"He won't do it Sydney," Alexander spoke with confidence, his eyes never leaving his father. Lazarey smirked.
"Perhaps I won't. But neither will you," Lazarey answered, glaring at his son.
A gunshot rang out, and all in the room gasped as he fell to the floor.
*****
Sydney heard the gunshot, as well as the sound of her own voice as she screamed. It took a moment for her mind to process who had been shot.
She watched as Adrian Lazarey fell to the ground in a heap.
Death by a shot in the chest.
Her mind almost couldn't process the voice that spoke next.
"He won't daddy. I will," Adrianna spoke, as everyone looked to her, realizing it was indeed her gun that had stopped Adrian Lazarey. Lazarey was not dead, and in an instinct one could only attribute to a child's love for a parent, the Lazarey siblings ran to their father's side, kneeling beside him.
Lazarey's last moments were becoming cloudy, but at the moment that his daughter knelt beside him, he recognized her.
"Adrianna?" he asked, his voice becoming weaker.
"Yes father," she said, hesitant to label him as such. She looked to Alexander, whose eyes mirrored her own. Tears fell down their nearly identical cheeks. She looked back to her father.
"You look so like your mother," he said, and immediately regret filled his eyes. Adrianna struggled to compose herself, taking a breath. Irina and Sydney had moved to check Jack's condition, while Vaughn stood watching the scene unfold before him.
"I wouldn't know. I don't really remember her. It wasn't very long ago dad. But so much time has passed, and now I can hardly remember her face," Adrianna choked out, to which Alexander rubbed her back tenderly. Lazarey's face crumbled at his daughter's admission. He opened his mouth to speak, which Adrianna stopped with the wave of her hand.
"Don't you dare speak a word if you're going to attempt to apologize to me. You killed our mother. You're the reason I can't remember her face," she said, her voice faltering. When she gained her composure again, she spoke again.
"I have waited for this day for thirteen years. I can only pray that someday your face will fade, and I will have no memory of it, of you," she said, and with that, she stood up, leaving the room. Alexander glanced at his father one last time, and then followed his sister.
Irina and Sydney exchanged glances, and then looked in Vaughn's direction. They remained silent, until Vaughn spoke, finally lowering his gun.
"I'll call an ambulance," he said, and left the room.
Sydney closed her eyes in response, and allowed her mother to take her into a tight embrace. She sighed into her mother's chest.
It was over. It hadn't taken much out of her, not physically anyway. But emotionally, she was a mess.
Her dad was unconscious.
Adrianna was so hurt.
Her mother had barely escaped death.
Vaughn was numb.
And now that this was over, Alexander would be back in CIA custody. She sighed. She could let him run, but that would not solve anything. Either way, they would be separated. And she certainly wasn't ready to give up her life and run away with him.
Was she?
*****
Three days later, Jack Bristow was released from the hospital with a concussion. Irina took him back to her home, and they both decided that he would be staying with her indefinitely. Sydney was overjoyed by this. However, her joy was overshadowed by Alexander's imminent incarceration.
The return trip to Los Angeles via plane had been silent, at least for Sydney and Alexander. Vaughn had been seated with Adrianna, who had decided to terminate her employment with British intelligence to work for the United States government. She would be forced to begin again of course, but she would be closer to her brother, and perhaps, her work would finally be appreciated. Vaughn decided that he liked Adrianna, and made an even faster decision to attempt to set up Adrianna with a certain yo-yo carrying friend of his.
Sydney and Alexander had merely sat in silence, occasionally glancing at one another. Their hands remained clasped together throughout the journey. It was difficult to say why they were silent; perhaps they both realized that no words or humor could lighten the load of their impending situation. Sydney's eyes filled with tears on occasion, and Alexander only wiped them away. When the pilot announced that they were approaching Los Angeles airspace, Sydney leaned over to Alexander, placing her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, kissing her forehead, wiping a tear from his own eye with his free hand.
*****
Vaughn watched helplessly as the woman he would always love began to cry. Vaughn, Sydney, Weiss, Adrianna and Alexander stood in the CIA's LA offices. Sydney's eyes had begun tearing while Adrianna and Alexander said goodbye to one another, but now she was sobbing as she tried to say goodbye as well. She stood with her arms at her sides, as Alexander's hands were on the sides of her face, wiping her tears away.
"I'm so sorry Alexander," she said, her voice weak.
"Shhh," he said, pulling her to him, "I've got to pay for what I did. I will accept the consequences of my actions," he said, glancing to the floor.
"But..." she trailed off. Her mind screamed that which she could not say. You've changed! You're innocent! She did not voice these things only because she knew they would be spoken in vain. He understood and sighed, pushing a piece of her hair behind her ear.
"God help me, but I love you Sydney Bristow. Always have, always will," he spoke into her hair, kissing it adoringly. She sighed.
"I love you too," she answered into his chest.
Weiss did not have the heart to tear them apart with force, so he merely cleared his throat.
"Sorry guys, but..." he began. Alexander held up a hand.
"Don't say it Agent Weiss. It only makes it more real," he said, pulling back to kiss Sydney's forehead, and then releasing her completely. Sydney smiled, attempting to reassure him, but failed to reassure herself. Weiss led Alexander back to his cell, as Adrianna and Sydney lost all control, finding comfort in each other's embrace.
Vaughn watched as it all unfolded, silence overtaking his being. There was only thought running through his mind. He couldn't let Sydney be broken again. He wouldn't.