Note: Fair Cate – The story is set in season 4, dealing with a few more of Sydney's memories during her missing two years, when she was Julia Thorne, and working for the covenant. Lauren isn't in the story, I haven't seen the last few episodes of season 3, and haven't read the spoilers so I'm not certain what happened to her
Chapter Two
Julia's heart pounded in her chest as she watched the timer on the bomb tick down, 25...24...23...22. She pushed her hair back off her face and wished for a fan to cool herself down. She was supposed to be on a plane right now not stuck in an underground office full of important documents and files in Africa, her hands hovered over the wiring, which her partner had pulled out slightly to give them easier access. It was burning hot, the muggy air stifling them. "I can't believe you didn't think to check the area before we met here" she told him angrily.
Peter was actually her contact, and sometimes partner when things had to be taken care of in that part of the world. Sweat trickled down his tanned brow and he blinked his eyes numerous times before eventually rubbing them to clear the blurriness. "It's where we always meet, how was I supposed to know we had been made?" his tone was sharp and his German accent shone through as it always did when he became annoyed. His grey eyes scanned the bomb, 18...17...16. "I've seen this before somewhere..." he was mostly speaking to himself "damnit! I don't know."
Julia slowly inclined her head to stare at him. "This bomb is about to explode, we don't have time for 'I don't know'" she pulled her arms back, 13...12...11...she grabbed the green wire and yanked it out, ignoring Peter's panicked shout.
Los Angeles
Sydney awoke again, in the same state as the night before, this time however Vaughn was wide awake. He had woken up the first time she had cried out and had been waiting for her to come out of the nightmare. "His name was Peter" she watched Vaughn and waited for his reaction, at his nod she knew he knew what she was talking about. "The bomb was in an underground office that the covenant used."
He looked past her to see the time on the radio clock. "We have to been in work in an hour and a half, how about we get up now and you can talk to Dixon before things start to get busy?" he suggested. Sydney nodded and made to get out of bed, Vaughn pulled her back and brushed some strands of hair away from her eyes "it'll be okay" he reassured her. She wished she had his optimism.
CIA Operations Center
The two young agents were sat in Dixon's office, the Director himself was seated behind the desk and waited quietly, patiently, and with a concerned look, for Sydney to finish telling him what was going on. Or rather, trying to explain as best she could with the scattered images that rushed through her mind. "Will confirmed yesterday that this man Roger Ashford was real, and he's checking records right now to see if any bombs exploded in Africa during the time I disappeared...I don't know what else to do...all I have is one name, or half a name. I couldn't even say where in Africa" Sydney stopped talking, she needed to vent a little bit after giving herself a headache with just thinking about it.
Dixon noticed the thoughtful look that had gradually appeared on Vaughn's face as Sydney had talked and when the younger man didn't say anything Dixon spoke up "what are you thinking?"
"I was thinking about the time when Will underwent hypnotherapy...maybe that could help this time too; instead of waiting for you to remember them in your sleep, which could take months judging from how mixed up these memories are. Perhaps we can focus on the ones you've already had" Vaughn suggested. He looked from Sydney's contemplative face to Dixon who was already nodding his agreement with the idea.
"I'll set it up" Dixon informed them. The situation was worrying, just when they thought everything had been figured out, they found out that it was far from over. The two agents stood up to leave when Dixon called them back "have you seen you father? I tried to contact him but there's been no reply at his home or on his cell phone."
Sydney thought back on the day before that she had seem him, when he had declined her invitation to dinner, he had seemed distant and on edge. "I haven't seen him since yesterday morning" it seemed that Sydney wasn't the only one with problems.
Jack had contacted Irina early yesterday, a couple of hours before he had seen Sydney. At the time they had talked he had been on his way out of the building and was in a rush, though to look at him he appeared to be the same as always. He sat in his car with the laptop balanced on his knee and the sun blaring through the side window and warming his face, Irina was supposed to have replied an hour ago and he was growing anxious over her silence. In fact, though some may say it was impossible to tell over a computer, she had not seemed the same to him for quite some time. The last conversation that he hadn't gotten a strange vibe from her was before he was taken to prison. She was extremely tight lipped about what she had been up to during that time, and he was becoming suspicious of her again.
Jack felt that he had a right to second guess what Irina did after all that she had done to him and other people, but at the same time he felt a pang of guilt that he should begin to question her just when things had been running smoothly. Just before he had been taken to solitary they had set up a time and place to meet and compare notes on what they had learned thus far about the Covenant. Irina had abruptly cancelled, telling him that something more important had come up, that had set off alarm bells for him. What could have been more important than searching for their daughter?
