Lessons Learned
Disclaimer: Still don't own it.
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Vaughn is frantic. When he got home a little after five, no one was there. No Laura. No Brandon. No Weiss. When he found the picture album lying haphazardly on the floor, pages bent and torn, he called Kendall. Laura wouldn't have left it like that.
Now all he can do is wait for the investigators and evidence techs to arrive.
Sydney is missing.
Now so are his children and his best friend.
May be Sydney was wrong all those years ago when she said everyone she loved got hurt. May be it was he who was cursed all that time.
The team arrives much sooner than Vaughn expected. The only thing they find inside is the photo album; there are no fingerprints anywhere. Outside, they find an area where a fight obviously took place. Plants are crushed and bent, and there's a long stretch where an adult appeared to have been dragged along the ground. Weiss, Vaughn thinks grimly.
Not a single lead. Three more people are missing and they don't have a single lead.
Vaughn suddenly remembers the promise he made to Irina Derevko the night he took Laura to see her. He promised if anything happened he would tell her. So that's where he goes as opposed to hanging around the empty house.
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Irina Derevko sits on the floor with her back to the glass when Vaughn walks in. He stubbornly says nothing until she stands and turns to face him.
For once, she doesn't greet him with her characteristic self-satisfied smile. Instead, she wears a worried frown.
"Has something happened?" she asks softly, studying her face.
Vaughn nods, but it takes several moments before he manages to speak.
"Laura, Brandon and Weiss are missing," he says simply, fighting to keep his voice from cracking.
Irina's eyes widen and she gasps. It occurs to Vaughn that he's never gotten that much of a reaction from her before.
"What happened? How?" For the first time ever, he hears panic in her voice. She blinks back tears.
"I don't know. I came home, and they were gone!" he cries.
Irina turns and walks toward the opposite wall. She stares at it for a moment, then she takes a deep breath and returns to the window.
"When you told me Sydney was missing," she says softly, her voice surprisingly calm. "I was surprised, but not particularly worried. She knows how to handle Sloane." She swallows. "She knows how to stay alive. Eric Weiss is a capable agent, but he doesn't have a history of encounters with Sloane. Laura is smart and observant, but if she's as much like Sydney as I think she's impulsive. Brandon is still a baby almost." She looks intensely at Vaughn. "You have to find them, before it's too late."
A single tear rolls down her cheek.
"I know," Vaughn chokes out.
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The van stops after a long time. None of the three prisoners can give even an estimate of how long they rode.
The two men that initially abducted them are joined by two more men.
"I'll take the boy," the man with an interesting bruise around one eye and a slight limp says.
"Fine," one of the new guys says, watching the other two drag Weiss away. He's sure he can handle that slip of a girl.
He gets a big surprise when her elbow smashes into his nose. He, however, manages to sweep her feet out from under her before she does any further damage.
The man already sporting a black eye laughs and drags Brandon off.
The man yanks Laura up off the ground and waves a gun under her nose. "Try anything else, you little bitch, and I might just have to blow your brains out," he snarled.
She nods and swallows back the lump that formed in her throat.
Weiss is the first to reach the cement-lined room. With his hands still tied behind his back, he's shoved in to land face first on the hard floor. It knocks the air from his lungs, and he doesn't even try to move.
Next, Brandon is literally thrown in. he lands hard and screams.
Immediately after Brandon, Laura is shoved in. she trips over a still form, and at first she thinks it's Weiss. But when she turns her head he's beside her. Brandon is huddled in the corner with his eyes clamped tightly shut, as though by not seeing it he can ignore the horror they've been tossed into.
Laura sits up and unties Weiss's hands. He sits up shakily and the two of them turn at the same time to see the body lying motionless on the floor.
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The CIA team somehow managed to trace them as far as the van. Since Vaughn went to see Irina, he's not sure how, and he doesn't care. Once they got an APB out on the van, they'd traced it to a small town in Nevada.
Sitting in the town's only coffee shop, it occurs to Vaughn that a small town with few places to hide may not be an advantage. The close-knit community is not quick to talk to authorities. Three hours of twelve agents questioning everyone they saw had revealed nothing. One of the agents had managed to convince the dogged Vaughn to take a break; otherwise, he'd have stayed out there until someone turned up with Sydney.
Vaughn's spirits lift considerably when he notices one of the agents talking excitedly with one of the customers in the coffee shop. The man approaches Vaughn with a wide grin on his face.
"She says the van pulled in behind an old warehouse! I have directions!"
