So Michael Vaughn wants to find out what happened to Sydney. The suspended CIA agent couldn't find his way out of a wet paper bag these days. At least she now knew who wanted the info.

Following procedure, she placed the call that would let her know if she would be any help.

"Someone is inquiring about Sydney's missing years." She said into the receiver.

"Who?"

"Michael Vaughn."

Alex could hear him thinking on the other end of the phone. She waited patiently for his response.

"Fine," the voice on the phone was not happy. "do you have a contact?"

"Yes, I didn't want to go ahead until I had talked to you. I was thinking of sending him to Pappas."

"Good choice. If you can, help him out. Keep me posted."

The phone went dead.

Vaughn met with Alex. From the moment they met she didn't like him. He had the nerve to come to her club already drunk. During their conversation she could see how glassy his eyes were. The smell of alcohol coming from him combined with his slurring was making her physically sick.

He wasn't enjoying the meeting either. Vaughn looked at her with skepticism and hardly paid attention. She seemed like she knew what she was talking about but no matter how much he had to drink he still remembered that she was associated with Sark. He didn't need to be getting advice, information or anything for that matter from this woman. His contempt for her was obvious and he was beginning to think he might be wasting time listening to Alex instead of drinking more.

"Please listen to me Mr. Vaughn. You have been drinking and right now I don't want to do business with you. As it is, you are wasting my time but I can understand where your frustration comes from."

She had had enough. Her voice conveyed the hardness and impatience that was slowly building.

"Are ya gonna help me?" he slurred, suddenly aware of his actions.

"Sober up and contact Mr. Sark. I deal with professionals only and I do not deal with drunks. Do I make myself clear?"

He didn't say anything but he nodded to her. He had dropped his head in shame, knowing if he wanted the truth he would have to clean up his act a bit.

Crossing the room to where Sark was, Alex explained to him what happened.

"Get him sober and then tell him we leave for Athens in the morning."

"We?"

She looked at him with is eyebrow cocked and stared him down. He had seen that look on her face enough times to know she wasn't happy.

"I'm making it your responsibility to keep him sober when he meets with the contact." She said to him, the tone of her voice leaving no room for discussion. "Oh and by the way, we'll be using your jet."

Vaughn was having a hard time on the flight to Athens. He hadn't had a drink since Alex had left him sitting at his table and now, several hours later he was getting antsy. Neither Sark or Alex wanted to talk to him and it wasn't like they were all friends anyway, so he sat on the plane with nothing to do but try and keep his mind off Sydney.

If he had taken a look at himself in the mirror he would have been able to see why people stayed away from him. His hair, although newly washed, had grown long and messy. His eyes were dull and lifeless, bloodshot from his late nights and drinking binges.

When they had told him she was dead he wanted to die inside too. So many things had happened since then, he had left the CIA, gotten married, tried to move on with his life and then one day there was a phone call telling him she was back. They tried working together but it was hard seeing her everyday and then there was Lauren. The woman he thought he loved, the woman he killed.

He didn't want to know if Lauren had loved him. If he had never come back to the agency maybe Sydney wouldn't have left again. He should have just let her live her life without him but he had been selfish and he had no right to do that. Just because Lauren had broken their vows didn't give him the right to do anything. He should have just left her at the first sign of trouble.

That wouldn't have done any good either. Lauren was a killer. She had used him and the CIA for her personal reasons. She had an affair with Sark, killed people, kept information from him and the country she was supposed to be working for. But the one thing that would eat at him until the end of time would be what she told Sydney just before he shot her. He didn't know exactly what Sydney had found and he didn't know how Lauren knew but it was something big and he was sure that it had something to do with her disappearance now. If only I could have kept Sydney from going after that information.