Chapter. 13: Truth

Disclaimer in 1'st chapter

A/N: This is not finished. I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year again and I'll be busy the next 32 days. So this is like 1/2.


Francie walked into their flat, put her keyes away and pushed the button on the answearing machine.

"I'm sorry. I had to, you know. He was looking at me. And I told you I couldn't quit. You know that. But I really am sorry. I have to go. Bye." Said a voice that Francie hadn't heard in 9 years.

"What the hell?" She said, as the front doors opened again and Julian stepped in. He put down his suitcase and went to kiss her, but she had 'I'm angry, so don't even think about it' look on her face.

"What's wrong, Fran?" He asked her, as she simply pushed the rewind button and played the message again. When the message was over, she stared him in the eyes and asked: "Do you want to tell me who the hell that was, why she sounded like Syd and why was she sayin sorry for?"

Julian closed his eyes, sighed, ran a hand through his hair and led Fran into the livingroom.

"Fran, that was Syd. I kinda ran into her last night." Julian told her, as she scratched Sark (the dog, remember?) behind one of his ears.


The Night Before: Germany;

Asya had medium-length raven black hair, and chocolate brown eyes this time. Well, she just didn't bother to put in contacts. She was dressed in a black & red corset, a black blazer over the corset, some black pants and black & red pumps. She had her necklace, but it had a longer, golden chain. So, the pendant disappeared underneeth her corset, between her breasts.

Her and Simon were at some charity function, personally Asya was bored to death. But Simon was a nice distraction. They were waiting for the room, that they needed to get into, to clear out.

Not like they could go in there and shoot everybody. Well, they could but they were on the 27th floor and and they had to get a watch with a microchip in it. For the first time in a long time, it was not connected to damn Rambaldi.


On the other side of the room, where Danny and Julian. They were after the same thing as Asya and Simon. They were closer to the room, waiting for it to clear out. Finally after 5 more minutes, they all seemed to be gone.

Julian saw Asya on the other side of the room; Well, he wasn't sure it was her. Yeah, it looked like Asya. The woman he met in Italy, but this was across a crowded room plus she seemed to have a diffrent air about her, and this brown haired guy with her.

Asya saw the men leaving, and as she went towards the room someone blocked her way.

"Oh, my god!! Sydney?" Asya's eyes snapped up to the woman's face. This woman could ruin everything. Julian was just across the room, and he was almost to the room. Damn!!

"Bro-brooke?" She whispeared, then so everybody could hear. "Hello, My name's Jia. I don't know a Sydney. Who are you and what are you doing here?" Asya asked the brunette, who stood in her way, wearing a Carmen Marc Valvo tie-shoulder dress, a Judith Leiber satin shoulder baguette and a nice choker.

"Oh, I'm just here with my husband. Bored to death. But why did you change your name?" She told Asya, as she pointed to some american politician, "I was so glad to see you here. Sh, how have you been?" Syd had known Brooke a year longer than Francie, but when they started high school they had drifted apart and went in two diffrent directions. They hadn't really talked since the day Syd dumped Micahel in the cafeteria.

"I'm fine. Listen I have to go now. So, take care and all." Asya told Brooke, as she saw Julian slip into the room.

When Asya got to the room, the safe was open and watch gone.

"F-ck!" She said to herself, as she went back to the door. She was on her way out, when a man walked in as she was about to exit.

"Hey! You're not supposed to be in here." A short, red haired guy told her.

She looked at him, really annoyed, grabbed him and slit his throat. When she got out of the room she saw Julian disappear around a corner across the room. She half-ran and half-walked through the crowd, avoided Brooke who seemed to be talking to someone trying to get away without being rude, and that was not an easy thing in her shoes. She caught up with him, just as the elevator doors were about to close but she pushed the button and stepped into the lift.

"Hi. I'm taking a wild guess here and saying you have the watch. So, could you be really sweet and give it to me?" She asked him, as he looked up and the elevator started to move.

She slipped out of her shoes, kicked them aside and as he started to point his gun at her, she kicked it out of his hand with her bare foot. Just as that happened, the lift stopped. Totally stopped.

"What the hell?" Asya said, as she stood up with Julian's gun in her hand.

As she was wondering about that, Julian was still on the floor and as he was getting up of the floor he noticed something on the floor. Illuminated by the moonlight, through the glass part of the lift was a necklace. A heart with a diamond at the bottom. He picked it up, and when he had checked the back he was sure. It was a diffrent chain, but it was the same pendant.

"Where did you get this?" Julian asked Asya, who was putting her shoes back on.

"Wha...? Hey, that's mine. Hand it over." Asya told him, pissed because she had know the glasp on the chain was weak but didn't have the time to change it and she couldn't leave it behind at home while on a mission.

"Sydney?! Give it up, okay. You have to be her. Why the hell would you have this, if your not her?" He asked her, as she got closer and closer to him.

"I think there are more than one of these pendants around then the one you think belongs to an old ex. That one is mine.So, please give it, and the watch, to me." She told him, smiling this sickly fake sugary sweet smile.

"If this is yours but you're not Sydney, why is there a small 'S' engraved into the back of the pendant?" He asked her, as she grabbed it from his hand.

"What the f...? I've never noticed that before. Hey, why didn't..." you tell me. Asya was about to say, when she clamped her mouth shut. Julian had glint in his bright blue eyes and a smirk on his lips.

"Why didn't what? Why didn't I tell you? Well, I'm not sure. I think I just forgot, but then I didn't know you would just disappear. I know we had that fight, but I didn't know it was that serious that you'd run away." He told her, eyes cold and harsh now.

