Chapter 4: Instability Imposed of Stability

Disclaimer: Alias is a possession of ABC and JJ Abrams, not me.

"She's amazing."

The woman, having been introduced as Doctor Elisa Adams, paused to look through the one-way mirror into the room where another woman was still talking to Kelly.

"Her verbal skills are on a level with your average ten-year-old," Dr. Adams continued after a moment. "But concepts common to even babies seem foreign to her. She understands games, but refuses to play them. She says she's not allowed to pretend, and seems to think this whole this is a test of some sort." The woman shook her head, and the thick dark tresses she had restrained with a clip at the nape of her neck came loose to frame her face. "So far, neither I nor my colleagues know how to proceed with her."

"Would you hazard a guess as to whether she's stable or not?" Dixon asked.

"She's very stable. I would support the theory that she's never known any other environment that of a captive," Adams commented.

"It's obvious these people messed with her head," Vaughn said. "What are the odds of undoing whatever damage they've done?"

"Favorable. She's just a little girl, very impressionable, despite, most likely, attempts to the contrary."

"What can we do to begin the process of fixing her damaged ideals?" Sydney asked. She couldn't held it; if she was going to be thrown in with the girl, the least she could do was make herself useful.

"Treat her as a normal child. She'll adjust to that."

"I know nothing about kids," Sydney admitted. "But I've been assigned to stay with her tonight. And I'm thoroughly confused. Do I treat her like a ten-year-old, a I believe you referred to her, or as a three-year-old?"

"Talk to her in whatever way she responds best," Dr. Adams suggested. "Go with the flow. She's quite a bit ahead of her peers, but we still have to learn what she's capable of."

Dixon flipped a switch, and they could hear what Kelly and the other woman were saying. It was all trivial stuff, and probably would continue to be for a while. The first thing Sydney noticed was that Kelly's answers were painfully short and to the point.

"She can sense the clinical atmosphere," Sydney muttered, she herself being uncommonly familiar with such atmospheres.

Dr. Adams nodded.

"We tried to get her to play earlier. She wouldn't but she was somewhat relaxed. As soon as we tried to question her, though, her responses became clipped," Adams murmured.

"They've trained her to respond that way," Vaughn realized. "They had no time for a little girl's babble."

"That's awful," Sydney muttered.

Dixon flipped the switch again, and turned to leave.

"Agent Bristow…" Adams hesitated.

"Yes?" Sydney said.

"Watch her carefully. I say Kelly is stable because she's never known anything other than what her captors provided her. But that could go both ways. In her mind, she may see it that we kidnapped her from her home."

Sydney froze.

"So you're saying that she could crack because she was taken out of a hostile environment," Sydney said slowly.

Adams nodded.

"If that was all she ever knew."

Dixon ushered Sydney out and sent her home to pack what she'd need for the night before she could panic and refuse to stay with Kelly.

The cell was still dank and cold. A portable TV had been set on a crate in one corner, a mat and blankets put on the two cots, and a blue bouncy ball sat in one corner, but the cell was still befitting only of a prisoner.

Sydney laid the coloring book and small box of crayons she'd picked up on one cot and set her small overnight bag on the other. Kelly most likely wouldn't recognize the cartoon characters in the coloring books, but it would keep her busy.

As she was leaving--the locks on the door hadn't been activated--a low-level agent who'd been given the unglorified position of gopher was taking in a stack of two or three videotapes. She couldn't tell what they were, but the bright, happy colors screamed children's films. Sydney wondered briefly where they had unearthed the tapes from, but decided she didn't really care.

Vaughn, having had a fit of conscience over helping to procure Sydney for Kelly's chaperone, met her at the end of the hall.

"Syd, uh, if you want…I mean, Kelly knows me too, so, if you'd rather not stay with her alone, I could…" He trailed off when Sydney held up a hand.

"Thanks," she said with a grin. "But you don't have to. I left her with you in the hotel--even if I had a good reason for it--so I'll stay with her now without complaint."

"You sure?" Vaughn offered, relieved that he had done his good deed and been let off the hook. "Really, if you want me to…"

"Vaughn. Shut up before I change my mind." She patted him on the shoulder and started to walk away.

Vaughn opened his mouth to say something, thought better of it, and snapped his mouth closed, giving an effective imitation of a fish.

