Connections

Disclaimer: I do not own Alias, so leave me alone.

A/N: Yay! I'm sooo glad to be back! Thanks for all the reviews while I was gone!

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"Move in on Agent Vaughn's signal," Kendall's voice comes over the headset.

Vaughn's task is to enter the New York hotel and confirm the location of the entrance to the basement.

Vaughn feels as though there are mammoth butterflies in his stomach as he tries to appear to be walking calmly through the hotel. He's praying to find Sydney, yet he somehow knows they won't.

"Move!" he says quietly upon finding the door marked clearly "Basement: Authorized Personnel Only".

A dozen agents with concealed weapons slip into the upscale hotel. As they enter the basement, though, it's obvious no one's there.

Vaughn's disappointment, despite no expectations, is so acute that it's almost enough to make him sick. But they have a job to do. They have to look for evidence of a former inhabitance, whether Sydney was ever there or not.

They find the only clue by complete chance. In the bathroom, one of the female agents finds the phrase "Sydney B. was here" scratched into the door. To anyone who did not recognize the name, it appeared to be the work of some vandalistic teenager.

The entire basement offers no clue, not a single lead. Only the fact that Sydney was there at some point offers any comfort, and not much at that.

Vaughn finds it hard to conceal his emotions on the return flight with the other agents. He eventually starts to worry about what to tell Laura. She knew where he was going, and she's going to expect him to bring her mother home.

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"Weiss?"

It's late, and he thought I went to bed a long time ago. I only went into the den and went through the motions of trying to sleep, never actually closing my eyes, let alone sleep.

"What is it?" He's startled. I think he was about to doze off.

"When is Daddy supposed to get back?"

"I'm not sure, kiddo." I wince, but I don't correct him. "It'll be late, though. You should try to get some sleep."

I shake my head.

"I can't sleep. I'm worried about Mom," I admit, sitting across the kitchen table from him.

"I know. I am too. She'll be okay, though. Syd's smart. She'll get away somehow."

"I hope so. But it's been a long time since she's been an agent. I know it's been at least ten years; ever since I can remember she's stayed at home or worked at either my or Brandon's school."

"That's true, but your mom's…different."

What was he going to say? That *certainly* wasn't it.

"How so?" I press.

"You ever hear about the time your mom shot the windows out of a jet in order to escape and gained information that shut down an illegal organization?" he asks, grinning. Somehow I feel like he just changed the subject and left me with no way to get back to the original one.

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When Vaughn pulls into his own driveway, it's long after midnight. In fact, it's almost three a.m. he walks into the house to find Weiss asleep in a kitchen chair.

That can't be comfortable, he thinks.

Vaughn smacks Weiss in the back of the head and he wakes with a start.

"You are supposed to be protecting them," Vaughn says simply.

"I was awake!" Weiss claims.

"You were not. How are they?"

"Brandon's fine, he went right to sleep. Laura's…nervous. She only went to bed less than an hour ago. She really wanted to wait up for you. I promised her you'd wake her up where you got here. I spent four hours telling her stories about Syd's various missions. I think I left out most of the parts where she almost got killed, especially in the ones about her saving your butt."

Vaughn smacks his friend again.

"I hate to wake her up if she just went to sleep…" Vaughn starts.

"Do it. If she finds out you didn't do it, she'll blame it on me. And we have a truce at the moment." Weiss is only half joking.

"Okay, man, thanks. I owe you."

"You bet. Now go wake your daughter. She'll be relieved to see you. She never actually said it, but she was worried about you, too.

"You think?"

"Yeah. I do."

Vaughn walks into the den and crouches beside where Laura is sleeping on the floor.

"Laurie, I'm back."

"Daddy!" she cries softly, throwing her arms around his neck. "What happened?"

Vaughn looks down at the floor.

"Come on in the kitchen, we'll talk in there."

Laura rises and follows him silently, suddenly nervous.

"So what happened?" she repeats once she and her father are seated at the table with Weiss.

Vaughn puts his arm around Laura comfortingly.

"She was gone. She'd been there at one time, but she was gone by the time we got there. I'm sorry, Laurie," he adds as she starts to cry.

"No! No!" she sobs, pulling back and staring wide-eyed at Vaughn.

He hugs her gently and lets her cry.

"I'm so sorry," he whispers.

"I should have know!" she sobs against Vaughn's shoulder. "I'm never gonna see Momma again!"

Vaughn hates to see her like this, but he doesn't have the heart to tell her she'll see her mother again, when he himself has the same fear, but based on *evidence*.

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It must be nearly six AM. Daddy and I sat up for a long time, even after Weiss left. I can't believe Mom was there just hours ago, but now she's gone again and the CIA has no idea where. I'm so scared that I'll never see her again.

The whole time I was crying after Daddy told me what happened, I think he was crying too. We never said anything, but we didn't have to. We have the kind of connection that you can only have with you father. If nothing else good came out of that, at least now I know Daddy will tell me what's going on, whether I want to hear it or not.

I hope they find Mom so we can all be a family again.

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I couldn't think of any other way to end this chapter, so here it is. I guess, in a way, it's appropriate.

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