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Sydney wanted nothing more than to run back inside the house, and run to her precious Vaughn.  He was her all.  But she heard the door open and close.  And the voices that were echoing down the hall did not belong to Vaughn and Weiss.  Sydney knew that Vaughn would insist on the sacrifice she was about to make.  She jumped into the driver's seat and pulled out of the driveway.  She drove casually, hoping that Sark's men wouldn't follow her.  "Sam, reach into the glove box, get me out the gum and the gun."

Samantha looked at Sydney worried, curious what the gum really was.  She carefully handed both to Sydney.  Sydney just took the gun and began loading it one handed, while still driving the car.  "What does the gum do?"

"Take a piece. It's the last accessory to your costume."  Sydney instructed.  She saw a familiar black car turning every time she did.  Sydney attempted to shake the tail, until they caught on, and began to shoot at her tires.  Sydney sped up, and weaved in and out of traffic.  Samantha held onto her seat belt for dear life, as Sydney went down a one-way alley, the wrong way. 

Sydney sped through an intersection, causing several accidents behind her.  "Sydney!  That was a red light!"

"It's better that I ran a red light, than waiting for it, and winding up dead." Samantha said nothing as she closed her eyes.  Sydney spun into a grocery store parking lot and paused.  "Good, they got stuck behind that intersection."  Samantha opened her eyes, to turn and see two men with guns jump out of their car, and start running towards their car.  Sydney smiled with victory before driving out of the lot, and towards the airport.  Her thoughts shifted from getting Samantha safe, to Vaughn.  Was he alright? Did he fire the shot?  Was it someone else? Sydney couldn't help but worry.   She wanted to spin the car around, and go running back to the safe house to tend to him.  But Samantha's hyperventilating from shotgun brought her back to earth.  She glided the car into the airport's valet parking, and got out.  Samantha quickly followed.

               
Samantha and Sydney grabbed their suitcases from the trunk of the car and handed the keys to the valet.  Samantha took one last look at the parking lot of the airport.  "This could very well be the last time I see this place."  She whispered aloud to herself before turning to follow Sydney.
 
Sydney was right about the gum.  It did help Samantha get in the right attitude.  And Sydney did a good job acting like the big sister.  As they stood in line, Sydney kept watching the doors for Vaughn or Weiss, or Sark and his men. 
 
"Looking for someone?"  Samantha teased, getting into her character.
 
"I can't find George or John."
 
Samantha shook her head.  "I'm sure they're all right."  She put a comforting hand on Sydney's shoulder, and smiled.  Sydney weakly smiled back.  Sydney watched the doors until the plane's door was shut.  Sydney closed her eyes and attempted to sleep.  But that sleep wouldn't come. 
 
Samantha however hated flying. She had only done it once before, and that was with her best friends when they went on a band trip to Chicago.  She dug her fingernails into the seat chair next to her.  The roar of the engines firing up made her scream.
 
Sydney jumped at Samantha's frightened scream.  "Are you ok Lauren?"  She tenderly asked.
 
Samantha nodded.  "I don't know."  She started breathing heavily.  "Those engines sounded just like, just like."
 
Sydney knew where Samantha was trying to go with it, so she just smiled.  "I understand.  Try these, and get some sleep."  Sydney handed Samantha a pair of headphones.
 
At the suggestion of sleep, Samantha glared at Sydney.  "Sleep? Are you kidding me?"
 
"No, I'm not kidding.  You need to sleep.  And if you won't sleep, then just close your eyes and for my sake pretend like you're sleeping.  But whatever you do, don't think about it."
 
"I can't not think about it."  She whispered.
 
"Think about what you liked to do before it happened."
 
"I loved going to the mall with Cher and Caitlin, and Carly, and Tim, and Josh, and Peter, and Karen, and Jo and Joe, and Cher.  But Cher, Caitlin, and Carly are all dead."
 
"Alright, what'd you do without your friends?"
 
Samantha thought for a minute.  "Nothing. Cher was always there."
 
Sydney understood.  She and Francie were that inseparable at one point.  She reached into her purse, and pulled out a pen.  She then reached into her backpack, and pulled out a pad of blank paper.  "Here.  Draw, write, whatever."
 
"Are you trying to make me express my feelings?"
 
Sydney shook her head.  "No.  I want you to try to forget about it until we get you to LA."
 
Samantha smiled, took the pen and paper from Sydney, and began to mindlessly draw doodles on the paper.  Sydney on the other hand, no matter how much she tried to compartmentalize the single shot she heard, she couldn't.  She watched the onboard movie that they played, but she wouldn't have been able to tell anyone who the characters were, what the movie was about, or even what the title of the movie was even five minutes later.

A car picked Sydney and Samantha up from LAX and drove them both to the JTF.  Sydney jumped out of the car and went running to her father. "Dad!"  She called out.  "Have you had any communications from Vaughn or Weiss?"

Jack looked up from his pile of papers.  "No.  We've had no communications with them since you arrived at the safe house."

Sydney held her breath.  "You mean that they're still there?"

"We sent a team in the second you called.  They said that the place was empty."

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