Option 3: Jack

Disclaimer: Alias isn't mine. *Pouts*

A/N: This is really weird, because I wrote this the day of the Alias episode where Jack became suspicious of Lauren, but it was before I saw the episode! I was totally freaked out by that, but hey, I like it anyway!

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Jack glanced suspiciously across the table. He heard and responded appropriately to every word Dixon said, but he wasn't really listening to him. He was watching intently the one person who was the cause of so much anguish between his daughter and the man she loved. Not that he minded Vaughn being unhappy, except that the cause of his mood also made Sydney unhappy.

He'd masked it well, but Jack had become increasingly suspicious of Lauren Reed over the past weeks. Several times she hadn't reacted quite the way she should have to information. Like when she'd been told Vaughn and Sydney were alive in North Korea. Sure, her response had been perfect at first, but as soon as her countenance no longer bore the scrutiny of her informer her expression had changed. Just enough to make Jack suspicious.

Ever since, he'd been watching her. No one else knew of his suspicions, which grew stronger every day. When she'd warned Sydney off of her husband, his suspicions had been confirmed; even across the Op Center he had been able to see that Lauren's eyes lacked the fiery rage of a woman scorned.

Something about that moment pulled at him, tugging at his memory banks like a bulldog on a rope, begging to be recognized for what it was. Yet he couldn't pinpoint anything.

Staring across the table as Dixon outlined some new mission to Sydney and Vaughn, Jack knew that if he could just figure out what was lurking at the edge of his mind, he'd know what steps to take to protect the people he cared about.

He just had to hope that they could protect themselves until they returned from whatever rat-infested hellhole Dixon was sending them to.

"Jack," Dixon said quietly as everyone else shuffled out of the room. "Are you okay? You didn't hear one word of what I said."

"I'm fine," Jack said firmly. "And I heard the majority of what you said. You're sending Sydney and Vaughn to retrieve data from a foreign government that you believe is researching next-generation nuclear technology." Jack nodded curtly and turned to leave.

"Agent Bristow," Dixon addressed him more formally. "If you're planning some stunt, I'd appreciate prior knowledge so I can handle my superiors."

Jack paused. "I'll be sure to take that into consideration," he agreed, then nodded to him again and walked out.

His eyes zeroed in on the three he was watching most closely engaged in a heated argument, close enough for him to hear them.

"Lauren, we work together! Dixon assigns up ops, we don't ask for them!" Vaughn snapped.

"Well, you certainly haven't asked not to be assigned with her!" Lauren accused.

"I can hear you, you know," Sydney said pointedly. "I've told you before," she continued to Lauren, "I'm not doing anything with your husband. As he said, we work together, and I suggest you get used to it."

"You underhanded little bitch!" Lauren snapped, despite Sydney's considerable height advantage. "You know just how to undermine a marriage without ever doing anything, don't you!"

"He's your husband, damn it, and I'm not doing a damn thing with him, nor am I working to undermine your damn marriage!" Sydney said, her voice rising.

"Lauren, you're making a big deal out of nothing," Vaughn said soothingly, hoping to put an end to the embarrassing argument.

Jack had to find it amusing when both women turned to fire darts out of their eyes at Vaughn; that was real enough.

"Fine. Whatever," Vaughn growled, then stalked away.

Immediately Sydney turned back to Lauren. And hissed, "I won't lower myself to sleeping with another woman's husband! Don't you dare blame your shortcomings on me!"

With that, Sydney turned and left Lauren to appear furious, which she may well have actually been.

On impulse, Jack intercepted Sydney before she could disappear into the maze of desks and computers.

"Sydney." He waited for her to turn, then continued without seeming to notice that she was fuming. "A word?"

She took a deep breath, steadying herself; no point in taking Lauren's stupidity out on her father, now, was there?

"Sure."

He placed a hand on her arm and steered her into an empty office just off the hall.

"Sydney, I suspect there is a mole somewhere in this office." That was true enough. "Dixon doesn't suspect it, or at least hasn't made his suspicions known." Also true. "I need your help. I don't have any definite suspects in mind now, and I want your take on it." He did want her take on it, but he most certainly did have a suspect in mind.