Vaughn snatches up one of the group's walkie-talkies.
"All agents to the coffee house in five minutes!" he snaps. "No exceptions!"
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"Mom!" "Sydney!" Laura and Weiss cry out simultaneously.
Despite both of their physical pain, they both scramble across the floor to Sydney.
"Is she okay?!?" Laura cries.
Weiss holds two fingers against her neck. "She's fine," he sighs with relief.
Just then, Sydney moans and opened her eyes. Her eyes widen when she takes in the faces hovering over her.
"Be still," Weiss orders, working to untie the gag while Laura unties her hands and feet.
"Laura?" Sydney gasps as soon as the gag is gone.
"Mom!"
Mother and daughter cling to each other for several moments, until Laura pulls back.
"Mom, what happened? Are you okay?" she cries.
"They drugged me," Sydney says slowly. "I'll be fine, as soon as it wears off."
Laura jumps up and kneels in front of her brother.
"Brandon, open your eyes. It's okay," she coaxes. "Open your eyes."
When he finally opens his eyes, he sits still as though he can't believe it.
"Mommy!" he shrieks, shooting across the small room and into her lap.
Sydney holds hi close, rocking back and forth gently. Then she looks closely at Weiss.
"Oh my God!" she mumbles, staring at the ugly bruises.
"I'm fine," he whispers hoarsely. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Not right now," she admits as Brandon crawled out of her lap. She leans her head back against the wall and closes her eyes. "Right now I feel like I could be sick."
"It's Sloane, isn't it?" he asks.
"Yes," she mumbles miserably. "I haven't seen him in a while, though. It could have been days."
"Your mother said he's still dangerous," Laura says suddenly. Sydney looks at her like she just remembered that her daughter should not know who Sloane is, and she should not have spoken with her mother.
"You…spoke…to Irina Derevko?" Sydney asks in disbelief.
Laura nods. "Daddy took me."
"What do you know about her?" Sydney asks cautiously.
"Not everything. There was something Daddy didn't tell me. Something about him," Laura says, hoping her mother would explain.
Sydney decides that, at this point, her daughter may as well know it all.
"She killed his father," she says in a low voice so raspy that Laura is unsure she heard correctly.
"My…grandmother…killed my…grandfather?" Laura says brokenly, trying to make sense of it.
"Yes. Michael and I had to live with that," Sydney says softly. "I think the only thing that kept us sane was that I hate her as much as he does."
"But you named me after her," Laura says dazedly.
"I told you, Laura. I named you after the mother I lost when I was six years old. After that, she was *not* my mother," Sydney says through clamped teeth.
Laura nods.
"We need to find a way out of here before they drug us all," Weiss says seriously looking back and forth between Laura and Sydney.
Sydney nods in agreement.
"I can't do much damage sober," Laura comments. "I'll be useless if they drug me."
"I wouldn't think you'd know how to do *any* damage," Sydney returns.
Laura glances to Weiss for help.
"Oh no," he says, holding up his hands. "You explain. Everything, that book included. And the shooting range. I'm going to try to figure out how to get out of here."
"What book?" Sydney asks quickly, before Laura has a chance to come up with a clever answer.
Laura proceeds to tell her mother about the gun book, the karate, the gym , the time spent at the shooting range, and, at a look from Weiss, the break in.
Sydney sits in a stunned silence through it all.
"Oh God," she murmurs to herself. "It won't end. Dad did it to me, but I didn't do anything. Why?" she asks, to Laura's relief finally talking to someone.
"I don't know," Laura mutters. "I just felt like I needed to know how to protect myself."
"Get up," Sydney orders, standing herself.
Laura obeys.
To both Laura and Weiss' amazement, Sydney started showing Laura the basic combat skills all new field recruits learn. They don't say anything, but it's clear to Weiss and Sydney that Laura knows many complicated techniques, but those are useless without the basics. Laura picks it up fast.
"Laura, don't fight unless you have to," Sydney says as the pair settles down on the floor. "There's no shame in running," she adds, even though she herself had seldom run away from a fight.
"I won't, "Laura says. "I've had my butt kicked twice today. That's enough to last me for a while. But it sure feels good to know you left him hurting, even if you lost," she adds, thinking about the guy she hit in LA.
"Sydney," Weiss interrupts. "Do you know where we are?"
"No," she replies, shaking her head. "I hoped you did."
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What will they do? Please review!
