Title: True Lies
Author: Puts hand up. Yes me! Aeria, Doona, donna__rose@hotmail.com
Rating: PG-13
Please Read and Review
Summary: Jack and Irina have a chat
A/N: okay, fifth chapter, I have to warn you all that this will be my second last chapter until Thursday morning as I am going away. But, if you review extra well, you never know where I might find a computer, so enjoy and keep R&R
Disclaimer: Duh, not mine, Wish they were.
Chapter Five
"You like this?" her eyes told him she was candidly confused. "What I'm doing to you?" Jack realised why she'd never let him see in; her eyes were windows to her soul. Many times people he knew had used the phrase and he had wondered what they had meant but now he found himself in a situation where he was sure he would be able to communicate with this woman solely through her eyes.
"I do," he replied simply. "It's not what I've become, it's what I used to be and I liked him." He smiled at her, though awkwardly, his mouth having only smirked and frowned in the past years.
She watched him, anxiously trying to see what he meant, what he was really thinking, her searching must have been obvious to him because his brows lifted slightly, making his eyes fuller and more visible before they dropped back to their normal position. She stuttered for the first time in her adult life, "Where...where do we go from here?"
Jack's smile turned to a frown though not one directed at her but one of puzzlement. "I don't know, but I think we should keep whatever this," he motioned with his hands, something he never did, to thin air, "Is from everyone. I still don't think I should trust you."
Jack shrugged apologetically and the unexpected hurt that Irina was feeling was lessened, "You do trust me though," he nodded sharply and sincerely, "You just don't want to?"
He smiled at her, unable to explain himself better. He looked up and opened his mouth to speak. Fatefully, his pager chose to beep at that exact second. He looked at Irina after glancing down at it. "I have to go."
All she could do was nod in answer to his unspoken 'Good bye'. He looked at her a second longer than necessary before leaving Irina to wander the room, a large smile upon her lips and her defences re-erected though not as strong nor as many as before.
Jack walked down the street to his car, a baffled look of awe firmly on his face. He silently thanked God that he ran into no one he knew as he certainly wasn't prepared to talk to anyone.
Climbing into his lovely, SD-6 black car, Jack made for the warehouse, his foot half heartedly pushing down on the acceleration peddle as he franticly tried to resume his normal composure. Kendall was going to be present and quite possibly others were too and he did not want to wander in there with his mind somewhere else.
The message had been 911 so Jack automatically presumed that he was about to be sent on yet another mission. Pulling into the quadrangle he was dismayed to find three cars already parked. One he knew to be Kendall's, another Vaughn's and the last his daughter's.
With one last try at regaining his usual stance, Jack walked directly through to the cage where the trio stood waiting for him. Vaughn looked up before looking back down at his hands, Sydney smiled brightly; always the one to pursue the happy family and Kendall just scowled.
"Jack, nice to see you made it," Kendall took a poke at Jack as he himself had been busy at home and the fact that he had been standing around, looking at the grey walls for over twenty minutes hadn't made him a happy chap. Jack could only nod to him. "We need to send all three of you to Australia to recover a Rambaldi artefact we recently became aware of. It is a small wooden box, supposedly un-rotted and completely intact. Inside that box is a written manuscript of Rambaldi's prophesised life, written by Rambaldi. You all understand why we need this."
Vaughn nodded though he was having trouble concentrating, a man who had changed completely since yesterday and then changed back was standing beside him and he could do little but stare. Why Jack Bristow had decided to not only encourage the pursuit of his daughter that would result in an unallowed relationship, but had also done it in front of a woman who was supposed to be his greatest Nemesis was going to be question Vaughn worked at for days to come.
Sydney on the other hand was quick with the math and realised that a trip to Australia would last at least three days considering the journey there alone would be almost twenty hours. "Australia is a long way."
"I am aware, Agent Bristow, of Australia's geographical placing, I cannot move the Rambaldi artefact closer and I believe that the three of you are the best agents for the job."