Sydney frowned. "What do you want me to do? You have higher clearance than I do."

"You tend to be closer to some ops, and therefore some people, than I am. Just observe."

"Do you have anyone specific in mind?"

"No. Net yet. Right now, is there anyone you might suspect?"

Sydney opened her mouth to say something, then closed it. "No," she said, shaking her head.

"You should observe your enemies that much closer. You never know," Jack said, opening the door and letting Sydney out ahead of himself.

Both thoughtful now, they silently went separate ways.

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Of course there was a mole. Everyone knew too many ops had been compromised lately for there not to be a mole. There had been no formal announcement of an investigation yet, but everyone knew it just the same. How stupid did her father think she was?

There was only one way to respond to what he seemed to think. Sydney would have to find a viable suspect, soon.

She sorted through people in her mind. Vaughn and herself were innocent, of course. Marshal…well, there was very little chance that any criminal organization would tolerate Marshal. Her father…if he were leaking information it would only be to Irena Derevko, and he'd have told her he was doing it, not sent her on some wild goose chase. Dixon was as trustworthy as they came, albeit a bit psycho from time to time. Weiss was Vaughn's friend, and besides, he'd nearly been killed for the CIA more than once. Lauren…well, she was pretty sure her judgment was a little clouded when it cam e to Lauren presently.

Sydney paused, actually stopped in the middle of the corridor. Lauren was the only one close to the task force working against the Covenant that Sydney had a single doubt as to their loyalty. Perhaps it was time to watch Lauren more closely.

Come to think of it, she realized as she continued down the hall, Lauren had been in Washington when the last op had gone awry. No one at the CIA, as far as she knew, had thought to verify her whereabouts; since she'd worked under Lindsay originally, bastard that he was, no one thought to question Lauren.

It made sense. Then Sydney thought of Vaughn. Her joy of having a logical suspect dissipated quickly at the thought of what it would do to Vaughn, if it were in fact the truth.

Oh, God, she thought suddenly. If Lauren hadn't been in Washington, then she may well have been on that boat with Sydney and Vaughn, and Sark. She may even have been the one Vaughn had caught! Damn it! If only Sark hadn't shown up when he had…

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Italy, and the next-century nuclear weapons. Jack had been belatedly assigned to accompany Sydney and Vaughn as back up when they'd discovered how tight security was in the research facility; tight enough that to hack into it was going to require a van-full of equipment being operated. They also had COM units, ensuring that if they all got separated they could still touch base.

And they'd received Intel that the Covenant was after the same research.

Sydney hadn't been able to look Vaughn in the eye in two days, ever since she'd talked to her father. In that space of time, she became pretty sure that if Lauren was the mole, she'd never handle it any better than Vaughn, and he'd take it hard.

They got into the facility according to the op tech Marshal had designed with no unforeseen problems. All the guards had been tranquilized beforehand.

Sydney and Vaughn were a mere hundred yards down the hall from the room where the research files were kept when a pair of black clad figures, complete with black ski masks, darted into the room ahead of them.

"Covenant," Vaughn muttered as they picked up their pace to a jog.

Guns drawn, they ran all out toward the last know location of the files they wanted. They rounded a corner and found Sark, mask removed, standing cockily in the storage closet holding a file.

"Looking for this?" he asked as they heard the safety click off of a gun behind Sydney's head. "If you want to leave here alive, I suggest you cooperate with my associate there," Sark added, gesturing behind them.

The person behind them--still masked, Vaughn could see from the corner of his eye--pulled two sets of handcuffs from a bag over their shoulder. Neither Vaughn nor Sydney could see the person well enough to tell if they were male or female, and the person didn't speak, either. They cuffed Vaughn's hands, and then twisted the second set of cuffs around the first and cuffed Sydney's hands behind her back, so that they were back to back, and essentially helpless without the guns they'd long since surrendered.

When their captor started to pull them down the hall, Sydney noted with a sickening sinking felling in her stomach that their Covenant friend was distinctly a woman.

