Title: Trying Normal Chapter 3
Author: UConn Fan (Michele)
E-Mail: LoveUConnBasketball@yahoo.com
Story Summary: "Can I be normal?"
He shrugged, "what does normal mean anyway? You can be happy though, and that's about as close to normal as anyone can hope for." (Sequel to "Coming to Terms")
This Chapter: Vaughn's back to work, and we encounter Sloane for the first time in this story.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own ANY of these characters; they belong to Bad Robot, ABC, and the brilliant J.J. Abrams. Nor do I own anything remotely recognizable.
Sorry this chapter's so short.
A/N: There were two things that I noticed I got criticized on for "Coming to Terms", and I felt I should explain them now. Not that you guys weren't right in criticizing me, but I wanted to clarify some stuff, that's all :)
You didn't see a significant (actually, basically none, although there was the scene in the hotel after Vaughn's bday) romantic interaction between S/V because I was writing it like you'd see it on the show. Let's face it, if that ever happened and Sydney got pregnant, J.J. would probably pull a CC and not let us see much, if anything, instead let us read between the lines. Alias is a LOT about reading between the lines, and I think that's part of the beauty. If my fanfic is able to portray any of that, then I'm thrilled.
Duh= pull a CC=not confirm a relationship between the babies parents. Still P.O.'ed about that
Truth be known, I do believe the end of SD-6 will be far more violent then I portrayed it. However, I'm not particularly good at violence; I'm driven by characters and character interaction. I do believe that it's a pretty decent idea to pull apart the Alliance one cell at a time and if that ever happened, the other cells would probably start to fall under the weight of their own corruption (or they might start to fall under the weight of their own corruption & distrust between the Alliance members even if the cells weren't strategically eliminated).
Hope that settles some questions.
Oh . . Yeah, I have SOME experience with how Brigitte might have felt in regards to Vaughn not telling her about Jackie. I have a half sister who I didn't even know was on the way until the day before she was born, and I had asked my Father about it MONTHS before (I got this mysterious e-mail . . . don't ask, long story) and he said that nothing of the sort was happening. So, it might seem like a weird reaction, but I don't think Brigitte would hold it against her son. One, a Mother's love ISN'T like that, and there comes a point in your life where you just have to let sleeping dogs lie. Things are as they are, and past mistakes aren't going to disappear just because your still holding a grudge about it. I accepted that truth at twelve, I'd like to believe that by the middle of her life, Brigitte would accept it as well. Particularly as a Mother; that's probably the hardest part about being a Mother (and as a slight control freak, the one I'm not looking forwad to), you can love your children and give them your morals and beliefs, etc., but at the end of the day it's THEIR life and you just have to love, accept and do your best to guide them.
Did I mention that I don't have any children? Like I said, I have experience in regards to my half sister, but I've never been mother; well, except to Phoebe and regardless of what she think's she's only a dog . . just my 0.02
Dedication: (like this isn't long enough) This is dedicated to Sarah and Asha, both of which I seriously owe like twenty years worth of e-mail to, Dream Writer 4 Life, Agent Otter, Silver Charm, Kris, Sam, ShadowGoddess (who is also a kick ass writer in her own right) for reviewing "The Lightkeeper" and being all such very sweet people!
"Daddy really doesn't want to go back to work," Michael confessed to his daughter as he fed her early Monday morning. Setting two bagels on the table, Sydney sat down across from him and smiled.
"Don't you wish we were independently wealthy?" she teased.
Looking up at Sydney, he met her eyes and let out a sad sigh. "How am I going to make it through the day?"
"You like your job," she reminded him with a smile.
"I love you and Jackie," he shot back.
"We'll be here when you get home," she pointed out as Donovan lazily strolled into the room, sniffing his master's feet before getting a drink of water. "So will Donovan."
"I don't know how you went back to work so soon Syd," he commented as he looked back down at his daughter.
"It wasn't easy," she agreed, taking a sip of her orange juice. "Thank you," she said softly.
"For what?" He glanced up at her, one eyebrow raised in confusion.
"Allowing me to stay home with her."
"You're her mother Syd, if you want to be with her then that's where you belong. Anyway, at least one parent should always be accessible to a child, especially in the first year," he recited. He laughed at her confused reaction before he added, "Charlotte told me that when she explained why she was taking a year long sabbatical from her practice when she was pregnant."
"Is your sister our primary source of child-rearing advice?" she asked, her dimples flaring at her question.