Aw, man. That rhymed! I hate when that happens…
Disclaimer: Still don't own it.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Vaughn is frantic. When he got home a little after five, no one was there. No Laura. No Brandon. No Weiss. When he found the picture album lying haphazardly on the floor, pages bent and torn, he called Kendall. Laura wouldn't have left it like that.
Now all he can do is wait for the investigators and evidence techs to arrive.
Sydney is missing.
Now so are his children and his best friend.
May be Sydney was wrong all those years ago when she said everyone she loved got hurt. May be it was he who was cursed all that time.
The team arrives much sooner than Vaughn expected. The only thing they find inside is the photo album; there are no fingerprints anywhere. Outside, they find an area where a fight obviously took place. Plants are crushed and bent, and there's a long stretch where an adult appeared to have been dragged along the ground. Weiss, Vaughn thinks grimly.
Not a single lead. Three more people are missing and they don't have a single lead.
Vaughn suddenly remembers the promise he made to Irina Derevko the night he took Laura to see her. He promised if anything happened he would tell her. So that's where he goes as opposed to hanging around the empty house.
******************************************************************************************
Irina Derevko sits on the floor with her back to the glass when Vaughn walks in. He stubbornly says nothing until she stands and turns to face him.
For once, she doesn't greet him with her characteristic self-satisfied smile. Instead, she wears a worried frown.
"Has something happened?" she asks softly, studying her face.
Vaughn nods, but it takes several moments before he manages to speak.
"Laura, Brandon and Weiss are missing," he says simply, fighting to keep his voice from cracking.
Irina's eyes widen and she gasps. It occurs to Vaughn that he's never gotten that much of a reaction from her before.
"What happened? How?" For the first time ever, he hears panic in her voice. She blinks back tears.
"I don't know. I came home, and they were gone!" he cries.
Irina turns and walks toward the opposite wall. She stares at it for a moment, then she takes a deep breath and returns to the window.
"When you told me Sydney was missing," she says softly, her voice surprisingly calm. "I was surprised, but not particularly worried. She knows how to handle Sloane." She swallows. "She knows how to stay alive. Eric Weiss is a capable agent, but he doesn't have a history of encounters with Sloane. Laura is smart and observant, but if she's as much like Sydney as I think she's impulsive. Brandon is still a baby almost." She looks intensely at Vaughn. "You have to find them, before it's too late."
A single tear rolls down her cheek.
"I know," Vaughn chokes out.
******************************************************************************************
The van stops after a long time. None of the three prisoners can give even an estimate of how long they rode.
The two men that initially abducted them are joined by two more men.
"I'll take the boy," the man with an interesting bruise around one eye and a slight limp says.
"Fine," one of the new guys says, watching the other two drag Weiss away. He's sure he can handle that slip of a girl.
He gets a big surprise when her elbow smashes into his nose. He, however, manages to sweep her feet out from under her before she does any further damage.
The man already sporting a black eye laughs and drags Brandon off.
The man yanks Laura up off the ground and waves a gun under her nose. "Try anything else, you little bitch, and I might just have to blow your brains out," he snarled.
She nods and swallows back the lump that formed in her throat.
Weiss is the first to reach the cement-lined room. With his hands still tied behind his back, he's shoved in to land face first on the hard floor. It knocks the air from his lungs, and he doesn't even try to move.
Next, Brandon is literally thrown in. he lands hard and screams.
Immediately after Brandon, Laura is shoved in. she trips over a still form, and at first she thinks it's Weiss. But when she turns her head he's beside her. Brandon is huddled in the corner with his eyes clamped tightly shut, as though by not seeing it he can ignore the horror they've been tossed into.
Laura sits up and unties Weiss's hands. He sits up shakily and the two of them turn at the same time to see the body lying motionless on the floor.
******************************************************************************************
The CIA team somehow managed to trace them as far as the van. Since Vaughn went to see Irina, he's not sure how, and he doesn't care. Once they got an APB out on the van, they'd traced it to a small town in Nevada.
Sitting in the town's only coffee shop, it occurs to Vaughn that a small town with few places to hide may not be an advantage. The close-knit community is not quick to talk to authorities. Three hours of twelve agents questioning everyone they saw had revealed nothing. One of the agents had managed to convince the dogged Vaughn to take a break; otherwise, he'd have stayed out there until someone turned up with Sydney.
Vaughn's spirits lift considerably when he notices one of the agents talking excitedly with one of the customers in the coffee shop. The man approaches Vaughn with a wide grin on his face.
"She says the van pulled in behind an old warehouse! I have directions!"
