Author's Note: This chapter gets kind of dark and there is some very
heated conversation between two characters. Just thought I would forewarn...
"Well, this certainly complicates the situation. How is Agent Perkins holding up?" Dixon asked, the concerned measure growing rapidly in his voice. He sat back down into his comfortable black swivel chair. His dark eyes were glued to the speak phone and each breath was slow and calculated. He knew what it was like have a child stolen. It was the worth pain in the world and it still ached in his body.
She stifled a sigh. "She's sleeping now. Vaughn sedated her a few minutes ago or else she would never sleep." Sydney replied, leaning into her phone with her head and covered her face with her free hands. She took a slow inhale and waited to hear the Californian voice again.
"You'll need to acquire the specs for the warehouse where they're housing Kilmer and the girl." Jack joined in from the safety of the Rotunda on a conference call. He adjusted his weight on the edge of the black Lucite table. His suit was perfectly pressed, as usual and his gray eyes retained their icy glare.
"Marshall will send those to me? Perkins has all the latest equipment. We can download easily." Sydney replied warily. It took so much energy to talk. Her jaw seemed to become more immobile with each phrase passed over. She didn't realize how exhausted she was. Her body was still badly damaged from the severe beating she had received only a few days prior. In addition, the epinephrine injection had begun to wear off. She was dragging and emotionally drained.
"Yes. He's sending those now." Jack replied stiffly.
"Good. I'll call again if there are any developments." Sydney spoke clearly, truly forcing her jaw open and close. She used her the pads of her fingertips to massage her temples, hoping to relieve the pressure building there.
"Thank you, Sydney. Be safe." Dixon said as he ended the conversation. He reached forward and pressed the end button. His body sank back into the chair and his hand covered his eyes. Silently, he spoke a prayer for little Layla Kilmer.
Sydney closed her phone and placed it down on the coffee table. Her body collapsed back against the couch and closed her eyes. Her body was so tired. She was still dressed in the evening gown with complete make-up. She desperately wanted to curl up beneath the comforter of her bed in her new apartment. But she couldn't. She was stuck here, in the middle of Odessa, with an ex-boyfriend, another ex's new girlfriend. There was so much drama to this that there wasn't enough time to create a flow chart with colored icons. Sydney laughed at the thought.
Vaughn emerged from Madison's bedroom, looking tired and scruffy. Stumbling slightly, he made it to the couch opposite Sydney. His body was starting to ache once again. "She's out cold." He unbuttoned his jacket and deposited it nearby. Feeling uncomfortable and tired, he untied his bow tie and let his hands fall onto worn fabric. He felt dirty. The grime of the city and the last of Lauren's betrayal stung and stuck to him like cheap cologne.
"Wouldn't it be nice to have a couple who is just a couple? I mean, we've yet to see a normal situation." Sydney vented softly. Her thoughts reflected slowly. She sighed again and felt her eyelashes grow heavier.
"We were almost normal." Vaughn spoke behind closed eyes.
"Almost doesn't count." She quickly countered. Both opened their eyes and looked at each other for a long moment. Sydney was the first to shut her eyes and yawned.
"So where do we go from here?" Vaughn asked, quickly following suit and shutting his eyes as well.
Sydney sighed and acknowledged the laptop sitting closed on the desk in front of her. "We wait for Marshall to send us the op-tech for the warehouse."
"You were never any good at waiting."
"Neither were you."
Their eyes met and they sized each other up. It was that blow to blow attitude they shared that first attract one to the other. Neither wanted to smile but their subconscious gave way and they shared a small and intimate moment. "You think we'll get them home in one piece?" He asked, stepping slightly out of his demure character for just a moment.
"I don't want to think otherwise. We can't not let that little girl home." Sydney felt the tears rush behind her body for a moment and it took all of her energy not to crash right there. "It's just not a possibility."
"We're going to have to prepare like it is an option, Syd. There is a good chance that they could-"
Sydney sighed out of frustration, "I won't accept anything less than Kilmer and Layla being home-where they belong."
"And then what happens, Syd? He'll know by then that Layla isn't his. How much do you think a man can take? His own wife betrayed him. There is no greater-" the pain of the days had built up and released like a volcano, spilling the lava and ash over anything that moved. Or didn't move, for that matter.
Sydney sensed something in the air that made her push him further. She truly wanted to see how far he would go before he totally imploded. It was only a matter of time. "But he's raised her. She knows him as her father. As far as anyone is concerned, Layla is Kilmer's daughter."
And the snapping equally began. "She's not. She belongs to another man."
