Chapter 14: Valuable Control

Disclaimer: Nope, it's not mine.

Gunfire erupted in the main wing of the CIA building, so much so that Sydney and Vaughn heard it all the way in the cell wing. The people taking the brunt of the attack were surely desk agents, unarmed against intruders.

Sydney and Vaughn's gazes connected, and both of them sprang for the door together.

"Quentin, Harte!" Sydney yelled as they ran by. "Get in there with Kelly! They're coming after her!" Panic laced her voice.

Several other agents with guns had already reached the intrusion. Two of the black masked agents dropped as they watched.

Gunfire blasted for nearly thirty minutes, both sides being wounded in the process. Finally, the leader--or so it appeared--ordered them to pull back.

Slowly, Sydney's head cleared and her ears quit ringing. And she realized that the others had had the upper hand before they'd backed off.

"Vaughn!" Sydney cried, panicked fully now. "Kelly! They're going after Kelly still! It was a distraction!"

Irina stripped off her black ski mask as she sprinted toward the van Sark would be waiting in for the man he'd sent after Kelly. All the other man had left in the unmarked white vans already, and they all thought she was with them. It would be a while before they realized she wasn't in one of the six vans.

Jack wouldn't be far behind Kelly. And she'd be waiting for him. Oh, yes, he'd know exactly what hit him, the bastard.

She heard her man before she saw him. Or, rather, she heard Kelly. The child was screaming and crying, probably immensely traumatized already. Then she heard Jack.

"Put her down."

The man froze. Jack jabbed him in the back with the muzzle of his gun.

"I said out her down."

The man, seeing no other option with the child struggling in her arms, moved to comply.

At the same time Kelly's feet touched the floor, Jack swung an elbow and hit the man square in the head. He hit the floor, and Jack snatched up Kelly, his arm around her waist pinning her arms to her sides.

Irina took up her shooting stance and stepped out from behind the huge concrete pillar of the parking garage. She pointed her gun directly between Jack's eyes. She saw Kelly's eyes go wide, but she had no choice.

"You put her down, Jack," she said quietly.

He did. Irina, never taking her eyes off of Jack, manacled Kelly's wrist before she could try to run and jerked her behind her, for her own sake.

"Turn around, Jack."

He did. Jack expected her to give him instructions to get down on his knees, but she didn't. just as he began to wonder if she was still there--Kelly had frozen into terrified silence at the sight of the gun--he saw bright stars dance in front of his eyes.

Okay, Irina admitted. She hit him a little harder than necessary. But she had warned him, after all. He was lucky she didn't do worse.

Irina admitted. She hit him a little harder than necessary. But she warned him, after all. He was lucky she didn't do worse.

She holstered her gun, then turned and scooped up Kelly.

"It's okay, baby," she whispered as she held her tight and jogged toward the opposite end of the parking garage from where Sark waited. She'd arranged for a car to be left there.

"It's okay," she murmured. "I'm going to take you back to your mommy."

"My mommy?" Kelly asked in surprise.

Irina had done some creative hacking the night before. The CIA's tests had proven Sydney's motherhood. So, either Sydney didn't know, or they'd managed to keep her from telling Kelly. Too late now.

"Your mommy," Irina assured. "Did you know Sydney was your mommy?"

"Sydney?" Kelly stayed obediently in the passenger seat of the nondescript blue sedan when Irina put her there.

"That's right. But we can't go right back, because those bad men might wake up and try to stop us. Okay?"

Kelly considered it for a moment.

"Okay," she said.

Irina smiled. She could no longer love the man that would take his daughter's child away in the name of Rambaldi--apparently their marriage had been a sham all the way around--but she could easily come to love this child.

Her grandchild, she realized as she backed out of the parking space.

Sydney saw Harte and Quentin sprawled on the floor, and she just crumpled. Vaughn barely managed to catch her before she hit the floor.

"She's gone!" Sydney sobbed.

Vaughn held her close and rocked gently, and just let her cry.

"We'll get her back," he promised.

