A/N: I'm sorry I haven't updated lately, I've had six midterms and I finally finished this last Friday. I hope you guys like this chapter, please review, it really motivates me to write more, thanks. I'll do my best to update as soon as possible, be patient, I promise I'll finish it.

Chapter 14: Under Fire

Lauren sat silently on top of tall building that overlooked Logan's parking lot. She had her sniper gun ready in case something went wrong. Her phone started ringing and she hesitantly answered.

"You've failed." the deep voice on the other line calmly said to her.

"Michael wasn't my fault, he must have been tipped. I was very careful and I know that I..."

"Stop!" he yelled interrupting her. " This is neither the time nor the place. Obviously you weren't careful enough but I wasn't talking about that failure. I was referring to your more recent failures. Specifically the fact that Eric Weiss is alive and well and still a threat to us." Lauren felt a wave of fear wash over her. She had failed again. The covenant wasn't into giving second chances, the moment an agent was no longer of use to them the covenant would simply get rid of them. She was coming very close to being of no use to them, she knew that she couldn't afford any other mistakes.

"The covenant is beginning to reconsider your usefulness to this organization. I suggest that you don't fail again, I cannot guarantee your position within the covenant if this happens again"
Zisman said to her. "Understood?"

"Yes sir." she said hanging up the phone. A few minutes earlier she had placed a bomb on the bottom of the Marshall Flinkman's car. An explosion that she was sure would leave no remains of either his girlfriend or himself.

She sat patiently waiting for Marshall and Carey to exit the building, unaware that the CIA had a two teams in place and at the moment were waiting for their orders to apprehend her.

-Back at the CIA

"You're going to let her get away!" Vaughn yelled.

"You don't give orders here Mr. Vaughn, so I suggest you keep your opinions to yourself otherwise I will have someone escort you out of here." Jack calmly said, his face showing almost no emotion.

"You can't do that."Vaughn answered.

"May I remind you that you are no longer with the CIA and that the only reason you are here is out of some misplaced courtesy that Director Dixon has for you. You don't have any privileges here, I can do whatever I please." Jack said walking away. Vaughn stood there feeling angry because he felt powerless. Eric who had witnessed the argument between his best friend and superior walked over toward Vaughn.
"Hey man. You okay?" Eric asked.

"They're going to lose her, and he won't do anything but stand there and try to bully me"
Vaughn answered.

"Hey, she's not going to get away. I overheard Jack talking and they're waiting for the second agent. They want to make sure that Dixon isn't in any danger. Jack says that if they take Lauren too quickly that they'll never know who the second agent was and that would be putting Dixon in danger." Eric explained.

"I hate her." Vaughn said quietly.

"I know man." Eric said to him patting Vaughn on the back.

"You don't know Eric. You don't know what it feels like to have someone use you like that. She used my pain, my job, she helped take Sydney away from me. When I found out, I wanted to kill her. I wanted to break her neck with my hands, to see her die. I had to fight everyday to not do it. Everytime she touched me, she kissed me, it was the worst thing I ever had to do, to pretend that I cared about her. I hate her, more than you can ever imagine." Vaughn said gritting his teeth as he spoke.

"I know that I can't say I know what you feel, but I understand that you're hurt. I can't imagine what it would be like to have to pretend to care about someone who took Syd away. We all loved her Mike, you're not the only one who wants to get revenge. I would gladly torture Lauren, just to have the satisfaction of hurting the woman who helped with Sydney's death. I miss her too, but you have to get it together. You were doing so well Mike, don't let your pain take over again." Eric told Vaughn.

"I won't Eric. I promise." he answered. In his mind he thought about Sydney. He thought about what it was like to see her alive again. He had been overwhelmed by emotion the day that he first saw her. He wondered if he was dreaming because after her "death" he had seen her many times. More like he had imagined her many times. That day however, he knew that he was looking at her and not a figment of his imagination. His heart had told him so. As sad as it was to know that she had no recollection of him, his happiness was even more overwhelming and all he could think of after that day was finding her. When she "died" he had lost a part of himself along with her. Now he was whole again, and everyday she was his motivation and his reason for waking up in the morning. One day they would be together again, he knew that, and for that reason he would never give up, he would never lose himself in his pain again.

-On a rooftop

"Miss Reed?" a tall scary looking man asked. Lauren was still waiting to see when the explosion took place, she hadn't heard the man come and had been startled by his question.

"Gunter, I presume." she said trying to look as calm as possible. Gunter simply nodded. "I left the files at a locker in a gym nearby."

"That's not why I came here." he said. It was at that moment that Lauren knew she had lost her usefulness to the covenant. She knew that her life was in danger, but she had a plan. "You see,
you've become a problem for the covenant, you're sloppy. You've revealed yourself to the CIA,
and worse yet you've put the covenant's plans in jeopardy. Any last words?" Lauren realized that all this time Gunter had been holding a gun behind his back, a gun which he now pointed at Lauren.

-Meanwhile in the CIA

"We've just received word that the second covenant agent has just arrived." an agent reported to Jack.

