A/N: here's chapter 3, and Mel you're one rockin' blond chick!!! Thanks so much for being my beta. Everyone has to go and check out her stories (pen name: sweetsouthernbell07) if you haven't already done so. I promise you'll be blown away. Now on with the story...

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Even though Jack knew Sydney was more than capable of taking care herself and do her job, he couldn't help worrying. She was not just an agent on another mission; she was his precious little girl, even if he couldn't claim to be much of a father to her.

But they were blind and deaf to Sydney's situation, and could only sit and wait.

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The siren continued to blare and the vault went into lockdown – all the lights inside were suddenly turned off and the door started to close shut, quickly reducing the light source from the outside.

Sydney had no time to worry about the lost disc, as she dived across the vault towards the closing gap, her feet just making through before the door sealed shut.

"Dixon, I've triggered the alarm, I need an exit point now!" she said, urgently collecting her things and raced to hide from security that were approaching from the corner of the hallway. "I'm on level 47."

"Sydney, head to the eastside of the building, there's a window cleaning platform hanging outside just a level down, I'm moving the van now."

Sprinting towards the eastside, Sydney could hear shouts not far behind, but glancing back security had not caught up with her. She quickly ducked through a door to her right just as the security team caught a glimpse of her and fired a few shoots, shattering a light on the wall.

The large room that she entered was filled with rows and rows of computer servers, but was empty of personnel. Sydney grabbed a nearby chair and pulled it with her to the glass wall on the other side. She had made it to the eastside, checking where the platform was; Sydney took a step back, lifted the chair and swung it as hard as she could against the glass. It shattered but remained intact, only breaking apart after another blow, a powerful wind gushed out through broken window causing paper to fly everywhere.

The wind was howling outside, as Sydney judged her jump, held her breath and leapt out the window, landing heavily, causing the platform to swing wildly and the window cleaner hold onto the railing in shock.

The bewildered window cleaner, figuring that he had a better chance of surviving closer to the ground, frantically pressed the down button, lowering both of them down. By the time security looked out the broken window, Sydney was already half way down.

"Mountaineer to Base Ops, I didn't get the disc, over." said Sydney before she reached the ground where Dixon's van had just screeched to a halt.

"Tell Dixon you got it, call 911 on the cell phone we gave you and the HourGlass program will be downloaded onto the disc that is already in there, the data will be corrupted so you can hand it to SD-6." Sydney heard Gibbs reply in a steady voice as she jumped into the van.

"Are you okay?" asked Dixon as they drove off.

"Yeah, but it was more than just a level down, and I got the disc," said Sydney, leaning back into her seat and breathed a sigh of relief before she took out the cell phone.

"Good work."

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Blocking Gibbs from exiting the Rotunda, "Don't you dare use my daughter like that again!" Jack threatened.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You were going to get the program whether she retrieved the disc or not. If she got it, great. But if she failed, you'd get the chance to play hero, rescuing her from failing the mission."

Moving closer, "Did you think that she would be impressed by your quick thinking? Or maybe that she would be indebted to you in someway?" asked Jack, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Coming from a man who knows all about using his daughter, I guess you caught me out Jack," Gibbs replied.

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Gibbs had called a meeting as soon as she got back.

"SD-6 is still analyzing the disc. How did you get the program?"

"I told you before that if the disc was destroyed the data would be transferred to NovaTech's other facilities, so as a precaution, I placed a program into their network that would retrieve any transferred material. As they say - always be prepared"

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"So I heard you on the phone with Base Ops. Your code name is Boy Scout?" she had queried

"Yeah," Vaughn had admitted with a smile.

"Why?"

"Um, it goes back to CST – clandestine service training. You don't wanna hear this."

"Vaughn!" she had insisted.

Vaughn began to explain "OK. The Boy Scou'st have a motto..."

"Always be prepared" She had interjected.

"Well, on my first day I showed up and I'd forgotten my field manual. So the instructor said – that is your one screw up, from then on you'd better be prepared"

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"Good thinking. Thanks," Sydney said quietly, remembering her first date with Vaughn in Nice.

"I was just doing my job, which is more than what I can say for you"

"What's that suppose to mean?" she asked defensively, surprised by his remark.

