Chapter 4: Interrogated by the Ass

Disclaimer: No, unfortunately Alias is not mine. I can only claim credit for the brilliant Laura and average Brandon. Sorry!

A/N: Thanks everybody! This story is going really well so far, I have a lot of reviews and they're all great!

A/N: If you find a type-o, let me know so I can fix it. Just kind of give me a general idea of what I'm looking for.

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"These two?" Kendall asks, surprised.

Laura looks down and realizes her own clothes are covered in grass stains, and her hair which she'd once had tied up in a pony tail has fallen to frame her face in a tangled mass. Brandon's clothes are rumpled and dirty from hiding in the shrubs.

"Yes," Vaughn says, his tone warning. "This is Laura, and Brandon. Kids, this is *Director* Kendall." He looks at Laura. She nods almost imperceptibly to show that she understands not to repeat Weiss' comment again. Her slight grin makes him wonder if she was thinking about it.

Actually, Laura was far from it. She's looking around, trying to absorb every detail of the place her mother worked as a student.

Daddy worked…*works* here, too, she reminds her self.

Kendall shakes his head.

"Get them in interrogation two. Both of you report back to me immediately."

"But…" Vaughn begins.

"Leave them and report back to me!" Kendall says firmly.

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Brandon whimpers and grips my hand harder as Kendall snaps at Daddy. I just sort of pull him along as we walk to the interrogation room.

Daddy points to a mirror in the room.

"Laura, if Kendall won't let me in here, I'll be watching from there. That's a one way window, so I'll be able to see you, but you won't see me. I'll be able to hear you, too."

I nod obediently.

"Okay. We'll be okay," I promise.

The two of us are left alone in the dimly lit room. The only furniture there is a large wooden table surrounded by intimidating looking wooden chairs.

Soon, Brandon begins whimpering again.

"I don't like it here Laurie. I wanna go home," he begs. He looks so pitiful and forlorn.

"We can't, Brandon."

I settle him in one of the chairs and sit in the one next to him.

"I'm tired," he whines.

"They won't keep us here long. We'll be able to sleep soon." I hope I sound confident, because I sure don't feel it.

Kendall walks in. Now that I really look at him, I decide I definitely don't like him. He glares at us both as if we're criminals, in here because we got caught robbing a bank or something.

"All right, girl…" Kendall begins.

"My name is *not* girl," I interrupt quickly. My mother has taught me to detest being called 'kid' or 'girl'. I don't know why, but I really don't like it.

"And what is your name?" he asks sarcastically. I'm glad he didn't feel the need to add 'little girl' at the end of that. I almost expected it.

"Laura Emily Vaughn!" I spit back, just as hateful as he was sarcastic.

Brandon gives me a funny look.

"That's not our name Laurie," he says innocently.

"Hush, Brandon," I mumble. "He doesn't know our name used to be Vaughn. He only remembers us being the Jones's," I explain, despite the temptation not to.

"I know that," he says shortly. "What happened to your mother?"

I repeat the story again.

"Did you see the guy in the van?"

"No. Only Mom saw him."

"And she screamed?"

"Yes." I have to pause to stop the tears. "The first time she yelled, 'no'. Like someone grabbed her or something. The second time…I think they…hurt her."

"Mommy was scared before she made us go outside," Brandon pipes up. "I think she was gonna cry. I didn't think Mommy was scared of anything." His eyes are wide and him lower lip quivers.

Finally, he stars to cry. I pull him onto my lap and rock with him gently. I glare over Brandon's shoulder at Kendall. If only looks could kill…

"Can we go now?" I snap. "He's only a little kid. He shouldn't be here anyway."

"Stay here." Kendall gets up and leaves.

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Vaughn is already in the hall by the time Kendall steps out of the room.

"To be honest," Kendall says, "I haven't had anyone brave enough to use that tone with me since Agent Bristow left."

Vaughn ignores him and walks into the room. He sees Laura quickly wipe away tears before she turns around.

"You'll stay with me tonight," Vaughn says softly. "There's no way Kendall could keep you here, anyway."

He reaches out and puts his hand on Laura's shoulder. Laura shrugs it away and stands up quickly. Vaughn takes a sleepy Brandon from her. She doesn't object.

She's exhausted, he realizes. He reflects on how Sydney never would ask for help until the burden broke her.

Holding Brandon with one arm, he puts the other around Laura's shoulders and leads her out of the room.