"Do you have a better source?" he smirked.
"No," she conceded as both laughed.
Growing serious, he set down the bottle and brought his daughter's chin to rest on his shoulder. Running his hand over her small back, he started to burp her and looked over at his breakfast companion. "My mother had a good point last night."
"About what?"
"We need someplace to live Syd," he sighed. "We certainly can't live at my place, and to be honest, I'd really like to raise Jackie someplace where she has a lawn to play in."
"So we'll move," she shrugged. His face tilted and his brow wrinkled in confusion. "What?"
"I didn't think you liked moving."
"I don't. I don't think *anyone* likes moving," she pointed out. "You're right though, we can't continue to live here and Jackie does deserve a yard to play in."
The phone rang before he could get in a reply. Standing, Sydney walked over to answer it as he continued to try and burp their stubborn daughter. "Hello?"
"Hey Syd," Will greeted. Turning towards Mike, she mouthed that it was Will and he nodded in understanding.
"What's up?" she asked, not wanting to mention anything in particular, just in case he had decided not to propose at the last minute.
"Do you and Mike have any plans? Jennie and I were hoping to come over."
"I don't think we have any plans. Tonight sounds great. What about Francie and Charlie?"
"They'll probably come over too. We just figured it was easier, that way you don't have to travel with all of Jackie's stuff . . . But hey, if you've got plans or you're just -"
"Will, it's fine," she insisted. "Come on by tonight. I'll make dinner too. We'll see you tonight okay?"
"Thanks Syd," he replied before she hung up the phone.
Hanging up, Sydney smiled at Jackie, who had finished burping and was following her mother with her eyes. That was, among a handful of other things, one of the new tricks that she had recently discovered how to perform. Waving across the room to her daughter, both parents were delighted when Jackie cooed; drool dribbling down her chin as she smiled.
"You're one messy kid," Mike gently teased, grabbing a spit rag and gently wiping his daughter's chin. "You're one messy, cute little baby," he whispered, bending down and pressing kisses against his daughter's plush cheeks and tiny nose. "You are the cutest little girl ever, and I love you, yes I do, I love you so much," he promised her, taking her little hand over his pointer finger and kissing it.
Realizing what time it was, Sydney sat down at the table and smiled at him. "When I started back at work I found out one really wonderful thing about my day," she confessed as he looked at her, his eyebrows up in confusion.
"What?"
"I got to come home to Jackie," she smiled.
Sighing, he smiled and stood. "Daddy's got to go to work honey," he explained. Kissing his daughter's cheek, he handed her over to Sydney. "I love you," he whispered against her lips before kissing Sydney.
"Love you," she smiled as he grabbed his suit jacket. She held Jackie close and watched him as he slipped his arms into his jacket. "Have a good day at work." She smiled and the two of them shared a laugh at how typical they sounded. Grabbing his keys off of the counter, he kissed her one more time and gently touched his daughter's baby-soft wisps of hair before walking out of the house.
A handful of hours later he found himself sitting in his office, catching up on missed paperwork. Despite modern technology and computers, there was no way of avoiding the paperwork that faced him whenever he was out of the office for more than a two-day weekend. Eyeing his desk, he smiled at the lone picture on it: a newly placed photo of Sydney and Jackie smiling from the previous week that he'd spent with them. The photo was also one of the first smiles Jackie had ever consciously made, and it was a memory he wanted to remember forever.
Eric stepped into the office without notice, shutting the door behind him. "So you're marrying Sydney?"
Sitting back in his desk chair, Michael pinched the bridge of his nose before looking at his best friend. "How'd you find out?"
"Please, this place should be called the Central Gossip Agency," he snorted. Picking up the new picture frame, a grunt of approval escaped him when he looked at the picture. "It's about time this showed up on your desk."
"Don't you have work to do?" he asked as his best friend shrugged. "Who told you about Sydney and I?"
"Daley," he replied, referring to another agent in their department.
"How the hell did he find out?"
"Got me," he shrugged. "It's great news Mike, I was just wondering if you ever planned on telling me yourself or whether I was supposed to find out the date and the location through the agency's gossip mill too."
"No, but I just told my mother yesterday."
"What did my dear and lovely Brigitte think of Ms. Bristow?"
"Once my mother finished her tirade, she appeared to really like Sydney. She enjoys having a new granddaughter," he remembered as Eric smiled. "There's a Tupperware container of leftover chicken cordon bleu in the refrigerator for you at Syd's place. You can follow me after work and get it."