Sydney nodded while Jack felt what he believed to be the unwarranted feeling of fatherly protection. He sincerely felt as though he should be jumping in and saying something in defence to Kendall. All he could say though was, "When do we leave?"
"I'll brief you through a computer once you are on the plane. So you are to leave as soon as you have visited Derevko." Kendall expected Jack to object to this and so continued quickly, "Just to check if she has anything to add. It is Rambaldi after all and she has proved useful in the past."
They all nodded and turned to leave, "We all take different roots and meet at the cell in twenty minutes," Kendall added.
Vaughn sat in the front of his car waiting for Sydney to pull out in front of him; he'd arrived shortly after Kendall at the warehouse and had had no chance to say anything to Sydney at all. He would have to wait this out, he thought, both upset and relieved at the same time. His car moved slowly out and took a left after Sydney chose to turn right. Vaughn tried to concentrate on the direction he was heading in so that he would, in the end, arrive at Irina's cell and not in some foreign state.
He had headed home after his run in with Jack at Irina's cell but had barely gotten in the door when his pager had gone off signalling a meeting with Kendall. Throughout the time he had been able, he had relived the conversation in his mind, the shock of Jack agreeing still incomprehensible to him. Perhaps, Irina would have a positive effect on Jack, Vaughn thought. Then realising what he had contemplated he bit his lip in guilt.
Still, it was weird that Jack had been so unbelievably un...Jack around Irina. He had looked younger and he had told Vaughn, in one way or another, to go after Sydney because he agreed with Irina that they loved each other and that was that. Vaughn was frantic over whether this was a good or bad thing. Wiping his mind of all things, Vaughn turned the radio on and listened to the completely meaningless song that was playing, trying, but not really succeeding, to forget everything strange about his puzzling encounter.
Sydney pulled up two blocks from the cell and made her way to the underground chamber on auto-pilot, the routine to gain access to her mother's sect now second nature. She hoped that her mom would be able to help, if not only for her own sake but also for her mom's. Anything she could add would be valuable and give the CIA reason enough not to put her back up for death penalty.
Sydney wandered down the corridor and nodded to the guard who left her alone with her mother who turned and smiled broadly at her daughter as she felt her presence. Irina looked around to see if anyone else was present and when she found that no one was she took a seat, motioning for Sydney to do the same.
Sydney's first question was, "What?"
Irina looked confused and shook her head to signal she didn't know what the question meant, "What do you mean 'what'?"
"You look different," Irina's first thought was that her defences had fallen again and that Sydney was seeing straight through to the pride she kept so well hidden. But then she realised that she must be wrong and continued to remain confused. "No, you just look...different, I don't know, um, just, more alive." Sydney shook her head as she failed to find a word to describe what she was seeing or sensing altered.
"I don't know why," Irina lied easily but a firm punch of guilt hit her in the stomach seconds later. "Is there a special reason for you being here?" Irina hadn't seen her daughter since they'd returned from the mission to India
"Yes," Irina smiled sadly, "Vaughn, dad and I are going to Australia. After a Rambaldi artefact. Kendall wants to see if you have anything to help us. But I'm not actually supposed to talk about it until he gets here. Sorry." Sydney stood up and moved away.
Irina smiled lightly, everything still fake, her inability to mix real and fake resulting in an all fake exterior. "I won't tell him." At that moment footsteps were heard coming down the hall and Irina become conscious of the mass of discomfit and tension that would begin to amount with in the room as soon as Jack or Vaughn arrived. Preparing for the worst, she bit her lip and settled for a numb look of indifference.
Kendall appeared and sighed when he found only Sydney present, he was ready to complain when quick, direct footsteps became apparent,. And another pair behind that. Irina sighed and flexed her shoulders back in anticipation.
Vaughn rounded the corner first, Jack close behind, both locked eyes with Irina and a quick look of awareness was shared, each person for a different reason. This didn't get past Sydney unnoticed but skimmed past an apparently overworked and over-payed Kendall. Irina just went back to looking at her hands as she felt Jack tear her defences down. This was going to be a problem. Or a blessing.