"There is not an issue of belonging- there is just an issue of biology. Besides, even Madison said that she wasn't sure." Sydney tried to rationalize him, wishing so desperately that she could close Pandora's Box.
He rolled his eyes and snorted with disgust. "How the hell can she not know who the father of her baby is? It's ridiculous-"
Sydney cut him off, "Not in our line of work. She had to seduce-"
"So she had to sleep with Sark? She had to sleep with him and have his baby? Have you ever slept with a man for the job?" He glared at her with heat radiating from his very center. It was that unbridled anger that stung through her. She refused to look a him for a moment, not wanting to answer. She knew what she was going to say was going to rip him apart. "Sydney, answer me!"
She looked at him, looked through him. "Three." The number ached through the pit of her stomach and she just wanted to go away for a little while. She wasn't looking for a fight tonight. She was looking for love. "I've had to sleep with three men for this job."
Vaughn certainly wasn't expecting that. He gasped, not really realizing that he was doing it. "Three?"
"Gregory Scott, Thomas Warwick, and Simon." She hated saying those names. They were the names that stole her innocent from her. She had to seduce them so long ago and the still burnt holes through her heart. Scott and Warwick were two men that haunted her from her SD-6 days. She closed her eyes and could still see their starring at her-blue eyes from Scott and near black eyes of Warwick. The pale hazel of Simon's eyes perturbed her the most-staying the freshest in her mind.
Vaughn looked as though he was ready to jump off of the nearest balcony. The veins started to pulsate in his neck and his brow was so dense with wrinkles. His jaw had tensed up and the muscles were clearly etched along his high cheek bones. He glared down at her, degrading her with his sparkling green eyes.
"Say something, Vaughn. Please." She managed to find her voice and beg.
"I can't believe you."
"You honestly think it was a choice? You think I wanted to lose myself to those men? You honestly think I wanted to wake up in the morning to find myself in some stranger's bed? Do you know what it's like to force yourself to do something like that? Three times? Three times!" She shouted, only to find her voice becoming increasingly raspy. "I turned myself into a whore for my country!"
"I can't even look at you." With the remaining energy that he had, he pushed his body up, wobbled slightly, and pushed to get out of the room.
"Don't walk away, Vaughn."
"And give me one reason why I shouldn't."
"Because I'm asking you to stay. I want you to understand that his wasn't my choice. I had to. I was still with SD-6-I was a young agent. The thought of disappointing anyone from the agency-it just wasn't an option. I had to, Vaughn, and you have to understand that. Please."
Vaughn stopped, his jaw still tightly clenched. "Why the hell should I-"
"Because I'm asking you, Vaughn. I'm asking you to under-"she stopped in her the middle of her phrase and realized something.
Vaughn simply ignored this and pushed further, "What did you do, Syd? You turned into your mother? You seduced these men and stole their secrets? You ignored those pressing questions...silenced them with you body...is that what you did?" He fought to keep her eye contact but she refused to look at him, "Look at me, Sydney! Look at me!" He shouted, feeling the sound vibrate deeply in his chest. The woman he loved was like the woman he hated. She had betrayed him on every level without actually betraying him.
Sydney matched his tone, volume and pitch, "You don't need to understand. We're not dating. We're not married. You're my partner. And for that alone, you don't need to understand."
"We're something more than that! Sydney, we used to-"He stepped forward, violating her space.
She looked him in the eye and knew that her words would burn him. It would just be a quick breath and he would be devastated. But it was something that she needed to do. If he didn't understand her past, he could never understand her now. "Used to date. That's the key word there. Technically," she replied snottily, "we only dated for two months. I've kept goldfish for longer than that."
"That's not fair." Vaughn hissed. "That's not fair and you know it. I've accepted a lot of things in your past, in your life. For two years, I heard you go on and on about Will-"
"Don't you dare throw Will into this conversation. He was my friend and now he's not even himself anymore because of me! He's living a lie!"
"I refuse to understand that part of you, Syd. I'm only human. There's only so much I can take. You used to tell me everything and there's only so much you can take about that."
"What? You told me that I could talk to you about anything-so I did. But I never went into the details of my love life. I never told you that I slept with Noah before he died! I never told you that I slept with Will when he returned! I didn't feel like telling you that I want to marry someone and be a wife to someone...I want to have children! I want to retire into the arms of someone I love! Do you want to accept all of that? Do you?"
A slow and steady beep interrupted their argument. It was the information being received. With as much energy as physically possible, she lunged towards the laptop and ably accepted the information. "They're being held in a storage facility southwest from Odessa." She continued to stroll down the numerous pages of information and specs, "It's an airtight hold but we can get through it. Similar security system to that mansion in Madrid." She turned around and looked over at Vaughn, "We're going to have to move fast. A bird over it just picked up a caravan of trucks just arrived. They're going to move Kilmer and Layla. We have to move."