He looked at his watch and sighed, he was tired, annoyed and frustrated. He shut the laptop down; this was not the first time she had decided not to make contact without prior warning. It was enough to put him in a mood for the remainder of the day.
The calm voice washed over Sydney and lulled her into a calm state, the doorway between her conscious and subconscious opening, her breathing began to slow and she continued to listen to the female voice as she spoke to her via the mike behind the glass viewing window. Vaughn watched her closely, at the moment Sydney seemed perfectly calm and content, but if Will's hypnotherapy session was anything to go by, that would soon change. The brunette's head cocked to one side as if she was trying to listen to something, it couldn't have been the doctor's voice as she was speaking clearly, he guessed she was mirroring the actions that she was seeing in her mind. The door behind him opened and Vaughn saw Jack's reflection in the glass. Dixon had managed to contact Jack before the appointment began and he in turn had called the doctor to inform her of his impending late arrival, she was expecting him so didn't stop to see who it was that had interrupted.
"Sydney tried to contact you after she found out Dixon couldn't" Vaughn told him and looked around so that he could see Jack and still keep an eye on Sydney.
Jack just nodded at first, his attention taken by his daughter who was sitting in the chair, still looking okay with the proceedings. "I got her message and came here" they kept their voices low so that their conversation didn't carry to the microphone and onto Sydney.
"Tell me what you see, Sydney" the doctor said to her.
She didn't answer for a couple of minutes but when she did she sounded uncertain, as if she wasn't clearly aware of where she was in her mind. "I think I'm underground...I can hear someone else..." she trailed off.
Vaughn leaned in towards the Doctor. "She mentioned an underground office in Africa, the man with her was Peter..."
The woman nodded and returned to speaking with Sydney.
"How long has this been going on for?" Jack wanted to know.
"Just the past couple of days" was the other man's reply.
"Sydney, I want you to look around the area, try and see the man's face. You said you could hear him speak, describe his voice. Are there any rooms nearby?" the Doctor prompted.
There was an immediate reaction this time. "He's German, it's Peter..." Sydney sounded relieved that they finally seemed to be getting somewhere with this session. She had been warned that there may not be immediate results, that it was possible but not to get her hopes up. "We're meeting at an office, he's shouting me, there's a bomb" Sydney's voice sped up, the information coming fast as things began to clear up. "It's at 30 seconds...it's a couple of miles until we reach the surface again, there's no time to run we have to diffuse it!" she started to sound panicky.
"Sydney, I want you to go forward a little bit. Tell me what happens next..." she had been told her patient had woken up just before the timer hit zero.
Sydney started laughing, it was a nervous laughter, she sounded incredibly relieved. "Peter can't believe I did that..."
"What did you do?"
"I pulled out the green wire without giving any warning, he's freaking out" she made it sound like the dangerous situation had become extremely funny. "I told him I remember Marshall helping me diffuse a bomb like this one before..." her laughter began to stop but a grin was on her face. It looked like she was having an hilarious dream, not a long forgotten memory.
Neither Vaughn nor Jack was smiling though, both looked very concerned. It was Jack that gave the Doctor instructions this time "ask her why she told her contact about Marshall" presumably Peter worked for the Covenant, so how did he react when Julia Thorne started to talk about Marshall, a person she had known as Sydney Bristow.
"Sydney, why did you tell Peter about Marshall, wouldn't that be dangerous?" things were starting to take an interesting turn, whether that was a good thing or a bad things had yet to be determined.
She looked puzzled now as though pondering the question. "I don't know...I think I must have mentioned Marshall before...he's laughing now. He's Covenant but I told him about myself, my real self" she was worried again now. "Why would I do that? It's stupid and dangerous and --."
"Okay, I want you to go forward again" the Doctor interrupted, it wouldn't help at all if Sydney started to become confused again, it might cloud her thoughts. "Where are you?"
Sydney's body jerked as though she had just been thrown and her hand gripped the sides or the chair she was sat on, her knuckles became white. "He's here!" she cried out. "oh God, he knows. He's threatening to tell the Covenant what I'm up to" she panicked.
"He can't hurt you" the Doctor's calm voice reminded Sydney. "These events have already passed, no harm can come to you here. Who is the man that you see?"
"It's Ashford" her breathing was faster now and she struggled to regain her composure. "He's been watching me. He has a gun...he's about to shoot. I can't move, I'm strapped to the chair..." her trembling hands flew to her stomach as though she had just been shot.
"Bring her out of it now" Jack's authorative voice ordered.
Quickly the Doctor complied.