"You're living with her already?"
"What did you think I've been doing the last week? I haven't officially moved in, I just have a few things there, but we do plan on buying a house soon."
"Very domestic," Eric noted.
"Yes, thank you."
"I actually came here for a reason," he remembered. Michael looked at him expectantly. "Jack's in Devlin's office and they want to talk to you."
"You should have said something sooner," he reprimanded his friend, getting out of his seat and walking out of the room.
Walking in, he was relieved that neither Jack nor Devlin looked particularly agitated with him. Instead, they silently waited for him to sit before Jack spoke. "What we are about to ask you is completely optional. But we did feel it was only... appropriate, to give you the opportunity."
Michael felt his forehead crease in concern. "I'm sorry, am I under suspicion for something?"
"No, nothing like that Agent Vaughn," Devlin assured him. "Actually we were hoping you might be interested in doing something for the agency."
"What?"
"We've discovered that there is a safe hidden somewhere in Sloane's office in the Credit Dauphine building. We believe that there are diskettes and documents in the safe that could aid us in prosecuting key members of the Alliance. There are, however, concerns that opening the safe would set off charges of C-4 that are located throughout the building," Jack explained.
"I'm sorry, I don't understand. Why not deactivate the C-4 and open the safe?"
"The problem, Agent Vaughn, is that we don't know where in the room the safe is located. In fact, no one other than Arvin Sloane knows, and so far he isn't talking," Devlin explained.
"Who's been in with him?"
"I have, as well as several other agents," Devlin explained. "We decided against sending Jack in to speak to him. So far no one is aware that Sydney and Jack were the SD-6 moles, and we'd like to insure that it stays that way."
"You want me to speak to him?"
"Given your... connection to SD-6, we thought you might be interested in speaking to him face to face."
"I don't know why he'd speak to me if he won't speak to anyone else, but I'll try," he shrugged.
Ten minutes later he was being led to the solitary cells. Thanking the guard, he stepped towards the viewing window. Arvin Sloane sat on a metal cot in a black jumpsuit, looking just as miserable as Michael had hoped he would. When he realized he had company, Sloane approached the window. The first thing that struck him was how small in stature Sloane was, and how outwardly harmless he appeared to be. His experience with Sydney and with the CIA however, had left him unable to forget Sloane's sins, including the great pain the man before him had caused his family.
"Are you my attorney?"
"No," he shook his head. "We believe that there is a safe in your office that if opened without deactivation, will set off charges of C-4."
"What about Emily?"
Michael looked at him. If he had sympathy for anyone, it was a tug of sympathy for Emily Sloane. For whatever reason, Emily loved the evil man before him with all of her heart. Somewhere in the back of his mind he supposed everyone deserved someone to love him or her like that, regardless of how they were to the rest of the world. "Do you know the location of this safe and how to deactivate the explosives?"
"I want to see my wife."
"Do you know the location of the safe and how to deactivate the explosives?"
Cocking his head slightly, the aged man gave Michael a smile that sent shivers up his back. "I know who you are. You're Michael Vaughn. You're Jacqueline Bristow's father."
Despite his training, he was unable to stop the shocked _expression that briefly flitted across his face, before he once again slipped on a mask of indifference. "I will ask you one more time sir, where is the location of this safe and how do we deactivate the explosives?"
"No," he chuckled. "I don't tell anyone anything until I see my wife."
Turning around Mike walked out started towards the observation area. Walking into the area, he wasn't surprised to see Eric, Jack and Devlin closely watching the screen displaying Sloane. Meeting Jack's gaze, he felt his jaw stiffen before he spoke, "How does he know who I am?"
"Sydney must have blown her cover," Eric commented as Mike bit back a nasty remark.
"I'll have security section review SD-6's security tapes to see if he made any calls for a hit on Sydney," Ben offered as he picked up a phone.
Jack stepped towards the younger man and awkwardly placed a hand on his shoulder. "Regardless of what Arvin might have ordered, none of it is active anymore. The only resources he had left were what he had at SD-6, so there is no concern that another chapter of the Alliance is watching her." Jack reassured him, reading the clearly written worry lines that were drawn on Michael's face.
"I don't want *anyone* saying *anything* to Sydney until we find out *exactly* what Sloane knows and when he found it out," Mike demanded as his future father-in-law nodded his agreement. "I want to be briefed the moment we hear *anything*," he continued, before turning around and walking away.
"Where the hell is he going?" Ben asked.
