Daughter of Darkness
Chapter 2: To Find a Friend
By Gaz Destiny
Rated: PG-13
Spoiler :Snowman
Disclaimer: the show and its respective characters (except for Claudia and my ingenious plot) were created by J. J. Abrams and are owned by ABC. Hey…I don't own Sakura Japanese restaurant…it's a fast food place at the Portland mall in Maine…also, if you're from Maine… get the chicken teriyaki…it's really, really good.
A/N: read and review…also dates may be a bit wrong…I'm doing the best I can with what I've got…hey I am doing the best I can to get the English right and everything…I'm now using the proper spelling for Sloane…also if you have 'constructive criticism' please include some kind of encouragement for me to continue…otherwise the review will be labeled as a flame and bring out lots of anger from me…and I have a large collection of anger waiting to come out…plus people may seem a little OOC cause I'm working on perfecting my 'smart person' talk…(don't tease me cause I want to talk like a smart person, you evil demon bunnies out there)…^_- **READ THIS** the italized messages below in the review replies are from my beta…**
Also…thanks to:
Alias2002- I just started this story last Friday, and unlike everything else I've written I have no future plan for it yet…though I do have the next few chapters planned out…^_-
ShadowGoddess- thanks…now I just have to work on keeping my head from getting too bloated with my ego… (but that will all go away when my friend reviews…first he'll tell me it's a really bad story…then at lunch he'll tell me it was actually pretty good…annoying I know)
Me, the friend? How honored I feel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mel- see the above review answer…
Mandy Princess- see the authors note….and the message I gave you for your little letter thingy
Jen- thanks…I am working on fixing those errors…I'd been looking at the story for almost a week so I didn't see them…that chapter will be revised as soon as I can get the friend from ShadowGoddess's review to beta for me…(*thinkingtoself* I wonder if he'll actually do it, kinda doubt it)
Ash- hey I just got a friend of mine to beta read for me…thanks for the offer…and don't think that this is the end…nope…not a chance…I don't really like to do one-part stories…only did it once before…and it didn't go too well…-_^
One last thanks to: My beta…^_-
Am I the beta? What the hell is going on here? LTCs, yes?!
Zak- please don't stop posting your stories…ok that was my one moment of ALMOST begging…you'll never hear that again…except maybe about the next dance…we'll see…(^_-)
Wait, wait... disregard last rant. Never mind.
As of right now, I plan to never release a fanfic again.
MOOHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA
Thanks for all my wonderful reviews, they make me feel good.
I FEEL LOVED!
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Chapter 2
To Find a Friend
"Not everyone is meant to make a difference. But for me, it isn't an option not to help."—Spiderman (that's the best I could remember it from the commercial. I'll go in and correct it after I see the movie Friday)
Idunno, you remember the quote better than I do.
Beep, beep, beep.
The usual: Sloane - 911
Sydney was just on her way home after classes, so much for a nice relaxing afternoon. Quickly she took the next exit on the freeway, arriving in the conference room in no more than ten minutes.
"Hello, Sydney," Arvin said from his seat at the head of the table as she took her seat halfway down the table.
"Hello," Sydney said noticing that only Marshall was the only other person there, tapping his fingers lightly on the table top across from her.
"Tomorrow morning, you will be on a plane to London," Sloane started calmly. "There I would like you to go to Claudia, bring her back. We've already sent several people, all of whom have come back alone. I think, because you two are friends that you may have more luck at bringing her back."
"Do you have any idea why she refuses to come back?" Sydney asked cautiously.
"No, not really, but Macalister said that she was mumbling something about someone. He never found out, who, " Sloane answered.
"Ok," Sydney replied glancing at Marshall, wondering why exactly he was there.
"Oh, hey, I'm here because…um…I searched through the stashes of gadgets, I've grabbed a couple of her favorites…to...um…" Marshall never did finish that sentence but instead went on to show Sydney the Lipstick Camera (something that Claudia had requested special for the pre-mission to the Madrid job, plus it came in a nice black colored lipstick, which Marshall did replace only hours ago so it wasn't years old), the heat sensing contacts (coming in three different colors, red, blue, and green), and the spiked high heels (coming in a nice black color with silver spike coming out of the heel when button shoelaces are activated).
