Disclaimer: I don't own Alias.

Love and War
Deja Vu

"Hawaii. We're going to Hawaii." Sydney said, just as Jack entered the room. His eyes immediately met Irina's, holding hers for a minute before drifting to Sydney and Vaughn. When he finally looked back at Irina, Sydney and Vaughn exchanged odd glances, each confused with his strange behavior. They didn't have time to comment, however, for at that moment they were finally joined by Kendall.

"Everyone set?" He asked, not bothering with greeting anyone. "Good. You've got a car waiting for you, use it to get to LAX for your flight. I've got a suitcase with things for Ms. Derevko in the trunk already, along with some other things you might need. Run over the mission with Derevko in the car. That's all." He pulled a set of keys from his pocket, and pressed them into Jack's hand. Then, as abruptly as he had arrived, he left.

Everyone stared at each other for a minute. Irina gazed at Jack, thoroughly unnerving him, so he tried to focus on glaring at Vaughn, who pretended not to notice. Finally Sydney spoke.

"Are we ready to go then?" Everyone nodded. Glancing at Irina, she addressed her father. "How does Kendall expect us to get her out of here?"

"I'm assuming Jack has the keys." Irina said, earning herself three pairs of raised eyebrows. "It's his nature. Of course he is going to insist on having the keys to my freedom, because freedom is the one thing he has but I do not." The sides of her mouth turned upwards ever so slightly as she locked eyes with Jack.

Jack never broke eye contact with her as he withdrew his key ring from his pocket, separating out a key card and a small, complicated steel key from the ring. Walking up to the door to the cell, he swiped the card, paused to input the security code, and inserted the key into the keyhole. A small screen lit up on the other side of the door, and when Jack placed his left hand on it, the sliding door opened.

Irina slowly stalked out of her cell, taking in a deep breath of air as she stepped out of the confining walls. Her smile became more pronounced as she exhaled, then turned to the others.

"Ready?"

They exited the building, Jack leading, Irina close behind, reveling in the fresh air, and Vaughn and Sydney tailing a few yards. Jack looked around the almost empty lot, and pressed the unlock button on the key Kendall had given him. Across the parking lot, a silver Mazda 6's lights blinked on and off.

A few moments later, Jack was opening the driver's side door and getting into the car. Sydney was about to ask if she could drive, but decided against it, knowing that he was in a weird mood already. He always insisted on driving anyway; he couldn't stand not to be in control of anything. So instead she just got into the passenger side back seat, Vaughn instantly snatching up the seat beside her, leaving Irina to sit up front with Jack.

Jack frowned. This was not how he had planned out the seating arrangements. He had supposed that Sydney would have wanted to sit up front with him, leaving Vaughn to deal with Irina. He felt a little hurt, actually, that she would rather sit with Vaughn than with her own father. It made sense that she would feel that way, being that Agent Vaughn had never wronged her, while Jack had practically abandoned her as a child.

What was so great about Agent Vaughn anyway? Jack thought as he turned the key in the ignition. Irina watched him as he backed out of the narrow parking space. As he switched gears to drive, his lips thinned when he saw Sydney and Vaughn smiling at each other in the rear view mirror. Throughout the drive to the airport, he kept turning around and glaring back at them. Sydney pretended not to notice, but Vaughn couldn't ignore the death glares being sent his way every few minutes. Irina, who had been watching the whole exchange, finally spoke up to spare Vaughn from the wrath of Jack.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on now?" She asked, wondering what had been so important as to grant her temporary freedom.

"Oh, right." Jack said, "We're going to the Kaupulehu volcano in Hawaii to find a Rambaldi artifact. We got intel that says that he hid a sort of master list of all his artifacts in a cave in the volcano."

"Where do I come into this?" Irina asked. Although she understood that obtaining the master list for the CIA would be a major victory over SD-6, she didn't see how she would help. If anything, she would assume they would want her nowhere near the artifact. Sydney answered Irina's question from the back seat.

"If there is another Rambaldi map, we're going to want to decode it as soon as possible, because who knows who else is going to be after it. You decoded the last map before our team of cryptologists could even get the first step." Irina nodded, then turned around, smiling at the road ahead. It was good to be useful.

Finally they arrived at the LAX airport, after spending the remainder of the ride getting ready for the airport. They wouldn't need costumes for this trip, so that was taken care of, but passports still needed to be passed out, as well as credit cards and other little things. Jack parked the car in the long-term parking, not knowing how long they'd be gone, and unloaded all their suitcases. Vaughn opened Sydney's door, holding a hand out to her and smiling. She took his hand, his strong, warm hand encompassing her own, and he helped her out of the car. They both knew that she was much more than capable of getting out of a car by herself, but Sydney enjoyed being pampered every once in a while, Vaughn enjoyed pampering her, and it was an excuse to touch each other without incurring another round of icy stares, courtesy of Jack.

Vaughn let go of Sydney's hand to go get their suitcases, perhaps passing a bit closer to her than he needed to. He picked up his own light bag, then found Sydney's and took that one as well. Jack lifted his pack and slung it over his shoulder, then saw Irina looking at him expectantly, obviously looking for him to follow Vaughn's example. He gave her a look that said all too clearly to forget it. She simply raised his eyebrows. Would the rich, well brought up 'Richard Ducat' be so pedestrian as to make his wife, the dainty 'Juliette' carry her own bag? Jack realized that they had a façade to keep up as the rich American tourists they were pretending to be, and reluctantly picked up her suitcase. Irina linked arms with him, much to his surprise, and the four of them headed off to the elevator that would take them up to the ground floor of the airport.

Security was a breeze, thanks to the alarm-deceiving gadgets provided by the CIA op-tech department. The few guns and tools they had brought along were safely stashed in the body of the suitcase, undetectable by sight and any machine. They were able to keep up the air of a tightly knit, rich American tourist family on their way to Hawaii despite all the underlying tension between the four of them. Irina was even able to contain her inclinations to make things as difficult as possible for Jack, only tripping him up a few times by acting to be a very possessive and very much in love wife, forcing him to play his part opposite hers in the same way.

Sydney and Vaughn had no problems pretending to be engaged. Vaughn had given her the fake engagement ring in the car ride, and she was still smiling at the memory of him slipping the beautiful ring onto her finger. Even though she knew it wasn't real, that he was just doing his job, and that he didn't feel that way about her… It still put a spring in her step and a smile on her face.

Putting the wedding ring on Irina during a red light during the car ride had been a different story. Jack had gotten it out and taken her hand without showing any emotion, but he paused with the ring just in front of her finger, not able to shake the feeling of deja-vu as he looked up at her face. The moment passed, however, and he quickly slid it onto her ring finger and looked away, not wanting to see the smirk he was sure was on her face.

Irina, however, wasn't smirking. A sad smile barely creased her features as she traced the golden band that somehow fit perfectly. It had been thirty years since she had worn a ring on that finger. After escaping from the CIA and Jack all those years ago, she had left the ring on for a month before being able to take it off and move on. She still had the ring, or rather the CIA had it now, along with all of her other possessions.

She paused, staring at the ring, then turned to the window, pretending to look out at the streets as they passed. Trying not to attract any attention from the other passengers in the car, she had quietly slid the ring off and looked around the inside of the band. She swallowed as she quickly replaced the ring.

A small engraving was on the inside of the ring. It read 'LB.' It was the same ring Jack had given her when they were married.

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