The mystery woman pulled them, Sydney in front and Vaughn stumbling behind, along the hall to a door marked basement.

Oh, God, Sydney thought when she saw the steep set of stairs leading down into darkness.

Her last thought before they were pushed was that, if they survived the fall, their COM units hadn't been discovered and they could signal her father.

Then her head smashed into the top step, and she alternated between her head hitting the cement wall, a cement step, and Vaughn's dead weight crushing her against the stairs as they tumbled downward. The only sound either of them made, and the only thing that assured them the other was still conscious, was the occasional irrepressible grunt.

When they hit the bottom, Vaughn landing full on top of her, Sydney emitted a long, low groan that couldn't be heard at the top of the stairs. Vaughn shifted and managed to turn them both onto their side.

"Syd?" Vaughn managed weakly, his head spinning wickedly. "Are you okay?"

She took a few shaky breaths before she answered to be sure her voice wouldn't break. "I'm fine. You?"

"I'll be okay. Can you try to sit up? I can't feel my arm."

"Yeah."

They struggled for a full minute before the managed to sit upright, leaning back against each other and breathing hard.

"Are you okay?" Vaughn asked again, expelling a hard breath with the words.

This time Sydney had to concentrate to hear him over the ringing in her ears. She closed her eyes because her vision swam, and she had to work to speak audibly. "I'm okay," She mumbled, her voice high and shaky.

Vaughn wasn't much better. He figured that even if they could stand, he'd crash back down to the floor, his head was spinning so badly. He could feel blood running down his face from a gash somewhere near his temple.

"The COM," he said suddenly.

The ear piece was tiny enough to have escaped detection by either Sark or the woman. But the microphone was hooked under the collar of their shirts and had to be activated. They'd voted for radio silence in case there were Covenant operatives sweeping the area, but they were regretting that decision currently.

"Damn," Sydney moaned, managing to steady her voice a little, though the ringing persisted. "How are we going to manage that?"

"Try to pull both of our arms over your head," Vaughn said. "May be I can reach your mike."

They managed to bring their arms around, but it caused Vaughn considerable pain.

"God damn," he muttered. "I think my shoulder's dislocated."

"Can you do this?" Sydney asked worriedly.

"Yes." Vaughn bit his lip to keep from crying out.

He traced his fingers along her collar, feeling for the small microphone. Just as he tried not to think how he'd love to be doing that under better circumstances, Sydney was trying not to moan in pleasure, despite her pain and the danger of their predicament.

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Jack was worried. Despite all the extra surveillance the CIA had focused on the building for this op, he couldn't locate Sydney or Vaughn. If they were in trouble, surely they would have contacted him? They'd agreed on radio silence unless there was an emergency, so he'd yet to try to contact them.

Then he saw them fleeing from a side exit. Sark had pulled off his mask, and his companion was starting to peel hers off.

Blonde hair spilled from under it. The thing about Lauren that had pulled at him clicked into place, and, already equipped with his COM unit, he sprinted from the van. Her eyes, damn it! He'd seen that same emptiness in Irena's eyes hundreds of times.

Lauren had her mask off now. No question that it was her. Jack took a running shot and hit her; she went down. He didn't pause to see where, just moved on to Sark. He darted into a car and sped away, knowing Lauren had been compromised.

Jack ran up to where Lauren lay on the ground, bleeding from a bullet hole low on the right side of her torso, then just stood over her.

"You know my past," Jack said in a low, dangerous tone. "How long did you think you'd be able to pull off a scam like this when it affects my daughter?"

As he walked off, leaving her to bleed, he activated the COM.

Sydney, Vaughn, are you okay? If you don't respond, I'm coming in after you," he warned.

"Got it!" he heard in the background, then, "Dad! Did you see them?" came Sydney's voice.

"I saw them. Sark got away."

"Then what about…"

"I shot her."

"It was…"

"Yes. Where are you?"

"The basement. We're handcuffed together. I don't know if we can even stand," she warned.

