To Grandmother's House

Disclaimer: Nope, Alias isn't mine. But if someone wants me to take it off his hands…

A/N: I had to re-type this entire chapter, so it took a little longer for me to update than I planned. Sorry! _____________________________________________________________________________________

Vaughn snatches up the telephone receiver angrily. He was in the middle of dinner with his long lost kids, for crying out loud…

"Agent Vaughn." It's Kendall. The guy sure knows how to ruin a good meal. "I wanted to inform you that the team found nothing new in San Francisco. But we will be following up on Derevko's intell. She's been a reliable source in the past."

"Thank you," Vaughn says, hanging up quickly.

"What was that?" Laura asks swiftly.

"Kendall. He wanted to tell me he was following up on a new lead." He sees her pressing look. "It doesn't look promising," he admits.

Her face falls.

"Oh."

"Laurie," Vaughn says gently, "We'll find her, somehow. Sydney's smart. She'll help us find her."

Laura bites her lip and nods.

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"What about my grandmother?" I ask a while later.

"What about her?" Daddy asks nervously. I can tell he doesn't like the direction this conversation is going.

"I…I'd like to see her."

"She is in custody." His voice is toneless.

"So? Can I?"

"Yes," he says after a long pause. "But Brandon's too young."

I nod. "When?"

"I can arrange it for tonight," he sighs.

"Who'll watch Brandon? He can't stay alone."

"I'll have Weiss meet us at the op center. He'll watch him."

"Weiss?" I bite my tongue. "Okay."

The conversation, as a whole, is solemn and awkward. To anyone else, it would have seemed very strange that visiting a grandmother is such a sensitive topic. But I've come to realize that these conversations are anything but unusual in my family.

"Watch him, would you?"

Weiss looks up in surprise when Daddy speaks to him. I roll my eyes.

"Uh, sure thing. Hey kid," he says uncertainly.

As Daddy and I want down the hall to my grandmother's cell, my whole body begins to tremble. I'm about to come face to face with my grandmother, the international terrorist.

"Stand here, Laurie," Daddy says, leaving me out of view from the cell.

He walks up to the glass and says something to the woman inside. He doesn't look happy, and it seems to be more than the fact that she's a criminal. It seems more…personal, as though she's done something to him. Finally, he motions for me to come forward.

I walk slowly, suddenly afraid my legs won't hold me anymore. After what seems like years, I turn to face her.

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Derevko stares tenderly at Sydney's little girl. She notices that Laura looks exactly like Sydney, but with those striking green eyes.

"Laura," she says softly.

Laura doesn't know what to say. She *just* found out this woman was alive.

Derevko smiles at the speechless girl.

"I haven't seen you since you were a year old," she adds.

"Do…do you know where my mom is?" Laura stutters.

Derevko's smile fades away.

"No, I don't," she says sadly.

"Who has her? Why?"

"Arvin Sloane." Derevko spits the name out like it tastes bad. "He wants revenge. She got away last time."

"Who is he?"

"He's the man your mother worked for at Sd-6. He's dangerous," she says, realizing that Laura is too much like Sydney to accept anything but the truth.

"Will he…Will he hurt my mom?" Laura says, swallowing over the lump forming in her throat.

Derevko hangs her head.

"If he has reason," Derevko says quietly.

Laura swallows again.

"Do you think I'll ever see mom again?" she asks, her voice cracking. She fixes Derevko with a glare, although it is more of a pleading look.

Derevko looks Laura straight in the eye and holds her gaze for several moments before answering.

"Yes. Sydney is smart enough to get away from Sloane," she says, hoping she sounds sure of it herself.

Tears pool in Laura's eyes as she stares at her grandmother, and when she can no longer keep them from spilling over she spins and runs back up the hall, rounding the corner and collapsing against the wall sobbing. She is unaware that her mother spent time in the exact same spot.

Vaughn chases after his daughter, and he doesn't see the single tear slip down Irina Derevko's cheek as she watches them go.

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I'm scared now. I don't know why. My grandmother said she thought my mother could escape from Arvin Sloane. May be it's knowing that he's dangerous, and my mother hasn't been an agent in a long time.

When I voice this fear to Daddy in the hall while he tries to get me to calm down, he tells me that agents never stop being agents. I'm not sure exactly what that means. I know he means it to be comforting, but somehow it is not.

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Sydney finds herself tied to another chair in an unfamiliar basement. She's still wearing the floral dress, but the red wig has disappeared.

She's not sure where she is. All she knows for sure is that it's a large city, most likely an American city. Sloane did a good job of keeping her form seeing any landmarks that she might recognize.

Her only hope is the message.

She managed to get away from Sloane for roughly a minute upstairs on the pretence of going to the restroom. No respectable uncle could follow his niece in *there* without raising suspicions. She left a message scratched on the door of one of the stalls. She can only hope the right people see it.

The people upstairs were well dressed. That is all she knows about the building she's in.

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Oooooh, don't you just hate me? My my, what *is* going on?

Hehehe…