Title: Skeletons in the closet
Summary: Sydney faces her past at SD-6.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything Alias related, only the characters you don't know.
Spoiler: 3:17 'The frame' and before, AU after that.
Rating: PG-13
A/N: I've finally finished this story, it's quite open ended, but that's because I'm planning a sequel to it.
Chapter Sixteen
When Elliot Zac and Jack pulled up outside the address they had they all went to get out of the car, but Jack stopped the other two. "We might scare her. Let me try talking to her first." Zac nodded in agreement and Elliot reluctantly stayed in the car.
When he knocked Sydney answered the door with a wide grin. "Did you forget your key again…Dad?" She froze in the doorway and lost her smile. "What are you doing here?"
"I found out you were at the Oak Haven institute. A friend of yours gave us your address. We need to talk Sydney…" She looked at the car he had arrived in and frowned when she saw the others.
"Bring them in they need to hear this. We talk then you go, ok?" Jack nodded as she stepped aside to let him in and he beckoned for the others to join him.
"Look I can summarise the talking right now. Project Christmas was the reason I recovered. My doctor said I was suffering from a break down. I tried to deal with that breakdown by reliving points of my life, such as my childhood or when I was happy with Danny. That's why I thought I was in love with four people at once. I had been." Elliot tried to catch her gaze but Sydney looked away. "But they were all in the past. I don't love any of them anymore and I never can, things have changed. I'm better now and I'm happy here. I'm not going anywhere. I quit the CIA. I told Kendall, he wasn't happy but he accepts it's my choice. Now I want all of you to leave and never come back. I'm happy here, I have a new life."
Elliot went to argue but Jack shook his head and kissed Sydney before heading for the door. "It's Sydney's choice. She's safe here and if she's happy then I am. She's got my stubborn streak, if she's made up her mind there's no changing it. Goodbye sweetheart." Sydney smiled and walked over to hug him for making his sacrifice and the other two begrudgingly followed him out.
"Thank you dad. This means a lot. I've stopped running from the past. I'm ready to face a future without it." As Jack drove away in the car he could see the pain on Elliot's face at losing her, he felt the same thing inside, he just didn't show it. He'd felt the same agony inside when Laura had died, when he discovered she was Irina Derevko and every time Sydney had despised him through her life, every time he lost her.
When they arrived back at the CIA Vaughn had a face like thunder. He sat in Dixon's office with Weiss, his face red with anger. "We caught Danny. He did a deal with us...unfortunately that means he'll be free in a year. We've successfully disbanded the Covenant; there are a few of the senior agents missing, but we've beat them." Weiss grinned.
"Lauren got away." Vaughn growled. "She left him a few weeks ago and he doesn't know where she is." He looked at Elliot's face and saw traces of dry tears.
"What's wrong?" He looked at Jack's brooding expression and sighed. "Sydney?"
"We found Sydney. She handed her resignation to Kendall; he'll be forwarding it to Dixon. She wants to be left on her own to start a fresh life…" Zac pulled out a white envelope from his pocket.
"She slipped me this before we left." He explained and handed the envelope with Vaughn's name on to Vaughn.
He took it with shaking hands and opened it to reveal a letter inside. "Dear Vaughn, I'm writing to tell you that I'm safe. I'm happy now and I can finally live the life I wanted. I'm grateful for everything you did for me as my handler, friend and guardian angel, but too much has changed. I love you but I'm not in love with you. I'm starting fresh and I want you and everyone else to leave me alone. Sydney." He read out loud and broke down in tears on Weiss' shoulder.
Elliot left the room and Zac followed her while Dixon went to chase up Kendall, leaving Jack alone with his thoughts. To the outside world he'd lost a wife and a daughter, but everyone else knew he'd lost a traitor and the best agent the CIA had encountered. He looked at the scrap of paper he had with Syd's address on and crumpled it up before discarding it. He'd made a promise to Syd to leave her be and he'd honour it, for once he'd do right by his daughter.
Zac followed Elliot as she drove in her car and ended up at the credit dauphine. "Hey." He wrapped an arm around her shoulder as she stared at the building. "It's her choice Elliot, we have to respect that." Elliot shrugged and pulled away from him as though she was unaffected.
"What do I care? Our friendship died in there. She never loved me and she never will, end of. I've got more important things to think about like my career…" As she walked away to get in her car Zac called out to her.
"Be careful Elle, you're starting to sound like Jack. He's not the best role model to have. You'll end up lonely and bitter and you're career will be all you have." She shook her head.
"I'm not giving up on her."
Lauren Reed sat in her car and watched as Sydney invited a group of people in for her dinner party. She stopped on man and kissed him before grinning like a schoolgirl after her first kiss.
Lauren scowled. She had no resources left now that Danny had sold out to the CIA. She was on her own. No Vaughn, no CIA and no chance at claiming Sydney, but she wasn't beaten. She'd go back for Sydney. When she had her own empire and she'd make them all pay for turning Sydney against her, including Danny. She wasn't about to give up on obtaining Sydney's love.
Sydney sat at her dining table with her and her boyfriend's friends and laughed at jokes as she served out the meal she had spent all day cooking. She was happy and living a normal life, one where she knew her friends were safe and she didn't have to hide endless bruises with make up. She was regular Sydney Bristow, English teacher and girlfriend.
Once the meal was finished her boyfriend Calvin rose from his chair and went down on one knee in front of her. "Sydney, will you do me the great honour of being my wife?" The tears that she shed that night were of happiness and joy for once instead of pain and anguish.
Two months later she returned from work with the door to her and her fiancé's house open. She cautiously went inside and called out to Calvin. It was his day off and he should have been home.
She searched the downstairs of the house and then went upstairs. The bathroom door was open and she crept in cautiously. She screamed at the scene before her. Calvin lay dead in the bathtub the same way Danny had been. There was a note resting on his cold, still chest and she forced herself to pick it up.
"Dear Sydney, does anything strike you as familiar here? Did you really think I'd let you go so easily? You're mine and you always will be. Love you always." Sydney slumped down beside the tub and stared blankly at her dead fiancé. She would make whoever did this pay.
The End.