"Right, Derevko," she looked up, careful to avoid all eyes but Kendall's and raised an eyebrow. "I am sending Agent Bristow, Agent Vaughn and Agent Bristow to Victoria, Australia to recover a Rambaldi artefact known as the Dury Box. The reason I've bothered to come here, is to see if you have anything to add..."
Irina just looked at him with a look of contempt upon her features. "Can I come?" Sydney's eyes brightened at the idea but she covered it quickly when she saw Jack swinging around to stare at Irina with an unexpected look of query and interest mixed together. Irina continued to stare at Kendall.
"You must be joking," Irina shook her head. "Why would we dream of letting you out, again?" Kendall was actually considering this, Jack could tell by the faint flicker of interest in the man's voice.
"Well, I believe that I proved useful on the last mission, we work well together," Irina couldn't help but glance at Jack, her gaze stopping short of his face content to watch his shoulders for a reaction. "I did save both Agent Bristow and Agent Bristow several times and while I had the chance to betray them quite easily, I did not."
Kendall interjected, "While this is all great, they took you in the first place because you knew the area. What are you offering this time?"
"The area, south east Victoria, Belgrave, Selby, Kallista I expect. That's where they are going?" Kendall nodded, rattled that she knew his plan before anyone else. "I was preparing to infiltrate the house you speak of four years ago, I had been studying the area for at least half a year but the plan fell through and I was sent to Thailand instead."
Kendall looked at Jack who raised an eyebrow as if he believed the decision to be up to Kendall. After a moment's internal deliberation Kendall spoke, "I'll make some calls; you're going." Irina grinned at his back as he turned and headed for the corridor, pulling out his cell.
Jack stared at the ground while Vaughn looked up, Sydney scrutinising them with a look of bemusement on her face. She had no idea what was up with everyone, but both her father and Vaughn were acting surprisingly out of character. Her eyes slitted as she tried to work it out but found, to her consternation, that she could get no answer.
She opted to look to her mother who she found looking perfectly normal and watching her, she smiled at her and leaned towards the window. "I don't suppose you know what's going on," she motioned to the two men who were by now looking at her trying to hear what she was whispering. Irina couldn't help but feel good that her relationship with Sydney had seemingly blossomed since India,
Sydney really did trust her and was blatantly trying to have a normal relationship. In response, Irina adopted a serious tone and replied, "I know what's going on, but I promised not to tell." It was the truth and it felt nice to be able to say something completely honest to her daughter. Jack and Vaughn continued to lean closer as they tried to hear what was going on. "I think they're worried that I will tell."
She spoke loud enough to be heard by all and looking up she caught Vaughn's eye and had to laugh when he looked down immediately, when she accidentally locked eyes with Jack's however, it was not so easy. He held her gaze with an edge of humour but also with warning question, demanding she did nothing with Sydney that he knew not of. Irina on the other hand allowed her face to shift into the truth this time without resistance and felt the humour of the situation shinning through, Jack watched her carefully before turning away and waiting for Kendall.
"She can go," he fiddled with the door and allowed Irina to walk out, her back stretching like a cat let out of her dark room for the first time in months. "She can not have a gun, no situation where she can manipulate you etcetera, etcetera. Everything else, I'll send you once you get on your plane." Kendall turned and left, "Go to the corner of King and Moore and you'll find an agent there waiting to get you your stuff, equipment and anything else," were his departing words.
Jack raised an eyebrow as Irina continued to move about, her eyes still locked, openly, with her ex husbands'. She had obviously accepted she no longer had the ability to hide from him. Jack nodded to Sydney and Vaughn who walked out ahead of him; Irina went to leave seconds later but misjudged Jack's own departure and brushed his hand with her own.
Sydney turned just in time to watch as they touched, more electricity flying than had been between them at any time in India. Irina felt it climb up her arm and she looked down, shocked, her hand growing hot and sweaty where it had come into contact with Jack's. Jack swallowed and tried to breath but to no avail. Looking up he saw both women staring at him incredulously and immediately his eyes were caught in a net as Irina saw right through and into his genuine mind.