"What do you want from me?" Kilmer snapped violently at his capture.
"Now, now Agent Kilmer. I don't know if I would use that tone of voice in front of your daughter." Sark stood just beyond Kilmer's reach, bouncing Layla in his arms. He cuddled her gently against his carefully chiseled arm. "Children are quite sensitive to noise."
"Don't you dare tell me how to talk in front of my daughter, Sark." Kilmer fought against the restraints binding over chest, abdomen, and legs.
"I'm afraid you're mistake, Agent Kilmer."
"In what, you son of a bitch?" The restrained snarled, showing his teeth.
Sark crossed closer to Kilmer, holding his daughter close to him. "It seems that Madison hasn't told you everything. Your little agent has lied to you." He noticed the confused look unwittingly crossing Kilmer's face, "She never told you about our little romance, did she? Or our little girl?"
"Your little girl?"
"I wasn't overly thrilled that she named the child for your mother but she did get my mother's middle name; Faith." He smiled privately towards his daughter and then continued to circle the chair where Kilmer was being held.
"What?" Kilmer managed to gasp, his mind swimming with the thoughts and information. "What-no."
"Face it, Agent Kilmer. Your fiancée lied to you. She didn't have your child. She had mine. Layla's not your daughter."
"You're lying. Madison would-"
"Why would I lie about something like that?" Sark smirked.
Kilmer stayed silent as he thought of the possibilities. This wasn't possible. His Layla had to be his. He loved her more than anything else on this planet. Layla was his daughter. He was her father. Madison would never lie about something as important as this. But then again, he had never bothered to question her. He had never asked the simple question, "Layla's mine, right?" He was stupid and blinded by love. He loved her more than anything else in the world.
He loved Sydney.
Er....he loved Madison.
While lying in that chair, strapped down and immobile, he now had the most sympathy for Ross on "Friends." He said Rachel's name, a former lover, at his wedding to Emily. It was because Ross was still secretly in love with Rachel but refused to admit it...etc etc. Now, Kilmer couldn't even get the women that he loved names right in his head. He loved Madison. He loved Sydney.
Well, he knew he loved one of them.
"Well, this certainly complicates the situation. How is Agent Perkins holding up?" Dixon asked, the concerned measure growing rapidly in his voice. He sat back down into his comfortable black swivel chair. His dark eyes were glued to the speak phone and each breath was slow and calculated. He knew what it was like have a child stolen. It was the worth pain in the world and it still ached in his body.
She stifled a sigh. "She's sleeping now. Vaughn sedated her a few minutes ago or else she would never sleep." Sydney replied, leaning into her phone with her head and covered her face with her free hands. She took a slow inhale and waited to hear the Californian voice again.
"You'll need to acquire the specs for the warehouse where they're housing Kilmer and the girl." Jack joined in from the safety of the Rotunda on a conference call. He adjusted his weight on the edge of the black Lucite table. His suit was perfectly pressed, as usual and his gray eyes retained their icy glare.
"Marshall will send those to me? Perkins has all the latest equipment. We can download easily." Sydney replied warily. It took so much energy to talk. Her jaw seemed to become more immobile with each phrase passed over. She didn't realize how exhausted she was. Her body was still badly damaged from the severe beating she had received only a few days prior. In addition, the epinephrine injection had begun to wear off. She was dragging and emotionally drained.
"Yes. He's sending those now." Jack replied stiffly.
"Good. I'll call again if there are any developments." Sydney spoke clearly, truly forcing her jaw open and close. She used her the pads of her fingertips to massage her temples, hoping to relieve the pressure building there.
"Thank you, Sydney. Be safe." Dixon said as he ended the conversation. He reached forward and pressed the end button. His body sank back into the chair and his hand covered his eyes. Silently, he spoke a prayer for little Layla Kilmer.
Sydney closed her phone and placed it down on the coffee table. Her body collapsed back against the couch and closed her eyes. Her body was so tired. She was still dressed in the evening gown with complete make-up. She desperately wanted to curl up beneath the comforter of her bed in her new apartment. But she couldn't. She was stuck here, in the middle of Odessa, with an ex-boyfriend, another ex's new girlfriend. There was so much drama to this that there wasn't enough time to create a flow chart with colored icons. Sydney laughed at the thought.