"He's going to call Sydney," Jack informed them before they began their work.
In her warm, inviting apartment, Sydney sat singing to Jackie. Resting her daughter on her bent knees, she played with her daughter's tiny toes and sang 'This Little Piggy' as Jackie laughed in amusement. She wasn't entirely sure what her daughter found so funny, the fact that she was tickling the bottoms of her tiny feet, or her attempts to sing to her daughter, but either way she was laughing.
The phone rang, breaking her song. Kissing her daughter's forehead, she reached over to grab the cordless phone. "Hello?"
"Hey Syd," Michael's warm, soothing voice responded.
"Hi, what's wrong?" she asked, easily picking up on the worried undercurrent in his voice.
"Nothing's wrong, I just wanted to see how you and Jackie were doing."
"You're sure?"
"Everything's fine Syd, how's Jackie?"
"She's fine." She made a silly face at her daughter and seconds later Mike was able to hear the baby's giggles in the background.
"I miss you both."
"We miss you too, but you'll be home in just a few hours," she reminded him. "Hey, don't forget that Will, Jennie, Charlie and Francie are coming over tonight."
"I haven't. Eric's probably going to follow me home, so he can come in and get the leftovers my mom sent."
"That's fine. He can meet Jackie then too," she pointed out.
"I'm sure he'll love that," he chuckled.
"Are you sure everything is okay at work?"
"It's fine," he assured her. The last thing he wanted to do was alarm her. She deserved normalcy, a lifetime of lazy mornings around the house with Jackie and Donovan. More than that, however, he wanted to be the one to give her that normalcy, more than anything in the world.
"We'll see you tonight."
"Yes, you will," he agreed. "Syd?"
"Yeah?"
"Do me a favor?"
"What?"
"Don't do much today. Just... relax. Spend some time with Jackie. Charlotte and my mom have told me that ABC soap operas are the best, maybe give them a try," he playfully suggested as she laughed.
"I'll do that. Love you."
"I love you too," he spoke softly with a smile before hanging up.
Later that afternoon Sydney sat in the living room with Jackie. The baby sat cuddled up in the bouncer and her mother sat on the floor in front of her. Bending down, she planted a light kiss her daughter's tiny feet, hoping to keep her awake until everyone got there to see her. "Stay with me here Jackie," she gently commanded as she met her daughter's eyes, already the same amazing shade of green as her father's. Brightly smiling at her daughter, she turned back towards the book in her hand, reading "Guess How Much I Love You" to the baby. In the middle of the book, her reading was interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell. "Who could that be?" she asked her daughter, tickling the soles of Jackie's tiny feet before she propelled herself off of the ground and to her feet.
Opening the door she was surprised - and slightly relieved - to find her father there. "Dad."
"Sydney," he nodded slightly and entered the house. "How are you?"
"I'm fine, is everything okay?"
"Of course," he assured her before bending down to meet his granddaughter's eyes. "Hello Jackie, hello sweetheart," he gently welcomed her, smiling as the baby held tightly to his finger.
"Dad." Sydney carefully sat down on the floor next to him. "Are you sure everything's alright?"
"Everything is fine Sydney, I just came by to see my daughter and granddaughter," he explained. Picking up the book she was just reading, he offered his daughter a slightly amused twitch of his otherwise blank face. "I'm glad to see you're enjoying your time off."
"Jackie and I are having fun."
"You both deserve this time together," he agreed.
"Dad." She perched herself on the edge of the sofa cushion and looked at her father, who remained on the floor in front of the bouncer. "Yesterday Mike and I went to his mother's house for dinner," she carefully started, neatly folding her hands in front of her.
"Yes?" Jack asked, uncertain of where his daughter was heading.
Brushing hair behind her ear, she decided it would be best to skip over the understandably rocky beginnings she had had with the Vaughn family. "We told her that we were going to get married, and Brigitte - that's Mike's mother - invited us all back to dinner there this Sunday. Including you."
Jack looked straight forward at his granddaughter for a still moment in time before he nodded slightly, "I see."
"You obviously don't -"
"Sydney, I will be there," he quickly assured her. Truth be known, Jack would rather infiltrate K-Directorate than have to sit through a traditional family dinner, but if it made his daughter and granddaughter happy, he'd suffer through anything.
Meeting her father's eyes for the first time since his arrival, she smiled. "Thank you." Jack gave another stiff nod as she stood. "So are you hungry?" she offered, picking Jackie up and leading her father into the kitchen.