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It takes me a few moments to figure out where I am when I wake up. Then I remember. I'm in Daddy's bedroom, and Brandon's curled up asleep beside me. Each of us is wearing one of Daddy's t-shirts, with swallows Brandon and hangs pretty loosely on me, too.

I get up slowly, so as not to wake my brother, and find the clothes I vaguely recall throwing over a chair the night before. As soon as I'm dressed, I go looking for Daddy. I can hear him moving around in the kitchen, and I smell coffee. I wander toward the smell.

"Morning!" he says cheerily as I walk in. "Like coffee?"

"Yeah. Mom let me try some when I was nine, and I've loved it ever since."

"Help yourself," he says, offering me a mug.

He's trying to scramble eggs, but they smell like they're burning.

I poor coffee in my mug and sit down at the little kitchen table. Feeling the hot liquid slip down my throat calms me somewhat.

"Where did you sleep last night? I only saw one bedroom," I comment."

"Couch," he says shortly, trying to scrape the blackened eggs off of the bottom of the pan.

"Oh! Brandon and I would have been fine on the floor…"

"Nonsense. Besides, I've slept in worse places."

Just then, I hear Brandon scream.

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Laura almost drops her mug of coffee as she jumps up to get her brother, and she does manage to slosh the drink all over the table.

Vaughn is so surprised that he flips the blob of eggs out of the pan onto the burner. They burn and set the smoke alarms off.

Laura brings Brandon into the kitchen a few minutes later, he too dressed in his clothes form the day before. She looks around, noting the smoky atmosphere. Vaughn is trying to wipe the remaining scorched egg off of the burner. She starts walking around the kitchen opening cabinets until she finds a box of strawberry breakfast bars that's never been opened. She throws the box at her father.

"Forget the eggs," she says with a grin. "I think they're a little overdone."

She gets a wet rag and wipes off the stove. When she notices Vaughn staring at her, she grins again.

"I seem to remember a Thanksgiving dinner that went something like this," she teases.

He grins too.

"It taught your mother not to let me cook," he laughs.

Laura laughs too. It feels good, even though she's very worried about her mother.

"You guys are going to need clothes," Vaughn says when they finally sit down to eat.

"You think?" Laura smirks as she looks down at her green streaked t-shirt.

"I thought we'd go back to your house so you can get some stuff. We won't be able to stay long, though."

"That's fine. It wouldn't take me long to pack us some stuff.

Vaughn glances at Brandon, who's picking apart his breakfast bar and making a mess, and lowers his voice.

"Should he go? I mean, Weiss will watch him while we're gone."

"He probably shouldn't, but I can't leave him alone. You wouldn't want to do that to your friend anyway. He's probably already decided never to watch us again," Laura says. "Besides, I would think you'd think he was unfit to keep us. You never know what we might pick up," she says, watching his reaction.

"You enjoyed that, you little monster," he says evenly.

"You bet I did." She notices a dark bruise on Vaughn's cheek. "What happened?"

He touches it gingerly.

"You should know. You did it. If I didn't know better, I'd suspect Sydney has been giving you lessons." He looks at her questioningly.

She laughs.

"I had a friend in Texas who took karate classes. Sometimes I'd meet up with him after a class and he'd show me some stuff. I could usual pick up a move right off, and I guess he got tired of me beating him, because he stopped letting me try the moves," she says, smiling slightly.

He smiles too.

"You got that from your mother. I've seen her take out men three times her size and twice her weight," he boasts.

Laura glances at her brother.

"Brandon, will you just eat that?" she scolds, eyeing the nearly destroyed breakfast bar.

"I don't like it. It's yucky," he whines.

"It's just like a Pop-Tart."

"This is yucky," he repeats.

Vaughn has noticed that his daughter still refers to him as she did at seven. He likes it in a way, as though they can make up for lost time. But in another way, it's scary for her to be as old as she is and still call him by the childhood name.

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At the same time the trio sits around the table, Sydney sits tied to a chair in a large, empty basement.

A man walks in.

"Does all this look familiar, Sydney? It should. You were right here, just fifteen years ago."

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Creepy, huh? What a cliffhanger! I pride myself on 'em, doncha know. (Anyone ever read the Redwall books by Brian Jacques? If so, you should get that. Basil Stag Hare rules!)

Okay, I'll be a good little fanfic writer and go work on my next evil cliffhanger J…