DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters (except for the original ones), so don't sue. I am poor, therefore I cannot pay you. Thank you.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Footsteps were coming in their direction. Sydney momentarily stopped playing with Jacob when she heard it stop by the doorway. When she looked up, Sydney saw Ana looking at them, her eyes, swollen from the tears she has shed from the almost endless arguments she had with their mother.

"You okay?" Sydney asked in a gentle tone. Ana nodded her head and went towards them. She plopped on the couch and leaned back.

"Where are mom and dad?" Sydney asked after a few minutes. Jacob was crawling around.

"Fighting." Ana replied. Sydney waited for her to continue. "They are fighting because of me. They're hurling curses at each other." Ana continued. She can still see how her mother's eyes blazed when Agent Bristow told her how she is grooming her daughter to become a terrorist. Frankly, she has no qualms about being called that. And the weird thing about that is she doesn't know why she feels that way.

"Mom made you go out of the room?"

"Yeah. She looked like she was ready to tear him to pieces." Ana answered. After a few minutes, she opened her eyes and looked at her brother. Jacob's eyelids were starting to droop.

"He's sleepy." Ana said and slipped from the couch to sit down with Sydney.

"Do you think they're finished arguing?" Sydney asked Ana. Ana shook her head.

"Know any lullabies?"

"Well, there's this Russian lullaby mom sings to him…"

-x-x-x-

"I'm telling you the nth time, I don't know what Katya Derevko's going to do with Lauren Reed's body." Sark said in very irritated tone. Dixon has once again cam to visit him.

"I'm not here to ask you that question, Mr. Sark." Dixon replied as he looked at the prisoner before him.

"Then what are you here for?" Sark asked acerbically.

"The CIA wants to know if it can trust Irina Derevko." Dixon answered.

Sark raised a brow. "Why are you asking me, a terrorist, if you can trust Irina Derevko, another terrorist?"

Dixon sighed at the sarcastic answer. He was expecting this response from the young man.

"Certain Rambaldi texts suggest that she brought forth to the world another… source of the destruction for the human race."

"Can't you please give this woman a break? She's worrying over four children, three of which are being considered by the CIA as Collector's Edition of Milo Rambaldi artifacts." Sark answered nastily. He then realized that he told Dixon that Irina gave birth to four children, and not to three, as what the CIA first thought.

Dixon immediately heard Sark's slip-up. "Four children? There's another one?"

Sark just shrugged. 'The baby, I'm putting the baby at risk…' he thought as he angrily berated himself for not thinking first before speaking. Ana and Jacob's faces popped into his head.

'Damn it. Irina's going to kill me…'

-x-x-x-

Sydney is in the first floor, walking in the hallway, exploring the house. It is very homey and a first-time visitor will immediately feel comfortable with the surroundings. It's not really the characteristics of the house isn't what she expected from a woman labeled as a 'terrorist' by the CIA, but then again, its her mother she's talking about. Irina Derevko is a very surprising woman.

From what she has seen so far, she can surmise that the house is too big for five people to live in. Sydney found a swimming pool, a tennis court and a basketball court. She is half-expecting to discover a cache of weapons and a shooting range somewhere hidden in the house but so far, it seems to be non-existent.

A cheering sound distracted her from her exploration. When she followed the sound, it led her to a room full of gym mats. An amusing scene welcomed her when she popped her head in and found Ana, Yelena, Byron, Francis and Dante inside.

Ana is wearing a football helmet and is holding a dart with her left hand. Two feet behind her are Dante, Francis, Byron and Yelena. She is sipping a glass of white wine, but laughing at the same time.

"Go and hit the bull's eye, Ana! You can do it!" Byron shouted. Francis and Dante are also cheering but doing it with a little dance.

Yelena noticed Sydney and pulled her inside.

"Just stay behind Ana." Yelena whispered. "She's quite clumsy with the dart." She added jokingly. Sydney just smiled at her.

The spectators fell silent. This prompted Ana to throw the dart and onto the board. They cheered when she hit the bull's eye.