Author: Puts hand up. Yes me! Aeria, Doona, donna__rose@hotmail.com
Rating: PG-13
Please Read and Review
Summary: Jack and Irina have a chat
A/N: okay, fifth chapter, I have to warn you all that this will be my second last chapter until Thursday morning as I am going away. But, if you review extra well, you never know where I might find a computer, so enjoy and keep R&R
Disclaimer: Duh, not mine, Wish they were.
Chapter Five
"You like this?" her eyes told him she was candidly confused. "What I'm doing to you?" Jack realised why she'd never let him see in; her eyes were windows to her soul. Many times people he knew had used the phrase and he had wondered what they had meant but now he found himself in a situation where he was sure he would be able to communicate with this woman solely through her eyes.
"I do," he replied simply. "It's not what I've become, it's what I used to be and I liked him." He smiled at her, though awkwardly, his mouth having only smirked and frowned in the past years.
She watched him, anxiously trying to see what he meant, what he was really thinking, her searching must have been obvious to him because his brows lifted slightly, making his eyes fuller and more visible before they dropped back to their normal position. She stuttered for the first time in her adult life, "Where...where do we go from here?"
Jack's smile turned to a frown though not one directed at her but one of puzzlement. "I don't know, but I think we should keep whatever this," he motioned with his hands, something he never did, to thin air, "Is from everyone. I still don't think I should trust you."
Jack shrugged apologetically and the unexpected hurt that Irina was feeling was lessened, "You do trust me though," he nodded sharply and sincerely, "You just don't want to?"
He smiled at her, unable to explain himself better. He looked up and opened his mouth to speak. Fatefully, his pager chose to beep at that exact second. He looked at Irina after glancing down at it. "I have to go."
All she could do was nod in answer to his unspoken 'Good bye'. He looked at her a second longer than necessary before leaving Irina to wander the room, a large smile upon her lips and her defences re-erected though not as strong nor as many as before.
Jack walked down the street to his car, a baffled look of awe firmly on his face. He silently thanked God that he ran into no one he knew as he certainly wasn't prepared to talk to anyone.
Climbing into his lovely, SD-6 black car, Jack made for the warehouse, his foot half heartedly pushing down on the acceleration peddle as he franticly tried to resume his normal composure. Kendall was going to be present and quite possibly others were too and he did not want to wander in there with his mind somewhere else.
The message had been 911 so Jack automatically presumed that he was about to be sent on yet another mission. Pulling into the quadrangle he was dismayed to find three cars already parked. One he knew to be Kendall's, another Vaughn's and the last his daughter's.
With one last try at regaining his usual stance, Jack walked directly through to the cage where the trio stood waiting for him. Vaughn looked up before looking back down at his hands, Sydney smiled brightly; always the one to pursue the happy family and Kendall just scowled.
"Jack, nice to see you made it," Kendall took a poke at Jack as he himself had been busy at home and the fact that he had been standing around, looking at the grey walls for over twenty minutes hadn't made him a happy chap. Jack could only nod to him. "We need to send all three of you to Australia to recover a Rambaldi artefact we recently became aware of. It is a small wooden box, supposedly un-rotted and completely intact. Inside that box is a written manuscript of Rambaldi's prophesised life, written by Rambaldi. You all understand why we need this."
Vaughn nodded though he was having trouble concentrating, a man who had changed completely since yesterday and then changed back was standing beside him and he could do little but stare. Why Jack Bristow had decided to not only encourage the pursuit of his daughter that would result in an unallowed relationship, but had also done it in front of a woman who was supposed to be his greatest Nemesis was going to be question Vaughn worked at for days to come.
Sydney on the other hand was quick with the math and realised that a trip to Australia would last at least three days considering the journey there alone would be almost twenty hours. "Australia is a long way."
"I am aware, Agent Bristow, of Australia's geographical placing, I cannot move the Rambaldi artefact closer and I believe that the three of you are the best agents for the job."