"Hey," he said finally, rushing to catch up. "If you need me, call, okay?"

Sydney grinned.

"Okay," she drawled.

Vaughn shook his head. He would just have to expect a phone call at two AM ordering him to get his ass down there before Sydney strangled the adorable little girl.

Their night had started off disastrously enough, although the move had been entirely placid and unthinking.

There were, in all, twenty agents whose ongoing assignment was to act as guards for any prisoners kept in the CIA's cells. Those guards, as part of their uniform, wore unconcealed weapons. The single guard that had been assigned to see to Sydney and Kelly had been thoughtful enough, when they arrived in the surveillance room to question whether the cameras in the cell they were inhabiting would be running, to draw his gun and lay it down on the table, lest it scare Kelly.

The instant Kelly had laid eyes on the drawn gun, her eyes had gone wild and she'd frozen to her spot. Her whole little body was shaking after a few moments, and her eyes darted back and forth between Sydney and the guard, waiting for an order to be snapped in her direction.

Sydney didn't notice for several minutes. She was busy arguing with the guard about the necessity of cameras.

"Look, the order came from Dixon himself," the burly guy finally said. "Talk to him, not me." He looked past Sydney. "Hey, what's wrong with the kid?"

Sydney spun quickly, and by following Kelly's darting gaze soon identified the gun as the source of the child's distress. She wasn't sure, but most three-year-olds would probably at most be only slightly wary of a gun, and only until curiosity got the better of them.

"Kelly," Sydney said softly, squatting down to be at eye level with Kelly. Her voice contrasted so greatly with what Kelly expected that the child flinched. "Are you okay? Nobody is going to use the gun to hurt you here."

"What did I do wrong?" Kelly asked, her voice trembling, and not seeming to believe what Sydney said.

"You didn't do anything wrong," Sydney promised. "You don't have to be scared of anyone when you're with me. I won't let anyone hurt you."

Kelly still remained rooted to the ground and seemingly unreceptive to human contact. Regardless of that, Sydney stood and took Kelly's firmly by the hand, starting, with a gentle tug, out of the room and away form the object of Kelly's extreme distrust.

Kelly's eyes were still wide and distrustful when Sydney led her into the cell, and for the first time, she looked to Sydney like the little girl--baby, really--that she was. It was as if terror stripped away all the misleading facades the Calling had forced on her, and left only a scared baby who had no idea who she was. That lack of self had to be terrifying, even to a child.

Sydney longed, for some inexplicable reason, to just gather Kelly into her arms and hold her tight, but she held back out of a fear that too much kindness might do just what the psychiatrist had warned, break the little girl that was unaccustomed to such gestures.

Instead, Sydney pulled the stack of videos off the top of the little TV. Alice in Wonderland, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and The Wizard of Oz stared her in the face.

"You want to watch a movie?" Sydney asked, sitting on the edge of a cot with the tapes in her lap.

Kelly nodded timidly.

"Well, come pick one." Sydney made no attempt to tip the tapes where Kelly could see them without coming closer.

After several moments of hesitation, Kelly clambered up onto the cot beside Sydney to look at the tapes.

"That one," she finally said quietly, pointing at the fantastic cover of Alice in Wonderland.

Sydney rose and placed the tape in the VCR, then hit PLAY. She was delighted when Kelly became caught up in the imaginary world of Wonderland. Glancing up furtively from the paper back novel she's settled on her own cot to read, she couldn't suppress a smile when Kelly silently moved to sit on the floor to see the picture on the small screen better.

Kelly fell asleep some hours later, still on the hard cement floor and halfway through The Wizard of Oz. Sydney debated leaving her there, but decided almost immediately that wouldn't be right. Kelly was limp in her arms when she gathered her up and placed her on the cot. Sydney gently tugged off the tennis shoes the CIA had provided for Kelly along with a white T-shirt and blue shorts. Then she pulled the blanket up and tucked it around her before she dimmed the lights to where there was just enough light left to see by.

Sydney climbed into her own bed soon after. With any luck, she might sleep through the night and still be able to function the next day despite her overnight charge.

Isn't that just the cutest image? This defensive little girl, so trusting in sleep. Okay, may be that's not an effective phrase, but still. It's adorable. You know it is. Now review. Review for the cute little girl, I command you! Lol…Review, please?