"Excues me you told me that you weren't ready yet. Do you think I was ready, because I wasn't and if you think I left just because of that you are so wrong. That is not why, but I so would have kicked your ass for that stupid argument the day after if some things hadn't come up. You prick!!" Asya told him, as she did a really immature thing and pushed Julian. The gun totally forgotten in her hands.

"Hey, you took that out of context. And you had just decided that I was some asshole that wasn't going to stick through it with you. I mean, how could you think that? You know I loved you." He told her, as she looked into his eyes and only saw a person she had really no idea who was.

Off course you don't, what did you think? That'd he'd brood for you for nine years? He's engaged to your best friend, for crying out loud. He's not your 19-year-old Julian. He's Francie's 27-year-old fianceƩ. She stopped herself there, why was she thinking about him like property? Her's and Francies? She needed to get that watch and get out of here quick. Except the elevator is still stuck and you have no way out. Wait, loved?

"Lo...loved?" She asked him, forgettin their argument.

"Yeah, loved. What did you think? That I'd wait for you forever? I'm engaged to Francie. But I think you already knew that, since you were that person I met in Italy, as well." He told her...


PRESENT:

There was a knock at the door, as Julian was telling Francie what happned with Sydney. They sat in the livingroom, Francie on the red couch and Julian in a tan-colored seat off to the side. Francie got up to to get the door, but first sent him a look that said 'this isn't over.'

"Are you guys home?" Adam asked, as Francie opened the door for him. "I guess you are. So, tomorrow you have to get there before the other guests so you can help Jaci with all the food and stuff. I have to drop off and pick up Abbe, Emma, Chris and Sara. Jenny's also going to be there with her new guy. You...are still coming...right?" He asked them, as he first looked at Julian then Francie, the tension in the air was so thick that if they were in a cartoon someone would be cutting it with a knife right about now.

"Off course, you know we'll be there. Don't worry." Fran told him, as she led him to the door again. "Nothing against you, but we were kinda in the middle of something. So, would you mind?" She asked him, as she opened the door and grabbed Sark before he got out the door.

"Yeah, sure, no problem. See you two tomorrow. But leave him at home, the kids love him but he's nuts. Bye!" Adam told them, as he waved and walked out the door. Fran closed the door, put the dog in their bedroom and sat down again on the flaiming red couch.

"Okay. Dish out the rest. The elevator was stuck, you were arguing that she was Sydney, she spaced out for a while and you were telling her that you were engaged to me, that you didn't brood for all these years about her. By the way, so not true, since you only stopped fully brooding three years ago, and still brood sometimes. And now that I think about it, you met her in Italy? When, and how the hell did you not know it was her?" Fran asked him, without taking a breath.

"Slow down, Fran. Well, when I bumped into her the first time I was kinda busy thinking about you. You seemed so down and I was trying to think why you'd be sad, how I could cheer you up. And she looked diffrent from the Syd I knew. Accent, eye-color, hair-color, the air about her and she was looking for a child. Yeah, I know, I should have noticed anyway but I didn't. I'm only human. And I didn't even think that maybe the kid was mine, too. The second time was only a minute or so, and then we talked about you." Julian told Fran, who still sat on the couch. Not looking at him, but the vase of flowers that stood on the coffee-table. It had fresh flowers that she had just bought that day, there were all kinds of colored roses. Red, orange, pink, yellow, green and blue.


The night before:

"No. I didn't think that. I know you'd move on. I just well, was kinda shocked at hearing it. Stupid as it sounds. It's not like I wanted to leave, you must know that. I left that note. I told I was sorry..." Syd (Asya) was telling him, as she played with her necklace in one hand while still holding the gun at him with the other.

"Yeah, a lousy one word. And what's with the book? The underlined words?" Julian asked her, annoyed at her. She talked like she had left for like only a week or something and that she had told him. That wasn't the case; she left nine years ago, pregnant, only leaving him a note saying 'sorry' and a book with some underlined words.

"It wasn't my fault. If I had had my way, I would have called you or come around to your house and said bye. But That wasn't the case and the book was the best I could do. I'm so sorry that I hurt you, you have to know that but my employer needs the artifacts the CIA wants and it's my job to get them before you get them. I can't just quit. That's not an option, at least not right now." Syd told him, sadly smiling, as he looked at her with no trust in his eyes.

"What about the kid in Italy? Is she mine, or was that even your kid? I mean, what were you even doing there?" He asked her, as he sat down even though she was pointing the gun at him.

"Actually, I was just there on vacation. We go there a lot, because that's Yuliana's favorite place of all the places been to. Not that's she's been to many places, but she's been to a few. And yes, I named her kinda after you." Syd told him, as she stood near the elevator doors. In case it started moving again.

"Why haven't you made any contact? Nine years, Syd. I don't get that. Why?" He asked her, as she saw the old Julian in those ocean blue eyes of his. He was hurt, confused and angry. He felt betrayed, and he had full right had felling like that. She did betray him, in some ways.

"I couldn't. I was forbidden from doing so. Plus, it could have compromised me and Yuli. I had to protect her. She's only 9, Julian." Syd told him, as he stood up again and the elevator started to move again.

"Finally. Now all this drama aside, I really need that watch you have. Because as soon as this elevator opens I'm out of here." Syd told him, as she slipped her pendant into one of the pockets of her blazer. It had two, at the front, just deep enough to hold her necklace.

"No. You can't have that. I need it. I have a job too, you know. Equally important. I'm not giving it up without a fight." He told her, even though he was well aware that all this time she had been pointing his own gun at him. It just hadn't crossed his mind somehow to try and overpower her and get the gun. He had just wanted to know what had happned to her. He had his back to the elevator doors now, maybe not such a smart idea.

She was really close to him now, she looked up over his shoulder, over the elevator doors and saw that they were getting closer to her exit-floor.


TBC...to the rest of the chapter.