AS OF RIGHT NOW, FEBRUARY 2, 2003 WITH MY UNFINISHED CHAPTER (THOUGH IT IS NOW THAT YOU ARE READING IT), THERE ARE 3 HOURS AND 31 MINUTES UNTIL ALIAS STARTS AND THEY BETTER MAKE IT GOOD!!!!! DON'T BREAK SYD AND VAUGHN UP!!!! (though by the time this chapter is actually completed, we will already know…)

NOTE******** Inspiration is running low********* Needing review-fuel :)

Sarah: Thanks for your review, I'm glad you finally did it ;). No offense taken because I am in highschool; I'm a sophomore :)

M: Will definitely read your fic :) Are you still gonna be "M"? + Yes there will be an end to the story… probably within the next ten chapters or no… don't think it will pass 40 but if it does… oh well~


Wow, okay you guys definitely have the whole "review" thing down. I didn't even know that many people actually read the fic! Lol, I guess… "you love me~ you really love me!" Or maybe I'm just being spastic now that finals are over!!!!!

So~

To:
Erin~ thanks for your really kind words, I'm glad that you approve of my story and I thank you for your high praise. I like cliffhangers too. :)

Kat~ Hmm… sweating in a freezing house… interesting side effect to reading the story, I should add a warning ;)


Arcana~ now THAT is dedication… I don't even think I would be able to stick with this story for that long of a time period… wow


Mrs. Swearingen: Yay! You're out and free and reading again! Thanks for the sweet review, made the fact that ALIAS is on in 3 hours and 30 minutes so much sweeter~

Dream Writer 4 Life and Secret Agent Girl: We so have to meet because I can really see you guys being my best friends… wow I have no social life. LOL, jk, kinda… I CAN"T WAIT TILL ALIAS!!!!!!!!!! (Becky… I so wish I had my own mini-Vaughn… then I could be mini-Jenn and they could live happily ever after) (Secret Agent Girl: You gotta teach me that dance! Lol, I do know what you're talking about… I just think that if I tried it, people would think I was going into a coma or spasms)

Jade2099~ Well… boys will be boys and Jack will be a violent man who thinks he's doing his best for his daughter who doesn't need his help. Now THAT should be a famous saying.

mvwt~ I SO wanna know what those letters mean…

Alrighty, I'm done! (Guess what? Acting is over and Singing is over so I'm learning to tap dance for the musical! Yay~)

Once again, thanks for all the reviews for Roses, Pagers, and Dusty Roads

32.

She was sitting on the couch, head in her hands, wondering why the hell she went to her mother of all people to help with the problems in her life.

More than anyone else, her mother had been a stranger, someone to look at and long to be with but never one to actually confide in. But then again, the answer was right there, staring her in the face. It was obvious wasn't it?

Who better to speak to about the ways of love, the dangers of the heart, the absolute torture of making decisions? Who better to confide in than the one person who was, at the same time, closest and farthest away?

And her words still rang in her ears. I knew about you and Agent Vaughn before you did.  She laughed a little, shaking her head. Perhaps her mother was God after all.

Why am I doing this? It's not as if it's a hard decision. It's not even a decision, not really. He's not Danny… he's just some mannequin… a reflection. With the same qualities but expressed… blandly. And Vaughn… there aren't any words for Vaughn. He's my guardian angel. And everything else.

She wondered how long this could possibly last.


Vaughn shook his head. "Jack, you know I can't do that."

"I thought you said that you loved my daughter."

"I think I have already proved true. I do. But I am not going to kill her ex-fiancé."

Jack shook his head and scoffed at the younger man standing in front of him. "First of all Agent Vaughn, you agreed to do anything I asked. Not that that fact is relevant at this point anyway because you aren't going to kill him.

"I am."

Michael was confused. "Then why did you call me here?"

His steely eyes hardened even more as they fixed themselves on Michael's green ones. "I need you to watch my back. There's no one else I trust and there is no one better for the job. I will give you a complete layout of SD-6 and all the information you need. This is risky. More risky than anything we have ever done before. I need a spot."

"You- you want me to be your spot man?" Vaughn knew his eyes were wider and he wanted to kick himself for sounding so juvenile. This was after all, one of his peers.

Shut up Michael. It's not like you're ever going to manage to convince yourself that way. You of all people KNOW that he's more than one of your peers. Can you say "Daddy"?