"Ok," Sydney said as Marshall came to a conclusion. "Is that it?"
"Another thing, is it possible she could stay with you till I've gotten an apartment set up for her?" Arvin asked. "Emily's already offered her a place with us, and she's outright refused, she hasn't been on speaking terms with me since she left."
"Oh, yeah sure," Sydney agreed.
"That's all," Arvin said before leaving.
"He misses her," Marshall stated just after the door shut.
"And that's one of the reasons I'm bringing her back," Sydney said before taking her own leave, Marshall's gadgets tucked away in her briefcase backpack thingy.
~*~
"Hey Francie," Sydney said into the cell phone.
"Hey," came Francie's voice. "What's up?"
"Do you remember my friend Claudia?" Sydney asked pulling back onto the freeway.
"Your boss' daughter, right?" Francie asked. "Yeah, I remember her, why?"
"Well, she'll back from a year abroad, and needs a place to stay for a while," Sydney said. "Is it ok if she stays with us for a while, just until she gets a place of her own that shouldn't be that long, maybe a week or so?"
"Yeah, sure, she's pretty cool," Francie agreed.
"Ok, great, see ya later," Sydney said.
"See ya," Francie answered before hanging up.
~*~
(Brown paper bag)
My latest job isn't really a job. I'm being sent to London to bring back Sloane's daughter Claudia, one of the agency's top agents who's been on a year long undercover job at the Russian embassy. She knows about everything within this cell as well as the others.
~*~
"I was thinking about going out and getting take out for dinner, sound good?" Sydney asked as she changed into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.
"Sounds good," Francie called from the living room, where she was watching TV.
Ring, ring, ring…ring, ring, ring.
"Hello?" Francie answered.
"Joey's Pizza," a male voice said.
"Yeah, I'd like a large pizza, everything on it," Francie said into the phone, only getting the dial tone in response.
"Who was it?" asked Sydney as she walked into the living room.
"Someone calling for pizza," Francie answered, too fed up with the pizza calls to say anything else.
"Hey, I'm gonna go ahead and get dinner now, what do you want?" Sydney asked grabbing her jacket and keys.
"Actually, a pizza's sounding pretty good about now," Francie answered.
"Be back soon," Sydney called before running out the door.
~*~
"So, what do you have for me today?" Sydney asked walking into the caged area where she usually met Vaughn.
"Nothing much this time," he answered taking out a white envelope and handing it to her. "Just make sure that Claudia gets this."
"Ok," she said with a smile, tucking the letter away in a jacket pocket.
~*~
"Guess who decided to come by for a visit," Francie said as Sydney walked in the door carrying two large pizzas.
"Hey," Sydney said, putting the pizzas down on the kitchen island and pulling out three plates.
"See, someone doesn't mind me coming by," Will said jokingly. "So I heard Claudia's coming back."
"Yeah, actually, tomorrow I'm catching a flight to London, gonna get a little R&R," Sydney said, smiling.
"Not a business trip for once," Francie said lifting her eyebrows in false surprise.
"Nope, I'm gonna go help Claudia pack up her stuff, and catch the aforementioned R&R," Sydney answered getting herself a large slice of pizza. "I'll be gone a few days."
~*~
(Claudia POV)
Dad called today, that's the fifth time this month. He and mum really want me to come back, but I'm not so sure I can. Here I am, sitting on the balcony to the nice penthouse apartment my dad's put me up in, crying, laughing, staring blankly into the dark sky, but none of it leads to sleep or answers.
I hate dad so much right now, if it weren't for him I wouldn't be sitting here trying to decide if I should risk the pain of going home and finding out that Michael doesn't want me anymore, or if I should just disappear forever. I have enough money to do the latter, fly down to Spain, hang out around the Mediterranean. Anyways, he told me he was sending a friend of mine over, to talk to me, or basically drag me back out of here with no will of mine.
