Title: Once Again
Author: Tasha
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Angst, for this chapter
Summary: J/I Takes place after Endgame
Disclaimer: I do not own Alias and am not making any money from this fic.
Jack stood there for a minute. He looked at the woman in the cell in disbelief, before his eyes hardened and he turned his head from her. "I do not have the time or the inclination to listen to your lies." His voice was harsh and cold.
"They're not lies," the woman said, in an odd light voice. "Angela Gregory was my mother."
Her face crippled into a grimace as she let out a laugh that was more like a shriek.
"If you have information about the organization you work for, than by all means enlighten me. Otherwise, stop wasting my time with these lies." Jack maintained his icy tone, despite the racing of his mind.
"Would you like to know my name? Are you interested in what Angela named me? Do you think you can guess? Hmm?" she asked.
Jack turned and began to walk away, no longer caring about the information she had to give him.
"My name is Deirdre Gregory and I work for Irina Derevko." Her voice floated down the hall after him.
He ducked under the opening gates, ignoring the agent at the security post. Jack stepped into the elevator as it arrived at the floor, thankful it was empty. He pressed his floor and sank back against the mirrored walls as the doors closed. He watched himself in the mirror as he exhaled heavily and then inhaled again. Jack felt like he was watching a stranger. The man in the mirror had a shocked face, fisted hands and cold eyes.
The elevator came to a halt and his stomach flipped. Jack suddenly felt sick and his stomach roiled, rebelling against the black coffee and bagel he had eaten this morning. He made it across the office to the washroom in record time. He only had time to throw open the door to the first stall before his breakfast came up. He threw up, emptying his stomach into the toilet. Even after he had divulged all of the contents of his stomach, he continued to gag for a moment, until he could force his nauseous stomach to calm.
Jack stayed hunched over for a moment, his eyes closed and his hands braced on his thighs. After taking three deep breaths, he stood up, flushed the toilet and pushed the stall door open. At the white porcelain sink, he washed out his mouth with the cold tap water. Jack straightened and adjusted his tie and jacket.
Jack walked quickly back to his office, ignoring a call from Marshall and from Christy. Once he was sitting down at his desk, he allowed his thoughts to return to this woman who claimed to be his daughter and to Angela.
~*FLASHBACK*~
"Jack, I have something to tell you." Angie grabbed his hand as she spoke and pulled him down to kiss her.
"So do I, Angie." Jack kissed her lips sweetly and sat down on the grass beside her, pulling her lithe body into his lap. Angie giggled and teasingly pulled away. With a strange look, Jack let her move away from him. She didn't notice and after a little more squirming, finally settled into a comfortable position.
"You go first, Jack." Angie looked up at him expectantly.
"Angie, my Dad is moving to Los Angeles. He wants me to go with him." Jack blurted the statement out, hurrying the words.
"What are you talking about?" Her tone was one of disbelief and she pushed away from him, moving off his lap.
"Just what I said, Angie. We're leaving at the end of June, when school is over. I'm sorry, Ang. I don't want to go. I don't have a choice. My Dad just told me yesterday."
"Jack, why are you leaving?" By this time, Angie was scrambling up and pushing away his half-hearted attempts to touch her.
"Dad got this job at this great company. It's what he always wanted and its in Los Angeles, you know he's always wanted to go back there. You know what he's been like since Mom left, I have to go with him." Jack sounded apologetic, but firm and he could see from Angie's face she knew that he wasn't going to bend.
"What about you, Jack?" she asked, almost to herself. "Just…I need to leave. I can't be here right now." Her voice was tearful and she wiped furiously at her cheeks.
"I still love you, Angie," he ventured hesitantly. "I want to stay, but I just can't."
"I know, I know. I understand, Jack." Her voice wavered and she continued to face away from him.
"What was it you wanted to tell me?" Jack asked gently.
"It doesn't matter now." Angie started to walk away, and he didn't try to stop her.
~*END FLASHBACK*~
Jack remembered the day so clearly, it could have been yesterday. He had been 17, and Angie Gregory had been his girlfriend. They had been friends since grade 2 and lived only two doors away from each other, on a quiet street in London, Ontario.
Their relationship had been immature, but idyllic. When Daniel Bristow had found the job he had longed for all his life, in a leading edge Los Angeles hospital, Jack had moved with him. Angie hadn't understood why he wanted to go. She hadn't understood that Jack couldn't push his father away, scarcely a year after his mother had. He and Angie had broken up after that day he remembered, in the park, and he had moved to LA, a city so different from the quiet Canadian one he had grown up in.
Jack didn't know what had happened to Angie. He had never returned to London, instead he had been recruited to the CIA at age 18. After being recruited, the excitement of his first missions and the rigours of training had replaced the quietly beautiful girl he had loved in high school. Angie had always been sweet, serious, gentle and compassionate. Sweet, but…forgettable. The only thing word that came to his mind was forgettable. He had forgotten her until now, until he saw the picture of this agent and until she told him she was his daughter.
Rationally, now that his anger had passed, he knew how easy it would have been to research his link to Angela Gregory and to create a story based around her, in order to gain his trust. Jack made a quick decision to delegate her case to another agent, but make it clear she wasn't a priority. Whoever she worked for would get the message that he would not play games.
She had said she worked for Irina Derevko. Jack knew it was a lie, because Irina would never send an agent in to the CIA with the intent to trick him. She had better ways of manipulating him.
Author's Note: So, what did you think? I hope you guys are liking this story. I will be into more regular updates, since I just finished a major music exam that was seriously stressing me. Anyway, I hope you will click on that little bluey-purple button at the bottom of your screen and review my fic. Thanks, Tasha.
