Ok here we go. Thank-you so much for all the reviews. Sorry this chapter took longer, but never fear…this story haunts me. I have no choice but to finish it. I think this chapter should be called the calm before the storm…I guess we'll just have to see.

Remember all comments and reviews are greatly appreciated!

PS. And a huge hug and thanks to Lia for reading this over for me and pointing me in the right direction!


Part 14.

The song is Wild Horses by the Rolling Stones


I watched you suffer a dull aching pain
Now you decided to show me the same



Three years later. The conversations occur in English unless otherwise noted.

Michael opened the front door and watched as his driver helped unload the bags from the trunk of the car while the passenger got out. He couldn't help the small smile that spread across his face as Will Tippin walked up the front stairs to the porch. Will's face broke out into a similar smile as he dropped his small carry-on bag on the porch and embraced Vaughn. Vaughn returned the hug sincerely. They had been through too much for a mere handshake to be sufficient.

"Come on in Will." Vaughn said leaving a hand on his shoulder and picking up Will's abandoned bag with his other hand.

Will looked at his friend with a worried face. "It's Richard now." He replied quietly.

Vaughn shook his head. "Not here." Vaughn said firmly, opening the front door again. "Here you're still Will."

Will sighed and followed Vaughn into the house. He was about to protest further but their conversation was interrupted as Dawn came halfway down the stairs to see who had arrived.

Will's face broke out into a huge smile as he saw the little girl. "Hi Dawn," he called out happily.

Dawn hung back on the stairs shyly until her father motioned her down the rest of the stairs.

"Dawn, you remember Will, right? Well, it's been five years, you might not…but you remember all the stories I told you right?"

Dawn nodded and looked at Will more closely.

Vaughn laughed as he saw Dawn scrutinize Will. "Come on, we don't have to stand in the hallway, let's go sit down in the living room. Dawn, would you mind finding Maria and asking her to bring some coffee?" Vaughn asked and Dawn nodded. As she ran off to find the housekeeper, he motioned for Will to follow him towards the living room.

Will found a seat on the sofa before turning back to Vaughn. "She looks just like her."

Vaughn nodded silently but with a sad smile on his face.

"And she's so big already."

Vaughn nodded again. "Yeah, but she's still small for her age."

Will looked at him concerned. "Do you think it's because of the Ram—"

"No." Vaughn cut him off.

Will looked at him skeptically. Vaughn wanted to drop the topic but the look on Will's face told him he was waiting for an explanation. Vaughn looked away from his friend before continuing. "The doctor that looked her over when we got here figured that she was probably born a month and half or two months premature. She is always going to be a small person. That's all it is."

"Are you sure? 'Cause man, I didn't believe it at first, it's hard to tell looking only at yourself, but seeing you now after five years, I know it's true. You're what, 45 now? Something like that? You look the same. You haven't changed at all. You look thirty."

"I know, I know." He rubbed his forehead and sat down next to Will. "You look exactly the same, as well. So does Irina. Whatever was in that building or maybe it was what exploded, I don't know…"

"Well maybe it's affecting her as well."

Vaughn shook his head. "It's not. We won't know for a while yet if she is going to be affected."

Will looked confused. "How do you know?"

"Because that's what Irina says. She says that she spoke to Sark about it one day when he first started working for her. Apparently in his case, it was passed down from his mother, but his aging process only started to slow down when he was seventeen or eighteen."

Silence settled again and Will shook his head as he thought about everything. "My god…," his voice trailed off. "Why do I get the feeling that this is never going to be over."

"It is over," Vaughn said firmly. "We've had no contact with Sark-- hell, no one's heard a peep from him in the last nine years. Maybe he just crawled under a rock and died licking his wounds, I don't know. I don't care. It's over. Dawn knows the whole story and I'm determined for her to live as normal a life as possible."

Will nodded, but there was still a touch of skepticism on his face. "So how is she doing in school?" he asked to change the subject.

"Really good. She's just plain too smart for her own good though," Vaughn said proudly. "I moved her to a private school four months ago. They gave her a few weeks off for Christmas and she doesn't have to go back for another week."

Will smiled at his friend. "Doesn't she miss being away from home?"

