Summary: Ok, here it is, in this chapter Vaughn and Sydney are assigned on a mission to France, Lauren does some scheming and Jack starts to unravel a very big mystery.

Rating: pg-13.... it may change depending o my moods.

Disclaimer: I would love to own Michael Vartan, but alas, I do not. Nor do I own Alias or anything having to do with it.... *tear*, also, I got the mission objective from Mission Impossible so don't sue me for that either.

A/N: I LOVE REVIEWS!!! Thanks to FireAnjel and trisket-n-gunther for their lovely niceness, and good first reviews. And on with the show folks..................

Sydney, Vaughn and Lauren all entered the parking garage, the elevator and the office at the same time, all the while dealing with a very uncomfortable silence between Sydney and Vaughn. But Lauren had a smug look on her face the entire time. *Excellent*, she thought, *it worked, all I needed was a little confrontation with them both and now Michael won't be talking to Sydney hardly at all. No whispering in corners, no hugs in the garage, and in the long run, no more being partners on missions...* Vaughn was very aware of his wife's happiness but he didn't know why, he'd have to ask her. But as he entered the building Dixon rushed up to him and Sydney and rushed them off to a mission brief explaining that there was a situation in France and that he needed their teamwork skills for this one. (We leave with a view of a very pissed Lauren). Hustling them into the conference room, he starts playing a few slides, all showing a tall, muscular man with jet-black hair, dark sunglasses and a black mustache in what Vaughn identified as the Provence countryside in southern France. "That's exactly right agent Vaughn. This man's name in Angelo Vasquez. He is a known hacker and he's very good. Marshall's had a tough time keeping him out of our systems. But besides being a hacker he's very good at escaping from us and employing known terrorist cells such as our old friends at the Covenant to do some favors for him from time to time in exchange for crucial information about government agencies around the world. Recently Vasquez has obtained a disk that has the call signs, aliases, and real names of many of our governments top agents around the world. He has compiled this list over the years by hacking into hundreds of systems. Naturally, the Covenant wants this and in 5 days they will be paying for it with a stolen system, code-named MARX, which could enable Vasquez to hack into any nuclear device's computer and detonate it. You can only imagine what this would mean for enemies of the United States. They would line up with billions of dollars in hand. Your mission is to intercept the Covenant agents, retrieve MARX, fool Vasquez into thinking that you are his contacts and retrieve the disk. You will then apprehend Vasquez where he will be extradited to the United States. Agent Vaughn, you will be posing as Audric Landry and Agent Bristow will be Aimee Gaudet. You will meet Vasquez in the town of Avignon at 4:30 in the afternoon on the 5th day. You leave in 9 hours for your flight to Marseille. Any questions?" "Umm, yeah," Sydney began; "will Vasquez have dealt with these contacts before? Is there anyway we should act that would make him more comfortable?" "Excellent question Bristow. We are aware that Audric and Aimee were lovers. Beyond that we aren't sure." "*YES! *" thought Vaughn, "*OH SHIT! NO! " thought Sydney, "*with my luck Lauren will find out about this and then she'll come after me again. I'm so sick of her condescending little 'chats'. Plus, doesn't Dixon know that I still have feelings for Vaughn? I mean, how do you get over a guy like that? It's going to be very hard this time around...playing lovers on missions was always easier before but now that he's married...*" "*WOO-HOO! YES! 5 days away from Lauren, pretending to be Sydney's boyfriend in the Provence countryside, this can't be too bad, can it?" Dixon glanced at Vaughn and Bristow's face and was surprised to find that while Agent Vaughn looked surprisingly happy, Agent Bristow looked as though she could use some gloves and a punching bag pretty soon. "Alright everyone dismissed, Agent Bristow could I have a word with you?" Dixon asked. "Yes sir. What's up?" "Sydney, I couldn't help but notice that you looked a little bothered about your role in this mission. Is something wrong?" Sydney debated whether or not to tell her boss about the situation. "Well, Mr. Dixon sir..(Ok, is it Mr. Dixon or what? I forgot what they called him. I'm sticking with Mr. until told otherwise.) You know that Vaughn and I had a history together and working with him on this kind of mission in roles like this while he's married has been very difficult for me. Agent Reed hasn't helped the matter either but I don't want to sound like the little kid crying to the teacher on this. In the future, I'd just prefer working with Agent Vaughn in professional roles. That is all." Dixon looked at Sydney and realized that she looked a little choked up. Realizing that it would be embarrassing if he drew attention to this he ignored and proceeded, "very well Agent Bristow, you're request has been noted and I will use the utmost care in mission selection in the future for you. I will also note your reference to Agent Reed and since there are some matters at hand besides this concerning her I will be discussing this as well." Sydney slowly breathed out, thankful that she had a great boss like Dixon. "Thank you sir, I appreciate it very much." As Sydney walked out of the conference room she noticed Lauren standing nearby just hanging around. As Dixon followed her out he noticed her as well. "Agent Reed, could you step into my office for a moment?" "Certainly Mr. Dixon, I'm on my way." Lauren walked by Sydney and as she did, Sydney noticed a bruise on the side of Laurens head that looked like somebody had struck her. Probably somebody with small hands. She would have to ask Michael where she had gotten that. But as she was headed back to her desk her father who insisted that he come with her and to be quiet about it stopped her. "Dad, what's going on?" "Something very important. I believe I've found out why the Covenant has been one step ahead every time." They walked quickly into his office and sat down but not before Jack locked the door and closed all the blinds. He walked quickly to his desk and sat across from Sydney with worry all over his face. "There is a mole in this building right now as we speak. Last week when you and Vaughn went on the mission to Vancouver, directly after the mission brief, security detected a signal going out of the building. It was a cell phone call but it was not made on the secure phones the C.I.A issues. We traced the call to the receiver and it was located in the area where high members of a Covenant cell were last seen." "This means that whomever was in that room placed the call, or whomever managed to hear where we were going", Sydney realized. "That's right. And this means that you need to be extremely careful around Vaugh on this mission because right now everyone is suspect."