"What the hell are you doing here?" Sydney yelled as she slammed the door shut behind Vaughn.
"I thought you might miss me," Irina said smugly. "Plus, I didn't want you to think that I was playing favorites between my daughters."
"Cut the crap, Derevko," Vaughn chimed in. "There has to be a extremely important reason you're here. You're wanted for hundreds of crimes in this country."
Irina laughed. "Do you honestly think your government is smart enough to know how to hold a person like me? Even if I were to get captured, I would be out within twenty-four hours. You really work for some pathetic people, Sydney."
"What do you want?" Sydney snarled through her teeth.
"I want let you in on a little secret I have." Irina paused and looked over at Vaughn. "You, too."
"Again, what do you want?" Sydney demanded.
Irina ignored her. "The Rambaldi prophecy you uncovered is real. There really is a woman out there with the genetic anomalies Rambaldi spoke of. I heard the CIA had gotten off track in their investigation. Thought I could help out." She looked over at Sydney. "Isn't that what mothers are for?"
"What purpose does telling us have for you?"
"I would love to explain that except I think your father's on his way up to the room. We can't have him knowing that I'm here." She paused. "Or you, Agent Vaughn." She walked over to him and lightly touched his cheek. "You look just like him, you know?"
Irina walked over to the balcony overlooking the water. "Ask your father about the day I asked him to marry me." With that, she jumped off the balcony.
Sydney ran over to the window and watched her mother dive straight into the ocean. She pounded her fists against the railing in frustration. Turning to Vaughn, she asked, "What just happened?"
"That's what I'd like to know," Jack said as he entered the room. "What are you doing here, Agent Vaughn?"
"I came to see Sydney, Jack. And now that that's done. I'll be leaving. I wish I could have stayed for longer, Sydney. But Kendall can't know that I've even left Los Angeles." He gave Sydney a quick kiss, trying to not pay attention to Jack's scowling, and left the room.
Sydney held up a hand to silence the questions she knew her father was going to ask. "Vaughn wasn't just here to see me. The CIA believes that Rambaldi's prophecy isn't really about a woman who exists. They think it's all a distraction from the real prophecy which Rambaldi had. Before you ask, the CIA has no idea what the real prophecy is. More important than what Vaughn wanted, my mother was just here."
"Irina was here? In Miami? In the hotel?"
"Yes. She wanted to let us know that Rambaldi's prophecy was about a real woman who is alive right now. I don't know why she would share this information with us or if it's even true." Sydney paused knowing that this was going to be the hardest part of the explanation. "Dad. She told me to ask you about when she proposed to you."
Jack's face paled. He wasn't completely sure that Irina would have really come to Miami to talk with her daughter. But no one else knew about what had gone on in Madrid when Laura Bristow had asked him to marry her.
"Dad. You need to tell me about it if we're going to figure out Mom's real reason for coming here today," Sydney insisted.
"Your mother and I were on a little vacation. This was back when we were still dating. We had gone to Madrid, Spain. She thought it was because I had always adored the architecture there. In actuality, the CIA had given me a mission to carry out there. Everything went fine in the mission and I was left with two whole days of just enjoying the trip with your mother. On our last evening, we were sitting in a small café outside of the Antigua Estacion de Atocha train station. She turned to me and suggested that we get married. It was the simple, nonchalant way she said it that should have made me suspicious. But I was so in love that I told her I would love to except that we didn't have enough time to do it properly. That's when she told me why she wanted to get married, besides the fact that she claimed to love me.
"What?" Sydney asked. She was curious as to how this story was going to fit into what was happening in her life.
"She told me she was pregnant with you, Sydney. That little café in Madrid was our favorite spot in Europe from that day on. I'll always remember the look of pride on her face when she told me. She might be a horrible person, but no one will ever convince me that she didn't love you back then." Jack paused. "I don't know what to think of her now."
Sydney put her arm around her father's shoulder in comfort. "I think we need to cut our vacation short, Dad. Maybe I should go to Spain and investigate that café. There might be something important about that location in terms of Rambaldi's prophecy."
"No, you can't do that." Jack was immediately defensive. "She wants you to go to Madrid for some reason. I won't let you play her game the way she wants you to."
"Dad, I'm going for no other reason than it will probably start speeding this investigation up. And I'm curious."
Jack scowled. "You get that curiosity from your mother. It's one of her worst characteristics."
"I can't help who I am," Sydney admitted. "But I know that there's no way I could ever do what she did to her family. Never."
"I know that, sweetheart," Jack said as he took her hand. "Let's see if we can't book you a flight from Miami to Madrid."