"It means exactly as it's suppose to mean. There's a lot at risk here, you have no room for error or distractions. The most immediate risk is Sark exposing you as a double agent."

"Sark can't expose me without exposing himself, and there are no distractions," answered Sydney pointedly, crossing her arms.

"Have you been to see Barnett yet?"

"No, and I don't intend to either."

"I wouldn't suggest you to. Barnett is Kendall's extendable ears. Now I need you to know something,

I'll not be there for you as a shoulder to cry on like Vaughn was. Or be Jack and get you out of tight situations. In fact, I don't want to be woken up in the middle of the night because you somehow screwed up an operation," Gibbs flatly stated. "Vaughn was a good agent. That was before he met you, before he started doing things to get you into his bed..."

Slap! She hit him hard across the face. "Don't you ever talk about Vaughn! You know absolutely nothing about him." Sydney said through gritted teeth, blinking back the tears, and straining to control her overwhelming emotions. "He was more than you could ever wish to be."

Gibbs stood stock still, with a blank expression. Adjusting his glasses and said, "You can hate me as much as you like, I'm not here to win a popularity contest. But there's a marble wall back at Langley with stars carved in it, a memorial to the agents killed in action. Don't become one of those stars..."

"...at least do that for him," finished Gibbs, leaving Sydney alone in the warehouse, sobbing openly.

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First, it burned as it went down, but the ache was still there...

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"This watch belonged to my father, it's broken now but it use to keep perfect time. And when he gave it to me he said - you can set your heart by this watch."

"It stopped October 1st... the day we met."

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Second, followed the first...

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"Sorry that I called you on the weekend"

"You don't ever have to apologies for calling, speaking of which I got you something"

"What? No, you didn't."

"I don't know, I was just in this store, this little antique place..."

"What were you doing in an antique store?"

"I don't know, whatever. Look, if you don't like it... just don't tell me"

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Third, there's not even a picture...

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"You know any jokes? Cos I could use one"

"This grasshopper walks into a bar and the bartender says: Hey, we have a drink named after you And the grasshopper says..."

"You have a drink named Doug?"

"Well I was gonna use 'Phil'"

"Phil is certainly no funnier than Doug"

"I know, I'm sorry. It was a non humorous..."

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Doug and Phil come join...

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"How did you find me?"

"You told me a couple of months ago that when you feel you need to disappear you go to the observatory. But the observatory was closed Then I remembered you said the pier calmed you down. But you weren't there, and you weren't at the bluffs either."

"You didn't go to all those places?"

"I did."

"And then I remembered you liked the train station too. Normal people go to their normal jobs".

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Where should I look?...Just tell me...how do I find you?

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"I'm going to say something, and it'll either be obvious to you or seem presumptuous, either way, I've gotta say it. This isn't working."

"I've been thinking about this for a while. I don't know what the hell to do."

"What?"

"I think you know what."

"I need you to tell me."

"You need me to tell you what? That when you're on operations, I can't sleep at night. That when we're in debrief, I have to force myself to remember what the hell we're supposed to be reviewing, when all I want to do is kiss you?"

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Chocolate... chocolate kisses...

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"I called because I need a partner for this op. Someone I can trust."

"You in?"

"Yeah. I'll break into the Vatican with you"

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Salty.....blur.......where are the windscreen wipers?

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"I feel like I'm losing my mind. Like I don't even know who I am any more, or what I'm doing, or why I'm doing it."

Pip Pip Pip.

"You just threw your beeper in the Pacific."

"I know."

"Okay, listen to me. There's something you need to know. When you first walked into my office, with that stupid, bozo hair... I thought you were crazy. I actually thought you might be a crazy person. But I watched you and I read your statement. And I've seen how you think. I've seen how you work. I've seen who you are. In this job, you see darkness, the worst in people and though the jobs are different and the missions change and the enemies have a thousand names. The crucial thing...the real responsibility you have is to not let your rage, resentment and your disgust darken you. When you're at your absolute lowest, your most depressed, just remember that you can always... You know? You've got my number."

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Why aren't you picking up?

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TBC

So did I miss any magical moments between s/v? hope not, cause I went and re-watched practically all of s1 and 2 to get the dialogue.

Megan: yes, that's the hidden code. Great attention to detail – I see spy potential here.

Thanks for reading, please leave a review.