Sydney nodded while Jack felt what he believed to be the unwarranted feeling of fatherly protection. He sincerely felt as though he should be jumping in and saying something in defence to Kendall. All he could say though was, "When do we leave?"
"I'll brief you through a computer once you are on the plane. So you are to leave as soon as you have visited Derevko." Kendall expected Jack to object to this and so continued quickly, "Just to check if she has anything to add. It is Rambaldi after all and she has proved useful in the past."
They all nodded and turned to leave, "We all take different roots and meet at the cell in twenty minutes," Kendall added.
Vaughn sat in the front of his car waiting for Sydney to pull out in front of him; he'd arrived shortly after Kendall at the warehouse and had had no chance to say anything to Sydney at all. He would have to wait this out, he thought, both upset and relieved at the same time. His car moved slowly out and took a left after Sydney chose to turn right. Vaughn tried to concentrate on the direction he was heading in so that he would, in the end, arrive at Irina's cell and not in some foreign state.
He had headed home after his run in with Jack at Irina's cell but had barely gotten in the door when his pager had gone off signalling a meeting with Kendall. Throughout the time he had been able, he had relived the conversation in his mind, the shock of Jack agreeing still incomprehensible to him. Perhaps, Irina would have a positive effect on Jack, Vaughn thought. Then realising what he had contemplated he bit his lip in guilt.
Still, it was weird that Jack had been so unbelievably un...Jack around Irina. He had looked younger and he had told Vaughn, in one way or another, to go after Sydney because he agreed with Irina that they loved each other and that was that. Vaughn was frantic over whether this was a good or bad thing. Wiping his mind of all things, Vaughn turned the radio on and listened to the completely meaningless song that was playing, trying, but not really succeeding, to forget everything strange about his puzzling encounter.
Sydney pulled up two blocks from the cell and made her way to the underground chamber on auto-pilot, the routine to gain access to her mother's sect now second nature. She hoped that her mom would be able to help, if not only for her own sake but also for her mom's. Anything she could add would be valuable and give the CIA reason enough not to put her back up for death penalty.
Sydney wandered down the corridor and nodded to the guard who left her alone with her mother who turned and smiled broadly at her daughter as she felt her presence. Irina looked around to see if anyone else was present and when she found that no one was she took a seat, motioning for Sydney to do the same.
Sydney's first question was, "What?"
Irina looked confused and shook her head to signal she didn't know what the question meant, "What do you mean 'what'?"
"You look different," Irina's first thought was that her defences had fallen again and that Sydney was seeing straight through to the pride she kept so well hidden. But then she realised that she must be wrong and continued to remain confused. "No, you just look...different, I don't know, um, just, more alive." Sydney shook her head as she failed to find a word to describe what she was seeing or sensing altered.
"I don't know why," Irina lied easily but a firm punch of guilt hit her in the stomach seconds later. "Is there a special reason for you being here?" Irina hadn't seen her daughter since they'd returned from the mission to India
"Yes," Irina smiled sadly, "Vaughn, dad and I are going to Australia. After a Rambaldi artefact. Kendall wants to see if you have anything to help us. But I'm not actually supposed to talk about it until he gets here. Sorry." Sydney stood up and moved away.
Irina smiled lightly, everything still fake, her inability to mix real and fake resulting in an all fake exterior. "I won't tell him." At that moment footsteps were heard coming down the hall and Irina become conscious of the mass of discomfit and tension that would begin to amount with in the room as soon as Jack or Vaughn arrived. Preparing for the worst, she bit her lip and settled for a numb look of indifference.
Kendall appeared and sighed when he found only Sydney present, he was ready to complain when quick, direct footsteps became apparent,. And another pair behind that. Irina sighed and flexed her shoulders back in anticipation.
Vaughn rounded the corner first, Jack close behind, both locked eyes with Irina and a quick look of awareness was shared, each person for a different reason. This didn't get past Sydney unnoticed but skimmed past an apparently overworked and over-payed Kendall. Irina just went back to looking at her hands as she felt Jack tear her defences down. This was going to be a problem. Or a blessing.