"Hold tight. I'll be right there," Jack said, entering the building through the door Sark and Lauren had left through

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"What was that about?" Vaughn asked as he eased his arm back down behind his back. "You knew the other Covenant agent?"

"We both know her, Vaughn," Sydney mumbled softly, her ears still ringing and her head spinning so much that she was unsure if she could stay conscious.

"Who is it? I never saw her very well." Even the nausea he was now fighting didn't quell his curiosity or his agent training.

Vaughn felt her slump against him, and knew she was in worse shape than he'd thought. Hell, he was in worse shape than he thought. As long as he stayed conscious until Jack found them, they'd be okay. He could worry about the Covenant operative later; it didn't sound like she was going anywhere.

"Sydney? Vaughn? Where are you?" Jack's voice called from the top of the stairs.


"Here." Vaughn cleared his throat and, regardless of the fact that it made him sick, called again. "We're here."

Jack flipped a switch and light flooded the space. Vaughn thought he was going to keel over; the light made his head swim even worse than he thought possible.

"She's out," he managed to mumble as Jack knelt beside them and started working on the cuffs.

"I see. You two are in bad shape. How did you get down here?"

"The stairs, how else?" Vaughn attempted a wry smile, but it hurt too much.

"What are the odds of you getting out of here under your own steam?"

"I'd say better than Sydney's."

Jack heard the click as the last pair of hand cuffs came open. "See if you can stand. I've got to try to bring her around."

Vaughn stumbled to his feet, amid a colorful string of curses he barely had the breath to utter. Once up, he had to lean against the wall for support.

"Sydney, can you hear me?" Jack was saying, patting Sydney's cheek gently. When she didn't respond, he pressed his fingers against her neck to check her pulse. "She's out." He stood and lifted her. "You going to make it?" he asked in concern when Vaughn's eyes nearly rolled back in his head.

"I'll be fine," Vaughn said through gritted teeth, starting up ahead of Jack.

By sheer will alone, Vaughn made it most of the way up the stairs before he even stumbled.

They were in the hallway to the side exit when Sydney groaned and opened her eyes.

"Let me walk," she mumbled before her father could ask. "Dad," she added with a glance at Vaughn. "Did you tell him?"

Jack shook his head.

Vaughn saw the blonde form laying still and lifeless the moment he stepped out the door. He panicked and stumbled across the parking lot to where she lay at the grassy edge.

"Is she dead?" Sydney asked as she and her father followed.

"She wasn't when I left her, but she may be now," he replied.

They reached Lauren just as Vaughn, visibly trembling, dropped to his knees beside her. He didn't touch her, or even reach out to her; he just stared.

Jack kneeled across from Vaughn and felt Lauren's wrist for a pulse. He just shook his head and shot a sympathetic look at Vaughn when he found none. He found it hard to dislike a man in such a situation when he'd been through a very similar one himself.

Sydney dropped to her knees beside Vaughn, as much as from exhaustion as from a need to comfort him. She put a hand lightly on his shoulder.

"We should go, Vaughn," she said softly. "She's gone. There's nothing we can do."

"It was her," Vaughn muttered in awe, unhearing and unfeeling of his companions. "All along it was her." He looked up at Sydney as realization dawned. "She tried to kill us. She almost had us killed."

"We should go," Jack said, rising to stand above them. His tone was brisk, but it was underscored with an understanding few men could reach.

Slowly--painfully--Vaughn rose to his feet. Sydney stood with him, and for both of them it felt right when she slipped her hand in his. They followed Jack slowly toward their van.

"She's dead," Vaughn whispered softly, so softly Sydney barely heard him. "Lauren is dead," he forced himself to say. "Lauren was the Covenant mole."

"Oh, Vaughn," Sydney murmured, and he realized a tear had slipped unnoticed down his cheek. She leaned over and kissed him softly. "I'm sorry it was Lauren."

He forced a wan smile. "No, you're not."

"For you. She hurt you. But now she's dead. It's over. It's finally over…" Sydney murmured like a mantra.

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Well, I'm done killing Lauren for a little while. But after Sunday, I may well feel the need to kill her again…'til then, folks!