Author: UConn Fan (Michele)
E-Mail: LoveUConnBasketball@yahoo.com
Story Summary: "Can I be normal?"
He shrugged, "what does normal mean anyway? You can be happy though, and that's about as close to normal as anyone can hope for." (Sequel to "Coming to Terms")
This Chapter: Vaughn's back to work, and we encounter Sloane for the first time in this story.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own ANY of these characters; they belong to Bad Robot, ABC, and the brilliant J.J. Abrams. Nor do I own anything remotely recognizable.
Sorry this chapter's so short.
A/N: There were two things that I noticed I got criticized on for "Coming to Terms", and I felt I should explain them now. Not that you guys weren't right in criticizing me, but I wanted to clarify some stuff, that's all :)
You didn't see a significant (actually, basically none, although there was the scene in the hotel after Vaughn's bday) romantic interaction between S/V because I was writing it like you'd see it on the show. Let's face it, if that ever happened and Sydney got pregnant, J.J. would probably pull a CC and not let us see much, if anything, instead let us read between the lines. Alias is a LOT about reading between the lines, and I think that's part of the beauty. If my fanfic is able to portray any of that, then I'm thrilled.
Duh= pull a CC=not confirm a relationship between the babies parents. Still P.O.'ed about that
Truth be known, I do believe the end of SD-6 will be far more violent then I portrayed it. However, I'm not particularly good at violence; I'm driven by characters and character interaction. I do believe that it's a pretty decent idea to pull apart the Alliance one cell at a time and if that ever happened, the other cells would probably start to fall under the weight of their own corruption (or they might start to fall under the weight of their own corruption & distrust between the Alliance members even if the cells weren't strategically eliminated).
Hope that settles some questions.
Oh . . Yeah, I have SOME experience with how Brigitte might have felt in regards to Vaughn not telling her about Jackie. I have a half sister who I didn't even know was on the way until the day before she was born, and I had asked my Father about it MONTHS before (I got this mysterious e-mail . . . don't ask, long story) and he said that nothing of the sort was happening. So, it might seem like a weird reaction, but I don't think Brigitte would hold it against her son. One, a Mother's love ISN'T like that, and there comes a point in your life where you just have to let sleeping dogs lie. Things are as they are, and past mistakes aren't going to disappear just because your still holding a grudge about it. I accepted that truth at twelve, I'd like to believe that by the middle of her life, Brigitte would accept it as well. Particularly as a Mother; that's probably the hardest part about being a Mother (and as a slight control freak, the one I'm not looking forwad to), you can love your children and give them your morals and beliefs, etc., but at the end of the day it's THEIR life and you just have to love, accept and do your best to guide them.
Did I mention that I don't have any children? Like I said, I have experience in regards to my half sister, but I've never been mother; well, except to Phoebe and regardless of what she think's she's only a dog . . just my 0.02
Dedication: (like this isn't long enough) This is dedicated to Sarah and Asha, both of which I seriously owe like twenty years worth of e-mail to, Dream Writer 4 Life, Agent Otter, Silver Charm, Kris, Sam, ShadowGoddess (who is also a kick ass writer in her own right) for reviewing "The Lightkeeper" and being all such very sweet people!
"Daddy really doesn't want to go back to work," Michael confessed to his daughter as he fed her early Monday morning. Setting two bagels on the table, Sydney sat down across from him and smiled.
"Don't you wish we were independently wealthy?" she teased.
Looking up at Sydney, he met her eyes and let out a sad sigh. "How am I going to make it through the day?"
"You like your job," she reminded him with a smile.
"I love you and Jackie," he shot back.
"We'll be here when you get home," she pointed out as Donovan lazily strolled into the room, sniffing his master's feet before getting a drink of water. "So will Donovan."
"I don't know how you went back to work so soon Syd," he commented as he looked back down at his daughter.
"It wasn't easy," she agreed, taking a sip of her orange juice. "Thank you," she said softly.
"For what?" He glanced up at her, one eyebrow raised in confusion.
"Allowing me to stay home with her."
"You're her mother Syd, if you want to be with her then that's where you belong. Anyway, at least one parent should always be accessible to a child, especially in the first year," he recited. He laughed at her confused reaction before he added, "Charlotte told me that when she explained why she was taking a year long sabbatical from her practice when she was pregnant."
"Is your sister our primary source of child-rearing advice?" she asked, her dimples flaring at her question.
"Do you have a better source?" he smirked.