I'm wearing my engagement ring right now, usually I keep it hiding away in my dresser, but right now I'm thinking it will help with my decision. Though I do think my decision will be a little put off with the image of myself in Michael's arms every time I close my eyes.
What am I going to do? WHAT?
~*~
(Fly on the wall POV)
Knock, knock, knock.
The beautiful oak door swung open quickly, revealing a very disheveled looking Claudia, who was actually wearing her hair natural and down.
"Can I help you Kelly?" she asked with a yawn, not noticing Sydney round the corner of the small beautiful hallway from the stairs.
"Mum sent me up to see if you were alright," the nineteen-year-old said. "Says you haven't come out in near a month."
"I'm fine," Claudia said rubbing her forehead with her right hand, the star shaped diamond glinting in the light.
"That's it then," Kelly said noticing the diamond immediately. "You got someone in there?"
"NO!" Claudia practically screamed, then, turning her head slightly, she noticed Sydney. "'Ello, Syd."
"Hey, Claudia," Sydney said coming up to the door.
"Kelly, go tell your mum I'm alright, and not to send anyone else up," Claudia told the girl before beckoning Sydney inside.
As Sydney walked in, she took in the size and mess of the room. There were books everywhere, some were open to pages with pictures, others open to pages covered in text written in other languages, stacks of books stood everywhere; it was like a museum display of books. Each one was ancient, kept in good condition.
"Um…please, take a seat. Go ahead and move the books," Claudia said motioning to a beautiful white Victorian style couch with only a few books laid open on it. "I've been studying, everything, just trying to keep my mind off things."
"Wow, this is a lot of…books," Sydney said as she closed and stacked the few books on the couch.
"Yeah, I've been traveling, every weekend since I got here, I fly to different countries and buy books, get the dealers to find other books for me," Claudia said sitting on the arm of a plush blue chair. "Great way to keep one's mind off of things."
"Yeah," Sydney said as Claudia picked up the book in the chair and slipped down the arm into the seat, looking at the book curiously as if she had forgotten what it was about.
"I hate these books in old English, it's so hard to understand what they were talking about," she said with a laugh as she closed to book and gently put it on top of the pile of books on the coffee table. Then, seriously, she said, "Did my dad send you?"
"That obvious?"
"Only because he's already sent five agents this month."
"He misses you, you know that, right?"
Claudia just sat there, somewhere in thought.
"So what's this I hear about you not wanting to come back?"
"It's true. I'm just afraid."
"Claudia, Princess Claudia, afraid of anything. I'm starting to think something's gone wrong with the world now."
"No, it's just, I'm afraid that he doesn't want me anymore that he's moved on and forgotten all about me."
Sydney looked at the ring that her friend had been so happy about only a year before.
"Don't worry, I'll bet he's missing you right now."
"I don't know, he promised to send me some kind of message, so that…that I'd know."
"Oh, speaking of messages, someone I know told me to give this to you," Sydney said taking the letter out of her pocket, handing it over to Claudia quickly.
Claudia ripped open the envelope and read over the letter several times, letting the message fill her mind.
Christina-
I'm still waiting.
-Andrew
"Thank you for getting this to me. I feel so much better," Claudia said smiling. "So when's the flight back?"
"Wow, that was quick, your dad thought it'd take a while, he even got Marshall to find a few of your favorite little gadgets," Sydney said genuinely surprised. "The plane leaves Friday morning at 10 am."
"Good," Claudia said already standing up and sorting books by subject and then language. Then, stopping suddenly and looking at Sydney, her face showing utter confusion, "Wait…What's today? And what gadgets did Marshall pick out?"
"Today is Monday," Sydney answered. "Marshall picked out the lipstick, the contacts, and the high heels."
"Aww, Marshall remembered my favorites," Claudia said with a laugh before going back to her sorting. Then, pointing to a black leather book beside Sydney, she asked, "Could you hand me that book next to you?"