"Right, Derevko," she looked up, careful to avoid all eyes but Kendall's and raised an eyebrow. "I am sending Agent Bristow, Agent Vaughn and Agent Bristow to Victoria, Australia to recover a Rambaldi artefact known as the Dury Box. The reason I've bothered to come here, is to see if you have anything to add..."
Irina just looked at him with a look of contempt upon her features. "Can I come?" Sydney's eyes brightened at the idea but she covered it quickly when she saw Jack swinging around to stare at Irina with an unexpected look of query and interest mixed together. Irina continued to stare at Kendall.
"You must be joking," Irina shook her head. "Why would we dream of letting you out, again?" Kendall was actually considering this, Jack could tell by the faint flicker of interest in the man's voice.
"Well, I believe that I proved useful on the last mission, we work well together," Irina couldn't help but glance at Jack, her gaze stopping short of his face content to watch his shoulders for a reaction. "I did save both Agent Bristow and Agent Bristow several times and while I had the chance to betray them quite easily, I did not."
Kendall interjected, "While this is all great, they took you in the first place because you knew the area. What are you offering this time?"
"The area, south east Victoria, Belgrave, Selby, Kallista I expect. That's where they are going?" Kendall nodded, rattled that she knew his plan before anyone else. "I was preparing to infiltrate the house you speak of four years ago, I had been studying the area for at least half a year but the plan fell through and I was sent to Thailand instead."
Kendall looked at Jack who raised an eyebrow as if he believed the decision to be up to Kendall. After a moment's internal deliberation Kendall spoke, "I'll make some calls; you're going." Irina grinned at his back as he turned and headed for the corridor, pulling out his cell.
Jack stared at the ground while Vaughn looked up, Sydney scrutinising them with a look of bemusement on her face. She had no idea what was up with everyone, but both her father and Vaughn were acting surprisingly out of character. Her eyes slitted as she tried to work it out but found, to her consternation, that she could get no answer.
She opted to look to her mother who she found looking perfectly normal and watching her, she smiled at her and leaned towards the window. "I don't suppose you know what's going on," she motioned to the two men who were by now looking at her trying to hear what she was whispering. Irina couldn't help but feel good that her relationship with Sydney had seemingly blossomed since India,
Sydney really did trust her and was blatantly trying to have a normal relationship. In response, Irina adopted a serious tone and replied, "I know what's going on, but I promised not to tell." It was the truth and it felt nice to be able to say something completely honest to her daughter. Jack and Vaughn continued to lean closer as they tried to hear what was going on. "I think they're worried that I will tell."
She spoke loud enough to be heard by all and looking up she caught Vaughn's eye and had to laugh when he looked down immediately, when she accidentally locked eyes with Jack's however, it was not so easy. He held her gaze with an edge of humour but also with warning question, demanding she did nothing with Sydney that he knew not of. Irina on the other hand allowed her face to shift into the truth this time without resistance and felt the humour of the situation shinning through, Jack watched her carefully before turning away and waiting for Kendall.
"She can go," he fiddled with the door and allowed Irina to walk out, her back stretching like a cat let out of her dark room for the first time in months. "She can not have a gun, no situation where she can manipulate you etcetera, etcetera. Everything else, I'll send you once you get on your plane." Kendall turned and left, "Go to the corner of King and Moore and you'll find an agent there waiting to get you your stuff, equipment and anything else," were his departing words.
Jack raised an eyebrow as Irina continued to move about, her eyes still locked, openly, with her ex husbands'. She had obviously accepted she no longer had the ability to hide from him. Jack nodded to Sydney and Vaughn who walked out ahead of him; Irina went to leave seconds later but misjudged Jack's own departure and brushed his hand with her own.
Sydney turned just in time to watch as they touched, more electricity flying than had been between them at any time in India. Irina felt it climb up her arm and she looked down, shocked, her hand growing hot and sweaty where it had come into contact with Jack's. Jack swallowed and tried to breath but to no avail. Looking up he saw both women staring at him incredulously and immediately his eyes were caught in a net as Irina saw right through and into his genuine mind.