"No," she conceded as both laughed.
Growing serious, he set down the bottle and brought his daughter's chin to rest on his shoulder. Running his hand over her small back, he started to burp her and looked over at his breakfast companion. "My mother had a good point last night."
"About what?"
"We need someplace to live Syd," he sighed. "We certainly can't live at my place, and to be honest, I'd really like to raise Jackie someplace where she has a lawn to play in."
"So we'll move," she shrugged. His face tilted and his brow wrinkled in confusion. "What?"
"I didn't think you liked moving."
"I don't. I don't think *anyone* likes moving," she pointed out. "You're right though, we can't continue to live here and Jackie does deserve a yard to play in."
The phone rang before he could get in a reply. Standing, Sydney walked over to answer it as he continued to try and burp their stubborn daughter. "Hello?"
"Hey Syd," Will greeted. Turning towards Mike, she mouthed that it was Will and he nodded in understanding.
"What's up?" she asked, not wanting to mention anything in particular, just in case he had decided not to propose at the last minute.
"Do you and Mike have any plans? Jennie and I were hoping to come over."
"I don't think we have any plans. Tonight sounds great. What about Francie and Charlie?"
"They'll probably come over too. We just figured it was easier, that way you don't have to travel with all of Jackie's stuff . . . But hey, if you've got plans or you're just -"
"Will, it's fine," she insisted. "Come on by tonight. I'll make dinner too. We'll see you tonight okay?"
"Thanks Syd," he replied before she hung up the phone.
Hanging up, Sydney smiled at Jackie, who had finished burping and was following her mother with her eyes. That was, among a handful of other things, one of the new tricks that she had recently discovered how to perform. Waving across the room to her daughter, both parents were delighted when Jackie cooed; drool dribbling down her chin as she smiled.
"You're one messy kid," Mike gently teased, grabbing a spit rag and gently wiping his daughter's chin. "You're one messy, cute little baby," he whispered, bending down and pressing kisses against his daughter's plush cheeks and tiny nose. "You are the cutest little girl ever, and I love you, yes I do, I love you so much," he promised her, taking her little hand over his pointer finger and kissing it.
Realizing what time it was, Sydney sat down at the table and smiled at him. "When I started back at work I found out one really wonderful thing about my day," she confessed as he looked at her, his eyebrows up in confusion.
"What?"
"I got to come home to Jackie," she smiled.
Sighing, he smiled and stood. "Daddy's got to go to work honey," he explained. Kissing his daughter's cheek, he handed her over to Sydney. "I love you," he whispered against her lips before kissing Sydney.
"Love you," she smiled as he grabbed his suit jacket. She held Jackie close and watched him as he slipped his arms into his jacket. "Have a good day at work." She smiled and the two of them shared a laugh at how typical they sounded. Grabbing his keys off of the counter, he kissed her one more time and gently touched his daughter's baby-soft wisps of hair before walking out of the house.
A handful of hours later he found himself sitting in his office, catching up on missed paperwork. Despite modern technology and computers, there was no way of avoiding the paperwork that faced him whenever he was out of the office for more than a two-day weekend. Eyeing his desk, he smiled at the lone picture on it: a newly placed photo of Sydney and Jackie smiling from the previous week that he'd spent with them. The photo was also one of the first smiles Jackie had ever consciously made, and it was a memory he wanted to remember forever.
Eric stepped into the office without notice, shutting the door behind him. "So you're marrying Sydney?"
Sitting back in his desk chair, Michael pinched the bridge of his nose before looking at his best friend. "How'd you find out?"
"Please, this place should be called the Central Gossip Agency," he snorted. Picking up the new picture frame, a grunt of approval escaped him when he looked at the picture. "It's about time this showed up on your desk."
"Don't you have work to do?" he asked as his best friend shrugged. "Who told you about Sydney and I?"
"Daley," he replied, referring to another agent in their department.
"How the hell did he find out?"
"Got me," he shrugged. "It's great news Mike, I was just wondering if you ever planned on telling me yourself or whether I was supposed to find out the date and the location through the agency's gossip mill too."
"No, but I just told my mother yesterday."
"What did my dear and lovely Brigitte think of Ms. Bristow?"
"Once my mother finished her tirade, she appeared to really like Sydney. She enjoys having a new granddaughter," he remembered as Eric smiled. "There's a Tupperware container of leftover chicken cordon bleu in the refrigerator for you at Syd's place. You can follow me after work and get it."
