Chapter 9
Disclaimer: I'm all out of witty remarks for today. Alias isn't mine.
A/N: I have nothing important to say right now. Try me later.
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Sydney let loose a scream when she saw Leah with some man on the street corner, first one on them holding a gun, then a knife appeared form no where.
"There she is! Oh my God, Vaughn, there she is!" Sydney screeched.
Vaughn cut the wheel hard and slammed on the brakes, spinning the car to a stop in the middle of a deserted street.
Sydney was out of the car nearly before it stopped, but a man jumped out of the car that had been following them--which had also screeched to a halt--and intercepted her. Before Sydney had to divert all of her attention to her assailant, she saw the man Leah was struggling with had a long, bloody gash on his forearm. At least that meant Leah had the knife.
Vaughn was retained be the driver of the other car, who fought as well as her tailed, Vaughn thought.
Leah was furious. Her attempted captor tried to knock her down, but got the tip of the knife through his palm instead and let out a howl of pain. Channeling all of the anger and fear into her effort, Leah kicked and caught the side of his head. He crumpled to the gorund and didn't move.
She snatched up his gun, which had flown several yards back up the sidewalk, and raced into the street where her mother was fighting a huge man, probably close to 300 pounds. Leah aimed the gun, barely pausing to consider that if she fired she'd probably kill him, and that the other man could possibly bleed to death from the long gash on his arm.
Sydney ducked a punch and kicked, and the man tumbled backwards onto the hood of his own car; Leah fired while she had a clear shot.
Sydney froze to watch the blood spread over the man's shirt as he lay motionless over the hood of his own car. He was dead; the bullet had caught him dead center of the chest. Finally she spun around to see who the shooter was, and found herself facing Leah, less than three yards away, still holding the handgun out.
"Mom!" Leah gasped, dropping her weapon and lunging at her mother to hug her. "You're okay!"
"I should say the same to you," Sydney cried, holding Leah in a bone crushing hug.
A grunt reached their ears, followed by sounds of the scuffle nearby.
"Vaughn!" Sydney gasped. "Stay here, Leah!"
"Not a chance." Leah pulled the knife from her pocket and flipped it open, the blade still red with blood.
"No! Leah, no!" Sydney cried when Leah appeared running beside her.
"Yes," Leah said simply.
They flanked Vaughn, Sydney forcing the air from the tail's lungs with a swift kick to his stomach and Leah driving the knife to the hilt into his shoulder.. He fell, the knife staying in place. He wasn't dead, not by far, but it left them time to escape.
Vaughn stood stunned for a moment, then hurried them toward the car. While he got into the driver's seat, Sydney and Leah climbed into the back. He drove like a maniac, screeching the tired on turned and hitting a hundred miles per hour on the straight-aways. He had them to a local safe house in a mere ten minutes, when it should have taken twenty. None of them had made a single sound. Vaughn hurried them all inside and made a call of his cell phone.
"Weiss, there's a mess of bloody SD-6 operatives at the contact point," he said. "Find Jack, tell him Sydney and Leah are okay."
He hung up without waiting for a reply, then turned and gathered both Sydney and Leah into a tight hug.
"I should kill both of you," he murmured. "For what you put me through."
"God, Leah, don't ever leave me like that again," Sydney muttered.
Suddenly, a flash of images assaulted Leah.
She was ten years old again. They were in the basement, she and her mother, sitting on bright blue mats after a karate session. She'd managed to throw her mother twice when they'd gone head to head, even though she suspected her mother had let herself be thrown the first time. But she'd surprised her the second time, Leah thought, smiling as she drank from the plastic bottle of water.
"Anytime you can avoid a fight, do it," Sydney was saying. "If a potential attacker is trying to take you away, get him talking. Make him think he'd fooled you. He'll get careless then, and you'll see his weak spot."
"And then I can beat him, Momma?"
"And then you'll know how to beat him."
Leah slipped free from her parents' grasp and backed away, her eyes wild, with confusion evident.
"Is there something I should know?" she demanded. "Something neither of you has told me?"
"Leah, you're here now, you're safe." Sydney started to hug her again, but Leah moved away.
"No, there's something else. There's something I should know. I remember a conversation we had when I was ten," Leah said to Sydney. "Word for word, Mom. I remember that we were sitting in the basement, on the mats, that I'd thrown you twice, I remember what I was thinking. And Mom, I remembered what you said when that guy tried to kidnap me again today."
"Honey, children have amazing memories," Sydney said placating.
"Mom, we must have sat just like that a million other times. There was nothing unusual about this one time, but I remember every detail of it." Leah glanced at her father's expression, which only reaffirmed what she thought. "There is something you're not telling me," she accused firmly.
"Tell her, Sydney. The memory…it's probably an effect from the Project," Vaughn said cryptically.
"The Project?"
"Project Christmas," Sydney murmured. "The original was created to…program children to be spies. My…my father used it on me, but that's something for another time. I used a version on you. I was trying to ensure you could survive if SD-6 ever caught up with me," Sydney said. "My father used the program to repress my memory of the training sessions, but I didn't use that on you, Leah. I used a feature to enhance subconscious memory during our sessions in the basement. You really were a natural at karate," she said with a small, hopeful smile.
"You…did you program me to be a spy?"
"No. I did not. I taught you to protect yourself, that's all. In that way, I was protecting you from my enemies."