"She didn't even know she was mine!"

"Syd, we'll get her back, and you can tell her, and…"

Vaughn stopped, but Sydney didn't notice. He'd almost said and we'll take care of her. But that meant something more that he was capable of. Sure, he'd thought about marriage a few times. He loved her, no question. But since Lauren, marriage just felt like a lie to him.

Didn't it?

"Vaughn?" Sydney's voice broke him out of the reverie he'd been in. "Vaughn, I'm okay now, you can let me go." She eased out of his grasp.

He'd been oblivious that long?

"You sure? We'll find her, Syd."

Sydney wiped at her eyes, which looked calm despite being red-rimmed.

"I know we'll find her," she snapped. "Let's go find her now."

Vaughn stood quickly and gestured to Harte and Quentin.

"We have to do something with them first," he pointed out.

Sydney knelt next to Harte and felt for a pulse.

"He's still breathing," she said. "What about him?"

"Quentin? He'll live," Vaughn responded.

"Then we'll send someone after them," Sydney said, pretending to be unconcerned. But Vaughn saw through it to the barely controlled fear lurking just below the surface.

"Come on, Syd," he said, putting his arm around her. "You need a break."

"No, Vaughn!" She pulled away. "I don't need a break!" Tears pooled in her eyes. "I need to find my child!"

Vaughn grabbed her hands, then ran his hands up her arms until he had her by the shoulders.

"Syd, you can't do this alone, and you can't do it all. You have to let me help," he said.

Sydney forced herself to regain valuable control.

"Okay," she agreed. "You take over."

Kelly looked around with a distance that she'd practiced for a long time. The lady seemed nice enough. She wasn't sure she believed her about Sydney, but she was okay. She kinda looked like Sydney, too. May be she was Sydney's mommy.

And if Sydney was her mommy, may be Michael Vaughn was her daddy. It would be nice to have a mommy and a daddy.

Irina brought Kelly into the hotel room she'd rented after she'd threatened Jack's life, pulling her along by her hand. No one would think anything of her having a child now; she'd played the part of harried grandmother visiting her daughter for a few days, but daughter hasn't settled in real well yet so I nee a hotel room quite well, if she did say so herself.

There were some children's books and an electronic game setting on one bed.

"Kelly, you can play with those if you want to," Irina offered. "I need to call your mommy and arrange to take you back to her."

Kelly climbed onto the bed to look at her new toys.

"Do I have a daddy?" she asked suddenly.

Irina looked up, stopped in the middle of digging through a bag for a secured cell phone.

"Sure, honey, you have a daddy. Everybody has a daddy somewhere," she said carefully.

"Where's my daddy?"

Irina knew. Or, she suspected. No one had ever cared to check. They'd all believed that doctor she'd met only once when he said Sark was the father, just as ordered. And she knew he was lying through his teeth. But that was something she had to explain to Sydney first.

"You'll have to ask your mommy sweetie. That's not something I can tell you."

"Why not?"

"Because your mommy wouldn't want me to tell you. I don't want to make her mad at me."

"But you took me. Sydney will be mad that you didn't bring me back right away," Kelly expertly pointed out.

"I told you, honey, the bad men might have tried to stop us." Irina resumed her search of the large tote bag in her lap. "Now, you can play with your toys or look at the books, while I call Sydney, okay?"

Kelly shrugged.

"Okay. But she's gonna be mad."

Irina winced. Sydney would be mad, all right. She'd probably assume Irina had something to do with it in the first place. Which she had, but only because she'd been waiting for the right time to take off with Kelly.

Sark would know, now, that Irina had been responsible for Kelly not being returned to him as planned. He'd assume she'd been the one to take out both Jack and his man, once he realized she wasn't with the others. But, she thought with a smile, she knew more ways to be invisible than Sark could ever dream of.

Now, this is going to be good! This is getting to the end, but I think I still have five chapters after this, so it's not really that close to the end…I just have to fit a lot of information into these chapters, so it's kind of a whirl wind finale!