Vaughn emerged from Madison's bedroom, looking tired and scruffy. Stumbling slightly, he made it to the couch opposite Sydney. His body was starting to ache once again. "She's out cold." He unbuttoned his jacket and deposited it nearby. Feeling uncomfortable and tired, he untied his bow tie and let his hands fall onto worn fabric. He felt dirty. The grime of the city and the last of Lauren's betrayal stung and stuck to him like cheap cologne.
"Wouldn't it be nice to have a couple who is just a couple? I mean, we've yet to see a normal situation." Sydney vented softly. Her thoughts reflected slowly. She sighed again and felt her eyelashes grow heavier.
"We were almost normal." Vaughn spoke behind closed eyes.
"Almost doesn't count." She quickly countered. Both opened their eyes and looked at each other for a long moment. Sydney was the first to shut her eyes and yawned.
"So where do we go from here?" Vaughn asked, quickly following suit and shutting his eyes as well.
Sydney sighed and acknowledged the laptop sitting closed on the desk in front of her. "We wait for Marshall to send us the op-tech for the warehouse."
"You were never any good at waiting."
"Neither were you."
Their eyes met and they sized each other up. It was that blow to blow attitude they shared that first attract one to the other. Neither wanted to smile but their subconscious gave way and they shared a small and intimate moment. "You think we'll get them home in one piece?" He asked, stepping slightly out of his demure character for just a moment.
"I don't want to think otherwise. We can't not let that little girl home." Sydney felt the tears rush behind her body for a moment and it took all of her energy not to crash right there. "It's just not a possibility."
"We're going to have to prepare like it is an option, Syd. There is a good chance that they could-"
Sydney sighed out of frustration, "I won't accept anything less than Kilmer and Layla being home-where they belong."
"And then what happens, Syd? He'll know by then that Layla isn't his. How much do you think a man can take? His own wife betrayed him. There is no greater-" the pain of the days had built up and released like a volcano, spilling the lava and ash over anything that moved. Or didn't move, for that matter.
Sydney sensed something in the air that made her push him further. She truly wanted to see how far he would go before he totally imploded. It was only a matter of time. "But he's raised her. She knows him as her father. As far as anyone is concerned, Layla is Kilmer's daughter."
And the snapping equally began. "She's not. She belongs to another man."
"There is not an issue of belonging- there is just an issue of biology. Besides, even Madison said that she wasn't sure." Sydney tried to rationalize him, wishing so desperately that she could close Pandora's Box.
He rolled his eyes and snorted with disgust. "How the hell can she not know who the father of her baby is? It's ridiculous-"
Sydney cut him off, "Not in our line of work. She had to seduce-"
"So she had to sleep with Sark? She had to sleep with him and have his baby? Have you ever slept with a man for the job?" He glared at her with heat radiating from his very center. It was that unbridled anger that stung through her. She refused to look a him for a moment, not wanting to answer. She knew what she was going to say was going to rip him apart. "Sydney, answer me!"
She looked at him, looked through him. "Three." The number ached through the pit of her stomach and she just wanted to go away for a little while. She wasn't looking for a fight tonight. She was looking for love. "I've had to sleep with three men for this job."
Vaughn certainly wasn't expecting that. He gasped, not really realizing that he was doing it. "Three?"
"Gregory Scott, Thomas Warwick, and Simon." She hated saying those names. They were the names that stole her innocent from her. She had to seduce them so long ago and the still burnt holes through her heart. Scott and Warwick were two men that haunted her from her SD-6 days. She closed her eyes and could still see their starring at her-blue eyes from Scott and near black eyes of Warwick. The pale hazel of Simon's eyes perturbed her the most-staying the freshest in her mind.
Vaughn looked as though he was ready to jump off of the nearest balcony. The veins started to pulsate in his neck and his brow was so dense with wrinkles. His jaw had tensed up and the muscles were clearly etched along his high cheek bones. He glared down at her, degrading her with his sparkling green eyes.
"Say something, Vaughn. Please." She managed to find her voice and beg.
"I can't believe you."
"You honestly think it was a choice? You think I wanted to lose myself to those men? You honestly think I wanted to wake up in the morning to find myself in some stranger's bed? Do you know what it's like to force yourself to do something like that? Three times? Three times!" She shouted, only to find her voice becoming increasingly raspy. "I turned myself into a whore for my country!"
"I can't even look at you." With the remaining energy that he had, he pushed his body up, wobbled slightly, and pushed to get out of the room.
"Don't walk away, Vaughn."
"And give me one reason why I shouldn't."
"Because I'm asking you to stay. I want you to understand that his wasn't my choice. I had to. I was still with SD-6-I was a young agent. The thought of disappointing anyone from the agency-it just wasn't an option. I had to, Vaughn, and you have to understand that. Please."