"Sure, here," Sydney answered, handing the book to her, mentally noting how heavy it was for such a small book.
~*~
"Want some ice-cream?" Claudia asked from the kitchen as Sydney sat back on her knees.
"Sure," Sydney answered as she moved three old books from one pile to another, amazed at all the subjects that Claudia's books covered, the most recent section that Sydney was helping her sort out was on Ramboldi and the question that his predictions were true or false.
"Thanks for helping me sort through these," Claudia said coming in and handing Sydney a dish of vanilla ice-cream with chocolate syrup and peanut-butter cups in it. "I just don't want them to be in a jumble when I send them to mum, knowing father he'll want to take a look at my collection."
"It's alright. Hey, do you mind if I take a look at some of these when we get home?" Sydney asked turning to the coffee table behind her.
"No, of course not, so where will I be staying back in the states anyways?" Claudia asked in between bits of her own dish of ice-cream.
"Oh, you're going to be staying with Francie and me," Sydney answered.
"Father asked if I could stay with you for a while, didn't he?"
"Yeah."
"He knows how mad I am at him and didn't want to risk having me at home."
"Does he know?"
"About?" waving her ringed finger in the air.
"Yeah."
"Not a chance in bloody fuck." (A/N: my beta made me write it!!!)
"So how are you gonna tell him."
"I have no idea."
"You should do it as soon as possible."
"Yes, that probably is safest."
"Uh-huh."
"But then he'll want to meet him."
"Why wouldn't he?"
"Mum will want to do some family dinner thing."
"Have you talked to her recently?"
"Yeah, I talk to her at least once a month. Hey, she told me you and Will were over for dinner a few weeks ago."
"Yeah."
"She said that was lots of fun, maybe you and Will could come over for dinner again. It would help keep father in check."
~*~
"What's up?" Francie asked opening the door to Will.
"A lot, mind if I hide here for an hour or so?" he asked.
"Yeah, sure, but why?" she asked closing the door behind him.
"My new assistant's insane, she keeps following me, getting really creepy," Will said looking over the small stack of papers in his hand. "Won't stop asking me if I want decaf coffee, I don't even like the stuff."
"What's that about?" she asked as she went back to her seat in front of the TV, which had the five o'clock news playing over the large screen.
"You remember that thing I was researching that I wouldn't tell you anything about?" he asked taking a seat in one of the chairs.
"Yeah."
"This is more of that."
"Oh."
~*~
"Is that everything?" Claudia asked looking around the clean apartment.
"What's gonna happen to the furniture?" Sydney asked as she walked from room to room looking for anything that might have been left behind.
"It's going to be auctioned off later," Claudia answered coming out of her bedroom with two more suitcases to add to the pile of five already stacked by the door.
"Do you think they'll let you check all that luggage?" Sydney asked eyeing the black case on top of everything, knowing that there were probably several kinds of guns inside.
"Father's already arranged for me to be able to get everything on," Claudia said meaning that he'd already set it up so that the guns would go through without problem.
"Well, that's everything," Sydney said moving her small suitcase near the door as Claudia had already done with her bags.
"The driver will be here soon."
"You sure you're ready to go back?"
"As ready as I'll ever be."
"Good."
~*~
(Claudia's POV)
Home. I'm home. When I saw Sydney, I was both happy and surprised, and mad at father for not thinking of sending a friend sooner, but that anger soon passed with the thought that he had probably taken Sydney off a chain of cases for at least a week or so.
Later, when she handed me the note, I just barley kept from screaming with joy. I'm going home to the person who loves me most in this world; I've been waiting the entire year for the moment when I see him.
When Sydney and I got to the airport, we found that a company car had been sent, taking us directly to SD-6, where father had thoughtfully gotten my car for me. I was ushered quickly into his office, while I was there Sydney hung out on the floor talking to Marshall, I think he wanted his gadgets back, but he's not getting them back till I get a chance to use them first, it's only fair. Anyways, I'm keeping the lipstick camera, I always need a camera for something, plus it's a great shade of purple on me.