"I should think it be quite obvious."

Vaughn was flustered. "Does Sydney know about this?"

He saw an unfamiliar flash glint and disappear in Jack's eyes. "No. And you will not tell her about it."

"What? You can't keep her in the dark; especially not with this."


"It doesn't concern her."

"How can you say that it doesn't concern her when she is the person it concerns the most? Do you really think that when she finds out, she's just going to lay back and pretend that it never happened, that she is absolutely fine that you went through this and didn't tell anyone? Or, even worse, that you told everyone but her?"

"I'm doing this for her." Jack felt his jaw tighten as he sensed the familiar déjà vu. This was the interrogation with Irina all over again. Strange how he seemed surrounded by her wherever he went; strange how she was able to take on any and all shapes to haunt and hound him.

Vaughn leaned against the table, looking him directly in the eye, aware of the heat emanating from the vial in Jack's gloved hands. "You have to tell her about this. More than anything else, she has to know."

"No. She doesn't."

"She's going to think you don't trust her. She's going to think that you didn't think she could handle it or that you went behind her back to kill him again. Even if she isn't in love with him, subconsciously at least, she knows him.

"She KNOWS him. And she won't let him go like that. If you at least ask her, she will at least think about it. It will haunt her and torture her but she will have had some say in it. Doing this… it isn't right. She will blame you and she will blame me. She may not want him but that doesn't mean she wants him dead."

Gone doesn't translate into dead. Jack shook his head, freeing himself of Irina's words. He smirked instead to hide the inner turmoil of his feelings.

He didn't understand. Michael did not understand that he was Jack twenty years ago. Jack look at him, staring back at Jack with such intensity that he was almost intimidated. He was fresh and powerful, drunk on love, immersed in it. A complete believer.

Love isn't easy. And it will spit you out before it gives in to you. "Strange how you defend the person you should be jealous of. For you are jealous aren't you?"

Vaughn looked away, feeling his face heat up. "I'm not defending anyone. You know what's right. You know that Sydney has to know about this."

Jack placed the vial in the suitcase and removed the gloves before walking to the door. "You should know more than anyone what kind of blood runs in the Bristow family. Yet you still try to face it. I have my daughter's best interests at heart, I assure you Mr. Vaughn. Now I just need an answer, not a diatribe."

"Yes? Or no?"

Vaughn swallowed, straightening. Oh my God Sydney.

"Yes."


"So Daniel, how do you feel?"

"Confused. Sad. Terrified. Alone."

"Understandable. Now tell me, when you see this picture, what is your immediate reaction?"

It was a glossy photo revealing a young girl blowing out her candles with such a look of concentration on her young face that Danny was astounded. Her parents stood in the back, beaming at the sight of another year. "Wonderment."

"Very good. Now we will begin. This session will be recorded and you will merely do what you have just done. Do you understand me?"

Daniel nodded. He had to pass this test. He had to pass all the tests.

"Alright then. First picture."

He pressed the red button under his desk to record the session and then took the pictures out of an envelope.

The first one was of the stern faced Jack Bristow, taken and enlarged from his ID.

"No words. Intimidation."

The man behind the desk nodded.

There was the picture of the campus, the very spot where he had proposed to Sydney.

"Love."

Francie and Will sitting at a café.

"Laughter."

Michael Vaughn balancing a briefcase and coffee as he struggled to open the car door.

"Stranger."

Himself.

"Lost."


Sydney Bristow.

"Betrayal."


---

TBC…  it should be a crime how much fun I am having with my Danny character… yikes. Hmmm…  review por favor? Bitte? S'il vous plaÎt? I'm gunning for 650-660 :)

P.S. Am I the only one who thinks that Sark is ugly??? I'm sorry but I don't see what makes his the "hot bad guy" cause to me, he's just ugly… there's something wrong with his face. But apparently, I am alone in that opinion.

P.P.S. This is going to sound like blasphemy but I don't like the fact that Syd and Vaughn had sex last night… it's moving too fast and because it's moving so fast, there seems to be an indication that maybe in the future, they won't be together which would completely suck. (I actually screamed when they put that gun on him).

P.P.P.S. Where's Will??? Wasn't he supposed to take Francie out of the state? Where is he now and why hasn't he noticed that Francie isn't with him?