Alternate Termination

Sequel to Alternate Existence and Alternate Infatuation. Sydney and Michael finally had a perfect life. A real family with no lies. Friends who knew the truth. And then they lost it all.

Chapter 1: Emotion Is Okay

Disclaimer: Alias is not mine. Characters from Alias are not mine. I claim full creative possession of Jeffrey, Misty, and Alex, though! The plot here is mine, too…this far into an original plot strand, there are very few parallels to the real thing. Seriously, for every page of this story I wrote, I have pages of notes for references to relations, names, dates, times, ages…


Weiss sat alone in his apartment, the only light from a nightlight coming through the cracked bedroom door. For the first time in months, he gave in to the memories that were almost always with him, in the back of his mind. The images assaulted him, first a series of still, frozen images, then the whole scene replayed itself before his unseeing eyes.

He didn't realize a tear had escaped from his eye until the column of light widened to hit him in the face. A stubby little figure appeared, silhouetted in the light.

Weiss hurriedly wiped the tear away and regaled the memory of his best friends' deaths back to that little locked box he'd created in the back of his mind.

"What's up, big guy?" he asked quietly.

The figure moved into the living room, and once the light was no longer behind him Weiss could see he'd been crying.

"Come 'ere, buddy," he said, pulling the little boy up into his lap. "What's wrong? Did you have a bad dream?"

The little boy shook his head.

"Unka' Eric, tell me about my mommy and daddy," he begged softly. "Unka' Jeffy says I'm too little."

"What do you want me to tell you?" Weiss asked carefully, not sure he was up to telling a four-year-old how his parents had died only a year ago.

Especially when Alex Vaughn's parents were his best friends and fellow agents.

"I'm not a dummy, Unka Eric. I know Mommy and Daddy died. But I don't un'erstand. Unka Jeffy won't tell me nothin'."

Weiss took a deep breath and sighed. He'd seen a CIA counselor after Sydney and Vaughn had died, and he'd taken some of the things the woman had said to heart. It had to be better for Alex to know more than he was really ready for than for him to wake up like this because he didn't know enough.

"I'm not sure this is a very good bedtime story, buddy," he said finally, trying to figure out how to romanticize the whole mess as much as possible for the little boy.

"I wanna know, Unka Eric," Alex said solemnly, twisting to look up at him.

"Well, it happened while we were working," Weiss began. Alex had never known-or hadn't been able to understand-what his parents or his Unka Eric really did. "We were a long way away, in France. All of us-me, and your mommy and daddy-knew something was wrong. There were some bad people in the building…" No small boy needed to know that they were new henchmen of Khasinau. "We got separated. Or, I got separated from your mom and dad. Everything went wrong." Weiss paused for a moment to gather his mental control. Emotion was okay; a complete breakdown would scare the hell out of Alex. "I got out. We knew there were explosives…You know what those are, right?"

"Bombs," Alex said softly, enthralled with the story.

"Yeah. Well, they were everywhere. I thought they were out, too, but I turned around right before the bombs went off, and I saw them. Alex, your mommy and daddy knew they were going to die. They hugged each other, and before I lost sight of them, I saw them kiss." Weiss grinned, glad to know that he didn't have to romanticize a damn thing about this part. "Buddy, I wasn't sure whether it was that earth shattering kiss between Vaughn and Syd or the bomb that shook the ground then."

Alex was silent, absorbing this new information that his legal guardians had denied him, and Weiss fought off a rare bout of depression with the thought of what Vaughn and Sydney had shared in their last moments.

"Why do you call my daddy Vaughn?" Alex asked suddenly. "You don't call me or my mommy that. Unka Jeffy and An' Missy call him Michael."

Weiss shrugged.

"I just do, Alex. He called me Weiss most of the time, and I called him Vaughn." Weiss grinned. "All right, enough stories, buddy. Time for bed. Jeff will be here to get you early in the morning."

Alex nodded sedately, his eyelids already heavy.

"Will you tuck me in, Unka Eric?"

"Sure, buddy. Of course I will."


Okay, what do you think? Subsequent chapters will be a lot longer and a lot less cryptic, I promise, but this introduces my main ideas. You know, where all my characters are.