy hospital in Russia and freed a man known to them as Neilvi Prolochavitch. Prolochavitch has little if no record there -"
"Then why are we all here if we have no where to go on the Prolochavitch case?" Sydney asked, angry that she had been called out of her warm pajamas for this.
"This may have very well involved your parents Agent Bristow." Kendall said.
"You, for some unknown reason, have just assumed that my parents are involved." Sydney said standing. "Didn't you not, only a few days ago tell me that there was no way that my parents were running their own intelligence network? Prolochavitch could have been wanted by anyone. How do we know that it wasn't Anna Esponsoa that freed him? Or even someone one following Sloane's orders?"
"Agent Bristow, please calm yourself and sit down." Kendall ordered, staring at Sydney like an angry owner would with a disobedient dog.
Vaughn pulled on her hand and she went stubbornly into her seat.
"Prolochavitch did give us something to look at." Kendall passed around copies of his mental health check. "These records show a supposed mental illness, schizophrenia. He kept talking about how the government we're looking for him, that 'the man' would come back for him and that the power would soon be known, that Ramboldi was right about everything and that Laura had made a believer out of him."
"Laura Bristow?" Vaughn tested. "Whoever this Prolochavitch was, knew Irina as Laura Bristow."
"That's what we believe Agent Vaughn." Kendall replied. "That means that while Derevko was under the alias of Laura Bristow, she gathered a following or plotted to break from the KGB and start her own net work with Prolochavitch."
"But wasn't she working with Kassanau?" Sydney asked confused.
"Somehow I don't think she worked with anyone, they all worked for her." Kendall offered, pouring himself a glass of water.
"But you think that this Prolochavitch was working as a partner?" Vaughn thought that he might have found something.
Kendall sipped at the water for a moment staring at the blank white wall of the room. He sighed and put down the glass. "This is what I think. Derevko came here in duty to her agency, she already knew about Ramboldi before she came, she offered to do this because it gave her time to plot and to plan what she was going to do with Ramboldi. She was here, being a good wife and mother while plotting world destruction. She might have been out for a walk one day when she meets Prolochavitch, they talk and whatever and he decides to join her in her plots. Some time passes, she fakes her own death and returns to Russia, she bides some more time and the KGB falls, she's free. Prolochavitch joins her in Russia. Over the next twenty years they build up a following, the whole world's on their tails. Everyone wants a slice of Ramboldi, perhaps Prolochavitch wants a bigger slice then Derevko is willing to hand over, there's a fight, Prolochavitch ends up in a mental home."
"I just find one flaw in that theory." Sydney spoke dryly. "Prolochavitch is a Russian name. They way you are talking, he is an American. Now your either right and he is an American and Prolochavitch is an alias or he's Russian and we are once again no where."
"You're right." Kendall sighed. "Do you remember hearing anything as a child. When you were with your mother at home or walking threw a park? Anything at all?"
Sydney shook her head. Her mother had known that she wasn't a stupid child. Her mother was a smart woman, otherwise she never would have fooled her father as long as she did. "No I know nothing."
Kendall opened the brief case on his desk and handed Sydney a photo. "Did you ever see this man as a child?" He asked handing her a photo of Prolochavitch.
"No." She replied.
"I did." Vaughn said staring at the picture in disbelief.
Everyone looked at him waiting for an explanation.
"That's my father."