Vaughn shook his head. "Well, maybe the first few days she did, but then she started making friends and the school work is a lot more challenging for her so I don't think she had too much time to dwell on it. Everything is in English over there so she's had to force herself to speak it, which she wasn't used to. She's been kept pretty busy. Plus, I think she's found a new love."

Will raised his eyebrow in question.

Vaughn laughed and answered. "Ballet. They offer ballet classes several times a week and she got right into it. "

They were silent for a minute, Vaughn lost in thoughts of his daughter and Will absorbing all the changes that five years had brought. Finally Will spoke again.

"And how are things with you and Irina?"

Vaughn rolled his eyes and Will couldn't help but laugh. "She always argues with me about Dawn, the business, the public school, the private school, her friends, our contacts…you know. Same old."

Will laughed and nodded. "Hey at least you were never stuck in a closet with her…" Vaughn started to smile as well, until they both remembered that they didn't laugh about that. That, hit a little too close to the pain they kept skirting around. That event in particular had happened when they had gotten Irina out of custody in their quest to rescue Sydney. It marked the moment when they had turned their back on their lives all for the sake of saving her.

That they had lost her but found Dawn instead only served to complicate their guilt. Such was the nature of their lives now. Guilt and laughter, pain and happiness; they were all intertwined.

Though these thoughts lay unspoken and unacknowledged, they existed in each of their minds. The smile dropped from Vaughn's face as he continued. "But she really loves Dawn and everything she does is to keep her safe, I suppose." He paused for a moment, unsure whether or not to voice his opinion any further. But he had few friends, and certainly no one other than Irina that he could talk to about these matters so he continued. "She's changed though."

Will's eyebrow raised again in a silent question, so Vaughn continued. "She's not the person she was before Sydney died. I mean even when Jack died and she didn't speak, she was still in complete control of everyone around her. Now, it seems less so. I think that in some fundamental way, when Syd died she broke. I think we both did."

"I think we all did." Will amended.

Vaughn nodded slowly. Will was right, of course. He knew Will had been through his own private hell, he had merely chosen to carry on with his life in a different manner. Nine years ago, after that night they had buried Sydney, everything had changed. The purpose binding them together had disappeared and they were left with nothing.

Vaughn remembered that night vividly. The sorrow had been just too great not to mark it permanently on his soul. They had been sitting around a dingy motel room, arguing about what to do next. They were all edgy and unstrung and Dawn had kept crying. They had started bickering amongst themselves and accomplishing nothing when all of a sudden, Will stated that he was leaving. Vaughn didn't understand it at the time and he had tried to convince him to stay but Will had been adamant. His decision to leave had however, stopped their arguments and spurred them back into action. With a little money and some connections Irina had helped him recreated his life as Richard Peters. Will left and returned to the States leaving him and Irina to work out their own arrangements.

Vaughn had followed Will's movements over the years. In part, he had done so to make sure he could help Will if he ever got into trouble, but he also did it to protect Dawn, Irina and himself. Will was a link to them and because of that, he could never really be parted from them; no matter how far away he ran. But Vaughn also knew that running away had not solved all of Will's problems. He knew that as Richard, he owned a modest apartment in Boston where he also owned a restaurant. He knew it was Will's small tribute to a lost love. He knew that Richard didn't write anymore, he only cooked. He knew Richard didn't dream anymore, he only lived.

Vaughn also knew that Richard lay awake almost every night feeling the discomfort of sleeping with a gun under his pillow.

Each of them, in their own way had tried to runaway from everything that had happened but it was impossible to do so completely. Will embraced his loneliness as his penance. His new life only served to mock him sometimes, showing him that his only peace was to be through lies but that those lies kept him alone. Vaughn had his daughter, and though he loved her with all his heart, she served him as a constant reminder of his loss and failure towards her mother. Irina still carried on and was successful at restoring parts of her organization so that she could aid Vaughn in protecting his daughter but she seemed empty now. It was like she had lost her chance for redemption and so she merely accepted and lived with her sins knowing that no atonement was ever to be possible.

