Chapter 3

Disclaimer: It still belongs to JJ. Not me. I'm restricted to fics…

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Leah drove well into the night, stopping only for a burger and shake that she ate on the road. She was nearing the Alabama-Mississippi line before she stopped, realizing it was after midnight in Georgia and she still had to call Jeff. Plus, she'd seen three bright yellow elephants float across the highway, so it was probably best that she get some sleep. She dropped her suitcase on the floor of the little hotel room and immediately dialed Jeff's number.

"Leah?" Jeff snapped quickly. "Lee where are you? It's late. Are you just now stopping? You shouldn't have driven so late. May be you should…"

"Whoa! Jeff, breathe!" Leah said. "Um…yes, I just stopped. I wanted to get a good start today. I'm still in Alabama. And I promise not to drive until I'm so tired I start seeing yellow elephants tomorrow."

"Elephants?!?! Leah, I'm not sure I'm comfortable with this. Where exactly are you?" Jeff demanded.

"Have you talked to my mom?"

"Yes! She traced your e-mail back to me! Damn, Leah, the woman nearly snapped my arm like a twig when I tried to tell her I hadn't seen you!"

"Mom took a lot of self-defense stuff when she worked for the government, I guess."

"Lee, babe, where are you? I'm worried about you," he pleaded.

"Jeff, uh, I'm not so sure my mother wouldn't get it out of you if I said. Is she very mad at me?"

"She's not mad, Lee, she's scared. I think she's really afraid you're going to get hurt."

"Jeff, I'll be fine. Tell her not to worry, and that I'll call her tomorrow. I need to get some sleep. I plan to get an early start tomorrow. Bye," Leah said abruptly.

"No, Leah, wait, don't…" The dial tone buzzed in his ear. "Well, there goes my pitching arm," Jeff muttered.

"What do you mean you don't know where she is!" Sydney screamed at him a few minutes later. She was more scared than anything else, and Jeff could tell.

"I'm sorry, but she doesn't want anyone to know where she is. She's afraid one of us will show up to stop her. All I know is she's in Alabama," Jeff said, exasperated. "I want to find her too, Ms. Bristow," he added softly.

Sydney sighed, very near tears. "I'll just keep driving. May be by some stroke of luck I'll find her before she gets to LA…oh, damn! I didn't mean to ell you that."

"Leah mentioned it. You're not going to drive all night, are you? That can't be safe."

"Boy, I've been through worse nights. I've got enough coffee that I'll be fine. Next time she calls you, tell her to call my cell, that I just want to hear it from her that she's okay."

Jeff thought about her tracing his computer's IP. "Can you trace her call?"

"I can try. Jeff, I think Leah and I and you are going to have to talk, assuming Leah and I come back," Sydney said.

"So the people that would hurt Leah," Jeff began. "They'd hurt you too?"

"They'd hurt Leah because of me," Sydney said miserably. "I don't want you to think I've been involved in anything criminal, but all the things I'm going to have to tell Leah and you will scare you even worse. Be careful, Jeff. If these people find out where I've been you might be in trouble too."

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Vaughn was getting very close to ready to shoot himself in the head just to put an end to the thoughts and memories he'd managed to keep locked away for so long. Now, he had suddenly been unable to think about anything else for two days.

He'd been short tempered, and snapped mercilessly at anyone who'd dared to cross the threshold of his office. Weiss had gotten the better of him that morning, though.

Weiss had taken one look at Vaughn and said with absolute confidence--for which Vaughn hated him--"You're thinking about her." Which, of course, had given Weiss the upper hand from the start.

"Leave me alone, Eric," Vaughn had said softly, unable to work up a sneer for his friend.

"Man, admit it. If she came back, you'd sweep her right off her feet without a single question. And that bugs you," Weiss commented.

"Yeah. That's exactly what I'd do, Weiss. And for all I know, she could have been working with SD-6 all this time. But I wouldn't care."

"Man, you got it bad. Look, we both know you're going to be useless today. You should just go ask for the rest of the day off."

"If I'm going to be useless, I might as well be useless where something might happen to take my mind off of my uselessness." Vaughn slumped in his desk chair. "I'll be fine tomorrow. Go…do something."

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Leah was exhausted by the time she pulled into the parking lot of a cheap motel around ten o'clock the second day she'd spent driving.

Her hands trembled as she picked up the phone to call Jeff. She figured he wouldn't be too happy with her.

"You drove all day, Leah!" Jeff yelled later. "What if you'd fallen asleep?"

