Chapter 3: Like a Duck to Water
Disclaimer: Alias isn't mine. I don't claim it. The characters aren't mine, either. They never will be.
A/N: I like the title of this chapter…I know it's lame, but I think it's cute…
Vaughn ducked into the hiding spot, exhausted, only to be embraced fiercely by Sydney.
"I was so worried," she breathed into his ear.
"Who is he, Sydney?"
Sydney jumped, having momentarily forgotten the girl--who'd talked endlessly for the last half hour--was there.
"Kelly, this is Michael Vaughn," She said, barely keeping frustration from making her voice harsh. She could barely think anymore. A child of three shouldn't have such extraordinary verbal skills, should she?
Sydney left Kelly with Vaughn in the hotel room that had been reserved for them under an alias while she found the secure line. Vaughn protested vehemently--even desperately--to being left to baby-sit, but Sydney had yet to have an opportunity to fill him in on the information she'd gotten from Kelly, lest she render it of importance in the little girl's eyes. He couldn't report the full intel they'd acquired.
The phone that had been secured solely for Sydney and Vaughn to report was disguised as a pay phone whose wires had been cut. Sydney entered a special code on the keypad, and the handset--actually a cleverly disguised cell phone--connected directly to Dixon.
"Reporting," Sydney said quickly when Dixon answered.
"Were you successful? Where's Vaughn?" Dixon asked just as quickly.
"We were. Vaughn is…with the artifact."
"Do you know what it is?"
"Dixon…you didn't send us for an object. The Rambaldi artifact the Calling had was a child."
"A child!"
"They believe she's the Chosen One."
"Is she okay? Was she being tortured, abused? Were they training her?" The questions came faster than Dixon could ask them or Sydney could answer them.
"From a physical standpoint, she seems perfectly healthy. And damn strong," Sydney added. "I would place her to be about three. She doesn't seem to remember ever being with anyone other than the Calling--whom she called by name."
"Get her back her as soon as possible. Follow the protocol outlined in your mission data details will be tweaked to accommodate your traveling with the child without a hitch," Dixon promised.
Sydney entered another code, and the line disconnected. Blending effortlessly into the crowds swarming all around her, she made her way back to the hotel.
"We stick to protocol," she told Vaughn as soon as the door shut behind her.
"What's protocol?" Kelly asked.
"How old are you, Kelly?" Sydney asked instead of answering.
"I don't know. What's protocol?"
"A plan," Sydney said shortly, dropping onto the edge of one of the double beds beside Vaughn. She almost laughed at his frazzled look.
A dozen men with guns, he could handle. A little girl was beyond him.
"Did you two have fun while I was gone?" Sydney asked, wondering why Vaughn hadn't just sat the girl down in front of the TV. That would surely entertain her for a while.
Vaughn opened his mouth to answer, but was beaten to it.
"Fun isn't what we're here for," Kelly said solemnly, as if she'd heard it a million times. Who knew, may be she had.
"Here." Sydney stood and grabbed the remote control off of the TV, then perched on the other bed by Kelly. She flipped channels until she found a children's station. "Watch this while me and Vaughn talk, okay?"
Kelly watched the television warily while puppets danced and giggled.
"Okay," she said, as if she was unsure of the intelligence of such an endeavor.
Sydney moved back over to join Vaughn, who gave her a murderous look.
"I cannot deal with little kids," he muttered. "I don't know what to do with them."
Sydney grinned, then grew serious.
"We'll figure out how to entertain her later. Vaughn, she told me the Calling--she called them that--thinks she's the Chosen One."
Vaughn shook his head.
"She's just a little girl. She probably heard something wrong…"
"I don't think so. She also has no memory of living with anyone else," Sydney added.
"What does this do?" Kelly asked, picking up the remote.
"It changes the channel," Sydney replied.
Kelly was giving the TV a look of complete disgust, not unlike the kind of look a ten-year-old might give the preschool program that was on.
