Chapter 7: No Rope

Disclaimer: Alias isn't my property; this is the real world, unfortunately.

A/N: Sorry, Eyghon, at this point, there's no Irina…that's a thought, though…may be I will add her in later on…that'd be a perfect way to--Oops. Sorry! On to the fic…

Vaughn, too, stayed with Kelly that night. Both he and Sydney had taken to heart what Dixon had said about Kelly responding better to both of them. It hadn't escaped Sydney's notice though, that Vaughn had been even less inclined to conversation than normal since the idea of a mole had been introduced.

They sat side by side in the near dark, watching Kelly sleep sometime after midnight.

"Vaughn," Sydney finally said softly, the thick silence suffocating her. "Are you okay? You've been…quiet."

Vaughn remained so for so long that Sydney began to fear he wouldn't answer her. He considered, in that space of time, saying he was fine, but he knew Sydney would see through that and didn't really want to distance her. So he chose what was to him, at the time, the lesser of two evils.

"I've been better," he murmured honestly. "I'm just not sure I can…handle the betrayal of another person I trust right now. Not something of that magnitude."

Sydney laid a hand on his arm.

"This is different," she promised. "If there's a mole, this time it isn't someone you love. I'll be here."

"I know," he said simply. "It's just…" He sighed, as much from the strain of revealing his secrets as from knowing that he might have to be there for her in the end of this one. "It still hurts."

Sydney shrugged into the dark.

It always will. There'll always be that feeling that there was something you should have seen. But it gets easier to deal with." God knew the betrayal she'd felt when she'd discovered her loving mother had been--was--an enemy of the state had to have gotten easier to deal with, or her mother's betrayal of the CIA would have sent her into a mental breakdown.

Vaughn draped his arm around Sydney's shoulders, silently thanking her for her unwavering support, and offering the same to her should she need it.

Kelly awoke to find Sydney and Vaughn still together on the cot. The difference was that Sydney leaned into Vaughn, her head against his chest, and Vaughn's chin rested against the top of Sydney's head.

For reasons Kelly didn't understand, she was filled with a sense of happiness at seeing them like that. She giggled, as little girls are apt to do when pleased.

Sydney sat up with a start, catching Vaughn's chin in the process.

"Ow!" she hissed.

Vaughn awoke with a grunt.

"Hell-o,' he amended when he opened his eyes to see Kelly grinning at him.

"Hi," Kelly giggled.

"Well," Sydney said, gingerly touching the sore spot on top of her head. "Did you sleep well, Kelly?"

"Uh-huh."

She giggled again.

"Oh?" Vaughn said teasingly. "Just what do you think is so funny, missy?"

"You and her!"

"Us, huh?"

"You was sleeping," she giggled, just before Vaughn lunged and caught her around her waist and dragged her up onto the cot between himself and Sydney.

Sydney waited anxiously for fear of being manhandled to ignite in Kelly's eyes, but it didn't. To Sydney's surprise, Kelly only laughed, after the obligatory shriek, of course.

Sydney let out the breath she'd been holding and a grin stole across her face. Kelly was acting like any little girl with her parents…

Whoa, she thought. Wrong road there.

Vaughn had picked up a doll while Sydney's mind had been elsewhere, and she watched him hand it to Kelly as gently as if it were a real baby, and Kelly took it just as timidly. Sydney watched her look at the doll's plastic face in awe, then hug it fiercely.

"Look, Sydney," Kelly said, holding up the blonde-haired baby doll. "Isn't she pretty?"

"Very," Sydney agreed.

Before long, Kelly had Vaughn and Sydney both down on the floor playing with Legos that one of the agents had undoubtedly appropriated from his son.

Dixon walked in laughing at the sight of two of his fiercest agents sprawled on the floor playing with Legos.

Vaughn actually blushed slightly, only enough for Sydney to just catch it, as he rose to a more dignified position. Sydney stayed pointedly on the floor and grinned up at Dixon.