"Did I hit it?" She asked and turned to them. Sydney could see that inside the football helmet, Ana is blindfolded.

Byron laughed. "Yes, little girl. Take off that blindfold and see for yourself!"

Ana took off the helmet from her head and pulled the white hanky from her eyes as she looked at the dartboard.

"Yeah! I told you I'm not handicapped!" Ana said triumphantly and looked at them. She began to do a funny victory dance. "Who's next?" she asked.

Nobody seemed to want to take the challenge. It wasn't until a few minutes later that Sydney spoke up.

"Will I have to wear the football helmet?"

Ana laughed. "No. I need to wear it because of an unpleasant accident that happened with my face." Ana's reply made Sydney turn to the other people inside the room.

"Your mother ordered it." Francis explained. Sydney gave an amused smile and took Ana's challenge. She took the white handkerchief and tied it over her eyes. Ana positioned her in front of the dartboard.

"Are you sure I'm facing it?" Sydney asked. Ana gave a resounding, but at the same time, laughing, yes.

Sydney tried visualizing the dartboard in front of her. 'How will I throw this?' she thought as she heard the cheering sounds behind her. Sydney tried to block everything and focused on the imaginary dartboard in her head. After a few seconds, she threw the dart.

"Woohooo! You hit it!" Sydney heard Ana shout. Sydney took off the blindfold and looked at the board. The dart wasn't exactly in the middle, middle, but it was in the circle of the bull's eye.

Irina could hear triumphant cheers coming from one of the rooms. She is looking for the other occupants of the house because she wants to know if the picnic Dante and Francis orchestrated is still on.

She looked behind her. Jacob is following her, with the help of the baby walker. But he is aimlessly going around, bumping into the furniture, hysterically giggling whenever he hears the thud in the wood.

'Thank god the house is child proof' Irina thought as she watched Jacob entertain himself. She just prayed that the furniture can bear the incessant hits it is receiving from her son.

She reached the 'dart room' and saw that the people she was looking for are all inside.

"Dante, Francis, are you still planning to continue the picnic?" Irina asked. She was half-facing them and half-facing Jacob's direction.

"Why, yes, Signora. The basket of goods is ready." Dante replied in Italian.

"Yes. And we are all going." Yelena said.

"Is your husband coming with us?" Francis asked.

"Well, if all of you are going with us, he might starve if he elects to stay." Irina answered, ignoring Francis reference to Jack as her 'husband'. After all, technically speaking, they are still husband and wife.

Irina then turned to her daughters. She noticed the dartboard and the white handkerchief in Sydney's hands. Ana is still wearing the football helmet, bobbing her head up and down.

"Be careful where you point those things. I don't want that accident to happen again." Irina said to Ana in Russian.

She remembers how horrified she was when she saw Ana's face trickling with blood from the dart. Her daughter accidentally sliced herself in the face when she was playing with the 'arrow' and the odd thing that happened afterwards was that she calmly approached Irina and asked her what to do.

"It will not happen again. Promise." Ana replied in the same language. "Sydney hit the bull's eye with the handkerchief on." She added, jumping a bit. She has never met another person who could do that besides herself.

Irina smiled at Sydney. "Could you that in a handstand?" She asked jokingly.

Sydney laughed a bit. "I doubt it." She then looked at Ana. "Where will be the picnic held?"

Ana shrugged then looked at Francis.

"By the beach. And everybody will eat. Everything inside the picnic basket will be eaten!" Francis said and gave a booming laugh. This made Ana laugh.

"Okay. I'll go get my camera."

-x-x-x-

[A few hours later, sleeping time.]

Jack walked in Irina's bedroom, hoping to say goodnight to his son. When he went in, he found Irina, barefoot, cradling Jacob and singing a lullaby. He watched in amazement as Irina took on a role she used to have as Laura. A loving, caring and protective mother.

Irina looked at her baby and found him fast asleep. Jacob enjoyed the trip to the beach and he was so amazed with the crabs by the shore. He was also amazed with the sandcastle Ana, Sydney, Byron, Francis and Dante made that he tried to make his own version. And then he, together with his father, tried eating the sand.