"Can I?"
"What?"
"Change the channel."
Sydney shrugged.
"Yeah, sure."
Stretching out on the bed, Kelly studied the remote a second, then began flipping channels.
"She could have been brainwashed, "Vaughn suggested softly. "Or she could have been kidnapped as a baby."
"Vaughn, I think the Calling believed her to be the Chosen One from birth. Look at her. What little girl that had once known a loving mother would flinch at a gentle voice? It's like she's heard rough, mean voices all her life."
Vaughn considered it a moment.
"Last time I visited my mother's place, her neighbor had a four-year-old boy. He doesn't talk nearly as well as she does," Vaughn admitted.
"So may be they're trying to train her, to create a genius out of Rambaldi's prophecy," Sydney mused. "Think. If they've had her since she was just a baby, they could have given her nothing but educational opportunities." She glanced at Kelly, who was still flipping channels. "Did you see the look she gave the kids show I left on? I was in elementary school before I developed that attitude toward Barney," she commented.
Vaughn just shook his head again.
"Let's just get her back to Langley," he said. "Hopefully, we have someone trained to deal with traumatized children on the payroll."
There were, in fact, three psychiatrists on the CIA's payroll that had degrees in child psychology. All three were waiting when Vaughn and Sydney snuck in the back door, Kelly between them. They couldn't afford to advertise that fact that they had her.
"What's this place? Who's she? What does he do? Can I play on a computer?" Kelly chattered, tugging first on Sydney's hand, then on Vaughn's, then back again.
Sydney and Vaughn were relieved on one level to relinquish Kelly to the waiting psychiatrists, but there was just something endearing about the little girl that made one wish she could stay.
However, the sudden end of incessant chatter allowed questions to arise that Sydney had happily avoided earlier.
"She almost looks like you, Agent Bristow," a young agent remarked. He hadn't been around long enough to have been introduced to Rambaldi, obviously. Sydney only smiled warily.
They were ushered, along with Dixon's other most trusted agents, into a conference room for a lengthy debrief.
"Kelly heard someone within the Calling say that she was the Chosen One," Sydney asserted vehemently. "And I believe her. You can't help but see that she has extraordinary perception skills if you spend any time with her."
"But it doesn't make sense," Dixon argued. "The child is too young to resemble the image in the Prophecy. What makes them think she'd that person?"
"We have to believe they have a manuscript we don't," Vaughn said. "Something that makes them believe Kelly is the Chosen One."
Where did she come from?" Jack contributed helpfully. "The child didn't just appear. She has parents, birth records."
"Doctors will do a thorough physical exam," Dixon promised. Tests will be run. Everything possible will be done to find Kelly's family."
"Where will she stay?" Sydney asked suddenly. "I realize she can't leave this facility, but the cells we have available aren't equipped for a small child alone."
Dixon looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Actually, that had occurred to me. We also don't know the girl's background, or even her mental state at this point. Would you say Kelly has taken to you, Agent Bristow?" Dixon asked suddenly.
Vaughn chuckled before Sydney could answer.
"Like a duck to water," he supplied.
Sydney nodded hesitantly in agreement.
"Would you consider staying with her?"
"Me? Dixon, look, you should probably find someone with kids…" Sydney protested.
"Sydney, please, as a favor," Dixon pleaded. "We don't know anything about this child except that she's been held by the Calling. What we do know is that, in the course of the past few hours, you managed to form a bond of some kind with her. You're right; our cells aren't equipped for children. She'll need someone to stay with her."
Sydney's resolve visibly faltered.
"Shit," she muttered. "I'll do it."
"Great." Dixon grinned, as if he'd known all along she couldn't refuse. "Now, the psychiatrists should have finished a preliminary evaluation by now. Sydney, Vaughn, you'll want to hear the report, I expect?"
Hehehe…These two really need to get out more, huh? Really…a super-genius three-year-old should be no challenge for super spies, right?