Father went through all the usual pleasantries, saying how he liked how I had my hair held up by two jewel encrusted golden sticks, saying how I looked as good as always in black, and asking quickly about where I bought such a nice ring. That didn't pass, I caught him trying to ignore the fact that the ring was an engagement ring almost immediately. He was afraid that I had met someone in England and would want to go back as soon as possible, which was virtually impossible, seeing as how I was needed for a more recent string of jobs.
He went on to tell me that mum would probably want to invite him for dinner, nothing I didn't anticipate. I answered by telling him that I'd invite a couple of my friends. He knew mum would only be happier to have some of my friends there too, so he agreed.
Later I told Sydney something about having to go home and pick up a few things, and went off to inform the CIA that I'm back and ready for work.
~*~
Ring, ring, ring.
"Dia, can you get that?" Francie called from inside her closet, where she was looking for a certain pair of missing boots (of which I will divulge no information).
"Yeah, sure," Claudia said grabbing the phone just as Sydney stepped out of the bathroom. "'Ello?"
"Bamboo Chinese," a voice said.
"Do I even sound remotely oriental?" Claudia answered, getting the dial tone as a response. Then, with a shrug as she put the phone back on the base, she said, "I guess not."
"Who was that?" Sydney asked, doing one of the every popular spooky mysterious appearance next to Claudia, which served its purpose by spooking Claudia greatly.
"Oh, just a wrong number, someone calling for the Bamboo Chinese restaurant," Claudia said with a smile. "Reminding me how much I miss egg rolls, I never was able to find a good Chinese restaurant."
(A/N: to the tune of the Frenches commercial song I love egg rolls because they're so delicious, gotta have egg roles….thank you for taking that brief moment of insanity.)
"Does anyone else want anything?" Claudia said going into the guest room, or her room for now, and emerging with a long black leather trench coat and a set of keys.
"No thanks," Sydney said with a smile as she went into the kitchen to get herself something to eat.
"Do you want anything, Francie?" Claudia called down the hall, knowing that Francie hadn't heard her the first time.
"No thanks," Francie yelled back.
"Ok, Bye," Claudia said before leaving.
~*~
"Eric, it's so great to see you again," Claudia said giving him a quick hug.
"It's great to see you, too," Eric agreed, much calmer than her.
"Anyways," Claudia said taking on the serious demeanor that she saved just for 'the job,' and nothing else. "Down to business."
"Yes," Eric agreed also taking on a serious demeanor, though it seemed that he was much lighter when he took on a new emotion or state of mind, complete opposite of how Claudia just threw herself into the emotions. (A/N: that was so corny…or just plain stupid…I'm gonna hear about it later.)
"Here, encoded on these is everything I found out about the KGB," she said handing him two blue zip disks. "There were three others, but they went missing from my office, while I was getting a cup of coffee, some time ago. SD-6 will be sending me after those once they find out who took them."
"Right," Eric agreed taking the disks.
"Just to help who ever is doing the decoding, it's writing in Latin," Claudia said. "These days agents aren't trained to know the language, people are convinced it's dead and no one will use it. None too bright."
Before Eric could reply, Claudia started talking again.
"Could you give this to Michael? It's kind of important," Claudia said handing him a white envelope.
"Sure."
"Thanks, is there anything I should be updated on?"
"Yes, there's one more double agent for us located at the CIA."
"Hmm, I'll have to meet them sometime."
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Hey
How'd you like this chappy???
I've given the first chapter to my friend today, he'll go over it tonight, and the revised version of chapter one will be up Friday (I have photography class after school so I won't be able to get to the library to post it ^_^)
Gaz Destiny
^_-
(same message about the "friend" from last time applies)
My beta shoved a bunch of stuff throughout the story…that will not be there for you because mostly those messages were aimed at me…there person that doesn't really keep him informed much about much…