"Sydney!" Dixon yelled as he tried to hold her back from lunging at her mother. "Please calm down. Irina Derevko is here as a guest of the United States government."

"How the hell is that possible?" Sydney yelled. "The last I checked she was the most wanted person alive. What happened in the two years that I've been gone that makes it okay for her to be sitting in your office?"

Dixon looked at Kaylee and Will to see how they were taken the sudden appearance of Derevko. Will just held his hands up and back out of the office muttering something about this being a family thing. Kaylee just stared intently at her mother. She was happy that she left Grayson in Marshall's capable hands. She didn't want her mother to know that she had returned with her son.

"Sydney, Kaylee, please sit down so we can talk about this like rational adults," Irina said.

"Get out of my chair, Derevko," Dixon said walking back behind his desk. She smiled at him slyly and got up from her seat. Dixon turned his attention back to the other two women in the room. "Irina Derevko was given a presidential pardon for her actions against the state. She has been helping us try to locate you for the past year, Sydney."

"I thought you said the CIA believed I was dead," Sydney said.

"That wasn't a lie," Dixon informed her. "The official CIA position was that the body we recovered was yours, and you did die in Taipei. However, none of those who were close to you really believed that you were dead. I kept my own investigation going on the side."

"But how did that lead to a pardon from our mother?" Kaylee said. She was starting to feel a little uneasy sitting in the same room as the woman who had raised her for twenty-four years.

"Well, my personal investigation didn't turn up anything. I was about to abandon it when your father insisted that he be given one more week to tie up some loose ends. I didn't know it at the time, but he intended to hunt down your mother and enlist her help. I couldn't officially sanction this so he did it without my knowledge."

"He really believed you were alive, Sydney," Irina added. "As did I. I had been running my own investigation into your death. The answers I was getting never really added up. So when Jack came to me, I gladly enlisted my resources in his search."

"I had no idea that Jack had gone to Irina for help until the two of them waltzed right into Langley demanding to talk with the head of the CIA."

"This is unreal," Kaylee whispered to her sister in complete shock.

"When is anything that happens to us ever real or logical?" Sydney whispered back.

"In our search for you, Sydney, your father and I stumbled upon the identities of some of the high-ranking officials of the Covenant. We realized that our search was going nowhere and chose to reveal our partnership so we could alert the CIA to the new intel we had stumbled upon." Irina smiled at her daughters.

"The information she provided us has brought us really close to taking down the Covenant much in the same way we took down SD-6 three years ago."

"And for that she got a pardon?" Sydney asked.

"It was huge intel, Sydney," Vaughn said as he entered the meeting. "I heard that Sydney had returned and I was afraid that she would stumble on her mother."

"Too bad you couldn't have caught us five minutes ago," Kaylee said with a laugh.

"I can see that my presence here is upsetting you," Irina said standing up from her chair. "I'll leave. When you girls are ready, we can talk."

Sydney and Kaylee stared as their mother left the room. As soon as the door clicked shut, Sydney was out of her chair screaming, "So what the hell is really going on? I don't buy any of that pardon shit. What is she doing here?"

"Sydney, she was telling the truth," Dixon insisted. "After she turned herself in, the government did a full check on her. She sat in a containment cell for six months."

"This is the first day that the CIA has allowed her to roam free, so to speak," Vaughn said. "She has a man assigned to her twenty-four/seven. The CIA has given her a little trust, but not that much."

"So, she's being monitored. At least that sounds semi-sensible," Kaylee said trying to sound hopeful. "If you'll excuse me, I'd really like to speak with my mother." She gently patted Sydney's shoulder and left the room.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

"Mom!" Kaylee called after her mother. "Wait up. I want to speak with you."

"I knew you'd be first one to come to me," Irina said turning to send a smile her daughter's way. "Ask me whatever you want to know. I'll answer."

"Did you know that I was alive?"

"Not at first. The CIA told me that you were alive and in hiding when they took me into their custody. I guess they figured that was my reward for doing the right thing and turning in the intel your father and I found."