"I'm not sleepy, Jeff," she said softly. "I never saw even one elephant. I'm wired. Jeff, I should be in LA by tomorrow evening. I'll take some time to find the building where my father worked, and then I'll turn in early and get a good night's sleep. I promise."

Jeff sighed. "Where are you, Lee? Even if I told your mom, there's no way she could stop you now. I'm worried, Lee."

"Jeff, I'll be in LA tomorrow, and then you'll know where I am. I'll call you when I find a room tomorrow, okay?"

Jeff only sighed in response.

"Your mom wants you to call her cell. She just wants to hear from you. It's not the same for her to hear it from me, and not fair, either. Promise me you'll call."

"Okay, I'll call. Bye, Jeff. Love you," she added softly, hanging up before he replied.

Leah had to redial her mother's cell number twice, her hands shook so bad.

"Mom, it's me," she said softly when her mother answered.

The muffled sob Leah heard on the line was nearly enough to make her abandon her crazy idea of finding the father she'd never known. Only it wasn't crazy, she reminded herself. It was right.

"Leah! Oh, baby, you're okay! I've been so worried. Honey, I wish you'd just come home. You scared me."

"Mom, I'm fine. I'll be home soon, but I need to do this, for me, and for my father. You know it wasn't right, Mom, though I suspect you have good reasons for what you did. I need to get some sleep, Mom. I'll call you tomorrow. Love you."

Leah hung up quietly, and allowed the wave of homesickness to wash over her, followed by silent tears.

God, she wished she could be at home, with people she loved to support her in everything she did. She was doing the right thing, but she was on her own. There was no one to reassure her this was right.

Leah stretched out on the bed and pressed her face into a pillow.

Is this how Mom felt when she was alone and pregnant? Leah wondered miserably.

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Sydney hung up with her daughter and immediately called Jeff.

"My car broke down!" she complained. "There's no way I'll catch up with her. How long before she gets to LA do you think?"

"She expects to get there tomorrow evening. How long on the car?" Jeff asked grimly.

"Two days, minimum. I can't even call anybody in LA to keep an eye on her. I don't know who's still there, or who I can trust." Sydney bit back tears.

"She'll be okay, Ms. Bristow. Lee's smart enough to watch out for herself."

"Not against this. Not when she doesn't know it's there…"

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Vaughn was furious as he drove home. Three damn days, in which he'd accomplished nothing except to come to the conclusion that he was a pitiful fool.

He slowed his sedan to a complete stop once again. It was six o'clock, damn it! Traffic should be starting to clear up already.

Then he saw her. Sydney! his mind exalted. She looked just like she had when they'd met!

He moved forward with the flow of traffic, still watching the beautiful brunette, hoping she'd turn around so he could see her face…

Horns honked, and Vaughn barely managed to slam on the brakes before he hit the SUV in front of him. He needed to get home. His eyes were playing tricks on him. That wasn't Sydney. She would be much older than the woman he'd seen. And she'd been standing right in front of Credit Delphine, too. Even if she'd been working with SD-6, she hadn't been at the bank all those years. Jack hadn't seen her either.

Yeah, he just needed to go home and get some obviously much needed sleep.

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Leah had found a hotel room and been settled by five o'clock. She'd called Jeff and her mother, and had felt unbearably restless afterwards. She'd' seen the CIA building coming into town. So she'd started walking up and down the street in front of her hotel. Two blocks north, she'd seen the bank. It was huge, with three levels, at least.

They just didn't have buildings like that in rural Georgia. And the architecture was amazing. She'd stopped, back to the street, and stared upward at it.

When she'd heard the blast of horns in the street, she'd spun around, but nothing had been wrong.

She'd stayed out, just walking, until it had started to get dark. By then, she'd been tired enough to sleep, but the butterflies in her stomach kept her awake. In just a few more hours she could go find her father…

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Marshal stared in amazement at the security footage. Then he hastily printed out a hardcopy of the image and rushed to Sloane's office.

"Mr. Sloane, I, uh, I was scanning the security footage from the last few hours, and, well, I found something that I thought was well, interesting, and I thought, well, "Mr. Sloane will want this," so, uh…here," Marshal finished, handing over the picture.

Sloane's eyes widened almost imperceptibly.

"Sydney," he whispered. "Can you find out where this girl went?" he asked Marshal. "She may well have some answers about our missing agent."

"Yes, sir. All I have to do is synchronize the cameras sequentially, and…"

"Good. Report your findings only to me. I'll have tails placed on her."

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Leah's eyes popped open just after seven the next morning. That was good. Get an early start.