Vaughn looked at his old friend, as the silence settled between them once again and he realized that he had lied. Though Will did not look any older, he did look different. He had the same look in his eyes that Irina got from time to time and Vaughn suspected that the same look was occasionally mirrored in his own eyes as well. Just as everything must be paid for, it appeared that the years that had been removed from their faces had found their way into the depths of their eyes.


***

Sark casually stepped over the motionless body lying at his feet. He wiped his hands on his pants, but there was no need. It had been a clean kill. Sark knew this, but he briefly toyed with the idea of having a quick shower anyway. He glanced down at his watch and noticed the time. He supposed that his time could be better spent disposing of the body than trying to wash away any psychological dirt.

Without any pretense Sark bent over, moved the long hair out of the way and picked up the body under the shoulders. He dragged it up to the deck of the yacht where he had an employee help him wrap it and attach weights on it so that it could be dumped. It didn't take more than a few minutes before they were speeding away back to shore and Sark was left with his thoughts once again.

He was relieved that tonight was over, but he wasn't exactly sure why. He had lied to and used many women in the past and it had never bothered him before. Irina had taught him well how to use the charms that he had been given.

He certainly wasn't squeamish about what he had done tonight; in fact he had almost relished it. It wasn't that he enjoyed getting his hands dirty, so to speak, but he had been looking forward to it nonetheless. And that didn't make any sense to him. He wasn't glad so much that he had killed her, but rather that he would no longer have to pretend to dote on her. It was very strange feeling. And he'd certainly never been this unsettled before. It seemed important to him to grasp the reason for his feelings but he couldn't put his finger on it.

Sark sat down on the deck and watched the boat move through the water. He was free now to do whatever he wanted and yet he found himself reluctant to change his course of action. Though Rambaldi's legacy was now his own to do with as he wished, he found himself unable to hate it as he once did. It had caused his own mother to hate him. It had damned him to half a century of confinement. It had destroyed a woman that he…admired. It had chained him to a fate he neither asked for nor wanted. And up until nine years ago, he had been doing everything in his power to destroy it.

Was his relief now somehow tied to his reluctance to complete his task? He shook his head. All he knew was they he wanted to find out what school Vaughn had transferred his daughter to. Élise had lost her usefulness to him, which was why she was now sinking to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. He couldn't afford anyone knowing his face, even if everything they knew about him was false.


"So how is school going, my love?"

Élise smiled. "Pretty good I guess, though I'm quite happy that I still have another week of Christmas vacation left. They really wear me out."

Sark listened. "Well at least that troublesome boy is leaving for a private school, isn't he? The class won't be mischievous without his influence."

Élise nodded. "You're right, Adrien. But I just feel like I failed him as a teacher. I think I should have been able to find a way to keep him under control. But the Principal was anxious to get him out. He always is. Rather than dealing with issues and trying to come up with solutions that could help the children, Mr. Barret merely recommends that they leave. It's so frustrating!"

"He doesn't sound like a very good Principal then."

"He's not. He's horrible! He's more interested in being able to boss around all the teachers then having a good school. Look what he did to Dawn! I talked to her teacher; she was ready to skip a grade. But no…Mr. Barret says that would be unfair to the other children. I don't blame her father for taking her out of the school and moving her to a private school. It's better for her. Especially if Mr. Barret wants to hold all the students down to the lowest denominator!"

Sark nodded sympathetically. "I hope Mr. Barret didn't recommend the same school for Dawn that he did for the boy that was always getting in trouble!"

Élise laughed. "No, don't worry, he didn't. I don't know where Dawn's father enrolled her but I'm sure it's a much better school than where he's going. I got the impression that her father was fairly wealthy so he probably sent her to the best school he could." Élise paused to drink some more wine. After she set her glass back down on the table, she looked into his eyes. "How come you never went to see him, to apologize?"

Sark had known that she had wanted a serious answer but he had merely waved his hand as if the issue was irrelevant. "My sweet Élise. I saw how much it bothered you when I came around asking for his address. It wasn't worth it. Now instead I have you. I think I made the best choice. Don't you?"

Élise had smiled at him and never even suspected that her life was about to be cut short.