"And you didn't try to contact me?" Kaylee asked. She wasn't sure if she could believe a word her mother said to her.

"I didn't have a spare minute. Today is the first day that the CIA has allowed me to see the light of day. If you hadn't come in to this facility, I would have found a way to contact you. The CIA figured with both of you back in action that it was okay to lax up a little on me, I guess. Which would have made contacting you incredibly easy if you hadn't come back to Los Angeles."

"That's ridiculous thinking of the CIA, then. Now that Sydney and I are back, it's more likely that you'll rebel against the CIA. Mom, I know who you are. You're only working with the CIA because it's convenient for you and whatever plan you're currently working on. I know that the second the CIA becomes useless you'll disappear into the night."

"I did raise you the way I thought was right," Irina said distractedly.

"You raised me to know what kind of person you really are."

"And you were never ashamed of me. I'm proud of that."

"I know who you are. I've had a lot of time to think it over." Kaylee took a deep breath. "As much as you've hurt me in the past, I still trust you with my life, Mom. And I'll always support you in anything you do."

Irina blinked the tears back from her eyes. "Don't let the Agency hear you say that. You'll find yourself locked up in one of those containment cells again."

"There are worse things."

"Like Wisconsin?" Irina asked with a smile.

Kaylee pulled her mother into a hug. "I really missed you, Mom."

"Don't let anyone hear you say that either," Irina whispered as a tear fell from her eye.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

"This is all too much," Sydney said. She lowered herself back into her chair and put her head in her hands. "I don't know how much more surprises I can take."

Vaughn tried to lighten the mood a little. "I saw you brought Kaylee and Will back with you. It must be nice to have a few familiar faces around."

"Yeah. It's great," Sydney said with a weak smile. "I just wish I understood why my life resembles a dream more than the real thing."

"It's going to take some time to get used to," Vaughn said putting his left hand on her shoulder in support.

Sydney looked at it in disgust. "Shouldn't you be with your wife?" she spat out.

Vaughn sighed. "You're tired, Sydney. Any fool could see that. Why don't you go to the home that Weiss found for you and rest for a while? Take Will with you. You two need to catch up."

"I think that I need to catch up with just about every person I've ever known." Sydney got up from her seat and left the office without another word spoken.

"Did I see Marshall playing with a small child?" Vaughn asked as he watched Sydney make her way out of the office.

"That was Grayson Tippin," Dixon informed Vaughn.

"That was the child of the prophecy?" Vaughn asked in disbelief. "What is he doing here?"

"Kaylee's returned to L.A. You know that. It makes sense that she would bring her son back with her."

"But I thought part of the agreement you made with her is that you put her in Witness Protection if she kept that boy as far away from the world of spying as she could."

"I know. I'm thinking there's a good reason she chose to come back. I just haven't had time to ask her yet," Dixon said.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"When have you ever waited for my permission to ask me a question?"

Vaughn scowled at Dixon. "Why did you refer to Grayson as Grayson Tippin? I thought that Will was just pretending to be Kaylee's husband."

"He is. Another part of the deal I made with Kaylee was that the boy couldn't go by the Derevko name. It would be way too easy for others to figure out who he really is. So when Will agreed to go into the program with Kaylee, the two of them agreed the child would go by his last name."

"That could confuse a lot of people," Vaughn stated.

"Yes. Now, Agent Vaughn, what is the real reason that you burst into my private meeting?"

Vaughn blushed slightly. "I was concerned for Sydney. I didn't know what seeing her mother would do to her."

"Agent Vaughn, I'd like to remind you that you are a married man. You can't show such open concern for your ex-girlfriend."

"I could if you would let me tell her the truth about my marriage."

"She's not ready to know yet, Michael," Dixon said placing a hand on Vaughn's arm. "When she is, I'll let you tell her. Until then?"

"I know. We can't tell her the truth." Vaughn frowned. "I still don't have to like it."

"No, you can hate it as much as you like as long as you don't tell her who your wife really is."