She left her hair loose and unruly, tumbling wildly down her back. She looked in the mirror as she gathered her sparse possessions, and her eyes were wide and nervous, but excitement flickered there too. The tiny hotel room seemed more like a comfort than it had since she'd arrive hwen she shut the door behind herself on her way to check out.

It must have been the fact that she was driving toward the CIA that made her wary and alert. halfway to her destination, she realized a dark car--it could have been green or black--had been two or three cars behind her since she'd left the hotel.

Zipping her car suddenly into a turning lame o the busy LA street, and watching in her rearview mirror, she saw the car follow.

"Well shit!" she yelled aloud. "What the hell is this?" It occurred to her that her mother had been unduly worried about her.

Leah dodged through traffic and in and out of side streets with a dexterity that surprised her. Fifteen minutes later, she was sure she'd lost the tail and hadn't gotten arrested in the process, so she was happy.

Her stomach fell all the way to her feet when she pulled into the parking lot of the CIA.

Walking up to a desk in the front of the building, Leah realized she had no idea what to say. The woman at the desk didn't look ready to deal with her and what the woman must assume would be her ridiculous requests.

"Can I help you?" she asked efficiently.

"I hope so," Leah said carefully, forcing a wan smile. "I'm looking for someone. His name is Michael, and…"

"If you want to file a missing person report, go to the police station," the woman said icily. "In case you didn't notice, this is the CIA."

"No! He works here. Or he did, eighteen…no, nineteen years ago," Leah said, realizing with every word how stupid she sounded.

"Look, miss, I don't know what you're trying to pull, but I can't help you. I suggest you leave now, before I have you escorted out as a threat to security." Her eyes, Leah noted, were hard and mean.

Leah hung her head and stepped away. Before she reached the door, she paused to turn and scan the room hopefully. She'd just about given up when he walked in.

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Vaughn had moved from mad to thoroughly pissed. Four days. Four frickin' days. But at least he'd forced himself to get some work done. In fact, he had just completed a search of the entire building trying to find the director to hand him a report he'd requested. Only the man seemed to have dropped off the face ofhte earth, now that Vaughn wanted to find him.

He stalked through a door into the big front room, the only space he'd yet to search.

And locked eyes across the room with the young woman he'd mistaken for Sydney the day before. Damn, she looked just like Syd, but…those eyes! Even across the room, it was like looking in the mirror.

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Leah started when she caught the gaze of the man walking into the room. His eyes turned wary, and she thought that she'd seen those same eyes in the mirror that morning, wary, but these eyes were hard and cynical where hers had been soft and hopeful.

Finally, a crease appeared between the man's eyebrows and he began to stalk toward her. She cautiously took a few steps in his direction, aware of the sudden blaze of fry in the eyes she'd yet to look away from.

"Who the hell are you?" he demanded in a harsh whisper that told her he wanted to shout it.

"My name is Leah Bristow," she said slowly, extending a hand and never taking her gaze from his revealing eyes. Did hers reveal as much about her? "You must be…is your name Michael?"

Vaughn had a sudden compulsion to hug her, but recalled having seen him in front of the bank. Who knew if SD-6 was pulling some stunt? Instead, he wrapped a hand roughly around her upper arm and silently began to pull her toward his office.

"Hey!" she said, keeping her voice low and angling her elbow into his ribs so that he released her. "What do you think you're doing?"

"You are coming to my office with me, and you're going to tell me who you are," Vaughn said steadily.

Leah's eyes flashed dangerously. "I told you who the hell I am. I believe it's your turn to tell me who the hell you think you are, dragging me back to your office without so much as answering my simple question!" Leah's voice had risen on each word high enough to attract the attention of some people nearby.

Vaughn stepped close enough that Leah had to look up to see his face, and said softly, "You are coming to my office with me. You can come willingly, and we can carry on a civilized conversation, of I'll carry you kicking and screaming, and I'll put you in restraints when we get there." The look in his eyes said he was in the mood for a fight.

So I'll humor him, Leah thought, turning as if to walk off.

When he grabbed her arm, she threw up her elbow and caught him in the mouth hard enough to throw him off balance, then swung around a kick to his shoulder that sent him sprawling.

Everyone in the room stopped to stare, Weiss among them, Vaughn noted with regret. He figured Weiss would have burst out laughing if he hadn't seen the girl. Oh, yeah, Weiss knew who she was.

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Yay! Go Leah! Cool, huh? Leah is, after all, Sydney's child. She has to show everybody she kicks ass too. That, if nothing else, should convince Vaughn of her identity! And besides, Vaughn getting whipped by his daughter is just too funny to pass up!