Vaughn stopped, his jaw still tightly clenched. "Why the hell should I-"
"Because I'm asking you, Vaughn. I'm asking you to under-"she stopped in her the middle of her phrase and realized something.
Vaughn simply ignored this and pushed further, "What did you do, Syd? You turned into your mother? You seduced these men and stole their secrets? You ignored those pressing questions...silenced them with you body...is that what you did?" He fought to keep her eye contact but she refused to look at him, "Look at me, Sydney! Look at me!" He shouted, feeling the sound vibrate deeply in his chest. The woman he loved was like the woman he hated. She had betrayed him on every level without actually betraying him.
Sydney matched his tone, volume and pitch, "You don't need to understand. We're not dating. We're not married. You're my partner. And for that alone, you don't need to understand."
"We're something more than that! Sydney, we used to-"He stepped forward, violating her space.
She looked him in the eye and knew that her words would burn him. It would just be a quick breath and he would be devastated. But it was something that she needed to do. If he didn't understand her past, he could never understand her now. "Used to date. That's the key word there. Technically," she replied snottily, "we only dated for two months. I've kept goldfish for longer than that."
"That's not fair." Vaughn hissed. "That's not fair and you know it. I've accepted a lot of things in your past, in your life. For two years, I heard you go on and on about Will-"
"Don't you dare throw Will into this conversation. He was my friend and now he's not even himself anymore because of me! He's living a lie!"
"I refuse to understand that part of you, Syd. I'm only human. There's only so much I can take. You used to tell me everything and there's only so much you can take about that."
"What? You told me that I could talk to you about anything-so I did. But I never went into the details of my love life. I never told you that I slept with Noah before he died! I never told you that I slept with Will when he returned! I didn't feel like telling you that I want to marry someone and be a wife to someone...I want to have children! I want to retire into the arms of someone I love! Do you want to accept all of that? Do you?"
A slow and steady beep interrupted their argument. It was the information being received. With as much energy as physically possible, she lunged towards the laptop and ably accepted the information. "They're being held in a storage facility southwest from Odessa." She continued to stroll down the numerous pages of information and specs, "It's an airtight hold but we can get through it. Similar security system to that mansion in Madrid." She turned around and looked over at Vaughn, "We're going to have to move fast. A bird over it just picked up a caravan of trucks just arrived. They're going to move Kilmer and Layla. We have to move."
"What do you want from me?" Kilmer snapped violently at his capture.
"Now, now Agent Kilmer. I don't know if I would use that tone of voice in front of your daughter." Sark stood just beyond Kilmer's reach, bouncing Layla in his arms. He cuddled her gently against his carefully chiseled arm. "Children are quite sensitive to noise."
"Don't you dare tell me how to talk in front of my daughter, Sark." Kilmer fought against the restraints binding over chest, abdomen, and legs.
"I'm afraid you're mistake, Agent Kilmer."
"In what, you son of a bitch?" The restrained snarled, showing his teeth.
Sark crossed closer to Kilmer, holding his daughter close to him. "It seems that Madison hasn't told you everything. Your little agent has lied to you." He noticed the confused look unwittingly crossing Kilmer's face, "She never told you about our little romance, did she? Or our little girl?"
"Your little girl?"
"I wasn't overly thrilled that she named the child for your mother but she did get my mother's middle name; Faith." He smiled privately towards his daughter and then continued to circle the chair where Kilmer was being held.
"What?" Kilmer managed to gasp, his mind swimming with the thoughts and information. "What-no."
"Face it, Agent Kilmer. Your fiancée lied to you. She didn't have your child. She had mine. Layla's not your daughter."
"You're lying. Madison would-"
"Why would I lie about something like that?" Sark smirked.
Kilmer stayed silent as he thought of the possibilities. This wasn't possible. His Layla had to be his. He loved her more than anything else on this planet. Layla was his daughter. He was her father. Madison would never lie about something as important as this. But then again, he had never bothered to question her. He had never asked the simple question, "Layla's mine, right?" He was stupid and blinded by love. He loved her more than anything else in the world.
He loved Sydney.
Er....he loved Madison.
While lying in that chair, strapped down and immobile, he now had the most sympathy for Ross on "Friends." He said Rachel's name, a former lover, at his wedding to Emily. It was because Ross was still secretly in love with Rachel but refused to admit it...etc etc. Now, Kilmer couldn't even get the women that he loved names right in his head. He loved Madison. He loved Sydney.
Well, he knew he loved one of them.