Chapter 14: Tatiana
Tatiana looked very confused. "They weren't my grandparents?"
"No. We were going to explain it to you when you were a little older. My father died when I was fourteen, and my mother died while I was in America. I would have left the KGB if I could, but I didn't get a choice, so I had to foster you out." She paused for a moment. "I did choose them very carefully. They were good people, and I never regretted having you live with them."
Tatiana raised her eyebrows. "Not even when you found out they'd been executed for 'disloyalty'?"
"No. My superiors told me that they'd committed treason, and that you had been killed along with them, but I always believed that it was because of something I'd done. I've been trying for years to figure out what it was that made them angry."
There was silence for a moment, until Tatiana said, "But now you know it wasn't you that got them killed, it was me." She looked away from everyone and swallowed hard.
Irina got up, moved around the table, and drew her into a hug. "Oh, Tanyushka, it wasn't your fault. You were four, for heaven's sake."
Tatiana started to cry in earnest. She slipped out of the chair and onto the floor and cried into her mother's shoulder while Jack and Sydney watched uncomfortably. She quieted herself quickly, though. She pulled back and began to speak, lapsing into Russian. "He tried to make me hate you. He said that you didn't like me any more, that if you loved me you would come to see me. I never believed him. I always kept hoping that you would come."
"Who, baby?" Irina said in Russian, tucking Tatiana's hair behind her ears.
"Kresniev."
Irina's face hardened. "That bastard," she said. "He tried to comfort me at your funeral." She switched back to English. "Come on, sweetheart, let's get up off the floor." They did, and then they all stood there looking at one another for a moment.
"Um, is everybody finished?" Sydney said to break the tension. The others nodded, and they all worked in silence to clear the table.
***
A few minutes later the dishwater was loaded and they all settled in the living room, Sydney and Tatiana were in armchairs while Jack and Irina sat comfortably close on the couch, Jack with his arm around Irina's shoulders.
"So, you all probably want to hear my life story now, right?" Tatiana asked.
Sydney said, "Hey, I've told you mine. Yours can't be much worse, right?" Everyone chuckled at that.
Tatiana slipped her shoes off and pulled her knees up to her chest. "Well, you know about the first five years. Then I was chosen for Project Medea and started training to become a spy."
Next: Flashbacks!