"So that's how I knew what to do, what to say," Leah said quietly. "You programmed me to know."
Sydney considered. "No, I don't think so. Not exactly. I taught you how to react to a threat. You had to know what the right reaction was."
"But you did program me, so it wasn't just me."
"Just like your mother," Vaughn broke in, grinning slightly. "Stubborn as hell, and a tendency to over think things. You're alive, Leah," he said, putting his hands on her shoulders. "Be happy. I don't care if it was you, or your mother, or the Jolly Green Giant, you're alive and safe."
Leah smiled shakily. "You're right. Mom, for whatever you've done, thank you." She hugged her mother.
"We'll be able to get back to our lives soon, baby," Sydney told Leah.
"Whoa, wait," Vaughn jumped in again. "They know about you now. You can't just go back like nothing happened!"
"Sure we can," Sydney said. "I've, uh, tweaked a few records. They can't find us."
"Like hell," Vaughn snapped. "You will not go back like nothing happened. I will not let you disappear from my life again!"
Sydney stared and Leah hid a grin; she had no trouble following Vaughn's train of thought.
"Vaughn, how will we explain…" Sydney started.
"However the hell you want. I'm coming with you."
"We can't just…What?"
"I'm coming with you, Sydney," Vaughn said more softly.
For a moment Sydney just stood in shop, then she melted in the embrace he offered. Leah just grinned.
"We'll get married, and be together like we should have been for nearly nineteen years," Vaughn added quietly.
"How many bedrooms are in this place?" Leah asked, looking around so that her parents missed the mischievous look in her eyes.
"Uh…" Vaughn swallowed nervously. "Two."
Leah nodded. "Good. No one will have to take the couch." It took a moment for her meaning to sink through the thick skulls of her parents. Leah burst out laughing at their looks when it did. "I should call Jeff," she said when she could talk again. "And leave you two alone. Where might I find a phone?"
Vaughn gestured wordlessly toward the doorway into the kitchen.
"A secure line, right?"
Vaughn nodded.
"Okay." Leah grinned. "Have fun, you two."
Vaughn looked over at Sydney, who was smiling.
"Why couldn't we have a son?" he asked finally. "I think I'd be a little more comfortable with that. And our first meeting wouldn't have been so humiliating…"
"Oh?" Sydney raised her eyebrows.
"You haven't heard about that yet? Well, I'm sure Eric will tell you the first chance he gets. Right now, I can think of more important things…"
He leaned down and kissed her.
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Jeff pounced on the phone--from across the living room, earning him a warning look from his father--before it finished its first ring.
"Hello?"
"Jeff?"
"Leah?!?"
"It's me. I'm okay. Did you talk to my Mom?"
"Yes. And your father." Jeff strode out onto the back porch, shutting the door securely behind himself.
"How much do you know?" Leah asked softly.
"That you were frickin' kidnapped!" Jeff yelled. "That your parents are CIA, and they couldn't find you!"
"I had no idea what I was getting into," Leah admitted softly. "I was stupid. You have every right to yell at me."
Jeff could practically hear the tears pool in her eyes over the phone line, depleting his considerable reserve of anger.
"Lee, I'm sorry. After all you've been through, I have no right to yell at you. Are you okay?"
Leah didn't answer.
"Lee? Baby, I'm sorry," Jeff pleaded. "Talk to me."
"I'm alive, and I'm not hurt, so yeah, I'm okay," Leah said. "I'm just…everything is so different than it was a week ago. Nothing's the same."
"Not everything, Lee. You know I'm still here for you, right?"
"Yeah." Leah blinked back tears. "I'm just not sure of anything in my life any more. I'm not even sure of me." She wasn't going to explain Project Christmas over the phone.
"I love you, Leah, you can be sure of that. And I miss you. Do you know when you'll be home?"
"No. but I think my dad is going to be coming back with us."
"That's good, right?"
"Yeah. More so for Mom. Now I won't have to feel guilty about leaving her to go to college."
"You did? You never told me you were worried about leaving."
"I just didn't want to leave my mom alone. Now I won't have to. They're still in love after all this time." Leah smiled. "I think it's good for both of them."
"That's good for you, too."
"Yeah, I guess so, I just wish I could have known him sooner. I never really minded the lack, but now that I've met him I wish I could have grown up with him, you know? I'll never have the same kind of relationship with him as I do with Mom."
Jeff laughed suddenly.
"Sorry, it's just you and you're mother are pretty horrible together. I don't think this little town could stand another relationship like that."
Leah laughed too.
"I have a feeling my parents are kind of like that, too. You mess with one of them, and both of them are gonna kick your ass. They just work well together."
"May be we'll be like that someday," Jeff said quietly.
Leah thought for a moment.
"I think I'd like to have what they have with you, Jeff," she finally said. "Just without the whole thing about Dad not knowing about his daughter for eighteen years, "she added quickly. "And," she continued jokingly, "If you get me pregnant, I'm gonna beat you down, then make you deal with it, not run away."
Jeff laughed.
"Then I'll think twice about it and learn karate first."
"If I were there right now, I'd hit you," Leah said, laughing in spite of her self.
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Everybody say it with me now: Aww, how sweet! I couldn't resist. I'm a hopeless romantic. I couldn't give Leah a boyfriend without wrapping it all up nice and neat.
There's only one more chapter left now. I think the epilogue wraps it all up quite nicely, but I'll leave that up to you to decide!