"You're living with her already?"
"What did you think I've been doing the last week? I haven't officially moved in, I just have a few things there, but we do plan on buying a house soon."
"Very domestic," Eric noted.
"Yes, thank you."
"I actually came here for a reason," he remembered. Michael looked at him expectantly. "Jack's in Devlin's office and they want to talk to you."
"You should have said something sooner," he reprimanded his friend, getting out of his seat and walking out of the room.
Walking in, he was relieved that neither Jack nor Devlin looked particularly agitated with him. Instead, they silently waited for him to sit before Jack spoke. "What we are about to ask you is completely optional. But we did feel it was only... appropriate, to give you the opportunity."
Michael felt his forehead crease in concern. "I'm sorry, am I under suspicion for something?"
"No, nothing like that Agent Vaughn," Devlin assured him. "Actually we were hoping you might be interested in doing something for the agency."
"What?"
"We've discovered that there is a safe hidden somewhere in Sloane's office in the Credit Dauphine building. We believe that there are diskettes and documents in the safe that could aid us in prosecuting key members of the Alliance. There are, however, concerns that opening the safe would set off charges of C-4 that are located throughout the building," Jack explained.
"I'm sorry, I don't understand. Why not deactivate the C-4 and open the safe?"
"The problem, Agent Vaughn, is that we don't know where in the room the safe is located. In fact, no one other than Arvin Sloane knows, and so far he isn't talking," Devlin explained.
"Who's been in with him?"
"I have, as well as several other agents," Devlin explained. "We decided against sending Jack in to speak to him. So far no one is aware that Sydney and Jack were the SD-6 moles, and we'd like to insure that it stays that way."
"You want me to speak to him?"
"Given your... connection to SD-6, we thought you might be interested in speaking to him face to face."
"I don't know why he'd speak to me if he won't speak to anyone else, but I'll try," he shrugged.
Ten minutes later he was being led to the solitary cells. Thanking the guard, he stepped towards the viewing window. Arvin Sloane sat on a metal cot in a black jumpsuit, looking just as miserable as Michael had hoped he would. When he realized he had company, Sloane approached the window. The first thing that struck him was how small in stature Sloane was, and how outwardly harmless he appeared to be. His experience with Sydney and with the CIA however, had left him unable to forget Sloane's sins, including the great pain the man before him had caused his family.
"Are you my attorney?"
"No," he shook his head. "We believe that there is a safe in your office that if opened without deactivation, will set off charges of C-4."
"What about Emily?"
Michael looked at him. If he had sympathy for anyone, it was a tug of sympathy for Emily Sloane. For whatever reason, Emily loved the evil man before him with all of her heart. Somewhere in the back of his mind he supposed everyone deserved someone to love him or her like that, regardless of how they were to the rest of the world. "Do you know the location of this safe and how to deactivate the explosives?"
"I want to see my wife."
"Do you know the location of the safe and how to deactivate the explosives?"
Cocking his head slightly, the aged man gave Michael a smile that sent shivers up his back. "I know who you are. You're Michael Vaughn. You're Jacqueline Bristow's father."
Despite his training, he was unable to stop the shocked _expression that briefly flitted across his face, before he once again slipped on a mask of indifference. "I will ask you one more time sir, where is the location of this safe and how do we deactivate the explosives?"
"No," he chuckled. "I don't tell anyone anything until I see my wife."
Turning around Mike walked out started towards the observation area. Walking into the area, he wasn't surprised to see Eric, Jack and Devlin closely watching the screen displaying Sloane. Meeting Jack's gaze, he felt his jaw stiffen before he spoke, "How does he know who I am?"
"Sydney must have blown her cover," Eric commented as Mike bit back a nasty remark.
"I'll have security section review SD-6's security tapes to see if he made any calls for a hit on Sydney," Ben offered as he picked up a phone.
Jack stepped towards the younger man and awkwardly placed a hand on his shoulder. "Regardless of what Arvin might have ordered, none of it is active anymore. The only resources he had left were what he had at SD-6, so there is no concern that another chapter of the Alliance is watching her." Jack reassured him, reading the clearly written worry lines that were drawn on Michael's face.
"I don't want *anyone* saying *anything* to Sydney until we find out *exactly* what Sloane knows and when he found it out," Mike demanded as his future father-in-law nodded his agreement. "I want to be briefed the moment we hear *anything*," he continued, before turning around and walking away.
"Where the hell is he going?" Ben asked.