"Tell unit one to move in. I want them alive, they may be of use to us." Jack said.

"Sir, I've just been told that the second agent is armed and hostile." a second agent informed Jack.

"Hostile?" Jack questioned.

"It seems that he's aiming at the Senator's daughter."

"Tell unit one to move in now!" he yelled as he walked away toward his office.

-On a rooftop

"DROP YOUR WEAPON!" a man yelled from behind them. He was pointing his gun at Gunter and behind him were seven other armed men.

"I SAID DROP YOUR WEAPON!" the man yelled once more. Lauren immediately put her hands in the air. Gunter however, kept his gun pointed to Lauren.

"They have the place surrounded, you won't escape, even if you kill me." Lauren said. Gunter looked around, he knew he was surrounded.

"Well in that case it won't matter whether I kill you or not." he said. Lauren's eyes widened with fear as Gunter pressed the trigger and a bullet went flying through the air and straight into Lauren's right shoulder. Lauren felt a piercing pain shoot through her body. She fell on her knees an then straight to the ground. She couldn't see anything, but she heard yelling and then several gunshots.

-In Vaughn's apartment

It had been two hours since the CIA had captured two covenant agents, and he felt like he was going to go crazy. He wasn't given any information, except that the two agents were in custody,
nothing more. He was waiting in his apartment, hoping that Weiss would call him with some information. It was times like these that made him regret not working with the CIA, at least then he would be well informed.

Just then the phone rang, Michael stood up from the sofa and ran to the phone.

"Hello." he answered.

"Mike, it's me Weiss."

"Eric, what happened? Do you know anything? What are they doing with Lauren?" Michael asked.

"Hey Mike, let me get a word in."

"I'm sorry, go ahead." Michael said.

"Lauren was shot, and the second covenant agent opened fired on us, they shot him down. He's barely alive. The doctors say that there isn't much chance of Lauren surviving, and they're pretty sure that the other one is going to die." Eric told him.

"She deserves a lot worse, dead is too good for her." he said.

"Listen Mike, I'm not supposed to be telling you any of this, if anyone finds out I could lose my job, so keep this quiet. I'll try to keep you posted but I can't promise anything. I have to go, but try to get a grip on yourself, you're talking like a mad man." Eric said.

"Thanks Eric. Bye." Michael said.

"Bye." Eric responded. Michael hung up the phone and walked to his bedroom. He walked towards the closet and took out a medium sized shoe box that was hidden behind blankets and other boxes. He took the box back to the living room, setting it in front of the couch next to him. He opened the box and looked through it's contents. Inside were pictures of Michael and Sydney together, but most were just of her, there was also a blouse that she had once left in his care during a mission. It had once smelled like her but not anymore, he had smelled it so many times that the scent was almost gone. As he sat there remembering all the things that they had gone through, he wondered to himself what she was up to. He wondered if she was thinking about him, missing him as much as he missed her, loving him as much as he loved her. With those thoughts Michael laid down on the couch holding on to her shirt on one hand and a picture of her on the other. Soon he was asleep, dreaming about the day when they would be together again.

Next Morning in Rome

The alarm was going off, she wanted to get her gun and shoot it, but she knew she had to get up. She sat up and sighed, it was going to be a long day she thought to herself. She stood up and as she walked toward the bathroom she turned off the alarm that was on her dresser. She closed the bathroom door and ran a bath. Baths helped her think clearly and they also helped her keep her stress down. Once the bathtub was full she turned off the water, stripped down and got in. Being there she couldn't help but think of the last time she had taken a bath like this one. It had been the night after Vaughn and Dixon had rescued her from Kabir, Vaughn had always been so great to her. She missed him so much....she loved him so much. It was then that she remembered the events of the night before. Simon had kissed her, and she kissed him back, but pushed him away soon after. She had simply walked out of the club without saying goodbye, then she drove back to her apartment and went to bed. She wondered to herself whether this counted as cheating,
we're they still together? How many times since she had been back had Vaughn kissed Lauren.
or worse, slept with her. She had never asked him if he and Lauren slept together, it would have been to painful for her, she preferred to pretend that they didn't. But either way it was different,
he was playing a part to get information... but then so was she. She was pretending to be Julia Thorne and Julia Thorne had no one to answer to. Still, it wasn't that she had allowed Simon to kiss her that bothered her, it was that she had enjoyed that kiss. Sydney started to cry. She thought about Francie, she needed her so much. She thought about all the people she had left behind, what had she done to deserve all this. Francie was dead... and she was to blame. It was her life as an agent that had put her friends at risk. Francie wasn't the only one to suffer because of her, Will had lost everything, even his identity, and Danny.... Danny had lost his life. When would all her suffering end?

"When the Covenant is destroyed." she answered outloud. She stood up and wrapped a towel around her naked body. She knew what she had to do, in order for her to get her life back she needed to destroy the covenant, and she was in the perfect position to do it. She didn't have to follow CIA protocol, she was on her own and although it was a frightening thought, she knew that without the CIA to order her around, she could do a lot more damage. With this new determination Sydney got dressed and headed towards the airport.