She kissed Jacob at the top of his forehead and gently placed him on his cradle. When Irina turned around, she saw Jack watching her.

"Jacob's asleep." Irina said in a soft tone as she approached the door. She's going to go to Sydney and Ana's rooms to say goodnight.

"I'll just watch him." Jack answered in the same tone as he looked around the room. It has a cozy feel to it, like the guest room. He's beginning to expect that every room in this house has a very comforting atmosphere.

Irina didn't reply and stood by the doorway. Jack has already approached the cradle. He hovered around the crib for a while and then sat down on the king-sized bed beside it.

"Your bed's comfy." Jack remarked as he bounced on it a bit.

Irina raised a brow when she heard his comment. Jack also raised a brow and then said, "I didn't mean it that way. The bed in my room is as stiff as a board."

"Katya chose one of the beds for the guest rooms. She prefers firm mattresses because she has scoliosis. I think she believes that the rest of the population loves sleeping in mattresses made out of metal, like her."

Jack smiled and shook his head. He then realized that she is standing by the doorway. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to say goodnight to Sydney and Ana. They must be tired from the exhausting activities they did this day." Irina answered. "Turn off the lights when you're going to leave the room, but don't close the door." She said as she turned around.

Jack leaned on the pillows and took one book from the pile sitting by the side table. It is a novel by Robert Ludlum, entitled, The Tristan Betrayal.

'Ah… She's currently into spy novels.' Jack thought as he read the first page. The moment he read the first sentence, he was hooked.

Meanwhile, Irina reached the door to Ana's room. She can hear the faint sound of giggling inside. She knocked on the door and poked her head in.

"Hi mom. Do you want to take the Wench Test?" Ana greeted. She and Sydney are sitting in the middle of the bed, looking at the laptop. Their faces are red from laughing.

"A what?" Irina asked, a bit confused with the question. She closed the door and approached the bed.

"A Wench Test. It measures how malevolent you are to other people and if they talk about you behind your back. I got a 27%, ten percent lower than the average of 37%." Ana said. She then looked at Sydney. They both laughed.

"Why not tomorrow? It's quite late." Irina replied and sat next to Sydney. She took a peek at the screen of the computer. There was a large number 27 at the center.

"What did Sydney get?" Irina asked.

"She got a 20%."

Irina looked at Sydney. "You're too nice." She said. The comment elicited laughter from the two.

"I told you she'd say that." Ana said. Then, they laughed some more.

"Oh my god. I haven't laughed like this in ages." Sydney remarked.

"Me too."

Irina looked at her daughters, confused but at the same time amused at their interaction. She didn't expect them to warm to each other so quickly.

"Go mom. Take the test. But you have to register first. I made a fictitious account for you. Your email address is Your password is supermom1." Ana said. Sydney giggled.

"Ana's email address is while my email address is "

"Don't worry mom, they can't trace it. Trust me." Ana said. Irina looked at them. They were grinning at her.

"Fine. But after this… wench test, you two will go to sleep. It's already late." Irina said as her fingers deftly clicked on the keyboard.

[Three hours and forty-five minutes later]

Irina entered her room, exhausted from the conversations, giggling, laughing and 'games' they had. It was fun and even with that short time with them, Irina felt that she finally got the glimpse of what her family would be like if it was normal.

She was surprised to see the night lamp still on and Jack lying on the bed with a book on top of his chest. He's asleep.

Irina smiled a bit then shook her head. She thought for a while whether to wake him up or not. She decided, after a few seconds, not to rouse him from sleep. After checking on her son and turning off the lamp, Irina climbed up the bed and lay down next to Jack. Irina lay in the dark for a while listening to their breathing.

The rhythm and the calmness finally lulled her to sleep.

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A/N- Reviews are greatly appreciated. But it might take me a while to upload because I have to study for a college entrance exam. But if I receive a lot of reviews (wink, wink. Nudge, nudge…) I might upload before the dreaded testing day…