Vaughn snatches up one of the group's walkie-talkies.
"All agents to the coffee house in five minutes!" he snaps. "No exceptions!"
******************************************************************************************
"Mom!" "Sydney!" Laura and Weiss cry out simultaneously.
Despite both of their physical pain, they both scramble across the floor to Sydney.
"Is she okay?!?" Laura cries.
Weiss holds two fingers against her neck. "She's fine," he sighs with relief.
Just then, Sydney moans and opened her eyes. Her eyes widen when she takes in the faces hovering over her.
"Be still," Weiss orders, working to untie the gag while Laura unties her hands and feet.
"Laura?" Sydney gasps as soon as the gag is gone.
"Mom!"
Mother and daughter cling to each other for several moments, until Laura pulls back.
"Mom, what happened? Are you okay?" she cries.
"They drugged me," Sydney says slowly. "I'll be fine, as soon as it wears off."
Laura jumps up and kneels in front of her brother.
"Brandon, open your eyes. It's okay," she coaxes. "Open your eyes."
When he finally opens his eyes, he sits still as though he can't believe it.
"Mommy!" he shrieks, shooting across the small room and into her lap.
Sydney holds hi close, rocking back and forth gently. Then she looks closely at Weiss.
"Oh my God!" she mumbles, staring at the ugly bruises.
"I'm fine," he whispers hoarsely. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Not right now," she admits as Brandon crawled out of her lap. She leans her head back against the wall and closes her eyes. "Right now I feel like I could be sick."
"It's Sloane, isn't it?" he asks.
"Yes," she mumbles miserably. "I haven't seen him in a while, though. It could have been days."
"Your mother said he's still dangerous," Laura says suddenly. Sydney looks at her like she just remembered that her daughter should not know who Sloane is, and she should not have spoken with her mother.
"You…spoke…to Irina Derevko?" Sydney asks in disbelief.
Laura nods. "Daddy took me."
"What do you know about her?" Sydney asks cautiously.
"Not everything. There was something Daddy didn't tell me. Something about him," Laura says, hoping her mother would explain.
Sydney decides that, at this point, her daughter may as well know it all.
"She killed his father," she says in a low voice so raspy that Laura is unsure she heard correctly.
"My…grandmother…killed my…grandfather?" Laura says brokenly, trying to make sense of it.
"Yes. Michael and I had to live with that," Sydney says softly. "I think the only thing that kept us sane was that I hate her as much as he does."
"But you named me after her," Laura says dazedly.
"I told you, Laura. I named you after the mother I lost when I was six years old. After that, she was *not* my mother," Sydney says through clamped teeth.
Laura nods.
"We need to find a way out of here before they drug us all," Weiss says seriously looking back and forth between Laura and Sydney.
Sydney nods in agreement.
"I can't do much damage sober," Laura comments. "I'll be useless if they drug me."
"I wouldn't think you'd know how to do *any* damage," Sydney returns.
Laura glances to Weiss for help.
"Oh no," he says, holding up his hands. "You explain. Everything, that book included. And the shooting range. I'm going to try to figure out how to get out of here."
"What book?" Sydney asks quickly, before Laura has a chance to come up with a clever answer.
Laura proceeds to tell her mother about the gun book, the karate, the gym , the time spent at the shooting range, and, at a look from Weiss, the break in.
Sydney sits in a stunned silence through it all.
"Oh God," she murmurs to herself. "It won't end. Dad did it to me, but I didn't do anything. Why?" she asks, to Laura's relief finally talking to someone.
"I don't know," Laura mutters. "I just felt like I needed to know how to protect myself."
"Get up," Sydney orders, standing herself.
Laura obeys.
To both Laura and Weiss' amazement, Sydney started showing Laura the basic combat skills all new field recruits learn. They don't say anything, but it's clear to Weiss and Sydney that Laura knows many complicated techniques, but those are useless without the basics. Laura picks it up fast.
"Laura, don't fight unless you have to," Sydney says as the pair settles down on the floor. "There's no shame in running," she adds, even though she herself had seldom run away from a fight.
"I won't, "Laura says. "I've had my butt kicked twice today. That's enough to last me for a while. But it sure feels good to know you left him hurting, even if you lost," she adds, thinking about the guy she hit in LA.
"Sydney," Weiss interrupts. "Do you know where we are?"
"No," she replies, shaking her head. "I hoped you did."
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What will they do? Please review!
Aw, man. That rhymed! I hate when that happens…