"I see you two are enjoying yourselves," Dixon said. "I just thought I'd drop in, since it's ten o'clock and you guys haven't surfaced, and make sure she hadn't tied you up and escaped."

"I don't have any rope," Kelly said matter-of-factly, continuing to stack Legos into some complex design.

Sydney smiled and rose to her feet.

"Actually, she's been more than happy to leave us untied, right, baby?" Sydney said.

"Right," Kelly said distractedly, intent on her Legos.

"Well," Dixon said. "Unfortunately, the psychologists want to complete their analysis, and as they put all other projects on hold indefinitely, they seem to expect us to cooperate. They want to observe both of you with Kelly this time."

Sydney watched as Kelly stilled halfway to putting another Legos onto her stack, and dropped the piece in her hand at Dixon's speech. Sydney would swear she saw the girl visibly flinch at "psychologist" and "observe," words that sounded all too stiffly clinical.

"Dixon," she said low enough that Kelly couldn't hear. "I think we should talk outside. Vaughn can stay with Kelly."

Dixon considered, seemed about to discard the necessity, then nodded.

"What's the matter?" he asked as soon as the soundproof door closed behind them.

"You scare her, Dixon..."

"How did I...what did I do?" Dixon protested.

"More accurately, psychologists scare her. She senses a clinical setting, and she reverts back to what they trained her to do. Just like she did when you started talking about psychologists just now," Sydney clarified.

"But she's just a little girl, she couldn't..." Dixon began to protest again.

"She understood exactly what we were saying, Dixon. She was acting like any little girl until you mentioned psychologists, then she just stopped and waited like she expected to be yelled at for playing."

Dixon was considerably humbled by Sydney's vehement speech, and was deep in thought for several moments.

"Okay," he finally said. "What do you want to do?"

Being the highest ranking of the group, Dr. Elisa Adams was designated by Dixon to be Kelly's sole psychologist. As such, she was set up in the security office of the prison ward, allowed to observe Kelly only by cameras and microphones. High-tech cameras and microphones, but nonetheless considered hindrances by the doctor.

"Contact with the subject is a major basis of my analysis," Adams had argued in response to Dixon's order. "How can I piece together an accurate mental state of my patient if I'm not allowed contact with her?"

"Contact in a strictly non-clinical atmosphere will be arranged later on," Dixon promised. "But for now, you will observe her only by the means I've already outlined."

Elisa Adams had retreated in a huff to her newly appointed "office."

After she'd been left alone for a while and her well-known temper had cooled, Elisa Adams had acknowledged to herself that this was probably the best set-up. While it was true that she depended a great deal in her analysis of a person's mental state on actually interacting with the subject, in Kelly's mind she'd already been labeled a doctor. And Kelly clearly feared doctors, or perhaps her training was simply too strong for her to overcome it just yet. Either way, Elisa decided, Kelly wouldn't relax and open up to her like she did to Sydney Bristow. With any luck, observing from a distance would show her how to observe close up.

Kelly definitely seemed to have attached herself to Sydney. Although she still remained a wary distance--more out of habit, it seemed--she relaxed with Sydney, and didn't move away like she did with everyone else.

Vaughn had a different effect on her. He was awkward around her, which scared her a little. He'd make innocent remarks that obviously affected Kelly. Her attitude toward him was one of wary distrust, but she tolerated him, Elisa guessed, because Sydney did. She didn't feel threatened by him, certainly.

Elisa smiled. If she had to give an answer, right at that moment, she would only have to say, "Look at her." How could a child that looked so carefree ever have the deep-seated phobias Kelly was prone to?

Of course, there was already the issue of guns. Kelly, now only about three years old, would probably know for the rest of her life the bone-chilling terror of guns.

There we go! This is moving along quite nicely. I still haven't decided if I'm going to develop Elisa Adams more as a character, but as I typed this it occurred to me that I like the image I have of her. I'm thinking now that I can't help but portray her to the rest of ya'll...