"He's going to call Sydney," Jack informed them before they began their work.
In her warm, inviting apartment, Sydney sat singing to Jackie. Resting her daughter on her bent knees, she played with her daughter's tiny toes and sang 'This Little Piggy' as Jackie laughed in amusement. She wasn't entirely sure what her daughter found so funny, the fact that she was tickling the bottoms of her tiny feet, or her attempts to sing to her daughter, but either way she was laughing.
The phone rang, breaking her song. Kissing her daughter's forehead, she reached over to grab the cordless phone. "Hello?"
"Hey Syd," Michael's warm, soothing voice responded.
"Hi, what's wrong?" she asked, easily picking up on the worried undercurrent in his voice.
"Nothing's wrong, I just wanted to see how you and Jackie were doing."
"You're sure?"
"Everything's fine Syd, how's Jackie?"
"She's fine." She made a silly face at her daughter and seconds later Mike was able to hear the baby's giggles in the background.
"I miss you both."
"We miss you too, but you'll be home in just a few hours," she reminded him. "Hey, don't forget that Will, Jennie, Charlie and Francie are coming over tonight."
"I haven't. Eric's probably going to follow me home, so he can come in and get the leftovers my mom sent."
"That's fine. He can meet Jackie then too," she pointed out.
"I'm sure he'll love that," he chuckled.
"Are you sure everything is okay at work?"
"It's fine," he assured her. The last thing he wanted to do was alarm her. She deserved normalcy, a lifetime of lazy mornings around the house with Jackie and Donovan. More than that, however, he wanted to be the one to give her that normalcy, more than anything in the world.
"We'll see you tonight."
"Yes, you will," he agreed. "Syd?"
"Yeah?"
"Do me a favor?"
"What?"
"Don't do much today. Just... relax. Spend some time with Jackie. Charlotte and my mom have told me that ABC soap operas are the best, maybe give them a try," he playfully suggested as she laughed.
"I'll do that. Love you."
"I love you too," he spoke softly with a smile before hanging up.
Later that afternoon Sydney sat in the living room with Jackie. The baby sat cuddled up in the bouncer and her mother sat on the floor in front of her. Bending down, she planted a light kiss her daughter's tiny feet, hoping to keep her awake until everyone got there to see her. "Stay with me here Jackie," she gently commanded as she met her daughter's eyes, already the same amazing shade of green as her father's. Brightly smiling at her daughter, she turned back towards the book in her hand, reading "Guess How Much I Love You" to the baby. In the middle of the book, her reading was interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell. "Who could that be?" she asked her daughter, tickling the soles of Jackie's tiny feet before she propelled herself off of the ground and to her feet.
Opening the door she was surprised - and slightly relieved - to find her father there. "Dad."
"Sydney," he nodded slightly and entered the house. "How are you?"
"I'm fine, is everything okay?"
"Of course," he assured her before bending down to meet his granddaughter's eyes. "Hello Jackie, hello sweetheart," he gently welcomed her, smiling as the baby held tightly to his finger.
"Dad." Sydney carefully sat down on the floor next to him. "Are you sure everything's alright?"
"Everything is fine Sydney, I just came by to see my daughter and granddaughter," he explained. Picking up the book she was just reading, he offered his daughter a slightly amused twitch of his otherwise blank face. "I'm glad to see you're enjoying your time off."
"Jackie and I are having fun."
"You both deserve this time together," he agreed.
"Dad." She perched herself on the edge of the sofa cushion and looked at her father, who remained on the floor in front of the bouncer. "Yesterday Mike and I went to his mother's house for dinner," she carefully started, neatly folding her hands in front of her.
"Yes?" Jack asked, uncertain of where his daughter was heading.
Brushing hair behind her ear, she decided it would be best to skip over the understandably rocky beginnings she had had with the Vaughn family. "We told her that we were going to get married, and Brigitte - that's Mike's mother - invited us all back to dinner there this Sunday. Including you."
Jack looked straight forward at his granddaughter for a still moment in time before he nodded slightly, "I see."
"You obviously don't -"
"Sydney, I will be there," he quickly assured her. Truth be known, Jack would rather infiltrate K-Directorate than have to sit through a traditional family dinner, but if it made his daughter and granddaughter happy, he'd suffer through anything.
Meeting her father's eyes for the first time since his arrival, she smiled. "Thank you." Jack gave another stiff nod as she stood. "So are you hungry?" she offered, picking Jackie up and leading her father into the kitchen.