As the wind blew across the deck, Sark casually brushed aside some stray hairs from his face and adjusted the glove on his left hand. Like every other time that he consciously thought of his hand he felt the expression on his face darken. He had never considered himself vain, but he couldn't bear to look at the scars and deformity. He supposed that in some sense he was lucky that he had regained some functionality from it, but he didn't think that that luck would be worth it, if it brought him to his down fall. He was marked now, just like his grandfather had predicted.

He rubbed his left hand with his right like he was trying to sooth it. It had healed as best as possible but it still ached horribly when it rained. And it was definitely going to rain tonight.

Sark looked at the sun setting in the horizon and decided that maybe he would have that shower after all. He briefly wondered again, what was wrong with himself. He sighed in frustration and settled for performing some action. He'd start with a shower and wonder why later.


***


Vaughn stripped off his shirt and threw it into the laundry hamper. He was glad that Will had been able to stop by for a visit on his way to a business trip. Part of him wished that he could have stayed longer and another part of him wished he had never shown up. They could take comfort in each other because they shared the same pain but it was those very shared experiences that haunted them to begin with.

At least Will had solved his inner conflict by limiting his visit to a few hours. He claimed that he didn't want to run into Irina again, because she still made him nervous. Irina had laughed when Vaughn had told her that, after Will had left. He didn't blame Will though. Sometimes she made him very nervous as well.

Vaughn went into his small bathroom that joined his bedroom and he washed his face. He couldn't help but look at himself in the mirror. He did look exactly the same. All three of them did. He dried his face and shut the lights. He shook his head. Life just wasn't fair. He didn't know what kind of cruel joke it was to have to watch the woman that should have been his wife die in front of him, only so that he could be granted eternal life. Was it not punishment enough that everyday of his existence was marked with an emptiness that he couldn't fill, without having his punishment dragged on forever?

He turned off his bedroom light and walked over his bedside table. It was unadorned except for a picture of Dawn and his alarm clock. He sat on the bed and opened up the small drawer underneath the table. He didn't need the light to know what was in it. He picked up the small handgun that he kept in it and held it in his hands. It was the only peace he really knew.

He liked the weight of it in his hands; it was familiar and heavy. It represented the fact that one day there would be an end to his suffering, even if the end was of his own choosing. One day when Dawn didn't need him anymore he would pull the trigger on himself. He had already decided that.

He sighed and put the gun back in the drawer. He wouldn't be able to use it tonight.

Vaughn pulled his pillow up against the wall and sat on the bed. He had forgotten to close the drapes and so the room was filled with moonlight. He stared into space as he thought about all the memories that seeing Will had resurfaced in his mind.

Sometimes he wondered if he wasn't just going through the motions of living, while the world passed him by. Dawn was involved in a whole new world now and she was happy there. He wondered briefly how much she still needed him.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a slight glow but he didn't look towards it. He felt his heart constrict as he kept his eyes away from the glow. It was torture for him but he knew it would be worse if he moved his head. He felt the glow getting closer to his field of view so he shut his eyes. He couldn't do this tonight.

…Michael……

He wouldn't do it. He squeezed his eyes shut in defiance.

…Michael……

Who was he kidding? He opened his eyes and let his sight fall towards the window. He felt his breath catch in his throat and for the hundredth time in the last nine years he wondered if he was going crazy.

He knew he was sane enough to appreciate the irony of it all, though. Sydney, who at the end of her life had not even been able to look towards the sun, now stood before him bathed in moonlight. Like a shadow herself and yet she looked more peaceful than he had ever seen her.

He looked at her and he knew the true meaning of pain as she smiled at him gently. He closed his eyes as he felt his heart break all over again and he felt a tear escape from his eyes. He could almost feel her caressing his cheek, telling him to hold on and be brave. He couldn't help the few tears that still escaped him as he tried to reach forward with his hand to touch her, but like every other time his hand only closed on air.

He opened his eyes again and saw his empty room and wondered briefly if he dared risk her wrath to come join her now.

What a difference a decade could make. He hadn't been lying at the time, when Irina had asked him if he believed in an afterlife. He had said no because he could not comprehend a God that would allow so much suffering. Now he clung to the belief that there was life after death, in the hope that he could actually find happiness deep within his soul one day.


I know I've dreamed you a sin and a lie
I have my freedom but I don't have much time
Faith has been broken tears must be cried
Let's do some living after we die